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Kerala Plus Two English Literature (DHSE) study materials
Kerala Plus Two English Literature (DHSE) study resources

Kerala Plus Two English Literature (DHSE) practice questions

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Question 1Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. When the panchayat of Kuttanad refused to fund a library, a group of retired teachers cleared a storeroom beside the temple tank and shelved four hundred books. Twelve years later the same room holds over nine thousand volumes, and its evening reading classes for fishermen's children have a waiting list. None of this appears in any government register. Which sentence best states the central idea of the passage?

  1. Retired teachers make better librarians than panchayat officials do.
  2. The library succeeded through local effort rather than official funding. Correct answer.
  3. Fishermen's children in Kuttanad read more than other children.
  4. Government registers rarely record the work done by village temples.

Explanation

The passage sets the panchayat's refusal against the teachers' own action and closes by noting that the achievement is unrecorded officially, so its central point is that local initiative, not official money, built the library. The other options either make a comparison the writer never draws or generalise far beyond the three sentences given.

Question 2Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. The headmaster was reluctant to sanction the trip. He feared the cost would fall on families already struggling, and he said so plainly to the staff before the bell rang. In the passage, the word 'reluctant' most nearly means:

  1. confident about the outcome
  2. strongly in favour of the plan
  3. unwilling to give permission Correct answer.
  4. proud of the staff's efforts

Explanation

'Reluctant' describes a person who hesitates or is unwilling to act, and the headmaster's stated worry about the cost explains why he held back from sanctioning the trip. The word marks resistance, not enthusiasm or confidence, so only the option naming unwillingness fits the sentence.

Question 3Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. The monsoon arrived three weeks early, and the paddy in the low fields was still green. That single fact decided the harvest: the grain never filled, and the farmers who had borrowed for seed could not repay. What does 'That single fact' refer to?

  1. the poor quality of the seed they sowed
  2. the early monsoon and the still-green paddy Correct answer.
  3. the low fields that the river flooded
  4. the farmers' decision to borrow money

Explanation

A referring expression like 'That single fact' points back to the immediately preceding statement, which here combines two linked details: the monsoon came three weeks early and the crop was still green. Borrowing is described as a later consequence of the failed harvest, not the fact being pointed to.

Question 4Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. She read the letter twice, folded it along the same crease, and put it back in the drawer without a word. At dinner she asked about the neighbour's roof and laughed at her brother's joke about the goat. Only later, washing the plates, did she let the tap run longer than it needed to. Which inference is best supported by the passage?

  1. She was hiding her distress from others. Correct answer.
  2. She had forgotten the roof repair.
  3. She had failed to understand the letter.
  4. She was annoyed by her brother's joke.

Explanation

The silent folding, the ordinary dinner talk and the laughter all show someone keeping her feelings under control, while the tap left running afterwards reveals the distress she was suppressing. Inference must rest on such textual clues, and nothing here says she misunderstood the letter, disliked the joke, or forgot anything.

Question 5Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. When the coastal panchayat banned plastic carry bags, shopkeepers predicted ruin. Two years on, the drains run clear after rain, and the turtles that nest on the beach are no longer found tangled in the stuff. The shopkeepers who once resisted now keep cloth bags behind the counter, and the turtles, at least, have stopped paying for our convenience. What is the writer's main purpose in this passage?

  1. to criticise shopkeepers for resisting the ban
  2. to show that a local ban has worked Correct answer.
  3. to explain how cloth bags are manufactured
  4. to describe the life cycle of sea turtles

Explanation

The writer reports the ban, notes its effects on drains and turtles, and ends by observing that even the resisting shopkeepers have changed, so the purpose is to show that the ban achieved its aims. Turtles appear only in passing, the shopkeepers are shown as having adapted, and bag manufacture is never mentioned.

Question 6Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. The new bridge across the river was opened in March, three years after the first stone was laid. It carries two lanes of traffic and a footpath, and it has cut the journey to the market from ninety minutes to twenty. It is, without question, the finest thing this district has ever built. Which statement from the passage is an opinion rather than a fact?

  1. It was opened three years after the first stone was laid.
  2. It carries two lanes of traffic and a footpath.
  3. It has cut the journey to the market to twenty minutes.
  4. It is the finest thing this district has ever built. Correct answer.

