Commerce (English Medium)
Science (English Medium)
Arts (English Medium)
Academic Year: 2016-2017
Date & Time: 8th March 2017, 12:30 pm
Duration: 3h
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Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1. We sit in the last row, bumped about but free of stares. The bus rolls out of the dull crossroads of the city, and we are soon in open countryside, with fields of sunflowers as far as the eye can see, their heads all facing us. Where there is no water, the land reverts to desert. While still on level ground we see in the distance the tall range of the Mount Bogda, abrupt like a shining prism laid horizontally on the desert surface. It is over 5,000 metres high, and the peaks are under permanent snow, in powerful contrast to the flat desert all around. Heaven Lake lies part of the way up this range, about 2,000 metres above sea-level, at the foot of one of the higher snow-peaks.
2. As the bus climbs, the sky, brilliant before, grows overcast. I have brought nothing warm to wear: it is all down at the hotel in Urumqi. Rain begins to fall. The man behind me is eating overpoweringly smelly goat's cheese. The bus window leaks inhospitably but reveals a beautiful view. We have passed quickly from desert through arable land to pasture, and the ground is now green with grass, the slopes dark with pine. A few cattle drink at a clear stream flowing past moss-covered stones; it is a Constable landscape . The stream changes into a white torrent, and as we climb higher I wish more and more that I had brought with me something warmer than the pair of shorts that have served me so well in the desert .The stream (which, we are told rises in Heaven Lake) disappears, and we continue our slow ascent. About noon, we arrive at Heaven Lake, and look for a place to stay at the foot, which is the resort area. We get a room in a small cottage, and I am happy to note that there are thick quilts on the beds.
3. Standing outside the cottage we survey our surroundings. Heaven Lake is long, sardine-shaped and fed by snowmelt from a stream at its head. The lake is an intense blue, surrounded on all sides by green mountain walls, dotted with distant sheep. At the head of the lake, beyond the delta of the inflowing stream, is a massive snow-capped peak which dominates the vista; it is part of a series of peaks that culminate, a little out of view, in Mount Bogda itself.
5. "Swimming?" Mr. Cao says. "You aren't thinking of swimming, are you?"
6. "I thought I might," I confess. "What's the water like?"
7. He doesn't answer me immediately, turning instead to examine some receipts with exaggerated interest. Mr. Cao, with great off-handedness, addresses the air. "People are often drowned here," he says. After a pause, he continues. "When was the last one?" This question is directed at the cook, who is preparing a tray of mantou (squat white steamed bread rolls), and who now appears, wiping his doughy hand across his forehead. "Was it the Beijing athlete?" asks Mr. Cao.
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, complete the statements given below with the help of options that follow:
(a) One benefit of sitting in the last row of the bus was that:
(b) The narrator was travelling to:
(c) On reaching the destination the narrator felt relieved because:
(d) Mount Bogda is compared to:
Answer the following questions briefly:
(e) Which two things in the bus made the narrator feel uncomfortable?
(f) What made the scene look like a Constable landscape?
(g) What did he regret as the bus climbed higher?
(h) Why did the narrator like to buy food from outside?
(i) What is ironic about the pair of trousers lent by Mr. Cao?
(j) Why did Mr. Cao not like the narrator to swim in the lake?
(k) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following:
Chapter: [0.06] Reading Skills
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
1. Thackeray reached Kittur along with a small British army force and a few of his officers. He thought that the very presence of the British on the outskirts of Kittur would terrorise the rulers and people of Kittur and that they would lay down their arms. He was quite confident that he would be able to crush the revolt in no time. He ordered that tents be erected on the eastern side for the fighting forces and a little away on the western slopes tents be put up for the family members of the officers who had accompanied them. During the afternoon and evening of 20thOctober, the British soldiers were busy making arrangements for these camps.
On the basis of your understanding of the above passage complete the statements given below with the help of options that follow:
(ii) army officer
(iii) adviser to Rani of Kittur
(iv) treasury officer
(ii) enjoy life in tents
(iii) stay in the palace
(iv) give company to officers
(c) Why did Thackeray come to Kittur?
(d) Why did the Kittur officials refuse to give the desired assurance to Thackeray?
(e) What happened to the Horse Artillery?
(f) How do we know that the Rani was a noble queen?
(g) How in your opinion would the British women have felt after meeting the Rani?
(h) Why did the Rani refuse to meet Thackeray?
(i) Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following :
ii. aggressive/refusing to obey (para 2)
Chapter: [0.06] Reading Skills
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
The most alarming of man’s assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrevocable; the chain of evil it initiates is for the most part irreversible. In this contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world; radiation released through nuclear explosions into the air, comes to the earth in rain, lodges into the soil, enters the grass or corn, or wheat grown there and reaches the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death. Similarly, chemicals sprayed on crops lie long in soil, entering living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and harm those who drink from once pure wells.
It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth and reached a stage of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. The environment contained elements that were hostile as well as supporting. Even within the light of the sun, there were short wave radiations with power to injure. Given time, life has adjusted and a balance reached. For time is the essential ingredient, but in the modern world is no time.
