MAJOR FIELD TEST IN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Directions: Each
of the questions or incomplete statements below
is followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select the one that is best in each case.
1.
------- is the chef-d’oeuvre of Milton’s early poetry, and one of the greatest lyrics in the language. In it Milton confronts and works through
his most profound personal
concerns: about vocation,
about early death, about belatedness and unfulfillment, about the worth of poetry. He also sounds the leitmotifs of reformist
politics: the dangers
posed by a corrupt clergy
and church, the menace
of Rome, the adumbrations of apocalypse, the call to prophecy. The opening phrase,
“Yet once more,” prepares for such inclusiveness.
The poem discussed above is
(A)
Comus (A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle)
(B)
“On the Death of a Fair Infant
Dying of a Cough”
(C)
“On the Morning
of Christ’s Nativity”
(D)
Lycidas
(E)
Il Penseroso
Ans:D
2.
The closest I came to seeing a dragon
whole was when the old people cut away a small strip of bark on a pine that was over three thousand
years old. The resin underneath flows in the swirling shapes of dragons. “If you should
decide during your old age that you would like to live another five hundred years,
come here and drink
ten pounds of this sap,” they told me. “But don’t do it now. You’re too young to decide
to live forever.” The old people sent me out into thunderstorms to pick the red-cloud herb,
which grows only then, a product of dragon’s
fire and dragon’s
rain. I brought the leaves to the old man and old woman, and they ate them for immortality.
The passage
above from Maxine
Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior
illustrates magic realism,
a literary technique used extensively in the works of
(A)
Gabriel García Márquez
(B) Alice Walker
(C)
Chinua Achebe
(D)
Kurt Vonnegut
(E) Jamaica
Kincaid
Ans:A
3.
John Anderson, my jo, John, We clamb the hill thegither;
And mony a cantie day, John, We’ve had wi ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John, And hand in hand we’ll go,
And sleep
thegither at the foot.
John Anderson,
my jo.
The speaker
of the lines above is most likely
(A)
a young boy addressing his older brother by Robert Burn
(B)
a young woman addressing her lover by Robert
Burn
(C)
a father addressing his son by Robert Burn
(D)
an older woman addressing her son by Robert Burn
(E)
an older woman addressing her beloved by
Robert Burn
Now there was, not far from the place where they lay, a castle called
Doubting Castle, the owner whereof was Giant Despair;
and it was in his grounds that they were now sleeping.
4.
The passage is from
(A)
Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
(B)
Jonathan Swift’s A Tale of a Tub
(C)
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress
(D)
Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy
(E)
Thomas Traherne’s Centuries of Meditations
Ans:C
5.
On Sundays she got into his car in the basement garage and they drove to the country and picnicked away up in the Magaliesberg, where there was no one. He read or poked about among the rocks; they climbed together,
to the mountain pools.
He taught her to swim. She had never
seen the sea. She squealed and shrieked
in the water, showing the gap between her teeth, as¾it crossed
his mind¾she must do when among her own people.
The limited omniscient point
of view in the passage above is used to suggest
the
(A)
woman’s wish to recapture her innocence in the
pearl by John Stienback
(B)
woman’s awareness
of her power over the man in the pearl by John Stienback
(C)
man’s unwitting condescension toward in the pearl by John Stienback
(D)
couple’s dissatisfaction with city life in the pearl by John Stienback
(E)
narrator’s approval of the relationship in the pearl by John
Stienback
Ans:C
6.
New Criticism, which was at the height of its influence in the United
States from the 1940’s to the 1960’s, encouraged readers to
(A)
read literary texts closely for meaning,
with special attention
to themes, symbolism, and the use of language
(B)
study literature based on the appreciation of genres and read individual works comparatively within genres
(C)
evaluate the meaning and purpose of works based on historical context
(D)
focus on the nature of meaning,
namely the relationship between
signifiers and the signified
(E)
recognize how meaning is always deferred
and implied
only in the opposition of ideas
Ans:A
7.
Sappho and Catullus
primarily influenced the literary tradition
of which genre?
(A)
Tragedy
(B) Satire
(C)
Lyric poetry
(D)
Comedy
(E) Epic
8.
The action of ------- appears
to stop short of World War II, but the narrator’s meditations in his underground cellar must be imagined
to include this period, which served in part to crystallize the search for significant advances in black civil rights
and economic opportunity.
The novel discussed above is
(A)
Jazz
(B)
The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
(C)
Cane
(D)
Uncle Tom’s Children
(E)
Invisible Man
Ans:E
9.
The action of ------- appears
to stop short of World War II, but the narrator’s meditations in his underground cellar must be imagined
to include this period, which served in part to crystallize the search for significant advances in black civil rights
and economic opportunity.
The novel discussed above is
(A)
Jazz
(B)
The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
(C)
Cane
(D)
Uncle Tom’s Children
(E)
Invisible Man
Ans:E
Questions 10–11
are based on the following
passage from Rudyard
Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s
Hill.
