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Question
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
I was 33 at the time, a doctor in the West End of London. I had been lucky)' in advancing through severed arduous Welsh mining assistantships to my own practice- acquired on the installment plan from a dear old family physician who, at our first interview, gazed at my cracked boots and frayed cuffs and trusted me.
I think I wasn't a bad doctor. My patients seemed to like me not only 1he nice old ladies with nothing wrong with them, who lived near the Park and paid handsomely for my cheerful bedside manner but the cabbies, porters, and deadbeats in the mews and back streets of Bayswater, who paid nothing and often had a great deal wrong with them. Yet there was something- though I treated everything that came my way, read all Ille medical journals, attended scientific meetings, and even found time to take complex postgraduate diplomas - I wasn't quite sure of myself. I didn't stick at anything for long. I had successive ideas of specializing in dermatology, in aural surgery, in pediatrics, but discarded them all. While I worked all day and half of most nights, I really lacked perseverance, stability. One day I developed indigestion. After resisting my wife's entreaties for several weeks, I went casually to consult a friendly colleague. I expected a bottle of bismuth and an invitation to a bridge. I received instead of the shock of my life: a sentence to six months' complete rest in the country on a milk diet. I had a gastric ulcer.
(I) What does the doctor tell us about his profession?
(2) What sort of patients did the doctor handle?
(3) What shock of life did the doctor receive when he visited his doctor colleague?
(4) What qualities of the doctor appeal you the most?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) I read all the medical journals.
(Rewrite it using the past perfect continuous tense.)
(ii) I treated everything that came n1y way.
(Rewrite the sentence beginning with "Everything ... ")
(iii) I received the shock of my life.
(Make it a Rhetorical question.)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean :
(i) involving a lot of effort and energy.
(ii) serious requests
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Solution
(1) The doctor tells us that he was not a bad doctor, all his patients seemed to like him. However, he felt he lacked presence and stability.
(2) The doctor treated all kinds of patients, the rich old ladies had nothing wrong with them and the poor cabbies, porters and deadbeats, who paid nothing and often had a great deal of wrong with them.
(3) The doctor was troubled with indigestion, so he consulted a friendly colleague who told him he had a gastric ulcer and take complete rest in the country on a milk diet.
(4) The doctor was kind and therefore the old ladies liked to visit him, he probably didn’t overcharge his patients so the poor could approach him. Overall he was honest and was able to realize his own drawbacks. He was a simple man and lived a simple life.
(5)
(i) I had been reading all the medical journals.
(ii) Everything that came my way was treated by me.
(iii) Didn’t I receive the shock of my life?
(6)
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During the devastating July 2005 floods that hit Mumbai, Rajen Dutia received an urgent call from a relative, Lopa Vyas late in the evening. “A friend’s mother is stranded near your home, Rajen. Can you please take her home? Her name is Rashmi,” Vyas told him.
Mumbai had come to a halt and people were trapped everywhere. Despite power failure and raging rain, Dutia stepped out and made his way to the spot, where he found Rashmi as well as a dozen other people. They were stranded in the dark, shivering in the rain. They all lived far away and had no place to go for the night.
Rajen took all of them to his one-bedroom flat, where he served them dinner and invited them to spend the night.
"By doing so," says Rajen, "I was simply fulfilling my karma, paying the universe back for the good it had done for me."
"God is kind. My daughter had just started her new job that day, and had gone for her training. She was stranded too. While she was trying to get to our relatives, she almost drowned, but a young stranger saved her. He and his friends even dropped her to my relative's place and phoned me to say she was safe. One good turn deserves another."
A2. Order
Look at the following sentences from the passage and put them in the correct sequence: (2)
(a) He took them to his one-bedroom flat.
(b) Rajen found Rashmi as well as a dozen other people shivering in the rain.
(c) Mumbai had come to a halt and people were trapped everywhere.
(d) Rajen Dutia received an urgent call.
A3
During the devastating July 2005 floods that hit Mumbai, Rajen Dutia received an urgent call from a relative, Lopa Vyas late in the evening. “A friend’s mother is stranded near your home, Rajen. Can you please take her home? Her name is Rashmi,” Vyas told him.
Mumbai had come to a halt and people were trapped everywhere. Despite power failure and raging rain, Dutia stepped out and made his way to the spot, where he found Rashmi as well as a dozen other people. They were stranded in the dark, shivering in the rain. They all lived far away and had no place to go for the night.
Rajen took all of them to his one-bedroom flat, where he served them dinner and invited them to spend the night.
"By doing so," says Rajen, "I was simply fulfilling my karma, paying the universe back for the good it had done for me."
"God is kind. My daughter had just started her new job that day, and had gone for her training. She was stranded too. While she was trying to get to our relatives, she almost drowned, but a young stranger saved her. He and his friends even dropped her to my relative's place and phoned me to say she was safe. One good turn deserves another."
A2. Order
Look at the following sentences from the passage and put them in the correct sequence: (2)
(a) He took them to his one-bedroom flat.
(b) Rajen found Rashmi as well as a dozen other people shivering in the rain.
(c) Mumbai had come to a halt and people were trapped everywhere.
(d) Rajen Dutia received an urgent call.
A3(i). Fill in the blanks :
Select the words given in the passage (1)
(i) Thousands Of pilgrims were …………….. due to the cloud burst in Uttarakhand.
(ii) The tiger was ……………… by the hunter.
(ii). Antonyms:
Select the correct antonyms for the given words from the alternatives :
(1) Please :
(a) unplease (b) displease (c) misplease
(2) Safe: '
(a) insafe (b) safeless (c) unsafe
A4(i) Tags :
Select the correct tag for the alternatives given below :
One good turn deserves another.
(a) Doesn’t it? (b) don’t it (c) does it?
(ii). Guess:
Choose the correct answer : (1)
Rajen can you please take her home? ‘Can’ indicates :
(a) Obligation (b) ability (c) permission
A5. Personal Response :
‘ one good turn
Deserves another.’
Explain with an
example of your own.
A1. Guess
Select the correct alternatives from the boxes : (2)
(1) The Olympic Games were originally held in honour of:
(a) The Priests (b) The Greeks
(c) The Spartans (d) Zeus
(2) The Olympics were held after every …………..
(a) Year (b) Four years
(c) Three years (d) Two years
(3) All came to know of Olympia from the:
(a) Olympics (b) Spartans
(c) Syracusans (d) Athenians
(4) Altis was the name of a :
(a) God (b) Race
(c) Festival (d) Enclosure
Olympia, the original site of Olympic Games in ancient Greece is situated in a quiet, beautiful valley. The old ruins are shaded by evergreen oaks, pines and poplars, as well as olive trees. Olympia was never a city but a sacred ground occupied by temples and dwellings for the priests. At the centre was the enclosure known as Altis, dedicated to Zeus, the god of gods. It was in honour of Zeus that the quadrennial festival and the games were held.
The fame of Olympia rests largely upon Olympic Games. They were a great national festival of the entire Greek race. During the week of the festival the Athenians, the Spartans, the Syracusans and other groups, all forgot their narrow identities. They regarded an Olympic victory as the highest honour. The simple reward of a twig of wild olive immortalized the victor and his family.
The Olympic Games were held regularly in peace and in war at an interval of four years for over a thousand years from 776 B.C. till 393 A.D. Originally, men who spoke Greek as their mother tongue were allowed to compete in the Olympic Games. No married women were allowed to be present. The athletic programme was varied by the presence of historians, orators and writers. After each event a herald announced the victor's name and handed him a palm. On the last day the successful competitors were each given a garland of wild olive.
A2. Select
Select the word each from the circle which mean the following: (2)
(1) Occurring at the interval of four years
(2) Wreckage
(3) Take part in a game
(4) One who wins.
A3. Complete :
Complete the table and frame your sentence with anyone word : (2)
| Noun | Adjective | Verb |
| beautiful |
A4. (i) The old ruins are, shaded by evergreen oaks, pines and .poplars as well as olive trees.
(Insert not only ……. but also and rewrite). (1)
(ii) No married women were allowed to be present. (Remove 'No' and rewrite the sentence without changing its meaning) (1)
A5. Personal response
How are the winners in Olympics rewarded today? (2)
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.
AI. Who said to whom
(i) "Is he going to live, sir?"
(ii) "______ the struggle is too hard at the end ______.”
The doctor said to himself, "If my word can save his life, he shall not die.
The will be damned." He called, "Gopal, listen." This was the first time he was going to do a piece of acting before a patient, simulate a feeling and conceal his Judgement. He stooped over the patient and said, with deliberate emphasis, "Don't worry about the will now. You are going to live. Your heart is absolutely sound."
A new glow suffused the patient's face as he heard it. Be asked in a tone of relief,
"Do you say so? If it comes from your lips it must be true............ . "
The doctor said, "Quite right. You are improving ever second. Sleep in peace. You must not exert yourself on any account. You must sleep very soundly.
I will see you in the morning." The patient looked at him gratefully for a moment and then closed his eyes. The doctor picked up his bag and went out, shutting the door softly behind him.
On his way home he stopped for a moment at his hospital, called out his assistant and said, "That Lawley Extension case. You might expect the collapse any second now. Go there with a tube of .....................................'in hand, and give it in case the struggle is too hard at the end. Hurry up.”
Next morning he was back at Lawley Extension at ten. From his car he made a dash for the sick bed. The patient was awake and looked very well. The assistant reported satisfactory pulse. The doctor put his tube to his heart, listened for a while and told the sick man's wife, "Don't look so unhappy, lady. Your husband will live to be a ninety.’’ When they were going back to the hospital, the assistant sitting beside him in the car asked, "Is he going to live, sir?"
"I will bet on it. He will live to be ninety. He has turned at corner. How he has survived this attack will be a puzzle to me all my life," replied the doctor.
A2. Web
Complete the web:
A3. Personal Response
What is your opinion about the doctor and his behaviour?
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?
Nicholas chorier is not your usual photographer. He is a kite aerial photographer. He uses a kite to hoist his camera into the skies and clicks photographs while the camera dangles precariously mid – air.
As a teenager, Nicholas had two passions – photography and kite flying. During’ a trip to India to make a photo report on kite making, he learnt about this unique style of photography. Fascinated, he literally tied his two hobbies together for a living.
Nicholas learnt to make a strong modelled on the Japanese kites, Rokkaku that could endure harsh winds. A novice in his chosen field, he then set out to train himself. Today he is one of the most well – known aerial photographers in the world.
The technique is to tie a cradle containing the photography equipment to the string of the kite and then fly it, thus launching the camera into air. From the ground, Nicholas manipulates the angles of the camera with a remote. An air – to – ground video link enables him to see the view from the kite’s vantage point. Once satisfied with the frame, he clicks a picture.
