List of top English Questions

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?

Agatha Christie broke a fundamental rule of detective fiction in____.

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______.

"I started writing in Gikuyu language in 1977 after seventeen years of involvement 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.

"The horror! The horror!" - these are the last words of_____.

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

Which one of the following is a famous detective character created by Edgar Allan Poe?

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" is a/an____.

English literature is a vast and diverse field that has left an indelible mark on the world of letters. From the eloquent plays of William Shakespeare to the complex novels of Jane Austen and the profound poetry of William Wordsworth, English literature offers a window into the human experience. One of the luminaries of English literature is William Shakespeare, often hailed as the greatest playwright in the history of English language. His works, including Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet, are celebrated for their exploration of human nature, love, ambition, and tragedy. His characters, such as the tormented Hamlet and the star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet, continue to captivate readers and audiences worldwide.
The 19th century ushered in a new era of literary giants. Jane Austen’s novels, such as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, provide incisive social commentary through the lens of wit and romance. Austen’s heroines, like Elizabeth Bennet and Elinor Dashwood, remain beloved literary figures known for their intelligence and resilience. The Romantic era brought forth poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who celebrated * 8 UG the beauty of nature and the emotional intensity of the individual. Wordsworth’s ‘‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’’ and Coleridge’s ‘‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’’ are testament to the power of the written words to evoke profound emotions and imagery. Moving towards 20th century, English literature continued to evolve. Virginia Woolf’s ground-breaking novel Mrs. Dalloway explored the inner thoughts and lives of its characters with a modernist narrative style. Dystopian visions, as seen in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four provided stark warnings about the dangers of totalitarianism and the erosion of individual freedom.
Today, English literature is a global phenomenon, transcending borders and languages. Indian authors like Arundhati Roy, with her novel The God of Small Things, have won prestigious international literary awards. The book not only explores intricate family dynamics but also delves into the broader socio-political landscape of India. In summary, English literature is a testament to the enduring power of storytelling and the written word. It encompasses an array of authors, themes, and styles that continue to captivate and inspire readers across the world.

Everything she wanted was here, at Carignano, in Kasauli. Here, on the ridge of the mountain, in this quiet house. It was the place, and the time of life, that she had wanted and prepared for all her life-as she realized on the first day at Carignano, with a great, cool flowering of relief - and at last she had it. She wanted no one and nothing else. Whatever else came, or happened here, would be an unwelcome intrusion and distraction. This she tried to convey to the plodding postman with a cold and piercing stare from the height of the ridge onto his honest bull back. Unfortunately, he did not look up at her on the hilltop but stared stolidly down at the dust piling onto his shoes as he plodded on. A bullock-man, an oafish ox, she thought bitterly. She stepped backwards into the garden and the wind suddenly billowed up and threw the pine branches about as though to curtain her. She was grey, tall and thin and her silk sari made a sweeping, shivering sound and she fancied she could merge with the pine trees and be mistaken for one. To be a tree, no more and no less, was all she was prepared to undertake.
What pleased and satisfied her so, here at Carignano, was its barrenness. This was the chief virtue of all Kasauli of course-its starkness. It had rocks, it had pines, it had light and air. In every direction there was a sweeping view - to the north, of the mountains, to the south, of the plains. Occasionally an eagle swam through this clear unobstructed mass of light and air, that was all. And Carignano, her home on the ridge, had no more than that. Why should it? The sun shone on its white walls. Its windows were open the ones facing north opened on to the blue waves of the Himalayas flowing out and up to the line of ice and snow sketched upon the sky, while those that faced south looked down the plunging cliff to the plain stretching out, flat and sere to the blurred horizon.
Yes, there were some apricot trees close to the house. There were clumps of iris that had finished blooming. There was the kitchen with a wing of smoke lifting out of its chimney and a stack of wood outside its door. But these were incidental, almost unimportant.
[Extracted, with edits and revisions, from “Fire on the Mountain” by Anita Desai]

