AHSEC| CLASS 11| ENGLISH| QUESTION PAPER - 2016| H.S. 1ST YEAR
2016
English
Full marks: 90
Pass Marks: 27
Time: 3 hours
The figures in the margin indicate
full marks for the questions
SECTION
- A
(Reading)
1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
1. My father gets a faraway look in his eyes that's unmistakable. As
he looks towards the horizon and his eyes seek out the bright flashes of
snowcapped peaks, we all know what he's thinking. Mountain tops have always had
that magnetic ‘effect on him.
2. As I grew up inherited some of my father's restlessness. I know
many people think there must be some compulsion for the son of Edmund Hillary
to climb mountains. They assume that I need to, compete, or measure up as if
there was some strong mark on stone that says, "Thou shalt climb
mountains"-and in particular Everest, whether you like it or not. But for
me its simpler than that. I think families are like factories: some manufacture
lawyers while others produce landscape gardeners. The Hillary family is a
limited production mountaineering establishment.
3. Today, at the age of 48, I am a determined mountain man: love to
climb them, love to dream about them. I have been or more than 30
mountaineering expeditions, from the Himalayas to the Antarctic. And yes, I
have climbed Everest twice. I treasure the same things that drew my father to
climbing-great feeling of friendship and trust among people who work together,
sense of pleasure and excitement, especially in dangerous place where your life
depends upon making the right call. I guess I am luckier than most because I
can fall back on all that my father has taught-me. One devastating day in 1995
this advice saved my life.
4. Just below the summit of the mountain known as K2 or the
"savage mountain “of the Himalayas there is a steep ice channel called
“The Bottleneck “I was among a party of eight climbers heading for the summit,
with just 400 meters left to climb. Perched there, 8200.meters above sea-level
and looking east along the northern edge of the Karakoram Mountains to the
Tibetan Plateau, I noticed curls of ominous cloud began to move in suddenly and
quickly with great force.
5. As the weather worsened, I became concerned. I stopped. Something
didn't feel right. At that moment I Clearly heard my father's voice. Down. Go down.
Stick to your guns, Peter.
6. Then from above me, I heard another voice-a woman's. "Come
on up. Use the red rope. “Alison Hargreaves, a fellow climber, was encouraging
me to join her. Note for you, Peter. Was that my father's voice again? The
unsettled feeling in me grew stronger. Finally I told Jeff Lakes, my climbing partner,
that I was going down. He too was feeling unsure, but decided to go on ahead.
As I looked back at Jeff a couple of time, until a thick, threatening cloud
blocked the view, soon the same fast moving cloud would engulf the summit and
plunge me into an isolated world of terror.
7. Don't be afraid to make your own decisions. Don't be afraid to
stand alone. That was my father's voice.
8. Alone in body but not in spirit I descended. But with fear
tapping upon my shoulders, I was caught in the frightening situation of the
rising storm. The flanks of the mountain were out of control and so, perhaps,
was I.
9. Fear makes you careful. Fear makes you good. Fear, my father told
me, is not something you manage. So I seized on what I could control: a
well-clipped descender and a taut rope. For hours I continued to go down rope.
10. When I awoke in my tent the next morning, it was silent, sunny,
still. I alone had successfully descended from the summit pyramid of k2 that
night.
The
seven above were dead.
11. Life in a famous family has its advantages and disadvantages.
Lunch with Indira Gandhi a trip to the North Pole with Neil Armstrong are
one-although a rather extraordinary-side of the coin. The other can be a battle
with identity and independence. When 1 am 80 years old myself, I know I will
more than likely still be greeted with, “Wait a minute, you're Ed Hillary's son!
“But my father is quite a man and I am proud of him.
Questions:
(a) Answer the following questions briefly:
(i)
What does the son read in his father's eyes? 1
(ii)
What is "The Bottleneck"? 1
(iii)
What was the fate of the seven companions who climbed the K2 summit? 1.
(iv)
In what way does the author consider himself more fortunate than other mountaineers?
1
(v)
State any two qualities that the speaker has inherited from his father. 2
(vi)
“The Hillary family is a limited production mountaineering establishment. "What
does the speaker mean by this? 2
(vi)
What was the father's opinion about 'fear'? How did it help the author? 2
(b) Pick out words in the passage that mean
(i)
sitting on a high and dangerous position. (Para 4) 1
(ii)
tight and completely stretched. (Para 3) 1
2. Read the passage given below and
answer the questions that follow:
There are two problems that cause great worry to our educationists---the
problem of religious and moral instruction in a land of many faiths and the
problem arising out of a large variety of languages.
Taking up the education of children we see that they should be
trained to love one another, to be kind and helpful to all, to be tender to the
lower animals and to observe and think right. The task of teaching them how to
read and write and count and calculate is important, but it should not make us
lose sight of the primary aim of molding personality in the right way.
"For this, it is necessary to call into' aid culture, tradition
and religion. “But in our country we have, in the same school, to look after
boys and girls born into different faiths and belonging to families that live diverse
ways of life and follow different forms of worship associated with different
denominations of ‘religion. It will not do to tread the easy path of evading
the difficulty by attending solely to physical culture and intellectual
education. We have to evolve a suitable teaching method for serving the
spiritual needs of school children professing different faiths. We should
thereby promote an atmosphere of mutual respect, a fuller understanding and
helpful cooperation among the different communities in our society. Again we
must remain one people and we have therefore to give basic training in our
schools to speak and understand more languages than one and to appreciate and
respect the different religions prevailing in India. It is not right for us in
India to be dissuaded from this by considerations as to overtaking the young
mind.
