CBSE Class 12 English A Roadside Stand MCQs

Question. What do the flowers of cities in a roadside stand refer to?
(a) city people
(b) city cars
(c) urban crowd
(d) The pleasures of cities

Answer : D

Question. What did the sophisticated vehicles do, as in the poem ‘A roadside stand’?
(a) It moved ahead ignoring the stand
(b) It crashed into the stand
(c) It stopped by the stand
(d) None of the above

Answer : A

Question. Who made roadside stand and where?
(a) The sarpanch made in the village
(b) The government made in the village
(c) social agencies made in the village
(d) The poor rural people made in the village

Answer : D

Question. What did the road stand do to sustain itself, as in the poem ‘A roadside stand’?
(a) Offer good discounts
(b) Offer a wide range of products
(c) Offer good price structure
(d) beg pathetically for financial assistance

Answer : D

Question. What is the childish longing that the poet refers to?
(a) to travel the city malls
(b) to travel the city showrooms
(c) to interact with city people
(d) hope of getting some financial help from the polished city traffic

Answer : D

Question. Why did a stopping car react?
(a) to point out at the wrongly marked N and S directions
(b) to buy some items
(c) to appreciate their hard work
(d) to soothe the villagers

Answer : A

Question. Who is Robert Frost?
(a) An American storyteller
(b) An American essayist
(c) An American narrator
(d) An American twentieth century poet

Answer : D

Question. What stood on the edge of the road, as in the poem ‘A roadside stand’?
(a) Small shop
(b) Small old house
(c) Poor people
(d) None of the above

Answer : B

Question. Why is the word pathetic used for road side stand?
(a) for city people’s attitude
(b) for government’s declaration
(c) for city people’s behavior
(d) for poor condition of the owner of the stand

Answer : D

Question. What would be the state of poor rural folk at new location ?
(a) tension free as their needs will be looked after
(b) they will be able to visit city malls
(c) they will enjoy travelling malls and cinema halls
(d) they will be happy

Answer : A

Question. Who will soothe the rural poor?
(a) Government and Social agencies
(b) Government officials
(c) Promises made by the Government
(d) City people will soothe ‘out of their wits’

Answer : D

Question. Why was the childish longing in vain ?
(a) because it was useless
(b) because they were shifting
(c) because their wish of earning from city folk couldn’t be realized or fulfilled
(d) none

Answer : C

Question. What is the importance of cash flow for city people?
(a) they love it
(b) they earn it with their hardwork
(c) they earn by befooling others
(d) it runs their life so it is their life line

Answer : D

Question. What is the poet’s call to the polished traffic passing ahead?
(a) he admires this
(b) he is indifferent to this
(c) he condemns this indifferent attitude of the city folk and feels the pain of the rural folk
(d) all these

Answer : C

Question. What does the speaker or narrator call the thought of the owner of the stand?
(a) A chidlike longing
(b) a very good thought
(c) a wise thought
(d) A childish longing in vain

Answer : D

Question. What news in the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ is making rounds in the village?
(a) City people are connive
(b) Villagers will be given homes near theatre and shopping malls
(c) Rural folk is earning money
(d) None

Answer : B

Question. What is being sold on roadside stand?
(a) furniture
(b) cosmetics
(c) Diesel
(d) wild berries, golden squash and some other similar products

Answer : D

Question. What does I stand for in the poem?
(a) owner of the stand
(b) city flower who stopped on the stand
(c) Poet of the poem-Robert Frost
(d) None of above

Answer : C

Question. Why are the city people called beasts of prey?
(a) because of their selfishness and tendency to dupe others for it
(b) because they are well dressed
(c) they know how to earn money
(d) all these

Answer : A

Question. Why are the city people called greedy?
(a) Because of their appearance
(b) because they did not stop at the stand
(c) because of their behavior
(d) because of their selfish interests

Answer : D

Question. What does Frost describe in the poem?
(a) the feelings of the owners of a roadside shed
(b) the feelings of passengers
(c) the feelings of people on footpath
(d) none

Answer : A

Question. Who went and waited in the lines?
(a) The rural folk to hear the government’s declaration
(b) The rural folk to talk to the social agencies
(c) The rural folk to have a word with the government officials
(d) The rural folk went to hear the sound of stopping cars

