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Practice Set 26

February 6, 2026
Questionnaire

1. Compared to Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained is best described as a:

A. Mock epic

B. Epic fragment

C. Pastoral epic

D. Brief epic

 

2. Which work is called a “brief epic” by Barbara K. Lewalski?

A. Paradise Lost

B. Samson Agonistes

C. Paradise Regained

D. Lycidas

 

3. Which epic poet is especially famous for extended epic similes drawn from nature and warfare?

A. Dante

B. Homer

C. Chaucer

D. Spenser

 

4. Which of the following characters does NOT appear in "The Four PP?"

A. Pardoner

B. Palmer

C. Apothecary

D. Ploughman

 

5. The historical setting of "The Black Hill" is:

A. Early 18th century Central India

B. Late 19th century Bengal

C. Mid-19th century Northeast India

D. Early 20th century Assam

 

6. Which real historical event is referenced in "The Black Hill?"

A. The Sepoy Mutiny

B. The Treaty of Yandabo

C. The disappearance of a French priest

D. The Battle of Plassey

 

7. In "The Black Hill," the fictional love story is between:

A. Bompo and Nenem

B. Gimur and Nenem

C. Gimur and Kajinsha

D. Kajinsha and Pinyar

 

8. The concept of the "Theatre of Cruelty" was developed by:

A. Bertolt Brecht

B. Jerzy Grotowski

C. Antonin Artaud

D. Peter Brook

 

9. Saleem Sinai in "Midnight’s Children" is born at:

A. The end of World War II

B. Dawn on 26 January 1950

C. Midnight on 15 August 1947

D. Noon on 14 August 1947

 

10. The character known as the “English patient” is described as:

A. A British officer

B. A German spy

C. A nameless, badly burned man

D. A desert explorer with amnesia

 

11. "The English Patient" is set primarily:

A. In colonial India

B. In a desert hospital

C. In an Italian villa at the end of World War II

D. In postwar London

 

12. Interior monologue and stream of consciousness are hallmarks of:

A. Magical realism

B. Romanticism

C. Postmodernism

D. Modernism

 

13. Which pair is correctly matched?

A. James Joyce — Magical realism

B. Virginia Woolf — Magical realism

C. Gabriel García Márquez — Modernism

D. Salman Rushdie — Magical realism

 

14. Which work introduced 'Transformational–Generative Grammar?'

A. Language and Responsibility

B. Syntactic Structures (1957)

C. The Chomsky Reader

D. Reflections on Language

 

15. Noam Chomsky is primarily associated with:

A. Structuralism

B. Behaviourism

C. Generative linguistics

D. Functionalism

 

16. Harold Pinter’s early plays were described by critics as examples of:

A. Theatre of Cruelty

B. Absurd drama

C. Comedy of menace

D. Social realism

 

17. John Osborne’s "Look Back in Anger" was first staged at:

A. Royal Court Theatre

B. Old Vic

C. Royal Court Theatre, London

D. National Theatre

 

18. The term “episteme” is associated with:

A. Derrida

B. Michel Foucault

C. Lacan

D. Althusser

 

19. Which of the following is NOT an epic convention?

A. Epic simile

B. Catalogue of warriors

C. Stream of consciousness

D. Elevated style

 

20. The opening line of Paradise Lost announces the theme of:

A. Fall of Satan

B. Creation of the world

C. Man’s first disobedience

D. Redemption through Christ

 

21. The term “intentional fallacy” was proposed by:

A. Northrop Frye

B. W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley

C. Roland Barthes

D. F. R. Leavis

 

22. Which theme dominates Modern British Drama after World War II?

A. Medieval morality

B. Aristocratic romance

C. Alienation and disillusionment

D. Colonial expansion

 

23.The playwright of "Sakharam Binder" is:

A. Girish Karnad

B. Vijay Tendulkar

C. Badal Sircar

D. Mahesh Dattani

 

24. Which of the following plays is categorized as a “memory play”?

A. The Dumb Waiter

B. The Caretaker

C. No Man’s Land

D. The Birthday Party

 

25. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s question “Can the Subaltern Speak?” mainly addresses:

