English Set C 2015-2016 HSC Commerce (English Medium) 12th Standard Board Exam Question Paper Solution

Read the following extract and answer the questions given
below : 

          In 1945 in Bay Roberts, Canada, a 12-year-old boy saw something in a shop window that set his heart racing. But the price -five dollars-was far beyond Reuben Earle's means. Five dollars would buy almost a week's groceries for his family.
         Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money. Everything Mark Earle made by fishing, Reuben's mother, Dora, stretched like elastic to feed and clothe their five children.
      Nevertheless, he opened the shop's weathered door and went inside. Standing proud and straight in his flour-sack shirt and washed out trousers, he told the shopkeeper what he wanted, adding, "but I don't have the money now. Can you please hold it for me?" ·
    "I will try," the shopkeeper smiled. ''Folks around here don't usually have that kind of money to spend on things. It should keep for a while.,.
     Reuben respectfully touched his worn cap and walked out into the May sunlight. The bay rippled in a freshening wind that ruffled his short hair. There was purpose in his loping stride. He
would raise the five dollars and not tell anybody.
     Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea.

     He ran towards the sound and stopped at a construction site. People built their own homes in Bay Roberts, using nails purchased in burlap sack from a local factory. Sometimes the sacks were discarded in the flurry of buildings, and Reuben knew he could sell them back to the factory for five cents a piece.

(1) What did Reuben decide to do to raise the required amount?
(2) How much money did Reuben need? Why?
(3) Why couldn't Reuben ask his father for the money?
(4) What is special about the gifts which are given on special occasions?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences as directed :
(i) Reuben couldn't ask his father for the money.
(Rewrite the sentence using ' be able to'.)
(ii) Hearing the sound of hammering from a side street, Reuben had an idea. 
(Rewrite the sentence using 'and'.)
(iii) He could sell them back to the factory.
·(Rewrite the sentence beginning with: 'They ..... ')

(6) Match the words in column 'A' with their meanings in
column 'B':

Do as directed:
Rewrite the following sentence by inserting the appropriate articles wherever necessary :
I read interesting story from Mahabharata.

Do as directed:
Rewrite the following sentence using the appropriate prepositions :
One of the things that distinguishes man....... other animals is the power........... speech.

Do as directed:
Change the following into indirect speech:
Mother said, “Sunita, what did you buy from the market?” She said, “I bought a dictionary.”

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

Researchers recently announced the earth could actually withstand up to 200,000 times the current population. They arrived at this figure by calculating the amount of heat a human body emits, and only at 1·3 million billion would the earth be too hot to be habitable. And though it would feel like being ina can of sardines if that figure were ever reached, the earth is capable of comfortably sustaining a population several times the current 6·5 billion.
In fact, fertility is actually on the decline worldwide. Though the population has grown, the rate of growth has fallen sharply. Twenty years ago, the UN projected that the population would reach 11·I6 billion in 2050, today they say it will reach only 9·3 billion. Moreover, the human population will stabilize at about 11·5 billion. While this figure is almost twice the current one, it is hardly claustrophobic.
True, the demands on resources are heavy even now, but this is more due to the manner in which these resources are being used. In fact, figures show that a bigger population does not amount to greater consumption. Over 20% of the world's people in the highest-income countries account for 86% of total private consumption expenditure - the poorest 20% a tiny 1·3%. With just 5% of the world's population, the US consumes about 40% of the world's resources. Would you say the US is overpopulated?
  Concerns on the scarcity of food are equally baseless. In fact, global food production has actually kept up with population growth. If people starve in many countries it is not because food is becoming scarce; it is because those people cannot afford it.

Questions:
(1) What conclusions did the researchers arrive at?

(2) How does the writer explain that fertility is on the decline?

(3) What does the extract predict about the fear of scarcity of food?

(4) How will the population become a gift in the global market scene?

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) The earth could withstand up to 200,000 times the current population.
(Rewrite the sentence using the modal auxiliary showing 'certainty'.)
(ii) The earth would be too hot to be habitable.
(Remove 'too' and rewrite the sentence.)
(iii) These resources are being used.
(Rewrite the sentence beginning with, 'We ........... .')

(6) Write the antonyms of:
(i) habitable
(ii) stabilize

Read the following extract and complete the table given below :
   Computer Assisted Language Leaming (CALL) materials come in two main formats: CD/DVD RO Ms and Web-based. Some are tailored to the content to be used in the classrooms whereas others can be used independently. CALL materials allow you to work at your own pace.
   Multimedia materials offer you the opportunity to take part in other computer-assisted activities, such as text-based gap-filling, multiple-choice and text reconstruction activities. Language teachers often develop such text-based CALL activities to accompany a particular course. CALL materials can be regularly updated.
   Because CALL learning activity types are usually designed from a template, they can sometimes be repetitive.
   A major advantage of CALL materials is that they offer instant feedback on your spoken or written performance. However, such feedback can be limited. If you are more interested in creating your own responses or elaborating on your ideas, you may find this type of Facebook frustrating. Web-based CALL materials can offer more variety through the use of hyperlinks, but feedback is still limited.
Just as representations of the cultures of the target language offered by courses using books; audio and videotapes can perpetuate stereotypes.

