GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Cultural and Historical Contexts
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #9 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
Which of the following is not a character from this work?
Mephistopheles
Raphael
Mulciber
Moloch
Uriel
Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles is a character from Goethe’s 1808 Faust (and in various other versions of the German story of Dr. Faustus). All of other the characters are angels or fallen angels in Paradise Lost.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
Example Question #10 : Contexts Of British Poetry 1660–1925
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
When was this poem published?
1680s
1700s
1690s
1650s
1660s
1660s
The poem was first published in 10 sections in 1667, although a revised 1674 edition would reorganize the work into the 12-section version studied today.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
Example Question #21 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Who is the author of this poem?
Lewis Carroll
Jonathan Swift
Rudyard Kipling
Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss)
Oscar Wilde
Lewis Carroll
This is Lewis Carroll’s fanciful nonsense poem The Jabberwocky. It appears in his novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) as an example of mirror writing that Alice discovers in a strange book.
Example Question #22 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
When was this poem published?
the 1850s
the 1870s
the 1890s
the 1880s
the 1860s
the 1870s
As part of Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, the poem first appeared in 1871.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Example Question #23 : Contexts Of Poetry
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
What other work did the author of this poem write?
Gashlycrumb Tinies
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Jungle Book
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Phantom Tollbooth
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll’s most famous work by far is the 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, often shortened to just Alice in Wonderland. This fantastical novel concerns the experiences of the eponymous Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a nonsensical world of strange characters.
Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Grey (1890), Edward Gorey's Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963), Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth (1961), and Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894) were all used as alternative answer choices.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Example Question #23 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
Which of the following is not a character in the novel from which this poem is taken?
Tweedledum
the White King
the Humbug
Bandersnatch
Humpty Dumpty
the Humbug
The novel features a number of classic characters, including Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the White King and Queen, the Red King and Queen, Humpty Dumpty, and Bandersnatch as well as the all-important protagonist Alice. The Humbug is a character from Norton Juster’s 1961 children’s novel The Phantom Tollbooth.
Passage adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
Example Question #24 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
In pious times, e’r Priest-craft did begin,
Before Polygamy was made a Sin;
When Man on many multipli’d his kind,
E’r one to one was cursedly confin’d,
When Nature prompted and no Law deni’d
Promiscuous Use of Concubine and Bride;
Then Israel’s Monarch, after Heavens own heart,
His vigorous warmth did, variously, impart
To Wives and Slaves: And, wide as his Command,
Scatter’d his Maker’s Image through the Land.
Which of the following was not written by the author of this passage?
Astraea Redux
Mac Flecknoe
Annus Mirabilis
The Rape of the Lock
The Hind and the Panther
The Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock (1712) is a famous mock-epic poem written by Alexander Pope. Annus Mirabilis (1667), Mac Flecknoe (1682), Astraea Redux (1660), and The Hind and the Panther (1687) are all works by John Dryden.
Passage adapted from John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Example Question #25 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat
Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
In the beginning how the heavens and earth
Rose out of Chaos…
Who is the author of this work?
John Dryden
John Locke
John Donne
John Smith
John Milton
John Milton
These are the famous opening lines of John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost.
Passage adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1674)
Example Question #26 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din."
Who is the author of this poem?
John Keats
William Cowper
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
This is Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s famous seven-part poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).
William Wordsworth wrote The Prelude (1850), John Keats wrote "O Solitude" (1816), William Cowper wrote The Task (1785), and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote Ozymandias (1818).
Passage adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).
Example Question #27 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?
The bridegroom's doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May'st hear the merry din."
When was this poem first published?
1850s
1790s
1810s
1770s
1830s
1790s
The poem first appeared in 1798 and has been reprinted in many versions since.
Passage adapted from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798).
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