TIPS TO SCORE WELL IN ENGLISH
As a student of Class XII, you must be wondering how to
score better in English in the Board
Examinations.
How
to Prepare for Exam is a big question that you always ask yourself. Here are
some tips that may help you. Many of you may be working
hard and getting good marks and some
of you may not be working hard but still manage to get
high marks in exams. Others may be
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wondering how it happens? Also there will be a few who
study well but still are not able to score
well in exams. Don’t worry; these simple tips will tell
you 'How to prepare for Exams”.
STEPS
1. Set an aim and regulate your habits and works towards
attaining the aim.
2. READ-Spend about 30 minutes reading at home every day.
You will be amazed by the
number of new words you can learn and use these words to
improve writing skills.
3. ASK QUESTIONS! - Nothing pleases a teacher of English
more than a question about
the topic at hand. If you don’t know, then ask! Do not
hesitate.
4. STAY FOR EXTRA HELP AFTER SCHOOL hours to sharpen your
skills to answer
questions from areas such as Prose, Poetry ,Reading
Comprehension & Writing.
5. Make sure to practice the reading and comprehension
skills on a regular basis.
Solve at least one unseen passage and one passage for note
making every week and
get them evaluated by your teacher. The passage can be
picked up from the News
papers. Speaking Tree from “Times of India”, Editors
column from other News
Papers.
6. Practice minimum two writing skills every week and get
it evaluated by your
teacher. Rewrite and improve upon as per the teacher’s
suggestions.
7. GO ABOVE AND BEYOND YOUR TEACHER’S EXPECTATIONS – The
topics given for
writing articles should be written in more words than
expected first and try to reduce
into the expected word limit. Write and practice the
common issues..
8. Identify the areas of doubts about the topic discussed
in the class and get them
clarified at the immediate possibility and do practice
9. Have a thorough idea about the pattern of question
paper, specifications and
marking scheme to score better in the exams.
criteria, better scores in final exams will be ensured.
10. Participate in the class discussions on the lessons.
Support your opinions with quotes
from the lesson.
11. Try to relate the lessons in your text books with
current events. (if possible)
12. Read English books regularly.
13. Attend your English class with interest. Pay attention
and you will definitely learn
something of value and interest in every class.
14. Don’t miss the valuable study materials, question
papers given to be solved by the
teacher. Solve them meticulously ,get them evaluated and
incorporate the
suggestions.Unnnnn744566+525
16. Take down short notes while studying so that they
will help you revise the lessons.
There is no short cut to success. WORK HARD and success
will be yours.
SECTION-WISE ANALYSIS OF THE QUESTION PAPER
SECTION - A : READING
READING COMPREHENSION
Comprehension means understanding or perception. The
following points are to be carefully noted
while attempting questions on comprehension.
· Go through the passage
carefully and arrive at the general idea of the subject the passage presents.
· Read a second time to get a
better understanding of the passage.
· Arrive at the meaning of
difficult words by relating them to the preceding and following sentences.
· Underline relevant words and
phrases of the passages which can help you deduce the answers.
· Read the questions carefully.
· Answer precisely using simple
language.
· Answers should reveal your
understanding of the passage.
· If you are asked to provide a
suitable title or heading to the passage remember the title is hidden
either in the beginning or ending of the passage.
· Title should relate to the
main idea of the passage and should be brief.
Unseen passages for comprehension (Solved)
A. 1. Read the passage given below and answer the
questions that (12 Marks)
1. First, a warning. The journey is tough, steep and
peppered with hairpin bends. If you are not a
hardened traveller, by the time you reach Tawang your head
is likely to be spinning. Add to it
the breeze which pierces through all your protective
clothing and you could well be wondering
what prompted you to make this arduous trip to such
Himalayan heights.
2. To get acclimatized to high altitude, the recipe is
simple and strict – take it easy on the first day,
lest you find yourself out of breath and panting. Tuck
yourself in a warm bed and sip some
thupka (Tibetan noodle soup) and begin your adventures the
following day.
