Literary Passage -2 | English Language Preparation for CUET UG PDF Download

Passage-1 

The train rattled through the night, its wheels screeching against the tracks as if protesting the endless journey. I leaned against the window, the glass cool against my cheek, watching the blurred shapes of trees and telegraph poles streak by under a moonless sky. Inside the carriage, a man in a rumpled suit muttered to himself, his fingers tapping an erratic rhythm on the armrest, while a woman across the aisle clutched a rosary, her lips moving silently in prayer. 

The air was thick with the smell of stale tobacco and unwashed clothes, a heavy shroud that seemed to cling to every surface. I pulled my coat tighter, less against the cold than the creeping unease that gnawed at me—a feeling that we were all fugitives, fleeing something we could neither name nor escape. The train lurched suddenly, and the man’s mutterings grew louder, a jumbled litany of regrets, until the woman hissed at him to be quiet. He fell silent, but the tension lingered, sharp as the whistle that pierced the darkness ahead.

Questions:

1. The narrator’s tone in the passage is primarily:
a. Anxious
b. Amused
c. Confident
d. Nostalgic
e. Detached

View Answer  

Answer: a. Anxious

2. The most compelling evidence of the narrator’s "creeping unease" is:
a. The screeching wheels of the train
b. The man muttering and tapping his armrest
c. The woman clutching her rosary in prayer
d. The feeling that they were all fugitives fleeing something
e. The stale tobacco smell in the carriage

View Answer  

Answer: d. The feeling that they were all fugitives fleeing something

3. A synonym for "erratic" in the context of the passage is:
a. Steady
b. Irregular
c. Predictable
d. Gentle

View Answer  

Answer: b. Irregular

4. The meaning of "litany" as used in the passage is closest to:
a. Celebration
b. Recitation
c. Silence
d. Argument

View Answer  

Answer: b. Recitation

Passage -2 

The rain fell in relentless sheets, drumming on the tin roof of the shack where I sat, peering through a cracked window at the sodden world beyond. Inside, the old woman rocked in her chair, her gnarled hands knitting a shawl that seemed to grow no longer despite her ceaseless work. Her eyes, clouded with age, flickered toward me now and then, as if measuring my presence against some unseen scale. 

Outside, the street lay deserted save for a stray dog, its ribs stark against its wet fur, nosing through the muck for scraps. The air smelled of damp earth and decay, a scent that clung to the walls and thickened the silence between us. I had come seeking stories of the village’s past, but her words, when they came, were sparse and cryptic—fragments of warnings about pride and ruin. It felt less like a conversation and more like a ritual, as though she wove not just wool but the threads of fate itself. The rain slackened, and she smiled faintly, a gesture as elusive as the tales she withheld.

Questions 

1. The narrator’s tone in the passage is primarily:
a. Curious
b. Frustrated
c. Reverent
d. Mocking
e. Indifferent

View Answer  

Answer: a. Curious

2. The strongest evidence that the old woman’s storytelling is mysterious is:
a. Her ceaseless knitting of a shawl that doesn’t grow
b. Her sparse and cryptic words about pride and ruin
c. Her clouded eyes measuring the narrator
d. The faint smile she offers as the rain slackens
e. The deserted street and the stray dog outside

View Answer  

Answer: b. Her sparse and cryptic words about pride and ruin

3. A synonym for "gnarled" in the context of the passage is:
a. Smooth
b. Twisted
c. Delicate
d. Straight

View Answer  

Answer: b. Twisted

4. The meaning of "elusive" as used in the passage is closest to:
a. Clear
b. Evident
c. Hard to grasp
d. Comforting

View Answer  

Answer: c. Hard to grasp