1. This Byron work revolves around a wife whose husband is presumed lost at sea and she takes a lover in his absence. Everybody behaves agreeably on the husband’s return. Byron’s technical skills in verse is in display here as the work counterpoints the colloquial and the formal. Identify the work :
(1) Manfred
(2) Don Juan
(3) Beppo
(4) The Bride of Abydos
Answer: 3
2. Who is the author of the poem, “Our Casuarina Tree” ?
(1) Sarojini Naidu
(2) Toru Dutt
(3) Rabindranath Tagore
(4) Kamala Das
Answer: 2
3. In this Jacobean play the Black King and his men, representing Spain and the Jesuits, are checkmated by the White Knight, Prince Charles. This political satire drew crowds to the Globe Theatre until the Spanish ambassador protested and James I suppressed the play. Identify the play :
(1) The Wonderful Yeare
(2) A Game at Chess
(3) A King and No King
(4) The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Answer: 2
4. Frederic Jameson associated postmodern culture with __________ capitalism.
(1) market
(2) monopoly
(3) imperialist
(4) multinational
Answer: 4
5. Early in Evelyn Waugh’s A Handful of Dust, while Tony and his young son, John Andrew, walk to the church, John tells his father a story he has heard from the stable manager, Ben about a mule “who had drunk his company’s rum ration” in the First World War and subsequently died. What is the mule named ?
(1) Peppermint
(2) Dopey
(3) Dynamo
(4) Pookey
Answer: 1
6. The Oxford English Dictionary was published in twelve volumes with its current title in the year :
(1) 1928
(2) 1930
(3) 1933
(4) 1915
Answer: 3
7. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is notorious for its many digressions across nine volumes and its failure to deliver a complete autobiography. In which volume does Tristram Shandy finally recount his birth ?
(1) Volume III
(2) Volume V
(3) Volume VIII
(4) Volume IX
Answer: 1
8. Miguel de Cervantes’s inimitable Don Quixote, foreshadows metafictional moorings when the novelist,
(a) says that the first chapters of the narrative are recreated from the Archive of La Mancha
(b) says that it is a faithful rendering of a Catalan text in Spanish
(c) says that part of it has been translated from the Arabic by the Moorish author Cide Hamete Benengeli
(d) says that he is rewriting the history of a medieval knight altering the heroic vein with a farcical mode
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (a) and (b)
(2) (b) and (c)
(3) (a) and (c)
(4) (b) and (d)
Answer: 3
9. In his theory of Mimesis, Plato says that all art is mimetic by nature; art is an imitation of life. To argue his case he gives the example of a :
(1) cloud
(2) chair
(3) tree
(4) river
Answer: 2
10. The translation of Geeta into English in 1784 called Bhagvit – Geeta marked, in William Jones’s opinion, an “event that made it possible for the first time to have a reliable impression of Indian Literature”. Who was the translator ?
(1) Charles Wilkins
(2) H. J. Colebrooke
(3) Rammohan Roy
(4) Nathaniel Halhed
Answer: 1
11. One of the plays among the following contains the characters Coll, Gib, Dan and Mak.
Identify the play :
(1) Everyman
(2) The Castle of Perseverance
(3) The Second Shepherd’s Play
(4) The Marshals
Answer: 3
12. Tereza, in Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, troubled by Tomas’s promiscuity, falls an easy prey to jealousy, fear and nightmares. Which of the following are the terrible dreams she has ?
(a) She dreams of cats attacking her.
(b) She dreams of wolves attacking her.
(c) She dreams that she is dead and buried in a common grave where she lies with the corpses of strangers.
(d) She dreams that she is dead, stripped of her clothes and plagued by other naked corpses.
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (a) and (c)
(2) (a) and (d)
(3) (b) and (c)
(4) (b) and (d)
Answer: 2
13. The opening lines of Wordsworth’s “Immortality Ode”:
“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth , and every common sight, To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light The glory and freshness of a dream”,
closely resembles Coleridge’s lines :
“There was a time when earth, and sea, and skies, The bright green vale, and the forest’s dark recess,
With all things, lay before mine eyes In steady loveliness”.
