Q1

Exact Value

Question

Who wrote the first detective story?

Correct answer

Edgar Allan Poe

Explanation

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the first of the detective story genre. It was written by Edgar Allan Poe.

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Q2

Single Answer

Question

Which of these writers wrote symbolical tales?

Correct answer

Sherwood Anderson
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ernest Hemingway
Washington Irving

Explanation

Nathaniel Hawthorne was known for his symbolical tales like “The Hollow of the Three Hills” (1830) and “Young Goodman Brown” (1835).

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Q3

Single Answer

Question

Which of these writers was known for the poem “Thanatopsis”?

Correct answer

William Cullen Bryant

E. E. Cummings
Emily Dickinson
Anne Sexton

Explanation

William Cullen Bryant’s poem “Thanatopsis” marked a new beginning for American poetry in the 19th century.

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Q4

Categorise

Question
Group the works of fiction according to the period in which they were published.

Correct answer

19th Century

The Cask of Amontillado

Rip Van Winkle
20th Century

Death in the Woods

The Killers

Explanation

Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” was published in 1846. Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” as part of his larger work The
Sketch Book, was published in 1819.

Sherwood Anderson’s Death in the Woods was published in 1933. Ernest Hemingway’s “The Killers” was published in 1927.

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Q5

Categorise

Question

Group the poets according to the period in which they became known.

Correct answer

19th Century

Emily Dickinson
Walt Whitman
20th Century

Robert Frost
Ezra Pound

Explanation

A collection of Emily Dickinson’s poems came out in 1890. Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was first published in 1855.

Robert Frost’s well-known works “Mending Wall” and “After Apple-Picking” were published in 1914. Ezra Pound’s Ripostes and Lustra were
published in 1912 and 1916, respectively.

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Q6

Multiple Choice

Passage
The Killers (An Excerpt)
By Ernest Hemingway

The door of Henry's lunch-room opened and two men came in. They sat down at the counter.
"What's yours?" George asked them.
"I don't know," one of the men said.
"What do you want to eat, Al?”
“I don't know," said Al.
 "I don't know what I want to eat."
Outside it was getting dark. The streetlight came on outside the window. The two men at the counter read the menu. From the other end of
the counter Nick Adams watched them. He had been talking to George when they came in.
"I'll have a roast pork tenderloin with apple sauce and mashed potato," the first man said.
"It isn't ready yet."
"What the hell do you put it on the card for?"
"That's the dinner," George explained. "You can get that at six o'clock."
George looked at the clock on the wall behind the counter.
"It's five o'clock."
"The clock says twenty minutes past five," the second man said.
"It's twenty minutes past."
"Oh, to hell with the clock," the first man said.
"What have you got to eat?"
"I can give you any kind of sandwiches," George said. "You can have ham and eggs, bacon and eggs, liver and bacon, or a steak."

Question

Which statements describe the writing style of the author?

Correct answer

The tone is direct.

The dialogues are very brief.
The writing is packed with details.
The sentences are short and simple.

Explanation

Ernest Hemingway was known for his succinct writing, which was widely imitated in the 20th century. His short stories use a direct tone; the
dialogues are brief; and the sentences are short and simple.

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Q7

Single Answer

Passage
Wanting to Die (An Excerpt)
By Anne Sexton

Since you ask, most days I cannot remember.

I walk in my clothing, unmarked by that voyage.
Then the almost unnameable lust returns.

Even then I have nothing against life.

I know well the grass blades you mention,
the furniture you have placed under the sun.

But suicides have a special language.

Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.

Question

What do you call this kind of poetry?

Correct answer

confessional poetry
personal poetry
private poetry
suicide poetry
Explanation

Anne Sexton’s “Wanting to Die” is an example of confessional poetry. It deals with the subject of committing suicide, which is a very private
experience of the speaker.

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Q8

Single Answer

Passage
Mending Wall (An Excerpt)
By Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.

Question

Which of these statements is true about the poem?

Correct answer

The poem has a regular rhythm and rhyme.

The poem has no regular rhythm and rhyme.
The poem has a regular rhythm but no rhyme.
The poem has no regular rhythm, but it has rhyme.

Explanation

Robert Frost’s poem is a blank verse, which the poet was known for. It has a regular rhythm (iambic pentameter) but no rhyme.

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Q9

Single Answer

Passage
Because I could not stop for Death (An Excerpt)
By Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

Question

What figure of speech is used in the stanza?

Correct answer

hyperbole
metaphor
personification
simile

Explanation

The abstract ideas death and immortality are given human qualities in Emily Dickinson’s poem.

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Q10

Single Answer

Passage
The Cask of Amontillado (An Excerpt)
By Edgar Allan Poe

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know
the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely
settled − but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved, precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. A
wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such
to him who has done the wrong.

Question

Right at the beginning, the narrator tells the reader that he is going to take revenge on a character named Fortunato. Which of these
statements tells his main reason?

Correct answer

The narrator was offended by Fortunato.

The narrator suffered injuries caused by Fortunato.
The narrator is drunk with anger towards Fortunato.
The narrator and Fortunato have some unfinished business together.

Explanation

The first clause of the first sentence tells that the narrator suffered and endured the “thousand injuries” that Fortunato caused. However, the
second clause explicitly tells the reader that the narrator was insulted or offended by Fortunato. So, in the third clause, the narrator vowed to
take a revenge on Fortunato.