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

English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

 Que- Choose the best answer to fill in the blanks. Throughout the Middle Ages, English drama, like that of other European countries, was mainly ______________ and ______________? 

a. Psychological, Sexual  

b. Religious, Didactic  

c. Emotional, Psychological  

d. none of these 


Answer- Religious, Didactic


Que- Fill in the blank. Martin Luther nailed his _____________ to a church door in Wittenberg, accusing the Roman Catholic Church of heresy upon heresy? 

a. Paradise Lost  

b. 95 Theses  

c. The Bible  

d. Piers Plowman 


Answer- Paradise Lost


Que- Fill in the blank. John Lyly's style is best described as ___________________? 

a. Anachronistic  

b. Euphuistic  

c. Marxist  

d. Solipsistic 


Answer- Euphuistic


Que- Which of the following critics is a famous Shakespearean scholar ? 

a. M. H. Abrams  

b. Stephen Greenblatt  

c. Helen Vendler  

d. Wayne C.Booth 


Answer- Stephen Greenblatt


Que- The work of John Foxe was no longer read or heeded in educated circles after which major historical event ? 

a. Restoration  

b. Glorious Revolution  

c. French Revolution  

d. Seven Years War 


Answer- Glorious Revolution


Que- Fill in the blanks. From being narrowly focused on the achievements of north Italians in the______________ and early ____________centuries, the Renaissance is now being seen in a far wider context. 

a. 12th and 13th  

b. 14th and 15th  

c. 15th and 16th  

d. Non of these 


Answer- 15th and 16th


Que- Fill in the blank. The economic analysis of poverty was advanced by______________ in the fourteenth century? 

a. Petrarch  

b. Dante  

c. Langland  

d. Machiavelli 


Answer- Langland


Que- Christopher Marlowe's "Faustus" is an example of what dramatic genre ? 

a. Romance  

b. Satire  

c. Comedy  

d. Tragedy 


Answer- Tragedy


Que- Martin Luther's translation of what text helped to develop a standard version of the German language and added several principles to the art of translation ? 

a. Paradise Lost  

b. Canterbury Tales  

c. The Bible  

d. Piers Plowman 


Answer- The Bible


Que- Fill in the blank. ____________ is remembered as the "Morning Star of the Reformation." 

a. John Donne  

b. John Dryden  

c. John Wycliffe  

d. Johan Gutenberg 


Answer- John Wycliffe


Que- Which of the following writers remained a firm believer in the Royal Supremacy ? 

a. John Locke  

b. John Lyly  

c. John Foxe  

d. John Milton 


Answer- John Foxe


Que- The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses is an example of what dramatic genre ? 

a. Masque  

b. Satire  

c. Burlesque  

d. Tragedy 


Answer- Masque


Que- King Henry VIII adopted what religion ? 

a. Catholicism  

b. Protestantism  

c. Buddhism  

d. Roman Catholicism 


Answer- Protestantism


Que- The foundation story of what poem is the Genesis account of the Creation of the world and of Adam and Eve, culminating in the drama of their temptation and fall ? 

a. Canterbury Tales  

b. The Faerie Queen  

c. Paradise Lost  

d. The Prelude 


Answer- Paradise Lost


Que- Fill in the blank. Although Sir Philip Sidney is writing 200 years before the …. revolution, he presents a very inward and self-absorbed narrator in "Astrophil and Stella." ? 

a. Medieval  

b. Victorian  

c. Romantic  

d. None of the above 


Answer- Romantic


Que- Fill in the blank. A ____________ was a spectacle performed at court or at the manor of a member of the nobility and was staged to glorify the court or the particular aristocrat? 

a. Masque  

b. Satire  

c. Tragedy  

d. Comedy 


Answer- Masque


Que- Romance, classical structure, and festive elements had already begun to come together in drama when what author began writing ? 

a. Chaucer  

b. Langland  

c. Homer  

d. Shakespeare 


Answer- Shakespeare


Que- The Petrarchan sonnet is typically composed in what form of meter ? 

a. Trochaic trimeter  

b. Terza rima  

c. Iambic pentameter  

d. Anapestic pentameter 


Answer- Iambic pentameter


Que- Fill in the blank. The greatest insurrection of the______________ age in England was over religion? 

a. Hanover  

b. Protestant  

c. Tudor  

d. None of these 


Answer- Tudor


Que- John Lyly's work significantly shaped the writing of which famous writer ? 

