LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034
BA/BSC/BCOM DEGREE EXAMINATION – GENERAL ENGLISH
I SEMESTER-NOV. 2004
EL 1057/GEL 057 – GENERAL ENGLISH-I
Date : 25.10.04
Time: 1 – 4 pm
I
Max : 100 marks
Hours: 3 hrs
Read carefully the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow each of
them.
(10 x 4 = 40 marks)
1. To make sure he walked right up the street again.
No, there was no doubt about it.
a) What did he want to make sure?
b) What is his plan?
2. A woman had been invited to this meeting,
whom we all regarded most highly.
a) What was the meeting for?
b) What was expected from the woman?
What was given by the woman?
3. Why Dr. Bader, why of all days did you have
to pick today to change your routine?
a) What is the routine of Dr. Bader?
b) Why does the speaker sound impatient?
4. No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes
Where he stood perplexed and still.
a) What is the expectation mentioned here?
b) Why did he stand perplexed?
5. “Oh”, he laughed, “I don’t see any mind”
“But how can you say that?” they asked him.
a) Who does ‘he’ refer to? To whom does he talk?
b) Why does he say that he doesn’t see any mind?
6. Far back through creeks and inlets making,
comes silent, flooding in, the main.
a) Explain the passage
b) Give the meaning of the words ‘creeks’ and ‘inlets’.
7. When retiring for the night, she always took
it to bed with her, and when she was dying she
asked for it to be buried with her in the coffin.
a) Why did she like to keep the mirror with her always?
b) Was her desire fulfilled? Why?
8. I have been trying to reach you by phone
Since eight this morning
a) Who is the speaker here? Whom does he want to reach by phone?
b) Why can’t he meet him in person?
9. She had been hoping they would take the
teacher away altogether
a) Who is ‘she’ refered to here? Who is the teacher?
b) Did her hope materialise? Why?
10. I can’t rest from travel; I will drink
Life to the lees.
a) Why can’t the speaker rest from travel?
b) Explain the comparison drawn here?
II. Read the following poem and answer the questions that follows.
(5 x 2 = 10 marks)
Say not the struggle naguht availeth,
The labor and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes fears may be liars,
It may be, in yon smoke conceal’d,
Your comrades chase e’en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light;
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly
But westward, look, the land’s bright!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How does the poet explain that our struggles pay us a rich reward?
Explain the concept of hope according to the poet.
Explain the ocean analogy for hope.
How do the east and west bring out the concept of future and happiness?
In brief, what is the theme of the poem?
III Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
(5 x 2 = 10 marks)
For a whole afterwards, she neither drank, nor ate, nor slept, but kept asking all the time
for the mirror to be brought to her. She sobbed, tore her hair, tossed and turned in bed and finally,
when the doctor declared that she could die of emaciation and that her condition was dangerous to
the highest degree, I mastered my fears, went downstairs again and brought her my greatgrandmother’s mirror.
As soon as she saw it, she laughed with joy, then clutched it, kissed it and fixed her eyes
on it. Ten years have passed since; still she stares into the mirror and never parts with it for a
moment.
“Is that really me?” she whispers, and the flush on her face is heightened by an
expression of bliss and rapture. “Yes, it’s me. Everything lies except that mirror. People lie, my
husband lies! Oh, if I had only seen myself earlier. If only I had known what I am truly like. I
wouldn’t have married that man! He is unworthy of me! The most handsome and noble knights
should prostrate themselves at my feet!”
Once, standing behind my wife. I happened to glance into the mirror and discovered a
terrible secret. I saw a woman of dazzling beauty such as I have never known in life. It was a
miracle of nature, a harmony of beauty, grace and love. But how did it come about? What had
happened? Why did my clumsy and unattractive wife seem so beautiful in the mirror? Why?
Because the curved mirror distorted my wife’s ugly face in all directions, and that
displacement of her features accidentally made it beautiful. Minus multiplied by minus had
produced a plus. And now the two of us, my wife and I, sit in front of the mirror and without
taking our eyes off it for a single moment, we look into it. My nose crawls on to my left cheek,
my chin is cleft in two and moves to one side; but my wife’s face is charming-and I am overcome
by a desperate, crazy passion.
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“Ha, ha, ha!” I laugh wildly.
And almost inaudibly my wife whispers: “How beautiful I am !”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Why is the wife shocked and surprised looking at the mirror?
Why does she think that her husband and others have lied so far? Is she right in thinking so?
What did the author discover looking at the mirror?
What did the author conclude regarding the crookedness of the said mirror?
What does this passage reveal to us in the 21st century?
IV Answer the following in 200 words each.
(2 x 10 = 20 marks)
1. Modern day scientific inventions serve as a boon or bane to society. Discuss with references
to Return to Dust by George Bamber and Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov.
2. Man’s ability to hope in the midst of trial is a Divine gift bestowed upon him. Explain with
textual evidence from ‘The Verger’, ‘Ulysses’ and ‘Say naught, the struggle naught availeth.’
IV Choose a suitable word for each of the meanings from the words given below.
(10 x 1 = 10 marks)
1. state of being lethargic
2. soil surface with grass roots growing in it.
3. small room just under the roof of a house.
4. bowl for baptismal water.
5. assembly especially for religious worship.
6. sediment of wine, to the last dregs.
7. uncivilized barbarian.
8. narrow inlets of water.
9. old story handed down from the past.
10. either part of a bird’s beak.
(legend, savage, mandible, congregation, attic, morbid, turf, font, lees, creeks)
V Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
(10 x ½ = 5 marks)
The athelete sprinted _____ the stadium.
Rosy was filled ____ delight.
The books were kept ____ the table.
There is no substitute _____ hard work.
He placed his trust _____ her.
What are the effects ______ the bombing?
Steve is a native ______Sydney.
There is no need _____ us to be angry.
To look ____ a telescope is a wonderful experience.
I met Ravi ____ the station.
VI Fill in the blanks with noun forms of the words given below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
(5 x 1 = 5 marks)
He is a man of great _____
There is an _____ between the waves and the moon.
The _____ of the new school building took place yesterday.
_____ is well appreciated in bureaucratic circles.
There are times of great ________.
(attract, efficient, inaugurate, discrete expect)
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