Welcome to a literary odyssey through the corridors of GATE 2024 English Literature examination! In this blog, we embark on a journey to dissect and elucidate the enigmatic questions posed in one of the most prestigious exams for literature enthusiasts. GATE, or the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering, offers a platform for scholars and aspirants to showcase their mastery in the realm of English literature.
Q.27 “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is a/an ________.
(A) ode
(B) dramatic monologue
(C) haiku
(D) Villanelle
Answer
(B) Dramatic Monologue: A dramatic monologue is a poem in which a single speaker addresses a silent or absent listener, revealing their thoughts, feelings, and motivations. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" fits this description perfectly, as it is narrated by the protagonist, Prufrock, who is expressing his innermost thoughts and insecurities to an imagined listener. T.S. Eliot masterfully employs the dramatic monologue form to delve into the complexities of Prufrock's psyche and the broader themes of modernity and alienation.
Q.28 Match the following pairs of fictional characters with the author who created them:
| a | Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout | i | William Shakespeare |
| b | Don Quixote and Sancho Panza | ii | Jules Verne |
| c | Candide and Pangloss | iii | Miguel de Cervantes |
| d | Dogberry and Verges | iv | Voltaire |
(B) a-i, b-iii, c-iv, d-ii
(C) a-iii, b-i, c-ii, d-iv
(D) a-ii, b-iii, c-iv, d-i
Answer
(D) Phileas Fogg and Jean Passepartout - Phileas Fogg and his faithful valet Jean Passepartout are iconic characters from Jules Verne's classic adventure novel "Around the World in Eighty Days." Fogg, the cool-headed and precise English gentleman, embarks on a daring journey to circumnavigate the globe in a mere eighty days, accompanied by the resourceful and loyal Passepartout. Their escapades take them through various challenges and exotic locales, making for an exhilarating tale of determination and ingenuity against the backdrop of 19th-century exploration and innovation.
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza - Don Quixote and his loyal squire Sancho Panza are beloved characters from Miguel de Cervantes' masterpiece "Don Quixote." Don Quixote, a middle-aged nobleman, becomes obsessed with chivalric tales and sets out on a series of adventures as a self-proclaimed knight-errant, accompanied by his pragmatic and down-to-earth squire, Sancho Panza. Their unlikely companionship forms the heart of the novel, blending humor, adventure, and profound commentary on idealism and reality.
Candide and Pangloss - Candide and his mentor Pangloss are central characters in Voltaire's satirical novella "Candide." Candide, a young and naive man, journeys through a series of misfortunes and absurd situations while clinging to the philosophy of Pangloss, who preaches the idea that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds." Through their experiences, Voltaire critiques optimism and explores themes of human suffering, hypocrisy, and the search for meaning in a chaotic world.
Dogberry and Verges - Dogberry and Verges are memorable comedic characters from William Shakespeare's play "Much Ado About Nothing." Dogberry is the bumbling constable of Messina, while Verges is his equally inept assistant. Together, they provide comic relief through their malapropisms, misunderstandings, and attempts to maintain order during the chaotic events of the play. Shakespeare's witty dialogue and humorous portrayal of these characters add layers of amusement to the overall storyline.
Q.29 Which one of the following is a famous detective character created by Edgar Allan Poe?
(A) Maigret
(B) Miss Marple
(C) Auguste Dupin
(D) Arsene Lupin
Answer
(C) Auguste Dupin is the famous detective character created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin is renowned for his deductive prowess and keen intellect, showcased in Poe's pioneering detective stories such as "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter." Through Dupin, Poe laid the foundation for many subsequent fictional detectives and established the template for the brilliant, analytical sleuth in literature.
Q.30 “The horror! The horror!” - these are the last words of __ .
(A) Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
(B) Captain Ahab in Moby Dick
(C) Jonathan Harker in Dracula
(D) Kurtz in Heart of Darkness
Answer
(D) "The horror! The horror!" are the last words of Kurtz in Joseph Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness." Kurtz, a central character in the story, utters these enigmatic words as he reflects on the darkness and moral depravity he has encountered in the heart of the Congo jungle, symbolizing the existential and moral ambiguity explored throughout the narrative.
