GATE 2021 Question Paper XH C2 Humanities and Social Sciences - English

General Aptitude (GA)
Q.1 – Q.5 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry ONE mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 1/3).

Q.1 Consider the following sentences:
(i) After his surgery, Raja hardly could walk.
(ii) After his surgery, Raja could barely walk.
(iii) After his surgery, Raja barely could walk.
(iv) After his surgery, Raja could hardly walk.
Which of the above sentences are grammatically CORRECT?

(A) (i) and (ii)

(B) (i) and (iii)

(C) (iii) and (iv)

(D) (ii) and (iv)

Q.2 Ms. X came out of a building through its front door to find her shadow due
to the morning sun falling to her right side with the building to her back.
From this, it can be inferred that building is facing _________

(A) North

(B) East

(C) West

(D) South

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 1 of 40

Q.3 M

O N

In the above figure, O is the center of the circle and, M and N lie on the
circle.
The area of the right triangle MON is 50 cm2.
What is the area of the circle in cm2 ?

(A) 2π

(B) 50π

(C) 75π

(D) 100π

Q.4 "  " means" − ",
" " means" ",

If 
" " means" + ",
" " means" ",

then, the value of the expression  2  3  ( ( 4  2)  4) =

(A) -1

(B) -0.5

(C) 6

(D) 7

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 2 of 40

Q.5 “The increased consumption of leafy vegetables in the recent months is a
clear indication that the people in the state have begun to lead a healthy
lifestyle”
Which of the following can be logically inferred from the information
presented in the above statement?

(A) The people in the state did not consume leafy vegetables earlier.

(B) Consumption of leafy vegetables may not be the only indicator of healthy
lifestyle.

(C) Leading a healthy lifestyle is related to a diet with leafy vegetables.

(D) The people in the state have increased awareness of health hazards causing by
consumption of junk foods.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 3 of 40

Q. 6 – Q. 10 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry TWO marks each (for each wrong
answer: – 2/3).

Q.6 Oxpeckers and rhinos manifest a symbiotic relationship in the wild. The
oxpeckers warn the rhinos about approaching poachers, thus possibly
saving the lives of the rhinos. Oxpeckers also feed on the parasitic ticks
found on rhinos.
In the symbiotic relationship described above, the primary benefits for
oxpeckers and rhinos respectively are,

(A) Oxpeckers get a food source, rhinos have no benefit.

(B) Oxpeckers save their habitat from poachers while the rhinos have no benefit.

(C) Oxpeckers get a food source, rhinos may be saved from the poachers.

(D) Oxpeckers save the lives of poachers, rhinos save their own lives.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 4 of 40

Q.7

A jigsaw puzzle has 2 pieces. One of the pieces is shown above. Which one
of the given options for the missing piece when assembled will form a
rectangle? The piece can be moved, rotated or flipped to assemble with the
above piece.

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 5 of 40

Q.8 The number of hens, ducks and goats in farm P are 65, 91 and 169,
respectively. The total number of hens, ducks and goats in a nearby farm Q
is 416. The ratio of hens:ducks:goats in farm Q is 5:14:13. All the hens, ducks
and goats are sent from farm Q to farm P.
The new ratio of hens:ducks:goats in farm P is_____

(A) 5:7:13

(B) 5:14:13

(C) 10:21:26

(D) 21:10:26

Q.9

The distribution of employees at the rank of executives, across different
companies C1, C2, …, C6 is presented in the chart given above. The ratio of
executives with a management degree to those without a management degree
in each of these companies is provided in the table above. The total number
of executives across all companies is 10,000.
The total number of management degree holders among the executives in
companies C2 and C5 together is_____.

(A) 225

(B) 600

(C) 1900

(D) 2500

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 6 of 40

Q. 10 Five persons P, Q, R, S and T are sitting in a row not necessarily in the
same order. Q and R are separated by one person, and S should not be
seated adjacent to Q.
The number of distinct seating arrangements possible is:

(A) 4

(B) 8

(C) 10

(D) 16

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 7 of 40

Reasoning and Comprehension (XH-B1)
Q.1 – Q.5 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry ONE mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 1/3).