However, the job does have its pitfalls too. Once, his kite disappeared in the Yamuna river, with his expensive camera in tow.
He is especially fond of India, having made a couple of trips and taken many spectacular photos. “India is too vast and beautiful a country to be captured through the lenses in one life” he says.
He recently released a book, Kite’s Eye View: India between Earth and sky. Though it includes photographs of oft takes sites like the Taj Mahal, it shows them from a totally different perspective.
(1) What were Nicholas’s two passions?
(2) How does Nicholas take aerial photographs?
(3) What is ‘Rokkaku’?
(4)
(a) Pick out words from the passage which mean :
(i) To tolerate
(ii) Costly
(b) Nicholas has two passions. [Start the sentence with ‘Nicholas was …….using the adjective form of passion]
(a) India is too vast a country to be captured through the lenses. [Remove too ………. And rewrite] (b) Nicholas learnt to make strong kites. [Rewrite using past perfect tense]
(6) What risks do aerial photographers face?
It is rare to find someone with good technical and communication skills. You can get far ahead of your colleagues if you combine the two early in your career. People will judge, evaluate, promote or block you based on your communication skills. Since habits form by repeating both good and bad forms of communication, learn to observe great communicators and adopt their styles and traits — in written and verbal forms. The art of listening and learning from each and every interaction is another secret recipe. Develop the subconscious habit of listening to yourself as you speak and know when to pause.
Learning what not to say is probably more important than learning what to say. As your career develops, you will realize that the wise speak less. Speak when you have value to add, else refrain. Poorly constructed emails with grammatical errors are acceptable between friends, but they should be seriously avoided while communicating formally with your seniors. Avoid any communication in an emotional state when might say things you will regret later. One unnecessary word uttered at the wrong time or place can ruin a relationship, career or even your life. Such is the power of words. If such a thing happens, you should immediately apologise, else it may haunt you for life.
Another problem to overcome is speaking too fast. Since our minds are working faster than our speech, we are inclined to speak fast. This does not necessarily mean that the person hearing it will get it any faster. On the contrary, it is always the reverse. So slow down and think before you speak. “When I get ready to speak to people,” Abraham Lincoln said, “I spend two-thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one-thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one-third thinking what I want to say.” Adding humour and wit is also essential. But realize that not all jokes are funny and observe certain boundaries. Never say anything that could offend. Remember you are not a comedian who must offend as many people as you can to be witty.
2.1 Answer the following questions briefly:
(a) Why is it necessary to have good communication skills?
(b) How can communication skills be developed?
(c) What, according to the writer, should be avoided while communicating?
(d) Why should you be careful when you tend to be humorous?
2.2 Choose the most appropriate meanings of the given words from the options provided:
(a) evaluate (para 1)
(i) estimate
(ii) assume
(iii) punish
(iv) evolve
(b) trait (para 1)
(i) treaty
(ii) trail
(iii) quality
(iv) liberty
(c) utter (para 2)
(i) flatter
(ii) speak
(iii) rot
(iv) unique
(d) haunt (para 2)
(i) hunt
(ii) chant
(iii) trouble
(iv) avoid
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I even considered fleeing to my hometown, where I could have been a real lawyer right away, without going through this unpleasant training period
(a) Who is 'I'?
(b) How did 'I' suffer during the training period?
(c) What does the word, 'fleeing' mean?
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1. We sit in the last row, bumped about but free of stares. The bus rolls out of the dull crossroads of the city, and we are soon in open countryside, with fields of sunflowers as far as the eye can see, their heads all facing us. Where there is no water, the land reverts to desert. While still on level ground we see in the distance the tall range of the Mount Bogda, abrupt like a shining prism laid horizontally on the desert surface. It is over 5,000 metres high, and the peaks are under permanent snow, in powerful contrast to the flat desert all around. Heaven Lake lies part of the way up this range, about 2,000 metres above sea-level, at the foot of one of the higher snow-peaks.
2. As the bus climbs, the sky, brilliant before, grows overcast. I have brought nothing warm to wear: it is all down at the hotel in Urumqi. Rain begins to fall. The man behind me is eating overpoweringly smelly goat's cheese. The bus window leaks inhospitably but reveals a beautiful view. We have passed quickly from desert through arable land to pasture, and the ground is now green with grass, the slopes dark with pine. A few cattle drink at a clear stream flowing past moss-covered stones; it is a Constable landscape . The stream changes into a white torrent, and as we climb higher I wish more and more that I had brought with me something warmer than the pair of shorts that have served me so well in the desert .The stream (which, we are told rises in Heaven Lake) disappears, and we continue our slow ascent. About noon, we arrive at Heaven Lake, and look for a place to stay at the foot, which is the resort area. We get a room in a small cottage, and I am happy to note that there are thick quilts on the beds.
3. Standing outside the cottage we survey our surroundings. Heaven Lake is long, sardine-shaped and fed by snowmelt from a stream at its head. The lake is an intense blue, surrounded on all sides by green mountain walls, dotted with distant sheep. At the head of the lake, beyond the delta of the inflowing stream, is a massive snow-capped peak which dominates the vista; it is part of a series of peaks that culminate, a little out of view, in Mount Bogda itself.
5. "Swimming?" Mr. Cao says. "You aren't thinking of swimming, are you?"
6. "I thought I might," I confess. "What's the water like?"
7. He doesn't answer me immediately, turning instead to examine some receipts with exaggerated interest. Mr. Cao, with great off-handedness, addresses the air. "People are often drowned here," he says. After a pause, he continues. "When was the last one?" This question is directed at the cook, who is preparing a tray of mantou (squat white steamed bread rolls), and who now appears, wiping his doughy hand across his forehead. "Was it the Beijing athlete?" asks Mr. Cao.
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, complete the statements given below with the help of options that follow:
(a) One benefit of sitting in the last row of the bus was that:
(b) The narrator was travelling to:
(c) On reaching the destination the narrator felt relieved because:
(d) Mount Bogda is compared to:
Answer the following questions briefly:
(e) Which two things in the bus made the narrator feel uncomfortable?
(f) What made the scene look like a Constable landscape?
(g) What did he regret as the bus climbed higher?
(h) Why did the narrator like to buy food from outside?
(i) What is ironic about the pair of trousers lent by Mr. Cao?
(j) Why did Mr. Cao not like the narrator to swim in the lake?
(k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:
Read the passage given below:
People tend to amass possessions, sometimes without being aware of doing so. They can have a delightful surprise when they find something useful which they did not know they owned. Those who never have to change house become indiscriminate collectors of what can only be described as clutter. They leave unwanted objects in drawers, cupboards, and attics for years in the belief that they may one day need them. Old people also accumulate belongings for two other reasons, lack of physical and mental energy, and sentiment. Things owned for a long time are full of associations with the past, perhaps with the relatives who are dead, and so they gradually acquire a sentimental value.
Some things are collected deliberately in an attempt to avoid wastage. Among these are string and brown paper, kept by thrifty people when a parcel has been opened. Collecting small items can be mania. A lady cuts out from newspaper sketches of model clothes that she would like to buy if she had money. As she is not rich, the chances are that she will never be able to afford such purchases. It is a harmless habit, but it litters up her desk.
Collecting as a serious hobby is quite different and has many advantages. It provides relaxation for leisure hours, as just looking at one’s treasure is always a joy. One doesn’t have to go out for amusement as the collection is housed at home. Whatever it consists of - stamps, records, first editions of books, china – there is always something to do in connection with it, from finding the right place for the latest addition to verifying facts in reference books. This hobby educates one not only in the chosen subject but also in general matters which have some bearing on it.
There are other benefits also. One gets to meet like-minded collectors to get advice, compare notes, exchange articles, to show off one’s latest find. So one’s circle of friends grows. Soon the hobby leads to traveling, perhaps a meeting in another town, possibly a trip abroad in search of a rare specimen, for collectors are not confined to one country. Over the years one may well become an authority on one’s hobby and will probably be asked to give informal talks to little gatherings and then, if successful, to larger audiences.
(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 an appropriate title to it.
(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.
Read the passage given below carefully :
1. For four days, I walked through the narrow lanes of the old city, enjoying the romance of being in a city where history still lives - in its cobblestone streets and in its people riding asses, carrying vine leaves and palm as they once did during the time of Christ.
2. This is Jerusalem, home to the sacred sites of Christianity, Islam and Judaism. This is the place that houses the church of the Holy Sepulchre, the place where Jesus was finally laid to rest. This is also the site of Christ's crucifixion, burial and resurrection.
3. Built by the Roman Emperor Constantine at the site of an earlier temple to Aphrodite, it is the most venerated Christian shrine in the world. And justifiably so. Here, within the church, are the last five stations of the cross, the 10th station where Jesus was stripped of his clothes, the 11th where he was nailed to the cross, the 12th where he died on the cross, the 13th where the body was removed from the cross, and the 14th, his tomb.
4. For all this weighty tradition the approach and entrance to the church is non-descript. You have to ask for directions. Even to the devout Christian pilgrims walking along the Via Dolorosa - the Way of Sorrows - first nine stations look clueless. Then a courtyard appears, hemmed in by other buildings and a doorway to one side. This leads to a vast area of huge stone architecture.
5. Immediately inside the entrance is your first stop. It's the stone of anointing: this is the place, according to Greek tradition, where Christ was removed from the cross. The Roman Catholics, however, believe it to be the spot where Jesus' body was prepared for burial by Joseph.
6. What happened next ? Jesus was buried. He was taken to a place outside the city of Jerusalem where other graves existed and there, he was buried in a cave. However, all that is along gone, destroyed by continued attacks and rebuilding; what remains is the massive - and impressive - Rotunda (a round building with a dome) that Emperor Constantine built. Under this, and right in the centre of the Rotunda. is the structure that contains the Holy Sepulchre.
7. "How do you know that this is Jesus' tomb ?" I asked one of the pilgrims standing next to me. He was clueless, more interested, like the rest of them, in the novelty of it all and in photographing it, then in its history or tradition.
8. At the start of the first century, the place was a disused quarry outside the city walls. According to the gospels, Jesus' crucifixion occurred 'at a place outside the city walls with graves nearby.....'. Archaeologists have discovered tombs from that era, so the site is compatible with the biblical period.
9. The structure at the site is a marble tomb built over the original burial chamber. It has two rooms, and you enter four at a time into the first of these, the Chapel of the Angel. Here the angel is supposed to have sat on a stone to recount Christ's resurrection. A low door made of white marble, party worn away be pilgrims' hands, leads to a smaller chamber inside. This is the 'room of the tomb', the place where Jesus was buried.
