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Unit 8 · Reading Comprehension English · August 2024 (Shift 1)

Which device is used in the opening line, 'All round me are words, and words and words'?

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Correct answer: B. Anaphora

Explanation

Per the key, anaphora (repetition of 'words').

Note: Passage I is Kamala Das's poem 'Words' (Summer in Calcutta, 1965), which is copyrighted and not reproduced. It opens 'All round me are words, and words and words'. The words grow on the speaker 'like leaves', out of a silence deep within. She warns herself that words are a nuisance and can be a chasm, a sea with paralysing waves, a blast of burning air, or a knife that cuts a throat, yet they keep growing. Strictly, repetition within one line is epizeuxis or polysyndeton; anaphora is the key.

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