HSC Arts (English Medium) 12th Standard Board Exam - Maharashtra State Board Question Bank Solutions for English

Read the extract and do all the activities that follow: 

We used to think seven generations ahead
Now we have become selfish
Only thinking about me, myself and I
Only thinking in the present, not learning from the past.
We used to stroll barefoot through the overgrown grass,
Its morning dew tickling our feet
Now we step outside onto the rugged concrete
No more natural than the over-processed food we eat
We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail,
Maybe catch a glimpse of a bobcat, playing eye tricks with its tail
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is fur-free, clearing the pavement of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees.
Swaying on my rearview mirror, labelled pine breeze
we used to watch the valley play hide and seek

A1. Web :
Complete the web with the things man used to do in the past:

A2. Poetic Devices :

'We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail'
Name the figure of speech in the above line and find out another example of the same from the extract.

A3. Personal Response :
Write in brief your views about past and present lifestyle.

A4. Poetic Creativity :
'Now we step outside onto the rugged concrete No more natural than the over-processed food.'
Read the above lines and compose at least two lines of your own. based on the same theme.

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) How did the mother deal with a stranger? 
(2) What do you learn from this extract? 
(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words from the extract. (Any two)
(4) Pick out the line from the extract suggesting the mother's
insensitive behavior towards her daughter.

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 am looking for. 

(1) What care should you take while raising yourself in the eyes of others?

(2) What good qualities of your parents impress you the most? 

(3)  Pick out the example of antithesis from the first stanza of the above extract. 

(4) Pick out the lines from the extract which advise you how to react at your success and defeat. 

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

(1) What were the feelings of the family members at the felling of the banyan tree?
(2) Why, according to you, did insects and birds begin to leave the banyan tree? 
(3) Find out an example of 'Repetition' from the extract.
(4) Pick out the line from the extract expressing the feelings of the people who watched the merciless cutting of the banyan
tree.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 

I asked her why 
She was so sad? 
She told me her baby 
was killed in Auschwitz. 
her daughter in Hiroshima 
and her sons in Vietnam,
Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, 
Bosnia. Rwanda, Kosovo, and Chechnya.

(1) Why was the woman in the extract sad? 

(2) What do you think. are the dire consequences ofa war? 

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines :

'I asked her why 
she was so sad ?'

(4) What purpose docs the dialogue form serve in the extract? 

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

Question
(1) For what purpose did the old women leave their 'maps' behind them?

(2) How can old people be helpful to us?

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines:
Old women once
were continents.

(4) Make a list of geographical expressions from the extract.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

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

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly ...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

(1) What qualities of people according to poet, are essential to build a nation?

(2) “Not gold but only men make A people great and strong” Do you agree? Explain.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the line “ Stand fast and suffer long”.

(4) What is the underlying message of the extract

Spot the errors in of the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

Radha brought pens and distributed them between her five children.

Spot the errors in of the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

Jayshree and Sujata sat besides each other in complete silence.

Spot the errors in of the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

His best friend Vijay was blind within one eye.

Spot the errors in of the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

One could dare to encroach on his rights.

Spot the errors in of the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

She was taken with surprise when she saw the famous Taj Mahal.

Spot the errors in the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

It is not possible to exchange the goods once the sale has been completed.

Spot the errors in the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

It is not possible to exchange the goods once the sale has been completed.

Spot the errors in the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

Dr. Sengupta has been trying to master the craft for the last five years. 

Spot the errors in the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

The top-ranking candidates will be appointed in senior jobs in banks.

Spot the errors in the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

She knows very well what is expected from her but she is unable to perform.

Spot the errors in the following sentence and correct the incorrect one.

They will put on a note in this regard for your consideration.

The annual social function of your junior college will be held next week on your college campus. Your friend and you have selected to compère the inauguration function of the programme. Prepare a script for the same with the help of the following points:

• Introduction
• Welcoming the guests
• Lighting the traditional lamp
• Inauguration of the annual function
• Keynote address
• Felicitation of successful students
• Presidential address
• Vote of Thanks!

Imagine that you are a compere of ‘Reading Day Programmes’ at your school to mark the birth anniversary of Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Prepare a script for the same with the help of the following points.

• Introduction.
• Importance of the Day.
• Reading for pleasure and profit.
• Speech by your principal.
• Different activities and felicitation of winners.
• Vote of thanks