10. We entered in single file. On my right was a large marble slab that covered the original rock bench on which the body of Jesus was laid. A woman knelt and prayed. Her eyes were wet with tears. She pressed her face against the slab to hide them, but it only made it worse.
On the basis of your understanding of this passage answer the following questions with the help of given options:
(a) How does Jerusalem still retain the charm of ancient era?
(i) There are narrow lanes.
(ii) Roads are paved with cobblestones.
(iii) People can be seen riding asses
(iv) All of the above
(b) Holy Sepulchre is sacred to _________.
(i) Christianity
(ii) Islam
(iii) Judaism
(iv) Both (i) and (iii)
(c) Why does one have to constantly ask for directions to the church?
(i) Its lanes are narrow.
(ii) Entrance to the church is non-descript.
(iii) People are not tourist-friendly.
(iv) Everyone is lost in enjoying the romance of the place.
(d) Where was Jesus buried?
(i) In a cave
(ii) At a place outside the city
(iii) In the Holy Sepulchre
(iv) Both (i) and (ii)
Answer the following questions briefly:
(e) What is the Greek belief about the 'stone of anointing'?
(f) Why did Emperor Constantine build the Rotunda?
(g) What is the general attitude of the pilgrims?
(h) How is the site compatible with the biblical period?
(i) Why did the pilgrims enter the room of the tomb in a single file?
(j) Why did 'a woman' try to hide her tears?
(k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as:
(i) A large grave (para 3)
(ii) Having no interesting features/dull (para 4)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given
below:
Prominent among the urges that inspire and drive a person in life, is the mge to be a somebody. It is quite human, especially in the early stages of life, to want to do something to win laurels and admiration of all around. There's a pitfall though - the very process of becoming a somebody may subtly reduce yon to a nobody.
American poet Emily Dickinson, who lived in obscurity, has an interesting poem on this theme. "I'm nobody!" she declares, with apparent pride.
"Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?"
Why should anybody be happy about being nobody?
The poem explains :
"How dreaiy to he somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
The word 'bog' is significant. When you become a somebody, you invite adulation :
this then begins to bog you down. The moment you think you have arrived, you begin to stagnate, or, worse, your downslide begins. An endless list of writers, artists, sportsmen, politicians ..... fit this pattern of personal history.
To sustain your development in absolute terms, to become a true somebody, it is important to remain a temporal nobody. Even if destiny makes you a temporal somebody,
you should be able to see yourself as merely an agent of a superior power; no more. This requires an exercise of will. You have to constantly watch out and talk to yourself morning and evening.
(1) What is the main idea of the extract? (1)
(2) Why is it important for one to remain a temporal nobody? How? (1)
(3) What does Emily Dickinson declare with pride? Why? (2)
(4) What would you like to be in your life - Somebody or nobody? Why? (2)
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed
(i) This requires an exercise of will.
(Rewrite it using the Simple Future tense.) (1)
(ii) You have to constantly watch out and talk to yourself.
(Rewrite it using another modal auxiliary showing 'compulsion'.) (1)
(iii) You begin to stagnate.
(Rewrite it using the noun form of the word underlined.) (1)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean -
(i) danger (1/2)
(ii) praise (1/2)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
That day Reuben fold two sacks, which he took to the rambling wooden factory and sold to the man in charge of packing nails. The boy's hand tightly clutched the small five-cent pieces as he ran two kilometres home.
Near his house stood the ancient barn that housed the family's goats and chickens. Reuben found a rusty baking- soda tin and dropped his coins inside. Then he climbed into the loft of the barn and hid the can beneath a pile of sweet-smelling hay.
It was supper time when Reuben got home. His father sat at the big kitchen table, working on a fishing net. Dora was at the black kitchen range, ready to serve dinner as Reuben took his place at the table.
He looked at his mother and smiled. Sunlight from the window gilded her, shoulder-length blond hair. Five foot three, slim and beautiful, she was the centre of the home, the glue that held it together.
Her chores were never-ending. Sewing clothes for her family on the old Singer treadle machine, cooking meals and baking bread, planting a vegetable garden. milking the goats and scrubbing soiled clothes on a washboru·d. But she was happy. Her family and their wellbeing were her highest priority.
Every day after chores and school, Reuben scoured the town, collecting the burlap nail bags. On the day the two-room schoolhouse closed for the summer, no student was more delighted than Reuben. Now he would have more time to devote to his mission.
(1) What is the main theme of the extract? (1)
(2) Where did Reuben keep his savings? Why? (2)
(3) Describe Reuben's mother and her daily chores. (2)
(4) What would you like to present to your mother on Mother's Day? Why? (2)
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) He looked at his mother and smiled.
(Rewrite it as a Simple Sentence.) (1)
(ii) Her family and their well-being were her highest priority.
(Rewrite it in the Positive Degree.) (1)
(iii) She was the centre of the home. (1)
(Make it a Rhetorical Question)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean -
(i) dried grass (1/2)
(ii) routine tasks (1/2)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
We commemorate so many special days such as Republic Day, Independence Day, Mother's Day and so on. Well, here is one day that deserves not only a commemoration but our total dedication - Earth Day, 22 April. At Sanctuary, we live our lives like every day is Earth Day, but we all believe that it would be, fantastic to remind our relatives, friends, neighbours, teachers, and elders on this day that protecting Mother Earth can end up making us both happy and safe.
Will you do something this Earth Day? Here's a handy list of things you can do-
(1) Cut Consumption: Consume as little as possible on Earth Day. This 'is a day·when you ca!l Refuse (to buy new things), Repair and Reuse (old stuff), Recycle (what you cannot reuse), Reject (stuff that is toxic or dangerous to the environment) and Renew (your purpose and resolve to protect the planet).
(2) Cut Energy: (a) Ditch the old incandescent bulbs and shift to CFLs or LEDs (Google both to find out more). (b) Walk or use public transport, try not to use private cars to save fuel. Carpool. Cut down on trips. Use Skype· instead of traveling for meetings. (c) Switch off unnecessary gadgets. (don't just use the remote .... walk to the mains!).
(3) Cut Waste: Start a waste segregation system in your building, school or neighbourhood. Compost organic waste, sell what you can to the raddi-wallah and give him a small token of.. appreciation also for he is protecting your world. Collect unused papers from old notebooks and make new ones from them.
(4) Cut out plastic: Speak to at least five shopkeepers in your area and tell them you and your friends will only use their shops if they move away from wasteful plastic packaging, particularly thin plastic bags.
(1) What do you understand from this extract?
(2) What steps can we take to keep our environment clean?
(3) Why should we commemorate Earth Day?
(4) What is your opinion regarding shifting to CFLs or LEDs?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) Earth Day deserves a commemoration and our total dedication.
(Use 'not only - but also'.)
(ii) Start a Waste Segregation System in your building.
(Rewrite it beginning with 'Let'.)
(iii) You can sell waste to the raddi-wallah and give him a
small token of appreciation.
(Replace the modal auxiliary by another showing 'obligation'.)
(6) What do the following words in the extract mean?
(i) resolve
(ii) toxic
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Questions :
(2) What sort of patients did the doctor have?
(3) What were the reasons for the doctor's indigestion?
(4) “A doctor should have a pleasing personality and good manners.” Do you agree? Explain.
(ii) unsewn
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:
Read the following extract carefully. (4)
We were an argrarian people. And my main hobby in my early teens was to wander through paddy field to see the different kinds of birds and how they nest. On the outskirts of the paddy fields, there had been many coconut trees and black palm trees. Beautifully crafted nests of the weaver-birds thookkanaam kuruvikal-would be seen dangling from the ends of palm leaves. Hundreds of these little birds would land on the paddy to squeeze the milk from the tender rice. They would come to the fields when the young stalks come out of the rise-plants. At this stage of the paddy, my father would send me to our field with a tin drum to scare these birds away. But often I have enjoyed the sight of these little birds balancing on the tender stalks and squeezing the milk out of the green rice. When the paddy is ripe enough to harvest, flocks of parrots would land there and cut the ripe stalks with their sharp beaks and fly away with the stalks dangling in their beaks. I have always liked to see this sight also.
The nest of parrots were neatly crafted holes in the trunks of palm trees. I continued to wonder how they made chose holes on the hard trunks until I saw the patient work of the woodpeckers. They were the carpenters and their long, sharp and strong beaks, chisels. They make the holes (in search of worms inside the weak spots of the trunks) and the parrots occupy them. If I heard the sound tak, tak, tak. I knew it was a woodpeckers chiselling a had trunk. I would go after him. It seems that the woodpecker is the only bird which can walk perpendicularly on the tree trunks! How beautiful the sight was! Its strong legs, red crest, the dark red stripe on the face and black beak and the tak, tak, tak sound used to captivate me
A1. Complete the following table :Choose two sentence that appropriately mention the theme of the passage :
(i) The extract deals with the techniques to scare the birds away.
(ii) The extract depicts how parrots make holes on the tree trunks.
(iii) The extract depicts the writer’s love towards the birds.
(iv) The extract deals with the activities of different birds.
A2. Complete the flow-chart :
A3. Complete the following table :
A4. Vocabulary -
Match the pairs of the words in column ‘A’ with their meaning in column ‘B’ :
| Column ‘A’ | Column ‘B’ |
| (i) dangling | (a) connected with farming |
| (ii) squeezing | (b) attract the attention |
| (iii) agrarian | (c) hanging freely |
| (iv) captivate | (d) pressing firmly |
A5. Personal response -
Suggest two measures to increase the number of birds.
A6. Grammer -
Rewrite the following sentences in the way instructed
(i) The paddy is ripe enough to harvest
(Remove ‘enough’ and rewrite the sentence.)
(ii) How beautiful the sight was!
(Rewritte as an assertive sentence)
Read the following extract and complete the note given below :
The small village of Somnathpur contains an extraordinary temple, built around 1268 A.D by the Hoyasalas of Karnataka - one of the most prolific temple builders. Belur and Helebid are among their better-known works. While these suffered during the invasion of the 14th century, the Somnathpur temple stands more or less intact in near-original condition. The small temple captivates with the beauty and vitality of its detailed sculpture, covering almost every inch of the walls, pillars and even ceilings. It has three Shikhars and stands on a star-shaped raised platform with 24 edges. The outer walls have a profusion of detailed carvings: the entire surface run over by carved plaques of stone: There were vertical panels covered by exquisite figures of God and Goddesses, with many incarnations being depicted. There were nymphs too some carrying an ear of maize, a symbol of plenty and prosperity. The elaborate ornamentation, very characteristic of Hoyasala sculptures was a remarkable feature. On closer look and it is worth it-the series of friezes on the outer walls revealed intricately carved caparisored elephants, charging horsemen, stylized flowers and warriors.
Somnathpur Temple
(1) Location : ___________
(2) Year : 1268 A.D.