Explanation

A factual statement can be checked against evidence such as dates, lane counts and journey times. The description of the bridge as 'the finest thing this district has ever built' is a value judgement that no measurement or record can settle, which makes it an opinion.

Question 7Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. The school moved its library period from the last hour of Friday to the second hour of Monday. Teachers expected grumbling; instead, borrowings rose by a third within a term. The reason, the librarian says, is simple: on Friday the children were already thinking of home, while on Monday morning they had a whole week in which to finish a book. According to the passage, why did borrowings increase?

  1. Teachers stopped checking who borrowed what.
  2. Pupils had a whole week to finish a book. Correct answer.
  3. The Friday library period was too short for any reading.
  4. The library had bought many new books that term.

Explanation

The librarian states the reason explicitly, contrasting Friday, when children were thinking of home, with Monday, when they had a whole week ahead to finish a book. Any answer must match that stated cause rather than invent one about book purchases or supervision.

Question 8Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and choose the sentence that best fills the blank. Coir workers in Alappuzha once retted coconut husks in the backwaters, a process that took months and left the water foul. ______. Today the fibre is extracted by machines that use far less water, and the backwaters have begun to clear. Which sentence fits the blank most appropriately?

  1. Coconut is an important crop in Kerala.
  2. The machines are expensive to import from abroad.
  3. Many workers have since moved to other states.
  4. In the 1980s a mechanical method appeared. Correct answer.

Explanation

The blank sits between a description of an old, slow, water-heavy process and a sentence beginning 'Today', so the missing sentence must introduce the change of method that replaced retting. Only the sentence naming a mechanical method provides that bridge and lets the following sentence explain the result.

Question 9Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. Tourism posters show the hill town as a place of mist and silence. In fact the mist is largely smoke from the vehicles that bring the tourists, and the silence ends at six when the horns begin. The posters, one suspects, are not meant to be read closely. What does the last sentence suggest about the posters?

  1. They are printed in a font that most readers find too small.
  2. They are meant to create an impression rather than to be accurate. Correct answer.
  3. They are designed by people who have never visited the town.
  4. They are about to be replaced by a new set of posters.

Explanation

To say the posters 'are not meant to be read closely' implies that their function is to produce a pleasing impression rather than to survive factual scrutiny, a reading supported by the earlier exposure of the mist and silence as smoke and horns. The sentence says nothing about type size, the designers' travels, or any replacement.

Question 10Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the passage and answer the question. Every year the college plants a hundred saplings on its campus. Every year, by June, about seventy of them are dead - not from drought or disease, but from the boots of students who take the shortest path across the lawn. The notice board beside the lawn reads, in freshly painted letters, 'Green Campus'. Which statement best explains the effect of the last sentence?

  1. It shows that the students have understood the message.
  2. It introduces a new topic, the condition of the notice board.
  3. It restates the passage's main point in simpler words.
  4. It exposes the gap between the claim and the practice. Correct answer.

Explanation

Placing the freshly painted words 'Green Campus' beside a lawn where most saplings are trampled creates irony: the college's public claim is set against its own record. The sentence does not merely repeat the earlier point, and its detail about fresh paint serves the irony rather than introducing a new subject.

Question 11Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. The village reading room, closed during the floods, reopened on Monday. The shelves were rearranged, the chairs repaired, and the register placed at the desk. By evening, the room was filled with the quiet rustle of pages. In the sentence 'the room was filled with the quiet rustle of pages', the word 'rustle' most nearly means

  1. a soft sound made by paper Correct answer.
  2. a loud argument among readers
  3. a quick movement of chairs
  4. a damp smell in the room

Explanation

'Rustle' names the light, brushing sound that paper makes when it is handled. The sentence places the word beside 'quiet' and 'pages', so the sound of paper is the only meaning supported by the context.

Question 12Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and choose the best answer. Students of a higher secondary school in Thrissur began composting food waste from the canteen. Within six months, the compost was used in the school garden, and the amount of waste sent to the municipal dump fell by half. The headmaster now wants other schools to visit and learn the method. Which sentence best states the main idea?

