I85PREP
⌘ K
RBSE SS English Literature study materials
RBSE SS English Literature study resources

RBSE SS English Literature practice questions

One question at a time. Build your RBSE SS English Literature understanding.

First 50 of 200 questions. Each one lists the choices, the correct answer, and an explanation. The checker at the top of this page saves progress in this browser when it is available.

Continue in the practice tool above to load more questions, 50 at a time.

Question 1Prose and Fiction

In R.K. Narayan's story 'The Doctor's Word', what does Dr. Raman privately believe about the condition of his friend Gopal?

  1. That Gopal is certain to die Correct answer.
  2. That Gopal needs immediate surgery
  3. That Gopal will recover fully within a week
  4. That Gopal is pretending to be ill

Explanation

Raman concludes from the symptoms that Gopal cannot survive, yet he tells the anxious relatives that the patient will live. The story turns on the tension between his honest medical judgement and the lie he chooses to speak.

Question 2Prose and Fiction

What central moral conflict does Dr. Raman face in 'The Doctor's Word'?

  1. Whether to tell a hopeless truth or offer a comforting lie Correct answer.
  2. Whether to report a colleague for negligence
  3. Whether to charge his friend a fee for treatment
  4. Whether to leave Malgudi for a city practice

Explanation

Raman habitually announces recovery because he believes hope aids healing, even when his reading of the case says otherwise. The narrative tests whether such a comforting falsehood is justified.

Question 3Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what happens to Gopal after Dr. Raman's confident declaration?

  1. He loses his memory of the illness
  2. He dies the same night
  3. He relapses and is sent to another town
  4. He recovers and resumes his normal life Correct answer.

Explanation

Gopal survives, which seems to vindicate Raman's habit of voicing optimism. The outcome leaves the reader weighing whether the doctor's method worked or whether he was merely lucky.

Question 4Prose and Fiction

What does the doctor's habitual practice of predicting recovery reveal about his professional philosophy in 'The Doctor's Word'?

  1. That he prefers to consult other physicians first
  2. That he distrusts all medical science
  3. That he believes a patient's hope is itself therapeutic Correct answer.
  4. That he avoids treating serious cases

Explanation

Raman's repeated optimistic pronouncements rest on the conviction that morale affects recovery. He treats the spoken word as part of the cure rather than a mere report of facts.

Question 5Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', how does Dr. Raman's attitude toward truth-telling shift after Gopal's case?

  1. He begins to doubt whether his comforting words were honest or merely fortunate Correct answer.
  2. He resolves never to speak to patients again
  3. He becomes certain that optimism always cures
  4. He decides to publish his methods

Explanation

Survival does not settle the ethical question for Raman; it unsettles him, since he cannot tell whether his words healed or merely coincided with recovery. The story closes on that uncertainty rather than on triumph.

Question 6Prose and Fiction

Who is the central character of R.K. Narayan's novel 'The Guide'?

  1. Raju Correct answer.
  2. Venkat
  3. Gopal
  4. Raman

Explanation

Raju, once a tourist guide and later a convict, becomes the novel's focus when villagers mistake him for a holy man. His double life as guide and reluctant swami drives the plot.

Question 7Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what occupation gives Raju his livelihood before his imprisonment?

  1. Shopkeeper selling cloth
  2. Railway clerk
  3. Schoolteacher
  4. Tourist guide at Malgudi station Correct answer.

Explanation

Raju earns his living by meeting tourists at the railway station and showing them the sights of Malgudi. His fluency and charm as a guide prepare him for the role of persuasive talker later in life.

Question 8Prose and Fiction

How does Raju come to be mistaken for a holy man in 'The Guide'?

  1. He wins a public debate on scripture
  2. He deliberately founds a religious order
  3. Villagers find him sitting in meditation near a shrine after his release from prison Correct answer.
  4. He inherits a temple from his father

Explanation

After leaving prison, Raju rests near an old shrine, and a villager interprets his stillness as saintly contemplation. The misunderstanding spreads, and he lacks the will to correct it.

Question 9Prose and Fiction

What relationship does Rosie have with Raju in 'The Guide'?

  1. She is a fellow prisoner
  2. She is his sister
  3. She is the dancer he helps and later loves Correct answer.
  4. She is his landlord's daughter

Explanation

Rosie, a talented dancer unhappily married to Marco, becomes Raju's client and then his lover. Her artistic ambition and Raju's management of her career shape the novel's middle section.

Question 10Prose and Fiction

Which description best fits Marco, Rosie's husband, in 'The Guide'?

