752 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.
Health is most valuable of all earthly possessions. Without it all the rest are worth nothing. To enjoy good health we should refrain from excess in eating. We should eat moderately and not devour whatever we get.
Which one of the following is the best summary of the above?
ATo enjoy good health, no emphasis is needed on eating
BTo enjoy good health, we must run for hours and hours
CTo enjoy good health, we should eat moderately
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) To enjoy good health, we should eat moderately
Explanation
The passage stresses that good health depends on avoiding excess in eating and eating moderately, which option (C) sums up.
It is never too late to mend.
Which one of the following is the explanation of the above?
AKnowledge cannot be acquired when time has passed by
BKnowledge can be acquired regardless of time
CTime and tide wait for none
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Knowledge can be acquired regardless of time
Explanation
The proverb says it is never too late to improve oneself or correct one’s ways. Of the options, (B) - that knowledge (improvement) can be gained at any time - is the closest, and it is the keyed answer.
Of Friendship
To which one of the following categories, the above essay would belong?
AReflective
BAutobiographical
CArgumentative
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Reflective
Explanation
An essay on an abstract topic like friendship (e.g. Bacon’s ‘Of Friendship’) presents the writer’s thoughts and reflections on it, so it is a reflective essay.
The Cinema
The cinema is an outstanding wonder of this modern age. Apart from the great pleasure, it gives us as a means of entertainment. It is in many ways an education in itself.
To which one of the following categories, the above essay would belong?
AAutobiographical
BDescriptive
CExpository
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Expository
Explanation
The essay explains the role and uses of the cinema - entertainment and education - which makes it an expository essay rather than a description of a scene or a personal account.
Read the extract carefully and answer the question that follows:
Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honor lies.
Fortune in men has some small difference made,
One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade;
The cobbler apron’d and the parson gown’d,
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown’d.
Which one of the following is the best paraphrase of the above?
AHonour and shame do not depend on a man’s position in the world, but on what he is and what he does.
BHonour and shame depend on man’s position in the world.
CHonour and shame depend on man’s fate and destiny, actions are irrelevant.
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) Honour and shame do not depend on a man’s position in the world, but on what he is and what he does.
Explanation
In these lines from Pope’s ‘An Essay on Man’, honour and shame do not come from one’s station in life (rags or brocade, cobbler or monarch) but from how well one acts one’s part.
Spenser's 'Astrophel' is written on the death of __
AArthur Hallam
BJohn Dryden
CShakespeare
DMore than one of the above
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.
Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration; its opposite is litotes, an understatement that affirms something by denying its opposite (for example 'not bad' for 'good').
Mrs Malaprop in Sheridan's 'The Rivals' says 'He is the very pineapple of politeness', using 'pineapple' for 'pinnacle'. Such comic misuse of a similar-sounding word is called a malapropism.
Two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one is known as _________
AIambic
BDactylic
CAnapaestic
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Anapaestic
Explanation
An anapaest is a foot of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one (da-da-DUM), so the metre is anapaestic. A dactyl is the reverse (DUM-da-da) and an iamb is one unstressed plus one stressed syllable.
Gerard Manley Hopkins coined the term 'curtal sonnet' for his shortened sonnet of ten and a half lines (in the proportion of 6 + 4.5), as in 'Pied Beauty'.
Rhyme royal is a stanza of seven lines of iambic pentameter rhyming ababbcc, introduced by Chaucer (Troilus and Criseyde) and used by James I of Scotland.
The label 'The Movement' for the 1950s group of poets such as Larkin, Amis and Davie was coined in 1954 by J.D. Scott, literary editor of 'The Spectator'. None of Esslin, Eliot or Leavis coined it.
Julia Kristeva coined the term 'intertextuality' in the late 1960s, developing Bakhtin's ideas: every text is a mosaic of quotations and a transformation of other texts.
'Venus and Adonis' is Shakespeare's narrative poem and 'Astrophel and Stella' is Sidney's sonnet sequence, but 'The Cenci' is a verse tragedy by P.B. Shelley, not Blake. As (A) and (B) are both correct, the answer is (D).
Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace and Sir John Suckling are all Cavalier poets, the royalist poets of Charles I's time. As more than one option is correct, the answer is (D).
The 1798 'Lyrical Ballads' opens with Coleridge's 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' and closes with Wordsworth's 'Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey'.
T.S. Eliot dedicated 'The Waste Land' to Ezra Pound as 'il miglior fabbro' ('the better craftsman'), acknowledging Pound's editing of the poem. The phrase comes from Dante.
Which of the following is/are not correctly matched?
AMarlowe - Edward II
BWebster - Richard III
CThomas Kyd - Henry IV
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
Explanation
Marlowe did write 'Edward II', but 'Richard III' and 'Henry IV' are plays by Shakespeare, not by Webster or Kyd. Two pairs are wrongly matched, so the answer is (D).
Who is the writer of "The Postcolonial Shakespeare"?
AHarold Bloom
BStephen Greenblatt
CAnia Loomba
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Ania Loomba
Explanation
'Post-colonial Shakespeares' (1998) was edited by Ania Loomba (with Martin Orkin), and Loomba is the critic best known for postcolonial readings of Shakespeare.
What is the name of the author whose story "Sarrasine" Roland Barthes examines?
ATolstoy
BNabokov
CMaxim Gorky
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (E) None of the above
Explanation
In 'S/Z' (1970) Roland Barthes analyses Balzac's novella 'Sarrasine' line by line. Balzac is not among Tolstoy, Nabokov or Gorky, so the answer is (E).
Which of the following pairs is/are correctly matched?
A1837: Queen Victoria ascends the throne
B1853: Repeal of Corn Laws
C1860: Outbreak of Crimean War
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (A) 1837: Queen Victoria ascends the throne
Explanation
Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837. The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846 and the Crimean War broke out in 1853, so only (A) is correctly matched.
Matthew Arnold classified human society into three main classes__
AUpper, Middle, Lower
BBarbarians, Philistines, Populace
CAristocracy, Plutocracy, Workers
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (B) Barbarians, Philistines, Populace
Explanation
In 'Culture and Anarchy' Matthew Arnold divided English society into the Barbarians (aristocracy), the Philistines (middle class) and the Populace (working class).
An endowment is a gift of money or property, such as a bequest, given to provide a benefit or income. The key accepts both 'Benefit' and 'Bequest', so the answer is (D).
Choose the suitable option for the expression "that which cannot be repaired"
AIllegible
BIntelligible
CIrreparable
DMore than one of the above
ENone of the above
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Correct answer: (C) Irreparable
Explanation
'Irreparable' means 'that cannot be repaired'. 'Illegible' means unreadable and 'intelligible' means understandable.
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.