  1. Students turned canteen waste into compost. Correct answer.
  2. The headmaster opposed the garden project.
  3. The canteen food was widely disliked.
  4. The municipal dump closed for repairs.

Explanation

The passage is built around a student project that composts canteen waste, and the details about the garden and the dump support that central point. The other options either contradict the passage or introduce claims it does not make.

Question 13Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. The district library will remain open on Sundays from next month. The reading hall will function from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the children's section will offer a story hour at noon. Membership fees and lending rules will not change. According to the passage, which change will the library make?

  1. It will move to a new building.
  2. It will open on Sundays. Correct answer.
  3. It will stop lending fiction.
  4. It will double its membership fee.

Explanation

The first sentence states directly that the library will remain open on Sundays from next month. The passage also says that membership fees and lending rules will stay the same, which rules out the other changes.

Question 14Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. When the bus reached the hill road, the driver asked everyone to move to the front seats. The conductor walked along the aisle checking the handbrake and the emergency door. No passenger complained about the delay. What can be inferred about the driver's request?

  1. The road ahead was difficult to drive. Correct answer.
  2. The rear seats were reserved for staff.
  3. The bus was overcrowded with passengers.
  4. The conductor was new to the route.

Explanation

Moving passengers forward and checking the handbrake and emergency door suggest that the vehicle was being prepared for a demanding stretch of road. The passage gives no evidence about reserved seats, overcrowding, or the conductor's experience.

Question 15Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. A columnist writes: 'Our town spends lakhs on decorative lights for a two-day festival but cannot find money to repair the government hospital's leaking roof. We applaud the lights and ignore the buckets in the wards. Perhaps we should reverse the order.' The author's main purpose is

  1. to explain how hospital roofs are repaired
  2. to praise the hospital staff for their patience
  3. to describe the festival's decorative lights
  4. to criticise misplaced public spending priorities Correct answer.

Explanation

The contrast between costly festival lights and a leaking hospital roof, followed by the call to 'reverse the order', shows that the writer is challenging the town's spending choices. The lights and buckets are details used to support that criticism, not the main purpose.

Question 16Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. The notice announced that the college would plant a hundred saplings. The same notice, in smaller print, thanked the contractor who had cut down the old shade trees to widen the driveway. The tone of the passage is best described as

  1. sarcastic Correct answer.
  2. celebratory
  3. neutral
  4. nostalgic

Explanation

The passage sets a tree-planting announcement beside quiet thanks for cutting down mature shade trees, exposing an inconsistency. That contrast gives the lines a mocking, sarcastic edge rather than simple praise or regret.

Question 17Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. Fishermen at a harbour in Ernakulam have begun returning lost nets to collection bins instead of abandoning them at sea. The collected nets are cleaned and sent to a recycling unit that turns them into fibres for ropes. In one year, the harbour recorded 40 per cent fewer net fragments on its beaches. Which option best summarises the passage?

  1. A recycling scheme reduced harbour net waste. Correct answer.
  2. The harbour banned all fishing nets.
  3. Ropes are now made from beach sand.
  4. Fishermen stopped fishing in the harbour.

Explanation

The passage reports a collection-and-recycling effort and its measured result: fewer net fragments on the beaches. A summary must keep both the action and its effect, which the correct option does.

Question 18Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. The museum's new gallery displays letters written by workers who migrated to Malabar in the 1940s. Beside each letter is a recorded voice reading it aloud. Visitors who cannot read the old script can still follow the story. What is the main function of the recorded voices in the gallery?

  1. To make the letters accessible Correct answer.
  2. To replace the letters entirely
  3. To entertain younger visitors
  4. To teach the old script

Explanation

The last sentence gives the purpose directly: visitors who cannot read the old script can still follow the story. The recordings therefore support the letters by making their content available to more people.

Question 19Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. The panchayat's annual report lists twelve new streetlights, a repaired culvert and a painted bus shelter. At the ward meeting, residents asked why the drinking-water pump had been broken for five months. The secretary replied that the pump required a part from another district. Which statement best reflects the residents' concern?

  1. They oppose the painted bus shelter.
  2. They distrust the secretary's district.
  3. They want more streetlights in the ward.
  4. The report omits their most urgent problem. Correct answer.

