SAMPLE QUESTION PAPER (2019-20)
ENGLISH- Language and Literature (code 184)
CLASS-X
Time allowed : 3 Hrs Maximum Marks : 80
General Instructions:
1.This Paper is divided into three sections. All questions are compulosry.
2. Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these instructions very carefully and follow them.
3. Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
Section : A 20 Marks
Q.1. Read the Passage Carefully. (12)
HIGH ADVENTURE
When I was twenty years old I had my first long trip. With an older friend, I visited the South Island of New Zealand. One of our plans was to spend two days at a famous tourist resort, “The Hermitage”, right in the heart of the giant peaks of the southern Alps. We had a magnificent drive through the mountains and arrived at the Hermitage in the early afternoon.
It was a perfect day and the great peaks around seemed to tower over our heads. I looked on them with a growing feeling of excitement—the great rock walls, the hanging glaciers and the avalanche-strewn slopes. And then strangely, stirred by it all I felt restless for action and decided to go for a walk. I set off towards the Scaly Range, which I could see high up, behind the hotel. I soon realised it was much farther than I had judged, but for some reason, I kept going on and soon with an astonishing sense of achievement I climbed back down the long slopes to the Hermitage.
That evening, as I sat in the lounge, I felt restless and excited. And then the hum of voices suddenly hushed, and I looked up to see two young men coming into the room. They were fit and tanned, they had an unmistakable air of competence about them. I could hear a whisper going around the room. “They’ve just climbed Mount Cook”. And soon they were the centre of an admiring group. Some years later I came to know the two famous personalities, Stevenson and Dick. They had had a great partnership in climbing and they and they’d just completed the first Grand Traverse of Mount Cook from North to South. I retreated to a corner of the lounge filled with a sense of futility at the dull, mundane nature of my existence. Those chaps, now, we’re really getting a bit of excitement out of life. I decided there and then to take up mountaineering. Tomorrow I’d climb something.
Answer the following questions in short (2×4=8)
(a) When did Edmund Hillary go on his first long trip?
(b) What had inspired the narrator to go on a long walk?
(c)What was the narrator’s experience in the lounge that evening?
(d) Why did the narrator feel depressed?
2- Pick out words from the passage that mean the following (1×4=4)
(a) well known (lines Ito 10)
(b) splendid (lines 1 to 10)
(c) complete/flawless (lines I to 10)
(d) the joint venture (lines 8 to 18)
Q.2. Read the passage and answer the questions. (8)
Living Stone
Sir Harry Hamilton Johnson, the famous explorer, wrote of Livingstone that “in less than fifty years from the commencement of Livingstone’s career, Central Africa, in its main geographical features, its marvels, its riches, and its horrors, has been completely laid bare to the contemplation of the white man”.
Livingstone sailed for South Africa towards the end of 1840. After a long voyage, he landed at Algoa Bay. He reached Kuruman, in Bechuanaland and started his journey into the interior. Livingstone built a house at Mabotsa where Dr Robert Moffat settled after having founded the mission station at Kuruman, about two hundred miles away from Mabotsa. But all the while, Livingstone was dreaming of the unknown lands to the north.
He thought it consistent with his work as a missionary to meet with new tribes. In June 1852, Livingstone set out an exploration which was to make his name ring through the world. He made for Kolobeng where he found that the Boers had burned the town, plundered his house, smashed his precious bottles of medicines and torn up his books. He halted at Linyanti and was well received by Makololo. After staying for a month he set off in the hope of discovering a practicable route from North Bechuanaland to the west coast.
Livingstone left Linyanti on November 11, 1853. The party travelled by canoe up the Zambezi, passing out of Makololo country at Libonta. From that time they were in the territories of strange and sometimes hostile chiefs, but the leader’s tact and patience smoothed the way. Fever racked him all the time they were going through the unhealthy Barotse Valley, but he pushed on, passed Lake Dilolo in the swampland that gives rise to streams flowing into the Zambezi and the Congo, and entered the Kioko country. He was entranced by his journey through the luxuriant tropical forest which provided such striking contrast with the sun-baked deserts of Bechuanaland. But he was so careless of his health that he became seriously ill of fever. His Makololo men became discouraged and began to revolt against his orders.
Fighting every kind of difficulty, the party made its way westwards, found help from the Portuguese garrisons in Angola, and at long last, to the astonishment of Makololo, reached Sao Paulo de Loanda on May 31, 1854. At last, Livingstone’s objective to reach here was achieved.
1 On the basis of your reading of the passage answer the following questions as briefly as possible. Write your answers in the spaces provided.
