June 2019 UGC NET English solved 51 TO 100
June 2019 NET UGC English Q 51 TO 100
Q.51 Read the following lines:
In a station of the metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Which of the following poetic programmes is illustrated by the above lines?
(A) The Movement
(B) Naturalism
(C) Symbolism
(D) Imagism
The apparition of these faces in a crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Pound describes watching faces appear in a metro station. It is unclear whether he is writing
from the vantage point of a passenger on the train itself or on the platform. The setting is
Paris, France, and as he describes these faces as a "crowd," meaning the station is quite busy.
He compares these faces to "petals on a wet, black bough," suggesting that on the dark
subway platform, the people look like flower petals stuck on a tree branch after a rainy night.
Q.52 Who of the following are being talked about in the following lines?
“. .. you seem to misunderstand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.”
(A) The plebeians in Coriolanus
(B) The sisters in King Lear
(C) The Witches in Macbeth
(D) The players in Hamlet
Q.53 Which of the following novels by Iris Murdoch tells the story of an ageing theatre celebrity
who withdraws into a life of seclusion and writes a diary/journal/novel?
(A) The Sandcastle
(B) Under the Net
(C) The Sea, the Sea
(D) Flight from the Enchanter
The nineteenth novel of the British novelist, Iris Murdoch was the Sea, the Sea published in
1978 bagged him the Booker Prize.
This book written as a journal or in first person narrative is the story of an eventful summer
late in the life of Charles Arrowby, a famous man of the British theatre. Arrowby is an actor,
playwright, director, and romancer of women. When Charles Arrowby retires from his
glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He
hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood
sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage. His equilibrium is further disturbed
when his friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside
idyll severely threatened by his obsessions.
Q.54 What does ‘Harlem Renaissance’ refer to?
(A) A scientific and rational ethos, including freedom from superstition, in 18th
century Europe
(B) The flourishing of African American literature in the 19205 and 19305
(C) A church system, overseen by a governing hierarchy of four courts,
championed by the English Puritans
(D) The revelation of Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered
in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s
At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a
1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.
The movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the
urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by the Great Migration
Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood, many francophone black writers from
African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the movement ,
which spanned from about 1918 until the mid-1930s
Q.55 “To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lighting.” About which
Shakespearean actor Coleridge wrote the above line?
(A) David Garrick
(B) Richard Burbage
(C) John Philip Kemble
(D) Edmund Kean
Q.56 What is ‘euphmism’?
(A) Eulogical and adulatory style of writing
(B) Discursive and hortatory style of writing
(C) Pompous and affected style of writing
(D) Exalted and gland style of writing
Euphemism /ˈjuːfəmɪzəm/ is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may
be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant
euphemisms are used to avoid directly addressing subjects that might be deemed negative or
embarrassing.
Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to taboo topics such as disability, sex,
excretion, or death in a polite way
The term euphemism refers to polite, indirect expressions that replace words and phrases
considered harsh and impolite, or which suggest something unpleasant. Euphemism is an
idiomatic expression, which loses its literal meanings and refers to something else, in order to
hide its unpleasantness. For example, “kick the bucket” is a euphemism that describes the
death of a person. In addition, many organizations use the term “downsizing” for the
distressing act of “firing” its employees.
Examples of euphemism referring to sex are found in William Shakespeare’s Othello. In Act
1, Scene 1, Iago tells Brabantio:
“I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast
with two backs.”
Here, the expression “making the beast with two backs” refers to the act of having sex.
Similarly, we notice Shakespeare using euphemism for sexual intercourse in his play Antony
and Cleopatra.” In Act 2, Scene 2, Agrippa says about Cleopatra:
“Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
He plowed her, and she cropped.”
The word “plowed” refers to the act of sexual intercourse, and the word “cropped” is a
euphemism for becoming pregnant.
The Squealer, a character in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, uses euphemisms to help the
pigs achieve their political ends. To announce the reduction of food to the animals of the
farm, he says:
“For the time being,” he explains, “it had been found necessary to make
a readjustment of rations.”
Substituting the word “reduction” for “readjustment” was an attempt to suppress the
complaints of other animals about hunger. It works because reduction means “cutting” the
food supply, while readjustment implies changing the current amount of food.
Q.57 What is the Priest’s entreaty to Oedipus in the opening scene of Oedipus Rex?
