Remnant Christian Colleges-Palawan

Afro-Asian Literature
Prelim Examination

Name: ______________________________________ Date: ______________ Score:

___________

I Multiple Choice. Choose the letter of the correct answer. Write your answer before the number.

1. Below is an excerpt from the Panchatantra.

The Lion-Makers

Scholarship is less than sense/ Therefore seek intelligence:

Senseless scholars in their pride/ Made a lion; then they died.
What is the moral expressed in this verse?
a. Intelligence is more important that scholarship.
b. Too much studying can make one lose common sense.
c. One should remain humble of his/her achievements.
d. A person without scholarship is like a dead lion.

2. ___________ tells of the struggle for supremacy between two groups of

cousins.
a. Mahabharata b. Ramayana c. Bhagavad Gita
d. Vedas

3. ____________ is a collection of Indian fables originally written in Sanskrit.

a. Ramayana b. Panchatantra c. Bhagavad Gita
d. Rigveda

4. _____________ is a young female writer whose first book The God of Small
Things won her for a Booker prize.
a. Vir Singh b. Anita Desai c. Arundhati Roy
d. Kamala Markandaya

5. Below is an excerpt from the Bhagavad Gita.

Arjuna sat dejected/ filled with pity,/ his sad eyes blurred by tears. Krishna gave him
counsel.
Lord Krishna: Why this cowardice/ in time of crisis, Arjuna?/ The coward is ignoble,
shameful, foreign to the ways of heaven// Dont yield to impotence!/ It is unnatural in
you!/ Banish this petty weakness from your heart./ Raise to the fight, Arjuna!
Arjuna: Krishna, how can I fight/ against Brishma and Drona/ with arrows/ when they
deserve my worship?// It is better in this world/ to beg for scraps of food/ than to eat
meals/ smeared with the blood of elders I killed/ at the heights of their power/ while
theirArjuna
What reason does goals/ were
givestill
for desires.
not wanting to fight?
a. He feels weak from hunger.
b. He want to use another weapon aside from the arrows.
c. He does not want to kill his elders from whom he admires.
d. He proposes for his dialogue between the two camps.

6. ______ means the hymns of supreme sacred knowledge and is the oldest of
the Vedas.
a. Rigveda b. Vedas c. Atharva-Veda
d. Samhita

7. Who wrote the famous Indian epic Ramayana?

a. Vyaas b. Valmiki c. Guru Vashitra
d. Narayana
8. In ________, life is viewed as an upward development through four stages of
effort.
a. Buddhism b. Hinduism c. Taoism
d. Confucianism

9. Below is an excerpt from the Rigveda.

To Indra
Like violent gusts of wind the draughts that I have drunk have lifted me?
Have I not drunk of soma-juice?
The draughts I drank have borne me up, as fleet-foot horses draw a car:
Have I not drunk of soma-juice?
What does the imagery suggest about how the Hindus regard their religion?
a. Religion is their salvation from the earthly life.
b. With their religion, they are able to escape difficulties in the world.
c. Religion dictates their way of life and philosophy.
d. The Hindus are intoxicated with religion which defines their
existence.

10.Below is an excerpt from the poem Taj Mahal.

To you, my love, the Taj is a symbol of love. Fine.

Fine too that you venerate this, the valley where it
sits.
How
But does thesomewhere
meet me persona else.
feel about the Taj Mahal?
a. critical b. appreciative c. inspired d.
disrespectful

11.________ reflects the Hindu values and forms of social organization, the theory
of karma, the ideals of wifehood, and feelings about caste, honor, and
promises.
a. Panchatantra b. Bhagavad Gita c. Mahabharata d.
Ramayana

12.The following are literary periods in India, except;

a. Vedic b. Epic and Buddhist c. Classical d.
Neo-classicism

13.________ focuses on self-awareness and self-development in order to attain

nirvana.
a. Taoism b. Buddhism c. Hinduism d.
Confucianism

14.Which of these lines from Sakuntala is an example of irony?

a. Fear shrinks to half the body small.
b. Our garden blossoms yield to these/ Flower-children of the wood
c. The thing you feared as fire/ Is the jewel of your desire
d. and trustful deer/ That do not run away as we draw near

15.The _________ is an anthology of Basic Buddhist teaching in a simple

aphoristic style. Usually compared with the Letters of St. Paul in the Bible.
a. Ramayana b. Dhammapada c. Panchatantra d.
Vedas

16.In the story of Ramayana, Sita was the daughter of King ______.
a. Himavaan b. Dasaratha c. Vibheeshara d.
Janaka

17.___________________ is a novel about an Indian peasants narrative of her

difficult life.
 a. Swami and Friends c. The God of Small Things
b. Sakuntala d. Nectar in the Sieve

18.What emotion is dominant in these lines from Tagores Gitanjali: Away from
the sight of thy face, my heart knows no rest nor respite.
a. boredom b. indifference c. restlessness d.
weariness

19.Below is an excerpt from the essay, On Learning to be an Indian.

