English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) - Schoolingaxis.com

English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

 Que- Which best describes the imagist movement, exemplified in the work of T. E. Hulme and Ezra Pound ? 

a. a poetic aesthetic vainly concerned with the way words appear on the page  

b. an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery  

c. an attention to alternate states of consciousness and uncanny imagery  

d. the resurrection of Romantic poetic sensibility 


Answer- an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery


Que- Which best describes the imagist movement, exemplified in the work of T. E. Hulme and Ezra Pound ? 

a. a poetic aesthetic vainly concerned with the way words appear on the page  

b. an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery  

c. an attention to alternate states of consciousness and uncanny imagery  

d. the resurrection of Romantic poetic sensibility 


Answer- an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery


Que- What did Henry James describe as \loose baggy monsters\ ? 

a. novels  

b. plays  

c. the English  

d. publishers 


Answer- novels


Que- Which of the following novels display postwar nostalgia for past imperial glory ? 

a. E. M. Forster's A Passage to India  

b. Jean Rhys's Wide Sargasso Sea  

c. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness  

d. Paul Scott's Staying On 


Answer- Paul Scott's Staying On


Que- Which text exemplifies the anti- Victorianism prevalent in the early twentieth century ? 

a. Eminent Victorians  

b. Jungle Books  

c. The Way of All Flesh  

d. both A and C 


Answer- both A and C


Que- In what decade did the \angry young men\come to prominence on the theatrical scene ? 

a. 1910s  

b. 1930s  

c. 1950s  

d. 1970s 


Answer- 1950s


Que- What did T. S. Eliot attempt to combine, though not very successfully, in his plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party ? 

a. regional dialect and political critique  

b. religious symbolism and society comedy  

c. iambic pentameter and sexual innuendo  

d. witty paradoxes and feminist diatribe 


Answer- religious symbolism and society comedy


Que- Which poet could be described as part of "The Movement" of the 1950s ? 

a. Thom Gunn  

b. Dylan Thomas  

c. Philip Larkin  

d. both A and C 


Answer- both A and C


Que- What characteristics of seventeenthcentury Metaphysical poetry sparked the enthusiasm of modernist poets and critics ? 

a. its intellectual complexity  

b. its union of thought and passion  

c. its uncompromising engagement with politics  

d. A and B 


Answer- A and B


Que- Which scientific or technological advance did not take place in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century ? 

a. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity  

b. wireless communication across the Atlantic  

c. the creation of the internet  

d. the invention of the airplane 


Answer- the creation of the internet


Que- In the 1930s, younger writers such as W. H. Auden were more __________but less ___________ than older modernists such as Eliot and Pound? 

a. popular; reverenced  

b. brash; confident  

c. radical; inventive  

d. anxious; haunting 


Answer- radical; inventive


Que- What did T. S. Eliot attempt to combine, though not very successfully, in his plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party ? 

a. regional dialect and political critique  

b. religious symbolism and society comedy  

c. iambic pentameter and sexual innuendo  

d. witty paradoxes and feminist diatribe 


Answer- religious symbolism and society comedy


Que- Which British dominion achieved independence in 1921-22, following the Easter Rising of 1916 ? 

a. the southern counties of Ireland  

b. Canada  

c. Ulster  

d. India 


Answer- the southern counties of Ireland


Que- With which enormously influential perspective or practice is the early-twentiethcentury thinker Sigmund Freud associated ? 

a. eugenics  

b. psychoanalysis  

c. phrenology  

d. all of the above 


Answer- psychoanalysis


Que- Which scientific or technological advance did not take place in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century ? 

a. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity  

b. wireless communication across the Atlantic  

c. the creation of the internet  

d. the invention of the airplane 


Answer- the creation of the internet


Que- What was the impact on literature of the Education Act of 1870, which made elementary schooling compulsory ? 

a. the emergence of a mass literate population at whom a new mass-produced literature could be directed  

b. a new market for basic textbooks which paid better than sophisticated novels or plays  

c. a popular thirst for the "classics," driving contemporary writers to the margins  

d. a, b and c 


Answer- the emergence of a mass literate population at whom a new mass-produced literature could be directed


Que- Which novel did T. S. Eliot praise for utilizing a new \mythical method\in place of the old \narrative method\and demonstrates the use of ancient mythology in modernist fiction to think about \making the modern world possible for art\ ? 