Q.1 According to a recent article in a medical journal, consuming curcumin
(from turmeric) significantly lowers the risk of COVID-19. The researchers
draw this conclusion from a study that found that people who consumed
one or more teaspoons of curcumin extract everyday were half as likely to
be diagnosed with the disease as people who did not consume curcumin.
Which of the following, if true, most weakens the argument in the article?

(A) In another study, people who were given a zinc supplement everyday were more
than four times less likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 as those who did
not.

(B) All the participants in this study were from the same state where no other spices
or herbs are consumed.

(C) The participants who consumed curcumin were also more likely to exercise than
those who did not.

(D) In another study, COVID-19 patients who were given curcumin were no more
likely to recover than others.

Q.2 Froot Inc. carried out an internet advertisement campaign for its new
beverage CocoLoco. After the campaign, the director of the advertising
company conducted a survey and found that the CocoLoco sales were
higher than that of TenderJoos a competing product from Joos Inc. The
agency concluded that the internet advertising campaign is more effective
than advertising through other media.
Which of the following statements could strengthen the conclusion above
by the agency?

(A) A ₹2 discount was offered on CocoLoco during the campaign period.

(B) CocoLoco sales were higher than those of TenderJoos before the internet
campaign.

(C) A newspaper advertisement campaign the previous year did not increase
CocoLoco sales.

(D) During the campaign for CocoLoco, Joos Inc. did not advertise TenderJoos at
all.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 8 of 40

Q.3 An e-commerce site offered a deal last month conditional on the customer
spending a minimum of ₹500. Any customer who buys 2 kg of fresh fruit
will receive a hand mixer and any customer who buys 2 kg of fresh
vegetables will receive a vegetable chopper.
Which of the following is NOT a possible outcome of the above?

(A) A customer purchased 3 kg of fresh fruit and did not receive a vegetable
chopper.

(B) A customer purchased items for ₹500 which included 1 kg of vegetables and
received a hand mixer.

(C) A customer purchased items for ₹500 which included 2 kg of vegetables and 1
kg of fruit and received a hand mixer.

(D) A customer purchased items for ₹300 which included 2 kg of fruit and received
neither a hand mixer nor a vegetable chopper.

Q.4 Writers of detective fiction often include an incompetent detective as a foil
for the brilliant investigator-protagonist as they follow different paths in
trying to solve the crime. In the individual accounts, the incompetent
detective is frequently distracted by the culprit’s careful plans, while the
competent investigator solves the case after a final confrontation. Analysts
of such fiction believe that the authors select this story-telling technique to
provide readers with more complexities in the form of misleading clues,
while figuring out the crime.
Which of the following statements most logically follows from the passage
above?

(A) A detective story is considered well-written if the brilliant investigator is
accompanied by an incompetent detective.

(B) Writers of detective fiction use the contrast of an incompetent detective to
mainly show how complex the investigation is.

(C) Writers of detective fiction never write stories where the incompetent detective
solves the case.

(D) Writers of detective fiction use two investigative accounts to make it difficult
for the reader to figure out the outcome.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 9 of 40

Q.5 The first (P1) and the last (P6) parts of a single sentence are given to you.
The rest of the sentence is divided into four parts and labelled (L,M,N,O).
Reorder these parts so that the sentence can be read through correctly and
select one of the options given.
P1: Studies of several Sahitya Akademi award winners show that…
L: or encounter professional
M: and invariably develop a strained relationship with other literary figures
N: they often publish very little
O: after winning the prize
P6: …envy and rivalry.
The correct order is:

(A) NOLM

(B) MLON

(C) ONML

(D) MOLN

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 10 of 40

Q.6 – Q.10 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry TWO mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 2/3).

