ENGLISH LITERATURE – 9

Time: 2 Hours M.M.: 80

Answers to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately.
You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.
This time is to be spent in reading the question paper.
The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers.
Attempt five questions in all.
You must attempt one question from each of the Section A, B and C And any two other questions.
The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets. [ ]

(Drama: The Merchant of Venice)

Question 1
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

Antonio:
In sooth, I know not why I‘m so sad:
It wearies me, you say it wearies you;
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
What stuff ’tis made of, whereof it is born, I am to learn;
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me,
That I have much ado to know myself.

i. To whom are these words addressed? Where are the characters? [3]
ii. Explain: ‘And such a want-wit sadness makes of me, That I have much ado to know myself’. [3]
iii. Explain the meaning of the given extract. [3]
iv. What reasons does his friend give for Antonio’s state of mind? [3]
v. What purpose does Shakespeare achieve by beginning the play in this manner? [4]

Question 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Salerio:
Now, by two-headed Janus,
Nature hath frame’d strange fellows in her time:
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
And laugh like parrots at bag-piper;
And others of such vinegar aspect
That they’ll not show their teeth in way of smile,
Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.

i. Explain the comparison drawn out with Janus? [3]

ii. Who is Nestor? Why is he mentioned here? [3]
iii. Explain: a. Laugh like parrots at a bag piper. b. Vinegar aspect. [3]
iv. What conclusion does Salerio come with the sadness of Antonio? [3]
v. Comment on the parting remark of Salerio. [4]
Question 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Bassanio:
In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
I shot his fellow of the self-same flight
The self-same way with more advised watch,
To find the other forth; and by adventuring both,
I oft found both.

i. In what context does Bassanio speak these words? [3]

ii. Bring out the meaning of the extract. What does he want to establish with this childhood
example? [3]
iii. What aspect of the speaker’s personality is revealed here? [3]
a. What assurance does the speaker give here? [3]
iv. How does Antonio respond to these words? [4]

(Poetry)
Question 4
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
(The Heart of the Tree—Henry Cuyler Bunner)
i. What does a tree ensure us in summer? What do buds become in the days to come? [3]
ii. How is a tree the glory of the plain? [3]
iii. Which literary device has been used in the line: “And years that fade and flush again”? [3]
iv. Explain the line: “And years that fade and flush again.” [3]
v. How does a tree become ‘the forest’s heritage’? [4]

Question 5
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
(The Cold Within-James Patrick Kinney)
i. Who is referred to as the third one? Where was he sitting? Why was he there? [3]
ii. Who is the first person? What did she see? What does this tell us about her? [3]
iii. What opinion do you form of the third person from the description in the poem? What was his
reason for not giving his log? [3]
iv. What were the rich man’s thoughts? [3]
v. What happens to all these people in the end? Who was responsible for their downfall? [4]
Question 6
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Some are purple and gold flecked grey
For she who has journeyed through life midway,
Whose hands have cherished, whose love has blest,
And cradled fair sons on her faithful breast,
And serves her household in fruitful pride,
And worships the gods at her husband’s side.
(The Bangle Sellers—Sarojini Naidu)
i. What kind of bangles have earlier been mentioned? [3]
ii. What hues of bangles are cherished by a bride? What are they symbolic of? [3]
iii. Purple and golden coloured bangles represent motherhood. How? [3]
iv. What fulfils the life of an Indian wife and mother? [3]
v. What in the passage will repel a modern woman? [4]

(Prose)
Question 7
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and
disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black………….
(Chief Seattle’s Speech)
i. When do the young men grow angry? [3]
ii. How do the young men react when they are angry? [3]
iii. What was the situation when the tribal young men became angry and cruel? [3]
iv. What does the speaker hope for? [3]
v. Why does the speaker want an end to hostilities between the tribal people and the
white people? [4]

Question 8
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I was watching the bridge and the African looking country of the Ebro Delta and wondering
how long now it would be before we would see the enemy, and listening all the while for the
first noises that would signal that ever mysterious event called contact, and the old man still
sat there.
(Old Man at the Bridge—Ernest Hemingway)
i. Who is “I” in the above extract? What duty does “I” perform? [3]
ii. What animals did the old man leave behind in his hometown? Why? [3]
iii. Describe the scene at the bridge where the soldier was performing his duty? [3]
iv. How old was the man? How did he reach the bridge? Why did he not go farther? [3]
v. Why did the old man thank the soldier? [4]

Question 9
Comment on “A Horse and Two goats” as a piece of realism. [16]