HALL TICKET NUMBER
Department of English
M.A. ENGLISH ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, FEBRUARY 2015
Max. Time: 2 hours Max. Marks: 100
INSTRUCTIONS
.. 1. Do not reveal your identity in any manner in any part of the answer book.
2.
Enter your Hall Ticket Number on the question paper, the OMR sheet and the First page of the answer book, in the box provided.

3.
This paper consists of TWO SECTIONS in all.


Section A consists of Multiple Choice Questions and must be answered in the OMR sheet. .
0.33 marks will be deducted for every wrong answer in respect of all Multiple Choice Questions. No marks will be deducted for questions not attempted.
Section B has TWO questions:
Question 1 requires you to write an essay. It must be answered in
the answer book provided.
Question 2 comprises a passage for critical analysis. It must be
answered in the answer book provided.

4. Write your answers only in the space provided in the answer book. No additional paper or answer book will be given.

5.
This question paper contains 12 pages in all. Ensure that all the pages have been printed before you start answering.

6.
At the end of the examination return the OMR sheet and the answer book to the invigilator. You may take away the question paper.


(Tum to Page 2 for Section
o

Hall Ticket Number
M.A. ENGLISH ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, FEBRUARY 2015
SECTION: A
(Total Marks: 50)
There are 50 questions to answer.
The questions carry ONE MARK each.
0.33 marks will be deducted for each wrong answer.
Answer in the OMR sheet, using a pen or sketch pen.

Choose the right answer from the options given under each item.
1. Velutha is a character in

The God ofSmall Things
Karukku



Untouchable


Hindu: A Novel


2. Choose the correctly spelt word below.

Diligense


Diligence


Deligence


Dilligence


3. Conceptual meaning and associated meaning are in relation to

Syntax


Semantics


Semiotics


Pragmatics


.4

4. Provide the suitable word to fill in the blank: Ashok cricket for the last twenty years.

plays


has played


-has been playing


will have played


5. Supposedly, digital voice discs or DVDs as they are called are resistant to scratching records.

much/than


so/as


such/that


far more/than


6. How many meanings are possible for the following sentence?
Flying planes can be dangerous.

only one


two


three


Four


Questions 7-9 are based on the passage given below:
TEACHER: In addition to your textbooks, there are a couple of other materials you need
to buy for this course. Because you will be writing weekly I want you
to have a notebook that you can to me every Friday. Make sure that
the size is 8 1/2 by 11, not a smaller one. You also need a set of index cards. You will be
taking notes on books that you will read, and you will write your notes on these cards.
One set . Any questions?
7. journals;

journals,
.. journals.



journals



8. tum up

turn on


turn down


tum in


9. should be enough

should have been enough


should enough


should been enough


10. "You have been there, haven't you?" The highlighted part is a

Question mark


Query tag


Question tag


Query marker


11. "Out of the coffin" puns on the following phrase to suggest a relation between homosexuality and vampirism

Out ofthe cupboard


Out ofthe closet


Out of the chest


Out of the casino


12. Trochees, spondees and dactyls are

Figures of speech


Metrical feet


Proverbial sayings


End Rhymes


13. "You are lying." she said dispassionately. Dispassionately means

Angrily


Unemotionally


Sadly


Irritatedly



14. 'Cockney' is a term used to refer to the accent and slang of

Ireland


London


Yorkshire


Wales


15. A word, which in the latest dictionaries is also defined as 'emphatically', as a result of usage though this was not there in the original definition is

Absolutely


Literally


Completely


Certainly


16. Which of these words is spelt wrong?
Flaombuyant
o

Carbohydrate


Calabash


Idiosyncrasy


17. The word "taxi-cab" is made up of abbreviations of two other words. What are they?

Taxonomy and Cabaret


Toxic and Cabala


Taximeter and Cabriolet


Taximeter and Cabinet


18. Who wrote:
Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the legislators of the World.

P.B. Shelley


William Wordsworth


Plato


T.S. Eliot


r


19. Which famous novel begins with the following words?
"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

Ulysses


Animal Farm


A Suitable Boy


Pride and Prejudice


20. "Frankly, my dear," he said, "I don't give a damn!,"
Choose the correct form of reported speech:

He said frankly that he didn't give a damn.


He frankly said that he didn't give a damn.


He said that frankly he didn't give a damn.


He said he didn't give a damn frankly.


21. Choose the closest meaning ofthe word "craven".

A·craving for something


Display of cowardice


A deep, large, enclosed space


A cave on the side of a mountain


22. In Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, 'midnight' refers to

India's first space shuttle launch


The birth of India's first test-tube baby


India's independence


Declaration of Emergency


23. The 'Queen of Crime' title is usually associated with

Elizabeth I


Mary Shelley


Agatha Christie


P.D. James


24. In the Harry Potter series, what subject does Snape teach?

Botany


Potions


.Alchemy


Divination


6


25. You did see him,

Didn't you?


Do you?


Hadn't you?


Won't you?


26. The nature of the descent down the mountain unnerved them all.

persistent


precarious


perspiring


prescient


27. "Do not fire you see them very close" ordered the sergeant.

when


until


where


as
28. Replace the underlined word in the sentence given below with a'word with the same meanIng.
The collapse ofthe dollar marked a crisis in the global econon1Y..

