List of top English Questions

“This is your big surprise.”
(i)Where has this been said in the play?
(ii) What is the surprise?

“You’ll soon stop being smart.”
(i) Who says this?
(ii) Why does the speaker say it?
(iii) What according to the speaker will stop Gerrard from being smart?

“I said it with bullets.”
(i) Who says this?
(ii) What does it mean?
(iii) Is it the truth? What is the speaker’s reason for saying this?

“At last a sympathetic audience.”
(i) Who says this?
(ii) Why does he say it?
(iii) Is he sarcastic or serious?

What does Mandela mean when he says he is “simply the sum of all those African patriots” who had gone before him?

Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children 'spilling out of their homes'?

Look at the words the poet uses to describe what he sees and hears at Innisfree
(i) bee-loud glade
(ii) evenings full of the linnet’s wings
(iii) lake water lapping with low sounds What pictures do these words create in your mind?

What do you understand about the author’s literary inclinations from the account?

How does the author describe the incongruity of an English poet addressing the audience at Gemini Studios ?

Science wasn’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man with the walrus moustache. (interested, challenged, worried)

Five years later, the discovery of nuclear fission in Berlin had American physicists in an uproar. (in a state of commotion, full of criticism, in a desperate state)

Einstein got ever more involved in politics, agitating for an end to the arms buildup. (campaigning, fighting, supporting)

Notice the sentences in the text which are in ‘direct speech’. Why does the author use quotations in his narration?

The newspapers proclaimed his work as “a scientific revolution.” (declared, praised, showed)

Einstein was constantly at odds with people at the university. (on bad terms, in disagreement, unhappy)

How do we know that ordinary people too contributed to the freedom movement?

Who does Lencho think has taken the rest of the money? What is the irony in the situation? (Remember that the irony of a situation is an unexpected aspect of it. An ironic situation is strange or amusing because it is the opposite of what is expected.)

to meet one’s match

A few years later, the marriage faltered. (failed, broke, became weak).

Here are some facts from Einstein’s life. Arrange them in chronological order.
[ ] Einstein publishes his special theory of relativity.
[ ] He is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
[ ] Einstein writes a letter to U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and warns against Germany’s building of an atomic bomb.
[ ] Einstein attends a high school in Munich.
[ ] Einstein’s family moves to Milan.
[ ] Einstein is born in the German city of Ulm.
[ ] Einstein joins a university in Zurich, where he meets Mileva.
[ ] Einstein dies. [ ] He provides a new interpretation of gravity.
[ ] Tired of the school’s regimentation, Einstein withdraws from school.
[ ] He works in a patent office as a technical expert.
[ ] When Hitler comes to power, Einstein leaves Germany for the United States.

Why does the world remember Einstein as a “world citizen”?

How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

Why did Einstein write a letter to Franklin Roosevelt?

What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office? Why?