CLASS XII GENERAL ENGLISH - QUESTION BANK
1. PRAYER OF THE WOODS
Question: What does the poem ‘Prayer of the Woods’ underline?
Answer: The poem underlines the importance of woods in man’s life.Question: What do the woods provide us with?
Answer: The woods give us shade in summer, heat in winter, and juicy fruits in all seasons.Question: What does the poet imagine himself to be in the poem?
Answer: The poet imagines himself to be a tree in this poem.Question: What does the poem appeal to human beings?
Answer: The entire poem is an appeal to human beings to never cut down trees.Question: What kind of feelings do Woods arise in the heart of man?
Answer: The Woods arise kindness and beauty in the heart of man.Question: List the things woods give us.
Answer: The woods give us heat in winter, shade in summer, and juicy fruits in all seasons.Question: How do trees help travellers to quench their thirst?
Answer: The juicy fruits of the trees help travellers to quench their thirst.Question: In this poem, what qualities do trees personify?
Answer: Trees are a symbol of kindness and greatness.Question: What is the meaning of “cradle to coffin” in the poem?
Answer: It means wood is used by man from birth to death.Question: What are trees pleading to man?
Answer: Trees pray to Man not to harm them.Question: Who is “I” in the poem?
Answer: “I” is the Woods in the poem.Question: What holds up our house?
Answer: The wooden beams hold up our house.Question: Trees provide us _________ (fuel/shade) for fireplace during the cold winter nights.
Answer: FuelQuestion: Many of the agricultural ________ (tools/ornaments) are made of wood.
Answer: ToolsQuestion: The trees remain useful for us throughout the __________ (picture/journey) of life.
Answer: Journey
2. ON FRIENDSHIP
Question: According to the poet, who is a gift of God?
Answer: A true friend is a gift of God.Question: ‘And he is your board and your fireside.’ Whom does ‘he’ refer to in this line from the poem?
Answer: (c) FriendQuestion: A friend is God’s way of answering our needs. (True/False)
Answer: TrueQuestion: What does one not fear to say to a friend?
Answer: One doesn’t fear to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to a friend.Question: What is the meaning of 'ceases not' in the poem?
Answer: It means ‘does not stop’.Question: According to the poet, when do we miss our friends the most?
Answer: We miss our friends the most during their absence.Question: What is the most important thing one can give to a friend?
Answer: Love or affection is the most important thing one can give to a friend.Question: What do we earn in return when we shower our friend with love?
Answer: We earn love and affection in return when we shower our friend with love.Question: What can we share with our friend without any doubt?
Answer: We can share our thoughts, desires, expectations, joys, and sorrows with our friend without any doubt.Question: What is the main purpose of friendship between two friends?
Answer: The main purpose of friendship between two friends is strengthening the bond.Question: What should a friend do if his friend is silent?
Answer: Friend should listen to friend’s heart if he is silent.Question: What is real friendship?
Answer: Lively laughter and sharing of pleasure.Question: We can agree or disagree with our friends. (True/False)
Answer: TrueQuestion: What are the qualities of a true friend?
Answer: A true friend is supportive, caring, sympathetic, loving, and benevolent.Question: For ___________ you come to your friend?
Answer: Hunger of contentment and peace of mind.
3. THE ECHOING GREEN
- Question: Name the poet of the poem ‘The Echoing Green’?
Answer: William Blake. - Question: What happens when the sun arises?
Answer: It makes the skies happy. - Question: Why do merry bells ring?
Answer: To welcome the spring. - Question: Name the birds of the bush.
Answer: Skylark and Thrush. - Question: Describe John.
Answer: He is an old man with white hair. - Question: Where is John sitting?
Answer: Under the oak tree. - Question: Who laughs at the play of the children?
Answer: The old people. - Question: In their youth-time, where were the old people seen?
Answer: On the echoing green. - Question: What does the word ‘weary’ refer to?
Answer: Feeling extreme tiredness. - Question: The poem celebrates a harmonious bond between man and nature. (True/False)
Answer: True. - Question: The birds, animals, and all other objects of nature take rest at the end of the day. (True/False)
Answer: True. - Question: The children gather around the laps of their mothers. (True/False)
Answer: True. - Question: The mood of the poem is happy and carefree. (True/False)
Answer: True. - Question: The children are not in a mood to stop their play even when the sun sets. (True/False)
Answer: False.
4. ONCE UPON A TIME
- Question: Who is the poet of the poem ‘Once Upon A Time’?
