First Year Second Semester : Model Question Paper - 2013

Model Question Paper - 2013

First Year Second Semester

English (Part Time)

                         

01.  (i) Identify one of the following extracts and comment on the relevance of it to the larger context with special reference to features like techniques, themes and language.

 a)    the carpenter

    keeps on turning out

    thousands more of square pegs

    no one bothers to tell him

    all the holes are round

    and too few

b) He did not feel the driver's whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Death had illumined the Land of Sleep,
And his lifeless body lay
A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!                                                                                      ( 5 marks)

(ii) Either

a) Critically analyse the poem ‘The Slave’s Dream’ by H.W. Longfellow.

    OR

b) Explain how Tagore conveys spiritualism is greater than materialistic wealth through his poem “Unworthy Gift”.            

    OR 

c) Critically analyse Yasmin Gooneratne’s poem ‘Words to a daughter’.

 ( 20 marks )

02. (i) ) Identify one of the following extracts and comment on the relevance of it to the larger context with special reference to features like techniques, themes and language.

a) A cavalry charge--think of that! He defied our Russian commanders--acted without orders--led a charge on his own responsibility--headed it himself--was the first man to sweep through their guns. Can't you see it, Raina; our gallant splendid Bulgarians with their swords and eyes flashing, thundering down like an avalanche and scattering the wretched Servian dandies like chaff.

b) I thought you might have remembered the great scene where Ernani, flying from his foes just as you are tonight, takes refuge in the castle of his bitterest enemy, an old Castilian

noble. The noble refuses to give him up. His guest is sacred to him.

c) I was driving along, you understand? And I was fine. I was even observing the scenery. You can imagine, me looking at scenery, on the road every week of my life. But it’s so beautiful up there, Linda, the trees are so thick, and the sun is warm. I opened the windshield and just let the warm air bathe over me. And then all of a sudden I’m goin’ off the road!

I’m tellin’ya, I absolutely forgot I was driving.

(5 marks)

(ii) a)  “‘Arms and the Man’ is an Anti- Romantic comedy”. Explain with reference from the text.

            OR

      b)   Critically comment on the significance of the title “Arms and the Man”.

                                                                                 ( 20 marks)

03. Identify one of the following extracts and comment on the relevance of it to the larger context with special reference to features like techniques, themes and language.

a)  “To have a house of his own was a long-standing ambition in his life. It became a reality only a couple of years age, after long toil. But, now? Would he be able to go back to his house one day and live there with his family?

b)  "Quite often I had to flick the white pith from where it had landed, on my shoe or even my dress, spat negligently by some absorbed orange-eater…"

                                                                               ( 05 marks )

(ii) Either

a) “A Santhan’s ‘The Cuckoo’s House’ is a fine evocation of terror centred on the felling of a nesting tree”. Illustrate.

            OR

b) Describe the two different classes in Nadine Gordimer’s short story "The Defeated" 

                                                                                ( 20 marks)

04. Identify one of the following extracts and comment on the relevance of it to the larger context with special reference to features like techniques, themes and language.

a) ‘…I deserved nothing less. Any other husband would have throttled me then and there. He tolerated my company for nearly a month, even after knowing what I had done.’

OR

b) As soon as a certain bridge off Malgudi was ready, regular service began on our rails; it was thrilling to watch the activities of the stationmaster and the blue-shirted porter as they ‘received’ and ‘line-cleared’ two whole trains each day, the noon train from Madras and the evening one from Trichy. I became very active indeed in the shop. As you might have guessed, all this business expansion in our family helped me achieve a very desirable end- the dropping off of my school unobtrusively.

( 05 marks )

05. Write short notes on any two of the following.

1. Plot

2. Ballad

3. Sonnet

4. Irony

5. Comedy

6. Drama

(10 Marks)

6. “Robert Frost’s poems begin with delight and ends in wisdom”. How far it is applicable in his poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening”?

(10 Marks)