Pre Board Examination 2019 Set 2

Std. 12 Max. Marks : 80

07-01-2019 Time : 3 hrs.
ENGLISH
General Instructions:
i) This paper is divided into three sections: A, B and C. All the sections are compulsory.
ii) Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary.
Read these instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.
iii) Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
SECTION - A (READING)
1. Read the passage and on the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer the questions
that follow:
1 Vanity is a part of human nature. We always like to exhibit ourselves to our best advantage,
particularly when we happen to be on view. True greatness rarely exhibits itself in such a way.
God‘s good man never seeks occasions to display his good nature. It is inherent in him. This was the
lesson I learnt when I happened to meet Mahatma Gandhi, a plain Mr. Gandhi, South African
barrister Gandhi if you like it, in about the year 1909 in London. I was merely a medical student -
one of the many that flocked to the London University even in those days. I had no occasion to
know or see Mr Gandhi. Like many other young men, I felt I was intensely patriotic if I joined any
movement, national in outlook, which had for its motive the freedom of India. To have the courage
to talk of Indian freedom in those days was a great patriotic act, and I had a great veneration for
those young men who talked loudly of revolution leading to freedom for India. A handful as we
were, we became a dreaded lot in the Indian world that lived and moved about in London. Vinayak
Damodar Savarkar was our chief, and the late V.V.S.Ayyar his lieutenant. We decided on bringing
together all Indian students scattered about Great Britain just to remind ourselves of our national
solidarity in an alien land. A search was made amongst the leading Indian front-rank politicians who
had then congregated in London, to request them to preside and take part in the function. We had
a categorical refusal from every one of them till at last it was left to Mr. Gandhi to agree to our
request but with a condition. The function consisted of a dinner and a post-dinner talk. Over one
hundred and twenty five students agreed to partake in the subscription dinner, and it was to have
been arranged in some hotel or restaurant in London. But the chief guest of the function, Mr.
Gandhi, our last hope as a president, would not have anything of the kind, and insisted on a pure
vegetarian Indian dinner, to be managed in whichever way we thought best.
2 The condition was agreed to, and we straightway engaged a hall, bought provisions, and decided to
cook various Indian dishes for the function. A part of us volunteered to do the cooking, and we
entered on our duties in the underground cellar and kitchen of the building early in the day so that
we might be ready to lay the table at 7.30 p.m. - our dinner time. At about 2 p.m. a small, thin, wiry
man with a pleasant face joined us in work and was making himself very useful. He volunteered to
do the washing of plates and cleaning of vegetables with such gusto and willingness that we were
only too willing to give him the joy of his performance. Hours rolled on, and there was no
abatement in the work turned out by this man. Later in the afternoon when Mr. Ayyar turned up in
the kitchen, did we come to know that our unannounced worker was Mr. Gandhi, the great man of
Indian South Africa, the president of our evening function. It took my breath away to see the great
man of whom we had heard so much and to witness his utter humility and willingness to share with
us the work we were engaged in. Our importunity in dissuading him from his services did not
prevail, for he continued his work well on into the evening when he helped us to lay the tables and
the plates, and serve the dinner we had prepared. At long last after strenuous work of hours did he
consent to sit at the head of the table and preside over the function. At the beginning of his speech,
a very simple and hesitant one, he told us how pleased he was to see us tuck up our sleeves and do
the work in the way that we had done. He said he knew the difficult task we had undertaken, and
was agreeably surprised to know that the Indian students in London, sons of well-to-do parents, did
not consider it mean to serve their fellow-men in the way we had done, and that it augured well for
the future of our land. He spoke of many other things besides, but I have forgotten them all now.
What persists in my mind even at this distance of time is the picture of my first meeting the
Mahatma in the underground kitchen cellar of a London restaurant. I have often been a prisoner in
the jails of our country during the many occasions of the satyagraha struggle conducted by
Gandhiji; and during all those occasions I have found myself voluntarily working in the kitchen.
During our last internment, Rajaji [Chakravarti Rajagopalachari] made a casual remark about me,
saying: ‗Rajan, how is it that I find you gravitating to the kitchen whenever you happen to be
imprisoned?‘ Has Gandhiji‘s example in the kitchen cellar in London got into my blood and stuck
there? I do not know. But I do remember I found greatness in the Mahatma of the future years,
long before the world knew of him.
T S S Rajan
Std. 12 ENGLISH (Set – 2) Page 2
1.1 Answer each of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option: (5)
i) According to the author, what does true greatness imply?
a) Every man possesses vanity.
b) Exhibiting oneself to the best of one‘s advantage.
c) It is inherent in a man and doesn‘t need to exhibit itself.
d) It is visible when we are in public view.
ii) What according to the author is patriotism?
a) To work for India‘s freedom.
b) To join an organization which had freedom as its motto.
c) To talk about freedom.
d) To criticize the British.

