20th Century
1. **What was the impact on literature of the Education Act of 1870, which made elementary schooling compulsory?**
* **(A) the emergence of a mass literate population at whom a new mass-produced literature could be directed**
* *(Explanation: The Education Act of 1870 made elementary education compulsory, significantly increasing literacy rates. This led to a larger reading public and the development of mass-produced literature to cater to this new market.)*
2. **With which enormously influential perspective or practice is the early-twentieth-century thinker Sigmund Freud associated?**
* **(B) psychoanalysis**
* *(Explanation: Sigmund Freud is widely recognized as the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.)*
3. **Which scientific or technological advance did not take place in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century?**
* **(C) the creation of the internet**
* *(Explanation: Wireless communication across the Atlantic (Marconi, 1901), Albert Einstein's theory of relativity (1905), and the invention of the airplane (Wright brothers, 1903) all occurred within the first fifteen years of the 20th century. The internet's origins are much later, in the latter half of the 20th century.)*
4. **Which phrase indicates the interior flow of thought employed in high-modern literature?**
* **(D) stream of consciousness**
* *(Explanation: "Stream of consciousness" is a narrative mode that attempts to portray the myriad thoughts and feelings that pass through the minds of characters, often in a free-flowing, unpunctuated manner, characteristic of high-modern literature.)*
5. **Which novel did T. S. Eliot praise for utilizing a new "mythical method" in place of the old "narrative method" and demonstrates the use of ancient mythology in modernist fiction to think about "making the modern world possible for art"?**
* **(D) James Joyce's Ulysses**
* *(Explanation: T.S. Eliot famously lauded James Joyce's "Ulysses" for its "mythical method," which used parallels with ancient mythology (specifically Homer's Odyssey) to give shape and significance to the contemporary world.)*
6. **Which of the following novels display post-war nostalgia for past imperial glory?**
* **(D) Paul Scott's Staying On**
* *(Explanation: While other options like "A Passage to India" and "Heart of Darkness" deal with imperialism, Paul Scott's "Staying On" specifically depicts the lingering presence and nostalgic sentiments of the British in India after independence, reflecting on the decline of imperial glory.)*
7. **What did Henry James describe as "loose baggy monsters"?**
* **(A) novels**
* *(Explanation: Henry James used the phrase "loose baggy monsters" to describe novels, particularly those that he felt lacked a tight, controlled structure, in contrast to his own more meticulously crafted works.)*
**20th Century Literature (Page 2)**
1. **Who called 'The Waste Land 'a music of ideas'?**
* **(G) I. A. Richards**
* *(Explanation: I.A. Richards, a prominent literary critic, referred to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" as a "music of ideas" in his critical analysis of the poem.)*
2. **Which of the following myths does not figure in The Waste Land?**
* **(D) Sysyphus**
* *(Explanation: "The Waste Land" heavily incorporates elements from the Grail Legend of the Fisher King and the myth of Philomela. While Oedipus is a significant figure in literature and psychology, his myth is not a primary figure in "The Waste Land." The myth of Sisyphus is also not a direct or prominent feature of the poem.)*
3. **Sassoon and Brooke wrote what kind of poetry?**
* **(D) War poems**
* *(Explanation: Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke were both prominent English poets known for their works related to World War I.)*
4. **Who wrote: "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."?**
* **(B) T.S. Eliot**
* *(Explanation: This famous line is from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.")*
5. **A "classic" book is usually one that possesses what quality?**
* **(D) All of the above.**
* *(Explanation: A classic book typically possesses universal appeal, can stand the test of time, and makes connections with readers across generations and cultures.)*
6. **How old was Rupert Brooke at the time of his death?**
* **(D) 28**
* *(Explanation: Rupert Brooke died at the age of 28 during World War I.)*
7. **The magazine 'Contemporary Poetry and Prose' was inspired by which exhibition?**
* **(B) The Surrealist Exhibition**
* *(Explanation: The 'Contemporary Poetry and Prose' magazine was influenced by the Surrealist Exhibition, reflecting the avant-garde artistic movements of the time.)*