The crisis of justice that is the subject matter of discussion in the media today is in fact the crisis of “justice for the middle class”. The main difference between India and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries is that whereas the middle class in these countries has reasonable access to justice, in India it does not. A vocal and powerful middle class has emerged in India since 1991. It is demanding reasonable access to justice. Much of the judicial reform effort will help meet this demand…
The question of justice for the poor is, however, an altogether different challenge. No country in the world has been able to secure justice for the poor. Most of the jails of the richest countries are filled with the poorest. The “masses” are more often victims of the criminal justice system than of crime. In India as well, jails are almost exclusively filled with the poor. The civil justice system is hardly accessible to them. They are often victimised by lawyers, touts and court staff. They are docket-excluded, a new type of untouchability. The language and the logic—and the colonial and feudal culture—of the judicial system are alien to them. It rarely takes cognisance of their needs and interests.
Their main concern, therefore, is to escape the attention of the justice system, criminal and civil. A landless Dalit person in the interior of Madhya Pradesh once gave me an insightful definition of a court from the perspective of the masses: “A court is a place where you are forcibly taken by the police to be punished; no one goes to a court.” In contrast, many lawyers and judges colloquially define a court as “a temple of justice where rights are protected”.
These sharply divergent visions mean that justice for one section is often injustice for another. Protecting the livelihood of traditional taxi and auto drivers from predatory pricing by corporate app-based taxi providers by imaginatively using the available tools of law to delay their incursion would be seen by the rich and by sections of the middle class as a failure of the judicial system, and possibly as also resulting in a downgrading of the “ease of doing business” measure. However, the masses would see such a judicial intervention as strong evidence of a good justice system. Although the conflict over competing visions of the nation and conflicting demands from social and economic segments have confined judicial reform of judicial administration mainly to “neutral” areas such as process reform, procedural law, technology, planning and court and case management, judge strength, and the workload of judges, there has been considerable improvement in these areas, and the judicial system has improved its performance.
[Extracted, with edits, from “Justice and the Two Ideas of India”, by G. Mohan Gopal, Frontline]

In the realm of contemporary literature, the interplay between character and setting is a nuanced dance that shapes the narrative’s essence. The setting, often described with painstaking detail, becomes more than a backdrop; it becomes a character, influencing the plot and character development.
Consider, for instance, the barren expanse of the desert in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. The arid landscape mirrors the sense of isolation felt by the protagonist, Gogol, as he navigates his identity crisis in a foreign land. The relentless sun and vast sands are not mere descriptions; they are the silent witnesses to his inner turmoil.
On the other end of the literary spectrum, there is Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. The lush, vibrant Kerala backwaters are not just the setting; they are a character woven into the fabric of the story. The teeming, humid landscape reflects the complex web of human relationships and secrets that unravel in the narrative. This interplay is not confined to contemporary literature alone. In Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy Macbeth, the eerie and foreboding setting of the Scottish moors casts a dark shadow over the characters’ actions. The moors, shrouded in mist and mystery, serve as an ever-present omen of the impending tragedy.

Match List - I with List - II.

List - I		List - II
(A)	apple of one's eye	(I)	all of a sudden
(B)	to be all ears	(II)	Not able to hear well
(C)	out of the blue	(III)	loved clearly
(D)	hard of hearing	(IV)	to be very attentive

Choose the correct answer from the options given below :

Identify the type of clause in the sentence :
"Although she tried her best, she couldn't win the competition."

Identify the adverb and adjective in the following sentence :
"The cat quickly climbed the tall tree."

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows:
Your body is almost two-thirds water, so staying hydrated is important. Teenagers should aim to drink six to eight glasses of water per day, according to the British Nutrition Foundation. That number increases for teens who engage in sports or are especially active. Other good sources of fluid include 100 percent fruit juice and low-fat milk. Sugary and caffeinated drinks should be limited or eliminated from the diet completely as they provide excess sugar and empty calories.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, teenagers need at least nine hours of sleep each night to function at their best during the day. It sounds easy enough, but with early school start times, late afternoon practices and hours of homework, getting enough sleep can be a challenge. Set a regular bedtime that allows for nine hours of sleep before you have to get up for school. You should also plan for at least an hour of "quiet time" prior to bedtime. The goal is for all electronics to be turned off for the night so that the brain and body relax. Quiet time may involve listening to soothing music or reading a book.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows :
Conducting an interview should be like painting by numbers if you are properly prepared. Consider the various aspects of the interview that benefit from early preparation. Some of these may seem obvious, but if left until the candidates are at the door, they can have a negative effect on the process. A checklist will help to make sure everything is planned and some of the less obvious considerations remembered.
Frequently overlooked is the choice of venue and its layout; this can affect the atmosphere of the interview and how candidates respond. The room can feel forbidding, formal, relaxed or cosy, depending on how the furniture is arranged and how the interviewers behave towards the candidates.
Interviewing can be stressful for candidates and interviewers alike, so take account of this in the timing of the interviews and briefing of the interviewers. Stress levels also influence how interviewers behave towards the candidates; developing skills in how to question and supply information to candidates will smooth the flow and help interviewers improve their performance. Of course, question technique, active listening and observation skills benefit managers in other areas of their work, too. The way in which the interview is ended also has an effect on the candidates and may well effect whether the desired candidate decides whether to accept the offer of employment or reject it.

Read the following passage and answer the question that follows :
Learning the Queen's English like scrubbing off the bright red varnish from your toe nails, the morning after a dance. It takes a long time and there is always a little bit left at the end, a stain of red along the growing edges to remind you of the good time you had. So, you can see that learning came slowly to me. On the other hand, I had plenty of time, I learned your language in an immigration detention centre, in Essex, in the Southeastern part of the United Kingdom. Two years, they locked me in there. Time was all I had.
But why did I go to all the trouble ? It is because of what some of the older girls explained to me to survive, you must look good or talk even better. The plain ones and the silent ones, it seems their paperwork in never in order. You say, they got repatriated. We say, sent home early.
The Other Hand is the stroy of a young woman who flees conflict in her home village in the oil-rich region of southern Nigeria. She makes her way to the UK as an illlegal immigrant detention centre near London. When she finally gets out, she seeks out the only two people she knows in England, whom she met on a Nigerian beach during a life-changing event a few years before. Will she be able to find them, and if so will they help her ? And if not, will she survive in her newly adopted country as an immigrant ?