iii) Why did the writer want to bring together all Indian students scattered in Great Britain?
a) To fight for freedom. b) To meet Mahatma Gandhi.
c) To show unity of Indians in a foreign land. d) To meet high ranking polititians.
iv) What was the agenda of the function?
a) Dinner b) A talk by important officials.
c) Dinner and an after dinner talk.
d) A subscription dinner in a hotel or restaurant.
v) ‗Our importunity of dissuading him from his services did not prevail.‘ What does this
line imply?
a) The writer tried to persuade Gandhi to serve.
b) The writer and his friends were eager to serve.
c) The writer and his friends were unsuccessful in getting Gandhi to stop rendering
his services.
d) The writer and his friends were unsuccessfully importunate.

1.2. Answer the following questions briefly: (1 x 6 = 6)

a) In what context has the writer commenced the passage with the word ‗Vanity‘?
b) ‗We became a dreaded lot in the Indian World that lived and moved in London‘.
Why does the writer say this?
c) Who was Vinayak Damador Sarwarkar?
d) What condition did Gandhi lay down before agreeing to be part of the function?
e) What according to Gandhi, ‗augured well‘ for the future of India?
f) Who refused to preside over and take part in the function?

1.3 Answer any three of the following questions in about 30 words each: (2 x 3 = 6)
a) Explain the case of mistaken identity that happened during the preparation of the function.
b) What was the essence of the speech delivered by Gandhi?
c) Why did the writer gravitate towards kitchen work during his stints in various prisons?
d) What did the writer learn about Gandhiji from this experience?

1.4 Find words from the passage which mean the same as follows: (3)
a) gathered together (para 1)
b) reduction (para 2)
c) great respect (para 1)

2. Read the passage below carefully:

Despite its long and vibrant history in India, literature about the environment remains on the fringes
of public discussion, thereby affecting how we engage with ecological issues
Fissured lands, unquiet woods, hungry tides, creatures great and small — nature has long stirred
creative minds in India. For instance, it is difficult to isolate RK Narayan‘s stories from the fictional
town of Malgudi situated along the banks of the river Sarayu, close to the Mempi forest. Within his
fiction, Narayan weaves in the influence of the natural surroundings on the characters.
Literature about the environment takes many forms, from fiction to non-fiction to poetry, pulling you
to a specific place, reinforcing the interconnectedness between living beings and their environment.
It discusses environmental protests like the Chipko movement through various social and historical
lenses. It can present scientific research as prose that lies at the intersection of science and the
human experience within natural surroundings. Sometimes, it may just be an intimate ode to
nature, such as a particularly tender poem by Rabindranath Tagore: ―On the day when the lotus
bloomed, alas, my mind was straying, and I knew it not/ My basket was empty and the flower
remained unheeded.‖
Std. 12 ENGLISH (Set – 2) Page 3

On its own, literature — to quote WH Auden — ―makes nothing happen‖. However, by engaging
with literature about the environment, it is possible to galvanise broad-based societal concern and
instigate change. For instance, in the summer of 1962, The New Yorker serialised a long piece of
writing by marine biologist and renowned author Rachel Carson. She wrote about the environmental
disaster unleashed by the indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides, especially DDT. By fall, it had
been published as a book, Silent Spring, which caused a furore in the US. Readers were horrified by
the revelations in the book, and the powerful lobby of chemical companies was determined to
discredit the exposé.
The uproar led the then President John F Kennedy to set up a Science Advisory Committee to
examine the issues raised by the book. When the committee‘s report vindicated the book and its
author, the government was forced to reconsider its national pesticide policy, leading to DDT being
banned. Silent Spring became an epic in the modern environmental movement, highlighting the
unquestionable merit of environmental literature in stirring meaningful discussions that can inspire
long-term change.
In India too, literature — from Salman Rushdie‘s Satanic Verses to Perumal Murugan‘s One Part
Woman — has often inflamed passions and spurred widespread debate. However, despite the
strong presence of nature in Indian literature, the influence of literature on environmental
consciousness in India remains largely unexplored. Murali Sivaramakrishnan founded the India
chapter of the global Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) in 1992, in
order to meet a ―growing demand for exploring the role of literature in environmentalism.‖ He points
out that contemporary Indian literature concerning the natural environment has generally not
provoked a reaction from the public, unlike in the West. ―Religious intolerance, political power-
structures and their impact on imagination consume much of the public‘s attention. On the other
hand, environmental writing has evolved only fairly recently so it could take some time to reach the
forefront,‖ he says.