Identify the Coleridge poem :
(1) “Fears In Solitude”
(2) “The Mad Monk”
(3) “To William Wordsworth”
(4) “Dejection : An Ode”
Answer: 2
14. Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”, a rare blend of allegory and fairytale world presents the story of two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. Which of the following is NOT true about the enchanted world that the poem unravels ?
(1) Laura buys fruits from the goblins in exchange of her “golden lock” of hair and a “tear more rare than pearl”
(2) Jeanie, a girl who ate the goblins’ fruits, “pined away” and “sought them by night and day”
(3) Laura, who goes to the market again, does not see the goblins but hears only “their shrill cry piercing the air”
(4) Laura’s hair “grew thin and grey” and she wanes like the full moon to “swift decay”
Answer: 3
15. In which of these prisons is Defoe’s character, Moll Flanders born ?
(1) Gatehouse
(2) King’s Bench
(3) Newgate
(4) Ludgate
Answer: 3
16. In which poem does Judith Wright lament the erasure of native culture in the following lines ?
“The song is gone; the dance
Is secret with the dancers in the earth,
The ritual useless, and the tribal story
Lost in an alien tale”.
(1) “The Five Senses”
(2) “Legend”
(3) “Bullocky”
(4) “Bora Ring”
Answer: 4
17. Years before, Winston Smith, the protagonist of George Orwell’s dystopia, Nineteen Eighty Four got an evidence of the party’s dishonesty. What is it ?
(1) Emmanuel Goldstein’s confession that he is a party operative; not an enemy of the party.
(2) O’ Brien’s diary entry hinting at the non-existence of Big Brother.
(3) A photograph which proves that some citizen accused of a crime was out of the country while it was committed.
(4) A colleague’s revelation that the Inner Party members have systematically destroyed all historical documents and created false documents.
Answer: 3
18. The Indian Queen is :
(1) a heroic tragedy in rhymed couplets by John Dryden
(2) a long poem in free verse by Keki Daruwalla
(3) an autobiography of an Indian princess in exile
(4) a fictional account of the Life of Maharani Gayatri Devi
Answer: 1
19. In J. M. Coetzee’s Disgrace David Lurie is working on an opera on the life of one of the
Romantic poets. Who is the poet ?
(1) Blake
(2) Shelley
(3) Byron
(4) Coleridge
Answer: 3
20. Assertion (A) : There is no unity or absolute source of the myth.
Reason (R) : The focus or the source of the myth are always shadows and virtualities which are elusive , unactualizable, and nonexistent in the first place. Any search for the discursive unity in the myth is, therefore, misplaced. In the context of the above statements :
(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
Answer: 1
21. Which of the following landscapes of England figures prominently in the poetry of Ted Hughes ?
(1) Cornish cliffs
(2) Dorset moors
(3) Yorkshire moors
(4) Chesil Beach
Answer: 3
22. The title of M.C. Chagla’s autobiography is :
(1) Memoirs of my Working Life
(2) Without Fear or Favour
(3) Roses in December
(4) The Pen as My Sword
Answer: 3
23. Who/Which among the following gave the expression, “a leopard can’t change its spots,” to English language ?
(1) The King James Bible
(2) Geoffrey Chaucer
(3) Shakespeare
(4) The Royal Society
Answer: 1
24. Which of the following is NOT true about Albert Camus’s novel, The Plague ?
(1) Dr. Rieux describes the phenomenon of dying rats using the metaphors of disease, especially the bubonic plague.
(2) Paneloux interprets the plague in his first sermon as a sign of the Apocalypse.
(3) M. Michel is the first victim of the plague.
(4) Tarrou thinks that the plague symbolizes human indifference.
Answer: 2
25. John Lydgate begins his Siege of Thebes with a prologue of 176 lines in which he imagines himself joining Chaucer’s pilgrims in Canterbury, where he speaks with the Host and agrees to tell the first tale on homeward journey. The story that Lydgate tells as the pilgrims depart from Canterbury is meant to be a companion piece to :
(1) The Pardoner’s Tale
(2) The Wife of Bath’s Tale
(3) The Knight’s Tale
(4) The Miller’s Tale
Answer: 3
26. Stephen Krashen’s theory of second language acquisition consists of six main hypotheses. Which of the following is NOT one of them ?
(1) The Input Hypothesis
(2) The Affective Filter Hypothesis
(3) The Monitor Hypothesis
(4) The Writing Hypothesis
Answer: 4
27. Among Derek Walcott’s plays, which one is an exploration of colonial relationships through the Robinson Crusoe story ?
