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AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION BOARD

SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE

CLASS IX

MODEL EXAMINATION PAPER 2018

English Compulsory Paper I

Time: 1 hour Marks: 30

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Read each question carefully.
2. Answer the questions on the separate answer sheet provided. DO NOT write your answers on the
question paper.
3. There are 100 answer numbers on the answer sheet. Use answer numbers 1 to 30 only.
4. In each question there are four choices A, B, C, D. Choose ONE. On the answer grid black out
the circle for your choice with a pencil as shown below.

Candidate’s Signature

5. If you want to change your answer, ERASE the first answer completely with a rubber, before
blacking out a new circle.
6. DO NOT write anything in the answer grid. The computer only records what is in the circles.

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Listening Comprehension Section

In this section, you will hear two passages. Each one will be played two times.

Listen carefully to the first passage, and then read questions 1 to 6. You will have two minutes’
reading time.

The passage will then be played again. You can make notes on your question paper.

When the passage has finished, enter your answers on your separate answer sheet. You will have
three and a half minutes to pencil in your answers.

Follow the instructions on the front page of Paper I to mark which of the options, A, B, C or D, you
have selected for each question.

Listening Passage I

In this passage, a wildlife photographer describes the characteristics, habitat and threats faced by
snow leopards.

Source: Adapted from Snow Leopards published in National Geographic Magazine and
incorporates information from Stories from the Roof of the World

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Mark your responses to these questions on your multiple choice answer sheet.

1. The snow leopards live in

A. isolation.
B. groups.
C. pairs.
D. trio.

2. Which of the following is the evidence that snow leopards are physically very strong?

A. They hunt at dawn and dusk.

B. They live in rocky mountains.
C. They hunt alone and successfully.
D. They kill animals bigger than them.

3. The pattern of the spots is unique to each individual snow leopard; this may enable them to

A. protect each other.

B. mix easily in groups.
C. recognise each other.
D. help each other in hunting.

4. Snow leopards are successful hunters because their fur

A. is attractive.
B. disguises them.
C. keeps them warm.
D. protects them if they fall.

5. Snow leopards help in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem by

A. feeding on the alpine plants.

B. consuming the less important resources.
C. serving as a source of promoting tourism.
D. keeping the population of grazing animals in check.

6. According to the speaker, what could be a possible commercial benefit for the local people if
the snow leopard population is conserved?

A. Environment can be preserved.

B. It will attract income from visitors.
C. Grazing animals will be in abundance.
D. It can provide an opportunity to study nature.

PLEASE DO NOT TURN OVER THE PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD
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Now we will play the second passage. It will also be played two times.

Listen carefully to the passage and then read questions 7 to 13. You will have two minutes reading
time.

The passage will then be replayed. You can make notes on your question paper.

When the passage has finished, enter your answers on the separate answer sheet provided to you.

You will have three and a half minutes to pencil in your answers.

Listening Passage II

The speaker talks about some suggestions which can help improve revision.

Source: Adapted from Secrets to Revision that Can Improve Your Grades published in The
Guardian

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Mark your responses to these questions on your multiple choice answer sheet.

7. The speaker starts her speech by posing questions in order to

A. introduce her topic.
B. puzzle the listeners.
C. negate the beliefs about revision.
D. contradict the findings of her research.

8. According to the speaker, computer games are a great way to study how people learn because
they
A. generate people’s interest.
B. analyse actions of competitors.
C. make people compete in a fun way.
D. record how practice affects performance.

9. According to the speaker’s first suggestion, a better way to practice is to

A. practice in less time efficiently.
B. practice more in a focused way.
C. organise your practice effectively.
D. take intervals between practice sessions.

10. The speaker mentions that students often make a big mistake of
A. writing lengthy essays.
B. redoing the same thing.
C. memorising tasks in a specific sequence.
D. mismatching preparation style with test type.

11. The speaker emphasises the importance of practicing essay writing. Which information is given
immediately after this?
A. Memorising is not useful.
B. Memorising is not sufficient.
C. Lessons should be memorised in a systematic way.
D. Lessons should be memorised by taking long gaps.

12. Based on the speaker’s third suggestion, which activity would be the MOST helpful for
revision?
A. Make mind-maps or tables.
B. Revise only during daytime.
C. Memorise all important ideas.
D. Learn only headings and sub-headings.

13. The last suggestion implies that

A. relaxation positively impacts revision.
B. taking rest would result in slow learning.
C. structuring information will help in revision.
D. information retrieval is possible if you practice.

