THE
(An Autonomous Institution affiliated to
POST GRADUATE AND RESEARCH DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
M.A. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION. THURSDAY 2 JUNE 2005.
Application Number:
Name:
Signature:
INSRUCTIONS
- Read the instructions carefully before answering each question
- At 12 Noon a short lecture will be given. You will be required to answer the questions distributed at the end of the lecture. Use separate papers for this section. Enter your name and application No.
- The test will end at 12.30 PM
- Before leaving the hall make sure of the venue and time of your interview.
- From questions 1 to 80 darken the answer choices on the sheet provided, with pen/pencil.
| Question No | Maximum marks(150) | Marks awarded |
| 1 | 40 | |
| 2 and 3 | 40 | |
| 4 | 20 | |
| 5 | 20 | |
| 6 | 30 | |
| Total | 150 | |
Question No 1
FACTS OF LITERATURE (40 Marks)
Fill in the blanks with the best answer choice given after each question
1) The autobiography of ------ is captivatingly entitled The Shakespeare Walla.
a) Richard Gordon
b)
c) Geoffrey Kendal
d) Sir Laurence Olivier
2) G.
a) Tragedies and Roman plays
b) The last plays
c) Shakespearean Sonnets
d) Shakespearean Symbolism
3) Lucentio, son to Vincentio, who wants to marry Bianca appears in the play------
a) The Comedy of Errors
b) Two Gentlemen of
c) All is well that Ends well
d) The Taming of the Shrew
4) ------ the carpenter makes all arrangements for the rehearsal of the play ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’
a) Nick Bottom
b) Flute
c) Snug
d) Peter Quince
5) “ The man that hath no music in himself
Nor is not moved by with the concord of sweet sounds
Is fit for treasons stratagems and spoils…”
are the words of
a) Duke Orsino
b) Portia
c) Petruchio
d) Hermione
6) The words of Chaucer in the Prologue to The
“ Bold was her face, handsome and red in hue
A worthy woman all her life, and what is more
She had had five husbands all at church door
Apart from other company in youth” describe
a) Prioress
b) Nun
c) Wife of
d) Madam Eglantyne
7) The Sonnet sequence written by Henry Constable is------
a) Diana
b) Phyllis
c) Delia
d) Licia
8) Te only novel Oliver Goldsmith has written is ------
a) She Stoops to Conquer
b) The Good-natured Man
c) The Vicar of
d) The Citizen of the World
9) The first lexicographer of the English language is ------
a) Dr. Samuel Johnson
b) Daniel Jones
c) Otto Jesperson
d) Oliver Goldsmith.
10) Joseph Addison has written a number of essays, brought out under the name------
a) The Citizen of the World
b) The Rambler
c) The Tatler
d) The Spectator
11)“ wild spirit which art moving every where;
Destroyer and preserver, hear oh hear !”
These lines are from the famous Romantic poet
a) Percy Bysshe Shelley
b) John Keats
c) William Wordsworth
d) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
12) ------, Wordsworth and Coleridge are often referred to as
Poets.
a) Byron
b) Southey
c) Crabbe
d) Collins
13) “ She was the youngest of the two daughters of a most
affectionate, indulgent father , and had in consequence of her
sister’s marriage, been mistress of his home from a very early
period”. These words of Jane Austen describe------
a) Emma Woodhouse
b)
c) Elinore
d) Marianne
14) ------ is considered the fictionalized autobiography of D.H.
Lawrence, and Paul Morel in the novel represents
himself.
a) The White Peacock
b) Sons and Lovers
c) The Rainbow
d) Women in Love
15) “ I believe that all novels deal with character and that it is to
express character—not to preach doctrines, sing songs or
celebrate the glories of the
the novel, so clumsy, verbose and un-dramatic, so very elastic
and alive, has been evolved”. These are the words of the
novelist------
a) James Joyce
b) Henry James
c) Virginia Woolf
d) George Eliot
16) Wilfred Owen who died at the age of 25 is often regarded as
the leader of the school of poets known as ------
a) the Pre-Raphaelites
b) the Imagists
c) the War poets
d) the Neo-Romantics
17) Sprung rhythm and eight line stanzas are often associated with
------
a) W.B. Yeats
b) Ezra Pound
c) G.M. Hopkins
d) T.S. Eliot
18) ------ wrote under the pen name George Orwell.
