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AP SSC Odia (First Language) study materials
AP SSC Odia (First Language) study resources

AP SSC Odia (First Language) practice questions

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Question 1Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In the AP SSC Odia First Language syllabus, the prose (Gadya) section is chiefly designed to develop which pair of competencies in the learner?

  1. Laboratory measurement and experimental design
  2. Numerical reasoning and mensuration skills
  3. Map reading and physical geography interpretation
  4. Reading comprehension and appreciation of literary expression Correct answer.

Explanation

The Gadya (prose) portion of the Odia first-language course builds the learner's ability to read carefully, grasp meaning and respond to literary style. The other skills listed belong to mathematics, geography and science, not to a language textbook.

Question 2Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson in the Odia textbook that presents the life of a reformer mainly to inspire young readers is best described as belonging to which genre?

  1. Scientific essay
  2. Detective story
  3. Travelogue
  4. Biographical sketch Correct answer.

Explanation

A biographical sketch narrates the life, struggles and achievements of a real person, and its purpose is often to inspire. A travelogue records journeys, a detective story builds a mystery, and a scientific essay explains facts of nature.

Question 3Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

While reading a Gadya passage, a student must identify the central idea that the writer keeps returning to. In literary study this central idea is termed the:

  1. Climax
  2. Theme Correct answer.
  3. Setting
  4. Dialogue

Explanation

The theme is the underlying idea or message that runs through a piece of prose and unifies its details. Setting refers to time and place, climax to the turning point of action, and dialogue to conversation between characters.

Question 4Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A question on the prose lesson asks how the writer's own attitude towards his subject is revealed through word choice. Which element of prose is being tested?

  1. Rhyme scheme
  2. Tone Correct answer.
  3. Stage direction
  4. Plot

Explanation

Tone is the writer's attitude towards the subject or reader, conveyed through diction, imagery and sentence style. Plot is the sequence of events, rhyme scheme belongs to poetry, and stage direction belongs to drama.

Question 5Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In an Odia prose lesson, a character who changes his beliefs after a turning experience is described as a:

  1. Flat character
  2. Stock character
  3. Dynamic character Correct answer.
  4. Static character

Explanation

A dynamic character undergoes meaningful change in attitude or understanding during the narrative. A static character stays the same, while flat and stock characters are defined by limited or conventional traits rather than growth.

Question 6Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

The writer of an Odia prose piece uses the first person 'I' to narrate personal experiences. The narrator in such a lesson is called:

  1. An omniscient narrator
  2. A dramatic narrator
  3. A third-person limited narrator
  4. A first-person narrator Correct answer.

Explanation

When the narrator speaks as 'I' and reports personal experience, the narration is first person. An omniscient narrator knows all minds, a third-person limited narrator stays outside the events, and a dramatic narrator presents only speech and action.

Question 7Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson in the Odia course describes the writer's childhood village, its fields and its people. Which element of prose is most prominent in such a passage?

  1. Conflict
  2. Setting Correct answer.
  3. Climax
  4. Resolution

Explanation

Setting is the time, place and social surroundings in which the action occurs, and a descriptive passage about a village chiefly establishes it. Climax, conflict and resolution all concern the development of action rather than the environment itself.

Question 8Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

Which of the following best states the function of the prose (Gadya) lessons within the AP SSC Odia First Language curriculum?

  1. They teach the rules of Vedic ritual performance
  2. They train students in drawing and painting techniques
  3. They provide practice in spoken English pronunciation
  4. They build vocabulary, comprehension and critical response to extended written texts Correct answer.

Explanation

Prose lessons are the main vehicle for extending vocabulary, sharpening comprehension and developing critical response to longer written texts. The other options describe art, ritual studies and English pronunciation, none of which is the role of Odia Gadya.

Question 9Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

Read this situation: a prose lesson describes a farmer who refuses to leave his land even when flood waters rise, and the writer dwells on this choice. Which quality of the farmer is the writer most likely highlighting?

  1. Attachment to his land and sense of dignity Correct answer.
  2. Desire for official recognition
  3. Indifference towards his family
  4. Fear of hard physical labour

Explanation

Refusing to abandon the land in danger, and the writer's emphasis on that refusal, points to deep attachment and self-respect. Nothing in the situation suggests family neglect, a wish for awards or avoidance of work.

Question 10Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson opens with a detailed description of a monsoon evening and only later introduces the main character. What is the most likely purpose of the opening description?

