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For Anne Gregory — Class 10 English — First Flight Poetry: 135 MCQs with answers

All 135 multiple-choice questions from this kit, free and with no sign-up.

Full kit · everything Flashcards · 60 Quick Revision · 36

Warm-up · 5 questions

Q1. Before the poem begins the textbook tells students what kind of poem it is. What does it call it?

Beginner
A A conversation between a young man and a young woman B A love song addressed by a young man to a young woman he admires C A ballad telling a story D A poem about Irish history
Show answer & explanation

A conversation between a young man and a young woman

And asks what they are arguing about.

Q2. The textbook glosses exactly one word in this poem and offers the Red Fort as its example. What does that word mean?

Beginner
A Ribbons worn in the hair on especially formal occasions B The gates of a city C Ornaments hung at the ear D The high, wide walls around a castle or fort
Show answer & explanation

The high, wide walls around a castle or fort

With the ramparts of the Red Fort as its example.

Q3. The poem names her hair colour in the young man's stanza and again in the young woman's own. What colour is it?

Beginner
A Yellow B Brown C Black D Carrot
Show answer & explanation

Yellow

The other three are what she offers to dye it.

Q4. In which year did W. B. Yeats win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Beginner
A 1939 B 1865 C 1923 D 1913
Show answer & explanation

1923

The one date worth memorising.

Q5. Which subjects does the textbook say Yeats was interested in?

Beginner
A Mathematics and astronomy B Farming and trade C Law and medicine D Folklore and mythology
Show answer & explanation

Folklore and mythology

A long way from hair-dye.

Building up · 34 questions

Q6. The poem is a conversation, but its three stanzas are not shared equally between the two voices. How are they divided?

Intermediate
A The young woman speaks the first and third stanzas; the young man speaks the second B They speak alternate lines throughout C One speaker has all three stanzas D The young man speaks the first and third; the young woman speaks the second
Show answer & explanation

The young man speaks the first and third; the young woman speaks the second

She gets the exact middle, and only one turn.

Q7. The young man opens the poem with a claim about something no young man will ever manage to do. What is that claim?

Intermediate
A That her yellow hair is quite the wrong colour for somebody with her complexion B That she should marry somebody older C That no young man will love her for herself alone rather than her yellow hair D That she has broken his heart on purpose
Show answer & explanation

That no young man will love her for herself alone rather than her yellow hair

A compliment and a sentence in the same breath.

Q8. When the young man speaks of great honey-coloured ramparts standing at her ear, what is he actually describing?

Intermediate
A The wall of an old stone fort standing close to her house B The gates of a palace in a story C A necklace she is wearing D Her hair, piled thick and high at the sides of her head
Show answer & explanation

Her hair, piled thick and high at the sides of her head

A set textbook question.

Q9. In a class test a student explains the word 'ramparts' as decorations worn in her hair. What correction would you make?

Intermediate
A The word means a kind of comb B The word refers to her ears C The word means the walls of a fort; the hair itself is being compared to a wall D There is nothing whatever wrong with the explanation which the student gave here
Show answer & explanation

The word means the walls of a fort; the hair itself is being compared to a wall

The only glossed word in the poem, and it decides the image.

Q10. Having accepted everything the young man has just told her about her hair, what does the young woman say she can do?

Intermediate
A Cut it short B Get a hair-dye and set another colour there C Cover the whole of it over with a large scarf D Wear it differently
Show answer & explanation

Get a hair-dye and set another colour there

A practical solution, offered at once.

Q11. Which three colours does she name?

Intermediate
A Red, or brown, or grey B Black, or white, or gold C Brown, or black, or carrot D Brown, or auburn, or silver
Show answer & explanation

Brown, or black, or carrot

And the third is the interesting one.

Q12. The young woman gives no sign of disliking her own appearance, and yet she offers to alter it. Why does she want to?

Intermediate
A Because she dislikes the colour B Because the young man in the poem has expressly asked her to go and do it for him C So that young men may love her for herself alone and not her yellow hair D To look older than she is
Show answer & explanation

So that young men may love her for herself alone and not her yellow hair

A set textbook question.

Q13. One phrase in this poem is spoken by the young man and then taken up by the young woman as well. Which is it?

Intermediate
A Honey-coloured B Thrown into despair C An old religious man D For yourself alone
Show answer & explanation

For yourself alone

He says 'you'; she says 'me'.

Q14. Which statements about the poem are correct? 1. The young woman's hair is yellow. 2. She offers to dye it. 3. She speaks two of the three stanzas.

Intermediate
A 1 and 2 only B 1 and 3 only C 2 and 3 only D 1, 2 and 3
Show answer & explanation

1 and 2 only

She speaks only the second.

Q15. Which pairing of word and meaning is correct?

Intermediate
A Honey-coloured — a very dark shade of brown indeed B Despair — mild disappointment C Ramparts — the high, wide walls around a fort D Carrot — a shade of black
Show answer & explanation

Ramparts — the high, wide walls around a fort

The other three shift or reverse the sense.

Q16. How should an answer about the ramparts be ordered?

Intermediate
A The rhyme scheme first, and then a full account of the poet's life B A summary of the poem, then an opinion C The colour first, then the glossary D The gloss, then what it describes, then both halves of the image
Show answer & explanation

The gloss, then what it describes, then both halves of the image

Three steps, and the third earns the mark.

Q17. Which is the best summary of the first two stanzas?

