- Which narrative poem by Lord Tennyson presents the story of a fisherman turned merchant sailor who, after a shipwreck, is marooned on a desert island ?
(1) “Crossing the Bar” (2) “Tithonus”
(3) “Enoch Arden” (4) “Maud”
2. In “Memorial Verses” Matthew Arnold pays tribute to three great poets. Who are they ?
(1) Goethe, Shakespeare, Wordsworth
(2) Goethe, Shakespeare, Milton
(3) Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth
(4) Goethe, Wordsworth, Byron
3. Who among the following English playwrights wrote screenplays on novels such as Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, John Fowles’s French Lieutenant’s Woman, and Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale ?
(1) John Arden (2) Edward Bond
(3) Harold Pinter (4) David Hare
4. The years in English literary history between 1649 and 1660 are known as __________.
(1) the Neo-classical period
(2) the Commonwealth period
(3) the Stuart period
(4) the Jacobean period
5. In R.K. Narayan’s Swami and Friends, which game offers Swami the best kind of emotional release from the strains and pressures of disagreeable circumstances ?
- cricket (2) football (3) tennis (4) hockey
6. William Blake expressed the importance of the particular when he said that “To Generalize is to be __________. To particularize is the alone Distinction of Merit.” Fill in the blank.
- an idiot (2) a poet (3) a dreamer (4) a skunk
7. Which of the following was not a dialect of Old English ?
(1) Irish (2) Northumbrian (3) Mercian (4) Kentish
8. Anthony Burgess’s last novel, published in 1993, is called A Dead Man in Deptford. Who is the central character to whom the title refers ?
(1) Sir Walter Raleigh (2) Sir Philip Sidney
(3) Christopher Marlowe (4) Earl of Southampton
9. Choose the correct chronological order :
(1) William Caxton prints the first English book – William Shakespeare’s First Folio – John Milton’s Areopagitica – “Tottel’s Miscellany” (Songs and Sonnets).
(2) “Tottel’s Miscellany” (Songs and Sonnets) – William Shakespeare’s First Folio – William Caxton prints the first English book – John Milton’s Areopagitica.
(3) William Caxton prints the first English book – “Tottel’s Miscellany” (Songs and Sonnets) – William Shakespeare’s First Folio – John Milton’s Areopagitica.
(4) William Shakespeare’s First Folio – John Milton’s Areopagitica – William Caxton prints the first English book – “Tottel’s Miscellany” (Songs and Sonnets).
10. What does the phrase ut pictura poesis from Horace’s Art of Poetry mean ?
(1) “as in painting, so in poetry”. (2) “poetry beggars pictorial description”.
(3) “as in poetry, so in painting”. (4) “picture above all poetry”.
11. Who among the following is the author of Account of the Augustan Age in England (1759) ?
(1) John Gay (2) William Hazlitt
(3) Oliver Goldsmith (4) Samuel Johnson
12. In how many parts did Cervantes publish his novel, Don Quixote ?
(1) three (2) five (3) two (4) twelve
13. Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians carries biographical sketches of writers and public figures. Identify the list below that correctly mentions those Eminent Victorians.
(1) Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Gordon.
(2) A.E.W. Mason, Sir Arthur Quiller Couch, Matthew Arnold, Robert Bridges.
(3) E.F. Benson, Cardinal Manning, Lord Tennyson, Beatrice Webb.
(4) George Harding, General Gordon, Robert Browning, Mrs Humphrey Ward.
14. One of the following statements about the eponymous saint of Dryden’s “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day” is incorrect. Identify that statement.
(1) St. Cecilia was a Roman lady, an early Christian martyr.
(2) St. Cecilia was an Armenian devotee of the Christian faith.
(3) St. Cecilia’s festival is celebrated on 22 November in England.
(4) St. Cecilia was a patroness of music who was fabled to have invented the organ.
15. Which of the statements on Michael Roberts’s Faber Book of Modern Verse (1936) is not true ?
(1) His anthology canonized modern poetry and poets for quite some decades.
(2) The collection begins with the poems of Robert Bridges.
(3) Roberts omitted the Georgian poets in his anthology.
(4) Yeats, Eliot and Pound find a place in the Faber Book of 1936.
16. Who among the following proposed that the First Gulf War had never taken place, it was simply a hyperreal, media-generated spectacle ?
(1) Richard Rorty (2) Jean-Francois Lyotard
(3) Jean Baudrillard (4) Umberto Eco
17. Sir Thomas Browne’s Urn Burial was prompted by __________.
(1) the discovery of ancient burial-urns near Norwich.
(2) the contemporary researches on burial rites in Norway.
(3) the death of St. Francis of Assissi and his burial.
(4) the publication of the English Book of Common Prayer.
