English Set A 2016-2017 HSC Commerce (English Medium) 12th Standard Board Exam Question Paper Solution

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

Now, as I stood on the shore of that desolate Highland loch
I raised my voice in a surge of self-justification : ''By Heavens!
This is my opportunity. Gastric ulcer or no gastric ulcer, I will
write a novel.'' Before I could change 1ny mind I walked straight to the village and bot1ght myself two dozen penny exercise books.
Upstairs in my cold, clean bedroom was a scrubbed deal table and a very hard chair. Next morning, I found myself in this chair, facing a new exercise book open upon the table, slowly' becoming aware that, short of dog-Lati11 prescriptions, I had never composed a significant phrase in all my life. It was a discot1raging thought as I picked 11p my pen and gazed out of the window. Never mind, I would begin. Three hours later Mrs. Angus, the farmer's wife, called me to dinner. The page was still blank.
As I went dow-n to m:y milk and junket-they call this  "curds'' in Tarbert - I felt a dreadful fool. I felt like the wretched poet in Daudet's Jack whose im1nortal masterpiece never progressed beyond its stillborn opening phrase : ''In a remote valley of Pyrenees ..... ". I recollected, rather gri111ly, the sharp advice with which my old schoolmaster had goaded me to action. ''Get it down!'' he had said. ''If it ~tops in your head it will always be nothing.
Get it down.'' And so, after lunch, I went upstairs and began to get it down.

(1) What is the main idea of the extract? (1)
(2) Why did the narrator buy two dozen penny exercise books? (2)
(3) How was the narrator unprepared for writing his novel? (2)
(4) Write in brief about what you will do in your forthcoming vacation. (2)
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
(i) I stood on the shore of that desolate Highland loch.
(Rewrite it using 'used to'.) (1)
(ii) I went down to my milk and junket.
(Rewrite it in the Past Perfect Tense.) (1)
(iii) I walked straight to the village and bought myself
two dozen penny exercise books. (Make it simple). (1)
(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean:
(i) chance  (1/2)
(ii) lake   (1/2)

Fill in the blank with appropriate article
J.R.D. Tata was an amazing personality. He always helped _______ poor in the country.

Do as directed :
They stood_______ silence as a mark honour to her._______
(Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions.)

Do as directed :
 ''Where are you going?'' he asked. ''Pune, Sir, my husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune.''
(Change it into Indirect speech.)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
We commemorate so many special days such as Republic Day, Independence Day, Mother's Day and so on. Well, here is one day that deserves not only a commemoration but our total dedication - Earth Day, 22 April. At Sanctuary, we live our lives like every day is Earth Day, but we all believe that it would be, fantastic to remind our relatives, friends, neighbours, teachers, and elders on this day that protecting Mother Earth can end up making us both happy and safe.
Will you do something this Earth Day? Here's a handy list of things you can do-

(1) Cut Consumption: Consume as little as possible on Earth Day. This 'is a day·when you ca!l Refuse (to buy new things), Repair and Reuse (old stuff), Recycle (what you cannot reuse), Reject (stuff that is toxic or dangerous to the environment) and Renew (your purpose and resolve to protect the planet).

(2) Cut Energy: (a) Ditch the old incandescent bulbs and shift to CFLs or LEDs (Google both to find out more). (b) Walk or use public transport, try not to use private cars to save fuel. Carpool. Cut down on trips. Use Skype· instead of traveling for meetings. (c) Switch off unnecessary gadgets. (don't just use the remote .... walk to the mains!).

(3) Cut Waste: Start a waste segregation system in your building, school or neighbourhood. Compost organic waste, sell what you can to the raddi-wallah and give him a small token of.. appreciation also for he is protecting your world. Collect unused papers from old notebooks and make new ones from them.

(4) Cut out plastic: Speak to at least five shopkeepers in your area and tell them you and your friends will only use their shops if they move away from wasteful plastic packaging, particularly thin plastic bags.