  1. To establish atmosphere and mood before the action begins Correct answer.
  2. To state the moral of the lesson at the outset
  3. To provide a summary of the whole plot
  4. To list the characters of the story

Explanation

Descriptive openings create atmosphere and mood, preparing the reader's response before the action starts. A plot summary, a character list or an explicit moral would be stated directly and would not rely on sensory description.

Question 11Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In an Odia prose lesson, the writer says one character 'spoke little but his silence said much'. This sentence mainly depends on which literary device?

  1. Simile
  2. Paradox Correct answer.
  3. Alliteration
  4. Onomatopoeia

Explanation

The statement is a paradox because it joins two apparently contradictory ideas, silence and speech, to suggest depth of feeling. A simile uses 'like' or 'as', onomatopoeia imitates sound, and alliteration repeats initial consonants.

Question 12Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson ends with the narrator saying that he now understands what his father meant years ago. This ending chiefly serves to:

  1. Mark a change in the narrator's understanding Correct answer.
  2. Begin a fresh conflict
  3. Shift the setting to another country
  4. Introduce a new character

Explanation

An ending in which the narrator grasps a past statement signals growth in understanding and often carries the lesson's theme. It does not add characters, relocate the story or open a new conflict.

Question 13Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A student must explain how a prose writer's own life shaped a lesson about rural poverty. Which approach gives the strongest answer?

  1. Link details of the writer's background to the attitudes expressed in the text Correct answer.
  2. Compare the lesson with a poem by another poet
  3. Recite the writer's date of birth and death only
  4. Summarise the plot without mentioning the writer

Explanation

Connecting the writer's background to the attitudes in the text shows how experience informs writing and answers the question directly. Dates alone, a bare plot summary or an unrelated comparison do not explain the shaping influence.

Question 14Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In a prose passage, the writer repeats the phrase 'the river does not wait' at the close of three paragraphs. The chief effect of this repetition is to:

  1. Introduce a second narrator
  2. Emphasise a central idea and give rhythm to the prose Correct answer.
  3. Provide comic relief
  4. Change the tense of the narrative

Explanation

Deliberate repetition stresses a key idea and creates rhythm, which is a common device in Odia prose essays. It does not create humour, add a narrator or alter tense by itself.

Question 15Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson presents a village schoolmaster who is strict in class yet secretly buys books for poor students. How is this character best described?

  1. Allegorical, standing for an abstract idea
  2. Flat, having a single trait
  3. Static, never changing
  4. Complex, showing contrasting but consistent traits Correct answer.

Explanation

Strictness combined with quiet generosity gives the schoolmaster contrasting traits that still form a believable whole, which is what makes a character complex. A flat or static character would lack such contrast, and an allegorical figure would represent an abstraction rather than a person.

Question 16Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

Which statement about the relationship between a prose lesson's title and its theme is most accurate?

  1. The title always states the moral in one sentence
  2. The title has no connection with the theme
  3. A suggestive title often points to the theme without stating it fully Correct answer.
  4. The title must name the main character

Explanation

Titles in literary prose are often suggestive, directing the reader towards the theme while leaving it to the text to develop it. Titles do not always state a moral, are not unrelated to theme, and need not name a character.

Question 17Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson moves between the writer's present-day reflections and memories of his youth. This structure is best described as:

  1. An epistolary structure
  2. A frame or flashback structure Correct answer.
  3. A linear chronological narrative
  4. A dialogue-only narrative

Explanation

Alternating between present reflection and past memory creates a frame or flashback structure that links past and present. A linear narrative keeps strict chronological order, a dialogue-only narrative uses only speech, and an epistolary structure is built from letters.

Question 18Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose writer describes a hungry family sharing a small meal and comments that 'no one complained'. The comment is most likely intended to:

  1. Prove that the meal was tasteless
  2. Show that the food was plentiful
  3. Indicate that the family was wealthy
  4. Highlight the family's dignity and mutual affection Correct answer.

Explanation

The comment that no one complained, placed beside the small meal, draws attention to forbearance and mutual care rather than to abundance. It does not suggest plenty, wealth or poor taste.

Question 19Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

When a question asks for the 'author context' of a prose lesson, which information is most relevant?

  1. The price of the textbook edition
  2. The number of pages in the textbook
  3. The name of the printing press
  4. The writer's background, period and outlook as they bear on the text Correct answer.

Explanation

Author context means the writer's life, historical period and intellectual outlook in so far as these illuminate the lesson. Printing details such as page count, price or press name are bibliographic facts with no bearing on interpretation.

