SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT I (2011)
ENGLISH COMMUNICATIVE - Class
IX
SAMPLE QUESTION PAPER
Maximum Marks:
90
Time: 3 hours
The question paper is divided
into four sections.
Section A: Reading
20 marks
Section B:
Writing 25 marks
Section C:
Grammar 20 marks
Section D:
Literature 25 marks
SECTION A - (READING – 20 MARKS)
Q1. Read the following
passage carefully: (10 marks)
School used to be all about
writing, whether it was the exercise books we wrote in or the notes we passed
around. But not any more. Now it’s all about typing. Learning your QWERTY is
almost as important as learning your ABC.
So, when my daughter came home
last year with cursive handwriting homework, I was nonplussed. Cursive writing
was originally developed to make it easier for children to write with a quill.
By joining up the letters, it kept the quill on the parchment and minimized ink
blots. But my daughter writes with a laptop. I explained as much to her teacher
at the next parents’ day.
But the teacher explained that
research suggests that the process of writing information down on paper, by
hand, has a more direct effect on the formation of memories in the learning
process than typing. Taking notes in class is still the most effective way to
learn. It’s a better way to store the skills for written language in a child’s
brain than pressing keys.
She went on to say, “But that
doesn’t mean that one should ditch computers. Children should be taught to
touch-type early on. She just feels that learning is aided by the physical act
of writing. Authors often write their first draft by hand. Whether it’s to do
with the pace of thought, or some kind of stimulation the physical act has, we
don’t know. But it’s a fact.”
The French would doubtless
agree. They love their handwriting. Teachers in France believe that fluency with
a pen ‘unlocks the mind’ and they spend more time on writing than reading
between the ages of three and eight.
We teach children the formation
of letters and the appropriate joining strokes. But after a few years we leave
them on their own devices, just as the written workload starts to increase.
That’s when the bad habits set in.
But as proper writing becomes
rarer, spending some time improving your handwriting is a good investment. In
the future, sending a handwritten letter will be a display of affluence and
class, which is why the sale of fountain pens is reviving.
