Directions : Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow by…
2021
Directions : Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :
That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
What did the branches of the trees enjoy earlier?
- A.
a ruined group of singers
- B.
sweet songs of birds
- C.
bright light of the sun
- D.
darkness after the sunset
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Concept: Literal comprehension means locating information the passage states directly and matching it to the option that restates the same idea in different words — not adding an inference the text does not support.
Application: The first stanza describes the boughs (branches) that ‘shake against the cold’ and are now largely bare of leaves, then adds: ‘Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.’ The boughs are compared to the empty stalls of a ruined choir; ‘late’ here means ‘formerly.’ So the line states directly that birds' sweet songs used to fill those branches before they turned bare — that is exactly what the branches enjoyed earlier.
Cross-check — why the other options do not fit:
‘a ruined group of singers’ literalises the metaphor's vehicle — the ‘choirs’ the bare boughs now resemble — rather than what the boughs themselves experienced in the past; it reverses the subject and the comparison.
‘bright light of the sun’ belongs to the second stanza's twilight-at-sunset image, which describes the speaker's own age, not the boughs of the first stanza.
‘darkness after the sunset’ is also part of the second stanza's night imagery about the speaker, not a description of the branches.
Result: ‘sweet songs of birds’ directly restates the poem's own line about the boughs.