Read the following passage carefully.
A Chorus
Over the surging tides and the mountain kingdoms,
Over the pastoral valleys and the meadows,
Over the cities with their factory darkness,
Over the lands where peace is still a power,
Over all these and all this planet carries
A power broods, invisible monarch, a stranger
To some, but by many trusted. Man’s a believer until corrupted. This huge trusted power Is spirit. He moves in the muscle of the world, In continual creation. He burns the tides, he shines From the matchless skies. He is the day’s surrender. Recognize him in the eye of the angry tiger, In the sign of a child stepping at last into sleep, In whatever touches, graces and confesses, In hopes fulfilled or forgotten, in promises Kept, in the resignation of old men This spirit, this power, this holder together of space Is about, is aware, is working in your breathing. But most he is the need that shows in hunger And in the tears shed in the lonely fastness. And in sorrow after anger.
—By Elizabeth Jennings
I. Answer the following questions by choosing the most appropriate option:
(a) The power rules over:
1. mountain kingdoms
2. pastoral valleys
3. urban areas
4. all the above
(b) The theme of the poem is:
1. man is corrupt
2. a super power rules the world
3. in the world creation is continuous
4. man is a believer.
II. Answer the following questions as briefly as possible.
(a) Pick the figure of speech in lines 1-4.
(b) Why is the power called ‘invisible’?
(c) Why is the power ‘a stranger to some’?
(d) Explain the line ‘man’s a believer until corrupted’.
(e) What are the two visible signs of the presence of this power?
(f) Why is this power trusted by men?
III. Find words from the passage which are similar in meaning to the following.
(a) acceptance (line 16)
(b) to loom (line 6)