Explanation

The residents raise a five-month water pump failure even though the report highlights other works, implying that the report does not address their priority. The passage does not say that they reject the streetlights or the shelter, nor that they distrust the district itself.

Question 20Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Read the short passage and answer the question. A student writes: 'The new canteen menu is better because it includes more items. Last month there were three dishes; now there are six. Therefore, students will eat more healthily.' Which is the strongest criticism of the student's argument?

  1. Six dishes will cost the canteen more.
  2. Three dishes were enough for students.
  3. More dishes do not prove healthier food. Correct answer.
  4. The student does not name the dishes.

Explanation

The argument moves from a greater number of dishes to a claim about health without linking quantity to nutritional quality. That gap is the central weakness, because cost or naming the dishes would not by itself settle the health claim.

Question 21Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The annual school arts festival opened to a sparse crowd on Monday; only a handful of parents sat in the front rows of the auditorium. In this passage, the word 'sparse' most nearly means

  1. loudly excited
  2. richly decorated
  3. thinly spread Correct answer.
  4. carefully seated

Explanation

Sparse describes something thinly distributed, and the detail that only a handful of parents were present confirms that the hall was not full. The word does not describe decoration, noise or the way people were seated.

Question 22Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The alumni association funded a new reading corner in the school library. It was named after a retired Malayalam teacher who had served for thirty years. What does 'It' refer to?

  1. the retired teacher
  2. the school library
  3. the new reading corner Correct answer.
  4. the alumni association

Explanation

The pronoun 'It' replaces the singular thing that was funded and could logically be named after a teacher: the new reading corner. The association did the funding, the library already existed, and the teacher was honoured rather than named.

Question 23Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The district library will extend its weekend hours from next month. On Saturdays and Sundays it will close at eight in the evening instead of five, but the children's section will keep its usual schedule. Which detail is stated in the passage?

  1. The weekend hours will be shorter than before.
  2. The library will open a new branch next month.
  3. The children's section will also close at eight.
  4. The weekend closing time will move to eight. Correct answer.

Explanation

The passage says that on Saturdays and Sundays the library will close at eight instead of five. It explicitly excludes the children's section from the change, and it mentions neither a new branch nor shorter hours.

Question 24Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The panchayat repaired the main water tank before summer, but the canal that carries water to the paddy fields was left silted. By April, farmers near the tank had water in their taps while those at the tail end were buying tanker water. What can be inferred from the passage?

  1. The panchayat had no money for any repair work.
  2. Tanker water was cheaper than canal water.
  3. The tank repair caused the canal to silt up.
  4. The repair did not solve the water problem for all farmers. Correct answer.

Explanation

The passage contrasts farmers near the tank, who had tap water, with tail-end farmers who had to buy tanker water. This supports the inference that the repair helped some farmers but not all; it does not establish the cause of the silting, the cost of tanker water or a total lack of funds.

Question 25Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The college library has added fifty new titles and extended its evening hours, but the reading room still has only one attendant. Students say they wait longer to borrow books, and the new shelves remain half catalogued. Which sentence best states the main idea?

  1. The reading room is closed in the evening.
  2. The library should buy fewer books.
  3. New titles always attract more students.
  4. The library's improvements are incomplete without staffing. Correct answer.

Explanation

The passage sets new titles and longer hours against a shortage of attendants and uncatalogued shelves. The main point is that the expansion has not been matched by staff support, not that books are unwelcome or that the room is closed.

Question 26Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The municipality's 'green drive' has planted forty ornamental palms along the market road. It has also cut down the three rain trees that gave the vendors shade, because their leaves were said to make the pavement untidy. What is the tone of the passage?

  1. openly humorous
  2. wildly enthusiastic
  3. neutral and purely factual
  4. quietly critical Correct answer.

Explanation

The writer sets the planting of ornamental palms against the removal of shade trees, and the phrase 'were said to' signals scepticism about the official reason. The tone is understated criticism rather than celebration, pure factual neutrality or comedy.

Question 27Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The new bus shelter has a steel roof, concrete benches and a notice board for route timings. ______, it has no lighting, so passengers wait in the dark after six. Choose the best word for the blank.

