Major Field Test in Literature in English Sample Questions
Major Field Test in Literature in English Sample Questions
Major Field Test in Literature in English Sample Questions
SAMPLE QUESTIONS
Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five suggested answers or
completions. Select the one that is best in each case.
1. ------- is the chef-doeuvre of Miltons early poetry,
and one of the greatest lyrics in the language. In it
Milton confronts and works through his most
profound personal concerns: about vocation, about
early death, about belatedness and unfulfillment,
about the worth of poetry. He also sounds the
leitmotifs of reformist politics: the dangers posed by
a corrupt clergy and church, the menace of Rome,
the adumbrations of apocalypse, the call to
prophecy. The opening phrase, Yet once more,
prepares for such inclusiveness.
The poem discussed above is
(A) Comus (A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle)
(B) On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a
Cough
(C) On the Morning of Christs Nativity
(D) Lycidas
(E) Il Penseroso
2.
9.
Line
5
17.
Line
5
(D)
(E)
Answers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
D
A
E
A
C
C
A
C
E
C
D
D
E
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
D
C
E
E
D
A
D
C
B
D
A
C
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