1. Matthew Arnold’s “touchstones” were “short passages, even single lines” of classic poetry beside which the lines of other poets may be placed in order to detect the presence or absence of high poetic quality. Tn his “Study of Poetry” Arnold cited “touchstones” from such non-English poets as Homer and Dante and also from the English poets, Shakespeare and Milton. Which English poet did he disapprovingly call “not one of the great classics” in the list below?
(1) Chaucer
(2) Sidney
(3) Spenser
(4) Donne
Answer: 1
2. Samuel Pepys began his diary on ……………
(1) New Year’s Day 1660
(2) All Saints’ Day 1662
(3) Thanksgiving Day 1665
(4) New Year’s Day 1667
Answer: 1
3. On which of the following authors has Peter Ackroyd NOT written a biography?
(1) Charles Dickens
(2) William Blake
(3) T. S. Eliot
(4) W. B. Yeats
Answer: 4
4. Which group of the following poets was called the Auden Group because they developed a style and viewpoint similar to that of W. H. Auden?
(1) Louis MacNeice, C. D. L.ewis, Stephen Spender
(2) John Masefield, Edwin Muir, Norman McCaig
(3) MacDiarmid, G. M. Hopkins, Edwin Muir
(4) W. IT. Davies, Robert Bridges, John Masefield
Answer: 1
5. When one line of poetry runs into the next, with no punctuation to slow the reading, it is a case of …………..
(1) caesura
(2) consonance
(3) enjambment
(4) hyperbole
Answer: 3
6. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the Victorian Age?
(1) The rise of a highly competitive industrial technology
(2) An emphasis on strictly controlled social behavior
(3) A romantic focus on home and family
(4) The growth of rural traditions and movement from large cities
Answer: 4
7. In The Heart of Midlotliian, Walter Scott deals with real political and personal details, but notable among his characters is the depiction of ………….
(1) Queen Anne
(2) Queen Victoria
(3) Queen Caroline
(4) Queen Elizabeth
Answer: 3
8. Chaucer’s first work, The Book of the Duchess is a dream poem on the death of …………….
(1) Duchess of Malfi
(2) Duchess of Lancaster
(3) Duchess of Scotland
(4) Duchess of Paris
Answer: 2
9. What was Charles Lamb’s connection with India?
(1) He was fascinated by the Indian jugglers and trades-people in London and wrote an essay on them
(2) He was fascinated by Eastern mystical religions, especially Buddhism
(3) He was a clerk for thirty three years in the East India Company
(4) He was clerk in South Sea house that prepared patents and documents for British trading companies in India
Answer: 4
10. Find the odd one among the Marxist critics below:
(1) Georg Lukacs
(2) Louis Althusser
(3) Raymond Williams
(4) Northrop Frye
Answer: 4
11. In the lines “With gold jewels cover every part, /And hide with ornaments their want of art” (Essay on Criticism), Pope rejects
(1) the ‘Follow Nature’ fallacy
(2) artificiality
(3) aesthetic order
(4) poor taste
Answer: 2
12. The opposite of hyperbole is ……………..
(1) meiosis
(2) inversion
(3) anagnorisis
(4) synecdoche
Answer: 1
13. What significance do we attach to the publication of I Am an Indian in Canada ?
(1) The title refers to the autobiography of an unknown Indian writer longing for the South Asian countryside
(2) The first ever account of ethnic conflicts within Canada
(3) The first anthology of Native Canadian writing following the Civil Rights Movement of the1960s
(4) The first anthology of writers afflicted by class and gender differences in Canada of the late 1970s
Answer: 3
14. What is the moral of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” ?
(1) Slow and steady wins the race.
(2) Greed is the root of all evil.
(3) Beauty lies within.
(4) Never trust a flatterer.
Answer: 4
15. The author of the essay “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists” is ……………..
(1) George Eliot
(2) Henry James
(3) Oscar Wilde
(4) Richard Steele
Answer: 1
16. The unquenchable spirit of Robinson Crusoe struggling to maintain a substantial existence on a lonely island reflects ……………
(1) man’s desire to return to nature
(2) the author’s criticism of colonization
(3) the ideal of rising bourgeoisie
(4) the aristocrat’s disdain for the harsh social reality
Answer: 3
17. Who is the author of the collection The Celtic Twilight?
(1) J. M. Synge
(2) Sean O’Casey
(3) W. B. Yeats
(4) Lady Gregory
Answer: 3
18. In medieval England a …………….. was understood to be a trained craftsman, one who worked under a master who owned the business.