Q. 6 Gerrymandering refers to the targeted redrawing of election constituencies
so as to benefit a particular party. This is especially important where the
electoral system is “first past the post” in each constituency (i.e. one winner
is selected in each constituency based on a majority of votes won) and
where there is no other provision for proportional representation (as for
example in the German system). For a simple illustration of
gerrymandering, if a region consists of districts 1, 2, 3, …, 9 with districts
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 favouring party P and 7, 8, 9 favouring party Q, then
grouping of districts to constituencies as {1,2,3}, {4,5,6}, {7,8,9} will give
two seats to party P and one seat to party Q, whereas the grouping {1,2,7},
{3,4,8}, {5,6,9} will give all three seats to party P, as they will secure a
majority in each constituency.
Which of these statements can be deduced from the above?

(A) Gerrymandering implies that constituency boundaries can sometimes be drawn
to favour one party over the other.

(B) Gerrymandering implies that proportional representation is impossible when
districts are grouped to form constituencies.

(C) To counteract gerrymandering political parties should concentrate on districts
where they are favoured.

(D) The grouping of districts to constituencies has very little impact on proportional
representation.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 11 of 40

Q. 7 X-ray examination of a recently discovered painting that some authorities
judge to be a self-portrait by Michelangelo revealed an under-image of a
woman’s face. Either Michelangelo or some other artist must have
repainted over the first painting that had now been seen on the canvas.
Because the woman’s face also appears on other paintings by Michelangelo,
this painting is determined to indeed be an authentic painting by
Michelangelo.
Which of the following assumptions must be made in reaching the
conclusion above?

(A) When an already painted canvas of an artist is used, the second artist using that
canvas for a new painting is usually influenced by the artistic style of the first.

(B) Several painted canvases that art historians attribute to Michelangelo contain
under-images that appear on at least one other of Michelangelo’s paintings.

(C) Subject or subjects that appear in authenticated paintings of Michelangelo are
rather unlikely to show up as under-images on painted canvases not attributed to
Michelangelo.

(D) No painted canvas can be attributed to a particular artist with certainty without
an X-ray analysis.

Q. 8 This season _______ tourists visited Ladakh than last season; however,
______ to be the biggest tourist destination in India. The tourism
department explains that the number of tourists to India has ______
relative to previous years, ________ have chosen to visit Ladakh.
Select the correct sequence of phrases to fill in the blanks to complete the
passage above.

(A) more / for the first time in many seasons it does not appear / increased / and it
seems that most

(B) fewer / as in the past, it appears / in fact decreased / but it seems that only a
small proportion

(C) fewer / for the first time in many seasons it appears / in fact decreased / but it
seems that most

(D) more / this season as well, it appears / in fact decreased / but it seems that a
large proportion

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 12 of 40

Q. 9 Reorder the sentences in (1) – (5) such that they form a coherent
paragraph.
(1) In fact, dozens of languages today have only one native speaker still
living, and that person's death will mean the extinction of the language: It
will no longer be spoken, or known, by anyone on earth.
(2) Many languages are falling out of use and are being replaced by others
that are more widely used in the region or nation, such as English in
Australia or Portuguese in Brazil.
(3) Many other languages are no longer being learned by new generations
of children or by new adult speakers.
(4) An endangered language is one that is likely to become extinct in the
near future.
(5) Unless the trends are reversed, these endangered languages will become
extinct by the end of the century.
(Adapted from What is an Endangered Language by A. Woodbury.)

(A) 2 3 1 4 5

(B) 2 3 5 4 1

(C) 4 1 5 2 3

(D) 4 2 3 1 5

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 13 of 40

Q. 10 The first (P1) and the last (P6) parts of a single sentence are given to you.
The rest of the sentence is divided into four parts and labelled L,M,N,O.
Reorder these parts so that the sentence can be read correctly and select
one of the sequences below.
P1: For a little while…
L: it was a common belief
M: right after the treaty of Versailles
N: that Germany had caused World War I not just by her actions
O: held by analysts and politicians alike
P6: … but by also encouraging Italy in her own aggressions.

(A) LMNO

(B) MLON

(C) LNMO

(D) MOLN

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 14 of 40

Q.11 – Q.15 Multiple Select Question (MSQ), carry TWO mark each (no negative marks).

