Tribhuvan University

Question Setting Guidelines

Major English I

Level: BA Full Marks: 70

Year: First Pass marks: 28
Subject: Major English—Paper I Time: 3 Hours
Course Title: Reading, Writing and Thinking
Course Code: ENGL 421

There will be three types of questions: long critical, medium-length and short ones.

Section A: Long Question

Any 2 out of 3 from the following question types 02x15 = 30

i. Theme-based
ii. Technique-based
iii. Guided Critical Comprehension of a fairly short text
iv. Extension Question
v. Comparative Analysis
vi. Critical evaluation (but not a flat question)

Section B: Medium-Length Question

Any 2 out of 4 (choice format) from the following question types 02x10 = 20

i. Knowledge of heuristics
ii. Explication based on prompts

Section C: Short Question

Any 2 out of 3 from the following question types 02x10=20

i. Short notes on literary terms: Any 2 out of 3 02x05=10

ii. Short notes on key concepts: Any 2 out of 3 02x05=10

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal evaluation 30

Total of 30 marks of the internal evaluations can be divided into these categories.

Attendance and Participation 05

Project, Presentation, Portfolio* 05
Mid-term 10
End-term 10

* Any writing project that assesses the progress of a student as a writer over the year. The final
essay, FOUR to FIVE pages in length, must follow the MLA documenting style as given in Patterns
of College Writing.

*******

1
 Tribhuvan University
Model Question Set
Major English I

Level: BA
Year: First Full Marks: 70
Subject: Major English Pass marks: 28
Course Title: Reading, Writing and Thinking Time: 3 Hours
Course Code: ENGL 421

Candidates are required to answer the questions in their own words as far as practicable. The figures
in the margin indicate full marks.

Section A: Long Question

Answer any TWO of the following questions 2x15 = 30

1. Is Creon‟s rhetoric consistent throughout Antigone? How do his purpose and tone in Antigone
shift from speech to speech? Compare and contrast the way Creon responds to Antigone, to
Haemon, and to Tiresias.
2. Joseph Conrad‟s Heart of Darkness “explores the impact of colonial domination on both
the oppressed and the oppressor” and raises “complex questions about the influence of
colonization on national politics and personal identity.” Elucidate the remark.
3. Trace the common theme of tradition and progress in Henry James‟ Daisy Miller and
Matthew Arnold‟s “Dover Beach.”

Section B: Medium-Length Question

Answer ALL questions. 2x10 = 20

4. What is point of view? Distinguish between first-person and second-person points of view.
Or
Present your familiarity with text-by-text and element-by-element paragraph organizations.
5. Read the following poem by William Stafford in which a speaker contemplates the death
of animals. Analyze the resources of language the poet uses to reveal the relationship
between the speaker and the animal.

Traveling through the dark I found a deer

dead on the edge of the Wilson River road. It
is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the

car and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason—

her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting, alive,
still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;

under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

2
 I thought hard for us all—my only swerving—,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

Or

Nineteenth-century English novelist Charles Dickens opens Hard Times with a description of
the central character, Mr. Gradgrind. Even before his rather appropriate name is revealed,
Dickens makes sure the reader understands what Mr. Gradgrind is like in his novel. Discuss
the direct and indirect methods applied to characterize him in the following passage.

Passage:

„Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are
wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds
of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is
the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring
up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!‟

The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker‟s square
forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring every sentence with a line on the
schoolmaster‟s sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the speaker‟s square wall of a forehead,
which had his eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark
caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the speaker‟s mouth, which
was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker‟s voice, which was
inflexible, dry, and dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker‟s hair, which bristled
on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the wind from its shining surface, all
covered with knobs, like the crust of a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse room
for the hard facts stored inside. The speaker‟s obstinate carriage, square coat, square legs,
square shoulders — nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by the throat with an
unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it was — all helped the emphasis. „In this
life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!‟ The speaker, and the schoolmaster,
and the third grown person present, all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined
plane of little vessels, then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial gallons of facts
poured into them until they were full to the brim.

Section C: Short Question

Answer ALL questions. 02x10 = 20

6. Explain any TWO of the following literary terms: 02x05 = 10

i. meter
ii. imagery
iii. stream of consciousness technique
7. Write short notes on any TWO of the following questions: 02x05 = 10
i. Essence of the meaning of the game of basketball in Yusef Komunyanaa‟s “Slam, Dunk
& Hook.” Elaborate the idea in your own words.
ii. Elucidate the relationship between Kusum and Pam, in “The Management of Grief,” as
illustrative of cultural differences at the beginning of the party.
iii. Give a critical appraisal of the effect of irony in Cynthia Ozick‟s “The Shawl.”

*******