Intermediate
A A man praises a woman at some length and she then thanks him warmly for it B A man says her beauty makes her unknowable, and she offers to remove it C A woman asks a man to marry her D Two people discuss the colour of a wall
Show answer & explanation

A man says her beauty makes her unknowable, and she offers to remove it

And then he answers her.

Q18. What does the textbook's note tell us about the poet?

Intermediate
A He was an English soldier and playwright B He was an Irish nationalist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 C He was a Scottish folklorist who never once left his own home county at all D He was an American poet of the twentieth century
Show answer & explanation

He was an Irish nationalist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923

Educated in London and Dublin, and interested in folklore and mythology.

Q19. 'The young woman is the most sensible person in this poem.' Discuss the second stanza.

Intermediate
Show answer & explanation

—

Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the compliment she declines to accept; her acceptance of his premise; the hair-dye and the three colours; her use of his own phrase with the pronoun changed; the significance of 'carrot'; and the observation that hers is the only practical proposal in the p…

Q20. Instead of arguing with the hair-dye proposal she has just made, what does the young man do in the third stanza?

Intermediate
A He describes her yellow hair all over again B He asks her a question C He leaves the conversation D He reports what somebody else declared
Show answer & explanation

He reports what somebody else declared

From what might be done to what was declared.

Q21. The young man says he heard the old religious man speak 'but yesternight'. What does that old word mean?

Intermediate
A Long ago B Yesterday morning C Every night D Last night
Show answer & explanation

Last night

An old form of the word.

Q22. Somewhere in the third stanza the young man uses an endearment, and it is the only one in the poem. Which two words are they?

Intermediate
A My love B My dear C Young woman D Anne
Show answer & explanation

My dear

In the middle of stanza three.

Q23. After citing the old man, the religion and the text, the young man reaches the statement that closes the poem. What is it?

Intermediate
A That only God could love her for herself alone B That she ought simply to keep her hair its yellow colour C That he will love her himself D That nobody should try
Show answer & explanation

That only God could love her for herself alone

The poem's last idea.

Q24. Which reading of the line should an answer give?

Intermediate
A At least two of the three, since the poem does not choose between them B Only the very first of them, since that is much the plainest of the three C Only the third, since it is the deepest D None — the line cannot be interpreted
Show answer & explanation

At least two of the three, since the poem does not choose between them

And say that the poem does not settle it.

Q25. In a class test a student gives the rhyme scheme of this poem as aabb. How should that answer be corrected?

Intermediate
A It is abab throughout B There is no rhyme at all C The scheme changes from one stanza to the next right the way through the whole of the poem D Only lines two, four and six rhyme, and on the same sound in all three stanzas
Show answer & explanation

Only lines two, four and six rhyme, and on the same sound in all three stanzas

Despair, ear, hair; there, despair, hair; declare, dear, hair.

Q26. The last word of the first stanza returns as the last word of the second and of the third. Which word is it?

Intermediate
A Alone B Despair C Dear D Hair
Show answer & explanation

Hair

Three stanzas, one closing word.

Q27. Which statements about the poem's third stanza are correct? 1. It cites an old religious man. 2. It mentions a text. 3. The young woman replies to it.

Intermediate
A 1 and 2 only B 1 and 3 only C 2 and 3 only D 1, 2 and 3
Show answer & explanation

1 and 2 only

She is given no reply at all.

Q28. How should an answer about the third stanza be ordered?

Intermediate
A The poet's life, then a summary B The three authorities, then 'only God' with two readings, then the rhyme and the refrain C The rhyme scheme, then the glossary D A full description of her yellow hair, and then an opinion about the whole of it at the end
Show answer & explanation

The three authorities, then 'only God' with two readings, then the rhyme and the refrain

Argument first, form last.

Q29. Taking the three stanzas together as one continuous movement, which is the best summary of the poem's argument?

Intermediate
A A quarrel between the two of them that ends in complete agreement at last B A claim, a practical remedy, and an escalation that nobody can answer C A proposal of marriage D A discussion about religion
Show answer & explanation

A claim, a practical remedy, and an escalation that nobody can answer

Three stanzas, three moves.

Q30. 'Only God could love you for yourself alone.' Discuss what this line means and whether it is a defeat, a compliment, or something larger.

Intermediate
Show answer & explanation

—

Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the line as a defeat, with the explanation that the colour was never the obstacle; the line as disguised flattery, with the comparison to his opening claim; the general reading about love fastening on qualities; and a conclusion that the poem sustains all t…

Q31. The third set question asks you to think of a car, a phone or a dress. What exactly does it want you to explain about them?

Intermediate
A How much each one of them is likely to cost when bought in an ordinary high-street shop in town today B Which qualities make one more desirable than another, and what you would emphasise when selling C Which one the poet would have preferred D How they are manufactured
Show answer & explanation

Which qualities make one more desirable than another, and what you would emphasise when selling

Two halves to the question.

Q32. The fourth set question is the longest in the exercise. What does it actually ask the student to decide?

Intermediate
A Which one of the poems written by Yeats is much the best of all of them overall in his view B Whether hair-dye is effective C Whether people are loved for their qualities or can be loved for themselves alone D How many stanzas the poem has
Show answer & explanation

Whether people are loved for their qualities or can be loved for themselves alone

And whether some people are more lovable than others.

Q33. Which set of four cases does the textbook supply for the discussion about loving people?

