SAVITRIBAI PHULE PUNE UNIVERSITY DEPARMENT OF ENGLISH M.A. ENTRANCE EXAMINATION SAMPLE QUESTION PAPER Day & Date: Time: Marks: 100 Instruction : Please answer Question No. I on a separate sheet provided. Choose the correct answer from the four answers provided after each item and tick ( ) the appropriate box on the special sheet provided. (20x2=40) 1. William Shakespeare was born in the year a) 1546 b) 1564 c) 1616 d) 1599 2. R.K. Narayan s novels are set in a) Madras b) Madmai c) Malgudi d) Mano Majra 3. In which novel of Salman Rushdie is Saleem Sinai a character a) Shame b) The Satanic Verses c) The Moor s Last Sigh d) Midnight s Children 4. The term phallocentric is associated with a) Feminism b) Postmodernism c) Postcolonialism d) Poststructuralism 5. Sprung rhythm is associated with the poetry of a) Robert Bridges b) G. M. Hopkins c) Thomas Hardy d) William Shakespeare 1
6. Which one of the following is not a 19 th century woman writer? a) Aphra Behn b) George Sand c) George Eliot d) Elizabeth Gaskell 7. Which of the following refers to a pause in the middle of a verse line? a) caesura b) enjambment c) hemistich d) Spondee 8. Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct? a) I have passed B.A. examination in 2010. b) I passed B.A. examination in 2010. c) I am teaching since 2008. d) I am knowing him since his childhood. 9. Which of the following is the correct spelling of the word? a) Transparensy b) Transperency c) Transparency d) Transperancy 10. Which of the following words has primary accent on the third syllable? a) Examination b) Explicit c) Conference d) Expertise 2
I. Write an essay on ANY ONE of the following: (30) 1. Features of Metaphysical Poetry 2. Modernism and literature 3. Is Indian English a variety of English? 4. What English Literature means to me? 5. Marginal Literatures III. Write a critical appreciation or linguistic analysis of any ONE of the following: a) Poem : I imagine this midnight moment s forest: Something else is alive Beside the clock s loneliness And this blank page where my fingers move. (30) Through the window I see no star: Something more near Though deeper within darkness Is entering the loneliness: Cold, delicately as the dark snow, A fox s nose touches twig, leaf; Two eyes serve a movement, that now And again now, and now, and now Sets neat prints into the snow Between trees, and warily a lame Shadow lags by stump and in hollow Of a body that is bold to come Across clearings, an eye, A widening deepening greenness, Brilliantly, concentratedly, Coming about its own business 3
Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox It enters the dark hole of the head. The window is starless still; the clock ticks, The page is printed. OR [P.T.O.] b) Prose passage: Having succeeded in obtaining entrance with another key, I ran to unclose the panels, for the chamber was vacant; quickly pushing them aside, I peeped in. Mr. Heathcliff was there laid on his back. His eyes met mine so keen and fierce, I started; and then he seemed to smile. I could not think him dead: but his face and throat were washed with rain; the bed-clothes dripped, and he was perfectly still. The lattice, flapping to and fro, had grazed one hand that rested on the sill; no blood trickled from the broken skin, and when I put my fingers to it, I could doubt no more: he was dead and stark! I hasped the window; I combed his black long hair from his forehead; I tried to close his eyes: to extinguish, if possible, that frightful, life-like gaze of exultation before any one else beheld it. They would not shut: they seemed to sneer at my attempts; and his parted lips and sharp white teeth sneered too! Taken with another fit of cowardice, I cried out for Joseph. Joseph shuffled up and made a noise, but resolutely refused to meddle with him. Th divil s harried off his soul, he cried, and he may hev his carcass into t bargin, for aught I care! Ech! what a wicked un he looks, girning at death! and the old sinner grinned in mockery. I thought he intended to cut a caper round the bed; but suddenly composing 4
himself, he fell on his knees, and raised his hands, and returned thanks that the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights. I felt stunned by the awful event; and my memory unavoidably recurred to former times with a sort of oppressive sadness. But poor Hareton, the most wronged, was the only one who really suffered much. He sat by the corpse all night, weeping in bitter earnest. He pressed its hand, and kissed the sarcastic, savage face that every one else shrank from contemplating; and bemoaned him with that strong grief which springs naturally from a generous heart, though it be tough as tempered steel. ********* 5