Question 20Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson uses a village well as a meeting place where characters exchange news. In the narrative, the well chiefly functions as:

  1. The narrator of the story
  2. A symbol with no relation to the action
  3. The climax of the story
  4. A setting that brings characters together and advances the plot Correct answer.

Explanation

A well where people gather is a setting that naturally brings characters into contact and lets the action develop through their exchanges. It is not the climax, it does not narrate, and it is clearly related to the action.

Question 21Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose passage states that a character 'had the patience of the earth itself'. The comparison is best identified as:

  1. A metaphor Correct answer.
  2. A simile
  3. Personification
  4. Hyperbole

Explanation

The comparison is a metaphor because it asserts an identity, patience as the earth, without using 'like' or 'as'. A simile would use an explicit comparing word, personification would give human qualities to a non-human thing, and hyperbole would be conscious exaggeration.

Question 22Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

Two students disagree about whether a prose lesson's ending is optimistic. Which method best resolves the disagreement using the text?

  1. Count the number of characters in the final paragraph
  2. Cite specific words and images from the ending and weigh their connotations Correct answer.
  3. Check how many pages the lesson occupies
  4. Ask which ending is more common in other textbooks

Explanation

Interpretation is settled by evidence from the text, so quoting the closing words and images and weighing their associations is the sound method. Counting characters or pages, or appealing to other textbooks, supplies no evidence about this ending's tone.

Question 23Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In an Odia prose lesson, the writer criticises social customs while seeming to praise them. This technique is best termed:

  1. Flashback
  2. Foreshadowing
  3. Alliteration
  4. Irony Correct answer.

Explanation

Irony arises when apparent praise conceals criticism, so the reader must infer the writer's real attitude. Foreshadowing hints at later events, flashback returns to earlier time, and alliteration is sound repetition.

Question 24Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson's theme is often distinguished from its subject because the theme:

  1. Names the persons and places in the text
  2. Lists the writer's published works
  3. States an insight or judgement about the subject Correct answer.
  4. Records the sequence of events

Explanation

The subject is what the text is about, while the theme is the insight or judgement the text offers about that subject. Naming persons, recording events or listing publications describes content and biography rather than theme.

Question 25Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose writer presents the same incident twice, first through a child's eyes and then through an adult's. The main purpose of this double perspective is to:

  1. Show that the event never actually happened
  2. Contrast innocence with mature understanding of the same event Correct answer.
  3. Prove that the child's account is factually wrong
  4. Reduce the length of the narrative

Explanation

Presenting one incident through two consciousnesses sets innocence beside experience and invites the reader to compare them. The device does not deny the event, declare the child mistaken or serve merely to shorten the text.

Question 26Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In the AP SSC Odia First Language prose section, a lesson is classified as a 'Galpa' (short story) rather than an 'Atmajibani' (autobiography). Which feature most reliably justifies this classification?

  1. The narration is shaped by an invented plot and characters rather than by the documented events of the writer's own life Correct answer.
  2. The piece contains long descriptions of nature and rural scenery
  3. The piece is written in the first person and describes the writer's own childhood
  4. The piece was written by a well-known Odia author of the nineteenth century

Explanation

Galpa and Atmajibani are separated by whether the events are imagined and plotted or are the recorded life of the author. First-person narration alone does not decide the genre, since autobiographies also use 'I'. The distinguishing test is the invented, artistically arranged plot and characters.

Question 27Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson in the Odia textbook is titled with a single word naming an object, yet the lesson is really about the dignity of labour. Which statement best describes the relationship between the title and the theme here?

  1. The title names the concrete object around which the lesson is built, while the theme is the abstract idea that object reveals Correct answer.
  2. The title and the theme are identical, since a one-word title must state the lesson's message directly
  3. The title states the moral of the lesson, and the theme is the story's sequence of events
  4. The title is irrelevant to the theme and serves only to help students locate the lesson in the index

Explanation

A concrete title often works symbolically: the object anchors the narrative while the theme is the abstract value the object comes to embody. Title and theme are related but not the same thing. Confusing theme with plot, or dismissing the title as an index label, misreads how prose titles function.

Question 28Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In an Odia prose lesson, the narrator's mother is shown scolding him sharply in one scene and quietly keeping his torn books for memory in another. Which term best describes a character constructed in this way?

  1. A round character whose contrasting traits are revealed across scenes Correct answer.
  2. A symbolic character who stands only for an abstract idea
  3. A flat character defined by a single trait throughout the lesson
  4. A narrator who is also the story's antagonist

Explanation

A character who shows apparently contradictory but coherent sides across different scenes is described as round, because the writer has given depth rather than a single repeated trait. Flat characters stay fixed to one quality. The contrast between scolding and quiet tenderness is exactly the technique that produces roundness.

