Previous Year HS English Question

ENGLISH-B (New Syllabus)

Total Time: 3 Hours 15 minutes [Full Marks: 80]

Instructions to the Candidates

1. Special credit will be given for answers which are brief and to the point.

2. Marks will be deducted for spelling mistakes untidiness and bad handwriting.

3. Figures in the margin indicate full marks for the questions.

PART A [Marks: 60]

1. Answer any two of the following questions each in about 100 words: [6 x 2 = 12]

(a) “… the girl got up and began to collect her things”

-Who is the girl? When did she get up? Why did she get up to collect her things? What had the speaker thought about the brief encounter he had with the girl? [1+1+1+ 3]

(b) “His answer filled me with a strange energy and enthusiasm.”

-Who is the speaker? Whose answer is being referred to her? What was the answer? [1+1+4]

(c)”You gonna take me to jail?”

– Who asked this question and to whom? When did the speaker ask this question? Why reply did the speaker get? [2+3+1]

(d) How was the wounded man revived and nursed? Why did he ask forgiveness of the Tsar? What did the Tsar do when he had gained the man for a friend? [2+ 2+ 2]

2. Answer any two of the following questions, each in about 100 words: [6 x 2 = 12]

(a) How does the poet describe the growth of a tree over the years? What are the different steps taken for killing the tree? [4+2]

(b) “His smile/Is like an infant’s…”

– Whose ‘smile’ is being referred to here? Why is his smile compared to the smile of an infant? How does Nature take care of him? [1+3+2]

-Whose is being referred to as ‘thy’? What is meant by ‘eternal summer’? Why shall not ‘Thy eternal summer’ fade? [1+1+4]

(d) How does Keats show that the ‘The poetry of Earth’ never cease? [6]

3. Answer any one of the following questions in about 100 words : [6 x 1 = 6]

(a) “Why are you so formal in your get-up?”

-Who is the speaker? Who is being spoken to? What led the speaker to make this comment? [1 + 1 +4]

(b) Lomov came with a proposal to marry Natalya Stepanovna. What logic does he give for his decision?[6]

-Who said this? Why did he say so? How did the speaker get rid of his unhappiness? [1+3+2]

4. (a) Do as directed : [1 x6 = 6]

(i) I don’t intend to give up what I have. [Use the underlined word as a noun and rewrite]

(ii) The Tsar said, “I come to you, wise man, for an answer to my questions.” [Change the Indirect speech]

(iii) The man would have attacked you. [Change the voice]

(iv) The door was open. [Turn into a negative sentence]

(v) The sun began to sink behind the trees, the Tsar stuck the spade into the ground at last. [Turn into a complex sentence]

(vi) The most important thing in the world was science. [Change into positive degree]

(b) Fill in the blanks with appropriate articles and/or prepositions: [¹/2 × 6 =3]

When my father came out _______ the mosque after the prayers, people of different religions would be sitting outside, waiting ______ him. Many of them offered bowls of water _____ my father, who would dip his fingertips ______them and say a prayer. This water was then carried home _____ invalids.

(c) Correct the error in the following sentence by replacing the underlined word with the right one from the options given below: [1×1=1]

You might run that comb through your hair so you will look present.

[Options presently/presentable/presenting]

5. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

Sometimes it is hard to believe that I’ve been up here in the hills all these years-fifty summers and monsoons and winters and Himalayan springs (there is no real spring in the plains)- because when I look back to the time of my first coming here, it seems like yesterday.

That probably sums it all up. Time passes and yet it doesn’t pass; people come and go, the mountains remain. Mountains are permanent things. They are stubborn, they refuse to move. You can blast holes out of them for their mineral wealth; or strip them of their trees and foliage, or dam their streams and divert their currents; or make tunnels and roads and bridges; but no matter how hard they try, humans cannot actually get rid of the mountains. That’s what I like about them; they are here to stay.

I like to think that I have become a part of this mountain, this particular range and that by living here for so long, I am able to claim a relationship with the trees, wildflowers, and even the rocks that are an integral part of it. Yesterday, at twilight, when I passed beneath a canopy of oak leaves, I felt that I was a part of the forest. I put out my hand and touched the bark of an old tree and as I turned away, its leaves brushed against my face, as if to acknowledge me.

(a) State whether the following statements are True or False. Write ‘T’ for True and ‘F’ for False. (You need not write the sentences, write only the numbers) [1×4=4]

(i) The oak leaves formed a roof over the author.

(ii) The author does not like the fact that mountains are permanent things.

(iii) The author means to say that he has lived through all the seasons in the mountains.

(iv) Humans cannot do away with the mountains.

(b) Answer each of the following questions in about 30 words: [2×3=6]

(i) What can man do to mountains?

(ii) What does the author claim a relationship with?

(iii) Why is it hard to believe for the author that he has lived in the hills for fifty years?