Q. 11 After Florentino Ariza saw her for the first time, his mother knew before
he told her because he lost his voice and his appetite and spent the entire
night tossing and turning in his bed. But when he began to wait for the
answer to his first letter, his anguish was complicated by diaorrhea and
green vomit, he became disoriented and suffered from sudden fainting
spells, and his mother was terrified because his condition did not resemble
the turmoil of love so much as the devastation of cholera. Florentino
Ariza’s godfather, an old homeopathic practitioner who had been Tránsito
Ariza’s confidant ever since her days as a secret mistress, was also alarmed
at first by the patient’s condition, because he had the weak pulse, the
hoarse breathing, and the pale perspiration of a dying man. But his
examination revealed that he had no fever, no pain anywhere, and that his
only concrete feeling was an urgent desire to die. All that was needed was
shrewd questioning, first of the patient and then of his mother, to conclude
once again that the symptoms of love were the same as those of cholera. He
prescribed infusions of linden blossoms to calm the nerves and suggested a
change of air so he could find consolation in distance, but Florentino Ariza
longed for just the opposite: to enjoy his martyrdom.
(Adapted from Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez.)
The author of the passage is implying that:

(A) Homeopathy cures love.

(B) The doctor could not distinguish between love and cholera.

(C) The doctor could distinguish between love and cholera.

(D) The symptoms of love and cholera are similar.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 15 of 40

Q. 12 Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political
and economic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that
individual writer. But an effect can become a cause, reinforcing the original
cause and producing the same effect in an intensified form, and so on
indefinitely. A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a
failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather
the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly
and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our
language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
(Adapted from Politics and the English Language by George Orwell.)
The illustration of the man who takes to drink is used to underscore which
of the following ideas in the passage above?

(A) Political and economic causes control deterioration of language.

(B) Foolish thoughts are enabled by inaccurate language.

(C) Effect of an action becomes the cause in a cyclic pattern.

(D) Drinking enables people to have foolish thoughts and slovenly language.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 16 of 40

Q. 13 It is a pity that Caste even today has its defenders. The defences are many.
It is defended on the grounds that the Caste System is but another name
for division of labour, and if division of labour is a necessary feature of
every civilised society, then it is argued that there is nothing wrong in the
Caste System. Now the first thing to be urged against this view is that Caste
System is not merely division of labour. It is also a division of labourers.
Civilised society undoubtedly needs division of labour but nowhere is
division of labour accompanied by this unnatural division of labourers into
watertight compartments, grading them one above the other. This division
of labour is not spontaneous or based on natural aptitudes. Social and
individual efficiency requires us to develop the individual capacity and
competency to choose and to make his own career. This principle is
violated in so far as it involves an attempt to appoint tasks to individuals in
advance, not on the basis of trained original capacities, but on that of birth.
Industry undergoes rapid and abrupt changes and an individual must be
free to change his occupation and adjust himself to changing
circumstances, to gain his livelihood. (Adapted from Annihilation of Caste
by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.)
Which of the following observations substantiate the arguments found in
the passage above?

(A) Newer generations are unable to change and move away from low-paying
family professions, even with changed economic circumstances.

(B) Sedentary desk jobs are considered to have more value and are in greater
demand than those involving manual labour.

(C) The government’s jobs guarantee programme makes low-level management
jobs available across all industries to all graduates in the nation.

(D) A bus driver becomes an app creator and, in the course of one month, reaches
one million downloads on Playstore with a four-star rating.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 17 of 40

Q. 14 Imagine that you’re in a game show and your host shows you three doors.
Behind one of them is a shiny car and behind the others are goats. You pick
one of the doors and get what lies within. After making your choice, your
host chooses to open one of the other two doors, which inevitably reveals a
goat. He then asks you if you want to stick with your original pick, or
switch to the other remaining door. What do you do? Most people think
that it doesn’t make a difference and they tend to stick with their first pick.
With two doors left, you should have a 50% chance of selecting the one
with the car. If you agree, then you have just fallen afoul of one of the most
infamous mathematical problems – the Monty Hall Problem. In reality,
you should switch every time which doubles your odds of getting the car.
Over the years, the problem has ensnared countless people, but not, it
seems, pigeons. The humble pigeon can learn with practice the best tactic
for the Monty Hall Problem, switching from their initial choice almost
every time. Amazingly, humans do not!
(Adapted from an article by Ed Yong in Discover Magazine.)
Which of the following conclusions follow from the passage above?

