CBSE CLASS 12 LITERATURE PRACTICE QUESTIONS MCQs WITH ANSWERS

 

V. Read the extract given and answer the questions that follow.

While I was wondering about it all, M. Hamel mounted his chair, and, in the same grave and

gentle tone which he had used to me, said, "My children, this is the last lesson I shall give

you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and

Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be

very attentive."

What a thunderclap these words were to me!

Oh, the wretches; that was what they had put up at the town-hall!

31. Who are 'the wretches' Franz refers to in this extract?

A. the French

B. the Prussians

C. the village people

D. the school children

32. Why does M. Hamel tell everyone to be 'very attentive'?

A. He wants to quiz them on the last lesson later in the day.

B. He wants to inform them of his wish to retire as a teacher.

C. He wants to tell them about the new language they will soon learn.

D. He wants to teach them as much of their language as possible in that class.

33. What does the order from Berlin signify?

A. the blending of two different cultures.

B. the imposition of one culture over another

C. the peaceful coexistence of multiple cultures

D. the universal recognition of one culture as superior

34. This line from the extract depicts Franz's __________.

What a thunderclap these words were to me!

A. confusion about the new language

B. astonishment at a wasted opportunity

C. disappointment in M. Hamel's teaching

D. anger towards the people of the village

35. Select the option that uses 'mounted' as used in the extract.

A. Salima mounted the bicycle and rode downhill.

B. Peter mounted the platform to a rousing welcome.

C. Satyajeet bit his nails as the tension mounted in the game.

D. Kimpi mounted a protest by refusing to talk to her sister all day

VI. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

Thus, piece by piece, he built a swimmer. And when he had perfected each piece, he put them

together into an integrated whole. In April he said, "Now you can swim. Dive off and swim

the length of the pool, crawl stroke."

I did. The instructor was finished.

But I was not finished. I still wondered if I would be terror-stricken when I was alone in the

pool. I tried it. I swam the length up and down. Tiny vestiges of the old terror would return.

But now I could frown and say to that terror, "Trying to scare me, eh? Well, here's to you!

Look!" And off I'd go for another length of the pool.

36. What led the narrator to believe that he was 'not finished'?

A. his childhood experience of swimming

B. his instructor's attitude towards his swimming

C. his insecurity over his ability to overcome fear

D. his motivation to overcome his newly-developed fear

37. Which of these BEST describes the narrator's relationship with his fear?

A. hostile

B. evasive

C. indifferent

D. repressive

38. Which of these BEST describes the contrast in the focus of the swimming instructor

and the narrator when it came to swimming?

A. While the former focused on the mechanics, the latter focused on the creativity

involved.

B. While the former focused on the physical, the latter was more focused on the

psychological.

C. While the former focused on the practical, the latter was more focused on the

theoretical aspects.

D. While the former focused on casual learning, the latter focused on learning

how to do it competitively.

39. The narrator mentions his conversations with fear in this story to emphasize the

__________.

A. gaps in his skills as a swimmer

B. grip that fear of water still has on his life

C. improvement in his assurance as a swimmer

D. ease with which he forgot about his fear of swimming

40. The swimming instructor helped the narrator to regain his __________.

A. strength

B. prosperity

C. innocence

D. confidence

VII. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

I looked again at her, wan,

pale

as a late winter’s moon and felt that

old

familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,

but all I said was, see you soon,

Amma,

all I did was smile and smile and

smile......

41. Select the option that shows the correct relationship between (1) and (2).

(1) The poet looks at her mother's ageing face.

(2) The poet remembers an old fear she used to have as a child.

A. (1) is the result of (2).

B. (1) is the cause of (2).

C. (2) is false but (1) is true.

D. (2) furthers the meaning of (1).

42. Which of these best describes the poet's 'childhood's fear'?

A. Our parents will leave us someday.

B. Old age will give us wrinkles and pale skin.

C. Our parents will disown us for shameful acts.

D. We will have to leave our parents' house someday.

43. What is the poet trying to do in the last line of the extract?

A. soothe her mother's fears about old age

B. hide her own fear about her mother growing old

C. forget about her guilt about leaving her mother alone

D. remember her mother's image before she passes away

44. Which of these is true about the poet's 'childhood's fear'?

A. It has resurfaced and is painful to experience.

B. It has been revealed to her mother and shared openly.

C. It has been forgotten and is a bitter-sweet memory now.

D. It has emerged as new information and is a strange experience.

45. The above extract shows a CONTRAST between which two aspects?

A. how the poet feels and what the poet says

B. how old the poet is and how old her mother is

C. how the poet's mother looks and how the moon looks

D. how the poet sees things and how the poet's mother sees them

VIII. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

She had the bottle and some cotton in her hand.

"But how shall I do it?" she asked.

"Simply saturate the cotton and hold it near his nostrils," Sadao replied without delaying for

one moment the intricate detail of his work. "When he breathes badly move it away a little."

She crouched close to the sleeping face of the young American. It was a piteously thin face,

she thought, and the lips were twisted. The man was suffering whether he knew it or not.