Answer: Gabriel Okara. - Question: What is the relationship between the narrator and the listener?
Answer: The narrator is the father. The listener is the son. - Question: How did the people in the past laugh?
Answer: In the past, people laughed out of real joy felt by them. - Question: How do the modern people laugh?
Answer: The modern people laugh for a show-off. - Question: How do people shake hands now?
Answer: People now shake hands for a routine. They have no real emotions of friendship. - Question: What happens to the poet when he visits someone for the third time?
Answer: The door is shut on his face and he is not allowed inside. - Question: What has the poet learned to do with his feelings?
Answer: The poet has learned to hide his true feelings. - Question: Which different faces has the poet learned to wear?
Answer: Home face, office face, street face, host face, and cocktail face. - Question: What is a portrait smile?
Answer: It is a false smile that the poet wears to hide his true feelings. - Question: What does the poet mean to say when he says ‘Goodbye’?
Answer: The poet actually means to say ‘Good-riddance’. - Question: What does the poet want to unlearn?
Answer: The poet wants to unlearn all the artificial behavior of a modern man. - Question: What does the poet want to relearn?
Answer: The poet wants to relearn the true and innocent behavior of his childhood. - Question: How do the modern people laugh?
Answer: (C) With their teeth. - Question: In olden days, people used to shake hands with their ________.
Answer: (D) Hearts. - Question: What is meant by: ‘Feel at home’?
Answer: (A) Be comfortable.
5. FATHER RETURNING HOME
- Question: Who has written the poem “Father Returning Home”?
Answer: Dilip Chitre. - Question: Which words, in the poem, show that the commuters in the train are not friendly to the father?
Answer: ‘Standing among silent commuters in the yellow light’. - Question: How does the poet show that it was a rainy day?
Answer: The poet’s father was wearing a raincoat; it shows that it was a rainy day. - Question: “Now I can see him getting off the train like a word dropped from a long sentence”. Which figure of speech is used here?
Answer: Simile. - Question: Which line, in the poem, indicates that father was unimportant to the crowd in the train?
Answer: ‘Like a word dropped from a long sentence.’ - Question: How do the children of the father treat him and what is their approach towards him?
Answer: The children do not care about the father and they have a passive approach towards him. - Question: What does the father dream of?
Answer: The father dreams of his ancestors and grandchildren. - Question: What shows that father was leading a miserable and monotonous life?
Answer: Working at an old age, shabby appearance, drinking weak tea, eating stale chapatti, ignored by family – all these show that father was leading a miserable and monotonous life. - Question: He crosses the grey railway platform. (True/False)
Answer: True. - Question: His sandals are sticky with mud, but he hurries homeward. (True/False)
Answer: False. - Question: I see him drinking ______ tea. (Fill in the blank)
Answer: Weak. - Question: Eating a stale chapatti, reading a _______. (Fill in the blank)
Answer: Book. - Question: He goes into the toilet to ________.
Answer: (i) Contemplate. - Question: Man is estranged from ________.
Answer: (ii) Man-made world. - Question: Coming out he trembles at the sink due to _________.
Answer: (i) His old age.
6. THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
- Question: Name the poet of the poem ‘The Road Not Taken’.
Answer: Robert Frost. - Question: Where did the two roads diverge?
Answer: (B) Yellow wood. - Question: What was the poet sorry about?
Answer: The poet was sorry that he could not travel both the roads. - Question: One road bent in the _____.
Answer: (A) Undergrowth. - Question: Then took the other and having perhaps the better _______.
Answer: (B) Claim. - Question: ______ (None, many) passed through the second road.
Answer: None. - Question: The leaves on the second road were not trodden _______.
Answer: Black. - Question: What was the poet’s doubt?
Answer: The poet doubted if he could ever come back to travel on the first road. - Question: Which road did the poet take?
Answer: The poet took the second road which was less travelled by. - Question: What has made all the difference?
Answer: The poet’s choice of road (his decision in life) has made all the difference in his life. - Question: What is the symbolic meaning of two different roads?
Answer: The two different roads symbolize different choices in man’s life and man has to make one choice to move ahead. - Question: The poem underlines the importance of _______.
Answer: (B) Choice in life. - Question: Give the rhyme scheme of the poem.
Answer: abaab. - Question: Write any one figure of speech used in the poem.
Answer: Alliteration (wanted wear).
7. ON HIS BLINDNESS
- Question: The word ‘spent’ means _______ (used up / alienated).