a. William Blake  

b. William Wordsworth  

c. Samuel Taylor Coleridge  

d. William Shakespeare 


Answer- William Shakespeare


Que- Fill in the blank. Prior to the rise of the famed tragedians of the late 1580s,_____________ were the great headliners of the Elizabethan stage? 

a. Clowns  

b. Women  

c. Politicians  

d. Pantomimes 


Answer- Clowns


Que- Choose the best answer to complete the following sentence. All of the following are Shakespearean plays EXCEPT? 

a. Two Gentlemen of Verona  

b. The Winter's Tale  

c. The Tempest  

d. Faustus 


Answer- The Tempest


Que- What author speaks of the exemplary story as a fundamental narrative unit in which it is important to follow chronological order ? 

a. John Foxe  

b. John Lyly  

c. Sir Thomas More  

d. Sir Walter Raleigh 


Answer- John Foxe


Que- What genres of plays did William Shakespeare write ? 

a. Tragedies  

b. Comedies  

c. Romances  

d. All of the above 


Answer- All of the above


Que- Who introduced the Italian sonnet to the British Isles during the reign of King Henry VIII ? 

a. Thomas Wyatt  

b. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey  

c. John Donne  

d. Both A and B 


Answer- Both A and B


Que- Which of the following controversial ideas surround the life and work of William Shakespeare ? 

a. The idea that William Shakespeare never lived.  

b. The idea that William Shakespeare was a Catholic.  

c. All of the above  

d. A and B only 


Answer- A and B only


Que- John Lyly became instantly famous with the publication of what text ? 

a. 95 Theses  

b. Utopia  

c. Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit  

d. Paradise Lost 


Answer- Euphues, or the Anatomy of Wit


Que- In "The Book of Martyrs," John Foxe provides a record of all known Christian martyrs throughout history, focusing on the persecution of people practicing which religion ? 

a. Protestantism  

b. Catholicism  

c. Roman Catholicism  

d. Buddhism 


Answer- Protestantism


Que- Which of the following does NOT characterize Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" ? 

a. It is a dramatic monologue.  

b. Like earlier Romantic lyrics, it takes a natural setting as an occasion for philosophical reflection.  

c. It has a melancholic tone.  

d. It envisions Christianity as eternal. 


Answer- It envisions Christianity as eternal.


Que- Swinburne's poems such as "Hermaphroditus" are best known for which of the following ? 

a. Their conservative poetics  

b. Their frank depiction of sexuality  

c. Their radical politics  

d. Their nationalistic tone 


Answer- Their frank depiction of sexuality


Que- Pope's comment that "Know, then, thyself, presume God not to scan;/The proper study of mankind is man" in his "Essay on Man" is indicative of all of the following EXCEPT______________? 

a. his use of the heroic couplet.  

b. an Enlightenment focus on useful knowledge.  

c. a neoclassical emphasis on propriety and knowing limitations.  

d. a radical questioning of revealed religion 


Answer- a radical questioning of revealed religion


Que- In Linton's The Girl of the Period, what course of behavior does the author recommend for women ? 

a. Women should wear more makeup in order to attract husbands.  

b. Women should make sure to receive an education in order to secure their own futures.  

c. Women should take pains to remain generous, modest, and capable.  

d. Women should be given the right to vote immediately. 


Answer- Women should take pains to remain generous, modest, and capable.


Que- Which of the following did NOT contribute to the growth of literacy in the 19thcentury ? 

a. More magazines on the market  

b. The rise in serialized fiction  

c. Lower prices for magazines  

d. The passage of the Reform Bills 


Answer- The passage of the Reform Bills


Que- Which of the following political ideas is least related to the Enlightenment ? 

a. Checks and balances  

b. Social contract  

c. Enlightened monarchy  

d. Socialism 


Answer- Socialism


Que- For I have learned/To look on nature, not as in the hour/Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes/The sad, still music of humanity" ? 

a. The poet's changing relationship to nature as fount of meaning and significance  

b. The falsity of human art as opposed to the immediate truth of nature  

c. The failure of the poet when a youth to imagine his future  

d. The utter rejection of youthful folly in favor of mature rationality 


Answer- The poet's changing relationship to nature as fount of meaning and significance


Que- Which of the following most accurately describes the relationship between Darwin's On the Origin of Species and Victorian society and its ideals ? 

a. Darwin's work echoed Victorian thought with its emphasis on struggle while disrupting Victorian faith by decentering humans.  

b. Darwin's work was almost universally accepted from its first appearance.  

c. Darwin's work had little initial influence on Victorian society and culture.  

d. Almost all religious authorities rejected Darwin's work completely. 