Intermediate
A A newborn and other children, the public's love, a friend or sibling, and a pet B A schoolteacher, a doctor, a shopkeeper, a neighbour and an old friend of the family C A car, a phone, a dress and a house D Ireland, London, Dublin and Sweden
Show answer & explanation

A newborn and other children, the public's love, a friend or sibling, and a pet

Baby, public, friend, pet.

Q34. The fifth set question quotes a line by Yeats that is not in this poem. What is it?

Intermediate
A Only God could love you for yourself alone B How can we separate the dancer from the dance? C Ramparts at your ear D Brown, or black, or carrot
Show answer & explanation

How can we separate the dancer from the dance?

From another poem entirely.

Q35. Which set of facts about Yeats does the textbook actually supply?

Intermediate
A English novelist, educated at Oxford and later at Cambridge, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932 B Irish nationalist, educated in London and Dublin, interested in folklore and mythology, Nobel Prize 1923 C Irish playwright, never educated abroad, no prizes D Scottish poet, interested in politics only
Show answer & explanation

Irish nationalist, educated in London and Dublin, interested in folklore and mythology, Nobel Prize 1923

Four facts and one date.

Q36. Which statements about the textbook's fourth question are correct? 1. It supplies four cases. 2. It is a discussion question. 3. It expects a single correct answer.

Intermediate
A 1 and 2 only B 1 and 3 only C 2 and 3 only D 1, 2 and 3
Show answer & explanation

1 and 2 only

It expects disagreement.

Q37. What advice does this topic give about quoting from so short a poem?

Intermediate
A Quote a full stanza every time B Never quote at all C Quote instead from one of Yeats's other and longer poems D Quote small — three or four words, accurately
Show answer & explanation

Quote small — three or four words, accurately

Accuracy matters more than length.

Q38. What does the textbook tell us about W. B. Yeats, and why should an answer keep to that?

Intermediate
Show answer & explanation

—

Q39. 'How can we separate the dancer from the dance?' Discuss this question and what it does to the argument of the poem.

Intermediate
Show answer & explanation

—

Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the meaning of the dancer-and-the-dance question; its application to a person's voice, walk and appearance; the effect on the young woman's plan; the effect on the phrase 'for yourself alone'; and the point about changing relationships being evidence on bot…

Topper level · 96 questions

Q40. Of all the words available for describing a great mass of hair, why is a rampart such an effective comparison?

Advanced
A It is grey and hard B It is built by soldiers in order to keep attackers out C It is very old D It is magnificent and impassable at the same time
Show answer & explanation

It is magnificent and impassable at the same time

An answer needs both halves of the image.

Q41. Which of these is the second half of that image, and the half most answers leave out?

Advanced
A That a rampart exists to keep people out B That a rampart is tall C That a rampart is expensive to build D That a rampart can be climbed
Show answer & explanation

That a rampart exists to keep people out

Nobody standing in front of one gets any further.

Q42. How does that image describe the young woman's situation exactly?

Advanced
A Her hair protects her from the weather in just the way a thick stone wall would B Her hair is the first thing anybody sees and the last thing they get past C Her hair is admired only by soldiers D Her hair has been built up over many years
Show answer & explanation

Her hair is the first thing anybody sees and the last thing they get past

Admired, and a barrier.

Q43. What does the word 'honey-coloured' add beyond naming a shade?

Advanced
A Honey is thick, rich, sweet and slow, so the hair becomes something to taste as well as see B Honey is expensive to buy, so the hair comes to seem something valuable in itself as well, almost like a jewel C Honey is sticky, so the hair seems untidy D Honey comes from bees, which suggests summer
Show answer & explanation

Honey is thick, rich, sweet and slow, so the hair becomes something to taste as well as see

A colour word that is also a taste word.

Q44. The poem locates the ramparts precisely, in three short words placed at the end of a line. Why does that location matter?

Advanced
A They show that she is listening B They suggest that she must be wearing a pair of very heavy earrings that particular day C They place the hair at the sides of the head, where ramparts run and enclose D They tell us she has short hair
Show answer & explanation

They place the hair at the sides of the head, where ramparts run and enclose

A small detail holding the comparison up.

Q45. The young man says that other young men are thrown into despair by her hair. What reason does the poem give for that?

Advanced
A She has already refused several of them, and word of it has spread right around the whole district B They cannot afford to marry her C Her hair is so beautiful that they see nothing else, and it holds them at a distance like a wall D Her family will not allow it
Show answer & explanation

Her hair is so beautiful that they see nothing else, and it holds them at a distance like a wall

A set textbook question, and it has two reasons.

Q46. The word 'despair' appears in the first stanza and is picked up again in the second. What does it mean in this poem?

Advanced
A A sudden burst of anger which passes off again fairly quickly B Mild sadness C Confusion D The state of having given up, not merely disappointment
Show answer & explanation

The state of having given up, not merely disappointment

Stronger than it looks.

Q47. A student writes that the young men despair because they have been rejected. What is wrong with that?

Advanced
A The young men who are spoken of in the poem have never actually met her at any point at all B There are no young men in the poem C Nothing is wrong with it D He never says she refuses anybody — the despair comes from her beauty, not from rejection
Show answer & explanation

He never says she refuses anybody — the despair comes from her beauty, not from rejection

Nothing in the poem blames her for anything.

Q48. Of the three colours the young woman offers, one is deliberately unglamorous. Why is 'carrot' the striking choice among them?

