SECTION A – READING COMPREHENSION
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that
follow:
· Today, India looks like it is
on course to join the league of developed nations. It is beginning to
establish a reputation not just as the technology nerve
centre and back-office to the world, but
also as its production centre. India’s secularism and
democracy serve as a role model to other
developing countries. There is great pride in an India
that easily integrates with a global
economy, yet maintains a unique cultural identity.
· But what is breathtaking is
India’s youth. For despite being an ancient civilization that traces
itself to the very dawn of human habitation, India is
among the youngest countries in the
world. More than half the country is under 25 years of age
and more than a third is under 15
years of age.
· Brought up in the shadow of
the rise of India’s service industry boom, this group feels it can be
at least as good, if not better, than anyone else in the
world. This confidence has them
demonstrating a great propensity to consume, throwing away
ageing ideas of asceticism and
thrift. Even those who do not have enough to consume today
feel that they have the capability
and opportunity to do so.
· The economic activity created
by this combination of a growing labour pool and rising
consumption demand is enough to propel India to
double-digit economic growth for decades.
One just has to look at the impact that the baby boomers
in the US had over decades of
economic activity, as measured by equity and housing
prices. This opportunity also represents
the greatest threat to India’s future. If the youth of
India are not properly educated and if there
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· are not enough jobs created,
India will have forever lost its opportunity. There are danger signs
in abundance.
· Fifty-three per cent of
students in primary schools drop out, one-third of children in class V
cannot read; three-quarters of schools do not have a
functioning toilet, female literacy is only
54 per cent and 80 million children in the age group of
6-14 do not even attend school.
· India’s IT and BPO industries
are engines of job creation, but they still account for only 0.2 per
cent of India’s employment. The country has no choice but
to dramatically industrialize and
inflate it domestic economy. According to forecast by the
Boston Consulting Group, more than
half of India’s unemployed within the next decade could be
its educated youth. We cannot
allow that to happen.
· India is stuck in a quagmire
of labour laws that hinder employment growth, particularly in the
manufacturing sector. Inflexible labour laws inhibit
entrepreneurship, so it is quite ironic that
laws ostensibly designed to protect labour actually
discourage employment.
· Employment creation needs an
abundant supply of capital. Controls on foreign investment
have resulted in China getting five times the foreign
direct investment, or an advantage of $200
billion over the past five years. The growing interest in
India by global private equity firms
augurs well as they represent pools of patient and smart
capital, but they too face many
bureaucratic hurdles.
· When it comes to domestic
capital availability, budget deficits adding up to 10 per cent of the
national GDP impede capital availability for investment
and infrastructure.
· Raising infrastructure
spending, coupled with rapid privatization, may not only create
employment but also address the growing gaps in
infrastructure. China has eight times the
highway miles and has increased roads significantly in the
past few years while India has only
inched along. Freight costs at Indian ports are almost
double the worldwide average, just to
give two examples.
· Moreover, like the
Lilliputians that kept the giant Gulliver tied down there are some 30,000
statutes in India, of which only a portion are even
operational, and these keep the employment
creation engine tied down. Since there are no sunset
provisions in any laws, the regulatory
morass only grows every year.
· In the meantime, we as
citizens of the world and descendants of India have to make a
difference. We have to ensure that India and its youth
attain that potential, both through our
business pursuits and the support of educational
charities, on-the-ground proponents of
participative democracy as well as other deserving
organizations and initiatives.
· I believe that hope can
triumph and that this can be India’s century – not one that will happen
as surely as the sun will rise each day, but one that many
willing hands will need to create
together.
a) Read the passage and answer the given questions
1. What makes the author think India is on the verge of
joining the select band of developed
nation? (2)
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2. Despite the fact that India is one of the oldest
civilizations why does the author say it is
young?(2)
3. The author feels that if certain problems are not
arrested, India would lose its opportunity.
Why would India lose this opportunity?(2)
4. What hinders employment growth?(1)
5. Who/what in the passage is referred to as the ‘Lilliputians’?(1)
6. How can we ensure that India and its youth attain their
full potential?(2)
b) Find words in the passage which mean the same as (2)
i) One of its kind ii) a great success
Q2. Read the passage given below: 8
1. The art of listening has become one of the most
important skills in modern life – more
important even than the ability to read. Increasingly,
communication is by the spoken word in
personal conversation, group addresses, in communication
by telephone, in reception of news
and announcements over the radio and through the cinema or
television. The liveliness and
activeness of response is a matter of habit born of proper
training.
2. Great though the differences between them, many people
do not discriminate between
hearing and listening. The former is merely the exercise
of one of the senses while the
intellect remains passive. Certain sounds strike the ears,
and we may or may not attach
meaning to them. In any case, we do not exert ourselves in
the matter. Pupils in our schools
‘hear’ what popularly passes for ‘English’, and continue
speaking a jargon of their own –
usually a mispronounced amalgam of shoddy Americanism
sentence patterns based on
prevailing language of the region.
3. Listening can go a long way towards correcting this situation.
In listening, we hear with a
purpose, with a consciously directed intellect. In
listening comprehension as applied to
English, our aim should be to train the pupil to
understand the language, the type of speech
that Professor Lloyd James suggests, ‘can be heard
anywhere without causing discontent”.
Such English is not ‘elocution’, Oxford’, or even ‘B.B.C.’