(A) To liberate Thebes from the domination of the Sphinx
(B) To rid Thebes of the plague that afflicts its people
(C) To afford the Thebans the luxury of newer forms of worship
(D) To send Creon to seek advice from the oracle of Delphi oracle
Q.58 Match the following journals with their distinguishing aims and methods of scholarship:
(a) Obsidian (i) Literature, history and the philosophy of history 2
(b) Clio (ii) Literature and arts in the African diaspora 1
(c) Interventions (iii) Feminist writing 4
(d) Sign (iv) Postcolonial Writing 3
Q.59 Who among the following established and popularised the concept of ‘Cardinal Vowels”?
(A) A. S. Homby
(B) E. V. Lucas
(C) Danial Jones
(D) C. J. Dodson
Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds
of languages. A cardinal vowel is a vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme
position, either front or back, high or low. It was systematised by Daniel Jones in the early
20th century. There are eight cardinal vowels that are used for the reference of the sound.
Daniel Jones, the prime exponent of Cardinal vowels wrote "The values of cardinal vowels
cannot be learnt from written descriptions; they should be learnt by oral instruction from a
teacher who knows them".
Q.60 Which one of the following arrangements of poets is in the correct chronological order?
(A) William Langland, William Dunbar, Layamon
(B) William Langland, Layamon, William Dunbar
(C) Layamon, William Langland William Dunbar
(D) William Dunbar, Layamon, William Langland
Layamon : He was a priest and the 12th/13th century poet and author of the Brut, a notable
work that was the first to present the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in
English poetry. It is the first historiography 16,096 lines long and also known as Layamon's
Brut or The chronicle of Britain.
William Langland : The Middle English alliterative verse poet, William Langland is known
for his Piers Plowman which is an allegory with a variety of religious themes. The poem, a
mix of theological allegory and social satire, concerns the narrator/dreamer's quest for the
true Christian life in the context of medieval Catholicism.
William Dunbar : William Dunbar is the Scottish Chaucerian with the other poets, Robert
Henryson, Gawain Douglas, James I of Scotland. These Scottish makar poets considered
Geoffrey Chaucer as their acknowledged master and they often employed his verse forms
and themes.
Q.61 who speaks the following lines and to whom? Act 4 Scene 7
“0, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o’er me.
No, sir, you must not knee
(A) Kent to Lear
(B) Cordelia to Lear
(C) Goneril to Lear
(D) Regan to Kent
Q.62 Match the Novelist with the Publisher:
(a) Laurence Sterne (i) Thomas Lowndes 3
(b) Henry Fielding (ii) Andrew Millar 2
(c) Frances Burney (iii) William Taylor 4
(d) Daniel Defoe (iv) Robert Dodsley 1
Choose the correct option from those given below:
(A) (a)-(iii); (b)-(i); (c)-(ii); (d)-(iv)
(B) (a)-(ii); (b)-(iv); (c)-(i); (d)-(iii)
(C) (a)-(iv); (b)-(ii); (c)-(i); (d)-(iii)
(D) (a)-(ii); (b)-(iii); (c)-(iv); (d)-(i)
Laurence Sterne Irish-born English novelist and humorist, author of Tristram
Shandy (1759–67), an early novel in which story is subordinate to the free associations
and digressions of its narrator. He is also known for the novel A Sentimental Journey (1768).
o he began Tristram Shandy. An initial, sharply satiric version was rejected by Robert
Dodsley, the London printer, just when Sterne’s personal life was upset. His mother and
uncle both died. His wife had a nervous breakdown and threatened suicide. Sterne continued
his comic novel, but every sentence, he said, was “written under the greatest heaviness of
heart.” In this mood, he softened the satire and told about Tristram’s opinions, his eccentric
family, and ill-fated childhood with a sympathetic humour, sometimes hilarious, sometimes
sweetly melancholic—a comedy skirting tragedy.
o At his own expense, Sterne published the first two volumes of The Life and Opinions of
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman at York late in 1759, but he sent half of the imprint to Dodsley
to sell in London.
Henry Fielding Publisher Andrew Millar was a Scottish publisher in the eighteenth
century.
o In 1740, however, Samuel Richardson published his novel Pamela: or, Virtue
Rewarded, which tells how a servant girl so impressed her master by resistance to his every
effort at seduction that in the end “he thought fit to make her his wife.” However, Fielding
found the work objectionable and set out to write a parody of it, which he called An Apology
for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741), satirizing Richardson’s sentimentality and
prudish morality. . Although the book was published anonymously and Fielding never
claimed credit, it is generally accepted that he was the author.
o Among his major novels are Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749).
o Fielding’s Joseph Andrews was published anonymously in 1742. Described on the title page
as “Written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote,”
When Frances Burney (1752–1840) first published her novel Evelina, she did so in strictest
secrecy, concealing both her name and her female identity. These letters reveal the
clandestine meetings, false names and disguised handwriting that she used in order to seal a
deal with the publisher Thomas Lowndes (1719–1784).