(1) Pantomime
(2) Dream on Monkey Mountain
(3) Ti-Jean and His Brothers
(4) The Charlatan
Answer: 1
28. ‘Anti – foundationalism’ holds that :
(1) Every theory poses different questions and, therefore, what counts as ‘fact’ and ‘truth’ differs in every case.
(2) All truth claims can be judged true or false, usually against empirical facts.
(3) Causal statements about the relationship between dependent and independent variables can be made.
(4) Truth is the foundation of all representational experience.
Answer: 1
29. The interaction hypothesis is a theory of second language acquisition which states that the development of language proficiency is promoted by face-to-face interaction and communication. The idea is usually credited to :
(1) David Nunan
(2) Michael Long
(3) Alastair Pennycook
(4) Claire Kramsch
Answer: 2
30. In Pinter’s Birthday Party Stanley is terrorised by two visitors to a seaside boarding house. Identify the two
(a) McGrath
(b) Goldberg
(c) McCann
(d) Robinson
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (a) and (b)
(2) (b) and (c)
(3) (a) and (d)
(4) (b) and (d)
Answer: 2
31. Match the phrase to the ode :
(a) beechen green
(b) gathering swallows
(c) globed peonies
(d) green altar
(i) “Ode on a Grecian Urn”
(ii) “Ode on Melancholy”
(iii) “Ode to a Nightingale
(iv) “To Autumn”
Code :
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(1) (iii) (ii) (iv) (i)
(2) (iv) (ii) (iii) (i)
(3) (iv) (iii) (ii) (i)
(4) (iii) (iv) (ii) (i)
Answer: 4
32. Which 19th century novelist expressed a wish to “exterminate the race” of Indians following the 1857 Mutiny in India ?
(1) William Makepeace Thackeray
(2) Charles Dickens
(3) George Eliot
(4) Anthony Trollope
Answer: 2
33. The second part of Pilgrim’s Progress deals with the pilgrimage of Christian’s wife, Christiana. She has a companion and a guide in this journey. Pick out the pair’s names from the following list.
(a) Patience
(b) Tenderheart
(c) Mercy
(d) Greatheart
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (c) and (d)
(2) (b) and (c)
(3) (a) and (d)
(4) (b) and (d)
Answer: 1
34. In which play by Eugene Ionesco do you find the grotesque image of the leg of a corpse thrusting onto the stage, and, which begins to grow larger as the play progresses in a menacing manner ?
(1) The Bald Soprano
(2) Amede or How to Get Rid of It
(3) Exit the King
(4) The Lesson
Answer: 2
35. Which of the following characters finds that complete happiness is elusive and that “while you are making the choice of life, you neglect to live” ?
(1) Lovelace in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa
(2) Rasselas in Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas
(3) Matthew Bramble in Tobias Smollett’s Humphry Clinker
(4) Harley in Henry Mackenzie’s The Man of Feeling
Answer: 2
36. Arrange the following in the chronological order of publication :
(1) In Memoriam -A Christmas Carol -Men and Women -Henry Esmond
(2) A Christmas Carol -In Memoriam -Men and Women -Henry Esmond
(3) A Christmas Carol -In Memoriam -Henry Esmond -Men and Women
(4) In Memoriam -A Christmas Carol -Henry Esmond -Men and Women
Answer: 3
37. Which one of Alice Munro’s short stories is about the domestic erosions of Alzheimer’s disease ?
(1) “Dear Life”
(2) “Runaway”
(3) “The Bear Came Over the Mountain”
(4) “Dance of the Happy Shades”
Answer: 3
38. What work begins thus : “It befell in the days of Uther Pendragon, when he was king of all England, and so reigned, that there was a mighty duke in Cornwall that held war against him long time” ?
(1) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
(2) Le Morte D’arthur
(3) Confessio Amantis
(4) Piers Plowman
Answer: 2
39. __________ is the subject of Asif Currimbhoy’s play, Inquilab.