(1) pardoner
(2) summoner
(3) journeyman
(4) manciple
Answer: 3
19. Christopher Marlowe’s heroes are said to be larger than life, exaggerated both in their faults and in their qualities. They have a desire for everything in extreme. In one of his plays the hero wants to conquer the whole world. The name of the play is ……………..
(1) The Jew of Malta
(2) Doctor Faustus
(3) Tamburlaine the Great
(4) Edward II
Answer: 3
20. With what does the speaker claim to be half in love in “Ode to a Nightingale”?
(1) the nightingale’s haunting melody
(2) the scented flavour of early summer
(3) the night sky and all the stars
(4) the peace that comes with death
Answer: 4
21. In which chapter of Poetics does Aristotle use the word ‘catharsis’ in his definition of tragedy?
(1) Chapter IV
(2) Chapter VI
(3) Chapter ITT
(4) Chapter V
Answer: 2
22. Match the following:
List – I
(a) “The Function of Criticism”
(b) “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”
(c) The Function of Criticism : From ‘The Spectator’ to Poststructuralism
(d) “The Function of English at the Present Time”
List – II
(1) Terry Eagleton
(ii) Richard Ohmann
(iii) Matthew Arnold
(iv) T. S. Eliot
The right matching according to the code is:
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(1) (iv) (iii) (i) (ii)
(2) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv)
(3) (iii) (iv) (i) (ii)
(4) (ii) (iii) (iv) (i)
Answer: 1
23. Identify the TRUE statement on Thomas More’s Utopia.
(1) Utopia is divided into four parts, each dealing with Raphael Hythloday’s adventures in the four suburbs of Antwerp.
(2) Utopia is divided into two parts; the first records a conversation between Thomas More and Raphael Hythloday, and the second is Hythloday’s discourse on the institutions and practices of Utopia.
(3) Utopia is divided into two parts; the first is Thomas More’s discourse on the institutions and practices of Utopia, and the second a conversation between More and Hythloday.
(4) Utopia is divided into four parts, each dealing with the ordered patterns of towns and cities in Antwerp.
Answer: 2
24. In “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” what disaster befalls the ship and the crew?
(1) The ship is caught in ice and breaks into pieces.
(2) A fierce storm batters the ship and drowns the crew.
(3) “Slimy things with legs” attack the ship and kill many of the crew.
(4) The ship is becalmed and the crew dies of thirst.
Answer: 4
25. Falstaff is a character in …………..
(a) Henry IV Part I
(b) The Merry Wives of Windsor
(c) The Comedy of Errors
(d) Titus Andronicus
The right combination according to the code is:
(1) (a) and (b)
(2) (a) and (c)
(3) (c) and (d)
(4) (a) and (d)
Answer: 1
26. In her essay “Professions for Women” Virginia Woolf finds an analogy between the act of writing and …………….
(1) driving a motor car
(2) riding a horse
(3) fishing
(4) gardening
Answer: 3
27. The ascension of King James I in ………….. inaugurated the Jacobean age.
(1) 1600
(2) 1601
(3) 1603
(4) 1609
Answer: 3
28. Which of the following is NOT true of the Byronic hero?
(1) moody
(2) passionate
(3) repentant
(4) remorse-torn
Answer: 3
29. Like many other novelists, Hardy employed language variation (dialect and standard) with a purpose. In this respect which of the following statements is correct?
(1) His major characters such as Tess and Jude always speak in local dialects, as per their social positions.
(2) His major characters such as Tess and Jude rarely speak in local dialects, in spite of their social positions.
(3) His major characters such as Tess and Jude rarely speak in standard language in spite of their social positions.
(4) His major characters such as Tess and Jude rarely speak in a mixture of a dialect and standard.
Answer: 2
30. “It used to be said,” began a famous English writer, “everyone had a novel in them … Just now, though, in 1999, you would probably be obliged to doubt the basic proposition: What everyone has in them, these days, is not a novel but a memoir”. Identify the source
(1) Martins Amis, Experience
(2) Michel Butor, Passing Time
(3) John Fowles, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
(4) Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot
Answer: 1
31. The opening sixteen lines of Paradise Lost comprise:
(1) One sentence
(2) Two sentences
(3) Three sentences
(4) Four sentences
Answer: 1
32. Who among the following poets compared human tears to “love’s wine” ?
(1) Ben Jonson
(2) John Donne
(3) Andrew Marvell
(4) John Suckling
Answer: 2
33. Ernest Pontifex is a character in …………..
(1) Tono Bungay
(2) The Man of Property
(3) The Way of All Flesh
(4) Nostromo
Answer: 3
34. In which of the following stories does Rudyard Kipling present a newspaper editor who recounts his dealings with a couple of “loafers” ?