Q.31 Eric Arthur Blair was born in Motihari, Bihar. He went on to become famous as an author of a dystopian work which introduced the terms ‘Newspeak’, ‘Thoughtcrime’, and ‘Doublespeak’. He wrote under the pseudonym _ .
(A) Ruskin Bond
(B) George Orwell
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) E. M. Forster
Answer
(B) Eric Arthur Blair, born in Motihari, Bihar, is famously known by his pseudonym George Orwell. He authored the dystopian work "1984," which introduced terms such as "Newspeak," "Thoughtcrime," and "Doublespeak." Orwell's novel serves as a chilling critique of totalitarianism, surveillance, and the manipulation of language, and it remains a seminal work in the genre of dystopian literature.
Q. 32 “I started writing in Gikuyu language in 1977 after seventeen years of involvement in Afro-European literature, in my case Afro-English literature … wherever I have gone, particularly in Europe, I have been confronted with the question: why are you now writing in Gikuyu? Why do you now write in an African language?” Identify the author of this passage.
(A) Nadine Gordimer
(B) Wole Soyinka
(C) Ngugi wa Thiong’o
(D) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Answer
(C) The author of this passage is Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Thiong'o is a Kenyan writer and academic known for his advocacy of African languages and literature. He made the decision to write in his native Gikuyu language as part of his commitment to decolonizing literature and promoting the use of African languages in literary expression.
Q. 33 On the basis of genre, which of the following does NOT belong in this group?
(A) Harvest by Manjula Padmanabhan
(B) Tara by Mahesh Dattani
(C) Sakharam Binder by Vijay Tendulkar
(D) Ravan and Eddie by Kiran Nagarkar
Answer
(D) Ravan & Eddie is written by Kiran Nagarkar and is set in a Central Works Department Chawl of the lower working class in Bombay in the mid of the 20th Century, after India became independent of British colonial rule.
Q. 34 The Madwoman in the Attic, the title of Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s iconic feminist examination of Victorian literature, alludes to which classic novel?
(A) Jane Eyre
(B) Middlemarch
(C) Diary of a Madman
(D) Wuthering Heights
Answer
(A) The title "The Madwoman in the Attic" alludes to the classic novel "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë. In Brontë's novel, the character Bertha Mason, the first wife of Mr. Rochester, is confined to the attic of Thornfield Hall due to her mental illness. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar use this character and her situation as a starting point to discuss the portrayal of women in Victorian literature and the societal constraints placed upon them.
Q. 35 Agatha Christie broke a fundamental rule of detective fiction in _ .
(A) Murder on the Orient Express
(B) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
(C) Death on the Nile
(D) Three Act Tragedy
Answer
(B) Agatha Christie broke a fundamental rule of detective fiction in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd." In this novel, Christie employs a narrative technique that deviates from the typical conventions of the genre, thereby subverting readers' expectations and challenging the traditional structure of detective fiction. The revelation in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" shocked readers and has since become one of the most famous twists in the history of crime fiction.
Q. 36 Dorothea Brooke, Edward Casaubon, Hetty Sorel, Stephen Guest are all characters created by _ .
(A) George Eliot
(B) Charlotte Bronte
(C) Jane Austen
(D) Walter Scott
Answer
(A) Dorothea Brooke, Edward Casaubon, Hetty Sorel, and Stephen Guest are all characters created by George Eliot. These characters appear in Eliot's novel "Middlemarch," one of the most renowned works of English literature, known for its intricate portrayal of Victorian society and its exploration of themes such as ambition, marriage, and social change.
Q. 37 Charulata is an adaptation of which work by Rabindranath Tagore?
(A) Gora
(B) The Broken Nest
(C) Four Chapters
(D) The Home and the World
Answer
(B) Charulata" is an adaptation of the work "The Broken Nest" by Rabindranath Tagore. This novella, also known as "Nastanirh," serves as the basis for the film "Charulata," directed by Satyajit Ray. The story explores themes of love, loneliness, and societal constraints, set against the backdrop of late 19th-century Bengal.
