Érettségi (Matura Hungary) · Hungarian Language and Literature

Hungarian Literature and Language

93 practice questions, each with the answer and an explanation.

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Random questions from this topic, one at a time. You see the answer and the explanation straight after each one.

All 93 questions

  1. Which poet wrote the verse tale John the Valiant (Janos vitez) and the National Song (Nemzeti dal)?
  2. Which poem by Ferenc Kolcsey, written in 1823, became the text of the Hungarian national anthem?
  3. Which language family does Hungarian belong to?
  4. Which writer is the author of The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragediaja), a dramatic poem of 1861?
  5. Which Hungarian writer won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2002 for Fatelessness (Sorstalansag)?
  6. What is the traditional order of a Hungarian name?
  7. Which poet wrote the ballad The Bards of Wales (A walesi bardok) and the Toldi trilogy?
  8. Which letters of the Hungarian alphabet carry a double acute accent?
  9. Which novel by Mor Jokai tells the story of a Hungarian family during the revolution of 1848-1849?
  10. What does the Hungarian literary journal Nyugat (West), founded in 1908, represent?
  11. Which poet was a leading figure of Nyugat and wrote the volume New Poems (Uj versek) in 1906?
  12. Which of these is the earliest surviving continuous Hungarian text, from about 1200?
  13. Which writer is known for the novels Edes Anna and Esti Kornel?
  14. Which poet wrote 'Tiszta szivvel' (With a Pure Heart) in 1925?
  15. Which poet wrote the Razglednicas (Postcards) in 1944, shortly before his death?
  16. Which writer is the author of the comic novel St Peter's Umbrella (Szent Peter esernyoje)?
  17. Which writer is the author of the drama Bank ban?
  18. Who wrote the baroque epic poem The Siege of Sziget (Szigeti veszedelem) in 1651?
  19. What was the aim of the language reform led by Ferenc Kazinczy around 1800?
  20. Which writer is the author of The Door (Az ajto) and Abigel?
  21. What is a ballad in Hungarian literature, as seen in Arany's Bards of Wales?
  22. Which grammatical feature is typical of Hungarian?
  23. In The Bards of Wales, Arany tells of Welsh bards who refuse to praise a conquering English king. How is the poem usually read?
  24. Which set correctly matches work, author and genre?
  25. Which statement about Hungarian grammar is correct?
  26. Why do the last poems of Miklos Radnoti survive?
  27. Which list puts these works in the correct chronological order, earliest first?
  28. A passage addresses God, asks for blessing for the nation, and recalls its past sufferings. Which work and period fits best?
  29. Why is The Tragedy of Man called a dramatic poem and not a novel?
  30. Who wrote the poem 'Szozat' (Appeal) which begins with the words 'Be faithful to your homeland, Hungarian'?
  31. Which writer wrote Be Faithful Unto Death (Legy jo mindhalalig), a novel about a schoolboy?
  32. Which writer wrote Eclipse of the Crescent Moon (Egri csillagok), a novel about the siege of Eger in 1552?
  33. Which sixteenth-century poet wrote love songs and soldier songs and is seen as the first great Hungarian lyric poet?
  34. Which poet and bishop of the fifteenth century wrote Latin poems and is counted among the great humanists of Hungary?
  35. Which novel by Sandor Marai centres on a long-awaited conversation between two old friends in a castle?
  36. Which poet created Psyche, a fictional nineteenth-century poetess, and wrote playful verse for children?
  37. In Hungarian literature, which Latin-writing humanist poet served at the court of King Matthias Corvinus and wrote the epigram De Iano Pannonio?
  38. In Hungarian literature, which 16th-century poet pioneered vernacular Hungarian love poetry and soldier songs, structuring poems into stanzas of three lines with 19 syllables?
  39. In Hungarian literature, what is the title of the Baroque epic poem written by Miklós Zrínyi celebrating the heroic defense of Szigetvár against the Ottoman Turks?
  40. In Hungarian literature, which Enlightenment poet wrote the mock-heroic epic Dorottya and the sensitive anacreontic lyric A Reményhez?
  41. In Hungarian literature, which author wrote the dramatic poem Az ember tragédiája (The Tragedy of Man), tracing Lucifer and Adam through human history?