18. Identify from among the following list those that cannot be called War Fiction.
(a) A Modern Instance
(b) Catch – 22
(c) The Age of Innocence
(d) The Naked and the Dead
(1) (a) and (d) (2) (b) and (c) (3) (a) and (c) (4) (b) and (d)
19. Who among the following writers was not the one identified with The Movement of the 1950’s England ?
- Roy Fuller (2) Kingsley Amis (3) Philip Larkin (4) Donald Davie
20. Which of the following novels does not belong to Nuruddin Farah’s Blood In the Sun Trilogy ?
- Maps (2) Knots (3) Gifts (4) Secrets
21. In the following series, which one has all the poets correctly matched with their poems ?
(1) Ezekiel, “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan, “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”; Dutt, “Sunset at Puri”; Mahapatra, “Our Casuarina Tree”.
(2) Ezekiel, “Sunset at Puri”; Ramanujan, “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”; Dutt, “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra, “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”.
(3) Ezekiel, “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan, “Sunset at Puri”; Dutt, “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra, “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”.
(4) Ezekiel, “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan, “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”; Dutt, “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra, “Sunset at Puri”.
Answer: (3) Ezekiel, “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher”; Ramanujan, “Sunset at Puri”; Dutt, “Our Casuarina Tree”; Mahapatra, “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House”.
Explanation:
Ezekiel wrote “Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher,” a poem that reflects on the complex relationships and the inner workings of the poet’s mind.
Ramanujan wrote “Sunset at Puri,” which is a reflection on the relationship between human existence and nature.
Dutt wrote “Our Casuarina Tree,” which is a nostalgic poem reflecting on a childhood memory and a deep connection to nature.
Mahapatra wrote “Small-scale Reflections on a Great House,” which involves reflections on human emotions and philosophical inquiries into life. All of these matches are correct in this option.
22. From among the following, identify the incorrect observation regarding Ferdinand de Saussure’s seminal distinction between langue and parole.
(1) Parole is the particular language system, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas langue is the language-occasion (what A says to B).
(2) A language consists in the interrelationship between langue and parole.
(3) Saussure made this crucial distinction in a study called A Course in General Linguistics (1916).
(4) Langue is the particular language-system, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas parole is the language-occasion (what A says to B).
Answer: (1) Parole is the particular language system, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas langue is the language-occasion (what A says to B).
23. John Heywood wrote a farcical interlude called The Four P’s. Who were the Four P’s ?
(1) a Palmer, a Pedlar, a Pothecary, a Packer
(2) a Printer, a Pedlar, a Pothecary, a Palmer
(3) a Pedlar, a Parson, a Palmer, a Pothecary
(4) a Palmer, a Pardoner, a Pothecary, a Pedlar
Answer: (3) a Pedlar, a Parson, a Palmer, a Pothecary.
Explanation:
John Heywood’s “The Four P’s” is a farcical play that centers around four characters: a Pedlar, a Parson, a Palmer, and a Pothecary. These characters represent various social roles of the time and are depicted humorously in the play.
24. In the mechanical drill method of second language acquisition :
(a) The learner has the freedom to choose from many responses.
(b) The learner’s response is totally controlled.
(c) Comprehension of the item by the learner is not required.
(d) Comprehension of the item by the learner is obligatory.
The right combination according to the code is :
- (a) and (d) (2) (a) and (c) (3) (b) and (c) (4) (b) and (d)
Answer: (4) (b) and (d).
Explanation:
In the mechanical drill method, the learner’s response is totally controlled (b). This means the learner has no freedom to choose their responses; they are typically repetitive and predetermined.
Comprehension of the item by the learner is obligatory (d), meaning the learner must understand the content in order to respond correctly. The emphasis is on controlled practice, rather than free communication or creative use of the language.
25. Thou wilt not wake
Till I thy fate shall overtake;
Till age, or grief, or sickness must
Marry my body to that dust
It so much loves; and fill the room
My heart keeps empty in thy Tomb.
Stay for me there; I will not fail
To meet thee in that hollow Vale.
And think not much of my delay;
I am already on the way.
Which of the following readings do you find appropriate to the spirit of the lines above ?
(1) In that interspace between the lines, the ending of one and the beginning of another, there is a silent internal language, the poem’s language-within-language, tacitly signalled through the deployment of rhymed space.
(2) Ageing and dying are of course helplessly passive; but here love makes them as though they were now also willing things in the husband eager to join his dead wife. Through simple intimate tones of their shared earthly life – stay for me, wait for me, I will not fail – he not only imagines her but imagines her thinking of him.
(3) The lyric voice here can feel the poem speaking back to him – in the cold lineal stare of ‘there was nothing in my belief’ – even as his dead wife did not. It is as though the poem itself then demands his response, in order to be able to move from one line to another. To attempt that movement in keeping the poem’s space alive, the lyric voice asserts, “I will not fail/To meet there in that hollow Vale.”