Daniel Defoe (1659–1661) was an English writer and journalist most widely known for his
novel Robinson Crusoe, originally published in on 25 April 1719 by William Taylor
o His work varied from political pamphlets to poetry, and included other novels such
as Religious Courtship and The Political History of the Devil. He lived in London, England.
Q.63 All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of)
what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skillful, and in doing this they have (the idea of)
what they want of the skill is. So it is that existence and non-existence gave birth to (the idea of)
the other; that difficulty and ease produce (the idea of) the other; that the length and shortness
fashion out the one figure of the other; that (the idea of) height and lowness arise from the
contrast of one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the
relation of one with another; and that: being before and behind give the idea of one following
another.
Which one of the following is the correct meaning of the ominous little phrase ‘the idea of in the
first sentence of the passage?
(A) Prior Knowledge
(B) Prior imagination
(C) Prior confirmation
(D) Prior rejection
Q.64 Why did T. S. Eliot assert that Virgil, not Homer, is the poet of Europe?
(A) There are some initial moral concerns in Virgil
(B) Virgil belongs to the Roman period
(C) Homer was a pagan who was a renegade
(D) Virgil wrote in Latin while Homer wrote in Greek
On Poetry and Poets is a collection of essays and lectures by T S Eliot. One of the essays
Virgil and Christian World presents Eliot's ideas of comparison between Virgil and Homer.
He says, "I had, up to that point, found the Greek language a much more exciting study than
Latin. Yet I found myself at ease with Virgil as I was not at ease with Homer. …
The obstacle to my enjoyment of the Iliad, at that age, was the behaviour of the people
Homer wrote about. The gods were as irresponsible, as much a prey to their passions, as
devoid of public spirit and the sense of fair play, as the heroes. This was shocking."
Virgil was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous
poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A
number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to
him
Homer is the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the
central works of ancient Greek literature.
o The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of
Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles
lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war.
o The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall
of Troy.
Q.65 Match the critics and their works :
Critics Works
(a) Edward Said (i) The Illusion: of Postmodernism
(b) Terry Eagleton (ii) Contemporary Marxist Criticism
(c) Francis Mulhern (iii) Theory into Practice
(d) K. M. Newton (iv) Culture and Imperialism
Choose the correct option from those
given below :
(A) (a-iv); (b-i); (c-ii); (d-iii)
(B) (a-iv); (b-i); (c-iii); (d-ii)
(C) (a-ii); (b-i); (c-iv); (d-iii)
(D) (a-i); (b-ii); (c-iii); (d-iv)
Culture and Imperialism is a 1993 collection of essays by Edward Said, in which the author
attempts to trace the connection between imperialism and culture in the 18th, 19th, and 20th
centuries. It followed his highly influential Orientalism, published in 1978.
Terry Eagleton explores the origins and emergence of postmodernism, revealing its
ambivalences and contradictions. Above all he speaks to a particular kind of student, or
consumer, of popular "brands" of postmodern thought.
Q.66 Which of the following combinations correctly defines the phonological system of Indian
English in relation to Standard English?
(a) Absence of aspirated consonants
(b) Simplified vowel system
(c) Similar international pattern
(d) Presence of voiced aspirated consonants
Choose the correct option:
(A) (a) and (b)
(B) (b) and (d)
(C) (c) and (a)
(D) (b) and (c)
In English, aspirated consonants are allophones complementary distribution with
their unaspirated counterparts, but in some other languages, notably most Indian
and East Asian languages, the difference is contrastive.
Voiceless consonants are produced with the vocal folds open (spread) and not
vibrating, and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are
fractionally closed and vibrating (modal voice). Voiceless aspiration occurs when
the vocal folds remain open after a consonant is released.
Q.67 Which of the following is the accurate description of ‘dramatic irony”?
(A) A character’s knowledge or expectation is contradicted by what the audience
knows, or by the outcome of events
(B) An audience knows or expects something to happen but the events on stage turn out
to be different
(C) Ironic events and expectations of actual actions and results converge in drama and
the audience feels rewarded
(D) A dramatist’s irony reinforces his actors’ performance, thereby fulfilling audience
expectations
Identify the type of irony in the following example:
You scheduled an outdoor wedding in July because it hasn't rained in July for 10 years.
Unfortunately, it still rains on your wedding day.
A .Verbal irony
B .Dramatic irony
C .Situational irony
D .None of the above
ANSWER
Irony is a figure of speech or literary device in which what actually happens is
completely different or opposite from the reader or audience's expectations.
