1. These famous lines appear in a by P. B. Shelley. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair."

ode

clerihew

envoi

sonnet

2. Here is a passage that remembers how a famous writer began his/her career as a novelist. Fill in the blanks correctly: On a certain day in September, selected by my grandmother for its auspiciousness, I bought an exercise book and wrote the first line of a novel; as I sat in a room nibbling my pen and wondering what to write, with its railway station swam into view, all readymade, with a character called running down the platform peering into the faces of passengers, and grimacing at a bearded face.

Mano Majra, Hukum Chand

Ghoshpara, Gora

Town Olivia

Malgudi, Swaminathan

3. Which of the Indian novels in English carries the following dedication? "To the Indo-British Experience and what its sharers have learned from each other."

Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's Heat and Dust

Anita Desai's In Custody

Nayantara Sahgal's Rich Like Us

4. Match the following English words/phrases with the writers who first made them:

I. Chortle

II. Dystopia

III. Derring do

IV. Dappled

i. G. M. Hopkins

ii. Edmund Spenser

iii. Lewis Carroll

iv. John Stuart Mill

The correctly matched pair, according to the code:

II-ii, III-iv, IV-iii

I-iii, II-iv, III-ii, IV-i

II-iii, III-i, IV-iv

III-iii, IV-ii



Questions 7 are based on the following passage: It must be a strange state to be like JO! To shuffle through the streets, unfamiliar with the shapes and in utter darkness as to the meaning of those mysterious symbols, so abundant over the shops, and the comer of streets, and on the doors, and in the windows! To see people read, and to see people write, and to see the postman deliver letters, and not to have the least idea of all that language-to be, to every scrap of it, stone blind and dumb!

5. What is 10's "state"?

10 is new to the city.

10 cannot see or hear anything.

10 has no language.

10 cannot read or write anything.

9. Why is JO's state "strange"?"

10's being in a language that others read and write of which he is unaware.

10's being unfamiliar with the meaning of mysterious symbols. ." i

10's being hardly aware that the mysterious symbols have meanings.

10's being in a language that means differently for him and for others.

7. How does the writer suggest that he could only guess what it would be for 10 to be amidst literate people?

The general tone of the passage

The opening line of the passage

The repetition of "see" in line 3

The phrase "stone blind and dumb!"

8. "Truth," says "is a mobile army of metaphors, metonymies, and anthropomorphisms," so memorably stated in his

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations.

Jacques Derrida, "Structure, Sign, and Play... Human Sciences"

Lewis Carroll, "Preface" to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Friedrich Nietzsche, "On Truth and Lie in an Extra-moral Sense" .



Questions 9 to 13 are based upon the following poem. Read the poem carefully and answer the questions. The most popular "act" in Penn Station is the three black kids in ratty sneakers T-shirts playing two violins and a cello-Brahms. White men in business suits have already dug into their pockets as they pass and they toss in a dollar or two without stopping. Brown men in work-soiled khakis stand with their mouths open, arms crossed on their bellies as if they themselves have always wanted to attempt those bars. One white boy, three, sits cross-legged in front of his idols-in ecstasy­ their slick, dark faces, their thin, wiry arms, who must begin to look like angels! Why does this trembling pull us? Beneath the surface we are one. Amazing! I did not think that they could speak this tongue.

9. The children playing music are not

the only act at the station

one of many and also the most popular

black and not very well off

playing Western classical music

10. The three kids play music

for the love of music

for the, money they earn

to have an audience

all of the above

11. The poem works along the axes of class,colour and-race. In the process it .

reinforces race and class stereotypes

undermines class and race stereotypes

undermines stereotypes of both race and class even as it appears to reinforce them

neither reinforces or undermines any stereotype, it just tells a simple story.

12. The children"begin to look like angels"in the final part of the poem because of

their appearance as they play music passionately

the dress wear to perform afPenn Stati_on

the music they play, which is explicitly

the fact that the children are not tethered to the social, societal coordinates of their earthly lives.

13. The little boy who "sits cross-legged" in front of the children watching them and listening to them is indicative of

those who value great music wherever they hear it .

someone who has not yet been encultured into the attitudes of society

the fan-following the musicians have at the Station

someone who is paid to listen to the music they play.

14. The kind of literature where readers are designed to be passive recipients, one that renders them idle or redundant, so much so that they are reduced to impotent symbols of. a bourgeois world is according to

popular, Leslie Fiedler

readerly, Roland Barthes

impure, Northrop Frye

commercial, Frank Kermode

15. Walter Skeat felt very embarrassed that the greatest philological scholars who contributed to the English language were all non-English. Skeat began remedying the problem, producing a four-volume

History of the English Language

Dictionary of English Phrase. Fable

Etymological English Dictionary

English Literature in History, 1730-1930

16. Marilyn Monroe and Campbell Soup prints are paradigmatic instances ofPop Art making manifest the conditions of its own production and consumption.

