GRE Literature in English MCQs Practice Test Questions Answers

1) The abstract theory of utilitarianism is the theme of Dicken’s novel:
a) Bleak House
b) A Tale of Two Cities
c) Hard Times
d) Great Expectations
e) None of these

c) Hard Times

2. The one remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven’s light for ever shines, earth’s shadows fly;

The above two lines occur in:
a) Keats’ Hyperion
b) Shelley’s Hymn to Intellectual Beauty
c) Shelley’s Adonis
d) Keats’ Ode to Psyche
e) None of these

c) Shelley’s Adonis

3. Name the character of a novel of Thomas Hardy, which is much like Oedipus, King Lear and Faust.

Answer. Tess.

4. She can not fade, though thou hast not the bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

The above two lines have been taken from:
a) Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale
b) A Thing of Beauty
c) La Belle Dame Sans Mercy
d) Ode on a Grecian Urn

d) Ode on a Grecian Urn

5. ‘Withdrawal from an uncongenial world of escape either to death or more often, to an ideal dream world’, is the theme of Tennyson’s:
a) Ulysses
b) The Palace of Arts
c) The Lotos – Eaters
d) None of these

c) The Lotos – Eaters

6. Philip Waken, Aunt Pallet and Tom Tulliver are the characters of G. Eliot’s novel:
a) Silas Manner
b) Adam Bede
c) Middle March
d) The Mill on the Floss

d) The Mill on the Floss

7. “In all things, in all natures, in the stars,
This active principle abides,”
Identify the poet and his peculiar belief that can be understood from the above lines.

Answer. William Wordsworth as he was of the opinion that in this universe ‘nature’ is the point of focus for everything.

8. “Thy, Damnation, Slunbreth, Not”
Name the writer, his book and the character who uttered/wrote these words.

Writer – Thomas Hardy
Book – Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Character – a young man who is traveling the countryside painting scripture on the sides of barns walks

9. In Memoriam by Tennyson is:
a) an elegy
b) a collection of elegies
c) a lyric
d) a dramatic lyric
e) None of these

a) an elegy

10. The poem, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” was written by:
a) Shelley
b) Blake
c) Byron
d) Browning
e) None of these

b) Blake


(11) Ernest Hemingway wrote:

(a) Mr. Chips
(b) Pride and Prejudice
(c) Old Man and the Sea
(c) Old Man and the Sea


(12) “Intellectual Beauty” is written by:

(a) Bertrand Russell
(b) Huxley
(c) P.B.Shelley

(c) P.B.Shelley

(13) Who wrote “20th Century Views”?

(a) Abrahams, M. H.
(b) Palmer, D. J.
(c) Bertrand Russell

(a) Abrahams, M. H.

(14) ‘Desert Places’ is a:

(a) Poem
(b) Play
(c) Novel

(a) Poem

(15) The University Wits were:

(a) Poets
(b) Playwrights
(c) Novelists

(b) Playwrights

(16) William Shakespeare was Born in:

(a) 1564
(b) 1534
(c) 1616

(a) 1564

(17) Francis Bacon died in:

(a) 1616
(b) 1626
(c) 1648

(b) 1626

(18) The period between 1660 to 1750 is known as:

(a) The Age of Classicism
(b) The Restoration
(c) The age of Milton

(b) The Restoration


(19) Who wrote “The Pilgrim’s Progress”?

(a) John Bunyan
(b) Daniel Defoe
(c) Dryden

(a) John Bunyan

(20) ‘‘The Conduct of the Allies’ is a famous work of:

(a) Jonathan Swift
(b) Samuel Johnson
(c) Oliver ‘Goldsmith

(a) Jonathan Swift

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