A. Nationalism

B. Marxist class struggle

C. Silencing of marginalized voices

D. Cultural hybridity

 

26. The line “They also serve who only stand and wait” occurs in:

A. Lycidas

B. Samson Agonistes

C. Paradise Lost

D. On His Blindness (Sonnet 19)

 

27. "Dejection: An Ode" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge was written in:

A. 1798

B. 1800

C. 1802

D. 1807

 

28. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" is based on characters from:

A. Macbeth

B. King Lear

C. Othello

D. Hamlet

 

29. "Waiting for Godot" is often linked with British drama though its author was:

A. English

B. Irish

C. Scottish

D. Welsh

 

30. Which of the following statements about "Sakharam Binder" is TRUE?

A. It was never staged in India

B. It was translated first into Hindi

C. It was banned in India in 1974

D. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award

 

31. Which historical event forms the immediate political background of "Absalom and Achitophel?"

A. English Civil War

B. Restoration of Charles II

C. Exclusion Crisis (1679–81)

D. Glorious Revolution

 

32. In "Absalom and Achitophel," King David represents:

A. Oliver Cromwell

B. Charles II

C. James II

D. William III

 

33. Which character in "She Stoops to Conquer" provides the comic misunderstanding by mistaking a house for an inn?

A. Tony Lumpkin

B. Hastings

C. Marlow

D. Hardcastle

 

34. "The Traveller" is subtitled:

A. The Progress of Society

B. The Decline of Empire

C. A Prospect of Society

D. The Growth of Nations

 

35. 'Dr. Primrose' is the central character of:

A. She Stoops to Conquer

B. The Traveller

C. The Vicar of Wakefield

D. The Good-Natured Man

 

36. Keats introduced the term “Negative Capability” in:

A. Preface to Endymion

B. Letter to George and Tom Keats (1817)

C. Letter to Shelley

D. Preface to Hyperion

 

37. Goldsmith opposed “laughing comedy” and instead advocated:

A. Comedy of manners

B. Farce

C. Sentimental comedy

D. Tragicomedy

 

38. Which literary age most frequently used Biblical allegory for political purposes?

A. Elizabethan Age

B. Jacobean Age

C. Restoration Age

D. Romantic Age

 

39. Which of the following pairs is INCORRECT in Biblical allegory?

A. David — Charles II

B. Absalom — Duke of Monmouth

C. Achitophel — Earl of Shaftesbury

D. Solomon — Oliver Cromwell

 

40. Which Muse is associated with epic poetry?

A. Erato

B. Euterpe

C. Calliope

D. Thalia

 

41. “For oft, when on my couch I lie

        In vacant or in pensive mood…”

The poem is:

A. Tintern Abbey

B. Prelude

C. Daffodils

D. Michael

 

42. The poet who coined the phrase “Ignorance is bliss” is:

A. Alexander Pope

B. William Collins

C. Thomas Gray

D. Oliver Goldsmith

 

43. Thomas Gray belongs to which literary movement?

A. Romantic

B. Victorian

C. Pre-Romantic / Transitional

D. Modern

 

44. 'Invocation of the Muse' is a characteristic feature of:

A. Lyric poetry

B. Pastoral poetry

C. Epic poetry

D. Elegy

 

45. Which play is a meta-theatrical satire on bad drama?

A. The Rivals

B. The School for Scandal

C. The Critic

D. The Duenna

 

46. Which statement about Keats is TRUE?

A. He rejected imagination

B. He was a Victorian poet

C. He belonged to the second generation of Romantic poets

D. He wrote mainly political verse

 

47. Which of the following is NOT a traditional type of ode?

A. Pindaric

B. Horatian

C. Pastoral

D. Irregular

 

48. “Where ignorance is bliss,

        ’Tis folly to be wise.”

Identify the work:

A. The Deserted Village

B. Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College

C. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

D. The Traveller

 

49. “Arms and the man I sing…”

Identify the work:

A. Iliad

B. Aeneid

C. Paradise Lost

D. The Faerie Queene

 

50. Which English poet replaces the classical Muse with the “Heav’nly Muse”?

A. Chaucer

B. Spenser

C. Milton

D. Dryden