UGC NET English Literature – September 2026
Previous Year Question Paper (100 MCQs)
Previous Year Question Paper (100 MCQs)
1. What does MLA stand for in Literary Studies?
2. Which of the following is not a poem by Emily Dickinson?
3. Arrange the following works in the chronological order of their publication.
A. A Woman Killed with Kindness
B. The Shoemaker's Holiday
C. The Honest Whore
D. Old Fortunatus
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
4. Arrange the following in the correct order:
A. Research design
B. Objective
C. Analysis
D. Hypothesis
E. Feedback
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
5. What defines an 'edition'?
6. Identify the work by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar:
7. From the options provided below, identify the text in which the following lines appear:
"Heaven has no rage, like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned".
8. Which of Vijay Tendulkar's plays was adapted into a film that later received the National Films Award for the best Marathi film?
9. Who coined the term 'Objective Corelative'?
10. Which of the following novels has been written by Vladimir Nabokov?
11. Identify the language learning approach/method from the following clues: It involves a systematic presentation of the structures of the L2, moving from the simple to the more complex, in the form of drills that a student has to repeat. This practice involves hours spent in a language lab repeating oral drills. The method has been hailed as highly effective when used in intensive foreign language programs, notably in courses for military personnel.
12. Who among the following founded the Amar Chitra Katha comic series?
13. "One shade the more, one ray the less, had half impaired the nameless grace". Identify the poet.
14. Which Indian book won the Booker prize in 1997?
15. Who among the following uses the 'touchstone method' to define the function of poetry?
16. "Oh, say what stranger cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle belle, reject a lord?"
Identify the poet of the lines given above:
17. Which of the following writers were born in the same year?
18. Who among the following holds that "life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged"?
19. Which character from the following does not appear in Cilapattikaram?
20. In which of the following plays does the phrase "frailty thy name is woman" occur?
21. Who among the following appears in both The Ramayana and The Mahabharata?
22. Match the authors in LIST-I with their works in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Mahesh Dattani
B. Makarand Deshpande
C. Manjula Padmanabhan
D. Rabindranath Tagore
LIST-II
I. Harvest
II. Final Solutions
III. Mukta-Dhara
IV. Manushya
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
23. Which of the following statements is true for Ecriture feminine?
A. A loose English translation of ecriture feminine is "Feminine writing".
B. It is described as a uniquely feminine style of writing, characterized by disruptions in the text; gaps, silences, puns, rhythms etc.
C. It is comprehensible, and consistent, and easy to read and understand.
D. Ecriture feminine is political.
Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
24. Which of the following plays is not a Shakespearean comedy?
25. Who among the following defines poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"?
26. In which year was Rabindranath Tagore awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature?
27. Identify the correct chronological sequence of the following works:
A. Heart of Darkness
B. Emma
C. Sense and Sensibility
D. Far from the Madding Crowd
E. A Tale of Two Cities
28. Which of the following works is not written by an American writer?
29. Match the plays in LIST-I with their plots in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Magnificence
B. Gammer Gurton's Needle
C. Gorboduc
D. Ralph Royster Doyster
LIST-II
I. The story in this work is that of a conceited fop in love with a widow, who is already engaged to another man.
II. This work recalls the story used by Shakespeare in King Lear and is also remarkable as the first play to be written in blank verse.
III. This work shows the rise, fall, and final repentance of a worldly prince who is seduced and, in the end, redeemed by allegorical figures representing different virtues and vices.
IV. This work is a domestic comedy, a true bit of English realism, representing the life of the peasant class.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
30. Identify the definition of Illocutionary act under speech act:
31. Which of the following authors was awarded by the Sahitya Academy in the year 2000 for his novel Cuckold?
32. Which one of the following is not a Figure of Speech?
33. Match the measures in LIST-I with their description in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Trochaic
B. Iambic
C. Dactylic
D. Amphibrachic
LIST-II
I. An accented syllable is followed by an unaccented one.
II. The first syllable is unaccented, and the second is accented.
III. One accented syllable is followed by two unaccented ones.
IV. The middle syllable is accented and the other two are unaccented.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
