Answer Key, Specimen Paper English Literature

    Answer Key, Specimen Paper, English Literature

Question I

1.     Portia

Bassanio

Bassanio gave away the ring which was given to him by Portia.

2.     Gave to the young judge

He saved his friend Antonio’s life

He would never part with it

3.     Gratiano

Ring of small value

Love me and leave me not

4.     Gratiano

As long as he lives,  he will fear no other thing

Than to keep Nerissa’s ring safe

5.     A letter from Padua, from Bellario

Portia was the doctor

Nerissa was the clerk

Three of Antonio’s argosies have reached the shore safely

Question II

1.      

·       Silver

·       A fools head

·       Portia’s portrait

2.      

·       Prince Morocco

·       He thought it was a damnation to think Portia’s portrait is contained in lead

·       Cannot be contained in silver as it is ten times inferior to gold

·       A rich gem like Portia cannot be contained in nothing less than gold.

3. Just like the moth who are burnt in the candle light, let these deliberate fools die.

Reasoning alone cannot win me, true love must be there

Let reasoning gives them enough intelligence to make the wrong choice and thus lose.

4. a servant enters

He informs that a young venetian has alighted at the gate

He comes before his master to inform his master’s arrival

He brings greetings and gifts

5.

• The silver casket was refined in the fire seven times

      • a correct judgement that does not go wrong is also     tested seven times

      • there are many people who believe in what is not       [illusion]; such people get    only illusion of        happiness.

      • there are foolish people, whose foolishness is covered just because they        themselves are covered      with white [silvery’ hair and this was the case with         this     casket..

      • no matter whom you will take as your wife, you         will remain a foolish person.

      • so go away, your chance is over.

Question 3

1.     The phrase “clear stream of reason” signifies pure reason. Reason is being rational and not tied by superstition and unreasonable traditions

2.     By the phrase “dead habits”, Rabindranath Tagore refers to old customs.

      The poet is of the view that the dead habits should not bind people’s mind.        People should          think and act rationally and not blindly follow old customs.

      If people do not have rational mind and merely follow old customs then it       would be       determental for the nation as the nation would not progress.

3.     Dead habits or old customs make a nation as arid as desert and make man slave to irrational beliefs and thoughts which according to the poet obstructs true realization of India’s freedom.

4.     Rabindranath Tagore refers to God by saying ‘thee’.

      Tagore being a spiritual person and mystic poet tries to locate the ultimate truth       in God and    therefore in his works God and spirituality has a special significance.

5.     “A tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection” is an example of fine personification in the poem. Personification refers to attribution of human qualities to inanimate ideas. Here the ‘tireless striving’ has been personified like a human being stretching his arms to reach his goal through perfection.

      Question 4

1.     The poet uses the term “mournful numbers” to signify “sad songs”. The third line of the extract “For the soul is dead that slumbers” means “the person who is inactive is virtually dead”. Life is but an empty dream.

2.     Life is not an empty dream, but a reality which has a sense of purpose, and therefore one should live life “earnestly” that is, with positivism, vitality as well as sincerity.

3.     The poet claim that life is real and earnest and death is merely an illusion as soul transpires from body; but it never dies. Thus death is not the ultimate end of life; and therefore life is real and earnest.

4.     Our hearts beats are compared to the sounds of muffled drums as with the passage of time we are progressing towards our grave. The destination of “our hearts” is the grave.

5.     The poet compares the world to a battlefield. Such a comparison is made as the poet considers the world a battlefield in which one stays temporarily with a specific purpose and each day one fights a battle to live earnestly. “Bivouac” means “an encampment in the open air without tents”. What the poets means by “bivouac of life” is “the battle field of life”.

Question 5

1.     Rahamat from Kabul, Afganistan. It is  casual relationship. Once he came to the narrator’s house to sell dry fruits and in the course of time he became a friend of the narrator’s daughter.

2.     She feared that Kabuliwala’s customary sack contained girls of her age. Narrator brought Mini to the hall when the Kabuliwala came to sell dry fruits.

3.     She was not at all happy. She feared that her child could be abducted by the Kabuliwala. She was a suspicious person.

4.     He expected Mini would be the same as she was five years old. She would recognize him easily. She couldn’t recognize him and his usual jokes didn’t amuse her. She ran away when he asked whether she was going to her in laws house.

5.     It something that is kept as a remembrance. It was a hand print of the Kabuliwala’s daughter on a paper. The hand print was of charcoal. It was kept in his pocket and he felt the closeness of his daughter when he had the paper in his pocket.