Any attempt to do away with or steamroll the differences through
governmental coercion and indirect pressure would be as futile as it would be
unwise. Any imposition of a single way of life and form of worship on all
children or neglect of a section of the pupils in this respect or barren
secularisation will lead to conflict between school and home Life which is
harmful. On the other hand, if we give due recognition to the providing
prevailing faiths in the educational institutions by providing suitable
facilities for religious teaching of boys and girls of all communities, this
may itself serve as a broadening influence of great national value.
Questions:
(a) On the basic of your reading of the above passage make notes on
it, using recognisable abbreviations wherever necessary. Add a suitable title
to it.
(b) Make a summary of the above passage in about 80 words.
SECTION
– B
(Writing)
3. You are arranging a picnic to Kaziranga
next Sunday. Describe your preparations to your classmates in about 100 words.
Or
A distinguished person visited your school/ college recently.
Prepare a report on the visit in about 800 words to be published in "The
Assam Tribune". 6
4. Young boys and girl hardly show any
respect to rules and regulations these days. They often end up by creating
problems for themselves and for their parents. Your Principal has called for a
special session to discuss this issue. Prepare a speech to be delivered in the
session' as a representative of the students. (100-150 words) 6
Or
You are concerned about the reckless felling of trees leading to
environmental degradation. Write an article on "Grow more trees" to
be published in a local newspaper. (100-150 words).
5. You are Gautam/Gargi, living at 12 Hil
View Colony, Dibrugarh. There are frequent power cuts and voltage fluctuations
in your area causing great inconvenience to its residents. Write a letter to
the editor of "The Sentinel". drawing attention of the authorities
concerned to the problem.
Or
You are Ranjana/Ranjan. You have seen advertisement in a local daily
for the post of a science teacher in Pub Guwahati High School. Write a letter
to the Headmaster of the school in response to the advertisement applying for
the post.
SECTION
– C
(Grammar)
6. (a) Fill in the blanks with suitable
determiners: 1/2x2=1
(i) We have very ________information. (few/little)
(i) Do you have _______question? (Some/any)
(b) Rewrite the following sentences with the correct form of the
verb given in brackets: 1/2x2=1
(i) English (speak) all over the world.
(ii) If it (rain), we will not go.
(c) Fill in the blanks with appropriate model auxiliaries: (The
sense of the sentence is indicated in brackets) 1/2x2=1
(i) We ______love our country. (moral duty)
(ii) I _______pay my loan. (compulsion)
(d) Correct the following: 1/2x2=1
(i) My mother never listens what I say.
(ii) It is raining since morning.
7. (a) Complete the following piece of
conversation by choosing the correct alternative from the brackets: 2
I said to him,"___(what/when) are you doing now? "He
replied, "I am writing a few essays as part of my (Preparing/preparation)
for the examination."
(b) Rewrite the following sentences as directed: 1x2=2
(i) She is the most intelligent girl in the class. (Use the
comparative degree of 'intelligent')
(ii) He knows what my name is. (Make it a simple sentence)
8. Rearrange the words in the following
to form meaningful sentences: 1×2=2
(i) Slowly and we near silently the target moved
(ii) Talking please stop you will?
SECTION
- D
(Textual
Questions)
9. Read one of the stanzas given below
and answer the question that follow:
(a) "And who art thou?" Said I to the soft-falling shower.
Which, strange to tell, gave me answer, as here translated:
"I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless
sea".
(i) Where do these lines occur? 1
(ii) How does the shower fall? 1
(iii) Where does the rain rise from? 1
(iv) Find a word in the passage that refers to "Something that
cannot be touched" 1
(v) Why does the rain describe itself as the Poem of Earth? 4
Or
(b) Silence surrounds us. I
would have
Him prodigal, returning to
His father's house, the home he knew,
Rather than see him make and move
His world, I would forgive him too,
Shaping from sorrow a new love.
(i) Why does the father say that silence surrounds them? 1
(ii) Does the speaker want his son to belong to a different world? 1
(iii) What can be shaped out of sorrow? 1
(iv) Find a word in the passage that means "Extravagant" 1
(v) What idea do you form about the relationship between father and
son from the quoted lines? 4
10. Answer any two of the following
question: 2x3=6
(a) Whose transient feet is the poet talking about? Why are they
transient?
(b) Why is the age of eleven so important for the poet?
(c). Why would the poet's mother laugh at the snapshot?
11. Answer briefly any five of the
following questions: 2x5=10
(a) Mention three reasons why the author's grandmother was disturbed
when he started going to the city school?
(b) What did Wu Daozi paint for the Emperor?
(c) What is the Green Movement and what are its aims?
(d) What did Elwin notice about our attitude towards wild animals?
(e) How did the sparrows react to the death of the author's
grandmother?
(f) How is man the most dangerous animal is this world?
12. (a)
Compare and contrast the Chinese and the European concepts of painting. 6
Or
(b) "We have not inherited this Earth from our forefathers; we
have borrowed it from our children". Justify this statement. 6
13. Comment on the influence of English — the
language and the way of life - on Indian society as reflected in Iyengar's
story "Ranga's Marriage" 6
Or
"The school system often curbs individual talent"---
Discuss with reference to Einstein's experience at school. 6
14. Answer briefly any two of the
following questions: 2x2=4
(a) What was Einstein’s idea of education?
(b) What did Ranga think about marriage?
(c) How did Ranga and Ratna react when they saw each other?
***
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