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HALL TICKET NUMBER

Department of English

M.A. ENGLISH ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, FEBRUARY 2015

Max. Time: 2 hours Max. Marks: 100

INSTRUCTIONS

]; 1. Do not reveal your identity in any manner in any part of the answer book.

2. Enter your Hall Ticket Number on the question paper' the OMR sheet and the
First page of the answer book, in the box provided.
a
This paper consists of TWO SECTIONS in all.

Section A consists of Multiple Choice Questions and must be answered in the OMR
sheet.
0.33 marks will be deducted for every wrong answer in respect of all
Multiple Choice Questions. No marks will be deducted for
questions not attempted.

Section B has TWO questions:

Question 1 requires you to write an essay. It must be answered in
the answer book provided.
Question 2 comprises a passage for critical analysis. It must be
answered in the answer book provided.

4. Write your answers only in the space provided in the answer book. No additional
paper or answer book will be given.

5. This question paper contains 12 pages in all. Ensure that all the pages have been
printed before you start answering.

6. Atthe end of the examination return the OMR sheet and the answer bookto
the invigilator. You may take away the question paper.

(Turn to Page 2 for Section A)

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Hall Ticket Number

M.A. ENGLISH ENTRANCE EXAMINATION, FEBRUARY 2015

SECTION: A
(Total Marks: 50)

There are 50 questions to answer.

The questions carry ONE MARK each.

0.33 marks will be deducted for each wrong answer.
Answer in the OMR sheet, using a pen or sketch pen.
Choose the right answer from thc options given under each item.

1. Velutha is a character in

(A) The God of Smalt Things

(B) Karukku
(C) Untouchable
(D) Hindu: A Novel

2. Choose the correctly spelt word below.

(A) Diligense
(B) Diligence
(C) Deligence
(D) Dilligence

3. Conceptual meaning and associated meaning are in relation to

(A) Syntax
(B) Semantics
(C) Semiotics
(D) Pragmatics
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4. Provide the suitable word to fill in the blank: Ashok cricket for the last
twenty years.
(A)plays
(B) has played
(C) has been playing
(D) will have played

5. Supposedly, digital voice discs or DVDs as they are called are resistant to
scratching records.

(A) much/than
(B) solas
(C) suchlthat
(D) far more/than

6. How many meanings are possible for the following sentence?

Flying planes can be dangerous.

(A) only one

(B) two
(C) three
(D) Four

Questions 7-9 are based on the passage given below:

TEACHER: In addition to your textbooks, there are a couple of other materials you need
to buy for this course. Because you will be writing weekly I want you
to have a notebook that you can to me every Friday. Make sure that
the size is I 112 by 11,'not a smaller one. You also need a set of index cards. You will be
taking notes on books that you will read, and you will write your notes on these cards.
One set . Any questions?
L:

7 . (A) journals;
(B) journals,
(C) journals.
(D) journals
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8. (A) turn up
(B) turn on
(C) turn down
(D) turn in

9. (A) should be enough

(B) should have been enough
(C) should enough
(D) should been enough

10. "You have been there, haven't you?" The highlighted part is a

(A) Question mark

(B) Query tag
(C) Question tag
(D) Query marker

11. "Cut of the coffin" puns on the following phrase to suggest a relation between homosexuality
and vampirisrn

(A) Out of the cupboard

(B) Out of the closet
(C) Out of the chest
(D) Out of the casino

12 Trochees, spondees and dactyls are

(A) Figures of speech

(B) Metrical feet
(C) Proverbial sayings
(D) End Rhymes

13. o'You are lying." she said dispassionately. Dispassionately means

(A)Angrily
(B) Unemotionally
(C) Sadly
(D) Irritatedly

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14. 'Cockney' is a term used to refer to the accent and slang of

(A) Ireland
(B) London
(C) Yorkshire
(D) Wales

15. A word, which in the latest dictionaries is also defined as 'emphatically', as a result of usage
though this was not there in the original definition is

(A) Absolutely
(B) Literally
(C) Completely
(D) Certainly

16. Which of these words is spelt wrong?

. (A) Flaombuyant
(B) Carbohydrate
(C) Calabash
(D) Idiosyncrasy

17. The word "taxi-cab" is made up of abbreviations of two other words. What are they?

(A) Taxonomy and Cabaret

(B) Toxic and Cabala
(C) Taximeter and Cabriolet
(D) Taximeter and Cabinet

18. Who wrote:

Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic
shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they
understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire; the
influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of
the World.

