HSC Arts (English Medium) इयत्ता १२ वी - Maharashtra State Board Important Questions for English

Imagine you have to give a speech on the topic ‘India’s Changing Villages’. Write a speech on it about 100 words.

     Have you are wondered why soldiers are always clad in green? This is to enable them to camouflage themselves during wartime. Hiding in the jungles, their green attire blends into the surrounding trees and shrubs, making it difficult for the enemies to spot them.

        Long before man-made use of camouflaging, insects have already adopted the tactic of disguise to escape from the clutches of their predators. By having body colour close to those of the rocks and dried leaves, they can escape from being pursued by the predators.

       Butterflies and moths have developed a variety of camouflage strategies since they are quite defenceless and their predators are abundant. Possessing wings which resemble dried leaves help certain butterflies and moths to hide among heaps of dried leaves when predators are around.

   Fortunately, not all insects choose the art of disguise to escape from their predators; otherwise, the world would be so dull and colourless. There are insects which assimilate the bright body colours of bees and wasps to escape from being pursued by their predator. Long ago, birds have already learnt to avoid brilliantly coloured wasps and bees in fear of their painful stings. Hence, over millions of years, many harmless insects have assimilated the bees and wasps by imitating. their bright body colours and shapes. In this way, they appear dangerous and hence ward them off.

      The beefy, not only appears like the bumblebee in terms of body colour, even its hums sound similar too. The only difference is that the beefy does not have a stirring and is hence harmless. The hoverfly is another insect which imitates. the body colours of the wasps. Their bodies are striped yellow and black. The only deviations are that hoverflies do not have stings, and they have only one pair of wings each while wasps have two pairs each. These variations are hardly noticed by the predators and hence help them to escape.

A1. Complete the table with the information from the passage : (2)

A2. Complete the tree diagram : (2)

A3. Find out : (2)

‘Nature has given a self-protection mechanism to insects’.
Find out at least two examples from the passage to prove this statement. 

A4. Vocabulary - (2)

Find the words from the passage for :
(i) animal or bird that hunts other for food
(ii) to get free from danger
(iii) to prevent something from harming
(iv) to make a copy

A5. Personal response - (2)

‘Soldiers disguise themselves to prevent enemies to spot them’.
Give two more examples when the disguising technique is used by humans.

A6. Grammar - (2)

Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) They have only one pair of wings.
(Make it negative without changing the meaning)
(ii) Insects have already adopted the tactic of disguise to escape from the clutches of their predators.
(Replace infinitive with gerund and rewrite)

(B) Summary : (3)

Summarise the above extract with the help of the points given and suggest a suitable title.
Camouflage of soldiers and insects - reason and ways for disguising - assimilation of insects - need of imitation.

Write a letter to The Chief Officer, Road Transport Authorities, drawing his attention to the problem of frequent traffic jams in your locality suggesting some solutions for the problem. 

Your college is 20 km away from your village. You go to the college by S.T. bus, but the bus timings are not convenient for you and other students. Write a letter of complaint to the  Depot Manager of your town/city. Suggest some solutions for the problem.

Leaflet -
Prepare a short Tourist Leaflet on any hill station you like, with the help of the following points :
• How to go there
• Where to stay
• Places worth visiting
• Shopping attractions
• Add your own points 

Report writing -
Your college celebrated the ‘World Environment Day’. You are the Class Representative. Write a report on the  elebration of the ‘World Enviornment Day’ with the help of the help of the following points:
(i) Inauguration of the function
(ii) Address by the Chief Guest
(iii) Various activities carried out
(iv) Exhibition arranged
(v) Vote of thanks

Counter-view -
Read the following View Section and Develop a Counter-View Section in about 120 words :

Interview Questions : 
Imagine that you are going to interview a Sarpanch of a village, who has been selected for ‘Adarsh Gaon Award.’ Frame a set of 8 to 10 questions to interview him/her.

Speech Drafting : 

Your college has organized an elocution competition. One of the topics therein is ‘Importance of Health’. Prepare a speech on it in about 100 words with the help of the  following points :  

• Importance of exercise
• Importance of yoga
• Importance of diet

Read the following extract and complete the table given below about 'Types of Diseases':

         Health is defined as not simply the absence of disease. It involves a state of feeling well, both in body and in mind. 

      The diseases may be classified into the following types, Some diseases are present at birth. They are called congenital diseases. They may develop during pregnancy or are inherited, Some of them may be caused by environmental factors. Examples of congenital diseases are Down's syndrome, sickle cell anaemia, cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, etc.

      Some diseases are acquired by humans themselves and hence are called Self-Inflicted or Acquired diseases. Examples of acquired diseases are coronary heart diseases, hypertension.

      Some diseases are transmitted from one person to another. They are called as Communicable or Infectious diseases. They are caused by biological agents, Examples of communicable diseases are Cholera, Typhoid, Measles, Malaria, etc.

