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🡆 PPSC English Lecturer Exam Guide
PPSC Lecturer English Paper 2020 Analysis
This analysis categorizes all 100 available questions, showing you exactly which areas to prioritize in your studies, from literature and linguistics to the general knowledge section.
English Subject Section: 80 Questions
General Knowledge Section: 20 Questions
Part 1: English Subject (80 Questions)
This primary section is divided into four key areas: Literature, Linguistics, Literary History, and Grammar/Vocabulary.
Literature (45 Questions)
This was the largest component, testing core knowledge of English literary history, major works, genres, and authors.
Novel: 17 Questions
Topics: Questions covered R.K. Narayan’s settings, D.H. Lawrence’s psychological themes, Emily Brontë’s sole novel, and George Eliot’s real name.
James Joyce’s narrative techniques, authors of specific novels (e.g., The Spy and Uncle Tom’s Cabin), and character analysis across various works.
Poetry: 15 Questions
Topics: This included the pictorial qualities of Keats and Tennyson, Lord Byron’s place in the Romantic era, and Spenser’s influence on later poets.
Authorship of famous lines and poems (e.g., Donne’s “Holy Sonnets”), analysis of poetic forms, and literary circles like the Auden Group.
Drama: 7 Questions
Topics: Tested knowledge of the characteristics of Restoration plays, the total number of Shakespeare’s plays, and the Pre-Shakespearean University Wits.
Characters from famous plays by Ibsen and Marlowe, and the authorship of modern plays like “The Glass Menagerie.”
Criticism & Theory: 6 Questions
Topics: Focused on foundational texts like Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” definitions of literary terms such as Wit,
Concepts in Postcolonial theory, and famous critical judgments by figures like Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Linguistics (23 Questions)
This was the second-largest section, covering the scientific and systematic study of language.
Topics: Questions spanned multiple branches, including Phonetics & Phonology (e.g., fricatives, nasals, bilabials).
Language Acquisition (e.g., cooing, phonological processes), Semantics & Etymology (e.g., definitions of syntax, collocation, and word origins).
Sociolinguistics (e.g., pragmatics), and the History of English (e.g., its Germanic roots).
Literature History (7 Questions)
This area focuses on the crucial historical and intellectual contexts that shaped English literature.
Topics: This included the timeline of the Renaissance, key figures of humanism such as Erasmus, and the historical impact of the movable-type printing press.
The Victorian-era Oxford Movement, the English Reformation, and the history of medieval book preservation.
Grammar & Vocabulary (5 Questions)
This short section focused on the direct, practical application of English-language rules.
Topics: Included one question each on prepositions and sentence structure, as well as vocabulary tests on antonyms, synonyms, and idiomatic expressions.
Part 2: General Knowledge Section (20 Questions)
This section (Questions 81-100) tested a broad range of topics outside the core English syllabus.
Current Affairs, World Geography (8 Questions)
Topics included the author of “The Pandemic Century,” the origin of Qantas, the location of Panama, sports terminology, and basic math problems.
General Science & IT (6 Questions)
Topics covered the discovery of DNA structure, the invention of the transistor, facts about carnivorous plants, types of sedimentary rocks, and MS Word shortcut keys.
Pakistan Affairs (2 Questions)
Topics focused on the oath-taking of the 15th National Assembly and the coldest city in Pakistan.
Islamic Studies (2 Questions)
Included questions on the Charter of Medina and key figures in Islamic history.
Urdu (2 Questions)
Tested knowledge of Urdu grammar (identifying “فی صد”) and the meaning of an idiom (“کالے کوسوں”).