(3) Built by : ___________
(4) Captivates with : ___________
(5) Structural features :
(i) Three Shikhars
(ii) Star-shaped platform with 24 edges
(iii) Outer wall carvings, ___________
charging horsemen, __________ and warriors.
(iv) Nymphs-symbol of ___________
Read the extract and do the activities that follow:
“And that skeleton,” I asked. “ What about the skeleton in the cupboard? Did you know about it?”
“Yes, I knew about it. But I have no idea whose skeleton it was. You see, back in the twenties, when Green took over this hotel, he had one of his sudden enthusiasms and was convinced this town needed a medical school or college, and he set about preparing the ground for one. He was ready to finance the project, or part of it. And of course medical students need a skeleton. So he acquired one from the Lady Hardinge Medical College in New Delhi. It was a medical school skeleton you found. And if you’d looked closely you'd have noticed that it was varnished.”
“Why was it varnished?” I asked.
“To help preseve it, of course. It was also articulated”
“Articulated?”
“That means the joints were connected up, so that the whole thing wouldn't fall apart. Want to be a doctor, young man?”
“No,” I said. “A detective.”
“Well, you didn't solve this case”.
“I wasn't here. And now we'll never be able to identify the skeleton.”
“Some poor woman of the streets, no doubt. Unclaimed, unwanted. But in the end you gave her a decent burial-even if she wan't a Cristian. Padre Duett is a bit embarrassed, but I've told him I don’t mind my name on the tombstone. I’ll be returning to Africa shortly, and when I die I shall have another tombstone there. Not everyone is lucky enough to have two tombstones! “
B1. True/False - (2)
State whether the following statements are true or false:
(i) The narrator wanted to be a doctor.
(ii) Mrs. Green counted herself lucky to have two tombstones.
(iii) The skeleton was varnished to preserve it for a longer time.
(iv) Mrs. Green was embarrased to see her name on the tombstone.
B2. Provide a different ending: (2)
Provide a different ending to 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:
Another relative has no plans of joining this league though.
She is rather μnabashed about waking up past noon on a daily basis. To be fair, her husband is a media personality who typically arrives home from work past midnight. That does indeed give them sufficient justification to stay longer in slumber-land each morning. This practice does lead to certain oddities though. He goes for his 'morning' walk at 1 pm, heatwaves and appalled onlookers notwithstanding. They once returned from a night out only to meet the neighbour's son who was off on an early morning jog!
Early risers clearly have the edge in life. By the time most
of us wake up, they've been through their morning rituals, enjoyed their walk, had their tea and read the daily news. They're also likely to have made long-distance calls before dawn to those similarly inclined. Thus, by the time the sun warms up they're likely to have discussed all varieties of 'men, matters, and affairs' with a dozen people.
The upshot of these varying tendencies is that such extreme
contrasts often exist in the same household. Weeks pass before
the younger lot (typically late risers) and the older lot (normally early birds) come face to face. It's almost as if they live in different time zones and different countries.
Questions:
(1) What information does the extract give about the typical
routine of a media person?
(2) According to the writer, who are the early risers and the late risers?
(3) Why does the writer say that early risers clearly have the edge in life?
(4) Do you rise early or late? Why?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
- They live in different time zones and different countries.
(Rewrite the sentence using 'not only- but also'.) - That gives them sufficient justification.
(Rewrite the sentence using the Present Perfect tense.) - She is rather unabashed about waking up past noon on a daily basis.
(Rewrite the sentence using 'infinitive' form of
the underlined word.)
(6) Find out from the extract the words which mean:
(i) frightened
(ii) sleep
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.
Then all the windows of the grey wooden house (Miss Hilton used to live here. She expired last week.), were thrown open, a thing I had never seen before.
At the end of the day a sign was nailed on the mango tree: FOR SALE.
Nobody in the street knew Miss Hilton. While she lived, her front gate was always locked and no one ever saw her leave or saw anybody go in. So even if you wanted to, you couldn't feel sorry and say that you missed Miss Hilton.
When I think of her house I see just two colours. Grey and green. The green of the mango tree, the grey of the house, and the grey of the high iron fence that prevented you from getting at the mangoes.
If your cricket ball fell in Miss Hilton's courtyard you never got it back. It wasn't the mango season when Miss Hilton died. But we got back about ten or twelve of our cricket balls.
The house was sold and we were prepared to dislike the new owners ever before they came. I think we were a little worried. Already we had one resident of the street who kept on complaining about us to our parents. He complained that we played cricket on the pavment; and if we were not playing cricket he complained that we were making too much noise anyway.
One afternoon, when I came back from school Pal, said, "Is a man and a woman. She pretty pretty, but he ugly like hell". I didn't see much. The front gate was open, but the windows were shut again. I heard a dog barking in an angry way.
One thing was settled pretty quickly. Whoever these people were they would never be the sort of people to complain that we were making noise and disturbing their sleep.
A lot of noise came from the house that night. The radio was going at full volume until midnight when the radio station closed down. The dog was barking and the man was shouting. I didn't hear the woman.
On the basis of your understanding the above passage complete the following statements :
(a) Nobody went into Miss Hilton's house because her front __________.
(b) Her house had only two colours, (i) __________ and (ii) __________.
(c) High iron fence did not let the boys get __________.
(d) They never got it back if their __________ fell into her courtyard.
(e) The boys were ready to dislike the __________.
(f) One resident of the street always __________.
(g) New owners of Miss Hilton's house were (i) __________ and (ii) __________.
(h) A man was shouting, a dog was barking, only __________.
A. Read the following passage and do the given activities:
A1. List the benefits of Yoga (02)
- ______
- ______
- ______
- ______
We give undue importance to our health and the treatment of diseases. A large number of medicines treat only the symptoms of the disease, and not the root cause. In fact, the cause of many chronic ailments is still being researched. It is here that Yoga therapy comes to our assistance. Yoga emphasizes the treatment of the root cause of an ailment. It works in a slow, subtle and miraculous manner. Modern medicine can claim to save a life at a critical stage, but, for complete recovery and regaining of normal health, one must believe in the efficiency of Yoga therapy.
The Yogic way of life includes a code of ethics, regulations, discipline, combined with prayer and meditation. Even a discussion of these subjects helps one relieve mental tensions and change attitudes. Simple Asana has helped to stretch and relax the whole body and release tensions. The sincere practice of Yoga postures is beneficial, for the mind and body.
The continued practice of Yoga has a profound effect on the inner dimensions of life. Yoga aims at developing mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional facilities. Other forms of physical exercises, like aerobics, assure only physical well-being. They have little to do with the development of the soul and mind.
A2. Complete the following statement according to the passage: (02)
- One must believe in the ________
- Aerobics assure only __________
A3. Fill up the word-formation chart: (02)
| Noun | Verb | Adjective |
| development | ______ | ______ |
| ______ | believe | ______ |
A4.
- Yoga emphasizes the treatment of the root cause of an ailment.
(Frame ‘Wh-‘ Question to get the underlined part as an answer) (02) - We give undue importance to our health.
(Begin with Undue importance......) (02)
A5. Do you believe Yoga Asanas are better than physical exercises? Justify your answer.
B. Summary Writing (5)
Write a short summary of the passage given in above and suggest a suitable title.
Read the extract and complete the activities given below :
Luxurious houses on the edge of a big city which one promoter sold with the tagline ‘‘Where Nature peeps through every window.’’ All the advantages of a modern lifestyle but with the added bonus of fresh air. But nature isn’t greenery alone; it also includes wild animals.
While the view from the picture windows was easy on the eye, occasionally, it made them gulp with nervousness. At dusk, wild cats leaped out of the adjoining forest on to the top of the peripheral walls and strolled nonchalantly. Sometimes, they lounged on ledges with their long tails swinging freely, oblivious of the many worried human eyes pinned on them. Their cold yellow aggressive eyes turned black as their pupils dilated with failing light.
Some Mumbaikars paid a lot of money to see leopards on safari in Africa. But to watch them from one’s own home was disconcerting. These predators were out of line, stepping off nature into the city. Why did the leopards not stay within the 100-square kilometre Sanjay Gandhi National Park? Perhaps, the leopards thought that if people could venture into nature to jog, walk and picnic, why couldn’t they hang around apartment blocks? If people could enjoy nature, couldn’t nature savour humanity’s offerings?
Capturing leopards is extraordinarily simple. These curious cats seem incapable of resisting a free meal, walking into baited traps without hesitation. The reason the felines are attracted to their residential community is prey : stray dogs that live on rubbish heaps. Taking care of the food source is the best course of action, the volunteers said.
A1. Rewrite the following sentences as per their occurrence in the extract :
- Instead of capturing leopards we can take care of their food.
- Leopards leave their habitat and enter the human habitat.
- Modern lifestyle and nature both attract the dwellers.
- Leopards can enjoy human surroundings by leaving nature.
A2. Complete the following sentences :
- Nature is a combination of ______ and ______
- The best of both the worlds include ______ and ______
- The wild animals are out of line as ______
- The wild cats are attracted towards residential areas because ______
A3. Find out the words for leopards used in the extract :
- ____________
- ____________
- ____________
- ____________
A4. ‘‘If people could venture into nature to jog, walk, and picnic, why couldn’t the wild animals hang around apartment blocks?’’ Express your opinion.
A5. Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
- Taking care of the food source is the best course of action.
(Use infinitive form of the underlined word and rewrite.) -
Nature isn’t greenery alone; it also includes wild animals.
(Rewrite it by using ‘not only ... but also’.)
