GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept

Example Questions

Example Question #161 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

“How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless."

"Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them."

"I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.” 

Identify the title and author of the passage.

Possible Answers:

The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

The Way of the World by William Congreve

Correct answer:

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Explanation:

These lines, exchanged between Jack and Algernon, are from Oscar Wilde’s play The Importance of Being Earnest. The play, whose full title is The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People, was first performed in 1895. It is a satirical look at Victorian social rules and obligations. The word "bunburying" is famously used in its plot to mean to assume an alter ego in a different locale so as to get out of social obligations. Much of the play's plot and repartee centers around identity, and in particular, confusion surrounding the name "Ernest."

Passage adapted from Act II of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1895)

Example Question #161 : Identification

"You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about . . . anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in London knows it except you. It is a public scandal the way I adore you. I have been going about for the last six months telling the whole of society that I adore you. I wonder you consent to have anything to say to me. I have no character left at all. At least, I feel so happy that I am quite sure I have no character left at all.” 

Identify the title and author of the excerpt based on the content and style of the writing.

Possible Answers:

A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt

An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestly

Amadeus by Peter Shaffer

The Way of the World by William Congreve

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

Correct answer:

An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

Explanation:

These lines, spoken by Mabel Chiltern, are from Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedic play An Ideal Husband. The play centers on themes of political corruption and honor.

Passage adapted from Act IV of An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde (1895)

Example Question #162 : Identification

I will attend her here,
And woo her with some spirit when she comes.
Say that she rail; why, then, I'll tell her plain,
she sings as sweetly as a nightingail:
Say that she frown; I'll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly washt with dew:
Say she be mute and will not speak a word;
Then I'll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence:
If she do bid me pack, I'll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week:
If she deny to be wed, I'll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns, and when be married.

This excerpt is adapted from which of the following Shakespearean plays?

Possible Answers:

The Taming of the Shrew

Much Ado About Nothing

The Comedy of Errors

As You Like It

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Correct answer:

The Taming of the Shrew

Explanation:

These are lines spoken by Petruchio in William Shakespeare's comedy The Taming of the Shrew. A major clue as to the source work of the lines is their content; here, Petruchio is soliloquizing about how he will woo Katherine ("Kate") despite the fact that she is not interested in him.

(Passage adapted from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare, II.i.168-180)

Example Question #1 : Identification Of British Prose 1660–1925

“The author of these Travels, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, is my ancient and intimate friend; there is likewise some relation between us on the mother’s side.  About three years ago, Mr. Gulliver growing weary of the concourse of curious people coming to him at his house in Redriff, made a small purchase of land, with a convenient house, near Newark, in Nottinghamshire, his native country; where he now lives retired, yet in good esteem among his neighbors.

Although Mr. Gulliver was born in Nottinghamshire, where his father dwelt, yet I have heard him say his family came from Oxfordshire; to confirm which, I have observed in the churchyard at Banbury in that county, several tombs and monuments of the Gullivers.”

Who wrote the above passage?

Possible Answers:

Daniel Defoe

Jonathan Swift

Susanna Rowson

William Blake

Samuel Johnson

Correct answer:

Jonathan Swift

Explanation:

This excerpt is taken from Irish writer Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World. An immediate hit when it was published in 1726, the work parodies a then-popular style of travel writing and satirizes humankind.

Passage adapted from Gulliver’s Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World by Jonathan Swift (1726).

Example Question #2 : Identification Of British Prose 1660–1925

My father's family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip.

I give Pirrip as my father's family name, on the authority of his tombstone and my sister,—Mrs. Joe Gargery, who married the blacksmith. As I never saw my father or my mother, and never saw any likeness of either of them (for their days were long before the days of photographs), my first fancies regarding what they were like were unreasonably derived from their tombstones. The shape of the letters on my father's, gave me an odd idea that he was a square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair. From the character and turn of the inscription, "Also Georgiana Wife of the Above," I drew a childish conclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly. To five little stone lozenges, each about a foot and a half long, which were arranged in a neat row beside their grave, and were sacred to the memory of five little brothers of mine,—who gave up trying to get a living, exceedingly early in that universal struggle,—I am indebted for a belief I religiously entertained that they had all been born on their backs with their hands in their trousers-pockets, and had never taken them out in this state of existence.