PPSC English Lecturer Past Papers
PPSC English Lecturer Paper 2020
Q. 1. Please do not laugh _____ those beggars.
A. For
B. Against
C. At
D. From
Q. 2. Sounds usually associated with letters such as f, s, v, z, in which the air passes through a narrow constriction that causes the air to flow turbulently and thus create a noisy sound, are called:
A. Plosives
B. Fricatives
C. Allophones
D. Allophonic
Q. 3. Normal phonological deviations that children make when producing sounds and words are referred to as:
A. Speech errors
B. Jargon
C. Phonological processes
D. Phonotactics
Q. 4. Choose the correct antonym of “Grotesque:”
A. Vicious
B. Criminal
C. Whimsical
D. Mild
Q. 5. There was a great hue and cry against Hardy’s novels, Tess and Jude the Obscure because of _____ in them.
A. Obscenity
B. Vices
C. Abnormality
D. Heresy
Q. 6. Restoration Period saw the use of:
A. Heroic Tragedy
B. Classical Tragedy
C. Domestic Tragedy
D. Shakespearean Tragedy
Q. 7. Most of the novels of R. K. Narayan are set in:
A. Madras
B. Malgudi
C. Trivandrum
D. Mano Majra
Q. 8. In the “Preface to Lyrical Ballads,” Wordsworth propounded his theory of:
A. Fancy
B. Imagination
C. Poetic Diction
D. Poetic Diction
Q. 9. What is the most common poetic quality in Keats and Tennyson?
A. Miltonism
B. Dramatic quality
C. Pictorial element
D. Elegiac nature
Q. 10. Which of the following terms are assigned to the 13 properties identified by Hockett (1960)?
A. Linguistic Universals
B. Passive Scripts
C. Universal Scripts
D. Linguistic nodes
Q. 11. When the baby is three months old s/he can produce velar sounds /k/, /g/ and vowels /i/ and /u/, this stage is known as:
A. Babbling
B. Holophrastic
C. Cooing
D. Telegraphic
Q. 12. How many plays did William Shakespeare write?
A. 36
B. 37
C. 38
D. 39
Q. 13. Who was the main contributor to the linguistic period?
A. Bartlett
B. Piaget
C. Hermann Paul
D. Chomsky
Q. 14. “Close Shave” means:
A. Fine’s breadth
B. By the skin of one’s teeth
C. Narrow escape
D. To apply the economy
Q. 15. Lord Byron belongs to _____ age.
A. Romantic
B. Victorian
C. Transition
D. Edwardian
Q. 16. “Marlowe simply prepared the way for the master who was to follow.” Who is the master referred to in this remark?
A. Ben Jonson
B. Shakespeare
C. John Webster
D. Thomas Middleton
Q. 17. Two words with very closely related meanings:
A. Antonyms
B. Homonyms
C. Synonyms
D. Hyponymy
Q. 18. Aurobindo Ghose’s Savitri is an epic of the:
A. Universe
B. Soul
C. Mind
D. Heaven
Q. 19. In which novel of his Lawrence dealt with the psychological phenomenon known as “Oedipus Complex”?
A. Lady Chatterly’s Lover
B. Sons and Lovers
C. The Trespasser
D. The Boy in the Bush
Q. 20. What is meant by “etymology”?
A. The study of the sounds of a language
B. The study of the way words are combined
C. The study of language
D. The study of the origin and history of words
Q. 21. The study of the way words and sentences are given meaning to is:
A. The study of the origin of words
B. The study of how words changed over time
C. The study of the origin of languages
D. The study of words which sound similar to one another
Q. 22. “The Old Wives’ Tale is a novel by:
A. H. G. Wells
B. Arnold Bennett
C. Stale Affairs
D. John Galsworthy
Q. 23. “His verse is sensuous and passionate and at its best simple, thus according with Milton’s famous definition.” About whom has this been said?