Advanced
A It is bright orange, and nobody picks it in order to be inconspicuous B It is the commonest hair colour C It is quite impossible to achieve with any sort of ordinary shop-bought hair dye D It is mentioned nowhere else in the poem
Show answer & explanation

It is bright orange, and nobody picks it in order to be inconspicuous

She is not asking to be plain, only to be seen.

Q49. A student writes that she wants to make herself less attractive. Why is that not quite right?

Advanced
A She has no intention whatever of changing anything at all about her own appearance or her hair colour B She wants to remove what stands between her and being seen properly — the dye is a means, not an aim C She wants to be more attractive, not less D She is not the one who suggests the dye
Show answer & explanation

She wants to remove what stands between her and being seen properly — the dye is a means, not an aim

Being loved for herself is the aim.

Q50. Taking her single stanza as a whole, with its speed and its wholly practical remedy, what does her reply show about her character?

Advanced
A She is easily flattered B She is angry with the young man C She is entirely uninterested in the whole question D She is quick, practical and not in the least vain
Show answer & explanation

She is quick, practical and not in the least vain

She treats a compliment as a problem to be solved.

Q51. Suppose a vain woman had been paid the elaborate compliment in the first stanza. How would she have responded to it?

Advanced
A She would have dyed her hair very nearly immediately B She would have been flattered and left it there C She would have argued about the colour D She would have left the room
Show answer & explanation

She would have been flattered and left it there

Which is exactly what this young woman does not do.

Q52. Besides the single word that closes each stanza, which other phrase appears in all three stanzas of the poem?

Advanced
A Hair-dye B Ramparts C Yellow hair D Young men
Show answer & explanation

Yellow hair

And the word 'hair' ends all three stanzas.

Q53. The refrain returns at the end of every stanza with only its pronouns altered. What does that repetition do to the argument?

Advanced
A It shows that the two speakers agree with one another completely by the end of it all B It makes the poem one sentence repeated three times with the speaker changed C It fills out the stanzas D It marks the rhyme scheme
Show answer & explanation

It makes the poem one sentence repeated three times with the speaker changed

Which is why the disagreement feels so tightly closed.

Q54. Assertion (A): The rampart image is not simply a compliment. Reason (R): A rampart is built to be admired from a distance and to keep people out, so the hair both attracts and excludes.

Advanced
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
Show answer & explanation

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both halves of the image, together.

Q55. Which everyday situation is closest to the one the poem describes?

Advanced
A Being unable to afford what you want B Being known for one striking feature that stands between you and everybody else C Being entirely new in a place where nobody knows you or anything at all about you D Being the youngest in a family
Show answer & explanation

Being known for one striking feature that stands between you and everybody else

A voice, a height, a face — admired, and in the way.

Q56. Why is it significant that the young woman speaks only once?

Advanced
A It shows she has nothing to say B It shows she agrees with him C The man opens and closes the argument, and she is given a single turn in the middle D It is simply an accident arising from the poem's very short overall length and shape
Show answer & explanation

The man opens and closes the argument, and she is given a single turn in the middle

And what she says in it is the most practical thing in the poem.

Q57. What would be lost if the poet had written 'golden' instead of 'honey-coloured'?

Advanced
A The richness and sweetness — the sense that the hair can be tasted as well as seen B The rhyme scheme C The whole of the comparison between her hair and the high walls of a great stone fort D Nothing at all
Show answer & explanation

The richness and sweetness — the sense that the hair can be tasted as well as seen

Golden names only a colour.

Q58. Which is the strongest single observation to make about the first stanza?

Advanced
A The stanza has six lines B The rampart image praises her and shuts everybody out in the same breath C The word 'hair' comes last D The speaker throughout this whole first stanza is a young man of the place
Show answer & explanation

The rampart image praises her and shuts everybody out in the same breath

Magnificent and impassable.

Q59. What does the young woman's solution reveal about the problem, on closer inspection?

Advanced
A She treats being loved for her hair as something that can be fixed by changing the hair B She believes that nobody in the world will ever come to love her properly in the end at all C She thinks the young man is lying D She is not interested in being loved
Show answer & explanation

She treats being loved for her hair as something that can be fixed by changing the hair

And the third stanza will test that assumption.

Q60. What does the young man mean by 'great honey-coloured ramparts at your ear'?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q61. Explain the image of the honey-coloured ramparts, and say why the young man thinks other young men lose heart at the sight of them.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q62. What colour is the young woman's hair, what can she change it to, and why would she want to?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q63. What does the young woman's reply tell us about her?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q64. How does the poem divide itself between its two speakers, and what is the effect?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q65. Which phrases return in every stanza, and what do they do?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q66. Examine the image of the honey-coloured ramparts, and show why it is more than a compliment.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the gloss of 'ramparts'; the identification of the hair and the force of 'at your ear'; the effect of 'honey-coloured' beyond colour; both halves of the rampart image, magnificent and impassable; the application to her situation; and the explanation of the…

Q67. Rewrite the first two stanzas as a short prose conversation, and then say what the poem does that the prose cannot. About 120–150 words in all.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Accept any faithful prose version of the two stanzas. Content should include: prose that keeps the rampart image, the despair, the dye and the three colours; and an explanation naming at least two losses — the shared refrain and its effect, and the structural placing of her single…

Q68. The young woman has just offered a practical solution. What is the most striking thing about the young man's reply?

