1. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" is the celebrated opening line of which Victorian novel?
Correct Answer: (b) A Tale of Two Cities
2. Which prominent Indian English writer created the fictional town of Malgudi?
Correct Answer: (c) R.K. Narayan
3. Charles Lamb wrote his famous essays under which pseudonym?
Correct Answer: (b) Elia
4. What is the subtitle of Mary Shelley's gothic masterpiece "Frankenstein"?
Correct Answer: (a) The Modern Prometheus
5. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" is a famous line coined by which Augustan poet?
Correct Answer: (c) Alexander Pope
6. Who among the following is considered the father of modern linguistics?
Correct Answer: (b) Ferdinand de Saussure
7. The character of "Macduff" appears in which Shakespearean tragedy?
Correct Answer: (d) Macbeth
8. Which literary term denotes a novel that deals with the formative years or spiritual education of the protagonist?
Correct Answer: (b) Bildungsroman
9. Identify the author of the Booker Prize-winning novel "Midnight's Children".
Correct Answer: (c) Salman Rushdie
10. In phonetics, how many vowel sounds (monophthongs and diphthongs combined) exist in standard English?
Correct Answer: (a) 20
11. "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" is the concluding line of which poem?
Correct Answer: (b) Ode to the West Wind
12. Who authored the seminal essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent"?
Correct Answer: (a) T.S. Eliot
13. The subtitle of Thomas Hardy's novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" is:
Correct Answer: (b) A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
14. Which play by Samuel Beckett is a quintessential example of the Theatre of the Absurd?
Correct Answer: (b) Waiting for Godot
15. "Water, water, every where, / Nor any drop to drink" are famous lines from which poem?
Correct Answer: (a) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
16. The concept of "Competence and Performance" in linguistics was introduced by:
Correct Answer: (c) Noam Chomsky
17. Identify the figure of speech in the phrase "a deafening silence".
Correct Answer: (b) Oxymoron
18. Mulk Raj Anand's debut novel, which deals with the life of a sweeper boy named Bakha, is:
Correct Answer: (c) Untouchable
19. Who is the author of "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792)?
Correct Answer: (c) Mary Wollstonecraft
20. Which American author wrote the Great Depression-era novel "The Grapes of Wrath"?
Correct Answer: (c) John Steinbeck
21. The term "Objective Correlative" was popularized in literary criticism by:
Correct Answer: (a) T.S. Eliot
22. "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" is the concluding line of which poem?
Correct Answer: (b) Ulysses
23. Who wrote the influential Indian English novel "Kanthapura"?
Correct Answer: (c) Raja Rao
24. What is the pen name of Mary Ann Evans?
Correct Answer: (b) George Eliot
25. In linguistics, the smallest unit of meaning is called a:
Correct Answer: (b) Morpheme
26. Which of the following plays is NOT written by William Shakespeare?
Correct Answer: (b) Volpone
27. Khushwant Singh's "Train to Pakistan" is primarily set during which historical event?
Correct Answer: (c) The Partition of India in 1947
28. The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words is known as:
Correct Answer: (b) Alliteration
29. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" is a line from W.B. Yeats's poem:
Correct Answer: (c) The Second Coming
30. Who is the author of "The Guide", which won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1960?
Correct Answer: (a) R.K. Narayan
31. Which period in English Literature is often referred to as the "Augustan Age"?
Correct Answer: (c) Early 18th Century
32. "Beauty is truth, truth beauty" is found in John Keats's:
Correct Answer: (b) Ode on a Grecian Urn
33. Harold Pinter's dramatic style is frequently associated with which term?
Correct Answer: (c) Comedy of Menace
34. Which novel begins with: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"?
Correct Answer: (c) Pride and Prejudice
35. A poem consisting of 14 lines, usually in iambic pentameter, is called a:
Correct Answer: (b) Sonnet
36. Who wrote the groundbreaking feminist essay "A Room of One's Own"?
Correct Answer: (c) Virginia Woolf
37. The branch of linguistics that studies the sound system of a language is called:
Correct Answer: (b) Phonology
38. In "Paradise Lost", Milton seeks to "justify the ways of ____ to men."
Correct Answer: (c) God
39. Which of these is a famous partition novel written by Bapsi Sidhwa?
Correct Answer: (a) Ice-Candy-Man
40. John Ruskin coined which of the following literary terms?
Correct Answer: (b) Pathetic Fallacy
41. The character "Heathcliff" is central to which classic novel?
Correct Answer: (b) Wuthering Heights
42. "Gitanjali", a collection of poems by Rabindranath Tagore, was originally written in which language?