A. Emerson
B. Oliver Wendell Holmes
C. Fenimore Cooper
D. Walt Whitman
Q. 24. In a list of languages ranked by number of native (L1) speakers, where does English stand?
A. 1st
B. 2nd
C. 3rd
D. 4th
Q. 25. Who wrote, “Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour”?
A. Shelley
B. Keats
C. Gray
D. Wordsworth
Q. 26. Emily Brontë wrote only one novel entitled:
A. Jane Eyre
B. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
C. Wuthering Heights
D. Agnes Grey
Q. 27. The Faerie Queene is a/an _____ poem.
A. Satirical
B. Allegorical
C. Descriptive
D. Tract
Q. 28. George Eliot is the pen-name of:
A. Bifor Evans
B. Mary Ann Evans
C. T.S. Eliot
D. Emily Dickinson
Q. 29. An intellectually amusing utterance calculated to delight and surprise is called:
A. Serendipitude
B. Wit
C. Paradox
D. Tract
Q. 30. The sound made with air passing through the nose and making the “ng” sound of “sing” is called:
A. Nasal
B. Velar
C. Uvular
D. Bilabial
Q. 31. Who translated the original Bengali poems of the Geetanjali into English?
A. Sir Edmund Gosse
B. W. B. Yeats
C. Rev. Edmund Thompson
D. Rabindranath Tagore
Q. 32. What was the name given to the poets of the Auden Group?
A. New Signatures
B. New Lines
C. New Romantics
D. New Apocalypses
Q. 33. Edgar Allen Poe wrote reviews for a year for the magazine:
A. Northern American Message
B. Evening Post
C. Southern American Review
D. The Autobiography
Q. 34. What was a new system of printing books developed in the 1400s?
A. Block Style Writing
B. Movable Type
C. Calligraphy
D. Computer
Q. 35. Deductive method proceeds from:
A. Law and rule to observation
B. Observation
C. Generalization to specification
D. Examples and illustrations
Q. 36. Holy Sonnets was written by:
A. Marlowe
B. Donne
C. Spencer
D. Johnson
Q. 37. Sarojini Naidu’s poem The Queen’s Rival is based on a _____ legend.
A. Chinese
B. Persian
C. French
D. Roman
Q. 38. The word “Novel” is derived from the Italian word:
A. Novella
B. Novelle
C. Novelas
D. Novali
Q. 39. The name of the technique employed by James Joyce in his novels is:
A. Oblique narrative
B. Stream of Consciousness
C. First person narrative
D. Naturalism
Q. 40. An Anglo-Saxon heroic poetry, what is the fate of those who fail to observe the sacred duty of blood vengeance?
A. Banishment
B. Everlasting shame
C. Conversion to Christianity
D. Death and dishonor
Q. 41. Who was the leading figure of Christian humanism?
A. Sir Thomas More
B. Martin Luther
C. John Tetzel
D. Erasmus
Q. 42. The collective name given to some of pre-Shakespearean playwrights, like Marlowe, Kyd, Peele, and Greene is:
A. Fantastic Playwrights
B. University Wits
C. Elizabethan dramatists
D. Court Playwrights
Q. 43. What is the time period from 1500-1660 in Europe called?
A. The Era of Good Feelings
B. The Revolution of Thought
C. The Renaissance
D. The Scientific Explosion
Q. 44. Name the poet who belongs to the Victorian age, but is modern in matters of technique:
A. Swinburne
B. Rossetti
C. Hopkins
D. Hardy
Q. 45. Linde in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House provides a sub-plot by her relations with Krogstad and she serves a foil and model to _____ who recognizes through her that a woman is entitled to her own judgment and independent thought.
A. Gina
B. Rebecca
C. Nora
D. Hedda
Q. 46. The Glass Menagerie is a play by:
A. Eugene O’ Neill
B. Tennessee Williams
C. Arthur Miller
D. Tennyson
Q. 47. Faustus asks two magicians to aid him in summoning the devil. What are their names?
A. Valdes and Cornelius
B. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
C. Troilus and Cressida
D. Pyramus and Thisbe
Q. 48. Which of these terms refer to the study of speech process?
A. Phonology
B. Phonetics
C. Phonetics
D. Semantics
Q. 49. Maya is the central character in Anita Desai’s novel:
A. Bye, Bye, Blackbird
B. Voices in the City
C. Cry, the Peacock
D. A Goddess Named Gold
Q. 50. Choose the correct synonym of “Circumvent”
A. Befall
B. Seriosity
C. Avoid
D. Reform
Q. 51. Mastropieri and Turkwitz (1999) identified that a newborn could differentiate between what?
A. Between speech patterns
B. Between native and foreign languages
C. Between parents’ voices
D. Between tone and pitch
Q. 52. Bilal has a very advanced sense of what is socially appropriate. He always knows what to say in every social context. He has which kind of linguistic competence?
