GS: Hindi / English · Language questions stay in their original language.
150 questions · 150 marks · 2 hours 30 minutes
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Correct answer: (C) वृद्धि संधि
An ‘अ/आ’ becoming ‘ऐ’ before ‘ए/ऐ’, and ‘औ’ before ‘ओ/औ’, is vriddhi sandhi—as in ‘महा + औषधि = महौषधि’.
Correct answer: (C) सौजन्य, उज्ज्वल, भ्रातृगण, उपर्युक्त
The correct forms are ‘सौजन्य’ (‘सौजन्यता’ doubles the suffix), ‘उज्ज्वल’, ‘भ्रातृगण’ and ‘उपर्युक्त’ (‘उपर्’ + ‘उक्त’). That is the combination in the third option.
Correct answer: (C) मैं अपनी बात के स्पष्टीकरण के लिए तैयार हूँ।
‘स्पष्टीकरण’ takes ‘के’, not ‘का’—‘अपनी बात के स्पष्टीकरण के लिए’. So the third sentence is the correct one.
Correct answer: (A) रजनीचर
भुजंग and उरग are both synonyms for a serpent, but ‘रजनीचर’ means one who roams by night—a demon or night-walker.
Correct answer: (B) Feminine
In Hindi ‘जेब’ is feminine, which is why one says ‘जेब खाली है’ and not ‘जेब खाली हैं’.
Correct answer: (C) Intransitive verb
Here ‘भरता’ has no object—the pot fills of itself—so the verb is intransitive.
Correct answer: (A) Active voice
The form in which the subject is prominent is the active voice, as in ‘राम पत्र लिखता है’. In the passive the object is prominent, and in the impersonal the action itself.
Correct answer: (C) विकर्षण
‘आकर्षण’ means drawing towards oneself, so its opposite is ‘विकर्षण’, pushing away.
Correct answer: (D) More than one of the above
Both ‘आद्यंत’ and ‘आद्योपांत’ are current words for ‘from beginning to end’, so more than one option is correct.
Correct answer: (B) श्रुतिसम भिन्नार्थक
Words that sound alike yet differ in meaning are called श्रुतिसम भिन्नार्थक—‘अंश’ and ‘अंस’, or ‘समान’ and ‘सामान’.
Correct answer: (C) Ramvilas Sharma
Panini and Patanjali are masters of Sanskrit grammar, but Ramvilas Sharma was a critic and thinker, not a grammarian.
Correct answer: (A) The combination of two sounds is sandhi and the joining of two words is samasa
Sandhi is the meeting of sounds and samasa the joining of two words—exactly the distinction the first option draws.
Correct answer: (B) Agent case
‘ने’ marks the agent case—in ‘राम ने पत्र लिखा’ it is Ram who does the writing.
Correct answer: (B) उत्
The prefix in ‘उच्छ्वास’ is ‘उत्’—‘उत् + श्वास’ becomes ‘उच्छ्वास’ by the rules of sandhi.
Correct answer: (A) Subject
The subject together with the words attached to it is the उद्देश्य; the rest, said about the subject, is the विधेय or predicate.
Correct answer: (A) Abstract noun
Adding a taddhita suffix to an adjective gives an abstract noun—‘मधुर’ becomes ‘मधुरता’, ‘सुंदर’ becomes ‘सुंदरता’.
Correct answer: (B) Sandhi
A new word formed by the meeting of two letters is sandhi. In a compound two whole words join, not letters.
Correct answer: (C) Tadbhava
Words that entered Hindi altered from Sanskrit and Prakrit are tadbhava—‘अग्नि’ becoming ‘आग’. Those that came in their original form are tatsama.
Correct answer: (C) परमेश्वर
‘परमेश्वर’ is ‘परम ईश्वर’, where the first member describes the second—that is a karmadharaya compound. ‘त्रिलोक’ is dvigu.
Correct answer: (B) 8
By meaning a sentence may be of eight kinds—declarative, negative, interrogative, imperative, optative, dubitative, conditional and exclamatory.
Correct answer: (C) Compound sentence
A sentence joining more than one independent principal clause with a conjunction is compound. In a complex sentence one clause is principal and the rest depend on it.
Correct answer: (B) Semicolon
‘;’ is the semicolon. It marks a longer pause than a comma and a shorter one than a full stop.
Correct answer: (C) To tell an incapable person
The proverb means that speaking to someone incapable of understanding only costs you something yourself.
Correct answer: (B) गड़े मुर्दे उखाड़ना
‘गड़े मुर्दे उखाड़ना’ means raking up old, finished matters again.
Correct answer: (B) Word
A group of letters that yields some meaning is a word. The same word, used in a sentence, becomes a ‘पद’.
Correct answer: (B) Approximant/semivowel
य, र, ल and व are called अन्तःस्थ, because they are pronounced in a position between a vowel and a consonant.
