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Literature Previous Year Questions

63 Literature (English) questions asked in BPSC TRE previous year papers, each with the correct answer and explanation. Read them free on UTpaper, or attempt the full papers as timed online tests.

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Reading Comprehension 310Fill in the Blanks 196Active/Passive & Narration 48Grammar 41Error Spotting 37Idioms & Phrases 23Vocabulary 20Synonyms & Antonyms 12Spelling 8
Q1BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 – 105): Choose the correct option. Which author created the line “Elementary, my dear Watson!” ?
  1. AArthur Conan Doyle
  2. BAgatha Christie
  3. CEdgar Allan Poe
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Arthur Conan Doyle

Explanation

The line 'Elementary, my dear Watson!' is associated with Sherlock Holmes, the detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Q2BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which Victorian poet wrote the dramatic monologues “Andrea Del Sarto” and “Fra Lippo Lippi” ?
  1. ARobert Browning
  2. BLord Tennyson
  3. CElizabeth Barrett Browning
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Robert Browning

Explanation

'Andrea del Sarto' and 'Fra Lippo Lippi' are dramatic monologues by Robert Browning.

Q3BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which critic distinguished between ‘fancy’, ‘primary imagination’ and ‘secondary imagination’ ?
  1. AS. T. Coleridge
  2. BWilliam Wordsworth
  3. CJohn Keats
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) S. T. Coleridge

Explanation

Coleridge made this distinction between fancy, primary and secondary imagination in Biographia Literaria.

Q4BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Who wrote the novel Sons and Lovers ?
  1. ASigmund Freud
  2. BVirginia Woolf
  3. CD. H. Lawrence
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) D. H. Lawrence

Explanation

Sons and Lovers (1913) is a novel by D. H. Lawrence.

Q5BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
In which eighteenth century novel do we find the ‘Yahoos’ ?
  1. ARobinson Crusoe
  2. BGulliver’s Travels
  3. CAmelia
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Gulliver’s Travels

Explanation

The Yahoos appear in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726).

Q6BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which famous English essayist wrote “Confessions of an Opium Eater” ?
  1. AThomas De Quincey
  2. BThomas Macaulay
  3. CDylan Thomas
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Thomas De Quincey

Explanation

Confessions of an English Opium-Eater was written by Thomas De Quincey.

Q7BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Who wrote the novel Emma ?
  1. AMary Wollstonecraft
  2. BJane Austen
  3. CMary Shelley
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Jane Austen

Explanation

Emma (1815) was written by Jane Austen.

Q8BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which American playwright wrote Death of a Salesman ?
  1. AVladimir Nabokov
  2. BArthur Miller
  3. CTennessee Williams
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Arthur Miller

Explanation

Death of a Salesman (1949) is a play by the American dramatist Arthur Miller.

Q9BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Who wrote the play The Jew of Malta ?
  1. AT. S. Eliot
  2. BChristopher Marlowe
  3. CTom Stoppard
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Christopher Marlowe

Explanation

The Jew of Malta is a play by Christopher Marlowe.

Q10BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
The dramatist who wrote the play The Spanish Tragedy was
  1. AWilliam Shakespeare
  2. BChristopher Marlowe
  3. CThomas Kyd
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Thomas Kyd

Explanation

The Spanish Tragedy is the revenge tragedy of Thomas Kyd.

Q11BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which Indian poet wrote the poem “The Fakir of Jungheera” ?
  1. ARabindranath Tagore
  2. BToru Dutt
  3. CHenry L. Derozio
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Henry L. Derozio

Explanation

'The Fakir of Jungheera' (1828) is a narrative poem by Henry Louis Vivian Derozio.

Q12BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
In which novel by Charles Dickens do we find the character of Mr. Micawber ?
  1. AThe Pickwick Papers
  2. BGreat Expectations
  3. CDavid Copperfield
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) David Copperfield

Explanation

Mr. Micawber appears in Dickens's David Copperfield.

Q13BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Who wrote the play The Birthday Party ?
  1. ASamuel Beckett
  2. BHarold Pinter
  3. CWilliam Golding
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Harold Pinter

Explanation

The Birthday Party (1958) is a play by Harold Pinter.