The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is no longer the bombardment of cosmic rays; it is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make adjustments are no longer merely calcium and silica and copper and all the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried in the rivers to the sea; they are the synthetic creations of man’s inventive mind, brewed in his laboratories, and having no counterparts in nature.
(a) On the basis of your understanding of the above passage make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (wherever necessary-minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply a title to it.
(b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.
Chapter: [0.06] Reading Skills
The Principal, Sunshine Public School, Dindigul has invited the Inspector of Police (Traffic) to deliver a lecture on 'Road Safety' in her school. Draft a notice in about 50 words informing the students to assemble in the school auditorium
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
Publicly we proclaim that dowry is an evil. Privately we want our sons to fetch good dowries. Right from our school days we should be taught that demanding and even giving dowry is not only illegal but immoral too. Draw a poster in about 50 words highlighting dowry as a curse. You are Vikram/Sonia.
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
There is a senior secondary school running right in the middle of Manu Vihar, a middle class colony full of housing society flats. In the morning as well as in the afternoon the road passing in front of the school is congested with school buses, mini buses, private cars, etc. Writer letter in 120-150 words to the Dy. Commissioner (Traffic) to provide at least two traffic police constables to regulate the traffic. You are Gautam/Gita, A-21, Akashdeep Apartments, Manu Vihar, Delhi.
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
Sunshine Public School, Pune requires two sports coaches (one male and one female). Each should be a degree holder in physical education as well as an SAI certified coach in athletics. You have seen their advertisement and you know that you have these qualifications. Write an application in 120-150 words along with your resume. You are Praveen/Praveena, M-114, Najafgarh, Delhi.
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
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Every teenager has a dream to achieve something in life. What they are going to become tomorrow depends on what our youth dream today. Write an article in 150-200 words on 'What I want to be in life'. You are Simranjit/Smita
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
History Society of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Krishna Nagar sent a group of students to visit a place of historical interest. You, Anant/Anita, were its leader. Write a report in 150-200 words for the school newsletter on the tour, describing the place, its history, how you reached there and all that you have learnt.
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
After the rainy season is over, mosquitoes start breeding. They cause malaria, dengue, chikungunya, etc. These diseases can sometimes prove to be fatal. As Principal of your school you have decided to deliver a speech on protection from mosquitoes. Write that speech in 150-200 words.
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
"A career counsellor (not you, yourself) is the best person to guide you in the choice of career." Write a debate in 150-200 words either for or against the motion.
Chapter: [0.05] Writing Skills
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel's game, in three room, other than this.
(a) Why is the class dim?
(b) How is the young child different from others?
(c) What is he doing?
(d) What is a tree room?
Chapter: [0.022000000000000002] An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Aunt Jennifer's fingers fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
(a) What is Aunt Jennifer doing with her wool?
(b) Why does she find it difficult to pull her ivory needle?
(c) What does 'wedding band' stand for?
(d) Describe the irony in the third line.
Chapter: [0.026000000000000002] Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers
Answer any four of the following question in 30 – 40 words each:
(a) ''What a thunderclap these words were to me!'' (Franz). What were those words and what was their effect of Franz?
(b) Why did Douglas fail to come to the surface of the pool as he hoped to?
(c) What was Kamala Das's childhood fear?
(d) How is the Earth a source of life when all seems dead on it? Keeping Quiet)
(e) How does Mr. Lamb react when Derry enters his garden?
(f) Which problem did the Maharaja face when he had killed seventy tigers? How did he solve it?
Chapter: [0.06] Reading Skills
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Answer the following question in 120−150 words: "For the children it is wrapped in wonder, for the elders it is a means of survival." What kind of life do the rag-pickers of Seemapuri lead?
Chapter: [0.012] Lost Spring
Answer the following question in 120−150 words:
The peddler believed that the whole world is a rattrap. How did he himself get caught in the same?
Chapter: [0.013999999999999999] The Rattrap
Answer the following question in 120-150 words:
In India, the so-called lower castes have been treated cruelly for a long time. Who advised Bama to fight against this prejudice, when and how?
Chapter: [0.0208] Memories of Childhood
Answer the following question in 120-150 words:
To choose between professional loyalty and patriotism was a dilemma for Dr. Sadao. How did he succeed in betraying neither?
Chapter: [0.0204] The Enemy
Answer the following question in 120-150 words:
Attempt a character sketch of Dr. Kemp as a law-abiding citizen.
Chapter: [0.032] The Invisible Man by Hg Wells
Answer the following question in 120-150 words:
Lammeter sisters have money but not class or education. What do you think about them?
Chapter: [0.031] Silas Marner by George Eliot
Attempt the following question in 120−150 words:
Why and how did Griffin burglarise the vicarage?
Chapter: [0.032] The Invisible Man by Hg Wells
Attempt the following question in 120−150 words:
How did Silas' treatment of Sally Oates affect his life at Raveloe?
Chapter: [0.031] Silas Marner by George Eliot
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