Class Test - 1
English Core
Class XII
Time: 90
Minutes M.M: 50
General
Instructions:
1. All
questions are compulsory.
2. Separate instructions
are given with each question. Read them carefully and follow them faithfully
3. Do not
exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
Q1. Read the passage given below carefully and
answer the questions that follow: 12
1. Suspense was over when
my high school results finally came out. But I was upset. I hadn’t done as well
as I had expected. My father tried to console me. “Why are you worried? You
have done very well my dear.” “No, I haven’t, Baba,” I protested, controlling
my tears, and wondering if I had disappointed him. “It doesn’t really matter,”
he assured me. “Do you know what I got when I finished high school?” I looked
into Baba’s face and waited for the answer to his own question. “You know,” he
told me. “I’ve never told you this. I got just third division. But, look at me,
I’ve done quite well.” Baba got a third division! I was almost in shock, but
the thought of my having done a lot better than that made me realize that I had
no reason to complain. I certainly felt better! “Everything is under control!”
said Baba, smiling. That was his favourite phrase. Posted in Kolkata, my father
was then a senior official in the India Railway Service, and an expert in goods
traffic operations. He was soon to become a director with the Railway Board. By
the time he retired in 1981, he was general manager of the Central Railways. By
the time Baba passed away in November 2000, his name had found place in several
hearts as well. He was open, easy to know, and full of life. We were extremely
close, but I had so much more to learn about him from many things I came to
know after his death.
2. In September 2000, he
was in hospital for treatment of cancer and given just two months to live. When
he found out, his reaction was an extremely rational one. He asked me to fetch
files from his cupboard, so that he could explain the details of my mother’s
pension. He also dictated his will from his hospital bed. “Everything is under control!”
After Baba’s death, Satish, our old family retainer, was inconsolable. We tried
to cheer him up. “Your Baba had scolded me only once in all these years!” he
cried. Satish pointed to the watch on his left hand. “I had been coming late
for work and everyone in the family was complaining about it,” said Satish.
“Then, one day, your Baba gave me this watch and told me, ‘now that you have a
watch, you can’t be late’.” That was the scolding Satish received. On the
fourth day after Baba’s death, my sister and I had to perform a ceremony. Since
several relatives were expected, we decided to order lunch from a caterer in
our locality, reputed for his home cooked food. But, when we went to pay the
owner, we got a surprise. He refused to accept any money! “When I wanted to
start my catering business, it was your father who lent me money,” he told us.
It seems Baba never asked for it back. Now, after four or five years, the
caterer wanted to repay that debt. Of course, we made him accept the full
payment for the fine food and service. ‘It was Baba’s gift and it ought to
remain so,” I told him.
3. Some days later,
there was yet another piece of information as we were preparing for the main
ceremony. Vikram, my brother drove me to the local market. On recognizing our
car, the parking assistant, in his twenties, came running towards us and asked
why he had not seen its owner for long. We had to break the news to him and to
our utter surprise, he started crying. We were really surprised by this
reaction from a stranger – until the man told us that Baba used to pay his
daughter’s school fees and buy her books. It seems, it was on my father’s
advice that he’d even started sending the child to school. More than three
years after Baba’s death, as we were looking into Baba’s personal things, we came
across an old file with Baba’s certificates and I found among them, his high
school diploma from 1937, the one he’d told me about 30 years earlier, about
the third division that had made no difference in his life or career. It had
made me see beyond mere marks and first classes as the main road to success.
But there was one more fact. Baba had actually got a first division, a rare
achievement in his day. Today, years after his passing, when I think of Baba, I
see a man who was able to sympathise with others so easily and touch their
lives in such a special way.
1.1
On the basis of your understanding of the passage answer
the following questions by choosing the most appropriate options. 1x4 = 4
(a) Why was the
narrator in tears when her school results came out?
(i) She did better than she expected.
(ii) She did not do as expected.
(iii) Her Baba had not done well.
(iv) Her Baba had done better than her.
(b) On knowing the
result, how did the narrator’s father react?
(i) He scolded her.
(ii) He beat her.
(iii) He consoled her.
(iv) He made fun of her.
(c) Why did the
narrator say that she had nothing to complain?
(i) She had done better than her father.
(ii) She had done as well as her father.
(iii) She had topped in her school.
(iv) She had not worked hard at all.
(d) Choose the option
that is not correct.
(i) Baba was a senior official in the
Indian Railway Service.
(ii) Baba was to become a director with
the Railway Board.
(iii) Baba was the general manager of
the Central Railways.
(iv) Baba had got a third division in
high school
1.2 Answer the following:
1X6 = 6
(a) Why did the narrator’s sick father
want her to fetch files from his cupboard?
(b) Why did Baba buy Satish a watch?
(c) Why did the caterer not want to take
money from the narrator?
(d) Why were the narrator and her brother
surprised on meeting the parking assistant?
(e) Today years after his passing away
what has the narrator realized about her Baba?
(f) What was the story that Baba had
invented on the day the narrator’s results were published?
1.3 Find words from the
passage that mean the same as the following: 1x2 = 2
(a) Tension/anxiety (para 1)
(b) Servant (para 2)
Q2. APJ Public
School, Vivek Nagar, Delhi is organizing a Health Exhibition on 15th and
16th July, 2016. The theme of the exhibition is Healthy Living
– Better Living. As a secretary of the Health Club, write a notice inviting
charts, models, slogans and posters for the exhibition from the students. 4
Q3. Increase in the number of vehicles
causes pollution and traffic jams. Write an article in about 150-200 words for
a national daily highlighting the urgent need to solve these man made problems,
giving suiting suggestions. You are Manav/Manisha. 10
Q4. Read
the following extract and answer the questions that follow: 3
As a late
winter’s moon and felt that old
Familiar
ache, my childhood’s fear,
But all I
said was, see you soon, Amma,
All I did was smile and smile and smile….
(a)
What
is the speaker’s childhood fear? 1
(b)
What
is the significance of the parting words and her smile? 2
Q.5. Answer any
three of the following in about 30-40 words. 3x3=9
(a) Why was Franz
afraid when he was going to school that day?
(b) “What a thunderclap these words were
to me!” Which were the words that shocked
and surprised little Franz?
(c) What will the Maharaja do to find
the required number of tigers to kill?
(d) Why was Maharaja so anxious to kill
the hundredth tiger?
Q6. What was the parting message of M Hamel to his students and
village elders on the day of the last lesson at school? 6
Q7. How did the Tiger King stand in the danger of losing his kingdom? How
was he able to avert the danger? 6
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