Geoffrey Chaucer Previous Year UGC-NET | GATE Questions

Which Canterbury pilgrim carries a brooch inscribed with the Latin words meaning “Love Conquers All” ?
(A)The Prioress
(B) The Monk
(C) The Wife of Bath
(D) The Squire
Ans: (A)

Who among the following was Geoffrey Chaucer’s contemporary?
(A) Thomas Chatterton
(B) John Gower
(C) Thomas Shadwell
(D) John Gay
Ans: (B)

From among the Canterbury pilgrims, which group would qualify as the ‘upper class’ ?
(A) The Pardoner, The Miller, The Nun’s Priest
(B) Franklin, Parson, Wife of Bath
(C) The Knight, The Squire, The Prioress
(D) The Reeve, The Manciple, The Clerk
Ans: (C)

John Lydgate begins his Siege of Thebes with a prologue of 176 lines in which he imagines himself joining Chaucer’s pilgrims in Canterbury, where he speaks with the Host and agrees to tell the first tale on homeward journey. The story that Lydgate tells as the pilgrims depart from Canterbury is meant to be a companion piece to :
(A) The Pardoner’s Tale
(B) The Wife of Bath’s Tale
(C) The Knight’s Tale
(D) The Miller’s Tale
Ans: (C)

In the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales which two characters are examples of deep Christian goodness?
I. the Summoner
II. the Parson
III. the Ploughman
IV. the Pardoner
The right combination according to the code is
(A) I and II
(B) II and IV
(C) II and III
(D) I and IV
Ans: (C)

It is decided that each Canterbury pilgrim would tell in all :
(A) One story
(B) Two stories
(C) Three stories
(D) Four stories
Ans: (D)

Which Chaucerian text parodies Dante’s The Divine Comedy ?
(A) The Canterbury Tales
(B) The Book of the Duchess
(C) The House of Fame
(D) Legend of Good Women
Ans: (C)

“For gold in Physique is Cordial/Therefore, he loved gold in special” relates to Chaucer”s
(A) Friar
(B) Monk
(C) Doctor
(D) Pardoner
Ans: (C)

The rhetorical pattern used by Chaucer in The Prologue to Canterbury Tales is
(A) ten-syllabic line
(B) eight-syllabic line
(C) rhyme royal
(D) ottava rima
Ans: (A)

Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowles is in part
(I) a puzzle
(II) a debate
(III) a threnody
(IV) a beast fable
The correct combination for the above statement, according to the code, is
(A) I, II & IV
(B) II, III & IV
(C) I & IV
(D) II & IV
Ans: (A)

What is it that Chaucer focuses on in the depiction of the Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales ?
(A) Meekness
(B) Defiance
(C) Chastity
(D) Experience
Ans: (B)

Which poem by Chaucer was written on the death of Blanche, Wife of John of Gaunt?
(A) Troilus and Criseyde
(B) The House of Fame
(C) The Book of Duchess
(D) The Legend of Good Women
Ans: (C)

Which of the following statements about The Canterbury Tales is true?
(A) “The General Prologue’ is appended to The Canterbury Tales.
(B) In all, Chaucer tells thirty tales in this work.
(C) The Canterbury Tales remained unfinished at the time of its author’s death.
(D) The Wife of Bath, The Clerk, Sir Gawain and The Franklin are characters and tale-tellers in this work.
Ans: (C)

Arrange the following authors in the chronological order of their birth:
A. Oscar Wilde
B. William Langland
C. Geoffrey Chaucer
D. John Dryden
E. Alexander Pope

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
a. B, C, D, E, A
b. A, B, C, E, D
c. B, C, D, A, E
d. C, B, A, D, E
Ans: (a)

Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
(A) Chaucer used the rhyme royal, a stanzaic form in some of his major poems.
(B) Chaucer was the author of The Legend of Good Women.
(C) Chaucer wrote in English when the court poetry of his day was written in Anglo-Norman and Latin.
(D) Chaucer wrote The Book Named the Governor
Ans: (D)

She was a worthy woman al hir lyve,
Housbondes at chirche-dore she hadde fyve,
In the ‘Prologue’ Chaucer represents the Wife of Bath as:
I. crude and vulgar
II. outspoken and boastfully licentious
III. a witness to masculine oppression
IV. bubbling with vitality
Find the correct combination according to the code:
(A) I, II and III are correct.
(B) I, II and IV are correct.
(C) I, III and IV are correct.
(D) II, III and IV are correct.
Ans: (B)

The Wife of Bath’s philosophy ofmarriage shows that she
(A) Is a strong person with keen awareness of her own rights?
(B) Tends to say one thing and do the opposite.
(C) Cares only for pleasure, not for right and wrong.
(D) Trusts thought too much instead of feeling.
Ans: (A)

