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SAMPLE PAPER

HOT QUESTIONS-2014

CLASS- XII (CORE)

Sub. — English

HOT QUESTIONS

Time-3hrs. M.M. 100 Marks

 

 

General instructions:

 

1. The paper is divided into three sections - A, B and C.
2. Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.
3. Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
4. Please write down the serial number of the question in the answer sheet before at­ tempting it.

 

SECTION - A [READING] (20 Marks)

 

A.1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: (12)

 

1. When television became widespread after World War II, some people though that television will replace reading. They believed that only a few people might still have any reason to read and that television would become the number one educational tool.

 

2. We know now that this prediction was incorrect. There has been no decline in most people's need to read. In fact surveys show that more books than ever are being sold and the amount of time that the students spend on reading is greater than in the days before television. Unfortunately, however, many students are doing little or no volun­tary reading. Most of the reading that they do is assigned by their teachers.

 

3. Just think about how much you read every day in order to complete your school work. How often can you finish an assignment or your home work without doing any read­ing? Is there any class in your school that does not require you to do some reading? You have to read in home-economies-directions and recipes, if nothing else-in shop and auto mechanic classes, in the Science lab and certainly in such courses as So­cial Studies and English. There is no denying the fact that most academic and voca­tional courses rely heavily on text books.

 

4. Not too long ago, a group of teachers made a study of the students about learning problems. A curious fact came out of this study. The teachers discovered that the students who did poorly in subjects such as Maths or Art could still do very well in other subjects. But the students who did poorly in reading, almost always did poorly in all their other courses.

 

5. For a while the teachers who made the study were puzzled by this, but they soon had an answer to this puzzle. The teachers looked at the subjects that the students were failing in and discovered that even subjects like Maths and Science were based on reading.

 

6. Of course there were also other skills involved such as learning to add and subtract in Maths class but most of the explanation of how to do things had to be read by the students. Much of the home work assignments required students to read long sets of directions and tests and, problems in class often involved story problems, problems that were explained in words and had to be read and understood before they could be solved. Your success or failure in these classes will depend on your ability to read the required material. Finally, if you go to college, almost all your study time will be spent on reading. You need more and more information and most of this information comes from the printed material you have to read. Even if you could get tapes or movies containing all the information, you need to know that they would not be of much help until and unless you know how to read.

 

7. Magazines and books may all be on microfilm in the next few years, but they will still have to be read. The same is true of most of what you have to learn in school. Your school is probably not going to throw all printed material out of the window very soon.

 

8. Success in school courses still depends on an ability to read and those students, who cannot read or at least read well enough to master material, are in trouble.

 

9. You are moving into a world where every day more and more technical reading is required. Instructions for using appliances are becoming more complex. There are written instructions to follow, for food preparations, traffic signs, travel directions and safety information, all requiring the ability to read. People in modern society read hundreds and even thousands of words every day.

 

10. Also your ability to get and keep a job is directly related to your ability to read. Even the simplest job require some reading ability, and many people advance to more important and better paying jobs by getting additional knowledge, and skills through reading. The more specialized the job, the greater the need to read confidently, quickly and efficiently.

 

11. Doctors read professional journals so that they can use the latest medical knowledge in treating patients while pharmacists have to read the prescriptions the doctors write. Lawyers spend their days reading briefs. The number of semi skilled and profes­sional cannot read is almost unemployable.

 

1.1. Answer the following questions briefly based on above passage: (9)

 

(a) What prediction concerning television is referred to by the author and why does he say

that it is incorrect? (2)

(b) What were the findings of the teachers regarding the poor performance of the students? (2)

(c) What do you understand by the term 'technical reading'? (1)

(d) Do you think audio-visuals and microfilms can replace reading in modern society? (2)

(e) Why can't professionals and semi-skilled people do away with reading? (2)

1.2. Find out the words from the passage which mean the same as the following: (3)

(a) decrease (Para 2) (1)

(b) depend with confidence (Para 3) (1)

(c) strange (Para 4) (1)

 

A.2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: (8)

 

1. How you can best improve your English depends on where you live and particularly on whether or not you live in an English speaking community. If you hear English spoken everyday and mix freely with English speaking people, that is on the whole, an advan­tage. On the other hand, it is often confusing to have the whole language, poured over you at once. Ideally, a step-by-step course should accompany or lead up to this expe­rience. It will also help a great deal if you can easily get the sort of English books in which you are interested.

 

2. To read a lot is essential. It is stupid not to venture outside the examination 'set books' or the textbooks you have chosen for intensive study. Read as many books in English as you can, not as a duty but for pleasure. Do not choosy the most difficult books you find, with the idea of listing and learning as many new words as possible : choose what is likely to interest you and be sure in advance that it is not too hard. You should not have to be constantly looking up new words in the dictionary, for that deadens interest and checks real learning. Look up a word here and there, but as a general policy try to push ahead, guessing that words mean from the context. It is extensive and not intensive reading that normally helps you to get interested in extra-reading and thereby improves your English. You should enjoy the feeling which extensive reading gives of having some command of the language. As you read you will become more and more familiar with words and sentence patterns you already know, understanding them better and better as you meet them in more and more contexts, some of which may differ only slightly from others.