Option C is correct. Situational irony occurs when the actual result of a situation is totally
different (often, the complete opposite) from what the audience expect the result to be. The
setting here is "you" scheduling your wedding in July owing to the fact that it doesn't rain during
the month. Since It hasn't rained there for 10 years, you expect it to be sunny on your wedding
day. However, the actual result is that the complete opposite happens - it rains. Thus, there is
situational irony.
Option A is incorrect. Verbal Irony shows a contrast between what is said and what is meant.
The most obvious thing to notice is that there is no dialogue in the question. No one is speaking.
It only gives a situation. Thus, there is not verbal irony.
Option B is incorrect. Dramatic Irony is often found when the audience is aware of something
that the character is not. For example, the audience watches the villain of the movie enter the
main character's empty house and hide in a dark room. Then the main character walks into the
house, not knowing the villain is hiding there. But the audience does. It is ironic because the
audience knows more than the character. In the given question, there is no way an "audience"
could have predicted the weather. Thus, there is no dramatic irony.
Option D is incorrect as the answer lies in C.
Q.68 What is being described by Wordsworth in the following lines from his poem, The Thorn?
I’ve measured it from side to side;
’Tis three feet long and two feet wide.
(A) Fallen bough
(B) A cradle
(C) A small cot
(D) An Infant’s grave
Q.69 Which of the following poets does William Hazlitt call ‘Don Quixote-like’ in his essay, My
First Acquaintance with Poets?
(A) William Wordsworth
(B) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(C) William Cowper
(D) Lord Byron
"My First Acquaintance with Poets (1823) is one of the best known of Hazlitt's essays. It is a
purely literary essay in which Hazlitt describes his impressions of two great poets, namely
Wordsworth and Coleridge, who might be described as the founders of the Romantic
Movement in English Poetry and whose Joint publication called the lyrical Ballads was an
epoch-making event. In this essay, Hazlitt expresses his profound admiration for Coleridge's
talent for conversation and also supports most of Coleridge's opinions about various persons
in the spheres of literature politics and religion. Hazlitt paints Wordsworth in a visionary
light as 'Don Quixote' like with a fire in his eye.
Q.70 Which of the following poems by Thomas Hardy was originally titled By the Century’s
Deathbed?
(A) The Minute Before Meeting
(B) Neutral Tones
(C) The Darkling Thrush
(D) The Oxen
"The Darkling Thrush" is a lyric poem with four eight-line stanzas. It was first published in
The Graphic, a weekly newspaper, on December 29, 1900, under the title "By Century's
Deathbed. Thomas Hardy wrote "The Darkling Thrush" to express his feelings about the
world when it was about to enter the twentieth century. The title refers to a thrush, such as a
robin, in darkness (darkling).
Although the poem was written in 1900, literally at the very end of the 19th century and
therefore at the century's deathbed, Hardy probably thought better of such a depressing and
relatively unpoetic title.
Q.71 The medieval English university organised its studies based on the seven liberal arts Three
of these, the trivium, referred to the study of
(A) arithmetic, geometry, music
(B) astronomy, music, logic
(C) geometry, grammar, music
(D) grammar, logic, rhetoric
Q.72 Given below are two statements—one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled
as Reason (R) :
Assertion (A) :
The dialects of English that have resulted from the regional separation of English-
speaking communities have not acquired the status of languages.
Reason (R) :
The Germanic dialects that are now Dutch, English, German, Swedish etc., have
become distinct owing to geographical dispersion.
In the light of the above two statements choose the correct option:
(A) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
(B) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
(C) (A) is true, but (R) is false
(D) (A) is false, but (R) is true
Q.73 Which of the following statements best describes T. S. Eliot’s assertion that Shakespeare’s
Hamlet is an ‘artistic failure”?
(A) Hamlet’s emotion is not adequately objectified
(B) Hamlet’s feelings far outweigh the release of his emotions
(C) Hamlet’s obsession should have been within representational limits
(D) Hamlet’s indecisiveness slows the steady progress of action
Q.74 Which of the following correctly describes ‘black humour’ as a morbid and provocative
treatment of
(A) old age and disease
(B) youth and passionate love
(C) death and disease
(D) childhood and accident
Q.51 Read the following lines:
In a station of the metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Which of the following poetic programmes is illustrated by the above lines?
(A) The Movement
(B) Naturalism
(C) Symbolism
(D) Imagism
The apparition of these faces in a crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Pound describes watching faces appear in a metro station. It is unclear whether he is writing
from the vantage point of a passenger on the train itself or on the platform. The setting is
Paris, France, and as he describes these faces as a "crowd," meaning the station is quite busy.