Jackson Pollock's

Vincent van Gogh's

William Kentridge's

Andy Warhol's

17. More than hundred years ago, dashing off telegrams/ 'cables' was quite common in England, equivalent somewhat to the current SMS's. Some messages were quite fascinating and witty like the following that Dorothy Parker sent her friend who had just delivered herself of a baby. "Dear Mary, we know you had it in you." The message is now memorable for

its cryptic and elliptic tone

its touchingly crisp formulation

its punningly phrasal compliment

its embarrassingly polite euphemism

18. Arrange the following landmarks in the history of Modernist thought chronologically:

The first volume of Marcel Proust's In Search ofLost Time

F. T. Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto

Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avingnon

Sigmund Freud and Josef " Breur's Studies on Hysteria









19. Identify the term that perfectly matches the following description: An auxiliary language-one that has no native speakers-a speech-system that has been formed to provide a means of communication between people. who have no common language-a simplified language with a vocabulary drawn from two or more languages....

Slang

Calque

Metalanguaged

Pidgin

20. "The cat smelled the fish. The fish smelled bad"

"Smelled" in both sentences is a transitive verb

"Smelled" in the first sentence is verb transitive; in the second, intransitive.

"Smelled" in the first sentence is verb intransitive; in the second, transitive.

"Smelled" in both sentences is an intransitive ver(b)

21. The following lists some memorable characters in English poetry. Identify the _group that collects those who DO NOT belong to the list. Crazy Jane, Michael, Peter Grimes, Grishkin, Bob Kiley, Urizen, Lady Lazaro;, Miniver Cheevy, Gratiano, Lucinda Matlock, Atticus, The Jumblies, J. Alfred Prufr6ck, Trovald Helmer.

Lady Lazarus, Lucinda Matlock, Grishkin

Miniver Cheevy, Peter Grimes, Michael

Atticus, J. Alfred Prufrock, Crazy Jane

Gratiano, Bob Kiley, Trovald Helmer

22. Given below is a set of assertions followed by an explanation. Pick the option from the four that best describes the relation between the assertions and the explanation/reasoning, Assertion It may indeed be questioned whether we have any memories at all from our childhood: memories relating to our childhood may be all that we possess. Our childhood memories show us our earliest years not as they were but as they appeared at later periods when the memories were arouse(d) [Sigmund Freud, "Screen Memories," 1899] Reasoning Largely ungrounded speculations such as this on prehistory were typical of Victorian anthropology, but Freud pressed for a structure of explanation from a 'remote field', applying the traumatic neuroses of the individual to the group.

Assertion and Reasoning are unrelated and do not explain either passage when read in tandem.

Assertion and Reasoning are related and help our understanding of the passages when read in tandem.

Reasoning is virtually a summary of the Assertion.

Assertion is virtually an anticipation of the Reasoning.

23. Match the following and identify the correct code below. I. "To write poetry after Auschwitz is IV'Poetry makes nothing happen." III."Poetics is the continuation of poetry by other means." IV."Poetry is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality." V. "[Poetry is] the best words . in their best order." VI."if I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry... Is there any other way?"

Charles Bernstein

(b)Emily Dickinson

S. Eliot

H. Auden

(e)Theodor Adorno

S.T. Coleridge

I II III IV V VI

I II III IV V VI

I II III IV V VI

III IV V VI

24. Which of the following is a mnemonic?

"Ride a Cock-horse to Banbury Cross

"Thirty days hath September"

"Hickory Dickory Dock"

"London Bridge is falling down"

25. The following passages

I. "0 Vanity! How little is thy Force acknowledged, or thy Operations discerned? How want only dost thou deceive Mankind under different Disguises? Sometimes thou dost wear the Face of Pity, sometimes of Generosity: nay, thou hast the Assurance even to put on those glorious Ornaments which belong only to heroick Virtue."

II. "Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?-eome, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out."

are both from Vanity Fair

are both from Joseph Andrews

are from Joseph Andrews and from Vanity Fair respectively

are from Vanity Fair and from Joseph Andrews respectively

26. What is the title of Thomas Hobbes's treatise that defends absolute sovereignty on the basis of a theory of social contract? a Utopia The New Atlantis Leviathan d Obedience of a Christian Man

27. Swift's "Battle of the Books" refers to the conflict between

champions of traditional and modem writing

Oxford and Cambridge

Catholics and Protestants

supporters and opponents of the vernacular Bible.