 

3. Some people say that we cannot learn to speak a language better with the help of a book. To believe this is to believe that the spoken language and the written language are quite different things. This is not so. There is a very great deal in common between the two. In learning the patterns and vocabulary of the written form, we are learning to a considerable extent those of the spoken form too. We are, in fact, learning the lan­guage and not merely one form of the language.

 

2.1 On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes in points only. Use recognizable abbreviations, wherever necessary (minimum 4) and a format you consider suitable. Supply an appropriate title to it. (5)

2.2. Write a summary of the above passage in about 80 words. (3)

 

SECTION – B (ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS) (35 Marks)

 

Q.3. You plan to sell your two-wheeler. Draft a suitable advertisement in not more than 50 words to be given in the classified column of a local daily, giving all necessary details. You are Sumit / Sudha, 15, Krishna Nagar, New Delhi (5)

 

OR

 

You are Neelam / Siddharth, the cultural secretary of Golden Academy, Indore. Your school is organizing its 5th Inter – school music carnival for the students of class VI – XII. Write a notice inviting students to appear for an audition in the presence of renowned singer, Ms. Sudha Chauhan . Construct the necessary details in not more than 50 words.

 

Q.4. Your school celebrated its Annual prize distribution and cultural extravaganza on 12 Dece mber 2012. Write a brief report in 100-125 words to be published in your school magazine. You are Pradeep / Manju, Head boy / Head girl of ABC Public School, (Delhi) (10)

OR

 

Write in about 100-125 words your experience of watching birds in cages and animals in enclosures when you visited the zoo last Sunday. Imagine yourself as Sanjeev / Sarita, a student of Aurobindo Public School, Chennai.

 

Q.5. You want to visit Udaipur and two other cities of Rajasthan during the next vacation. Write a letter to the Director, Rajasthan Tourism, Jaipur enquiring about the things you consider important before planning your visit. You are Kishan Kashyap, living 4, Anmadurai Apartments. (10)

OR

 

Pramod Goel of Shimla is worried that despite legal ban on trafficking of drugs, a large number of school and college going youth are becoming drug addicts. Write a letter to the Editor of a local newspaper, pointing out the harmful effects of drug addiction and suggesting steps to curb it.

 

Q.6. In times when law and order are a casualty and anti-social elements are out on a rampage, women themselves have to take on the challenge of protecting themselves. As the Chair person of a women’s organization, write an article on the topic “Dealing with crimes against women” in not more than 200 words. (10)

OR

 

Corruption is the bane of Indian democracy. You feel that if the monster of corruption can be killed once and for all, our country can progress in leaps and bounds. Write a speech on the topic “The Evils of corruption and the Role of Youth’ to be given in the morning assembly. You are Anuj / Anjali of class XII. Write the speech in not more than 200 words.

 

 

SECTION C : TEXT BOOKS 45

 

Q.7. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: 4

 

It would be an exotic moment

 

Without rush, without engines,

 

we would all be together

 

in a sudden strangeness

 

(i) What does the poet mean by `exotic moment’? How and when it will happen? 2

 

(ii) Explain: `without rush, without engines’ 1

 

(iii) How would all of feel at that moment? 1

 

OR

 

Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool

 

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.

 

The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band

 

Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand

 

(i) What does the first line tell about Aunt Jennifer? 1

 

(ii) Why is it so hard for her to pull the ivory needle? 1

 

(iii) Explain: “massive weight of uncle’s wedding band”. 2

 

 

 

(b) Answer any three of the following in 30-40 words each. 2X3=6

 

(i) Describe the world inside the car and out side the car (My Mother At Sixty Six)

 

(ii) `History is theirs whose language is the sun’. Explain: (An Elementary school classroom in a slum)

 

(iii) Do we experience things of beauty for short moments or do they make a lasting impression on us?

 

(iv) Why did not the polished traffic stop at the road ride stand? What things irritated those who stopped there?

 

Q.8. Answer the following in 30-40 words each 2x5=10

 

(a) What does M. Hamel say about French language?

What did he urge upon his students and villagers to do?

(b) Why is the heap of garbage rap in wonder for children? (Lost Spring )

(c) Why did the peddler think he himself had been caught in a rattrap?

 

(d) Why did not the judge pronounce sentence for several days and allowed Gandhi to remain at liberty?

 

(e) In what sense was Subu loyal to the boss?

 

Q.9. Answer the following in 125-150 words 10

 

Why does Douglas as an adult recount a childhood Experience of terror and his conquering of it? What larger meaning does he draw from his experience?

 

OR

 

Why did Sophie like her brother Geoff more than any other person? From her prospective, what does he symbolize ?

 

Q.10. Answer the following in 125-150 words 7

 

Both the units of ‘Memories of Childhood’ present autobiographical episode from the lives of two women from marginalized communities. Describe the main issues raised as well as the common features highlighted in them.

 

OR

 

How does Mr. Lamb inspire Derry? Explain.

 

Q.11. Answer the following in 30-40 words each 2X4=8

 

(a) How did the Maharaja feel when he hunt the first tiger? What did the chief astrologer say?

 

(b) Dr. Sadao was compelled by his duty as a doctor to help the enemy soldier. What made Hana, his wife, sympathetic to him in the face of open defiance from the domestic staff?

 

(c) What made Jack realize that the custom of telling his daughter a story for the evening naps had become futile?

 

(d) Mc Leery had a semi-inflated rubber ring. What did he say he had brought it for? What did it actually contain?