A6. Find a word for each of the following expressions from the extract :
- Enjoy the taste of something
- Embarrassing and confusing to watch
- Not conscious or aware of something or someone
- Relaxed and in an unworried manner
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
| 1. | A fisherman, enfeebled with age, could no longer go out to sea so he began fishing in the river. Every morning he would go down to the river and sit there fishing the whole day long. In the evening he would sell whatever he had caught, buy food for himself and go home. It was a hard life for an old man. One hot afternoon while he was trying to keep awake and bemoaning his fate, a large bird with silvery feathers alighted on a rock near him. It was Kaha, the heavenly bird. “Have you no one to care for you, grandpa?” asked the bird. “Not a soul.” “You should not be doing such work at your age,” said the bird. “From now on I will bring you a big fish every evening. You can sell it and live in comfort.” True to her word, the bird began to drop a large fish at his doorstep every evening. All that the fisherman had to do was take it to the market and sell it. As big fish were in great demand, he was soon rolling in money. He bought a cottage near the sea, with a garden around it and engaged a servant to cook for him. His wife had died some years earlier. He had decided to marry again and began to look for a suitable woman. |
| 2. | One day he heard the royal courtier make an announcement. Our king has news of a great bird called Kaha,” said the courtier. “Whoever can give information about this bird and help catch it, will be rewarded with half the gold in the royal treasury and half the kingdom!” The fisherman was sorely tempted by the reward. Half the kingdom would make him a prince! |
| 3. | “Why does the king want the bird,” he asked. “He has lost his sight,” explained the courtier. “A wise man has advised him to bathe his eyes with the blood of Kaha. Do you know where she can be found?” “No…I mean …no, no…” Torn between greed and his sense of gratitude to the bird, the fisherman could not give a coherent reply. The courtier, sensing that he knew something about the bird, informed the king. The king had him brought to the palace. |
| 4. | “If you have information about the bird, tell me”, urged the king. “I will reward you handsomely and if you help catch her, I will personally crown you king of half my domain.” “I will get the bird for you,” cried the fisherman, suddenly making up his mind. “But Kaha is strong. I will need help. The king sent a dozen soldiers with him. That evening when the bird came with the fish, the fisherman called out to her to wait. “You drop the fish and go and I never get a chance to thank you for all that you‘ve done for me," he said. “Today I have laid out a feast for you inside. Please alight and come in. Kaha was reluctant to accept the invitation but the fisherman pleaded so earnestly that she finally gave in, and alighted. The moment she was on the ground, the fisherman grabbed one of her legs and shouted to the soldiers hiding in his house to come out. They rushed to his aid but their combined effort could not keep Kaha down. |
| 5. | She rose into the air with the fisherman still clinging to her leg. By the time he realised he was being carried away, the fisherman was too high in the air to let go. He hung on grimly, and neither he nor Kaha was ever seen again. |
Based on your understanding of the above passage, answer the questions.
- Why did the fisherman start fishing in the river?
- How did the fisherman spend the day before he met Kaha?
- How did the fisherman betray Kaha?
- Why was the fisherman doubtful about revealing information about Kaha to the courtier?
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 passage given below.
| 5 | Changing food preferences have brought about rapid changes in the structure of the Indian diet. The rapid proliferation of multinational fast food companies and the influence of Western culture have replaced traditional home-cooked meals with ready-to-eat, processed foods thus increasing the risk of chronic diseases in urban Indians. Therefore, nurturing healthy eating habits among Indians from an early age would help to reduce health risks. |
| 10 | To date, little is known about the quality and quantity of foods and beverages consumed by urban Indian adolescents. This lack of evidence is a significant barrier to the development of effective nutrition promotion and disease prevention measures. |
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15
20
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Therefore, a self-administered, semi-quantitative, 59-item meal-based food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was developed to assess the dietary intake of adolescents. A total of 1026 students (aged 14-16 years) attending private, English-speaking schools in Kolkata completed the survey. A sample percentage of the food consumption pattern is displayed.
The survey results report poor food consumption patterns and highlight the need to design healthy eating initiatives. Interestingly, while there were no gender differences in the consumption of legumes and fried snacks, the survey found more females consumed cereals, vegetables and fruits than their male counterparts. |
| 25 | In conclusion, the report suggested that schools ought to incorporate food literacy concepts into their curriculum as they have the potential of increasing the fruit and vegetable intake of teenagers. Additionally, healthy school canteen policies with improved availability, accessibility, variety and affordability of healthy food choices would support the consumption of nutritious food in students. |
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.
- What does the researcher mean by ‘changing food preferences'?
- Why was this survey on the food consumption of adolescents undertaken?
- With reference to the above figure, write one conclusion about students' consumption of energy-dense drinks.
- What can be concluded from the ‘no intake’ data of fruit consumption versus energy-dense snacks, with reference to the above figure?
- There were gender differences observed in the consumption of healthy foods, according to the survey. Substantiate.
- Why is ‘affordability’ recommended as a significant feature of a school canteen policy?
- Identify a word from lines 9-18 indicating that the questionnaire was specifically designed to be completed by a respondent without the intervention of the researcher collecting the data.
Read the following passage and complete the activities:
A1. Complete the chart on the life stages of fireflies: (2)
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Fireflies are beetles and go through several life stages, starting out as an egg, then hatching into larvae. At the juvenile stage, they turn into pupae and then, finally adults. Fireflies spend most of their lives in a larval stage, hidden away. There are 2000 different species of fireflies. But they all go through a long juvenile stage and a short adult life, which is mainly about courtship, mating and reproduction. The juveniles living underground or underwater, are very different though-they're hunters, they eat snails and soft-bodied insects and they have very different habitats. Conserving them is essential for human life as fireflies are a key part of the food web. They are predators of agricultural pests. In turn, they are prey for spiders and other insects. They are completely enmeshed in the web of life. In addition, about 70 years ago, scientists unravelled the mystery of fireflies' light-producing talents. Since then, the bio-chemical reactions that fireflies experience have been used in detecting bacterial contamination in foods, testing drugs against cancer, developing drought-resistant crops. They have been used in space exploration. So fireflies give us beauty and inventions. Fireflies carry oxygen, calcium, magnesium and a natural chemical called luciferin. These react together to produce the photons. This is how the fireflies glow. Firefly tourism is growing across the world. In Maharashtra, for example, a particular species monsoon fireflies, emerge before the rains. They're beautiful and a festival is held in Purushwadi, encouraging firefly tourism. Its wonderful that people around the world go to see fireflies in their natural habitat. We need to be cautious. Too many people can disturb adult and larval habitats. Fireflies need darkness to communicate with each other and we need fireflies because they are harbingers of hope. |
A2. Write two reasons for the conservation of fireflies. (2)
A3. Make antonyms of the following words using prefix: (2)
- different × ______
- experience × ______
- bacterial × ______
- natural × ______
A4. Do as directed: (2)
(i) Too many people can disturb adult and larval habitat.
(Rewrite using 'as well as')
(ii) These react together to produce photons.
(Pick out the infinitive from the given sentence)
A5. Can you think of any other insect that teaches us some values of life? Explain with examples. (2)
Read the following passage and do the activities.
A1. Choose the correct option. (2)
- Thousands of birds were killed due to oil spills because ______.
- It suffocated them
- It was poisonous
- Birds couldn't enter the sea
- There was no fish to feed on
- The primary components of crude oil are ______.
- Methane and ethane
- Carbon and hydrogen
- Sulphur compounds
- Naphthalene
| During the Gulf War, a few years back, tens of thousands of sea birds were killed due to oil spills. Do you know what makes crude oil on ocean water so deadly? Crude oil is not used in the state it is produced at the off-shore wells. It is converted in refineries into a wide range of products such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel, fuel oils, and petrochemical feed-stocks. Before it is refined, the oil also contains potentially fatal components. Crude oil is made up of compounds of carbon and hydrogen called hydrocarbons. These hydrocarbons may be paraffin, the oil that is used as fuel in heaters and lamps or cycloparaffins (naphthenes) or aromatic compounds in varying proportions. While crudes found in the US are mostly paraffinic, these found along the Gulf Coast are naphthenic which contain sulphur compounds in varying amounts, a small amount of nitrogen and very little oxygen. Every variety of crude oil has nickel and vanadium in high concentration. Iron may be found in organic form due to the corrosion of pipes. Paraffins like methane and ethane are asphyxiants, substances that cause suffocation. The effects of cycloparaffins are more or less similar to those of paraffins but unsaturated paraffins are more noxious, than saturated ones. The sulphur present in crude oil may be toxic. The mechanism of toxic action seems to involve its breakdown to hydrogen sulphide. They will act principally on the .nervous system with death resulting mainly from respiratory paralysis. Sulphur in the form of aromatic thiophenes, benzothiophenes can damage the livers and kidneys of sea animals. Sulphur compounds like mercaptens can be very dangerous too. |
A2. Crude oil may be toxic and fatal. Justify. (2)
A3. Rewrite the sentences using one word from the passage for the underlined phrase/word. (2)
- Over consumption of alcohol may lead to death.
- The flowers displayed at the exhibition differ in properties.
A4. Identify and change the voice of the following sentence. (1)
Tens of thousands of sea birds were killed due to oil spills.
A5. With reference from the passage what can you do to control air pollution? (3)
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
II. Read the passage given below.
| 1 | The North-East of India is a melting pot of variegated cultural mosaic of people and races, an ethnic tapestry of many hues and shades. Yet, these states are lesser explored as compared to the rest of the country. The new generations of travellers who are ‘money rich and time poor’ are increasingly looking for unique experiences --a phenomenon being called the emergence of the ‘experience economy’. For this new and growing breed of tourists, the North-East with its variety and uniqueness holds immense attraction. |
| 2 | A study conducted in 2020 by Dr. Sherap Bhutia, revealed that the foreign tourist arrival in the North-East increased from 37,380 persons in 2005 to 118,552 in 2014. The overall growth rate of tourists (both domestic and foreign) in the North-East was as high as 26.44% during 2005-06. High and positive growth of 12.53% was registered in foreign tourist visits to North-East States of India during 2012 from 2011, which further rose to register a growth of 27.93% during 2013 from 2012. Foreign tourist arrivals in the North-East witnessed a growth of 39.77% during 2014 from 2013, according to data provided from the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. |
| 3 | The study recommendations for tourism planners included the need to concentrate on some key areas like enhancement of tourist facilities, tourism financing, focus on community involvement and others for the formulation of a sustainable tourism strategy in the North-East States of India. |
i. Infer one reason for the following, based on information in paragraph 1. (1)
The rate of tourism in the North-East of India puzzles tourism officials.
ii. Select the appropriate option to fill in the blanks. (1)
From paragraph 1, we can infer that the ______ and ______ of the North-Eastern states aid attracting the ‘money rich and time poor’ tourists.
1. distinctiveness
2. conventionality
3. diversity
4. uniformity
5. modernity
- 1 & 3
- 2 & 4
- 2 & 5
- 1 & 4
iii. Complete the following analogy correctly with a word/ phrase from paragraph 1: (1)
aroma : cooking : : ______ : painting
(Clue: Just like aroma is integral to cooking, similarly, ______ is/ are integral to painting)
iv. Select the correct option to complete the following sentence: (1)
Travellers advocating the ‘experience economy’ seek a holiday package with ______ (Paragraph 1)
- grand facilities, expensive hotels and excellent services to pamper them.
- a wholesome experience within the budget they have planned for.
- places and cities to buy things from and opportunities to spend money.
- cost-effective services, affordable accommodation and many days of touring.
v. Select the chart that appropriately represents the trend of foreign tourist travels in the North-East, from 2011-2014, as per paragraph 2. (1)
 |
 |
 |
 |
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4) |
- Option 1
- Option 2
- Option 3
- Option 4
vi. Fill in the blank by selecting the correct option. (1)
The study of tourist travel statistics in the North-East, from 2005 to 2014 showed ______ results.
