Charles Lamb – The South-Sea House (Essays of Elia) – Exam Based MCQs
1. “The South-Sea House” is an essay by: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Francis Bacon
B) Addison
C) Charles Lamb
D) Hazlitt
Ans: C) Charles Lamb
2. The essay “The South-Sea House” belongs to the collection: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Essays of Elia
B) The Spectator
C) The Rambler
D) The Idler
Ans: A) Essays of Elia
3. Lamb addresses the reader as “Reader,” and describes the building near: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Piccadilly Circus
B) Covent Garden
C) Hyde Park
D) Threadneedle Street where it abuts upon Bishopsgate
Ans: D) Threadneedle Street where it abuts upon Bishopsgate
4. Lamb calls the South-Sea House a “magnificent”: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Prison
B) Relic
C) Temple
D) Market
Ans: B) Relic
5. Lamb compares the building’s desolation to: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Balclutha’s walls
B) Camelot’s court
C) Elsinore
D) Eden
Ans: A) Balclutha’s walls
6. The South-Sea House is described as once being a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Theatre of comedy
B) University college
C) House of trade / centre of busy interests
D) Religious shrine only
Ans: C) House of trade / centre of busy interests
7. Directors sit “on solemn days” to proclaim a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Royal wedding
B) New constitution
C) Military victory
D) Dead dividend
Ans: D) Dead dividend
8. The essay recalls worm-eaten tables that “have been”: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Oak
B) Mahogany
C) Pine
D) Marble
Ans: B) Mahogany
9. The rooms contain tarnished gilt-leather coverings and massy silver: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Inkstands (long since dry)
B) Crowns
C) Shields
D) Candlesticks (burning)
Ans: A) Inkstands (long since dry)
10. The wainscots are hung with portraits including: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Queen Victoria
B) Henry VIII
C) Queen Anne and the first two Brunswick monarchs
D) Napoleon
Ans: C) Queen Anne and the first two Brunswick monarchs
11. Lamb mentions dusty maps of Mexico and soundings of the Bay of: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Bengal
B) Biscay
C) Naples
D) Panama
Ans: D) Panama
12. The “famous BUBBLE” refers to the: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Railway mania
B) South Sea Bubble
C) Tulip mania in Holland
D) Dot-com bubble
Ans: B) South Sea Bubble
13. Lamb says he knew the place “forty years ago,” calling it a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Magnificent relic
B) Brand-new building
C) Palace of pleasure
D) Modern factory
Ans: A) Magnificent relic
14. Lamb says he has “no skill” in: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Painting
B) Acting
C) Gardening
D) Figuring (accounts)
Ans: D) Figuring (accounts)
15. Old ledgers display sums in: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Two columns only
B) Five columns
C) Triple columniations
D) No columns
Ans: C) Triple columniations
16. Lamb notes that business books begin with: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Pious sentences
B) Love poems
C) Comic riddles
D) Political slogans
Ans: A) Pious sentences
17. The heavy odd-shaped penknives are described as: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Steel-handled
B) Ivory-handled
C) Wooden
D) Glass-made
Ans: B) Ivory-handled
18. Lamb says clerks in the South-Sea House were mostly: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Soldiers
B) Priests
C) Students
D) Bachelors
Ans: D) Bachelors
19. Lamb calls the group of clerks a sort of: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Noah’s ark
B) Parliament
C) Circus troupe
D) Royal court
Ans: A) Noah’s ark
20. Lamb also describes the clerks as a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Naval fleet
B) Factory union
C) Lay-monastery
D) Police squad
Ans: C) Lay-monastery
21. Many clerks had proficiency on the: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Violin
B) German flute
C) Bagpipes
D) Drums
Ans: B) German flute
22. The cashier in Lamb’s memory is: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) John Tipp
B) Henry Man
C) Plumer
D) Evans
Ans: D) Evans
23. Evans is described as a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Cambro-Briton
B) Frenchman
C) Italian
D) Irish rebel
Ans: A) Cambro-Briton
24. Evans’ hair is described as: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Shaved
B) Curly and oiled only
C) Powdered and frizzed (Macaroni fashion)
D) Covered by turban
Ans: C) Powdered and frizzed (Macaroni fashion)
25. Evans’ “glorified hour” arrives mainly at: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Sunrise
B) Evening tea and visiting time
C) Midnight office work
D) Sunday sermon
Ans: B) Evening tea and visiting time
26. Evans is deputyed by: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Woollett
