Set 1

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Jane was remarkable for being the most absent-minded woman in Middlesex. “I have really
been unusually clever this afternoon, “Jane remarked gaily, as she rang for the tea. “I have called
on all the people I meant to call on; and I have done all the shopping that I set out to do. I even
remembered to try and match that silk dress for you at Harrod’s but I had forgotten to take the
dress pattern with me, so it was of no use. I really think that was the only important thing I
forgot during the whole afternoon. Quite wonderful for me, isn’t it?”

“What have you done with Louise?” asked her sister, Susan. “Didn’t you take her out with you?
You said you were going to.”

“Good gracious,” exclaimed Jane, “Where have I left her? I cannot remember if the Carrywoods
were at home or if I just left some cards for them. If they were at home, I may have left Louise
there to play bridge. I will go and telephone Lord Carrywood and find out.”

She rang up Lord Carrywood and said, “I want to know, have you seen Louise?”

“Louise,” came the answer, “it’s been my fate to see it three times.”

“Not the opera ‘Louise’ – my niece, Loiuse. I thought I might have left her at your house.”

“You left cards with us this afternoon, I understand but I don’t think you left a niece.”

“She’s not at the Carrywoods’,” announced Jane, returning to her tea; “now I come to think of it,
perhaps I left her at the silk counter at Selfridge’s. I may have told her to wait there a moment
while I went to look at the silks in a better light and I may easily have forgotten about her when I
found I had not your pattern with me.”

“But you said you tried to match the silk at Harrod’s,” interjected Susan. “I am rather surprised
that you can sit there making a hearty tea when you’ve just lost a favourite niece,” she said.

“You talk as if I had lost her in a churchyard, instead of having temporarily mislaid her. I am sure
to remember presently where I left her. I rather fancy she must have been with me when I went
to Mornay’s. There, Malcolm gave me two theatre tickets. I have probably left them at Mornay’s
but still it was awfully kind of him to give them to me.”

“Do you think you left Louise there?”

Jane asked her servant, Robert, to ring up Mornay’s and ask if she had left two theatre tickets
and one niece in their shop this afternoon.

“A niece, ma’am?” asked the servant.

“Yes, Miss Louise didn’t come home with me and I’m not sure where I left her.”

“Miss Louise had been upstairs all the afternoon, reading to the second kitchen maid. I took up
tea to Miss Louise at five o’clock, ma’am.”

“Of course, how silly of me. I remember now, I asked her to read the Faerie Queene to poor
Emma. Anyhow, you can ring up Mornay’s, Robert and ask whether I left two theatre tickets
there. Except for your silk, Susan, those seem to be the only things I have forgotten this
afternoon. Quite wonderful for me.”

(i) For each of the words given below, choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from
the options provided: [2]

1. interjected

(a) stuttered

(b) interrupted

(c) fumbled

(d) objected

2. fancy

(a) realise

(b) dream

(c) fear

(d ) think

(ii) Which word in the passage is the opposite of sadly? [1]

(a) probably

(b) easily

(c) gaily

(d) unusually

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(a) As per Jane, what important thing did she forget during the whole afternoon? [1]

(b) What response did Carrywood give to Jane’s enquiry? [2]

(c) State in your words what happened at Selfridge’s. [2]

(d) What happened when Jane visited Mornay’s? [2]

(e) Where was Louise? What was she doing there? [2]

(iv) In not more than 50 words, summarise, in a grid format, Jane’s experiences at various
stages. [8]

Set 2
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: [20m]