(A) Humans calculate the probability of independent, random events such as the
opening of a door by dividing the specific outcomes by the total number of
possible outcomes.

(B) Humans find it very difficult to learn to account for the host’s hand in making
the event non-random and, thereby, changing the outcome of the event.

(C) Calculating probabilities is difficult for humans but easy for pigeons; which is
why the pigeons succeed where the humans fail.

(D) Humans are governed by reason, but pigeons are irrational and only interested
in the outcome and will do whatever it takes to get food.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 18 of 40

Q. 15 The truth is that, despite the recent success of car-makers P and Q, India’s
automobile industry is in a state not that different from the bad old days of
the license-permit quota raj when two carmakers dominated a captive
domestic market with substandard vehicles and with very little, if any,
research and development, and low to negligible productivity growth. High
tariff barriers have certainly induced foreign automobile makers to enter
the Indian market by setting up local operations, but this so-called “tariff
jumping” foreign investment has produced an industry that is inefficient,
operating generally at a low scale, and whose products are not globally
competitive either in terms of cost or of innovation. It is noteworthy that
the automobile parts industry, which has faced low tariffs (as low as
12.5%) and has been largely deregulated, has been characterised by higher
productivity and much better export performance than the completely-
built units’ sector in the years since liberalisation.
(Adapted from an Op-Ed in The Mint.)
Which of the following statements can be inferred from the above?

(A) Low tariff barriers increase productivity.

(B) Tariff jumping leads to increases in productivity.

(C) Deregulation has worked for the automotive parts industry and therefore should
be applied to completely-built units.

(D) P and Q do not invest enough in research and development.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 19 of 40

Q.1 – Q.12 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry ONE mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 1/3).

Q.1 Which of the following texts is a collection of stories that a group of
pilgrims tell each other?

(A) The Shepheardes Calender

(B) The Pilgrim’s Progress

(C) The Canterbury Tales

(D) Parliament of Fowls

Q.2 Which of these is NOT an autobiography?

(A) Baby Kamble, The Prisons We Broke

(B) Bama, Karukku

(C) Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable

(D) Om Prakash Valmiki, Joothan

Q.3 Writers Workshop and Blaft are ________________.

(A) niche publishing houses in India that focus on particular genres

(B) little magazines that were set up by small collectives of writers

(C) digital archives of performance poetry

(D) well-known reading circles in 1950s’ Lucknow

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 20 of 40

Q.4 The following lines capture the central trope of a well-known 18th century
satirical tract.
“I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in
London, that a young healthy child, well nursed, is, at a year old, a most
delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food...”
Identify the tract from the options below.

(A) John Stuart Mill, “On Liberty”

(B) Francis Bacon, “On Death”

(C) Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”

(D) Robert Graves, “Warning to Children”

Q.5 Whose poem does Cleanth Brooks close-read to arrive at his concept of
“the well-wrought urn”?

(A) William Wordsworth

(B) John Keats

(C) William Blake

(D) Alfred Tennyson

Q.6 What is common among Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, Mahasweta
Devi’s Mother of 1084, Shobha Shakti’s Gorilla, and Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie’s Half of A Yellow Sun?

(A) These novels are set during times of political uprisings.

(B) These novels are feminist narratives.

(C) These novels have animals as central characters.

(D) These novels are picaresque novels.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 21 of 40

Q.7 Henry James’ essay “The Art of Fiction”, one of the earliest literary critical
engagements with the form of the novel, was preceded by his book-length
study of _______________.

(A) William Faulkner

(B) Nathaniel Hawthorne

(C) Aphra Behn

(D) Oscar Wilde

Q.8 Which of the following is NOT true of Bram Stoker’s Dracula?