Question 29Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

When an AP SSC question asks for the 'author context' of a prescribed Odia prose lesson, which answer is most appropriate?

  1. The grammatical structure and vocabulary level of the lesson's sentences
  2. The number of paragraphs and the order in which events are narrated
  3. The author's life, period, other works and the circumstances in which the piece was written Correct answer.
  4. The list of characters and their relationship to the narrator

Explanation

Author context means information about the writer himself: his life, historical period, other writings and the situation that produced the piece. Structural or grammatical facts belong to language study, and character lists belong to narrative analysis. Only the biographical and literary background answers the question asked.

Question 30Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson describes a village tank where women fill water and exchange news, and later a quarrel there spreads to the whole village. Which statement best explains the writer's use of this setting?

  1. The tank is a social space whose everyday use makes it a natural engine of plot and community conflict Correct answer.
  2. The tank is decorative scenery that slows the narrative before the main conflict begins
  3. The tank is a symbol of the government's failure to provide piped water
  4. The tank exists mainly so the writer can display knowledge of village architecture

Explanation

A shared everyday place gathers characters naturally and lets private talk become public consequence, so it drives both plot and theme. The quarrel spreading from the tank shows the setting doing structural work rather than merely decorating the page. Setting in prose is chosen for its social function.

Question 31Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In an Odia prose lesson the writer describes a poor Brahmin household where the family shares its last rice with a stranger, and the narrator adds no comment. Which statement best describes the effect of withholding comment?

  1. It proves the incident is autobiographical rather than invented
  2. It shows that the narrator disapproves of the family's generosity
  3. It lets the action itself carry the moral weight, so the reader draws the conclusion Correct answer.
  4. It weakens the lesson because readers cannot tell what the writer thinks

Explanation

When a writer presents a generous act without editorialising, the incident speaks for itself and the reader is trusted to infer the value. This restraint is a deliberate narrative technique, not an oversight. Adding comment would tell the reader what to think rather than letting the action persuade.

Question 32Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson about a flood is written mostly in dialogue, with very little description by the narrator. What is the most likely artistic purpose of this choice?

  1. To create immediacy and let characters reveal themselves through their own speech during the crisis Correct answer.
  2. To indicate that the writer was not present at the flood
  3. To reduce the writer's vocabulary demands on SSC students
  4. To avoid the need for a clear setting in the lesson

Explanation

Dialogue-driven narration quickens pace and gives immediacy, and it characterises speakers directly through what they say under pressure. The technique is an artistic choice about how the story is told. It does not remove the need for setting, which dialogue itself can imply.

Question 33Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

An Odia prose lesson begins in the middle of a conversation and only later explains who the speakers are and how they came to be there. Which term best describes this narrative arrangement?

  1. An epistolary narrative told through letters
  2. A frame narrative in which one story encloses another
  3. A narrative that opens in medias res and supplies background afterwards Correct answer.
  4. A chronological narrative that follows events in the order they happened

Explanation

Beginning in the middle of the action and filling in background later is the classical in medias res opening. It creates curiosity and lets exposition arrive when the reader needs it. Chronological order, framing and letters all describe different arrangements and are not what the stem describes.

Question 34Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson presents a village moneylender who is courteous in speech but ruinous in his dealings, and the writer never calls him a villain. How is the reader expected to judge this character?

  1. By accepting the writer's explicit verdict on him, since prose lessons always state judgements openly
  2. By treating him as a comic figure because he speaks politely
  3. By ignoring his actions and judging him only by the opinions of other characters
  4. By inferring his nature from the gap between his courteous manner and the harm his dealings cause Correct answer.

Explanation

When a writer withholds explicit judgement, character is inferred from the relation between manner and consequence. The politeness contrasted with ruin is precisely the evidence the reader must weigh. Prose lessons frequently rely on such inference rather than open verdicts.

Question 35Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A student claims that the central figure in a prose lesson is a hero because he performs one brave act. Which response best applies the idea of a protagonist in prose criticism?

  1. The protagonist is the character the writer criticises most strongly
  2. The protagonist is simply whoever performs the bravest deed in the lesson
  3. The protagonist is the character whose fortunes organise the narrative, whether or not he is admirable Correct answer.
  4. The protagonist is always the narrator, since prose lessons use first person

Explanation

Protagonist names the character around whose fortunes the narrative is organised, and that figure may be flawed or unheroic. Bravery is a quality a character may or may not have, not the definition of the role. Equating protagonist with narrator or with the criticised figure confuses distinct critical terms.

