AHSEC| CLASS 11| ENGLISH| QUESTION PAPER - 2020| H.S. 1ST YEAR
2020
ENGLISH
Full Marks: 90
Pass Marks: 27
Time: Three 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:
On his return
from South Africa, Gandhi's first Ashram in India was established in the
Kochrab area of Ahmedabad on 25 May 1915. The Ashram was then shifted on 17
June 1917 to a piece of open land on the banks of the river Sabarmati. Reasons
for this shift included: he wanted to do some experiments in living e.g.,
farming, animal husbandry, cow breeding, Khadi and related constructive
activities, for which he was in search of this kind of barren land;
mythologically, it was the ashram site of Dadhichi Rishi who had donated his
bones for a righteous war; it is between a jail and a crematorium as he
believed that a satyagrahi has to invariably go to either place. The Sabarmati
Ashram (also known as Harijan Ashram) was home to Mohandas Gandhi from 1917
until 1930 and served as one of the main centres of the Indian freedom
struggle. Originally called the Satyagraha Ashram, reflecting the movement
toward passive resistance launched by the Mahatma, the Ashram became home to
the ideology that set India free. Sabarmati Ashram named for the river on which
it sits, was created with a dual mission. To serve as an institution that would
carry on a search for truth and a platform to bring together a group of workers
committed to non-violence who would help secure freedom for India.
By conceiving
such a vision Gandhi and his followers hoped to foster a new social construct
of truth and non-violence that would help to revolutionize the existing pattern
of like.
While at the
Ashram, Gandhi formed a school that focused on manual labour, agriculture, and
literacy to advance his efforts for self-sufficiency. It was also from here on
the 12 March 1930 that Gandhi launched the famous Dandi march 241 miles from
the Ashram (with 78 companions) in protest of the British Salt Law, which taxed
Indian salt in an effort to promote sales of British salt in India. This mass
awakening filled the British jails with 60,000 freedom fighters. Later the
government seized their property, Gandhi, in sympathy with them, responded by
asking the Government to forfeit the Ashram. Then Government, however, did not
oblige. He had by now already decided on 22 July 1933 to disband the Ashram,
which later became asserted place after the detention of many freedom fighters,
and then some local citizens decided to preserve it. On 12 March 1930 he vowed
that he would not return to the Ashram until India won independence. Although
this was won on 15 August 1947, when India was declared a free nation, Gandhi
was assassinated in January 1948 and never returned.
Questions:
(a) (i)
When was Gandhi's first ashram in India established? 1
(ii) How was
Sabarmati Ashram originally known as? 1
(iii) How far is
Dandi from Sabarmati Ashram? 1
(iv) What did
Gandhi vow on 12 March, 1930? 1
(v) Why did
Gandhi shift his Kochrab Ashram to Sabarmati? 2
(vi) What was
the dual mission of Sabarmati Ashram? 2
(vii) Why did
Gandhi launch the famous Dandi march? 2
(b) Pick
out words in the passage that mean the following: 1x2=2
(i) Unable to
produce plants or fruits
(ii) To lose the
right to have something
2. Read the following passage given below and answer the
questions that follow:
1. When Man
first began to settle down, to live in groups in villages and to cultivate
land, he found that he had to learn many new skills. One of these new skills
was the ability to measure, to count and to calculate. He had to be able to
count the animals he possessed. He had to be able to make simple measurements
to enable him to build and to mark out the boundaries of his land; he had to be
able to measure the passing of time and record it; and he had to trade. Therefore,
he began to think in terms of length, breadth, time and weight.
2. For many years,
units of measurement were of a simple kind. For example, if Man had to measure,
he used a part of his body as a unit. As a result, these units often differed
from person to person. Therefore, when Man settled down, the need for
standardization arose.
3. Before Man
settled down, his life was not governed by the seasons, nor did he have to know
what time of the day it was. Once he settled down to the agricultural way of
life, he had to be able to calculate the change of seasons on which agriculture
depended. So, Man began to measure time, and first he looked for convenient
units of measurements, one of which was the day. No one knows when Man first
began to divide the day into twenty-four hours, and the hour into sixty
minutes. But we know that Ptolemy, the famous Egyptian, used and recorded these
divisions in the second century A.D. In order to calculate the passing of time,
it was necessary for Man to record the number of days in each season. This was
done by making a mark for each day on a tree trunk or on a piece of stick.
4. The next step
was for Man to find longer units of time. He had observed the gradual changes
in the shape of the moon. He discovered that from one full-moon to the next it
took twenty-eight days. And a month. Then he observed that, so he had another
unit of time - a month. Then he observed that, if he added two days to some of
the months, twelve of them nearly covered the four seasons which followed each
other. This was the first simple calendar.
