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ages era period MCQs

Practise focused ages era period questions with marked answers for exam preparation and subject revision.

ages era period Mcqs
1. The word Jacobean is derived from the ___________ name Jacob, which is the original form of the English name James?
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A. Mishnaic Hebrew

B. Samaritan Hebrew language

C. Biblical Hebrew

D. Hebrew language
2. Elizabethan England was largely rural, with the majority of its population living in the verdant countryside. Towns and cities, however, were growingand the most prominent of all was London. While Londoners were considered wealthy and arrogant, the city was begrimed, filthy, and infested with vermin. Where did people primarily dispose of their trash and wastes ?
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A. The underground drains

B. Designated trash areas

C. The streets

D. Dump sites in the nearby country

3. The Charge of the Light Bridge is a poem by________________?
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A. Arnold

B. Tennyson

C. D.G Rossetti

D. Leigh Hunt

4. Which of the following best defines Utilitarianism ?
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A. a philosophy dictating that we should only keep what we use on a daily basis.

B. a farming technique aimed at maximizing productivity with the fewest tools

C. a critical methodology stating that all words have a single meaningful function within a given piece of literature

D. a moral arithmetic, which states that all humans aim to maximize the greatest pleasure to the greatest number
5. Who is the author of Blessed Damozel ?
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A. Tennyson

B. Robert Browning

C. D.G Rossetti

D. Christina Rossetti

6. Complete this famous quote by John Dryden: Who think too little, and who talk too __________ ?
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A. much

B. often

C. long

D. fast

7. What best describes the subject of most Victorian novels ?
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A. A and C

B. the attempt of a protagonist to define his or her place in society

C. a surrealist exploration of alternate states of consciousness

D. the representation of a large and comprehensive social world in realistic detail

8. What was the title of the play by Marlowe that portrayed the events surrounding the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre in 1572 ?
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A. The Massacre at Berlin

B. The Massacre at Rome

C. The Massacre at Copenhagen

D. The Massacre at Paris

9. Matthew Arnold;s Thyrsis is an elegy written on the death of______________?
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A. Edward King

B. Hugh Clough

C. Milton

D. Arthur Hallam

10. One of Marlowes earliest published works was his translation of the epic poem Pharsalia, written by which Roman poet ?
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A. Ovid

B. Horace

C. Virgil

D. Lucan
11. What was Elizabeths close circle of advisers called ?
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A. The Privy Council

B. The Cabinet

C. Parliament

D. The Star Chamber

12. Who was appointed as Poet-Laureate after William Wordsworth ?
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A. Tennyson

B. D.G Rossetti

C. Robert Browning

D. George Eliot

13. Who succeeded Elizabeth I ?
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A. Edward VI

B. James I

C. Charles I

D. Mary Queen of Scots

14. Which of the following charges were commonly levelled at the novel by its detractors at the dawn of the Romantic era ?
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A. Too many of its readers were women.

B. all of the above

C. It lacked the classical pedigree of poetry and drama.

D. It required less skill than other genres.

15. What was common amongst D.G Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Morris and Swinburne ?
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A. They were all painters

B. They all belonged to the Oxford Movement

C. They were all Victorian Novelists

D. They all belonged to the Pre- Raphaelite School
16. Which school did Milton attend ?
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A. Christs Hospital

B. St Pauls

C. Merchant Taylors

D. Westminster

17. Who remained without the vote following the Reform Bill of 1832 ?
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A. about half of middle class men

B. all women

C. almost all working class men

D. A, B and C
18. To whom did the Reform Bill of 1832 extend the vote on parliamentary representation ?
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A. the working classes

B. women

C. the lower middle classes

D. slaves

19. Which work did Edmund Spenser author ?
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A. The Faerie Queene

B. The Double

C. The Metamorphoses

D. The Castle of Perseverance

20. What did Byron deride with his scathing reference to \Peddlers, and Boats, and Wagons!\ ?
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A. the neo-classical influence of Pope and Dryden

B. Wordsworths devotion to the ordinary and everyday

C. the Orientalist fantasies of Coleridge

D. the clumsiness of Shakespeares plots

21. John Milton was 34 when he married Mary Powell. How old was she ?
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A. 48

B. 34

C. 17

D. 22

22. What was Elizabeths nickname for Sir Walter Raleigh ?
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A. Water

B. Winter

C. William

D. Waldimor

23. What does the phrase White Mans Burden, coined by Kipling, refer to ?
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A. the British need to improve technology and transportation in other parts of the world

B. the importance of solving economic and social problems in England before tackling the worlds problems

C. Britains manifest destiny to colonize the world

D. the moral responsibility to bring civilization and Christianity to the peoples of the world
24. Which of the following was probably not a stock phrase in eighteenth-century poetry ?
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A. shining sword

B. simian rivalry

C. checkered shade

D. verdant mead

25. Fill in the blanks from Tennysons The Princess. Man for the field and woman for the ..: Man for the sword and for the ___________ she: Man with the head and woman with the __________Man to command and woman to _____________?
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A. throne; scepter; soul; decree