Answer: Used up. - Question: Post o’er land and ______ without rest. (ocean / sea).
Answer: Ocean. - Question: The word ‘talent’ refers to Milton’s ______ talent. (singing / poetic).
Answer: Poetic. - Question: Man must cheerfully ______ himself to the circumstances in which God placed him. (placed / adjust).
Answer: Adjust. - Question: Those who accept God’s will cheerfully are His best ______ (followers / servants).
Answer: Servants. - Question: The ways of God to man are just. (True/False).
Answer: True. - Question: The real service of God lies in feeling sad with our lot. (True/False).
Answer: False. - Question: God wants man to work to please him. (True/False).
Answer: False. - Question: Poet John Milton was blind. (True/False).
Answer: True. - Question: The gift of writing poetry is lying unused with him. (True/False).
Answer: True. - Question: The name of the poet is:
Answer: (ii) John Milton. - Question: In the first line ‘light’ is a _____ for vision.
Answer: (iii) Metaphor. - Question: Who best bear His mild _____, they serve Him best.
Answer: (ii) Yoke. - Question: In the poem the word ‘murmur’ means:
Answer: (i) A soft quiet voice. - Question: The poet John Milton was:
Answer: (iii) Blind.
Class 12 English Question Bank
1. The School for Sympathy
- Who is the author of the chapter "The School for Sympathy"?
Ans. E.V. Lucas - What does the lesson teach us?
Ans. Humanity and Citizenship - The ___________ day was the most difficult day.
Ans. Blind - Miss Beam led the author to one of the _________ girls.
Ans. Bandaged - Which color was Miss Beam’s hair turning to?
a) Black
b) Pink
c) Grey
d) Golden
Ans. c) Grey - Who was the dark girl in red, on crutches?
a) Beryl
b) Millie
c) Fill
d) Willie
Ans. a) Beryl
2. A Chameleon
- Who took the dog to its owner?
Ans. Prohor - The ______________ assured Hryukin that the offender will be punished.
Ans. Police Superintendent - What was Otchumyelov wearing?
Ans. A new overcoat - What did Otchumyelov hear in the Square Market?
Ans. Painful cries of a dog - Which finger of Hryukin was bleeding?
Ans. Right finger - The dog was jumping on her _______ legs.
a) Two
b) Three
c) Four
d) None of these
Ans. b) Three
3. Bholi
- What kind of a girl was Bholi?
a) Annoying
b) Neglected
c) Beautiful
d) Independent
Ans. b) Neglected - Tehsildar came to the village for the inauguration of ________.
a) College
b) School
c) Hospital
d) Shop
Ans. b) School - How old was Bholi when her sister Mangla got married?
a) Six years
b) Seven years
c) Eight years
d) Nine years
Ans. b) Seven years - What did Bholi see in the classroom?
a) Pictures of birds
b) Pictures of actors
c) Pictures of leaders
d) Pictures of animals
Ans. d) Pictures of animals
4. The Gold Frame
- Who was the central figure in the lesson ‘The Gold Frame’?
Ans. Datta - Which imported frame did Datta suggest/show to the customer?
Ans. German imported frame - What was the color of the photograph?
Ans. Sepia brown - What cost did Datta charge for the frame selected by the customer?
Ans. Seventeen rupees - What was the name of Datta’s shop?
a) The Ancient Frame Works
b) The Modern Frame Works
c) The Golden Frame Works
d) The Olden Frame Works
Ans. b) The Modern Frame Works
5. The Barber’s Trade Union
- Who is the narrator of the story ‘The Barber’s Trade Union’?
Ans. Mulk Raj Anand - Chandu was a _____________ by caste.
Ans. Barber - Chandu was an expert in making and flying _______________.
Ans. Kites - Who was the Sahukar of Chandu’s village?
Ans. Thanu Ram - How far was the town from Chandu’s village?
a) Five miles
b) Seven miles
c) Six miles
d) Four miles
Ans. c) Six miles
6. The Bull Beneath the Earth
- Where was the village Thathi Khara situated?
Ans. Near Amritsar - What made Mann Singh’s journey joyfully short?
Ans. The happy impulse of meeting Karam Singh’s family - Where is the most firm friendship formed?
Ans. In the army - Why did people in Karam Singh’s village wait for his next leave?
Ans. Because he was a friendly character - Karam Singh was famous as a _________.
a) Dancer
b) Rider
c) Crack shot
d) Wrestler
Ans. c) Crack Shot