Questions:
(a) On the
basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it, and add a
suitable title to it. 5
(b) Make a
summary of the above passage in about 80 words. 3
SECTION-B
(Writing)
3. You are preparing for a picnic at Pobitora next week.
Describe your preparations to your classmates in 100 words. 6
Or
Your
school/college observed "The World Blood Donation Day" on 14th June.
Many students and teachers took part in the camp. Prepare a report on the event
to be published in your school/college wall-magazine. 6
4. Write a speech to be delivered at the morning assembly of
your school/college on the topic, 'Say no to Plastic Bags'. 6
Or
Write an article
for your school/college magazine on 'Importance of Traffic Rules'. 6
5. You are Rupali/Rupam. You have seen an advertisement in a
regional newspaper for the post of an Office Secretary in a reputed company.
Write an application to the manager of the company in response to the
advertisement stating your qualifications and experience. 8
Or
Write a letter
to the editor of The Assam Tribune drawing attention of the authorities
concerned to the problem of flash flood and poor drainage system in your
locality. 8
SECTION-C
(Grammar)
6. (a) Fill in the blanks with suitable determiners:
1/2x2=1
(i) She has
barely _______beautiful dress. (some/any)
(ii) ______care
could have prevented the accident. (Little/A little)
(b) Rewrite
the following sentences with the correct form of the verb given in brackets:
1/2x2=1
(i) It (rain)
now, we can't go out.
(ii) My uncle
(arrive) from Mumbai last night.
(c) Fill in
the blanks with appropriate modal auxiliaries (the sense of the sentence is
indicated in the bracket): 1/2x2=1
(i) You _____not
steal. (command)
(ii) ______you
spare some time for me? (Polite request)
(d) Correct
the following: 1/2x2=1
(i) The honesty
is the best policy.
(ii) She invited
my husband and myself.
7. (a) Complete the following piece of conversation by
choosing the correct alternatives 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) My friend
lives in this house. (Make it a complex sentence)
(ii) Greenland
is the largest island in the world. (Use the comparative degree of 'largest')
8. Rearrange the words in the following to form
meaningful sentences: 1x2=2
(a) penguin I a
seen never have.
(b) persons
knows several he here.
SECTION-D
(Textual
Questions)
9. Read any one of the stanzas given below and answer the
questions that follow:
(a) Eternal I
rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea, Upward to heaven,
whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed, and yet the same,
I descend to
lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
(i) Who is the
speaker here? 1
(ii) From
where does the speaker rise? 1
(iii) What is
meant by 'altogether changed, and yet the same'? 1
(iv) What are
'atomies'? 1
(v) How does
the speaker go up and come down again on droughts, atomies and dust-layers? 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) Who are
the 'us' here? 1
(ii) What
surround them? 1
(iii) What is
the meaning of 'prodigal'? 1
(iv) Who is
supposed to return to his father's house, after being prodigal? 1
(v) In what
context, is the speaker talking about forgiveness and new love? 4
10. Answer any two of the following questions: 3x2=6
(a) What is the
'laboured ease of loss' in the poem 'A Photograph'?
(b) What does
the speaker of the poem 'Childhood' speak about adults?
(c) Why is the
father unhappy in the poem 'Father to Son"?
(d) What does
the phrase "strange to tell" mean in the poem 'The Voice of the
Rain'?
11. Answer any five of the following questions: 2x5=10
(a) How did the
author's grandfather look in his portrait?
(b) How was
'outsider art' or 'art brut' defined at the beginning?
(c) How can
population explosion be controlled?
(d) When and
where was the first nationwide Green Party founded?
(e) How did the
author's grandmother prepare to take him to the village school?
(f) What are the
things that Verrier Elwin loves about Assam?
12. (a) "Man is the biggest enemy of mankind.
Deforestation has become his habit." Elaborate this view. 6
Or
(b) Describe the
changing relationship between the author and his grandmother from his boyhood
to adulthood. 6
13. Comment on the influence of English language on the way
of Indian life as reflected in the story "Ranga's Marriage". 6
Or
How do you
distinguish between information gathering and insight formation from your
reading of 'Albert Einstein at School'? 6
14. Answer any two of the following questions in brief:
2x2=4
(a) Why did Mr.
Braun scold young Einstein?
(b) Write
briefly about Gundabhatta, the doctor of Hosahalli village.
(c) Why did
Albert see no point in learning dates and facts from History books?
***
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