Mess


Rise


Catastrophe


Catapult


29. Sachin Tendulkar's recently released autabiography is titled

Playing it My Way


Playing It


Playing All the Way


Playing Ball


30. The plot ofthe novel was it was completely incomprehensible.

more complicated


such complicated


so complicated that


much more complicated than



31. He bought guard dogs to the intruders.
Which of the following phrases would complete the sentence's meaning?

keep in


keep up


keep out


keep at


32. The first black woman author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature is

Octavia Butler


Lorraine Hansberry
Maya Angelou



Toni Morrison


33. In spite of being in a tough situation, they made the most of it.
Identify the compound conjunction in the above sentence.

in spite of
. a tough situation



they made


the most


34. The roots of the old tree spread out thirty meters in all directions and damaged nearby buildings.

too much


as much as


so much


so many as


35. When the title to a poem begins with the phrase, In Memory of. .. we expect it to be

an epic


an elegy


an encomium


an essay




36. The Renaissance was a period of renewed interest in

supernatural and occult
. classical learning and the arts



mysticism and religion


tribal and folk wisdom


37. By poetic justice is meant

the kind ofjustice one hopes to see done in poetry and allied arts


departure from conventional justice effected by poets and artists


well-deserved reward or retribution for a character in art


the kind ofjustice poets are remiss in dispensing in their art


38. "When we were children, Aunt Alice used to tell us stories about the animals and birds and insects and reptiles who told us good and bad things about life." In a word, vhat stories were they?

fantasy


parables


fables


fiction


39. Even the most stubborn adherent to exclusively text-based approaches will not deny that
some extra-textual awareness of the life of Oscar Wilde creeps in to trouble our reading of "The
Ballad of Reading Gaol." .
In one word, this "extra-textual awareness" would be in kind.


anthropological


philosophical


confessional


biographical


40. Acquiring editors are the ones who scout out manuscripts and buy them for publishers. They generally specialize in one or more subjects or types of literature. If a project isn't yet in publishable form, an acquiring editor might help the writer develop it, either before or after it is under contract. Or she might tum it over to a developmental editor, who will analyze the project and work with the writer to pull it into publishable shape. Both types of editors might do some copyediting while they are at it, but it is likely to be random and (forgive me) inconsistent. They assume a copyeditor will go over it later.
How many types of editors are mentioned in this passage?

1


2
3



4



rt -1C6

41. The character of Winnie the Pooh was created by

Peter Barrie


A.A. Milne


Rudyard Kipling


Lewis Carroll


42. 'Shamus' is a slang term used to refer to a

Jockey


Boxer
Private Detective



Professional Wrestler


43. "You are in the teacher's good books," This sentence means:

Your books are shown by the teacher as good examples.


The teacher has a good opinion of you.


The teacher expects you to be unpredictable.


The teacher approves of your handwriting.


44. Which of the following statements is prophetic?

You are not better than they are.


You are not better than they are, are you?


You will never be better than they are.


You shouldn't hope to be better than they are.


45. "It is advisable to go the extra mile". This sentence

It is better to walk more than a mile a day.


It is better to put in more effort than is strictly necessary.


It is better to do extra work for extra pay.


It is better to do extra work even if there will be no results


46. To give the show away means

to betray the director


to tell what is going to happen


making sure that the cast remains absent during the show


making a nuisance during the show


o
n


47. A poker face is one

that is like a poker
. that shows no expressign



that smiles all the time


that conveys mixed feelings


48. People who do not like poetry are said to suffer from Gray's Allergy. The pun-allusion here is to

Gray's Elegy


Gray's Disease


Graveyard School of Poets


Grayfriars


49. In literary discussion, the main character of a work is sometimes called the

author


actor


protagonist


patriarch


50. "Within the gardens ofthe Pleasure-dome is growth and sunlight and colour. There are hints of death and war, the vision of a dmnsel with a dulcimer, and of the frenzy of the poet who has drunk 'the milk of paradise'." Which of the folloving poelns answers perfectly to this description?

"The Lady of Shalott"


"La Belle Dame sans Merci"


"A Slumber did my Spirit Seal ... "


"Kubla Khan: A Vision in a Dream"

51. Write an essay on anyone of the following topics. (20 Marks)

1. Telling tall tales

2. Bringing up parents

3. A redeeming vice

4. The cult of selfishness

5. Bollywood sports

6. Indias of the mind

7. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow .

8. Life without srnartphone

9. Pepper as spice, pepper as spray...

10. Dalits and English

52. What impressions of the speaker(s) would a reader gather from the following poem?
Comment on their characters as pointedly as you can. (30 Marks)

"Four winds blowing thro' the sky,
You have seen poor maidens die,
Tell me then what I shall do
That my lover may be true."
Said the wind from out the south,
"Lay no kiss upon his rnouth,"
And the wind from out the west,
"Wound the heart within his breast,"
And the wind from out the east,
"Send him empty from the feast,"
And the wind from out the north,
"In the tempest thrust him forth,
When thou art more cruel than he,
Then will Love be kind to thee."