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VIBGYOR HIGH First Term Examination 2020-2021 ENGLISH LANGUAGE Grade: X Max. Marks : 80 Date : 25/09/2020 Time Allowed : 2 hours INSTRUCTIONS: Answers to this paper must be written on the paper provided separately. You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes. This time is to be spent in reading the question paper. The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers. Attempt all five questions. The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ]. You are advised to spend not more than 30 minutes in answering Question 1 and 20 minutes in answering Question 2. _________________________________________________________________________ Q.1 (Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this question.) Write a composition (300-350 words) on any one of the following: (a) [20] If you learn from your defeat, you have not really lost. Narrate an incident from your life when you experienced such a defeat. What lessons did you learn from your experience and how did you overcome the pain of defeat? (b) Write an original short story that begins with: She was delighted to find the sealed envelope lying on the table. (c) There is a popular snack shop in your locality. You have always found hordes of customers crowding the counters. Mr. Sharma, the busy shopkeeper, deals with 1 his customers with all politeness and patience. Describe the busy shopkeeper and his way of handling his customers through the day. (d) The youth of today is more practical and less swayed by emotions. Express your views either for or against this statement. (e) Study the picture given below. Write a story or a description or an account of what it suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or you may take suggestions from it; however, there must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition. Q.2 (Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.) Select any one of the following: (a) [10] You attended a live musical performance of your favourite singer in your city. Write a letter to your cousin describing the performance and how you felt being part of the event. (b) A travel agency has sent your tickets for the wrong date. Write a letter to the Manager of the travel agency, expressing your dissatisfaction and request them to work on the error committed. 2 Q.3 (a) [10] Your school is conducting a workshop on creative writing for the students of Grades 9 and 10. Write a notice to be put up on the school notice board giving details of the event. (b) Write an email to the Principal of a neighbouring school requesting him/her to send their students to attend the workshop. Use the details given in Question 3(a). Q.4 Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: [20] At the Literary Society s meeting, Isola narrated the event that led to several letters being written to her Granny Pheen when Granny had been a little girl. The letters were from a very kind man, a complete stranger. When Granny Pheen had been only nine years old, her cat died. Heartbroken, sitting in the middle of the road, she had been sobbing out loud. A carriage, being driven far too fast, had come within a whisker of running her down. A huge man in a dark coat with a fur collar had jumped out, leaned over Granny Pheen, and asked if he could be of any assistance. Granny Pheen had continued to sob and managed to say that she was beyond help as Muffin, her cat, had died. The man had calmed her and said, Of course, Muffin s not dead. You do know cats have nine lives, don t you? When Granny Pheen agreed the man continued to say, Well, I happen to know your Muffin was only on her third life, so she has six more lives left. An amazed Granny Pheen had asked how he knew all of that. The stranger had replied that he had an uncanny connect with cats. They would often appear in his mind and chat with him. Well, not in words, of course, but in pictures. He had then, sat on the road beside her and told her to keep still - very still. He would have to concentrate and connect with Muffin. They had sat still and in complete silence for several minutes, when suddenly the man shouted, Ah, yes! There she is! She has been born this minute in a mansion in France. There is a little boy petting her. He is 3 going to call her Solange. Solange has a great spirit, great verve I can tell already, she is going to have a long venturesome life. Granny Pheen had been so enthralled in Muffin s new fate that she had stopped crying. The man had promised Granny Pheen he would soon visit Solange and find out how she was faring. He had asked for Granny Pheen s name and the address of the farm where she lived. Then he had got back into the carriage and left. Absurd as all this sounds, Granny Pheen did receive eight long letters. Isola then read them out. They were all about Muffin s life as the French cat, Solange. She was apparently, something of a feline musketeer. She was no idle cat lolling about on cushions or lapping up the cream. She lived through one wild adventure after another. She was the only cat ever to be awarded the Red Rosette of the Legion of Honour . What a story this man had made up for Pheen! It was lively, witty, and full of drama and suspense. We were all enchanted and speechless at the reading. When it was over and much applauded, I asked Isola if I could see the letters, and she handed them to me. The writer had signed his letters with a grand flourish: Very truly yours, O.F.O F.W.W. It is highly possible that Isola inherited eight letters written by Oscar Wilde, for who else could have had such a preposterous name as Oscar Fingal O Flahertie Wills Wilde. (a) Give the meaning of the following words as used in the passage. [3] One word answers or short phrases will be accepted. (b) (i) assistance (ii) Absurd (iii) applauded Answer the following questions briefly in your own words. (i) Describing the man who consoled Granny Pheen when she was heartbroken, state what he had revealed about Muffin s nine lives. (ii) [2] What did the man reveal when Granny Pheen asked him how he knew about cats and their lives? [2] 4 (iii) Where was Muffin reborn and what was she called? (iv) Which sentence in the passage tells us that the cat was well appreciated in her new life? (v) [1] Where did Isola get the eight letters from to read at the Literary Society s meeting? Who had written those letters? (c) [2] [2] In not more than 50 words, explain what details of Granny Pheen did the man ask for and why? How did he describe Muffin s venturesome life? [8] Q.5 (a) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not copy the passage but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space. [4] Example: (0) was Once, there (0) ________ (be) a farmer who regularly sold butter to a baker. One day, the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he (1) _______ (get) the exact amount that he always asked for. He found out that he was not. This (2) _______ (anger) him and he took the farmer to the court. The judge asked the farmer if he used any measure (3) _______ (weigh) the butter. The farmer replied, Your Honor, I am primitive. I do not have a proper measure, but I do have a scale. The judge replied, Then how (4) _______ (do) you weigh the butter? The farmer replied, Your Honor, long before the baker (5) ________ (start) buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound of bread from him. Every day, when the baker (6) _______ (bring) the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be (7) ___________ (blame), it is the baker. You get what you give. Do not try (8) ________ (cheat) others. (b) Fill in the blanks with appropriate words: (i) A cashier must account ______ the money received by him. (ii) Sheena s daughter continued ______the family business when she went [4] abroad. 5 (c) (iii) Rakesh ran ______ my old friend in the market place. (iv) She is so proud and arrogant that she looks ________ upon everyone. (v) We have been celebrating Christmas _________ independence. (vi) The noise from the adjacent building prevented me ______ sleeping. (vii) One is sure ______what one sees. (viii) The publisher has brought _____________ a new edition of the dictionary. Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and , but or so . (i) [4] Rekha had a severe headache all morning. She remained alert throughout the meeting. (d) (ii) The students were very tired. They did not continue playing. (iii) We had to cancel our picnic. There was a blizzard in the valley. (iv) Chennai is a large city. Mumbai is larger. Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make other changes that may be necessary, but do not change the meaning of each sentence. (i) He does his work more honestly than anybody else. [1] (Begin: Nobody .) (ii) The playground is too far off for young boys to go there on foot. [1] (Rewrite the sentence without using too .) (iii) The Minister will obviously be re-elected. [1] (Begin: It is ..) (iv) Why do you laugh at him? [1] (End: ....you?) (v) He complained, I have sold everything I brought last year. [1] (Begin: He complained that .. .) (vi) But for the timely rain, the crops would have dried up. [1] (Begin: Had ..) (vii) Believe in this story and you will be considered a fool. [1] (Begin: If .) (viii) He reached home just as it began to rain heavily. [1] (Begin: Hardly .. .) ***** 6
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