28. Anagnorisis is a term used by Aristotle for describing':

the moment of discovery by the protagonist

the reversal of fortune for the protagonist

the happy resolution of the plot

the convergence of the main plot and the sub plot

29. William Tyndale is well known for his

translation of the Bible into English

translation ofHamlet into French

translation ofPilgrim's Progress into Spanish

translation ofShe Stoops to Conquer into Persian

30. Whose Diary describes the Great Plague ofLondon?

Samuel Pepys

William Congreve

John Dryden

Alexander Pope

31. Hannah More is the author of

Coelebs in Search of a Wife

Melmoth the Wanderer

Sense andSensibility

Lyrical Ballads

32. Which of the following poems is on the Crimean War of

"The Charge of the Light Brigade"

"Dover Beach"

"Goblin Market"

"The Masque ofAnarchy"

33. To which genre in literature is the Nebula Award given?

Lyric poetry

Pastoral elegy

Science fiction

Comic romance

34. In which strange poem would you find the phrase 'mimsy borogove'?

Chaucer's The Knight's Tale

Shakespeare's "Rape ofLucrece"

Sujata Bhatt's "Augatora"

Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky"

35. Which sets are made of at least one misfit element?

EBSCO, JSTOR, Project Muse, Scopus

EBSCO, Scopus, Elsevier, EColi

EBSCO, JSTOR, ProQuest, ReQuest

Scopus,Elsevier, JSTOR, ArticleFirst

and

and(iv)

and

and

36. In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy who opens the discussion on behalf of the ancients

Lisideius

Crites

Eugenius

Neander

37. Which of the following was originally NOT a graphic novel?

Persepolis.

Maus

A Gardener in the Wasteland

The Graveyard Book



Questions 38to 40 are based on the extract from a poem given below: Write it. Write. In ordinary ink on ordinary paper: they were given no food, they all died of hunger. "All. How many? It's a big meadow. How much grass for each one?" Write: I don't know. History counts its skeletons in round numbers. I

38. The tone of the last line of the extract may best be described as

tragic irony

contempt

mathematically precise

hyperbolic

39. . The emphasis on writing down/recording the events, as described in the extract, could be performing an act of:

forgetting

editing

Witnessing

exaggerating

40. Which of the following statements captUresthemeaning of the lines "In ordinary ink/on ordinary paper" best?

Documentation is essential

There is no good quality paper for documentation

The deaths are recorded in history as a routine event

Death requires both ink and paper



Questions 41 to 44 are based on the passage given below. Once upon a time, I went for a week's holiday on the Continent with an Indian friend We both enjoyed ourselves and were sorry when the week was over, but on parting our behaviour was absolutely different. He was plunged in despair. He felt that because the holiday was over all happiness was over until the world ended He could not express his sorrow too much. But in me the Englishman came out strong. I reflected that we should meet again in a month or two, and could write in the interval if we had anything to say; and under these circumstances I could not see what there was to make a fuss about. It wasn't as if we were parting for ever or dying. 'Buckup,'I·said, buckup.' He refused to buck up, and I left him plunged in gloom.

The conclusion of this anecdote is even more instructive. For when we met the next month our conversation threw a good deal of light on the English character. I began by scolding my I told him that he had been wrong to feel and display so much emotion upon so slight an occasion; that it was inappropriate. The word 'inappropriate' roused him to fury. he cried you measure out your emotions as if they were potatoes?' I did not like the simile of the potatoes, but after a moment's reflection I said, I do; and what's more, I think I ought to. A small occasion demands a little emotion, just as a large occasion demands a great one. I would like my emotions to be appropriate. This may be measuring them like potatoes, but it is better than slopping them about like water from a pail, which is what you did' Be did not like the simile of the pail. these ·are your opinions, they part us forever,' he cried, and left the room. Returning immediately, he added: 'No-but your whole attitude toward emotion is wrong. Emotion has nothing to do with appropriateness: It matters only that it shall be sincere. I happened to feel deeply. I showed it. It doesn't matter whether I ought to have felt deeply or not.

41. When did the narrator notice that English behaviour was very different from the Indian?

Never

Occasionally

When the Englishman met the Indian

When the friends parted company.

42. Which statement in the passage suggests the strong cultural difference in the two friends?

"Emotion has nothing to do with appropriateness."

"I could not see what there was to make a fuss about."

"But in me the Englishman came out strong."

"It doesn't matter whether I ought to have felt deeply or not."

