Paper : CBSE Class 12th English Exam Paper, 2003 (Compartment Delhi : Set-1)

SECTION - A : (READING SKILLS)

Q. A1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
(1) Doing housework, taking care of children and carrying out assorted jobs for husbands are work just as much as is performing paid employment in an office or factory. To ignore this is to do a disservice to women in the labour force. The reality of housework is that women’s work in the home averages 56 bouts per week for the full time home-maker and 26 hours per week for the employed wife/mother. Husbands and children barely increase their contribution to housework and child care when the wife/mother is in the labour force. As a result, the employed woman gives up most of her leisure to carry out the responsibilities of family life.

(2) We realize that it may sound strange to hear women’s activities in the home, called work. Since women, who do housework and taken care of children receive no salary or wages; home-making is not considered “work’. Economists have finally helped us to recognise the importance of women’s work in the family by estimating the monetary value of home-making. These estimates range from $ 4,705 (1968) through $ 8200 (1972) to over $ 13,000 per year in 1973 depending on whether the work of the home maker is considered equivalent to an unskilled, skilled or a professional worker, respectively. For example, is child care comparable to baby-sitting at $ 0.75 per hour, to a nursery school aid at $3 per hour, or to the care of a child psychologist at $ 30 per hour?

(3) Some people have proposed that the solution to the problems of the employed housewife would be simply to pay women for being housewives. Hence, women with heavy family responsibilities would not have to enter the labour force In order to gain Income for themselves and/or their families. This Is not a solution for many reasons— wages provide Income, but they do not remedy the isolating nature of the work itself nor the negative attitudes housewives themselves have towards housework (but not towards child care).

(4) Wages for housework would reinforce occupational stereotyping by freezing women into their traditional roles. Unless women and men are paid equally in the labour force and there is no division of labour based on sex, women’s work in the home will have no value.

(5) Since it is not clear what constitutes housework, and we know that housework standards vary greatly, it would be difficult to know how to reward it.

(6) Pay for housework might place home-waken (mainly wives) in the difficult position of having their work assessed by their husbands, while in the case of single home-makers, it is not clear who would do the assessing.

(7) Wages for housework, derived from spouse payments overlook the contribution women make to the society by training children to be good citizens and assume that their work is only beneficial to their own families.

(8) Finally, payment for housework does not address itself to the basic reason why women with family responsibilities work; to increase family income over that which the employed husband/father makes. Also, single women with family responsibilities work because they are the family bread winners.

(9) It may seem puzzling that the hours of U.S. women’s home activities have not declined because of the availability of many appliances (washing machines, gas and electric ranges, blenders etc.) and convenience products (prepared soaps, frozen foods, dried food etc.). The truth is that appliances tend to be energy-saving, rather than time-saving, and lead to a rise in the standard of house-keeping. Hence women today spend more time than their grandmothers, doing laundry, since family members demand more frequent changes of clothing today than in earlier generations. Husbands and children expect more varied meals. Advertising encourages women to devote an inordinate amount of time and money to waxing floors, creating rooms free of ‘odourcausing’ germs and seeking to meet other extraordinary standards of cleanliness. Furthermore the Increasing concern with good nutrition means that many homemakers are now spending more time preparing foods that are not available in the market-place, or which are only available at great costs. (Source: American Women Workers in a Full Employment Economy)

(a) On the basis of your reading of the passage answer the following questions as briefly as possible:
(i) Why is an employed woman deprived of the joys of leisure? 2
(ii) Why is home-making not considered at par with paid work? 2
(iii) When will the women’s work in the home acquire recognition?1
(iv) Why are the U.S. women more busy today than ever before inspite of time saving gadgets and appliances? 2
(v) Why should the women working at home be not considered equal to those working in offices or business centers? 2
(b) Find the words in the passage which mean the same as the following: 1 x 3 =3
(i) different (para 1)
(ii) strengthen (para 4)
(iii) excessive (pare 9)

Q. A2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
There are two problems which cause great worry to our educationists. The problem of religious and moral instruction in a land of many faiths and the problem arising out of a large variety of languages. Taking up the education of children, we see that they should be trained to love one another to be kind and helpful to all, to be tender to the lower animals, and to acquire skills to write, count and calculate. It should, however, not make us lose sight of the primary aim of moulding personality in the right way. For this it is necessary to call into aid culture, tradition and religion. But in our country we have, in the same school, to look after boys and girls born in different faiths and families with diverse ways of life as ordained in their respective religions. It will not do to tread the easy path of evading the difficulty by attending solely to physical culture and intellectual education.