- expected
- encouraging
- inconsistent
- questionable
vii. Substitute the word ‘witnessed’ with one word similar in meaning, in the following, sentence from paragraph 2: (1)
Foreign tourist arrivals in the North-East witnessed a growth of...
viii. List any 2 examples of ‘tourist facilities’ as referred to, in Paragraph 3. (1)
ix. List one reason why the researchers recommend that the formulation of a tourism strategy in the North-Eastern States of India be sustainable. (1)
x. Select the option that titles paragraphs 1-3 appropriately, with reference to information in the text. (1)
- 1. Full Speed Ahead!
2. Ups and Downs
3. Cause for Concern - 1. Winds of Change
2. Numbers Don't Lie
3. Time for Action - 1. Inspecting Trends
2. Statistically Speaking
3. Let's Investigate - 1. Cause and Effect
2. Dynamic Data
3. Dependable Facts
Based on the careful reading of the passage given below, answer any four out of five questions that follow:
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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 passage given below.
| 1 | Ghost nets aren’t supernatural, but they are legitimately scary. A ghost net is a fishing net that’s been lost or abandoned in the ocean. They are one particularly appalling part of the global ghost fishing problem, which includes fishing gear abandoned in the water. Any net or line left in the ocean can pose a threat to marine life. Just because a net is no longer used by fishers doesn’t mean it stops working. These nets continue to trap everything in their path, presenting a major problem for the health of our oceans and marine life. |
| 2 | Ghost nets entangle sea turtles, dolphins and porpoises, birds, sharks, seals and more, apart from catching fish. The nets keep animals from moving freely, cause injuries and keep mammals and birds from rising to the surface for air. Since hundreds of animals can be caught in a single net, this threat is monumental. The ghost nets harm coral reefs too — breaking corals, exposing them to disease and even blocking the reefs from needed sunlight. |
| 3 | Ghost nets are also a major contributor to the ocean plastics crisis. Most modern nets are made of nylon or other plastic compounds that can last for centuries. According to a 2018 study in Scientific Reports, ghost nets make up at least 46 percent of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Those abandoned fishing lines and nets that do breakdown never go away; they just become smaller pieces of plastic. Marine animals mistake this microplastic for food and eat it, which can harm internal organs, keep them from eating and expose them to toxic chemicals. |
| 4 | Exorcising ghost nets from our oceans will require commitment, cooperation and innovation. Many groups are working to remove ghost nets from the sea and are collaborating with local fishers and governments around the world to identify target areas and remove as many nets as possible. In 2015, a single World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)-led mission in the Baltic Sea hauled up 268 tons of nets, ropes and other material. |
| 5 | To stop these nets from becoming ghosts in the first place, conservation organisations advocate for fishing gear that can be traced to its owner so anyone dumping nets can be fined and refundable deposits on nets to encourage returning or recycling rather than littering. Tools like sonar reflectors that can make ghost nets easier to find and working with small-scale fisheries to develop more sustainable fishing gear and practices are other suggestions. It is only by attacking this problem from all sides, together with conservation partners, fishers and supporters, can we banish ghost nets and protect our oceans. |
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.
(i) Complete the sentence by choosing an appropriate option. (1)
Ghost nets have been named so because they ______
- cause much harm to the marine life.
- are functional though not in use by fishers.
- are not owned by anyone.
- act as a snare for all animals in oceans.
(ii) Comment on the writer’s reference to the ghost nets in paragraph one, as a health problem for the oceans. (1)
(iii) List the two ways being entangled in a ghost net is likely to impact a walrus. (1)
(Clue: Think about the type of animal a walrus is)
(iv) Select the option that conveys the opposite of ‘negligible’, from words used in paragraph two. (1)
- unimpressive
- monumental
- exposing
- threat
(v) The writer would agree with the given statements based on paragraph three, EXCEPT: (1)
- Most ghost nets take a few years to completely disintegrate.
- Ghost nets contribute to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
- Most ghost nets provide nutrition to marine animals, upon disintegration.
- Ghost nets can curtail freedom of marine animals.
(vi) Some records share that fishing nets used to be made of common rope using natural fibres, prior to the 1960s. Based on your understanding of paragraph three, list one major advantage that these had over the fishing nets being used in present times. (1)
(vii) Why is it fair to say that commitment and innovation have to go hand-in-hand to rid the oceans of ghost nets? (1)
(viii) Complete the given sentence with an appropriate inference, with respect to the following: (1)
The writer quotes the example of the WWF-led mission in the Baltic Sea (Paragraph 4), in order to ______.
(ix) How can the solutions, suggested in paragraph five, best be described? (1)
- practical
- presentable
- popular
- prejudiced
(x) Select the most suitable title for the above passage. (1)
- The Scary Side of Ghost Nets
- Ghost Nets – A Result of Human Dominance
- Ghost Nets – A Menace to Marine Life
- Ways to Tackle the Problem of Ghost Nets
Read the passage given below.
| 1 | It is generally accepted that leadership development should be a part of the education system's responsibility for preparing individuals to participate in a democratic and progressive society. Many schools, colleges and universities, across nations, provide their students with leadership courses, curricular programs and co-curricular programs that are designed to develop students’ formal knowledge about leadership as well as opportunities and experiences to develop students as leaders and actually practise leadership. Yet, only a handful of studies have sought to understand leader development from the students’ point of view, with students describing their own experiences and what they learned from them in their own words. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 |
A 2014 descriptive study sought to understand student leadership with research through key events via the following research questions:
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| 3 | This study described the rich array of leadership lessons that students are learning through their experiences. It revealed that student leaders are learning foundational leadership skills and competencies that have positively impacted how to accomplish work, how to work with others and how to be both supported by and support others. |
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.
(i) Does the following statement agree with the information given in paragraph 1? (1)
The researcher believes that educational institutions have ideal resources to study impact of leadership skills on young adults.
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
(ii) Do you think the researchers of the study aimed to change the students’ outlook towards the development of leadership skills, directly or indirectly? Support your answer with reference to the text. (1)
(iii) Select the option that displays the most likely reason for including Research Question 3 in the 2014 study. (1)
In order to find out if...
- learning opportunities shape students’ overall personality.
- leadership lessons are the result of the designed learning opportunities.
- all learning opportunities cater to a specific lesson.
- certain lessons are common in more than one learning opportunity.
(iv) Complete the sentence based on the following statement. (1)
More than 50% of the identified student respondents were keen to participate in the 2014 study.
We can say this because ______.
(v) Select the option that displays the key event designed with “Balancing Roles” (Table 1) as the objective. (1)
- Students will be able to debate the issue at hand, with different teams.
- Students will be able to manage the responsibilities of a mentor, planner researcher and presenter.
- Students will be able to surmount minor problems and focus on the final goal.
- Students will be able to explain concepts and clarify them for peers.
(vi) Complete the given sentence by selecting the most appropriate option. (1)
The 2014 study attempts to understand student leadership by focussing on ______
- experiences that shaped students’ overall personality.
- lessons gained by students as they grew up.
- relationship of key events with particular lessons.
- students in leadership roles.
(vii) The lessons for ‘Individual competencies’ had a range of responses. (1)
Give one reason why having the least number of responses for ‘Decision Making’, is a matter that needs attention.
(viii) Complete the given sentence by selecting the most appropriate option. (1)
The concluding sentence of the text makes a clear case for ______ by listing it as a core competency for student leadership.
- collaboration
- flexibility
- hard work
- observation
(ix) Complete the sentence appropriately with one/two words. (1)
In the context of “Working with Others” in Table 1, the lesson of ‘Conflict’ refers to ______.
(x) Based on the reading of the text, state a point to challenge the given statement. (1)
When theoretical knowledge about leadership suffices, it is a waste of funds by educational organisations, to organise leadership camps and programmes.
Read the passage given below-
| (1) | Milkha Singh, also known as The Flying Sikh, was an Indian track and field sprinter who was introduced to the sport while serving in the Indian Army. He is the only athlete to win gold in 400 metres at the Asian Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. He also won gold medals in the 1958 and 1962 Asian Games. He represented India in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in recognition of his sporting achievements. |
| (2) | The race for which Singh is best remembered is his fourth-place finish in the 400 metres final at the 1960 Olympic Games. He led the race till the 200 m mark before easing off, allowing others to pass him. Singh's fourth-place time of 45.73 seconds was the Indian national record for almost 40 years. |
| (3) | From beginning that saw him orphaned and displaced during the partition of India, Singh became a sporting icon in the country. In 2008, journalist Rohit Brijnath described Singh as "the finest athlete India has ever produced". |
| (4) | He was disappointed with his debut performance at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. "I returned to India, chastened by my poor performance in Melbourne. I had been so excited by the prospects of being part of the Indian Olympics team, but, hadn't realized how strong and professional the competition would be. My success in India had filled me with a false sense of pride and it was only when I was on the track that I saw how inconsequential my talents were when pitted against superbly fit and seasoned athletes. It was then that I understood what competition actually meant, and that if I wanted to succeed on the international arena, I must be prepared to test my mettle against the best athletes in the world." |
| (5) | Then he decided to make sprinting the sole focus of his life. "Running had thus become my God, my religion and my beloved". "My life during those two years was governed by strict rules and regulations and a self-imposed penance. Every morning I would rise at the crack of dawn, get into my sports kit and dash off to the track, where I would run two or three miles cross-country in the company of my coach." |
| (6) | On how he pushed himself through the tough days of vigorous training. "I practiced so strenuously that often I was drained of all energy, and there were times when I would increase my speed to such an extent that after my rounds, I would vomit blood or drop down unconscious through sheer exercise. My doctors and coaches warned me, asked me to slow down to maintain my health and equilibrium but my determination was too strong to give up. My only focus was to become the best athlete in the world. But then images of a packed stadium filled with cheering spectators, wildly applauding me as I crossed the finishing line, would flash across my mind and I would start again, encouraged by visions of victory." |
Based on your reading answer any five questions from the six given below: (5)
- What is Milkha Singh known as? What realization did Milkha Singh have when he was on the track during the Melbourne Olympics?
- List any two of Milkha Singh's achievements.
- What strict rules and regulations did Milkha Singh follow?
- State two consequences of his hard and strenuous practice.
- What motivated Milkha Singh to become the best athlete in the world?
- Explain the phrase 'I would start again' in the last sentence.
Read the following excerpt from a Case Study. J.K. Rowling - A Journey.
