1. What narrative perspective does Chaucer employ in the opening of “The General Prologue”?
(1) A First-person “I”
(2) Omniscience
(3) Third person
(4) Free indirect discourse
ANSWER:1
2. Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale is a high romance told in :
(A) rhyme royal
(B) terza rima
(C) heroic couplets
(D) verse libre
ANSWER:C
3. . To whom is Chaucer referring when he says ‘He knew the tavern well in every town’ ?
(A) Pardoner
(B) Monk
(C) Squire
(D) Friar
ANSWER:D
4. Who among the following was Geoffrey Chaucer’s contemporary ?
(A) Thomas Chatterton
(B) John Gower
(C) Thomas Shadwell
(D) John Gay
ANSWER:B
5. Which Chaucerian text parodies Dante’s The Divine Comedy ?
(A) The Canterbury Tales
(B) The Book of the Duchess
(C) The House of Fame
(D) Legend of Good Women
ANSWER:C
6.The rhetorical pattern used by Chaucer in The Prologue to Canterbury Tales is
(A) ten-syllabic line
(B) eight-syllabic line
(C) rhyme royal
(D) ottava rima
ANSWER:A
7. What is it that Chaucer focuses on in the depiction of the Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales ? (A) Meekness
(B) Defiance
(C) Chastity
(D) Experience
ANSWER:B
8. How did Chaucer’s Pardoner make his living ?
(A) By selling stolen cattle from the neighbourhood lottery
(B) By selling indulgences to those who committed sins
(C) By pardoning those who stole property or committed other crimes
(D) By assisting the Friar in Church services
ANSWER:B
9. How many legends of good women could Chaucer complete in his The Legend of Good Women ? (A) Six
(B) Seven
(C) Eight
(D) Nine
ANSWER:D
10. John Dryden described a major English poet as “a rough diamond, and must first be polished here he shines …..” Identify him:
(1) Geoffrey Chaucer
(2) John Gower
(3) George Herbert
(4) Robert Herrick
ANSWER:1
11. One of the most flexible metres, ________is a five foot line. It was introduced by Geoffrey Chaucer in the fourteenth century and has since then become the commonest of metres in English poetry
1. Iambic
2. Trochaic
3. Hexameter
4. Pentameter
ANSWER:4
12. Which of the following is true of The Canterbury Tales ?
1. Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas Tale only.
2. Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates The Tale of Melibee only.
3. Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas Tale and The Tale of Melibee .
4. Chaucer, the pilgrim does attempt to narrate an unnamed tale but abruptly stops due to the intervention of the other pilgrims.
ANSWER:3
13. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims, like the medieval society of which they are a part, are made up of three social groups or “estates”. What are the three estates?
(1) Nobility, church and commoners
(2) Royalty, nobility and peasantry
(3) Royalists, republicans and peasants
(4) Country, city and commons
ANSWER:1
14. Which of the following is true of The Canterbury Tales ?
1. Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas Tale only.
2. Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates The Tale of Melibee only.
3. Chaucer, the pilgrim, narrates Sir Thopas Tale and The Tale of Melibee .
4. Chaucer, the pilgrim does attempt to narrate an unnamed tale but abruptly stops due to the intervention of the other pilgrims.
ANSWER:3
15. ‘Gladly would he learn, and gladly teach’ is a line from :
(A) Spenser’s Fairie Queen
(B) Goldsmith’s ‘The Deserted Village’
(C) Chaucer’s Prologue to Canterbury Tales
(D) Langland’s Piers Plowman
ANSWER:C
16. “For gold in Physique is Cordial/Therefore, he loved gold in special” relates to Chaucer’s
(A) Friar
(B) Monk
(C) Doctor
(D) Pardoner
ANSWER:C
17. Which poem by Chaucer was written on the death of Blanche, Wife of John of Gaunt?
(A) Troilus and Criseyde
(B) The House of Fame
(C) The Book of Duchess
(D) The Legend of Good Women
ANSWER:C
18. Which of the following statements about The Canterbury Tales is true?
(A) “The General Prologue’ is appended to The Canterbury Tales.
(B) In all, Chaucer tells thirty tales in this work.
(C) The Canterbury Tales remained unfinished at the time of its author’s death.
(D) The Wife of Bath, The Clerk, Sir Gawain and The Franklin are characters and tale-tellers in this work.
ANSWER:C
19. Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
(A) Chaucer used the rhyme royal, a stanzaic form in some of his major poems.
(B) Chaucer was the author of The Legend of Good Women.
(C) Chaucer wrote in English when the court poetry of his day was written in Anglo-Norman and Latin.
(D) Chaucer wrote The Book Named the Governor
ANSWER:D
20. When Chaucer describes the Friar as a “noble pillar of order”, he is using
(A) Irony
(B) Simile
(C) Understatement
(D) Personification
ANSWER:A
21. Matthew Arnold’s “touchstones” were “short passages, even single lines” of classic poetry beside which the lines of other poets may be placed in order to detect the presence or absence of high poetic quality. In his “Study of Poetry” Arnold cited “touchstones” from such non-English poets as Homer and Dante and also from the English poets, Shakespeare and Milton. Which English poet did he disapprovingly call “not one of the great classics” in the list below?
(1) Chaucer
(2) Sidney
(3) Spenser
(4) Donne
ANSWER:1
22. Chaucer’s First work, The Book of the Duchess is a dream poem on the death of …………….
(1) Duchess of Malfi
(2) Duchess of Lancaster
(3) Duchess of Scotland
(4) Duchess of Paris
ANSWER:2
23. John Lydgate begins his Siege of Thebes with a prologue of 176 lines in which he imagines himself joining Chaucer’s pilgrims in Canterbury, where he speaks with the Host and agrees to tell the first tale on homeward journey. The story that Lydgate tells as the pilgrims depart from Canterbury is meant to be a companion piece to :
(1) The Pardoner’s Tale
(2) The Wife of Bath’s Tale
(3) The Knight’s Tale
(4) The Miller’s Tale
ANSWER:3
24. How many tales and pilgrims are there in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales?
1.24 pilgrims and 23 tales
2.23 pilgrims and 24 tales
3. 22 pilgrims and 24 tales
4.24 pilgrims and 22 tales
ANSWER:2
25. Which of the following tales in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales deals with the murder of a child by Jews?
1. “The Monk’s Tale”
2. “The Second Nun’s Tale”
3. “The Prioress’s Tale”
4. “The Shipman’s Tale”
ANSWER:3