(A) It is considered to be a gothic novel.

(B) It is narrated mostly through letters.

(C) Transylvania is an important setting in the novel.

(D) It is a bildungsroman.

Q.9 “The name is H. Hatterr, and I am continuing . . .
Biologically, I am fifty-five of the species.”

The lines above are from an early Indian English novel. Who is the author
of this novel?

(A) G. V. Desani

(B) Allan Sealy

(C) Toru Dutt

(D) Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 22 of 40

Q.10 In Areopagitica, John Milton made an impassioned appeal
_______________.

(A) against censorship and for freedom of expression

(B) for legal reform allowing divorce based on spousal incompatibility

(C) for freedom of the church from royal control

(D) against slavery in the New World

Q.11 The first institution to teach English Literature in the world is -
______________.

(A) The University of Oxford, Oxford

(B) Royal Polytechnic Institution, London

(C) The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia

(D) Fort William College, Calcutta

Q.12 Which one of the following texts propounds the aesthetic theory of ‘rasa’?

(A) Natya Shastra

(B) Abhigyana Shakuntalam

(C) Manu Smriti

(D) Charaka Samhita

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 23 of 40

Q.13 – Q.20 Multiple Select Question (MSQ), carry ONE mark each (no negative marks).

Q.13 Which of the following novels is/are predominantly set in Bombay?

(A) Kiran Nagarkar, Ravan and Eddie

(B) Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

(C) Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

(D) Aravind Adiga, The White Tiger

Q.14 Which of the following critically rewrite/s canonical English novels?

(A) J. M. Coetzee, Foe

(B) Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

(C) Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy-Man

(D) Ben Okri, The Famished Road

Q.15 Of the following, which novelist/s combine/s feminist concerns with magic
realism?

(A) Virginia Woolf

(B) Toni Morrison

(C) Kamala Markandaya

(D) Svetlana Alexievich

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 24 of 40

Q.16 In which of these Shakespearean plays do important female characters
disguise themselves as men?

(A) A Midsummer Night’s Dream

(B) The Merchant of Venice

(C) As You Like It

(D) Twelfth Night

Q.17 The following words in English are clustered according to their origin.
Choose the cluster/s that contain/s words drawn from languages of the
Indian subcontinent.

(A) Kedgeree, Punch, Mulligatawny, Candy

(B) Shampoo, Chintz, Calico, Juggernaut

(C) Philistine, Echo, Panic, Galaxy

(D) Anaconda, Cheroot, Bungalow, Dungaree

Q. 18 Which of the following is/are true of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre?

(A) It was published under the pen-name Currer Bell.

(B) It was published originally in three volumes.

(C) It has been read as a critique of heterosexual romance, marriage, and
domesticity.

(D) The story is told from the point of view of a “madwoman in the attic”.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 25 of 40

Q. 19 Which of the following is an example/are examples of noir, popular both as
fiction and film?

(A) The Big Sleep

(B) Murder on the Orient Express

(C) The Maltese Falcon

(D) Fargo

Q. 20 Which of the following use/s the device of a ‘story within a story’ with
multiple narrators?

(A) A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

(B) Wuthering Heights

(C) Emma

(D) Heart of Darkness

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 26 of 40

Q.21 – Q.30 Multiple Choice Question (MCQ), carry TWO mark each (for each wrong
answer: – 2/3).

Q. 21 Match the following plays with genre or style:

i Hayavadana a Political satire

ii Harvest b Modernist play reworking
the folk

iii Ghashiram Kotwal c Theatre of the absurd

iv Evam Indrajit d Futuristic dystopia

(A) i-b, ii-d, iii-a, iv-c

(B) i-a, ii-c, iii-b, iv-d

(C) i-d, ii-b, iii-c, iv-a

(D) i-c, ii-d, iii-a, iv-b

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 27 of 40

Q. 22 Study the three examples below:

i) In George Orwell’s novel 1984, the interior ministry of the totalitarian
state is called the ‘Ministry of Love’.

ii) In the genre of horror fiction, the reader knows that the killer is hiding in
the closet, but the protagonist does not.

iii) “But Brutus says he was ambitious; And Brutus is an honourable man.”
(William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar)

These are instances of _______________.