Q14BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
“But at my back I always hear/ Time’s winged chariot hurrying near”. The lines are taken from the poem
  1. AThe Pulley
  2. BThe Good Morrow
  3. CTo His Coy Mistress
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) To His Coy Mistress

Explanation

These lines come from Andrew Marvell's 'To His Coy Mistress'.

Q15BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
A poem of mourning for a person or an object is called
  1. AAn Ode
  2. BAn Elegy
  3. CA Madrigal
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) An Elegy

Explanation

An elegy is a poem of mourning for a person or thing, unlike an ode (praise) or a madrigal (a love song).

Q16BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
“The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore/Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.” Who wrote these lines ?
  1. ARobert Browning
  2. BLord Tennyson
  3. CMatthew Arnold
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Matthew Arnold

Explanation

These lines are from Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach'.

Q17BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which English poet wrote the following lines ? “Break, break, break/On my cold gray stones, O Sea!/ And I would that my tongue could utter/The thoughts that arise in me.”
  1. ARobert Browning
  2. BThomas Hardy
  3. CLord Alfred Tennyson
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Lord Alfred Tennyson

Explanation

'Break, Break, Break' is a lyric by Alfred Lord Tennyson, written in memory of Arthur Hallam.

Q18BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
In which novel do we find the characters of Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Darcy ?
  1. AEmma
  2. BSense and Sensibility
  3. CPride and Prejudice
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Pride and Prejudice

Explanation

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are the leading characters of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

Q19BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which figure of speech is also known as bathos ?
  1. AAnticlimax
  2. BMetaphor
  3. CSynecdoche
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Anticlimax

Explanation

Bathos, a sudden drop from the lofty to the trivial, is also called anticlimax.

Q20BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
In which Shakespearean play do we find the character of Caliban ?
  1. AThe Winter’s Tale
  2. BThe Tempest
  3. CCoriolanus
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) The Tempest

Explanation

Caliban is the island creature in Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Q21BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which critic used the term “negative capability” ?
  1. AT. S. Eliot
  2. BW. B. Yeats
  3. CJohn Keats
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) John Keats

Explanation

John Keats coined 'negative capability' in a letter of 1817.

Q22BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
The lines “It is a tale told by an idiot/ Full of sound and fury signifying nothing” are taken from the play
  1. AMacbeth
  2. BHamlet
  3. CKing Lear
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Macbeth

Explanation

Macbeth speaks these lines in Act V on hearing of his wife's death.

Q23BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 6-8
Which English Romantic poet wrote the following lines ? “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan/ A pleasant pleasure dome decree”.
  1. AS. T. Coleridge
  2. BWilliam Wordsworth
  3. CJohn Keats
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) S. T. Coleridge

Explanation

These lines open Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan'.

Q24BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Who wrote the Amoretti sonnet sequence?
  1. AJohn Lyly
  2. BRobert Burns
  3. CEdmund Blunden
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (E) None of the above

Explanation

The Amoretti sonnet sequence was written by Edmund Spenser, who is not among options (A)-(C), so (E) is correct.

Q25BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Which of the following plays was not written by Shakespeare?
  1. AThe Winter’s Tale
  2. BTamburlaine
  3. CThe Jew of Malta
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above

Explanation

Tamburlaine and The Jew of Malta are plays by Christopher Marlowe; only The Winter's Tale is by Shakespeare, so two options are correct and (D) is right.

Q26BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Who termed the novel ‘a new province of writing’ that was ‘a comic epic-poem in prose’?
  1. AJoseph Addison
  2. BHenry James
  3. CRobert Bunyan
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (E) None of the above

Explanation

Henry Fielding called the novel 'a comic epic-poem in prose' in the preface to Joseph Andrews; he is not listed, so (E) is correct.

Q27BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Who among the following Romantic poets defined the poetic faith as being constituted by ‘the willing suspension of disbelief’?
  1. AWilliam Wordsworth
  2. BS. T. Coleridge
  3. CP. B. Shelley
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) S. T. Coleridge

Explanation

Coleridge defined poetic faith as 'the willing suspension of disbelief' in Biographia Literaria.

