(Download) CBSE Class-12 2016-17 Sample Paper And Marking
Scheme (English Elective)
Time allowed: 3 Hrs
Maximum Marks: 100
The Question paper is divided into three sections:
Section A – Reading 20 marks
Section B – Writing and Grammar 40 marks
Section C – Literature 40 marks
General Instructions:
i. All the questions are compulsory.
ii. You may attempt any section at a time.
iii. All questions of a particular section must be attempted in the correct
order.
SECTION-A
(Reading : 20)
1 Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :
1. The Ring at Casterbridge was merely the local name of one
of the finest Roman amphitheaters, if not the very finest remaining in Britain.
Casterbridge announced old Rome in every street, alley, and precinct. It looked
Roman, bespoke the art of Rome, concealed dead men of Rome. It was impossible to
dig more than a foot or two deep about the town fields and gardens without
coming upon some tall soldier or other of the Empire, who had laid there in his
silent unobtrusive rest for a space of fifteen hundred years.
2. Imaginative inhabitants, who would have felt an
unpleasantness at the discovery of a comparatively modern skeleton in their
gardens, were quite unmoved by these hoary shapes. They had lived so long ago,
their time was so unlike the present, their hopes and motives were so widely
removed from ours, that between them and the living there seemed to stretch a
gulf too wide for even a spirit to pass. The Amphitheater was a huge circular
enclosure, with a notch at opposite extremities of its diameter north and south.
It was to Casterbridge what the ruined Coliseum is to modern Rome, and was
nearly of the same magnitude. The dusk of evening was the proper hour at which a
true impression of this suggestive place could be received. Standing in the
middle of the arena at that time there by degrees became apparent its real
vastness, which a cursory view from the summit at noon-day was apt to obscure.
3. Melancholy, impressive, lonely, yet accessible from every
part of the town, the historic circle was the frequent spot for appointments of
a furtive kind. Apart from the sanguinary nature of the games originally played
therein, such incidents attached to its past as these: that for scores of years
the towngallows had stood at one corner; that in 1705 a woman who had murdered
her husband was half-strangled and then burnt there in the presence of ten
thousand spectators. In addition to these old tragedies, pugilistic encounters
almost to the death had come off down to recent dates in that secluded arena,
entirely invisible to the outside world save by climbing to the top of the
enclosure, which few townspeople in the daily round of their lives ever took the
trouble to do.
4. Some boys had latterly tried to impart gaiety to the ruin
by using the central arena as a cricket-ground. But the game usually languished
for the aforesaid reason - the dismal privacy which the earthen circle enforced,
shutting out every appreciative passer's vision, every commendatory remark from
outsiders - everything, except the sky; and to play at games in such
circumstances was like acting to an empty house. Henchard had chosen this spot
for meeting his long-lost wife. As Mayor of the town, with a reputation to keep
up, he could not invite her to come to his house till some definite course had
been decided on.(498 words) Adapted from: The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas
Hardy (1886)
1.1 On the basis of your understanding of the above
passage, answer the following questions briefly:
(a) What was the name given by the locals to the ancient
Amphitheatre at Casterbridge?
(b) What was the attitude of the local residents to the unearthed remains of
dead Romans?
(c) Over the years what had the amphitheater been used for by the locals?
(d) Why had the boys stopped using the amphitheater for their game of cricket?
(e) Why did Henchard want to keep secret his meeting with his long-lost wife?
1.2 Choose the meaning of the words/phrases given below
from the given options:
(a) Concealed (Para 1))
(i) silent
(ii) hidden
(iii) dead
(iv) lonely
(b) Hoary (Para 2)
(i) unimaginative
(ii) buried
(iii) ancient
(iv) mummified
(c) Pugilistic encounters (Para 3)
(i) vindictive meetings
(ii) powerful fights
(iii) boxing matches
(iv) brave acts
(d) Secluded (Para 3)
(i) one
(ii) private
(iii) close
(iv) hidden
(e) Sanguinary
(i) blood-thirsty
(ii) strange
(iii) peculiar
(iv) vampire
2 Read the passage given below and answer the questions
that follow: Across the Kashmir Valley and over the famous Zoji La pass lies
Ladakh - the Land of High Passes. It is a magical land, completely different
from the green landscape of many other parts of the Himalayas. It is nature at
an extreme. A land of freezing winds and burning hot sunlight, Ladakh is a cold
desert lying in the rain shadow of the Great Himalayas and other smaller ranges.
Little rain and snow reaches this dry area, where natural forces have created a
fantastic landscape.
This region once formed part of the erstwhile Kingdom of
Ladakh, believed to have been inhabited by the early colonizers of Ladakh - the
Indo-Aryan Mons from across the Himalayan range, the Darads from the extreme
western Himalayas, and the itinerant nomads from the Tibetan highlands. Also,
its valleys, by virtue of their contiguity with Kashmir, Kishtwar and Kulu,
served as the initial receptacles of successive ethnic and cultural waves
emanating from across the Great Himalayan range. Thus, while the Mons are
believed to have carried north-Indian Buddhism to these highland valleys, the
Darads and Baltis of the lower Indus Valley are credited with the introduction
of farming and the Tibetans with the tradition of herding. The aridity of Ladakh
is due to its location in the rain shadow area of the Great Himalayas, as well
as because of its elevation and the radiation of heat from the bare soil. The
most striking physical feature of Ladakh, however, is the parallelism of its
mountain ranges. In Ladakh, large rivers and their tributaries have carved deep
gorges far below their steep banks. However, their water is not of much use, as
the terraced fields lie high above the gorges. The region is extremely dry, with
rainfall as low as 10 cm each year. These valleys sustain an exclusively
agrarian population of about 80,000 people who cultivate the land available
along the course of the drainage system, wherever sources for artificial
irrigation are available. The majority of the population is Muslim. Descendants
of missionaries of Kashmir who introduced Islam, locally called Aghas, still
hold sway over the population, perpetuating the faith even as ancient folk
traditions with Buddhist and animistic undertones are palpably present. Many
folk traditions, particularly those connected with the agricultural cycle, are
still followed with subdued reverence.