As he worked, and the rain fell on the tiles,
he talked—now clearly, now muttering, now breaking off to frown or smile at his work.
He told them he was born at Little Lindfens
Farm, and his father used to beat him for drawing
things instead of doing things,
till an old priest
called Father Roger, who drew illuminated letters in rich people’s books,
coaxed the parents
to let him take the boy as a sort of printer’s apprentice. Then he went with Father
Roger to Oxford,
where he cleaned plates and carried cloaks
and shoes for the scholars
of a College called Merton.
1.
Which of the following is true of the passage?
(A)
It romanticizes the British Empire.
(B)
It idealizes the lives of ordinary workingmen.
(C) It illustrates British class distinctions.
(D)
It endorses capitalist values.
(E) It criticizes those who are naïve and powerless.
(F) Ans:C
2.
The last sentence suggests that
(A)
the boy would
enjoy great success
one day
(B)
the boy’s days at Oxford
were among his happiest
(C)
the boy’s father
loved his son very much
(D)
Father Roger failed
to nurture the boy’s promising talents
(E)
Father Roger abandoned
the boy at Oxford
Ans:D
3.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed
by madness,
starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through
the negro streets
at dawn looking
for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters
burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery
of night . . . .
The lines above are from a poem by
(A)
Theodore Roethke
(B)
Gwendolyn Brooks
(C)
Anne Sexton
(D)
Allen Ginsberg
howl
(E)
Sylvia Plath
Ans:D
4.
No help or backing was to be had then
from his high-born comrades; that hand-picked troop
broke ranks and ran for their lives
to the safety of the wood. But within
one heart sorrow welled up: in a man of worth
the claims of kinship cannot
be denied.
. . . .
Sad at heart, addressing his companions, Wiglaf spoke wise and fluent words:
“I remember that time when mead was flowing, how we pledged
loyalty to our lord in the hall, promised our ring-giver we would be worth our
price,
make good the gift of the war-gear, those swords and helmets,
as and when his need required it. He picked
us out
from the army deliberately, honoured
us and judged us
fit for this action,
made me these
lavish gifts— and all because
he considered us the best
of his arms-bearing thanes.”
The passage
above from Beowulf describes
(A)
a rite of passage
(B)
loss of life in battle
(C)
fulfillment of wyrd
(D)
settling of wergild
(E)
broken comitatus
Ans:E
5.
Here’s a wagon that’s going a piece of the way. It will take you that far; backrolling now behind her a long monotonous succession of peaceful and undeviating changes
from day to dark and dark to day again, through
which she advanced
in identical and anonymous and deliberate wagons
as though through a succession of creakwheeled and limpeared
avatars, like something moving forever and without
progress across an urn.
The final
words in the passage above
from William Faulkner’s Light in August allude to a famous
poem by
(A)
Matthew Arnold
(B)
William Wordsworth
(C) Percy Bysshe Shelley
(D)
John Keats
(E) William Butler
Yeats
Ans:D
Questions 15–16 are based on the following lines from Alexander
Pope’s The Rape of the Lock.
Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort, To taste awhile
the pleasures of a Court;
In various
talk th’ instructive hours they past, Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last;
One speaks
the glory of the British
Queen, And one describes a charming
Indian screen; A third interprets motions, looks,
and eyes; At every word a reputation dies.
6.
Which of the following words is used ironically?
(A)
“resort” (line 1)
(B) “pleasures” (line 2)
(C)
“instructive”
(line 3)
(D)
“charming” (line 6)
(E) “reputation” (line 8)
(F) Ans:C
7.
Pope’s use of parallel grammatical structure
in lines 5 and 6 results in which of the following?
(A)
Off-rhyme
(B)
Oxymoron
(C) Pathetic
fallacy
(D)
Epic simile
(E) Anticlimax
Ans:E
8.
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon,
never out of sight, never landing
until the Watcher
turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams
mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget
all those things
they don’t want to remember, and remember
everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth.
Then they act and do things accordingly.
In
the passage above from Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching
God, the narrator implies
that men and women are different because of their
(A)
interest in pleasing
others
(B)
acceptance of social
expectations
(C)
ability to work together to attain their dreams
(D)
willingness to teach each other valuable lessons
(E)
readiness to influence the course of their dreams
Ans:E
9.
My Parents had early given me religious Impressions, and brought me through
my Childhood piously in the Dissenting Way. But I was scarce 15 when, after doubting
by turns of several Points
as I found them disputed in the different Books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation it self. Some Books against Deism fell into my Hands; they were said to be the Substance
of Sermons preached at Boyle’s Lectures.* It happened that they wrought an Effect on me quite
contrary to what was intended
by them: For the Arguments
of the Deists which were quoted to be refuted,
appeared to me much stronger
than the Refutations. In short
I soon became a thorough Deist.
* Established by the bequest of Robert Boyle
(1627-1691) to defend Christianity against unbelievers
The speaker
ultimately arrives
at a religious view by means of
(A)
attending Dissenting services
(B)
reading books by Deists
(C)
receiving divine revelation
(D)
reasoning logically
(E)
learning lessons from his parents
(F)
Ans:D
10.