(1) What do you understand from this extract?
(2) What steps can we take to keep our environment clean?
(3) Why should we commemorate Earth Day?
(4) What is your opinion regarding shifting to CFLs or LEDs?
(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) Earth Day deserves a commemoration and our total dedication.
(Use 'not only - but also'.)
(ii) Start a Waste Segregation System in your building.
(Rewrite it beginning with 'Let'.)
(iii) You can sell waste to the raddi-wallah and give him a
small token of appreciation.
(Replace the modal auxiliary by another showing 'obligation'.)
(6) What do the following words in the extract mean?
(i) resolve
(ii) toxic

Read the following extract and complete the note with the help of the clues provided : 
Vitamins are either fat-soluble (A, D, E, K) or water-soluble (B vitamins, including niacin, folic acid and riboflavin, and vitamin C). They consist mainly of the elements nitrogen, oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. Fat-soluble vitamins are stored in bod)' fat, while water-soluble vita1nins are used or quickly excreted in the urine.
Vitamin A is essential for the eyes, skin, hair, and bones; the B vitamins help enzymes to function; C is essential for the formation of collagen; D helps the body absorb calcium; E prevents cell damage, and K helps blood clotting. Most vitamins cannot be produced by the body and so must be obtained directly from food.

VITAMINS

(A) Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
Oil is one of the world's major sources of energy. We depend on it as fuel for heating, transport, and generation of power.
For centuries, animal and vegetable oils have been used for cooking and as a source of artificial light. But it is mineral oil which meets most of the world's needs today.
Crude mineral oil comes out of the earth as a thick brown or black liquid with a strong smell. It is a complex mixture of many different substances, each with its own individual qualities. Most of them are combinations of hydrogen and carbon in varying proportions. Such hydrocarbons are also found in other forms such as bitumen, asphalt and natural gas. Mineral oil originates from the carcasses of tiny animals and from plants that live in the sea. Over millions of years, these dead creatures form large deposits under the sea bed and ocean currents cover them with a blanket of sand and silt. As this material hardens, it becomes sedimentary rock and effectively shuts out the oxygen so preventing the complete decomposition of the marine deposits underneath. The layers of sedimentary rock become thicker and heavier. Their pressure produces heat, which transforms the tiny carcasses into crude oil in a process that is still going on today.
The earth's crust is split into a few hu·ge continental plates which move continuously rather like rafts on a sluggish tide. Geologists call this rnoven1ent as 'continental drift'.

(1) What does the extract ·tell us about?

(2) In which form does crude mineral oil come out of the earth and from what does it originate?

(3) How is 'continental drift' formed?

(4) According to you, how can we stop the excessive use of energy?

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) Oil is one of the world's major sources of energy.
(Rewrite it as a negative sentence without changing its meaning.)

(ii) As this material hardens, it becomes sedimentary rock.
(Make it a compound sentence.)

(iii) Geologists call this movement 'con·tinental drift'.
(Frame a 'Wh-question' to get the underlined part as an answer.)

(6) Give the antonyms from the extract for :
(i) artificial
(ii) lighter

(B) Write·a brief summary of the above extract with the help of the points given below and suggest a suitable title.
Oil as a source of energy - our dependence - types of oil -mineral oil origin of crude oil formation of crude oil-farming of sedimentary rocks - continental drift

Read the following extract a.nd answer the questions given below:
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten 
because it seems that is the way of the world:
an endless track of champions
and in a corner we, forgotten
maybe because of everybody else,
since they seemed too much like us
until they were robbed of their laurels,
their medals, their titles, their names.

(1) What is the way of the world?

(2) Do you think the middle-class people are satisfied with 
their lives? Explain.

(3) Name and explain the figure· of speech in the following lines:  ''Since they seemed so much like us.''
(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract showing the failure of man.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly ...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

(1) What do you think is the underlying message of the extract?

(2) Which qualities of great men would you like to imbibe in you?

(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words of the first stanza.

(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract which show the hard work of brave men.

Read the following extract and rewrite it from the point of view of Orlando:

[You may begin with : When Duke senior and his followers
were taking meal I rushed ...... ]