3. In fact when you get up the next morning, you will
scarcely believe what you see. The picture
postcard beauty of the hill station in Arunachal Pradesh
will simply take your breath away. The
scenery is pristine and the Himalayan ranges are lush with
pine, oak and rhododendron forests.
There is also a rich growth of bamboo, which is the
favorite food of the red panda found in this
part of the Northeast.
4. Located about 10,000 feet above sea level, the Tawang
monastery is the second oldest
monastery in Asia, which explains the rush of tourists to
this remote settlement. The
magnificent monastery overlooks the valley and surrounded
by mountains that seem to be
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towering around it like guards. The monastery’s enormous
yellow roof and white walls stand
out like a beacon. The place is completely isolated from
the world.
5. One of the biggest attractions of the monastery is the
three storey dukhang (assembly hall)
that has a magnificent eight-meter-high gilded image of
Buddha.
6. The ancient library, leading onto the parkhang (main courtyard) has an excellent collection of
old scriptures, images and thankas (traditional paintings and monastery – or gompa in local
language – is over 350 years old and is an important
centre of pilgrimage for Buddhists.
7. The sixth Dalai Lama was born here. Also known as the Galden Namgyan Lhatse, the monastery
is a repository of Tibetan Buddhist culture.
8. Tawang does not have an airport or railway station of
its own. It is connected
with other town in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam by road.
Reaching Tawang from
Kolkata is braving a long but rewarding journey. The drive
through the picturesque
mountain country is spectacular and can leave you
breathless as you wind around
steep hill-roads and maneuver sharp hairpin bends. In
parts, the road can be
rather treacherous. This is definitely not a drive for the
faint-hearted.
9. The journey to Tawang starts from Guwahati on a bus or
a taxi to Bomdila. Past the
Dirang valley with its old dzong (fort), the road climbs sharply to Sela Pass at 13,940
feet. This barren, desolate landscape is softened by a
serene lake that lies below Sela Pass.
10 Twang has one main street and a warren on alleys to the
houses that climb up the
hillside towards the towering monastery. It also has one
quaint little bazaar which
sells products ranging from talismans and prayer wheels to
garish sunglasses and
transistors. The snack stalls are a plenty offering solja,
the yak butter tea, thupka
and hot memos, the delicious steamed meat dumpling with
chilly sauce.
1.1 Answer the following questions briefly. (9 marks)
(i) Why is the journey up Twang so arduous? (2)
(ii) What should a visitor do to acclimatize to high
altitude? (1)
(iii) Why do people like to visit Tawang? (2)
(iv) Describe the Tawang monastery. (2)
(v) How can one reach Tawang? (2)
1.2 Pick out words or phrases which convey the same
meaning as the following.(3)
(i) Extremely attractive ( Para 4)
(ii) Holy place (Para 6) (iii) Huge, in great (Para 3)
Answers
1.1.
i. The breeze pierces the protective clothes. The
traveler’s head starts spinning.
ii. He must get acclimatized to high altitude. He should
take it easy on the first day.
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iii. Greatly attracted by the beauty of this hill station.
The scenery is wonderful.
iv. It is the second oldest monastery in Asia. It is
located about 10,000 feet about
sea level and overlooks the valley and seems isolated from
the world.
v . Tawang does not have any airport. It is connected with
other towns in Arunachal
Pradesh and Assam by road.
1.2. (i)
Magnificent (ii) Pilgrimage (iii) Rhododendron
Unseen Passages for Practice
1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the
questions that follow.
Light Pollution
1. Every urbanite knows the bright lights of the city make
it impossible to see the stars in a night sky.
What most of us do not know is that those lights also may
be making us sick. The cause is light
pollution – the unearthly glow of billions of street
lamps, security and porch lights, searchlights,
office lights and signs – as people everywhere try to
dispel the darkness of the night.
2. For the first time, light is being investigated
seriously as a pollutant and a health hazard – a
possible cause increased incidence of breast cancer,
depression and other ailments.