Advanced
A He agrees with her entirely and tells her so almost at once in reply B It is not a reply at all — he never engages with what she has said C He offers to pay for the dye D He asks her to choose black
Show answer & explanation

It is not a reply at all — he never engages with what she has said

He changes the ground of the discussion.

Q69. Counting the sources of standing he leans on in his last stanza, how many separate authorities does the young man stack into four lines?

Advanced
A One B Two C Three D Five
Show answer & explanation

Three

An old man, a religious man, and a text.

Q70. Three different kinds of authority are named in the third stanza of the poem. Which of these is NOT one of them?

Advanced
A An old man from the same parish B A religious man C A priest of his own family D A text
Show answer & explanation

A priest of his own family

The poem never says who the old man was.

Q71. Why does that detail of timing weaken his case rather than strengthen it?

Advanced
A It shows that he has altogether forgotten what the original argument was really about B It proves the old man was lying C The evidence was acquired the evening before it was used, and none of it is his own D It means the text is very recent
Show answer & explanation

The evidence was acquired the evening before it was used, and none of it is his own

A man who believed it would have argued it himself.

Q72. A speaker who piles up three authorities instead of reasoning has told us something about himself. What does that appeal suggest?

Advanced
A That he is a religious scholar B That he has gone looking for support rather than reasoning for himself C That he has known the old religious man for a great many years now already D That he intends to convert her
Show answer & explanation

That he has gone looking for support rather than reasoning for himself

Funny, and revealing.

Q73. The endearment comes neither at the start nor at the end of the stanza but in the middle of a hard sentence. Why does that matter?

Advanced
A They open the poem B They are spoken by the young woman herself rather than by the young man of the poem C They close the poem D They arrive inside the sentence telling her nobody human can love her properly
Show answer & explanation

They arrive inside the sentence telling her nobody human can love her properly

Tenderness and bad news together.

Q74. On the plainest reading, what does that conclusion do to her plan?

Advanced
A It confirms that the plan she has proposed will work perfectly well enough after all B It defeats it before she can try — dye it black and people will love the black C It suggests she try a different colour D It has nothing to do with her plan
Show answer & explanation

It defeats it before she can try — dye it black and people will love the black

The problem was never the shade.

Q75. Read from the other side, the same conclusion flatters her rather than defeating her. How can it be read as a compliment?

Advanced
A Because God himself is mentioned by name in the very final line of the whole poem itself B Because he calls her 'my dear' C If only God can see past her beauty, her beauty is beyond anything human can manage D Because he quotes a religious man
Show answer & explanation

If only God can see past her beauty, her beauty is beyond anything human can manage

He appears to concede and in fact escalates the praise.

Q76. What is the widest reading of the line, the one that has nothing to do with her hair?

Advanced
A That religion in the end explains everything there is in life to explain about love itself B That beauty always fades C That nobody is loved for themselves alone by anybody, since love fastens on qualities D That young men are unreliable
Show answer & explanation

That nobody is loved for themselves alone by anybody, since love fastens on qualities

Ask anybody why they love a friend and they produce a list.

Q77. If love fastens on qualities because qualities are all there is to fasten on, why could only God love a person for themselves alone?

Advanced
A Because God made the person in the first place and therefore knows them wholly and completely already anyway B Because God cannot see hair C Only a being who needs nothing and sees everything could love somebody stripped of all their qualities D Because the text says so
Show answer & explanation

Only a being who needs nothing and sees everything could love somebody stripped of all their qualities

Qualities are what there is to fasten on.

Q78. The rhyme in this poem does not fall where most students expect it to fall. Which lines of each stanza rhyme?

Advanced
A The first and second, then the third and fourth B All six C The second, fourth and sixth D None of them
Show answer & explanation

The second, fourth and sixth

The odd-numbered lines rhyme with nothing.

Q79. Looking across all three stanzas rather than at any one of them, what is unusual about the rhyme sound the poem uses?

Advanced
A It changes completely in every single one of the poem's three stanzas in turn B It disappears in the last stanza C It is the same sound in all of them, so eighteen lines chime on one note D It is used only by the young man
Show answer & explanation

It is the same sound in all of them, so eighteen lines chime on one note

From beginning to end.

Q80. Given that eighteen lines chime on a single note from beginning to end, what does that rhyme sound do to the poem's meaning?

Advanced
A It makes the whole poem a great deal easier to memorise and to recite aloud in a classroom setting B The poem cannot get away from the word 'hair', exactly as she cannot get away from the thing C It shows the speakers agree D It marks where each stanza begins
Show answer & explanation

The poem cannot get away from the word 'hair', exactly as she cannot get away from the thing

The form repeating the argument rather than decorating it.

Q81. Counting the closing lines of all three stanzas together, how many of the poem's eighteen lines are near-identical repetitions?

Advanced
A Two B Four C Twelve D Six
Show answer & explanation

Six

The last two lines of every stanza.

Q82. The refrain of this poem does not belong to one speaker only. What is notable about who uses it?

Advanced
A Only the young man uses it B Only the young woman uses it C It is spoken only by the old religious man himself, once D Both speakers use it, with only the pronouns changed
Show answer & explanation

Both speakers use it, with only the pronouns changed

Neither can get away from the same phrase.

Q83. Which sequence describes the shape of the whole argument?

Advanced
A Question, answer, agreement B Claim, solution, escalation C Insult, apology, reconciliation D Description, description, description
Show answer & explanation

Claim, solution, escalation

He asserts, she solves, and he calls in God.

