WORKSHEET 11

English CLASS 10

1. Read the following text (10 m)

Do children really need such long summer breaks, was a question posed by
some experts recently. Apparently, such a long break disrupts their development and
comes in the way of their learning process. Let’s get the takes back to their books, is
perhaps the expert view, if not in so many words. One would have thought the children
are doing too much during their vacations and not too little, given the plethora of course,
classes, camps and workshop involving swimming, art, personality development,
music, computers and the like that seem to cram their calendar. Even the trips taken in
the name of holidays seem laden with exotic destinations and customised experience
packed into a short period of time. We can go to Europe in 10 days and Australia in a
week and come back armed with digital memories and overflowing suitcase. Holidays
are, in some ways, no longer a break but an intensified search for experience not
normally encountered in everyday life.
It is a far cry from summer holidays one experienced while growing up. For
holidays every year meant one thing and one thing alone—you went back to your native
place, logging in with emotional headquarters of your extended family and spent two
months with a gaggle of uncles, aunts and first and second cousins. The happiest
memories of the childhood of a whole generation seem to be centred around this annual
ritual of homecoming and of affirmation. We tendered tacit apologies for the
separateness entailed in being individuals even as we scurried back into the cauldron of
community and continuity represented by family. Summer vacation was a time rich
with oneness, as who we were and what we owned oozed out from our individual selves
into a collective pot.
Summer was not really a break, but a joint. It was the bridge used to re-affirm
one’s connectedness with one’s larger community. One did not travel, one returned. It
was not an attempt to experience the new and the extraordinary but one that
emphatically underlined the power of the old and the ordinary. As times change, what
we seek from our summer breaks too have changed in fundamental ways.
Today, we are attached much more to the work and summer helps us temporarily
detach from this new source of identity. Summer breaks have become like working
vacations, especially for the children. We refuel our individual selves now and do so
with much more material than we did in the past. A lot of the travel breaks nowadays
are for public consumption – where the viewers on social media decide what’s
interesting and give you multiple viewer ship. But for those who grew up in different
times, summer vacation was the best time of their lives.
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the following questions by
choosing the correct option. (6×1=6m)

(i) According to the passage, what, from the following, is the lesson being taught by
the author’s nostalgic mention of the summer holidays of the older times?
a. It was a time when everyone looked for adventure and new experiences.
b. It was a time when everyone went back to their homes and relaxed.
c. It was a time when everyone apologised to their loved ones.
d. It was a time of mending broken relationships and building new ones.
(ii) Select the option that suitably completes the dialogue with reference to the above
passage.
 Jai: Vacations are starting from next week. Let’s get together to decide where
we want to go on a tour. What do you think?
Prateek: No, I can’t come with you. My parents .............................
a) are taking me and my siblings to our grandparents’ village to meet our
relatives.
b) want me to stay home and work on my studies
c) are going to visit my grandparents and have asked me to stay back at home
d) want me to work during the vacations.

(iii) What qualities do children of today’s world display during their summer vacations,
as highlighted by the author in the first paragraph? Choose one
option from the following -
a) Talented yet distracted. b) Observational and alert
c) Laid back and relaxed. d) Hard working and determined

(iv) The noun that does not belong to the same category as ‘gaggle’-
a) Herd b) Flock c) Bevy d) Species

(v) An Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in

near – placed words. From the options given below, select an Oxymoron that appears in the
above passage -
a) Summer break. b) Annual ritual.
c) Working vacation. d) Customised experience

(vi) Which word in Para 1 means 'excessive' –

(a) cram b) many. c) plethora. d) exotic

Answer the following questions: (2x2=4)

(vii) Why do experts question the summer break?
(viii) ‘Summer was not really a break, but a joint.’ What does the author mean by
this?

2. A) You are Raghu. Your friend, Vignesh, is interested in taking up a course in

Personality Development. Write an email to, informing him about The Centre for
Personality Development, an institute in your city that conducts this course and has the
best faculty.
You can follow the given template to write your email. (4m)
From
To
Cc Manu1234@[Link]
Date 25/09/2024, 12.15 pm
Subject

OR
 B) You recently celebrated Teachers' Day in your school. Write a factual description
about it.