a. Virginia Woolf's The Waves  

b. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness  

c. James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake  

d. James Joyce's Ulysses 


Answer- James Joyce's Ulysses


Que- Which of the following has been a significant development in British theater since the abolition of censorship in 1968 ? 

a. the rise of workshops and the collaborative ethos  

b. the diversifying impact of playwrights from the former colonies  

c. the death of the musical  

d. all but C 


Answer- all but C


Que- What event allowed mainstream theater companies to commission and perform work that was politically, socially, and sexually controversial without fear of censorship ? 

a. the abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's office in 1968  

b. the illegal performance of work by Howard Brenton and Edward Bond  

c. the collapse of liberal humanist consensus in the late 1960s  

d. the foundation of the Field Day Theater Company in 1980 


Answer- the abolition of the Lord Chamberlain's office in 1968


Que- Which of the following was originally the Irish Literary Theatre ? 

a. the Irish National Theatre  

b. the Globe Theatre  

c. the Abbey Theatre  

d. both A and C 


Answer- both A and C


Que- Which of the following was characteristic of the court of James I ? 

a. gluttonous feasting  

b. hard drinking  

c. hunting  

d. all of the above 


Answer- all of the above


Que- Who succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603, establishing the Stuart dynasty ? 

a. James IV of Scotland  

b. James VI of Scotland  

c. Mary, Queen of Scots  

d. Anne Boleyn ? 


Answer- James VI of Scotland


Que- Which of the following was not a cause associated with militant Protestant reformers (Puritans, Presbyterians, and separatists) ? 

a. the pursuit of a more confrontational policy towards Catholic powers  

b. the elimination of bishops  

c. the right of congregations to choose their own leaders  

d. the wider use of religious images in churches 


Answer- the wider use of religious images in churches


Que- What is the title to Milton's blank-verse epic that assimilates and critiques the epic tradition ? 

a. L'Allegro  

b. Lycidas  

c. Paradise Lost  

d. The Divine Comedy 


Answer- Paradise Lost


Que- Which was not among the \new\genres promoted by poets such as Jonson, Donne, and Herbert ? 

a. the Petrarchan sonnet  

b. the classical satire  

c. the country-house poem  

d. the epigram 


Answer- the Petrarchan sonnet


Que- Which of the following female authors of the Jacobean era wrote a work that became the \first\of its kind to be published by an English woman ? 

a. Rachel Speght  

b. Aemilia Lanyer  

c. Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland  

d. all of the above 


Answer- all of the above


Que- Restored to the throne in 1660, Charles II ruled_______________? 

a. with an absolute prerogative his father would have envied.  

b. through a system of draconian military courts.  

c. with deference to Parliament's legislative supremacy.  

d. only a small area around London and Oxford. 


Answer- with deference to Parliament's legislative supremacy.


Que- Which poet was a member of the powerful and culturally influential Sidney family ? 

a. Ben Jonson  

b. Aemilia Lanyer  

c. Samuel Daniel  

d. Mary Wroth 


Answer- Mary Wroth


Que- Which of the following did Milton not advocate in print in the 1640s and 1650s ? 

a. the disestablishment of the church and the removal of bishops  

b. the right of the people to dismiss and even execute their rulers  

c. the free circulation of ideas without prior censorship  

d. the restoration of the monarchy 


Answer- the restoration of the monarchy


Que- What was the licensing system ? 

a. All royalties from the sale of books went to the crown (hence the name).  

b. Poets were required to have a university diploma (the original \poetic license\).  

c. All books had to be dedicated to a noble or royal patron.  

d. All books had to be submitted for official approval before publication. 


Answer- All books had to be submitted for official approval before publication.


Que- What is the delicate balancing act of Marvell's\Horatian Ode\ ? 

a. praising Roman virtues whilst endorsing Christian beliefs  

b. praising feminine virtue whilst mocking the fixation on chastity  

c. celebrating Cromwell's victories whilst inviting sympathy for the executed king  

d. celebrating the Restoration whilst regretting the frivolity of the new regime 


Answer- celebrating Cromwell's victories whilst inviting sympathy for the executed king


Que- Who served as Protector under England's first written constitution ? 

a. Gerrard Winstanley  

b. Oliver Cromwell  

c. Praisegod Barebone  

d. George Monk 


Answer- Oliver Cromwell


Que- Which of the following colonial ventures took place in the reign of James I (1603-25) ? 

