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Read the passage given below and
answer the questions that follow. (8)
Whales are normally gentle.
Jacques Coustean in his book. The Whale : Mighty Monarch of the Sea, testified
to the whale's self-control. In all his years of diving, he says, "not a
single man has been hurt during our sometimes hazardous whale encounters.
Indeed, whales show every sign of wishing to spare man from harm."
Many whales exhibit strong
family ties. The young ones remain with their parents for up to15 years or
more. Like reindeer and other nomadic land mammals, migrating species such as humpbacks
and grey whales live in herds, or pods, and travel seasonally between feeding
and breeding grounds.
In times of stress, whales look
after one another. A group migrates at the speed of the slowest baby. Mother
whales behave like human beings. They have been seen fondling their babies. Their"
flippers are used like hands to clasp, coax and discipline. Jacques Coustean
describe in his book an incident in which a mother swam after her calf and
pushed it away from a ship. She then struck it several times with her flippers.
"The blows had every appearance of being slaps and were obviously
administered to teach the baby not to confuse a ship's hull with a mother's
stomach."
Section c Literature
(Textbooks)
Answer the following
questions. (1
x 8 = 8)
(i) What did Jacques Coustean
write in his book?
(ii) How long do the young
whales remain with their parents?
(iii) What do whales do in times
of stress?
(iv) Mother whales behave like
whom?
(v) What do whales use their
flippers for?
(vi) What do many whales exhibit
generally?
(vii) What kind of nature do
whales have?
(viii) Write the names of any
two migrating species of whales.
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Read the passage given below
and answer the questions that follow. (12)
A bookshop is not something you
find in every gali or mohalla these days. Books, which were once a staple diet
for youngsters in their formative years, are fading out of their list of
engagements.
Ask any youngster which is the
latest book he has read and he will be baffled. Apart from a few consistent
readers, other just befool themselves with a best-seller's name or lament the
curriculum load for justifying themselves, like this seventeen year old school
goer who says, "I just read my physics book."
Television has been blamed much
for this calamitous situation, which is producing square faced people and
bookless society. Furthermore, today's children are under pressure to be smart
and popular, to succeed on a social level. Parties, dancing, dating and hanging
out at places like Nirula's, Wimpys and Priya complex being early. Moreover,
the computers, video games, internet, swimming lessons, cricketing and every
youngster's passion for hour long tete-a-tete on telephone with friends eat up
all their leisure time.
A child who is constantly under
pressure to live up to his parent's expectations, at times unreasonable, does
not like to throw himself into another set of books after the laborious school work
unless the child comes from a family of readers where intoxicating works of
Shakespeare and Dickens are just a matter of pulling them out from the shelves.
Many parents also believe that today's children have become aware and demand
logical reasoning for everything. They can no longer be fooled by fairy tales
or animal stories, as they have seen no fairies or animals except for those old
tired ones in the city zoo. This has made them more interested in Shah Rukh
Khan's dancing then a turtle talking to a rabbit or a frog becoming a prince.
But a visit to the capital's
leading bookstores presents quite a contrasting picture of the youngsters reading
habits. These bookshops claim they are doing healthy business and have many
regular buyers from this age group.
Though works of Shakespeare,
Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Mark Twain no longer get with the teenagers,
best-sellers from Daniel Steele, Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer are in the list
of all reading teens. Self-help books such as those on personality development
or relationship management are also picked up by
most.
(a) Answer the following
questions. (2
x 4 = 8)
(i) Why are books losing their
importance?
(ii) Why do children don't want
to read books?
(iii) What kind of books are
mostly read?
(iv) What perspective do the
bookshop owners offer?
(b) Tick the correct
option. (1
x 4 = 4)
(i) ................ and
.................. are taking up most of the leisure time of youngsters.