Read the passage and answer the questions given below selecting the appropriate option:
While conservation efforts are associated with conflicts between villagers and Forest Officials in most Protected areas across the country, the Kailadevi Wildlife Sanctuary in Rajasthan has involved local community initiatives for conservation and regeneration. The Sanctuary was initiated in 1983, over 674 sq km forming a part of the 1334 sq km Ranthambore Tiger Reserve. It is located within the Karauli and Sopatra blocks of Sawai Madhopur district.
The primary occupation of the predominant Meena and Gujjar communities is pastoralism and subsistence agriculture.
Pressures on the sanctuary included migrant grazers known as the Rabaris, who came from the Mewar region of Rajasthan with herds of over 150,000 sheep. Other pressures were from exploitation of timber and fuelwood and mining. The threat posed by the migrant grazers spurred the formation of the "Baragaon ki Panchayat" in 1990, which in turn initiated a 'Bhed Bhagao Andolan'.
The Forest Department supported the villagers in the formation of Forest Protection Committees and Van Suraksha Samitis. The benefits of involving local people in protection of their resources were obvious. Illegal felling was checked. The use of forest resources for local use was monitored. The Forest Protection Committees (FPCs) were also successful in stopping the mining in the Sanctuary. The people not only protect their forests but also use their resources judiciously.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the next 5 questions by choosing the correct option:
No one could understand where he got his money from. But the person who marvelled most at the dashing and luxurious life led by Alphonse was his friend and partner.
After they dissolved their partnership, most of the custom and the best connection passed by degrees into Charles's hands. This was not because he in any way sought to run counter to his former partner; on the contrary, it arose simply from the fact that Charles was the more capable man of the two. And as Alphonse had now to work on his own account, it was soon clear to any one who observed him closely, that in spite of his promptitude, his amiability, and his prepossessing appearance, he was not fit to be at the head of an independent business.
And there was one person who did observe him closely. Charles followed him step by step with his sharp eyes; every blunder, every extravagance, every loss - he knew all to a nicety, and he wondered how Alphonse could keep going so long.
They had as good as grown up together. Their mothers were cousins; the families had lived near each other in the same street; and in a city like Paris, proximity is as important as relationship in promoting closeness. Moreover, the boys went to same school.

In stark contrast to where I grew up-in warm, lush green Trivandrum, Kerala, filled with rich sights, sounds and people-life at the Poles is quiet. The harshness of winter brings along with it an eerie desolation and near-total silence. Survival in this frigid, dark and windy terrain is only for the fittest. A misstep can mean anything from an icy injury to a bitter, benumbed death.
But while it is tenuous, life here is also humbling-physically, mentally, and even spiritually. The experience has allowed me to witness the wonderous dualities of nature: raw, brutal and unforgiving but nurturing and awe-inspiring at the same time.
As the days shorten, almost all life starts to depart seeking warmer lands. But those who stay are surrounded by glacial beauty and an otherworldly stillness that stands unmatched. In peak winter months, the sun seems to live only in memory. Its absence however, is only an illusion: shimmering displays of blue, red, yellow, green, and orange auroras shifting and snaking like billowing curtains across the pitch black sky remind me that the light shall one day return.
Even the emptiness of the land is deceptive. Look closely and out waddles a flock of penguins from behind an ice shelf on the Antarctic peninsula.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the next five questions by choosing the correct options:
A great part of Arabia is desert. Here there is nothing but sand and rock. The sand is so hot that you cannot walk over it with your bare feet in the daytime. Here and there in the desert are springs of water that come from deep down under the ground - so deep that the sun cannot dry them up. These springs are few and far apart, but wherever there is one, trees grow tall and graceful making a cool, green, shady place around the spring. Such a place is called an oasis.
The Arabs who are not in the cities live in the desert all the year round. They live in tents that can be put up and taken down very easily and quickly so that they can move from one oasis to another, seeking grass and water for their sheep, goats, camels and horses. These desert Arabs eat ripe, sweet figs, and also the dates that grow upon the palm trees; they dry them, too, and use them as food all the year round.
These Arabs have the finest horses in the world. An Arab is very proud of his riding horse, and loves him almost as much as he loves his wife and children. He never puts heavy loads upon his horse, and often lets him stay in the tent with his family. The camel is much more useful to the Arab than his beautiful horse, however, for he is much larger and stronger. One camel can carry as much as or more than two horses. The Arab loads the camel with goods and rides him, too, for miles and miles across the desert - just as if it were really the "Ship of the Desert", which it is often called.