Functional English Question Paper 2008

Sample Paper – 2008
Class – Functional English
Class - XII

Section A: Reading Max. Marks : 20
Read the passage given below and then answer the questions which follow:
12 marks

1. In spite of all the honours that we heaped upon him, Pasteur, as has been said, remained simple of heart. Perhaps the imagery of his boyhood’s days, when he limned the familiar scenes of his birthplace, and the longing to be a great artist, never wholly left him. In truth he did become a great artist , though after his sixteenth year he abandoned the brush for ever. Like every artist of worth, he put his whole soul and energy into his work, and it was this very energy that in the end wore him out. For to him, each sufferer was something more than just a case that was to be cured. He looked upon the fight against hydrophobia as a battle, and he was absorbed in his determination to win. The sight of injured children, particularly, moved him to an indescribable extent. He suffered with his patients, and yet he would not deny himself a share in that suffering. His greatest grief was when sheer physical exhaustion made him give up his active work. He retired to the estate at Villeneuve ‘Estang, where he and his kennels for the study of rabies, and there he passed his last summer, as his great biographer, Vallery Radot, has said, “practicing the Gospel virtues.”


2. “He reverenced the faith of his fathers, “says the same writer, “and wished without ostentation or mystery to receive its aid during his last period.”


3. The attitude of this man to the science he had done so much to perfect can be best summed up in a sentence that he is reputed once to have uttered, concerning the materialism of many of his contemporaries in similar branches of learning to his own: “The more I contemplate the mysteries of Nature, the more my faith becomes like that of a Breton peasant’s wife.”


4. But even then in retirement he loved to see his former pupils, and it was then he would reiterate his life principles: “Work, “ he would ay, “never cease to work.” So well had he kept this precept that he began rapidly to sink from exhaustion.


5. Finally on September 27, 1895, when someone leant over his bed to offer him a cup of milk, he said sadly: “I cannot, “ and with a look of perfect resignation and peace, seemed to fall asleep. He never again opened his eyes to the cares and sufferings of a world, which he had done so much to relieve and to conquer. He was within three months of his seventy-third birthday.


6. Thus passed, as simply as a child, the man whom the French people were to vote at a plebiscite as the greatest man that France had ever produced. Napoleon, who has always been considered the idol of France, was placed fifth.


7. No greater tribute could have been paid to Louis Pasteur, the tanner’s son, the scientist, the man of peace, the patient worker for humanity.
487 words


1.1 Answer the following question:

a. Even accolades and honours did not change the simple man that Pasteur was. Why? 2 Marks
b. How did Pasteur view those who suffered from diseases? 1 Mark
c. How did Pasteur engage himself in the estate? 2 Marks
d. What advice did he always give to his pupils? 2 Marks
e. How did France, the country of his birth, honour this great scientist?
2 Marks


1.2 Find the words from the passage which mean the same as: 3 Marks
a. To paint (Para I)
b. People belonging to the same period (Para 3)
c. Vote by the people of the country to decide the matter of National importance (Para 6)


Question 2. Read the passage given below: 8 Marks

Residents of the Bhirung Raut Ki Gali, where Ustad Bishmillah Khan was born on March 21, 1916, were in shock. His cousin, 94-year –old Mohd Idrish Khan had tears in his eyes. Shubhan Khan, the care-taker of Bismillah’s land, recalled : “Whenever in Dumaraon, he would give rupees two to the boys and rupees five to the girls of the locality”.

He was very keen to play shehnai again in the local Bihariji’s Temple where he had started playing shehnai with his father, Bachai Khan, at the age of six. His original name was Quamaruddin and became Bishmillah only after he became famous as shehnai player in Varanasi.
His father Bachai Khan was the official shehnai player of Keshav Prasad Singh, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Dumaraon estate. Bismillah used to accompany him. For Bishmillah Khan, the connection to music began at a very early age. By his teens, he had already become a master of the shehnai. On the day India gained freedom, Bismillah Khan, then a sprightly 31 year-old, had the rare honour of playing from Red Fort.

But Bishmillah Khan won’t just be remembered for elevating the shehnai from an instrument heard only in weddings and naubatkhanas to one that was appreciated in concert halls across the world. His life was a testimony to the plurality that is India. A Practicing Muslim, he would take a daily dip in the Ganga in his younger days after a bout of Kasti in Benia Baga Akhada. Every morning, Bishmillah Khan would do riyaaz at the Balaji temple on the banks of the river. Even during his final hours in a Varanasi hospital, music didn’t desert Bishmillah khan. A few hours before he passed away early on Monday, the shehnai wizard hummed a thumri to show hat he was feeling better. This was typical of a man for whom life revolved around music.