Q. 38 Which of the following is NOT part of the Theban trilogy?
(A) Oedipus Rex
(B) Oedipus at Colonus
(C) Medea
(D) Antigone
Answer
(C) Among the options provided, "Medea" is not part of the Theban trilogy. The Theban trilogy consists of three plays by Sophocles: "Oedipus Rex," "Oedipus at Colonus," and "Antigone." "Medea" is a play written by Euripides and is not part of Sophocles' Theban trilogy.
Q. 39 The literary term ‘apostrophe’ denotes:
(A) A comparison of an abstract idea with its opposite.
(B) An address to a person, or a personified idea or power.
(C) A break within an iambic pentameter.
(D) The possession of a character by a spirit.
Answer
(B) The literary term "apostrophe" denotes:
An address to a person, or a personified idea or power.
An apostrophe is a figure of speech in which the speaker addresses someone absent or something nonhuman as if it were present and capable of understanding feelings. It is often used to convey intense emotions or to give life to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.
Q. 40 In the line, “What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?” “he” refers to _ .
(A) Virgil, the author of the Aeneid
(B) An actor performing a scene from the Trojan War in Hamlet
(C) Helen’s husband Priam who left her for Hecuba
(D) A fairy king who abandoned his daughter Hecuba at birth
Answer
(B) In the line "What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba?" from Shakespeare's play "Hamlet," "he" refers to:
An actor performing a scene from the Trojan War in Hamlet.
This line is spoken by Hamlet as he reflects on the Player King's emotional reaction to an ancient story. Hamlet is questioning why the Player King would be moved by the suffering of Hecuba, a character from Greek mythology when he himself does not feel similarly moved.
Q. 41 Which of the following is/are NOT based on a play by William Shakespeare?
(A) George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion
(B) Ian McEwan’s Nutshell
(C) Girish Karnad’s The Fire and the Rain
(D) Akira Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood
Answer
(A) and (C) Among the options provided, Girish Karnad’s "The Fire and the Rain" is NOT based on a play by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw’s "Pygmalion" is not even based on any of Shakespeare’s plays
(B) Ian McEwan’s "Nutshell" is based on a play by William Shakespeare and (D) Akira Kurosawa’s "Throne of Blood" is based on "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare.
Q. 42 Which of the following is/are NOT composed by Kalidasa?
(A) Mrcchakatika
(B) Abhijnanashakuntalam
(C) Meghaduta
(D) Natyashastra
Answer
(A) Mrcchakatika
(D) Natyashastra
Neither Mrcchakatika nor Natyashastra is composed by Kalidasa. Mrcchakatika is a Sanskrit play attributed to Śūdraka, and Natyashastra is an ancient Sanskrit text on the performing arts attributed to Bharata Muni.
Q. 43 Which of these writers is/are associated with the Progressive Writers Association?
(A) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee
(B) Ismat Chughtai
(C) Premchand
(D) Rajinder Singh Bedi
Answer
(B), (C), (D) Ismat Chughtai, Premchand, and Rajinder Singh Bedi were associated with the Progressive Writers' Movement, also known as the Progressive Writers' Association, primarily belonged to the Indian subcontinent and wrote in various languages.
Q. 44 Which of the following novels is/are written by African-American women?
(A) The Color Purple
(B) The Ink Black Heart
(C) My Name is Red
(D) The Bluest Eye
Answer
(A) and (D): The novels written by African-American women are, The Color Purple and The Bluest Eye. These novels, written by Alice Walker and Toni Morrison respectively, are significant works in African-American literature, exploring themes of race, identity, and the experiences of Black women in America.
Q.45 Which of the following options is NOT the title of a play?
(A) The Spanish Tragedy
(B) A Doll’s House
(C) Mother Courage and her Children
(D) Scenes from Clerical Life
Answer
(D) Scenes from Clerical Life.