(1) “His Chance in Life”
(2) “Thrown Away”
(3) “Lispeth”
(4) “The Man Who Would Be King”
Answer: 4
35. Trying to capture the upbeat mood of 1964-65, the poet Thom Gunn said: “They stood for a great optimism, barriers seemed to be coming down all over, it was as if World War II had finally drawn to close, there was an openness and high-spiritedness and relaxation of mood”. Who were “they” ?
(1) The Beatles
(2) The Rolling Stones
(3) The New Left
(4) The Arts Council folks
Answer: 1
36. In Paradise Lost Milton presents the action of the fall of man in two stages in Books ………………
(1) IV and IX
(2) IV and VIII
(3) III and IX
(4) V and X
Answer: 1
37. In Gulliver’s Travels Struldbruggs are …………..
(1) people replete with abstract learning.
(2) people exempt from natural death.
(3) people persecuted by pets and servants.
(4) people lured by a new ideal.
Answer: 2
38. Margaret Atwood has tried a revisionist writing of a crucial scene in Hamlet called “Gertrude Talks Back”. The scene in Atwood opens with a reference to the name of an implied listener. Who is this implied listener?
(1) Hamlet
(2) Ophelia
(3) Polonius
(4) Claudius
Answer: 1
39. Samuel Johnson wrote London in imitation of ……………
(1) Horace
(2) Ovid
(3) Juvenal
(4) Moschus
Answer: 3
40. Which of the following is NOT written by Buchi Emecheta?
(1) The Joys of Motherhood
(2) Second-Class citizen
(3) A Question of Power
(4) Kehinde
Answer: 3
41. Samuel Johnson’s use of the term “metaphysical” in a piece of criticism was ………….
(1) approving
(2) disapproving
(3) positive
(4) accidental
Answer: 2
42. “I am not an angel …… and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.” This is ………………
(1) Maggie Tulliver in Mill on the Floss
(2) Aurora Leigh in the eponymous poem
(3) Jane Eyre in the eponymous novel
(4) Betty Higdon in Our Mutual Friend
Answer: 3
43. Who among the following playwrights was the son of a gardener?
(1) Harold Pinter
(2) Joe Orton
(3) Tom Stoppard
(4) Edward Bond
Answer: 2
44. “He is the very pineapple of politeness!” This sentence is an example of …………..
(1) paronomasia
(2) spoonerism
(3) malapropism
(4) anaphora
Answer: 3
45. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that meaning is generated through
(1) a system of structured differences in language
(2) a system of random differences in language
(3) a system of structured references in language
(4) a system of random references in language
Answer: 1
46. Identify the group known as “The Wesker Trilogy”?
(1) The Growth of the Soil, Gauze of Life, In the Grip of Life
(2) Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots, I’m Talking about Jerusalem
(3) The Four Seasons, Chips with Everything, Golden City
(4) Lunatics and Lovers, The Patriots, Dead End
Answer: 2
47. Who is the central character of Derek Walcott’s Dream on the Monkey Mountain ?
(1) Diana Guinness, one of the Mitford Sisters
(2) Jordan, a fantasist
(3) Makak, a charcoal burner
(4) Eva Smith, a seamstress
Answer: 3
48. The phrase “darkness visible” (Paradise Lost, 1.63) is an example of ……………..
(1) periphrasis
(2) pun
(3) oxymoron
(4) transposition
Answer: 3
49. What is common to writers such as Sam Selvon (The Lonely Londoners), Timothy Mo (Sour Sweet), and Hanif Kureishi (The Black Album) ?
(1) All of them are brilliant writers of autobiographies who tell stories and write poetry.
(2) They use Standard English with some Creole inflections peculiar to the Caribbean.
(3) They are diasporic writers who depict postcolonial London very different from its colonial representations.
(4) They contrast the ‘First Nations’ with local populations of their respective countries.
Answer: 3
50. F. R. Leavis and Q. D. Leavis launched a critical journal devoted to the moral centrality of English Studies. Name the Journal.
(1) The English Historical Review
(2) The Criterion
(3) Scrutiny
(4) The Edinburgh Review
Answer: 3