PLEASE DO NOT TURN OVER THE PAGE UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD
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Reading Comprehension Section

You have 25 minutes for the reading comprehension section. This section has two passages, each
followed by multiple choice questions. You are advised to spend approximately 12 minutes on each
of the given passages.

Read the passage carefully and then answer the multiple choice questions which follow.

Reading Passage I

Ursula faced her class, some fifty boys and girls, who stood filling the ranks of the desks. She felt
utterly non-existent. She had no place for being there. She faced the block of children.

Down the room she heard the rapid firing of questions. She stood before her class not knowing
what to do. She waited painfully. Her block of children, fifty unknown faces, watched her,
5 hostile, ready to jeer. She felt as if she were in torture over a fire of faces. And on every side she
was exposed to them. Of unutterable length and torture, the seconds went by.

Then she gathered courage. She heard Mr Brunt asking questions in mental arithmetic. She stood
near to her class, so that her voice need not be raised too much, and faltering, uncertain, she said:

“Seven hats at two pence ha’penny each?”

10 A grin went over the faces of the class, seeing her commence. She was red and suffering. Then
some hands shot up like blades, and she asked for the answer.

The day passed incredibly slowly. She never knew what to do, there came horrible gaps, when
she was merely exposed to the children; and when, relying on some pert little girl for
information, she had started a lesson, she did not know how to go on with it properly. The
15 children were her masters. She deferred to them. She could always hear Mr Brunt. Like a
machine, always in the same hard, high, inhuman voice he went on with his teaching, oblivious
of everything. And before this inhuman number of children, she was always at bay. She could not
get away from it. There it was; this class of fifty collective children, depending on her for
command, the command it hated and resented. It made her feel she could not breathe: she must
20 suffocate, it was so inhuman. They were so many, that they were not children. They were a
squadron. She could not speak as she would to a child, because they were not individual children,
they were a collective, inhuman thing.

Dinner-time came, and stunned, bewildered, solitary, she went into the teacher’s room for dinner.
Never had she felt such a stranger to life before. It seemed to her she had just disembarked from
25 some strange horrible state where everything was as in hell, a condition of hard, malevolent
system. And she was not really free. The afternoon drew at her like some bondage.

The first week passed in a blind confusion. She did not know how to teach, and she felt she never
would know. Mr Harby came down every now and then to her class, to see what she was doing.
She felt so incompetent as he stood by, bullying and threatening, so unreal, that she wavered,
30 became neutral and non-existent.

Source: Adapted from The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence

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Mark your responses to these questions on your multiple choice answer sheet.

14. In the beginning of the text, which word suggests that Ursula is uncomfortable?

A. Faced
B. Block
C. Ranks
D. Non-existent

15. The group of fifty boys and girls appear to be

A. sophisticated.
B. unfriendly.
C. eager.
D. static.

16. The beginning of the passage tells us that Ursula

A. did not like Mr Brunt’s class.

B. was not ready to handle her class.
C. learnt about mental arithmetic from Mr Brunt.
D. was welcomed by the boys and girls of her class.

17. ‘A grin went over the faces of the class’ (line 10). This means that
A. children were making fun of Ursula.
B. it was very hard to work in that class.
C. Mr Brunt encouraged the class to study.
D. Ursula was not able to control her class.

18. The CLOSEST meaning of the word ‘oblivious’ (line 16) is

A. adopted.
B. changed.
C. unaffected.
D. uncompromised.

19. The words, ‘bewildered, malevolent and bondage’ in the second last paragraph are used to
highlight

A. Ursula’s disappointed state.

B. the environment of the classroom.
C. how Ursula behaved with the children.
D. the behaviour of Mr Brunt towards Ursula.

20. Mr Harby came to Ursula’s class because he

A. was a student.
B. wanted to learn.
C. was assigned to attend the class.
D. wanted to evaluate Ursula’s performance.

PLEASE TURN OVER THE PAGE

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Read the passage carefully and then answer the multiple choice questions which follow.

Reading Passage II

Imagine if you got paid to climb 30 to 40 foot tall trees in beautiful, south-eastern *Oklahoma. I
can’t help but think, how terrifying, yet what an amazing view. This is typical work for Clay
Barnes, wildlife technician, who monitors one of Oklahoma’s endangered species, the red-
cockaded woodpecker.

5 He examines trees to find tiny, 3‐inch holes, 30 to 40 feet above his head. Signs of occupation are
shown by a small hole in a live pine tree, with tree resin trails around the hole.