  1. Therefore
  2. However Correct answer.
  3. Similarly
  4. For example

Explanation

The second sentence contrasts a missing feature with the facilities listed before it. 'However' marks that contrast, while the other choices signal cause, similarity or illustration, which do not fit the logical relation between the sentences.

Question 28Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

The ward committee proposed a footpath along the school road. Residents welcomed the idea, but the contractor's estimate exceeded the allocation. The committee then asked the residents' association to share the cost, and work is yet to begin. Which option best summarises the passage?

  1. The contractor refused to build the footpath.
  2. A proposed footpath is stalled over funding. Correct answer.
  3. The footpath was built after residents paid.
  4. Residents opposed the footpath from the start.

Explanation

The passage reports a proposal, a cost problem and a request for shared funding, with work not yet started. That amounts to a project delayed by money, not one completed, refused by the contractor or opposed by residents.

Question 29Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

A student argues: 'The canteen menu is better this term because it now lists more items than before.' Which assumption is needed for the student's argument?

  1. The canteen was closed last term.
  2. A longer menu means a better menu. Correct answer.
  3. Every item on the menu costs the same.
  4. Students prefer to eat outside the campus.

Explanation

The student moves from 'more items' to 'better menu' without stating the link between the two. The argument assumes that a greater number of items indicates better quality; previous closure, equal prices and eating outside the campus are irrelevant to that step.

Question 30Reading Comprehension (unseen passage)

Since the new streetlights were installed, complaints about theft on Market Road have fallen. The traders' association concludes that the streetlights have prevented theft. What is the most serious weakness in the conclusion?

  1. It assumes that theft never happens on Market Road.
  2. It does not say how many streetlights were installed.
  3. It ignores the cost of the new streetlights.
  4. It treats one change as the cause without ruling out other reasons. Correct answer.

Explanation

The conclusion moves from a fall in complaints after installation to a causal claim about the lights. Many other factors could explain the fall, so the reasoning confuses sequence or correlation with cause; the number of lights and their cost are not the central flaw.

Question 31Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In Katharine Tynan's poem "Any Woman", the speaker declares that she is "the keystone of the arch". Which poetic device carries this comparison?

  1. Simile: the comparison depends on an implied "like" before the keystone
  2. Personification: the arch itself is imagined as a living speaker
  3. Metaphor: she is identified outright with the keystone Correct answer.
  4. Metonymy: the keystone is a part used to name the whole arch it supports

Explanation

A metaphor states that one thing is another, and the speaker does not say she is like a keystone - she says she is one. Since a keystone locks an arch together, the figure presents the mother as the single element that keeps the household standing. The lines that follow, about roof and wall falling to ruin, confirm that the comparison is structural rather than decorative.

Question 32Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

Katharine Tynan's "Any Woman" builds its entire argument on which single claim about the mother?

  1. She is the centre that holds the family together Correct answer.
  2. She should be paid wages for the housework she performs
  3. She shares authority with her husband only in religious matters
  4. She is happiest when the children are away at school

Explanation

The poem's argument is cumulative: pillars, keystone, hearth-fire and light all say the same thing - the woman is the load-bearing centre of the home. The closing claim about the children extends that idea to the family's continuity. Nothing in the poem concerns wages, schooling or religious authority.

Question 33Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In Robert Frost's "Mending Wall", the neighbour repeats "Good fences make good neighbours". What does the line mean in his mouth?

  1. A well-built fence improves the appearance of a farm
  2. Clear boundaries keep neighbours apart and prevent quarrels Correct answer.
  3. Fences should be pulled down so that neighbours can share land
  4. Neighbours become friends only by repairing fences together

Explanation

For the neighbour the sentence is a rule of prudence: if each man keeps to his own side of a clear line, there is nothing left to quarrel over. Frost gives the line a proverbial, almost complacent ring, and the speaker quietly disagrees with it. He would rather ask what he is walling in or walling out.

Question 34Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In "Any Woman", each stanza introduces a fresh clause beginning "I am the...". What is the device, and what does it achieve?