Correct Answer: (c) Bengali
43. Who wrote the dramatic monologue "My Last Duchess"?
Correct Answer: (b) Robert Browning
44. "The Lyrical Ballads", which marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement, was published in:
Correct Answer: (b) 1798
45. A new word formed by combining two different words (e.g., 'smog' from 'smoke' and 'fog') is called a:
Correct Answer: (b) Portmanteau
46. "April is the cruellest month" is the opening line of which famous modernist poem?
Correct Answer: (b) The Waste Land
47. Sarojini Naidu, a prominent Indian English poet, is widely known as the:
Correct Answer: (a) Nightingale of India
48. Christopher Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" revolves around a scholar who:
Correct Answer: (b) Sells his soul to the devil
49. What was the pen name used by Emily Brontë?
Correct Answer: (c) Ellis Bell
50. Who authored the acclaimed Indian novel "The Shadow Lines"?
Correct Answer: (b) Amitav Ghosh
51. Which term describes the release of emotions such as pity and fear at the end of a tragedy?
Correct Answer: (c) Catharsis
52. "The Tatler" and "The Spectator" were periodicals founded by:
Correct Answer: (b) Addison and Steele
53. Which of these writers won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001?
Correct Answer: (a) V.S. Naipaul
54. An extended comparison that runs over several lines in an epic poem is called a(n):
Correct Answer: (c) Epic Simile
55. In linguistic terms, "Langue" and "Parole" were distinguished by:
Correct Answer: (c) Ferdinand de Saussure
56. Which poet wrote the lines "I wandered lonely as a cloud"?
Correct Answer: (a) William Wordsworth
57. Who is the author of the dystopian novel "1984"?
Correct Answer: (b) George Orwell
58. The concept of "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" was formulated by:
Correct Answer: (b) S.T. Coleridge
59. Which Indian author's debut novel is titled "The God of Small Things"?
Correct Answer: (b) Arundhati Roy
60. A narrative technique that presents the exact, unedited thoughts and feelings passing through a character's mind is known as:
Correct Answer: (c) Stream of Consciousness
61. Identify the poet who wrote "Night of the Scorpion".
Correct Answer: (b) Nissim Ezekiel
62. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Metaphysical Poetry?
Correct Answer: (d) Focus on rural life and nature
63. The character of "Miss Havisham", who wore her wedding dress for the rest of her life, appears in:
Correct Answer: (a) Great Expectations
64. Which novel by E.M. Forster ends with the mysterious incident at the Marabar Caves?
Correct Answer: (c) A Passage to India
65. In the study of syntax, "Immediate Constituent Analysis" (ICA) was introduced by:
Correct Answer: (a) Leonard Bloomfield
66. Who wrote the famous essay "The Study of Poetry", setting out the 'Touchstone Method'?
Correct Answer: (c) Matthew Arnold
67. The "Comedy of Humours" was a dramatic genre deeply associated with which playwright?
Correct Answer: (c) Ben Jonson
68. Anita Desai's novel "Fire on the Mountain" is predominantly set in which location?
Correct Answer: (b) Kasauli
69. Which airstream mechanism is used for producing all sounds in the English language?
Correct Answer: (c) Pulmonic egressive
70. "Macbeth" murdered King _______ to usurp the throne of Scotland.
Correct Answer: (c) Duncan
71. An epilogue is usually found at the ________ of a literary work.
Correct Answer: (c) End
72. Which modernist writer is known for the novel "Ulysses" and its complex use of stream of consciousness?
Correct Answer: (b) James Joyce
73. "My Name is Red" and "Snow" are celebrated works by which Nobel Laureate?
Correct Answer: (a) Orhan Pamuk
74. Words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings (e.g., bare and bear) are known as:
Correct Answer: (c) Homophones
75. The phrase "University Wits" was coined to describe a group of late 16th-century English playwrights. Who among the following was NOT a member?
Correct Answer: (d) William Shakespeare
76. Which poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is the first poem in the 1798 edition of "Lyrical Ballads"?
Correct Answer: (c) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
77. "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever" is the opening line of which poem by John Keats?
Correct Answer: (b) Endymion
78. The character "Willy Loman" is the tragic protagonist of which famous American play?
Correct Answer: (d) Death of a Salesman
79. Who coined the term "Negative Capability" in a letter to his brothers?
Correct Answer: (c) John Keats
80. Which of the following novels by Virginia Woolf is known for its pioneering use of the stream of consciousness technique, set on a single day in June?
