Quiz Space

English I End Term: 10 May 2026 (January 2026 term)

Question 1

+2 marksOne correct option

Read the following passage and answer the given subquestions.
During the Depression, when milk supply exceeded demand, the US government bought milk to keep its price stable and support dairy farmers. Then, trying to find a way to store or get rid of the surplus, it started stockpiling cheese, which lasts longer than milk. The government bought so much cheese that it eventually filled every cold storage in the country. But there was still more excess milk. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rented half an acre in a Kansas cave and filled it floor to ceiling with blocks of cheese. At its height, the US had 2lbs of stored cheese for every resident. Eventually, the USDA turned to its nutrition programs to dispose of excess cheese. Despite most Indigenous peoples’ inability to digest milk, commodity cheese became the centerpiece of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). Musician Wade Fernandez, a member of the Menominee nation, sings Commodity Cheese Blues, lamenting, “I went downtown to the commod shop / Met the blues ’cause they were out of stock. Tell me please when I’ll get my commod cheese.” Nicknamed “pasteurized gold”, the bright orange cheese bricks sometimes operate as currency to buy other foods or goods. The irony of this treasure is not lost on critics. In 2006, an Indian Country Today article observed: “Some Lakota still say to this day that the only brick of gold the Lakota people got out of the Black Hills is the brick of cheese rationed out on commodity day.” Funneling surplus cheese into nutrition programs like FDPIR and school lunches was not enough to save the dairy industry, which accounts for 3.5% of the US gross domestic product – half a percentage more than the auto industry. President Jimmy Carter vowed to increase the price of milk by six cents a gallon in 1977 and committed to buying as much dairy as necessary to prop up the industry. When government-purchased cheese began to mold, the plan to get it out of storage became urgent. In 1981, a USDA official told the Washington Post: “We’ve looked and looked at ways to deal with this, but the distribution problems are incredible ... Probably the cheapest and most practical thing would be to dump it in the ocean.” Instead, President Reagan’s administration came up with a way to solve the problem without affecting the demand for or price of cheese. It created the Dairy Distribution Program, sending truckloads of cheese blocks to poor neighborhoods around the country. Inevitably, government cheese entered popular culture as a marker of poverty.

During the Depression, the US government bought milk to support dairy farmers.

  1. A

    True

  2. B

    False

Question 2

+2 marksOne correct option

Read the following passage and answer the given subquestions.
During the Depression, when milk supply exceeded demand, the US government bought milk to keep its price stable and support dairy farmers. Then, trying to find a way to store or get rid of the surplus, it started stockpiling cheese, which lasts longer than milk. The government bought so much cheese that it eventually filled every cold storage in the country. But there was still more excess milk. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rented half an acre in a Kansas cave and filled it floor to ceiling with blocks of cheese. At its height, the US had 2lbs of stored cheese for every resident. Eventually, the USDA turned to its nutrition programs to dispose of excess cheese. Despite most Indigenous peoples’ inability to digest milk, commodity cheese became the centerpiece of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). Musician Wade Fernandez, a member of the Menominee nation, sings Commodity Cheese Blues, lamenting, “I went downtown to the commod shop / Met the blues ’cause they were out of stock. Tell me please when I’ll get my commod cheese.” Nicknamed “pasteurized gold”, the bright orange cheese bricks sometimes operate as currency to buy other foods or goods. The irony of this treasure is not lost on critics. In 2006, an Indian Country Today article observed: “Some Lakota still say to this day that the only brick of gold the Lakota people got out of the Black Hills is the brick of cheese rationed out on commodity day.” Funneling surplus cheese into nutrition programs like FDPIR and school lunches was not enough to save the dairy industry, which accounts for 3.5% of the US gross domestic product – half a percentage more than the auto industry. President Jimmy Carter vowed to increase the price of milk by six cents a gallon in 1977 and committed to buying as much dairy as necessary to prop up the industry. When government-purchased cheese began to mold, the plan to get it out of storage became urgent. In 1981, a USDA official told the Washington Post: “We’ve looked and looked at ways to deal with this, but the distribution problems are incredible ... Probably the cheapest and most practical thing would be to dump it in the ocean.” Instead, President Reagan’s administration came up with a way to solve the problem without affecting the demand for or price of cheese. It created the Dairy Distribution Program, sending truckloads of cheese blocks to poor neighborhoods around the country. Inevitably, government cheese entered popular culture as a marker of poverty.

The US government stopped stockpiling cheese once it filled every cold storage in the country.

  1. A

    True

  2. B

    False

Question 3

+2 marksOne correct option

Read the following passage and answer the given subquestions.
During the Depression, when milk supply exceeded demand, the US government bought milk to keep its price stable and support dairy farmers. Then, trying to find a way to store or get rid of the surplus, it started stockpiling cheese, which lasts longer than milk. The government bought so much cheese that it eventually filled every cold storage in the country. But there was still more excess milk. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) rented half an acre in a Kansas cave and filled it floor to ceiling with blocks of cheese. At its height, the US had 2lbs of stored cheese for every resident. Eventually, the USDA turned to its nutrition programs to dispose of excess cheese. Despite most Indigenous peoples’ inability to digest milk, commodity cheese became the centerpiece of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR). Musician Wade Fernandez, a member of the Menominee nation, sings Commodity Cheese Blues, lamenting, “I went downtown to the commod shop / Met the blues ’cause they were out of stock. Tell me please when I’ll get my commod cheese.” Nicknamed “pasteurized gold”, the bright orange cheese bricks sometimes operate as currency to buy other foods or goods. The irony of this treasure is not lost on critics. In 2006, an Indian Country Today article observed: “Some Lakota still say to this day that the only brick of gold the Lakota people got out of the Black Hills is the brick of cheese rationed out on commodity day.” Funneling surplus cheese into nutrition programs like FDPIR and school lunches was not enough to save the dairy industry, which accounts for 3.5% of the US gross domestic product – half a percentage more than the auto industry. President Jimmy Carter vowed to increase the price of milk by six cents a gallon in 1977 and committed to buying as much dairy as necessary to prop up the industry. When government-purchased cheese began to mold, the plan to get it out of storage became urgent. In 1981, a USDA official told the Washington Post: “We’ve looked and looked at ways to deal with this, but the distribution problems are incredible ... Probably the cheapest and most practical thing would be to dump it in the ocean.” Instead, President Reagan’s administration came up with a way to solve the problem without affecting the demand for or price of cheese. It created the Dairy Distribution Program, sending truckloads of cheese blocks to poor neighborhoods around the country. Inevitably, government cheese entered popular culture as a marker of poverty.

At its height, the US had 2lbs of stored cheese for every resident.
What does the word resident mean in this context?

  1. A

    A person who is visiting the US

  2. B

    A person who has relatives residing in the US

  3. C

    A person who lives in the US permanently

  4. D

    A person who owns a milk farm

57 more questions in this paper

Sign in with Google — it is free — to see every question with its answer and explanation, practise it in learning mode, or take it as a timed mock test.

More on the English 1 End Term 10 May 2026 paper

The IIT Madras BS English I (English 1) End Term paper sat on 10 May 2026, in the January 2026 term: 60 questions for 100 marks in 180 minutes. The first 3 questions are below. Sign in with Google — it is free — to see the whole paper with its answers and explanations, in learning mode or as a timed mock test.

FeatureEnglish 1 End Term 10 May 2026 at a glance
TermJanuary 2026 term
SubjectEnglish I
Course codeBSHS1001
Questions60
Marks100
Duration180 min
MCQ60
Official paperEnglish1 06 May 26
Negative markingNo negative marking.
Updated

Same End Term, other subjects

More English 1