What is the theme of Santha Rama

My grandmother cannot Raus
speak essay?
English. I have never discovered whether this is from
a. conflict between Indian
principle heritage
or simply andshe
because British upbringing
has never tried, but she understands it perfectly. In
b. generation gaps
Englandamong
Motherthree ages:
had kept grandmother,
Premila mother,
and me familiar with and herself
Hindustani by speaking it to us
when we were
c. language superiority home for over
of English vacations, and by teaching us Indian songs.
Hindustani
d. education in India against the British education system

20.The dire bow of King Janaka was bended by ____.

a. Rama b. Bharat c. Ravana d.
Lakshmana

21.________ literally means the belief of India and is the predominant faith of
the country.
a. Hinduism b. Confucianism c. Buddhism d.
Taoism

22.To whom did Vishnu reincarnated in the story of Mahabharata?

a. Rama b. Sita c. Brahman d.
Krishna

23.Below is an excerpt from the Ramayana.

Ramayana
But before I leave thee, Sita, in the wilderness to rove
Yield me one more tender token of thy true and trustful love
Serve my crowned brother, Sita, as a faithful, duteous dame.
Tell him not of Ramas virtues, tell him not of Ramas claim,
Since my royal father willeth, - Bharat shall be regent-heir
Serve him with a loyal duty, serve him with obeisance fair
Since my royal father willeth, - years of banishment be mine
Brave in
Which sorrow
best and in suffering,
describe Rama inwomans brightest fame be thine.
this excerpt?
a. He is afraid of his brother Bharat.
b. He is unafraid of suffering.
c. He is a dutiful son to the King, his father.
d. He asserts his right to the throne as heir.

24.Rama was the son of Dasaratha and ________.

a. Sumitra b. Kaikeyi c. Kunti d.
Kausalya

25.______ is the renunciation of duty, wealth, and love in order to seek spiritual
perfection.
a. Dharma b. Moksha c. Kama d. Maya

26.__________________ was the great Indian poet and dramatist, and was awarded
the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913.
a. Kalidasa b. Prem Chand c. Rabindranath Tagore d.
Anita Desai

27.Below is an excerpt of a verse from the Dhammapada.

The Twin Verses

All that we are is the result of what we have thought, it is founded on our thoughts, it is
made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him as
the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
All that we are is the result of what we have thought, it is founded on our thoughts, it is
made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows
him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
 _____________ is the rhetorical device used in this verse.
a. Alliteration b. Assonance c. Anaphora
d. Onomatopoeia

28.Rama is the reincarnation of which Hindu god?

a. Shiva b. Brahma c. Vishnu
d. Indra
29.The following are works of Anita Desai, except;
a. Nectar in the Sieve c. Fire on the Mountain
b. Cry, The Peacock d. Clear Light of Day

30.Below is an excerpt from the essay, On Learning To Be An Indian.

But every time he read This is mama, his mothers heart would jump. On the sixth
day of school, she could stand it no longer. She snatched the book from him and said, Let
me see who your mama is! Thinking that his mother was really eager to learn, the boy
pointed to the accompanying picture and said, This is Mama the lady with leather
shoes, bobbed hair, and long dress. Once glance at the picture and Mother burst out
crying. Grandfather, Grandmother, and Father were frightened, thinking that she might
have become possessed by some evil spirits. At first she only cried and would not say
anything when they asked her what the matter was, but when they persisted, she said,
Where
Why didthe
does the mother
boy get that
cryvampire-like
upon seeing mama?
the book?
a. She dislikes the way the mother is portrayed in the book.
b. She is upset that the book presents another mother to the boy.
c. She is finds out that the boy is not her real son.
d. She is afraid of the vampire-like picture of the mother in the book.
Test II Essay (10 pts.)

Discuss the three characteristics of Indian literature.

Test III Identification. Answer the following puzzle. Use a pencil if needed. Strictly no erasures.
Wrong spelling is wrong.

Across
2. novel that deals with the hard and unrewarding life of the village
peasant
3. Sakuntala
5. novel of Prem Chand that deals with the problems of prostitution
and moral corruption
7. serve as the theoretical basis for the organization of the Hindu
society
8. classic textbook on erotics
9. Enlightened One
Down
1. result of past thought and actions of a person
4. Way of Truth
5. cycle of births and deaths
6. virtue, duty