Correct Answer: (c) Mrs Dalloway
81. "The White Tiger", which won the Man Booker Prize in 2008, was written by:
Correct Answer: (b) Aravind Adiga
82. In linguistics, the study of the rules governing the structure of sentences is called:
Correct Answer: (c) Syntax
83. What is the subtitle of George Eliot's masterpiece, "Middlemarch"?
Correct Answer: (a) A Study of Provincial Life
84. Which term was coined by William James in his 'Principles of Psychology' (1890) and later applied to literary criticism?
Correct Answer: (b) Stream of Consciousness
85. "The child is father of the man" is a paradoxical line from which poet's work?
Correct Answer: (b) William Wordsworth
86. Who is the author of "Clear Light of Day", a novel heavily focused on memory and family dynamics in Old Delhi?
Correct Answer: (a) Anita Desai
87. How many sections are there in T.S. Eliot's landmark poem "The Waste Land"?
Correct Answer: (c) Five
88. "To be, or not to be: that is the question" is spoken by Hamlet in which Act and Scene?
Correct Answer: (c) Act III, Scene I
89. In Phonetics, consonants produced by obstructing the airflow entirely and then releasing it with a burst of sound (like /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/) are called:
Correct Answer: (b) Plosives
90. The village of "Mano Majra" is the primary setting for which famous Indian English novel?
Correct Answer: (b) Train to Pakistan
91. The literary device where a part is used to represent the whole (e.g., "all hands on deck") is known as:
Correct Answer: (b) Synecdoche
92. Which African author wrote the post-colonial masterpiece "Things Fall Apart"?
Correct Answer: (c) Chinua Achebe
93. "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope is a prime example of which literary genre?
Correct Answer: (c) Mock-Epic
94. Identify the poet who wrote the confessional autobiography "My Story" (Ente Katha).
Correct Answer: (b) Kamala Das
95. Who is the author of "A Suitable Boy", one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English language?
Correct Answer: (a) Vikram Seth
96. "Call me Ishmael" is the opening line of which classic American novel?
Correct Answer: (c) Moby-Dick
97. "Hamartia", a term popularized by Aristotle in his Poetics, refers to:
Correct Answer: (a) A tragic flaw or error in judgment
98. The Spenserian stanza, created by Edmund Spenser for "The Faerie Queene", consists of how many lines?
Correct Answer: (c) Nine
99. In George Orwell's "Animal Farm", the character Napoleon is an allegory for which historical figure?
Correct Answer: (c) Joseph Stalin
100. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is more commonly known in English literature as:
Correct Answer: (b) Blank Verse
101. Which Indian English poet is famous for his poem "Background, Casually"?
Correct Answer: (c) Nissim Ezekiel
102. Noam Chomsky proposed the concept of LAD in linguistics. What does LAD stand for?
Correct Answer: (a) Language Acquisition Device
103. The term "Intertextuality", suggesting that a text is a mosaic of quotations, was coined by:
Correct Answer: (d) Julia Kristeva
104. "The horror! The horror!" are the final words of which character in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness"?
Correct Answer: (b) Kurtz
105. "Because I could not stop for Death – He kindly stopped for me" was written by:
Correct Answer: (c) Emily Dickinson
106. Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House" famously ends with the sound of:
Correct Answer: (c) A door slamming
107. Which work by Sri Aurobindo is an epic poem in blank verse based on a story from the Mahabharata?
Correct Answer: (b) Savitri
108. The concept of "Defamiliarization" (making the familiar seem strange) is a key principle of:
Correct Answer: (a) Russian Formalism
109. What is the total number of consonant sounds in Received Pronunciation (Standard British English)?
Correct Answer: (c) 24
110. "Macbeth", "King Lear", "Hamlet", and "Othello" are collectively known as Shakespeare's:
Correct Answer: (c) Great Tragedies
111. W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley introduced which critical term referring to the mistake of judging a literary work by the author's intended meaning?
Correct Answer: (b) Intentional Fallacy
112. The village of Ayemenem in Kerala is the setting for which Booker Prize-winning novel?
Correct Answer: (b) The God of Small Things
113. "Leaves of Grass" is a renowned poetry collection by which American poet?
Correct Answer: (c) Walt Whitman
114. "The Importance of Being Earnest" is a classic Comedy of Manners written by:
Correct Answer: (d) Oscar Wilde
115. A pair of words that differ in only one phonological element and have distinct meanings (e.g., "bat" and "cat") is called a:
Correct Answer: (b) Minimal Pair
116. Who was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom immediately before William Wordsworth?
Correct Answer: (a) Robert Southey
117. Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" was originally written in which language?
