A Photograph — Class 11 MCQs with Answers
Class 11 CBSE English · Chapter 2
20 practice questions · 20 Medium · Updated
Practise the most important Class 11 CBSE English questions from Chapter 2, "A Photograph". You get 2 timed quizzes made from 20 NCERT-based MCQs, with answers and explanations. The questions are split into 20 Medium. Warm up on the basics, then move on to the exam-level questions that top scorers in CBSE Board exams get right.
To score well in "A Photograph", focus on comprehension, grammar and writing skills. Each MCQ here is timed and uses exam-style marking (+4 correct, −1 wrong, 0 skipped). This helps you stay accurate when time is short, just as real papers need. Every question has a short explanation, so a wrong answer becomes a quick lesson. It is the fastest way to fix gaps before a test.
Use this chapter for focused revision. Start with the Easy set to check your basics on A Photograph, then move to Medium to practise applying them. Your accuracy, streaks and XP save automatically. This chapter also adds to your overall Class 11 English mastery score. Try the sample question below: tap an option to see the answer and a worked explanation. Sign in free to start practising.
A Photograph — important questions & MCQs with answers (Class 11 English)
1 solved question from this chapter's difficulty levels, each with its answer and explanation. Tap an option to check yourself.
- Q1Medium
'Terribly transient feet' is an example of
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Answer: Transferred epithet — it is their lives, not their feet, that are transient
Explanation: The adjective properly belongs to the girls' brief lives but is transferred to the feet the sea happens to be washing.
Key concepts: A Photograph (Class 11 English)
Shirley Toulson's short elegy in three unequal stanzas, each holding a different layer of time: the mother's seaside girlhood, her laughter at the snapshot decades later, and the poet's present silence after her death.
- The cardboard
- The poem names the photograph by its stiff mount — a flat, lifeless word set against the living scene it preserves. 'The cardboard shows me how it was.'
- What the picture shows
- Two girl cousins went paddling, each holding one of the mother's hands; she was 'the big girl — some twelve years or so'. All three smiled 'through their hair' at the uncle with the camera.
- Betty and Dolly
- The cousins are named only in the mother's later remark: 'See Betty / And Dolly… and look how they / Dressed us for the beach.'
- The unchanged sea
- 'And the sea, which appears to have changed less, / Washed their terribly transient feet' — nature endures while the human figures age and die.
- Terribly transient feet
- A transferred epithet: it is not the feet that are transient but the lives they belong to. The adjective is moved to sharpen the contrast with the sea.
- Three phases of time
- Stanza one is the girlhood holiday before the poet's birth; stanza two the mother laughing at the snapshot 'some twenty — thirty — years later'; stanza three the present, after her death.
- Her past, mine is her laughter
- Each generation loses something different. The seaside day is the mother's vanished past; the sound of her laughing at it is the poet's.
- The laboured ease of loss
- An oxymoron. 'Laboured' and 'ease' contradict each other, catching the effort of seeming untroubled by what has gone.
- Wry
- Twisted, with a bitter half-humour. Both the mother's laughter and the poet's memory are called wry, which is what links the two losses.
- Nearly as many years
- 'Now she's been dead nearly as many years / As that girl lived' — the girl was about twelve, so the mother has been dead roughly twelve years.
- This circumstance
- It refers to that arithmetic of loss immediately before it, not to the photograph or the holiday.
- Its silence silences
- The poem's last line. 'There is nothing to say at all' — the grief imposes its own silence on the speaker, and the poem simply stops.
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Start this chapter free →A Photograph — FAQs
What are the key concepts in Class 11 English A Photograph?+
Shirley Toulson's short elegy in three unequal stanzas, each holding a different layer of time: the mother's seaside girlhood, her laughter at the snapshot decades later, and the poet's present silence after her death. Key ideas include The cardboard, What the picture shows, Betty and Dolly, The unchanged sea, Terribly transient feet, Three phases of time.
What does Class 11 English Chapter 2 (A Photograph) cover on XamBaaz?+
It has 20 NCERT-based MCQs on "A Photograph": 20 Medium. Together they make 2 timed quizzes, and you never get the same set twice. Every question has an instant explanation. They help you prepare for CBSE Board exams.
Are these "A Photograph" questions free to practise?+
Yes. Sign in with Google to practise "A Photograph" free. Full unlimited access is ₹999/year. One year from the day you pay. You stay in Class 11 till 31 March; on 1 April your account moves up to Class 12 and the rest of your year carries over. No chapter is charged separately.
How should I revise "A Photograph" for the exam?+
Start with the Easy quiz to check your basics, then try Medium to practise applying them. There are 2 timed quizzes on this chapter, so you can come back for a fresh set instead of one you have seen. Read each explanation, retry the questions you miss, and track your accuracy until it stays high.
Are these "A Photograph" MCQs available with answers?+
Yes. A sample question is on this page with answers: tap an option, or "Show answer", to see the correct option and a step-by-step explanation. Sign in free with Google to start practising, with instant scoring.
Is there negative marking in the "A Photograph" quizzes?+
Yes. The timed quizzes use exam-style marking: +4 for a right answer, −1 for a wrong one and 0 for a skip. MHT-CET and CBSE board papers have no negative marking. Our mocks for those are scored their way.
What are the important questions from A Photograph (Class 11 English)?+
The questions that matter most test The cardboard, What the picture shows, Betty and Dolly, The unchanged sea, Terribly transient feet, Three phases of time. This page shows 1 solved important MCQs with answers and explanations. Sign in to practise all 20 questions on the chapter as timed quizzes.
Is there an online quiz for A Photograph?+
Yes — Class 11 English A Photograph has timed online quizzes at Medium levels, with instant scoring and a worked explanation on every question. The first quiz on the chapter is free.