(a) Computers, video
games (b) Cartoons, food
(c) Clothes,
shoes (d) Studies, books
(ii) Parents believe that
children demand
(a)
money (b) logical
reasoning
(c)food
(d) clothes
(iii) Bookshops claim of doing
(a) healthy
business (b) low business
(c) average
business (d) no business
(iv) Teenagers like to read
(a)
classics (b) romance
(c) detective
fiction (d) bestsellers
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You recently visited a small
town in Madhya Pradesh. The sight of small children, around the age often,
working in a glass-making factory has disturbed you. Write a letter to the
editor of a national newspaper expressing your concern regarding the grave
problem in our country. Also highlight the ill-effects of child labour. The
letter should be of about 100-120 words. (5)
Or
Write an article on the
Health Hazards Caused By Junk Food, in about 100-120 words.
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One night you were suddenly
awakened by a ghastly shriek as if it was coming from your window. You went
towards the window and saw a shadow seeming to advance towards you. You felt
choked and lost your consciousness. When you came to your senses you were on
your bed, puzzled but safe. Describe your experience in the form of a story of
about 150-200 words. (10)
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Read the paragraph given below
and fill in the blanks, (1
x 3 = 3)
Humans have always thought of
the moon as living. In earlier times, it was seen that it had always been changing.
Since, it was the brightest star in the dark sky, humans watched and wondered
why it
(a) ................ Humans
(b)...................... always afraid of the dark, so the bright light (c)
.................. both welcome and mysterious.
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In the passage given below, one
word has been omitted in 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. The first one has been done for you as an
example, (1
x 4 = 4)
I went to hospital yesterday evening at
about to the hospital
6 pm see my uncle there. Last week he had sustained (a)
............. ............. .............
an injury in his leg in fall from the outer wall
and (b) ............ ............. .............
to be hospitalised. I asked him how he was feeling and
(c) ............. ............. .............
he told that he was okay except for some pain in leg. (d)
............. ............. .............
However, he looked cheerful and hoped that he would
come home after some time. I felt much relieved
meeting him. I think that a visit to hospital is always
fraught with sadness as its ambience is like this.
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Rearrange the following words
and phrases to form meaningful sentences and write them in your answer
sheet. (1
x 3 = 3)
we / earthworm / know/ the / is
/ the / best/worm.
The earthworm is the worm we
know best.
(i) an / wriggles / like / do /
most / earthworm / worms
(ii) they / no / have / but /
worms / can / some / swim / legs
(iii) in / earthworms / the /
live / ground
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Read the extracts given below
and answer the questions that follow.
(1 x 3 = 3)
The luncheon party she declined;
there are limits beyond which repressed emotions become dangerous.
(i) Who declined the luncheon
party?
(ii) Why did she decline the
invitation?
(iii) How do repressed emotions
become dangerous?
Or
Who's gone dead? It's someone in
the family (He chuckles)?
(i) Who speaks these words to whom?
(ii) What makes the speaker think that someone has died?
(iii) What answer does the speaker get
to his questions?
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Answer the following questions
in 30-40 words each. (2
x 4 = 8)
(i) Mrs Jordan says that she has
a feeling father hasn't paid his insurance premium. How do all react to it?
(ii) Why was the postmaster
bewildered?
(iii) Yet in both these boyish
faces there was a seriousness, which was far beyond their years. Explain.
(iv) Why had Helen, the ghost,
been helping the narrator write ghost stories? Why was she going on strike? What
condition did she place for providing help?
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Answer any one of the following
questions in about 80-100 words. (4)
Imagine Lucia is fully cured of
tuberculosis and is out of hospital. She receives a letter from one of her old
friends as to how she passed her life and how she got well. Write a reply to
this letter to Lucia's friend Emily showing the values displayed by her
brothers.
Or
Inspite of having a melodious
voice and being a crowd puller, the nightingale turns out to be a loser and
dies. How far is she responsible for her own downfall?
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Answer any one of the following
questions in about 150-200 words. (10)
How does Anne feel about the
laws that restrict Jews' freedom? (The Diary of a
Young Girt)
Or
Write a brief character sketch
of Anne Frank. (The
Diary of a Young Girt)
Give an account of Helen
Seller's struggle. (The
Story of My Life)
Or
Write a brief character sketch of Helen
Keller. (The Story of My
Life)
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