a. the founding of the Jamestown settlement  

b. the founding of the Plymouth colony  

c. Henry Hudson's fruitless search for the Northwest Passage  

d. all of the above 


Answer- all of the above


Que- James I liked to imagine himself as a modern version of which ruler ? 

a. Pericles  

b. Genghis Khan  

c. Richard Lionheart  

d. Augustus Caesar 


Answer- Augustus Caesar


Que- Which religious radical advocated the civic toleration of all religions, including Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam ? 

a. John Lilburne  

b. William Laud  

c. Roger Williams  

d. Oliver Cromwell 


Answer- Roger Williams


Que- Which of the following was not an expressed objective of the \Long Parliament\ when it convened in 1640 ? 

a. abolishing extra-legal taxes and courts  

b. mounting a revolution and executing the king  

c. bringing to trial the king's hated ministers, Strafford and Laud  

d. remaining in session until they themselves agreed to disband 


Answer- mounting a revolution and executing the king


Que- Which writer was not active under both Elizabeth I and James I ? 

a. William Shakespeare  

b. Ben Jonson  

c. John Donne  

d. John Milton 


Answer- John Milton


Que- The idea that God predestines human beings to be saved or damned is associated with which Protestant reformer ? 

a. Martin Luther  

b. John Calvin  

c. Henry VIII  

d. Arminius 


Answer- John Calvin


Que- Which of the following themes or subjects was not common in the works of Cavalier poets, such as Thomas Carew, Sir John Denham, Edmund Walter, Sir John Suckling, James Shirely, Richard Lovelace, and Robert Herrick ? 

a. courtly ideals of the good life  

b. carpe diem  

c. loyalty to the king  

d. pious devotion to religious virtues 


Answer- pious devotion to religious virtues


Que- Which poem testifies to the profound doubts and uncertainties attending Donne's conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism ? 

a. \Air and Angels\  

b. \Satire 3\  

c. \The Apparition\  

d. \The Indifferent\ 


Answer- \Satire 3\


Que- Which of the following plays was not authored by Shakespeare in the Jacobean period ? 

a. Othello  

b. Volpone  

c. King Lear  

d. Antony and Cleopatra 


Answer- Volpone


Que- Who authored the scholarly biography, Life of Donne ? 

a. Izaak Walton  

b. Katherine Philips  

c. John Skelton  

d. Isabella Whitney 


Answer- Izaak Walton


Que- What was one of the first acts of Parliament after the outbreak of hostilities in the First Civil War ? 

a. the abolishment of public plays and sports  

b. the conversion of the English church to Catholicism  

c. the adoption of English as the official language  

d. the consolidation of power in an absolute monarch 


Answer- the abolishment of public plays and sports


Que- What historical figure promoted the rapid growth of a high Anglican faction within the church whose ceremony, ritual, and doctrine more closely resembled Roman Catholicism ? 

a. William Collins  

b. William Laud  

c. William Shakespeare  

d. William Tyndale 


Answer- William Laud


Que- Which group of radicals got their name from their penchant for rambling prophecy ? 

a. the Fifth Monarchists  

b. the Roarers  

c. the Diggers  

d. the Ranters 


Answer- the Ranters


Que- What major new prose genre emerged in the Jacobean era ? 

a. the novel  

b. the sermon  

c. the familiar essay  

d. the diary 


Answer- the familiar essay


Que- Which of the following was not one of the four bodily humours ? 

a. choler  

b. blood  

c. cholesterol  

d. black bile 


Answer- cholesterol


Que- What was the tile of Thomas Hobbes's defense of absolute sovereignty based on a theory of social contract ? 

a. The Litany in a Time of Plague  

b. Utopia  

c. Leviathan  

d. The Advancement of Learning 


Answer- Leviathan


Que- What was the intended target of the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 ? 

a. Westminster Abbey  

b. Tower Bridge  

c. the Houses of Parliament  

d. Buckingham Palace 


Answer- the Houses of Parliament


Que- What was the general subject of theWelsh poet Katherine Philips's work ? 

a. celebrations of the transience of all life and beauty  

b. celebrations of lesbian sexuality in terms that did not imply a male readership  

c. celebrations of religious ecstasy and divine inspiration  

d. celebrations of female friendship in Platonic terms normally reserved for male Friendships 


Answer- celebrations of female friendship in Platonic terms normally reserved for male Friendships

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