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Question
Read the extract and do the activities that follow :
When Rosalind heard about Orlando's wound and saw the handkerchief stained with his blood, she also fainted; and later she told Oliver that she was really Rosalind, and loved Orlando dearly. Oliver had already fallen in love with gentle Celia, and he persuaded the two girls to accompany him to Duke Senior's court. Rosalind, however, wanted to play one more trick as Ganymede, so she made Oliver promise not to tell anyone that the young shepherd boy and his sister Aliena were really Rosalind and Celia.
And so Aliena and Ganymede were introduced to the old Duke, and he did not recognize his daughter, although he remarked on Ganymede's likeness to Rosalind.
Then the "shepherd boy" told Orlando and the Duke that he could find Rosalind and would bring her to them, making the Duke promise that he would allow his daughter to marry Orlando. she and Celia ran quickly to the shepherd's cottage, changed into their own clothes and removed the brown stains from their faces. Then they returned to the Duke, where they were welcomed with great rejoicing.
'To you, I give myself, for I am yours,' Rosalind said to the Duke, her father. Then she turned to Orlando and said: 'To you, I give myself, for I am yours.'
Rosalind and Orlando were married at once in the forest and on the same day Oliver who was no longer selfish and wicked, married Celia. Just as they were going to be married, a messenger came to ask Duke Senior to go back to his dukedom. Celia's father, Duke Frederick, had mended his wicked ways and asked his brother to return.
A1. True/False :
Choose the true statements from those given below and write them down :
(i) Rosalind played the role of a shepherd boy Ganymede.
(ii) Senior Duke recognised his daughter, Celia.
(iii) Oliver married Rosalind.
(iv) Duke Frederick had mended his wicked ways.
A2. Convert into a dialogue :
Convert the above extract into a dialogue form.
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Solution
A1.
(i) Rosalind played the role of a shepherd boy Ganymede. - True
(ii) Duke Frederick had mended his wicked ways.- True
A2.
| Oliver: | Here is Orlando's blood-stained handkerchief. I feel sorry for him. |
| Rosalind: | (Recovering from her faith.) oh, Oliver, I am Rosalind! I love Orlando dearly. |
| Oliver: | I too love Celia. Let us all go to your father's court, Rosalind. |
| Rosalind: | Well, alright. But promise me that you will not disclose that we are actually Rosalind and Aliena. |
| Oliver: | Alright. Let's go. (They go to meet Duke senior, where Oliver introduces Ganymede and Aliena.) |
| Duke Senior: | Ganymede, you really look a lot like my daughter Rosalind. |
| Rosalind: | (as Ganymede) well, I can find Rosalind and bring her here, but Duke, you must promise that you will allow her to marry Orlando. |
| Duke Senior: | I promise. |
| (Rosalind and Celia go to their cottage, take off the disguise and return to the Duke, where they were welcomed with great rejoicing.) | |
| Duke Senior: | Welcome, my dear Rosalind and Celia! Welcome! |
| Rosalind: | (to the Duke, her father) To you, I give myself, for I am yours. (Turning to Orlando) To you, I give myself, for I am yours. |
| (The two pairs are married the same day. Duke Frederick, Who has mended his ways, asks his brother to return.) | |
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RELATED QUESTIONS
B1. Choose
Choose the correct alternatives and complete the sentences (2)
(1) The narrator is :
(a) an astronaut
(b) an engineer studying in BITS Pilani
(c) in the team of astronauts.
(2) Armstrong said, 'That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind which means:
(a) one step on the moon means, many steps on the earth.
(b) he felt like a giant on the moon.
(c) one moon mission had opened up many avenues in science and technology for mankind.
It was late evening of July 20. 1969, when we turned up the hostel radio. I was an engineering student at BITS, Pilani. I still remember the feverish excitement that gripped us from July 16 when Apollo 11. the US space rocket, took off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Neil Armstrong and his team of astronauts, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins, were to land on moon, for the first time in human history. We listened 'with rapt attention when Armstrong declared: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
His death on Saturday, August 25, is a moment to salute the romance of space science that Apollo 11 unleashed. It has changed forever the way we look at our planet Earth and its satellite, the moon.
Standing on powdery moondust, Armstrong put up his thumb, shut one eye and found his thumb blotting out the Earth. "It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth” he said later. "I felt very, very small." But behind that humbling realisation stood a giant truth:
The effort to explore the universe united mankind in technology and knowledge. Each moon mission, about 110 till date, provided more confidence to take on bolder projects.
B2. Complete (2)
(1) Armstrong describes the earth as ……………
(2) The effort to explore the universe has ………………
(3) Apollo 11 unleashed and changed forever ………………
(4) The author came to know about Apollo 11 mission when he …………..
B3. Solve
Solve the crossword with the clues given below. Refer to the passage for your answers: (2)
Down : (1) The area beyond the earth's atmosphere .
(2) The name of the spacecraft that Armstrong travelled.
Across : (3) A person trained to travel in space.
(4) Y A natural satellite of the earth.
B4. Begin the sentence
(i) With-For the first time .......and rewrite [1]
Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins were, to land on the moon for the first time.
(ii) Insert 'that' appropriately and rewrite. [1]
Armstrong found his thumb blotting out the Earth.
B5. Personal Response
Would you like to be an astronaut? Give reasons.
The natural life span of a domesticated horse is about 25 – 30 years, 10 years down from what it was in the wild. You can tell a horse’s age from the number of teeth he has. They get all their teeth by the age of 5, after which those teeth just get longer. Horses have close to 360 degree all round vision. The only place they cannot see is directly behind or right in front of themselves, which is why it’s dangerous to stand behind a horse. If they later I it also means that they cannot see a jump once they are about four feet from it, and have to rely on memory as to its height and shape! Each of the horse’s two eyes work independently wherever a horse’s ear points is where the horse is looking. A horse is able to sleep standing up as he is able to lock his leg muscles so that he dosen’t fall asleep. Nor do all horses in the same field ever lie down at once – one animal always stands “on look out” duty.
1) What is the life span of a wild horse?
(2) Why do the horse owners cover their horse’s eyes with blinkers?
(3) What prevents a horse from falling while asleep?
(4)
(a) Falls /shorter/ the mane/ on the/ side/ legged.[Rearrange the words to make a meaningful sentence]
(b) Form antonyms by adding a prefix :
(i) able
(ii) direct
(5)
(a) They get all their teeth by the age of five. [Pick out the prepositions]
(b) If they feel something behind them they may kick. [Rewrite using ‘unless’]
(6) How have horses helped man through the ages?
Q1 Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
1. Too many parents these days can't say no, As a result, they find themselves raising 'children' who respond greedily to the advertisements aimed right at them. Even getting what they want doesn't satisfy some kids; they only want more. Now, a growing number of psychologists, educators, and parents think it's time to stop the madness and start teaching kids about what's really important: values like hard work, contentment, honesty, and compassion. The struggle to set limits has never been tougher ‒ and the stakes have never been higher. One recent study of adults who were overindulged as children paints a discouraging picture of their future: when given too much too soon, they grow up to be adults who have difficulty coping with life's disappointments. They also have a distorted sense of entitlement that gets in the way of success in the workplace and in relationships.
2. Psychologists say that parents who overindulge their kids set them up to be more vulnerable to future anxiety and depression. Today's parents themselves raised on values of thrift and self-sacrifice, grew up in a culture where no was a household word. Today's kids want much more, partly because there is so much more to want. The oldest members of this generation were born in the late 1980s, just as PCs and video games were making their assault on the family room. They think of MP3 players and flat-screen TV as essential utilities, and they have developed strategies to get them. One survey of teenagers found that when they crave something new, most expect to ask nine times before their parents give in. By every measure, parents are shelling out record amounts. In the heat of this buying blitz, even parents who desperately need to say no find themselves reaching for their credit cards.
3. Today's parents aren't equipped to deal with the problem. Many of them, raised in the 1960s and '70s, swore they'd act differently from their parents and have closer relationships with their own children. Many even wear the same designer clothes as their kids and listen to the same music. And they work more hours; at the end of a long week, it's tempting to buy peace with 'yes' and not mar precious family time with conflict. Anxiety about the future is another factor. How do well-intentioned parents say no to all the sports gear and arts and language lessons they believe will help their kids thrive in an increasingly competitive world? Experts agree: too much love won't spoil a child. Too few limits will.
4. What parents need to find, is a balance between the advantages of an affluent society and the critical life lessons that come from waiting, saving, and working hard to achieve goals. That search for balance has to start early. Children need limits on their behaviour because they feel better and more secure when they live within a secure structure. Older children learn self-control by watching how others, especially parents act. Learning how to overcome challenges is essential to becoming a successful adult. Few parents ask kids to do chores. They think their kids are already overburdened by social and academic pressures. Every individual can be of service to others, and life has meaning beyond one's own immediate happiness. That means parents eager to teach values have to take a long, hard look at their own.
(a) Answer the following:
- What values do parents and teachers want children to learn?
- What are the results of giving the children too much too soon?
- Why do today's children want more?
- What is the balance which the parents need to have in today's world?
- What is the necessity to set limits for children?
(b) Pick out words from the passage that mean the same as the following:
- a feeling of satisfaction (para 1)
- valuable (para 3)
- important (para 4)
One of the greatest advances in modern technology has been the invention of computers. They are widely used in industries and in universities. Now there is hardly any sphere of human life where computers have not been pressed into service of man. We are heading fast towards the day when a computer will be as much part of man's daily life as a telephone or a calculator.
Computers are capable of doing extremely complicated work in all branches of learning. They can solve the most complex mathematical problems or put thousands of unrelated facts in order. These machines can be put to varied uses. For instance, they can provide information on the best way to prevent traffic jams. This whole process by which machines can be used to work for us has been called 'automation'. In the future 'automation' may enable human beings to enjoy more leisure than they do today. The coming of automation is bound to have important social consequences.
Some years ago an expert on automation, Sir Leon Bagrit, pointed out that it was a mistake to believe that these machines could 'think'. There is no possibility that human beings will be "controlled by machines". Though computers are capable of learning from their mistakes and improving on their performance, they need detailed instructions from human beings to operate. They can never, as it were, lead independent lives or "rule the world" by making decisions of their own.
Sir Leon said that in future, computers would be developed which would be small enough to carry in the pocket. Ordinary people would then be able to use them to obtain valuable information. Computers could be plugged into a national network and be used like radios. For instance, people going on holiday could be informed about weather conditions. Car drivers can be given alternative routes when there are traffic jams. It will also be possible to make tiny translating machines. This will enable people who do not share a common language to talk to each other without any difficulty or to read foreign publications.
a) What is the greatest advancement in modern technology?
b) What complicated works are computers capable of doing?
c) Write one use of computers.
d) Explain automation.
e) Why can't computers lead independent lives or rule the world?
f) How would computers as translating machines help people?
g) What was the prediction of Sir Leon about computers in the future?
h) How can computers help people going on holiday?
Read the passage given below:
1. I rested for a moment at the door of Anand Bhawan, on Market Road, where coffee-drinkers and tiffin-eaters sat still at their tables, uttering low moans on seeing me. I wanted to assure them, "Don't mind me, you hugging the cash box − you are a coward, afraid even to breathe. Go on, count the cash, if that is your pleasure. I just want to watch, that's all. If my tail trails down to the street, if I am blocking your threshold, it is because, I'm told, I'm eleven feet tip to tail. I can't help it. I'm not out to kill − I'm too full. I found a green pasture full of food on my way. I won't attack until I feel hungry again. Tigers attack only when they feel hungry, unlike human beings who slaughter one another without purpose or hunger."
2. To the great delight of children, schools were being hurriedly closed. Children of all ages and sizes were running helter-skelter, screaming joyously. "No school, no school. Tiger, tiger!" They were shouting and laughing and even enjoying being scared. They seemed to welcome me. I felt like joining them. So I bounded away from the restaurant door. I walked along with them, at which they cried, 'The tiger is coming to eat us; let us get back to school!"
3. I followed them through their school gate while they ran up and shut themselves in the school hall securely. I climbed up the steps of the school, saw an open door at the far end of a veranda, and walked in. It happened to be the headmaster's room. I noticed a very dignified man jumping on the table and heaving himself up into an attic. I walked in and flung myself on the cool floor, having a special liking for cool stone floors.
4. As I drowsed, I was aware of cautious steps and hushed voices all around. I was in no mood to bother about anything. All I wanted was a little moment of sleep; the daylight was very bright.
On the basis of your reading of the above passage, answer the following questions:
(a) How did the diners at Anand Bhawan react on seeing the tiger?
(b) When do tigers attack? In this context, how are human beings different from tigers?
(c) Why were children happy and even enjoying being scared?
(d) What did the headmaster do on seeing the tiger? What did the tiger like to do in the headmaster's office?
(e) Identify the word which means the same as 'hugging'. (Para 1)
(i) counting
(ii) hiding
(iii) rubbing
(iv) holding tightly in the arms
(f) Identify the word which means the same as 'delight'. (Para 2)
(i) pleasure
(ii) fear
(iii) sorrow
(iv) nervousness
(g) Identify the word which means the same as 'dignified'. (Para 3)
(i) tall
(ii) honourable
(iii) terrified
(iv) tired
(ii) jumped forward
(iii) walked with heavy steps
(iv) ran lazily
Read the passage given below :
1. When you grow up in a place where it rains five months a year, wise elders help you to get acquainted with the rain early. They teach you that it is ignorant to think that it is the same rain falling every day. Oh no, the rain is always doing different things at different times. There is rain that is gentle, and there is also rain that falls too hard and damages the crops. Hence, the prayer for the sweet rain that helps the crops to grow.