(1) The Naxalite movement
(2) The Freedom movement
(3) The Non-Cooperation movement
(4) The Khilafat movement
Answer: 1
40. Tom Stoppard’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, being metatheatrical, lays bare the constructed nature of theatrical performance. In referring to Hamlet’s end and the Elizabethan stage conditions lacking curtains one of the characters of Stoppard’s play says : “No one gets up after death – there is no applause – there is only silence and some second hand clothes, and that’s death”. Who makes this statement ?
(1) Rosencrantz
(2) Guildenstern
(3) The Player
(4) Hamlet
Answer: 2
41. Who among the following, has translated the classic Malayalam novel, Chemmeen ?
(1) A. K. Ramanujan
(2) Anita Nair
(3) Nandini Nopany
(4) Gita Krishnankutty
Answer: 2
42. Which Victorian poet is the author of the following lines ?
“God himself is the best Poet,
And the Real is His song.”
(1) Lord Tennyson
(2) Robert Browning
(3) Matthew Arnold
(4) Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Answer: 4
43. “You are your words. Your listeners see
Written on your face the poems they hear
Like letters carved in a tree’s bark
The sight and sounds of solitudes endured”.
These are lines from a poem by __________ on the death of __________.
(1) T. S. Eliot ; Robert Frost
(2) Siegfried Sassoon ; Wilfred Owen
(3) Stephen Spender ; W. H. Auden
(4) Dylan Thomas ; Robert Bridges
Answer: 3
44. Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”, a key work of the Beat Movement, was dedicated to __________.
(1) Lucien Carr
(2) Carl Solomon
(3) Herbert Huncke
(4) Jack Kerouac
Answer: 2
45. In his views on the death of Cordelia in King Lear, which is the ground NOT specifically cited by Samuel Johnson ?
(1) It is contrary to the natural ideas of justice.
(2) It is contrary to neoplatonic idea of decorum.
(3) It is contrary to the hope of the reader.
(4) It is contrary to the faith of chronicles.
Answer: 2
46. Which of the following plays by David Hare is NOT part of a trilogy of ‘state of the nation’ plays ?
(1) The Absence of War
(2) Racing Demon
(3) The Power of Yes
(4) Murmuring Judges
Answer: 3
47. Chimamanda Adichie’s last novel, Americanah (2013) centres on the romantic and existential struggles of a young Nigerian woman studying in the United States and finding success as a blogger. What is her blogging about ?
(1) poverty
(2) development
(3) race
(4) religion
Answer: 3
48. Why does Father Dolan punish Stephen with the pandybat in Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a young Man ?
(1) Stephen is talking to another student to get the answer to a Latin problem.
(2) Stephen is not doing his work because his glasses are broken.
(3) Stephen is looking out of the window towards the infirmary.
(4) Stephen is lost in remembering his mother’s farewell and cannot hear Father Dolan calling out his name.
Answer: 2
49. Using a non – linear narrative, this American novel explores the psychic damage to a veteran of World War II and shows how a measure of healing is attained through his acceptance of Laguna myths and rituals. Identify the work :
(1) Dred
(2) Beloved
(3) Ceremony
(4) End Zone
Answer: 3
50. What illusion does Lyuba Ranevsky in Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard have as she looks at the orchard ?
(1) She sees it gleaming with a bluish aura.
(2) She sees her dead mother walking through the orchard.
(3) She sees it full of ripe fruits without a trace of leaves.
(4) She sees her childhood friends playing in the orchard.
Answer: 2
51. From which source did Swift get the idea of writing “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift” ?
(1) In a conversation with John Gay
(2) After a reading of a maxim by la Rochefoucauld
(3) While taking a walk near Dublin’s St. James’s graveyard
(4) After reading Richard Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy
Answer: 2
52. Two of the following words were borrowed from French after the Norman Conquest.
(a) mutton
(b) pork
(c) sheep
(d) swine
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (a) and (b)
(2) (a) and (c)
(3) (b) and (d)
(4) (c) and (d)
Answer: 1
53. Which of the following is NOT true regarding the Oresteia trilogy by Aeschylus ?
(1) Cassandra, cursed by Apollo predicts the death of Agamemnon, though her prophecy is ignored.
(2) Aegisthus’s vengeful feelings for Agamemnon results from their rivalry for the hand of Clytemnestra.
(3) Orestes, who has come back with the intention of murdering Clytemnestra unexpectedly meets her, and pretending to be a stranger, tells her that Orestes is dead.
