23 multiple-choice (MCQ / objective) questions from this chapter, in the common exam-style shapes. Every question comes with an explanation along with the answer, so you remember why the option is correct, not just which one it is.
1 Direct Questions
Direct Questions
- 1 markWhat stands at the edge of the road, in the poem’s first two lines?
(A) An old windmill(B) A big brick house(C) A wooden barn(D) A little old house with a little new shed - 1 markIn the poem’s own metaphor, what does the money the stand wants actually support?
(A) The roadside signs(B) The flower of cities(C) The traffic police(D) The farmer’s crops - 1 markWhen city travellers do notice the stand’s signs, what irritates them?
(A) The signs’ artless paint marring the landscape(B) Wrong prices(C) Rude language on the signs(D) Too many signs crowding the road - 1 markWhat does the poet say is the real “hurt”, more than the spoiled scenery?
(A) The loss of income(B) The trusting sorrow of what is unsaid(C) The traffic noise(D) The ugly signs themselves - 1 markWhat do the sellers say “the party in power” is said to be doing?
(A) Building new roads for them(B) Taxing them fairly(C) Giving them the promised life of the movies(D) Keeping the promised life of the movies from them - 1 markWhat is the real cost of the resettlement the poem describes as “mercifully gathered in”?
(A) They won’t have to think for themselves anymore(B) Longer working hours(C) Higher taxes(D) Loss of land ownership papers - 1 markWhat does the poet feel about the rural poor’s continual, unanswered hoping?
(A) He blames them for being foolish(B) He finds it comic(C) He can hardly bear the thought of their childish longing in vain(D) He is indifferent to it - 1 markWhat figure of speech is used in the phrase “the flower of cities”?
(A) Alliteration(B) Metaphor(C) Personification(D) Simile - 1 markWhich device is shown by the repeated initial ‘g’ sound in “greedy good-doers” (line 27)?
(A) Alliteration(B) Second-person address(C) Personification(D) Simile
2 Assertion-Reason
Assertion-Reason
- 1 markAssertion (A): The passing city traffic in the poem is sympathetic to the roadside sellers.
Reason (R): If it ever looks aside for a moment, it is only “out of sorts” at having the landscape marred by the stand’s artless signs.
(A) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A(B) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true - 1 markAssertion (A): “Greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey” is an oxymoron.
Reason (R): It places directly contradictory words side by side.
(A) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A(B) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true - 1 markAssertion (A): The poem is written in a fixed, regular rhyme scheme like ABAB.
Reason (R): The rhyming words fall at uneven distances, so the rhyme scheme is irregular.
(A) Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A(B) Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A(C) A is true, but R is false(D) A is false, but R is true
3 Match the Following
Match the Following
- 1 markMatch the device in Column A with its example from the poem in Column B, and choose the correct combination.
Column A: (1) Personification (2) Oxymoron (3) Metaphor (4) Second-person address
Column B: (i) “I wonder how I should like you to come to me” (ii) “The flower of cities” (iii) “greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey” (iv) “A roadside stand that too pathetically pled”
(A) 1-ii, 2-i, 3-iv, 4-iii(B) 1-iii, 2-iv, 3-i, 4-ii(C) 1-i, 2-ii, 3-iii, 4-iv(D) 1-iv, 2-iii, 3-ii, 4-i - 1 markMatch the word in Column A with its meaning in Column B, and choose the correct combination.
Column A: (1) Quarts (2) Squash (3) Dole (4) Beneficent
Column B: (i) Charity, a handout (ii) Doing good, generous (iii) Bottles or containers (iv) A kind of vegetable (gourd)
(A) 1-i, 2-ii, 3-iii, 4-iv(B) 1-iii, 2-iv, 3-i, 4-ii(C) 1-ii, 2-iii, 3-iv, 4-i(D) 1-iv, 2-i, 3-ii, 4-iii
4 Statement-Based Questions
Statement-Based Questions
- 1 markStatement I: The stand is built right at the edge of a busy road.
Statement II: The paint on the signs looks crude (‘artless’), and some signs have letters turned the wrong way.
(A) Both I and II are true(B) I is true, II is false(C) I is false, II is true(D) Both I and II are false - 1 markStatement I: The poem uses “the flower of cities” as a metaphor for money-fed urban prosperity.
Statement II: The poem states that country money brings the same “lift of spirit” as city money.
(A) I is false, II is true(B) Both I and II are true(C) Both I and II are false(D) I is true, II is false - 1 markStatement I: The NCERT textbook prints the poem in five stanzas of unequal length.
Statement II: The poem’s rhyme scheme is irregular, not a fixed repeating pattern.
(A) I is true, II is false(B) Both I and II are false(C) Both I and II are true(D) I is false, II is true
5 Arrange in the Correct Order
Arrange in the Correct Order
- 1 markArrange the following in the order they appear in the poem.