  42. In Hungarian literature, which major national drama was written by József Katona in 1815, focusing on court intrigue during the reign of King Andrew II?
  43. In Hungarian literature, which epic poem by János Arany tells the tale of a peasant boy of immense physical strength who travels to the royal court of Louis the Great?
  44. In Hungarian literature, which 1857 ballad by János Arany allegorically criticized Habsburg absolutism through the story of King Edward I executing singers in Wales?
  45. In Hungarian literature, which modernist journal founded in 1908 by Ignotus, Ernő Osvát, and Miksa Fenyő became the central publication of 20th-century literature?
  46. In Hungarian literature, which poet published the revolutionary modernist collection Új versek (New Poems) in 1906, introducing symbolic visions of Hungarian decay and rebirth?
  47. In Hungarian literature, which poet wrote the pacifist poem Húsvét előtt and the mythological biblical epic Jónás könyve while editing the journal Nyugat?
  48. In Hungarian literature, which novel by Dezső Kosztolányi portrays the silent suffering and eventual murder committed by a mistreated housemaid in Budapest?
  49. In Hungarian literature, which 20th-century poet wrote complex dialectical masterpieces such as Óda, Eszmélet, and A Dunánál?
  50. In Hungarian literature, which Jewish Hungarian poet kept the Bori notesz (Bor Notebook) containing classical eclogues and Razglednicák while subjected to forced labor during World War II?
  51. In Hungarian literature, which post-war author pioneered the genre of "one-minute stories" (egyperces novellák) and wrote the absurdist play Tóték (The Tót Family)?
  52. In Hungarian literature, which Hungarian writer won the 2002 Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Sorstalanság (Fatelessness), depicting a boy's experience in Auschwitz?
  53. In Hungarian linguistics, to which primary language family does the Hungarian language belong?
  54. In Hungarian grammar, what morphological characteristic describes the attachment of multiple grammatical suffixes to a word stem without altering the stem's base meaning?
  55. In Hungarian phonology, what rule requires that suffixes adapt their vowels to match the front or back vocalic quality of the root word?
  56. In Hungarian literature, which major 19th-century novel by Kálmán Mikszáth tells the story of a miraculous umbrella protecting a young child in Glogova?
  57. In Hungarian literature, which leading 19th-century figure led the language reform movement (nyelvújítás) from his estate at Széphalom?
  58. In Hungarian literature, which epic poem by Mihály Vörösmarty published in 1825 commemorated the ancient Árpád conquest and revived Hungarian national pride?
  59. In Hungarian literature, which novel by Mór Jókai depicts the economic and social modernization of 19th-century Hungary through the entrepreneur Mihály Timár?
  60. In Hungarian literature, which psychological novel by Géza Ottlik, published in 1959, explores brotherhood, strict discipline, and quiet moral resistance in a military cadet school?
  61. In Hungarian grammar, which verb conjugation is used when the transitive verb has a specific, definite third-person direct object (e.g., 'Olvasom a könyvet')?
  62. In stylistics, what literary device is exemplified in János Arany's line where a part of an object stands for the whole (synecdoche), such as using 'tető' (roof) to mean 'ház' (house)?
  63. In Hungarian literature, which poetic masterpiece by Sándor Petőfi begins with the lines 'Talpra magyar, hí a haza!' and was recited on 15 March 1848?
  64. In Hungarian literature, which novel by Zsigmond Móricz critically exposes the social degradation, corruption, and financial ruin of the Hungarian gentry class through the figure of Zoltán Szakhmáry?
  65. In Hungarian literature, which Transylvanian memoirist wrote Levelek Törökországból (Letters from Turkey) during his exile in Rodostó with Prince Francis II Rákóczi?
  66. In Hungarian literature, what was the title of the first complete Hungarian translation of the Bible, printed in 1590 under the supervision of Gáspár Károli?
  67. In Hungarian literature, which early 19th-century poet mastered the Horatian classical ode in Hungarian, writing A magyarokhoz (I and II)?
  68. In Hungarian literature, which poet wrote the philosophical monologue A vén cigány in 1854, expressing apocalyptic dread and a faint hope for human renewal following the defeat of 1849?