Q28BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Who among the following poets wrote about ‘innocence’ and ‘experience’ as being the ‘two contrary states of the human soul’?
  1. ARobert Burns
  2. BWilliam Blake
  3. CJohn Clare
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) William Blake

Explanation

William Blake subtitled his Songs of Innocence and of Experience 'Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul'.

Q29BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. In which famous novel do we find the character of Heathcliff ?
  1. AWuthering Heights
  2. BThe Mayor of Casterbridge
  3. CIvanhoe
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Wuthering Heights

Explanation

Heathcliff is the brooding hero of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Q30BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Who wrote the groundbreaking work on human evolution titled On the Origin of Species ?
  1. ALord Alfred Tennyson
  2. BCharles Darwin
  3. CJohn Lyell
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Charles Darwin

Explanation

On the Origin of Species (1859) is by Charles Darwin.

Q31BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Which modern poet wrote the line, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold”?
  1. AT. S. Eliot
  2. BWilliam Spender
  3. CW. H. Auden
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (E) None of the above

Explanation

The line 'Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold' is from W. B. Yeats's The Second Coming; Yeats is not among the options, so (E) is correct.

Q32BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Which famous Indian litterateur wrote the novel, The Home and the World ?
  1. APremchand
  2. BRabindranath Tagore
  3. CRaja Rao
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Rabindranath Tagore

Explanation

The Home and the World (Ghare Baire) is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore.

Q33BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. Who wrote the dystopian novel, 1984 ?
  1. AGeorge Orwell
  2. BRobert Ludlum
  3. CErnest Hemingway
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) George Orwell

Explanation

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), the dystopian novel, was written by George Orwell.

Q34BPSC TRE 2.0 (2023) English Class 9-10
Directions (Q. Nos. 71 to 85) : Choose the correct alternative. In which Shakespearean play do we find the character of Banquo?
  1. AHamlet
  2. BOthello
  3. CKing Lear
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (E) None of the above

Explanation

Banquo appears in Shakespeare's Macbeth, which is not among options (A)-(C), so (E) is correct.

Q35BPSC TRE 1.0 (2023) Language Paper-1 Class 1-5 (1st Sitting)
Directions (Q. Nos. 11 to 15) : Complete the sentences given below using the correct alternative. The person who writes a book is known as its
  1. Areader
  2. Bauthor
  3. Cpublisher
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) author

Explanation

The writer of a book is called its author.

Q36BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one of the following statements is true in regard to the poem Beowulf ?
  1. ABeowulf is a descriptive tragical poem
  2. BBeowulf is an epic poem having a narrative tone
  3. CBeowulf is an argumentative poem
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Beowulf is an epic poem having a narrative tone

Explanation

Beowulf is an Old English epic poem with a narrative (storytelling) tone about the hero's fights with Grendel, his mother and a dragon, so (B) is right.

Q37BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one of the following is an author of Historia Regum Britanniae?
  1. AGeoffrey of Monmouth
  2. BHolished
  3. CPlutarch
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Geoffrey of Monmouth

Explanation

Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) was written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 1130s.

Q38BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
The book entitled ‘Troy Book’ has been written by which one of the following authors?
  1. AWilliam Dunbar
  2. BGeoffrey Chaucer
  3. CJohn Lydgate
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) John Lydgate

Explanation

Troy Book is a long poem on the Trojan War written by John Lydgate in the early 15th century.

Q39BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one of the following is an author of Assertio Septem Sacramentorum?
  1. AHenery IV
  2. BHenery VIII
  3. CHenery II
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Henery VIII

Explanation

Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (Defence of the Seven Sacraments, 1521) was written by Henry VIII, which earned him the title 'Defender of the Faith'.

Q40BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one among the following is an author of Ralph Roister Doister?
  1. ANicholas Udall
  2. BJohn Heywood
  3. CBen Jonson
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Nicholas Udall

Explanation

Ralph Roister Doister, the first English comedy, was written by Nicholas Udall.

