English Set B 2017-2018 HSC Commerce (English Medium) 12th Standard Board Exam Question Paper Solution

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
The Jahangir Art Gallery, the State Bank of lndia building and the canteen close by which offered affordable fare, the amazing street fare, bhelpuri and vadapav. The joy of reading Bombay Times with its page 3 people one would never meet but who seemed like old friends. The Strand bookstore where one could browse for hours. And just when a book was longingly but firmly put down from nowhere, Mr Shanbagh would materialise magically at one's elbow with a special price. Not to forget the joys of trawling the booklined pavements at Fountain, where one could watch the world go by. And wherever I chose to go, there was always my friend, the sea, oh. I loved her, in all her moods, but especially in the monsoon when violent and enraged she splattered Worli seaface with walls of sea spray. My friends are lost, some passed away, some moved away, there were many whose names I never found out, though we took the train together, or met in the lift, every day.

Like every migrant, I promise myself, someday I will return. I may, perhaps, return sometime, but even so, I know, "that one cannot step into the same river twice." You seduced me steadily, o Mumbai, with your glamour and bright lights. City of dreams, tinsel town. I pay tribute to you. Today, I say good-bye with a heavy heart.

(1) What does this extract focus on?

(2) Which mood of the sea did the writer like the most?

(3) How would the writer spend her free time?

( 4) According to you, how can you make your locality clean and beautiful?

(5) Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed :
(i) She splattered Worli seaface with walls of sea spray.
(Rewrite it using the Simple Present tense.)

(ii) I never found out their names though we took the train together
(Make it a Compound Sentence.)

(iii) I promise myself, someday I will return.
(Rewrite it using the modal auxiliary 'must'.)

(6) Find out the words from the extract which mean -

(i) courageously

(ii) attracted

Do as directed :

He wanted to become _____ artist and live in ____ Himalayas.
(Fill in the blanks with the appropriate articles.)

Do as directed :

 She was able to talk ____ the group______ her experience.
(Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions.)

Do as directed:

"Why are you crying?" said the woman to a little boy.
"I want a balloon," he said.
(Change it into Indirect Speech.)

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

Read the following extract carefully and present the information in the form of notes with the help of the given clues :
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was the first Vice President and second President of India.
He was a teacher, a philosopher and 'an author. He had introduced the thinking of Western idealist philosophers like Plato, Plontinus, Bergson into Indian thought.
He was born on 5th of September, 1888 in a poor Brahmin family. As his father could not afford his education expenses, Radhakrishnan supported most of his education
through scholarships. He completed his B.A. and M.A. with majors in philosophy. He went on to become a professor of philosophy. He showed that Indian Philosophy, once translated into standard academic jargon, is worthy of being called philosophy by Western standards.
He thus, placed Indian Philosophy on world map.
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan had established a strong relationship with the Soviet Union when he w Is appointed as the ambassador to the Soviet Union.
He has been honoured with many awards for his achievements nationally and internationally. He was honoured with the Bharat Ratna in 1954. He is also acknowledged with the Templeton Prize, Peace Prize of German Book Trade, Order of Merit and many other honours.
Title : Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Birth : 5th September, 1888
Qualifications : B.A. ___________
Introduced thinking of : _________,_________and ____ into Indian thought.
Work : Translated_____________ into standard____________
Ambassador : __________________________________
Honours : National___________
                International Order of Merit

(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)

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.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you have the will to live and courage to die
You are a beacon-light for people far and wide
If you ignore the j eers and, thus, expose the lie
' That virtue and success do not go side by side.'
You are the person I am looking for.