Watching him, she wondered if the stories they heard sometimes of the sufferings of

prisoners were true. They came like flickers of rumour, told by word of mouth and always

contradicted. In the newspapers the reports were always that wherever the Japanese armies

went the people received them gladly, with cries of joy at their liberation.

46. In the given extract, Hana experiences a bit of __________ for the young American.

A. compassion

B. contempt

C. hope

D. rage

47. Which of these questions does Hana start reflecting on in the extract?

A. Why did men like the young American choose to fight?

B. What should she and her husband do about the enemy?

C. Is the Japanese army actually emerging victorious or is it all fake news?

D. How different was the reality of prisoners from what she was led to believe?

48. What changes Hana's perception of the young American?

A. reading stories about the 'enemy' as a prisoner of war

B. seeing the 'enemy' as an actual person in front of her

C. wondering if she herself is more American than Japanese

D. realising that the war against America is not an honourable one

49. How do Hana and Sadao react to the situation of the wounded man?

A. Hana is confused about it but Sadao is confident about it.

B. Hana is suspicious about it but Sadao is accepting of it.

C. Hana is disturbed by it and Sadao is disappointed by it.

D. Hana is disgusted by it and Sadao is conflicted about it.

50. Select the sentence that has the same literary device as the underlined phrase in the

line below.

They came like flickers of rumour, told by word of mouth and always contradicted.

A. The trees danced to the rhythm of the stormy winds.

B. Her smile was as bright as the sun when he returned home.

C. We need to cut corners if we want to finish the work on time.

D. I am so hungry right now that I could eat a thousand burgers.

51. Which of these incidents is similar to what the narrator of 'Deep Water' experienced

with swimming?

A. While on a hike with her brother, Rekha fell and scraped her knee. She

considered this to be a bad sign and decided never to go hiking again.

B. Ali ate at a restaurant that caused him to have food poisoning. He decided to

lodge an FIR against the restaurant and eventually tried to shut it down.

C. Sarah forgot to submit her homework and was scolded by the teacher for it.

She never attended that teacher's class again and eventually failed the subject.

D. Kavitha got stuck in an elevator at a mall and refused to ride an elevator for

years after the incident. Last week, she managed to get in an elevator with her

friend's help for the first time in five years.

52. The poem 'My Mother at Sixty-six' can be best described as the poet's __________.

A. resentment of her situation

B. realisation of a difficult truth

C. reflection on her own identity

D. commitment to look after someone

53. Select the option that shows the correct relationship between (1) and (2) in 'Lost

Spring'.

(1) Bangle-makers are not able to escape the web of poverty.

(2) Bangle makers lose their vision in their youth due to bad working conditions.

A. (1) is false and (2) is true.

B. (2) explains a reason for (1).

C. (1) is an assumption made from (2).

D. (2) is a fact whereas (1) is an opinion.

54. Given below are four characteristics of autobiographical stories. Which of these

aspects CANNOT be applied to the text 'Deep Water'?

A. Events are centred on a lesson learned by the writer.

B. Events are focused more on facts than on emotions.

C. Events are written from a first-person perspective.

D. Events are arranged from childhood to adulthood.

55. In the story 'The Third Level', the narrator says the above line because he found a

letter that __________.

That night, among my oldest first-day covers, I found one that shouldn’t have been there.

A. he was not happy to discover

B. had been written by his grandfather

C. his grandfather had never told him about

D. wasn't part of his grandfather's original collection

56. Which of these is NOT a theme in the poem 'Keeping Quiet'?

A. the importance of being content with our lives

B. the importance of reflecting on our lives silently

C. the importance of being earnest in all our pursuits

D. the importance of a sense of brotherhood among humans

57. In the story 'The Enemy', what is the main dilemma that Hana and Sadao face?

A. to abandon the American as a patriot or save him as a humanist

B. to keep their servants or to dismiss them for their offensive behaviour

C. to hand over the American to the Japanese military or the American army

D. to retain their American learnings or to remain loyal to their Japanese values

58. The author's purpose in writing 'The Last Lesson' is to show the __________.

A. experiences of both sides in a war

B. role of education in times of conflict

C. importance of adapting to new cultures

D. far-reaching effects of political decisions

59. What did Sam mean by the phrase 'waking dream wish fulfillment'?

I told him about the third level at Grand Central Station, and he said it was a waking

dream wish fulfillment.

A. Charley had a day-dream that allowed him to escape his problems.

B. Charley had suffered from an episode of temporary delusion.

C. Charley had not learned how to fulfill his own desires.

D. Charley had fulfilled his with by travelling to the past.

60. In 'An Elementary School Classroom in A Slum', what is ironic about the wall

hangings and the donations in the classroom?

A. The world represented in these objects does not reflect the world that the

children live in.

B. The articles in the classroom are irrelevant to what the children are learning in

class.

C. The decorations help improve the otherwise gloomy atmosphere of the

classroom.

ANSWERS

31 B

 32 D

 33 B

 34 B

 35 B

 36 C

 37 A

 38 B

 39 C

 40 D

  41 B

 42 A

43 B

 44 A

 45 A

46 A

 47 D

 48 B

 49 A

 50 C

 51 D

52 B

53 B

54 B

 55 D

 56 C

 57 A

 58 D

 59 A

60 A