(1) The poet admits wanting to end their pain “at one stroke”
(2) The signs advertise wild berries and squash
(3) The stand “pathetically pled”
(4) The rural sellers explain wanting “city money”
(A) 3, 2, 4, 1(B) 3, 4, 2, 1(C) 1, 3, 2, 4(D) 2, 3, 4, 1
6 Fill in the Blanks
Fill in the Blanks
- 1 mark“But for some of the ______, whose flow supports / The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.”
(A) wood(B) food(C) money(D) land
7 Odd One Out
Odd One Out
- 1 markWhich of these is NOT offered for sale on the roadside stand’s signs?
(A) Fresh milk(B) A beauty rest in a beautiful mountain scene(C) Golden squash(D) Wild berries
8 Passage-Based Questions
Passage-Based Questions
Passage
The little old house was out with a little new shed / In front at the edge of the road where the traffic sped, / A roadside stand that too pathetically pled, / It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread, / But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports / The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.
- 1 markAccording to the passage, what does the roadside stand actually plead for?
(A) A government pension(B) New road repairs(C) A dole of bread(D) Some of the money whose flow supports cities
Passage
While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey, / Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits / That are calculated to soothe them out of their wits, / And by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day, / Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way.
- 1 markAccording to the passage, what do the “beneficent beasts of prey” do to the rural poor’s lives?
(A) Swarm over them, enforcing benefits(B) Give them free land(C) Educate their children(D) Leave them entirely alone
9 True / False
True / False
- 1 markRead the following statements about the poem and choose how many of them are TRUE.
(1) The stand pleads for a dole of bread.
(2) The stand is set up right at the edge of the road.
(3) The poem is printed as one single, unbroken stanza.
(4) The poem’s rhyme scheme is a strict, regular pattern.
(A) One(B) Two(C) Three(D) Four
Answer Key and Explanations
Direct Questions
- (D) “The little old house was out with a little new shed / In front at the edge of the road where the traffic sped.”
- (B) “Whose flow supports / The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.”
- (A) They are “out of sorts / At having the landscape marred with the artless paint” of the signs.
- (B) “The hurt to the scenery wouldn’t be my complaint / So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid.”
- (D) “The life of the moving-pictures’ promise / That the party in power is said to be keeping from us.”
- (A) “Where they won’t have to think for themselves anymore” — the price is their independence.
- (C) “Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear / The thought of so much childish longing in vain.”
- (B) Cities are directly called a flower, without using “like” or “as”, which makes this a metaphor, not a simile.
- (A) The initial ‘g’ sound repeated across “greedy” and “good-doers” is alliteration.
Assertion-Reason
- (D) A is false: the traffic passes “with a mind ahead”, and when it does notice the stand it is irritated, not sympathetic. R is true (lines 8-9) and is exactly the evidence of that lack of sympathy.
- (B) Both A and R are true: “greedy” contradicts “good-doers,” and “beneficent” contradicts “beasts of prey.” But R only defines the device; it does not explain why the poet uses it, so R is not the correct explanation of A.
- (D) A is false: the poem’s rhyme is present but irregular, not a fixed repeating pattern. R is true.
Match the Following
- (D) Personification is the pleading stand (iv), oxymoron is “greedy good-doers… beasts of prey” (iii), metaphor is “the flower of cities” (ii), and second-person address is the final “you” line (i).
- (B) Quarts are containers (iii), squash is a vegetable (iv), dole is charity (i), and beneficent means generous (ii).
Statement-Based Questions
- (A) Both are true: “at the edge of the road” (line 2) and “the artless paint / Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong” (lines 9-10).
- (D) I is true (line 6). II is false: “in country money, the country scale of gain, / The requisite lift of spirit has never been found.”
- (C) Both are true: the textbook prints the 51 lines in five stanzas, with (narrow) breaks after lines 22, 31, 41 and 43, and the rhyme is present but irregular, not a fixed repeating pattern.
Arrange in the Correct Order
- (A) The stand pleads first (3, line 3), the signs are described next (2, lines 10-13), the sellers explain their wish for city money next (4, lines 18-20), and the “one stroke” confession comes last (1, lines 47-48).
Fill in the Blanks
- (C) “But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports the flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.”
Odd One Out
- (A) The signs offer wild berries, crook-necked golden squash and a beauty rest in a beautiful mountain scene. Fresh milk is never mentioned.
Passage-Based Questions
- (D) The passage’s own words: “But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports / The flower of cities.”
- (A) “Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits / That are calculated to soothe them out of their wits.”
True / False
- (A) Only statement 2 is true. Statement 1 is false (the poem denies this), statement 3 is false (the textbook prints it in five stanzas), and statement 4 is false (irregular rhyme).
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