Answer : D

Question. What does ‘Out of their wit’ mean in the poem?
(a) by helping the poor people
(b) by showing rosy pictures to the poor people
(c) by fooling and exploiting the poor people to their own benefit
(d) all these

Answer : C

Question. What does Frost present in the poem A Roadside Stand?
(a) the lives of poor deprived people with understanding and in a sympathatic way
(b) the lives of people who stand on busstand
(c) lives of travellers
(d) none

Answer : A

Question. Who are the ‘pitiful kin’ in the poem?
(a) social agencies
(b) government officials
(c) city people with cars
(d) The poor rural folk and farmers

Answer : D

Question. Why was roadside stand built?
(a) so that people can wait there
(b) to make it a bus stop
(c) to earn money from polished city traffic
(d) none of above

Answer : B

Question. What does support the flow of cities?
(a) travelling
(b) rural people
(c) government
(d) flow of money

Answer : D

Question. What does Frost’s poem deal with?
(a) human tragedies , fears and their solutions
(b) humans
(c) nature
(d) buildings

Answer : A

Question. Who wanted to feel the money at hand and from whom?
(a) The rural folk from the government
(b) The rural folk from the social agencies
(c) The rural folk from the government officials
(d) The rural folk from the city people

Answer : D

Question. What does polished traffic refer to?
(a) city people
(b) smartness of city people
(c) insensitive attitude of city people and their gentle appearance
(d) none

Answer : C

Extract Based Questions: 

1. The little old house was out with a little new shed
In front at the edge of the road where the traffic sped,
A roadside stand that too pathetically pled,
It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread,
But for some of the money, the cash, whose flowsupports
The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.

Question. Why does the poet use the word 'pathetic‘?
Answer: By using the word 'pathetic‘ the poet emphasizes on the fact that the condition of the shed owner was pitiful and as such it was a pitiable sight.

Question. What was its purpose?
Answer: It was set up to attract the passersby to buy things from them so that they could earn some extra money.

Question. Who are referred to as 'the flower of cities‘? 
Answer: 'The flower of the cities‘ here refers to the rich and wealthy city-dwellers who can afford the best things.

Question. Where was the new shed put up?
Answer: A little house on one of the sides of the road was extended and a shed, a road side stand. was added to it by the owner of the house.

Question. Explain: 'too pathetically pled‘
Answer: By putting up the shed the owner was desperately pleading to the rich city folks to stop by at his roadside stand and buy things from there so that they could earn some extra money.

Question. Identify the figure of speech used in 'pathetically pled‘.
Answer: Personification – the stand has been given the human quality of pleading.

Question. The new shed had been put up by-
(a) The roadside
(b) In front of the house
(c) The window
(d)All the above

Answer: D

Question. The poetic device used in 'pled‘ is
(a) Personification
(b) Alliteration
(c) Metaphor
(d) Both A and B

Answer: A

Question. Identify the poetic device in 'the flower of the cities‘
(a) Oxymoron
(b) Metaphor
(c) Personification
(d) Transferred epithet

Answer: B

Question. From the quoted lines pick out the words that bring out the farmers desperation
(a) The little old house was out with a little new shed
(b) Pathetically pled
(c) Pled for some city money
(d) both C and B

Answer: B

Question. The word 'pathetic‘ has been used by the poet to highlight
(a) The badly put up shed
(b) To highlight the ignorance of the farmer
(c) To make the reader understand the penury of the farmer
(d) None of the above

Answer: C

Question. The purpose behind the stand fails because-
(a) The city people don‘t have the seeing eye.
(b) No one stops their car.
(c) The farmer is asking for a dole of bread.
(d) Both A and B

Answer: D

2. The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead,
Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts
At having the landscape marred with the artless paint
Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turnedwrong
Offered for sale wild berries in wooden quarts

Question. Why does the poet say that these signs are 'turned wrong‘?
Answer: These signs are turned wrong because the farmer while making his roadside stand using the discarded sign boards accidently placed them pointing towards the wrong direction. The north was pointing towards south and the south was pointing towards the north.

Question. The polished traffic was 'out of sorts with the farmer. Why?
Answer: The polished traffic that is the city dwellers were upset with the farmer for having spoiled the scenic beauty by building the roadside stand using discarded sign boards.