(4) My whole nature was so penetrated with grief and humiliation of such considerations, that, even now, famous and caressed and happy as I am, I often forget in my dream that I have a dear wife who died, leaving me alone in this world. Even that I am a man, and now I wander desolately back to that time of our lives when my wife and I shared moments of bliss.
Answer: (2) Ageing and dying are of course helplessly passive; but here love makes them as though they were now also willing things in the husband eager to join his dead wife. Through simple intimate tones of their shared earthly life – stay for me, wait for me, I will not fail – he not only imagines her but imagines her thinking of him.
Explanation:
The passage reflects a deep connection between the husband and wife beyond death. The husband expresses his desire to reunite with his wife in the afterlife, and the use of intimate language (“stay for me,” “I will not fail”) conveys the emotional longing. The reading highlights the active, mutual yearning between them, even after death, suggesting love’s powerful force over the inevitability of death.
26. Match the characters with the novels :
(a) Arthur Seaton (i) Top Girls
(b) Marlene (ii) The Golden Notebook
(c) Anna Wulf (iii) The Swimming Pool Library
(d) Beckwith (iv) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Code :
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(1) (ii) (iii) (i) (iv)
(2) (iv) (i) (ii) (iii)
(3) (iii) (iv) (ii) (i)
(4) (ii) (iv) (iii) (i)
Answer: (2) (iv) (i) (ii) (iii).
Explanation:
Arthur Seaton is from “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” by Alan Sillitoe, a novel that explores the working-class life in post-war England.
Marlene is from “Top Girls” by Caryl Churchill, a feminist play that focuses on the struggles of women in society.
Anna Wulf is from “The Golden Notebook” by Doris Lessing, which explores the lives of women in the 20th century and mental health.
Beckwith is from “The Swimming Pool Library” by Alan Hollinghurst, which deals with themes of sexuality and social class.
27. The very last passage of a novel is given below. Identify the novel.
“Welcome, O life, I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.
April 27. Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead.”
(1) To the light house (2) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
(3) Maurice (4) Almayer’s Folly
Answer: (2) A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
Explanation:
This passage comes from James Joyce’s “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, a semi-autobiographical novel that follows the life of Stephen Dedalus, a young man coming into his own as an artist. The final lines reflect his resolve to confront life and continue his artistic journey.
28. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis is about a utopian state called __________.
(1) Asgard (2) Avalon (3) Bensalem (4) Baltia
Answer: (3) Bensalem.
Explanation:
New Atlantis by Francis Bacon is a philosophical novel that presents a vision of a utopian society called Bensalem. This society is centered around scientific discovery and the pursuit of knowledge, offering a vision of progress and enlightenment.
29. The 1950’s saw the rise of backlash against modernism and against New Romanticism that became known as The Movement. Which of the following little magazines came to be associated with The Movement ?
(a) Departure
(b) New Verse
(c) London Mercury
(d) New Poems
The right combination according to the code is :
- (a) and (b) (2) (c) and (d) (3) (a) and (d) (4) (b) and (d)
Answer: (4) (b) and (d).
Explanation:
The Movement in the 1950s was a group of British writers who reacted against the excesses of modernism and romanticism. They sought a more restrained and realistic approach to literature.
The magazines New Verse and New Poems helped promote this movement and its values.
30. The error of interpreting a literary work by referring to evidence outside of itself, such as the design and purpose of the author is called __________.
(1) Affective fallacy (2) Intentional fallacy
(3) Authorial fallacy (4) Synecdochic fallacy
Answer: (2) Intentional fallacy.
Explanation:
The Intentional Fallacy occurs when readers interpret a text based on the author’s intended meaning or personal motivations rather than analyzing the text itself. It is a critical error in literary interpretation that emphasizes external context over the text’s inherent meaning.
31. A.R. Ammons parodies a famous poem in his “Swoggled”
I’d rather be suckled by an outworn pagan than get my horn wreathed in an old triton. Which poet, which poem ?
(1) John Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer”
(2) John Milton, “On His Blindness”
(3) William Wordsworth, “The World is Too Much with Us”
(4) Elizabeth B. Browning, “How do I Love Thee… ?”
32. Fanny Burney’s Evelina carries the subtitle :
(1) or a Naive Lady’s Entrance into the World
(2) or a Young Lady’s Entrance into the World
(3) or a Young Lady’s Exit from the World
(4) or a Bold Lady’s Entrance into the Hall
33. What does Philip Sidney call poet-haters in his Defence of Poesie ?
(1) misogynists (2) misanthropes (3) misnomers (4) mysomousoi
- Who, among the following, raises the following painful question of longing and belonging ?
“Where shall I turn, divided to the vein ?
