Wordsworth – The Prelude (Book I) – Exam Based MCQs
1. The Prelude is written by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) John Keats
B) William Wordsworth
C) Samuel Johnson
D) W. B. Yeats
Ans: B) William Wordsworth
2. The Prelude is best described as a: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) Satirical novel
B) One-act play
C) Mock-epic
D) Autobiographical poem in blank verse
Ans: D) Autobiographical poem in blank verse
3. Book I of The Prelude (1850 text) is titled: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) “Introduction—Childhood and School-time”
B) “Revolution and War”
C) “The Sea Voyage”
D) “The Final Judgment”
Ans: A) “Introduction—Childhood and School-time”
4. The Prelude is written mainly in: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) Heroic couplets
B) Spenserian stanza
C) Blank verse
D) Ballad stanza
Ans: C) Blank verse
5. The poem was published for the first time (as a complete work) in: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) 1798
B) 1850 (after Wordsworth’s death)
C) 1815
D) 1765
Ans: B) 1850 (after Wordsworth’s death)
6. Wordsworth originally conceived The Prelude as an introduction to: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Paradise Lost
B) The Faerie Queene
C) Don Juan
D) The Recluse (planned long poem)
Ans: D) The Recluse (planned long poem)
7. The Prelude traces the growth of: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) the poet’s mind and imagination
B) the British Empire
C) a detective’s career
D) a merchant’s wealth
Ans: A) the poet’s mind and imagination
8. Book I begins with the poet feeling liberated after leaving: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) a battlefield
B) a royal palace
C) the city (London) / urban confinement
D) a monastery
Ans: C) the city (London) / urban confinement
9. A key theme of Book I is Nature as: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) a villain to be defeated
B) educator and moral power shaping the mind
C) mere decoration only
D) irrelevant to human life
Ans: B) educator and moral power shaping the mind
10. In Book I, Wordsworth recalls childhood experiences mainly to show: (SET 2019; PGTRB 2020; UGC NET 2021)
A) a political campaign
B) a courtroom dispute
C) a colonial voyage
D) the formation of imagination through experience
Ans: D) the formation of imagination through experience
11. The “boat-stealing” episode occurs on a: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) lake at night / calm water
B) stormy sea
C) desert river
D) battlefield trench
Ans: A) lake at night / calm water
12. In the boat-stealing passage, a “huge peak, black and huge” mainly symbolizes: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) a friendly guide
B) a comic mountain
C) Nature’s sublime power awakening fear and awe
D) a city monument
Ans: C) Nature’s sublime power awakening fear and awe
13. The boy’s reaction after the boat-stealing incident is best described as: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) pride and celebration
B) guilt, fear, and troubled imagination
C) laughter only
D) complete forgetfulness
Ans: B) guilt, fear, and troubled imagination
14. Book I includes childhood play like: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) chess tournaments only
B) city theatre only
C) naval warfare drills
D) skating / running / outdoor sports in nature
Ans: D) skating / running / outdoor sports in nature
15. The poem repeatedly links memory with: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) moral growth and self-knowledge
B) stock market profit
C) colonial conquest
D) scientific laboratory work only
Ans: A) moral growth and self-knowledge
16. Wordsworth’s “spots of time” are best understood as: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) comic interludes
B) calendar dates only
C) intense memories that nourish the mind in later life
D) political speeches
Ans: C) intense memories that nourish the mind in later life
17. A recurring Romantic idea in Book I is that the child’s mind is shaped by: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) only books and rules
B) direct contact with Nature
C) only business training
D) only royal patronage
Ans: B) direct contact with Nature
18. The tone of Book I is mainly: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) purely satirical
B) purely comic
C) purely journalistic
D) reflective and autobiographical
Ans: D) reflective and autobiographical
19. Book I stresses the “sublime” in nature, meaning: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) awe mixed with fear before vast power
B) only sweetness and comfort
C) political victory
D) scientific proof
Ans: A) awe mixed with fear before vast power
20. Wordsworth’s main purpose in Book I is to show the early growth of: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) empire
B) wealth
C) poetic imagination
D) machine technology
Ans: C) poetic imagination
21. In Book I, Nature sometimes acts as a “severer” teacher through: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) classroom punishments
B) fear, guilt, and awe (moral corrections)
C) money rewards
D) political debates
Ans: B) fear, guilt, and awe (moral corrections)
22. The “Silent lake” in the boat episode mainly highlights: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) city noise
B) market crowd
C) battlefield confusion
D) calm before the sublime disturbance
Ans: D) calm before the sublime disturbance
23. The Prelude (Book I) belongs to the: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) Romantic period
B) Restoration period
C) Medieval period
D) Modernist period
Ans: A) Romantic period
24. The relationship between the adult narrator and his childhood self is mainly: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) total rejection
B) comic mockery
C) reflective evaluation and reinterpretation
D) complete silence
Ans: C) reflective evaluation and reinterpretation
25. The poem often suggests that childhood freedom is best experienced in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) courtrooms
B) fields, woods, lakes, and open air
C) factories
D) prisons
Ans: B) fields, woods, lakes, and open air
26. A hallmark of Wordsworth’s style in Book I is: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) heavy rhyme in couplets
B) pun-based comedy
C) detective clues
D) elevated reflection in unrhymed iambic pentameter
Ans: D) elevated reflection in unrhymed iambic pentameter
