SSC (English Medium) 10th Standard - Maharashtra State Board Question Bank Solutions for English

With candles and with lanterns
throwing giant scorpion shadows
on the mud-baked walls
they searched for him : he was not found.
They clicked their tongues.
With every movement that the scorpion made his poison
moved in Mother's blood, they said.
May he sit still, they said
May the sins of your previous birth
be burned away tonight, they said.
May your suffering decrease
the misfortunes of your next birth, they said.
May the sum of all evil
balanced in this unreal world
against the sum of good
become diminished by your pain.
May the poison purify your flesh
of desire, and your spirit of ambition
they said, and they sat around
on the floor with my mother in the centre,
the peace of understanding on each face.

-Nissim Ezekiel

I think I could tum and live with animals, they are
so placid and self-contain'd
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with
the mania of owning things.
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that
lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince
them plainly in their possession
I wonder where they get those tokens,
Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?

-Walt Whitman

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching : yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves a way the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms :
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
All lovely tales that we have heard or read :
An endless fountain of immortal drink
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.
Nor do we merely feel these essences
For one short hour; no, even as the trees
That whisper round a temple become soon
The passion poesy, glories infinite,
Haunt us till they become a cheering light
Unto our souls, and bound to us so fast,
That, whether there be shine, or gloom o'ercast
They always must be with us, or we die.

- John Keats

A World Heritage Site is a site determined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to have significant cultural or natural importance to humanity. As such, the sites are protected and maintained by the International World Heritage Programme which is administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, because World Heritage Sites are places that are significant culturally and naturally, they vary in type but include forests, lakes, monuments, buildings and cities.

World Heritage Sites can also be a combination of both cultural and natural areas. For example, Mount Huangshan in China is a site with significance to human culture because it played a role in historical Chinese art and literature. The mountain is also significant because of its physical landscape characteristics.

HISTORY OF WORLD HERITAGE SITES

Although the idea of protecting cultural and natural heritage sites around the world began in the early twentieth century, momentum for its actual creation was not started until the 1950s. In 1954, Egypt started plans to build the Aswan High Dam to collect and control water from the Nile River. The initial plan for the dam's construction would have flooded the valley containing the Abu Simbel Temples and scores of ancient Egyptian artefacts. To protect the temples and artefacts, UNESCO launched an international campaign in 1959 that called for the dismantling and movement of the temples to higher ground. The project cost an estimated US $80 million, $40 million of which came from 50 different countries.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is the doctor’s code for ‘prepare to die’. I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy. It turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you: Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue. In the final issue, on the back cover they put a photograph of an early morning country road. Beneath it were the words: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish. It was their farewell message as they signed off. I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

Smita bit her lip in self-reproach. She had been so excited at seeing the announcement, that she had not remembered that her brother was ill. She had seen how the doctors had shaken their heads gravely and spoken words that neither she nor her parents could understand. But deep inside Smita had known the frightening truth – that Anant would die. The word cancer had hung in the air – her brother was dying of cancer even though she pretended that all would be well and they would return together, a small family of four, to their home in Gaganpur. And he was only fifteen and the best table-tennis player in the school and the fastest runner. He was learning to play the sitar; they were both taking sitar lessons, but Anant was better than her in many other things. He was already able to compose his own tunes to the astonishment of their guru. Then cancer had struck and they had come to Bombay so that he could be treated at the cancer hospital in the city.

Whenever they came to Bombay they stayed with Aunt Sushila. Her apartment was not big but there was always room for them.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever :
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills

That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms :

My second story is about love and loss. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz (Steve Wozniak) and I started Apple when I was 20. In 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company. And then I got fired. It was devastating.

But something slowly began to dawn on me - I still loved what I did. And so I decided to start over.

The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company Next, another company named Pixar, and I fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.

Pixar is now the world’s most successful animation studio, Apple bought Next. I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at Next is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.

Kerala is the land of magic, ayurvedic massages and Kathakali. Most visitors generally begin their sojourn in this lovely state with Kochi. This city reflects the eclecticism of Kerala. Here, you can see the oldest European-built church in India, a small 16th Century synagogue that serves a proportionate community of Jews, a palace built by the Portuguese, given to the Raja of Cochin and renovated by the Dutch and some world-class performances of the Kathakali dance drama. Make sure you take a boat trip on the Malabar Coast. It will take you out to the Dutch town and fort, an area that also has some surprisingly good book shops.

Alternatively, you could start with Thiruvananthapuram, which also has a laid-back charm of its own. Here, you can visit the Padmanabhaswamy temple, the Napier Museum, the Puttan Mallika Palace and the neighbouring beaches. These include Kovalam, now a pleasant spot to spend an evening.

The backwaters are also famous as a holiday option. For that, you have to move on to Alleppey or Alappuzha, a district made unique by an intricate network of canals. Or you could head to Munnar, the sheer beauty in the hills. Rolling oceans of tubby green tea bushes, crisp mountain air, craggy hills, wildlife and a throwback to colonial times make Munnar a lovely getaway.

Or you could visit Thekkady, which is also a charming town and has the added advantage of being close to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. At Thekkady you can wander through plantations of cardamom, tea and coffee.

Of the three options, you can surely choose a place of your dreams where you can chill out!

You can take a meandering cruise down the backwaters, spend a lazy day by the sea, take a trek up the winding hills or enjoy ayurvedic health holidays. These are some of the advantages no other destination offers. Welcome to this unique land of spellbinding adventures. It’s the most refreshing holiday you could ever have.

One morning in a small apartment in Bombay, a girl of about sixteen looked up from the newspaper and said excitedly, ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar’s playing tomorrow at Shanmukhananda auditorium’.

‘Sh-sh’, said her mother, pointing to the figure sleeping on the bed. ‘You’ll wake him up. You know he needs all the sleep and rest he can get.’

But the boy on the bed was not asleep. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar!’ he said. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro? He raised himself up on his elbows for one second and then fell back. But his eyes were shining. ‘We mustn’t miss the chance,’ he said. ‘I’ve – I’ve – always wanted to hear him and see him.’

‘Lie down, son, lie down.’ His mother sprang to his side. ‘He actually raised himself without help,’ she murmured with a catch in her throat and her eyes turned to the idols on a corner shelf. The prayer, which she uttered endlessly, came unbidden to her lips

‘I must hear him and see him,’ the boy repeated. ‘It’s a chance of a lifetime.’ Then he began to cough and gasp for breath and had to be given oxygen from the cylinder that stood under the bed. But his large eyes were fixed on his sister.

Smita bit her lip in self-reproach. She had been so excited at seeing the announcement that she had not remembered that her brother was very ill. She had seen how the doctors had shaken their heads gravely and spoken words that neither she nor even her parents could understand. But somewhere deep inside, Smita had known the frightening truth - that Anant was going to die. The word cancer had hung in the air – her brother was dying of cancer even though she pretended that all would be well and they would return together, a small family of four, to their home in Gaganpur. And he was only fifteen and the best table-tennis player in the school and the fastest runner. He was learning to play sitar; they were both taking sitar lessons, but Anant was better than her as in many things. He was already able to compose his own tunes to the astonishment of their Guru.