British Literature — Mock Test 1

Which novel is NOT part of Beckett's trilogy, published in one volume in London in 1959?

Which stage setting of Pinter's The Birthday Party is INCORRECT?

Assertion (A): The best-known mystery and miracle cycles come from York, Wakefield and Chester. Reason (R): King Alfred encouraged the vernacular in the late ninth century as second best to Latin.

Arrange the following novels by Hardy in chronological order:

1. A. The Trumpet-Major
2. B. The Hand of Ethelberta
3. C. Tess of the d'Urbervilles
4. D. The Woodlanders
5. E. The Return of the Native

A quoted letter, written while its author was at work on Shirley, discusses the difficulty of drawing male as against female characters. Who wrote it, and to whom?

Which description of a character in Congreve's The Way of the World is INCORRECT?

Shaw's Pygmalion draws on which tradition's myth of a sculptor who fell in love with his ivory statue?

Match List I with List II:

Which of the following is NOT a dystopian novel?

Which statements are correct?

1. A. The Kailyard school produced sentimental, idealised novels of Scottish small-town life in the 1890s.
2. B. 'Kailyard' means cabbage patch, suggesting parochial concerns.
3. C. Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a lower-class detective novel titled Peter Pan.
4. D. J. I. M. Stewart's Lament for a Maker features Lord Peter Wimsey.
5. E. Barrie's A Window in Thrums is the best-known Kailyard text.

Assertion (A): Bacon's position as an essayist is peculiar. Reason (R): He bears no resemblance to essayists like Addison or Hazlitt.

Match List I with List II:

Arrange the following facts about Arms and the Man in chronological order:

1. A. First performance at the Avenue Theatre
2. B. British film directed by Cecil Lewis
3. C. German film adaptation nominated for an Academy Award
4. D. Action of the play: the Serbo-Bulgarian War
5. E. Old Vic revival with Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier

Match List I with List II:

Assertion (A): English poetry changed after 1945. Reason (R): Some poets carried on the Romantic tradition with personal, elemental themes.

Which statements about Chaucer are correct?

1. A. The Book of the Duchess commemorates Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt, who died in 1368.
2. B. The House of Fame engages with Dante's Divine Comedy.
3. C. The Canterbury Tales goes beyond its many individual concerns.
4. D. The Legend of Good Women invokes Cupid and Venus.
5. E. The Miller's Tale resembles The Knight's Tale.

Which statement about a Forster novel is INCORRECT?

Arrange these statements in the order they occur in Bacon's 'Of Studies':

1. A. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring.
2. B. To spend too much time in studies is sloth.
3. C. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience.
4. D. Crafty men contemn studies.
5. E. Histories make men wise.

Arnold's Empedocles on Etna (1852) is an example of:

Arrange the following works in chronological order:

1. A. Browne, Religio Medici
2. B. Nashe, The Terrors of the Night
3. C. Lamb, Essays of Elia
4. D. More, Utopia
5. E. Peacock, The Four Ages of Poetry

Assertion (A): The 9/11 attacks defined the early twenty-first century. Reason (R): Christopher Brookmyre's A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, published just before them, was prescient.

Which details from the dramatis personae of The Duchess of Malfi are correct?

1. A. Ferdinand, Duke of Calabria
2. B. The Cardinal, 'Executioner'
3. C. Antonio Bologna, steward of the Duchess's household
4. D. Delio, 'Court Officer'
5. E. Daniel de Bosola, gentleman of the horse

In which Dickens novel does fog shroud London in the opening chapter?

Who speaks the line 'Put out the light, and then put out the light'?

Arrange the plays from which these lines come in chronological order:

1. A. 'Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful!'
2. B. 'All the world's a stage'
3. C. 'Come, violent death, serve for mandragora to make me sleep!'
4. D. 'The last temptation is the greatest treason'
5. E. 'Never speak disrespectfully of Society'