  1. A cheerful tour guide
  2. A wealthy film producer
  3. A village priest
  4. An austere scholar absorbed in his research Correct answer.

Explanation

Marco is an archaeologist and scholar who neglects Rosie emotionally, absorbed in his own work. His coldness drives her toward Raju and toward her dancing career.

Question 11Prose and Fiction

What crime leads to Raju's imprisonment in 'The Guide'?

  1. Forgery of Rosie's signature Correct answer.
  2. Smuggling of goods
  3. Theft of temple funds
  4. Murder

Explanation

Raju forges Rosie's signature to obtain money and is convicted for it. The fraud marks his moral fall from charming guide to criminal.

Question 12Prose and Fiction

How does 'The Guide' end for Raju?

  1. He fasts in a village to bring rain and dies as the drought breaks Correct answer.
  2. He is released and returns to guiding tourists
  3. He escapes with Rosie to another country
  4. He becomes a wealthy businessman

Explanation

Raju undertakes a fast to end the village drought, and the novel closes with rain falling as his life ebbs away. The ending gives his accidental sainthood a sacrificial meaning.

Question 13Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what does the railway station symbolise in Raju's early life?

  1. Opportunity and the arrival of outsiders Correct answer.
  2. Colonial oppression
  3. Spiritual retreat
  4. The permanence of village life

Explanation

The station is where travellers and novelty arrive, and Raju builds his livelihood by intercepting them. It stands for mobility, chance, and the worldly ambitions that later trap him.

Question 14Prose and Fiction

What narrative technique does Narayan use in 'The Guide' to move between Raju's past and present?

  1. A frame story told by Marco
  2. Alternating chapters of retrospective narration and present action Correct answer.
  3. A series of letters
  4. A diary kept by Rosie

Explanation

The novel alternates between Raju's remembered past and his present life as a reluctant holy man. This structure lets the reader compare his earlier motives with his final transformation.

Question 15Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what does Raman tell Gopal's relatives about the patient's chances?

  1. That Gopal needs a second opinion
  2. That Gopal will recover Correct answer.
  3. That Gopal will certainly die
  4. That Gopal must be moved to a hospital

Explanation

Raman announces recovery despite his private certainty of death, following his principle of fostering hope. The gap between his words and his belief creates the story's ethical tension.

Question 16Prose and Fiction

Which theme is most clearly developed in 'The Doctor's Word'?

  1. The ethics of deception in medicine Correct answer.
  2. The rivalry between two doctors
  3. The hardships of rural farming
  4. The corruption of village politics

Explanation

The story weighs the doctor's comforting falsehood against his duty to truthfulness. Its central question is whether a lie can be a form of care.

Question 17Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what is Rosie's artistic identity?

  1. A classical dancer Correct answer.
  2. A singer of folk ballads
  3. A novelist
  4. A painter of murals

Explanation

Rosie is a trained classical dancer whose art Marco undervalues and Raju promotes. Her dancing becomes both her fulfilment and the source of the couple's conflict.

Question 18Prose and Fiction

What does Raju's management of Rosie's dance career show about his character in 'The Guide'?

  1. His selfless devotion to art
  2. His indifference to money
  3. His talent for promotion mixed with self-interest Correct answer.
  4. His fear of public attention

Explanation

Raju organises bookings and publicity with real skill, yet he profits and enjoys the control it gives him. The episode exposes both his enterprise and his opportunism.

Question 19Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', how does Raju's mother react to his involvement with Rosie?

  1. She disapproves and eventually leaves the household Correct answer.
  2. She welcomes Rosie as a daughter-in-law
  3. She arranges a marriage for Raju
  4. She encourages the dancing career

Explanation

Raju's mother is distressed by the irregular relationship and the scandal it brings, and she ultimately departs. Her departure marks the collapse of Raju's respectable family life.

Question 20Prose and Fiction

What does the village's belief in Raju's sanctity in 'The Guide' illustrate about the community?

  1. Its rejection of traditional rituals
  2. Its careful verification of religious claims
  3. Its readiness to accept a charismatic figure on faith Correct answer.
  4. Its hostility to all outsiders

Explanation

The villagers accept Raju as holy on the strength of appearance and rumour rather than evidence. Narayan satirises the human tendency to project saintliness onto a passive figure.

Question 21Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what role does Gopal's friendship with Raman play in the plot?

  1. It leads to a quarrel over money
  2. It has no bearing on the story
  3. It makes the prognosis a personal test of honesty Correct answer.
  4. It causes Raman to refuse treatment

Explanation

Because the patient is a close friend, Raman's decision about what to say carries greater weight than a routine case would. Friendship sharpens the conflict between candour and comfort.