I who have cursed The drunken officer of British rule, how choose Between this Africa and the English tongue I love ?”
(1) Derek Walcott (2) Louise Bennett
(3) Kamau Brathwaite (4) Wole Soyinka
35. In the 1940’s, a critic and a philosopher produced two influential and controversial papers called “The Intentional Fallacy” and “The Affective Fallacy”.
Identify them.
(a) Cleanth Brooks (b) Monroe C. Beardsley
(c) William K. Wimsalt Jr. (d) R.P. Blackmur
The right combination according to the code is :
- (a) and (b) (2) (b) and (d) (3) (b) and (c) (4) (c) and (d)
36. Philip Larkin’s “Sad Steps” notices “The way the moon dashes through clouds that blow Loosely as cannon-smoke to stand apart….”
The poem alludes to :
(1) Coleridge’s “Dejection : An Ode”
(2) The moonlit scenes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
(3) Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella
(4) T.S. Eliot’s “Morning at the Window”
37. Match the following opening lines with their respective titles :
(a) “I leant upon a coppice gate” (i) “Thirteen Blackbirds”
(b) “A sudden blow : the great wings (ii) “Sympathy” beating still….”
(c) “Among twenty snowy mountains” (iii) “The Darkling Thrush”
(d) “I know what the caged bird feels, (iv) “Leda and the Swan” alas…”
Code :
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(1) (iv) (iii) (ii) (i)
(2) (iii) (iv) (i) (ii)
(3) (ii) (i) (iii) (iv)
(4) (i) (ii) (iv) (iii)
38. Identify the titles that were published in the 1920’s.
(a) Look, Stranger!
(b) The Tower
(c) The Waste Land
(d) The Road to Wigan Pier
Code :
- (a) and (c) (2) (b) and (c) (3) (b) and (d) (4) (c) and (d)
39. This novel is dedicated “To the railroad of bones” and has as its epigraph the line, “I am the woman they give dead women’s clothes to” from Christine Gelineau’s “Inheritance”.
Identify the novel.
(1) African Psycho by Alain Mabanckou
(2) The Chibok Girls by Helon Habila
(3) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
(4) The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
40. An English poet couldn’t help the excitement that an historical event caused in his life-time :
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven.
Which poet ? What “dawn” ?
(1) W.H. Auden ; the Spanish Civil War
(2) Lord Tennyson ; the Jubilee of Queen Victoria’s reign
(3) William Wordsworth ; the French Revolution
(4) William Blake ; the Industrial Revolution
41. Which novel by John Banville tells the story of a group of travellers who arrive on a small
island and stumble upon the house of Prof. Kreutznaer whose relationship to a painting
entitled The Golden World by a fictional Dutch artist named Vaublin plays a central role ?
- Ghosts (2) The Sea (3) The Ark (4) Eclipse
42. Identify the two plays, usually paired for their critique of the politics of language and acts of
police interrogation.
(1) Earthly Powers, The Wanting Seed
(2) Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots
(3) Left-handed Liberty, The Hero Rises
(4) One for the Road, Mountain Language
43. Semiotics originated mainly in the works of two theorists. They are :
(a) Charles Sanders Peirce
(b) Mikhail Bakhtin
(c) Ferdinand de Saussure
(d) Valentin Voloshinov
The right combination according to the code is __________.
- (a) and (b) (2) (b) and (c) (3) (a) and (c) (4) (c) and (d)
44. Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy was published in 1621 and expanded and altered in
__________ subsequent editions.
- two (2) four (3) six (4) five
45. Which of the following magazines self-consciously created an identity for Vorticists, a group
of painters, sculptors and writers ?
- Blast (2) The Egoist (3) The Criterion (4) New Age
46. “In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban…”
The figure of speech characterized by repetition of words or group of words at the beginning
of consecutive sentences is called __________.
(1) apostrophe (2) anaphora
(3) incremental repetition (4) alliteration
47. At whose behest does the Redcrosse Knight undertake his quest in The Faerie Queene ?
(1) Gloriana’s (2) Una’s (3) Duessa’s (4) Prosperine’s
48. In which city did John Ruskin see a paradigm for Victorian Britain ?
(1) Vienna (2) Venice (3) Rome (4) Paris
49. Which novel of Kazuo Ishiguro is narrated by a Japanese widow living in England and
draws on the destruction and rehabilitation of Nagasaki ?
(1) An Artist of the Floating World
(2) The Unconsoled
(3) A Pale View of Hills
(4) When We Were Orphans
50. Which novel opens thus :
“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held
by anyone else, these pages must show.”