B. school; scalpel; pen; set free

C. hearth; needle; heart; obey

D. crop; scabbard; foot; agree

26. In 1634 Milton wrote a masque. Whats the name of that masque ?
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A. Il Penseroso

B. Lycidas

C. Comus

D. The Masque of Blackness

27. Crime was ardently followed by punishment. Elizabethans had devised various ways to fine, humiliate, torture, and kill offenders. Which crime was punishable by death ?
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A. Stealing a horse

B. Public drunkenness

C. Skipping church on Sunday

D. A woman screaming at her husband in public

28. Who is the author of Aurora Leigh ?
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A. Tennyson

B. D. G. Rossetti

C. Christina Rossetti

D. Elizabeth Barret Browning
29. Spensers Epithalamion is____________?
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A. a wedding hymn

B. a narrative poem

C. an elegy

D. a sonnet

30. Which best describes the general feeling expressed in literature during the last decade of the Victorian era ?
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A. raucous celebration mixed with selfcongratulatory sophistication

B. sincere earnestness and Protestant zeal

C. paranoid introspection and cryptic dissent

D. studied melancholy and aestheticism
31. Arnolds Culture and Anarchy deals with the subject of_____________?
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A. Civilization

B. Education

C. Religion

D. Tehology

32. Who was the father of the Mary I_______________?
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A. Henry VI

B. George III

C. William

D. Henry VIII
33. Who in the Romantic period developed a new novelistic language for the workings of the mind in flux ?
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A. Jane Austen

B. Maria Edgeworth

C. Sir Walter Scott

D. Thomas De Quincey

34. Why did the novel seem a genre particularly well-suited to women ?
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A. It was a popular form whose market women could enter easily.

B. all but C

C. It did not carry the burden of an august tradition like poetry.

D. It was seen as a frivolous form where one shouldnt make serious statements about society.

35. How many years of happiness was Dr Faustus promised by the Devil ?
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A. 20

B. 28

C. 16

D. 24
36. What did Thomas Carlyle mean by Close thy Byron; open thy Goethe ?
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A. Even a foreign author is better than a homegrown scoundrel.

B. Britains preeminence as a global power will depend on mastery of foreign languages.

C. In a carefully veiled critique of the monarchy, Byron and Goethe stand in symbolically for Queen Victoria and Charles Darwin respectively.

D. Abandon the introspection of the Romantics and turn to the higher moral purpose found in Goethe.

37. Which best describes the general feeling expressed in literature during the last decade of the Victorian era ?
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A. studied melancholy and aestheticism

B. raucous celebration mixed with self congratulatory sophistication

C. sincere earnestness and Protestant zeal

D. paranoid introspection and cryptic dissent

38. Which two writers can be described as writing historical novels ?
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A. Jane Austen and Charlotte Bront

B. Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley

C. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

D. Sir Walter Scott and Maria Edgeworth
39. Which of the following is a typically Romantic poetic form ?
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A. the aubade

B. the figment

C. the fractal

D. the fragment
40. Who wrote: I would prefer not to. ?
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A. Edgar Allan Poe

B. Thomas Gray

C. Herman Melville

D. Henry David Thoreau

41. What are the beginning and ending dates of the Elizabethan era ?
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A. 1575-1600

B. 1558-1603

C. 1500-1520

D. 1560-1570

42. Which of the following plays was actually performed on stage ?
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A. Coleridges Remorse

B. Byrons Manfred

C. Shelleys Prometheus Unbound

D. Shelleys The Cenci

43. The Jacobean Era refers to a period of time in the early 17th century in which of the following countries ?
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A. Malaysia

B. England

C. Tunisia

D. Jordan

44. What Pope poem begins, In these deep solitudes and awful cells, / Where heavnly-pensive contemplation dwells, / And ever-musing melancholy reigns; / What means this tumult in a vestals veins ?
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A. The Rape of the Lock

B. Eloisa to Abelard

C. The Dunciad

D. Solitude: An Ode

45. The basic theme of Arnolds Literature and Dogma is____________?
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A. Contemporary literary criticism

B. Art and Literature

C. Social changes in the Victorian Age

D. Theology
46. Which philosopher had a particular influence on Coleridge ?
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A. Duns Scotus

B. Immanuel Kant

C. Aristotle

D. David Hume

47. Which statement(s) about inventions during the Industrial Revolution are true ?
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A. Hand labor became less common with the invention of power-driven machinery.

B. Velcro replaced buttons and snaps.

C. Steam, as opposed to wind and water, became a primary source of power.

D. both A and C
48. Who were the Two Nations referred to in the subtitle of Disraelis Sybil (1845) ?
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A. the rich and the poor

B. England and Ireland

C. Britain and Germany

D. Anglicans and Methodists

49. Which of the following authors promoted versions of socialism ?
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A. William Morris

B. Edward FitzGerald

C. John Ruskin

D. all but C
50. An important feature of the Renaissance was an emphasis on________________?
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A. the teaching of St. Thomas Acquinas

B. the literature of Greece and Rome

C. alchemy and magic

D. chivalry of the Middle Ages