Q84. The young man has just brought God into the argument, and at that point the poem stops. How does it end?

Advanced
A Without agreement and without a reply from her B With the two speakers agreeing C With her dyeing her hair D With the old religious man speaking the last line
Show answer & explanation

Without agreement and without a reply from her

A conversation that closes rather than concludes.

Q85. Three things about the old religious man and his evidence are left entirely blank. What does the poem never tell us?

Advanced
A Who the old man was, what religion he belonged to, or what the text said B When it was heard C Who reported it D What conclusion the text was actually supposed to be supporting in the first place
Show answer & explanation

Who the old man was, what religion he belonged to, or what the text said

Three blanks, all of them left open.

Q86. Assertion (A): The young man does not defeat the young woman's argument. Reason (R): He proves that a dye of any colour would wash out of her hair within a week.

Advanced
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
Show answer & explanation

A is true, but R is false

He says nothing of the sort; he changes the subject instead. The assertion is right, the reason invented.

Q87. Which pairing of reading and description is correct?

Advanced
A A defeat — the dye will work after all B A general truth — only very beautiful people ever face this sort of problem C A compliment — God has chosen her D Flattery in disguise — her beauty is beyond what any human can see past
Show answer & explanation

Flattery in disguise — her beauty is beyond what any human can see past

The other three misstate the readings.

Q88. A speaker who says 'I read somewhere that' is closing a disagreement rather than settling it. Which everyday move does the third stanza illustrate?

Advanced
A Ending an argument by quoting somebody rather than answering it B Apologising and changing the subject C Asking for time to think D Repeating the other person's own words straight back at them again
Show answer & explanation

Ending an argument by quoting somebody rather than answering it

'Well, I read somewhere that…'

Q89. Examiners reward a sentence that ties a technical feature to meaning. Why is 'the form is repeating the argument' a strong sentence?

Advanced
A It links the rhyme to the meaning instead of listing the scheme and stopping B It is a good deal shorter than any plain description of the scheme would have been C It avoids mentioning the rhyme D It quotes the poet directly
Show answer & explanation

It links the rhyme to the meaning instead of listing the scheme and stopping

Technical observation turned into criticism.

Q90. Suppose the poet had given the young woman a fourth stanza in which she answered his claim about God. What would change?

Advanced
A The argument would no longer close on his terms, and the poem's unresolved feeling would go B The rhyme scheme would break down completely at exactly that point in the poem and nowhere else C The hair would change colour D Nothing at all
Show answer & explanation

The argument would no longer close on his terms, and the poem's unresolved feeling would go

The poem stops where he stops.

Q91. The young man could have said 'no one' instead of naming God in his final claim. What does he gain by using 'only God'?

Advanced
A It shortens the line B The statement becomes impossible to argue with, and turns into praise at the same time C It rhymes with 'hair' D It changes the subject of the whole argument over to religion instead of her yellow hair
Show answer & explanation

The statement becomes impossible to argue with, and turns into praise at the same time

A defeat and a compliment in four words.

Q92. Among all the technical features available in so short a poem, which is the strongest single observation about its form?

Advanced
A The poem has exactly eighteen lines in it altogether and no more than that B The stanzas are of equal length C The poem uses no punctuation D Every stanza ends on the same word, so the poem cannot escape it either
Show answer & explanation

Every stanza ends on the same word, so the poem cannot escape it either

Formally trapped, exactly as she is.

Q93. What does the mixture of 'my dear' and the sentence it sits inside tell us about the poem's tone?

Advanced
A It is entirely hostile from the very beginning right through to the very end of it B It is purely comic C It is affectionate and unsparing at once, which is the tone of the whole poem D It is formal and distant
Show answer & explanation

It is affectionate and unsparing at once, which is the tone of the whole poem

Tenderness delivering bad news.

Q94. How does the young man answer the young woman's proposal?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q95. What do the authorities in the third stanza tell us about the young man?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q96. Explain the line about only God, giving more than one reading.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q97. Describe the rhyme scheme of the poem and say what it achieves.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q98. What is the refrain of this poem, and why does it matter that both speakers use it?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q99. Describe the shape of the argument across the three stanzas.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q100. Examine the third stanza of the poem and show how the young man wins the argument without ever answering it.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the observation that he does not engage with her proposal; the three authorities named; the force of 'but yesternight'; the placing of 'my dear'; at least two readings of the conclusion; and the point that she is given no reply. Other relevant points accept…

Q101. Write the fourth stanza the young woman might have spoken in reply, and then explain the choices you made. About 120–150 words in all.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Accept any six-line stanza in the young woman's voice. Content should include: verse that keeps the poem's rhyme on lines two, four and six and ends on 'hair'; some use of the refrain; a reply that engages with the third stanza; and an explanation naming at least three imitated fe…

Q102. Of the two halves of that question, which is the harder and more revealing one to answer?

Advanced
A What you would emphasise, since that means choosing which qualities to put in front of somebody B Listing all of the qualities out, since there are such a great many of them to choose between in the end C Naming the object, since the choice is wide D Neither — both are equally simple
Show answer & explanation

What you would emphasise, since that means choosing which qualities to put in front of somebody

Emphasis is a choice; a list is not.

Q103. According to this topic, what do an honest seller and a flatterer have in common when they describe something?