  69. In Hungarian linguistics, what type of consonant assimilation occurs when the root-final consonant assimilates completely to the suffix consonant, as in 'kéz + vel = kézzel'?
  70. In Hungarian literature, which 19th-century psychological novel by Zsigmond Kemény depicts the moral corruption of Prince Zsigmond Báthory during the Transylvanian wars?
  71. In Hungarian literature, which collection of elegiac verses by Dezső Kosztolányi reflects on childhood, mortality, and existential anxiety through the persona of a sensitive boy?
  72. In Hungarian literature, which novel by Sándor Márai, published in 1942, consists of an all-night dramatic dialogue between two aging men confronting friendship and past betrayal?
  73. In Hungarian literature, which author created the nostalgic character Szindbád, traveling through sensory memories of towns, love affairs, and culinary meals?
  74. In Hungarian literature, which beloved 1906 youth novel by Ferenc Molnár portrays the tragic defense of a Budapest building lot (grund) by schoolboys against the Redshirts?
  75. In Hungarian literature, which mid-20th-century poet wrote Apokrif and Ravensbrücki passió, developing an austere poetic language confronting the spiritual void after the Holocaust?
  76. In Hungarian literature, which protean poet and translator created the persona of the 19th-century female poet Erzsébet Lónyay in the masterpiece Psyché?
  77. In Hungarian grammar, what is the syntactic function of the suffix '-hat/-het' attached to verbal stems (e.g., 'olvashat')?
  78. In Hungarian literature, which famous poem by Ferenc Kölcsey, composed on 22 January 1823 in Szatmárcseke, has its date celebrated annually as the Day of Hungarian Culture?
  79. In Hungarian metrics, what is the distinguishing structural feature of traditional national accentual-syllabic (hangsúlyos / magyaros) versification?
  80. In Hungarian literature, which complex ballad by János Arany utilizes a disjointed, elliptic narrative structure to represent the unraveling sanity of a murderous wife washing a bloody sheet?
  81. In Hungarian literature, in the structure of Imre Madách's Az ember tragédiája, which historical scene portrays Adam encountering a strictly utilitarian, phalanstery-like socialist dystopia?
  82. In Hungarian literary history, which critical dispute erupted in 1777 following the publication of György Bessenyei's Magyarság and Ágis tragédiája?
  83. In Hungarian literature, which poetic cycle by Endre Ady explores agonizing, battle-like erotic passion with Adél Brüll through recurring motifs of black swans and funeral chariots?
  84. In Hungarian grammar, which phonological phenomenon explains the change in the verb root when '-j' is added in the imperative mood, such as 'lát + j = láss'?
  85. In Hungarian literature, which autobiographical work by Péter Esterházy investigates his noble heritage and his painful discovery of his father's role as a state security informer?
  86. In Hungarian literature, which early medieval Latin manuscript contains the oldest surviving continuous text written in the Hungarian language, dating to around 1192–1195?
  87. In Hungarian literature, what manuscript contains the oldest surviving poem in the Hungarian language, discovered in the Catholic University library of Leuven in 1922?
  88. In Hungarian historical linguistics, which 1055 charter issued by King Andrew I contains the earliest recorded Hungarian sentence fragment: 'feheruuaru rea meneh hodu utu rea'?
  89. In Hungarian literature, which major late lyric by Attila József expresses profound childhood yearning for maternal reconciliation while contemplating an oncoming train?
  90. In Hungarian metrics, what classical quantitative meter is used in Ferenc Kölcsey's Parainesis and Mihály Vörösmarty's Szózat?
  91. In Hungarian literature, which 18th-century work of cultural critique by György Bessenyei argued that intellectual progress in Hungary required developing national scholarship in the vernacular?
  92. In Hungarian literature, which 20th-century author wrote the sweeping post-Holocaust novel Iskola a határon, structuring time through the subjective recollection of three boys?
  93. In Hungarian linguistics, which term describes the morphological category of words derived through productive suffixation that can function as independent lexical items in dictionaries?

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