Proficiency Test in English – 2011

Maximum Marks: 100
Time: 2.30 Hours
The question paper contains 100 questions. All questions are compulsory. The questions are divided into the following parts:
Reading Comprehension: This is a sample passage (200 words), shorter than the one which will appear in the test (which will be of 300-350 words), but of the same level of difficulty. In the sample, 5 MCQs are given. In the actual paper, there will be 10 MCQs on each passage (see above) . Read the following passage and choose the correct answer for the questions: In this world it is not only futile for the small to appeal to authority, it is dangerous as well. Fortunately, the tiny voice seldom reaches big ears or who knows what might happen? When Gafur returned home from the landlord’s and quietly lay down, his face and eyes were swollen. The chief cause of so much suffering was Mahesh. When Gafur left home that morning, Mahesh broke loose from his tether, and entering the grounds of the landlord, had eaten up flowers and upset the corn drying in the sun. When finally they tried to catch him, he had hurt the landlord’s youngest daughter and had escaped. This was not the first time this had happened, but Gafur was forgiven because he was poor. If he had come around, and as on other occasions, begged for the landlord’s forgiveness, he would probably have been forgiven but instead he had claimed that he paid rent, and that he was nobody’s slave. This was too much for Shibu babu, the landlord, to swallow. Gafur had borne the beatings and tortures without protest. At home, too, he lay in a corner without a word. His heart burnt within him like the sun outside. He kept no count of how time had passed.

Q. 1 In the passage, whose voice is described as `tiny’?
a. The voice of the big people
b. The voice of the small people
c. The wrong people
d. The people who are strong

Q.2 Why were Gafur’s eyes and face swollen?
a. He had been beaten by the landlord.
b. He was ill.
c. He was lying down
d. He had been hurt physically by Mahesh

Q.3 Why did Gafur not ask the landlord’s forgiveness?
a. He was poor.
b. He didn’t bother about the landlord.
c. He was happy that the landlord’s property had been damaged.
d. He wanted to save his dignity

Q 5. `To keep count of time’ means:
a. To be able to count
b. To be aware of the passage of time
c. To be unconscious
d. To look at a clock

Website: www.cbse.nic.in

Courtesy: cbse.nic.in