A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 71

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers

UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK

1. Match the following:

Drama	Theme
I. Absurd Person Singular (1973) Read More about UGC NET	a. gender and economics
II. Serious Money (1987)	b. a bleak future of barbarism
III. Far Away (2000)	c. the downfall of playwright Oscar Wilde Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)
IV. The Judas Kiss (1998)	d. farcical dramas about middle-class anxieties

     (I) (II) (III) (IV)

(A) (d) (b) (c) (a)

(B) (d) (a) (b) (c)

(C) (b) (c) (d) (a)

(D) (c) (a) (b) (d)

2 . Which of these authors is not a writer of African American slave narratives?

(A) Solomon Northrop

(B) Frederick Douglass

(C) Phillis Wheatley

(D) Sojourner Truth Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

3 . “For nature then

The courser pleasures of my boyish days,

And their glad animal movements all gone by

To me was all in all”.

In these lines from “Tintern Abbey Revisited”, Wordsworth is talking about:

(A)Read More about UGC NET The second stage in his relationship with Nature.

(B) The first stage in his relationship with Nature.

(C) Both the first and second stages in his relationship with Nature.

(D) The third stage in his relationship with Nature.

4. What is true for   the dramatists John Osborne, Arnold Wesker, Shelagh Delaney, and John Arden?

A. protested injustice in the lives of the poor people

B. portraying the mediocrity

C. portraying the drabness

D. focused their attention on the working classes

(I) Only A and B is True

 (II) Only A and C is True

(III) Only C and D is True Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(IV)  All the statements are True 

5. Assertion (A) : One of Flaubert’s main motivations in writing the novel Madam Bovary was his antipathy for the bourgeoisie.

Reason (R) : Flaubert strongly believed that bourgeoisie are those who think, feel and act in terms of utilitarianism and who reject the humanity and uniqueness of the individual

person. Read More about UGC NET   

(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.

6. “A Tun of Man in thy large Bulk is writ, But sure thou’rt but a Kilderkin of wit”

In the above lines what does Dryden mean by ‘Kilderkin’ ?

(A) A trivial instance

(B) A small barrel of wine Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(C) kith and kin

(D) A small amount, as contrasted with ‘tun’

7. What is not properly matching about Samuel Beckett?

A. He was outside the literary mainstream

B. He was the Irish-born novelist-dramatist

C.   recipient in 1969 of the Nobel Prize in literature

D.  Long a resident in Germany

8. Which of the following statements is not true of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day? The novel

(A) Uses a butler as a pivotal character.

(B) Uses the classic English detective story form.

(C) Refers to England in the 1930s.

(D) Became a very successful film.

9. Match the following modern poets along with their characteristic features: 

modern poets	characteristic features
(I) Craig Raine	(a) witty insights
(II) Wendy Cope	(b) covers love, war, and the political violence
(III) James Fenton  Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)	(c) Simple in its language and flow, its structure and references   complex
(IV) Seamus Heaney	(d) fresh viewpoint on variety of  topics

     (I) (II) (III) (IV) 

(A) (b) (d) (c) (a) 

(B) (d) (a) (b) (c) 

(C) (b) (c) (d) (a) 

(D) (c) (d) (b) (a) 

10. “From a Second Space perspective city space becomes more of a mental and ideational field, conceptualized in imagery, reflexive thought and symbolic representation, a conceived space of the imagination or what I will henceforth describe as the urban imagery.”(Edward Soja, Postmetropolis) Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

Which of the following statements cannot be applied to Soja’s proposition on the Second Space?

(A) Second Space perspective tends to be more subjective.

(B) Second Space perspective is concerned with symbolic representation of reality.

(C) Second Space perspective is concerned with the fundamentally materialist approach.

(D) Second Space perspective deals with ‘thoughts about space’.

11. About whom the following statement goes true: “Although they wrote plays set in a working-class environment, they stand apart from the angry young men. Particularly the former seems to offer reasonable interpretations of his characters' behavior, only to withdraw the interpretations or set them slightly askew in an effort to keep the audience intent on every least hint in the action on stage.”

A. Harold Pinter Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

B. Brendan Behan

C. George Bernard Shaw

D. Sean O'Casey

(I) Only A and B is True

 (II) Only A and C is True

(III) Only C and D is True

(IV)  All the dramatists are True Read More about UGC NET   

12. “Lightly, O lightly, we bear heralong,/She sways like a flower in the wind

of our song;/She skims like a bird on the foam ofa stream,/She floats like a laugh from the lips

of a dream.....”

These lines occur in the poem

(A) “Palanquin bearers”

(B) “The Illusion of Love”

(C) “Indian Love Song”

(D) “Cradle Song”

13. Which among the following novels of Anita Desai is a children’s book?

(A) Fire and The Mountain

(B) Fasting, Feasting

(C) The Zig zag Way Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(D) The Village by the Sea

14. Who among the following writers describes novels as “not form which you see but emotion which you feel”?

(A) D.H. Lawrence

(B) Jean Rhys

(C) Virginia Woolf

(D) Joseph Conrad Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

15. In Paradise Lost, Milton invokes his ‘Heav’nly Muse’, ‘Urania’ at the beginning of:

Codes:

I. Book one

II. Book four

III. Book nine

IV. Book seven

The right combination according to the code is

(A) I and II are correct.

(B) I, III and IV correct.

(C) II and III are correct.