3. In the most heavily urbanized regions, it no longer
ever really gets dark. Satellite images reveal
that in large areas of eastern North America, Western
Europe, Japan and Korea, night has become
a constant twilight. In a natural night sky, someone
looking at the heavens should be able to see
nearly 3500 stars and planets and the glow from the Milky
Way, our galaxy. But in some brightly lit
cities, the number of visible stars has dwindled to about
a few dozen.
4. And for many wildlife species, light pollution seems to
be as grave as environmental threat as
bulldozed habitats and toxic-chemical dumping.
5. Lighting from office towers confuse migratory birds
which fly into buildings lit up at night. Millions
of birds in North America die from these crashes.
Researchers have noticed since the 1980s that
artificial lights along ocean beaches confuse millions of
baby turtles. Observers say that the turtles
instinctively crawl to the brightest thing on the horizon
– normally the reflection of the moon on
the sea. But where beaches are illuminated, baby turtles
often crawl to the lit roads, where they
are flattened by cars, or wander in circles on the beach.
Once day breaks, they bake to death in
the sun.
6. Sea turtles and birds are clearly in peril because of
light at night, but scientists have begun to study
whether human may share something of the same fate.
Richard Steven, a US Epidemiologist, has
developed the idea that night light can disrupt critical
hormonal levels that affect human health.
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Stevens came to this conclusion while trying to solve the
puzzle of why breast cancer risk is five
times higher in industrialized societies than in
non-industrialized countries.
7. Stevens turned to literature on circadian rhythms- the
24-hour biological clock that guides daily
body functions – and on melatonin, a hormone most living
creatures produce only in darkness. In a
study published in 2001, Stevens says that there is
‘mounting evidence to suggest that disruption
of the melatonin rhythm may lead to chronic fatigue,
depression, reproduction anomalies and
perhaps even cancer’. Melatonin is produced in the brain’s
pineal gland only when the eyes signal
it is dark. Those working under lighting at night could be
reducing the amount of melatonin they
produce.
8. Travis Longcore, Science Director at the Urban Wild
lands Group (a Los Angeles conservation
group), says that light pollution should be receiving the
same attention as other environmental ills.
Canada has set up a conservation reserve north of Toronto,
the first in the world to preserve a
pristine night sky. Conservationists are hoping to expand
the area of preserved night sky beyond
the park’s boundaries by encouraging local municipalities
to curtail the use of poorly designed
night lighting.
9. In the United States, the International Dark-Sky
Association (IDA) has been campaigning for bylaws
requiring ‘night-friendly’ lights, with the bulbs recesses
into the fixture so that the light does not
glare out horizontally or upwards. Lamps that direct a
light beam at the ground use less electricity
and do not uselessly light the sky. While the health and
environmental impacts of night pollution
are starting to capture attention, Dave Crawford, the
executive director of IDA, has other concerns
too. He too worries that light may be making people sick
and harming wildlife, but he says the
fading of the heavens could also cause a fading of the
human imagination – in many ways a greater
long-term threat.
10. Writers and artists have been drawn inspiration from
the night sky. Says Crawford, “It’s the
glamour and wonder of the universe we live in. We’ve got
to preserve that.”
1.1. Answer the following questions (9 marks)
1. How is light a pollutant? What harm does it cause? (2)
2. What startling revelation does this passage provide
about death of turtles? (1)
3. How does lighting affect our daily body functions? (2)
4. What measures have been taken in Canada to reduce light
pollution? (2)
5. What are the suggestions given by the IDA to counter
light pollution? (2)
6. Pick out words or phrases which convey the same meaning
as the following: (3 marks)
(i) Threat or danger (Para 6)
(ii). Unusual, irregularity ( Para 7)
(iii) To limit ( para 8)
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2.Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that
follow.
1. A scholar is refused admission to a good school
primarily because of his weak interactive skills.
It is indeed pathetic that though English is spoken
fluently and used every day; yet none is satisfied
with their abilities. A learner feels he cannot express
himself the way he wants to. And he fails
miserably to connect with his own hidden
2. The Education system, in its endeavors to make
Curriculum relevant and life-oriented
has, as a matter of fact, fallen short of its standards.