Question 36Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

In an Odia prose lesson, the writer describes a temple ritual with elaborate respect and then notes that the same devotees ignored a starving man at the gate. Which technique is the writer using?

  1. Personification, where the temple is given human feelings
  2. Irony, where apparent respect exposes an unstated criticism Correct answer.
  3. Hyperbole, where the ritual is exaggerated beyond belief
  4. Straightforward devotional praise with no critical intent

Explanation

Apparent respect followed by a damning detail is irony: the surface praise carries an implied criticism of the devotees. The reader is meant to feel the gap between ritual display and human indifference. Neither exaggeration nor personification is at work in that contrast.

Question 37Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson's subject is a village fair, while its theme is the passing of a way of life. Which statement best captures the difference between subject and theme?

  1. The subject is what the lesson is about concretely, and the theme is the idea the lesson develops about it Correct answer.
  2. The subject is the writer's opinion, and the theme is the setting in which events occur
  3. The subject is the moral, and the theme is the sequence of events
  4. The subject is the lesson's title, and the theme is its final paragraph

Explanation

Subject is the concrete topic the writing treats, whereas theme is the general idea or insight the writing develops through that topic. A fair can be the subject while change and loss form the theme. Moral and plot are separate concepts and do not define either term.

Question 38Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

An Odia prose lesson about a landless labourer is written by an author who himself worked as a teacher in a rural area and wrote during the period of social reform in Odisha. Which use of this author context is most defensible in an exam answer?

  1. The author's profession proves that every incident in the lesson actually happened to him
  2. The author's rural teaching experience helps explain the close observation of labourers' lives in the lesson Correct answer.
  3. The author's experience shows that the lesson has no imaginative or artistic shaping
  4. The author's period proves that the lesson was written to support a particular political party

Explanation

Author context is used cautiously, to illuminate the writing rather than to prove literal fact. Rural teaching explains the detailed observation of labourers' lives, which is a reasonable inference from biography. Claiming literal autobiography, party purpose or absence of art goes beyond what context can establish.

Question 39Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

Two prose lessons in the syllabus both describe a mother's death, but one is a personal essay and the other a short story. Which statement best explains why their treatments may legitimately differ?

  1. The personal essay and the short story follow identical conventions, so any difference is a writer's error
  2. The short story may shape and select events for artistic effect, while the personal essay is bound to the writer's own remembered experience Correct answer.
  3. The short story cannot treat real emotion because its characters are invented
  4. The personal essay must be more emotionally powerful because its events are true

Explanation

Genre governs the writer's obligations: the essayist reports and reflects on remembered experience, while the story writer is free to invent, compress and rearrange for effect. Neither form is inherently more moving. Treating the two conventions as identical ignores how genre shapes treatment.

Question 40Prose (Gadya) - prescribed textbook lessons: comprehension, theme, character, and author context

A prose lesson in the Odia syllabus ends with the narrator's father silently handing him a lamp before he leaves home, and nothing further is said. Which reading of the ending is best supported by prose conventions?

  1. The gesture carries the meaning of guidance and blessing, so the silent ending is emotionally complete rather than unfinished Correct answer.
  2. The ending is defective because a prose lesson must state its meaning in words
  3. The lamp is merely a household object with no bearing on the lesson's theme
  4. The silence proves the father disapproves of the narrator's departure

Explanation

A closing gesture can concentrate meaning that words would only dilute, so silence here completes rather than truncates the lesson. Prose endings often rely on such symbolic action. Reading the lamp as inert, or the silence as disapproval, contradicts the affectionate act described.

Question 41Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

In the Odia padya tradition, a poem composed in 'padya' metre is best described as one that is

  1. composed only of rhymeless free verse lines
  2. written in prose paragraphs with no fixed line length
  3. set to a metrical line pattern with a defined syllable scheme Correct answer.
  4. written exclusively for musical performance without metre

Explanation

Padya denotes verse: the lines follow a recognised metrical scheme (chhandas) with regulated syllable counts and cadence, which distinguishes it from gadya or prose. Free verse and prose passages fall outside the padya category in the prescribed syllabus.