(1) Tristram Shandy (2) Lady Audley’s Secret
(3) David Copperfield (4) Fitz-Boodle’s Confessions
51. Traces of the Morality plays are discernible in a play like Dr. Faustus, traces such as __________.
(1) vernacular songs adapting secular themes
(2) its soliloquizing protagonist, Good and Bad Angels and its final moral
(3) its refrains from the Corpus Christi Carol, the complaint of Christ, the lover of mankind
(4) its rhythmical prose, and the presence of a larger narrative rhythm in the Morality plays
52. The branch of philosophy that asks the question, ‘How do we know what we know ?’
is __________.
- ontology (2) epistemology (3) eschatology (4) phenomenology
53. The eighteenth century practice in England of bookselling was midway between direct
patronage and impersonal sales. A patron paid half the cost of a book before publication
and half on delivery. The author of the book received these payments directly. The patron’s
name appeared in the preface for the book published in this manner.
This practice was known as __________.
- Subscription (2) Contribution (3) Pre-publication (4) Remaindering
54. Oxford India has published a volume of Premchand translations in English, The Oxford India
Premchand. Who among the following is not one of the translators ?
- David Rubin (2) Alok Rai (3) Gillian Wright (4) Christopher King
55. Which of the two novels of Jane Austen have the spa town of Bath as a primary location ?
(a) Emma
(b) Pride and Prejudice
(c) Northanger Abbey
(d) Persuasion
The right combination according to the code is :
- (a) and (d) (2) (b) and (c) (3) (c) and (d) (4) (a) and (b)
56. In the communicative approach to ELT, the development of language learning or teaching
involves a shift :
(a) from form-based to a meaning-based approach.
(b) from an eclectic approach to a rigid method.
(c) from teacher-centred to learner-centred classes.
(d) from broad-based competence to specific needs.
The right combination, according to the Code is :
- (b) and (d) (2) (a) and (d) (3) (b) and (c) (4) (a) and ©
57. The four Moral Essays of Alexander Pope are addressed to carefully selected figures. Identify
the correct group.
(1) Timons, Newton, Martha Blount, Wellington
(2) Lord Cobham, Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall, Chandos
(3) Martha Blount, Lord Cobham, Bathurst, Burlington
(4) William III, John Haydn, Joseph Addison, John Dennis
58. Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children presents the war-torn Europe as its
protagonist as she follows troops with her canteenwagon.
What is the real name of Mother Courage ?
- Paula Danckert (2) Anna Fierling (3) Jane Vanstone (4) Jani Lauzon
59. From among the following, identify the journal that publishes articles on English language
teaching and learning.
(1) University of Toronto Quarterly (2) Agenda
(3) TESOL Quarterly (4) English Language Notes
60. Arrange the following elegies in English in chronological order.
(1) “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” – “Adonais” – “Thyrsis” – “In Memoriam”
(2) “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” – “Adonais” – “In Memoriam” – “Thyrsis”
(3) “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” – “In Memoriam” – “Adonais” – “Thyrsis”
(4) “Adonais” – “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” – “In Memoriam” – “Thyrsis”
61. Who is the only one of Milton’s contemporaries to be mentioned by name in Paradise Lost ?
(1) Francis Bacon (2) Johannes Vermeer
(3) Gallileo (4) King Charles 1
62. K.S. Maniam is a major writer of Indian origin, writing in English, born and living in Malaysia.
Identify two of his novels from the following list.
(a) The Rice Mother
(b) The Return
(c) Touching Earth
(d) Between Lives
The right combination according to the code is :
- (a) and (d) (2) (b) and (c) (3) (c) and (d) (4) (b) and (d)
63. What did Thomas Percy collect in his Reliques ?
(1) medieval folklore and lyrics of the Midlands
(2) old songs, ballads, and romances in English and Scots
(3) Highland lore, mostly oral wisdom of the Scots
(4) Romantic idylls, sonnets and odes
64. Nirad Chaudhuri’s Autobiography of an Unknown Indian concludes with an essay on the course
of Indian history. But in the penultimate chapter Chaudhuri concludes the account of events
in his life. How does this narrative end ?
(1) Chaudhuri ties the knot with his childhood sweetheart and moves from Calcutta to
Delhi
(2) Chaudhuri obtains a job in the military accounts department and gives it up because
he finds it soul-destroying
(3) Chaudhuri joins the editorial team of a Calcutta newspaper and is upset over the
drudgery of a reporter’s life.
(4) Chaudhuri rushes to his ancestral village Bangram on receiving the news of the death
of his uncle and recalls his past life.
65. In John Gower’s Confessio Amantis, Amans, the lover makes his confession to the priest named
__________.
- Verito (2) Genius (3) Amor (4) Phoebe
66. In Eugene Ionesco’s Chairs, the absurdity is not so much in the banal words that are uttered
as __________.
(1) in the large scale use of frightening stage props and lightning effects.
(2) in the absurdist interpretation of them by character after character.
