ISC Board Question Paper English
Class – XII (2009)
(I - Paper)
Instruction:
(i). Two and a half hours, Candidates are allowed additional 15 minutes for only reading the paper. They must NOT start writing during this time.
(ii). Attempt all four questions. The intended marks for questions or parts of question are given in brackets [J. All working, including rough work, should be done on the same sheet as the rest of the answer.
(iii). You are advised to spend not more than 50 minutes on Question 1, 30 minutes on Question 2, 25 minutes on Question 3 and 45 minutes on Question 4.
(iv). You should begin each answer on a fresh page.
Q 1 : Write a composition (in approximately 450-500 words) on any one of the following subjects : (You are reminded that you will be rewarded for orderly and coherent presentation of material, use of appropriate style and general accuracy of spelling, punctuation and grammar.) [30]
(a) 'We humans are a peaceful species at heart."Explore this statement, giving your views.
(b) Rains, which bring the much needed relief from the sweltering heat, can also cause havoc in our lives. Describe how two days of incessant rain caused unlimited problems for the people in your town /city.
(c) Charity.
(d) Children today have become so engrossed in the ‘virtual’ world that they have lost touch with reality. Express your views on this topic.
(e) ‘First impressions are not always the best’ Write for or against this proposition.
(f) Write an original short story which has for its beginning one of the following :
(i) At first glance he seemed a friendly sort of person, yet there was something...
(ii) As soon as I saw his face, I could tell that he had important news. Without pausing to greet me, he...
Q 2: Your school had organized an inter-school cultural or literary festival. As one of the organizers of the festival, write a report for your school magazine in not more than 200 words, using the notes given below as a guideline. You may include other relevant details :
Date and venue -purpose of the festival - schools invited - budget - events - chief guest - inauguration - standard of performances - awards won - closing ceremony - experiences gained [20]
Q 3 : Answer sections (a), (b) and (c).
(a) In each of the following items, sentence A is complete, while B is not. Complete sentence B, making it as similar in meaning as possible to sentence A. Write down sentence B in each case. [5]
Example : (0) (A) My daughter is too naughty to be taken on the picnic.
(B) My daughter is so ...
Answer : (0) My daughter is so naughty that she cannot be taken on the picnic.
(1) (A) :As soon as the vacation begins, Mr Chips leaves for the hills.
(B) :No sooner ...
(2) (A) : He has his faults, all the same he is a likeable man.
(B) : Notwithstanding ...
(3) (A) : The Headmaster said to me, "I will deal with you tomorrow."
(B) : The Headmaster told ...
(4) (A) : Maya's attitude to her sister has always puzzled me.
(B) :I have ...
(5) (A) : I don't believe he intends to do any more business with your firm.
(B) : It is my ...
(b) Fill in each blank with a suitable word. (Do not write the sentence): [5]
(1) Can she take ... the additional responsibility?
(2) 1 have every confidence ... him.
(3) She had a good reason ... being angry.
(4) He fell a victim ... his own greed.
(5) He never seems to be satisfied ... what is done for him.
(6) That excuse won’t go ... well with the teacher.
(7) My mother is a good cook, but she won’t give ... her trade secrets.
(8) We were astonished what he told us.
(9) He took a long time to recover... his illness.
(10) The audience showed their approval... his speech by prolonged applause.
(c) Fill in each blank with the appropriate form of the word given in brackets : [10]
(Do not write the sentence) :
(1) My teacher never ... (give) me a chance to speak.
(2) His voice gradually ... (sink) to a whisper.
(3) My family and I... (suffer) a great deal lately.
(4) I would not tell her about the matter if I ... (be) you.
(5) I ... (know) him since we were at school together.
(6) She swam across the river as fast as she ... (can).
(7) By this time next year, you ... (forget) all your present troubles.
(8) I ... (start) my homework before he came.
(9) I ... (stand) in the rain and waited for the bus.
(10) They ... (beat) us at football for the last five years.
Q 4 : Read carefully the passage given below and answer the question (a), (b) and (c) that follow :
(1) The night of 14th April 1912, was very cold. There was no moon, and hardly any wind. The Titanic was in the part of the Atlantic in which icebergs cause trouble. Ice is hard enough to cut holes in steel, and cannot easily be seen at night.
