Sample Paper - 2010

Class- XII

Subject – ENGLISH CORE

Q1. Read the following passage and answer the questions

1. In the hospital, I was thinking about the most exceptional people I’ve known. They were the ones who kept going when others quit; the ones who found ways to do what everyone else thought couldn’t be done. They didn’t just hold down a job or work hard. They were reaching deeper inside and finding something more. They made a greater difference. I don’t believe they would have understood these words - “he held the frame so we both could see the inscription” - “the way I did.”

2. “I remember my parents and other adults in my hometown saying, “Study hard and work hard but don’t let your dreams get too big. If you do that, you’ll only be disappointed.’

3. “Learn to fit in and go along,’ they said, ‘that’s what successful people do.’ I got very good at fitting in and going along.” His voice trailed off.

4. “Robert, you’re going to hear the same kinds of things from people around you. They’re well-intentioned but they’re wrong. What if I hadn’t accepted it? What if everyday I had questioned yesterday’s definition of my best? What if I’d listened to my own heart instead of their words? Then I might have kept looking deeper and giving the world more of the best that was hidden inside me.”

5. “And if I’d done that,” he said, “more of the best would have come back tome, and to this family, and to you, Robert. But it won’t,” he said, “because I didn’t do it.”

6. “So this is my challenge to you-to live these words.” He handed me the frame. There was no glass in it; I ran my fingertips over the words and felt the brittle paper . “But grandfather,” I said, not wanting to disappoint him but unsure of how to accomplish what he was asking me, “maybe when I’m older...”

7. “Age has nothing to do with it. Every day you can learn something more about who you are and all the potential that’s hidden inside you. Every day you can choose to become more than you have been. I’m asking you straight right now.”

8. “But how?”

9. “By looking inside yourself. By testing new possibilities. By searching for what matters most to you, Robert. Few of us ever do that for ourselves. Instead, we hold our breath. We look away. We get by or go along. We defend what we have been. We say, “It’s good enough.” I pray you don’t wake up one day and say, “I’ve been living my life wrong and now it’s too late to make it right.”

10. Young as I was, I could still see the pain his regret was causing him, and even then I recognized that the gift he was giving me was as much in honesty as in the specific words he was so determined for me to hear.

11. “Robert, all of us are mostly unused potential. It’s up to you to become the most curious person you know and to keep asking yourself, What is my best? Keep finding more of it every day to give to the world. If you do that, I promise that more of the best than you can ever imagine - and in many ways beyond money - will come back to you.”

12. And it has. Despite my struggles and mistakes along the way, I have learned that there are opportunities, for each of us that exist beneath and beyond conventional thinking and self imposed limits. What my grandfather realized too late that he had not done, he challenged me to do. In this book, I pass the challenge to you.

a. Who, according to the writer, are exceptional people?                 2

b. What, according to his parents, did ‘successful’ people do?              2

c. What does one need to do to “become more than you have been”?       2

d. Explain the phrase “looking inside yourself”.                 1

e. What did the writer learn from his struggles and mistakes?                1

f. Find words from the passage which mean the same as:-                    (4x1)

i) of unusual high quality (para 1)

ii) hard but easily broken (para 6)

iii) possibility for developing (para 11)

iv) following accepted customs and traditions (para 12)

Q2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :                  8

To date happiness has defied definition. Most people tend to equate happiness with fun, good living, plenty of money. If happirress were synonymous with all this, rich people with all their luxuries and countless parties, would be perpetually happy. But in actual fact, they are, frequently, acutely unhappy, despite their riches and ability to indulge in fun activities at will. Fun is what we experience during an act happiness is that intangible something we experience after an act. We may have fun watching a movie, going shopping, meeting friends - these are all fun activities that afford us fleeting moments of relaxation and enjoyment. Happiness, on the other hand, is a much stronger, deeper, and more abiding emotion.

If we perceive happiness as the ultimate goal, we must also devise a way to reach that goal. The way to happiness is not a smooth, broad highway along which we can cruise at a comfortable speed. It is a path through rocky and rugged terrain and the going can become very tough at times. At these times we have to roll up our sleeves and with pitchfork and shovel make our way onwards. This pursuit of happiness lasts a lifetime. Great happiness is earned only by great effort and effort not in spurts but diligent, constant effort.

In this connection we are confronted with another fallacy, that fun and pleasure mean happiness and thus pain, its corollary, must be synonymous with unhappiness. But in fact the truth is quite different. Things that bring us happiness, more often than not, involve some amount of pain. It is because of misconception that people avoid the very endeavour that is the source of true happiness. Difficult endeavours - such as the raising of children, establishing deeper relationships with loved ones, trying to do something worthwhile in life - hold the promise of a world of happiness.

Happiness is not a permanent vacation. Another prevalent belief is that if one were rich enough not to have to work one would be blissfully happy. But a job is more than just a pay cheque. Almost all religions teach us that work is worship. Work holds the key to happiness as doing something which increases confidence and self.worth. It brings on a feeling of satisfaction, of doing something, of contributing. Job satisfaction comes less from how much one earns than from the challenge of the job. Of course the pay-cheques count. It would be unrealistic to suggest that one could be happy without a basic shelter, roaming the streets on an empty stomach.

A secret ingredient of happiness is contentment. Contentment here does not mean apathy or lack of ambition, just as commitment does not mean curtailment of freedom. Commitment teaches us to give so that we may receive and contentment helps us to cherish the gifts we have received. These things are worth a try even if they don % promise access to the pinnacle of success. Success, after all has been described as getting what one wants, whereas happiness is liking what one gets.

(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Use recognisable abbreviations, wherever necessary. 5

(b) Write a summary of the above passage in about 80 words, and also suggest a suitable title. 3

------------ Please Go To Next Page ------------