(3) in the fact that they are spoken to an ever-growing number of empty chairs.
(4) in the fact that they are spoken time and again by members of the audience.
67. A half-sentence in Purchas his Pilgrimage triggered off “Kubla Khan”. Whose work was
Purchas his Pilgrimage ?
(1) Robert Herrick, the poet’s
(2) John Hakluyt’s, the collector of traveller’s tales
(3) Samuel Purchas, the London Parson’s
(4) Edward Purchas, the globe-trotter’s
68. Based on the life of a thirteenth-century troubadour, from among the following identify the
work, that marked a catastrophic failure in Robert Browning’s poetic career, earning him a
reputation for impenetrable difficulty ?
(1) Paracelsus (2) Sordello
(3) The Ring and The Book (4) Pauline
69. In Tristram Shandy, the Author’s preface __________
(1) is hawked to the highest bidder.
(2) appears in-between chapters 13 and 14 in Volume II.
(3) is printed in italics in all editions.
(4) appears in-between chapters 10 and 11 in Volume I.
70. Evelyn Waugh once complained that T.S. Eliot’s Poems, 1909-1925 was “marvellously good,
but very hard to understand.” The most pessimistic novel Waugh wrote was called __________
and he owed the title to __________.
(1) Black Mischief – “Sweeney among the Nightingales”
(2) Scoop – “Morning At the Window”
(3) Prancing Nigger – Ash Wednesday
(4) A Handful of Dust – The Waste Land
71. During the years 1830 to 1850, the illusion of peace in Victorian England was broken by such
incidents as ___________.
(1) the Revolution in France and the Chartist Movement in England
(2) the General Strike of 1835 and the Rail Tragedy of 1847
(3) the visionary libertarianism of poets and the lawless embodiment of revolution
(4) the disaster of the Indian Mutiny and the incompetent bungling of the Crimean War
72. Gulliver receives the following response when he boasts about his countrymen :
“… the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon
the face of the earth.” Whose response ?
(1) The King of Lilliput’s
(2) The King of Brobdingnag’s
(3) The Governor of Glubbdubrib’s
(4) The first of the Houyhnhnms’s he meets
73. In the Inferno Dante, as he travels through the various circles of the hell finds Judas who is
unable to speak. What is the reason behind this ?
(1) His tongue is transformed into a coiled snake.
(2) His head is battered and so he cannot open his mouth.
(3) Lucifer is chewing on his head.
(4) His tongue is pulled out and nailed on the tree of sin.
74. Assertion (A) : Our reality is linguistic, a language mediated reality.
Reason (R) : Our perception and understanding of reality are largely constructed by the
words and other signs we use.
In the light of the statements above,
(1) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
(2) Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
(3) (A) is true but (R) is false.
(4) (A) is false but (R) is true.
75. In his book, In Theory, Aijaz Ahmed works out the relations between the three entities :
(1) Classes, Nations, Literatures
(2) Regions, Nation, Languages
(3) State, Religions, Gender
(4) Literature, Print, Theory
76. In 1660, a group of 12 people including Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren formed what
they called the Royal Society. In 1663, it became The Royal Society of London for Improving
Natural Knowledge. What was the Society’s motto ?
(1) “In Him we trust” (2) “In the words of no one”
(3) “Lighted to lighten” (4) “Love conquers all”
77. Of whom did W.B. Yeats say that “We were the last Romantics” ?
(1) The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
(2) The Imagiste poets
(3) His Friends in the Irish Literary Revival
(4) Himself and his lady love, Maud Gonne
78. Who wrote The Wandering Jew, a poem in four cantos and the short lyric, “The Wandering
Jew’s Soliloquy” ?
- S.T. Coleridge (2) Lord Byron (3) Thomas Gray (4) P.B. Shelley
79. Where, according to T.S. Eliot, are we likely to find “not only the best, but the most individual
parts of a poet’s work” ?
(1) in the poet’s juvenilia or rejected drafts.
(2) in the best anthologies and scrap-books.
(3) in those parts where the dead poets assert their immortality.
(4) in those parts where the living poets depart from their ancestors.
80. Which of the following is true of The Canterbury Tales ?
(1) Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas’ Tale only.
(2) Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates The Tale of Melibee only.
(3) Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates both Sir Thopas’ Tale and The Tale of Melibee.
(4) Chaucer, the pilgrim does attempt to narrate an unnamed tale but abruptly stops due
to the intervention of the other pilgrims.
81. During the reign of Norman Kings, it was fashionable to speak __________ in upper-class
circles in England.
- Norse (2) Latin (3) Danish (4) French
82. Who, among the following, collaborated with Purohit Swami in translating the Ten Principal
Upanishads into English ?