a) A.G. Gardiner
b) Eric Hugh Blair
c) Samuel Langbourne Clemens
d) H.H. Munroe
19) “ The Angry Young Man” is a term associated with ------
a) the plays of John Osborne
b) the Greek plays of Sophocles
c) investigative journalists
d) Broadway theatre Group
20 ) Of the five sections of T.S. Eliot’s “ The
final one is ------
a) A Game of Chess
b) The Burial of the Dead
c) What the thunder said
d) The Fire Sermon
21) Girish Karnad’s play ------ deals with the ill treatment of Rani
by her husband Appanna
a) Naga Mandala
b) Tughlaq
c) Hayavadana
d) Tale Danda
22) Selective Memory: Stories from my Life is the title ------ has
given to her autobiographical work.
a) Kamala Das
b) Mamta Kalia
c) Gouri Deshpande
d) Shobha De
23) “ In
city of temples and poets
who sang of cities and temples
every summer a river dries to a trickle”
These are the opening lines of “ A River” by
a) R. Parthasarathy
b) A.K. Ramanujan
c) Subramania Bharathi
d) Kamala Surayya
24) A Matter of Time by ------deals with the theme of wife
desertion, Gopal deserting his wife and their three daughters.
a) Shashi Deshpande
b) Manjuala Padmanabhan
c) Gita Haraiharan
d) Gita Mehta
25) To honour the 144th Birth Anniversary of ------ the medal
which was stolen from the
Uttarayan Complex was replaced with a replica on 7th May 2005.
a) Sri Aurobindo
b) Sarojini Naidu
c) Toru Dutt
d) Rabindranath Tagore
26) One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest deals with the travails of
Mc Murphy who is held captive in an asylum and it is written
by------
a) Kingsly Amis
b) Muriel Spark
c) Ken Kesey
d) Ernest Hemingway
27) The famous American playwright who passed away in
February,2005 who also happens to be the third husband of
Marilyn Munroe is ------
a) Tennesse Williams
b) Edward Albee
c) Arthur Miller
d) Eugene O’Neill
28) The fictional setting in the novels of William Faulkner is ------
a)
b) Five Towns
c) Mariposa
d) Yoknapatawpha
29) Of the two dirges/elegies Walt Whitman has written on the
death of Abraham Lincoln one is “ O’ Captain, My Captain”
and the other ------
a) “Gift Outright”
b) “Crossing the
c) “When Lilacs in the dooryard Last Bloomed”
d) “Leaves of Grass”
30) When the Transcendentalist Movement began in
was considered its organ voice.
a) The Dial
b) Times
c) Walden
d) The Punch.
31) “The Wellington Group” refers to an Association of poets
active between 1950 and 1965, of ------
a)
b)
c)
d)
32) “And Still I Rise” a collection of poems is considered the best
work by ------
a) Maya Angelo
b) Margaret Atwood
c) Kingsley Amis
d) Amiri Baraka
33) The Indo- Canadian writer Rohinton Mistry’s ------ deals with
the National Emergency of
a) A Fine Balance
b) Family Matters
c) Tales from Firozshha Baag
d) Such a Long Journey
34) Elaine Showalter traces the literary tradition from the
Feminist perspective in ------
a) Women and Economics
b) Toward Feminist Poetics
c) Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the condition of Women
d) Women and Customs
35) The first Tamil writer to win the Gnanpeeth Award is ------
a) Jayakanthan
b) Ashokmitran
c) Akhilan
d) Lakshmin Kannan
36) The 2002 Nobel Laureate for literature, ------, the Hungarian
writer is the author of Fateless
a) Elfride Jelinek
b) J.M.Coetzee
c) Imre Kertesz
d) Seamus Heaney
37) Poppy recounts the life, the mental breakdown and the
resurgence of the narrator’s mother and it is by the Australian
writer ------
a) Hal Porter
b) Brain Mathews
c) Drusilla Modjeska
d) Amy Witting
38) Fifth Business is a psychological romance dealing with the life
of Dunstan Ramsay and it is written by the Canadian novelist------
a) Robert Davies
b) Alfred Purdy
c) Margaret Atwood
d) Alice Munroe
39) Turned down by 19 publishers and after its publication
translated into 42 languages ------ by Mulk Raj Anand who
passed way in 2004 is considered by many as a twentieth
century classic.