Correct answer: (A) य
The nasal consonants are ङ, ञ, ण, न and म, said with the breath coming through the nose. ‘य’ is not nasal but a semivowel.
Correct answer: (C) Suggestion
The single word ‘पानी’ carries three different senses here—the lustre of a pearl, a person's honour and plain water—all hinted at rather than stated. That hidden sense is suggestion (व्यंजना).
Correct answer: (B) Alliteration
The letters ‘म’ and ‘स’ recur through the line—‘मुदित महीपति मंदिर’, ‘सेवक सचिव सुमंत्र’. That repetition of sounds is alliteration.
Correct answer: (C) Metre
Metre is built by counting light and heavy syllabic instants, so laghu and guru are its components.
Correct answer: (A) 2
Metre has two principal kinds—मात्रिक, counted by syllabic instants, and वर्णिक, counted by letters.
Correct answer: (B) Regional dialect or sub-dialect
When a dialect spreads until it is current through a whole province or sub-province, it is called a विभाषा or sub-dialect.
Correct answer: (C) Notification
Government rules, orders and appointments appear in the gazette as a notification. A circular is a letter sent round to several offices.
Correct answer: (B) Precis
The chief qualities of a precis are brevity, clarity and coherence—the original matter in short form, clear and in order.
Correct answer: (C) Perplexed/at a loss what to do
One who is caught in uncertainty and cannot tell what to do is called ‘किंकर्तव्यविमूढ़’.
Correct answer: (E) None of the above
Charpat and Nagarjun are poets of the Siddha literature and Narpatinalh of the Raso poetry—none of them is a Jain writer, so the answer is ‘None of the above’.
Correct answer: (C) a-3, b-1, c-4, d-2
Nabhadas belongs to the Bhaktikal, Chand Bardai to the Adikal, ‘Premghan’ to the modern period and Keshavdas to the Ritikal—that is a-3, b-1, c-4, d-2.
Correct answer: (A) a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3
‘Yashodhara’ is champu poetry, ‘Rashmirathi’ a khandakavya, ‘Bihari Satsai’ muktak poetry and ‘Ramcharitmanas’ an epic—that is a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3.
Correct answer: (B) a-3, b-1, c-4, d-2
‘Nirmala’ is Premchand's, ‘Tyagpatra’ Jainendra Kumar's, ‘Kankal’ Jaishankar Prasad's and ‘Girti Deewarein’ Upendranath Ashk's—that is a-3, b-1, c-4, d-2.
Correct answer: (C) Prose period
Acharya Ramchandra Shukla called the modern period the ‘prose period’, because every form of prose developed in it.
Correct answer: (C) Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi
Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi is famous as the fearless editor of ‘Pratap’. Shyamsundar Das was a linguist and Sudarshan a story-writer.
Correct answer: (B) a-4, b-3, c-1, d-2
‘Shivsinh Saroj’ is Shivsinh Sengar's, ‘Modern Vernacular Literature of Hindustan’ Grierson's, ‘History of Hindi Literature’ Ramchandra Shukla's and ‘Mishrabandhu Vinod’ the Mishrabandhus'—that is a-4, b-3, c-1, d-2.
Correct answer: (C) a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3
‘Yathashakti’ is avyayibhava, ‘Deshbhakti’ tatpurusha, ‘Pitambar’ bahuvrihi and ‘Hathapai’ dvandva—that is a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3.
Correct answer: (C) a-3, b-4, c-2, d-1
According is तदनुसार, Census is जनगणना, Basic Pay is मूल वेतन and Adjustment is समायोजन—that is a-3, b-4, c-2, d-1.
Correct answer: (A) a-2, b-4, c-3, d-1
‘हाथ कंगन को आरसी क्या’ = what proof does the evident need; ‘हाथी के दाँत…’ = a difference between word and deed; ‘सब धान बाईस पसेरी’ = to the ignorant everything is alike; ‘होनहार बिरवान…’ = a child's promise shows early—that is a-2, b-4, c-3, d-1.
Correct answer: (A) a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3
‘हम खा चुके’ is declarative, ‘उसने नहीं खाया’ negative, ‘क्या तुम खा रहे हो?’ interrogative and ‘तुम खाओ’ imperative—that is a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3.
Correct answer: (B) Where polysemous words are used
Verbal suggestion arises where a word has several meanings and one of them yields a hidden sense beyond the obvious. Change the word and the suggestion disappears.
Correct answer: (B) Utpreksha
‘Like a flower of lightning blossoming’ imagines one thing as possibly another—that is utpreksha. A simile compares; it does not suppose.
Correct answer: (A) Drutavilambit
Each line of this passage has twelve letters in the order that makes the drutavilambit metre—a favourite of Ayodhyasingh Upadhyay ‘Hariaudh’.
Correct answer: (A) Vibhava is the cause that awakens emotion
Vibhavas are the causes that awaken feeling—the subject who feels and the object that stirs it. The permanent emotion and its expressive consequences are separate elements.