(1) What advice does the poet give us about the interaction with others?  (1)
(2) According to you, how should you behave with your parents?  (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line : If you have the will to live and courage to die'  (1)

(4) Pick out the words from the extract which indicate negative traits.  (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

(1) Why are the wealthy kingdoms unstable'? (1)

(2) Do you feel wars are the only solution to the problems between nations'? Explain. (1)

(3) Give the rhyming scheme used in the extract.  (1)

(4) Pick out the words/expressions related to the mighty kingdom.  (1)

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

[You may begin with: My friend was scheduled to die on May 1945.]
"Don't call me Herman anymore," I said to my brother.
"Call me 94983 ".

I was put to work in the camp's crematorium, loading the dead into a hand-cranked elevator I, too, felt dead. Hardened, I had become a number.
Soon my brother, and I were sent to Schlieben, one or Buchelwald's sub -camps near
One morning I thought I heard my mother's voice.
"Son," she said softly but clearly, "I am going to send you an angel."
Then I woke up. Just a dream. A beautiful dream.
But in this place there could be no angels. There was only work. And hunger. And fear.
A couple of days later, I was walking around the camp, around the barracks, near the barbedwire
fence where the guards could not easily see. I was alone.
On the other side of the fence, I spotted someone : a little girl with light, almost luminous
curls. She was half hidden behind a birch tree.
I glanced around to make sure no one saw me. I called to her softly in German. "Do you
have something to eat?"
She didn't understand.
I inched closer to the fence and repeated the question in Polish. She stepped forward. I was
thin and gaunt, with rags wrapped around my feet, but the girl looked unafraid.
In her eyes, I saw life.
She pulled an apple from her woollen jacket and threw it over the fence.
I grabbed the fruit and, as I started to run away, I heard her say faintly, "I'll see you
tomorrow."

Read the following extract and convert it into a dialogue between Daisy and the Lark in about I 20 words :

[You may begin with Lark: I have no water ....... ]
"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 ifI 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 its 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 : the bird noticed it, although it was dying with thirst and in its pain tore up the green blades of grass, but did not touch the flower.

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

So the good Duke and his followers helped him to bring Adam to their hidingplace, 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.

Letter Writing :
Write a letter of application in response to the following advertisement with the help of the given C. V. (Resume):                 

C. V. (Resume)

Name :Aruna Anil Shinde
Address : Bl-104, Rose Parade, S. B. Road, Nagpur.
Educational Qualifications :

Other qualifications : Successfully completed
Computer Diploma from NIIT, Nagpur 2014.
Work Experience : Worked as the Purchase Officer in
Login Private Ltd., Nagpur.
Interest/Hobbies : Reading, music, swimming, chess.
Languages Known: English, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati.

Write a letter to the Editor of a Newspaper drawing attention to the noise pollution in your locality. Suggest some solutions.

Write a short tourist's leaflet about any Hill Station that you know with the help of
the following points :
• How to reach there
• Accommodation facilities
• What to see
• Shopping attractions
• Anything special about the place.

Imagine that your college arranged a Cleanliness Drive in which your Principal, social activist, the local MLA, doctors, teachers and students participated on a large scale. The event was a grand success as it made people aware of cleanliness and social hygiene. Prepare a short report for your college magazine with the help of the following points :
Venue, chief guddest, inauguration, unique participation, and conclusion.

Read the following tree diagram about 'Morphemes' and write a short paragraph on it.

Prepare a paragraph with an appropriate title to be used for the Counter-View Section on the following topic in about 120 words :
"Facebook is a user-friendly device."
You may take help of the following points included in the View Section:

Answer the following question as per instructions:
Framing Questions :
            On the occasion of 'Annual Sports Prize Distribution' programme a well-known sports personality is invited in your college as a chief guest. As a sports secretary you have got an opportunity to interview him/her. Frame a set of 8-10 questions regarding his/her achievements, inspirations, best moment and prizes he/she has won.

Answer the following question as per instruction:
Speech Writing :
Imagine that your college has organised an 'elocution competition' and the topic of the competition is 'Save Trees, Trees Save'. Prepare a short speech with the help of the points given below :
Providers of human needs, ecological balance, rain showers, etc.