(A) P.B. Shelley

(B) William Wordsworth
(C) Plato
(D) T.S. Eliot
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19. Which famous novel begins with the following words?

, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune
must.be in want of a wife."

1l,{if;t'#.,
(D) Pride and Prejudice

20. "Frankly, my dear," he said, "I don't give a damn!"

Choose the correct form of reported speech:

(A) He said frankly that he didn't give a damn.

(B) He frankly said that he didn't give a damn.
(C) He said that frankly he didn't give a damn.
(D) He said he didn't give a damn fiankly.

21. Choose the closest meaning of the word "craven".

lilr[Hl*:ff1l::,"..
(D) A of
cave on the side a mountain

22.In Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children,'midnight' refers to

(A) India's first space shuttle launch

(B) The birth of India's first test-tube baby
(C) India's independence
(D) Declaration of Emergency

23.The 'Queen of Crime'title is usually associated with

(A) Elizabeth I
(B) Mary Shelley
(C) Agatha Christie
(D) P.D. Jarnes

24.|n the Harry Potter series, what subject does Snape teach?

(A) Botany
(B) Potions
(C)
"Alchemy
(D) Divination

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25. You did see him,

(A) Didn't you?

(B) Do you?
(C) Hadn't you?
(D) Won't you?

26.The nature of the descent down the mountain unnerved them all.

(A) persistent
(B) precarious
(C) perspiring
a

(D) prescient
:' 27 . "Do not fire you see them very close" ordered the sergeant.

(A) when
(B) until
(C) where
(D) as

28. Replace the underlined word in the sentence given below with a^word with the same
meaning.

The collapse of the dollar marked a crisis in the global economy.

(A) Mess
(B) Rise
(C) Catastrophe
(D) Catapult

29. Sachin Tendulkar's recently released autcbiography is titled

(A) Playing it My WaY

(B) Playing Ir
(C) Playing All the WaY
(D) Playing Ball

30. The plot of the novel was it was completely incomprehensible.

(A) more complicated

(B) such complicated
(C) so complicated that
(D) much more comPlicated than

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31. He bought guard dogs to the intruders.

Which of the following phrases would complete the sentence's meaning?

(A) keep in
(B) keep up
(C) keep out
(D) keep at

32. The first black woman author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature is

(A) Octavia Butler

(B) Lonaine Hansberry

[3]H,",ftr*
33. In spite of being in a tough situation, they made the most of it.

Identify the compound conjunction in the above sentence.

(A) in spite ot.

(B) a tough situation
(C) they made
(D) the most

34. The roots of the old tree spread out thirty meters in all directions and
damaged nearby buildings.

(A) too much

(B) as much as
(C) so much
(D) so many as

35. When the title to a poem begins with the phra se, In Memory of...,we expect it to be

(A) an epic
(B) an elegy
(C) an encomium
(D) an essay
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36. The Renaissance was a period of renewed interest in

(A) supernatural and occult

(B) classical learning and the arts
(C) mysticism and religion
(D) tribal and folk wisdom

37 . By poetic iustice is meant

(A) the kind ofjustice one hopes to see done in poetry and allied arts
(Bj depart,rr. fro* conventional justice effected by poets and artists
in art
iCi *.ff-deserved reward or retribution for a character
ini tft* kind ofjustice poets are remiss in dispensing their art
in

animals a.ndbirds and

3g.,,Whenwe were children, Aunt Alice used to tell us stories about the
insects and reptiles who told us good and bad things abaut lift."
In a word, what stories
were they?