Q41BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
In which one of the following treaties, the idea of ‘Mysomousoi’ appears?
  1. AShelley’s Defence of Poetry
  2. BSidney’s the Defence of Poesie
  3. CDryden’s the Defence of Dramatic Poetry
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Sidney’s the Defence of Poesie

Explanation

'Misomousoi' (haters of the Muses) appears in Sidney's The Defence of Poesie, where he answers the critics of poetry.

Q42BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
For which one of the following dramas Shakespeare utilises Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde, Euphues golden legacie?
  1. AAs you like it
  2. BCymbeline
  3. CMeasure for Measure
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) As you like it

Explanation

Shakespeare took the plot of As You Like It from Thomas Lodge's prose romance Rosalynde.

Q43BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one among the following has been called ‘well of English undefiled’?
  1. AWilliam Langland
  2. BJohn Gower
  3. CGeoffrey Chaucer
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Geoffrey Chaucer

Explanation

Spenser praised Chaucer as 'well of English undefyled' (Faerie Queene), so the answer is Geoffrey Chaucer.

Q44BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one among the following is an author of the Rover?
  1. AAphra Behn
  2. BMary Astell
  3. CDorothy Osborne
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Aphra Behn

Explanation

The Rover is a Restoration comedy by Aphra Behn.

Q45BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one of the following is an author of A Journal of the Plague Year?
  1. ADaniel Defoe
  2. BSamuel Johnson
  3. CJonathan Swift
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Daniel Defoe

Explanation

A Journal of the Plague Year (1722) is by Daniel Defoe.

Q46BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
How many letter writers does the novel Clarissa have?
  1. ASix
  2. BThree
  3. CFour
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Four

Explanation

Richardson's epistolary novel Clarissa is built mainly on the letters of four writers: Clarissa, Anna Howe, Lovelace and Belford; the key gives Four.

Q47BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 9-10
Which one among the following poets had a recourse to Lemprière’s Classical Dictionary?
  1. APercy Bysshe Shelley
  2. BJohn Keats
  3. CWilliam Wordsworth
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) John Keats

Explanation

Keats, who did not know Greek, used Lemprière's Classical Dictionary for his classical myths.

Q48BPSC TRE 1.0 (2023) English Class 11-12
I have observed that a reader seldom pursues a book with pleasure, till he knows whether the writer of it be a black or a fair man, of a mild or choleric disposition, married or a bachelor, with other particulars of the like nature, that conduce very much to the right understanding of an author. Which one of the following is a suitable heading for the above?
  1. AMr. Author
  2. BAuthor and His Life
  3. CThe Art of Writing
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Mr. Author

Explanation

The extract (the opening of Addison’s first Spectator essay) is about the reader’s wish to know the author himself - his looks, temper and status - before reading him. The key chooses ‘Mr. Author’ as the heading.

Q49BPSC TRE 1.0 (2023) English Class 11-12
Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan without ever meddling with any practical part in life. I am very well versed in the theory of a husband, or a father, and can discern the errors in economy, business, and diversions of others, better than those engaged in them; as standers-by discover blots, which are apt to escape those who are in the game. Which one of the following is a suitable heading for the above?
  1. AAuthor and the World
  2. BAuthor and the Book
  3. CAuthor’s Account of Himself
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Author’s Account of Himself

Explanation

The writer describes his own way of living as a mere spectator of mankind and his theoretical knowledge of life, so the passage is the author’s account of himself.

Q50BPSC TRE 3.0 (2024) English Class 11-12
Spenser's 'Astrophel' is written on the death of __
  1. AArthur Hallam
  2. BJohn Dryden
  3. CShakespeare
  4. DMore than one of the above
  5. ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (E) None of the above

Explanation

Spenser's 'Astrophel' (1595) is a pastoral elegy on the death of Sir Philip Sidney (1586), who had written 'Astrophel and Stella'. None of Hallam, Dryden or Shakespeare is the subject.

How to use these BPSC TRE English questions

Every question here was asked in a real BPSC TRE paper; the paper and shift are shown on the card, and the number opens the question on its own page. Try each one before tapping Show answer, then attempt the full BPSC TRE papers as timed tests to check your speed under exam conditions.

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