Formatting page ...
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ENGLISH Paper 1 (Two hours) Answers to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately. You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes. This time is to be spent in reading the question paper. The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers. Attempt all five questions. The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ]. Attempt all five questions. The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ]. You are advised to spend not more than 30 minutes in answering Question 1 and 20 minutes in answering Question 2. Question 1 (Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this question.) Write a composition (300 - 350 words) on any one of the following: [20] a) Working women make better mothers than women who stay at home. Express your views either for or against this statement. b) Describe in detail the view from your bedroom window does your room overlook a park? A busy Street? What are the sights, sounds and smells that you would typically see hear and experience at different times of the day? When do you most enjoy the view? Early in the morning, in the evening, or late in the night. c) Impact of reading literature on our lives. d) A mysterious telephone call awakens you at night. Describe what it leads to. e) Study the picture given below write a story or an account of what the pictures suggest to you your composition maybe about the subject of the picture or you may take suggestions from it. Question 2 (Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.) Select one of the following: [10] a) Your class was taken to visit an old age home where you spent half a day with the inmates. Write a letter to a friend telling him/her what you saw, how you felt and in what way you have changed since the visit. b) Write a letter to the local police complaining of a theft that took place in your neighboring flat. Question 3 [5+5] (a) You are the Secretary of Science Club of your school and the club is organizing a Science Exhibition at your School Auditorium on the occasion of National Science Day on 28 February. Draft a notice to be displayed on the school Notice Board, asking the students of Classes V to X to submit their exhibits for the Science Exhibition. (b) Based on the content in Question 3(a), write an email to the Principal of your neighboring school, requesting him/her to inaugurate the Science Exhibition to be organized by your club. Question 4 Read the following passage carefully and answer the question that follows. [20] We have been brought up to fear insects. We regard them as unnecessary creatures that do more harm than good. Man continuously wages war on them, for they contaminate his food, carry diseases or devour his crops. They sting or bite without provocation, they fly uninvited into our rooms on summer nights, or beat against our lighted windows. We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. Reading about them increases our understanding without dispelling our fears. Knowing that the industrious ants live in a highly organized society does not prevent us from being filled with revulsion when we find hordes of them crawling over a carefully prepared picnic lunch. No matter how much we like honey, or how much we have read of the uncanny sense of direction which bees possess, we have a horror of being stung. Most of our fears are unreasonable, but they are difficult to erase. At the same time, however, insects are strangely fascinating. We enjoy reading about them, especially when we find that like the Praying Mantis, they lead perfectly horrible lives. We enjoy staring at them, entrance as they go about their business, unaware -we hope of our presence. Who has not stood in awe at the sight of a spider pouncing on a fly, or a column of ants triumphantly carrying home an enormous dead beetle? Last summer, I spent many days in the garden watching thousands of ants crawling up the trunk of my prized peach tree. The tree has grown against a warm wall on a sheltered side of the house. I am especially proud of it, not only because it has survived several severe winters, but because it occasionally produces luscious peaches. During the summer I noticed that the leaves of the tree had begun to wither. Clusters of tiny insects called Aphids were to be found on the underside of the leaves. They were visited by a large column of ants which obtained a sort of honey from them. I immediately embarked on an experiment which, even though it failed to get rid of the ants, kept me fascinated for twenty four hours. I bound the base of the tree with sticky tape, making it impossible for the ants to reach the Aphids. The tape was so sticky that they did not dare to cross it. For a long time, I watched them scurrying around the base of the tree in bewilderment. I even went out at midnight with a torch and noted with satisfaction and surprise that the ants were still swarming around the sticky tape without being able to do anything about it. I got up early next morning to find the ants were climbing up the wall of the house and then on to the leaves of the tree. I realized sadly that I had been completely defeated by their ingenuity. The ants had been quick to find an answer to my thoroughly unscientific methods. Answer the following question:(a) Three words or phrases are given below. Give the meaning of each word as used in the passage. One word answer or short phrases will be accepted. [3] i. Dispelling ii. Pouncing iii. Ingenuity (b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words. i. What is our attitude towards insects? ii. Why does man try to exterminate insects? [2] [2] iii. Why does the writer say that knowing about insects does not make man change his attitude towards insects? [2] iv. What was the reason that the leaves of the tree were beginning to wither in summer? [1] v. What did the writer do to prevent the ants from reaching the Aphids? Was it successful? (c) Describe in not more than 50 words the behavior that we show towards insects. [2] [8] Question 5 a) Fill in each of the numbers blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not copy the passage, but write in correct serial according order, the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space. [4] We finally (1) _____ (reach) a village where I (2) _____ (meet) a lady whose age (3) _____ (can0 not immediately make out. My translator (4) _____ (find) it difficult to interpret the lady s words because her dialect was quite different. She (5) _____ (is) a dark-skinned and dark haired lady. She must have been around seventy years old but there was no gray in her hair. She obviously could not afford to dye her hair. So what was her secret? Nobody (6) ______ (know). It must have been a secret common to all for not one person in the whole village (7) _____ (has) a trace of gray hair. I (8) _____ (think) about it for a long. b) Fill in the blanks with appropriate words: i. He was touched _____ pity when he heard the tale. ii. The poor man is afflicted _____ arthritis. iii. The mother prevented the child ______ going out in the rain. iv. The baby crawled ______ the table and hid there. v. Once upon a time, a great king ruled ______ these villages and towns. [4] vi. She is smarter _____ the two. vii. Sheela insists ______ wearing that dress, although her mother thinks it is too short for her. viii. The teacher complained _____ him when she met his mother in the market. c) Join the following sentences to make it one complete sentence without using and, but or so. [4] i. He lived in the city for many years. He could not find his way about. ii. She complained that her brother did not know anything. Her brother claimed that he knew everything. iii. The coffee isn t strong. It won t keep us awake. iv. I finished my homework. I switched on the T.V. b) Rewrite the following sentence according to the instruction given after each. Make other changes that may be necessary, but do not change the meaning of the sentence. [8] i. My mother left a month ago. (Begin: It has ..) ii. The bee is more industrious than all other creatures. (Use: most industrious) iii. Anil was wrong to lose his temper. (Begin: Anil ought ..) iv. The monsoon is the best season in our country. (Rewrite using: good) v. As soon as the chief guest had seated himself the play began. (Begin: No sooner ..) vi. Sunil is the fastest runner in the school. (End: .as Sunil) vii. She was the only person capable of being House Captain. (Use: capability) viii. In spite of all her efforts, Susan did not succeed. (Begin: Despite ..) ix. Rohan was tallest boy in the basketball team. (Rewrite using: taller) x. Rajiv said to Arjun, Is this the book you were reading yesterday. (Begin: Rajiv asked Arjun if ..)
|