(4) Orestes, pursued by the Furies, flees from them when they fall asleep. Then, Clytemnestra’s ghost appears to wake them up.
Answer: 2
54. The first instance of female cross-dressing with the disconcerting nuances of a boy actor dressing as a boy while playing the role of a woman in the dramatic world of Shakespeare occurs in __________.
(1) The Two Gentlemen of Verona
(2) As you Like It
(3) Twelfth Night
(4) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Answer: 1
55. For Coleridge, our power to perceive symbols gleaned from the world about us is related to the category of :
(1) primary imagination
(2) secondary imagination
(3) fancy
(4) intuition
Answer: 1
56. After independence, although English was not an Indian language, it was accorded the status of an :
(1) Additional language
(2) Ancilliary language
(3) Associate language
(4) Administrative language
Answer: 3
57. Which English journal announced that it was “principally intended for the use of Politick Persons who are so publick – spirited as to neglect their own Affairs to look into Transactions of State” but failed to live up to this and amused readers with “accounts of Gallantry, Pleasure and Entertainment “ ?
(1) The Spectator
(2) The Tatler
(3) The Daily Courant
(4) The Review
Answer: 2
58. The grammar-translation method of language teaching does NOT include :
(1) focus on grammar rules
(2) vocabulary memorization
(3) inductive teaching
(4) focus on written language
Answer: 3
59. Who is the narrator in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve ?
(1) Premala
(2) Saroja
(3) Rukmani
(4) Mira
Answer: 3
60. How would a New Historicist critic interpret Derrida’s statement, “there is nothing outside the text” ?
(1) historicist critics should restrict their attention to a culture’s literary productions, all other data is irrelevant to the critic’s task
(2) language conditions the way we see the world, and there is no reality beyond the ‘prison house’ of language
(3) there is no meaning outside of textual meaning (contrary to the mimeticist’s position)
(4) “literature” encompasses all cultural artifacts and all the values, power relations, and ways of seeing reflected in those artifacts; there is nothing outside of the “text” broadly conceived
Answer: 4
61. Pick out two Austen heroines from the following list who are right-minded but neglected in the beginning but gradually are acknowledged to be correct by characters who have previously looked down on them.
(a) Elizabeth Bennet
(b) Fanny Price
(c) Emma Woodhouse
(d) Anne Elliot
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (a) and (c)
(2) (b) and (d)
(3) (c) and (d)
(4) (a) and (d)
Answer: 2
62. The variety of English used between non-native speakers who do not share a first language is called :
(1) English for specific purposes
(2) English for basic purposes
(3) English as a lingua Franca
(4) English as a language tool
Answer: 3
63. Identify the story for which E. M. Forster wrote the libretto for its opera version :
(1) Heart of Darkness
(2) The Man Who Would Be the King
(3) Billy Budd
(4) Death in Venice
Answer: 3
64. Who, among the following Prem Chand translators has NOT translated Godan ?
(1) Jai Ratan
(2) P. Lal
(3) Gordon C. Roadarmel
(4) Christopher R. King
Answer: 4
65. “When Fred got into debt, it always seemed to him highly probable that something or other -he did not necessarily conceive what – would come to pass enabling him to pay in due time”.
Why is Fred Vincy in debt in Middle march ?
(1) He takes out a large loan to enable him to woo Mary Garth.
(2) He is an inveterate gambler.
(3) He is paying off a blackmailer.
(4) He runs a charity that has got into trouble.
Answer: 2
66. William Blake has a rare elan to provide telling images in arresting phrases. Match the phrases with the poems they belong to :
(a) “mind forg’d manacles”
(b) “eternal winter”
(c) “fearful symmetry”
(d) “crimson joy”
(i) “The Tyger”
(ii) “The Sick Rose”
(iii) “London”
(iv) “Holy Thursday”
Code :
(a) (b) (c) (d)
(1) (ii) (iv) (i) (iii)
(2) (iii) (i) (iv) (ii)
(3) (iii) (iv) (i) (ii)
(4) (iv) (i) (ii) (iii)
Answer: 3
67. In the debate between the two birds in the Middle English poem The Owl and the Nightingale
who acts as the arbiter ?