43. What word/phrase does the Indian friend resent?

(a)pail

buck up

inappropriate

slight

44. Why did the Indian feel that his English friend has got it all wrong about emotion?

Because emotion is hard to measure and compare.

Because the conclusion of this anecdote is instructive.

Because the anecdote left him plunged in gloom.

Because emotion has everything to do with honest feeling.

45. The opening lines of some novels are matched correctly with their corresponding titles and authors in one set below. Identify the set. All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. It was a bright cold day in April,.and th_e clocks were striking thirteen. A screaming comes across the sky. The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy); A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens); 1984 (Orwell); Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon); Neuromancer (Gibson); Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce).

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy); A Tale ofTwo Cities (Dickens); Neuromdncer (Gibson); Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon); 1984 (Orwell); Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce).

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy); A Tale ofTwo Cities (Dickens); Neuromancer (Gibson); 1984 (Orwell); Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon); Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce).

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Anna Karenina (Tolstoy); A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens); 1984 (Orwell); Neuromancer (Gibson); Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon).

46. The quotation "This radio lark's a wonderful hobby, y'know. I've got friends all over the world, aU over the world ... none in this country, but friends all over the world" can be read as a version of

"Out of sight, out of mind"

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder"

"Distance lends enchantment to the view"

"Familiarity breeds contempt".

Questions 47 to 50 are based upon the following poem. Read the poem carefully and answer the questions. A drone pilot works a twelve-hour shift, then goes home to real life. Showers, eats supper, plays video games. Twelve hours later he comes back, high-fives, takes over the drone from other pilots, who watch Homeland, do dishes, hope they don't dream in all screens, bad kills, all slo-mo freeze-frame. A drone pilot works a twelve-hour shift, then goes home. A small room, a pilot's chair, the mic and headphones crowd his mind, take him somewhere else. Another day another dollar: hover and shift, twelve hours over strangers' homes. Stop by the store, its Muzak, pick up the Cheerios, get to the gym if you're lucky. Get back to your babies, play Barbies, play blocks. Twelve hours later, come back. Take over the drone. Smell of bumed coffee in the lounge, the shifting kill zone. Last-minute abort mission, and the major who forgets your name. A drone pilot works a twelve-hour shift, then goes home. It's done in our names, but we don't have to know. Our own lives, shifts, hours, bounced off screens all day. A drone pilot works a twelve-hour shift, then goes home; fresh from twelve hours off, another comes in, takes over our drone.

47. The drone pilot's working life is one wherein he does not

work a twelve hour shift

travel extensively, in shifting kill zones

have his missions aborted sometimes

have a life of anonymity and limited knowledge.

48. The pilot's real life is located

at his work place

at his home

in the drone he controls

in the video games he plays

49. Which of the following does not feature in the pilot's 'real

Going to the store and the gym

Playing with the children and their toys

-Doing dishes

The smell of burned coffee.

50. The screens mentioned explicitly in the poem point to

The 'virtual reality' of the drone pilot's work

The kinds of TV shows they watch

Their ability to separate different types of screens

Their game playing prowess

51.Write an essay on any ONE of the following topics.

1. Biography, in Retrospect

2. Dalit Studies versus Dalit Literature

3. The politics of melancholy in Postcolonial Literature

4. Resisting Literature

5. Video Games as Narratives

6. The Right to Narrate

7. Literacy as/and Democracy

8. Digital Colonialisms

9. Haunted houses in Horror Fiction

10. "Ir/Responsible Reading in the Age ofDissent"


52. Write an essay on the following poem. Examine the voice/s heard and the ideological assumptions that underpin it. How does this poem rewrite/rework and respond to Robert Frost's famous poem, to what end and effect?

Interpretation of a Poem by Frost

A young black girl stopped by the woods, so young she knew only one man: Jim Crow but she wasn't allowed to call him Mister. . The woods were his and she respected his boundaries even in the absence of fence. Of course she delighted in the filling up of his woods, she so accustomed to emptiness, to being taken at face value. This face, her face eternally the brown of declining autumn, watches snow inter the grass, cling to bark making it seem indecisive about race preference, a fast-to-melt idealism. With the grass covered, black and white are the only options, polarity is the only reality; comers aren't neutral but are on edge. She shakes off snow, defiance wasted on the limited audience of horse. The snow does not hypnotize her as it wants to, as the blond sun does in making too many prefer daylight.

She has promises to keep, the promise that she bear Jim no bastards, the promise that she ride the horse only as long as it is willing to accept riders, the promise that she bear Jim no bastards, the promise to her face that it not be mistaken as shadow, and miles to go, more than the distance from Africa to Andover, more than the distance from black to white before she sleeps with Jim.