It is oblivious of the fact that the most applied
and practical subject- English: is devoid of practical afflatus.
English is at cross roads. Both aspects
of Education: the cultural that empowers a learner to grow
and the productive aspect that makes
him do things, is relegated to the background curriculum
thus stands lopsided. It fails to provide full
range of services and cannot tap teachers’ expertise. No
proper moves and strategies have been
formulated to make it unique. English courses are
mushrooming and alluring advertisements clip
are often spotted.
3. With the onset of the new millennium, demands of the
Educational System to
sensitize itself to changing societal needs has also
increased manifold. The new race
of human beings has to be served New Curriculum that
caters to the Unity Of
Thought, Action & Deed and help evolve an integrated
human personality. A
Comprehensive Curriculum alone can enhance their
understanding of four basic skills.
4. Acquiring the skill of English is no Catwalk. And
English is no Science where results
are verified; but it means Construction; ingenuity at
work. The Architecture that it
builds can never be complete if it is divorced from
learning by doing.
5. There are a number of Projects like Phonetics,
News-reading, Indian literature,
Poetry- composition, Interview skills, biography- launch,
etc. which can help a pupil
to experiment till he finds a medium that helps free flow
of thoughts, to think
critically and creatively and emerge as literary
competent. As long as there is
proper feeding, English will live in their hearts and
reign in their minds. Sooner or
later, they will be blessed with a marathon for actionable
learning that shall make a
multidimensional impact on them.
“Within the enclosure (pupils) lies the
potential for a new beginning
And within this exciting beginning lies an
astonishing future for him.”
6. English cannot be conferred so easily and so soon. We
need to take control of
English. There is a grave need to designate English,
without the slightest hesitation, a
practical status if at all, we want a remarkable future.
The lack of efforts in learning
English and the general feeling of not being interested in
learning the English
language that are plaguing the system should be urgently
addressed. Should not we
all battle against this abuse?
1.1. On the basis of your reading the passage answer the
questions given below. 9marks
1. What are the interactive situations? (1)
2. What is the ‘matter of grave concern’? (2)
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3. Explain unity of thought, action and deed? (2)
4. How can English help evolve an integrated personality?
(2)
5. How can you find an astonishing future? (2)
1.2. Pick out one word from the passage that means the
same as: (3)
a). Nascent (para1) b). Pragmatic (para2) c). Depths (para
6)
NOTE MAKING
Tips to prepare Notes and Summary:
· Prepare notes using phrases
only and never use complete sentences.
· The topic sentence of each
paragraph is the main point and the ideas affiliated to
it are the sub-points – one or more depending on the
concepts in the paragraph.
Sub points should be limited to five.
· Each sub-point may or may not
have supplementary ideas which become subsub
points.
· Proper indentation is
essential.
· Provide an appropriate title
for the notes and the summary.
· Include a minimum of 4 to 6
distinctly different, recognizable short forms of the
Longer Words (abbreviations) in the notes.
· Underline all short forms.
Provide the key for the short forms at the end of the
notes titled ‘Key to Abbreviations’.
· Cover all the important
points in the passage while preparing the notes.
· Identify and club similar
ideas scattered in different paragraphs/areas of the
Passage before subtitling paragraph wise to make note
short and precise.
Do proper indentation . You may use symbols & figures
also for abbreviation.
· Include all the important
points in the notes meaningfully to prepare the
summary in about 80
· Write the summary in complete
sentences in a paragraph with a suitable title.
Split up of Marks
Note making (5) Summary (3)
Title: 1 Content: 3
Key to Abbreviations: 1
Content: 2
Expression: 1
Passage for Note Making (Solved)
2. Read the passage given below carefully and answer the
questions that follow: (8)
1. The small village of Somnathpur contains an
extraordinary temple, built around 1268 A.D. by
the Hoyasalas of Karnataka – one of the most prolific
temple-builders. Belur and Helebid are
among their better-known works. While these suffered
during the invasions of the 14th
century, the Somnathpur temple stands more or less intact
in near-original condition.