3. A) You are Anita residing at 1349, Sector 31 Nehrunagar, Bhopal. An open and well-
maintained park meant for residents and children of your area will soon be converted
into a shopping complex. Write a letter to the Municipal Commissioner, Bhopal
requesting not to disturb the park which is the only space in your area. Write the letter
in not mor than 120 words. Using ideas that you may have gathered from MCB Unit
1: Health and Medicine and Unit 4: Environment. (7m)
OR
B) According to 2011 Census, literacy rate of hundred per cent or around has been
achieved by only a couple of states in India. Illiteracy is found mostly among the old
and the deprived sections of society. What can the youth do to spread literacy in
society? Write an article on ‘Role of students in eradicating illiteracy’. Use the ideas
that you may have gathered from MCB Unit 2 : Education.

4. Complete any FIVE of the following Six tasks, as directed (1×5=5m)

A) Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option to complete the sentence.
The flight ________ off from the Delhi airport at 4 o’ clock in the evening.
(a) will have taken (b) takes
(c) is taking (d) was taking

B) Read the conversation between Azad and Ronak. Complete the sentence by
reporting Ronak’s reply correctly.
Azad: Can you help me with some money?
Ronak: Yes, I will. Come to my hotel tomorrow morning.

Azad asked Ronak if he could help him with some money. Ronak replied that
he would. He asked Azad _______________________.

C) Select the correct option to fill in the blank: We have enough fruits at home. You
____________ bring any.
(a) must not (b) will not (c) need not (d) should
not

D) Select the option that identifies the error and supplies the correction for the
following line, from a news report:
Dolphins and killer whales has learned an elaborate routine to entertain aquarium
audiences

Option No. Error Correction

1 an a
2 to entertain entertaining
3 audiences audience
4 has have
 E) Identify the error in the given sentence, from a school magazine report and supply
the correction.
Money is certainly necessary to survive. Is money the more important part of life?
Use the given format for your response.
ERROR CORRECTION

F) Rearrange the following jumbled words/phrases in the given story to create a

meaningful sentence.
a/ time/ upon/ there / a /was /merchant /once /rich

He was coming back from a fair. He had a large sum of money with him. The
merchant as well as his money got wet. He had to hurry up home to dry his money.

5. Attempt ANY ONE of the following. (4m)

A) “And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work’ em woe.
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.” (The Rime of The Ancient Mariner)

(i) What do you mean by the word ‘hellish’?

(ii) What was the hellish thing?
(iii) What were the consequences of the hellish thing that the speaker in the extract had
committed?
(iv) Which literary device is used in the last line?

B) The luncheon-party she declined. There are limits beyond which repressed emotions
become dangerous. “How amused everyone would be if they knew what really
happened,” said Louisa Mebbin a few days after the ball. “What do you mean?” asked
Mrs. Packletide quickly. (Mrs. Packletide’s Tiger)

(i) Who declined the luncheon party? (1)

(ii)Why did she decline the invitation? (1)
(iii)Which word in the extract means ‘not accepted’? (1)
(iv)Who has arranged the lunch party and why? (1)

6. Answer ANY TWO of the following questions in 30-40 words each. (2×2=4m)

1. What is the significance of the poet describing the snake as”golden- brown” and
“majestic”?
2. How does the story “ virtually true” explore the relationship between reality and
virtual reality?
3. “The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed”. Whose hand and heart are
referred to in this line?
4. Why did Patol Babu’s wife tell him that he was counting his ‘chickens before they’re
hatched’?
5. What is Stanley Houghton's primary purpose in employing irony in the play ‘The
Dear Departed’?

7. Answer anyone of the following questions in about 120 words. (6m)

A. How does Michael’s journey through the virtual worlds in “ Virtually True”
contribute to his personal growth and understanding of human connection?
Support your answer with specific examples from the text.
OR

B. No sinful action can ever go without its consequences. What consequences does the
Ancient Mariner have to face as a result of his sinful action?