We have to evolve a suitable technique and method for serving the spiritual needs of school children professing different faiths. We would there by promote an atmosphere of mutual respect, a fuller understanding and helpful co operation among the different communities in our society. Again, we must remain one people and we have, therefore to give basic training in our schools to speak and understand more languages than one and to appreciate and respect the different religions prevailing in India. It is not right for us in India to be dissuaded from this by considerations as to over-taking the young mind. What is necessary must be done. And it is not in fact too great a burden.

Any attempt to do away with or ‘steam-roll’ the differences through governmental coercion and indirect pressure would be as futile as it would be unwise. Any imposition of a single way of life and form of worship on all children, or neglect of a section of the pupils in this respect, or barren secularization, will lead to a conflict between school and home life, which is harmful. On the other hand, if we give due recognition to the different prevailing faiths in the educational institution by organizing suitable facilities for religious teaching for boys and girls of all communities, this may itself serve as a broadening influence of great national value.
(Source — C. Rajagopalachari —388 words)

(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it, in points only, using abbreviations/short forms (minimum 4), wherever necessary. Supply an appropriate title to it. 5
(b) Write a summary of the above passage in about 80 words. 3

SECTION - B : (ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS)

Q. B1. Your school proposes to celebrate the 60 year of Quit India Movement.
Draft a notice for your school notice board, asking the students to take part in the peace rally arranged by you from your school to Gandhi Smarak. Sign yourself as Preeti/Prashant, School Pupil Leader, St. Paul’s Public School, Dehradun. (Word limit: words) 5

Or

You want to sell your motorbike. Draft an advertisement suitable to be published in the ‘Indian Express’, Delhi under the classified advertisements column. You are XYZ, 42, Paschim Vihar, Delhi. (Word limit: 50 words)

Q. B2. Your school has celebrated the World Environment Day on 5th June Write a report in 125 words to be published in your school magazine. You are Rohit/Rohini of XII class. 10

Or

Your school has arranged a programme on Life Skills for Classes X and XII. Experts invited on the occasion delivered speeches on motivation, stress management, goal-setting and Inter-personal relationships, which were of immense help to the students in acquiring leadership qualities. Write a report in 125 words. Sign as Mohan/Suneeta, Indian Public School, Lucknow.

Q. B3. Write a letter to the Editor of ‘The Times of India’, Delhi, expressing your concern over the increase in the rate of road accidents, rash driving, and suggesting ways to curb the accidents. You are Reeta/Rituraj of Gautam Nagar, Noida (Invent details) 10

Or

Write a letter to M/s K. Kapoor & Sons, Kolkata, complaining about the quality of the computers received in response to your order. Sign as Kailash, No.09, Civil Lines Colony, Madras. (Invent details)

Q. B4. Write an article in 200 words for a leading newspaper on ‘Terrorism — a threat to peace’. Sign as Pramod/Priyanka of Chennai. 10

Or

Write an article in 200 words on ‘The Role of Children in Combating Corruption in the Society’. Sign as Mukesh/Meenakshi of International Public School, Kanpur.

SECTION - C : (TEXT BOOKS)

Q. C1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

Cox: I’ve half a mind to register an oath that I’ll never have my hair cut again. (His hair is very short). I look as if I had been just cropped for the army, and I was particularly emphatic in my instructions to the hairdresser only to cut the ends off. He must have thought I meant the other ends. Never mind I shan’t meet anybody worth troubling about so early. Eight o’ clock! I declare I haven’t a moment to lose. Fate has placed me with the most punctual and particular of hatters, and I must fulfil my destiny.

(i) Who is Box? What is his occupation? 2
(ii) What has gone wrong with his hair? 2
(iii) What does he resolve about his hair? 2
(iv) What is ‘his destiny’? 2
(v) Use the phrase ‘cut off’ in a sentence of your own. 1

Q. C2. Attempt any five of the following in about 30—40 words each:
(i) India can offer a laboratory for the study of certain disciplines. What are they? 3
(ii) Who were the fellow prisoners along with Bhai Parmanand and what did they do? 3
(iii) Why did the idea of renting the same, room to two persons strike Mrs. Bouncer?1
(iv) Why is there a craze for machines in nations which have a long tradition of artistic excellence? 2
(v) What is one of the most powerful passions of man? 2

Q. C3. Attempt the following in about 150 words:
Describe the conversation between Mr. Gupta and Mrs. Clifford when he visited her house for the first time. 10

Or

The contribution of women to the creation of modern India has been immense. What changes has it brought in our society?

Q. C4. What were the major issues of impeachment against Warren Hastings?(Word limit: 150 words) 10

Or

The importance of trees and mountains being felt by modern man is what Wordsworth has already highlighted in this poem. Discuss the relevance of this poem for us.