2. The monsoon in the Naga hills goes by the native name, khuthotei (which means the rice-growing season). It lasts from May to early or mid-October. The local residents firmly believe that Durga Puja in October announces the end of rain. After that, one might expect a couple of short winter showers, and the spring showers in March and April. Finally, comes the "big rain" in May; proper rainstorms accompanied by heart-stopping lightning and ear-splitting thunder. I have stood out in storms looking at lightning are across dark skies, a light-and-sound show that can go on for hours.
3. This is the season when people use the word sezuo or süzu to refer to the week-long rains, when clothes don't dry and smell of mould, when fungus forms on the floor and when you can't see the moon or the stars because of the rainclouds. But you learn not to complain. Rain, after all, is the farmer's friend and brings food to the table. Rituals and festivals centre around the agricultural rhythm of life, which is the occupation of about 70 percent of the population.
4. The wise learn to understand its ways. I grew up hearing my grandfather say. "It's very windy this year. We'll get good rain." If the windy season was short and weak, he worried there might not be enough rain for the crops. I learned the interconnectedness of the seasons from childhood, and marvelled at how the wind could bring rain. Another evening, many rainy seasons ago, my paternal aunt observed the new moon and worried, "Its legs are in the air, we're in for some heavy rain." She was right. That week, a storm cut off power lines and brought down trees and bamboos.
5. Eskimos boast of having a hundred names for snow. Norwegians in the north can describe all kinds of snow by an equal amount of names : pudder, powder snow, wet snow, slaps, extra wet snow, tight snowfall, dry snow, and at least 95 more categories of snow. Likewise, in India we have names and names for rain. Some are common, some are passing into history.
6. The rains are also called after flowering plants and people believe that the blossoming of those plants draws out rain. Once the monsoons set in, field work is carried out in earnest and the work of uprooting and transplanting paddy in flooded terrace fields is done. The months of hard labour are June, July and August. In August, as the phrogü plant begins to bloom, a rain will fall. this August rain, also called phrogü, is a sign that the time for cultivation is over. If any new grain seeds are sown, they may not sprout; even if they do sprout, they are not likely to bear grain. The rain acts as a kind of farmer's almanac.
7. The urban population of school-goers and office-goers naturally dislikes the monsoon and its accompanying problems of landslides, muddy streets and periodic infections. For non-farmers, the month of September can be depressing, when the rainfall is incessant and the awareness persists that the monsoons will last out till October. One needs to have the heart of a farmer to remain grateful for the watery days, and be able to observe – from what seems to the inexperienced as a continuous downpour – the many kinds of rain. Some of the commonly known rain-weeks are named after the plants that alternately bloom in August and September. The native belief is that the flowers draw out the rain.
8. Each rain period has a job to fulfil : October rain helps garlic bulbs to form, while kümünyo rain helps the rice bear grain. Without it, the ears of rice cannot form properly. End October is the most beautiful month in the Naga hills, as the fields turn gold and wild sunflowers bloom over the slopes, all heralding the harvest. Prayers go up for protecting the fields from storms, and the rains to retreat because the grain needs to stand in the sun and ripen. The cycle nears completion a few weeks before the harvest, and the rain does retreat so thoroughly from the reaped furrows that the earth quickly turns hard. The months of rain become a distant memory until it starts all over again.
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, complete the statements given below with the help of options that follow:
a) The rains are called after flowering plants because
(ii) flowers grow in the rainy season.
(iii) it is believed that the plants bring the rain.
(iv) flowers grow all the year round.
b) The rain is like a calendar for farmers because
(ii) it tells them the birthdays of their children.
(iii) each month has a time for plantation.
(iv) different kinds of rain tell different things.
c) People who live in cities don't like rain because
(ii) they are not bothered about the farmers.
(iii) they don't like the plants that grow during the rain.
(iv) going shopping becomes difficult.
d) People pray asking the rain the retreat because
(ii) children don't get a chance to play.
(iii) the crops need the sun and heat to ripen.
(iv) they like to pray.
Answer the following questions briefly:
e) Why do the elders want you to understand the rains in the Naga hills?
f) What does Durga Puja mean to the farmers of the Naga hills?
g) What kind of rain is called sezuo?
h) What is the occupation of more than half the population of the Naga hills?
i) How is the heart of the farmer different from that of the city person?
j) When does rain becomes a memory in the minds of the of the Naga hills?
k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:
(ii) nonstop (para 7)
Read the passage given below:
Keeping cities clean is essential for keeping their residents healthy. Our health depends not just on personal hygiene and nutrition, but critically also on how clean we keep our cities and their surroundings. The spread of dengue and chikungunya are intimately linked to the deteriorating state of public health conditions in our cities.
The good news is that waste management to keep cities clean is now getting attention through the Swachh Bharat Mission. However, much of the attention begins and stops with the brooms and the dustbins, extending at most to the collection and transportation of the mixed waste to some distant or not so distant place, preferably out of sight.
The challenge of processing and treating the different streams of solid waste, and safe disposal of the residuals in scientific landfills, has received much less attention in municipal solid waste management than is expected from a health point of view.
One of the problems is that instead of focusing on waste management for health, we have got sidetracked into "waste for energy". If only we were to begin by not mixing the biodegradable component of solid waste (close to 60 percent of the total) in our cities with the dry waste, and instead use this stream of waste for compositing and producing a gas called methane.
City compost from biodegradable waste provides an alternative to farmyard manure (like cow-dung). It provides an opportunity to simultaneously clean up our cities and help improve agricultural productivity and quality of the soil. Organic manure or compost plays a very important role as a supplement to chemical fertilisers in enriching the nutrient-deficient soils. City compost can be the new player in the field.
Benefits of compost on the farm are well-known. The water holding capacity of the soil which uses compost helps with drought-proofing, and the requirement of less water per crop is a welcome feature for a water-stressed future. By making the soil porous, use of compost also makes roots stronger and resistant to pests and decay. Farmers using compost, therefore, need less quantity of pesticides. There is also evidence to suggest that horticulture corps grown with compost have better flavour, size, colour and shelf-life.
City compost has the additional advantage of being weed-free unlike farmyard manure which brings with it the seeds of undigested grasses and requires a substantial additional labour cost for weeding as the crops grow. City compost is also rich in organic carbon, and our soils are short in this.
Farmers clearly recognize the value of city compost. If city waste was composted before making it available to the farmers for applying to the soil, cities would be cleaned up and the fields around them would be much more productive.
Quite apart from cleaning up the cities of biodegradable waste, this would be a major and sustainable contribution to improving the health of our soil without further damage by excessive chemical inputs. What a marvellous change from waste to health!
The good news is that some states are regularly laying plastic roads. Plastic roads will not only withstand future monsoon damage but will also solve a city's problem of disposing of non-recyclable plastic. It is clear that if the mountains of waste from our cities were to be recycled into road construction material, it would tackle the problem of managing waste while freeing up scarce land.
(a) On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognisable abbreviations wherever necessary (minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to it.
(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1. Thackeray reached Kittur along with a small British army force and a few of his officers. He thought that the very presence of the British on the outskirts of Kittur would terrorise the rulers and people of Kittur and that they would lay down their arms. He was quite confident that he would be able to crush the revolt in no time. He ordered that tents be erected on the eastern side for the fighting forces and a little away on the western slopes tents be put up for the family members of the officers who had accompanied them. During the afternoon and evening of 20thOctober, the British soldiers were busy making arrangements for these camps.
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage complete the statements given below with the help of options that follow:
(ii) army officer
(iii) adviser to Rani of Kittur
(iv) treasury officer
(ii) enjoy life in tents
(iii) stay in the palace
(iv) give company to officers
(c) Why did Thackeray come to Kittur?
(d) Why did the Kittur officials refuse to give the desired assurance to Thackeray?
(e) What happened to the Horse Artillery?
(f) How do we know that the Rani was a noble queen?
(g) How in your opinion would the British women have felt after meeting the Rani?
(h) Why did the Rani refuse to meet Thackeray?
(i) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following :
ii. aggressive/refusing to obey (para 2)
Read the passage given below :
1. To ensure its perpetuity, the ground is well held by the panther both in space and in time. It enjoys a much wider distribution over the globe than its bigger cousins and procreates sufficiently profusely to ensure its continuity for all time to come.
(ii) in the branches of the trees
(iii) behind the tree trunks
(iv) at its heels
(ii) trains its cubs
(iii) watches the progress of the mother
(iv) is impulsive and impatient
Answer the following questions briefly :
(ii) came down / fell (para 7)
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
The most alarming of man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrevocable; the chain of evil it initiates is for the most part irreversible. In this contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world; radiation released through nuclear explosions into the air, comes to the earth in rain, lodges into the soil, enters the grass or corn, or wheat grown there and reaches the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death. Similarly, chemicals sprayed on crops lie long in soil, entering living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and harm those who drink from once pure wells.
It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth and reached a stage of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. The environment contained elements that were hostile as well as supporting. Even within the light of the sun, there were short wave radiations with power to injure. Given time, life has adjusted and a balance reached. For time is the essential ingredient, but in the modern world is no time.
The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is no longer the bombardment of cosmic rays; it is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make adjustments are no longer merely calcium and silica and copper and all the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried in the rivers to the sea; they are the synthetic creations of man’s inventive mind, brewed in his laboratories, and having no counterparts in nature.
(a) On the basis of your understanding of the above passage make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (wherever necessary-minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply a title to it.
(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words
Read the passage given below :
1. We often make all things around us the way we want them. Even during our pilgrimages we have begun to look for whatever makes our heart happy, gives comfort to our body and peace to the mind. It is as if external solutions will fulfil or needs, and we do not want to make any special efforts even in our spiritual search. Our minds is resourceful − it works to find shortcuts in simple and easy ways.
2. Even pilgrimages have been converted into tourism opportunities. Instead, we must awaken our conscience and souls and understand the truth. Let us not tamper with either our own nature of that of the Supreme.
3. All our cleverness is rendered ineffective when nature does a dance of destruction. Its fury can and will wash away all imperfection. Indian culture, based on Vedic treatises, assists in human evolution, but we are not using our entire energy in distorting these traditions according to our convenience instead of making efforts to make ourselves worthy of them.
4. The irony is that humans are not even aware of the complacent attitude they have allowed themselves to sink to. Nature is everyone's Amma and her fierce blows will sooner or later corner us and force us to understand this truth. Earlier, pilgrimages to places of spiritual significance were rituals that were undertaken when people became free from their worldly duties. Even now some seekers take up this pious religious journey as a path to peace and knowledge. Anyone travelling with this attitude feels and travels with only a few essential items that his body can carry. Pilgrims traditionally travelled light, on foot, eating light, dried chickpeas and fruits, or whatever was available. Pilgrims of olden days did not feel the need to stay in special AC bedrooms, or travel by luxury cars or indulge themselves with delicious food and savouries.
5. Pilgrims traditionally moved ahead, creating a feeling of belonging towards all, conveying a message of brotherhood among all they came across whether in small caves, ashrams or local settlements. They received the blessings and congregations of yogis and mahatmas in return while conducting the dharma of their pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is like penance or sadhana to stay near nature and to experience a feeling of oneness with it, to keep the body healthy and fulfilled with the amount of food, while seeking freedom from attachments and yet remaining happy while staying away from relatives and associates.
6. This is how a pilgrimage should be rather than making it like a picnic by taking a large group along and living in comfort, packing in entertainment, and tampering with environment. What is worse is giving a boost to the ego of having had a special darshan. Now alms are distributed, charity done while they brag about their spiritual experiences!
7. We must embark on our spiritual journey by first understanding the grace and significance of a pilgrimage and following it up with the prescribed rules and rituals − this is what translates into the ultimate and beautiful medium of spiritual evolution. There is no justification for tampering with nature.
8. A pilgrimage is symbolic of contemplation and meditation and acceptance, and is a metaphor for the constant growth or movement and love for nature that we should hold in our hearts.
9. This is the truth!
One the basis of your understanding of the above passage answer the questions that follow with the help of given options:
(a) How can a pilgrim keep his body healthy?
(i) By travelling light
(ii) By eating small amount of food
(iii) By keeping free from attachments
(iv) Both (i) and (ii)
(b) How do we satisfy our ego?
(i) By having a special darshan
(ii) By distributing alms
(iii) By treating it like a picnic
(iv) Both (i) and (ii)
Answer the following as briefly as possible:
(c) What change has taken place in our attitude towards pilgrimages?
(d) What happens when pilgrimages are turned into picnics?
(e) Why are we complacent in our spiritual efforts?
(f) How does nature respond when we try to be clever with it?
(g) In olden days with what attitude did people go on a pilgrimage?
(h) What message does the passage convey to the pilgrims?
(i) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:
(i) made/turned (para 3)
(ii) very satisfied (para 4)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Now, as I stood on the shore of that desolate Highland loch
I raised my voice in a surge of self-justification : ''By Heavens!
This is my opportunity. Gastric ulcer or no gastric ulcer, I will
write a novel.'' Before I could change 1ny mind I walked straight to the village and bot1ght myself two dozen penny exercise books.
Upstairs in my cold, clean bedroom was a scrubbed deal table and a very hard chair. Next morning, I found myself in this chair, facing a new exercise book open upon the table, slowly' becoming aware that, short of dog-Lati11 prescriptions, I had never composed a significant phrase in all my life. It was a discot1raging thought as I picked 11p my pen and gazed out of the window. Never mind, I would begin. Three hours later Mrs. Angus, the farmer's wife, called me to dinner. The page was still blank.
