Dear PaGaLGuY readers,
As we all know, Verbal Aptitude is an
important component of a number of competitive examinations such as the UPSC
Civil Services Examination, Banking Entrance Examinations, SSC CGL/CHSL
Examination, MBA Entrance Examination, Combined Defence Services Examination, etc.
In order to help you practise and improve your verbal ability, we provide you
this English Quiz.
Given below are a few questions from
SSC examinations held in the last few years. Leave your answers/ responses in
the comments section below and soon we’ll let you know the correct answers!
Directions (Q.Nos. 1-5) Read the
passages carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four
alternatives.
Passage
Unquestionably, a literary life is
for the most part an unhappy life, because, if you have genius, you must suffer
the penalty of genius and if you have only talent, there are so many cares and
worries incidental to the circumstances of men of letters, as to make life
exceedingly miserable. Besides the pangs of composition and the continuous
disappointment which a true artist feels at his inability to reveal himself,
there is the ever-recurring difficulty of gaining the public ear. Young writers
are buoyed up by the hope and the belief that they have only to throw that poem
at the world’s feet to get back in return the laurel-crown; that they have only
to push that novel into print to be acknowledged at once as the new light in
literature. You can never convince a young author that the editors or magazines
and the publishers of books are a practical body of men, who are by no means
frantically anxious about placing the best literature before the public. Nay,
that, for the most part, they are mere brokers, who conduct their business on
the hardest lines of a Profit and Loss account. But supposing your book fairly
launches, its perils are only beginning. You have to run the gauntlet of the
critics. To a young author, again, this seems to be a terrible order. When you
are a little older, you will find that criticism is not much more serious than
the bye-play of clowns in a circus, when they beat about the ring the victim
with bladders slung at the end of long poles. A time comes in the life of every
author when he regards critics as comical, rather than formidable and goes his
way unheeding. But there are sensitive souls that yield under the chastisement
and perhaps, after suffering much silent torture, abandon the profession of the
pen forever. Keats, perhaps, is the saddest example of a fine spirit hounded to
death by savage criticism because, whatever his biographers may aver, that
furious attack of Gifford and Terry undoubtedly expedited his death. But no
doubt there are hundreds who suffer keenly from hostile and unscrupulous
criticism; and who have to bear that suffering in silence, because it is a cardinal
principle in literature that the most unwise thing in the world for an author
is to take public notice of criticism in the way of defending himself. Silence
is the only safeguard, as it is the only dignified protest against insult and
offence.
1. It is an established fact that our
literary artists are
(a)
geniuses
(b)
talented
(c)
unhappy
(d)
successful
2. Young writers are
(a)
over-confident
(b)
skeptical
(c)
candid
(d)
canny
3. The literary publishers publish
only what is
(a)
best
(b)
saleable
(c)
topical
(d)
handy
4. The writer’s attitude towards the
literary critics is of
(a)
reverence
(b)
indifference
(c)
scorn
(d)
respect
5. The writer’s advice to the literary
artists regarding criticism of their work is to
(a)
defend it publicly
(b)
protest against it
(c)
withdraw it
(d)
maintain perfect silence
To
get fresh updates about different exams on your Facebook & Twitter
timelines, subscribe to our pages created specifically for them. We will post
only exam specific links on these pages:
Bank PO:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pagalguybankpo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaGaLGuYBankPO
SSC – CGL:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pagalguy-SSC-CGL-Others/879667042056262
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pagalguyssc
UPSC:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pagalguy-UPSC-951926044840262/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaGaLGuYUPSC
Answers:
1(c)
2(a) 3(b) 4(c) 5(d)