**Page 3**
8. **Aldous Huxley was a poet, but was better known as what?**
* **(C) Novelist**
* *(Explanation: Aldous Huxley is best known for his dystopian novel "Brave New World" and other influential novels.)*
9. **Which poet could be described as part of "The Movement" of the 1950s?**
* **(A) Thom Gunn**
* *(Explanation: Thom Gunn was a key figure in "The Movement," a group of British poets in the 1950s who advocated for a more restrained, formal, and rational approach to poetry.)*
10. **The Cambridge school' refers to a group who emerged when?**
* **(C) The 1920's**
* *(Explanation: The "Cambridge School" refers to a group of literary critics and scholars associated with Cambridge University, who emerged in the 1920s, including figures like I.A. Richards and F.R. Leavis.)*
11. **How has Stephen Dunn been described in 'the Oxford Companion to 20th Century Poetry?**
* **(A) A poet of middleness**
* *(Explanation: The "Oxford Companion to 20th Century Poetry" describes Stephen Dunn as a "poet of middleness," suggesting his focus on the everyday, the ordinary, and the nuances of human experience.)*
12. **Carl Sandburg 'Planked whitefish' contains what kind of imagery?**
* **(A) Sea scenes**
* *(Explanation: "Planked whitefish" directly implies imagery related to fish and, by extension, sea scenes.)*
13. **In 1960 'The Colossus' was the first book of poems published by which poetess?**
* **(B) Sylvia Plath**
* *(Explanation: "The Colossus" was Sylvia Plath's first collection of poetry, published in 1960.)*
14. **Harold Nicholson described which poet as 'Very yellow and glum. Perfect manners'?**
* **(B) T. S. Elliot**
* *(Explanation: Harold Nicolson, a British diplomat and writer, is known to have made this observation about T.S. Eliot.)*
15. **Rupert Brooke wrote his poetry during which conflict?**
* **(D) First World War**
* *(Explanation: Rupert Brooke is famous for his idealistic war poems written during the early stages of the First World War.)*
16. **Which American writer published 'A brave and startling truth' in 1996?**
* **(C) Maya Angelou**
* *(Explanation: "A Brave and Startling Truth" is a poem by Maya Angelou, published in 1996.)*
17. **In which work do you read: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."?**
* **(D) The Second Coming**
* *(Explanation: This iconic line is from W.B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming.")*
**Page 4**
18. **Which of the following words describe the prevailing attitude of High-Modern Literature?**
* **(D) Both a & c**
* *(Explanation: High-Modern Literature often displayed a skeptical attitude towards traditional values and institutions, and frequently employed impressionistic techniques to convey subjective experience.)*
19. **Who derided Hazlitt as one of the members of the 'Cockney School of Poetry'?**
* **(C) Lockhart**
* *(Explanation: John Gibson Lockhart, a Scottish writer and editor, coined the derogatory term "Cockney School of Poetry" to attack certain Romantic poets, including William Hazlitt, Leigh Hunt, and John Keats.)*
20. **What did Henry James describe as "loose baggy monsters"?**
* **(A) novels**
* *(Explanation: This is a repeat of question 7, and the answer remains novels.)*
21. **In which work do you read: "There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt."?**
* **(A) A Doll's House**
* *(Explanation: This quote is from Henrik Ibsen's play "A Doll's House," which critically examines the societal constraints and financial realities faced by women.)*
22. **What did T. S. Eliot attempt to combine, though not very successfully, in his plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party?**
* **(B) religious symbolism and society comedy**
* *(Explanation: T.S. Eliot experimented with combining profound religious themes and symbolism with elements of drawing-room comedy in plays like "The Cocktail Party," aiming to bring poetic drama to a wider audience.)*
23. **What event allowed mainstream theatre companies to commission and perform work that was politically, socially, and sexually controversial without fear of censorship?**
* **(A) the abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's office in 1968**
* *(Explanation: The abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's office in 1968 ended theatrical censorship in Britain, leading to a surge in more adventurous and provocative plays.)*
24. **Which of the following phrases best characterizes the late-nineteenth century aesthetic movement which widened the breach between artists and the reading public, sowing the seeds of modernism?**
* **(D) art for art's sake**