(A) Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
   Chronic floods during the monsoon, on average, affect more than 30 million Indians annually Ironically, 60% of India's farmland, 66% of its livestock and its entire forest area depend on rains for survival.
   According to a recently released Central Water Commission (CWC) report, on an average, 7·21 million hectares (roughly 72,000 sq. km.) go under floodwater. This water typically ravages 3·78 million hectares of agricultural land, damaging crops worth Rs. 1, 118 crores annually.
   Heavy rains and floods account for nearly 1,700 lives lost annually. Apart from this, I ·25 lakh houses are annually damaged by torrential rains that also wipe out nearly 96,000 livestock.
   Floods are the most recurrent natural calamity, hitting India almost every year. According to the CWC's report on financial aspects of flood control, anti-sea erosion and drainage projects, it is not possible to provide absolute protection instantly to all flood-prone areas. It says that such an attempt will neither be practical nor economically viable.
   The CWC's analysis of floods in India from 1953 to 2011 shows a marginal decline in flood-affected areas over the years, the data shows 1977 1978 and 1979 were the worst-hit. The 1977 floods killed over 11,000 people, six-time the average for the 59 years, between 1953 and 2011. In terms of area and population affected, the floods of 1978 were the most destructive.
  In terms off the financial loss, recent floods have been far more destructive. The total loss of crops, houses and public utilities in 2009 was Rs. 32541 crores, the highest for any year.

Question
(1) What is the above extract about?

(2) How do floods adversely affect India?

(3) Why is it not possible to provide absolute protection to all flood-prone areas?

(4) How would you help the flood-affected people?

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) The floods of 1978 were the most destructive.
(Change the sentence into the 'positive degree'.)
(ii) Floods are the most recurrent natural calamity hitting India almost every year.
(Make it a complex sentence.)
(iii) Floods have been far more destructive.
(Rewrite the sentence using the Simple Present tense.)

(6) Give the meanings of:
(i) entire
(ii) calamity

(B) Write a brief summary of the above extract with the help of the points given below and suggest a suitable title.
Floods - natural, recurrent calamity in India - destroy life and property - no absolute protection - neither practical nor economically viable- floods in 1977 and 1978. 

Read the following extract and answer the questions given  below:

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children you love, you seem to abuse.
Look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself, pink, yellow and blue.
She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise,
And you never saw the tears in her eyes."

(1) What did the mother think as she lay sleepless in the bed?
(2) According to you, why shouldn't we hurt the feelings
of others?
(3) Pick out any two pairs of rhyming words from this
extract.
(4) What kind of poem is this? What is its purpose?

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

How do you know
Peace is a woman?
 I know, for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way 
to the world's fare.
She had such a wonderful face
just like a golden flower faded
before her prime.

(1) How does the poet describe the face of peace?
(2) Do you think there is a way out of the war-ridden world? What is it?.
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
"I met her yesterday 
on my winding way."
(4) The poet asks the question and herself answers it. What effect does it create in the extract?

Read the following extract and rewrite it as if the dentist is narrating it:

[You may begin as: I told George that I thought I had seen him somewhere before .......... ]

Read the following extract and convert it into a dialogue between Daisy and the captive lark in about 8 to 10 sentences : 

[ you may begia with : Lark : Oh! how painful it is to be in the cage ! ] 
         And  so the daisy stayed, and was brought into the lark cage. The poor. bird was lamenting its lost liberty, and beating its wings against the wires; and the little daisy could not speak or utter a consoling word, much as it would have liked to do so. So the forenoon passed.
   "I have no water," said the captive lark, "they have all gone out, and forgotten to give me anything to drink. My throat is dry  and burning. I feel as if I had fire and ice within me and the air is so oppressive. Alas! I must die, and part with the warm sunshine, the fresh green meadows, and all the beauty that God has created." And it thrust its beak into the piece of grass, to refresh itself a little. Then it noticed the little daisy, and nodded to it,'and kissed it with It.s beak and said , "You must also fade in here, poor little flower. You and the piece of grass are all they have given me in exchange for the whole world, which I enjoyed outside. Each little blade of grass shall be a green tree for me, each of your white petals a fragrant flower. Alas! You only remind me of what I have lost." .
('I wish I could console the poor lark," thought the daisy. It could not move one of its leaves, but the fragrance of its delicate petals streamed forth, and was much stronger than such flowers usually have

Read the following extract and extend it by adding an imaginary paragraph of your own in about 120 words :

    Someone was standing in the doorway. An elderly woman,
very fluffy, very pink. Her cheeks were pink, her dress was pink,
her hair was bunched up and white. She was straight out of Agatha Christie.
        "Miss Marple!" I exclaimed.
        ''May I come in?" asked the pink lady.
       "Please come in " said my mother. ''Do sit down. Do you
  require a room?" '
     ''Not today, thank you. l'm staying with Padre Dutt. He insisted on putting me up. But I may want a room for a day or two - just for old times' sake."
     "You've stayed here before."
     "A long time ago. I'm Mrs Green, you know. The missing
Mrs Green. The one for whom you put up that handSome tombstone in the cemetery. I was very touched by it. And I'm glad you didn't add ' Beloved "wife of Henry Green ', because I didn't love him any more than he loved me."

Write an application in response to the following advertisement using information given in the CV provided :

Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper highlighting in it the importance of cleanliness and the need for public participation in the cleanliness drive in your district

Write short paragraph in about 120 words to be used for the Counter - View section on the following topic:
“Science and Technology development have helped us in all walks of life”.
You may take help of the following points from the View section.

Imagine you have to interview an old woman who lives in an ‘old - age home’. Write a set of 8 to 10 questions for the interview. You may take help of the following points:

• Her family, reasons for being in an old-age home, her feelings and expectations, her advice, etc.

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