2.1 On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes using a suitable format.
Use abbreviations where necessary (minimum 4). Supply a suitable title. (5)
2.2 Write a summary of the above passage in about 100 words. (5)
SECTION – B (ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS)
3. As the President of Lions Club, Dilshad Garden, draft an invitation for all the teachers of the
neighborhood schools to participate in a seminar on the ‗Fundamental Rights of Children‘
organized by your club. (50 words)
(OR)
You lost your brief case while traveling from New Delhi to I.G.I Airport in Delhi Metro. Draft an
advertisement for the ‗Lost and Found‘ column of The Indian Express‘. You are Pranav/Parnavi.
(50 words) (4)

4. You are interested in taking the British Council Library Membership in Delhi. Write a letter in
120 words to the Head Librarian asking for details and the required procedure to be followed.
You are Shubham/Shalini.
(OR)
You are Anand/Aarti, of C/15, Model Town, Delhi. You have seen an advertisement in
‗The Hindu‘ for the post of a Chief Chef at The Leela, Delhi. You are a graduate in Hotel
Management with six years experience in one of the leading Hotels in the Delhi N.C.R.
Draft a job application with a cover letter and a detailed resume. (120 words) (6)

5. You are Aamir/Anamika of Namdev Public School, Paschim Vihar. Your school is hosting
an interschool debate competition on the topic ‗Digital India still has agriculture as it‘s backbone‘.
Write a debate in 150 – 200 words highlighting your personal convictions either in favour or
against the topic‘.
(OR)
Write a speech to be delivered in the morning assembly on the topic ―For the progress of
mankind, let‘s replace age-old customs with broadminded outlook towards life.‖ (200 words) (10)

6. You are Vishnu/Vaishnavi. You visited ‗Xavier Fair-2018‘ at St. Xavier‘s Raj Niwas Marg. You
were indeed fascinated by the grandeur of the event and touched by the noble cause behind
it. As the editor of Xavier Times write a report about it, in 150-200 words to be published in the
Diamond Jubilee edition of ‗Xavier Times‘.
(OR)
On your way back from school you see a huge plastic bag full of leftovers of food being flung
into the middle of the road from a speeding car. You wonder how people can be so devoid
of civic sense. Write an article in 150-200 words on ‗Civic Sense and Sensibility – the fruit
of a well nurtured and cultured upbringing.‘ (10)
Std. 12 ENGLISH (Set – 2) Page 4

SECTION - C (LITERATURE)
7. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow: (4 x 1 = 4)
Perhaps a huge silence
Might interrupt this sadness
Of never understanding ourselves
And of threatening ourselves with death.
a) What according to the poet necessitates this interruption?
b) Explain the phrase ―never understanding ourselves.‖
c) What does the poet imply when he refers to ―sadness‖?
d) How according to the poet are we threatening ourselves with death?
(OR)
‖rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead
All lovely tales that we heard or read.
a) Identify the poetic device in the above context?
b) Explain ―grandeur of dooms‖.
c) In what context does the poet give the above description?
d) What does ―lovely tales‖ refer to?

8. Answer any four of the following questions in about 30-40 words each: (4 x 3 = 12)
a) Dr. Sadao mutters the words, ―my Friend‖, while treating American prisoner of war.
Explain the irony of the situation.
b) Why did Zitkala Sa not want her hair to be cut short?
c) Which article in Mc.Leery`s suitcase played the most significant role in Evan‘s
escape and how?
d) What do Aunt Jennifers Tigers symbolize?
e) Firozabad presents a strange paradox. Contrast the beauty of the glass bangles with the
misery of the people who produce them.
f) What according to the poet, in the poem ―My Mother at Sixty Six‖, is the reality of
life which we must accept?

9. Answer any one of the following questions in about 120-150 words: (6)
a) How is Derry‘s and Mr. Lamb‘s behavior and attitude towards people different?
b) Freedom from fear can make anybody a successful person. Describe Douglas‘
struggle regarding the same?
c) Write a character sketch on Evans ―the Break‖.

10. Answer any one the following questions in about 120-150 words: (6)
a) The two accounts of Bama and Zitkala-sa are based on two different cultures.
Highlight the difference and similarity between the two of them.
b) When and how did civil disobedience triumph in India for the first time?
c) How did the Tiger King inspite of killing 99 tigers prove the prediction of his
death to be accurate?

11. Answer any one the following questions in about 120-150 words: (6)
a) Griffin is the model of science without humanity. Justify with reference to ‗Invisible Man‘.
b) Griffin dressed himself as a formidable and intimidating figure to hide his reality.
Justify.

12. Answer any one of the following questions in about 120-150 words: (6)
a) Write a character sketch of the owner of the costume shop.
b) What did Griffin see in the dream at night at the departmental complex?

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