As I went dow-n to m:y milk and junket-they call this "curds'' in Tarbert - I felt a dreadful fool. I felt like the wretched poet in Daudet's Jack whose im1nortal masterpiece never progressed beyond its stillborn opening phrase : ''In a remote valley of Pyrenees ..... ". I recollected, rather gri111ly, the sharp advice with which my old schoolmaster had goaded me to action. ''Get it down!'' he had said. ''If it ~tops in your head it will always be nothing.
Get it down.'' And so, after lunch, I went upstairs and began to get it down.
(1) What is the main idea of the extract? (1)
(2) Why did the narrator buy two dozen penny exercise books? (2)
(3) How was the narrator unprepared for writing his novel? (2)
(4) Write in brief about what you will do in your forthcoming vacation. (2)
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) I stood on the shore of that desolate Highland loch.
(Rewrite it using 'used to'.) (1)
(ii) I went down to my milk and junket.
(Rewrite it in the Past Perfect Tense.) (1)
(iii) I walked straight to the village and bought myself
two dozen penny exercise books. (Make it simple). (1)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean:
(i) chance (1/2)
(ii) lake (1/2)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
One day, King Amrit and Chandan were taking a walk on the terrace of the palace. The terrace offered a beautiful view of the surroundings, and they could see far into the distance. They spotted the weekly market from up there, with people in colourful clothes buying and selling all kinds of things. There was plenty to buy and people had money to buy too. There were no poor people to be seen anywhere. The King watched with a smile on his face. He was delighted to see the prosperity of his kingdom. Like any good ruler, he was happy ·when his people were happy.
He turned to Chandan and said, ''See how contented my people are. But I want to check this first-hand by talking to them. Tomorrow, summon people from all walks of life to the court, and I will ask them myself how they are doing.'' Chandan was used to the king's strange requests and went off to carry out this order.
The next day, the King arrived in the court humming a happy tune to himself. Seeing all the people gathered there waiting for him, he was even more pleased. He cleared his throat and said in a loud voice, ''I have called you here to ask you a very important question. As your king, I need to know if all of you are contented. Do you have enough for your needs? Do you know anyone who is not happy about anything?''.
(1) What do you understand about the King from this extract?
(2) Why did the King want to talk to his people?
(3) How did the King come to know about the prosperity of his kingdom?
(4) According to you, what should the Government do for the bettennent of the poor people?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) He was delighted to see the prosperity of his kingdom.
(Make it a rhetorical question.)
(ii) Summon people from all walls of life to the court
(Rewrite it beginning with 'Let ..... ')
(iii) As soon as the King arrived in the court humming a
happy tune to himself, he cleared his throat.
(Rewrite it using 'No sooner .... than'.)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean:
(i) development
(ii) examine
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Researchers recently announced the earth could actually withstand up to 200,000 times the current population. They arrived at this figure by calculating the amount of heat a human body emits, and only at 1·3 million billion would the earth be too hot to be habitable. And though it would feel like being ina can of sardines if that figure were ever reached, the earth is capable of comfortably sustaining a population several times the current 6·5 billion.
In fact, fertility is actually on the decline worldwide. Though the population has grown, the rate of growth has fallen sharply. Twenty years ago, the UN projected that the population would reach 11·I6 billion in 2050, today they say it will reach only 9·3 billion. Moreover, the human population will stabilize at about 11·5 billion. While this figure is almost twice the current one, it is hardly claustrophobic.
True, the demands on resources are heavy even now, but this is more due to the manner in which these resources are being used. In fact, figures show that a bigger population does not amount to greater consumption. Over 20% of the world's people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditure - the poorest 20% a tiny 1·3%. With just 5% of the world's population, the US consumes about 40% of the world's resources. Would you say the US is overpopulated?
Concerns on the scarcity of food are equally baseless. In fact, global food production has actually kept up with population growth. If people starve in many countries it is not because food is becoming scarce; it is because those people cannot afford it.
Questions:
(1) What conclusions did the researchers arrive at?
(2) How does the writer explain that fertility is on the decline?
(3) What does the extract predict about the fear of scarcity of food?
(4) How will the population become a gift in the global market scene?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) The earth could withstand up to 200,000 times the current population.
(Rewrite the sentence using the modal auxiliary showing 'certainty'.)
(ii) The earth would be too hot to be habitable.
(Remove 'too' and rewrite the sentence.)
(iii) These resources are being used.
(Rewrite the sentence beginning with, 'We ........... .')
(6) Write the antonyms of:
(i) habitable
(ii) stabilize
(A) Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Chronic floods during the monsoon, on average, affect more than 30 million Indians annually Ironically, 60% of India's farmland, 66% of its livestock and its entire forest area depend on rains for survival.
According to a recently released Central Water Commission (CWC) report, on an average, 7·21 million hectares (roughly 72,000 sq. km.) go under floodwater. This water typically ravages 3·78 million hectares of agricultural land, damaging crops worth Rs. 1, 118 crores annually.
Heavy rains and floods account for nearly 1,700 lives lost annually. Apart from this, I ·25 lakh houses are annually damaged by torrential rains that also wipe out nearly 96,000 livestock.
Floods are the most recurrent natural calamity, hitting India almost every year. According to the CWC's report on financial aspects of flood control, anti-sea erosion and drainage projects, it is not possible to provide absolute protection instantly to all flood-prone areas. It says that such an attempt will neither be practical nor economically viable.
The CWC's analysis of floods in India from 1953 to 2011 shows a marginal decline in flood-affected areas over the years, the data shows 1977 1978 and 1979 were the worst-hit. The 1977 floods killed over 11,000 people, six-time the average for the 59 years, between 1953 and 2011. In terms of area and population affected, the floods of 1978 were the most destructive.
In terms off the financial loss, recent floods have been far more destructive. The total loss of crops, houses and public utilities in 2009 was Rs. 32541 crores, the highest for any year.
Question
(1) What is the above extract about?
(2) How do floods adversely affect India?
(3) Why is it not possible to provide absolute protection to all flood-prone areas?
(4) How would you help the flood-affected people?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) The floods of 1978 were the most destructive.
(Change the sentence into the 'positive degree'.)
(ii) Floods are the most recurrent natural calamity hitting India almost every year.
(Make it a complex sentence.)
(iii) Floods have been far more destructive.
(Rewrite the sentence using the Simple Present tense.)
(6) Give the meanings of:
(i) entire
(ii) calamity
(B) Write a brief summary of the above extract with the help of the points given below and suggest a suitable title.
Floods - natural, recurrent calamity in India - destroy life and property - no absolute protection - neither practical nor economically viable- floods in 1977 and 1978.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given
below:
Today, at 29, \.1.ichael has discovered the power of another good idea that has helped him rise in just a few years from teen to tycoon.He has become the fourth largest manufacturerof personal computers in America and the youngest man ever to head Fortune 500 Corporation.
Growing up in Houston, Texas. Michael and his two brothers were imbued by their parents. Alexander and Lorraine - he anorthodontist, she a stockbroker- with the desire to learn and the drive to work hard. Even so, stories about the middle boy began to be told early.
Like the time a saleswoman came asking to speak to "Mr. Michael Dell" about his getting a high school equivalency diploma. Moments later. eight-year-old Michael was explaining that he thought it might be a good idea to get high school out of the way.
A few years later Michael had another good idea, to trade stamps by advertising in stamp magazines. With the $2000 he made, he bought his first personal computer. Then he took it apart to figure out how it worked.
In high school Michael had a job selling newspaper subscriptions. Newlyweds, he figured, were the best prospects, so he hired friends to copy rhe names and addresses of recent recipients of marriage licences. These he entered into his computer, then sent a personalized letter offering each couple a free two-week subscription.
This time Dell made $ 18,000 and bought an expensive BMW car. The car salesman was flabbergasted when the 17-ycar-oJd paid cash.
(I) What details does the writer give about Dell's family in the
extract? (1)
(2) How did Dell succeed in earning S2QOQ? (2)
(3) Why was the car salesman flabbergasted? (2)
(41 What do you think you can learn from Dell's story? (2)
{5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instmcted:
{i) "He has discovered the power of another good idea."
(Rewrite it beginning with 'The power of another good
idea ...... ... .'.) (1)
.(if) "If you think you have a good idea, try it. "
(Use 'Unless' .) (1)
(iii) '"This time Dell made $18,000 and bought an expensive
BMW car." (1)
(Make it a simple sentence.)
CM Find out the words from the extract which mean :
(i) filled with a quality. (1/2)
(ii) understand. (1/2)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below.
| A | B |
| (i) valedictorian | (a) feeling of annoyance |
| (ii) frustration | (b) dunce |
| (c) school topper | |
|
(d) validity
|
Read the following extract and answer the questions given
below :
In 1945 in Bay Roberts, Canada, a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window that set his heart racing. But the price -five dollars-was far beyond Reuben Earle's means. Five dollars would buy almost a week's groceries for his family.
Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything Mark Earle made by fishing, Reuben's mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed and clothe their five children.
Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered door and went inside. Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack shirt and washed out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, "but I don't have the money now. Can you please hold it for me?" ·
"I will try," the shopkeeper smiled. ''Folks around here don't usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a while.,.
Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the May sunlight. The bay rippled in a freshening wind that ruffled his short hair. There was purpose in his loping stride. He
would raise the five dollars and not tell anybody.
Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea.
He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site. People built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in burlap sack from a local factory. Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of buildings, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five cents a piece.
(1) What did Reuben decide to do to raise the required amount?
(2) How much money did Reuben need? Why?
(3) Why couldn't Reuben ask his father for the money?
(4) What is special about the gifts which are given on special occasions?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences as directed :
(i) Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money.
(Rewrite the sentence using ' be able to'.)
(ii) Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea.
(Rewrite the sentence using 'and'.)
(iii) He could sell them back to the factory.
·(Rewrite the sentence beginning with: 'They ..... ')
(6) Match the words in column 'A' with their meanings in
column 'B':
| column 'A' | column 'B' |
| folk | natural harbour |
| bay | sticks |
| people |
Read the following passage and do the activities.
In the early days of farming, people did not understand how plants obtained essential nutrients. It so happened that wood ash, fish remains and slaughterhouse waste were thrown on vacant land just to get rid of them. Then, people started to notice that the grass, bushes and shrubs on this vacant land began to grow very well. They reasoned that if their farmland were similarly treated, the growth of their crops would also improve. People gradually began to realize that the nutrients required by plants came from the soil and that the amount of nutrients could be increased by the application of such organic remains to the soil. Thus started the manuring process in farming.
The practice of manuring has been practised as early since the seventeenth century. However, the importance of manuring was not properly understood until scientists began to study the nutritional needs of plants and gave birth to fertilizers. Thus, gradually, the use of fertilizers became accepted by farmers.
There are many types of manure and fertilizer currently being used. Manure is a substance derived from animals and plants. The most important advantage of using manure is the fact that they not only supply a wide range of plant
nutrients, but also improve the structure of the soil. It cements together the soil particles to form soil crumbs. The crumb structure is a desirable condition of cultivated soil. The addition of manure to soil will increase the inorganic and humus content which helps to prevent soil erosion and loss of plant nutrients when it rains. The common manure used in farming consists of farmyard manure, compost, blood meal, bone meal and fish meal.
Unlike manure, fertilizers are inorganic substances which do not improve the structure of the soil. They only supply extra amounts of nutrients to the growing plants when applied to the soil. The commercial fertilizers commonly used today
can be classified into three major categories; namely, nitrogen (N), phosphate and potash fertilizers.
Besides knowing the type of fertilizer to use, a farmer also needs to know when to apply the fertilizer and how to apply it. The fertilizer should be applied at the time when the plants need a particular nutrient most. The time and method
of application will determine how profitably the fertilizers have been used in farming. Fertilizers which have not been properly applied cannot be absorbed in large quantities by plant roots. These fertilizers may be washed away by rain
or they may kill the plants. This would mean a definite financial loss for the farmer.
(A1) Choose the correct option and rewrite the sentences.
(a) What did the people not understand in the early days of farming ? (1/2)
(i) how farming is done
(ii) how plants obtained essential nutrients
(iii) how grass, shrubs and bushes grow.
(b) What is manure ? (1/2)
(i) a substance derived from animals and plants.
(ii) the soil particles to form soil crumbs.
(iii) a combination of nitrogen, phosphate and potash.
(c) When should fertilizers be applied ? (1/2)
(i) When the plants get dried.
(ii) When the plants need a particular nutrient most.
(iii) In the early days of farming.
(d) What determines the profitability of the fertilizers ? (1/2)
(i) grass, bushes and shrubs
(ii) nitrogen, phosphate and potash.
(iii) The time and method of application.
(A2) How did the process of adding manure to the soil begin? (2)
(A3) Find out similar words from the passage. (2)
(i) necessary (ii) comprise
(iii) step by step (iv) ascertain
(A4)
(i) They supply extra amount of nutrients to the growing plants (Begin the sentence with ‘Extra amount of.......... ’.)(1)
(ii) It cements together the soil particles to form soil crumbs.
(Choose the correct option to name the tense.)(1)
(i) Simple present tense
(ii) Simple past tense
(iii) Simple future tense
(A5) ‘Agriculture plays important role in Indian economy’. Explain. (2)
(B) Read the passage given in Q. 4 (A) and write the summary of it. Suggest a suitable title to your summary. (5)
Read the following passage and do the activities.
The Delhi Metro is a metro system serving Delhi and its satellite cities of Bahadurgarh, Ballabhgarh, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida in the National Capital Region of India. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited
(DMRC), a State-owned company with equal equity participation from the Government of India and the Government of Delhi, built and operates the Delhi
Metro. It is the second oldest metro in India after the Kolkata Metro.