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The story of Joanne Kathleen Rowling's near magical rise to fame is almost as well known as the characters she creates. Rowling was constantly writing and telling stories to her younger sister Dianne. "The first story I ever wrote down was about a rabbit called Rabbit." Rowling said in an interview. "He got measles and was visited by his friends including a giant bee called Miss Bee. And ever since Rabbit and Miss Bee, I have always wanted to be a writer, though I rarely told anyone so. However, my parents, both of whom come from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension. A writer from the age of six, with two unpublished novels in the drawer, she was stuck on a train when Harry walked into her mind fully formed. She spent the next five years constructing the plots of seven books, one for every year of his secondary school life. Rowling says she started writing the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, in Portugal, where she was teaching English. At first nobody wanted to publish Harry Potter. She was told that plot was too complex. Refusing to compromise, she found a publisher. In 1997 Rowling received her first royalty cheque. By book three, she had sky rocketed to the top of the publishing world. A row of zeroes appeared on the author's bank balance and her life was turned upside down. Day and night she had journalists knocking on the unanswered door of her flat. Rowling's quality control has become legendary, as her obsession with accuracy. She's thrilled with Stephen Fry's taped version of the books and outraged that an Italian dust jacket showed Harry minus his glasses. "Don't they understand that the glasses are the clue to his vulnerability." Annual earnings of J.K. Rowlin from 2010 to 2019
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On the basis of your understanding of the passage answer any five of the six questions given below. (5)
- Explain J. K. Rowling's 'near magical rise to fame'.
- What reason did the publishers give for rejecting Rowling's book?
- What was the drawback of achieving fame?
- Why was Rowling outraged with the Italian dust jacket?
- Find a word in the last para that means the same as 'insecure/helpless'.
- According to the graph, how many years did it take Rowling to become very successful?
Read the passage given below:
| (1) | Ratan, a global brand in Dairy products, works on a business model popularly known as, 'The Ratan Model'. This model aims to provide value for money to the customers and protect the interests of farmers simultaneously. | ||||||||||
| (2) | The Ratan model is a three-tiered structure that is implemented in its Dairy production: Firstly, Ratan acts as a direct link between milk producers and consumers that removes the middlemen. Secondly, farmers (milk producers) control procurement, processing and marketing. Thirdly, it is a professionally managed organization. | ||||||||||
| (3) | One can understand the Ratan Model better by taking cognizance of 'Ratan's Target Audience', where it has targeted the mass market of India with no premium offerings and works on providing the best quality products at affordable prices. | ||||||||||
| (4) | So Ratan formulates its pricing policy on the low cost price strategy which has attracted a lot of customers in the past and it continues to do so. | ||||||||||
| (5) | Another stance used by Ratan's Target Audience is based on customer-wise targeting and industry wise targeting. This strategy divides the target audience on the following two bases : | ||||||||||
| (6) |
The above table showcases how Ratan has a diversified customer base. |
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| (7) | Industry Based Target Audience: Ratan has segmented milk for various industries such as ice-cream manufacturers, restaurants, coffee shops, and many similar industries. Further, it has segmented butter, ghee and cheese for bakeries, snack retailers, confectioneries, and many more. | ||||||||||
| (8) | The target audience study tells us that Ratan has a strong presence in both Business to Business and Businessto-Customers. | ||||||||||
| (9) | Ratan's marketing campaigns and strategies are implemented in a very attractive way. For example, the story of the 'Ratan Girl' is a popular 'ad' icon. It is a hand drawn cartoon of a young girl. | ||||||||||
Based on your understanding of the passage answer any Six out of the Seven questions given below:
- What does 'The Ratan Model' aim at?
- In dairy production how many tiers are there?
- Ratan acts as a direct link...? Explain.
- "Ratan Target audience is described as a diversified market. Explain with reference to the given table.
- Name the two basis on which Ratan divides the target audience.
- In which two spheres does Ratan have a strong presence?
- Which is the most loved ad icon of Ratan?
Read the following passage and do the activities:
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Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar who was born on 24th April 1973 in Mumbai is a former Indian International Cricketer and a former captain of the Indian National Team. He is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time and is often referred as the ‘God of cricket’ by Indian Cricket followers. He made his debut on 15th November 1989 against Pakistan in ‘Karachi’ at the age of sixteen. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries and only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket. He was trained under the able guidance of Ramakant Achrekar Sir. He received the Arjuna Award in 1994, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1997, Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan Awards in 1999 and 2008 respectively, fourth and second highest civilian awards of India. He was also awarded the Bharat Ratna, highest civilian award of India in 2013. He is a devotee of the deity Ganesha. |
A1. Complete the following sentences from the passage: (2)
- Sachin was born on _____.
- Sachin is a devotee of the deity ______.
- He was trained under the able guidance of ______.
- He made debut on ______.
A2. Complete the web diagram: (2)
A3. Match the ‘Synonyms’: (2)
| ‘A’ | ‘B’ | ||
| i. | debut | a. | previous |
| ii. | received | b. | God |
| iii. | former | c. | got |
| iv. | deity | d. | first performance |
A4. Do as directed: (2)
- He made his debut. (Make ‘Simple Future Tense’.)
- He received the Arjuna Award. (Choose the correct Q-tag.)
- did he?
- didn’t he?
- doesn’t he?
A5. Do you like to play games? Why? (2)
Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
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Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below:
- When was King Tutankhamen burled? (1)
- 1717
- 1886
- 3300 years ago
- 1848
- Why did Egyptians hold gold in great esteem? (1)
- because it is a good conductor of electricity.
- because of its religious significance.
- for lovely gold ornaments.
- because it is indestructible.
- According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true? (1)
- Gold is the best conductor of electricity.
- Apart from gold, copper and silver are good conductors of electricity.
- Gold can be easily beaten, hence it is easy to work with.
- Gold plays an important role in the modern electronics industry.
- Select the option that displays what the writer projects, with reference of the following: (1)
The wandering Israelites worshipped a golden calf ______.- importance of religion
- importance of the metal
- good conductor
- can replace money
- How were the black labourers exploited? (1)
- Complete the following with the phrase from paragraph 1: (1)
Opinion Reason King Tutankhamen was buried in
a solid gold coffin 3300 years ago. - Based on your reading of the text list 2 reasons why the writer says that,
Not only is gold beautiful but it is virtually indestructible. (1) - Who launched South Africa into the gold age? (1)
- Issac Newton
- George Harrison
- George Bernard Shaw
- A farmer
- Select the option that corresponds to the following: (1)
The ancient Egyptians and the modern electronic industry both hold gold in high esteem.- The hardworking student came first because of his diligent practice.
- Honesty is underrated whereas strategy is appreciated.
- The vibrant colours made the interiors look luminous.
- The steaming food was both appetizing and tasty.
- Supply one point to justify the following: (1)
The desire to hoard gold at home has been primarily an occupation of the working and peasant classes.
Read the following passage.
| A | Dirshti was young woman who had always been fascinated by the supernatural. She had read countless books and watched numerous documentaries about ghosts and otherworldly beings. So, when she heard about an abandoned hotel on the outskirts of town that was said to be haunted, she knew she had to investigate. |
| B | One night, Dirshti decided to sneak into the dilapidated hotel with a few of her friends. As they made their way through the dark, eerie corridors, they heard strange noises and felt cold spots. They were convinced that they were not alone. |
| C | Suddenly, they came across a room that was different from the rest. It was filled with old cooking equipment and strange symbols etched into the walls. Drishti felt a chill run down her spine as she entered the room. She knew that this was where the most paranormal activity occurred. As they were examining the room, they heard a loud bang coming from the hallway. They froze in fear, not knowing what was coming their way. They could hear footsteps approaching, and they knew they had to hide. |
| D | They quickly ducked behind some old shelves as the footsteps grew louder. The sound of breathing was getting closer and closer until finally, they saw a figure appear in the doorway. It was a man wearing a chef’s hat, with a face that was twisted in a sinister smile. Drishti and her friends felt their blood run cold as the man approached them. They could feel his cold breath on their faces as he leaned in, whispering in a deep voice, "You shouldn't be here." |
| E | Dirshti and her friends were frozen with fear as they stared into the chef's eyes. But suddenly, the lights flickered on and the figure disappeared. They looked around the room, and everything seemed normal. They had been so scared that they hadn't realized they were in a room with faulty wiring |
| F | Disappointed, they realized that their ghost hunt had been a bust. They left the hotel feeling deflated and let down. They had hoped for an exciting, spine-tingling adventure, but all they got was a scary moment caused by faulty wiring. As they drove home, they couldn't help but feel foolish for getting so worked up over nothing. They had been so convinced that they would find evidence of the paranormal that they had overlooked the simple explanation for the noises they had heard. |
| G | Dirshti learned an important lesson that night. Sometimes, the scariest things are the ones that we create in our own minds. She realized that she didn't need to chase after the supernatural to experience thrills and excitement. The world around her was full of mystery and wonder, and she was content to experience it without the need for ghosts and ghouls. |
Answer the following questions, based on the passage above.
(i) How does the setting contribute to the overall mood and atmosphere of the story? (1)
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- It creates a sense of nostalgia.
- It provides a sense of false security.
- It adds to the suspense in the story.
- It presents a contrast with the real world.
(ii) List two ways, how the disappointment that Drishti and her friends felt after their ghost hunt is analogous to the feeling of waking up from a dream. Answer in 30 -40 words. (2)
(iii) What is the main flaw in Drishti's approach to investigating the haunted hotel? (1)
- She was too focused on finding evidence of the paranormal.
- She was too skeptical and refused to believe in the possibility of ghosts.
- She relied too heavily on other people's accounts of the supernatural.
- She didn't take enough precautions to ensure her safety.
(iv) After which paragraph of the story, would the following paragraph most likely be placed? (1)
They commenced walking through the hotel, Drishti’s torchlight barely illuminating the darkness around her. Suddenly, they heard a loud creaking noise behind them. Drishti whipped around, pointing her flashlight in the direction of the noise. Nothing. Shaken, they all quickened their pace.
(v) Briefly explain (in 30-40 words) any two elements that classify the story as scary (2)
(vi) Substitute the underlined word in the following sentence with a word/ phrase from paragraphs 4- 6, that means the same. (1)
The sound of the footsteps outside the door left her petrified and the rasping breathing added to her horror.
(vii) What is the most significant lesson that Drishti learns from her experience in the haunted hotel? (1)
- The importance of avoiding risk-taking.
- The need to be more sceptical of the supernatural.
- The value of evaluating your weaknesses
- The power of imagination to create suspense.
(viii) Complete the following appropriately. (1)
Based on the use of the word "dilapidated" to describe the hotel in Paragraph 2, we can infer that its condition was ______.
(ix) Complete the sentence appropriately. (1)
If the title, The Hotel Haunting is given to this passage, it would be an inappropriate title, as compared to The Unsettling Encounter at the Abandoned Hotel because ______.
(x) State whether the given assertion is TRUE or FALSE. (1)
The reason Drishti and her friends visited the abandoned hotel was to prove the existence of ghosts.
