English Set -1 Delhi
General Instructions:
1. This paper consists of four sections —
Section A — Reading 20 marks
Section B — Writing 30 marks
Section C — Grammar 20 marks
Section D — Literature 30 marks
2. Attempt all questions.
3. Do not write anything in the question paper.
4. All the answers must be correctly numbered as in the question paper and written in the answer sheet provided to you.
5. Attempt all questions in each section before going on, to the next section.
6. Read each question carefully and follow the instructions.
7. Strictly adhere to the word limit given with each question. Marks will be deducted for exceeding the word limit.
SECTION - A
Reading (20 marks)
Q. 1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (12 marks)
1. Last June, my elder daughter Sylvie, finished kindergarten at the school near our home in Bethlehem, USA. If my wife, Theresa, and I have our way, Sylvie will graduate from the same school. I am eyeing Sylvie’s graduation because I want this to be her only school and Bethlehem to be her hometown. Both goalsfirst one a school, the second a hometown - eluded me. My father was in the army, and I attended numerous schools. Our transient lifestyle offered a grand upbringing, but it came at a cost. Of all those people I befriended on the run, for instance, I’ve maintained contact with exactly one. I’m generally from everywhere and exactly from nowhere.
2. I want Sylvie and her two year old sister Linnea, to have that hometown that I missed. It would be a place they know intimately, care about, return to with a thrill. So when Theresa took a teaching post in Bethlehem, we moved from Chicago and decided to settle down here. That was almost six years ago, and the transition was rough. We did not like the paucity of movie houses, usedbook stores and great restaurants. We found instead, cheap shopping malls and cornfields being transformed into faceless suburbs. It was hard to imagine blossoming in such a place. We began to seek out the good things in Bethlehem, of which, we discovered, there are many. In short order we turned up the children’s corner of the public library, a number of parks and the folkmusic club that draws top performers to a venue no bigger than our living room.
3. Where we found good places, we found good people. Slowly their numbers increased. Soon we discovered we had knit together a circle of dear friends. As our friendship strengthened, so, too did an unspoken belief that we would be here for each other over the long haul. We’d watch each other’s children grow up; offer them a hand where we could, support each other through the joys and travails of parenthood.
4. There’s a yearly party, a joint sale and more potluck dinners than I can count. We’ve celebrated both of Linnea’s birthdays with a bash on our front lawn. On Saturday mornings when many of us converge downtown, the shopkeepers greet me and my children by name, and hand out goodies. To the old-timers here, all this might be unremarkable. But to the vagabond like me, this acceptance is heart-warming, nourishing and ultimately sustaining. So why resist its pull ? Because it’s a mistake to take for granted a good community, or to assume we’d be lucky enough to find one somewhere else. In the end, good and lasting community arises from a commitment to it. And there’s no more basic commitment than staying put.
1.1 Complete the summary given below. Use only a word to fill in the blanks. (1×5=5)
The author decided to stay put at Bethlehem as he wanted it to be his (a) _____________________ hometown. Though upset about the lack of (b) ___________________, he and his wife started to seek out the good things there. Soon a strong bond developed between them and their (c)___________________. He resisted his (d)_______________________ to move to greener pastures. He also (e)___________________that only with commitment can a lasting community arise.
1.2 Complete the following sentences : (1×3=3 marks)
a. The author could not refer to any place as his hometown because _____________ .
b. The author had contact with only one friend _______________ .
c. The realization that lasting community arises _______________ .
1.3 Find words which mean the same as the following : (1×4=4 marks)
a. many/in large numbers (para 1)
b. change (para 2)
c. sorrows/unpleasant experiences (para 3)
d. a person who travels from place to place (para 4)
Q. 2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (8 marks)
1. Set in the declining but still green Western Ghats in the South-West of Karnataka, Coorg is the heart of India’s coffee country. Coffee is the world’s most heavily traded commodity after crude oil. Coorg boasts a land area four times larger than Hong Kong and seven times the area of Singapore. Most of it is under tree cover because unlike tea plants, the coffee bush requires shade.