34. Choose the correct sequence from among the following as per the publication of the works:
A. The Dark Room – R.K. Narayan
B. Untouchable – Mulk Raj Anand
C. The Serpent and the Rope – Raja Rao
D. Azadi – Chaman Nahal
E. Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh
35. What is an adjunct?
36. What is the first element of a research presentation ?
37. From the following, identify the critic who coined the term 'problem plays' in the context of Shakespearean drama.
38. Match the idea in LIST-I with critics in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Psychoanalytic Criticism
B. Reader-Response Theory
C. Speech Act Theory
D. Archetypal Criticism
LIST-II
I. Wolfgang Iser
II. J. L. Austin
III. Sigmund Freud
IV. Carl Jung
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
39. Which of the following is not true about Disability Studies?
40. Which of the following statements is not true in the context of Hybridity?
41. Match the authors in LIST-I with their works in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Horace Walpole
B. M. G. Lewis
C. William Beckford
D. Ann Radcliffe
LIST-II
I. Vathek
II. The Castle of Otranto
III. The Mysteries of Udolpho
IV. The Monk
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
42. Which of the following statements characterize literary modernism?
A. There is a sense of continuity, rather than a separation, between the worlds of subject and object, the self and the world. The human self is not viewed as a stable entity which simply engages with an already present external world of objects and other selves.
B. Time is conceived in a static model which separates past, present, and future as discrete elements in linear relation.
C. The linear narrative structure following the conventional Aristotelian model which prescribes beginning, middle, and end, has been adapted.
D. Modernist poetry tends to be fragmented, creating its own internal "logic" of emotion, image, sound, symbol, and mood.
E. There is a self-consciousness regarding the process of literary composition. This embraces both an awareness of how one's own work relates to the literary tradition as a whole, and also an ironic stance toward the content of one's own work.
Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
43. Fill in the blank in the following statement from the options provided below.
The practice of approaching male authors from a feminist perspective became known as_______________ because it sought to expose the masculine bias of the work.
44. Which of the following word classes does not consist of content words?
45. Who among the following is the author of the essay "Tale of La Roche" ?
46. From which of the following essays the given excerpt is taken?
"We were about to say that, being writers, we are of necessity dreamers; for thinking disposes the bodily faculties to be more than usually affected by the causes that generally produce dreaming."
47. Who among the follwing has written the book Red Earth and Pouring Rain ?
48. Which of the following has been a consistent genre in Suniti Namjoshi's writings?
49. How many feet does an 'iambic pentameter' have?
50. Which of the following is not true in the context of Cultural Materialism?
51. The term "New Criticism" was coined by:
52. Which of the following is not a Dalit autobiography?
53. Identify the correct chronological sequence of the following:
A. Theatre of the Absurd
B. Miracle Plays
C. Epic Theatre
D. Jacobean Drama
E. Senecan Tragedies
54. What kind of phrase is the following: at three o'clock?
55. Fill in the blanks in the following statement from the options provided below.
Ferdinand de Saussure undertook a_______________ approach which saw language as a _____________ that could be studied in its entirety at a given point in time.
56. Match the persons in LIST-I with the persons they are associated with in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Nora Barnacle
B. Frieda Weekley
C. Manu Bhandari
D. Simone de Beauvoir
LIST-II
I. Rajendra Yadav
II. Jean-Paul Sartre
III. D. H. Lawrence
IV. James Joyce
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
57. Pick the odd one out from the following poets.
58. Which book among the following has not been written by Namita Gokhale?
59. Which of the following is not written by R. K. Narayan?
60. Who among the following was one of the leading figures of the Oxford Movement?
61. Which of the following novels was not published in 1847?
62. Which of the following statements is not true in the context of Samuel Johnson's "Preface to Shakespeare"?
63. Match the authors in LIST-I with their works in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Kavita Kane
B. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
C. Anuja Chandramouli
D. Anant Neelakanthan
LIST-II
I. Ganga: The Constant Goddess
II. Asuras: A Tale of the Vanquished
III. The Palace of Illusions
IV. Menaka's Choice
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
64. Match the works in LIST-I with authors in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Of Jesting
B. Of Solitude
C. Fortuna
D. Of Toleration
LIST-II
I. Abraham Cowley
II. Ben Jonson
III. Thomas Fuller
IV. Sir Thomas Browne
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
65. Which of the following essays is not by John Ruskin?
66. What is meant by plagiarism in research?
67. Which among the follwing most appropriately describes the expression 'research gap'?
68. Identify the most important reason due to which Stephen Dedalus leaves Ireland in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