Fair insect! that, with threadlike legs spread out, And blood-extracting bill and filmy wing,
Dost murmur, as thou slowly sail’st about,
In pitiless
ears full many a plaintive thing, And tell how little our large veins would bleed, Would we but yield them to thy bitter
need.
The stanza
above from William
Cullen Bryant’s poem “To a Mosquito” includes all of the following EXCEPT
(A)
pastoral setting
(B)
anthropomorphism
(C) iambic pentameter
(D)
apostrophe
(E)
rhymed couplet
Ans:A
Questions 20–22 are based on the following excerpt from a play. Twelfth
night
She never
told her love, But let concealment, like a worm i’th’ bud,
Feed on her damask cheek.
She pined in thought, And with a green and yellow
melancholy
She sat like patience
on a monument, Smiling
at grief. Was not this love indeed?
11.
The passage describes a woman who is
(A)
experiencing the joy of falling
in love
(B)
overwhelmed by regret for the man she has lost
(C)
worried that her change of heart will be discovered
(D)
consumed by the love she holds in secrecy
(E)
overcome with guilt for betraying her lover
Ans:D
12.
Lines 2 and 5 contain
examples of
(A)
allusion
(B)
metaphor
(C) simile
(D)
alliteration
(E)
personification
Ans:C
13.
The passage was written by
(A)
Christopher Marlowe
(B) William Shakespeare
(C)
Ben Jonson
(D)
John Webster
(E) William Congreve
Ans:B
Questions 23–25 refer to the passages
below, in which critics discuss Henry James’s “The Turn of the Screw.
(A)
Not only does James’s
governess fit the classic profile
of the female sexual
hysteric, she also experiences the “hysterical fit” observed by turn-of-the-century clinicians. That her first hallucination precipitates a “nervous explosion” of some intensity
is clear from her own account. Like that of the classic
hysteric, her “mental activity . . . is split up, and only a part of it is conscious.” Her initial fantasy
of her handsome employer is conscious, but his transformation into a figure
embodying her fear of sexuality is generated by deep-rooted unconscious inhibitions.
(B)
The former governess, like the present governess, has allowed her erotic desires
to stray across class lines; the only difference is that the object
of Miss Jessel’s feelings is someone below her on the social scale
(Quint) rather than someone above
her (the master in Harley Street). One might imagine, therefore, that the governess would recognize in the story of those tragic lovers
something of her own longings. Of course she does not. On the contrary, their class transgression immediately brands them in her eyes as evil spirits rather than good spirits, which Henry James showed some interest
in. (In James’s notebook
entry of January 22, 1888, for example, the ghost desires to “interpose, redeem, protect.”) Indeed, it seems at times as if the fact that Quint and Jessel appear to her as ghosts is less important and even less horrifying to the governess than the social violation they committed
while they were alive.
(C)
What is even more troublesome is disagreement among critics about
just what standards are to be applied. Two “straight” readers,
seeing the ghosts as real and the story as an attempt
to “turn the screws”
of horror as thrillingly as possible, might flatly disagree
with each other about whether
the literary experience of thrilling horror is good or bad for “us,” or for a given immature
reader, or for a former governess now incarcerated in a mental institution.
Because of all this variety, we have to ask our questions as if we were dealing
not with one The Turn of the Screw
but many different ones.
(D)
The difficulties involved
in the governess’s effort to create a space for herself outside
of patriarchal boundaries are metaphorically represented in her struggle
for the children. While she believes she is engaged
in a battle with the ghosts
for the children’s souls, she is also, symbolically, involved in overcoming patriarchal definitions of womanhood. Rejecting the ineffectual role played by Mrs. Grose, the respectable matron character, the governess attempts to define herself
against the sexualized whore figure,
Miss Jessel, as she tries
to supplant the male-authority figure, Peter Quint. Neither of these roles can help her in her struggle for a subject
position, however, as is made clear when the governess
cannot replace Miss Jessel for Flora, or Quint for Miles.
(E)
But the compelling theme and the extraordinarily vivid plot-form are not the entirety of The Turn of the Screw; there are other methods by which James extends
and intensifies
his meaning and strikes
more deeply into the reader’s consciousness. Chief of these is a highly suggestive and even symbolic language which permeates the entire story.
. . . In The Turn there is a great deal of recurrent imagery
which powerfully influences the tone and the meaning of the story; the story becomes,
indeed, a dramatic poem, and to read it properly
one must assess the role of the language precisely as one would
if public form of the work were poetic. For by his iterative imagery
and by the very unobtrusive management of symbols,
which in the organic work co-function with the language,
James has severely qualified
the bare narrative; and, if he has not defined
the evil which,
as he specified, was to come to the reader
as something monstrous and unidentified, he has at least set forth the mode and the terms of its operation with fullness.
14.
Which is by a feminist critic?
Ans:D
15.
Which is by a psychoanalytic critic?
Ans:A
16.
Which is by a reader-response critic?
Ans:C
