Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
The tree prays to God by
CTET - 2021,
Answer: B
The tree prays to God by lifting her arms.
The poem says the tree "looks at God all day, / And lifts her leafy arms to pray". The raised branches are the arms lifted in prayer.
The poem does not describe swinging branches, producing fruit and flowers, or giving shade to travellers.
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Which of the following statements is not true in the context of the poem ?
CTET - 2021,
Answer: B
The statement that is not true is that the tree symbolizes strength and stability.
The poem describes the tree as lovely, hungry, praying, wearing a nest of robins in her hair, having snow lie on her bosom and living intimately with rain. Strength and stability are never mentioned. Birds nesting in it and living closely with rain are stated directly.
Snow lying on its bosom is stated; whether the tree 'welcomes' it is a reading of the line, and the key treats that statement as acceptable.
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Name the figure of speech used in lines 3 and 4.
CTET - 2021,
Answer: B
Lines 3 and 4 use personification.
Lines 3 and 4 read "A tree whose hungry mouth is prest / Against the earth's sweet flowing breast". The tree is given a mouth and hunger, and the earth is given a breast, so non-human things are described as living beings. That is personification.
A simile compares with 'like' or 'as', which these lines do not use. Metonymy replaces a thing with a closely associated name, and alliteration repeats initial sounds; neither is the device here.
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Identify and name the figure of speech used in 'Poems are made by fools like me'.
CTET - 2021,
Answer: C
The figure of speech is a Simile.
A simile compares two things using 'like' or 'as'. In 'Poems are made by fools like me', the poet compares himself, through 'like', with fools, saying that poets such as he are foolish compared with God, who alone can make a tree.
A metaphor makes the comparison without 'like' or 'as', for example 'I am a fool'. Personification gives human qualities to something non-human, which this line does not do. Hyperbole is deliberate exaggeration for effect, and the line works mainly through its explicit comparison.
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The word, 'mouth' in line 3 refers to the ________ of the tree.
CTET - 2021,
Answer: D
The word 'mouth' refers to the roots of the tree.
The mouth is 'hungry' and is pressed against the earth, where a tree feeds. The roots are the part that goes into the soil and takes in water and minerals, so they are the tree's mouth in this image.
The crown, branches and trunk are above the ground and are not pressed against the earth.
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Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow, by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :
1. Each drop represents a little bit of creation and of life itself. When the monsoon brings to northern India the first rains of summer, the parched earth opens its pores and quenches its thirst with a hiss of ecstasy. After baking in the sun for the last few months, the land looks cracked, dusty and tired. Now, almost overnight, new grass springs up, there is renewal everywhere, and the damp earth releases a fragrance sweeter than any devised by man.
2. Water brings joy to earth, grass, leaf-bud, blossom, insect, bird, animal and the pounding heart of man. Small children run out of their homes to romp naked in the rain. Buffaloes, which have spent the summer listlessly around lakes gone dry, now plunge into a heaven of muddy water. Soon the lakes and rivers will overflow with the monsoon's generosity. Trekking in the Himalayan foothills, I recently walked for kilometres without encountering habitation. I was just scolding myself for not having brought along a water-bottle, when I came across a patch of green on a rock face. I parted a curtain of tender maiden hair fern and discovered a tiny spring issuing from the rock-nectar for the thirsty traveller.
3. I stayed there for hours, watching the water descend, drop by drop, into a tiny casement in the rocks. Each drop reflected creation. That same spring, I later discovered, joined other springs to form a swift, tumbling stream, which went cascading down the hill into other streams until, in the plains, it became part of a river. And that river flowed into another mightier river that kilometres later emptied into the ocean. Be like water, taught Laotzu, philosopher and founder of Taoism. Soft and limpid, it finds its way through, over or under any obstacle. It does not quarrel; it simply moves on.
Children respond to the first rains of summer by
CTET - 2021,
Answer: C
Children respond to the first rains by running and playing in the rain.
Paragraph 2 says: "Small children run out of their homes to romp naked in the rain." To romp is to play about noisily and freely, so running out and playing is exactly what the children do.
The passage does not mention shouts of joy, paper boats or songs. Those are things a reader might imagine about children in rain, but only running and romping is stated.
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The tiny spring issuing from the rock is hidden by
CTET - 2021,
Answer: B
The tiny spring is hidden by maiden hair fern.
In paragraph 2 the writer says he came across a patch of green on a rock face and then "parted a curtain of tender maiden hair fern and discovered a tiny spring issuing from the rock". The fern hung like a curtain over the spring.
Thick moss, bushes and creepers, and tall grass are not mentioned in connection with the spring.
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To become part of a river, a tiny drop has to
CTET - 2021,
Answer: D
To become part of a river, a tiny drop has to merge its identity.
Paragraph 3 follows the water: the spring joins other springs to form a stream, the stream joins other streams, and in the plains it "became part of a river". A drop that joins a larger flow stops being a separate drop, which is what merging its identity means.
The passage says nothing about needing a lot of strength or suffering. It also advises water to move on without quarrelling, not to depend on external forces.
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Which of the following statements is not true ?
CTET - 2021,
Answer: C
The statement that is not true is that the sweltering heat comes to an end.
The other three are in paragraph 1: "there is renewal everywhere", "new grass springs up" and "the damp earth releases a fragrance sweeter than any devised by man". The passage describes the first rains arriving after months of baking, but it never says that the heat ends.
That is why the third statement is the one the passage does not support.
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The earth does not look _______ before the onset of the monsoon.
CTET - 2021,
Answer: B
The earth does not look brown before the onset of the monsoon.
Paragraph 1 says that after baking in the sun for the last few months "the land looks cracked, dusty and tired". Cracked, dusty and tired are all used for the dry land before the rain.
Brown is the only word of the four that the passage does not use for it, so it is the one that fits the blank with 'does not look'.
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