2. This small temple captivates with the beauty and
vitality of its detailed sculpture, covering
almost every inch of the walls, pillars and even ceilings.
It has three shikharas and stands on a
star-shaped, raised platform with 24 edges. The outer
walls have a profusion of detailed
carvings: the entire surface run over by carved plaques of
stone. There were vertical panels
covered by exquisite figures of gods and goddesses with
many incarnations being depicted.
There were nymphs too, some carrying an ear of maize a
symbol of plenty and prosperity. The
elaborate ornamentation, very characteristic of Hoyasala
sculptures, was a remarkable feature.
On closer look- and it is worth it – the series of friezes
on the outer walls revealed intricately
carved caparisoned (covered decorative cloth) elephants,
charging horsemen, stylized flowers,
warriors, musicians, crocodiles, and swans.
3. The temple was actually commissioned by Soma
Dandanayaka or Somnath (he named the
village after himself), the minister of the Hoyasala king,
Narasimha, the Third. The temple was
built to house three versions of Krishna.
4. The inner center of the temple was the kalyana mandapa.
Leading from here were three
corridors each ending in a shrine, one for each kind of
Krishna – Venugopala, Janardana and
Prasanna Keshava, though only two remain in their original
form. In the darkness of the
sanctum sanctorum, I tried to discern the different
images. The temple’s sculptural perfection
is amazing and it includes the doors of the temple and the
three elegantly carved towers.
2.1. On the basis of your reading
of the above passage make notes on it using headings
and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations, wherever
necessary. Give the
passage a suitable title. 5
Temple of Somnathpur
1. Temple: the
beauty and vitality
1.1. Detailed sculpture – covering walls, pillars,
ceilings
1.1. a. Series of friezes on outer walls
1.1. b. intricately carved elephants
1.1. c. charging horsemen
1.1. d. stylized flowers
1.1. e. warriors, musicians, crocodile and swans
1.2. three shikharas – stands *shaped, raised platform –
24 edges
1.3. the outer walls – detailed carvings
1.4. the entire surface – carved plaques of stone
1.5. vertical panels covered by exq. fig.
2. Representation of Hinduism
2.1. incarnations
2.2. many deities
3. Temple in the History
3.1. comsnd. Soma Dandanayaka or Somnath
3.2. the inner center of the temple – kalyana mandapa
3.3. three corridors ending in a shrine
Key to Abbreviations
1. * star
2. exq exquisite
3. fig figures
4. comsnd. commissioned
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2.2. Write a summary of the note prepared in not more than 80
words. (3 marks)
Passages for Practice
(i)Read
the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow: (8)
1.The practice of soil conservation involves methods to
reduce soil erosion, prevent depletion of
soil nutrients, and restore nutrients, already lost by
erosion and excessive crop harvesting. Most
methods used to control soil erosion involve, keeping the
soil covered with vegetation.
2. In conventional farming, the land is ploughed several
times and smoothed to make a
planting surface – a practice that makes it vulnerable to
soil erosion. To reduce erosion, an
increasing number of farmers in many countries are using
conservation – tillage farming, also
known as minimum – tillage, or no- till farming, depending
on the degree to which the soil is
disturbed. Farmers using these methods disturb the soil as
little as possible in planting crops.
3. For the minimum-tillage method, special tillers break
up and loosen the subsurface soil
without turning over the topsoil. In no-till farming special
planting machines inject seeds,
fertilizers and weed-killers into slits made in the
unploughed soil.
4.In addition to reducing soil erosion, conversation –
tillage and no-till farming reduce
Fuel and tillage costs and water loss from soil. They can
also increase the number of
crops that can be grown during a season.
5.Soil erosion can also be reduced by 30-50 percent on
gently sloping land by means of
contour farming – ploughing and planting crops in rows
across, rather than up and down,
the sloped contours of the land. Each row planted
horizontally along the slope of the
land acts as a small dam to help hold and slow the runoff
of water.
6. Terracing can be used on steeper slopes. Each terrace
retains some of the water running down
the vegetated slope. Terracing provides water for crops at
all levels and decreases soil erosion by
reducing the amount and speed of water runoff. In areas of
high rainfall, diversions ditches must
be built behind each terrace to permit adequate drainage.
