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

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

(1) Why are the wealthy kingdoms unstable'? (1)

(2) Do you feel wars are the only solution to the problems between nations'? Explain. (1)

(3) Give the rhyming scheme used in the extract.  (1)

(4) Pick out the words/expressions related to the mighty kingdom.  (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questionsgiven below:
By this time, I felt very small
And now my tears began to fall.
I quietly went and knelt by her bed;
"Wake up, little girl, wake up," I said.
"Are these the flowers you picked I'm me?"
She smiled, "I found' em, out by the tree.
I picked'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you would Iike'em, especially the blue."
I said, Daughter, I'm sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way"

(1) Why did the mother go to her daughter "s room? (1)

(2) How can the mother be a friend to her daughter' (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line
" ..... they're pretty like you". (1)

(4) What is the effect of dialogues in the poem? (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
As a raw mythology revealed to us its age
Soon afterwards we left Baroda for Bombay
Where there are no trees except the one
Which grows and seethes in one's dreams, its aerial roots Looking for ground to strike.

(1) What did the rings of the trunk of the tree reveal about its age? (1)

(2) According to you, how do trees help the mankind? (1)

(3) Give an example of 'Repetition' from the extract. (1)

(4) The poem has picturesque expressions. They make the poem lively. Pick out such expressions from, the extract. (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek .
Shadowed by the mountain's immeasurable peak
Considered the largest thing known to man
Now skyscrapers are the most extravagant and titanic part of the plan
We used to sit next to the stream, the wind caressing our crown
Watching the magnificent untamed beasts roam far, far from town
Now they are just characters of folk tales, memories we pass down
An adjective to describe someone, no more a noun
This could be our reality.

(1) What was the largest thing known to man? (1)

(2) What would be the possible result of ignoring nature? (1)

(3) Give an example of personification from the extract. (1)

( 4) Pick out from the extract some expressions of geographical images. (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
We, heroes and poor devils;
the feeble, the braggarts; the unfinished,
and capable of everything impossible
as long as it's not seen or heard
Don Juans, women and men, who come and go
with the fleeting passage of a runner
or of a shy hotel for travellers.
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten
because it seems that is the way of the world.

(1) Who are heroes and what are they capable of? (1)

(2) According to you, what difficulties do the middle-class people face? (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line :
... Women and men, who come and go. (1)

(4) Pick out the line from the extract, which shows the overambitious nature of the middle-class people. (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below
All the rest of her children, she said, are on the nuclear
blacklist of the dead,
all the rest, unless
the whole world understands - that peace is a woman:
A thousand candles then lit
in her starry eyes, and I saw angels bearing a moonlit message :
Peace is indeed a pregnant woman Peace is a mother.

(1) What is the situation of the children in absence of peace? (1)

(2) Why should we avoid wars? (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
that peace is a woman. (1)

(4) What message does the poet give through this poem? (1)

Read the following extract a.nd answer the questions given below:
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten 
because it seems that is the way of the world:
an endless track of champions
and in a corner we, forgotten
maybe because of everybody else,
since they seemed too much like us
until they were robbed of their laurels,
their medals, their titles, their names.

(1) What is the way of the world?

(2) Do you think the middle-class people are satisfied with 
their lives? Explain.

(3) Name and explain the figure· of speech in the following lines:  ''Since they seemed so much like us.''
(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract showing the failure of man.

Read the following 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 do you think is the underlying message of the extract?

(2) Which qualities of great men would you like to imbibe in you?

(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words of the first stanza.

(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract which show the hard work of brave men.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Old women do not fly on magic wands
nor make obscure prophecies
from ominous forests.
They just sit on vacant park benches
in the quiet evenings,
call doves by their names
and charm them with grains of maize.
Or, trembling like waves
they stand in endless queues in
government hospitals.

(1) What do old women do in the quiet evenings?

(2) Do you feel old women should be looked after by their
families? Justify your answer.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Or, trembling like waves.'

(4) Pick out two pictorial images from the extract.

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 feel mother can be a symbol of peace? Explain it in your own words.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Peace is a woman.'

(4) How does the Poet come to know that peace is a woman?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
I ran 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 our way and we said good-bye.
But at home, a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood beside me very still.
When I turned, I nearly knocked her down.
''Move out of the way," I said with a frown.
She walked away, her little heartbroken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

(1) How does the poetess greet the stranger?

(2) Describe an incident when your mother was harsh at you.

(3) Write down the rhyme scheme of the first stanza.

(4) Pick out the line from the extract which shows the mother's anger.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

If we continue to live in impracticality
No more vast, endless oceans-
Only littered swamps, the colour of a witch's potions.
No more soaring birds overhead-
Only planes, so loud they rock your bed.
No more woods 
No more natural goods
We have little time
To change our self-centered, one-track minds.
Before we are stuck with a great heap of a jumble.
Left only with an artificial concrete jungle.

(1) According to the poet, what would replace the oceans and birds?

(2) Do you feel we are really impractical towards nature? How?

(3) Which words are frequently used in the extract and what
figure of speech does it indicate?

(4) Which lines fro1n the extract suggests the overexploitation of natural resources?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

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 ofter no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.

If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge. not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.

(1) How should you behave when you are a winner and a loser?

(2) Do you agree with the poet's view about an ideal person? Justify your answer.

(3) Pick out an example of Antithesis from the extract.

(4) Pick out the words from the extract showing our stubbornness and expression of displeasure.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or more so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk 
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter

(1) How does the poet describe the banyan tree?

(2) According to you, how are trees important to maintain ecological balance?

(3) Pick out an example of repetition from the extract.

(4) Pick out the words in the extract which are related to the killing.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Old women once
were continents.
They had deep woods in them,
lakes, mountains, volcanoes even,
even raging gulfs.
When the earth was in heat
they melted, shrank,
leaving only their maps.
You can fold them
and keep them handy:
who knows, they might help you find
your way home.

Question
(1) What does the geographical imagery used in this extract suggest?
(2) Who do you think should take care of your grandparents? Why?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines: Old women once were continents.
(4) Find out the expressions that show how old women are still capable of caring for others, despite their old age?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or me>re so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years

Questions:
(1) What revealed the age of the banyan tree?

(2) How would you save the natural habitat of wildlife?

(3) Find from this extract an example of 'Repetition'.

(4) Pick out any two lines from the extract showing the pictorial quality of human action.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: (4)