The Duke senior and his followers were sitting down to a
meal one day when Orlando rushed out from among the trees, his sword in his hand. 'Stop, and eat no more!' he cried. The Duke and his friends asked him what he wanted. 'Food,' said Orlando. 'I am almost dying of hunger. ' 
They asked him to sit down and eat, but he would not do so. He told them that his old servant was in the wood, dying of hunger. 'I will not eat a bite until he has been fed ', Orlando said.
So the good Duke and his followers helped him to bring
Adam to their hiding place, and Orlando and the old man were fed and taken care of. When the Duke learned that Orlando was a son of his old friend Sir Rowland de Boys, he welcomed him gladly to his forest court.
Orlando lived happily with the Duke and his friends, but he had not forgotten the lovely Rosalind. She was always in his thoughts and every day he wrote poetry about her, pinning it on the trees in the forest. 'These trees shall be my books,' he said, 'so that everyone who looks in the forest will be able to read how sweet and good Rosalind is.'
Rosalind and Celia found some of these poems pinned on
the trees. At first they were puzzled, wondering who could have written them; but one day Celia came in from a walk with the news that she had seen Orlando sleeping under a tree, and she and Rosalind guessed that he must be the poet.

Read the following extract and convert it into a dialogue in about 120 words :

[You may begin with: Herman: Roma, let's come here ..... ]

We piled back into Siq's car, Roma and I sharing the backseat. As European Jews who had survived the war, we were aware that much had been l.eft unsaid between us. She broached the subject, ''Where were you during the war?'' She aked softly.
'The camps,' I said, the terrible memories still vivid, the
irreparable loss I had tried to forget. But you can never forget.
She nodded. ''My family was hiding on a farm in Germany,
not far from Berlin,'' she told me. ''My father knew a priest, and he got us Aryan papers.''
I imagined how she 1nust have suffered too, fear, a constant
companion. And yet here we were both survivors, in a new world.
''There was a carmp next to the farm,'' Roma continued. ''I
saw a boy there and I would throw him apples every day.''
What an amazing coincidence that she had helped some
other boy. ''What did he look like?'' I asked. ''He was tall, skinny, and hungry. I must have seen him eve1y day for six months''.
My heart was racing. I couldn't believe it. This couldn't be.
''Did he tell you one day not to come back because he was leaving Schlieben?''
Roma. looked at me in amazement. ''Yes!''
''That was me!''
I was ready to burst with joy and awe, flooded with emotions.
I couldn't believe it! My angel!
''I'm not letting you go." I said to Roma. And in the back of
the car on that blind date, I proposed to her. I didn't want to wait.

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

The evening came, and nobody appeared to bring the poor bird a drop of water; it opened its beautiful wings, and fluttered about in its anguish; a faint and mournful ''Tweet, tweet,'' was all it could utter, then it bent its little head towards the flower, and its heart broke for want and longing. The flower could not, as on the previous evening, fold up its petals and sleep; it dropped sorrowfully. The boys only came the next morning; when they saw the dead bird, they began to cry bitterly, dug a nice grave for it, and adorned it with flowers. The bird's body was placed in a pretty red box; they wished to bury it with royal honours. While it was alive and sang they forgot it, and let it suffer want in the cage; now, they cried over it and covered it with flowers. The piece of turf, with the little daisy in it . was thrown out on the dusty highway.

Read the following advertisement and prepare a letter of application in response to it by using the information given in the C. V. (Resume) that follows :

Your locality is facing the problem of irregular water supply.
Write a letter to the concerned authority about it.

Read the following Intros of news items. Choose any ONE of them and write the headline, the dateline and a short continuing paragraph for it.
(i) A shortage of onions in Maharashtra has surged prices by 30 percent. It forced the authorities to import onions from abroad.
(ii) The birth anniversary of the late President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan was celebrated yesterday in Saraswati Kanya Pathshala as Teacher's Day.

Your college is going to arrange a rally to raise funds to help drought affected farmers. Prepare a short appeal for people to join the rally with the help of the following points:
(i) Use slogans.
(ii) Make a persuasive appeal for generous donation.
(iii) Time and place of the rally.
(iv) Famous personality to lead the rally.
(v) Add your own points.

Study carefully the following pie-chart about the Income Sources of a City Budget and write a short continuing paragraph based on it in about 120 words :

Prepare a paragraph with an appropriate title to be used for the Counter-View Section on the following topic in about 120 words:
''Can the use of Internet enhance students' learning?''
You can take the help of the following points from the View Section.

Answer the following questions as per instructions:

Imagine that you are a journalist and you have been assigned the task of interviewing a film actor/actress. Frame a set of 8 to 10 questions to interview him/her.

Prepare a speech on 'Father's Day' with the help of the following
points :
(1) Man of practical attitude.
(2) Thinker of the future.
(3) Pillar of family.
(4) Greatest family support.