The Delhi Metro is the largest and busiest metro in India, and the world’s 9th longest metro system in length and 16th largest in ridership. A member of CoMET, the network consists of eight colour-coded regular lines, with a total
length of 317 kilometres, serving 231 stations including 6 on Airport Express line and interchange stations. The system has a mix of underground, at-grade, and elevated stations using both broad-gauge and standard-gauge. DMRC operates over 2,700 trips daily. In the financial year 2016–17, the Delhi Metro had an average daily ridership of 2.76 million passengers and served 100 crore (1.0 billion) riders.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was certified by the United Nations in 2011 as the first metro rail and rail-based system in the world to get “carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions” and helping in reducing pollution levels in the city by 630,000 tonnes every year. Planning for the metro started in 1984 when the Delhi Development Authority and the Urban Arts Commission came up with a proposal for developing a multi-modal transport system for the city. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) was incorporated in May 1995, construction started in 1998, and the first section, on the Red Line, opened in 2002. The development of the network was divided into phases, Phase I containing 3 lines was completed by 2006, and Phase II in 2011. Phase III is scheduled to be mostly complete by 2018.
(A1) Name the following.
(a) The Government authority which built and operates the Delhi Metro -
(b) The first and the oldest Metro in India -
(c) The satellite cities nearby Delhi -
(d) The largest and busiest metro in India -
(A2) The salient features of Delhi Metro are -
(A3) Find out antonyms from the passage for the following.
(i) shortest ´ (ii) increasing ´
(iii) irregular ´ (iv) ended ´
(A4) The Delhi Metro is the largest and busiest metro in India.
(Complete the following sentences with the help of the given sentence.)
(i) No other metro................................
(ii) The Delhi Metro is larger.......................
(A5) “Transportation is the backbone of Indian economy’’ - Elaborate
(B) Read the passage given in Q. 4 (A) and write the summary of it. Suggest a suitable title to your summary.
Read the extract and do the activities that follow:
My mother was still managing Green's, even though its days were numbered. The day after my return I joined her in the small office, where she sat behind her over-large desk, telephone on her right and the latest paperback western before her, ready to be taken up when noting much was happening – which was fairly often. My mother enjoyed reading westerns-particularly Luke Short, Max Brand, and Clarence E Mulfordmuch in the same way that I enjoyed detective fiction. Both genres were freely available in cheap collins ‘White Circle’, edition published during and just after the War.
We discussed the affair of the skeleton in the cupboard, but as there was no longer any mystery about it, there was nothing for me to investigate. However, armed with the key to the store room, I went down to the basement on my own and made a thorough search of all the old furniture, on the offchance that another skeleton moght tumble out of a cupboard or be found jammed into a drawer or trunk. I did find some old tennis rackets, back numbers of Punch, a cracked china chamber-pot, some old postcards of Darjeeling and Simla, and a framed photograph of King Edward the Seventh. I took the copies of ‘Punch’ to my room and read the reviews of all the plays that had been running in London between 1926 and 1930, thus becoming an authority on the theatre in England of that period.
A1. True/False
State whether the following statements are true or false:
(i) The narrator found one skeleton jammed into a drawer
(ii) The narrator did not like to read detective fiction
(iii) The narrator's mother was managing the Green's hotel
(iv) The narrator wanted to be an authority on the English theatre of that period
A2. Write a gist :
Write a gist of the above given extract in about 50 words.
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
| 1 |
As a novelist and storyteller, I have always drawn upon my memories of places that I have known and lived in over the years. More than most writers, perhaps, I find myself drawing inspiration from the past — my childhood, adolescence, youth, early manhood ... But to talk of my early inspiration I must go back to my very beginnings, to the then small, princely state of Jamnagar, tucked away in the Gulf of Kutch. Here my father started a small palace school for princesses. I was there till the age of six, and I still treasure vivid memories of Jamnagar's beautiful palaces and sandy beaches. |
| 2 | Some of these landmarks are preserved for me in photographs taken by my father, which I have to this day. An old palace with pretty windows of coloured glass remained fixed in my memory and many years later gave me the story, “The Room of Many Colours”, which also inspired an episode in a TV serial called Ek Tha Rusty. I spent a memorable year and a half with him in New Delhi, then still a very new city — just the capital area designed by Edwin Lutyens and Connaught Place, with its gleaming new shops and restaurants and cinemas. I saw Laurel and Hardy films and devoured milkshakes at the Milk Bar, even as the Quit India Movement gathered momentum. |
| 3 | When I was seventeen, I was shipped off to the UK to “better my prospects” as my mother put it. Out of longing for India and the friends I had made in Dehra came my first novel — The Room on the Roof — featuring the life and loves of Rusty, my alter ego. In the 1950s everyone travelled by sea, as air services were still in their infancy. A passenger liner took about three weeks from Southampton to Bombay (now Mumbai). After docking in Bombay, I took a train to Dehra, where I stepped onto the platform of the small railway station and embarked on the hazardous journey of a freelance writer. Railway stations! Trains! Platforms! I knew as long as these were there I would never run out of stories. |
| 4 | I also looked for inspiration in tombs and monuments and the ever-expanding city, but did not find it, and my productivity dropped. Escape from Delhi had become a priority for me. I felt drawn to the hills above Dehra. On the outskirts of Mussoorie I found a small cottage, surrounded by oak and maple trees where the rent, thankfully, was nominal. : |
| 5 |
I'm of the opinion that every writer needs a window. Preferably two Is the house, the room, the situation ... important for a writer? A good wordsmith should be able to work anywhere. But to me, the room you live in day after day is all-important. The stories and the poems float in through my window, float in from the magic mountains, and the words appear on the page without much effort on my part. Planet Earth belongs to me. And at night, the stars are almost within reach. |
1. On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer any four of the following questions in 30 - 40 words each:
- What does the writer remember about Jamnagar?
- How did he spend time in Delhi?
- What was the inspiration for the first novel and why?
- What was the importance of trains and railway stations in his life?
- What was the importance of a window in the writer’s life?
2. On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, fill in any two of the following blanks with appropriate words/phrases:
- He was shipped off to UK for ______.
- Everyone travelled by sea because ______.
- The productivity dropped because ______.
3. Find out words/phrases from the passage that mean the same as the following. Attempt any two.
- gulped down/swallowed (para 2)
- early stage (para 3)
- attracted to (para 4)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Researchers recently announced the earth could actually withstand up to 200,000 times the current population. They arrived at this figure by calculating the amount of heat a human body emits, and only at 1.3 million billion would the earth be too hot to be habitable. And though it would feel like being in a can of sardines if that figure were ever reached, the earth is capable of comfortably sustaining a population several times the current 6.5 billion.
In fact, fertility is actually on the decline worldwide. Though the population has grown, the rate of growth has fallen sharply. Twenty years ago, the UN projected that the population would reach 11.16 billion in 2050, today they say it will reach only 9.3 billion. Moreover, the human population will stabilize at about 11.5 billion. While this figure is almost twice the current one, it is hardly claustrophobic.
True, the demands on resources are heavy even now, but this is more due to the manner in which these resources are being used. In fact, figures show that a bigger population does not amount to greater consumption. Over 20% of the world's people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditure - the poorest 20% a tiny 1.3%. With just 5% of the world's population, the US consumes about 40% of the world's resources. Would you say the US is overpopulated?
Concerns on the scarcity of food are equally baseless. In fact, global food production has actually kept up with population growth.
(1) What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
(2) What is the relationship between the population and the available resources?
(3) Why do the researchers claim that the earth is capable of sustaining a bigger population?
(4) What, according to you, are the problems caused by the increasing population?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) The earth would be too hot to be habitable. (Remove 'too'.)
(ii) Though the population has grown, the rate of growth has fallen sharply. (Rewrite it using 'but')
(iii) Moreover, the human population will stabilize at about 11.5 billion. (Make it 'less definite'.)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean :
(i) natural capacity to produce (ii) shortage
Read the following extract and complete the table given below:
Children are perpetually asking questions. As adults, we are awkward with questions. We link the act of asking questions to ignorance. It indicates that we do not know; hence, we may look stupid while asking questions.
Children have no shame, whereas adults suffer from layers and layers of shame. Because children have no shame, they are more capable of failing at something and moving on from it. Our sense of shame makes us inhibited. So we do not try new things at work.
Children quickly make friends with strangers. Put two small kids alongside a few toys and they will start playing before they care to know about each other’s antecedents. As adults, we seek the false comfort of known relationships before we agree to play with each other.
Children freely express their emotions; adults learn to suppress their emotional side. We come to the workplace and are frequently counselled, “Do not get emotional.”
Children play. They find play in everything. Adults shun play and consider it the opposite of “serious work”. To a child, every act is an act of play.
Traits Delinking Childhood and Adulthood:
| Traits | Children | Adults | |
| 1 |
Asking Questions |
Perpetually ask questions freely |
(1) Feet awkward with questions (2) ___________ |
| 2 |
Feeling Shame |
(1) Feel no shame (2) ____________ |
(1) Suffer from shame (2) Inhibited to try new things at work |
| 3 |
Making friends |
(1) Quick in making friendship without knowing each other |
(1) ____________ |
| 4 |
Expressing emotions |
(1) ____________ |
(1) Suppress emotions. |
Read the extract and do the activities that follow :
Two weeks later, I wrote: "Dear Mum, thanks for the socks. But I wish you had sent me a food parcel instead. How about some guava cheese? And some mango pickle. They don't give us pickle in school. Headmaster's wife says it heats the blood."
"About that skeleton. If a dead body was hidden in that cupboard after 1930- must have been, if the newspapers of that year were under the skeleton - it must have been someone who disappeared around that time or a little later. Must have been before Tirloki joined the hotel, or he'd remember. What about the registers- would they give us a clue?"
Received a parcel containing guava cheese, strawberry jam, and mango pickle. HEadmaster confiscated the pickle. Maybe he needed it to heat his blood.
A note enclosed with parcel read: "Old hotel registers missing. Must have been thrown out. Or perhaps Mr. Green took them away when he left. Tirloki says a German spy stayed in the hotel just before the War broke out. The spy used to visit the Gurkha Lines and the armaments factory. He was passing information on to a dentist who visited Germany every year. When war broke out, the dentist was kept in a prisoner-of-war camp. The spy disappeared-some say to Tibet. Could the spy have been silenced and put away in the cupboard? But I keep forgetting it was a woman's skeleton. Tirloki says the spy was a man. But a clever spy may have been a woman dressed as a man. But a clever spy may have been a woman dressed as a man. what do you think? "
It was the football season, and I wasn't doing much thinking. Chasing a football in the monsoon mist and slush called for single-minded endurance, especially when we were being beaten 5-0 by Simla Youngs, a team of junior clerks from the government offices. Not the ideal training for a boy-detective. The winter holidays were still four months distant, and the case of the unidentified skeleton appeared to be resolving itself with a little help from my mother and her friends.
B1. Complete :
Complete the following sentences :
(1) The narrator's football team was beaten 5-0 by ___________ .
(2) Headmaster's wife says that ___________ .
(3) Things that the narrator received in the parcel are __________ .
(4) The German spy was passing information ___________ .
B2. Write a gist :
Write a gist of the extract in about 50 words.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given
below:
So what is a city? It's a dense amalgamation of buildings and people. A city must provide equity and also be sustainable. As an architect who has been closely connected with Delhi and its planning, my wish list is more about the direction we need to take
so that future generations don't end up living in chaotic dysfunctional cities.
The first requirement for a city is a pragmatic plan. Many of our cities such as Delhi and Bhubaneshwar and even Port Blair in the Andamans have reasonably good master plans. Many also have City Development Plans which have been made an essential
requirement to draw funds from the government's Urban Renewal Programme (JNNURM). But they should be updated frequently based on the changing needs of its people.
And let's not forget its citizens-they need to be more proactively involved when evolving master plans. But often, there's a lack of planning and inadequate implementation systems. This applies to all essential components of city-streets, public transport system, traffic management, affordable housing, cars and parking, drainage, water supply, sewerage, and garbage. Any deficiency in these will lead to poor quality cities which won't be able to handle the pressure of increased population and changing needs.
The second requirement of a good city is good social infrastructure such as parks and places for leisure such as river and sea fronts. It needs to preserve and protect its heritage.
(1) What does a city require to emerge as a good city?
(2) What is the second requirement of a good city?
(3) What are the basic requirements to draw funds from the government's-Urban Renewal programme (JNNURM)?
(4) What suggestions will you give to make your city ideal?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) It's a dense amalgamation of buildings and people.
(Rewrite it using 'as well as'.)
(ii) A city must provide equity and also be sustainable.
(Rewrite it using another modal auxiliary showing "advice".)
(iii) The first requirement for a city is a pragmatic plan.
(Frame a 'Wh' ·question to get the underlined part as an answer.)
(6) Match the words in column 'A' with their meaning in 'B':
| Column A | Column B |
| 1 pragmatic | 1 blend |
| 2 amalgamation | 2 fantastic |
| 3 realistic | |
| 4 ancient |
Read the following passage carefully:
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On the basis of your reading of the above passage, answer the following question:
- The Dancing Girl belongs to:
- Mohenjo-Daro
- Greek culture
- Homo sapiens
- Tibet
- In the museum she’s kept among:
- dancing figures
- bronze statues
- terracotta animals
- books
- Which information is not given in the passage?
- The girl is caged behind glass.
- She is a rare artefact.
- School books communicate the wealth of our heritage.