Question 42Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

The Odia term 'chhandas' in the context of prescribed padya poems refers to

  1. the list of characters in a narrative poem
  2. the metrical system governing syllable count and rhythm Correct answer.
  3. the poet's dedication to a patron
  4. the emotional mood of a poem

Explanation

Chhandas is the science of metre: it prescribes syllable counts, gaṇa arrangements and pauses for each verse form. Mood (rasa or bhāba) and dedication are separate concepts and are not what chhandas names.

Question 43Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

When a poet writes 'the moon smiled upon the village', the figure of speech used is

  1. rūpaka, because an implied identification is made without a comparative word Correct answer.
  2. atiśayokti, because an impossible exaggeration is stated
  3. upamā, because a comparison uses like or as
  4. śleṣa, because a single word carries two meanings

Explanation

Rūpaka (metaphor) identifies one thing with another without a comparative particle, so attributing a human action (smiling) to the moon is metaphorical personification within the rūpaka family. Upamā would need an explicit comparison such as 'like a smiling face'.

Question 44Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

An 'upamā' in Odia poetry is complete only when the line contains

  1. an explicit comparison between two things using a word such as 'like' Correct answer.
  2. an exaggerated statement that cannot be literally true
  3. a hidden double meaning in a key word
  4. a repeated refrain at the end of every stanza

Explanation

Upamā is simile: two dissimilar things are compared through an explicit comparative word (such as 'like', 'as', 'pari', 'sama'). Exaggeration, refrain and double meaning each belong to other figures.

Question 45Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

In Odia literary criticism the term 'rasa' most directly denotes

  1. the number of syllables in a metrical line
  2. the aesthetic relish or emotional flavour evoked in the reader Correct answer.
  3. the historical period in which a poem was written
  4. the grammatical case of a noun in a verse

Explanation

Rasa is the aesthetic experience savoured by the reader when a poem's dominant emotion is fully realised. Syllable count belongs to chhandas, periodisation to literary history, and case to grammar.

Question 46Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

A poem in which the poet addresses the motherland directly, using 'O motherland', is employing

  1. sambodhana or apostrophe, direct address to an absent or abstract entity Correct answer.
  2. vakrōkti, where meaning is deliberately twisted
  3. vyatireka, where a comparison shows the object's superiority
  4. svabhābōkti, where a natural fact is stated plainly

Explanation

Direct address to an abstraction or absent entity is apostrophe, in Odia criticism treated under sambodhana. The other figures involve plain statement, comparison of superiority, or deliberate obliquity, none of which is direct address.

Question 47Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

Which statement correctly pairs an Odia poet with the honour of composing the state anthem of Odisha, 'Bande Utkala Janani'?

  1. Gopabandhu Das
  2. Laxmikanta Mohapatra Correct answer.
  3. Radhanath Ray
  4. Fakir Mohan Senapati

Explanation

Laxmikanta Mohapatra composed 'Bande Utkala Janani', which is honoured as Odisha's state anthem. Gopabandhu Das wrote devotional and patriotic lyrics, Radhanath Ray wrote long narrative poetry, and Fakir Mohan Senapati is celebrated chiefly as a novelist and short-story writer.

Question 48Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

In the prescribed padya syllabus, a poem classified as 'khaṇḍakābya' is one that

  1. is a collection of prose essays
  2. is a dictionary of poetic vocabulary
  3. is a short narrative poem of moderate length Correct answer.
  4. consists of a single unrelated stanza

Explanation

Khaṇḍakābya is a minor narrative poem, longer than a lyric but shorter than a full mahākābya, usually centred on one episode. It is therefore a short narrative form rather than a single stanza, a prose collection, or a lexicon.

Question 49Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

Read the line: 'Her words were nectar to the wounded heart.' The figure of speech is

  1. śleṣa, since 'nectar' carries two meanings
  2. upamā, since the comparison is explicitly signalled
  3. rūpaka, since words are identified with nectar without a comparative word Correct answer.
  4. yamaka, since a sound is repeated

Explanation

The line equates words with nectar directly, with no 'like' or 'as', which makes it rūpaka. Upamā would require an explicit comparative particle, śleṣa a genuine double meaning, and yamaka repeated sound patterns.

Question 50Poetry (Padya) - prescribed poems: meaning, imagery, figures of speech, and poet background

A poet describes the beloved's face as surpassing the moon, which cannot match its brightness. This is an instance of

  1. atiśayokti
  2. vyatireka Correct answer.
  3. upamā
  4. anuprāsa

Explanation

Vyatireka states a comparison in which the subject is declared superior to the standard of comparison, here the face outshining the moon. Upamā merely likens, atiśayokti exaggerates without comparison, and anuprāsa is alliteration.