Arts (English Medium) Class 12 - CBSE Important Questions for English Core

Answer any three of the following in 30-40 words each:

(a) Why has the poet’s mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’?

(b) The poet says, ‘And yet, for these Children, these windows, not this map, their world.’ Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them?

(c) What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?

(d) What will happen to Aunt Jennifer’s tigers when she is dead?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the following extract and answer the questions given  below:

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children you love, you seem to abuse.
Look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself, pink, yellow and blue.
She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise,
And you never saw the tears in her eyes."

(1) What did the mother think as she lay sleepless in the bed?
(2) According to you, why shouldn't we hurt the feelings
of others?
(3) Pick out any two pairs of rhyming words from this
extract.
(4) What kind of poem is this? What is its purpose?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

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

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

Chimps making their own fishing rods is an indication that 

We know that chimps are intelligent because 

Orangutans use big leaves during a downpour because

The black kite may start a fire because

Big male elephants throw logs at electric fences because 

Why are animals considered as intelligent as humans ? 

What strategy do chimps use to open hard shells and fruits ? 

What do elephants do to prevent water from evaporating ? 

Give an example from the passage that proves the crow to be an intelligent bird.

How does a black kite spread wildfire ? 

How do chimps drink water from the waterholes?

What caused a blow to man’s ego ?

What inference can you draw from the action of the female gorilla described in para 2 ? 

Why do dolphins cover their long noses with sponges or shells ? 

To what end have humans used their superior intelligence ?