English. The last type is ‘Standard
English’ – the kind that can be understood wherever the
language is spoken. Most of our
pupils will never attain to that type in their own speech.
They may, even after all the training
we can give them, retain regional peculiarities of cadence
and stress – a sort of Modified
Standard English.
4. Assuming such English in the teachers at our schools,
we suggest the following:
5. We ought to distinguish between ‘listening for
comprehension of content’ and ‘listening to the
sounds of English with a view to imitation and
reproduction, i.e., learning to speak well’.
6. Both kinds of listening must be cultivated, but with
more attention to the latter in the earlier
stages and with more attention to the former as pupils
progress towards the senior classes.
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7. ‘Listening, pen in hand’ may be instituted, to be
completed with instruction and practice in the
proper method of intelligent note-taking that testifies to
intelligent listening.
a) On the basis of your reading of the passage, make notes
on it in a suitable format. Use
recognizable abbreviations, wherever necessary. Give a
title to your notes. 5 OR
b) Write the summary of the above passage. 3
SECTION-B: ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS
3. You are the team leader of the Everest Summiteers’ from
Nepal to participate in the march past at
Copenhagen, Denmark during the Global Climate Change
Conference. You have to draft a poster to
take it during the march. Draft the poster. 5
OR
You are Mohan/Molly Manager SBI Mysore. You have been
invited by the Lions Club to act as one of
the judges for a fancy dress competition for children. But
due to previous engagement you cannot
accept this invitation. Write a formal reply regretting
your inability to attend.
4. You are Rahul , the School Pupil Leader of your school.
Citizen’s Health Council recently organised a
unique Health Workshop in your school. Write a report on
the workshop for a newspaper magazine.
(125-150 words.) 10 M OR
The International Book Fair was inaugurated by the
Chairman of Children’s Book Trust, Dr.Kumar. The
theme this year was ‘Illustrated Works for Children’. You
are Akshay/ Anandi and had visited the
exhibition and were impressed. Write a factual description
in 125-150 words.
5. You are Satish /Sonali the school librarian. You have
been asked to place an order for children’s
story books (Age-10-13 years.). Write a letter to M.S.
Book Depot, Ramnagar, Bangalore placing an
order forthe books. Invent all the necessary details. 10 M
OR
You are Mr. M.L. Sareen. You have seen an advertisement in
the Hindustan Times for the post of
marketing manager. Write an application with complete
bio-data.
6. You have been asked to participate in the Debate
Competition on the topic ‘Machines have
enslaved Man’ .Write the debate in 200 words either for or
against the motion. 10
OR
You are Suhas/Suhasini. Environmental Week is being
celebrated in your school. You have been asked
to present a paper on ‘Global Warming’. Write the article
in 200 words.
SECTION-C: TEXTBOOKS
7. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow.
“ For once on the face of face of the earth
let,s not speak any language ,
let’s stop for one second ,
and not move our arms so much.”
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a) What does he mean by one second? 3x1=3
b) What was the instruction the poet had given at the
beginning of the poem? How is it different
at the end?
c) Why does the poet not want us to move our arms so much?
OR
“ On their
slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and
spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stone.
All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.”
a) What does the poet mean by slag heap?
b) How has the poet brought out the pathetic condition of
the children?
c) Who can bring about a change in their lives? How?
8. Answer any three of the following in 30-40 words. 3x2=6
1) What does the line, ‘Therefore are we wreathing a
flowery band to bind us to the earth’ suggest
to you in the poem ‘A Thing of Beauty’.
2) Explain ‘soothe them out of their wits’ with reference
to ‘An Elementary School classroom in a
slum’
3) Interpret the symbols in the poem ‘Aunt Jennifer’s
Tigers’.
4) What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels
in the poem ‘A
Roadside Stand.
9. Answer the following in
30-40 words. 3x2-6
1. ‘Together they have imposed the baggage on the child
that he cannot put down.’ Explain
with reference to ‘Lost Spring’.
2. What were the series of emotions and that fears that
Douglas experienced when he was
thrown into the water? What were his plans?
3. Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 per cent
refund to the farmers?
4. What was Umberto’s secret in being successful?
10 Answer in 150 words. 10
The writer of Poets and Pancakes uses humour to highlight
human foibles. Discuss.
OR
Jansie is as old as Sophie yet very different. Bring out
the contrast between them.
11. Though the rat trap seller had a philosophy of life
and the world,. But, he conveniently forgot it
and got caged in the rattrap. It is sure that he was
opportunistic in his philosophy and lacked
conviction which made his life miserable. Write a speech
to be delivered in the morning assembly, in
about 100 words on the need for conviction , trust and
self confidence in oneself to make a
difference in life.
12. Answer in 150
words. 7
Why is Antartica the place to go to, to understand the
earth’s present past and future?
OR
It may take a long time for oppression to be resisted, but
the seeds of rebellion are sowed
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early in life. Discuss with reference to the lesson
‘Memories of Childhood.’
13. Answer the
following in 30-40 words. 2x4=8
1. Why does Charlie say that grand station is growing like
a tree in the story ‘ The Third
Level’?
2. Why was there a delay in starting the examination for
Evans’?
3. How did the Maharaja overcome the unforeseen hurdle
that had brought his mission to a
standstill?
4. Why did Jo disapprove of Jack’s ending of the story?
How did she want the story to end?
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