At about 8’oclock in the evening, I entered a little town near the airport and made my way to
the inn in which I had passed the first night of my month’s holiday. I had chosen this particular
inn at random, but it had been comfortable and quiet and there had been a few other guests.
On my walking tour, I had stopped where my fancy dictated and lingered on in one place, with
no one to please but myself. I had experienced no difficulty anywhere in finding
accommodation, so it had never entered my head that it would be sensible to make
arrangements in advance for my last night. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the inn
was overflowing with delegates to some conference. The inn-keeper apologized profusely at
having no room for me at this time and offered me a most inviting dinner. I did not, however,
stop for this as I wanted to find some place to sleep before eating. It was a vain search.
Delegates were everywhere, from the modest inn to the most expensive hotel. When I came
back to the market square for the third time, I sat down on a bench, feeling weary and worried.
I would have gone to the police station but I was uncertain whether they took in innocent
lodgers; and I did not want to be considered a suspicious character, lest I should find myself
their guest for more than one night and miss my plane home. There seemed no alternative to a
night in the open which I did not anticipate with pleasure, since it was a chilly evening, with the
possibility of frost. I decided that I had better follow the custom of many homeless souls and
wrap myself up in newspapers. I got up from the bench to look for a late newsvendor, hoping
that there might be at least one who had not sold out. In this I was lucky. Around the first
corner, I found a stall half full of newspapers, with pictures of the conference on their front
pages. I bought two dozen; the number I had calculated I should need to keep myself warm.
Then I began to think of food. It was too late to expect to get dinner in the place full of
delegates, so I wandered around to the deserted streets, looking for a coffee stall, or an all-night
café. I pictured myself in the latter, dozing over innumerable cups of coffee or tea and reading
my two dozen papers from cover to cover as I munched sandwiches. I was not really sure about
the night, but it was pleasant to think that I might. In the end, I found something better. It was a
rest house for workmen, such as one usually finds for sailors in seaports. It had a restaurant,
bathrooms and beds in dormitories or cubicles. I chose a cubicle and gladly paid the small sum
asked for it, and for a hot supper and a bath. I dropped all the newspapers into the waste-paper
basket before I went to bed. Only when I was on the plane, the next morning, did I remember
that I had not read any one of them, nor asked anybody what the conference was about.

a) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in

the passage) from the options provided: [3]

(i) lingered

a. to vanish suddenly

b. to pass time

c. to proceed slowly

d. to delay departure

(ii) delegates

a. persons chosen to represent someone at a meeting

b. persons selected to act in a play or a movie

c. a persons who stands for election

d. persons responsible for the governance of a town or a city

(iii) deserted

a. inhabited

b. abandoned

c. absconded

d. departed

b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.

(i) Why was the narrator able to go on his walking tour without any fixed plan? [2]
(ii) Why was the narrator unable to find a room in an inn or hotel for his last night? [2]

(iii) What made the narrator not ask the police to help him? [2]

(iv) Why did the narrator buy two dozen newspapers? [1]

(v) What did the narrator do with the newspapers? What did he

remember on his way back home? [2]

c) In not more than 50 words of your own, describe the place the narrator found for rest, in the
end.

Set 3
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Most of the people believe that small actions and choices do not have much impact on their
lives. They think that it is only the big things, the significant actions and the major decisions that
really count. On the contrary, all great people have built their character through small decisions
and small actions that they performed every day. They transformed their lives gradually. They
nurtured their good habits and chipped away their bad habits, one by one. It was their small
day-to-day decisions that added up to make tremendous difference in the long run. Indeed,
discretionary skills play a pivotal role in matters of personal growth and character building.

Growth always occurs through various stages in a proper sequence. There is an organic process
involved in growth and the development of children. The same is true in the natural world. The
soil must first be tilled and then the seed must be sown. Next, it must be nurtured with enough
water and sunlight and only then will it grow into trees laden with ripe fruits.

Gandhi used this universal law of nature to his benefit. He grew in small

ways, in his day-to-day affairs. He did not wake up one day and find himself to be the
‘Mahatma’. In fact, there was nothing much in his early life that showed signs of greatness.
However, from his mid-twenties onwards, he deliberately and consistently attempted to change
himself, reform himself and grow in some small way or the other. Day by day, hour by hour, he
risked failure, experimented and learnt from his mistakes. In minor as well as major challenging
situations, he always took up the responsibilities.

People have always marvelled at the effortless way in which Gandhi could accomplish the most
difficult tasks. He displayed a great sense of self-mastery and discipline which was amazing.
These things did not come easily to him. Years of perseverance and disciplined training went
into making his success possible. Very few could see his sacrifices, fears, doubts and anxieties or
his endeavours to overcome them. They only saw the victory, but not the relentless struggle and
strong determination.