- She cannot be rediscovered as she’s bronze.
- ‘Great Art’ has power because:
- It appeals to us despite the passage of time.
- It is small and can be understood.
- It’s seen in pictures and sketches.
- It’s magnified a million times.
- The jewellery she wears:
- consists of only bangles of shell or ivory or thin metal.
- is a necklace with two pendants.
- both (i) and (ii) are correct.
- neither (i) nor (ii) is correct.
- She reminds us:
- of the never-say-die attitude of humans.
- why museums in our country are exciting.
- why she will make us come into money.
- of dancing figures.
- The synonym of the word “among” in para 1 is ______.
- The size of the dancing girl is equal to the length of the human palm. (True/False)
Read the following passage carefully.
1. Few guessed that this quiet, parentless girl growing up in New York City would one day become the First Lady of the United States. Even fewer thought she would become an author and lecturer and a woman much admired and loved by people throughout the world.
2. Born Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in 1884 to wealthy, but troubled parents who both died while she was young, Roosevelt was cared for by her grandmother and sent to school in England. In 1905, she married her distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She and her husband had six children. Although they were wealthy, her life was not easy and she suffered several personal tragedies. Her second son died when he was a baby. In 1921, her strong athletic husband was stricken with polio, which left him physically disabled for life.
3. Eleanor Roosevelt was a remarkable woman who had great intelligence and tremendous strength of character. She never let things get her down. She nursed her husband back to good health and encouraged him to remain in politics. She then helped him to become Governor of New York, and in 1933, President of the United States.
4. While her husband was President, she took a great interest in all the affairs of the country. She became her husband's legs and eyes; she visited prisons and hospitals; she went down into mines, up scaffoldings, and into factories. Roosevelt was tireless and daring. During the depression, she travelled all over the country bringing goodwill, reassurance, and help to people without food and jobs. During World War II she visited American soldiers in camps all over the world. The United States had never known a First Lady like her.
5. Roosevelt also kept in touch with the American people through a daily newspaper column called 'My Day'. She broadcast on the radio and delivered lectures, all first for a First Lady.
1.1 On the basis of your understanding of the above passage answer the following questions: (any eight)
(a) How was Eleanor Roosevelt's personality in contrast to what she became?
(b) Apart from being the First Lady what else did she have to her credit?
(c) What challenges did she face in her personal life but remained unfazed?
(d) Eleanor was a strong woman who helped her husband become the President of America. How?
(e) What does the statement: 'she became her husband's legs and eyes' mean?
(f) What was her special contribution during the depression?
(g) How did she motivate soldiers during World War II?
(h) What did she do for the first time for a First Lady?
(i) What side of her personality is reflected in this passage?
Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
1. Overpowering prey is a challenge for creatures that do not have limbs. Some species like Russell's viper inject poison. Some others opt for an alternative non-chemical method – rat snakes, for instance, catch and push their prey against the ground, while pythons use their muscle power to crush their prey to death. But snakes can't be neatly divided into poisonous and non-poisonous categories.
2. Even species listed as non-poisonous aren't completely free of poison. The common Sand Boa, for instance, produces secretions particularly poisonous to birds. So the species doesn't take any chance – it crushes its prey) and injects poison as an extra step.
3. Do vipers need poison powerful enough to kill hundreds of rats with just one drop? After all, they eat only one or two at a time.
4. While hunting animals try their worst to kill most efficiently, their prey uses any trick to avoid becoming a meal, such as developing immunity to poison.) For instance, Californian ground squirrels are resistant to Northern Pacific rattlesnake poison.
5. Competition with prey is not the only thing driving snakes to evolve more and more deadly poison. Snakes also struggle to avoid becoming prey themselves.
6. Some snake killers have partial immunity to poison. Famously, mongooses are highly resistant to cobra poison, and with their speed and agility, kill snakes fearlessly. It would be the death of cobras as a species if they didn't evolve a more deadly poison to stop mongooses.
7. Poison has another important role. It's an extreme meat softener, specific enzymes break up the insides of the prey. Normally, a reptile depends on the sun's warm rays to aid digestion.
8. But I wonder if we cannot use venom in our favour. In remote parts of India, local hospitality often involves leather tough meat. I chew and chew until my jaws ache. If I spit it out or refuse, our hosts would be offended, I swallow like a python stuffing a deer down its throat and hope I don't choke. If only I had poison.
(b) How does Sand Boa kill its prey?
(c) There is a constant tussle between the hunting animal and its prey? Why?
(e) What difficulty does the writer face when he is entertained in the remote parts of India?
2.2 On the basis of your reading of the above passage fill in any two of the following blanks.
b. humans
c. a python
d. prey
b. hardens
c. softens
d. breaks down
iii. Californian squirrels are ______________ rattlesnake poison.
a. afraid of
b. helpless against
c. resistant to
d. indifferent to
a. Liquid substances released from glands (para 2)
c. Particular (para 7)
Read the passage given below:
During our growing up years we as children were taught both at home and school-to worship the photos and idols of the gods of our respective religions. When we grow a little older, we were to read holy books like The Bhagwad Gita, Bible, and Quran; we were told that there are a lot of life lessons to be learned from these holy books. We were then introduced to stories from our mythologies which taught us about ethics and morality-what is good and what is bad I also learned to be respectful towards my parents who made my life comfortable with their hard work and love and care, and my teachers who guided me to become a good student and a responsible citizen.
Much later in life, I realised that though we learn much from our respective holy books, there is a lot to learn from our surroundings. This realization dawned upon me when I learned to enquire and explore. Everything around us- the sun, the moon, the stars, rain, rivers, stones, rocks, birds, plants, and animals-teach us many valuable life lessons.
No wonder that besides the scriptures in many cultures nature is also worshipped. The message that we get is to save our environment and maintain ecological balance. People are taught to live in harmony with nature and recognize that there is God in all aspects of nature.
Nature is a great teacher. A river never stops flowing. If it finds an obstacle in its way in the form of heavy rock, the river water fights to remove it from its path or finds an alternative path to move ahead. This teaches us to be progressive in life, and keep the fighting spirit alive.
Snakes are worshipped as they eat insects in the field that can hurt our crops, thus protecting the grains for us. In fact, whatever we worship is our helper and makes our lives easy for us. There are many such examples in nature, but we are not ready to learn a lesson, Overcome with greed, we are destroying nature. As a result, we face natural disasters like drought, floods, and landslides. We don't know that nature is angry with us.
However, it is never too late to learn. If we learn to respect nature the quality of our life will improve.
2.1 Answer briefly the following questions:
(a) What are we taught in our childhood and growing up years?
(b) Why should we respect our parents and teachers?
(c) What message do we get when we worship nature?
(d) How does a river face an obstacle that comes in its way?
2.2 Choose meanings of the words given below with the help of options that follow:
(e) guided
(i) answered
(ii) advised
(iii) fought
(iv) polished
(f) explore
(i) search
(ii) frequent
(iii) describe
(iv) request
(g) valuable
(i) proper
(ii) desirable
(iii) available
(iv) useful
(ii) friendship
(iii) discomfort
(iv) honesty
A. Read the following passage and do the given activities:-
A1. Answer in one word or two:- (02)
- The Queen of the spices.
- The areas of cultivation of the first type of cardamom.
- Anyone area of cultivation of the second type of cardamom
- The small variety of cardamom is known for-
Cardamom, the Queen of all spices, has a history as old as the human race. It is the dried fruit of a herbaceous perennial plant. Warm humid climate, loamy soil rich in organic matter, distributed rainfall and special cultivation and processing methods all combine to make Indian cardamom truly unique in aroma, flavour, size and it has a parrot green colour.
Two types of cardamom are produced in India. The first type is the large one, which has not much significance as it is not traded in the international market. It is cultivated in the North-eastern area of the country. The second type is produced in the Southern states and these are traded in the international market. These are mainly cultivated in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. As per the international market rules, only 7 mm quality was previously traded in exchanges. But later, it relaxed its norms, and now 6 mm quality is also traded in the exchanges. Special to Indian taste buds, cardamom is not only unique to our land but also to our senses. The addition of this fragrant spice can add layers of taste to your tea, food, and overall dining experience.
The small variety is known for its exotic quality throughout the world. Traditional auction markets also exist for trading in small cardamom in the country.
A2. Provide information: Indian cardamom is said to be unique in aroma, flavor, size, and colour due to -- (02)
- ______
- ______
- ______
- ______
A3. Write the synonyms for the following from the passage :- (02)
- unusual
- pleasant smell
- importance
- holding moisture
A4. Do as directed:- (02)
- The first type is the large one, which has not much significance.
(Identify the subordinate clause) - Cardamom is not only unique to our land but also to our senses.
(Rewrite the sentence using ‘as well as’)
A5. Indian food is incomplete without spices. State your view. (02)
B. Write a short summary of the passage given in above and suggest a suitable title. (05)
Read the passage given below.
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5 |
Technology is making advancements at a rapid rate but at the cost of a valued tradition - the crafts industry. The traditional crafts industry is losing a lot of its trained and skilled craftsmen. With that, the art of embellishing brass and copper utensils with fine engravings is also disappearing. The government has identified around 35 crafts as a languishing craft. |
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10 |
The speciality of handcrafted items is their design, an association with long traditions belonging to a specific region. The word ‘handcrafted’ does not imply the involvement of dexterous human fingers or an agile mind with a moving spirit anymore. Lessening drudgery, increasing production and promoting efficiency have taken precedence. The labour-saving devices are taking the place of handcrafted tools and this has jeopardized the skills of these artisans. |
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15 |
Mechanisation has made its way into everything - cutting, polishing, edging, designing etc. Ideally, the use of machinery should be negligible and the handicrafts should be made purely by hand with a distinguishable artistic appeal. However, with the exception of small-scale industries, the export units are mostly operated by machines. The heavily computerised designs contribute to faster production at lower costs. |
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20 |
Although mechanization of crafts poses a challenge to safeguarding traditional crafts, the artisans are lured with incentives in order to impart handicrafts training. Some makers do see machines as a time-saving blessing since they are now able to accomplish difficult and demanding tasks with relative ease. These machines might give a better 25finesse to these products but they don’t stand out as handcrafted. The quantity has overtaken quality in this industry. |
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30 |
A need to highlight the importance of the handmade aspect is required by both the government and private sectors, in order to amplify awareness and also support the culture of making handicrafts. A few artisans are still trying their best to rejuvenate and revive their culture and heritage but it’s an uphill task competing with the machine-made goods. A multitude of artisans have changed their professions and are encouraging their progeny to follow suit. There are others who have stayed their ground but are clearly inclined towards buying machines. |
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35 |
Nearly two decades ago, there were around 65 lakh artisans in the country. Three years ago, when the government started the process of granting a unique number to the artisans based on the Aadhaar card, 25 lakhs were identified. Loss of traditional crafts is clearly a worrying issue, but it stands to reason that forcing any artisan to follow old ways when concerns of livelihood overrule other considerations, is unfair. |
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.
- What does the writer mean by calling handicrafts a ‘valued tradition’?
- Rewrite the following sentence by replacing the underlined phrase with a word that means the same from lines 5-15.
If it continues, the workcation (work + vacation) trend will be a powerful boost to domestic tourism operators failing to make progress in the economic slump caused due to the pandemic. - State any two reasons why artisans are choosing to work via machines rather than handcrafted tools.
- Why do the artisans need to be ‘lured with incentives’ to impart handicrafts training?
- List one likely impact of the support of government and private sectors towards the culture of making handicrafts.
- How does the writer justify an artist’s act of abandoning her/his traditional craft for a more lucrative option?
Read the following excerpt from a case study.
| Impacts of Festivities on Ecology | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | Festivals are synonymous with celebration, ceremony and joy. However, festivals bring to the fore the flip side of celebrations – pollution – air, water, soil and noise. This led to the need of assessing the awareness level among people about ecological pollution during festivals. So, a study was conducted by scholars of an esteemed university in India. This study was titled Awareness Towards Impact of Festivals on Ecology. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | There were two main objectives of the study. The first one was to assess the awareness level among people about ecological protection during festivities. Exploring solutions to bring awareness about celebrating festivals without harming ecology was the second objective. The method used to collect data was a simple questionnaire containing 6 questions, shared with 50 respondents across four selected districts of a state in the southern region of India. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 |
The research began by understanding the socio-economic conditions of the respondents before sharing the questionnaire. Once the responses were received, the data collected were tabulated (Table 1), for analysis. Table-1: Awareness level among respondents
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| 20 | The study recommended the imposition of strict rules and regulations as opposed to a total ban on all festive activities which have a drastic impact on our environment. The researchers believed that such measures would help in harnessing some ill-effects that add to the growing pollution and suggested further studies be taken up across the country to assess awareness about ecological degradation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 25 | The observations made in the study pointed to the environmental groups and eco-clubs fighting a losing battle due to city traffic issues, disposal of plastics, garbage dumping and all sorts of ecological degradation. The researchers stressed that the need of the hour is increasing awareness among people to reduce environmental pollution which can be facilitated by celebrating all festivals in an eco-friendly manner. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.
- Why do the researchers call pollution the ‘flip side’ of festivals?
- Comment on the significance of the second objective of the study with reference to lines 7-12.
- Justify the researchers’ recommendation for limiting the drastic impact of festival pollution on the environment with reference to lines 16-21.
- Why do the researchers feel that environmental groups and eco-clubs are fighting a losing battle in the given scenario?
- Even though a larger number of people say ‘no’ to bursting crackers than those who say ‘yes’, festival pollution persists. How does evidence from table 1 support this statement?