Correct Answer: (c) French
118. In terms of literary narration, starting a story "in the midst of things" is referred to by the Latin term:
Correct Answer: (b) In medias res
119. "The Pilgrim's Progress", one of the most significant works of religious allegory, was written by:
Correct Answer: (b) John Bunyan
120. Which term describes a sudden moment of revelation or profound insight, a technique heavily used by James Joyce?
Correct Answer: (a) Epiphany
121. "Magic Realism" is a literary style most closely associated with which Nobel Laureate?
Correct Answer: (b) Gabriel García Márquez
122. Which Indian female novelist wrote "Nectar in a Sieve"?
Correct Answer: (a) Kamala Markandaya
123. The fictional region of "Wessex" is the setting for the major novels of which British author?
Correct Answer: (b) Thomas Hardy
124. "Gulliver's Travels" is a biting satire. During his first voyage, Gulliver visits the land of tiny people known as:
Correct Answer: (d) Lilliput
125. The study of meaning in language, examining how words and sentences relate to real-world objects and concepts, is called:
Correct Answer: (b) Semantics
126. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" tells the multi-generational story of the Buendía family in the fictional town of:
Correct Answer: (c) Macondo
127. Which literary work features the protagonist Gregor Samsa waking up to find himself transformed into a giant insect?
Correct Answer: (c) The Metamorphosis
128. Who wrote the critical work "The Great Tradition", elevating Austen, Eliot, James, and Conrad to the top of English fiction?
Correct Answer: (c) F.R. Leavis
129. "The Golden Gate", a novel written entirely in Onegin stanzas, is a structural marvel by:
Correct Answer: (a) Vikram Seth
130. "Oedipus Rex", the classic Greek tragedy showcasing the concept of dramatic irony, was written by:
Correct Answer: (d) Sophocles
131. In linguistics, the different phonetic realizations of a single phoneme (like the aspirated 'p' in 'pin' and unaspirated 'p' in 'spin') are called:
Correct Answer: (b) Allophones
132. The "Bloomsbury Group" was an influential circle of English writers, intellectuals, and artists that included:
Correct Answer: (c) Virginia Woolf
133. Which term denotes the error of evaluating a poem by its emotional effect upon the reader?
Correct Answer: (b) Affective Fallacy
134. Identify the Russian author of the psychological masterpiece "Crime and Punishment".
Correct Answer: (d) Fyodor Dostoevsky
135. The "Theatre of Cruelty", a surrealist form of theatre aimed at shocking the senses of the audience, was developed by:
Correct Answer: (a) Antonin Artaud
136. Which novel by Charles Dickens is an aggressive critique of the utilitarian philosophy and industrialization?
Correct Answer: (b) Hard Times
137. The phrase "willing suspension of disbelief" is associated with Coleridge's explanation of poetry in his work:
Correct Answer: (b) Biographia Literaria
138. Which English monarch's reign is synonymous with the "Restoration Period" (beginning in 1660)?
Correct Answer: (b) Charles II
139. Who is the author of "The Alchemist", an internationally bestselling allegorical novel?
Correct Answer: (a) Paulo Coelho
140. "The Great Gatsby", a critique of the American Dream set in the Roaring Twenties, was written by:
Correct Answer: (c) F. Scott Fitzgerald
141. The term "Deus ex machina" translates to:
Correct Answer: (a) God from the machine
142. A structuralist approach to analyzing a narrative focuses primarily on:
Correct Answer: (c) Underlying systems and patterns
143. Which poet is best known for his dramatic monologues such as "Andrea del Sarto" and "Fra Lippo Lippi"?
Correct Answer: (c) Robert Browning
144. "The Stranger" (L'Étranger), which explores the philosophy of absurdism, is the magnum opus of:
Correct Answer: (b) Albert Camus
145. "Macbeth" is often referred to by actors simply as:
Correct Answer: (a) The Scottish Play
146. Which branch of linguistics examines how context influences the interpretation of meaning?
Correct Answer: (b) Pragmatics
147. Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote" is considered one of the earliest examples of the:
Correct Answer: (c) Modern Novel
148. Which epic French historical novel, featuring the character Jean Valjean, was written by Victor Hugo?
Correct Answer: (c) Les Misérables
149. "Hubris" in ancient Greek tragedy generally refers to:
Correct Answer: (b) Excessive pride or arrogance
150. "Look Back in Anger", a play that sparked the 'Angry Young Men' movement in British theatre, was penned by:
Correct Answer: (c) John Osborne
