BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN, KUWAIT KENDRA

INDIAN EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL
PRE BOARD EXAMINATION 1
CLASS X
ENGLISH (COMMUNICATIVE)

Total Marks 100
Allotted Time: 3hrs
Date of exam:   14 Jan 2010

By : CHITRA

Instructions

1. This question paper consists of 10 printed pages and 18 questions. Attempt all questions.
2. Do not write anything in the question paper.
3. All the answers must be correctly numbered as in the question paper and written in the answer

sheets provided to you.

4. Attempt all questions in each section before going to the next section.
5. Read each question carefully and follow the instructions.
6. Strictly adhere to the word limit given with each question. Marks will be deducted for exceeding the word limit.

SECTION A-READING

1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:

 
 

ROMANCING THE RAIL

1. A couple of weeks ago, while detailing the many ways in which coping with the bleak economy can actually better our lives, I touched upon the romance of train travel and suggested that we should do well to introduce our children to its charms.  I have to confess that I was surprised by the kind of response this triggered from readers with stories to tell of their own rail adventures.
2. Browsing through them reminded me yet again why trains have such a special place in our lives.  Well, perhaps not in the lives of a generation brought up on the dubious pleasures of cheap air travel.
3. I still vividly recall every detail of my first such excursion, taking a train from Sealdah station in Calcutta to visit my aunt’s tea garden in Assam.  I settled down at my window seat and even before the train had pulled out, I was burrowing deep into the pleasures of Indian mythology.
4. But as the scene outside grew more rustic, even picturesque, my attention wandered to the marvelous moving display outside my window.  There were gentle rolling fields, green and lush, more palm trees than I could count and an endless expanse of bright blue sky.
5. Just then, a man entered my peripheral vision.  Scythe in hand, he was intently cutting down some tall grass in the fields.  “Oh look,” I cried out to my mother, “It’s a farmer, a real-life farmer!”  A city - bred child, I hadn’t realized until then that farmers actually had an independent existence outside of my story books.
6. That wasn’t the only discovery I made in the course of that first train journey or the many others to follow.  Gazing out of the train window as I travelled across the country, I was introduced to a new India that was far removed from the bland boundaries of my middle-class urban existence.  And I like to believe today that this made me more aware of the complexities of the society that we live in.

1. On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions:     (8marks)                                  

1. Readers’ response to her suggestions made the writer realize ----------------------------

2. The pleasure/joys of travelling by train would not be appreciated by ------------------------
3. The writer was lured away from the pleasures of Indian mythology when ---------------------
4. The two discoveries made during the train journey were i) ---------------------------------------   and ii) --------------------------------------------------------.
5. Travelling by train, enhanced the writer’s awareness of ------------------------------------------
6. While travelling  by train, the writer’s time was spent i)------------------------------------------and ii) ------------------------------------------

2. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:                       (12marks)

1. Do children really need such long summer breaks, was a question posed by some experts recently.  Apparently, such a long break disrupts their development and comes in the way of their learning process.  Let’s get them back to their books, is perhaps the expert view, if not in so many words.  One would have thought the children are doing too much during their vacations and not too  little, given the plethora of classes, camps and workshops involving swimming, art, personality development, music, computers and the like that seem to ram their calendar.  Even the trips taken in the name of holiday seem laden with exotic destinations and customized experience packed into a short period of time.  We can do Europe in ten days and Australia in a week and come back armed with digital memories and overflowing suitcases.  Holidays are in some ways, no longer a break but an intensified search for experience not normally encountered in everyday life.
2. It is a far cry from summer holidays one experienced while growing up.  For holidays every year meant one thing and one thing alone- you went back to your native place, logged in with the emotional headquarters of your extended family and spent two months with a gaggle of uncles, aunts and first and second cousins.  The happiest memories of the childhood of a whole generation seem to be centred around this annual ritual of homecoming and affirmation.  We tendered tacit apologies for the separateness entailed in being individuals even as we scurried back into the cauldron of community and continuity represented by family.  Summer vacation was a time sticky with oneness, as who we were and what we owned oozed out form our individual selves into a collective pot.
3. Summer was not really a break, but a joint.  It was the bridge used to re-affirm one’s connectedness with one’s large community.  One didn’t travel, one returned.  It was not an attempt to experience the new and the extraordinary but one that emphatically underlined the power of the old and the ordinary.  As times change, what we seek from our summer breaks too has changed in a fundamental way.  Today, we are attached much more to the work and summer helps us temporarily detach from this new source of identity.  We refuel our individual selves now; and do so with much more material than we did in the past.  But for those who grew up in different times, summer was the best time of their lives.