Throughout his life he abided by the principle that all religions are one. What marked Bishmillah Khan was his simplicity and disregard for the riches that come with musical fame. Till the very end, he used a cycle rickshaw to travel around Varanasi. But the pressure of providing for some 60 family members took its toll during his later years.


2.1 On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes using heading and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations where necessary.
5 marks


2.2 Make a summary a summary of the above passage in not more than 80 words using the notes made and also suggest a suitable title. 3 Marks

Section B: Advanced Writing Skills Max. Marks: 25

Q.3 A.K International school is looking for a receptionist for the school. The Administrative Officer decides to give an advertisement in the classified columns of the local newspaper giving necessary details. Draft the advertisement in not more than 50 words. 5 Marks

OR

Sumana has cleared the Pre-Medical Pre-Dental entrance examination. Her family is elated at Sumana’s achievement and they decide to have a get-together for all her friends. Draft an informalss invitation for the get-together.


Marking Scheme
Q. 4 Write a letter to the Editor of a national daily highlighting the increasing stress in the lives of students in the present competitive world. Give a few suggestions on combating this evil. 10 Marks

OR

You came across the following advertisement in the Times of India. You consider yourself suitable and eligible for the post. Write an application in response to the advertisement. Applications are invited for the post of senior teacher in a reputed public school of New Delhi for teaching History to students of classes 11th and 12th. The candidate must have at least 10 years experience of teaching in a reputed school. Fluency in English is essential. Package will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Interested may apply to The Principal AKS International school, 23, 3rd street Indirapuram New Delhi within 10 days with detailed resume.


Q. 5. Some colleges conduct entrance test for admission to under-graduate courses like English (Hons.). Do you agree that the entrance test is the right method of selecting students? Present your opinion in favour or against the argument in about 150-200 words. 10 Marks


OR


With the advent of computer games, numerous television channels, and video-games, children of today hardly go out to play simple games like hide and seek, four corners, among others. Pen down your feelings on the joyful experience of playing such games in about 150-200 words.



Section C: Grammar 20

Q. 6. Rearrange the following sentences sequentially to make complete sense. The process described is related to making soft-centered chocolates. 5
(a). The solution is heated slowly until the sugar dissolves and then the syrup is boiled.
(b) After it cools the fondant is re-heated and an enzyme called invertase is added in.
(c) Soft centered chocolates contain fondant which is made by mixing sugar with
a quarter of its own
(d) Next, the fondant is moulded into fancy shapes.
(e) Next, the hot, sticky, clear solution is poured out and left to cool.


Q. 7. You are Aditya/ Chayanika and are set to meet Dr. Salim, a specialist on birds. Based on the input given below construct a dialogue between the two of you. Make five sets of exchanges. The first one has been done for you as an example.

Dr. Salim : Good Morning.


Possible for birds to find their way home after long journeys?

Can find?

How- manage?

Extra-sensory capabilities of birds-detect changes in atmospheric pressure, weather and earth’s magnetic field?

Birds-sleep-on one leg-how?

 Bird’s body weight causes the bird to bend its knees, close its claws and sleep on even one leg….?

 Sleep at night?

 Yes, but not nocturnal species?

Eagles-save energy-how?

 Adopt-energy saving technique-gliding?



Q.8. the following passage has ten errors. Identify the errors in each line and write them along with the corrections as shown in the example:
incorrect correct.

In the second now I would the a

(a) have complete my delivery. My left foot
(b) pound down behind the bowling
(c ) crease and my body swing sideways with
(d) the right arm stretch high. My
(e ) left hand tightened its grip on
(f ) the ball, the first two finger feeling
(g ) reassuring down the seam. Now
(h ) my right foot come down to brace
(I ) against the strain, and , like an
(j) released spring, the ball was in its way.

Alan Davidson

Section C: Literature Max. Marks: 35

Q. 7 (a) Choose any one of the following extracts and answer the questions given below it: 4 Marks

A poem should be motionless in time
As the moon climbs

(i) Identify the contradictions in the above lines. Explain them 2 Marks
(ii) What does the phrase motionless in time suggest you? 1 Mark
(iii) What are the qualities of a poem that makes it a piece of eternity? 1 Mark

Or

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruished and his bosom sore-
When he beats his bars would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee.

(i) Identify the literary device in the extract. 1 Mark
(ii) What does the phrase bruised and his bosom sore suggest you? 1 Mark
(iii) What are the desires that are explicated in the poem ? 2 Marks

Q.8. The following passagew has 10 errors. Identify the errors in each line and write them along with the corrections as shown in the example.
In correct correct
In the second now I would the a
(a) Have complete my delivery. My left foot