AHSEC| CLASS 11| ALTERNATIVE ENGLISH| SOLVED PAPER - 2016| H.S. 1ST YEAR
2016
Alternative English
Full marks: 100
Time: 3 hours
UNIT-I
(READING AN UNSEEN PASSAGE AND A
POEM)
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Some insect
societies, at first glance, look like a well-run human city operation. But
actually, there is very little similarity between a group of insects and a
group of humans. (Para 1)
In the insect
city there are no private homes. Everything is operated as though everything,
even the young, belonged to everyone. Humans have tried that sort of living,
but haven't been able to make it work. Humans like to get off by themselves
from time to time and have things that are theirs alone-like babies and books and
homes. (Para 2)
In the insect
city, most things happen automatically, as though all the insects were cogs in
some sort of machine. In a human city, every person is different, working
differently (or not working at all) and the city operates because thousands of
people are doing thousands of jobs for thousands of reasons and not just to
survive the one reason that keeps an insect city going. (Para 3)
But perhaps the
most important difference between the insect cities and human cities is even
deeper. There are no churches in insect cities, no art galleries, no schools.
Beauty and faith and the way of thinking that humans have is not a part of
insect life. (Para 4)
So, when people
say that we can learn many things from watching insect cities they are right.
But when we can learn is not about human cities, it is just about insect
cities.
Remembering
that, let's look at some insect cities, for they are fascinating.
An ant colony is
a good place to start. Ants live almost everywhere on the earth, and their colonies
or cities are pretty easy to find and watch. But, because most ant cities are
under the ground, it takes special effort to see everything that goes on.
The time to
start looking for what happens in an ant colony is during the summer when the
ants are ready to start having new families. This is the time of year when the
ants have wings.
On a certain day
(which changes all the time) all the ants in a particular area of many square
miles leave their old homes and swarms of them start to fly about in the air.
These are the male and female ants, and while they are flying, they separate
into pairs to mate and make eggs. The ant couple will come together in the air
and some of the cells from the male will be taken into the body of the female.
After the male has landed back on the ground he usually dies. The female,
however, starts looking for a place to set up a nest of her own. While she does
this, she losses her wings. If they don't's drop off, she chews them off. From
the day of the swarming in the air, the ants are earthbound.
When the female
ants find a likely spot for her nest, she digs a pit for herself and settles
down. Within a few days she has begun to produce eggs. The eggs hatch and
produce larvae which the ant mother feeds. The larvae spin their tiny cocoons
and go into the pupa stage. Within just a few weeks, the pupa stage is over,
and fully developed ants appear. It is very fortunate for the ant mother that
by now some new ants have come along to help her. Until this point, she alone
has had the entire job of caring for the eggs and feeding the larvae. But the
new workers, her own children, immediately begin to help. They do the job of
getting food into the nest and they even start building a better nest which,
depending upon the particular kind of ant involved, may take the form of a
series of passages under the ground, or tunnels in a log, or perches on leaves.
From this time on, the female that started the nest has no other job but to
produce eggs.
Gathering or
producing the food for the ant city is one of the most amazing things done by
any insects. There are ants that simply go out and gather seeds to eat, but
there are others that actually have tiny farms, others that raise insects the
way humans raise cows, and others that go hunting.
You might never
guess that some ants grow tiny farms and grow them just as carefully and with
as much skill as human farmers. It took many years of careful watching before
scientists discovered this. Before that, when a few people said that some ants
farmed crops, everybody laughed. Impossible, they said. And yet it is true, and
here is how and where it happens.
A The farmer
ants live far, far to the South of the United States. They live in the tropical
climate of South America. If you were there to watch these amazing ants, you
could hardly miss them. When they go about their business, they go about it by
the millions. Out they come from their nest. They march in a broad column and
use the same path over and over. If it is through thick grass, the grass is
actually trampled down by the marching of the millions of ants, despite the
fact that each ant is only about as long as your fingernail. This well-trampled
path goes straight to the trees from which the ants are taking leaves. Up the
trees they go. They work like a well-trained army, each ant heading straight
for a leaf with no nonsense and no hesitation.
(i) State
True or False: 1.5x4= 2
(a) Every
insect is different in an insect city.
Ans: True
(b) People
work only for survival.
Ans: False
(c) eggs →
pupa →larva → ant.
Ans: False
(d) By
studying ant colonies we can also learn about human cities.
Ans: False
(ii) What is
the most important differences between insect cities and human cities? 1
Ans: The
most important difference between insect cities and human cities is that insect
cities have no churches, no art galleries, no schools like human cities have.
(iii) Where
do the farmer ants live? 1
Ans: The
farmer arts live in the tropical climate of South America.
(iv) How do
the female ants lose their wings? 2
Ans: Female
ants carry some cells from the male ant into their bodies after mating. Then
she starts looking for a place to build her nest. While doing so she loses her
wings. If these feathers do not fall off, she chews them.
(v) Mention
some tasks carried out by ants in their colonies. 2
Ans: Some of
the functions performed by ants in their colonies are as follows:
(a) To collect
or produce food for the ant city.
(b) Some ants
have small farms where they raise insects like humans keep cows.
(c) Female
ants build their nest and lay eggs.
(vi) Who
helps the mother ant tend to her larvae? How do they help? 2
Ans: New
ants i.e. ant cubs help the mother ant to take care of her larvae. They help
the mother of the ant to bring food to the nest and they also build a better
nest; Depends on the particular type of ant involved.
2. Read the poem given below and on the basis of your
reading answer the questions that follow:
ANSWER TO A
CHILD'S QUESTION
Do you ask
what the birds say? The sparrow, the dove,
The linnet and
the thrush say, "I love and I love!"
In the winter
they are silent- the wind is so strong;
What it says I
don't know, but it sings a loud song.
But green
leaves and blossoms and sunny warm weather
And singing
and loving- all come back together.
But the lark
is so brim-full of gladness and love.
The green
fields below him, the blue sky above,
That he sings
and he sings and forever sings he-
"I love
my love and my love loves me!"
(i) What is
the question that the child asks?
1
Ans: The
child asked the question what the birds say.
(ii) List the
various birds mentioned by the poet?
1
Ans: The
various birds mentioned by the poet are sparrows, pigeons, linnets and
thrushes.
(iii) What
does the poet say about the wind's song? 1
Ans: Regarding
the song of the north wind, the poet says that the wind is so strong that he
cannot understand what he says but he sings the fast song.
(iv) What
accompanies sunny warm weather?
1
Ans: The
sun is hot with green leaves, flowers, singing and love.
(v) What does
the lark sing about? 1
Ans: Lark
sings about being in love with his love and that his love is in love with her.
UNIT - II
(POETRY)
3. Answer either A or B.
A. Oh God
of May have Mercy,
Bless these
withered bodies
With the passion
of your resurrection
make their dead
veins flow with blood again.
(a) Whose
'withered bodies' is the poet referring to?
1
Ans: The
poet is referring to the "dry bodies" of trees during autumn.
(b) What
mercy is the poet seeking? 1
Ans: The
poet is seeking the mercy of the Lord of May for the dried body so that they
can get their life back.
***
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