MCQ
2025-26
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
Q.1 Extract:
As the years rolled by we saw less of each other. For some time she continued to wake me up
and get me ready for school.
(i) Who is ‘she’ referred to?
a) mother of the author
b) sister of the author
c) grandmother of the author
d) aunt of the author
(ii) The author now goes to
a) A school attached to a temple
b) Panjabi school
c) English school
d) Hindi school
(iii) Who is the author of these sentences?
a) A R Williams
b) Nani Palkhiwala
c) Terence Rattigan
d) Khushwant Singh
Q.2 Extract:
She hobbled about the house in spotless white with one hand resting on her waist to balance
her stoop and the other telling the beads of her rosary. Her silver locks were scattered
untidily over her pale, puckered face, and her lips constantly moved in inaudible prayer. Yes,
she was beautiful. She was like the winter landscape in the mountains, an expanse of pure
white serenity breathing peace and contentment.
i) What does the narrator mean by ‘Silver locks’?
a) Lock and Key
b) Grey Hair
c) Attire of Silver colour
d) None of these
ii) Which figure of speech has been used in ‘Pale puckered face’?
a) Simile
b) Metaphor
c) Alliteration
d) Zeugma
iii) What does the word ‘Hobble’ mean?
a) Walk quickly
b) Limp
c) Rush
d) Hasten
Q.3 Extract:
In the evening a change came over her. She did not pray. She collected the women of the
neighbourhood, got an old drum and started to sing. For several hours she thumped the
sagging skins of the dilapidated drum and sang of the home-coming of warriors. We had to
persuade her to stop to avoid overstraining. That was the first time since I had known her
that she did not pray.
i) How did she celebrate his grandson homecoming?
a) sang songs
b) beat the drums
c) enjoyed collecting the women of neighbourhood
d) All of these
ii) What change came over narrator’s grandmother?
a) She did not pray
b) She celebrated
c) She danced a lot
d) None of these
iii) Why did the narrator and his family have to persuade her?
a) For overstraining
b) For not overstraining
c) For worrying a lot
d) None of these
Q.4 Extract:
We felt sorry for the birds and my mother fetched some bread for them. She broke it into
little crumbs, the way my grandmother used to, and threw it to them. The sparrows took no
notice of the bread. When we carried my grandmother’s corpse off, they flew away quietly.
Next morning the sweeper swept the bread crumbs into the dustbin.
i) Why did the birds take no notice of the bread crumbs?
a) For they had eaten a lot
b) For they did not like bread crumbs
c) For they had realised that woman who fed them was no more
d) None of these
ii) What does the word ‘fetch’ mean?
a) Bring
b) Carry
c) Spread
d) All of these
iii) Which literary device has been used in ‘Sweeper swept away’?
a) Personification
b) Alliteration
c) Simile
d) Metonymy
Q.5 Extract:
We protested. But she ignored our protests. She lay peacefully in bed praying
and telling her beads. Even before we could suspect, her lips stopped moving and
the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. A peaceful pallor spread on her face and
we knew that she was dead.
i) Who are ‘We’ in the above lines?
a) Narrator and his family
b) Narrator and his grandmother
c) Narrator and his wife
d) None of these
ii) How did she die?
a) She fell off the ladder
b) She overstrained herself in old age
c) She got a heart attack
d) None of these
Page 93 of 230iii) What does the word ‘Pallor’ mean?
a) Pale
b) Yellowish
c) Reddish
d) Both 1 and 2
THE LABURNUM TOP
REFERENCE TO THE CONTEXT
Q.1 Extract:
Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup
A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end.
Then sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt,
She enters the thickness, and a machine starts upPage 125 of 230Of chitterlings, and a tremor
of wings, and trillings —
The whole tree trembles and thrills.
i) What is described by the word 'sleek' in the poem?
(a) Lizard
(b) Bird
(c) Branch
(d) Top of the tree
ii) How did the bird arrive at the other branch of the tree?
(a) with a chirping sound
(b) silently
(c) never arrived at other branch
(d) flew away and then arrived at the branch
iii) Who is the poet of “The Laburnum Top”?
(a) Ted Brown
(b) William Wordsworth
(c) Ted Hughes
(d) None of the above
Q.2 Extract:
Then sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt, She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up
Of chitterings and a tremor of wings, and trilling The whole tree trembles and thrills.
i) The name of the poem is…
(a) A Photograph
(b) The Voice of the Rain
(c) The Laburnum Top
(d) None of the above
ii) Who is ‘she’ in the second line? Where does she enter?
(a) She is the baby goldfinch who enters the thickness of the Laburnum tree
(b) ‘She’ is a squirrel who enters the thickness of the Laburnum tree
(c) ‘She’ is a lizard who enters the thickness of the Laburnum tree
(d) ‘She’ is the mother goldfinch who enters the thickness of the Laburnum tree
iii) Find a word from the extract which is the synonym of ‘entire’.
(a) Abrupt (b) Hole (c) Whole (d) Tremor
Q.3 Extract:
The whole tree trembles and thrills.
It is the engine of her family.
She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-end
Showing her barred face identity mask
i) What makes the tree tremble?
a) Tussle among younger ones of goldfinch
b) Noise made by the younger ones of goldfinch
c) Noise made by goldfinch
d) None of these
ii) Which poetic device has been used in ‘It is the engine of her family’?
a) Metaphor
b) Alliteration
c) Simile
d) Analogy
iii) What does the poet mean by ‘Barred face’?
a) Face marked with stripes
b) Clean and Clear face
c) Expressionless face
d) All of these
Q.4 Extract:
Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup
A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end.
Then sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt,
She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up
Of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings.
i) What does the poet mean by ‘Twitching Chirrup’?
a) Loud noise made by the bird
b) Sudden noise made by the bird
c) Slow noise made by the bird
d) All of these
ii) Which poetic device has been used in ‘Sleek as a lizard’?
a) Metaphor
b) Alliteration
c) Simile
d) Analogy
iii) What is the reaction of goldfinch’s younger ones on former’s arrival?
a) They get nervous
b) They get offended
c) They get furious
d) They get super-excited
Q.5 Extract:
Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings
She launches away, towards the infinite
And the laburnum subsides to empty.
i) What does the poet mean by ‘She launches away’?
a) She flies down the tree
b) She flies towards the sky
c) She launches her younger ones towards the sky
d) None of these
ii) What does the word ‘Infinite’ mean?
a) Never ending
b) Endless
c) Eternal
d) All of these
iii) What does the line ‘Laburnum subsides to empty’ mean?
a) It means that the trees once again gets silent
b) It means that the trees once again gets noisy
c) It means that the trees once again gets poisonous
d) All of these