(a) Livingstone was a missionary and went to Mabotsa because …
(b) Livingstone always dreamed of going to the unknown lands because …
(c) ‘He thought it consistent …’ (line 10). What for does ‘it’ stand here?
(d) ‘Fever racked him all the time they’ (line 20). ‘They’ here refers to…
(e) The tropical forest impressed Livingstone much because of …
(f) Livingstone fell seriously ill while …
(g) Livingstone and his men had to seek help from the Portuguese garrisons because …
(h) What did Makololo men do to Livingstone?
Section : B 30 Marks
Q.3. Write a letter on behalf of Jain Agencies to ‘Top Class Furnishers’, Karol Bagh, New Delhi asking for quotation of prices for their steel furniture for homes and offices. Inquire about the concession and commission given, mode of payment and credit facilities. Sign yourself as AB residing at shop-cum-flat 15, Cross Road, Noida (UP). (8)
OR
You are Ankit/Ankita. You visited the Arctic region as part of an expedition. The melting of the ice-caps and the rising water level alarmed you and made you realize the intensity of global warming. On your return, you decided to write all article fur a youth magazine on your concerns regarding the effects of global warming. Write the article in about 150 words.
Q.4. An old man – four sons – a company of bad boys – advised – no effect – basket full of mangoes – a rotten mango – all mangoes get rotten. (150-200 word) (10)
Q.5. Complete the following passage by choosing the most appropriate options from the ones given below (1*4=4)
While in hiding, Anne kept a diary in (a) _____ she recorded her fears, hopes, and experiences. Found in the secret apartment after the family (b) _____, the diary was kept for Anne by Miep Gies, one of the people who had helped (c) _____ the Franks. It was published after the war in many languages and is used in thousands of middle school and high school curricula in Europe and the Americas. Anne Frank (d) _____ a symbol for the lost promise of the children who died in the Holocaust.
(a) (i) that (ii) which (iii) whom (iv) where
(b) (i) was arrested (ii) get arrested (iii) had arrested (iv) were arrested
(c) (i) in hiding (ii) to hiding (iii) for hiding (iv) hide
(d) (i) will become (ii) can become (iii) has become (iv) became
Q.6. The following passage has not been edited. There is an error in each line against which a blank is given. Write the incorrect word and the correction in the space provided. Remember to underline the word that you have supplied. (1*4=4)
Incorrect Correct
She go out and walked up the road e.g., go went
through the fort. It is quiet, as (a) _______ _________
everyone was asleep. Even the prisoners which
(b) _______ _________
faced death were silent in a fort jail. (c) _______ _________
go Silence prevails everywhere (d) _______ _________
Q.7. Rearrange the jumbled words to make meaningful sentences.(1*4=4)
(a) is a / tribute/Children’s Day / to/ childhood / celebration
(b) are the world’s / its best hope / most valuable resources / children / and / for the future
(c) have their/own ways/ different countries/ of celebrating/children’s Day
(d) camping trips/ in China,/ such as /schools hold/activities
Section: C 30 Marks
Q.8. Read the extract given below and answer the question that follows.(1*4=4)
“I’ve counted two thousand of these peculiar items. This place must be some sort of storage barn?
(a) Who is the speaker here?
(b) Where is he and what is he referring to an as peculiar item?
(c) What is a barn?
(d) Why have Iota, Oops and Omega come to the earth?
OR
Lencho showed not the slightest surprise on seeing the money; such was his confidence—but he became angry when he counted the money. God could not have made a mistake, nor could he have denied Lencho what he had requested.
(a) Why did Lencho get angry?
(b) Who could not have made a mistake in Lencho’s eyes?
(c) Why did Lencho not surprise on seeing the money?
(d) What did Lencho find when he counted the money?
Q.9. Answer any five of the following question in 30 to 40 words each. (2*5=10)
a.Why did Peggy and Maddie go to Bogin’s Height? What did Maddie want to tell Wanda?
b. What message does the poet want to give through the poem — ‘Amanda’?
c. The people of Coorg have a tradition of courage and bravery. How has it been recognized in modern India?
d. The writer wasn’t very fond of new mullion when he reached the place. What made him grow fond of the village and its people?
e. What does Think-Tank, first of all, guess about the books? Why does he order to eat them?
f. How did the dust of snow affect the poet?
Q.10. Write a character sketch of the thief boy. (8)
OR
Which book proved to be a turning point in Ebright’s life?
11. Poets have great power of imagination. Robert Frost also explains his imagination very well and proves that sometimes the bad symbols change into a boon. Discuss.
OR
Your friend was the pilot who was flying from Paris to England when he was lost in the storm clouds. Narrate his experience to your family and tell them how he was rescued by a strange black plane and its pilot.