(D) I and IV are correct. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

16. Which one of the following best describes the basic principle of New Criticism?

(A) An emphasis on the distinctive style and personality of the authors.

(B) Stressing the virtues of discipline, order and the ethical mean.

(C) Locating the meaning of a literary work in the internal relations of the language that constitute a text.

(D) Evaluating a literary text against a backdrop of historical events.

17. Who among the following figures give a preview of Aschenbach’s fatal end in Death in Venice? Read More about UGC NET   

Codes:

I. The Graveyard Stranger

II. The Governess

III. The barber

IV. The Gondolier

The right combination according to the code is:

(A) III and IV are correct.

(B) I and IV are correct. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(C) II and III are correct.

(D) I and III are correct.

(German novelist Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice (1912) is one of the most famous novellas (short novels) in 20th-century literature. Mann tells the story of Gustav Aschenbach, an acclaimed author in the final years of his career, who dies an untimely death while alone on vacation in Venice, Italy. Upon arriving in Venice, Aschenbach becomes enamored with a teenage Polish boy named Tadzio and begins to follow Tadzio and his family every day. When an outbreak of plague begins to spread through Venice, Aschenbach refuses to leave the city. Instead, he lingers there, hoping to catch another glimpse of Tadzio. )

18. Jacques Lacan posits three ‘orders’ which structure human existence. In the list that follows : Identify the one that is not included by Lacan :

(A) Imaginary (B) Unconscious

(C) Real (D) Symbolic

19. Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): Deconstructive reading is apolitical.

Reason (R): Because it focuses exclusively on language. It primarily holds that all texts or linguistic structures contain within them a principle of destabilisation and hence it is difficult to pin down meaning. Such a reading, therefore, is unable to assign historical agency.  Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

In this context above statements, identify which one of the following incorrect?

(A) (A) is correct but (R) is wrong.

(B) Both (A) and (R) are correct.

(C) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.

(D) Both (A) and (R) are wrong.

20. The following dates from History of English literature have become famous for different reasons. Identify the correctly matched group.

Dates	Importance
(I) 43 B.C.	(a) The Norman conquest of England took place.
(II) 410 A.D.	(b) St. Augustine came to England, and Christianity was introduced.
(III) 597	(c) The Romans withdrew from England.
(IV) 1066	(d) The Magna Charta was issued by King John
(V) 1215	(e) The Roman General Claudius Conquered England.

     (I) (II) (III) (IV) (V)

(A) (e) (d) (c) (a) (b)

(B) (d) (e) (b) (c) (a)

 (C) (c) (d) (b) (e) (a)

 (D) (e) (c) (d) (a) (b) Read More about UGC NET   

21. In the very opening scene of Volpone, the protagonist says, “Open the shrine, that I may see my Saint,” By the word ‘Saint’, Volpone is referring to

(A) The Sun (B) Saint Arthur

(C) Gold (D) Apollo

22.  Which of the following Leader - Movement correctly matched?

A. Martin Luther- Calvinism

B. John Calvin of Geneva- Humanism

C. Desiderius Erasmus-Humanism

D. William Grocyn - Calvinism

23. What characteristics of 17th century metaphysical poetry sparked the enthusiasm of modernist poets and critics?

Code: Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

I. its intellectual complexity

II. Its uncompromising engagement with politics

III. Its religious fervour

IV. Its union of thought and passion

The right combination according to the code is

(A) I and III are correct.

(B) I and IV are correct.

(C) II and III are correct.

(D) I and II are correct.

24. One of the English king issued ‘Book of sports’, authorizing and promoting Sunday sports and rural festivals. It lit the flash point in the conflict over culture in this period. Puritans denounced these sports as ‘pagan’ in origin and on the casino of sin. Read More about UGC NET   

Now on the given clues:

1. His rule was an intense fermentation in all spheres of life-religious, scientific, Political, cultural.

2. The king defined himself God’s deputy and   Absolute Monarch.

 3. All through his rule, He remained anti puritan.

 Identify the king:

A. King James-I

B. King Charles-I

C. Queen Elizabeth I

 D. King Henry VIII

25.   Given below are two statements, one labelled as Assertion (A) and the other labelled as Reason (R).

Assertion (A): The romantic tragedy is built on a plan different from that of classical tragedy.

Reason (R): The romantic tragedy is written not to a set pattern like classical tragedy, but in whatever forms the writer finds best suited to his dramatic purpose.   Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

In this context above statements, identify which one of the following incorrect?

(A) (A) is correct but (R) is wrong.

(B) Both (A) and (R) are correct.

(C) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.

(D) Both (A) and (R) are wrong.

26. Rearrange the correct sequence.

I. Calvinism, a stricter form of Protestantism, soon spread to England, Scotland and Germany, Hungary and Holland.

II. During the middle Ages the countries of Europe were governess by the Roman Catholic Church. Read More about UGC NET   

III. Reformation received support from the Humanists, like Erasmus and the Oxford Humanist.

 IV. English king Henry VIII broke off from the Roman Catholic Church of England and   reformation began in England.

V. Martin Luther, a German clergyman, raised the issue of corruption in the Roman church.

 A. II- V- I- III- IV

B. I-II-IV-III-V

C. III-I-IV-V-II

D. V-I-III-II-IV

Ref: 1. History of English Literature- Albert     

        2. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature

        3. UGC NET OLD QUESTION PAPERS