Model Question Paper B.A. (Hons.) English Entrance Test

Model Question Paper
B.A. (Hons.) English Entrance Test
Time : 1.30 Hours Maximum Marks : 85
Note: Attempt all questions Marks are indicated alongside each question
1. Read the passage and answer the questions that follow:
It was the beginning of November when we left Calcutta for Harsingpur. The
place was new to me, but the scents and sounds of the countryside pressed round
and embraced me. The morning breeze coming fresh from the newly ploughed
land, the sweet and tender smell of the flowering mustard, the shepherd boy’s
flute sounding in the distance, even the creaking noise of the bullock-cart, as it
groaned over the broken village road, filled my world with delight. The memory
of my past life, with all its ineffable fragrance and sound, became a living present
to me, and my blind eyes could not tell me I was wrong. I went back, and lived
over again my child hood. Only one thing was absent: my mother was not with
me.
I could see my home with the large peepul trees growing along the edges of the
village pool. I could picture in my mind’s eye my old grandmother seated on the
ground with her thin wisps of hair untied, warming her back in the sun as she
made the little round lentil balls to be dried, and used for cooking. But some how
I could not recall the songs she used to croon to herself in her weak and quavering
voice. In the evening, whenever I heard the lowing of cattle, I could almost watch
the figure of my mother going found the sheds with lighted lamp in her hand. The
smell of the wet fodder and the pungent smoke of the straw fire would enter into
my very heart. And in the distance I seemed to hear the clanging of the temple bell
wafted up by the breeze from the river bank.
(A) Answer the following questions in one or two sentences each: 20
(i) When did the author and his family leave Calcutta ? 4
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(ii) What was it that filled the author’s world with delight ? 4
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(iii) Who was absent when the author recollected his past life ? 4
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(iv) What could the author picture in his mind’s eye ? 4
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(v) What would the author hear in the evening? 4
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(B) Answer the following questions: 10
(i) What is meant by the phrases “croon to herself” and “I could picture in my
mind’s eye” ? 2+2=4
(ii) Give synonyms for : 1+1=2
breeze:___________
scents:___________
(iii) What are the antonyms for : 1+1=2
fresh:_________________
absent :________________
(iv) Make adjectives from: 2
Home:______________
Distance :___________
2. Read the poem and answer the questions that follow: 25
Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer,
To stop without a farmhouse near,
Between the woods and frozen lake,
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake,
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep,
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
(i) Which season of the year is described in the poem ? 5
(ii) Where does the poet stop? 5
(iii) Why does the horse give his harness bells a shake? 5
(iv) How does the poet describe the woods? 5
(v) What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? 4
(vi) What is the meaning of the word “queer”? 1
3. Write an essay in about 300 words on any one of the following: 30
(i) My favourite sportsperson
(ii) The use of computers in everyday life
(iii) The book that changed my life
(iv) If I were the Prime Minister…
Model Question Paper
M.A. English Entrance Test,
Time: 1:30 Hours Maximum Marks: 85
Note: Attempt all question, Marks are indicated against each question.
1. Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow:
PARTITION
Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on this land he was a called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods,
“Time,” they had briefed him in London, “ is short. It’s too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.
The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we’ve arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you”.
Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for getter or worse divided.
The next day he sailed for England, where he quickly forgot
The case, as a good lawyer must, Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot.
(a) What was the brief given to the protagonist? 5
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(b) The work that the officer had was the ‘task of settling the fate of millions’.
What do you understand by this? 5
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(c) What were the difficulties the protagonist faced when called to ‘partition two
peoples’? 5
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(d) Why is the protagonist called ‘ a good lawyer’? 5
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(e) Explain the significance of any two ironical statements. 5
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(f) Comment on the form of the poem. 5
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2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :
Whether we like it or not, we humans are totally dependent on nature for our
survival. The environment is both a source of food, shelter and raw materials, and
a sink to dispose of our wastes. Our dwelling units are built from bricks, mud,
wood, thatch, cement, stone and steel. Our clothes come from cotton, silk or wool.
Whatever you can think of – paper, pencil, minerals, medicines, utensils,
anything-everything has its origin in nature. Electric wires are made in factories,
but the basic material from which they are made – copper – comes from nature,
the earth. As for the great quantities of waste we generate in the form of sewage,
garbage, smoke-all of them are absorbed in various ways by nature. After all,
where does the water in your toilet go? Have you thought about it? I have, often.
And it makes me sick with worry for our planet.
The problem really starts when we begin to take nature for granted, when we use
its resources recklessly and dump huge quantities of wastes that far exceed the
absorption capacity of the ecosystem. Take the river Yamuna, for instance.
Looking at the black, foamy, turbid, slimy waters of the Yamuna in Delhi, nobody
will believe that it emerge from the hills not far away as a crystal clear stream.
From a snow-fed, pristine river it becomes a stinking cesspool. Why ? Because as
the river enters Delhi, all its waters are seized for supply to the city for humans to
use in their homes, institutions, offices; downstream, untreated effluents from
seventeen major outlets fall into the river. Only during the monsoon does the river
flow; at other times it is nothing but a drain. This is the Yamuna, one of the holy
rivers of India. This is true of practically all the major rivers in India.
Everything in nature happens in a cycle. It is a cycle of creation, decay and
renewal until we humans intervene to make it a cycle of destruction. Doesn’t
exactly cover us with glory, does it?
The amount of garbage each one of us produces is impossible to imagine. In a city
like Chennai, for instance, where lakhs of people live, the amount of garbage
generated each day would build mountains. Yet we expect a few hundred
municipal workers to get rid of all of it quietly and efficiently. Our individual
wastes are transferred to dumping sites that breed disease and epidemic. The
entire neighborhood becomes and ugly sight and the stench spreads far and wide.
And when it rains? Water seeps through the heaps of garbage and into the soil,
contaminating the groundwater.
(a) How does the author argue that humans are ‘totally’ dependent on nature for
their survival? 5
(b) What does the author mean when he discusses the absorption capacity of the
ecosystem? 5
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(c) Describe the fate of the river Yamuna as it enters the city of Delhi. 5
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(d) How does reckless garbage disposal contaminate groundwater? 5
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(e) Find the word in the passage that means the same as: 5
(i) pure and unspoiled:…………………………
(ii) puddle of dirty water:……………………….
(f) The author of the passage is justified in being “sick with worry for our planet”
Comment. 5
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3. Write an essay on any one of the following topics:
(a) How real is fiction and how fictional is reality
(b) Demolition drive in Delhi
(c) Literature in the age of science and technology
(d) The legal system of India: Does it succeed in providing justice?