(2) The wireless officer of the Titanic, J.G. Phillips, had received several signals telling him that ice was not far away. Most of these important signals were passed on to the officers; but one was not. It was a signal from another ship, the Mesaba, reporting icebergs in front of the Titanic.
(3) When it arrived, Phillips was hard at work. Many of the travellers had sent news or information or orders by wireless during the day to their friends in England or America. Phillips was now doing his best to finish off all this work. He was so busy that he did not report the ice immediately. The signal lay on.his table, half forgotten.
(4) The two men who were watching for icebergs. Fleet and Lee, suddenly saw something dark just in front of the ship. They immediately rang the ship's bell, and Lee telephoned to the officer of the watch to report the iceberg.
(5) The necessary orders were given at once, though it is impossible to stop a great ship immediately, especially if it is moving at about twenty-five miles an hour. But the officer did his best. The engines were stopped and then started again to pull the ship backwards. The steel doors were closed. The ship was turned away from its straight course. But it was all too late. Too late!
(6) The ship struck the iceberg with its side while it was still moving forwards. It struck the ice again with another part of its side. In a few moments six great holes were made in the steel.
Water rushed in, not in one place, but in separate places covering three hundred feet. The steel doors were therefore useless.
(7) Captain Smith soon understood that nothing could save his ship. At a quarter past twelve in the early morning he ordered the wireless officer to send out the ship's position and the letters CQD, which is the call for help. It told the world that the Titanic was sinking. The impossible was happening.
(8) At first the people on board did not believe that the ship was sinking. They had been told. that it could not sink, but they understood the truth when the captain gave the order to prepare the boats. Women and children were ordered into the boats first, but some wives would not leave their husbands and did not go.
(9) Some women had to be pushed into the boats and some, had to be thrown in. It was hard tot leave the big lighted ship, and to go in a small boat on the dark icy sea. Many. brave act & were.done that night, but 1.503 people lost their lives. And so the Titanic went down beside the huge iceberg that destroyed it.
(10) When day came, another ship, the Carpathian, arrived and picked up all those that could be found. It took to New York only 705 men and women. The wireless officer Mr. Phillips, and Captain Smith were not among them.
(a) (i) Use each of the following words as used in the passage in a sentence of your own construction so as to bring out its meaning very clearly. Using the word in a context very similar to the passage will be penalized. [3]
(1) report (line 14)
(2) course (line 19)
(3) moments (line 21)
(ii) For each of the words given below write a sentence of at least 10 words, using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage. [3]
(1) watch (line 14)
(2) sink (line 29)
(3) acts (line 34)
(iii) Explain, in the context of the passage, in not more than two sentences of your own., the meaning of each of the following expressions taken from the passage. (Merely using phrases will not do) [4]
(1) ... on his table, half forgotten. (line 11)
(2) Many brave acts were done that night. (line 34)
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in ypur own words :
(i) How did the officers of the Titanic know that there were icebergs in the area? [2]
(ii) Why was the signal from the Mesaba particularly important? [2]
(iii) Why was this signal not passed on to the officers? [3]
(iv) Why were the steel doors useless? [3]
(c) In not more than 60 words and with close reference to the last three paragraphs,
give an account of The Sinking of the Titanic. [Failure to keep within the word limit
will be penalized]. [10]
SECTION A (Answer one question)
Macbeth – Shakespeare
Q 1: Choose two of the passages (a) to (c) and answer briefly the questions that follow : [25]
(a) Macbeth: Both of you know
Banquo was your enemy.
Murderers : True, my lord.
Macbeth: So is he mine, and in such bloody distance
That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my nearest of life; and though I could
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Who I myself struck down. And thence it is
That I to your assistance do make love,
Masking the business from the common eye
For sundry weighty reasons.
Second Murderer: We shall, my lord,
Perform what you command us.
(i) Why has Macbeth summoned the two murderers? How does Macbeth ensure that he can meet the murderers alone?
(ii) What had Macbeth said to the murderers at their previous meeting?
(iii) Which reasons does he give for not murdering Banquo himself.
(iv) Explain the lines:
“and in such bloody distance
That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my nearest of life”
(v) What instructions does he go on to give the murderers?