- What purpose does the ‘Can’t Say’ column serve in the questionnaire (table 1)?
Read the following passage and do the activities.
A1. Complete the following sentences.
- Vegetarianism has not spread as desired because ______.
- Vegetarians are of various types ______.
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Vegetarianism promotes a natural way of life. But despite its implicit message of universal love and nonviolence, it has not spread as it should have. This may be because it usually is an inward looking habit and is best cultivated in the mind. Leading a vegetarian way of life helps the animal kingdom to coexist with man. The animals supply milk, manure and energy. This has been central to Indian culture for thousands of years. A vegetarian lifestyle is natural, multifaceted and helps preservation in a healthy way. Food and health are closely related. Vegetarians are of various types. There are lacto-vegetarians who consume dairy products; Lacto-ovo-vegetarians include eggs in addition to dairy products. Vegans are pure vegetarians who do not consume any food derived from animals. The Western science of food considers food as something to sustain only the human body, whereas Indian science considers food as something which sustains not only the body, but also maintains the purity of heart, mind and soul. Thus, an item of food which is injurious to the mind is not considered to be fit for consumption, even if it is otherwise beneficial to the body or satisfies the taste. Indian food science does not give so much importance to protein or even to a balanced diet but it gives importance to food that increases the strength of the body and its vitality. Vegetarian foods provide an infinite variety of flavours whereas non-vegetarian foods have hardly any taste of their own. In fact, non-vegetarian foods have to be seasoned with ingredients from the vegetable kingdom to make them palatable. |
A2. What is the importance of eating vegetarian food?
A3.
- Pick out two adjectives from the given passage.
- Find words in the passage which mean the following:
- Indirect
- Tasty
A4. Convert the following sentence to negative without changing the meaning.
Leading a vegetarian way of life helps the animal kingdom to coexist with man.
A5. Why do you think vegetarianism is being promoted on a global level? Justify with your response.
Read the passage given below.
| 1 | Mountains have always been held in great awe by mankind. They have been a challenge to humans. Those brave among us have always wanted to conquer them. You see, the more incredible the mountains, the greater the thrill – a challenge to the bravery of the human race. Climbing mountains is an experience that is hard to put into words. You are in a beautiful environment and, when you reach the top, you feel incredible. But you also have to climb down, which is when most accidents happen – people are tired, it gets dark, it’s harder. So, mountain climbing is undoubtedly one of the most popular adventure sports along with being challenging and risky for the climber. |
| 2 | Without any perceived risk, there can’t be a feeling that any significant challenge has been surmounted. Fair, but we have to bear in mind that mountaineering is not a sport that can be embraced without preparation. The enthusiasts must develop in themselves the spirit of adventure, willingness to undertake hardships and risks, extraordinary powers of perseverance, endurance, and keenness of purpose before climbing a mountain. They should also know how to handle mountaineering equipment. Then comes the penance of the rigorous training. This could very well be the lifeline up there. It helps inculcate and hone survival instincts that allow the climber to negotiate perilous situations. There are numerous institutes in India and abroad that offer such training. |
| 3 | Mountain climbers are unanimous in agreeing that unpredictable weather is what they fear the most. There may be sunshine one moment and a snowstorm the other. At higher altitudes, snow is a regular feature and being decisive about setting up camps or proceeding further is crucial. The icy sheets after ice storms make walking treacherous, while the powdery snow makes a mountaineer sink deep into the snow. Up there, where the intention is to embrace Nature’s wonder, one realizes that it cannot be done without facing its formidable glory. A true mountaineer may challenge the mountain, yet is always respectful of the powerful forces of nature. |
| 4 | Summiting mountains carries its own health risks such as oxygen and altitude sickness problems, frost bites, swelling of hands and feet, fluid collection in brain or lungs and exhaustion. Yet, the gratification mountaineers feel from mastering something that is so frightening, urges them to undertake these endeavors. We may think that the mountaineers are fearless, experts say, “Not at all. It’s fear that keeps them so intrigued with such arduous journeys.” Impulse and brazenness can be deadly foes. In the words of the Indian mountaineer, Bachendri Pal, “The biggest risk ... is to not to take the risk at all. Remember that.” |
i. Why does the writer say that mountains inspire ‘awe’ in humans? (Paragraph 1) (1)
- They present us with opportunities for exciting sports.
- They evoke the wish in us, to master them.
- They inspire in us, deeds of valour.
- They represent peace and calm, to us.
ii. Select the option that corresponds to the following relation below: (1)
The more incredible the mountains - the greater the thrill (Paragraph 1)
- The higher the stamina - the lower the food intake
- The more you laugh - the lesser your illness
- The smaller the car - the bigger the advantage
- The heavier the luggage - the higher the penalty
iii. Select the option that displays what the writer projects, with reference to the following: (1)
So, mountain climbing is undoubtedly one of the most popular adventure sports (Paragraph 1)
- doubt
- caution
- conviction
- denial
iv. Complete the following with a phrase from paragraph 1. (1)
| Opinion | Reason |
| ______ | Best experienced rather than described |
v. The writer compares training to penance in the line - Then comes the penance of the rigorous training. (Paragraph 2) (1)
State 1 point of similarity between training and penance.
vi. Based on your reading of the text, list 2 reasons why the writer says that
“mountaineering is not a sport that can be embraced without preparation”. (Paragraph 2) (1)
- ____________
- ____________
vii. What connect does the writer draw out between unpredictable weather and setting up of camps? (Paragraph 3) (1)
viii. The writer says, “A true mountaineer may challenge the mountain, yet is always respectful to the powerful forces of nature.” (Paragraph 3) (1)
Select the reason the mountaineer is respectful to the forces of nature, up in the mountains.
- survival
- experience
- tradition
- directive
ix. justify the following: (1)
While mountain climbing, an impulsive mountaineer is either disaster-prone or as good as dead.
x. Evaluate the Inappropriate reason for the feeling of exhilaration on reaching a summit, that the mountain-climbers experience. (1)
- Achievement of a seemingly impossible feat
- Spectacular panoramic view
- Application of the inculcated survival instincts
- Opportunity to use sophisticated mountaineering equipment
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
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1. The Higgs boson has been called, or miscalled, the God particle, enabling it to pass into the realm of popular scientific lore, like the discovery of the smallpox vaccine, the structure of DNA, or the theory of relativity. It would be difficult for most people to understand its significance, just as it would be to comprehend the notion of relativity, but such problems are overcome by locating science in personalities as well as cultural and national traditions. The first thing that you and I know about the Higgs boson is that it’s named after Peter Higgs, a physicist at Edinburgh University who made the discovery - although the original insight, in one of those recurrent back stories of science, was Philip Anderson’s. 2. Still, we have Higgs, and Edinburgh, and western civilisation to fall back on. The rest - “the Higgs boson is a hypothetical elementary particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics. It belongs to a class of particles known as bosons ...” - we needn’t worry too much about. But maybe we should worry just enough to ask, “What is a boson?” since the word tends to come up as soon as Higgs does. Is it, an ignoramus such myself would ask, akin to an atom or a molecule? It is, in fact, along with the fermion (named after Enrico Fermi), one of the two fundamental classes of subatomic particles. 3. From Bose The word must surely have some European genealogy. In fact, “boson” is derived from Satyendra Nath Bose, an Indian physicist from Kolkata who, in 1924, realised that the statistical method used to analyse most 19th-century work on the thermal behaviour of gases was inadequate. He first sent off a paper on quantum statistics to a British journal, which turned it down. He then sent it to Albert Einstein, who immediately grasped its immense importance, and published it in a German journal. Bose’s innovation came to be known as the Bose-Einstein statistics and became a basis of quantum mechanics. Einstein saw that it had profound implications for physics; that it had opened the way for this subatomic particle, which he named, after his Indian collaborator, “boson.” Still, science and the West are largely synonymous and coeval: they are words that have the same far-reaching meaning. Just as Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec’s paintings digest the Japanese prints they were responding to so we don’t need to be aware of Japanese prints when viewing the post-impressionists, western science is pristine, and bears no mark of what’s outside itself. 4. Other Indian contributions The last Indian scientific discovery that is universally acknowledged is zero. Indians are very strong at maths, and the only modern Indian who’s remotely part of the western mythology of science is Srinivasa Ramanujan, equally well known for his Hindu idiosyncrasies and his agonised stay in Cambridge as he is for his mathematical genius. 5. Indians can be excellent geeks, as demonstrated by the tongue-tied astrophysicist Raj Koothrappalli in the U.S. sitcom Big Bang Theory; but the Nobel prize can only be aspired to by Sheldon Cooper, the super-geek and genius in the series, for whom Raj’s country of origin is a diverting enigma, and miles away from the popular myth of science on which Big Bang Theory is dependent. Bose didn’t get the Nobel Prize; nor did his contemporary and namesake, J.C. Bose, whose contribution to the fashioning of wireless predates Marconi’s. The only Indian scientist to get a Nobel Prize is the physicist C.V. Raman, for his work on a light at Kolkata University. Other Indians have had to become Americans to get the award. 6. Conditions have always been inimical to science in India, from colonial times to the present day; and despite that, its contributions have occasionally been huge. Yet non-western science (an ugly label engendered by the exclusive nature of western popular imagination) is yet to find its Rosalind Franklin, its symbol of paradoxical success. Unlike Franklin, however, scientists were never in a race that they lost; they simply came from another planet. |
Based on your reading of the passage, answer twelve out of fifteen questions that follow:
(a) What is the first thing which the narrator knows about Higgs Boson?
(b) What is Bose-Einstein statistics?
(c) How does Sheldon view Raj’s country of origin?
(d) What do Van Gogh’s paintings do to Japanese prints?
(e) Has India always got credit for its merit?
(f) What do Higgs Boson have in common with Smallpox vaccine?
- Both are used in medical radiography.
- Both are part of scientific myth and legends now.
- Both were met with scepticism on their discovery.
- Both fetched their teams a Nobel prize.
(g) Which statement is not true about Boson?
- They were not discovered by Enrico Fermi.
- They constitute one class of subatomic particle.
- It is named after an Indian Physicist.
- It was discovered by Satyendra Nath Bose.
(h) Choose the word which is an apt synonym of the word Ignoramus. (used in para 2)
- Idiot
- Intelligent
- Idealist
- Ingenious
(i) How are esoteric scientific concepts made understandable for people?
- By printing short introductory courses.
- By comparing it with other scientific discoveries.
- By locating science in personalities, social and cultural traditions. iv. By revising the country’s educational structure.
(j) Based on the reading of the passage, which statements are correct about Higgs Boson.
- They are called God’s particle.
- Philip Anderson’s study provided the original insight.
- This concept is easily understood by common people.
- A physicist from Edinburgh University made the discovery.
- It was discovered by Albert Einstein.
- 1, 2 & 3
- 2, 3 & 5
- 1, 4 & 5
- 1, 2 & 4
(k) Which field of Physics was SN Bose working on?
- Quantum Mechanics
- Electromagnetism
- Geophysics
- Acoustic
(l) Which scientist/mathematician out of the following won the Nobel prize?
- J C Bose
- C V Raman
- Srinivasa Ramanujan
- S N Bose
(m) What is Srinivasa Ramanujan known for in popular culture?
- Mathematical genius.
- For formulation of game theory.
- Hindu Idiosyncrasies.
- Troubled stay in Cambridge.
- For devising another explanation for chaos theory.
- 1, 2 & 3
- 1, 3 & 5
- 1, 3 & 4
- 1, 4 & 5
(n) The conclusion of third paragraph highlights that ______.
- Western art grants recognition to all its inspirations.
- Van Gogh painted Japanese prints.
- Western art subsumes all the influences under it.
- Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec are post-impressionist painters.
(o) Why did JC Bose deserve a Nobel?
- He was an Indian physicist.
- He was the only one researching on wireless.
- His research & findings on wireless started before Marconi.
- He acquired American citizenship.
Based on the careful reading of the passage given below, answer any four out of five questions that follow:
|
Climate change and global warming are the biggest threats of the present time and how the world manages to control pollution will define our future. Rising industrialization, urbanization, deforestation etc., are endangering the natural ecosystem. Since 1880, the earth’s temperature has been rising at a rate of 0.14° F (0.08° C) per decade and the rate of increase has doubled since 1981 at 0.32° F (0.18° C) per decade. The 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2015, with 2020 recorded as the second-warmest year as per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). With growing economies, global carbon measurements have been rapidly rising for the last 15 years. As per recent data, in January 2022, carbon dioxide (CO2) measurement stood at 418 parts per million, up around 11% from 378 parts per million recorded since 2007. |
(a) What is the key to defining our future?
- The means employed to control pollution.
- The means employed to control resources.
- The means employed to control state policies.
- The means employed to educate masses.
(b) Which of the following elements are not responsible for endangering natural ecosystem?
- Deforestation
- Inflation
- Industrialization
- Urbanization
(c) According to the passage, economy, and carbon emissions have been ______ to each other for last 15 years.
- Inversely proportionate
- Directly proportionate
- Not related
- Disproportionate
(d) Name the institution responsible for observing and recording earth’s temperature over the years.
- National Organic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- North Organic and Atmospheric Administration
- National Offshore and Atmospheric Administration
(e) Carbon dioxide measurement stood at ______ parts per million in 2007.
