English - 40th BCS Preliminary Questions

‘The Rape of the Lock’ by Alexander Pope is a/an –

a)      Epic

b)      Ballad

c)       Mock-heroic poem

d)      Elegy

Ans. c [40th BCS]

Which of the following is not an American poet?

a)      Robert Frost

b)      W.B. Yeats

c)       Emily Dickinson

d)      Langston Hughes

Ans. b [40th BCS]

William Shakespeare was born in –

a)      1616

b)      1664

c)       1564

d)      1493

Ans. c [40th BCS]

Tennyson’s ‘In Memoriam’ is an elegy on the death of –

a)      John Milton

b)      John Keats

c)       Arthur Henry Hallam

d)      Sydney Smith

Ans. c [40th BCS]

‘Sweet Helen’ make me immortal with a kiss.’

The sentence has been taken from the play –

a)      Romeo and Juliet

b)      Caesar and Cleopatra

c)       Doctor Faustus

d)      Antony and Cleopatra

Ans. c [40th BCS]

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet’ – Who said this?

a)      Juliet

b)      Romeo

c)       Portia

d)      Rosalind

Ans. a [40th BCS]

’Man’s love is of man’s life a thing apart, `Tis women’s whole existence.’ – This is taken from the poem of –

a)      P.B. Shelley

b)      Lord Byron

c)       John Keats

d)      Edmund Spenser

Ans. b [40th BCS]

Who translated the ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ into English?

a)      Thomas Carlyle

b)      Edward Fitzgerald

c)       D.G. Rossetti

d)      William Thackeray

Ans. b [40th BCS]

`Ulysses’ is a novel written by –

a)      Joseph Conrad

b)      Thomas Hardy

c)       Charles Dickens

d)      James Joyce

Ans. d [40th BCS]

The short story ‘The Diamond Necklace’ was written by –

a)      Guy de Maupassant

b)      O Henry

c)       Somerset Maugham

d)      George Orwell

Ans. a [40th BCS]

`All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’ – Who said this?

a)      Macbeth

b)      Lady Macbeth

c)       Lady Macduff

d)      Macduff

Ans. b [40th BCS]

‘Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too’ – Who wrote this?

a)      William Wordsworth

b)      Robert Browning

c)       John Keats

d)      Samuel Coleridge

Ans. c [40th BCS]

Who is the central character of `Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte?

a)      Mr. Earnshaw

b)      Catherine

c)       Heathcliff

d)      Hindley Earnshaw

Ans. c [40th BCS]

‘The old order changeth, yielding place to new.’ – This line is extracted from Tennyson’s poem –

a)      The Lotos-Eaters

b)      Tithonus

c)       Locksley Hall

d)      Morte d’ Arthur

Ans. d [40th BCS]

Who wrote the poem ‘The Good-Morrow’?

a)      George Herbert

b)      Andrew Marvell

c)       John Donne

d)      Henry Vaughan

Ans. c [40th BCS]

‘Please write to me at the above Address.’ The word ‘above’ in this sentence is a/an-

a)      noun

b)      adjective

c)       pronoun

d)      adverb

Ans. b [40th BCS]

In which sentence in the word ‘past’ used as a preposition?

a)      Writing letters is a thing of the past.

b)      I look back on the past without regret.

c)       I called out to him as he ran past.

d)      Tania was a wonderful singer, but she’s past her prime.

Ans. d [40th BCS]

The Word ‘sibling’ means –

a)      A brother

b)      A sister

c)       A brother or sister

d)      An infant

Ans. c [40th BCS]

As she was talking, he suddenly broke _____, saying. ‘That’s a lie!’

a)      off

b)      in

c)       down

d)      into

Ans. b [40th BCS]

You may go for a walk if you feel _____ it.

a)      about

b)      on

c)       like

d)      for

Ans. c [40th BCS]

Identify the word which is spelt incorrectly:

a)      consciencious

b)      perseverance

c)       convalescence

d)      maintenance

Ans. a [40th BCS]

‘You Look terrific in that dress!’

The Word ‘terrific’ in the above sentence means –

a)      excellent

b)      funny

c)       very ugly

d)      horrible

Ans. a [40th BCS]

Someone who is capricious is –

a)      easily irritated

b)      wise and willing to cooperate

c)       exceedingly conceited and arrogant

d)      known for sudden changes in attitude or behavior

Ans. d [40th BCS]

Which one of the following words is masculine?

a)      Mare

b)      Lad

c)       Pillow

d)      Pony

Ans. b [40th BCS]

A man whose wife has died is called a –

a)      Widow

b)      Widower

c)       Spinster

d)      Bachelor

Ans. b [40th BCS]

Which word is similar to ‘Appal’?

a)      Deceive

b)      Confuse

c)       Dismay

d)      Solicit

Ans. c [40th BCS]

Which word means the opposite of ‘Dearth’?

a)      Lack

b)      Abundance

c)       Poverty

d)      Shortage

Ans. b [40th BCS]

Identify the word which remains the same in its plural form:

a)      Aircraft

b)      Intention

c)       Mouse

d)      Thesis

Ans. a [40th BCS]

Identify the determiner in the following sentence.

‘I have no news for you.’

a)      have

b)      news

c)       no

d)      for

Ans. c [40th BCS]

‘A lost opportunity never returns.’ Here `lost’ is a –

a)      gerund

b)      verbal noun

c)       gerundial infinitive

d)      participle

Ans. d [40th BCS]

The saying ‘enough is enough’ is used when you want –

a)      something to continue

b)      something to stop

c)       something to continue until it’s enough

d)      to tell instructions are clear

Ans. b [40th BCS]

 ‘He ran with great speed?’

The underlined part of the sentence is a –

a)      noun phrase

b)      adverb phrase

c)       adjective phrase

d)      participle phrase

Ans. b [40th BCS]

 ‘We must not be late, else we will miss the train?’ This is a –

a)      compound sentence

b)      complex sentence

c)       simple sentence

d)      interrogative sentence

Ans. a [40th BCS]

Change the voice: ‘Who is calling me?’

a)      By whom am I called?

b)      By whom I am called?

c)       By whom am I being called?

d)      Whom am I called by?

Ans. c [40th BCS]

An extra message added at the end of a letter after it is signed is called –

a)      corrigendum

b)      postscript

c)       NB

d)      RSVP

Ans. b [40th BCS]