69. Who among the following remarked that Panchtantra "certainly is the most translated literary product of India"?
70. Which of the following is a voiceless, bilabial, plosive sound?
71. Match the writers in LIST-I with works in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Germaine Greer
B. Elaine Showalter
C. Judith Butler
D. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
LIST-II
I. Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle
II. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'
III. Epistemology of the Closet
IV. The Female Eunuch
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
72. Match the critics in LIST-I with the concepts they are associated with in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
B. David Mitchell & Sharon Snyder
C. David Bolt
D. Tom Shakespeare
LIST-II
I. Narrative Prosthesis
II. Disability Rights and Bioethics
III. Disability and Gender
IV. Cultural Disability Studies
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
73. Fill in the blank in the following statement from the options provided below.
___________________ are consonant sounds that are produced with a very narrow opening between the active and passive articulators. They are articulated by almost blocking the airflow, then letting the air escape through a narrow gap, creating friction.
74. Who among the following is a bilingual poet?
75. "Summer in Calcutta" has been written by one of the following Indian poets. Choose the correct option:
76. Match the works in LIST-I with their authors in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Small Remedies
B. Maila Aanchal
C. Sooraj Ka Satva Ghoda
D. Family Matters
LIST-II
I. Rohinton Mistry
II. Dharamveer Bharati
III. Shashi Deshpande
IV. Phanishwar Nath Renu
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
77. Match the works in LIST-I with writers in LIST-II.
LIST-I
A. Dhvanyaloka
B. Vakyapadiya
C. Vakrokti-jivita
D. Dasarupa
LIST-II
I. Kuntaka
II. Bhartrhari
III. Anandavardhana
IV. Dhananjaya
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
78. What is a 'citation' in literary research?
79. What is paraphrasing?
80. Who among the following has said, "Undoubtedly, philosophers are in the right when they say that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison"?
81. Identify the three-term labels describing the articulation of the English sound /ð/.
82. Which of the following do not characterize an Affricate sound?
A. A complete closure is made at some point in the mouth.
B. Air pressure builds up behind the closure and is then released slowly.
C. Air pressure builds up behind the closure and is then released explosively.
D. The soft palate is raised.
E. The soft palate is lowered.
83. Read the following statements carefully and choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
A. Foucault's genealogical method accepts objectivity and rejects the transformative and resistant figure of the "effective" historian.
B. Foucault's genealogical method assumes heterogeneity, discontinuity, singularity and the interimplication of power-knowledge.
C. Foucault understands the author-function as a critical device of the modern Western institution of criticism, unifying and homogenizing the literary text.
D. In search of another site of resistance, Foucault turns to classical Greek self-fashioning, its ethics/aesthetics of existence and its practices of the self (enkrateia).
84. Which of the following is not an autobiography of a person with disability?
85. Identify the French term equivalent of `do-it-yourself', which came into use in structuralist criticism in the early 1960s in the work of Claude Levi-Strauss.
86. In Dryden's Of Dramatic Poesy which speaker has been identified as the "new man" representing Dryden himself?
87. Identify the writer of the following statement: "In English writing we seldom speak of tradition, though we occasionally apply its name in deploring its absence".
88. In which of the following works was the term 'Science Fiction' first used?
89. Identify the term that was introduced by Noam Chomsky in Aspects of the Theory of Syntax to describe a native speaker's tacit or innate understanding of his or her own language.
90. Who among the following was not a part of the Dalit Panthers Movement?
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
91. What is the predominant imagery in this poem?
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
92. Identify the poem in which the above lines occur:
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
93. Which of the following is the holocaust image in the given passage?
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
94. Identify a metaphor in the passage:
A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot
A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.
Peel off the napkin
O my enemy.
Do I terrify?—
The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.
95. Identify the biblical reference in the title of the poem from the options given below:
Gandhi was against the English system of education as also against the use of English as a medium of instruction. He wanted education to be in the vernacular. He advocated free and compulsory education for all boys and girls between 7 and 14 years.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
96. Based on the passage, which of the following statements is incorrect?
Gandhi was against the English system of education as also against the use of English as a medium of instruction. He wanted education to be in the vernacular. He advocated free and compulsory education for all boys and girls between 7 and 14 years.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
97. Identify the type of narrator in the given passage:
Gandhi was against the English system of education as also against the use of English as a medium of instruction. He wanted education to be in the vernacular. He advocated free and compulsory education for all boys and girls between 7 and 14 years.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
98. Which of the following most appropriately describes Gandhi's reasons for making Hindu scriptures a part of education?
