Directions(1-5): Read the poem carefully and answers the following questions.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm,
I’ve heard it in the chilliest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Q1. In the line ‘Hope is the thing with feathers’, The poet is using a/an
(a) imagery
(b) simile
(c) allegory
(d) hyperbole
Q2. The observation ‘perches in the soul’ refers to human
(a) worries
(b) disappointment
(c) expectation
(d) spirituality
Q3. ‘And sweetest in the gale is heard’ means
(a) winds blow loudly during a gale
(b) sorrow is the greatest during a storm
(c) expectation of relief even in sorrow
(d) joy and happiness go hand in hand
Q4. ‘Abash’ means a sense of
(a) embarrassment
(b) hope
(c) loss
(d) pride
Q5. Never, in extremity,’ refers to
(a) extreme happiness
(b) longing excessively
(c) hope costs nothing
(d) unexpected
Q6. Which is demonstrative pronoun in sentence “Those items should be kept carefully.”
(a) be
(b) should
(c) kept
(d) those
Q7. Which is distributive pronoun in sentence “Neither of those two were passed.”
(a) of
(b) those
(c) neither
(d) was
Q8. Which is singular subject pronoun in sentences “I like to walk in rain for a long time because no one could see my tears.”
(a) my
(b) I
(c) no one
(d) could
Directions(9-10):Choose the appropriate pronouns to complete the sentences.
Q9. Hello Henry, Kate, Peter. Help —- to some food and I’ll be with you in a moment.
(a) you
(b) yours
(c) yourself
(d) yourselves
Q10. The solicitor wrote a letter to Ann and —- in which he asked us if we could settle the matter between —-.
(a) I / us
(b) me / us
(c) myself / ours
(d) mine / our
Solutions
S1. Ans.(c)
Sol. An allegory is a figure of speech in which abstract ideas are represented using visible symbols.
S2. Ans.(a)
Sol. ‘Perch’ means to sit on something. Hope sits or stays alive within us even in our troubled times. So, here, ‘perches in the soul’ refers to human worries.
S3. Ans.(c)
Sol. The poem describes ‘hope’ as a bird and says that the more the wind is stormy, the sweeter the song seems. In terms of hope, this would refer to the expectation of relief even in sorrow.
S4. Ans.(a)
Sol. ‘Abash’ is a sense of embarrassment or self-conscious-ness.
S5. Ans.(c)
Sol. According to the poem, the bird (hope) asks for nothing even in the most difficult time.
S6. Ans.(d) A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a sentence. These pronouns can indicate items in space or time, and they can be either singular or plural.
S7. Ans.(c) A distributive pronoun considers members of a group separately, rather than collectively. They include each, any, either, neither and others.
S8. Ans.(b)
S9. Ans.(d)
S10. Ans.(b)
