HSC Arts (English Medium) इयत्ता १२ वी - Maharashtra State Board Question Bank Solutions for English

Write a counterview on the following topic.

“Every day is a mother’s/ father’s day.”

1. If you love them, you don’t need to wait for such days.
2. Celebrating days is just a formality.
3. Celebrations of the days condition your expression of emotions.
4. It is a kind of pretext to neglect your everyday responsibilities.

Neeraj Chopra may not participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(Choose the correct option from the following sentences which uses a more definite modal auxiliary.)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes
While you raise yourself in those of others,
If you do not give in to gossips and lies
Rather heed them not, saying, 'who bothers?'
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose,
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a set-back, you offer no excuse,
You may be the person I and looking for.

(1) What should be your reaction towards gossips and lies?
(2) Who are your role models? Why?
(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words from the first stanza.
(4) Which line is repeated in this extract and what is its effect?

Read the follow ing extract and answer the questions given below:

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly...

They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

(1) What makes a nation strong?
(2) According to you, what makes India a strong and powerful nation?.
(3) Write down the rhyme scheme used in the extract.
(4) What does the phrase 'others fly ... ' mean?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

How do you know
Peace is a woman?
 I know, for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way 
to the world's fare.
She had such a wonderful face
just like a golden flower faded
before her prime.

(1) How does the poet describe the face of peace?
(2) Do you think there is a way out of the war-ridden world? What is it?.
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
"I met her yesterday 
on my winding way."
(4) The poet asks the question and herself answers it. What effect does it create in the extract?

Complete the flow-chart : 

Complete the following table :

(i) The interest of Maharashtra and that of India should be one for the progress of Maharashtra state, because ................

Complete the following statements :

(ii) Maharashtra depends on India, because ................

Read the following extract and then do all the activities that follow :

I rain into a stranger as he passed by
“Oh, excuse me please” was my reply.
He said, “please excuse me too; wasn't even watching for you.”
We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on out way and we said good-bye.
But at home a different story is told.
How we treat out loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood beside me very still.
When I turned, I nearly knoked her down.
“Move out of the way,” I said with a frown.
She walked away, her little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.
While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
“While Dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But children you love, you seem to abuse.”

A1. Order- 
The incidents narrated in the extract are arranged in a jumbled manner here, Rearrange them in a proper order as they occur in the extract:
(i) The poet and the stranger went on their way saying good-bye.
(ii) Seeking excuse politely from the stranger, she went her way.
(iii) The poet ran into a stranger on the road.
(iv) The poet yelled at her daughter.

A2. Poetic device:
Make a list of rhyming pairs from the second stanza and note down the rhyme scheme of the same stanza.

A3. Personal Response:
Understanding and politeness are the essentials of out everyday life. Explain your views in brief.

A4. Creativity -
Frame two poetic lines on the following situation using a rhyming pattern with the help of clues given:
“While introducing great personalities, we praise them highly and talk about their qualities, but while speaking
about our friends we may not follow the same trend.”
While introducing great personalities, — a
------------------------------------ — a
But while speaking about our friends, — b
------------------------------------ — b

Read the extract and do the activities that follow:
The duke senior and his follower were sitting down to a meal one day when Orlando rushed out from among the trees, his sword in his hand. ‘Stop, and cat no more!’ he cried. The Duke and his friends asked him what he wanted.
‘Food,’ said Orlando. ‘I am almost dying of hunger’. They asked him to sit down and eat, but he would not do so. He told them that his old servant was in the woods, dying of hunger. ‘I will not eat a bite until he has been fed,’ Orlando said.
So the good Duke and his followers helped him to bring Adam to their hiding-place, and Orlando and the old man were fed and taken care of. When the Duke learned that Orlando was a son of his old friend sir Rowland de Boys, he welcomed him gladly to his forest court.
Orlando lived happily with the Duke and his friends, but he had not forgotten the lovely Rosalind. She was always in his thoughts andevery day he wrote poetry about her pinning it on the trees in the forest. ‘These trees shall be my books,’ he said, ‘so that everyone who looks in the forest will be able to read how sweet and good Rosalind is’.
Rosalind and Celia found some of these poems pinned on the trees. At first they were puzzled, wondering who could have written them; but one day Celia came in from a walk with the news that she had seen Orlando sleeping under a tree, and she and Rosalind guessed that he must be the poet. Rosalind was happy to think that Orlando had not forggoten her, because she loved him as much as he loved her.

