Class

– XII
Sub – English Language
Full Marks: 100 Time: 3hrs
[Candidates are allowed additional 15 minutes for reading this paper. They must not start writing during this time.]
Attempt all four questions

The intended marks for questions or parts of questions given in brackets [ ].

You are advised to spend not more than 50 minutes on Question 1, 40 minutes on Question 2, 30 minutes on
Question 3 and 1 hour on Question 4.
You should begin each answer on fresh page.

1. Write a composition (in approximately 400 – 450 words) on any one of the following subjects. (You are
reminded that you will be rewarded for orderly and coherent presentation of materials, use of appropriate
style and general accuracy of spelling, punctuation and grammar). [25]

a. You were taken on a short tour to a famous place from your school. Give a vivid description of what you saw
there, how the place seemed to you and one unique experience you would like to treasure for your whole life.
b. Narrate an incident where your sense of humour helped you to wriggle out of an embarrassing situation.
c. Co – curricular activities should be allotted the same number of periods in the school timetable as curricular
subjects. Give your views about the statement.
d. In order to be successful, one should rely on oneself and not expect others to help. Argue for or against the
statement.
e. Race.
f. Write an original short story which has for its beginning “is there anybody there?” said the Traveller, knocking
on the moonlit door.
2.
a. Using the given points write an article (within 300 words) entitled Internet and the Children of Today:
Internet _ major source of information and entertainment for children _ types of sites that appeal to the children _
merits _ provides information _ makes them aware of the world _ demerits _ children visit sites not meant for their
age group _ exposure to adult matters and cyber crime _ solution_ necessity for regulated and supervised use. [20]
b. As a member of the Cultural Club, you have been given the responsibility to set up a school magazine.
Write a proposal, in not more than 150 words, the steps you take to run a successful school magazine.
[10]
3. Answer sections (a), (b) and (c):
a. In each of the following items, sentence A is complete, but sentence B is not. Complete sentence B,
making it as similar in meaning as possible to sentence A.
Write down sentence B complete in each case. [10]
Example :
0. A : He always obeys his teachers.
B : His teachers . . . .
Ans. [0] His teachers are always obeyed by him.
1. A : Though it was a gloomy day, the atmosphere in the classroom was one of joy and happiness.
B : Despite . . . . .
2. A : Paula had never seen a large a market as the Venetian Market.
B : Never . . . .
3. A : If you want to be a good dancer you have to practice rigorously for at least six hours a day.
B : You have. . . . . .
4. A : As soon as the doorbell rings, my dog rushes to the door.
B : No sooner . . . . . .
5. A : Tagore was a great poet and writer.
B : Not only . . . . . .
6. A : We did not know that Sunil was leaving us and going away forever.
B : Little . . . . .
7. A : Though Naresh is poor, he will not work for a corrupt person.
B : However . . .
8. A : My friend assured me that he would be waiting and so I went.
B : If . . . . . . . . .
9. A : The Police Inspector opened fire when challenged.
B : Begin : Had . . . . . . . .
10. A : He was too distracted to understand anything what I said.
B : He was so . . . . . . . . . .

b. Fill in each blank with a suitable word: [5]

[Do not write the sentences]
1. The soccer player was shown a yellow card for arguing ___________________ the referee.
2. The exhibition was a complete sell _________________
3. How can she put ____________ with such indiscipline students?
4. The man broke ______________ the cordon and rushed to the dais.
5. The novelty of being a celebrity wears ___________ ultimately.
6. When we visited Dalhousie, we passed ___________________ the house in which we had lived twenty years
ago.
7. Rashi has applied _________________ a scholarship in an American University.
8. Arjun applied ________________ the university for higher studies but was denied admission.
9. We failed to agree ________________ a common plan of action.
10. The Principal does not approve _____________ indiscipline.
c. Fill in each blank in the passage given below with the appropriate form of the verb given in brackets. Do
not rewrite the passage but write down the verbs in the correct order: [5]
One day, when on a solitary hunt, Atlanta found herself facing two centaurs. Half – human, half – horse creatures that
they were, they ___________________ (1) (believed) that the sight of them itself ______________ (2)(scare) the
young girl alone in the forest. They _____________ (3) (decide) to have some cruel fun at her expense. They
___________ (4)(come) down the hill ______________ (5) (scream) and laughing in a chilling manner. But Atlanta did
not run. She calmly ____________ (6) (stand) her ground, took aim with a deadly bronze – tipped arrow ___________
(7) (attach) to her bow _________________ (8)(shoot) at the first centaur coming towards her. Even before the first
arrow had hit its mark, she _____________ (9) (aim) and shot at the second centaur. The arrows _________________
(10) (pierce) both centaurs in their hearts. They lay motionless at her feet.
4. Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions [a], [b] and [c] that follow:

