UGC NTA NET/JRF Exam. December 2020/June 2021 ENGLISH-II (Shift-I)

Total Questions: 100

1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

What can be the use of a poetry that has no true subject except the poet's own selfhood? The traditional use of poetry in the Western world has been instruction through delight, where teaching has meant the common truths or common deceptions of societal tradition, and where esthetic pleasure has meant a fulfillment of expectations founded upon past joys of the same design.

But an individual psyche has its own accidents, which it needs to call truths, and its own necessity for self-recognition, which requires the pleasures of originality, even if those pleasures depend upon a kind of lying against time, and against the achievements of the past. The use of such poetry demands to be seen in a deidealized way, if it is to be seen more truly.
-Harold Bloom, "The Use of Poetry"

In the context of the above which is closest to being true?

Correct Answer: (d) The poet himself may be the subject.
Solution:

In the context of the given excerpt from "The Use of Poetry" by Harold Bloom, the poet himself may be the subject' is closest to being true.
Harold Bloom has discussed the subject of the poetry and use of the poetry it has no true subject.

2. What is meant by 'traditional use of poetry'?

Correct Answer: (c) Promoting joyous expectations
Solution:

In the context of the given passage "Traditional use of poetry" means "Promoting joyous expectations".
Harold Bloom described "the traditional use of poetry in Western World" as instruction through delight and esthetic pleasure as a fulfillment of expectations founded upon past joys.

3. If 'selfhood' of a poet is the subject of poetry, then 'originality' shall spring from:

Correct Answer: (a) some truth of untruths.
Solution:

If 'Selfhood' of a poet is the subject of poetry, then 'Originality shall spring from some truth of untruths.
Thus, the correct answer is option (a).

4. Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow:

No worst, there is none. No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief, More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring. Comforter, where, where is your comforting? Mary, mother of us, where is your relief? My cries heave, herds - long; huddle in a main, a chief Woe, world - sorrow; on an age-old anvil wince and sing - Then lull, then leave off. Fury had shrieked 'No lingering!

Let me be fell: force I must be brief." O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there. Nor does long our small Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep, Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.
- Gerard Manley Hopkins

Which of the following best describes the meaning of the title of the poem, 'No worst, there is none.'? 

Correct Answer: (b) Nothing can be so much bad as this.
Solution:

The meaning of the title of the poem "No worst, there is none" is best described by "Nothing can be so much bad as this".
'No worst, there is none' is Gerard Manley Hopkins's terrible sonnet describes the nature of a speaker's depression and its highs and lows.

5. Beyond the intensity of known grief, there can be:

Correct Answer: (c) only the twisted known pains.
Solution:

Beyond the intensity of known grief, there can be 'only twisted known pains'. Thus, the correct answer is option (c).

6. Which two of the following are true?

A. Not all know the intensity or depth of suffering.
B. Death does not put an end to our sufferings.
C. Suffering is seen as winds that hinder comfort.
D. Suffering's intensity or depth is in the mind.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

Correct Answer: (c) A and D only
Solution:

According to the excerpt from the given poem, lines given (A) and (D) are absolutely true.
■ Not all know the intensity or depth of suffering.
■ Suffering's intensity or depth is in the mind.

7. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

'Justice' was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the D'Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless; the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had enough strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
--Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles

How did the 'sport with Tess' end?

Correct Answer: (a) She was hanged.
Solution:

The 'sport with Tess' ended as 'she was hanged'.
This passage is the last paragraph of chapter LIX at the close of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy in which Tess is executed for murder, and the black flag at the prison indicates that execution has been done.

8. Who are the 'two speechless gazers'?

Correct Answer: (b) 'Liza-Lu and Angel Clare
Solution:

'Two speechless gazers' are 'Liza-Lu and Angel Clare'.
In the final scene, 'Liza-Lu and Angel Clare' wait outside of a prison. They do not witness the execution. They wait and watch the building until a black flag is raised on a pole outside the prison tower to indicate that execution has been done.

9. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
-Shakespeare, The Tempest

'[T]his insubstantial pageant' refers to:

Correct Answer: (b) a non-real performance.
Solution:

'This insubstantial pageant' refers to 'a nonreal performance'
Prospero's speech in Act-IV, Scene- I of The Tempest by Shakespeare emphasizes both the beauty of the world he has created for himself and the sadness of the fact that this world in many ways meaningless because it is a kind of dream completely removed from anything substantial.

10. 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on' means:

Correct Answer: (d) There is no substance to human life.
Solution:

'We are such stuff as dreams are made on' means 'There is no substance to human life'. This line appears in Act 4 of 'The Tempest' spoken by the magician Prospero.