He compares these faces to "petals on a wet, black bough," suggesting that on the dark
subway platform, the people look like flower petals stuck on a tree branch after a rainy night.
Q.52 Who of the following are being talked about in the following lines?
“. .. you seem to misunderstand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.”
(A) The plebeians in Coriolanus
(B) The sisters in King Lear
(C) The Witches in Macbeth
(D) The players in Hamlet
Q.53 Which of the following novels by Iris Murdoch tells the story of an ageing theatre celebrity
who withdraws into a life of seclusion and writes a diary/journal/novel?
(A) The Sandcastle
(B) Under the Net
(C) The Sea, the Sea
(D) Flight from the Enchanter
The nineteenth novel of the British novelist, Iris Murdoch was the Sea, the Sea published in
1978 bagged him the Booker Prize.
This book written as a journal or in first person narrative is the story of an eventful summer
late in the life of Charles Arrowby, a famous man of the British theatre. Arrowby is an actor,
playwright, director, and romancer of women. When Charles Arrowby retires from his
glittering career in the London theatre, he buys a remote house on the rocks by the sea. He
hopes to escape from his tumultuous love affairs but unexpectedly bumps into his childhood
sweetheart and sets his heart on destroying her marriage. His equilibrium is further disturbed
when his friends all decide to come and keep him company and Charles finds his seaside
idyll severely threatened by his obsessions.
Q.54 What does ‘Harlem Renaissance’ refer to?
(A) A scientific and rational ethos, including freedom from superstition, in 18th
century Europe
(B) The flourishing of African American literature in the 19205 and 19305
(C) A church system, overseen by a governing hierarchy of four courts,
championed by the English Puritans
(D) The revelation of Christ to the Gentiles in the persons of the Magi
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, social, and artistic explosion centered
in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s
At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a
1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke.
The movement also included the new African-American cultural expressions across the
urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by the Great Migration
Though it was centered in the Harlem neighborhood, many francophone black writers from
African and Caribbean colonies who lived in Paris were also influenced by the movement ,
which spanned from about 1918 until the mid-1930s
Q.55 “To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lighting.” About which
Shakespearean actor Coleridge wrote the above line?
(A) David Garrick
(B) Richard Burbage
(C) John Philip Kemble
(D) Edmund Kean
Q.56 What is ‘euphmism’?
(A) Eulogical and adulatory style of writing
(B) Discursive and hortatory style of writing
(C) Pompous and affected style of writing
(D) Exalted and gland style of writing
Euphemism /ˈjuːfəmɪzəm/ is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may
be found offensive or suggest something unpleasant
euphemisms are used to avoid directly addressing subjects that might be deemed negative or
embarrassing.
Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to taboo topics such as disability, sex,
excretion, or death in a polite way
The term euphemism refers to polite, indirect expressions that replace words and phrases
considered harsh and impolite, or which suggest something unpleasant. Euphemism is an
idiomatic expression, which loses its literal meanings and refers to something else, in order to
hide its unpleasantness. For example, “kick the bucket” is a euphemism that describes the
death of a person. In addition, many organizations use the term “downsizing” for the
distressing act of “firing” its employees.
Examples of euphemism referring to sex are found in William Shakespeare’s Othello. In Act
1, Scene 1, Iago tells Brabantio:
“I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast
with two backs.”
Here, the expression “making the beast with two backs” refers to the act of having sex.
Similarly, we notice Shakespeare using euphemism for sexual intercourse in his play Antony
and Cleopatra.” In Act 2, Scene 2, Agrippa says about Cleopatra:
“Royal wench!
She made great Caesar lay his sword to bed.
He plowed her, and she cropped.”
The word “plowed” refers to the act of sexual intercourse, and the word “cropped” is a
euphemism for becoming pregnant.
The Squealer, a character in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, uses euphemisms to help the
pigs achieve their political ends. To announce the reduction of food to the animals of the
farm, he says:
“For the time being,” he explains, “it had been found necessary to make
a readjustment of rations.”
Substituting the word “reduction” for “readjustment” was an attempt to suppress the
complaints of other animals about hunger. It works because reduction means “cutting” the
food supply, while readjustment implies changing the current amount of food.
Q.57 What is the Priest’s entreaty to Oedipus in the opening scene of Oedipus Rex?
(A) To liberate Thebes from the domination of the Sphinx
(B) To rid Thebes of the plague that afflicts its people
(C) To afford the Thebans the luxury of newer forms of worship
(D) To send Creon to seek advice from the oracle of Delphi oracle
Q.58 Match the following journals with their distinguishing aims and methods of scholarship:
(a) Obsidian (i) Literature, history and the philosophy of history 2
(b) Clio (ii) Literature and arts in the African diaspora 1
(c) Interventions (iii) Feminist writing 4
(d) Sign (iv) Postcolonial Writing 3
Q.59 Who among the following established and popularised the concept of ‘Cardinal Vowels”?