6. (a) Write a report on a campaign on ‘Educate the Girl child’ organised by your school. Mention the role of both students and teachers, the purpose of this campaign, participation, response and so on. The report will be published in your school magazine. (Word limit: 150 words) [2+8=10]

(b) Write a letter to the Headmaster/Headmistress of your school requesting him/her to make more variety of books available in the library. (Word limit: 150 words) [2+8=10]

Charlie Chaplin once said, “In this age of scientific inventions, we think too much, we feel too little.” Science boosts up the modern craze for material prosperity. It has revolutionized our lives. It has made life more comfortable with various amenities. It is undoubtedly the driving force behind any human excellence. But it kills the soul of a man. Our skills and habits are changed by science. Excessive mechanization brings unhappiness because human faculties are slighted. A person starts believing that machines will do all for him and this tendency becomes fatal in this high-tech world. But none can doubt that science has helped us to discover the hidden truth in nature. Can we ever imagine the modern age without computers, lasers, antibiotics, biotechnology or different electronic gadgets? That is why it is said that science gives knowledge and power but not wisdom.

PART B [Marks:20]

Multiple Choice Type Questions (MCQ) & Short Answer Type Questions (SAQ) of 1 mark

Instruction to the Candidates:

1. The candidates are required to write his/her Full Name, Roll Number and Registration Number on the Question-cum-Answer Booklet According to the Admit Card issued by the Council (If it is wrongly written, the Question-cum-Answer Booklet may be rejected). It is compulsory for the examinee to get the Questions-cum-Answer Booklet signed by the invigilator in the space provided.

2. A box is provided on the right side against each question of MCQ. You must write the correct choice (a, b, c, or d) in this box. For SAQ of 1 mark, the answer is to be written in the specific given space against each question, not anywhere else.

3. After completion of the examination this Question- cum-Answer Booklet must be tied securely with the main Answer-script.

	Marks Awarded
…………………………………………Signature of the invigilator	MCQ=______________ SAQ =	………………………………………. Signature of the Examiner
	Total =	Awarded marks must be posted in the cage provided on the First page of the main Answer Script of the Candidate

1. Complete each of the following sentences, choosing the correct option from the alternatives provided : [1 x 4 = 4]

(i) On entering her room Mrs Jones asked Roger to –

(a) eat dinner (b) comb his hair

(ii) The girl in the train compartment thought the narrator to be –

(a) gallant (b) serious

(iii) The wounded man was actually –

(a) enemy of the hermit(b) enemy of the Tsar

(iv) Abdul Kalam’s father would convey complex spiritual concepts in simple, down-to-earth

(a) Arabic (b) Urdu

2. Answer any four of the following questions, each in a complete sentence: [1 x 4 = 4]

(i) Where was the girl in the story ‘The Eyes Have It’ getting off?

Ans.

(ii) When and where did Roger and Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones meet?

Ans.

(iii) What, according to the hermit, is the most important thing to do?

Ans. (iv) Whom did Kalam consider to be a very close friend of his father?

Ans.

(v) What was the hermit doing when the Tsar came to take leave of him?

Ans.

(vi) What shoes and jeans was Roger wearing?

Ans.

(vii) What did Abdul Kalam’s father use to avoid?

Ans.

(viii) Who did the narrator for ‘The Eyes Have It’ think to be formidable creatures?

Ans.

3. Complete each of the following sentences, choosing the correct option from the alternatives provided : [1 x 4 = 4]

(i) Nature is pleaded to keep the soldier –

(a) pleasant (b) warm

(ii) Being tired, the Grasshopper rests beneath –

(a) green hedge (b) bushes

(iii) Green twigs that rise from close to the ground are –

(a) straight (b) curled

(iv) “…his gold complexion dimmed.” Here ‘his’ refers to –

(a) the sun (b) the sky

4. Answer any four of the following questions, each in a complete sentence: [1 x 4 = 4]

(i) Where does the stream leave ‘long strands of silver’?

Ans.

(ii) What might one hear on alone, cold and silent winter evening?

Ans.

(iii) What kind of a poem is ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’?

Ans.

(iv) Where does the tree’s strength lie?

Ans.

(v) ‘Slowly consuming the earth’- What does the expression ‘consuming the earth’ mean?

Ans.

(vi) What shall death not brag about in Shakespeare’s poem?

Ans.

(vii) Where do the birds hide when they are ‘faint with the hot sun’?

Ans.

(viii) Where does the soldier lie stretched?

Ans.

5. Complete each of the following sentences, choosing the correct option from the alternatives provided : [1 x 4 = 4]

(i) Natalya suggested that Lomov should not go after foxes but –

(a) catch black beetles (b) go after horses

(ii) Lomov wanted to remind Natalya that her dog was –

(a) ugly (b) old

(iii) Chubukov said that Lomov’s younger aunt had run away with –

(a) a hunter(b) a drunkard

(iv) The worst of Lomov’s physical problems is –

(a) the way he sleeps (b) his palpitations

Previous Year HS English Question – 2019, WBCHSE

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