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1 The Cathedral & John Connon School ENGLISH LANGUAGE PAPER 1 GRADE X Question 1 Write composition (350-450) words) on any one of the following:i) If you get to relive 2015, what would you like to see changed in it? Elaborate. ii) College Education abroad is a better option than studying in an Indian College/University. Give your argument for or against the statement. iii) Write about what you can do to help reduce pollution in the city in which you live. iv) You are a member of a group from a non-government organisation that has gone to help the residents of a village that has been affected by floods. Write about your experience there; mention how you helped, what difficulties you faced and how the villagers reacted to your being there to help them. v) Study the picture given below. Write a story or description or an account of what it suggests to you. Your composition may be about the picture or may take suggestions from it; but there must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition. Question 2 Select one of the following: a) Write a letter to your friend describing the attractions of the city where you live, especially during winter. b) The power supply in your neighbourhood has been rather erratic for some time now. Write a letter to the Chairman of the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) bringing the matter to his notice and requesting him to do something so that the situation improves. Question 3 Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: Rabindranath was a modern but was wary of those moderns who in their leap forward repudiated their antecedents. For him the right plan had to pass these confrontations and go to the fundamentals of growth. This had to try himself in whatever small way. 2 Viewed against this background his Santiniketan experiments were not just a poet s dreams; they had a solid rationale. To do this he left the rough and tumble of Calcutta and moved to the rural retreat of Santiniketan in 1901. Here he started a school where learning would not be a burden but a pleasure and where the foremost aim would be to cultivate in each young person a living intimacy with nature, the person he grew up with and his own inner potential. This threefold intimacy, backed by sense of personal initiative was, in his thinking, the best way to ensure a spirit of self discovery in the coming generation and their untroubled passage to progress. Two decades after he started the school he founded the Viswa-Bharati, the world university, where people from various climes and cultures could come together and share each other s wisdom or, as its motto declared where the whole world could meet as in one nest. In both these he laid great emphasis on personal initiative and creativity, as he was convinced that no country can properly know its past or recover its future unless its people learnt how to question and find answers themselves and tested out their inner potential step by step. Rabindranath believed that human beings were endowed with infinitely more energy than they needed for their subsistence and self-preservation and it was this excess that drove them into their fields of enquiry and innovation, speculation and self expression that built the boy of culture. What we call human civilization is in truth the result of the blessings of this angel of surplus . His own experience had led him to think that each human being had some kind of creative potential that the right circumstances could bring to life and each had a talent for search and self-expression, even if the level of achievement might vary from person to person. Exercised together, this could enrich and bring brightness and warmth to the life that is and give to each person a deep sense of fulfilment. Therefore he sought to encourage all kinds of creativity in his educational community at Santiniketan among the young and the old men and women, irrespective of station and hierarchy. This covered art, writing, singing, drama, dancing and various group activities. Rabindranath himself became a sort of exemplar in this. Over and above his prodigious output that branched out in various directions, he also wrote songs and dramas which, along with other people he sang or acted in. He tried a hand at design and in his later days, turned out a remarkable body of paintings and drawings. He encouraged people to bring art out of the studio into the environment and give it a large presence in everyday life. KG Subramanyam (a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. One word answers or short phrase will be accepted. (i) repudiated 3 (ii) station (iii) prodigious (b) Answer the following questions briefly as you can in your own words: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (c) (i) (ii) Rabindranath was rather careful about certain moderns . Why? What were the intimacies that Rabindranath had in mind when he started his school in Santiniketan? What did Rabindranath emphasize on in his institutions of learning and why? What was it, according to Rabindranath, that built the body of culture? Why did Rabindranath seek to encourage all kinds of creativity? How did Rabindranath become a model for others to follow? In not more than 60 words of your own write what Rabindranath aimed to achieve through his school in Santiniketan. Give a title to your summary in 3 (c). Give a reason to justify your choice. Question 4 (a) Fill in each of the numbered brackets 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. In 1863, a creative engineer named John Roebling(0) (inspire) by an idea to make the Brooklyn Bridge. Answer: was inspired However, bridge building experts throughout the world told him to forget it; it could not (1) (do). Roebling (2) (convince) his son, Washington, who was a young engineer, that the bridge could be built. The two of them developed the concepts of how it could (3) (accomplish) and how the obstacles could be overcome. The project was only a few months under construction when a tragic accident on the site (4) (take) the life of John Roebling and severely injured his son, Washington. Washington (5) (leave) with permanent brain damage and was unable to talk or walk. Everyone (6) (feel) that the project would (7) (scrap) since the Roeblings were the only ones who (8) (know) how the bridge could be built. (b) Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word. i) There are a lot of people who do not take pride _______ their country. ii) I refrained _______ telling the truth to Jaya. iii) Mr. Yadav handed _______ the charge of the school to the new Principal. iv) Excessive show _______ affection is not an expression of deep love. 4 v) vi) vii) viii) It was good _______ you to share your food. The poor man was afflicted _______ sores. He is blind _______ the faults of his children. Our English friends have taken _______ Indian food quite easily. (c) Complete each of the following sentences by filling in the blanks with one of the words given in the brackets: i) The colour has started to _______ (peel/peal) off the wall in his room _______ (on/upon) the first floor. ii) The granddaughter lovingly _______ (paired/pared) the apple, cut it _______ (in/into) small pieces and offered these to her grandfather. iii) He _______ (seized/ceased) the opportunity to grab the immense property _______ (of/off) the zamindar. iv) He had been _______ (complimented/complemented) on the sale of useful items in his _______ (stationary/stationery) shop. (d) Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given: i) Please do not disturb me, Smita said to her friend. (Begin: Smita requested ..) ii) The boys were making a lot of noise. (Begin: A lot of noise ) iii) He had just come into the hall and the audience cheered. (Begin: Hardly ) iv) Robin was given advice by his teacher in a personal matter. (Rewrite the sentence using the verb form of the italicized word.) v) She is not only haughty, but also short-tempered. (Rewrite without using not only but also. ) vi) Rumita told Sayani not to disturb her while she was studying. (Begin: Rumita said, .) vii) It is a pity that all of us are not conscious of our roles as citizens. (Begin: How I wish ) viii) Rohan invited Sumit to a game of badminton. (Rewrite without using the word invited.) *************
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