The red‐cockaded woodpecker is an endangered species that has reached the edge of extinction,
but thanks to Barnes and Senior Biologist Dr John Skeen, the McCurtain County Wildlife
Management provides a number of homes for the birds. Every six weeks, Barnes loads his jeep
10 with several sections of 10‐foot ladder, straps on his tool belt, and climbs trees all day to assure
the homes are in good condition.

“Few people know there are jobs like mine out there,” said Barnes. “It is pretty active
management, very involved. It’s nice to show the diversity that exists in nature.”

Red‐cockaded woodpeckers are quite particular. Once a squirrel, wasp, or other animals get into
15 their hole, they will abandon it. It takes a red‐cockaded woodpecker eight months to a year to
build a new cavity and without a hole to nest in; they are at greater risk the entire time they are
building new homes.

“We install man‐made nest boxes in the trees, and clean out the holes that aren’t used by the
red‐cockaded woodpeckers so that they have somewhere to go if they abandon a nest,” said
20 Barnes. He is never quite sure what he’ll find inside. “I’ve found wasps, spiders, slugs, snake
skin, and dirt daubers in the cavities”, he said. “Hickory nuts and acorns (stored by squirrels) are
the hardest to fish out.”

“I have to put resin on the end of my wire to clear them out. Sometimes I can clean pretty
quickly, and others take a while because there’s so much to dig out.”

25 This particular woodpecker is the only bird in North America that mines cavities in living old
grove pine trees. It prefers park‐like settings that are burned frequently to keep the undergrowth
minimal.

The woodpeckers aren’t the only species benefiting from the habitat work, what’s good for the
woodpecker has also been good for squirrels and quail.

Source: Adapted from Protecting the Nest by Ben Davis

*Oklahoma: A state in North America

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Mark your responses to these questions on your multiple choice answer sheet.

21. The phrase, ‘signs of occupation’ (line 5) MOST CLOSELY indicates the

A. marked areas in trees.

B. symbols used to locate certain trees.
C. procedure of cleaning holes in trees.
D. cavities used for living in tree branches.

22. According to the author, which act is helpful for the revival of the endangered red-cockaded
woodpecker?

A. Examining trees to locate their nests.

B. Conserving the holes where they live.
C. Monitoring the migration pattern of the birds.
D. Cutting trees so sunlight can reach the forest floor.

23. The immediate consequence of leaving the red-cockaded woodpecker’s cavities unclean is that

A. it would take a long time to mine these cavities.

B. installation of the man-made nests can be avoided.
C. the red-cockaded woodpecker would attack the nests of other birds.
D. homeless red-cockaded woodpecker could become the prey of predators.

24. Which statement BEST conveys the overall message of this passage?

A. Wildlife protection is considered to be an interesting profession.

B. Protection of red-cockaded woodpeckers’ nest can be life threatening.
C. Red-cockaded woodpeckers are endangered owing to human negligence.
D. Survival of red-cockaded woodpeckers is possible through committed efforts.

25. Barnes says that he is never sure of what he would find in the holes because they are

A. full of resin.
B. difficult to clean.
C. seldom abandoned.
D. used by many living beings.

26. ‘This particular woodpecker is the only bird in North America that mines cavities in living old
grove pine trees’ (lines 25-26). The word ‘mine’ is CLOSEST in meaning to

A. dig.
B. lift.
C. find.
D. extract.

PLEASE TURN OVER THE PAGE

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Cloze Passage Section

Opera (1) refer to a dramatic art form, originating in Europe, in which the emotional content is

conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental, as it is through the

lyrics. By contrast, (2) _______ musical theatre an actor's dramatic performance is primary, and the

music plays a lesser role. The drama in opera is presented using the primary elements of theatre such

as scenery, costumes, and acting. However, the words of the opera, or libretto, are (3) sing rather than

spoken. The singers are accompanied by a musical ensemble ranging from a small instrumental

ensemble (4) towards a full symphonic orchestra.

27. The underlined word labelled as (1) in the given passage should be replaced with

A. refer
B. refers
C. is refers
D. referring

28. The preposition which is BEST suited to fill blank 2 is

A. on.
B. in.
C. at.
D. to.

29. The underlined word labelled as (3) should be replaced with

A. sung.
B. sang.
C. sings.
D. singing.

30. The underlined word labelled as (4) should be replaced with

A. to.
B. within.
C. across.
D. toward.

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English Compulsory Model Paper IX