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Keeping Quiet — GK Questions with Answers

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12 questions
  1. "Keeping Quiet" was written by —
    1. Nissim Ezekiel
    2. Pablo Neruda
    3. Kamala Das
    4. Octavio Paz
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    Answer: (B) Pablo Neruda

    It is by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who won the Nobel Prize in 1971.

  2. The poem was originally written in —
    1. English
    2. Spanish
    3. French
    4. Portuguese
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    Answer: (B) Spanish

    Neruda wrote in Spanish; the title is A callarse. We read a translation.

  3. The poet asks us to count to —
    1. ten
    2. twelve
    3. twenty
    4. sixty
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    Answer: (B) twelve

    Twelve — suggesting the hours of a clock and the months of a year.

  4. In the silence, the fishermen would —
    1. catch more fish
    2. not harm the whales
    3. sell their boats
    4. return home
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    Answer: (B) not harm the whales

    Harm to the natural world would stop for that moment.

  5. The man gathering salt would —
    1. sing a song
    2. look at his hurt hands
    3. leave his work for ever
    4. complain to his master
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    Answer: (B) look at his hurt hands

    He would finally notice his own injured hands — the unnoticed cost of labour.

  6. "Green wars" in the poem refers to wars —
    1. fought in forests only
    2. fought over land and natural resources
    3. fought by young soldiers
    4. fought with bows and arrows
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    Answer: (B) fought over land and natural resources

    They are wars over land and natural resources, listed beside wars with gas and fire.

  7. The poet says his request must not be confused with —
    1. total inactivity
    2. religious prayer
    3. political protest
    4. physical exercise
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    Answer: (A) total inactivity

    He insists he is asking for a pause, not for giving up. "Life is what it is about."

  8. What does the poet say he wants no truck with?
    1. Noise
    2. Death
    3. Politics
    4. Money
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    Answer: (B) Death

    He is firmly on the side of life; the silence he asks for serves living.

  9. The Earth teaches us that —
    1. everything must die
    2. what seems dead is often alive
    3. nature is cruel
    4. silence is impossible
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    Answer: (B) what seems dead is often alive

    In winter the ground seems dead and later proves alive — stillness renews.

  10. The poem is written in —
    1. rhymed couplets
    2. free verse
    3. blank verse
    4. the Spenserian stanza
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    Answer: (B) free verse

    Plain, unrhymed free verse in short stanzas.

  11. "Clean clothes" in the poem symbolise —
    1. wealth
    2. a fresh start after war
    3. religious purity
    4. summer weather
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    Answer: (B) a fresh start after war

    Enmity is washed away and men walk about as brothers.

  12. The central theme of "Keeping Quiet" is —
    1. the beauty of nature
    2. self-examination and peace through stillness
    3. the hardship of fishermen
    4. the passing of the seasons
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    Answer: (B) self-examination and peace through stillness

    A shared pause so that we may finally understand ourselves and stop harming each other.

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