27. In Book I, the boy’s “stealing” is important mainly because it leads to: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) moral awakening through fear and imagination
B) legal trial in court
C) comic celebration
D) joining the army
Ans: A) moral awakening through fear and imagination
28. The “huge peak” seems to move “like a living thing” to show: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) comic fantasy only
B) political allegory
C) the mind projecting fear onto nature (psychological sublime)
D) scientific animation
Ans: C) the mind projecting fear onto nature (psychological sublime)
29. One major contrast in Book I is between: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) sea and desert
B) city confinement and natural freedom
C) war and peace treaties
D) science and mathematics
Ans: B) city confinement and natural freedom
30. The “growth” in The Prelude is primarily: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) financial growth
B) political power growth
C) industrial growth
D) spiritual/intellectual growth of the poet
Ans: D) spiritual/intellectual growth of the poet
31. In Book I, childhood experiences are presented as “means” Nature used to: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) educate and discipline the mind
B) make the child rich
C) force political loyalty
D) teach commerce
Ans: A) educate and discipline the mind
32. The Prelude’s narrative voice is mainly that of: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) a medieval knight
B) a comic narrator
C) an adult poet recollecting youth
D) a newspaper reporter
Ans: C) an adult poet recollecting youth
33. Book I shows that imagination can be strengthened by: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) only school textbooks
B) solitude and intense encounters with nature
C) only city entertainment
D) only political debates
Ans: B) solitude and intense encounters with nature
34. The Prelude is strongly associated with Wordsworth’s idea of: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) “art for art’s sake”
B) strict classical imitation
C) urban realism only
D) the mind’s development through memory and nature
Ans: D) the mind’s development through memory and nature
35. A major effect of the boat-stealing scene is to show Nature as: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) both beautiful and terrifying (sublime)
B) always humorous
C) only a backdrop
D) completely powerless
Ans: A) both beautiful and terrifying (sublime)
36. The mood after the terrifying vision is marked by: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) total joy
B) comic relief
C) troubled dreams and “unknown modes of being” (inner disturbance)
D) political excitement
Ans: C) troubled dreams and “unknown modes of being” (inner disturbance)
37. Book I is important for Romantic studies because it presents Nature as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) dead matter only
B) a living presence shaping mind and feeling
C) only a scientific object
D) a political enemy
Ans: B) a living presence shaping mind and feeling
38. The Prelude is also known as: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) The Desert Chronicle
B) The Waste Land
C) The Rape of the Lock
D) “Growth of a Poet’s Mind” (sub-title)
Ans: D) “Growth of a Poet’s Mind” (sub-title)
39. The Prelude is primarily addressed (in conception) to: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
B) John Milton
C) Alexander Pope
D) Charles Dickens
Ans: A) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
40. The best description of Book I’s method is: (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) strict chronological history only
B) pure dialogue drama
C) reflective narrative with flashbacks and commentary
D) newspaper reportage
Ans: C) reflective narrative with flashbacks and commentary
41. The “school-time” in Book I is important mainly as: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) training for law practice
B) a stage in the developing poetic mind
C) military preparation
D) business education
Ans: B) a stage in the developing poetic mind
42. The central conflict in Book I is not political but: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) military vs. navy
B) king vs. parliament
C) rich vs. poor
D) freedom vs. discipline in forming the self
Ans: D) freedom vs. discipline in forming the self
43. The Prelude (Book I) is an example of Romantic emphasis on: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) the self and inner experience
B) strict classical decorum only
C) satire of city life only
D) industrial progress only
Ans: A) the self and inner experience
44. Book I’s childhood scenes are mainly set in: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) London streets
B) Paris salons
C) rural Lake District landscapes
D) colonial plantations
Ans: C) rural Lake District landscapes
45. The “huge peak” episode is often used to illustrate which aesthetic? (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) Comic
B) Sublime
C) Pastoral satire
D) Mock-heroic
Ans: B) Sublime
46. In Book I, Nature’s “ministry” can be understood as: (UGC NET 2017; SET 2018; PGTRB 2019)
A) political office
B) courtroom ministry
C) medical treatment
D) guiding force shaping conscience and imagination
Ans: D) guiding force shaping conscience and imagination
47. The Prelude’s importance lies in presenting poetry as a record of: (UGC NET 2020; SET 2021; PGTRB 2022)
A) inner development and memory
B) battlefield strategy
C) banking system
D) court gossip
Ans: A) inner development and memory
48. The poem’s technique of recalling and interpreting childhood is closest to: (UGC NET 2018; SET 2019; PGTRB 2020)
A) detective reasoning
B) pure satire
C) autobiographical reflection
D) scientific experimentation
Ans: C) autobiographical reflection
49. Book I helps explain Wordsworth’s belief that the poet is formed by: (UGC NET 2019; SET 2020; PGTRB 2021)
A) only university training
B) Nature + memory + imagination
C) only politics
D) only commerce
Ans: B) Nature + memory + imagination
50. Which statement is TRUE about The Prelude (Book I)? (SET 2020; PGTRB 2021; UGC NET 2022)
A) It is a comedy of manners
B) It is a sonnet sequence
C) It is a detective novel
D) It presents childhood experiences as formative “education” by Nature
Ans: D) It presents childhood experiences as formative “education” by Nature
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