(vi) Give the meanings of the following words in the context of the passage barefaced;
(b) Lady Macduff : What had he done, to make him fly the land?
Ross : You must have patience madam.
Lady Macduff : He had none;.
His flight was madness. When our actions do not. Our fears do make us traitors.
Ross : You know not
Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
Lady Macduff : Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
His mansion, and his titles in a place
From whence himself does fly? He loves us not.
He wants the natural touch,...
(i) Where has Macduff gone? What does he hope to achieve?
(ii) When does Macbeth hear of Macduff s flight? What does he decide to do upon learning this?
(iii) How does Ross try to explain Macduff's actions to Lady Macduff?
(iv) Explain the lines :
“When our actions do not,
Our fears do make us traitors”.
(v) Why does Lady Macduff find it difficult to accept Ross' explanation? With which creature does she compare her husband's actions? What does she say?
(vi) Give the meanings of the following words in the context of the passage :
titles; whence; natural touch
(c) Messenger : Let me endure your wrath if t be not so;
Within this three mile may you see it coming.
I say, a moving grove.
Macbeth : If thou speak'st false,
Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive
Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth,
I care not if thou dost for me as much.
I pull in resolution and begin
To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth.
(i) Where is Macbeth as he speaks these tines? Why does the news of a moving grove trouble Macbeth?
(ii) Which news had Macbeth received just before this? How did the news affect him? (iii) What is the ‘moving grove’ actually?
(iv) Explain the lines;
“I pull in resolution and begin
To doubt th' equivocation of the f tend
That lies like truth”.
(v) What does Macbeth decide to do at the end of the scene?
(vi) Give the meaning of the following words in the context of the passage :
wrath; cling; sooth.
Q 2 : (Choose two of the passages (a) to (c) and answer briefly the questions that follow: [25]
Pygmalion-George Bernard Shaw
(a) The Note taker : You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid or shop assistant, which requires better English.
The Flower Girl: What's that you say?
The Note taker: Yes, you squashed cabbage leaf, you disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns, you incarnate insult to the English language: I could pass you off as the Queen of Sheba. [To thegentleman] Can you believe
that?
The Gentleman: Of course I can. I am myself a student of Indian dialects; and...
(i) Where does this conversation take place? How had the Note Taker and the Flower Girl met?
(ii) Whom had the Flower Girl mistaken the Note Taker to be? Which right of hers did she defend?
(iii) How had the Note Taker gained the confidence of the people assembled at this spot?
(iv) In what way is the Flower Girl's speech an "incarnate insult to the English language"?
(v) What had the Note Taker told the gentleman about his profession?
(vi) What does the Note Taker ask the gentleman when he learns that he is a student of Indian dialects? What does he later suggest to the gentleman?
(b) Higgins (revolted): Do you mean to say that you would sell your daughter for X 50?
Doolittle : Not in a general way 1 wouldnt; but to oblige a gentleman like you I'd do a good deal, I do assure you.
Pickering : Have you no morals, man?.
Doolittle (unabashed): Cant afford them, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me. Not that I mean any harm, you know. But if Liza isgoing to have a bit out of this, why not me too?
Higgins (troubled):1 dont know what to do, Pickering. There can be no question that as a matter of morals it's a positive crime loove Ails chap a farthlftg And yet I feel a sort of rough justice in his claim.
Doolittle : Thats it, Governor. Thats all I say. A father's heart, as it were.
Pickering : Well, I know the feeling; but really it seems hardly right-
Doolittle: Dont say that, Governor. Dont look at it that way. What am 1, Governors both? I ask you, what ant I? I'm one of the undeserving poor: thats what I ant.
(i) Where are Doolittle, Higgins and Pickering? What reason does doolittle give for being here?
(ii) How did Doolittle learn about Liza's presence here?
(iii) How does Higgins treat Doolittle at first? Why does he do so?
(iv) Which ability of Doolittle impresses Higgins?
(v) How has Doolittle suffered by being one of the poor?
(vi) What advice does Doolittle give Higgins before he leaves?
(c) Hostess : Ah,here you are at last, Nepommuck. Have you found out all about the Doolittle lady?
Nepommuck : I have found out all about her. She is a fraud.