(A) metaphor

(B) irony

(C) parody

(D) synecdoche

Q. 23 An “implied reader” is a _______________.

(A)
reader who participates in creating the meaning of a text

(B) reader who anticipates authorial intention

(C) hypothetical reader, not the actual reader, that the text addresses

(D) reader who reads critically against the grain of the text

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 28 of 40

Q. 24 Read the following:
“[…] a text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and
entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation, but there
is one place where this multiplicity is focused and that place is the reader,
not, as was hitherto said, the author. […] the birth of the reader must be at
the cost of the death of the Author.”
Which theoretical school does the excerpt best represent?

(A) Reader-response criticism

(B) Formalism

(C) Post-structuralism

(D) New Criticism

Q. 25 Literary criticism considers which one of the following texts as offering the
strongest support for mimetic theories of art?

(A) Plato, Republic

(B) Longinus, On Sublimity

(C) Horace, The Art of Poetry

(D) Aristotle, Poetics

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 29 of 40

Q. 26
The following is a passage about O. V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak:

The novel is set in a remote village, in the middle of the 20th century. The
narrative is replete with images of the vast ecosystem of the living and the
non-living, a land potent with dreams and legends.

The analysis presented in this description is congruent with which one of
the following concepts proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin?

(A) Chronotope

(B) Dialogism

(C) Carnivalesque

(D) Polyphony

Q. 27 Which one of the following did NOT happen in 1919, the year the First
World War ended?

(A) The Progressive Writers’ Association was formed in India.

(B) The radical political activist and philosopher Rosa Luxemborg was murdered.

(C) Rabindranath Tagore renounced his knighthood.

(D) James Joyce’s Ulysses was being serialised.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 30 of 40

Q. 28
Assertion P: Dalit narratives tend to be read single-dimensionally
as evoking the reader’s pity at the protagonist’s caste humiliation,
or
as telling the story of heroic protest against discrimination, or
as a description of the protagonist’s rise from misery to triumph.

Assertion Q: There is a tendency to keep the Other in the space of difference,
as perpetually exotic.

In the context of the assertions above, which one of the following
statements is true?

(A) P and Q are contradictory assertions.

(B) P and Q are compatible assertions.

(C) P and Q cannot be read in relation to each other.

(D) Q is the only explanation for P.

Q. 29
Some of the recent novels of the Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho were
published in multiple languages simultaneously, or immediately after the
Portuguese edition.
Which of the following is this phenomenon NOT an evidence of?

(A) Rebecca Walkowitz’s argument that novels are often ‘born translated’

(B) The globality of marketplace for books

(C) Paulo Coelho's expanding popularity

(D) The ‘nation’ as the sole frame for understanding literature

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 31 of 40

Q. 30
Match the authors in the first column with their respective translators in
the second column.

i Madhavikutty a A. K. Ramanujan

ii U. R. Ananthamurthy b Dilip Chitre

iii Indira Goswami c Kamala Das

iv Namdeo Dhasal d Aruni Kashyap

(A) i-d, ii-c, iii-b, iv-a

(B) i-c, ii-b, iii-d, iv-a

(C) i-c, ii-a, iii-d, iv-b

(D) i-b, ii-a, iii-d, iv-c

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 32 of 40

Q.31 – Q.40 Multiple Select Question (MSQ), carry TWO mark each (no negative
marks).

Q. 31 Which of the following is/are true about Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s
conception of ‘minor literature’?

(A) The discussion focuses on the writing of Franz Kafka.

(B) Minor literature is literature that a minority produces in a major language.

(C) Minor literature is a form of popular literature.

(D) Minor literature is literature in a minor language.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 33 of 40

Q. 32
Quote P:
“O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed
[…]”

Quote Q:
“O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!
Fair plumed Siren! Queen of far away!”

Which of the following is/are correct?

(A) Both quotes are examples of apostrophe.

(B) Both quotes use alliteration.