* *(Explanation: "Art for art's sake" was a central tenet of the Aesthetic Movement, emphasizing the intrinsic value of art independent of moral, didactic, or social purpose. This alienated some of the public who expected art to have a clear message or function.)*
25. **Which text exemplifies the anti-Victorianism prevalent in the early twentieth century?**
* **(A) Eminent Victorians**
* *(Explanation: Lytton Strachey's "Eminent Victorians" is a highly influential work that satirically and critically re-examined the lives of prominent Victorian figures, contributing to the anti-Victorian sentiment of the early 20th century.)*
**Page 5**
26. **Which thinker had a major impact on early-twentieth-century writers, leading them to re-imagine human identity in radically new ways?**
* **(D) all but c**
* *(Explanation: Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories and Sir James Frazer's anthropological work ("The Golden Bough") both profoundly influenced early 20th-century writers, prompting new perspectives on human psychology, myth, and culture. Immanuel Kant, while highly influential in philosophy, had a more indirect impact on the specific re-imagining of human identity in early 20th-century literature compared to Freud and Frazer.)*
27. **Which best describes the imagist movement, exemplified in the work of T. E. Hulme and Ezra Pound?**
* **(B) an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery**
* *(Explanation: Imagism was a poetic movement that emphasized clarity, precision, and conciseness, using exact visual images and rejecting sentimentalism and flowery language.)*
28. **In the 1930s, younger writers such as W. H. Auden were more __________ but less __________ than older modernists such as Eliot and Pound.**
* **(C) radical; inventive**
* *(Explanation: Younger writers in the 1930s, like Auden, were often more politically radical than the earlier modernists, engaging with social issues and left-wing ideologies. While they were innovative, the older modernists like Eliot and Pound had perhaps already established many of the truly groundbreaking literary inventions of modernism.)*
29. **Which British dominion achieved independence in 1921-22, following the Easter Rising of 1916?**
* **(A) the southern counties of Ireland**
* *(Explanation: The Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 led to the establishment of the Irish Free State (comprising the southern counties) in 1922, following the Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent War of Independence.)*
30. **Which phrase indicates the interior flow of thought employed in high-modern literature?**
* **(D) stream of consciousness**
* *(Explanation: This is a repeat of question 4, and the answer remains stream of consciousness.)*
31. **Which novel did T. S. Eliot praise for utilizing a new "mythical method" in place of the old "narrative method" and demonstrates the use of ancient mythology in modernist fiction to think about "making the modern world possible for art"?**
* **(D) James Joyce's Ulysses**
* *(Explanation: This is a repeat of question 5, and the answer remains James Joyce's Ulysses.)*
**Page 6**
32. **Which of the following novels display post-war nostalgia for past imperial glory?**
* **(D) Paul Scott's Staying On**
* *(Explanation: This is a repeat of question 6, and the answer remains Paul Scott's Staying On.)*
33. **Which of the following was originally the Irish Literary Theatre?**
* **(A) the Irish National Theatre**
* *(Explanation: The Irish Literary Theatre was a precursor to and eventually became known as the Irish National Theatre, which famously established the Abbey Theatre.)*
34. **How did one critic sum up Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot?**
* **(A) "nothing happens-twice"**
* *(Explanation: This famous line, attributed to critic Vivian Mercier, perfectly captures the seemingly uneventful and repetitive nature of Beckett's absurdist play.)*
35. **Which of the following has been a significant development in British theatre since the abolition of censorship in 1968?**
* **(D) all but d**
* *(Explanation: Since the abolition of censorship, British theatre has seen the rise of workshops and collaborative ethos, the emergence of many women dramatists, and a significant diversifying impact from playwrights from former colonies.)*
**English Literature Fiction (Page 6)**
1. **Novels involving a mixture of adventure and horror are known as __________ novels.**
* **(D) Gothic**
* *(Explanation: Gothic novels are a genre of literature that combines elements of horror and romance, often featuring supernatural elements, mystery, and a sense of dread or suspense within a gloomy or decaying setting.)*
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