Hostess : A fraud! Oh no.
Nepommuck : YES, yes. She cannot deceive me. Her name cannot be Doolittle.
Higgins : Why?
Nepommuck : Because Doolittle is an English name. And she is not English..
Hostess : Oh, nonsense! She speaks English perfectly.
Nepommuck : Too perfectly. Can you show me any English woman who speaks English as it should be spoken? Only foreigners who have been taught to speak it speak it well.
(i) Where is Higgins? Why is he here?
(ii) Who is Nepommuck? How had he greeted Higgins?
(iii) What is Higgins' opinion of Nepommuck? What task does their hostess give Nepommuck?
(iv) What does Nepommuck say about Liza? What is his reason for having this opinion?
(v) In what way does Higgins differ from Nepommuck's opinion?
(vi) What effect does Liza have on the people assembled at the place?
(Answer three questions on at least two textbooks which may include EITHER Macbeth. or Pygmalion)
Macbeth-Shakespeare
Q 3 : Give a vivid account of the Banquet Scene. Why is this scene the turning point of Macbeth's fortunes? [25]
Q 4: “Lesser than Macbeth and greater Not so happy, yet much happier” By detailed consideration of what he says and does, show whether you agree with what the witches say about Banquo. [25]
Q 5 : Give a vivid account of the ‘at home’ at Mrs. Higgins flat. How do Higgins, Mrs. Higgins and Liza behave at the ‘at home’? What does Mrs. Higgins say to her son and Colonel Pickering after the guests leave? [25]
Q 6 : Pickering treats a flower girl as if she were a duchess while Higgins treats a duchess as if she were a flower girl. With close reference to the play, show how far is this a true description of their behaviour. [25]
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Q 7 : Referring closely to specific incidents from the novel, show how far Mrs. Joe Gargery, Pumblechook and Estella are responsible for Pip's unhappiness during his childhood. [25]
Q 8: “When Igo into the office, I leave the castle behind me, and when I come into the castle, I leave the office behind me." Referring closely to Pip's visit to Walworth and Pip's encounters with Wemmick in Little Britain, bring out the two aspects of Wemmick's personality. [25]
Q 9 : Pip's attitude towards Abel Magwitch moves from horror and repugnance to a sense of responsibility, and finally, sympathy and appreciation of his benefactor. With reference to specific incidents from the novel, chart this development in Pip's attitude and behaviour towards Magwitch. [25]
The Great Indian Mind-F. Fanthome
Q 10 : With reference to Bal Gangadhar Tilak's National Education, explain the four aspects that the pioneers of national education wish to emphasize in the schools. [25]
Q 11 : With reference to The Religion of an Artist, trace Rabindranath Tagore's growth as a literary artist, mentioning the forces that have contributed to his growth as an artist.What does the writer say about his religion? [25]
Q 12 : What did Swami Vivekananda say in his address at the Parliament of Religions about :. [26]
(a) The simile of creation and creator.
(b) The soul according to the Hindus.
(c) The concept of birth, death and rebirth.
Timeless Short Stories-compiled by T.W. Phillips
Q 13 : Referring closely to the short story The Avu Observatory, describe the encounter between Woodhouse and the strange creature that entered the observatory at night. How does the author create a sense of mystery in the story? [25]
Q 14 : At the end of the short story Growing Up, Robert Quick, the father of jenny and Kate, realizes that his daughters are growing up so is he. Describe the events that lead to this realization. [25]
Q 15 : The Huntsman by Anton Chekhov is a touching story of two people trapped in a marriage. With close reference to the story describe the frustrations and emotions of Yegor Vlassitch and Pelagea as they meet one day. With whom do you sympathize and why? [25]
ISC Poetry-W. R. Gardner
Q 16 : With close reference to A Walk By Moonlight, show how a casual walk on a moonlit night becomes the occasion for a rare communion between the poet and Nature. [25]
Q 17 : Ulysses expresses the longings and aspirations of the speaker. At the same time, the poem. expresses the universal philosophy of optimism, courage and relentless effort. Referring closely to the poem, discuss how far this observation is true. [25]
Q 18 : With close reference to the poem He Fell Among Thieves, describe the thoughts and emotions that fill the last moments of the heroic soldier's life. [25]