FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT TO POSTS
IN BPS – 17 UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 2008.
ENGLISH LITERATURE, PAPER – I
TIME ALLOWED: (PART-I) 30 MINUTES, MAXIMUM MARKS: 20, (PART-II) 2 HOURS & 30 MINUTES MAXIMUM MARKS: 80
NOTE: (i) First attempt PART-I (MCQ) on separate Answer Sheet which shall be taken back after 30 minutes.
(ii) Overwriting/cutting of the options/answers will not be given credit.
PART – I (MCQ)
COMPULSORY
Q.1 Select the best option/answer and fill in the appropriate box on the Answer Sheet.
(1) The Nurse’s Song was written by:
(a) Keats (b) Tennyson (c) Blake (d) Shelley (e) None of these
(2) William Wordsworth was born in:
(a) 1770 (b) 1771 (c) 1772 (d) 1779 (e) None of these
(3) Byron’s first published collection was called:
(a) Years of Idleness (b) Hours of Idleness (c) Moments of Idleness (d) Eons of Idleness (e) None of these
(4) The Essay of Elia was written by:
(a) Tennyson (b) Blake (c) Byron (d) Keats (e) None of these
(5) Shelley’s final unfinished poem was:
(a) Hellas (b) Prometheus Unbound (c) The Ancient Mariner (d) The Triumph of life (e) None of these
(6) Lyrical Ballads as jointly composed by:
(a) Keats and Shelley (b) Wordsworth and Shelley (c) Keats and Coleridge (d) Wordsworth and Coleridge (e) None of these
(7) On liberty was written by:
(a) Carlyle (b) Macaulay (c) Godwin (d) Mill (e) None of these
(8) “Men may be beaten, chained, tormented, yoked like cattle, slaughtered like summer flies … yet remain free …” This was said by:
(a) Carlyle (b) J.S. Mill (c) Ruskin (d) Matthew Arnold (e) None of these
(9) Macaulay lived from
(a) 1800 – 1859 (b) 1802 – 1859 (c) 1859 – 1900 (d) 1889 – 1902 (e) None of these
(10) Macaulay represented:
(a) Bourgeois Victorian enlightenment (b) Working class Victorian attitudes (c) Upper class tolerance (d) Radical Romanticism (e) None of these
(11) Stones of Venice was written by:
(a) Macaulay (b) Newman (c) Ruskin (d) Carlyle (e) None of these
(12) Browning is famous for his:
(a) Sensory images (b) Dramatic Monologues (c) Narrative ballads (d) Blank Verse (e) None of these
(13) In Memoriam was written in:
(a) 1833 (b) 1853 (c) 1860 (d) 1863 (e) None of these
(14) “Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together”.
This was written by:
(a) Tennyson (b) Browning (c) Matthew Arnold (d) William Morris (e) None of these
(15) Tennyson was appointed Poet Laureate in:
(a) 1843 (b) 1847 (c) 1850 (d) 1857 (e) None of these
(16) Dickens was from a:
(a) Lower middle class origin (b) Upper class origin (c) Middle class origin (d) Working class origin (e) None of these
(17) George Eliot’s real name was:
(a) George Evans (b) Eliot Evans (c) Marian Evans (d) Marian Eliot (e) None of these
(18) George Eliot was an:
(a) Atheist (b) Agnostic (c) Occultist (d) Conventionalist (e) None of these
(19) Under the Greenwood Tree is a:
(a) Tale of rustic life (b) Tale of man’s destruction of nature (c) Historical novel (d) Tale of city life (e) None of these
(20) The Professor was the first novel by:
(a) Emily Bronte (b) Charlotte Bronte (c) Anne Bronte (d) Jane Austen (e) None of these
PART – II
NOTE: (i) PART-II is to be attempted on the separate Answer Book.
(ii) Attempt ONLY FOUR questions from PART-II selecting TWO questions from each SECTION. All questions carry EQUAL marks.
(iii) Extra attempt of any question or any part of the attempted question will not be considered.
SECTION – I
Q. 2. “In his youth Wordsworth was a rebel and a revolutionary and reacted against the conventions of this age although he began to decline as a poet and he grew older.” Comment on this criticism of Wordsworth, giving reasons why you agree/disagree..
Q.3. “For mercy has a human heart
Pity a human face
And love the human form divine
And Peace the human dress …
And all must love the human form,
In heathen Turk or Jew:
Where Mercy, Love and Pity Dwell
There God is dwelling too.”
Who wrote these verses? Comment on whether you thing they are merely moral platitudes or spring from the poet’s sincerity.
Q.4. Keats was a romantic poet who believed in the importance of sensation and its pleasures which included taste, touch and smell as well as hearing and sight. How far do you think he fulfills these beliefs in his poems?
SECTION – II
Q.5. Browning had a “robust optimism” unlike the other Victorian poets who were worriers and doubters. Do you agree with this? Explain your answer through examples of Browning’s poetry.
Q.6. Do you believe that it was Hardy’s intention to depict Tess as a victim of divine sadism? In your opinion how successful was he in creating feelings of anger, frustration and resentment in the reader?
Q.7. How far do the stories of Dickens reflect the social evils of the Victorian Age? Explain with reference to any two of his novels.
Q.8. Write critical notes on any TWO of the following:
(a) Characterization in the novels of George Eliot (b) Depiction of upper class society in the plays of Oscar Wilde (c) The influence of the occult in the poems of Blake (d) Shelley as a revolutionary poet