WB SLST 2025 English Practice Questions: Prepare for WB SLST 2025 English Literature with “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Eliot! This mock test and practice set is designed to help candidates master one of the most important poems in modern English literature. From summary and thematic analysis to multiple-choice questions, important lines, and objective practice, this resource covers everything you need to excel. Whether you’re revising T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men” for the WB SLST 2025 English exam or aiming to strengthen your grasp of modernist poetry, you’ll find questions and answers, mock tests, and detailed explanations here. Perfect for competitive exam preparation, this set ensures you’re ready for any poetry-related questions in the upcoming SLST English paper.
Table of Contents
WB SLST 2025 English Practice Questions: l Part I: One-Sentence Q&A (Literary References, Allusions, Background)
- What is the source of the epigraph “Mistah Kurtz—he dead”? – From Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness.
- Who was Guy Fawkes, alluded to in the poem? – A conspirator in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot against the English Parliament.
- What is the significance of the line “A penny for the Old Guy”? – Refers to a British children’s chant asking for money on Guy Fawkes Night.
- How does The Hollow Men reflect post-World War I disillusionment? – By portraying spiritual barrenness and the moral vacuum of modern life.
- What biblical river is indirectly evoked by the fading star? – The River Jordan, symbolizing the passage to salvation.
- What religious text is referenced in “For Thine is the Kingdom”? – The Lord’s Prayer from the Bible.
- What does the shadow symbolize in the poem? – Spiritual paralysis and the barrier between intent and action.
- Which Dantean imagery does Eliot borrow in the poem? – From Inferno, where the spiritually indifferent dwell in Limbo.
- How does Eliot use the image of scarecrows in the poem? – As symbols of spiritual emptiness and superficial existence.
- What is the historical context of Eliot’s despair in The Hollow Men? – The spiritual crisis following the horrors of World War I.
- How is the poem linked to Eliot’s earlier work The Waste Land? – Both explore spiritual desolation in modern civilization.
- What classical author’s ideas are reflected in the theme of paralysis? – Shakespeare, particularly in Hamlet.
- Why is the poem considered apocalyptic? – It predicts moral collapse and the existential void of humanity.
- What is the symbolic role of the eyes in the poem? – They symbolize spiritual vision and lost divinity.
- What does “This is the way the world ends” suggest? – That the world will end in insignificance, not violence.
- What literary movement does Eliot belong to? – Modernism.
- Why are the hollow men afraid to look at those with direct eyes? – They fear confronting truth and moral judgment.
- What nursery rhyme is alluded to in the poem’s final lines? – “Here we go round the mulberry bush.”
- How does Eliot incorporate Christian eschatology in the poem? – By reflecting on judgment, salvation, and spiritual death.
- What is the effect of Eliot’s fragmented structure in the poem? – It mirrors the fragmentation of modern spiritual identity.
- What is the significance of “between the motion and the act”? – It highlights the impotence of human will.
- How does Eliot portray the modern individual? – As spiritually hollow, paralyzed, and disconnected from meaning.
- What poetic technique dominates Eliot’s style in The Hollow Men? – Free verse with allusion and juxtaposition.
- What mythological river may be inferred by “death’s other kingdom”? – The River Styx, separating life and death.
- What does the “cactus land” metaphor suggest? – A barren, lifeless spiritual landscape.
- How does the poem contrast death’s dream kingdom with the real world? – The dream kingdom is ironically more ordered than the spiritually void living world.
- How is silence used symbolically in the poem? – As a metaphor for spiritual inertia and failed communication.
- What is the effect of repeating “we are the hollow men”? – It reinforces the collective spiritual emptiness.
- Why is the poem often seen as a meditation on death? – It explores various realms between life, death, and afterlife.
- What is the tone of The Hollow Men? – Bleak, despairing, and spiritually anxious.
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