Previous Year HS English Question

ENGLISH-B (New Syllabus)

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

Instruction 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) “She would forget our brief encounter” – Who said this and about whom? What is the ‘brief encounter’ referred to here? Why did the speaker think so? [2+2+2]

(b) What had remained the routine for Abdul Kalam’s father even when he was in his late sixties? What does Abdul Kalam say about his emulation of his father? [3+3]

(c) “I would teach you right from wrong” – Who said this, to whom and when? How did the speaker transform the person spoken to here? [1+1+1+3]

(d) What were the questions that had occurred to the Tsar? Why did he need correct answers to those questions? What did he do when he was not satisfied with the answers of the learned men? [3+1+2]

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

(a) Justify the title of the poem ‘On Killing a Tree’.

(b) “A solider, very young, lies open-mouthed” – Who is the ‘solider’ referred to here? Narrate in your own words how the soldier lies in the valley.

(d) What picture of summer is presented in “The Poetry of Earth’? How has it been carried onto the picture of winter? [4+2]

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

(a) Why did Lomov think about taking a decision about getting married? Whom did he want to marry? Why? [3+1+2]

(b) Describe the character of Chubukov as a sensible father.

(c) “Forgive us Ivan Vassilevitch, we were all a little heated.” – Who is the speaker? Who are referred to by ‘us’? Why were the persons referred to ‘a little heated’? Why does the speaker ask for forgiveness? [1+1+2+2]

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

(i) “Then I won’t turn you loose,” said the woman to the boy (Turn into indirect speech]

(ii) I found the window. [Change the voice]

(iii) A man, getting into the compartment, stammered an apology. [Split into two simple sentences]

(iv) This is not a correct approach. [Rewrite as an affirmative sentence]

(v) She was silent. [Rewrite as a negative sentence]

(vi) She did not leave the door shut. [Turn into affirmative sentence]

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

I was prepared _________ sit there ________ almost any length ________ time, just to listen ________ her talking. Her voice had ______ sparkle a mountain stream.

(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]

They seemed very ancient about her comfort. [Options: anxious/anxiety/anxiously]

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

Time is invaluable. It follows ceaselessly on without any consideration for the convenience of any man, however important or high-placed he may be. And time once gone is gone forever. Lost wealth may be regained by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance and medicine but lost time cannot be recovered by any means.

Many do not realise this. They waste their time, thinking that they would make up for the loss in future. But the hope may never be realised. Every moment of our time has its particular duty. Putting off our work, therefore, means over-burdening us, that is making our tasks heavier and more difficult in future. This is why students who neglect their studies from day to day often fail in spite of very hard labour before the examination. They can neither acquire knowledge nor build up character and suffer all their life as a consequence. Besides, who can say what this future will be whether it will not be worse than the present? Some unforeseen obstacles may arise, we may be suddenly taken ill; there may be some family calamity; financial difficulties may fall upon us, and then we shall find that the task has become much harder, if not too hard. Moreover, if we begin to put off things, we shall soon get into the habit of indolence and thus slowly bring about our own ruin.

(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)

(i) The loss of time can be regained.

(ii) A wise man always wastes time.

(iii) A man cannot make up his health.

(iv) A lost moment is lost forever.

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

(i) Name the things that can be recovered by man?

(ii) How can one make one’s task harder?

(iii) How can a student fail in the examination?

6. (a) Write a report on the annual sports of your school to be published in the school magazine. (Word limit: 150 words)[2+8=10]

(b) Your company makes wooden furniture and a customer wants to buy 15 chairs. Write a reply to the customer’s enquiry. Mention the rates, time needed for delivery, and delivery cost in your letter. (Word limit: 150 words) (2+8=10]

Vidyasagar had both the originality of a genius and the sterling strength of a heroic character. He thought out a new technique of teaching Sanskrit more easily to beginners and wrote a series of primers in the Sanskrit language and literature adapted to modern needs. He also arranged for the collection and preservation of old Sanskrit books. In Bengali prose, Vidyasagar’s work was a landmark. He evolved an elegant, although a bit too stately and chaste style of writing which impressed everybody.

Between 1874 and 1863, he wrote a series of books in Bengali which became classics to the students of literature. In these, he drew his impartially from the Indian epics and popular tales as well as from western fables and biographies. His ‘Bengali Primer’ for beginners is even today in household use. But Vidyasagar was no mere scholar or man of letters. As an educational reformer, he opened the Sanskrit college to non-Brahmin boys and provided classical scholars with some English education as well. As an administrator of vision, he rendered splendid service in his capacity of government inspector and in four districts he organised a total of 35 girls’ schools and 20 model schools. He was closely associated from its early days with the institution which now bears his name and which under his fostering care became the outstanding example of a non-official, secular and popular institution for higher education with a purely Indian teaching staff. He was equally interested in women’s higher education and was secretary to the Bethune School for some time. (250 words)

PART B [Marks: 20]

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

	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

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 Book-let 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 Question-cum-Answer Booklet signed by the invigilator in the space provided.

2. A box is provided at the right side against each question of MCQ. You must write the Correctchoice (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.

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

(i) Kalam’s father would take him to the mosque for –

(a) pre-dawn prayers (b) evening prayers

(ii) The bearded man was wounded by –

(a) the Tsar’s son b) the Tsar’s friend

(iii) The blind girl said that she would get off at –

(a) Nainital (b) Mussoorie

(iv) Mrs Jones gave the boy –

(a) five cents (b) ten cents

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

(i) What according to the narrator of Ruskin Bond’s story ‘The Eyes Have It’ is the best time to visit the hills?

Ans.

(ii) Where did Mrs Jones work?

Ans.

(iii) Where did Roger fall on losing his balance?

Ans.

(iv) What according to Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam’s father does adversity always present?

Ans.

(v) Who broke into the narrator’s reverie?

Ans.

(vi) Why did the man want to take revenge?

Ans.

(vii) In which town was Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam born?

Ans.

(viii) Whom did the hermit receive?

Ans.

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

(i) One hand of the soldier is on his –

(a) face (b) gun

(ii) The grasshopper is associated with the season –

(a) winter (b) autumn

(iii) The bark of the tree is described as ‘leprous hide’ because –

(a) it is soft and smooth

(b) it is wounded by the knife

(d) it is glossy and shining

(iv) The winds that blow in summer in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 are –

(a) blamy (b) hot

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

(i) What does the phrase ‘earth cave’ refer to?

Ans.

(ii) How does the stream look like in the poem ‘Asleep In The Valley’?

Ans.

(iii) How is the ‘gold complexion’ of the sun dimmed?

Ans.

(iv) Where do all the birds hide in Keats’s ‘The Poetry of the Earth’?

Ans.

(v) What scorches and chokes the tree after it is pulled out?

Ans.

(vi) Why does the poet ask Nature to keep the soldier warm?

Ans.

(vii) “And summer’s lease hath all to short a date” – What is meant by ‘summer’s lease’?

Ans.

(viii) Who has ‘never done/with his delights’?

Ans.

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

(i) The name of Natalya’s dog is –

(a) Squeezer (b) Guess

(ii) When Lomov arrived, Chubukov was surprised by his –

(a) evening dress (b) shyness

(iii) Lomov comes to Chubukov’s house –

(a) to propose to his daughter

(b) like a good neighbour

(d) to borrow money from Chubukov

(iv) Chubukov is a –

(a) landowner (c) merchant

(b) lawyer (d) physician

Previous Year HS English Question – 2016, WBCHSE

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