2. India is acknowledged as the producer of the finest mild coffees. With their tropical climate, high altitude, abundant rainfall and fertile soil, Coorg and the neighbouring Chickmangalur districts in Karnataka have consistently produced and exported high quality coffee for over 150 years. The coffee output of these two districts accounts for 70 percent of the total coffee produced in the country. Coorg coffee is valued for its blue colour, clean beans and fine liquoring qualities and hence is in demand in the international markets.
3. In March and April, the coffee blossom time in Coorg, when blossoms transform into berries, the bushes are cropped. The cherry-red fruit is then pulped; the seeds separated, dried and sent for curing. Coorg or Kodagu is the district which is one of the largest producers of pepper, cardamom and honey in the world.
4. Not much is known about the early history of Coorg. Recorded history is available only from 1600 A.D. onwards when Kodava Rajas ruled over the region and established their capital at Mercara by constructing a mud-walled fort. The martial Kodavas troubled Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan, who ruled the Mysore region in the 18th century, by way of sporadic rebellions. But in 1785, Tipu’s large army marched into Kodagu and devastated the kingdom. Fourteen years later, with the help of the British, who defeated Tipu Sultan following the historic siege of Srirangapatana in 1799, Coorg regained independence and under the leadership of Raja Veerarajendra rebuilt the capital. Later in 1834, the British exiled its ruler Chikkaveera Rajendra and assumed administrative charge of the district. The British left India in 1947, leaving behind a legacy of coffee plantations, colonial buildings and well-planned road networks.
English Set -1 Outside Delhi
SECTION - A
Reading (20 marks)
Q. 1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (12 marks)
1. Our house is filled with photos. They cover the walls of my kitchen, dining room and den. I see our family’s entire history, starting with my wedding, continuing through the births of both sons, buying a home, family gatherings and vacations. When my sons were little, they loved to pose. They waved, danced, climbed trees, batted balls, hung upside down from the jungle gym and did anything for a picture. But when they reached adolescence, picture-taking changed into something they barely tolerated. Their bodies were growing at haphazard speeds. Reluctantly they stood with us or with their grandparents at birthday celebrations and smiled weakly at the camera for as short a time as possible.
2. I am the chronicler of our photographs. I select those to be framed and arrange the others in albums. The process is addictive, and as the shelves that hold our albums become fuller and fuller, I wonder what will become of them. Will anyone look at these photographs in future years ? If my sons look at them, what will they think of us and of themselves ? One bright afternoon, I took some photographs of my father with my husband as they fished on a lake near our vacation house. As my sons and I sat on the shore and watched them row away, I picked the camera up and photographed the beautiful lake surrounded by green trees. The two men I loved gradually grew smaller until all I could see were my father’s red shirt, and the tan and blue caps on their heads.
3. My father died a week later, and suddenly those photos became priceless to me. I wept when I pasted them in our album. I wept again afterwards when I saw my younger son looking at them. It was a few days before he went away to college. He had taken all our albums down from the bookshelves in the den and spread them out on the carpet. It had been a very long time since I had seen him doing this. Once he stopped posing for pictures, he seemed to lose interest in looking at them. But now he was on the verge of leaving home. This was his special time to look ahead and look back. I stood for a moment in the hall by the den, and then tiptoed away. I didn’t take a photo of my son that afternoon, but I will remember how he looked for as long as I live. Some pictures, I learned, don’t have to be taken with a camera.
1.1 Fill in the summary using a word only. (1×4=4 marks)
The author was (a) __________ about taking photographs and framing them. But she always (b)__________ whether her sons would ever look at them. She was full of (c) _________ when she pasted the pictures of her father’s last days in the album. She learnt that some pictures always (d)____________ . in one’s mind without a camera.
Complete the sentences given below.
