English Set 1 2021-2022 SSC (English Medium) 10th Standard Board Exam Question Paper Solution

I was still a thief when I met Anil. And though only 15, I was an experienced and fairly successful hand.

Anil was watching a wrestling match when I approached him. He was about 25- a tall, lean fellow - and he looked easy-going, kind and simple enough for my purpose. I hadn't had much luck of late and thought I might be able to get into the young man's confidence.

"You look a bit of a wrestler yourself," I said. A little flattery helps in making friends.

"So do you," he replied, which put me off for a moment because at that time I was rather thin.

"Well," I said modestly, "I do wrestle a bit."

"What's your name ?"

"Harl Singh," I lied. I took a new name every month. That kept me ahead of the police and my former employers.

After this introduction, Anil talked about the well-oiled wrestlers who were grunting, lifting and throwing each other about. I didn't have much to say. Anil walked away. I followed casually.

"Hello again," he said.

I gave him my most appealing smile. "I want to work for you." I said.

"But I can't pay you."

I thought that over for a minute. Perhaps I had misjudged my man.

I asked, "Can you feed me ?"

"Can you cook?"

"I can cook," I lied again.

"If you can cook, then may be I can feed you."

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 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. Because of the project's success, UNESCO and the International Council on Monuments and Sites initiated a draft convention to create an international organisation responsible for protecting cultural heritage.

Shortly thereafter in 1965, a White House Conference in the United States called for a "World Heritage Trust" to protect historic and cultural sites but to also protect the world's significant natural and scenic sites. Finally, in 1968, the International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar goals and presented them at the United Nations Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. Following the presentation of these goals, the Convention concerning the Protecting of World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO's, General Conference on November 16, 1972.

Night of the Scorpion

I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Parting with his poison - flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room -
he risked the rain again.
The peasants came like swarms of flies
And buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.
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.
More candles, more lanterns, more neighbours,
more insects, and endless rain.
My mother twisted through and through,
groaning on a mat.
My father, sceptic, rationalist,
trying every curse and blessing,
powder, mixture, herb and hybrid.
He even poured a little paraffin
upon the bitten toe and put a match to it.
I watched the flame feeding on my mother.
I watched the holy man perform his rites to tame the
poison with an incantation.
After twenty hours
it lost its sting.
My mother only said
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
And spared my children.

Fireflies are beetles and go through several life stages, starting out as an egg, then hatching into larvae. At the juvenile stage, they turn into pupae and then, finally adults. Fireflies spend most of their lives in a larval stage, hidden away. There are 2000 different species of fireflies. But they all go through a long juvenile stage and a short adult life, which is mainly about courtship, mating and reproduction. The juveniles living underground or underwater, are very different though-they're hunters, they eat snails and soft-bodied insects and they have very different habitats.

Conserving them is essential for human life as fireflies are a key part of the food web. They are predators of agricultural pests. In turn, they are prey for spiders and other insects. They are completely enmeshed in the web of life. In addition, about 70 years ago, scientists unravelled the mystery of fireflies' light-producing talents. Since then, the bio-chemical reactions that fireflies experience have been used in detecting bacterial contamination in foods, testing drugs against cancer, developing drought-resistant crops. They have been used in space exploration. So fireflies give us beauty and inventions. Fireflies carry oxygen, calcium, magnesium and a natural chemical called luciferin. These react together to produce the photons. This is how the fireflies glow.

Firefly tourism is growing across the world. In Maharashtra, for example, a particular species monsoon fireflies, emerge before the rains. They're beautiful and a festival is held in Purushwadi, encouraging firefly tourism. Its wonderful that people around the world go to see fireflies in their natural habitat. We need to be cautious. Too many people can disturb adult and larval habitats. Fireflies need darkness to communicate with each other and we need fireflies because they are harbingers of hope.

Fireflies are beetles and go through several life stages, starting out as an egg, then hatching into larvae. At the juvenile stage, they turn into pupae and then, finally adults. Fireflies spend most of their lives in a larval stage, hidden away. There are 2000 different species of fireflies. But they all go through a long juvenile stage and a short adult life, which is mainly about courtship, mating and reproduction. The juveniles living underground or underwater, are very different though-they're hunters, they eat snails and soft-bodied insects and they have very different habitats.

Conserving them is essential for human life as fireflies are a key part of the food web. They are predators of agricultural pests. In turn, they are prey for spiders and other insects. They are completely enmeshed in the web of life. In addition, about 70 years ago, scientists unravelled the mystery of fireflies' light-producing talents. Since then, the bio-chemical reactions that fireflies experience have been used in detecting bacterial contamination in foods, testing drugs against cancer, developing drought-resistant crops. They have been used in space exploration. So fireflies give us beauty and inventions. Fireflies carry oxygen, calcium, magnesium and a natural chemical called luciferin. These react together to produce the photons. This is how the fireflies glow.

Firefly tourism is growing across the world. In Maharashtra, for example, a particular species monsoon fireflies, emerge before the rains. They're beautiful and a festival is held in Purushwadi, encouraging firefly tourism. Its wonderful that people around the world go to see fireflies in their natural habitat. We need to be cautious. Too many people can disturb adult and larval habitats. Fireflies need darkness to communicate with each other and we need fireflies because they are harbingers of hope.

CELEBRATING THE GIRL CHILD

-by a Staff Reporter

12th Oct, Nashik:

Yesterday, the city celebrated International Girl Child Day. Various programmes were organized across the city to felicitate girls who are young achievers. Speaking on the occasion the Govener said that as a nation we should educate and empower the girl child .......

CELEBRATING THE GIRL CHILD

- by a Staff Reporter

12th Oct, Nashik:

Yesterday, the city celebrated International Girl Child Day. Various programmes were organized across the city to felicitate girls who are young achievers. Speaking on the occasion the Govemer said that as a nation we should educate and empower the girl child ...............

Turtles and tortoises are closely related. They are both reptiles from the same family (Testudines or Chelonian). The main difference between the two is that turtle is the name given to water-dwellers and tortoise is the name given to land-dwellers. They are easily identified by the presence of a shell, from which their head and limbs protrude.

Turtles are found in Africa and America. Its shell is lighter and more streamlined than that of a tortoise. To enable swimming, it has webbed feet with long claws. Turtles are omnivores, eating both vegetation and meat. Their lifespan is shorter than that of the tortoise with an average of 20-40 years and a maximum of 86 years.

Tortoises are found mainly in Asia and Africa, but also in America. It has a rounder, bumpier, heavier shell than a turtle. Its bent legs are short and sturdy. Tortoises are usually herbivores, but some eat meat, their lifespan is longer than that of the turtle with an average of 80-150 years and a maximum of 188 years.