Question

Arrange the following Nobel Prize winners in chronological order of they being awarded, beginning with the earliest.
(A) Doris Lessing
(B) William Golding
(C) J. M. Coetzee
(D) Wole Soyinka
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

• A. (A), (B), (D), (C)
• B. (C), (B), (D), (A)
• C. (D), (C), (A), (B)
• D. (B), (D), (C), (A)

Hint:

For chronological questions involving awards or publication dates, try to place authors in their respective literary decades or periods. Golding and Soyinka are late 20th-century figures, while Coetzee and Lessing are early 21st-century winners. This can help you narrow down the options even if you don't know the exact years.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
The question requires ordering four winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature based on the year they received the award, from the earliest to the most recent.

Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
Let's find the year each author was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature:
\[\begin{array}{rl} \bullet & \text{(B) William Golding: The British novelist, author of Lord of the Flies, won the prize in 1983. } \\ \bullet & \text{(D) Wole Soyinka: The Nigerian playwright and poet, the first sub-Saharan African to win the prize, was awarded in 1986. } \\ \bullet & \text{(C) J. M. Coetzee: The South African-Australian novelist, author of Disgrace, won the prize in 2003. } \\ \bullet & \text{(A) Doris Lessing: The British-Zimbabwean novelist, author of The Golden Notebook, won the prize in 2007. } \\ \end{array}\] Arranging these in chronological order gives the sequence: William Golding (1983), Wole Soyinka (1986), J. M. Coetzee (2003), and Doris Lessing (2007).
The correct order is (B), (D), (C), (A).

Step 3: Final Answer:
The option that matches this sequence is (D).