(Download) CBSE Class-12 Sample Paper (Creative Writing and Translation Studies) 2015

Time: 3 hours

Maximum Marks: 80

SECTION A- Reading Comprehension (20 Marks)

Q1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

(7 marks)

For bizarre items floating in the ocean, try topping this: The upper half of a set of false teeth, seen bobbing around in the South China Sea.

“I remember thinking: ‘How on earth did it get there?”’ said Lindsay Porter, a marine scientist.

The teeth, gripped in their plastic gums, are part of the millions of tons of plastic trash that somehow ends up in oceans around the world every year. Mostly, it is more mundane stuff, the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life: picnic plates, bottles, cigarette lighters, toys, spoons, flip-flops etc.

Taken together, the virtually indestructible mass is now so large that it is causing environmentalists, government officials and the plastics industry itself to sit up and take note. Many scientists believe marine plastic pollution is one of the major issues — along with climate change — facing the planet.

The problem is not the plastic itself: Even those who lobby against plastic pollution acknowledge that plastic materials help combat climate change, for example by reducing the weight — and thus fuel consumption — of vehicles, or by helping to insulate buildings.

Most of that ends up in landfills. Some is recycled. But a significant amount ends up in the sea, swept there via rivers or sewage drains, discarded on beaches or dumped from ships. Exact figures are hard to come by, but some researchers estimate that 4.7 million tons reaches the sea each year, according to Plastic Oceans, a London-based charity that has enlisted numerous scientists to create a full-length documentary film on the topic.

Bear in mind that this stuff does not just biodegrade like food waste, wood or paper. Scientists believe it takes decades, if not centuries, for most types of plastic to degrade. That means virtually all the plastic material that has ever ended up in the ocean is still out there.

“When a plastic crate or bottle floats around in the ocean, it does not biodegrade. It only breaks into smaller and smaller pieces — which are still plastic,” said Peter Kershaw of the British marine science center Cefas, who helps advise the United Nations on marine environmental protection issues.

Some of the debris sinks to the ocean floor. Some washes back onto land, sometimes in remote and once-pristine parts of the world.

But most is gradually swept up by ocean currents, which have assembled the assorted mess into five “gyres,” or garbage patches, in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Do not imagine these to be vast, tangible floating islands of trash that you can walk across. Yes, there are visible chunks of debris — some large enough to trap or choke wildlife.

Mostly, however, the plastic soup consists of tiny fragments, some the size of a fingernail, some much smaller, floating on or below the surface across thousands of kilometers.

New York Times

On the basis of your understanding of the passage answer the following questions:

a) What is the chief concern of the author in this article? 1
b) Can plastic be advantageous to society in any way? 1
c) What is alarming about plastic soup? 1
d) Find a word in the passage which means the opposite of impure 1
e) Name a material that is biodegradable. 1
f) What is a gyre and how does it impact marine wildlife? 2

Q2. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

(7 marks)

Maggie Tries to Run away from Her Shadow

Maggie's intentions, as usual, were on a larger scale than Tom imagined. The resolution that gathered in her mind, after Tom and Lucy had walked away, was not so simple as that of going home. No! She would run away and go to the gypsies, and Tom should never see her any more. That was by no means a new idea to Maggie; she had been so often told she was like a gypsy, and "half wild," that when she was miserable it seemed to her the only way of escaping opprobrium, and being entirely in harmony with circumstances, would be to live in a little brown tent on the commons; the gypsies, she considered, would gladly receive her and pay her much respect on account of her superior knowledge.

She had once mentioned her views on this point to Tom and suggested that he should stain his face brown, and they should run away together; but Tom rejected the scheme with contempt, observing that gypsies were thieves, and hardly got anything to eat and had nothing to drive but a donkey. To-day however, Maggie thought her misery had reached a pitch at which gypsydom was her refuge, and she rose from her seat on the roots of the tree with the sense that this was a great crisis in her life; she would run straight away till she came to Dunlow Common, where there would certainly be gypsies; and cruel Tom, and the rest of her relations who found fault with her, should never see her any more. She thought of her father as she ran along, but she reconciled herself to the idea of parting with him, by determining that she would secretly send him a letter by a small gypsy, who would run away without telling where she was, and just let him know that she was well and happy, and always loved him very much.

Maggie soon got out of breath with running. She stopped to pant a little, reflecting that running away was not a pleasant thing until one had got quite to the common where the gypsies were, but her resolution had not abated.

On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the following questions:

a) What had Maggie decided to do? 1

b) How did Maggie expect to be treated by the gypsies? 1

c) ‘Today however, Maggie thought her misery had reached a pitch at which gypsydom was her refuge…’ What does the author tell us about Maggie’s misery? 1

d) As she was running Maggie thought that--------( complete the sentence) 1
i. Her father would never forgive her.
ii. Tom would find her and then be cruel to her.
iii. The gypsies would be very kind to her.
iv. It was not very easy to run away.

e) The word in the story which means the same as ‘harsh criticism’ is-----------. 1

f) ‘Even though Maggie was running away from home, she loved her father.’ Do you agree? Give your reasons. 2
 

Click Here To Download Full Sample Paper

<<Go Back To Main Page