  1. Alliteration; it repeats consonant sounds to make the verse musical
  2. Anaphora; the repeated opening piles up proof of her worth Correct answer.
  3. Apostrophe; it addresses the house as if it were a living person
  4. Enjambment; it carries the sense across the line ending

Explanation

"I am the pillars", "I am the fire", "I am the light" - the same opening formula recurs, which is anaphora. Each repetition adds another image of the mother's function, so the device works like a series of proofs. The cumulative effect is insistence and quiet triumph rather than mere decoration.

Question 35Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

"Something there is that doesn't love a wall" - what is that "something" in Frost's poem?

  1. The poet's wife, who dislikes the wall between the two orchards
  2. The hunters who cross the property and leave gaps for their dogs
  3. The neighbour's cattle, which lean against the stones in winter
  4. A natural force, felt even by the speaker, that resists barriers Correct answer.

Explanation

The "something" is deliberately vague: it is the frozen ground-swell under the wall, the hunters' gaps, and, more broadly, whatever in nature and in people refuses enclosure. The speaker includes himself in it when he says he would ask what he was walling in or walling out. The line therefore sets an instinct for openness against the neighbour's inherited rule.

Question 36Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

"He moves in darkness as it seems to me, / Not of woods only and the shade of trees." What does the second line add to the first?

  1. It suggests that the speaker is the one who cannot see clearly
  2. It makes the shade of trees a figure for the neighbour's mental darkness Correct answer.
  3. It confirms that the neighbour is walking through a forest at night
  4. It identifies the darkness as nothing more than the shadow thrown by the newly built wall

Explanation

The first line can be read literally, since the neighbour gropes along the wall in the evening shade. "Not of woods only" widens it: the shade of trees becomes a figure for a mind that will not examine its own inherited saying. Frost is thus critical without being abusive - the neighbour is not wicked, only unthinking.

Question 37Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In W. H. Auden's "The Unknown Citizen", the speaker quotes official reports approvingly. The tone produced is best described as:

  1. Warmly elegiac, mourning a real personal loss
  2. Openly angry, attacking the citizen by name
  3. Ironic, because official praise exposes empty conformity Correct answer.
  4. Playful and light-hearted, with no criticism of the state whatever

Explanation

The voice is that of an official report, blandly approving a man who never caused trouble. Because the approval is so complete and so hollow, readers hear irony: the State's idea of a good life is mere absence of complaint. Auden never lets the speaker admit the irony, and that restraint sharpens the satire.

Question 38Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

"Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd." What is the satiric point of Auden's closing couplet?

  1. It admits that the State has failed to measure happiness and promises new surveys
  2. It shows officials dismissing whatever cannot be measured Correct answer.
  3. It means freedom and happiness are the only things statistics can prove
  4. It suggests the citizen was too ill even to be asked such questions

Explanation

The question is brushed aside because it cannot be answered by a form or a survey, which is exactly the official habit Auden is mocking. For the State, a man with no complaints on file must be content, so to ask about freedom or happiness is unintelligible. The irony is that these are the only questions worth asking about a life.

Question 39Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In "Mending Wall", the speaker says: "He is all pine and I am apple orchard." What does the line contribute to the poem's argument?

  1. It shows both men grow the same crop and must share labour
  2. It shows the farms are unlike, so no wall is needed Correct answer.
  3. It is a piece of plain description with no bearing on their disagreement
  4. It proves the speaker wants to buy the neighbour's pines

Explanation

Pines and apple trees cannot wander into each other, so the phrase hands the speaker an argument: here the wall guards nothing at all. The line also keeps the tone light and wry, in contrast with the neighbour's heavy proverb. It is evidence inside the poem's debate, not mere scenery.

Question 40Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

Auden's "The Unknown Citizen" is framed and delivered as:

  1. A State-erected monument inscription for an unnamed citizen Correct answer.
  2. A newspaper editorial demanding that housing statistics be improved
  3. A eulogy delivered by the citizen's widow at his funeral
  4. A letter of complaint sent to the Bureau of Statistics

Explanation

The poem carries a mock dedication: a marble monument erected by the State to a citizen identified only by a file number. That framing makes the State the speaker, so the whole poem reads as an official inscription rather than a personal elegy. The bureaucratic form is itself part of the satire on lives reduced to records.

