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University : IITM Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Department : Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)
Exam : HSEE Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Exam
Year : 2020
Document Type : Question Paper
Website : https://hsee.iitm.ac.in/

IITM HSEE Question Paper

Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Humanities and Social Sciences Entrance Exam HSEE 2020 Question Paper

Related / Similar Question Paper : IITM HSEE 2018 Question Paper

HSEE 2020 Question Paper

Section 1: English and Comprehension Skill

Read the given extract and answer the following questions (Subsequent 5 questions are based on the passage)

Unquestionably a literary life is for the most part an unhappy life; because, if you have genius, you must suffer the penalty of genius; and, if you have only talent, there are so many cares and worries incidental to the circumstances of men of letters, as to make life exceedingly miserable. Besides the pangs of composition, and the continuous disappointment which a true artist feels at his inability to reveal himself, there is the ever-recurring difficulty of gaining the public ear.

Young writers are buoyed up by the hope and the belief that they have only to throw that poem at the world’s feet to get back in return the laurel-crown; that they have only to push that novel into print to be acknowledged at once as a new light in literature. You can never convince a young author that the editors of magazines and the publishers of books are a practical body of men, who are by no means frantically anxious about placing the best literature before the public.

Nay, that for the most part they are mere brokers, who conduct their business on the hardest lines of a profit and loss account. But supposing your book fairly launches, its perils are only beginning. You have to run the gauntlet of the critics. To a young author, again, this seems to be as terrible an ordeal as passing down the files of Sioux or Comanche Indians, each one of whom

is thirsting for your scalp. When you are a little older, you will find that criticism is not much more serious than the bye-play of clowns in a circus, when they beat around the ring the victim with bladders slung at the end of long poles. A time comes in the life of every author when he regards critics as comical rather than formidable, and goes his way unheeding.

But there are sensitive souls that yield under the chastisement and, perhaps after suffering much silent torture, abandon the profession of the pen for ever. Keats, perhaps, is the saddest example of a fine spirit hounded to death by savage criticism; because, whatever his biographers may aver, that furious attack of Gifford and Terry undoubtedly expedited his death.

But no doubt there are hundreds who suffer keenly hostile and unscrupulous criticism, and who have to bear that suffering in silence, because it is a cardinal principle in literature that the most unwise thing in the world for an author is to take public notice of criticism in the way of defending himself. Silence is the only safeguard, as it is the only dignified protest against insult and offence.

1. When do writers become indifferent to critics?
(a) When they are young and naive
(b) When they gain some experience and age a little
(c) When they read about the tragic demise of Keats and become more sensitive
(d) When they are driven by the material concerns of profit and loss

2. Which among the following does pose a challenge to young authors?
(a) Exigencies of market
(b) Pragmatic concern of editors and publishers
(c) Less anxious editors to publish best literature
(d) Savage criticism of reviewers

3. What is the wisest thing for an author to do to protect himself/herself from the criticism of merciless reviewers?
(a) To defend him/herself strongly
(b) To follow the example of Keats and endure it painfully
(c) To maintain a stoic silence
(d) To take a stand against insult and offence

4. What does the phrase “run the gauntlet” mean in the given extract?
(a) To engage in flattery to appease someone
(b) To ignore your opponents
(c) To be criticized or attacked by others
(d) To challenge and defeat your critics through your writing

5. Which of the following is a synonym of the word “unscrupulous” used in the excerpt?
(a) Demoralizing
(b) Covert
(c) Incisive
(d) Unprincipled

Read the following poem “Survivors” by Siegfried Sassoon and answer the following questions (Subsequent 5 questions are based on this poem).

No doubt they’ll soon get well; the shock and strain
have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they’re ‘longing to go out again,’
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They’ll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they’ll be proud
Of glorious war that shattered all their pride…
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

6. In the given poem who is “longing to go out again”?
(a) The children who lost their parents
(b) The ghosts of dead friends
(c) The soldiers who returned from war
(d) Those who stammer and cannot walk properly

7. The central message of the poem is:
(a) To glamorize and romanticize war
(b) To promote patriotism and nationalism
(c) To excoriate war by pointing out its horrors
(d) To condemn soldiers who fought in the war

8. Identify the contrasting image from the following that is used in the poem:
(a) Shock and strain
(b) Grim and glad
(c) Broken and mad
(d) Stammering and disconnected

9. In the above-mentioned poem, what does the poet intend to convey when he says that “boys” will be proud of glorious war?
(a) The victory of their nation
(b) Their love for war
(c) Their patriotic love for the nation
(d) The paradoxical nature of their victory

10. Which of the following options does not capture the meaning of the verb “cow” used in the phrase “cowed subjection”?
(a) Insinuate
(b) Petrify
(c) Intimidate
(d) Frighten

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