"Scenes from Clerical Life" is a collection of stories by George Eliot, not a play. The other options, (A) The Spanish Tragedy, (B) A Doll’s House, and (C) Mother Courage and her Children, are all titles of plays.
Q.46 Match each fictional character with the author who created him:
| a | Uriah Heep | i | James Joyce |
| b | Stephen Dedalus | ii | Ivan Turgenev |
| c | Bazarov | iii | Fyodor Dostoevsky |
| d | Raskolnikov | iv | Charles Dickens |
(B) a-iv, b-i, c-ii, d-iii
(C) a-i, b-iv, c-ii, d-iii
(D) a-iv, b-ii, c-i, d-iii
Answer
The correct option is: (B) a-iv, b-i, c-ii, d-iii
The correct match for each fictional character with the author who created him is:
a. Uriah Heep - iv Charles Dickens
b. Stephen Dedalus - i James Joyce
c. Bazarov - ii Ivan Turgenev
d. Raskolnikov - iii Fyodor Dostoevsky
a. Uriah Heep - iv Charles Dickens
Uriah Heep is a character from Charles Dickens' novel "David Copperfield." He is portrayed as a sycophantic and deceitful character who ingratiates himself with others to advance his own interests, often at the expense of those around him.
b. Stephen Dedalus - i James Joyce
Stephen Dedalus is a character from James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" and also appears in Joyce's masterpiece "Ulysses." He is a complex and introspective character who grapples with questions of identity, religion, and artistic expression.
c. Bazarov - ii Ivan Turgenev
Bazarov is a character from Ivan Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons." He is a nihilistic and radical young man who rejects traditional values and authority, embodying the spirit of the mid-19th-century Russian intellectual movement known as nihilism.
d. Raskolnikov - iii Fyodor Dostoevsky
Raskolnikov is the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment." He is a deeply conflicted and morally ambiguous character who commits a brutal murder and grapples with the psychological and philosophical consequences of his actions.
Q. 47 What do the following works have in common?
Andha Yug, The Second Turn, Parva, Sarpa Satra
(A) All of them are plays.
(B) All are based on the Mahabharata.
(C) All have women as primary protagonists.
(D) All are 19th century works.
Answer
(B) All are based on the Mahabharata.
"Andha Yug," "The Second Turn," "Parva," and "Sarpa Satra" are all literary works that draw upon characters, events, or themes from the Mahabharata, an ancient Indian epic. While some of these works may include elements of drama, not all of them are explicitly categorized as plays. Additionally, none of them exclusively feature women as primary protagonists, and they are not all from the 19th century. Therefore, the commonality among these works lies in their connection to the Mahabharata.
Q. 48 Match the texts with the language they were originally written in:
| a | Waiting for a Visa | i | Hindi |
| b | The Prisons we Broke | ii | English |
| c | The Revenue Stamp: An Autobiography | iii | Marathi |
| d | Joothan: A Dalit’s Life | iv | Punjabi |
(B) a-i, b-ii, c-iv, d-iii
(C) a-ii, b-iii, c-iv, d-i
(D) a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i
Answer
(C) a-ii, b-iii, c-iv, d-i
The correct match for each text with the language they were originally written in is:
a. Waiting for a Visa - ii English
b. The Prisons we Broke - iii Marathi
c. The Revenue Stamp: An Autobiography - iv Punjabi
d. Joothan: A Dalit’s Life - i Hindi
a. Waiting for a Visa - ii English
"Waiting for a Visa" is a memoir written by B. R. Ambedkar, originally published in English. It chronicles Ambedkar's experiences with caste discrimination and his struggle for social justice as a member of the Dalit community in colonial India.
b. The Prisons we Broke - iii Marathi
Babytai Kamble’s autobiographical work The Prisons We Broke was originally written in Marathi as Jina Amucha and was later translated into English by Maya Pandit.
c. The Revenue Stamp: An Autobiography - iv Punjabi
"The Revenue Stamp: An Autobiography" is a memoir by Amrita Pritam, originally written in Punjabi. In this autobiographical work, Pritam recounts her life journey, including her experiences as a prominent Punjabi writer and her reflections on love, identity, and social issues.
d. Joothan: A Dalit’s Life - i Hindi
"Joothan: A Dalit's Life" is a memoir by Omprakash Valmiki, originally written in Hindi. It provides a poignant account of Valmiki's experiences growing up as a Dalit in rural India, highlighting the pervasive caste-based discrimination and violence faced by Dalits in Indian society.