Question 41Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In Katharine Tynan's 'Any Woman', the mother's centrality is conveyed through images drawn mainly from which sphere?

  1. legal and political life
  2. scientific and mechanical life
  3. household and domestic life Correct answer.
  4. military and naval life

Explanation

The poem builds the mother's importance from familiar household objects such as hearth, roof, wall, door, bread and well. These domestic images make her both shelter and sustainer. Military, legal and scientific imagery do not organise the poem.

Question 42Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

The tone of Katharine Tynan's 'Any Woman' is best described as:

  1. sarcastic and mocking
  2. mournful and resigned
  3. confident and celebratory Correct answer.
  4. anxious and apologetic

Explanation

The speaker repeatedly asserts her essential place in the home, using strong declaratives such as 'I am the pillars' and 'I am the love.' The cumulative tone is assured and celebratory rather than sorrowful, mocking or apologetic.

Question 43Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

The epigraph of W. H. Auden's 'The Unknown Citizen' states that the marble monument is erected by:

  1. the citizen's family
  2. the State Correct answer.
  3. the Bureau of Statistics
  4. the labour union

Explanation

The epigraph reads 'To JS/07/M/378 / This Marble Monument / Is Erected by the State.' The state, not the family or union, commissions the memorial, which frames the poem as an official tribute.

Question 44Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In Robert Frost's 'Mending Wall', the speaker's question 'What I was walling in or walling out' chiefly reveals his:

  1. desire to sell the farm
  2. respect for inherited ritual
  3. doubt about the wall's purpose Correct answer.
  4. fear of his neighbour

Explanation

The speaker wonders what purpose the wall serves and whom it might offend, which shows scepticism about the annual ritual. He does not express fear, selling plans or simple reverence.

Question 45Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

Robert Frost's 'Mending Wall' is written mainly in which verse form?

  1. blank verse Correct answer.
  2. free verse
  3. ballad metre
  4. rhymed heroic couplets

Explanation

'Mending Wall' is in blank verse: unrhymed lines usually in iambic pentameter. It is not built from rhymed couplets, ballad quatrains or unmetred free verse.

Question 46Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

When the speaker in 'Mending Wall' says he could call the gaps the work of 'elves,' his tone is:

  1. playful and imaginative Correct answer.
  2. angry and accusatory
  3. frightened and confused
  4. solemn and religious

Explanation

The speaker jokes that the gaps are made by 'elves,' a fanciful explanation that keeps the tone light and imaginative. It is not an angry accusation, a religious claim or a sign of fear.

Question 47Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In 'The Unknown Citizen', the Bureau of Statistics report is used chiefly to:

  1. judge him only by statistics Correct answer.
  2. record his private dreams
  3. defend him from the State
  4. celebrate his individuality

Explanation

The Bureau's report lists taxes, employment, insurance and complaints, treating these external records as the full measure of the man. The poem's irony is that such data cannot capture inner freedom or happiness.

Question 48Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

In 'Any Woman', the line 'I am the bread of life for all' presents the mother as:

  1. a wealthy landowner
  2. a political leader
  3. a life-giving nurturer Correct answer.
  4. a literal baker

Explanation

'Bread of life' echoes a biblical phrase and presents the mother as one who sustains life, not merely as a literal baker. The image combines physical feeding with spiritual nurture.

Question 49Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

The title 'The Unknown Citizen' gains its satiric force chiefly by echoing which public memorial?

  1. the Unknown Soldier memorial Correct answer.
  2. the Statue of Liberty
  3. the Census Bureau
  4. the House of Commons

Explanation

The title alludes to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a public memorial to an unidentified serviceman. Auden transfers that anonymity to a bureaucratic citizen, making the state's monument ironically hollow.

Question 50Poetry - prescribed poems, theme, imagery, poetic devices

Which statement best captures the central tension in 'Mending Wall'?

  1. Both men fear the pine trees.
  2. Questioning meets inherited custom. Correct answer.
  3. The speaker wants a taller wall.
  4. The neighbour wants to share the orchard.

Explanation

The poem sets the speaker's playful questioning against the neighbour's trust in his father's saying, 'Good fences make good neighbours.' That contrast between fresh doubt and inherited custom is the central tension.