- 387
- 378
- 481
- 418
Read the following passage and do the given activities:
A1. Match the columns A with B correctly: (2)
| A | B |
| (i) Rocket programming | (a) IIT (Bombay) |
| (ii) Graduation | (b) ISRO |
| (iii) Masters in Engineering | (c) S. T. Hindu College |
| (iv) Ph.D | (d) IISC |
|
The humble son of a farmer from Sarakkalvilai village in Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari district, Dr. K. Sivan as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman was leading the Chandrayaan-2 mission to the moon. Sivan studied in a Tamil medium government school. After graduating from S.T. Hindu College in Nagercoil, Sivan completed a Master's in Engineering from IISC in 1982. In 2006, he received Ph.D in Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay. Sivan is the first graduate in his family. His brother and two sisters were unable to complete higher education due to their poverty. "When I was in college, I used to help my father in the field. That was the reason he got me admitted to a college near our house." Sivan told TOI, "Only when I had completed my B.Sc. (Mathematics) with 100% marks his mind changed." Sivan said he had spent his childhood days without a shoe or sandal. I continued wearing a vesti (dhoti) till college. I wore pants for the first time when I entered MIT." He joined ISRO in 1982 and worked on almost all rocket programmes. Before taking charge as an ISRO chairman in January 2018, he was the director, of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) which develops rockets. He is known as ISRO's 'Rocket Man'. |
A2. Answer the following questions in a few words. (One or two words) (2)
- What is Dr. Sivan known as?
- In which subject Dr. Sivan scored 100% marks in B.Sc.?
- When did Dr. Sivan join ISRO?
- In which space centre Dr. Sivan was the director?
A3. Match the word connectors from the passage and use one of the connectors in your own sentence: (2)
| A | B |
| (i) Tamil | (a) School |
| (ii) Government | (b) Medium |
| (c) Centre |
A4. Do as directed: (2)
- Sivan is the first graduate in his family. (Rewrite as a negative sentence)
- His brother and two sister were unable to complete higher education due to their poverty.
(Rewrite the above sentence using 'neither ____nor')
A5. Personal Response: (2)
What inspiration can we draw from Dr. Sivan's success?
Read the passage given below:
|
- Infer one reason for the following based on information in paragraph 1. (1)
The 'blackout' phase is significant ______. - Choose the appropriate option to fill in the blank. (1)
From paragraph 1 & 2, we can infer that there will be ______.
1. no communication with the people.
2. blackout phase.
3. satellite will get no communication.
4. the moon will block the earth.
5. the communication break will be for 15 days.- 1, 2 & 3
- 1, 3 & 4
- 2, 3 & 5
- 3, 4 & 5
- The communication with the satellite will break for approximately ______ days. (1)
- 10
- 15
- 20
- 25
- Complete the following analogy correctly with a word/phrase from paragraph 2: (1)
aroma : cooking : : ______ : space research
(Clue - just like aroma is integral to cooking, similarly __ is/are integral to space research.) - According to ISRO official till 8th July, when Sun will block Mars, ______ signal/signals per day will be sent to the spacecraft. (1)
- no
- considerable
- indefinite
- only for few
- Select the correct option to complete the following sentence: (1)
The ISRO officials are ______ about their control over the spacecraft after the blackout phase.
- doubtful
- apprehensive
- confident
- jittery
- The spacecraft's life was extended by six months because of ______. (1)
- extra fuel
- incomplete work
- lack of communication amongst ISRO officials
- technical problems in its landing
- Read the following sentences: (1)
(A) The blackout was a sudden development.
(B) Because of this, the officials are very nervous about the success of the spacecraft.
- Both (A) & (B) are true.
- Both (A) & (B) are false.
- (A) is true and (B) is false.
- (A) is false and (B) is true.
- Substitute the word 'nonpareil' with one word similar in meaning in the following sentence from paragraph 5. (1)
India managed to get into the nonpareil club of Mars spacecraft in orbit. - The word 'fascination' in the opening sentence means the same as: (1)
- enchantment
- boredom
- disinterest
- ugliness
Read the extract given below:
| (1) | Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. When areas in and around Leh began to experience water shortages, life didn't grind to a halt. Why? Because a retired civil engineer in the Jammu and Kashmir Government came up with the idea of artificial glaciers. |
| (2) | Ladakh, a cold desert at an altitude of 3,000 - 3,500 meters above sea level, has a low average annual rainfall rate of 50 mm. Glaciers have always been the only source of water. Agriculture is completely dependent on glacier melt, unlike the rest of river/monsoon-fed India. But over the years, with increasing effects of climate change, rainfall and snowfall patterns have been changing, resulting in severe shortage and drought situations. Given the extreme winter conditions, the window for farming is usually limited to one harvest season. |
| (3) | It is located between the natural glacier above and the village below. The one closer to the village and lowest in altitude melts first, providing water during April-May, the crucial sowing season. Further, layers of ice above melt with the increasing temperature, thus ensuring continuous supply to the fields.
Therefore, farmers have been able to manage two crops instead of one. It costs about 1,50,000 and above to create a glacier. |
| (4) |
Fondly called the glacier man, he has designed over 15 artificial glaciers in and around Leh since 1987. In recognition of his pioneering effort, he was conferred the Padma Shri by The President of India. |
| (5) |
There are a few basic steps followed while creating an artificial glacier. River or stream water at high altitude is diverted to a shaded area of the hill, facing north, where the winter sun is blocked by a ridge or a mountain range. At the start of winter ie., in November, the diverted water is made to flow on sloping hills facing distribution channels. Stone embankments are built at regular intervals which impede the flow of water, making shallow pools which freeze, forming a cascade of ice along the slope. Ice formation continues for 3-4 months resulting in a large accumulation of ice which is referred to as an ‘artificial glacier’. |
Based on your understanding of the extract, answer the questions below:
- Infer one reason for, the following, based on information in paragraph 1. (1)
Areas in and around Leh began to experience water shortage but life didn't grind to a halt. - Select from the passage the appropriate option to fill in the blanks: (1)
Agriculture is completely dependent on ______ unlike the rest of river/monsoon-fed India.- rainfall pattern
- climate change
- glaciers melt
- extreme winter conditions
- Complete the following analogy correctly with a word/phrase from paragraph 3: (1)
Icing : cake :: layers : ______. - Select the correct option to complete the following sentence: (1)
At the start of winter the diverted water is made to flow ______.- on sloping hills facing distribution channels.
- on high altitude.
- on ice-cold water level.
- on mountain range.
- From the chart select the months of water surplus. (1)
- January, February.
- November, December.
- July, August, September.
- March, April
- Fill in the blank by selecting from the passage the correct option: (1)
The ______ have been the only source of water in areas in and around Ladakh.
- glaciers
- rivers
- streams
- water springs
- The word 'located' in paragraph 3 means: (1)
- found
- locally found
- situated
- adapted
- Write any two steps followed while creating the glaciers. (1)
- List one reason why artificial glaciers seem the best option. (1)
- Select the most suitable title from the following for the passage: (1)
- Water Shortage.
- New Ways Pool Water.
- Artificial Glacier.
- River Beds.
Read the following text.
| (1) | In recent years, there has been a surge in both group and solo travel among young adults in India. A survey conducted among young adults aged 18-25 aimed to explore the reasons behind their travel preferences and recorded the percentage variation for 10 common points that influence travel choices. |
| (2) | Among those who prefer solo travel, the most common reason cited was the desire for independence and freedom (58%), followed closely by the opportunity for introspection and self-discovery (52%). Additionally, solo travellers appreciated the ability to customize their itinerary to their preferences (44%) and the chance to meet new people on their own terms (36%). |
| (3) | On the other hand, those who prefer group travel often cited the desire for socializing and making new friends (61%) as their primary reason. Group travel also provided a sense of security and safety in unfamiliar places (52%) and allowed for shared experiences and memories with others (48%). Additionally, group travellers enjoyed the convenience of having pre-planned itineraries and organized transportation (38%). |
| (4) | Interestingly, both groups had similar levels of interest in exploring new cultures and trying new experiences (40% for solo travellers, 36% for group travellers). Similarly, both groups valued the opportunity to relax and escape from the stresses of everyday life (36% for solo travellers, 32% for group travellers). |
| (5) | However, there were also some notable differences between the two groups. For example, solo travellers placed a higher priority on budget-friendly travel options (38%) compared to group travellers (24%). Conversely, group travellers were more likely to prioritize luxury and comfort during their travels (28%) compared to solo travellers (12%). |
| (6) | Overall, the survey results suggest that both group and solo travel have their own unique advantages and appeal to different individuals, based on their preferences and priorities. |
Answer the following questions, based on given passage.
- Infer two possible ways that the survey, mentioned in paragraph (1) could be beneficial. Answer in about 40 words. (2)
- Which travel choice point of the survey would influence tour operators to incorporate group dinners, social events, and shared accommodations in their itinerary? (1)
- Freedom to customise itinerary
- Luxury and comfort
- Security and safety
- Desire for making new friends
- What do the top choices in the survey, for travelling solo and in a group suggest about young adults? (1)
- Identify the solo traveller from the following three travellers: (1)
- Reshma- I don’t want to keep hunting for rickshaws or taxis. A pre-booked vehicle is perfect.
- Nawaz-I’m happy sharing a room in a hostel. I don’t need hotel accommodation.
- Deepak-I’m not worried about my well-being, even while exploring remote areas.
- Which of the following is an example of an opportunity for self-discovery, as mentioned in paragraph 2? (1)
- Trying new cuisine
- Hiring a tour guide
- Purchasing local artifacts
- Advance booking travel tickets
- How might the differences in budget priorities between solo and group travellers impact the types of accommodations and activities offered by the travel industry in India? (2)
- Complete the sentence appropriately. The similarities in the percentage of both solo and group travellers who are interested in exploring new cultures and trying new experiences may be due to ______. (1)
- State TRUE or FALSE. (1)
The title, "Wanderlust: The Solo Travel Trend Among Young Adults in India", is appropriate for this passage.
Read the passage given below:
| (1) | When we think of the game of cricket, we come to the conclusion that it is primarily a game that depends on outstanding physical activities, good hand-eye coordination, speed, skill and strength. It provides entertainment and generates strong feelings of excitement. A good match of cricket or of any other game neither adds to the existing stock of human knowledge nor reveals any secret of existence. It does not carry any deep meaning but most people, particularly the lover of sports attach deep emotions and numerous meanings to it. Games are thought of as a metaphor for life. They are supposed to teach many lessons. In fact, more is said and written about a cricket match than about scientific findings or great philosophy. |
| (2) | This is because games, like a morality play, in which settings and rules are made by us, can easily make people test their fair and foul conduct, principles of reward and punishment, and emotions of joy and disappointment. They can make us experience the thrill of war without exposing us to its dangers. A man watching a cricket match on T.V. and munching popcorn is like a surrogate warrior. In fact, games provide us with a safe outlet for our aggressiveness. If games become aggressive, they lose the very purpose of providing entertainment and purging us of our aggressiveness. They can calm our impatience without creating any conflict. |
| (3) | Commentators, journalists, politicians and analysts can do a great favour to the competing teams by keeping the excitement within limits. The teams should play without being dominated by feelings of national honour and shame. Excellent performance of the players of both teams should be enjoyed and appreciated. Winning or losing in a game should not be taken seriously. A game is fun if it is played with true spirit of sportsmanship. |
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below:
- Complete the sentence by choosing an appropriate option: (1)
Most people conclude that cricket is primarily a game because ______.- it is played as a match
- it requires two teams
- it includes physical activity
- it depends only on skill and strength.
- Comment on the writer's reference to 'that cricket does not reveal any secret of existence. (1)
- List two responses to which watching a game of cricket gives rise to. (1)
- Select the option that conveys the opposite of 'destroy' from words used in the passage. (1)
- reveals
- experience
- generate
- purging
- The writer would not agree with the given statements based on paragraph 2, EXCEPT (1)
- Rules of any game are made by people.
- Watching a cricket match makes the viewer believe that he is fighting a battle.
- It is necessary for a game to be aggressive in order to build excitement.
- A game can test people's sense of fair judgement.
- With reference to the passage, a spectator is compared to a 'surrogate warrior'. (1)
Choose the option that best describes this phrase:- a spectator who is paid to watch.
- a spectator who is in pain while watching the match.
- a spectator who enjoys the match as an armchair soldier.
- a spectator who makes judgments about reward and punishment.
- Why does the writer compare games to a morality play? (1)
- Complete the given sentence with an appropriate inference with respect to the following: (1)
The writer says that games can calm our impatience without creating any conflict by ______. - The writer advises the players that games should not become aggressive because ______. (1)
- Select the most suitable title for the above passage. (1)
- Excellent Performance by Cricketers
- The Benefits of Playing Cricket
- Cricket - The King of Games
- The True Spirit of Playing Games
Read the following report and answer the questions by choosing the correct/most appropriate option:
 |
|
| (1) |
How bird hits happen, why they are a concern? New Delhi June 20 At least two bird strike incidents happened on Sunday. Both aircrafts returned to their airports of origin and were grounded for maintenance. An ABC aircraft, which took off from Guwahati towards Delhi, suffered damage to its left engine following a bird hit at 1600 feet. The pilots returned to Guwahati. The other strike happened on another flight from Patna to Delhi. The pilots of the aircraft suspected a bird strike during the take-off roll but continued to climb. Following the take-off rotation, they were informed by the cabin crew of sparks emanating from the left engine. Subsequently, the pilots were also informed by air traffic control of smoke coming out of one of the engines. The pilots declared an emergency and returned to Patna. |
| (2) |
Why are bird strikes a concern? Bird strikes are among the most common threats to aircraft safety, and they typically occur during take-off or landing. Dozens of bird-strikes happen each day but some can be more dangerous than others. Typically, when birds collide with an aircraft's airframe, it is unlikely to cause significant problems for the pilots flying. But there are instances when the aircraft engine ingests the birds. This can lead to a loss of thrust for the engine and cause manoeuvrability problems for the crew. In these cases, where a jet engine ingests a bird, procedures would generally call for pilots to land the plane at the closest airport. While most airframe bird strikes are not considered critical to air safety, if a collision cracks a window or a wind screen, pilots will look to land as early as possible. |
| (3) |
How critical are bird strikes to air safety? Smaller planes would generally be more susceptible to the dangers of bird strikes than larger ones. However, given that bird strikes mostly happen during take-off and landing, these incidents could distract the pilots during what are highly critical phases of flights that demand the complete attention of the crew. |
| (4) |
What causes bird-strikes? The presence of birds around an aircraft increases the chances of a bird strike. In the monsoon, as water puddles emerge on open grounds attracting insects to breed, the presence of birds increases. In some cases, bird hits also happen at higher altitudes when a plane is cruising. These are more dangerous than the low-altitude hits, given that they can cause rapid depressurization of cabins. Other reasons for bird activity around the airfield could be presence of landfills or waste disposal sites that can attract a large number of birds. |
- Does the following statement agree with the information given in paragraph 1? (1)
When an airplane is hit by a bird or is suspected to have been hit, the passengers must be asked to get down at once.