a) Coolie
b) Two leaves and a Bud
c) Untouchable
d) Seven Summers
40) In Contemporary literary theory an unvarying or an equal
relationship between narrating time and story time is referred
to as ------
a) Isochrony
b) Isotopy
c) Exotopy
d) Anachrony
READING COMPREHENSION
Question No.2 (a)
Read each of the following passages. At the end of each passage you will find questions or incomplete statements about the passage. Each statement or question is followed by four alternatives (a) to (d). Select the one that most satisfactorily completes each statement, or answers each question in accordance with the meaning of the passages. After you have chosen the best answer, encircle it. (10 marks)
Passage I
I was lying on a ridge scanning with field glasses on a rock cliff opposite me for that, the most sure-footed of all Himalayan goats. On a ledge halfway up the cliff, a thar and her kid were lying asleep. Presently the thar got to her feet, stretched herself, and the kid immediately began to feed. After a minute the mother freed herself, took a few steps along the ledge, poised for a moment, then jumped down on to another and a narrower ledge some twelve to fifteen feet below her. As soon as it was left alone the kid started running backwards and forwards, stopping every now and then to peer down at its mother, but unable to summon the courage to jump down to her for, below the narrow ledge, was a sheer drop of a thousand feet. I was too far away to hear whether the mother was encouraging her young, but from the way her head was turned I believe she was doing so. The kid was getting more and more agitated and, possibly fearing that it would do something foolish, the mother went to what looked like mere crack in the vertical rock face and, climbing it rejoined her young. Immediately on doing so she lay down, presumably to prevent the kid from feeding.
After a while she got to her feet again, allowed the kid to drink for a minute, poised carefully on the brink, and jumped down, while the kid again ran backwards and forwards above her. Seven times in the course of the next half-hour this procedure was gone through, until finally the kid, abandoning itself to its fate, jumped and landing safely beside its mother, was rewarded by being allowed to drink its fill. The lesson for her young, that it was safe to follow where she led, was over for that day.
- Which of the following excerpts from the passage best bears out the description of the thar as a sure-foot mountain goat?
(a) “The lesson for her young… was over for that day”.
(b) “Seven times in the course of the next half-hour this procedure was gone through”.
(c) “…The mother went to what looked like a mere crack in the vertical rock face… rejoined her young”.
(d) “I was too far away to hear whether the mother was encouraging her young…I believe she was doing so”.
- the mother goat feared that the kid “would do something foolish” like
(a) drink more than its share of milk
(b) throw itself off the cliff
(c) follow her down the vertical rock face
(d) continue to pace up and down indefinitely.
- In the second paragraph, “abandoning itself to its fate” can be replaced by which phrase?
(a) Making the most of the situation
(b) Taking the bull by the horns
(c) Facing the music
(d) Taking the consequences.
- One way in which the kid was encouraged to follow its mother was by
(a) not being allowed to have its fill until it had jumped
(b) running backwards and forwards on the ledge before it jumped
(c) getting very agitated before it jumped
(d) being rejoined by its mother several times.
- The mother goat taught her kid the lesson through
(a) agility and surefootedness
(b) severity and punishment
(c) patience and punishment
(d) praise and reward.
Passage II
Every survey ever held has shown that the image of an attractive woman is the most effective advertising gimmick. She may sit astride the mudguard of a new car, or step into it ablaze with jewels, she may lie at the man’s feet stroking his new socks, she may hold the petrol pump in a challenging pass, or dance through woodland glades in slow motion in all the glory of new shampoo or whatever she does her image sells. The gynolatry of our civilization is written large upon its face, upon hoardings, cinema screens, television, newspapers, magazines, tins, packets, cartons, bottles, all consecrated to the reigning deity, the female fetish. Her dominion must not be thought to entail the rule of women, for she is not a woman. Her glossy lips and matt complexion, her unfocussed eyes and flawless fingers, her extraordinary hair all floating and shining, curling and gleaming, reveal the inhuman triumph of cosmetics, lighting, focusing and printing. She sleeps unruffled, her lips red and juicy and closed, her eyes as crisp and black as if painted new, and her false lashes immaculately curled. Even when she washes her face with a new and creamier toilet soap her expression is as tranquil and vacant and the paint as flawless as ever. If ever she should appear tousled and troubled, her features are miraculously smoothed to their proper veneer by a new washing powder on a bouillon cube. For she is a doll: weeping, pouting or sinking, running or reclaiming, she is a doll.