The above text was written by the author of:

Possible Answers:

Sister Carrie

Sense and Sensibility

Bleak House

A Room With a View

Sons and Lovers

Correct answer:

Bleak House

Explanation:

This text is taken from the opening lines of Charles Dickens’ 1860 novel Great Expectations. Dickens, a prolific English author, also wrote A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House, and more.

Example Question #3 : Identification Of British Prose 1660–1925

"The Signora had no business to do it," said Miss Bartlett, "no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are north rooms, looking into a courtyard, and a long way apart. Oh, Lucy!"

"And a Cockney, besides!" said Lucy, who had been further saddened by the Signora's unexpected accent. "It might be London." She looked at the two rows of English people who were sitting at the table; at the row of white bottles of water and red bottles of wine that ran between the English people; at the portraits of the late Queen and the late Poet Laureate that hung behind the English people, heavily framed; at the notice of the English church (Rev. Cuthbert Eager, M. A. Oxon.), that was the only other decoration of the wall. "Charlotte, don't you feel, too, that we might be in London? I can hardly believe that all kinds of other things are just outside. I suppose it is one's being so tired."

The above text is from a novel by which author?

Possible Answers:

Virginia Woolf

James Joyce

D.H. Lawrence

E.M. Forster

Rudyard Kipling

Correct answer:

E.M. Forster

Explanation:

These are the opening lines of E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View, published in 1908. The novel concerns a young English woman, Lucy Honeychurch, and her trip with Miss Bartlett to Florence, Italy. These two main characters are used by Forster to critique societal norms in turn-of-the-century England.

Example Question #162 : Identification

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

"But it is," returned she; "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it."

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.

"You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it."

This was invitation enough.

"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next week."

"What is his name?"

"Bingley."

"Is he married or single?"

"Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!"

Who wrote the above lines?

Possible Answers:

Emily Dickinson 

Virginia Woolf

Emily Bronte 

Charlotte Bronte

Jane Austen

Correct answer:

Jane Austen

Explanation:

These lines comprise the classic opening page of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, written in 1813.

Example Question #2 : Identification Of British Prose 1660–1925

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

This is the opening line of which of the following works of literature?

Possible Answers:

Wuthering Heights

Anna Karenina

Pride and Prejudice

Little Women

Gone with the Wind

Correct answer:

Pride and Prejudice

Explanation:

This is the opening line of Jane Austen’s classic 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice. Set in 19th century England, Pride and Prejudice tells the story of Elizabeth Bennett, as she navigates through decisions of love, marriage, and her own education.

Example Question #3 : Identification Of British Prose 1660–1925

“Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo.”

This is the opening line of which of the following literary works?

Possible Answers:

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Return of the Native

Nicholas Nickleby

Lord Jim

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Correct answer:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Explanation:

This is the opening of James Joyce’s 1916 novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. It portrays the spiritual and intellectual awakening of the protagonist, Stephen Dedalus.

Example Question #7 : Identification Of British Prose 1660–1925

“May she wake in torment!" he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. "Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there—not in heaven—not perished—where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer—I repeat it till my tongue stiffens—May she wake in torment!" he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. "Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there—not in heaven—not perished—where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer—I repeat it till my tongue stiffens—Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” 

Identify the author of the excerpt.

Possible Answers:

Emily Bronte

Jane Austen

Kate Chopin

George Eliot

Virginia Woolf

Correct answer:

Emily Bronte

Explanation:

The passage is from Emily Bronte's 1846 novel, Wuthering Heights. If the dramatic style of the monologue wasn't enough to help you figure out the source of the quotation, note that it mentions one of the novel's characters by her full name: "Catherine Earnshaw."

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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