Question. Frost describes the paint work of the road signs as artless. Why?
Answer: The reason is that the road-signs are made for very practical purposes- to show directions, as such the painting work is equally practical, no artistry or aesthetics is involved.

Question. What does the poet mean by 'with a mind ahead?
Answer: The phrase 'with a mind ahead‘ suggests that the people who pass the roadside stand in their polished cars overlook the roadside stand as their mind is focused only on their destination.

Question. The phrase polished traffic is a metaphor for……
Answer: The city people who are polished or refined in comparison to the simple country people.

Question. Explain N and S signs?
Answer: The N and S signs stand for the North and the South direction.

Question. The letters N and S are significant because
(a) They show the ignorance of the farmer
(b) They have no aesthetic appeal
(c) They are abbreviations for North and South
(d) All the above

Answer: C

Question. The signs are turned wrong as
(a) The farmer wanted to confuse the passersby
(b) The confusion would make the cars stop and they would then buy his goods
(c) The farmer unknowingly committed the mistake as he was more focused on making the shed.
(d) Both A and B

Answer: C

Question. The phrase 'with a mind ahead is synonymous to-
(a) Being preoccupied
(b) Focused on the traffic
(c) Distracted
(d) all the above

Answer: A

Question. Artless means
(a) Aesthetic
(b) having no aesthetic beauty
(c) lacking in the painter‘s skill
(d) work of an amateur

Answer: B

Question. The phrase polished traffic is a transferred epithet because it is used
(a) for the well maintained cars
(b) For the city dwellers
(c) neither A nor b
(d) Both A and B

Answer: B

Question. What made the city dwellers angry?
(a) The roadside stand
(b) they mistakenly thought that the farmer was asking for a dole of bread
(c) Both A and B
(d) the destruction of the rustic beauty by the farmer‘s roadside stand

Answer: D

3. It is in the news that all these pitiful kin
Are to be bought out and mercifully gathered in
To live in villages, next to the theatre and the store,
Where they won‘t have to think for themselves anymore,
While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey,
Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits

Question. Explain why merciful have been called 'greedy good-doers‘ and 'beneficent beasts of prey‘?
Answer: The merciful are the crooked politicians, greedy people pretending to be good, who only pose as beneficiaries. These powerful men are actually beasts of prey in the guise of beneficiaries who ruthlessly exploit the common people.

Question. Why won‘t these poor people have to think for themselves anymore?
Answer: These poor people are now in the hands of the so-called 'merciful beneficiaries‘, who would provide for them, which will actually do them more harm than good, when the food and all their needs will be met with then they will not have to think about providing for themselves any more.

Question. Identify the figure of speech used in the last line.
Answer: Oxymoron

Question. Who are the 'pitiful kin‘?
Answer: The pitiful kin are the poor people like the farmer who has built the road side stand.

Question. What is in the news?
Answer: It is in the news that the property of the people like the farmers would be purchased by the government and the family will be relocated in welfare villagers.

Question. Point out the irony in 'mercifully gathered in‘.
Answer: The irony is that the relocation of the country people is disguised as a charitable act but in reality, it is a very cunning, self-serving and money making act of the government and the moneyed people.

Question. the irony in the word mercifully is
(a) It‘s a totally merciless act
(b) the selfish city dwellers are being merciful
(c) for once the government is doing its job correctly
(d) Both B and C

Answer: A

Question. The news of the hour is
(a) The people like the farmers will be bought out
(b) They are going to be relocated
(c) They wouldn‘t have to fend for themselves
(d) All the above

Answer: D

Question. The figures of speech used in "greedy good doers‘is
(a) Alliteration and Oxymoron
(b) Oxymoron and metaphor
(c) alliteration and transferred epithet
(d) Oxymoron and personification

Answer: A

Question. The imagery in 'beneficent beast of prey is that of
(a) An animal being hunted
(b) A predator hunting its prey
(c) The government hunting the poor
(d) All the above

Answer: B

Question. Pick out the phrases which has the use of contrast and thus irony in it
(a) Greedy good doers
(b) Beneficent beasts of prey
(c) Mercifully gathered
(d) both A and B

Answer: D

Question. The word 'kin‘ in the phrase pitiful kin points out the fact that the poor people are our
(a) Relatives
(b) Fellow human beings
(c) Blood brothers
(d) none of the above

Answer: B