- What point is the writer trying to make when he says, “she may lie at a man’s feet stroking his new socks”?
(a) Women like being subservient
(b) Women are observed with clothes
(c) This is a typical posture of women in advertisements
(d) Women enjoy this kind of intimacy.
- the ‘gynolatry’ of one civilization would suggest all the following except that
(a) women enjoy immense power in modern society
(b) the image of women boost sales as few other things can
(c) women worship is all pervasive in advertising
(d) glamorous and attractive women are the forte of modern advertising.
- By saying that woman depicted in an advertisement is ‘not a woman’ the author implies that
(a) in real life women are less attractive
(b) the depiction of women in advertisement is grossly artificial and unreal
(c) in real life women are dominant
(d) in advertisement, a woman is a mere commercial symbol.
- The author’s primary purpose in this passage is
(a) to ridicule women
(b) to show the dominance of women in advertising
(c) to portray the obsession of women with trivial things
(d) to depict the emancipation of women.
- In the last sentence of the paragraph, the word ‘doll’ is meant to express
(a) tenderness
(b) delicacy
(c) contempt
(d) beauty
GRAMMAR AND USAGE
Question No.2 (b)
Which of the phrases (a), (b), (c), and (d) given below each sentence should replace the phrase underlined to make the sentence grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is, mark (e) as the answer.
- Though we have kept in mind to try and maintain most facilities, we would like to request you to kindly bear with us any inconvenience that may be caused.
(a) must keep in mind to try and maintain
(b) have kept in mind trying and maintain
(c) would keep in mind to try and maintain
(d) should have kept in mind to try and maintain
(e) No correction required
- The drama had many scenes which were so humorous that it was hardly possible to keep a straight face
(a) hardly possible for keeping
(b) hardly impossible keeping
(c) hardly impossible to keep
(d) hardly possible keeping
(e) No correction required
- He confidently asked the crowd if they thought he was right and the crowd shouted that they did
(a) that he did
(b) it they did
(c) that he is
(d) that he didn’t
(e) No correction required
- The man who has committed such a serious crime must get the mostly severe punishment
(a) be getting the mostly severely
(b) get the most severe
(c) have got the most severely
(d) have been getting the severe most
(e) No correction required
- If I would have realized the nature of the job earlier, I would not have accepted it
(a) If I have had
(b) In case I would have
(c) Had I been
(d) Had I
(e) No correction required.
Question No.2(c)
In the following questions, an incomplete statement followed by five fillers is given. Pick out the best one which can complete the incomplete stem correctly and meaningfully.
- In order to help the company attain its goal of enhancing profit, all the employees
(a) urged the management to grant paid leave
(b) appealed to the management to implement new welfare schemes
(c) voluntarily offered to work overtime with lucrative compensation
(d) voluntarily offered to render additional services in lieu of nothing
(e) decided to enhance the production at the cost of quality of the product.
- His behaviour is so unprecedented that he
(a) never depends upon others for getting his work done
(b) is seldom trusted by others
(c) always finds it difficult to keep his word
(d) always insists on getting the work completed on time
(e) seldom trusts others as far as the work schedule is concerned.
- She never visits any zoo because she is a strong opponent of the idea of
(a) setting the animals free into the forest
(b) feeding the animals while others are watching
(c) watching the animals in their natural abode
(d) going out of the house on holiday
(e) holding the animals in captivity for our joy
- Owing to the acute power shortage, the people of our locality have decided to
(a) dispense with other non-conventional energy sources
(b) resort to abundant use of electricity for illumination
(c) switch-off the electrical appliance when not in use
(d) explore other avenues for utilizing the excess power
(e) resort to use of electricity only when it is inevitable
- Because he believes in democratic principles, he always
(a) decides all the matters himself
(b) listens to other’s views opinion if they match his own
(c) reconciles with the majority’s views and gives us his own
(d) imposes his own views on others.
(e) withholds his own views
Question No.2(d)
In the following sentences certain idioms/phrases are underlined, and they are followed by four choices. Choose the choice which best expresses the meaning of the idiom/phrase underlined in the sentence.
- He faced the music for reaching home late
(a) faced pleasure
(b) faced reprimand
(c) faced entertainment
(d) faced punishment.
- If we give them this concession, it will be the thin end of the wedge.