Read the following table displaying the details of five House Captains.
| Name | Motto | Participation in activities | Achievements | Awards | Personal Qualities | Drawbacks | Other notable things |
| Rohit | "Together we can achieve greatness" | Debate club, Quiz club | 1st prize in Science Olympiad | Best Student | Diligent, confident, empathetic | Sometimes tends to be overly competitive | Volunteer at a local NGO |
| Sanya | "Service before self" | Social service club, Drama club | 1st prize in Debate competition | Best Orator | Compassionate, organized, responsible | Can be overly self critical at times | Participated in a Model United Nations conference |
| Rajat | "Never give up, always rise up" | Sports club, Music club | 2nd position in Chess competition | Best Sportsperson | Perseverant, team player, adaptable | Can sometimes be indecisive | Plays in a local band |
| Aryan | "Success through hard work" | Photography club, Science club | 1st prize in a Photography competition | Budding Innovator | Creative, curious, detail oriented | Can sometimes procrastinate | Built a working model of a wind turbine for a science fair |
| Ananya | "Strive for excellence" | "Dance club, Art club | 1st prize in Art competition | Creative Mind | Confident, hardworking, imaginative | Tends to overthink things | Published her own poetry collection |
Answer the following questions, based on the table above.
(i) Identify the person who is likely to ask many "why" questions, and support your choice with one reason. (2)
(ii) Which house captain is most likely to struggle the most with handling stress during the school's annual inter-house sports tournament? (1)
- Rohit
- Sanya
- Rajat
- Ananya
(iii) Give two justifications for Sanya being the best fit to lead a school-wide initiative to promote mental health and well-being among students. (2)
(iv) Select the correct option to fill the blank and complete the analogy. (1)
______ : paint brush :: Rajat : tabla
- Rohit
- Sanya
- Aryan
- Ananya
(v) Based on the personal qualities of the House Captains, why is Rajat the most likely to be a collaborative worker? (1)
(vi) Complete the given sentence with the appropriate reason, with reference to the information in the table. (1)
We can infer that Aryan’s overall performance may be negatively impacted by his weakness in time management because ______.
(vii) Explain briefly why situation (b), from the three situations given below, showcases Ananya's motto, "Lead by example"? (1)
- During a group project, Ananya assigns each team member specific tasks and sets a high standard for the project's quality. She tells them to actively participate in the project and take it to fruition.
- During a house debate competition, Ananya notices that a few of her house members are struggling to articulate their arguments effectively. Ananya takes the time to listen to their concerns and provides constructive feedback and support.
- During a fundraising event, Ananya volunteers to be in charge of organizing and coordinating the event but she frequently delegates tasks to others and attends to her school assignment while her team completes the task successfully.
(viii) Select the option that correctly matches the House Captains (a) -(c), to the trophies (i)-(v). (1)
| House Captains | (a) Rajat | (b) Ananya | (c) Aryan |
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| (i) | (ii) | (iii) | (iv) | (v) |
- (a) - (ii) , (b) - (i) , (c) - (iii)
- (a) - (i) , (b) - (v) , (c) - (iv)
- (a) - (v) , (b) - (iii) , (c) - (ii)
- (a) - (iii) , (b) - (iv) , (c) - (i)
Read the passage given below:
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- 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 'instinct' in the passage means the same as: (1)
- lack
- impulse
- inability
- incapacity
Read the following text.
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Arthur lay in his cabin, still trying to piece together the events of the last few hours. He had watched his home planet of Earth be demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, been saved by his friend Ford, and then whisked away on a ship that was powered by an "infinite improbability drive." It was all too much for him. |
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5. |
Just then, Ford stuck his head around the door. |
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10 |
"What's that?" asked Arthur. |
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15 |
"I don't know," said Arthur. "I don't think I really understand anything anymore. Why is a mouse the ship's computer?" |
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20 |
Arthur was about to say something, but at that moment the ship's intercom crackled to life. |
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25 |
"Eddie, would you mind shutting up?" said Arthur. |
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30 |
"It's me," said the voice. "Marvin." |
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35 |
Arthur looked down and saw a small, metal figure shuffling across the floor. It was about three feet tall, with a round head and a body that looked like it had been cobbled together from spare parts. Its eyes were a dull red, and its voice was a monotone. |
Answer the following questions, based on the passage above.
- Select the option that classifies Arthur's confusion about drastic events such as the destruction of his home planet and the introduction of new technologies, correctly. (1)
- Routine and boredom
- Adventure and excitement
- Loss and change
- Calm and relaxation
- What is the significance of the white lab mouse in the control room of the Heart of Gold spaceship? (1)
- It is the captain of the ship
- It serves as the ship's computer
- It is a pet of the crew
- It is used for scientific experiments
- Share evidence from the text, in about 40 words to support the view that the writer’s writing style is descriptive and humourous. (2)
- Complete the sentence appropriately with a characteristic or its description. (1)
Based on the information given in the excerpt, one can infer that the mice who built the Earth are ______. - Select the option that is similar in meaning to Ford’s expression, “Pretty neat, huh?". (1)
- Easy, isn’t it?
- Could be worse, no?
- Impressive, yes?
- Too difficult for you?
- Explain, in about 40 words, why the name "The Paranoid Android" is considered ironic. (2)
- In the line, “…a body that looked like it had been cobbled together from spare parts…”, what comparison does the word “cobbled” refer to? (1)
- How does the following, impact the reader, even though they know Marvin is just an android? (2)
"I've been waiting for someone to talk to me for over two million years," said Marvin. Answer in about 40 words. - Read the five headlines (a) -(e), given below: (1)
(a) HUMANITY'S JOURNEY WITNESSED BY A DEPRESSED ROBOT
(b) HITCHHIKING THROUGH SPACE: A COMICAL TAKE ON THE END OF THE WORLD
(c) NEW STUDY FINDS ALIENS LIVING AMONG US
(d) GROUNDBREAKING TECHNOLOGY WILL SOON ENABLE TIME TRAVEL
(e) INTERGALACTIC TRAVEL VIA NEW INFINITE IMPROBABILITY DRIVE
Identify the option that displays the headline/s that DOES/ DO NOT correspond with occurrences in the passage.- Only (a)
- (b) (c) and (d)
- Only (e)
- (a) and (e)
Read the passage given below.
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Most cities, may not be prohibit hawking as a profession, but do place restrictions on the use of urban space. Therefore, a comprehensive study was conducted in 1998-99 on street vending, to provide concrete data for furthering the cause of the hawkers. Eight cities were selected - Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Imphal, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Bangalore. Three points were important while selecting respondents –hawkers were from different parts of a city; sold a variety of goods and adequate numbers of women were covered. The questionnaire was included questions on personal details, details regarding the work and the hazards faced. Table: Results of the survey
It is fair to say that hawkers cannot be removed, because apart from their own livelihood, their services benefit the common urban dweller. |
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the given questions.
- Fill in the blank by selecting the appropriate option. 1
The study aims to ______ the practice of street vending in urban spaces.
- support
- discourage
- understand
- prove
- Jagan goes door to door with his basket of goods to sell bananas in the city. What action from his end would lead to a prohibition on hawking? 1
- State TRUE or FALSE. 1
The following question could have been a part of the study survey.
What are the challenges presented by the security guards? - Complete the sentence appropriately. 1
The most preferred form of source of capital, according to the survey table, exposes the hawkers to exploitation because ______. - State a point in support for the given opinion: 1
Street vending must be legalised as a profession.
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 passage carefully:
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(1) Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues, as rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations, where garbage collection systems are often inefficient or nonexistent. But the developed world, especially in countries with low recycling rates, also has trouble properly collecting discarded plastics. Plastic trash has become so ubiquitous that it has prompted efforts to write a global treaty negotiated by the United Nations. (2) Plastics made from fossil fuels are just over a century old. Production and development of thousands of new plastic products accelerated after World War II. It transformed the modern age so much that life without plastics is unrecognizable today. Plastics revolutionized medicine with life-saving devices, made space travel possible, lightened cars and jets-saving fuel and pollution- and saved lives with helmets, incubators, and equipment for clean drinking water. (3) The conveniences plastics offer, however, led to a throw-away culture that reveals the material’s dark side: today, single-use plastics account for 40 percent of the plastic produced every year. Many of these products, such as plastic bags and food wrappers, have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years. (4) Most of the plastic trash in the oceans, Earth’s last sink, flows from land. Trash is also carried to sea by major rivers, which act as conveyor belts, picking up more and more trash as they move downstream. Once at sea, much of the plastic trash remains in coastal waters. But once caught up in ocean currents, it can be transported around the world. (5) Millions of animals are killed by plastics every year, from birds to fish to other marine organisms. Nearly 700 species, including endangered ones, are known to have been affected by plastics. Nearly every species of seabirds eats plastics. Most of the deaths of animals are caused by entanglement or starvation. Seals, whales, turtles, and other animals are strangled by abandoned fishing gear or discarded six-pack rings. (6) The solution is to prevent plastic waste from entering rivers and seas in the first place, many scientists and conservationists – including the National Geographic Society – say. This could be accomplished with improved waste management systems and recycling, better product design that takes into account the short life of disposable packaging, and reduction in manufacturing of unnecessary single-use plastics. |
Answer the following questions, based on the above passage:
- Which of the following statements best describes the reason why plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues?
- Plastic trash collection systems have become inefficient or nonexistent.
- Rapidly increasing production of disposable plastic products overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them.
- Some plastics have a lifespan of mere minutes to hours, yet they may persist in the environment for hundreds of years.
- The developed world, especially in countries with low recycling rates, has trouble properly collecting plastics.
- What is the tone of the writer in the given lines from paragraph 2? Rationalise your response in about 40 words.
‘It transformed the modern age so much that life without plastics is unrecognizable today.' - The passage includes some words that are opposites of each other. From the sets (A) – (E) below, identify two sets of synonyms.
- garbage and trash
- starvation and strangled
- disposable and reductio
- persist and downstream
- transformed and revolutionized
- Complete the sentence appropriately:
The writer says that most of the plastic trash is found in the Earth’s last sink and the reason it is transported around the world is _______. - Based on the reading of the passage, examine, in about 40 words, the downside of the convenience that plastic offers.
- Complete the sentence appropriately:
According to conservationists, the two ways in which most of the deaths of animals are caused are _______. - Based on the passage, how can we contribute to the reduction of plastic waste?
- by internationalising the waste management system
- by minimizing the use of single-use plastics
- by not abandoning fishing gear
- by not using helmets made of plastic
- State one reason why plastic pollution is most visible in developing Asian and African nations.
Read the following passage carefully:
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(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 ______.
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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)