7. In strip cropping, a series of rows of one crop, such
as corn or soybeans, is planted in a
wide strip. Then the next strip is planted with a
soil-conserving cover crop, such as grass
or grass-legume mixture, which completely covers the soil
and thus reduces erosion.
Temple of Somnathpur
The temple of Somnathpur is extraordinary due to the
sculptures on the walls,
pillars, and even the ceiling which is covered by
exquisite figures of gods and
goddesses. It is a representation of Hinduism with its
many incarnations and
deities. The temple commissioned by Somnath has a ‘kalyana
mandapa’ with three
corridors ending in a shrine.
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These alternating rows of cover trap soil that erodes from
the other rows, catch and
reduce water runoff, and help prevent the spread of plant
diseases and pests from one
strip to another.
8. Windbreaks can reduce erosion caused by exposure of
cultivated lands to high winds or shelter
beats. These are long rows of trees planted to partially
block the wind. Windbreaks also provide
habitats for birds, pest eating and pollinating insects
and other animals.
2. a). On the basis of your reading of the above passage
make notes on it using headings and subheadings.
Use recognizable abbreviations, wherever necessary. Give
the passage a suitable title.
(5 marks)
2.b).. Write a summary of the notes prepared in not more
than 80 words. (3 marks)
Read the passage given below carefully and answer the
questions that follow: (8 marks)
1. The tests of life are its plus factors. Overcoming
illness and suffering is a plus factor for it
moulds character. Steel is iron plus fire, soil is rock
plus heat. So let’s include the plus factor in our
lives.
2. Sometimes the plus factor is more readily seen by the
simple-hearted. Myers tells the story of a
mother who brought into her home - as a companion to her
own son - a little boy who happened
to have a hunchback. She had warned her son to be
careful not to refer to his disability, and to go
right on playing with him as if he were like any other
boy.
3.
The boys were playing and
after a few minutes she overheard her son say to his companion:
“Do you know what you have got on your back?” The little
boy was embarrassed, but before he
could reply, his playmate continued: “It is the box in
which your wings are and some day
God is going
to
cut it open and then you will fly away and be an angel”.
4.
Often it takes a third eye or a change in focus, to see the plus factor.
Walking along the corridors of a
hospital
recently where patients were struggling with fear of pain and tests, I was
perturbed. What gave me
fresh
perspective were the sayings put up everywhere, intended to uplift. One saying
made me conscious of
the
beauty of the universe in the midst of pain, suffering and struggle. The other
saying assured me that
God
was with me when I was in deep water and that no troubles would overwhelm me.
5.
The import of those sayings also made me aware of the nether springs that flow
into people’s lives
when
they touch rock bottom or lonely or even deserted. The nether springs make
recovery possible, and
they
bring peace and patience in the midst of pain and distress.
6.
The forces of death and destruction are not so much physical as they are
psychic and psychological.
When
malice, hate and hard-heartedness prevail, they get channeled as forces of
destruction. Where
openness,
peace and good-heartedness prevail, the forces of life gush forth to regenerate
hope and joy. The
life
force is triumphant when love overcomes fear. Both fear and love are deep
mysteries, but the effect of
love
is to build whereas fear tends to destroy. Love is often the plus factor that
helps build character. It
helps
us to accept and to overcome suffering. It creates lasting bonds and its reach
is infinite.
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7.
It is true that there is no shortage of destructive elements - forces and
people who seek to destroy
others
and in the process, destroy themselves - but at the same time there are signs
of love and life
everywhere
that are constantly enabling us to overcome setbacks. So let’s not look only at
gloom and doom
-
let’s seek out positivity and happiness. For it is when you seek that you will
find what is waiting to be
discovered.
2.1.
On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it using
headings and sub-headings.
Use
recognizable abbreviations, wherever necessary. Give the passage a suitable
title. 5
2.2. Write a
summary of the notes prepared in not more than 80 words (3 marks)
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