Question 22Prose and Fiction

Which pair correctly matches a Narayan character with the work in which he or she appears?

  1. Marco - 'The Guide' Correct answer.
  2. Rosie - 'The Doctor's Word'
  3. Raman - 'The Guide'
  4. Gopal - 'The Guide'

Explanation

Marco, the scholar married to Rosie, belongs to 'The Guide'. Matching characters to their texts requires keeping the two prescribed works distinct.

Question 23Prose and Fiction

What does Raju's transition from guide to swami suggest about identity in 'The Guide'?

  1. That only education changes a person
  2. That religious roles are inherited
  3. That identity is fixed at birth
  4. That identity can be remade by circumstance and the perceptions of others Correct answer.

Explanation

Raju's new identity is thrust upon him by a misunderstanding, and he gradually inhabits it. The novel suggests that selfhood is partly shaped by how others see us.

Question 24Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', why is Raman's professional reputation significant to the story?

  1. It makes him wealthy enough to retire
  2. It prevents him from treating Gopal
  3. It causes him to lose his licence
  4. It explains why his words carry such weight with patients Correct answer.

Explanation

Raman is known as a doctor whose pronouncements are trusted, so his optimistic verdict is taken seriously by the family. His reputation raises the stakes of the comforting lie he tells.

Question 25Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what finally gives Raju's accidental sainthood a sense of purpose?

  1. His escape from the village
  2. His return to tourist guiding
  3. His reunion with Rosie
  4. His decision to fast for the welfare of others Correct answer.

Explanation

By undertaking the fast, Raju acts for the villagers rather than for himself, and his death acquires sacrificial meaning. The novel converts a comic misunderstanding into a serious ending.

Question 26Prose and Fiction

In R.K. Narayan's 'The Guide', the novel is set mainly in the fictional town of Malgudi, which appears in many of Narayan's works. What is Malgudi?

  1. A fictional South Indian town used across Narayan's fiction Correct answer.
  2. A hill station in the Himalayas
  3. A district of Madras renamed after independence
  4. A real coastal city in Kerala

Explanation

Malgudi is an imagined town in South India that Narayan invented and reused throughout his fiction, giving his stories a shared social world. It is not a real place, so options naming actual regions or cities misplace the setting.

Question 27Prose and Fiction

In Narayan's 'The Guide', Raju's father is remembered in the novel's early chapters as a man associated with which activity?

  1. Teaching Sanskrit in a school
  2. Running a small shop by the railway line Correct answer.
  3. Practising as a village lawyer
  4. Selling tickets at the station

Explanation

Raju's family background is tied to a modest shop near the railway, which places the household on the edge of the town's commercial life. This origins detail explains Raju's early familiarity with travellers and the station.

Question 28Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', how does Raman behave toward Gopal once he realises the illness is likely fatal?

  1. He sends the family to another doctor
  2. He tells the family the truth and prepares them for death Correct answer.
  3. He refuses to visit the patient again
  4. He promises a full recovery to keep their hopes high

Explanation

Raman's decision to speak honestly to Gopal's relatives is the story's turning point, since it sets his professional judgement against the family's need for hope. The narrative then tests the consequences of that honesty.

Question 29Prose and Fiction

Which statement best describes the narrative structure of 'The Guide'?

  1. A first-person narration by Raju that alternates between past and present Correct answer.
  2. A third-person chronicle told strictly in chronological order
  3. A series of letters exchanged between Raju and Rosie
  4. A diary kept by the villagers about the swami

Explanation

Raju narrates his own story, and the novel moves between his earlier life as a tourist guide and his later life as an accidental holy man. This double timeline lets the reader compare the two Rajus.

Question 30Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what is Raman's attitude toward the truth when speaking to a patient's family?

  1. He believes a doctor should not lie about a patient's condition Correct answer.
  2. He prefers to let the patient explain the diagnosis
  3. He considers the family's feelings irrelevant
  4. He thinks comforting lies are always kinder than facts

Explanation

Raman holds that a doctor's word must be truthful, even when the truth is painful, because his professional integrity depends on it. The story tests that principle against the family's emotional needs.

Question 31Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what does Raju's willingness to be taken for a swami reveal about the gap between appearance and reality in the novel?

  1. That villagers distrust anyone who speaks of religion
  2. That holiness is inherited from one's family
  3. That Raju deliberately trains for years to become a priest
  4. That a role can be accepted by others even when the person has not earned it Correct answer.