1.2 The author’s sons enjoyed taking photographs while they (½×4=2 marks)
a. ____________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________
1.3 Two instances to show that the author’s son was averse to taking photographs are (1×2=2 marks)
(e) ____________________________________________________________
(f) ____________________________________________________________
1.4 Give words that mean the same as (1×4=4 marks)
a. not organized or planned para 1
b. one who records events in order para 2
c. very valuable para 3
d. devoted to something para 2
Q. 2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (8 marks)
1. Set in the declining but still green Western Ghats in the South-West of Karnataka, Coorg is the heart of India’s coffee country. Coffee is the world’s most heavily traded commodity after crude oil. Coorg boasts a land area four times larger than Hong Kong and seven times the area of Singapore. Most of it is under tree cover because unlike tea plants, the coffee bush requires shade.
2. India is acknowledged as the producer of the finest mild coffees. With their tropical climate, high altitude, abundant rainfall and fertile soil, Coorg and the neighbouring Chickmangalur districts in Karnataka have consistently produced and exported high quality coffee for over 150 years. The coffee output of these two districts accounts for 70 percent of the total coffee produced in the country. Coorg coffee is valued for its blue colour, clean beans and fine liquoring qualities and hence is in demand in the international markets.
3. In March and April, the coffee blossom time in Coorg, when blossoms transform into berries, the bushes are cropped. The cherry-red fruit is then pulped; the seeds separated, dried and sent for curing. Coorg or Kodagu is the district which is one of the largest producers of pepper, cardamom and honey in the world.
English 2007 (Set -1 Foreign)
SECTION - A
Reading (20 marks)
Q. 1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (12 marks)
1. One day, driving down a busy road in my town, I noticed a new fence, being built around a home, I’d always admired. The house, well over a hundred years old, faded white with large front porch, had once sat back from a quiet road. Then the road was widened, traffic lights went up, and the town began to look like a city. Now the house had hardly any front yard at all. Still, that yard, was always swept clean, and flowers burst forth from the hard ground. I began to notice a woman raking, sweeping, tending the flowers, cutting the grass. She even picked up the litter thrown by the countless cars that whizzed by. Each time I drove past the house, I watched the rapid progress of the picket fence. The elderly gardener added an overhead rose trellis and a gazebo. He painted it all to snow-white, and then the house to match.
2. One day I pulled off the road to stare long and hard at the fence. The carpenter had done such a magnificent job. I blinked tears away. I couldn’t bring myself to leave. I switched off the engine, walked over and touched the fence. It still smelt of fresh paint. I heard the woman trying to crank a lawn mower at the back. “Hi!” I called, waving. “Well hey”. She stood up straight and wiped her hands on her apron. “I - I came to see your fence. It’s beautiful.” She smiled. “Come sit on the front porch, and I’ll tell you about the fence.” “Sit on the rocking chair,” she said smilingly. I was suddenly overjoyed that I was on the porch drinking iced tea with the marvellous white picket fence surrounding me.
3. “The fence isn’t for me,” the woman explained matter-of-factly. “I live alone. But since so many people come by here, I thought they’d enjoy seeing something real pretty. People look at my fence and wave. A few, like you, even stop and sit on the porch to talk.” “But didn’t you mind when this road was widened and there was so much change ?” “Change is a part of life and the making of character, dear. When things happen that you don’t like, you have two choices : you get bitter or better.” When I left she called out : “Come back any time. And leave the gate open. It looks friendlier.” I carefully left the gate ajar and drove off, feeling something deep inside me. I didn’t know what to call it, but I could picture the hard brick wall around my heart crumbling. And in its place this neat little white picket fence was being built. I planned on leaving the gate open for whatever or whoever might come my way.
1.1 Complete the sentences given below : (1×3=3 marks)
a. The house lost all its front yard when_______________________________ .
b. The lady of the house made the fence_______________________________ .
c. The lady made the author feel at home by ___________________________ .
1.2 Fill in the blanks : (1×5=5 marks)
The lady of the house kept her (a)_____________ spick and span. She made sure that the fence looked (b)_____________ for the sake of others. This shows the (c)____________ of the lady. She realised that being better was the best way to (d)______________ with change. The meeting with the lady brought about a welcome (e) __________________ in the narrator.
1.3 Find words from the passage that mean the same as the following : (1×4=4 marks)
a. observed/paid attention to para 1
b. rubbish/garbage para 1
c. splendid/excellent para 2
d. partly open para 3
Q. 2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (8 marks)
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