(a) the least we could do for them
(b) the beginning of further concessions
(c) inadequate for their needs
(d) a compromise
- Enemy soldiers fell upon the platoon as soon as it crossed the border.
(a) attacked
(b) happened to see
(c) accidentally met
(d) warmly greeted
- Rahul fought tooth and nail to save his factory.
(a) with weapons
(b) using unfair means
(c) as best as he could
(d) with strength and fury
- The boy had a hair-breadth escape from a street accident
(a) a lucky
(b) a quick
(c) an easy
(d) a narrow.
VOCABULARY
Question No.3 (a)
In each of the following sentences, a word is underlined and is followed by four choices of words. Select the one which is most nearly opposite in meaning to the underlined word.
- His servility makes him detestable.
(a) slavery
(b) insolence
(c) prudence
(d) bravery
- The drug will have pernicious effect on your health.
(a) pornographic
(b) ruinous
(c) prolonged
(d) beneficial
- She handled the machine with deft fingers.
(a) delicate
(b) quick
(c) sturdy
(d) clumsy
- Her debonair manners were noticed by everyone.
(a) pleasant
(b) courteous
(c) cheerless
(d) stiff
- We have no doubt the veracity of his statement.
(a) truthfulness
(b) propriety
(c) falsity
(d) morality.
Question No.3(b)
In the following sentences, a word or phrase is underlined, and is followed by four alternative choice of words. Select from the choices, the one which is nearest in meaning to the underlined word in the sentence.
- He is being treated for his somnolence.
(a) sleepiness
(b) weakness
(c) intoxication
(d) severe pain in the joints.
- Before finalizing this transaction, I had to sign an indemnity bond.
(a) a partnership bond
(b) a compensation bond
(c) a security bond
(d) a reparation bond.
- Many of his acquaintances avoid him because he is so garrulous.
(a) unreasonable
(b) quarrelsome
(c) talkative
(d) proud
- The number of aboriginal inhabitants in
(a) unoriginal
(b) irrational
(c) primitive
(d) ancient.
- Some people are extremely fastidious in their choice of dress.
(a) careless
(b) pompous
(c) fussy
(d) discriminating
Question No.3©
In the following questions, a related pair of words is followed by four pairs of words. Choose the pair that best expresses a relationship similar to that expressed in the original pair.
- Braggart: Boast
(a) Trickster : Risk
(b) Stickler : Insist
(c) Mumbler : Enunciate
(d) Haggler : Concede
- Reverie : Dreamy
(a) Acquaintanceship : Brief
(b) Tryst : Clandestine
(c) Journey : Leisurely
(d) Expectation : Hopeless
- Sadist : Pain
(a) Alcohol : Dipsomaniac
(b) Injury : Bandage
(c) Teacher : Pupil
(d) Killer : Death
- Flow : Ebb
(a) River : Flow
(b) Tide : Sea
(c) Wax : Wave
(d) Edge : Cliff
- Metaphor : Figurative
(a) Epic : History
(b) Fable : contemporary
(c) Irony : Dramatic
(d) Precept : Instructive
Question No 4 (20 marks)
Write an essay on one of the following in about 500 words. Use the separate answer sheet provided for this purpose. Write your application No and Name on the right hand corner.
1) Pronunciation of English
2) Literature by the Indian Diaspora
3) Poetry and its sub-genres in English Literature
Question No 5 (2 x 10 = 20 marks)
Read the following short poems carefully and critically evaluate them. Highlight the poetic features like sub-genre, imagery, simile, metaphor, figure of speech prosody etc. Use a separate answer sheet. Write your name and application number.
Poem 1
I must write nicely now
Like a gentle dame
I must tone down
And live up to my name
I must tolerate, I must abate
How do you tone down your temper!
Is it the spice on my plate of ‘chaat’
Or a knob on the radio
That can be turned this way or that
It is the furnace of my inner self.
My mind is boiling sauce pan.
Those who have added oil and fuel to the fire
Have also shown shock and ire
They know too well
How, why and when a woman becomes
A statement in flames
But this is the only sport they are fond of
Poem 2
middle age is
when you can not reach your holes and goals
when dreams seem dimmed or deferred
when books are your only company
when you pay your doctor a heavy fee for that friendly touch
when memory is always passed on to the backward key
and you hate all those on the forward route
your telepathy works better than your telephone
your supper sums up to glass of milk and an inexpensive fruit.
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