These are the common factors in the lives of all great people. They exercise their liberties and
choices in small ways that make great impact on their lives and their environment. Each of their
decisions and actions, add up to have a profound influence in the long run. By understanding
this principle, human beings can move forward, with confidence and pursue their dreams. Often
when the ideal goal becomes difficult to attain, they become easily discouraged, disheartened
and pessimistic. However, when people choose to enrich and empower themselves in small
ways, by taking one step at a time, their achievements become memorable.

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the
options provided: (3)

1. transformed

a) stagnated

b) retreated

c) acknowledged

d) transfigured

2. relentless

a) lackadaisical

b) judicious

c) persistent

d) vindictive

3. Which word in the passage is the opposite of the word : optimistic?

a) profound

b) pessimistic

c) determination

d) empower
(ii) Answer the following questions:

a) How do small actions and choices impact the lives of people? (2)

b) What is implied by the expression: ‘chipped away at their bad habits’? (1)

c) How did Gandhiji apply the ‘universal law of nature’ to his benefit? (2)

d) What aspects about Gandhi’s life were not seen by most of the people? (2)

e) What moral lessons can be derived from this passage? (2)

(iii) In not more than 50 words, summarise the qualities that must be imbibed by people in
order to attain their goals in future. (8)

Set 4
Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

‘Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man’----is a powerful quote by Swami

Vivekananda. Keeping this notion in mind, the aims of education are to foster the qualitative
elevation of mind and exaltation of character, ideals and conduct. What the teacher is, is more
important than what he teaches. A good teacher cannot be partial or narrow-minded. A worthy
idea of a teacher can motivate students to act positively and achieve their noble objectives.
Thus, a teacher’s personality has an ennobling impact on the students and reawaken them to
accomplish marvellous goals in the years to come.

Educators should refrain from distorted thoughts that might adversely affect the nature and
calibre of teaching and eventually the prospects of the students. A teacher should painstakingly
and methodically develop elegance in thought and action by nurturing critical thinking. Critical
thinking is an approach to any concept or issue, where the thinker enriches the worth of his
thinking by closely monitoring and controlling the structures that are inherent in the thought
process. Similarly, the outcome of the creative thinking strategy can be impressive with teachers
developing clearness in thought and coming up with innovative ideas. This further empowers
the students to be unique and novel in their approach towards the challenging situations in life.

A teacher blessed with highly-developed critical thinking introduces significant questions and
issues and deals with them intelligibly and precisely. He collects and considers pertinent data
and assesses and efficiently translates the information to logical conclusions. This mode of
operation is of vital significance for a teacher as it enables him to think objectively and
communicate tactfully with others in order to arrive at probable answers to complex questions.
Such an approach helps the teacher to delve into the complexities of the problem at hand and
emerge with a satisfying resolution.

Introduction of critical thinking in teaching has enormous implication as it can bring tremendous
changes in the mindset of the students and mould them in such a manner that they are
equipped with the thought process essential for accomplishing their aims and objectives in life.
It eventually enables the students to be independent in both thought and action in their future
endeavours.

(i) Select the correct meaning of the following words from the options given below: (as used in
the passage) (3)

1.painstakingly

(a) unknowingly

(b) subjectively

(c) eventually

(d) meticulously

2.delve

(a) explore

(b) waste time

(c) swim

(d) delete

3. Which word in the passage is the opposite of the word: destroy?

(a) vital

(b) resolution

(c) inherent

(d) mould

(ii). Answer the following questions:

1. What are the salient aims of education? (2)

2. In what ways can a good teacher influence the students? (2)

3. What do you think is the purpose of creative thinking? (2)

Quote a sentence from the passage to justify it. (1)

4. What does a highly developed critical thinker achieve? (2)

5. Bring out the relevance of the passage in today’s context. (2)

(iii). With close reference to the passage and in not more than 50 words, analyse the role of
critical thinking in the field of education.

Set 5
Read the following passage and answer the following questions:

I suppose that the high-water mark of my youth in Columbus, Ohio, was the night the bed fell
on my father.