B) Hepworth
C) Henry Man
D) Thomas Tame
Ans: D) Thomas Tame
27. Thomas Tame is said to have the air and stoop of a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Nobleman
B) Sailor
C) Clown
D) Peasant
Ans: A) Nobleman
28. Thomas Tame’s wife traced descent to the house of: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Lancaster
B) York
C) Derwentwater
D) Tudor
Ans: C) Derwentwater
29. The “then accountant” in the essay is: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Evans
B) John Tipp
C) Thomas Tame
D) Henry Man
Ans: B) John Tipp
30. John Tipp’s hobby instrument is the: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Flute
B) Harp
C) Drum
D) Fiddle
Ans: D) Fiddle
31. Tipp’s concerts include musicians who eat his cold mutton and drink his: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Punch
B) Milk
C) Coffee only
D) Lemon water
Ans: A) Punch
32. For Tipp, the whole duty of man consisted in: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Reading novels
B) Writing love letters
C) Writing off dividend warrants
D) Acting on stage
Ans: C) Writing off dividend warrants
33. Tipp rejects romantic talk and even considers a newspaper too: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Cheap
B) Refined and abstracted
C) Funny
D) Religious
Ans: B) Refined and abstracted
34. The annual balance might differ by as little as: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) 1000 pounds
B) 10 pounds
C) 1 shilling
D) 25l 1s 6d
Ans: D) 25l 1s 6d
35. Lamb praises Tipp’s devotion to form, calling him the true: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Actor (who acts prince or peasant with intensity)
B) Rebel
C) Prophet
D) Scientist
Ans: A) Actor (who acts prince or peasant with intensity)
36. Lamb calls Henry Man the “author” of the: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) India House
B) Bank of England
C) South-Sea House
D) Royal Exchange
Ans: C) South-Sea House
37. Lamb says Henry Man’s jokes survive in: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) One epic poem
B) Two forgotten volumes
C) Ten newspapers
D) A single pamphlet only
Ans: B) Two forgotten volumes
38. “Fine rattling, rattleheaded” refers to: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Evans
B) Thomas Tame
C) John Tipp
D) Plumer
Ans: D) Plumer
39. Plumer is said to be connected (by tradition) to the Plumers of: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Hertfordshire
B) Cornwall
C) Kent
D) Devon
Ans: A) Hertfordshire
40. Plumer’s reputed author is “old Walter Plumer,” who flourished in: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Elizabethan age
B) Victorian age
C) George the Second’s days
D) Edward the Seventh’s days
Ans: C) George the Second’s days
41. Lamb mentions a creature who “bought litigations,” named: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Tipp
B) Tame
C) Evans
D) Woollett
Ans: D) Woollett
42. Lamb calls Hepworth “inimitable” and “solemn,” whose gravity could teach: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Shakespeare
B) Newton
C) Milton
D) Pope
Ans: B) Newton
43. Lamb’s tone in the essay is best described as: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Nostalgic, humorous, and mock-solemn
B) Purely scientific
C) Strictly tragic
D) Purely political propaganda
Ans: A) Nostalgic, humorous, and mock-solemn
44. Lamb warns the reader that some names may be “fantastic—insubstantial—like”: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Hamlet and Lear
B) Achilles and Hector
C) Henry Pimpernel and old John Naps of Greece
D) Caesar and Brutus
Ans: C) Henry Pimpernel and old John Naps of Greece
45. Lamb says the clerks’ importance comes mainly from: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Their wealth
B) Their titles
C) Their youth
D) The past
Ans: D) The past
46. Lamb ends by calling his writing a “solemn”: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Sermon
B) Mockery
C) Legal statement
D) Travelogue
Ans: B) Mockery
47. The essay’s opening route mentions the Bank and the Flower Pot for a place to: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Secure a suburban coach seat (Dalston/Shacklewell etc.)
B) Join a theatre troupe
C) Attend a sermon
D) Buy paintings
Ans: A) Secure a suburban coach seat (Dalston/Shacklewell etc.)
48. Lamb describes the building’s calm as “indolence almost”: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Military
B) Scholarly
C) Cloistral
D) Violent
Ans: C) Cloistral
49. Lamb says the South-Sea House stands amid the Bank, the ’Change, and the: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Tower
B) Mint
C) Abbey
D) India-house
Ans: D) India-house
50. “The South-Sea House” is primarily a: (UGC NET; SET; PGTRB)
A) Gothic horror tale
B) Reminiscence of an old office with humorous character sketches
C) Scientific report on trade
D) Political manifesto
Ans: B) Reminiscence of an old office with humorous character sketches
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