(1) Christopher Fry (2) Aldous Huxley
(3) Lawrence Durrell (4) W.B. Yeats
83. What unique distinction does Ben Jonson’s “To Penshurst” have in the English literary
canon ?
(1) It is the only distinguished poem in English addressed to the Lords of Penshurst.
(2) It celebrates Philip Sidney’s elevation to knighthood, Sidney being the youngest scion
of the family.
(3) It is one of the first English poems celebrating a specific place, a forerunner to Cooper’s
Hill and Windsor-Forest.
(4) It is the first poem in an elegiac series that late Elizabethan poets began on the demise
of the Lord of Penshurst.
84. It is well known that in many of his plays, Tom Stoppard has consciously drawn upon
earlier, often reputed, works. Match the following Stoppard plays with earlier works whose
spirit seems to have informed them.
(a) Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (i) Hamlet
(b) Indian Ink (ii) A Passage to India
(c) Inspector Hound (iii) The Mousetrap
(d) Travesties (iv) Importance of Being Earnest
Code :
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(1) (iii) (ii) (i) (iv)
(2) (i) (ii) (iv) (iii)
(3) (iv) (iii) (i) (ii)
(4) (ii) (i) (iv) (iii)
85. After discovering the truth about his heinous crimes committed in the past, what does Oedipus
request as his punishment ?
- exile (2) castration (3) decapitation (4) blindness
86. How does Women in Love open ?
(1) Rupert Birkin, Lawrence’s alter ego, is taking a walk in the English Countryside.
(2) The Brangwen sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, are “working and talking.”
(3) The wedding party gathers at shortlands, the Criches’s home.
(4) The last lesson is in progress, “peaceful and still” in Ursula’s classroom.
87. Samuel Johnson has the following to say about an English poet :
“These images are marked by glittering accumulations of ungraceful ornaments : they strike,
rather than please. The images are magnified by affectation : the language is laboured into
harshness. The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence – ‘Double, double,
toil and trouble’. He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art
and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.”
Identify the poet.
- Thomas Gray (2) John Dryden (3) John Milton (4) Thomas Wyatt
88. “Take the smoking disclaimer issue” begins Vishal Bharadwaj. “Putting a disclaimer every
time somebody smokes on screen is not an answer. If M.F. Hussain had painted a man with
a cigar, would you have asked him to put the disclaimer, ‘Cigarette smoking is injurious to
health’ on the painting” ?
The point Bharadwaj makes with his rhetorical question is the following :
(1) The smoking disclaimer is ineffectual because M.F. Hussain’s painting wouldn’t have
carried it.
(2) The smoking disclaimer on objects perceived as ‘art’ is simply superfluous.
(3) The smoking disclaimer is ineffectual because ‘art’ entertains but does not instruct.
(4) The smoking disclaimer on screen or on an M.F. Hussain painting distracts us from
enjoying art.
89. According to __________, certain verbs actually ‘perform’ an act when they are uttered.
(1) Speech Act theorists such as Austin and Searle.
(2) Russian Formalists such as Shklovsky and Propp.
(3) Language theorists such as Sapir and Whorf.
(4) Cognitive linguists such as Lakoff and Johnson.
90. Haunted castles, strange noises, and an acceptance of the supernatural with all its trappings
mark __________.
- metafiction (2) fantasy fiction (3) epistolary fiction (4) gothic fiction
91. …. sure it waits upon
Some god o’ th’ island. Sitting on a bank,
Weeping again the King my father’s wrack,
This music crept by me upon the waters,
Allaying both their fury and my passion
With its sweet air. Thence I have followed it,
Or it hath drawn me rather….
Which of the following statements on this passage are true ?
(a) These lines, spoken by Edgar in King Lear, are part of a long speech delivered on the
heath.
(b) These lines, spoken by Ferdinand in The Tempest, describe Ariel’s music.
(c) The passage reappears in an altered and ironic version in T.S. Eliot’s Waste Land.
(d) The passage reappears verbatim in W.H. Auden’s Sea and the Mirror.
The correct answer according to the code is :
- (a) and (d) (2) (b) and (c) (3) (c) and (d) (4) (a) and ©
92. Arrange the following plays of Shakespeare according to their periods (early, middle, late…)
of composition.
(1) As You Like It, Love’s Labours Lost, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s
Dream.
(2) Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Love’s Labours Lost, As
You Like It.
(3) Love’s Labours Lost, Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra, The
Tempest.
(4) Midsummer Night’s Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, As You Like It, Love’s
Labours Lost.
93. Who among the following is not a reader-response critic ?
(1) Maud Bodkin (2) Hans-Robert Jauss
(3) Stanley Fish (4) Wolfgang Iser
94. Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina’s closing lines present…
(1) a sad reflection on the unfortunate suicide of Anna which should have been averted.