Explanation

Raju never claims genuine sanctity; the villagers confer the role on him, and he gradually inhabits it. The novel uses this to show how identity can be manufactured by other people's expectations.

Question 32Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what does the character Gopal represent in relation to Raman?

  1. A stranger who doubts Raman's skill
  2. A close friend whose illness forces Raman to confront his principles Correct answer.
  3. A wealthy patron who funds Raman's clinic
  4. A rival physician competing for the same patients

Explanation

Gopal is both a patient and a friend, so Raman's duty to tell the truth becomes personally costly. The friendship raises the emotional stakes of the professional dilemma.

Question 33Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', which detail shows that Raju's knowledge of religion is largely borrowed rather than deeply studied?

  1. He debates scholars publicly and wins
  2. He repeats phrases and stories he has picked up from others Correct answer.
  3. He has completed a formal course in theology
  4. He writes his own commentaries on scripture

Explanation

Raju's religious speech is assembled from things he has heard, not from sustained study, which is why the novel treats his sainthood as partly performance. The villagers' faith supplies the authority he lacks.

Question 34Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', how does the novel treat the railway station in relation to Raju's character?

  1. As a site of religious pilgrimage
  2. As the place where he first meets Rosie
  3. As a place where he learns to read people and sell his services Correct answer.
  4. As a symbol of his rejection of commerce

Explanation

The station is where Raju develops the guiding skills that define his early life: recognising tourists, anticipating their needs, and profiting from them. It is a commercial and social training ground rather than a sacred site.

Question 35Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', the story's central conflict is best described as which of the following?

  1. A doctor's ambition against a hospital's rules
  2. A doctor's duty of truthfulness against a family's need for hope Correct answer.
  3. A village's superstition against modern medicine
  4. A patient's fear of surgery against a surgeon's confidence

Explanation

The story sets Raman's commitment to honest speech against the comfort that a reassuring lie would give Gopal's relatives. The resolution asks the reader to weigh professional integrity against human kindness.

Question 36Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what does Rosie's commitment to classical dance suggest about her character?

  1. She abandons dance once she becomes famous
  2. She dances only to please her husband
  3. She sees performance as a casual hobby
  4. She treats dance as a serious art that gives her independence Correct answer.

Explanation

Rosie's dancing is central to her sense of self, and her career gives her a measure of freedom from Marco's disapproval. Narayan presents her art as disciplined vocation rather than ornament.

Question 37Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', how does Marco's attitude toward Rosie's dancing affect their marriage?

  1. His disapproval creates a rift that pushes Rosie toward Raju Correct answer.
  2. His enthusiasm makes him her manager
  3. His indifference leaves the marriage unchanged
  4. His jealousy leads him to sponsor her performances

Explanation

Marco regards Rosie's dancing as beneath his scholarly dignity, and his contempt isolates her. That emotional distance is what allows Raju to enter her life as promoter and companion.

Question 38Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what does Raman's reputation in the town mainly depend on?

  1. His training abroad
  2. His wealth and family connections
  3. His skill at flattering influential families
  4. His record of accurate judgement about patients Correct answer.

Explanation

The town trusts Raman because his forecasts about illness have proved reliable, which is why his honesty carries weight. His authority rests on judgement rather than on money or charm.

Question 39Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what does Raju's manipulation of Rosie's career reveal about his relationship with ambition?

  1. He is indifferent to money
  2. He wants to return to his old job as a guide
  3. He cares only about artistic excellence
  4. He is drawn to profit and control more than to her art itself Correct answer.

Explanation

Raju organises Rosie's performances with an eye to earnings and status, and his management gradually becomes self-serving. The novel shows his ambition attaching itself to her talent rather than to the art.

Question 40Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what is the effect of Raju's mother leaving the household after his involvement with Rosie?

  1. It persuades Rosie to give up dancing
  2. It brings the family closer together
  3. It isolates Raju and signals the collapse of his respectable family life Correct answer.
  4. It forces Marco to divorce Rosie

Explanation

The mother's departure marks the moment Raju's conventional domestic world breaks apart, leaving him dependent on the life he has built around Rosie. It underlines how thoroughly his choices have cut him off from his origins.

Question 41Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', how does the novel use the contrast between Raju's prison life and his life as a swami?

  1. It suggests that sainthood is a reward for good conduct
  2. It proves that prison reforms every criminal
  3. It demonstrates that village life is superior to town life
  4. It shows how a fallen man can be refashioned by other people's belief in him Correct answer.