A. Pragmatic
B. Semantic
C. Pragmatic
D. Syntactic
Q. 53. Francis Bacon’s essays are:
A. Didactic
B. Objective
C. Beside
D. Over
Q. 54. Who is the real name of George Orwell?
A. William Hazlitt
B. Eric Blair
C. Tom Scott
D. Winston Smith
Q. 55. “The Golden Breath” is a _____ by Mulk Raj Anand.
A. Essay
B. Short story
C. Play
D. Work of Literary Criticism
Q. 56. The postcolonial literature includes:
A. The new cultural history
B. Travelogues
C. Biographies
D. Autobiographies
Q. 57. The English romantic poet who was most influenced by Spencer, is:
A. Byron
B. Scott
C. Keats
D. Shelley
Q. 58. Choose the correct sentence.
A. He was shocked when she told him what she called her last night.
B. He was shocked when she told him when she called her last night.
C. He told him what she called her last night he was shocked.
D. He was shocked when that she told him what she called her last night.
Q. 59. Cyclone in Pakistan is a celebrated work by:
A. Monika Varma
B. Jamila Nishat
C. Mamta Kalia
D. Marra Kaka
Q. 60. “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” is written by:
A. Cotton Mather
B. Sarah Orne Jewett
C. Harriet Beecher Stowe
D. Willa Cather
Q. 61. Who is the creator of the character named Sherlock Holmes?
A. Edgar Allen Poe
B. Agatha Christie
C. Arthur Conan Doyle
D. John Lehmann
Q. 62. The Oxford Movement is a novel by:
A. F. R. Leavis
B. John Keble
C. Anthony Trollope
D. Virginia Woolf
Q. 63. Which of the following was a group that tried to spread Catholic teaching after the Reformation?
A. The Anabaptists
B. The Baptists
C. The Protestants
D. The Calvinists
Q. 64. Fielding’s novels are called:
A. Picaresque novels
B. Sentimental novels
C. Comic epic in prose
D. Realistic novels
Q. 65. What is defined as “The study of sentence structure”?
A. Morphology
B. Semantics
C. Phonology
D. Syntax
Q. 66. Keats died of:
A. Cancer
B. Pneumonia
C. Tuberculosis
D. Malaria
Q. 67. “Old Norse” is almost the same as which modern Scandinavian language?
A. Danish
B. Norwegian
C. Icelandic
D. Swedish
Q. 68. Grammar-Translation Method focuses on:
A. Accuracy
B. Fluency
C. Appropriateness
D. Listening skill
Q. 69. Developing phonological awareness means that:
A. Teachers must require students to practice their pronunciation every day
B. Students solely become aware of how their accents are, which motivates them to practice pronunciation drills
C. Students gain an understanding of the place and manner of articulation when pronouncing words
D. Teachers should not overtly correct students’ pronunciation errors in order not to raise their Student Affective Filter low
Q. 70. Speakers learn how to participate in conversation. Conversational exchanges can be viewed as _____ (describes how people normally behave in conversation).
