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AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY EXAMINATION BOARD

SECONDARY SCHOOL CERTIFICATE

CLASS IX

MODEL EXAMINATION PAPER 2018

English Compulsory Paper II

Time: 2 hours Marks: 45

INSTRUCTIONS

Please read the following instructions carefully.

1. Check your name and school information. Sign if it is accurate.

I agree that this is my name and school.

Candidate’s Signature

RUBRIC
2. There are THREE questions. Answer ALL questions. Question 2 offers TWO choices and
Question 3 offers THREE choices. Attempt any ONE choice from each.

3. When answering the questions:

Read each question carefully.

Use a black pointer to write your answers. DO NOT write your answers in pencil.
Use a black pencil for diagrams. DO NOT use coloured pencils.
DO NOT use staples, paper clips, glue, correcting fluid or ink erasers.
Complete your answer in the allocated space only. DO NOT write outside the answer box.

4. The marks for the questions are shown in brackets ( ).

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Q.1. (Total 17 Marks)

Read the passage carefully and answer all the questions that follow.

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. But he stood there watching with the genial smile of the eyes
that was really threatening; he said nothing, he made her go on teaching, she felt she had no soul
in her body. Then he went away, and his going felt like derision. The class was his class. She was
a wavering substitute. He thrashed and bullied, he was hated. But he was the master. Though she
was gentle and always considerate of her class, yet they belonged to Mr Harby, and they did not
35 belong to her. Like some invincible source of the mechanism he kept all power to himself. And
the class owned his power. And in school it was power, and power alone that mattered.

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

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a. Describe Ursula’s personality as seen in the given story. Give textual references to support your
answer. (4 Marks)

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b.
i. Describe the environment of Ursula’s school and the relationship between teachers.
Mention TWO points. (2 Marks)

ii. If you were in Ursula’s place, how would you handle this situation? (2 Marks)

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c. What could be the author’s message in writing this story? (4 Marks)

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d.

i. How did Ursula feel by the end of this story? (3 Marks)

ii. In your opinion, why did students prefer Mr Harby over Ursula? (2 Marks)

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Q.2. (Total 10 Marks)

Compose a response of about 200-250 words on any ONE of the options a or b.

EITHER

a. You have been given an assignment to deliver a group presentation on ‘Changes I Would Like in
My Classroom’. For this, you and your group mates want to exchange ideas as a home task.

Write an email to your group mates and discuss some key points about the upcoming
presentation on changes you want to propose for your classroom. In your email, discuss:

• the responsibilities of every person in the group.

• how you can make your presentation interesting.
• what essential changes must be suggested and why.

OR

b. You live in a populated neighbourhood where the most common issue that causes tension
between neighbours seems to be noise made during children’s playtime.

Write a letter to your friend and narrate how this issue is affecting you. In your letter, discuss:

• how you feel about the situation.

• what you plan to do about it.

Make your notes below. Write your final draft on pages 6 and 7.

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Q.3. (Total 18 Marks)

Write a composition of about 200-300 words on any ONE of the options a, b or c.

Remember to compose the final draft in complete sentences.

EITHER

a. Think about a time when you had to perform a task that you usually do well. However, things did
not go according to plan and you ended up messing that task. In your essay, describe:

• what you had to do.

• who was involved/ present.
• what went wrong.

OR

b. “My alarm is set for 6:30, but sometimes I ignore it and drift back to sleep until 8:00, when my
mother gets impatient for me to get up and have my breakfast before leaving home. On this day, I
was leaving home for school when I witnessed the most unbelievable …”

Write a story on the given situation.

OR

c. Garfield is an overweight, orange tabby cat. He loves fish and hates bread. He causes mischief
wherever he goes, is lazy and sarcastic, and despises dogs. He has a low opinion of his human
owner. Often he goes away from home and gets stuck somewhere.

Imagine yourself as the owner of the pet cat Garfield. Write a story about your cat. In your story,
describe:

• a day when he went missing.

• how did you find him.
• what trouble did he make.

Make your notes on the page given for rough work. Write your final draft on pages 9 and 10.

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English Compulsory Model Paper IX