      2.1 Complete the following sentences taking help from the text:                         (4marks) 
 

1. Experts question the summer breaks given to children because breaks --------------------.
2. Students are kept busy during the summer vacation ------------------------.
3. The writer’s happiest memories of childhood were centred around ----------------------.
4. Summer break in the present times is a way of --------------------------------.

2.2 Fill in the blanks using one word only.                                       (4marks)

The realization that children’s summer breaks are a) --------------------- with a plethora of activities makes one conclude that they are doing b) ----------------------.  Holidays have now turned into a c) -------------------------- for new experiences.  These are far removed from the times when summer breaks were a time of d) -------------------- with the extended family.

3. Find words/phrases which mean the same as:    (4marks)

1. Clearly seen or understood (para 1)
2. Excess (para1)
3. State as a fact, declare formally (para2)
4. Beyond what is usual (para3)

SECTION B- WRITING

3. You are Saurabh/Sapna Gupta, the Sports Captain of Birla Public School, New Delhi.  Draft a notice informing the members of the School Football team about a special coaching camp that is being organized in the school premises during the summer vacations.  Inform the team members of the presence of eminent Indian Footballers during the duration of the Camp.  Write the notice in not more than 50 words.   (5marks)

4. Rani/Rakesh visited Ranikhet during summer vacation and experienced oneness with nature.  He/she decided to send a postcard to a friend describing the beauty and serenity of this picturesque hill station and advising her/him to plan a trip to Ranikhet in the near future.  Write the postcard in not more than 50 words.     (5marks)

 

5. You are Rohan/Ragini.  During a visit to Mumbai you happened to visit the sets of a television reality show featuring children.  The long shooting hours made you wonder whether the children were losing their precious childhood years, which should have been spent enjoying a carefree life in the lap of nature rather than satisfying the desires of over ambitious parents and contributing to the family income.  Write a letter to the Editor of a leading National daily expressing your concern in not more than 150 words.  Take ideas from the hints given below:       (10marks)

• Loss of innocence
• Neglect of studies
• Overriding parental ambition
• Burdened with responsibilities at tender age

6. Over the years there has been a steady increase in the number of students from different town and cities of India seeking admission in colleges in the metropolitan cities.  As a consequence, colleges in the metros have failed to accommodate the rising number of students due to severe shortage of seats.  Write an article for your school magazine drawing attention to the anxiety and pressure faced by students during admission time, using your own ideas and ideas from the visual given below.  Suggest ways to combat the shortage of seats.  Write the article in about 200 words.  You are Mohan/Mohita, a student of AKS International School, Agra.      (10marks)

SECTION C-GRAMMAR

7. Look at the notes given and complete the paragraph that follows.  Do not add any new information.  Write the answers against the correct blank numbers in your answer sheet. 

 (4marks)

 

According to newspaper reports, Russian scientists a) ------------------------------------ a research station.  The research station b) ------------------------ on an ice floe drifting in the western Artctic Ocean.  Global warming is c) ------------------------- the Scientists to d) ------------------------ ahead of schedule, because of early melting of ice.

8. In the following paragraph, one word has been omitted from each line.  Write the missing word along with the word that comes before and the word that comes after it in your answer sheet against the correct blank number.  Ensure that the word that forms your answer is underlined.                                                                                      (4marks)

Not a mood to      eg  not in a
waste time the University reopens,  a)
the Dyal Ram College, affiliated to Delhi b)
University is organizing orientation  c)
programme the Freshers on Monday.  d)
The session is organized    e)
two days before new     f)
session kicks.  The college   g)
wants organize the orientation session  h)
because they want to start off   i)
regular classes from very first day.  j)

9. In the passage given below, fill in each blank with one word only.  Write the correct word in your answer sheet against the correct blank numbers.        (4marks)

After a tepid a) ------------------------- half, this year car makers are planning b) -------------- new launches in the c) ----------------------- c) ------------------ months, hoping d) ------------- will bring buyers back to market that has seen demand e) -------------------- amid rising cost f) ---------------------- finance.  The headline grabber g) -------------------- to be Tata’s Nano-the h) ----------------------- cheapest car.