Gandhi was against the English system of education as also against the use of English as a medium of instruction. He wanted education to be in the vernacular. He advocated free and compulsory education for all boys and girls between 7 and 14 years.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
99. As per the passage, the end of education is to serve as a means to:
A. Achieve social status
B. Make a career
C. Enlightenment
D. Literacy
Choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below:
Gandhi was against the English system of education as also against the use of English as a medium of instruction. He wanted education to be in the vernacular. He advocated free and compulsory education for all boys and girls between 7 and 14 years.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
In Gandhi's view, education should be an integrated approach to the full development of the personality; it should include physical training and high moral principles along with intellectual and cognitive development. He differentiated between learning and education, knowledge and wisdom, literacy and lessons of life. According to him, "Literacy in itself is no education."
To Gandhi, morality had to be a part of education. Taking a leaf from Plato, Gandhi said that education should be a means of attaining knowledge and wisdom that ultimately place the seeker on the spiritual path. The end of education was not merely a means to make a career and achieve social status. Education should be a means to enlightenment. Gandhi also wanted the Hindu scriptures to be a part of education as they propounded discipline and self-restraint.
100. Identify the kind of writing which the given passage exemplifies.
| Paper Q. No. | Website Quiz Q. No. | Key Says | Our Case | Strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q.84 | Q.34 | Option 2 | No option is correct – question is defective | Very strong |
| Q.53 | Q.3 | Option 2 | Option 3 | Strong |
| Q.71 | Q.21 | Option 3 | Option 4 is equally correct | Moderate |
| Q.82 | Q.32 | Option 4 | Option 2 is equally correct | Moderate |
| Q.144 | Q.94 | Option 3 | Option 2 is equally correct | Low |
1. Q.34 Strength: VERY STRONG
Question: Choose the correct sequence from among the following as per the publication of the works:
A. The Dark Room – R.K. Narayan
B. Untouchable – Mulk Raj Anand
C. The Serpent and the Rope – Raja Rao
D. Azadi – Chaman Nahal
E. Train to Pakistan – Khushwant Singh
Official key: Option 2 — A, B, C, E, D
Our case: No option is correct. The question should be dropped and full marks awarded to all candidates.
Explanation: Untouchable 1935, The Dark Room 1938, Train to Pakistan 1956, The Serpent and the Rope 1960, Azadi 1975. The correct sequence is therefore B, A, E, C, D.
2. Q.3 Strength: STRONG
Question: Arrange the following works in the chronological order of their publication.
A. A Woman Killed with Kindness
B. The Shoemaker’s Holiday
C. The Honest Whore
D. Old Fortunatus
Official key: Option 2 — B, D, A, C
Explanation: The Shoemaker’s Holiday printed 1600, Old Fortunatus printed 1600, The Honest Whore printed 1604, and A Woman Killed with Kindness printed 1607 — that is, B, D, C, A, which is option 3.
3. Q.21 Strength: MODERATE
Question: Who among the following appears in both The Ramayana and The Mahabharata?
1. Sage Dronacharya 2. Sage Ved Vyasa 3. Sage Parshurama 4. Sage Durvasa
Official key: Option 3 — Sage Parshurama
Our case: Option 4 is equally correct; the question has two valid answers and should be dropped.
Explanation: Parashurama does appear in both epics, so the key is not wrong. But Durvasa appears in both as well, and just as prominently. In the Ramayana he features in the Uttara Kanda, where his arrival at Rama’s court leads directly to Lakshmana’s banishment; in the Mahabharata he grants Kunti the mantra by which she summons the gods and bears her sons. Since the question asks for a single figure and two of the four options satisfy it, the ground for challenge is ambiguity rather than error.
4. Q.32 Strength: MODERATE
Question: Which one of the following is not a Figure of Speech?
1. Anaphora 2. Enjambment 3. Metonymy 4. Elegy
Official key: Option 4 – Elegy
Our case: Option 2 is equally correct; two options are not figures of speech.
Explanation: Anaphora and Metonymy are figures of speech in the strict sense. Elegy is not — it is a poetic genre or form.
5. Q.144 (Website Q.94) — Strength: LOW
Question: Identify a metaphor in the passage (Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus” extract):
1. enemy 2. miracle 3. paperweight 4. foot
Official key: Option 3 – paperweight
Our case: Option 2 is also a metaphor.
Explanation: The opening line – “A sort of walking miracle, my skin” – also identifies the speaker with a miracle, which is metaphorical too.