(A) A. S. Homby
(B) E. V. Lucas
(C) Danial Jones
(D) C. J. Dodson
Cardinal vowels are a set of reference vowels used by phoneticians in describing the sounds
of languages. A cardinal vowel is a vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme
position, either front or back, high or low. It was systematised by Daniel Jones in the early
20th century. There are eight cardinal vowels that are used for the reference of the sound.
Daniel Jones, the prime exponent of Cardinal vowels wrote "The values of cardinal vowels
cannot be learnt from written descriptions; they should be learnt by oral instruction from a
teacher who knows them".
Q.60 Which one of the following arrangements of poets is in the correct chronological order?
(A) William Langland, William Dunbar, Layamon
(B) William Langland, Layamon, William Dunbar
(C) Layamon, William Langland William Dunbar
(D) William Dunbar, Layamon, William Langland
Layamon : He was a priest and the 12th/13th century poet and author of the Brut, a notable
work that was the first to present the legends of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table in
English poetry. It is the first historiography 16,096 lines long and also known as Layamon's
Brut or The chronicle of Britain.
William Langland : The Middle English alliterative verse poet, William Langland is known
for his Piers Plowman which is an allegory with a variety of religious themes. The poem, a
mix of theological allegory and social satire, concerns the narrator/dreamer's quest for the
true Christian life in the context of medieval Catholicism.
William Dunbar : William Dunbar is the Scottish Chaucerian with the other poets, Robert
Henryson, Gawain Douglas, James I of Scotland. These Scottish makar poets considered
Geoffrey Chaucer as their acknowledged master and they often employed his verse forms
and themes.
Q.61 who speaks the following lines and to whom? Act 4 Scene 7
“0, look upon me, sir,
And hold your hands in benediction o’er me.
No, sir, you must not knee
(A) Kent to Lear
(B) Cordelia to Lear
(C) Goneril to Lear
(D) Regan to Kent
Q.62 Match the Novelist with the Publisher:
(a) Laurence Sterne (i) Thomas Lowndes 3
(b) Henry Fielding (ii) Andrew Millar 2
(c) Frances Burney (iii) William Taylor 4
(d) Daniel Defoe (iv) Robert Dodsley 1
Choose the correct option from those given below:
(A) (a)-(iii); (b)-(i); (c)-(ii); (d)-(iv)
(B) (a)-(ii); (b)-(iv); (c)-(i); (d)-(iii)
(C) (a)-(iv); (b)-(ii); (c)-(i); (d)-(iii)
(D) (a)-(ii); (b)-(iii); (c)-(iv); (d)-(i)
Laurence Sterne Irish-born English novelist and humorist, author of Tristram
Shandy (1759–67), an early novel in which story is subordinate to the free associations
and digressions of its narrator. He is also known for the novel A Sentimental Journey (1768).
o he began Tristram Shandy. An initial, sharply satiric version was rejected by Robert
Dodsley, the London printer, just when Sterne’s personal life was upset. His mother and
uncle both died. His wife had a nervous breakdown and threatened suicide. Sterne continued
his comic novel, but every sentence, he said, was “written under the greatest heaviness of
heart.” In this mood, he softened the satire and told about Tristram’s opinions, his eccentric
family, and ill-fated childhood with a sympathetic humour, sometimes hilarious, sometimes
sweetly melancholic—a comedy skirting tragedy.
o At his own expense, Sterne published the first two volumes of The Life and Opinions of
Tristram Shandy, Gentleman at York late in 1759, but he sent half of the imprint to Dodsley
to sell in London.
Henry Fielding Publisher Andrew Millar was a Scottish publisher in the eighteenth
century.
o In 1740, however, Samuel Richardson published his novel Pamela: or, Virtue
Rewarded, which tells how a servant girl so impressed her master by resistance to his every
effort at seduction that in the end “he thought fit to make her his wife.” However, Fielding
found the work objectionable and set out to write a parody of it, which he called An Apology
for the Life of Mrs. Shamela Andrews (1741), satirizing Richardson’s sentimentality and
prudish morality. . Although the book was published anonymously and Fielding never
claimed credit, it is generally accepted that he was the author.
o Among his major novels are Joseph Andrews (1742) and Tom Jones (1749).
o Fielding’s Joseph Andrews was published anonymously in 1742. Described on the title page
as “Written in Imitation of the Manner of Cervantes, author of Don Quixote,”
When Frances Burney (1752–1840) first published her novel Evelina, she did so in strictest
secrecy, concealing both her name and her female identity. These letters reveal the
clandestine meetings, false names and disguised handwriting that she used in order to seal a
deal with the publisher Thomas Lowndes (1719–1784).