Q. 49 Match the excerpts with the texts they have been taken from:
| a | “A son who will never be older than his motherland – neither older nor younger. There shall be two heads – but you will only see one – there will be knees and a nose, a nose and knees.” | i | A Suitable Boy |
| b | “That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much.” | ii | Midnight’s Children |
| c | “She had dispersed. She was the garden at Prem Niwas (soon to be entered into the annual Flower Show), she was Veena’s love of music, Pran’s asthma, Maan’s generosity, […] the temperament of Bhaskar’s great-grandchildren. Indeed, for all the Minister of Revenue’s impatience with her, she was his regret.” | iii | The God of Small Things |
| d | “Two or three years after the 1947 Partition, it occurred to the governments of India and Pakistan to exchange their lunatics in the same manner as they had exchanged their criminals. The Muslim lunatics in India were to be sent over to Pakistan and the Hindu and Sikh lunatics in Pakistan asylums were to be handed over to India.” | iv | Punjabi |
(B) a-i, b-ii, c-iv, d-iii
(C) a-ii, b-i, c-iii, d-iv
(D) a-i, b-iv, c-iii, d-ii
Answer
(A) a-ii, b-iii, c-i, d-iv
Q. 50 A widely used narrative technique, it allows narrators to temporarily inhabit the consciousness of any of their characters. It is called _ .
(A) Localized Speech
(B) Free Indirect Speech
(C) Mimicked Speech
(D) Empathetic Speech
Answer
The widely used narrative technique that allows narrators to temporarily inhabit the consciousness of any of their characters is called:
(B) Free Indirect Speech
In Free Indirect Speech, the narrator conveys the thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of a character, blending them with the narrative voice. This technique allows for a seamless transition between the character's internal experience and the external narrative, providing insight into the character's psyche while maintaining narrative fluidity.
Q. 51 Which of the following statements is true of Magic Realism?
(A) It has its origins in the speech of the Oracle of Delphi.
(B) It was created by J R R Tolkien.
(C) It reveals the extraordinary in the heart of the ordinary.
(D) It is a subset of Socialist Realism.
Answer
(C) It reveals the extraordinary in the heart of the ordinary.
Magic Realism is a literary genre or style associated especially with Latin America that incorporates fantastic or mythical elements into otherwise realistic fiction. It often blurs the lines between the mundane and the magical, presenting fantastical elements in a matter-of-fact manner within an otherwise realistic narrative. Therefore, option (C) accurately describes the essence of Magic Realism.
Q. 52 ---------wrote ‘Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of ------------.’ Fill in the blanks with the correct pair:
(A) William Wordsworth; Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(B) William Blake; Lord Byron
(C) Percy Bysshe Shelley; John Keats
(D) John Keats; Percy Bysshe Shelley
Answer
(C) Percy Bysshe Shelley; John Keats
"Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats" is a poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley as a tribute to the poet John Keats, who was a close friend of Shelley's.
Q. 53 Which of the following statements about The Scarlet Letter is/are correct?
(A) It was written by Nadine Gordimer.
(B) The “scarlet letter” of the title refers to the letter ‘A’.
(C) It is an epistolary romance.
(D) It was written in the 19th century.
Answer
(B) and (D)
"The Scarlet Letter" is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, not Nadine Gordimer. The novel revolves around the consequences of adultery and social ostracism in 17th-century Puritan New England. The scarlet letter 'A' is worn by the protagonist, Hester Prynne, as a symbol of her sin. The novel is not an epistolary romance; it is written in prose narrative form. Lastly, "The Scarlet Letter" was indeed written in the 19th century.
Q. 54 “[…] I mean negative capability, that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason […].” Based on this statement, which of the following options is/are correct? Negative capability is the ability to _ .
