Sohrab and Rustum (Practice Test)

1. What is the central conflict in Sohrab and Rustum?
(A) A battle between Persians and Tartars
(B) A father and son unknowingly fighting each other
(C) A dispute over royal succession
(D) A betrayal between war allies

2. Why don’t Sohrab and Rustum recognize each other?
(A) Rustum is disguised in battle
(B) They were separated at Sohrab’s birth
(C) Sohrab wears Tartar armor
(D) Both A and B

3. What does the Oxus River symbolize in the poem?
(A) The boundary between life and death
(B) The political divide between empires
(C) The flow of time and fate
(D) A religious purification site

4. When does Rustum realize Sohrab is his son?
(A) Before the battle begins
(B) As Sohrab is dying
(C) When Sohrab calls him “father” in battle
(D) When he sees Sohrab’s sword

5. What is the source of Arnold’s story?
(A) Greek mythology
(B) The Persian epic Shahnameh
(C) The Bible
(D) Medieval European legends

6. What event marks the poem’s climax?
(A) Rustum refuses to fight
(B) Sohrab mortally wounds Rustum
(C) Rustum fatally wounds Sohrab
(D) The armies call a truce

7. What does the “crimson sand” imagery emphasize?
(A) The beauty of the landscape
(B) The violence and tragedy of war
(C) A symbolic rebirth
(D) Rustum’s royal status

8. What is the function of the Oxus River description at the poem’s end?
(A) Contrast nature’s indifference with human grief
(B) Foreshadow Rustum’s death
(C) Celebrate a military victory
(D) Mark a religious ritual

9. What is the poem’s form?
(A) A dramatic monologue
(B) Blank verse with epic similes
(C) A sonnet sequence
(D) Rhymed heroic couplets

10. What causes the tragedy in the story?
(A) Political ambition
(B) Miscommunication and pride
(C) Divine punishment
(D) Environmental disaster