Factual Based Questions - 4 | English for CLAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Towards dawn he awoke. 0 what sweet music! His soul was all dewy wet. Over his limbs in sleep pale cool waves of light had passed. He lay still, as if his soul lay amid cool waters, conscious of faint sweet music. His mind was waking slowly to a tremulous morning knowledge, a morning inspiration. A spirit filled him, pure as the purest water, sweet as dew, moving as music.
But how faintly it was inbreathed, how passionlessly, as if the seraphim themselves were breathing upon him! His soul was waking slowly, fearing to awake wholly. It was that windless hour of dawn when madness wakes and strange plants open to the light and the moth flies forth silently. An enchantment of the heart! The night had been enchanted.
In a dream or vision he had known the ecstasy of seraphic life. Was it an instant of enchantment only or long hours and years and ages? The instant of inspiration seemed now to be reflected from all sides at once from a multitude of cloudy circumstances of what had happened or of what might have happened. The instant flashed forth like a point of light and now from cloud on cloud of vague circumstance confused form was veiling softly its afterglow.
O! In the virgin womb of the imagination the word was made flesh. Gabriel the seraph nr had come to the virgin’s chamber. An afterglow deepened within his spirit, whence the white flame had passed, deepening to a rose and ardent light. That rose and ardent light was her strange wilful heart, strange that no man had known or would know, wilful from before the beginning of the world: and lured by that ardent roselike glow the choirs of the seraphim were falling from heaven. Are you not weary of ardent ways, Lure of the fallen seraphim? Tell no more of enchanted days.
The verses passed from his mind to his lips and, murmuring them over, he felt the rhythmic movement of a villanelle ns pass through them. The roselike glow sent forth its rays of rhyme; ways, days, blaze, praise, raise. Its rays burned up the world, consumed the hearts of men and angels : the rays from the rose that was her wilful heart. Your eyes have set man’s heart ablaze And you have had your will of him.
Are you not weary of ardent ways? And then? The rhythm died away, ceased, began again to move and beat. And then? Smoke, incense ascending from the altar of the world. Above the flame the smoke of praise Goes up from ocean rim to rim Tell no more of enchanted days.
[Extracts from A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN and DUBLINERS By JAMES JOYCE]
Q1: What sensation does the protagonist experience upon awakening?
(a) A feeling of warmth and brightness
(b) A sensation of being in cool waters
(c) A sense of confusion and disorientation
(d) A feeling of heaviness and sleepiness
Ans: (b)
Sol: The text describes the protagonist's awakening with phrases like "his soul was all dewy wet" and "over his limbs in sleep pale cool waves of light had passed." This imagery creates a sensation of being amid cool waters.

Q2: What kind of music does the protagonist hear upon waking?
(a) Loud and vibrant music
(b) Faint and sweet music
(c) Dissonant and disturbing music
(d) Classical and soothing music
Ans: (b)
Sol: The paragraph mentions "faint sweet music" as part of the protagonist's sensory experience upon awakening, suggesting a gentle and pleasant auditory sensation.

Q3: How is the protagonist's soul described as waking?
(a) Quickly and eagerly
(b) Slowly and with fear
(c) Aggressively and passionately
(d) Confusedly and reluctantly
Ans: (b)
Sol: The text explicitly states, "His soul was waking slowly, fearing to awake wholly," indicating a cautious and fearful awakening of his soul.

Q4: What is the time of day during the protagonist's awakening?
(a) Midday
(b) Sunset
(c) Dawn
(d) Midnight
Ans: (c)
Sol: The paragraph begins with "Towards dawn he awoke," indicating that the events described are occurring at dawn.

Q5: What literary device is predominantly used in describing the "strange plants" and the "moth"?
(a) Simile
(b) Metaphor
(c) Personification
(d) Alliteration
Ans: (c)
Sol: The description of "strange plants open to the light and the moth flies forth silently" suggests personification, attributing human-like qualities to non-human entities.