Select from the following:
True: If the statement agrees with the information.
False: If the statement contradicts the information.
Not Given: If there is no information on this. - Select the option that displays the most likely reason for bird hits. (1)
- when the aircraft is overloaded
- at the time of landing or taking off
- when the crew become negligent
- when the passengers become panicky
- Complete the sentence appropriately with one word. (1)
Smaller planes are generally more ______ than larger ones. - Complete the sentence by selecting the most appropriate option: (1)
When the window or the windscreen of the airplane is cracked due to a bird hit ______.- the crew must rush to the cockpit
- the pilot must land at the earliest airport
- the pilot must inform the maintenance engineer
- the pilot must get instructions from the aviation wing on what should do in emergency
- Based on the reading of the text, state a point to further the statement. (1)
Dozens of bird hits take place every day ______.
- but only a few are dangerous
- all of them are fatal
- but after every bird hit it is imperative to land the aircraft
- the pilot should ignore them
- Complete the sentence based on the following statement: (1)
Complete attention of the crew is demanded during take-off and landing.
We can say this because ______. - Complete the sentence appropriately with one/two words. (1)
In cases where the aircraft engine infests the bird, it leads to the loss of thrust and causes problems in ______. - Which are the areas more prone to bird hits? (1)
- Based on the reading of the text, state a point to challenge the given statement: (1)
The area around air fields should be clear of any waste disposal sites. - Look at the graph. It shows that between 2016 and 2021, whereas air flights have come down, the bird-hits have gone up. This implies that the incidence of bird hits has: (1)
- decreased
- increased
- remained constant
- been alarming
Read the extract and complete the activities given below:
|
This is what Camus meant when he said that "what gives value to travel is fear"-disruption, in other words, (or emancipation) from circumstance, and all the habits behind which we hide. And that is why many of us travel not in search of answers, but of better questions. I, like many people, tend to ask questions of the places I visit, and relish most the ones that ask the most searching questions back of me: "The ideal travel book," Christopher Isherwood once said, "should be perhaps a little like a crime story in which you're in search of something." And it's the best kind of something, I would add, if it's one that you can never quite find. I remember, in fact, after my first trips to Southeast Asia, more than a decade ago, how I would come back to my apartment in New York, and lie in my bed, kept up by something more than jet lag, playing back, in my memory, over and over, all that I had experienced, and paging wistfully through my photographs and reading and re-reading my. diaries, as if to extract some mystery from them. Anyone witnessing this strange scene would have drawn the right conclusion: I was in love. When we go abroad is that we are objects of scrutiny as much as the people we scrutinize, and we are being consumed by the cultures we consume, as much on the road as when we are at home. At the very least, we are objects of speculation (and even desire) who can seem as exotic to the people around us as they do to us. All, in that sense, believed in "being moved" as one of the points of taking trips, and "being transported" by private as well as public means; all saw that "ecstasy" ("ex-stasis") tells us that our highest moments come when we're not stationary, and that epiphany can follow movement as much as it precipitates it. |
A1. Read and rewrite the following sentences and state whether they are True or False: (2)
-
- A traveller may sink in love with his travel-memoirs.
- One gets inspected as he inspects the world around him.
- Quest for something may end in more mystery.
- Staying in comfort at home gives one more happiness than travelling.
A2. Match the persons given in column 'A' with opinions/ characteristics given in column 'B': (2)
| Column 'A' | Column 'B' |
|
(1) Narrator
|
a) ideal travel should be like a crime story. |
|
(2) Camus
|
b) in love with his memoirs. |
|
(3) Isherwood
|
c) more happy when on move. |
| (4) Traveller | d) fear gives value to travel. |
A3. Give reasons: (2)
"We are objects of scrutiny," because
- ______
- ______
A4. "Travelling is an interesting teacher." Write your views in 3-4 sentences. (2)
A5. Do as directed: (2)
- I like to ask questions of the places I visit. (Choose the correct tense form of the above sentence from the following options and rewrite.)
- Simple past tense
- Simple present tense
- Past perfect tense
- Present perfect tense
- I would come back to my apartment in New York. (Choose the correct option using 'used to' for the given sentence and rewrite.
- I use to come back to my apartment in New York.
- I have used to come back to my apartment in New York.
- I used to come back to my apartment in New York.
- I had used to come back to my apartment in New York.
A6. Find out the words from passage which mean: (2)
- reminiscence
- exhilaration
Read the following extract and Complete the activities given below:
|
Love is a great force in Private life; it is indeed the greatest of all things, but love in public affairs does not work. It has been tried again and again; by the people of the Middle Ages, and also by the French Revolution, a secular movement which reasserted the Brotherhood of Man, And it has always failed. The idea that nations should love one another, or that business concerns or marketing boards should love one another or that a man in Portugal should love a man in Peru of whom he has never heard — it is absurd, unreal, dangerous. ‘Love is what is needed,” we chant, and then sit back and the world goes on as before. The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something much less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance. Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things. No one has ever written an ode to tolerance or raised a statute to her. Yet this is the quality which will be most needed after the war. This is the sound state of mind which we are looking for. This is the only force which will enable different races and classes and interests to settle down together to the work of reconstruction. The world is very full of people— appallingly full; it has never been so full before and they are all tumbling over each other. Most of these people one doesn’t know, and some of them doesn't like. Well, what is one to do? If you don't like people, put up with them as well as you can. Don't try to love them; you can't. But try to tolerate them. On the basis of that tolerance, a civilized future may be built. Certainly, I can see no other foundation for the post-war world. |
A1. Choose two correct alternatives which define the theme of the extract: (2)
- Love is a greater force in private as well as in public affairs.
- To rebuild civilization we need tolerance more than love.
- Patience is the solution in any sort of confrontation.
- When you do not like people, nations or civilizations, you need to love them to change them.
A2. Complete the following table with the help of the extract: (2)
Give one merit and one demerit of ‘Love’ and ‘Patience.’
| Love | (i) ______ |
| (ii) ______ | |
| Patience | (i) ______ |
| (ii) ______ |
A3. Write how we can build up a civilized society; with the help of the extract: (2)
A4. ‘Love and tolerance are the true indicators of a civilized person.’ Justify. (2)
A5. Do as directed: (2)
- It has been tried again and again.
(Identify the Active Voice of the above sentence from the given options and rewrite.)
- They had tried it again and again.
- They has tried it again and again.
- They tried it again and again.
- They have tried it again and again.
- It is the sound state of mind which we are looking for.
(Identify the correct simple sentence from the given options and rewrite.)- It is the sound state of mind and we are looking for it.
- We are looking for the sound state of mind.
- We are looking for it but it is the sound state of mind.
- The sound state of mind is looked for.
A6. Match the words in column ‘A’ with their meanings in column ‘B’. (2)
| Column ‘A’ | Column ‘B’ |
| (i) Secular | (a) feeling of great friendship and understanding between people. |
| (ii) Absurd | (b) a society which has its own highly developed culture and ways of life. |
| (iii) Civilization | (c) not connected with any religion. |
| (iv) Brotherhood | (d) not at all logical or sensible. |
Read the following passage carefully:
|
(1) Rotation of crops is a universal phenomenon which is practised by most of the farmers of the tropical and temperate countries. The main objective of rotation of crops is to obtain higher agricultural returns on the one hand, and to maintain the soil fertility on the other. (2) In other words, the rotation of crops helps in making agriculture more sustainable. The importance of crop rotation is more in the areas where farmers grow two, or more than two crops in the same field in a year. Irrigation facilities have also been appreciably developed in the country during the last three decades. The availability of water to the arable land has helped in the intensification of agriculture. (3) In the areas such as Punjab and Haryana, where the Green Revolution is a big success, one soil exhaustive crop (rice) is followed by another soil exhaustive crop (wheat). Subsequently, the field vacated by wheat is devoted to either rice or maize or cotton. Thus, in one year, the farmers are harvesting three soil exhaustive crops from the same field. Such a rotation of crops may fetch more income to the farmers, but depletes the soil fertility at a faster pace. (4) A number of field studies were conducted to assess the traditional crop rotation pattern. One such field study about the changes in the rotation of crops was conducted in the village Banhera (Tanda), Haridwar district. The main rotation of crops of the village is shown in the table below. |
| Traditional Rotation of Crops (1960-65) in Banhera (Tanda) | ||||
| Year | Kharif (mid-June to mid-October) | Rabi (mid-October mid-April) | Zaid (April to June) | No. of days land left fallow |
| 1960 | Millet/fodder/rice | Gram | Fallow | 90 |
| 1961 | Fallow | Wheat | Fallow | 210 |
| 1962 | Millet/fodder/rice | Gram | Fallow | 90 |
| 1963 | Fallow | Wheat | Fallow | 210 |
| 1964 | Millet mixed with urad/fodder/rice | Gram | Fallow | 90 |
| 1965 | Fallow | Wheat | Fallow | 210 |
Answer the following questions, based on the above passage:
- Fill in the blanks with the appropriate option from those given in brackets, based on your understanding of para 2.
One of the reasons that there has been an intensification of agriculture in the country is the development of irrigation facilities is a/an ______ (fact/opinion) because it is a/an ______ (subjective judgement/objective detail). - Based on your understanding of paras 1 and 2, state whether the following statement is true or false.
If proper irrigation facility is provided, higher agricultural returns can be obtained by making crop rotation more sustainable. - Justify the following in about 40 words.
Crop rotation may fetch more income to the farmers, but depletes the soil fertility at a faster pace. - Based on the table, mention the years when the land was left fallow for maximum number of days.
- The study conducted in village Banhera (Tanda) reflects that during the years 1960 to 1965, from April to June, the land was left fallow or uncultivated throughout. State any one inference that can be drawn from this.
- Select the option that correctly states the significance of crop rotation as given below:
- Crop rotation is done to obtain higher agricultural returns.
- Higher agricultural returns can be obtained by harvesting soil-exhaustive crops.
- Crop rotation demands that land should be left fallow for a few months to increase the fertility of soil.
- Better irrigation facility to the arable land has helped in the intensification of agriculture.
- If crops to be harvested are chosen wisely, crop rotation can help in maintaining fertility of soil.
- (1), (2) and (4)
- (1) only
- (3) and (5)
- (1) and (5)
- Crop rotation is helping in making agriculture more sustainable. Mention one benefit and one drawback of crop rotation. (Answer in about 40 words)
- Which of the following is the main takeaway from the study mentioned in the passage?
- The study needs to include more valid data to support the practice of crop rotation
- Crop rotation is a sustainable practice that can transform the agricultural sector.
- The impact of crop rotation on farmer’s upliftment has been thoroughly explained.
- Crop rotation is independent of the type of crops harvested and availability of water for irrigation.
Read the following passage and do the activities:
A1. Complete the following sentences from the passage: (2)
- Kalam earned a degree in ______ engineering.
- DRDO stands for ______.
- Kalam was ______ of the SLV-III, the first satellite launch vehicle.
- Kalam served as lecturer at ______.
|
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in full Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, (born October 15, 1931, Rameshwaram, India - died July 27, 2015, Shillong), Indian scientist who played a leading role in the development of India's missile and nuclear weapons programmes. He was President of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). In 1969, he moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation, where he was project director of the SLV-III, the first satellite launch vehicle that was both designed and produced in India. Rejoining DRDO in 1982, Kalam planned the programme that produced a number of successful missiles, which helped earn him the nickname “Missile Man”. Among those successes was Agni, India's first intermediate-range ballistic missile, which incorporated aspects of the SLVIII and was launched in 1989. Kalam remained committed using science and technology to transform India into a developed country and served as lecturer at several universities. Kalam wrote several books, including an autobiography, Wings of Fire (1999). He received the Padma Bhushan (1981), Padma Vibhushan (1990), Indira Gandhi award for National Integration (1997) and the India's highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). |
A2. Complete the web diagram: (2)
A3. Fill in the blanks by using the suitable phrases/words from the bracket: (2)
[moved to, served as, launched, autobiography]
- Mr. Gunaji has ______ a Principal in this college.
- “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” is the ______ of Mahatma Gandhi.
- My teacher ______ to England for further studies.
- ISRO successfully ______ Chandrayaan-3 mission.
A4. Do as directed: (2)
- Kalam wrote several books. (Frame a Wh-type question to get the underlined part as answer)
- Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering. (Begin the sentence with “A degree in…….)
A5. Who is your role model? Write few lines about him/her. (2)