(C) Both quotes are examples of aporia.

(D) Both quotes are examples of personification.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 34 of 40

Q. 33 Prolepsis is the representation or assumption in the present, of a future act
or development.

Which of the following is/are instance/s of prolepsis?

(A) “Six decades later she would describe how at the age of thirteen she had written
her way through a whole history of literature.” Ian McEwan, Atonement.

(B) “Horatio, I am dead.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet.

(C) “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that
I’ve been turning over in my head ever since.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great
Gatsby.

(D) “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was
to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”
Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Q. 34 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” proposes
which of the following?

(A) The voice of the subaltern is appropriated by ‘intellectuals’ desiring to speak for
the subaltern.

(B) It is easy to confuse writing about the subaltern with the subaltern speaking for
herself.

(C) All women are subaltern and therefore cannot truly speak.

(D) The ‘intellectuals’ speaking for the subaltern and the subaltern speaking for
herself can be equivalent.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 35 of 40

Q. 35 Which of the following is/are example/s of ‘metafiction’?

(A) Each chapter in a novel is narrated by a different character.

(B) The reader is a character in the novel who interrupts the story because he
realises that he is reading an incomplete text.

(C) The narrator of the novel travels into the wild and encounters a man who
embodies the horrors of colonial power. The latter then proceeds to tell his
story.

(D) A character in a novel encounters a shabbily dressed man. Soon, this man lets
us, the readers, know that he is the author of the novel and is contemplating the
future of this character.

Q. 36 Choose one or more options from below.
In contrast to traditional Historicism, New Historicism ________________.

(A) rejects the idea that history is an objective narrative of events unfolding in linear
time

(B) does not make strict distinctions between literary and non-literary texts

(C) takes a particular interest in the textualisation of the material world

(D) takes history only to be a background and context for understanding literary
texts

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 36 of 40

Q. 37 “The feminist insistence that ‘the personal is political’ has had profound
effects on other genres. Feminist academics in several disciplines now insist
that the subjective element must not be left out of the practice of research
methods, such as the interview, or of theories of knowledge production
(Skeggs 1995; Maynard and Purvis 1994; Reinharz 1992).”

From the passage above, which of the following can be correctly
concluded?

(A) The passage argues that interviews and theories of knowledge production are
not examples of research methods.

(B) ‘The personal is political’ is a feminist argument.

(C) Skeggs, Maynard, Purvis, and Reinharz are names of feminist scholars.

(D) The passage argues that the subjective can legitimately be part of research
methods.

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 37 of 40

Q. 38
“ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?” Revelation came.
“You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?”
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. “West African sepia”—and as afterthought,
“Down in my passport.” Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. “WHAT’S THAT?” conceding
“DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.” “Like brunette.”
“THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?” “Not altogether.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. Friction, caused—
Foolishly, madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment, madam!”—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—“Madam,” I pleaded, “wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself?”

In Wole Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation”, the man seeking to rent a
room responds to the white landlady’s racism by _________________.

(A) describing black as a spectrum as opposed to a single colour

(B) being the subservient Black man, who concedes to her definition of race

(C) locating race squarely in her ways of seeing

(D) fragmenting the racialised body

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 38 of 40

Q. 39 In Arthur Conan Doyle’s writings featuring Sherlock Holmes, as is the case
with much of 19th century British fiction, colonialism appears as objects,
events, animals, places, fears and desires. Which of the following support/s
this claim?

(A) Opium dens in London, frequented by Holmes

(B) The war in which Watson served as a doctor

(C) The hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles

(D) The pet animals in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 39 of 40

Q. 40 “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke
The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.

We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother’s countenance
Could not unfrown itself.

The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.

You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.
Which of the following can be observed about this poem?

(A) The form of the poem is that of the Petrarchan sonnet.

(B) There is a simile in the first stanza.

(C) Images in the last two stanzas suggest that the father is a working-class man.

(D) The poem is in rhyming couplets.

END OF THE QUESTION PAPER

XH-C2 - Copyright © GATE 2021 Page 40 of 40