Advanced
A Both exaggerate the price B Both of them refuse to answer any questions at all C Both name the visible quality and stop there D Both talk about the past
Show answer & explanation

Both name the visible quality and stop there

Which is the young man's speech in stanza one.

Q104. Why has the textbook placed the question about selling objects immediately before the question about loving people?

Advanced
A Because the young man's praise of her hair works exactly like an advertisement B Because both questions are about shopping C Because the poem mentions a market D Because it happens to be much the shortest question in the whole of the exercise
Show answer & explanation

Because the young man's praise of her hair works exactly like an advertisement

Name the visible quality and stop.

Q105. What is the most common weakness in student answers to the fourth set question?

Advanced
A Writing down a great deal too many examples of each separate thing in turn B Giving an opinion without using any of the four cases the book supplies C Quoting the poem too often D Describing the rhyme scheme
Show answer & explanation

Giving an opinion without using any of the four cases the book supplies

Two cases beat a view.

Q106. Why does a parent's love for a newborn baby count as the strongest evidence in the whole discussion?

Advanced
A Babies are a good deal more attractive to look at than most grown adults ever are to anybody B Parents are obliged by law to love them C The baby has no achievements or qualities to speak of, and is loved overwhelmingly anyway D The poem mentions a baby
Show answer & explanation

The baby has no achievements or qualities to speak of, and is loved overwhelmingly anyway

Nothing yet to love it for.

Q107. What is being tested when the book places a challenged child beside a clever child or prodigy?

Advanced
A Which of the two children will go on to earn the more money later on in their adult life B Whether prodigies are happier C How schools should be organised D Whether love follows ability, since if it did the two would be loved in proportion
Show answer & explanation

Whether love follows ability, since if it did the two would be loved in proportion

In a decent family they are not loved differently.

Q108. Which of the four cases points most clearly AGAINST the idea of loving somebody for themselves alone?

Advanced
A A parent's love for a newborn B The public's love for a film star, sportsperson, politician or social worker C Love for a pet D The love that is felt for a brother or for a sister of one's own close family
Show answer & explanation

The public's love for a film star, sportsperson, politician or social worker

The public knows only the qualities.

Q109. Why does the public's love end when the career does, according to this topic?

Advanced
A Because the love arrived with the qualities and there was never anything else on offer B Because audiences are unusually cruel towards the people they once admired quite so much C Because contracts expire D Because newspapers stop writing
Show answer & explanation

Because the love arrived with the qualities and there was never anything else on offer

Only the work was ever met.

Q110. Why does this topic say the case of the public is NOT a criticism of the public?

Advanced
A Because the public is usually quite right about these sorts of things in the end anyway, on the whole B Because celebrities enjoy the attention C Because the textbook says so D Because you cannot love somebody for themselves alone when the only thing you have met is their work
Show answer & explanation

Because you cannot love somebody for themselves alone when the only thing you have met is their work

It could not be otherwise.

Q111. Why is love for a friend, a brother or a sister described here as the honest middle case?

Advanced
A Because friends and siblings really do amount to very much the same sort of thing when it comes to it B Because it is the shortest case C You can list reasons, yet you would not stop if one went, and you never chose your sister at all D Because the poem is addressed to a sister
Show answer & explanation

You can list reasons, yet you would not stop if one went, and you never chose your sister at all

The list is real and incomplete.

Q112. What makes the case of a pet so difficult for the other side of the argument to answer?

Advanced
A Dogs cannot speak B Pets are a good deal cheaper to keep and to look after than human friends ever are to anybody at all C Pets live shorter lives D A dog does not know your marks, salary or appearance, and nothing you achieve improves its welcome
Show answer & explanation

A dog does not know your marks, salary or appearance, and nothing you achieve improves its welcome

And it works in both directions.

Q113. Which position on the fourth question do the four cases in the book actually support?

Advanced
A Nobody at all has ever once been truly loved for themselves alone anywhere B People can be loved for themselves alone, but almost never by strangers C Everybody is loved for themselves alone D Only the famous are loved properly
Show answer & explanation

People can be loved for themselves alone, but almost never by strangers

It takes time, proximity, or a dog.

Q114. What does the dancer-and-the-dance question actually mean?

Advanced
A The dance exists nowhere except in the dancer's body, so the two cannot be pulled apart B That dancers ought always to be judged upon their own technique and nothing whatever else C That dancing is harder than writing D That a dance can be written down
Show answer & explanation

The dance exists nowhere except in the dancer's body, so the two cannot be pulled apart

No dance waiting in a corner.

Q115. How should a student answer the dancer-and-the-dance question in the exam?

Advanced
A With a single word B By describing in careful detail some dance performance which the student has actually been to see at some point in the past C Not with a plain yes or no, but by explaining that the two cannot be fully separated and saying what that does to the poem D By listing Yeats's other poems
Show answer & explanation

Not with a plain yes or no, but by explaining that the two cannot be fully separated and saying what that does to the poem

The question is designed to complicate the poem.

Q116. Applied to a person, what does the dancer-and-the-dance idea suggest about a voice or a walk?

Advanced
A They are quite unimportant when compared with a person's real character underneath B They are not a coating over the person but among the ways that person exists C They can be changed without effort D They are the only things that matter
Show answer & explanation

They are not a coating over the person but among the ways that person exists

Not a covering over somebody real.

Q117. If every quality of a person were removed, what does this topic say you would be left with?