Explanation

Raju moves from disgrace to veneration without any inner transformation that would justify it, and the novel uses that irony to examine how reputation is made. The contrast exposes the gap between moral worth and social image.

Question 42Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what makes Raman's honesty toward Gopal's family especially difficult?

  1. The patient is someone he knows and values personally Correct answer.
  2. The hospital forbids him to speak to relatives
  3. The patient is a stranger to him
  4. The family has threatened to sue him

Explanation

Because Gopal is a friend, telling the truth means causing pain to people he cares about, which turns a professional principle into a personal trial. The story's tension comes from that overlap of duty and affection.

Question 43Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', which statement best captures the novel's treatment of guilt and atonement in Raju's final phase?

  1. He returns to guiding tourists to repay his debts
  2. He accepts a role that may cost his life, giving his borrowed sainthood real moral weight Correct answer.
  3. He confesses his crimes to the villagers and is pardoned
  4. He escapes the village to avoid the fast

Explanation

Raju's decision to undertake the fast, though it began as an accident of reputation, becomes a genuine commitment to others. That choice converts a false identity into something morally serious.

Question 44Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', what does the villagers' readiness to accept Raju as a swami suggest about their community?

  1. It shows that they have all received a formal religious education
  2. It shows that they are indifferent to religion
  3. It shows that they distrust outsiders and reject him
  4. It shows a hunger for spiritual authority that overrides doubts about the man himself Correct answer.

Explanation

The villagers want a holy figure and find one in Raju, so their faith supplies authority he never earned. Narayan uses this to show how communities create the leaders they need.

Question 45Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', which reading of the story's ending is best supported by the text?

  1. The family's hopes are fully satisfied
  2. Raman's honesty is shown to be a mistake he regrets
  3. Raman's honesty is vindicated even though the outcome is painful Correct answer.
  4. The village turns against Raman permanently

Explanation

The story upholds Raman's commitment to truth while acknowledging the human cost of it, so his principle survives the painful result. It refuses both easy comfort and simple condemnation of his choice.

Question 46Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', why is Raju's habit of inventing information for tourists significant to his later role as a swami?

  1. It proves he has a scholarly knowledge of history
  2. It explains why the villagers distrust him
  3. It shows he has long practised saying what listeners want to hear Correct answer.
  4. It demonstrates his refusal to profit from others

Explanation

As a guide Raju supplies confident stories regardless of accuracy, and the same talent for persuasive speech carries over into his religious persona. The novel links his commercial patter to his later sanctity.

Question 47Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', how does Narayan's handling of Raju's narration complicate the reader's judgement of him?

  1. Raju presents himself sympathetically, so his failings emerge through events rather than self-criticism Correct answer.
  2. Raju allows other characters to narrate his past
  3. Raju narrates only the present, leaving his past unknown
  4. Raju condemns himself so harshly that the reader pities him

Explanation

Because Raju tells his own story with self-justifying charm, the reader must infer his faults from what happens rather than from confession. This narrative technique makes him both engaging and morally elusive.

Question 48Prose and Fiction

In 'The Doctor's Word', what does the story imply about the difference between professional duty and personal kindness?

  1. They can pull in opposite directions, so a doctor must choose which principle to honour Correct answer.
  2. Professional duty is irrelevant to a doctor's conduct
  3. Personal kindness matters only to the family, not the doctor
  4. They always coincide, so no dilemma arises

Explanation

Raman's honesty serves his professional duty but wounds the family, showing that duty and kindness are not automatically aligned. The story asks the reader to weigh competing goods rather than to apply a simple rule.

Question 49Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', which statement best explains why Raju's final fast can be read as both ironic and sincere?

  1. He knows the fast will certainly succeed
  2. He planned the fast for years to gain fame
  3. He performs the fast only to escape prison
  4. The role began as an accident, yet he chooses to honour the faith placed in him Correct answer.

Explanation

Raju's sainthood originates in a misunderstanding, which supplies the irony, but his decision to see the fast through gives it moral sincerity. Narayan holds both meanings together instead of resolving them.

Question 50Prose and Fiction

In 'The Guide', how does the novel connect Raju's transgression with Rosie to his later spiritual role?

  1. His punishment teaches him scripture in prison
  2. His crime earns him a formal religious appointment
  3. His fall from respectability strips him of status, leaving him open to a new identity Correct answer.
  4. His guilt makes him reject all contact with villagers

Explanation

Raju's disgrace removes the respectable life he had built, and the vacuum is filled by the accidental role of swami. The novel treats his moral fall as the condition for his unexpected transformation.