It happened, then, that my father had decided to sleep in the attic one night, to be away where
he could think. My mother opposed the notion strongly because, she said, the old wooden bed
up there was unsafe: it was wobbly and the heavy headboard would crash down on father's
head in case the bed fell, and kill him. There was no dissuading him, however, and at a quarter
past ten he closed the attic door behind him and went up the narrow twisting stairs. We later
heard ominous creaking as he crawled into bed.

We had visiting us at this time a nervous first cousin of mine named Dive Beall. who believed
that he was likely to cease breathing when he was asleep. It was his feeling that if he were not
awakened every hour during the night he might die of suffocation, He had been accustomed to
setting an alarm clock to ring at intervals until morning, but I persuaded him to abandon this. He
slept in my room and I told him that I was such a light sleeper that if anybody quit breathing in
the same room with me, I would wake instantly. He tested me the first night which I had
suspected he would-by holding his breath after my regular breathing had convinced him I was
asleep, I was not asleep, however, and called to him. This seemed to allay his fears a little, but
he took the precaution of putting a glass of spirits of camphor on a little table at the head of his
bed. In case I didn't arouse him until he was almost gone, he said, he would sniff the camphor, a
powerful reviver.

Briggs was not the only member of his family who had his crotchet. Old Aunt Clarissa Beall (who
could whistle like a man, with two fingers in her mouth) suffered under the premonition that
she was destined to die on South High Street, because she had been born on South High Street
and married on South High Street. Then there was Aunt Sarah Shoaf, who never went to bed at
night without the fear that a burglar was going to get in and blow chloroform under her door
through a tube. To avert this calamity -for she in greater dread of anesthetics than of losing her
household goods - she always piled her money, silverware, and other valuables in a neat stack
just beside her bedroom, with a note reading: "This is all I have. Please take it and do not use
your chloroform, as this is all I have."

Aunt Gracie Shoaf also had a burglar phobia, but she met it with more fortitude. She was
confident that burglars had been getting into her house every night for forty years. The fact that
she never missed anything was to her no proof to the contrary. She always claimed that she
scared them off before they could take anything, by throwing shoes down the hallway. When
she went to bed she piled, where she could get at them handily, all the shoes there were about
her house. Five minutes after she had turned off the light, she would sit up in bed and say
"Hark!" Her husband, who had learned to ignore the whole situation as long ago as 1903, would
either be sound asleep or pretend to be sound asleep. In either case he would not respond to
her tugging and pulling, so that presently she would arise, tiptoe. to the door, open it slightly
and heave a shoe down the hall in one direction and its mate down the hall in the other
direction. Some nights she threw them all, some nights only a couple of pairs. But I am straying
from the remarkable incidents that took place during the night the bed fell.

My Life and Hard Times

James Thurbe

a) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the
options provided: [3]

i) notion

1) to think

2) to presume

3) idea

4) action

ii) dissuading

1) discouraging

2) convincing

3) ignoring

4) permitting

b) Which word in the passage is the opposite of continue?

1) halt
2) lose

3) cease

4) stop

c) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

i. What significant event marked the narrator’s youth in Columbus, Ohio? [1]

ii. Why did his mother oppose his father’s idea to sleep in the attic? [2]

iii. Why did Dive Beall want to be awakened every hour during the night? [2]

iv. What precaution did he decide to take and why? [2]

v. What premonition did Clarissa Beall have about her life and death? [2]

d) In not more than 50 words, describe how Aunt Sarah Shoaf and Aunt Gracie Shoaf dealt with
their burglar phobia. [8]

Aunt Sarah Shoaf dealt with her burglar phobia by placing chloroform under her door each

night to deter burglars. Aunt Gracie Shoaf, more confident, threw shoes down the hallway

every night to scare away burglars she believed were entering her home for forty years.

Set 6
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Juggins, never took a degree, so he made no practical use of his education. But it didn't matter.
He was very well off and was able to go straight into business with a capital of about a hundred
thousand dollars. He put it at first into gas plant, but found that he lost money at that because
of high price of the coal needed to make gas. So he sold it out for ninety thousand dollars and
went into coal mining. This was unsuccessful because of awful cost of mining machinery. So
Juggins sold his share in the mine for eighty thousand dollars and went in for manufacturing
mining machinery.

