CAT Model Paper 1 Questions and Answers with Detailed Explanations (Official Sample Questions-Most Important for 2020-2021) Part 5


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45. Read the Passage given below and answer the question that following based on the information given in the passage.

During the Victorian period, Women writers were measured against a social rather than aliterary ideal. Hence, it was widely thought that novels by women should be modest, religious, sensitive, guiless, and chaste, like their authors Many Victorian women writers took exception to this belief, however, resisting the imposition of nonliterary restrictions on their work. Publishers soon discovered that the gentlest and most iddylike female novelists were tough-minded and relentless when their professional integrity was at stake. Keenly aware of their artistic responsibilites, these women writers would not make concessions to secure commercial success.

The Brontes, George Eliot, Elizabeth Barrent Browning, and their lesser-known contemporaries repudiated, in their professional lives, the courtesy that Victorian ladies might exact from Victorian gentlemen. Desining rigorous and impartial criticism, most women writers did not wish reviewers to be kind to them if kindness meant overlooking their literary weaknesses or flattering thern on their accomplishments simply because of their sex.They had expected derisive reviews, instead, they found themselves confronted with generous criticism, which they considered condescending Elizabeth Barrett Browning labeled it “the comparative respect which means…. Absolute scom.”

For their part, Victorian critics were virtually obsessed with finding the place of the woman writer so as to judge her appropriately. Many bluntly admitted that they thought Jane Eyre a masterpiece if written by a man, shocking or disgusting if written by a woman. Moreover, reactinary reviewers were quick to associate an independent heroine with carefully concealed revolutionary doctine, several consideredd jane Eyre a radical feminist document, as indeed it was. To Charlotte Bronte, Who hawho considered hd demanded dignity and independence with out any revolutionary intent and who considered herself politically conservative, their criticism was an affront . Such criticism bunched all women writers together rather than treating them as individual artists.

Charlotte Bronte’s experience served as a warning to other women writers about the prejudices that immediately associated them with feminists and others thought to be political radicals. Irritated, and anxious to derach themselves from a group stereotype, many expressed relatively conservative views on the emancipation of women (except on the subject of women’s education) and stressed their own domestic accomplishments. However, in identifying themselves with women who had chosen the traditional career path of marriage and motherhood, these writers encountered still another threat to their creativity. Victorian prudery rendered virully all experience that was uniquely feminine unprintable. No nineteenth-century woman dared to describe childbirth, much less her sexual passion Men could not write about their sexual experiences either, but they could write about sport, business, crime, and war-all activities from which women were barred. No wonder no woman produced a novel like war and peace. What is amazing is the wolume of first-rate prose and poetry that Victorian women did write.

45. Group Question.


According to the passage, Victorian women writers “Would not make concessions” (line 13) to publishers primarily because they felt that such concessions would

(A) Require them to limit descriptions of uniquely feminine experiences

(B) Compromise their artistic integrity

(C) Make them vulnerable to stereotyping by critics

(D) Provide no guarantee that their works would enjoy commercial success

Answer: B


Look at line – “Keenly aware of their artistic responsibilities, these women writers would not make concessions to secure hcommercial success”. From this we can clearly couclude that the women writers did not want to compromise on their artistic integrity by making concessions to obtain commercial success

46.Group Question:


The passage suggests that Victorian Criticism of works by women Writers was.

(A) Indulgent

(B) Perfunctory

(C) Resourceful

(D) Tmely

Answer: A


The author talks about the critics being generous towards women wrters and gave considerations bases on their sex Look at the line “Victorian critics were virtually obsessed with finding the place of the woman writer so as to judge her appropriately”. From this we can conclude that the criticism was indulgent. The passage does not suggest that te criticism was perfunctory (Superficial) or apolitical.

47. Group Question:


The author of the passage quotes Elizabeth Barrett Browning (line 28-29) in order to demonstrate that Victorian women writers

(A) Possessed both talent and literary creativity

(B) Felt that their works were misunderstood

(C) Feared derisive criticism

(D) Resented condescending criticism

Answer: D

The author before, quoting Elizabeth Barrett, says that the women writers expected harsh and jeering reviews. But the critics were generous towards them. They considered the critics’ view to be condescending because the writers wanted rigorous and impartial criticism and did not want any considerations based on their sex. Hence option E.

48. Group Question


The “new pasts” mentioned in line 6 can best be described as the

(A) Occurrence of events extremely similar to past events

(B) History of the activities of studying, interpreting, and reading new historical writing

(C) Change in people’s understanding of the past due to more recent historical writing.

(D) Overturning of established historical interpically motivated politiciansretations by poli

Answer: C


The author in the first paragraph says that history is continually being made and studies and different interpretations might affect people’s perception of the past events. Then he adds that “new hisrory” – a new view or interpretation might change the previous understanding of previous events.

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