(2) the enlivening freshness of a rain which has been threatening to break out.
(3) Levin’s affirmation that whatever happens to him, life is not meaningless but
unquestionably meaningful.
(4) Vronsky’s lament over the death of Anna which ends on a positive note, affirming the
human tendency to pass over the tragic events with hope.
95. Which of the following novels begins with a Prologue under the title “The Storming of
Seringapatam”, saying “I address these lines written in India – to my relatives in England” ?
(1) The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farell
(2) The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
(3) The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(4) The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott
96. In “Gerontion”, T.S. Eliot says :
“__________ has many cunning passages, contrived corridors / And issues, deceives with
whispering ambitions, / Guides us by vanities.”
What is Eliot’s subject ?
- History (2) Politics (3) State (4) Religion
Read the following poem and answer questions 97 to 100.
THE MOUNTAIN
My students look at me expectantly.
I explain to them that the life of art is a life
of endless labor. Their expressions
hardly change; they need to know
a little more about endless labor.
So I tell them the story of Sisyphus,
how he was doomed to push
a rock up a mountain, knowing nothing
would come of this effort
but that he would repeat it
indefinitely. I tell them
there is joy in this, in the artist’s life,
that one eludes
judgment, and as I speak
I am secretly pushing a rock myself,
slyly pushing it up the steep
face of a mountain. Why do I lie
to these children? They aren’t listening,
they aren’t deceived, their fingers
tapping at the wooden desks –
So I retract
the myth; I tell them it occurs
in hell, and that the artist lies
because he is obsessed with attainment,
that he perceives the summit
as that place where he will live for ever,
a place about to be
transformed by his burden: with every breath,
I am standing at the top of the mountain.
Both my hands are free. And the rock has added
height to the mountain.
(Louise Gluck)
97. Whose poetic voice is triggered right from the beginning ?
(1) of student’s (2) of teacher’s (3) of critics’ (4) of an observer’s
98. The speaker brings up the story of Sisyphus specifically by way of glossing __________.
(1) art in life (2) life in art
(3) endless labor (4) poetic expectation
99. In its context, the words “their fingers / tapping at the wooden desks”, best represent the
students’ __________.
(1) lack of protest (2) lack of interest
(3) show of disrespect (4) show of impatience
100. Why does the speaker say that “the rock has added height to the mountain” ?
(1) because the speaker is already on the top of the mountain.
(2) because both the hands of the speaker are now free.
(3) because the mountain now seems largely incomprehensible.
(4) because she feels that the immensity of the problem has grown.
| Answer Key:Q. No. | Answer | Q. No. | Answer |
| 1 | 3 | 51 | 2 |
| 2 | 4 | 52 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | 53 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | 54 | 3 |
| 5 | 1 | 55 | 3 |
| 6 | 1 | 56 | 4 |
| 7 | 1 | 57 | 3 |
| 8 | 3 | 58 | 2 |
| 9 | 3 | 59 | 3 |
| 10 | 1 | 60 | 2 |
| 11 | 3 | 61 | 3 |
| 12 | 3 | 62 | 2 |
| 13 | 1 | 63 | 2 |
| 14 | 2 | 64 | 2 |
| 15 | 2 | 65 | 2 |
| 16 | 3 | 66 | 2 |
| 17 | 1 | 67 | 3 |
| 18 | 1 | 68 | 2 |
| 19 | 1 | 69 | 1 |
| 20 | 2 | 70 | 4 |
| 21 | 4 | 71 | 3 |
| 22 | 1 | 72 | 2 |
| 23 | 4 | 73 | 3 |
| 24 | 1 | 74 | 1 |
| 25 | 1 | 75 | 2 |
| 26 | 2 | 76 | 2 |
| 27 | 2 | 77 | 3 |
| 28 | 3 | 78 | 4 |
| 29 | 3 | 79 | 3 |
| 30 | 2 | 80 | 3 |
| 31 | 3 | 81 | 4 |
| 32 | 2 | 82 | 4 |
| 33 | 4 | 83 | 3 |
| 34 | 1 | 84 | 2 |
| 35 | 3 | 85 | 1 |
| 36 | 3 | 86 | 2 |
| 37 | 2 | 87 | 1 |
| 38 | 2 | 88 | 4 |
| 39 | 3 | 89 | 1 |
| 40 | 3 | 90 | 4 |
| 41 | 1 | 91 | 2 |
| 42 | 3 | 92 | 3 |
| 43 | 3 | 93 | 1 |
| 44 | 2 | 94 | 3 |
| 45 | 1 | 95 | 2 |
| 46 | 2 | 96 | 1 |
| 47 | 1 | 97 | 2 |
| 48 | 2 | 98 | 3 |
| 49 | 3 | 99 | 2 |
| 50 | 3 | 100 | 1 |