lfl ixilr':s
(C) fables
(D) fiction

3.9. Even the most stubborn adherent to exclusively text-based approaches will not deny thaiooThe
awareness of the life of Oscar Wilde creeps in to trouble our reading
of
;;
Ballad"*t*ir*tual
of Reading Gaol."
in kind.
In One word, thiS "extra-textual awareness" would be

(A) anthroPological
(B) PhilosoPhical
(C) confessional
(D) biographical

them for publishers'

40. Acquiring editors are the ones who scout out manuscripts and buy
They generally specialize in cne or more subjects or types of literature.
If a project isn:t yet in
either before or after it
publishable form, an acquiring editor might help the writer develop it,
is under contract. o1' she miglt turn it over to a developmental editor, who
will analyze the
project and work with the writer to pull it into publishable shape. Both types of editors might
(forgive me)
do some copyediting while they are at it, but it is likely to be random and
inconsistent. They assume a copyeditor will go over it later.

How many types of editors are mentioned in this pass age?

(A) 1
(B) 2
(c)" 3
(D) 4

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41. The character of winnie the pooh was created by

(A) Peter Barrie

(B) A.A. Milne
(C) Rudyard Kipling
(D) Lewis Carroll

42, ' Shamus' is a slang term used to refer to a

(A) Jockey

. [3] il}ltDetective
, (D) Professional Wrestler

43. "You are in the teacher's good books," This sentence means:

' (A) Your books are shown by the teacher as good examples.
(B) The teacher has a good opinion of you.
C) The teacher expects you to be unpredictable.
(D) The teacher approves of your handwriting.

44. Which of the following statements is prophetic?

(A) You are not better than they are.

(B) You are not better than they are, areyou?
(C) You will never be better than they are.
' (D) You shouldn't hope to be better than they are.

45. "rtis advisable to go the extra mile". This sentence means

(A) It is better to walk more than a mile a day.

(B) It is better to put in more effort than is strictly necessary.
(C) It is better to do extra work for extra pay.
(D)It is better to do extra work even if there will be no results

46. To give the show away means

(A)to betray the director

(B) to tell what is going to happen
(c) making sure that the cast remains absent during the show
(D) making a nuisance during the show

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47 . A poker face is one

(A)that is like a Poker

(B) that shows no expressign
(C) that smiles all the time
(D) that conveys mixed feelings

The pun-allusion here

4g. people who do not like poetry are said to suffer from Gray's Allergy.
is to

(A) GraY's ElegY

(B) GraY? s Disease
(C) GraveYard School of Poets
' (D) GraYfriars

49. In literary discussion, the main character of a work is sometimes called

the

(A) author
(B) actor

[3] il:l;:n'"
gardens of the Pleasure-dome is growth and sunlight and colour- There
arehints
-
-50.,,Withinthe ftenzy of the poet who
of d*utt, *rrOiur, the vision of a darnsel withi dulcimer, and of the
,the milk of paradise'." Which of the follor,ving poems answers perfectly to this
has drunk
description?

(A) "The LadY of Shalott"

(B) "La Belle Dame sans Merci"
(C) "A Slumber clid my Spirit Seal" '"
(D) "Kubla Khan: A Vision in a Dream"

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Section-B

I. write an essay on any one ofthe following topics. (20 Marks)

1. Telling tall tales

2. Bringing up parents
3. A redeeming vice
4. The cult of selfishness
5. Bollywood sports
6, Indias of the mind
7. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
' 8. Life without srnartphone
9. Pepper as spice, pepper as spray.. .

10. Daiits and English

II. What impressions of the speaker(s) would a reader gather from the following poem?
Comment on their characters as pointedly as you can. (fO fvlaiks;

"Four winds blowing thro' the sky,

You have seen poor maidens die,
Tell me then what I shall do
That my lover may be true."
Said the wind from out the south,
"Lay no kiss upon his rnouth,"
And the wind from out the west,
"'Wound the heart within his breast,"
And the wind from out the east,
o'Send
him empty from the feast,"
And the wind from out the north,
"In the tempest thrust him forth,
When thou art more cruel than he,
Then will Love be kind to thee."

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