Daniel Defoe (1659–1661) was an English writer and journalist most widely known for his
novel Robinson Crusoe, originally published in on 25 April 1719 by William Taylor
o His work varied from political pamphlets to poetry, and included other novels such
as Religious Courtship and The Political History of the Devil. He lived in London, England.
Q.63 All in the world know the beauty of the beautiful, and in doing this they have (the idea of)
what ugliness is; they all know the skill of the skillful, and in doing this they have (the idea of)
what they want of the skill is. So it is that existence and non-existence gave birth to (the idea of)
the other; that difficulty and ease produce (the idea of) the other; that the length and shortness
fashion out the one figure of the other; that (the idea of) height and lowness arise from the
contrast of one with the other; that the musical notes and tones become harmonious through the
relation of one with another; and that: being before and behind give the idea of one following
another.
Which one of the following is the correct meaning of the ominous little phrase ‘the idea of in the
first sentence of the passage?
(A) Prior Knowledge
(B) Prior imagination
(C) Prior confirmation
(D) Prior rejection
Q.64 Why did T. S. Eliot assert that Virgil, not Homer, is the poet of Europe?
(A) There are some initial moral concerns in Virgil
(B) Virgil belongs to the Roman period
(C) Homer was a pagan who was a renegade
(D) Virgil wrote in Latin while Homer wrote in Greek
On Poetry and Poets is a collection of essays and lectures by T S Eliot. One of the essays
Virgil and Christian World presents Eliot's ideas of comparison between Virgil and Homer.
He says, "I had, up to that point, found the Greek language a much more exciting study than
Latin. Yet I found myself at ease with Virgil as I was not at ease with Homer. …
The obstacle to my enjoyment of the Iliad, at that age, was the behaviour of the people
Homer wrote about. The gods were as irresponsible, as much a prey to their passions, as
devoid of public spirit and the sense of fair play, as the heroes. This was shocking."
Virgil was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He wrote three of the most famous
poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A
number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, are sometimes attributed to
him
Homer is the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the
central works of ancient Greek literature.
o The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of
Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles
lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war.
o The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall
of Troy.
Q.65 Match the critics and their works :
Critics Works
(a) Edward Said (i) The Illusion: of Postmodernism
(b) Terry Eagleton (ii) Contemporary Marxist Criticism
(c) Francis Mulhern (iii) Theory into Practice
(d) K. M. Newton (iv) Culture and Imperialism
Choose the correct option from those
given below :
(A) (a-iv); (b-i); (c-ii); (d-iii)
(B) (a-iv); (b-i); (c-iii); (d-ii)
(C) (a-ii); (b-i); (c-iv); (d-iii)
(D) (a-i); (b-ii); (c-iii); (d-iv)
Culture and Imperialism is a 1993 collection of essays by Edward Said, in which the author
attempts to trace the connection between imperialism and culture in the 18th, 19th, and 20th
centuries. It followed his highly influential Orientalism, published in 1978.
Terry Eagleton explores the origins and emergence of postmodernism, revealing its
ambivalences and contradictions. Above all he speaks to a particular kind of student, or
consumer, of popular "brands" of postmodern thought.
Q.66 Which of the following combinations correctly defines the phonological system of Indian
English in relation to Standard English?
(a) Absence of aspirated consonants
(b) Simplified vowel system
(c) Similar international pattern
(d) Presence of voiced aspirated consonants
Choose the correct option:
(A) (a) and (b)
(B) (b) and (d)
(C) (c) and (a)
(D) (b) and (c)
In English, aspirated consonants are allophones complementary distribution with
their unaspirated counterparts, but in some other languages, notably most Indian
and East Asian languages, the difference is contrastive.
Voiceless consonants are produced with the vocal folds open (spread) and not
vibrating, and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are
fractionally closed and vibrating (modal voice). Voiceless aspiration occurs when
the vocal folds remain open after a consonant is released.
Q.67 Which of the following is the accurate description of ‘dramatic irony”?
(A) A character’s knowledge or expectation is contradicted by what the audience
knows, or by the outcome of events
(B) An audience knows or expects something to happen but the events on stage turn out
to be different
(C) Ironic events and expectations of actual actions and results converge in drama and
the audience feels rewarded
(D) A dramatist’s irony reinforces his actors’ performance, thereby fulfilling audience
expectations
Identify the type of irony in the following example:
You scheduled an outdoor wedding in July because it hasn't rained in July for 10 years.