(A) be receptive to ambiguities
(B) be focused on precise resolutions
(C) not get irritated by people’s incompetence
(D) find value in partial knowledge
Answer
So, based on the statement provided, the correct options regarding negative capability are:
(A) be receptive to ambiguities
(D) find value in partial knowledge
Negative capability, as described by John Keats, involves being receptive to uncertainties and mysteries without the need for immediate resolution. It also entails finding value in partial knowledge rather than insisting on complete understanding.
Q. 55 Virginia Woolf wrote in “Professions for Women”:
“You have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclusively owned by men. You are able, though not without great labour and effort, to pay the rent. You are earning your five hundred pounds a year. But this freedom is only a beginning; the room is your own, but it is still bare. It has to be furnished; it has to be decorated; it has to be shared. How are you going to furnish it, how are you going to decorate it? With whom are you going to share it, and upon what terms?” Based on this passage, which of the following inferences is/are correct?
(A) Women may have attained rooms of their own but they still have a long way to go.
(B) The ‘room’ women now own is a sign of minimal economic independence.
(C) Woolf insists that women live only with other women in order to maintain their independence.
(D) The freedom that women now enjoy was attained after centuries of struggle.
Answer
(A), (B), and (D)
Q. 56 Which of the following statements is/are correct?
(A) Rasa is a form of categorizing a text by its genre.
(B) According to Abhinavagupta, Rasa is best experienced collectively and in unison
with others.
(C) Rasa is purely an aesthetic emotion, not to be confused with real-life emotions.
(D) Rasa is evoked only by performances like drama and dance.
Answer
(B) and (C)
Q. 57 “Lear cries out ‘you are men of stones’
as Cordelia hangs from a broken wall.
I step out into Chandni Chowk, a street once
strewn with jasmine flowers
for the Empress and the royal women
who bought perfumes from Isfahan,
fabrics from Dacca, essence from Kabul,
glass bangles from Agra.
Beggars now live here in tombs
of unknown nobles and forgotten saints
while hawkers sell combs and mirrors
outside a Sikh temple. Across the street,
a theater is showing a Bombay spectacular.
I think of Zafar, poet and Emperor,
being led through this street
by British soldiers, his feet in chains,
to watch his sons hanged.
In exile he wrote:
‘Unfortunate Zafar
spent half his life in hope,
the other half waiting.
He begs for two yards of Delhi for burial.’
He was exiled to Burma, buried in Rangoon.”
Which of the following ideas is/are conveyed by this poem?
(A) Delhi is a modern and progressive city despite its imperial past.
(B) Even Kings may be punished when they commit crimes against their children.
(C) An exile’s sense of loss, and longing for their homeland.
(D) History is a constant presence all around us.
Answer
(C) and (D)
Q. 58 Which of the following statements is/are true of these novels:
Anna Karenina, Dead Souls, Crime and Punishment, Fathers and Sons.
(A) They are all written by Russian authors.
(B) They all have women as central protagonists.
(C) They were all written in the 19th century.
(D) They all highlight socially transgressive romantic relationships.
Answer
(A) and (C)
Q. 59 “[…] in so far as the academic discourse of history – that is, ‘history’ as a discourse produced at the institutional site of the university – is concerned, ‘Europe’ remains the sovereign, theoretical subject of all histories, including the ones we call ‘Indian,’‘Chinese,’‘Kenyan,’ and so on. There is a peculiar way in which all these other histories tend to become variations on a master narrative that could be called ‘the history of Europe.’ In this sense, ‘Indian’ history itself is in a position of subalternity; one can only articulate subaltern subject positions in the name of this history.”
Which of the following options is/are implied by the passage above?
(A) People in postcolonial societies are condemned to endlessly repeat their own histories.
(B) The histories of India, China, and Kenya are not fundamentally different from one another.
(C) Within the protocols of history writing, it is impossible to write the history of postcolonial societies without reference to Europe.
(D) Instead of Europe, India should be the sovereign subject of all histories.