Which tale in The Canterbury Tales uses the tradition of the Beast Fable?
(A) The Knight’s Tale
(B) The Monk’s Tale
(C) The Nun’s Priest’s Tale
(D) The Miller’s Tale
Ans: (C)

How did Chaucer’s Pardoner make his living ?
(A) By selling stolen cattle from the neighbourhood ottery
(B) By selling indulgences to those who committed sins
(C) By pardoning those who stole property or committeed other crimes
(D) By assisting the Friar in Church services
Ans: (B)

How many legends of good women could Chaucer complete in his The Legend of Good Women ?
(A) Six
(B) Seven
(C) Eight
(D) Nine
Ans: (D)

“Out of the gosple he tho words caughte
And this figure he added eek therto,
That if gold ruste, what shal iren do ?”
In the Prologue the Parson is represented as a man :
1. who loved money
2. who criticized the corrupt clergy
3. who practiced what he preached
4. who was a poor but honest clerk
Find the correct combination according to the code :
(A) 1, 2 and 3 are correct
(B) 1, 2 and 4 are correct
(C) 2, 3 and 4 are correct
(D) 1, 3 and 4 are correct
Ans: (C)

John Dryden described a major English poet as “a rough diamond, and must first be polished ere he shines …..” Identify him:
(A) Geoffrey Chaucer
(B) John Gower
(C) George Herbert
(D) Robert Ilerrick
Ans: (A)

Chaucer satirizes the Monk because the Monk:
(A) is too concerned with courtesy and matters of etiquette
(B) cheats the poor peasants by selling them false religious relics
(C) courts favour of wealthy people but spends no time with poor people
(D) spends too much time hunting and too little time on religious duty
Ans: (D)

What is the moral of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” ?
(A) Slow and steady wins the race.
(B) Greed is the root of all evil.
(C) Beauty lies within.
(D) Never trust a flatterer.
Ans: (D)

What narrative perspective does Chaucer employ in the opening of “The General Prologue”?
(A) A first-person “I”
(B) Omniscience
(C) Third person
(D) Free indirect discourse
Ans: (A)

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims, like the medieval society of which
they are a part, are made up of three social groups or “estates”. What are the three estates?
(A) Nobility, church and commoners
(B) Royalty, nobility and peasantry
(C) Royalists, republicans and peasants
(D) Country, city and commons
Ans: (A)

The seven deadly sins are sought to be portrayed in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Which of the following sins is not covered by Chaucer ?
I. Jealousy
II. Envy
III. Lust
IV. Homicide
The right combination according to the code is
(A) I & II
(B) I & III
(C) I & IV
(D) III & IV
Ans: (C)

In Canterbury Tales who has a red face full of sores ?
(A) the Summoner
(B) the Shipman
(C) the Yeoman
(D) the Reeve
Ans: (A)

Which of the following is true of The Canterbury Tales ?
(A) Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas Tale only.
(B) Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates The Tale of Melibee only.
(C) Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas Tale and The Tale of Melibee .
(D) Chaucer, the pilgrim does attempt to narrate an unnamed tale but abruptly stops due to the intervention of the other pilgrims.
Ans: (C)

One of the less noticed and acknowledged distinction of The Canterbury Tales is that
(A) instead of revealing England’s divisions, it reveled in its diversity.
(B) it upheld the idea that we cannot divorce poetry from knowledge because poetry itself is an object of knowledge
(C) it alerted us to the term auctor, someone who is both ‘an originator, or one who gives increase’, the best description for Chaucer himself.
(D) it married domesticity to divinity, the baker’s Loaf with the bread of life.
Ans: (A)

Chaucer’s first work, The Book of the Duchess is a dream poem on the death of …………….
(A) Duchess of Malfi
(B) Duchess of Lancaster
(C) Duchess of Scotland
(D) Duchess of Paris
Ans: (B)

 In which one of the following Middle English poems is Hector a character?

(A) Troilus and Cressida

(B) Piers plowman

(C) The seafarer

(D) Beowulf

Ans: (A)

Which three of the following poets figure in William Dunbar’s lament for the makers?

1. Geoffrey Chaucer
2. John Gower
3. Robert henryson
4. William Langland

Choose the most appropriate option:

(a), (b) and (d)

(a), (b) and (c)

(b), (c) and (d)

(a), (c) and (d)

Ans: (a), (b) and (c)

Which of the following tales in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales deals with the murder of a child by Jews?“

(A) “The Monk’s Tale”

(B) “The Second Nun’s Tale”

(C) “The Prioress’s Tale”

(D) “The Shipman’s Tale”

Ans: (C)