(1) Master Henry of Shrewsbury
(2) Master William of Hereford
(3) Master Freeman of Stamford
(4) Master Nicholas of Guildford
Answer: 4
68. In the first scene in which Goethe’s Faust appears he is dejected by the study of Philosophy, Law, Medicine and Theology, turns to Magic art to acquire infinite knowledge. But he fails and in desperation attempts to commit suicide, but refrains at the final moment. What prevents Faust from committing suicide ?
(1) The intervention of archangel Gabriel
(2) His attendant Wagner persuades him to revoke the decision
(3) The chiming of the bells announcing Easter festivities
(4) Mephistopheles appears and offers to initiate him into magic art
Answer: 3
69. Which novel by Joseph Conrad presents a young captain who like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner is haunted by the “vision of a ship drifting in calm and swinging in light airs, with all the crew dying slowly about her decks” and who feels “the sickness of my soul… the weight of my sins… my sense of unworthiness” ?
(1) Under Western Eyes
(2) The Shadow Line
(3) Victory
(4) The Rescue
Answer: 2
70. “Our almost-instinct almost true :
What will survive of us is love.”
Identify the poem by Philip Larkin that ends with the above lines :
(1) “This Be the Verse”
(2) “An Arundel Tomb”
(3) “High Windows”
(4) “Next, Please”
Answer: 2
71. In the epilogue to Congreve’s Way of the World there is a warning :
Others there are whose malice we’d prevent,
Such, who watch plays, with scurrilous intent
To mark out who by characters are meant.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
These, with false glosses feed their own ill – nature,
And turn to libel, what was meant a satire.
What does this warning mean ?
(1) Critics should not be ill-natured and malicious.
(2) Critics should not look for portrait of real people in the play’s characters and remember that the play is a social satire.
(3) Critics should avoid writing malicious reviews, lest they be charged with libel.
(4) Critics should try to identify the real-life equivalent for each character.
Answer: 2
72. Which of the following is an elegy on John Donne’s wife, who died in 1617 ?
(1) “Death, be not proud”
(2) “Thou hast made me”
(3) “Holy Sonnet 17”
(4) “At the round earth’s imagined corners”
Answer: 3
Read the following poem and answer questions, 73 to 75 :
Bored
Margaret Atwood
All those times I was bored
out of my mind. Holding the log
while he sawed it. Holding
the string while he measured, boards,
distances between things, or pounded
stakes into the ground for rows and rows
of lettuces and beets, which I then (bored)
weeded. Or sat in the back
of the car, or sat still in boats,
sat, sat, while at the prow, stern, wheel
he drove, steered, paddled. It
wasn’t even boredom, it was looking,
looking hard and up close at the small
details. Myopia. The worn gunwales,
the intricate twill of the seat
cover. The acid crumbs of loam, the granular
pink rock, its igneous veins, the sea-fans
of dry moss, the blackish and then the graying
bristles on the back of his neck.
Sometimes he would whistle, sometimes
I would. The boring rhythm of doing
things over and over, carrying
the wood, drying
the dishes. Such minutiae. It’s what
the animals spend most of their time at,
ferrying the sand, grain by grain, from their tunnels,
shuffling the leaves in their burrows. He pointed
such things out, and I would look
at the whorled texture of his square finger, earth under
the nail. Why do I remember it as sunnier
all the time then, although it more often
rained, and more birdsong ?
I could hardly wait to get
the hell out of there to
anywhere else. Perhaps though
boredom is happier. It is for dogs or
groundhogs. Now I wouldn’t be bored.
Now I would know too much.
Now I would know.
73. “All those times” – the opening words of the poem locate the speaker in :
(1) a city suburb
(2) a mountain resort
(3) a natural environment
(4) a highway motel
Answer: 3
74. Which pair of words best describes the repetitive tenor of the speaker’s unpretentious yet oppressive life ?
(a) details
(b) the car
(c) the wood
(d) the minutae
The right combination according to the code is :
(1) (a) and (b)
(2) (a) and (d)
(3) (b) and (c)
(4) (c) and (d)
Answer: 2
75. Which of the following approximates closely a thematic statement of the poem ?
(1) Dogs or groundhogs lead a better life than men or women
(2) Irrespective of the place, the boring rhythm of doing things over and over in human life cannot be escaped
(3) Myopia is the result if you live life in the lap of nature
(4) Knowledge cures existential boredom
Answer: 2