      Non- communicable diseases are caused by exogenous factors like physical, chemical, nutritional deficiencies. The examples are Kwashiorkor, Pellagra, Scurvy, and Rickets, etc.  

                                                Title

Mr. Manoj S. Patil, age 26, M.Tech, Electrical from 'Manas', Om Colony, Vidhyavihar, Nagpur wants to apply in response to the following advertisement. Prepare a job application.

You intend to make a general awareness among people about the hazardous effects of plastic carry-bags.

Write a letter to the Editors of a newspaper Highlighting the improper disposal of plastic carry-bags and also suggest some solutions to solve this problem.

Prepare a short tourist leaflet on any hill-station you have visited with the held of points given below:

(i) How to reach there?

(ii) Accommodation.

(iii) Worth-seeing places.

(iv) Specialties.

(v) Add your own points. 

Write a report about the celebration of the 'Republic Day' at your college.

Read the following tree-diagram and prepare a short paragraph regarding 'Soil Erosion'. 

Prepare a paragraph to be used for the counter view-section on the following topic:

"There should be a dress-code for Junior College students."
You can take the help of the following points in the view-section.

The election of your village ‘Gram Panchayat’ is just over. You have to take an interview of the newly elected ‘Sarpanch’. Frame at least 8 questions related to his future planning for the welfare of your village.

You are the captain of your college cricket team. You have your final match on Sunday. Your teammates are nervous. Prepare a speech motivating them to face the challenge courageously. (About 100 words)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
But even in a poverty-free world where every man and woman would earn enough to take care of themselves and their family, there would still be situations of temporary poverty due to a sudden catastrophe or misfortune, a bankruptcy or business downturn leading to failure, or some personal disease or disaster.

A poverty-free world might see a whole group of families, locations, or even regions devastated by some shared disasters, such as floods, tire, cyclones, riots, earthquakes or
other disasters. But such temporary problems could be taken care of by the market mechanism through insurance and other self-paying programmes, assisted of course by social-consciousness-driven enterprises.

There would always remain differences in lifestyle between people at the bottom of society and those at the top income levels. Yet that difference would be the difference between the middle-class and luxury class, just as on trains in Europe today you have only first-class and second-class carriages, whereas in the nineteenth century there were third- class and even fourth-class carriages - sometimes with no windows and just hay strewn on the floor.

Can we really create a poverty-free world? A world without third-class or fourth-class citizens, a world without a hungry, illiterate, barefoot under-class?

(1) What is the extract about?

(2) How will the poverty-free world take care of natural disasters?

(3) According to the writer, what would, 'the world without poverty' be like?

(4) What can we do to help the poor in our society?

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) Temporary problems could be taken care of by market mechanisms.
(Rewrite the sentence beginning with 'Market mechanism ........ ')

(ii) In the nineteenth century, there were third-class carriages.
(Form a Wh-question to get the underlined part as an answer.)

(iii) There would still be situations of temporary poverty.
(Rewrite it using 'can'.)

( 6) What do the following words in the extract mean -

(i) devastated

(ii) hay

(A) Read the fo llowing extract and answer the questions given below :

Kalpana Chawla was extremely proud other birth-place and made every effort to bring it into the lime-light. During space flights she vit, (mid prondk point it out to her Fellow-astronauts. Once, during the second Hight she remembered her closest friend, Dais Chawla, who died in a road accident. In fact, despite her celebrity status, she took pains to track down her former teachers, classmates and friends in India and showed a keen desire to stay in touch with them.

Her affectionate and humble nature won the hearts of all who came in contact with her. Although Kalpana had a strong desire to go to Mars, fly over its canyons she was equally concerned about the well-being of the earth. She always urged young people to listen to the sounds of nature and take care of our fragile planet. During, her space trips, she took many breatlitakilig photographs of the earth for various terrestrial studies later on the ground. When she was in space, she always felt a sense of connection with everyone on the earth.

It was Kalpana's cherished desire to visit India again. But that was not to be. A few months after her tragic death, Harrison visited India. He went to her school and college, met her family, teachers and friends and scattered her ashes over the Himalayas.

(1) What is the extract about? (1)

(2) How was Kalpana connected with India and Indians? (2)

(3) How was Kalpana concerned about the well-being of the earth? (2)

(4) What would you like to do For India? (2)

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:

(i) She took many breathtaking photographs of the earth.
(Rewrite it using the Present Perfect Continuous tense.) (1)

(ii) He scattered her ashes over the Himalayas.
(Rewrite it beginning with 'Her ashes ...... ')(1)

(iii) Kalpana was extremely proud of her birth-place and made every effort to bring it into limelight.
(Rewrite it using 'not only ...... but also'.)(1)

( 6) Give the antonyms from the extract for -

(i) collected                           (1/2)
(ii) forgot                              (1/2)

(B) Summary :
Write a summary of the above extract with the help of the following
points and suggest a suitable title :
Points : Kalpana's affection towards India and Indians her humble - nature her love for the earth Harrison's visit to India. (4)