10. Read the conversation given below and complete the passage that follows.  Write the answers against the correct blank numbers.  Do not copy the whole sentence. (4marks)

Karan: Are you going to attend Vikram’s birthday party?
Rohit:  I am not sure if my mother will permit me to go.
Karan:  You can tell your mother that all of us are going to the party.
Rohit:  She knows that all my friends are going, but she also wants me to do well in tomorrow’s English test. 

Karan asked Rohit a) ---------------------------- attend Vikram’s birthday party.  Rohit replied that b) ----------------------- him to go.  Karan advised Rohit c) ------------------------ were going to the party.  Rohit told Karan that his mother was aware that all his friends were going but d) -------------------------.

11. Look at the newspaper items given below.  Use the information in the Headlines to complete the paragraphs.  Write the answers against the correct blank numbers in your answer sheet.                                                                                                           (4marks)

1. Two pilgrims killed in Amarnath Shrine Stampede

Two pilgrims to ------------------- in a stampede near the cave.

2. Hundreds of US N-parts Lost

The US military ------------------------- sensitive nuclear missile components.

3. Dead Fish Flood Satluj Beas Canal

Drinking water supply to several areas in Punjab has been stopped after ----------------- dead fish.

4. Ribbery Undergoes Surgery Successfully

Berlin: France midfielder Franck Ribbery ---------------------------- on his injured left ankle on Thursday.

SECTION D-LITERATURE

12. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.  Write the answers in your answer sheet in one or two lines only.  Number the answers correctly

O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.

1. Which season of the year is depicted in the poem?     (1mark)
2. Identify the figure of speech in the first line.    (1mark)
3. Explain like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.    (1mark)

OR

Then she turns to those liars, the candle or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.     

She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.

1. Why have the candle and the moon been referred to as ‘liars’?  (1mark)
2. Why does the woman turn her back to the mirror?   (1mark)
3. Explain ‘an agitation of hands’.      (1mark)

13. Ten hours of steady rain had driven him

to crawl beneath a sack of rice.

Parting with his poison-flash

of diabolic tail in the dark room.

1. What had friven the scorpion to take shelter beneath a sack or rice? (1mark)
2. Explain “flash of diabolic tail”.      (1mark)
3. What happened to poet’s mother after being stung by the scorpion? (1mark)

OR

Now the nightingale, inspired
Flushed with confidence, and fired with both art and adoration, Sang and was a huge sensation.

1. What had inspired the nightingale?     (1mark)
2. How do we know she was a huge sensation?    (1mark)
3. Did she remain a huge sensation? Give reasons for your answer. (1mark)

14. The peasants in Night of the Scorpion are ignorant, but their hears are full of love and compassion.  Comment.  Attempt in 50-75 words.    (4marks)

OR

Sharing his grief with the wedding guest helps alleviate the pain of the ancient mariner. Comment.  Attempt in 50-75 words.      (4marks)

15. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

This dream is all amiss interpreted

It was a vision fair and fortunate

1. Who speaks these lines and to whom are they addressed?  Who had misinterpreted the dream?         (1mark)
2. What is the speaker’s interpretation of the dream?    (3marks)

16. ‘The Christmas Carol’ depicts the transformation of a selfish miser into a kind and benevolent man.  Comment.       (4marks)

OR

How does Charles Dickens bring out the spirit of Christians in ‘The Christmas Carol’?

17. ‘We were in the war too but we were children’.  What does the narrator mean by this statement?         (4marks)

OR

Why were the scientists unhappy with Ch-tsal?

18. Imagine you are Babuli’s wife.  Write a diary entry expressing your reaction once Babuli informs you of his decision of giving his share of land to his elder brother. (8marks)

OR

Imagine you are the postmaster.  Since you have realized the pain Ali has gone through, you are full of remorse.  Write a letter to your friend. 
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