Lesson 4.2.2.16

4.2.2.16 Translations by Brian Friel Quiz: AQA English Literature A, Unit 2

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 4.2.2.16, Translations by Brian Friel: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA English Literature A (7712), Unit 2: Texts in shared contexts, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In which year and in which place is Brian Friel's Translations set?

    • 1845, in a Cork workhouse during the famine
    • 1916, in a Belfast shipyard during the rising
    • 1833, in the Gaelic-speaking village of Ballybeg in Donegal
    • 1798, in a Dublin tenement during the rebellion

  2. What is the name of the hedge school's teacher who is central to the play?

    • Doalty
    • Manus
    • Owen
    • Hugh

  3. What official task brings the British soldiers to Ballybeg?

    • A search for a missing British officer
    • An Ordnance Survey mapping of the area
    • The collection of rents for the landlord
    • The recruitment of local men into the army

  4. What is the name of the English lieutenant who falls in love with a local woman?

    • Lancey
    • Owen
    • Sarah
    • Yolland

  5. Who is the local woman with whom Yolland falls in love?

    • Sarah
    • Bridget
    • Nancy
    • Maire

  6. What is the job of Owen in the play?

    • He is a farmer who opposes the soldiers
    • He works for the Ordnance Survey and acts as an interpreter for the English soldiers
    • He is the local priest who leads the mass
    • He is a soldier who fights in the Crimean War

  7. Which real-life project in the early nineteenth century is central to the play?

    • The plantation of Ulster in the seventeenth century
    • The building of the Irish railway network
    • The Ordnance Survey's mapping of Ireland
    • The founding of the Irish National Schools

  8. What is the main theme of Translations?

    • The joy of religious faith in times of hardship
    • The importance of sport in building national pride
    • The loss of identity and language under colonial rule
    • The benefits of modern technology for rural communities

  9. Which language does Hugh's school teach, showing the classical tradition?

    • Hebrew and Arabic
    • Spanish and Italian
    • French and German
    • Latin and Greek

  10. What is the significance of the place-name translations in the play?

    • They show how the English reshape Irish identity and make the local landscape unfamiliar to its people
    • They make the play easier for English audiences to follow
    • They help the soldiers understand the local dialect
    • They prove that the Irish names were always English in origin

  11. What does the play suggest about the relationship between language and power?

    • Language has no connection to political power
    • Those who control language control access to identity and history
    • Language is only useful for trade and business
    • Language only matters for religious texts

  12. How does Friel present the romance between Yolland and Maire?

    • As a rivalry between two English soldiers
    • As a moment of hope that is undermined by the failure of language to bridge the two cultures
    • As a story about a wedding that the village celebrates
    • As a simple love story with a happy ending

  13. What happens to Yolland at the end of the play?

    • He is promoted to captain and leaves the army
    • He disappears, and his fate is left unclear
    • He returns to England with a fortune
    • He is married to Maire and settles in Ballybeg

  14. What is the role of Sarah in the play?

    • She is the mother of Owen and Maire
    • She is a local woman who is unable to speak, which dramatises the limits of communication
    • She is the priest who leads the local school
    • She is an English soldier who translates for Yolland

  15. Which statement best reflects Friel's presentation of colonial rule?

    • Colonial rule has no lasting effect on the characters
    • Colonial rule is portrayed as a benevolent process that helps local communities
    • Colonial rule is shown only through the eyes of English soldiers
    • Colonial rule is shown as an act of cultural erasure that changes both sides

  16. How does Owen change over the course of the play?

    • He rises to become a senior officer in the survey
    • He becomes a priest who refuses to speak English
    • He moves from acting as a loyal interpreter to a sense of loss and betrayal
    • He escapes to America and never returns

  17. Why is the Gaelic language so important in the play?

    • It is the language of local identity, history and memory that the English cannot fully translate
    • It is a dialect of English that the soldiers learn quickly
    • It is a language that the characters use to hide their secrets
    • It is a language used only for religious ceremonies

  18. What is the effect of Friel's staging of English and Irish speech on stage?

    • It makes the Irish characters appear unintelligent
    • It makes the play inaccessible to English audiences
    • Audiences are made aware of the communication gap between characters who seem to speak the same language
    • It removes any sense of conflict from the drama

  19. What does Hugh's final speech suggest about the play's concern with memory and history?

    • That the English should be blamed for all the local troubles
    • That history is fixed and cannot be changed by language
    • That memory has no value in the modern world
    • That the community must come to terms with the loss of its language and place names

  20. Which dramatic device does Friel use to show the transformation of the village?

    • The gradual renaming of familiar places on the map
    • A long dance sequence that all characters perform
    • A sudden storm that destroys the school
    • A flashback to the Irish famine

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