Answer- Darwin's work echoed Victorian thought with its emphasis on struggle while disrupting Victorian faith by decentering humans.


Que- In The Way of the World, Congreve satirizes which of the following ? 

a. Ideas about chastity  

b. The institution of marriage  

c. The aristocracy  

d. All of these answers 


Answer- All of these answers


Que- Which of the following is NOT a central theme of Wordsworth's poetry ? 

a. The common man  

b. The promises of technology  

c. The outcast figure  

d. The movement of time 


Answer- The promises of technology


Que- What do Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and Coleridge's "Dejection Ode" have in common ? 

a. An identical rhyme structure  

b. The belief that a person is incapable of change, even as he or she ages  

c. The sense of hope that death will come soon  

d. A shared theme that nature exposes the pain in human life 


Answer- A shared theme that nature exposes the pain in human life


Que- Complete the following sentence. Neoclassicism most paralleled Enlightenment thought in its_______________? 

a. rejection of Renaissance optimism.  

b. rejection of traditional models.  

c. emphasis on order, logic, and universal truths.  

d. emphasis on the corrupt nature of the aristocracy. 


Answer- emphasis on order, logic, and universal truths.


Que- How does the following representative quotation from Brontë's Jane Eyre reflect on Victorian social conventions? "You have nothing to do with the master of Thornfield, further than to receive the salary he gives you for teaching his protégée, and to be grateful for such respectful and kind treatment as, if you do your duty, you have a right to expect at his hands" ? 

a. It reiterates the class divisions that kept both men and women from social mobility.  

b. It suggests that women were increasingly accepted as professionals.  

c. It indicates that British society had become much more egalitarian.  

d. It reveals the stern consequences of the Industrial Revolution. 


Answer- It reiterates the class divisions that kept both men and women from social mobility.


Que- Complete the following sentence. The Romantic movement is least closely related to______________? 

a. folklore.  

b. nationalism.  

c. parody.  

d. exoticism 


Answer- parody.


Que- Why were coffee-houses important in the Restoration ? 

a. They enabled discussion about important literary texts.  

b. They created a space for the exchange of pamphlets.  

c. They offered people a private place in which they could plan political revolts.  

d. Both A and B 


Answer- Both A and B


Que- With which literary form or movement is the Restoration most closely associated ? 

a. Familiar essays  

b. Comedies of manners  

c. Romanticism  

d. Medievalism 


Answer- Comedies of manners


Que- Jonathan Swift's suggestion in "A Modest Proposal" that the Irish eat their children exemplifies the characteristics of a satire in all of the following ways EXCEPT_______________? 

a. its mocking tone.  

b. its absurd response to a real issue.  

c. its sentimental plea to its audience.  

d. its attempt to shock readers into acting. 


Answer- its sentimental plea to its audience.


Que- Victor Frankenstein's project to create life in Mary Shelley's novel can be linked to romanticism through which of the following ? 

a. His Promethean striving to exceed human limitations as explored by Byron and Percy Shelley  

b. Its suggestion that the natural order has laws beyond human control  

c. His desire to create a political revolution  

d. Both A and B 


Answer- Both A and B


Que- Tennyson's "Ulysses" can be characterized in all of the following ways, EXCEPT________________? 

a. it thematizes the importance of choosing action over complacency.  

b. it reflects a Victorian attitude of continuing to fight against loss of hope or faith.  

c. it uses Greek mythology to comment on contemporary questions.  

d. it emphasizes the internal life of the mind over social action. 


Answer- it emphasizes the internal life of the mind over social action.


Que- With which of these writers is the "spontaneous overflow of emotion" associated ? 

a. Ann Radcliffe  

b. William Wordsworth  

c. John Keats  

d. Alfred Lord Tennyson 


Answer- William Wordsworth


Que- The development of the novel is associated with all of the following EXCEPT__________________? 

a. scientific emphasis on detailed observation.  

b. the political focus on individuals and their rights.  

c. philosophical theories of sympathy and human emotions.  

d. the continuing importance of mythological stories. 


Answer- the continuing importance of mythological stories.


Que- Complete the following sentence. The scientific revolution paralleled Enlightenment political thought and political revolutions through its similar______________? 

a. devotion to traditional authority in political and theoretical matters.  

b. emphasis on the world being governed by laws that could be discerned through rational exploration.  

c. reliance on classical scholarship.  

d. defense of violent emotions as natural. 


Answer- emphasis on the world being governed by laws that could be discerned through rational exploration.

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