(A) Coherence
(B) Cohesion
(C) Co-operative
(D) Conversation
Q. 71. Who were the original speakers of English?
A. The Angles, Celts, and Jutes
B. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
C. The Angles, Saxons, and Celts
D. The Angles, Saxons, and Celts
Q. 72. Arundhati Roy has been awarded the Booker’s Prize on her novel:
A. The Man who failed
B. The God of Small Things
C. The Apes of God
D. The Nude Before God
Q. 73. Who called Dryden the father of English Criticism?
A. Pope
B. Doctor Johnson
C. DeQuincey
D. Coleridge
Q. 74. _____ is the writer of The Spy and is regarded as “the first of the great American novelists.”
A. Washington Irving
B. James Fenimore Cooper
C. Nathaniel Hawthorne
D. Edgar Allen Poe
Q. 75. _____ are consonants for which the flow of air is stopped or restricted by lips.
A. Plosives
B. Africates
C. Glottal
D. Bilabial
Q. 76. To which language group does English belong?
A. Romance
B. Germanic
C. Celtic
D. American
Q. 77. The title of Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral romance in prose is:
A. Arcadia
B. Astrophel
C. Hydriotaphia
D. Lamia
Q. 78. Only a small proportion of medieval books survive, large numbers having been destroyed in:
A. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest beginning in the 1450s
B. The Norman Conquest of 1066
C. The Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s
D. The wave of contempt for manuscripts that followed the beginning of printing in 1476
Q. 79. Sarojini Naidu is chiefly a _____ poet.
A. Narrative
B. Epic
C. Lyric
D. Satirical
Q. 80. The study of which words occur together, and their frequency of co-occurrence:
A. Connotation
B. Collocation
C. Implication
D. Location
Q. 81. Newly released book in 2020, “The Pandemic Century” is written by which author?
A. David Page
B. Anthony Mercy
C. Mark Honigsbaum
D. Mark Bloomberg
Q. 82. On 13 August 2018, the _____ National Assembly of Pakistan took oath.
A. 12th
B. 13th
C. 15th
D. 16th
Q. 83. All carnivorous plants:
A. Are parasites
B. Depend on animals as a source of carbon
C. Are incapable of photosynthesis
D. Obtain supplemental nitrogen from animals
Q. 84. Structure of DNA was discovered by _____ .
A. James Watson
B. Samuel Morse
C. Edward Jenner
D. Louis Pasteur
Q. 85. Transistor was invented by:
A. Bardeen
B. Thomson
C. Edison
D. Faraday
Q. 86. The term “Double Fault” is associated with which of the following games?
A. Badminton
B. Squash
C. Tennis
D. Polo
Q. 87. Qantas is an airline of _____ .
A. Hong Kong
B. Russia
C. Australia
D. Germany
Q. 88. The country Panama is situated at:
A. North America
B. Europe
C. South America
D. Africa
Q. 89. Between whom the Charter of Medina was concluded?
A. Muslims and Jews
B. Muslims and non-Arabs
C. Muslims and Jews & other non-Muslims
D. None of these
Q. 90. Which cousin of Holy Prophet (PBUH) was Mufassar-e-Quran?
A. Hamza-ibn-e-Abbas
B. Abdullah-ibn-e-Abbas
C. Taha-ibn-e-Abbas
D. None of these
Q. 91. What is the shortcut key to split a table in MS Word?
A. Ctrl + Alt + Enter
B. Ctrl + Shift + Enter
C. Alt + Shift + Enter
D. Alt + Space + Enter
Q. 92. In MS Word 2016, ‘Equations’ option are available in _____.
A. Home
B. Layout
C. References
D. Insert
Q. 93. 4×9/(144)1/2 = ?
A. 3
B. 2/7
C. 1/2
D. 1/3
Q. 94. Rahim bought a shirt for Rs.350 and sold it Rs.300. How much loss did he get?
A. Rs. 40
B. Rs. 50
C. Rs. 20
D. Rs. 80
Q. 95. Sedimentary rocks are:
A. Porous
B. Hard
C. Rough
D. Brittle
Q. 96. Pampelonne Beach is a beach of:
A. Germany
B. France
C. Italy
D. UK
Q. 97. Indicate the coldest city of Pakistan:
A. Ziarat
B. Murree
C. Swat
D. Ayubia
Q. 98. Brahma Samaj was developed and modified by:
A. Gandhi
B. Nehru
C. Keshab Chandra Sen
D. None of these
Q. 99. اتنے بڑے جلسے میں نوے فی صد حاضری ہے۔” اس جملے میں “فی صد” کیا ہے؟
(A) سابقہ (Prefix)
(B) لاحقہ (Suffix)
(C) علامتِ اضافت (Sign of possession)
(D) اسمِ حالیہ (Present participle)
Q. 100. کالے کوسوں” محاورہ ہے، اس کے معنی کیا ہیں؟
(A) بہت دور (Very far)
(B) ناپید (Extinct/non-existent)
(C) بہت قریب (Very near)
(D) بہت زیادہ (A lot)