“You are not to go into the gooseberry garden,” said the aunt, changing the subject.
“Why not?” demanded Nicholas.
“Because you are in disgrace,” said the aunt loftily.
Nicholas did not admit the flawlessness of the reasoning; he felt perfectly capable of being in disgrace and in a
gooseberry garden at the same moment. His face took on an expression of considerable obstinacy. It was clear to his
aunt that he was determined to get into the gooseberry garden, “only,” as she remarked to herself, “because I have
told him he is not to.”
Now the gooseberry garden had two doors by which it might be entered, and once a small person like Nicholas could
slip in there he could effectually disappear from view amid the masking growth of artichokes, raspberry canes, and
fruit bushes. The aunt had many other things to do that afternoon, but she spent an hour or two in trivial gardening
operations among flower beds and shrubberies, whence she could keep a watchful eye on the two doors that led to
the forbidden paradise. She was a woman of few ideas, with immense powers of concentration.
Nicholas made one or two sorties into the front garden, wriggling his way with obvious stealth of purpose towards one
or other of the doors, but never able for a moment to evade the aunt’s watchful eye. As a matter of fact, he had no
intention of trying to get into the gooseberry garden, but it was extremely convenient for him that his aunt should
believe that he had; it was a belief that would keep her on self – imposed sentry – duty for the greater part of the
afternoon. Having thoroughly confirmed and fortified her suspicions Nicholas slipped back into the house and rapidly
put into execution a plan of action that had long germinated in his brain. By standing on a chair in the library one could
reach a shelf on which reposed a fat, important – looking key. The key was as important as it locked; it was the
instrument which opened a way only for aunts and such – like privileged persons. Nicholas had not had much
experience of the art of fitting keys into keyholes and turning locks, but for some days past he had practiced with the
key of the schoolroom door; he did not believe in trusting too much to luck and accident. The key turned stiffly in the

lock, but it turned. The door opened and Nicholas was in an unknown land, compared with which the gooseberry
garden was a stale delight, a mere material pleasure.
Often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself what the lumber – room might be like, that region that was so
carefully sealed from youthful eyes and concerning which no questions were ever answered. It came up to his
expectations. In the first place it was large and dimly lit, one high window opening on to the forbidden garden being its
only source of illumination. In the second place it was a storehouse of unimagined treasures. The aunt – by – assertion
was one of those people who think that think things spoil by use and consign them to dust and damp by way of
preserving them. Such parts of the house as Nicholas knew best were rather bare and cheerless, but here there were
wonderful things for the eye to feast on.
First and foremost there was a piece of framed tapestry that was evidently meant to be a fire – screen. To Nicholas it
was a living, breathing story; he sat down on a roll of Indian hangings, glowing in wonderful colours beneath a layer of
dust, and took in all the details of the tapestry picture. A man, dressed in the hunting costume of some remote period,
had just transfixed a stag with an arrow; it could not have been a difficult shot because the stag was only one or two
paces away from him; in the thickly – growing vegetation that the picture suggested it would not have been difficult to
creep up to a feeding stag and the two spotted dogs that were springing forward to join in the chase had evidently
been trained to keep to heel till the arrow was discharged.
A)
i. Find the words which have similar meaning in the passage for the words given below: [4]
1. Stubbornness
2. Strengthened
3. Debarred
4. Pierced
B) For each of the words given below write a sentence of atleast 10 words, using the same word unchanged in
form, but with a meaning different from that which it carries in the passage. [4]
1. Clear
2. Locks
3. Parts
4. Living
C) Answer the following questions briefly as possible in your own words:
1. Why was it easy for Nicholas to disappear in the gooseberry garden? [2]
2. Why did Nicholas want to make his aunt suspicious about his entering the gooseberry garden? [2]
3. Why was the key as important as it looked? [2]
4. How did Nicholas procure the key and use it? [3]
D) In not more than 100 words, describe the unknown land into which Nicholas was taken when the door of the
lumber room opened. [8]
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