Answer
(C)
Q. 60 “What if, in order to save some humans lost in their language, in order to deliver the humans themselves, at the expense of their language, it was better to renounce the language, at least to renounce the best conditions for survival ‘at all costs’ for the idiom? And what if some humans were more worth saving than their language, under circumstances where, alas, one needed to choose between them? For we are living in a period in which the question at times arises. Today, on this earth of humans, certain people must yield to the homo-hegemony of dominant languages. They must learn the language of the masters, of capital and machines; they must lose their idiom in order to survive or live better.”
On the basis of this passage, which of the following options is/are correct? The writer of this passage is:
(A) Advocating that all colonized people should renounce their native languages to succeed in a globalized world.
(B) Lamenting that in our contemporary world, some groups of people are forced to choose between immersion in their own language and economic survival.
(C) Implicitly expressing despair about the hegemony of dominant languages.
(D) Suggesting that there should be only one language in the world
Answer
(B) and (C)
Q.61 Politics
--by William Butler Yeats
‘In our time the destiny of man presents its meanings in political terms.’
--Thomas Mann
“How can I, that girl standing there,
My attention fix
On Roman or on Russian
Or on Spanish politics,
Yet here’s a travelled man that knows
What he talks about,
And there’s a politician
That has both read and thought,
And maybe what they say is true
Of war and war’s alarms,
But O that I were young again
And held her in my arms.”
Which of the following options is/are implied by this poem?
(A) Politics is the most absorbing concern of human existence.
(B) Desire has never distracted the speaker from politics.
(C) Sensual desire can be in conflict with cerebral concerns.
(D) Physical desire does not die with age.
Answer
(C) and (D)
Q. 62 “Although feminist philosophers have traditionally sought to show how the body is figured as feminine, or how women have been associated with materiality (whether inert – always already dead – or fecund – ever-living and procreative) where men have been associated with the principle of rational mastery, Irigaray wants to argue that in fact the feminine is precisely what is excluded in and by such a binary opposition. In this sense, when and where women are represented within this economy is precisely the site of their erasure.”
Which of the following options is/are implied by this passage?
(A) Irigaray’s work does not replicate the stance of traditional feminist philosophy.
(B) Irigaray radically questions the mind/body distinction from a feminist perspective.
(C) For Irigaray, the place assigned to women, even by some feminist philosophers, may in fact serve to erase them.
(D) Irigaray is not crucially concerned about the feminine.
Answer
(A), (B), and (C)
Q. 63 “I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it’s true –
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe –
The eyes glaze once – and that is Death –
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish strung.”
Which of the following options is/are implied by this poem?
(A) Agony is not easily disguised.
(B) The speaker likes to watch people suffer because it reminds her of her own wellbeing.
(C) Strong people never suffer a painful death.
(D) Anguish can produce physical effects.
Answer
(A) and (D)
Q. 64 “We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors; […]. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his works may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their
immortality most vigorously.”
Which of the following options is/are implied by this excerpt?
(A) Being different from one’s predecessors need not be the defining characteristic of a good poet.
(B) What we consider original in a poem, may be deeply rooted in tradition.
(C) There is no difference between old and new poems.
(D) The past is often a living presence in good contemporary poetry.
Answer
(A), (B), and (D)
Q. 65 Which factor(s) led to the rise and popularity of the novel in England?
(A) The rise of literacy.
(B) The spread of printing presses throughout England.
(C) The migration of large numbers of writers and intellectuals from Italy.
(D) The rise of the bourgeoisie.
Answer
The factor(s) that led to the rise and popularity of the novel in England are:
(A) The rise of literacy.
(B) The spread of printing presses throughout England.
(D) The rise of the bourgeoisie.
The rise of literacy enabled more people to read and appreciate literature, including novels. The spread of printing presses made books more accessible and affordable, contributing to the dissemination of novels. Additionally, the rise of the bourgeoisie, the middle class, created a larger audience with leisure time and disposable income to spend on recreational reading, further fueling the popularity of the novel as a form of entertainment and cultural expression.