Unfortunately, it still rains on your wedding day.
A .Verbal irony
B .Dramatic irony
C .Situational irony
D .None of the above
ANSWER
Irony is a figure of speech or literary device in which what actually happens is
completely different or opposite from the reader or audience's expectations.
Option C is correct. Situational irony occurs when the actual result of a situation is totally
different (often, the complete opposite) from what the audience expect the result to be. The
setting here is "you" scheduling your wedding in July owing to the fact that it doesn't rain during
the month. Since It hasn't rained there for 10 years, you expect it to be sunny on your wedding
day. However, the actual result is that the complete opposite happens - it rains. Thus, there is
situational irony.
Option A is incorrect. Verbal Irony shows a contrast between what is said and what is meant.
The most obvious thing to notice is that there is no dialogue in the question. No one is speaking.
It only gives a situation. Thus, there is not verbal irony.
Option B is incorrect. Dramatic Irony is often found when the audience is aware of something
that the character is not. For example, the audience watches the villain of the movie enter the
main character's empty house and hide in a dark room. Then the main character walks into the
house, not knowing the villain is hiding there. But the audience does. It is ironic because the
audience knows more than the character. In the given question, there is no way an "audience"
could have predicted the weather. Thus, there is no dramatic irony.
Option D is incorrect as the answer lies in C.
Q.68 What is being described by Wordsworth in the following lines from his poem, The Thorn?
I’ve measured it from side to side;
’Tis three feet long and two feet wide.
(A) Fallen bough
(B) A cradle
(C) A small cot
(D) An Infant’s grave
Q.69 Which of the following poets does William Hazlitt call ‘Don Quixote-like’ in his essay, My
First Acquaintance with Poets?
(A) William Wordsworth
(B) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(C) William Cowper
(D) Lord Byron
"My First Acquaintance with Poets (1823) is one of the best known of Hazlitt's essays. It is a
purely literary essay in which Hazlitt describes his impressions of two great poets, namely
Wordsworth and Coleridge, who might be described as the founders of the Romantic
Movement in English Poetry and whose Joint publication called the lyrical Ballads was an
epoch-making event. In this essay, Hazlitt expresses his profound admiration for Coleridge's
talent for conversation and also supports most of Coleridge's opinions about various persons
in the spheres of literature politics and religion. Hazlitt paints Wordsworth in a visionary
light as 'Don Quixote' like with a fire in his eye.
Q.70 Which of the following poems by Thomas Hardy was originally titled By the Century’s
Deathbed?
(A) The Minute Before Meeting
(B) Neutral Tones
(C) The Darkling Thrush
(D) The Oxen
"The Darkling Thrush" is a lyric poem with four eight-line stanzas. It was first published in
The Graphic, a weekly newspaper, on December 29, 1900, under the title "By Century's
Deathbed. Thomas Hardy wrote "The Darkling Thrush" to express his feelings about the
world when it was about to enter the twentieth century. The title refers to a thrush, such as a
robin, in darkness (darkling).
Although the poem was written in 1900, literally at the very end of the 19th century and
therefore at the century's deathbed, Hardy probably thought better of such a depressing and
relatively unpoetic title.
Q.71 The medieval English university organised its studies based on the seven liberal arts Three
of these, the trivium, referred to the study of
(A) arithmetic, geometry, music
(B) astronomy, music, logic
(C) geometry, grammar, music
(D) grammar, logic, rhetoric
Q.72 Given below are two statements—one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled
as Reason (R) :
Assertion (A) :
The dialects of English that have resulted from the regional separation of English-
speaking communities have not acquired the status of languages.
Reason (R) :
The Germanic dialects that are now Dutch, English, German, Swedish etc., have
become distinct owing to geographical dispersion.
In the light of the above two statements choose the correct option:
(A) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
(B) Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
(C) (A) is true, but (R) is false
(D) (A) is false, but (R) is true
Q.73 Which of the following statements best describes T. S. Eliot’s assertion that Shakespeare’s
Hamlet is an ‘artistic failure”?
(A) Hamlet’s emotion is not adequately objectified
(B) Hamlet’s feelings far outweigh the release of his emotions
(C) Hamlet’s obsession should have been within representational limits
(D) Hamlet’s indecisiveness slows the steady progress of action
Q.74 Which of the following correctly describes ‘black humour’ as a morbid and provocative
treatment of
(A) old age and disease
(B) youth and passionate love
(C) death and disease
(D) childhood and accident
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