A1. Complete - (2)
Complete the following sentences:
(i) Rosalind was happy to think _______
(ii) The Duke and his followers helped Orlando to bring _________
(iii) Orlando pinned the poems written about Rosalind on ______
(iv) When the Duke cam to know that Orlando was a son of his old friend, he _________

A2. Write a gist: (2)
Write a gist of the above given extract in about 50 words.

Find out the beauty of the free verse reflected in this poem.

Expansion of Idea:

Expand the following idea in about 100-150 words by using the points.

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'.

• Meaning of the proverb
• Significance of the proverb
• Add your own points.

Read the extract and complete the activities given below:

A1. Rewrite the following sentences as per their occurrence in the extract:   (2)

1. He was appointed as the Director-in-charge of the National Radio and Electronics Company Limited.
2. Tata Group launched its passenger car 'Tata Indica in the year 1998.
3. Billi Ford said to Ratan Tata, "You are doing a big favour for us by buying Jaguar-Land Rover."
4. He graduated from Riverdale country from New York.

A2. Explain:   (2)

The writer says, "I don't believe in taking right decisions. I take decisions and then make them right."

A3. Give reasons:  (2)

Ratan Tata decided to sell his passenger car business.

A4. Personal Response:  (2)

Right decision at the right time is important success. Express your opinion.

A5. Grammar:   (2)

Do as directed:

1. He worked hard building a better consumer electronics division.
   (Rewrite the sentence using the infinitive form of the underlined word)
2. Tata Group launched the passenger car Tata Indica.
   (Rewrite it beginning with 'The passenger car Tata Indica......')

A6. Vocabulary:

Give antonyms.

1. Profit × ______
2. Prevent × ______

Read the extract and complete the activities given below:

A1. Rewrite the following as per their sequence in the extract:    (2)

1. I also had to collect a comprehensive range of facts and information about this sea.
2. I have swam in all these places and have felt the thrill.
3. All that one needed was money.
4. Despite all the information I had gathered, I soon found that very little was known about the Palk Strait.

A2. Explain:    (2)

What does the writer man by saving, "Steeped in the history and tradition of this nation, practically unconquered, teeming with hair-raising hazards, the sea between India and Sri Lanka had all the elements of challenge, danger and difficulty that tempted me"?

A3. Give reason:   (2)

The narrator had an intense desire to swim in the Palk Strait. Explain the reasons for it.

A4. Personal Response:    (2)

Do you like to have an adventurous life? Express your opinion.

A5. Grammar:

Do as directed:   (2)

1. Very little was known about the Palk Strait. (Rewrite as a negative sentence)
2. I had to collect a comprehensive range of facts. (Rewrite the sentence beginning with 'A comprehensive ........)

A6. Vocabulary:   (2)

Give the synonyms of the following words:

1. rigorous - ______
2. thrill - ______

He wanted to become _____ artist and live in ____ Himalayas.

(Fill in the blanks with the appropriate articles.)

Fill in the blank with appropriate article
J.R.D. Tata was an amazing personality. He always helped _______ poor in the country.

Do as directed:
Rewrite the following sentence by inserting the appropriate articles wherever necessary :
I read interesting story from Mahabharata.

Grammar :
Do as directed :
(i) Rewrite the following sentence by inserting the appropriate
articles wherever necessary :
I read interesting story frrom Mahabharata.   (1) 

Do as directed :
Rewrite the following sentence by inserting the appropriate
articles wherever necessary :
I read interesting story from Mahabharata.