Advanced
A The person's own true self, finally uncovered at last B Not the real person uncovered, but no person at all C Their name and nothing else D A better version of them
Show answer & explanation

Not the real person uncovered, but no person at all

Removing, not uncovering.

Q118. What does the dancer-and-the-dance idea do to the young woman's plan to dye her hair?

Advanced
A It proves that the dye she suggests would in fact work perfectly well enough after all B It means she would be changing one of the things she is, not removing a distraction C It shows she should choose carrot D It has no bearing on her plan
Show answer & explanation

It means she would be changing one of the things she is, not removing a distraction

A strange light on both speakers.

Q119. What does the same idea do to the young man's phrase 'for yourself alone'?

Advanced
A It confirms his argument entirely B It shows he was joking C It turns the phrase into a compliment and nothing very much more D It suggests he may be asking for something that does not exist
Show answer & explanation

It suggests he may be asking for something that does not exist

Nothing left once the qualities go.

Q120. The final part of question five asks about change over the years. Why is the answer evidence on both sides?

Advanced
A Because people rarely change at all B Because relationships always end C The relationship moving with the change suggests qualities matter; its surviving suggests they do not D Because the poem goes on to describe an old religious man and the things he said one evening last year
Show answer & explanation

The relationship moving with the change suggests qualities matter; its surviving suggests they do not

Two conclusions from one observation.

Q121. A student writes a long biography of Yeats in an answer. What is wrong with that?

Advanced
A Biography of any kind at all is never once allowed in English examination answers anywhere B Yeats had no biography worth writing C The examiner will not know the poet D The textbook gives only four facts, and inventing more risks error without earning marks
Show answer & explanation

The textbook gives only four facts, and inventing more risks error without earning marks

Stay with what the book gives.

Q122. Assertion (A): The public cannot love a film star for themselves alone. Reason (R): The only thing the public has ever met is the star's work, so there is nothing else for the love to fasten on.

Advanced
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
Show answer & explanation

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

And so it is not a criticism of the public.

Q123. Which pairing of case and conclusion is stated correctly in this topic?

Advanced
A The newborn — by far the clearest evidence against ever loving for oneself alone B The public — the strongest case for loving somebody for themselves C The sibling — a case with no list of reasons at all D The pet — the case that works in both directions and is hardest to argue with
Show answer & explanation

The pet — the case that works in both directions and is hardest to argue with

The other three reverse the conclusions.

Q124. How should a student decide what to put in a long answer on this poem?

Advanced
A Only the wider questions, since the poem itself is such a very short one indeed B Only biography, since the poem is difficult C The poem itself plus one of the wider questions, with an example attached D A summary of all five set questions
Show answer & explanation

The poem itself plus one of the wider questions, with an example attached

Short answers want the poem; long answers want both.

Q125. Which is the single best sentence to keep in mind about this poem?

Advanced
A It is a poem about a hairdresser B It is in the end simply a religious poem about faith and about doubt, and about very little else at all besides C It is a poem about Irish politics D It asks whether anybody can be loved with all their qualities subtracted, and suspects nobody would be left
Show answer & explanation

It asks whether anybody can be loved with all their qualities subtracted, and suspects nobody would be left

The whole poem in a line.

Q126. A student argues that a film star is loved more genuinely than a newborn baby. Where does that argument fail?

Advanced
A It reverses the cases: the star is known only through qualities, the baby has none yet and is loved anyway B It fails because film stars are unpopular C It fails because babies cannot speak D It does not fail at all; it is in fact the textbook's own clearly stated view on the whole of this matter itself
Show answer & explanation

It reverses the cases: the star is known only through qualities, the baby has none yet and is loved anyway

The two cases point opposite ways.

Q127. Why does this topic say that an answer to the fourth question should end with a position rather than a summary?

Advanced
A Because the question is a discussion question, and a discussion that reaches nothing has not been held B Because summaries are forbidden C Because there is not enough space D Because the examiner generally prefers rather shorter answers to a question of this particular kind altogether
Show answer & explanation

Because the question is a discussion question, and a discussion that reaches nothing has not been held

Use the cases, then decide.

Q128. Which closing observation gives an answer on this poem the most weight?

Advanced
A That the whole of the poem is only eighteen lines long in total altogether B That Yeats was Irish C That 'for yourself alone' may be asking for something that cannot exist D That hair-dye was available in 1930
Show answer & explanation

That 'for yourself alone' may be asking for something that cannot exist

The dancer and the dance, applied.

Q129. What qualities make an object desirable, and what would you emphasise if you were selling one?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q130. Can people be loved 'for themselves alone'? Use two of the cases the textbook supplies.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Q131. Why does the textbook place a challenged child beside a prodigy in its fourth question?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q132. Explain the question 'How can we separate the dancer from the dance?'

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q133. What does the dancer-and-the-dance idea do to the argument in the poem?

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

—

Q134. 'Do we love people for their qualities, or can somebody be loved for themselves alone?' Discuss, using the cases the textbook supplies.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: at least two of the book's four cases; the newborn as evidence for; the public as evidence against; a clear position at the end; and some link back to the poem. Other relevant points acceptable.

Q135. Imagine you are writing an advertisement for something you own, and then a short note about a person you love. Write both, and explain what you noticed. About 150 words in all.

Advanced
Show answer & explanation

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Accept any object and any person. Content should include: an advertisement written as a list of qualities; a note about a person; an observation that the two kinds of writing behave differently; and a link to the poem's argument about qualities and love. Deduct if the note about t…

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