General Knowledge MCQs
Topic Notes: General Knowledge
MCQs and preparation resources for competitive exams, covering important concepts, past papers, and detailed explanations.
Plato
- Biography: Ancient Greek philosopher (427–347 BCE), student of Socrates and teacher of Aristotle, founder of the Academy in Athens.
- Important Ideas:
- Theory of Forms
- Philosopher-King
- Ideal State
41
The word 'Meme' was coined by which evolutionary biologist in 1976?
Answer:
Richard Dawkins
In his book 'The Selfish Gene', Dawkins defined a meme as a unit of cultural transmission that spreads like a virus.
42
What was the 'Brown Corpus'?
Answer:
The first major computer-readable corpus of written American English
Compiled by Francis and Kučera at Brown University in the 1960s, it laid the foundation for modern computational linguistics.
43
Who coined the word 'Serendipity' in 1754?
Answer:
Horace Walpole
He created it based on the fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip' (Sri Lanka), whose heroes were always making discoveries by accident.
44
Which English printer relates the famous story of the 'Eggs' vs. 'Eyren' dialect confusion in the 15th century?
Answer:
William Caxton
In his prologue to the Aeneid, Caxton describes a merchant asking for 'eggs' (Norse derived) and a woman saying she speaks no French; she only understood 'eyren' (Old English).
45
The term 'Bowdlerize' comes from Thomas Bowdler, who is famous for:
Answer:
Publishing a 'Family Shakespeare' with all the sexual and violent references removed
To 'bowdlerize' now means to censor a text to make it 'safe' for sensitive audiences, often ruining it in the process.
46
Who wrote 'The American Language', a multi-volume study arguing that American English was a separate language from British English?
Answer:
H.L. Mencken
Mencken was a journalist and satirist who championed the vitality of American colloquialisms against British prescriptivism.
47
The 'American Heritage Dictionary' is famous for establishing which feature?
Answer:
A panel of usage experts (The Usage Panel)
They convened a panel of writers and scholars to vote on the acceptability of disputed words and grammatical points.
48
Which slang dictionary was written by Francis Grose in 1785?
Answer:
The Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Grose's work is a valuable historical resource, documenting 18th-century street language, insults, and criminal slang.
49
Who delivered the famous address to the Asiatic Society in 1786, proposing that Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin shared a common root (Proto-Indo-European)?
Answer:
Sir William Jones
Jones's observation is considered the beginning of comparative linguistics and the study of the Indo-European language family.
50
What is a 'Ghost Word' in lexicography?
Answer:
A word that entered a dictionary due to an error (e.g., a misprint or misinterpretation) and never actually existed
A famous example is 'Dord', which appeared in Webster's dictionary for years due to a misread slip for 'D or d' (density).