Juggins' domestic life was very quiet. Of course he never married. He did fell in love several
times, but each time it ended without result. I remember well his first love story for I was very
intimate with him at that time. He had fallen in love with the girl at first sight. As soon as he had
met her, he wanted to ask her to be his wife. But then he said, "I want first to fit myself to be
worthy of her." So Juggins stayed away. It was nearly two years before he was fit to propose. By
the time he was fit, the girl had already got married. Perhaps it was just as well that Juggins
never married. lt would have made things very difficult because, of course, he got poorer all the
time. After he sold out his last share in his last business he bought with it a diminishing life
annuity, so he planned that he always got rather less next year, and still less the year after. Thus,
if he lived long enough, he would starve to death.

Meantime he had become a quaint-looking elderly man. And his talk has grown to be always
reminiscent. He is perpetually telling long stories of amusing times that he has had with
different people that he names. I noticed that his reminiscences are going further and further
back. He used to base his stories on his recollections as a young man. The other day he told me
a story about himself and two people that he called the Harper brothers- Ned and Joe. Ned, he
said was a tremendously powerful fellow. I asked him how old Ned was and Juggins said that he
was three. He added that there was another brother not so old, but a very clever fellow about-
here Juggins paused and calculated- about eighteen months.

So then I realized where Juggins retroactive existence carrying him to. He has passed back
through childhood into infancy, and presently, just as his annuity runs to a point and vanishes,
he will back up clear through the Curtains of Existence and die, or be born, I don't know which
to call it. Meantime he remains to me as one of the most illuminating allegories I have met.

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the
options provided [3]

1. reminiscences

(a) memories

(b) account

(c) thoughts

(d) timeless

2.retroactive

(a) present moment

(b) thinking about the past

(c) lively

(d) journey

3.illuminating

(a) confusing

(b) bright
(c) inspiring

(d) lost

(ii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.

(a) Why did Juggins change his business concerns so rapidly? [2]

(6) Explain why Juggins did not get married? [2]

(c) Juggins never married. What could have happened if he were married? [1]

(d) Bring out the humour in the story of Harper Brothers. [2]

(e) In what way was the life of Juggins the most illuminating example for the narrator? [2]

(ii) In not more than 50 words, state how the fortunes of Juggins went on declining day by day.
[8]

Set 7
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

It was the view which finally made us take the place.

True, the house had its disadvantages. It was a long way out of town and had no telephone. The
rent was high and the drainage system was poor. On windy nights, the electric light, for some
mysterious reason, would invariably flicker.

But these were the little disadvantages of every hired house. I was completely taken in by the
southward facing garden, the large cool rooms, the freedom from mosquitoes and finally the
view. The view was different every day giving an impression of an incessant change of scene. I
experienced autumn days when the whole valley would be filled with mist and we would be
enveloped in it. There were clear days of spring with no clouds in the pale blue sky and the
summer days were filled with the sound of rain and thunder.

Our proprietors, who we met later, were a curious couple. The husband was old, about seventy,
grey and listless. His wife was short, plump, with tiny hands and a pair of very large, very dark
black eyes. She loved to interfere, bother and trouble!

The old gentleman was allowed to have no dealings with us. When we had come to see the
house, it was the wife who had shown us around. It was she who had described the merits of
the place, sang praises of the electric pump, glorified the rooms and when we had suggested
calling in a surveyor to look over the house, earnestly begged us, not to waste our money
unnecessarily. “After all,” she said, “we are honest people. I would not dream of renting out the
house if it was not in perfect condition. Have confidence.”
Trouble started after we moved in.

One evening when we switched on the electricity to get some water into the taps, the pump did
whirr but no water came out of the taps in the bathroom. We requested for meetings with the
proprietors but somehow the old gentleman could never see us and the lady was always
indisposed. We left notes that were never answered. In the end, we realised that the only way
to communicate with our landlords was to send a registered express letter to them.

The lady replied immediately by telling us that the pump did not work as the cisterns were
empty owing to the long drought. I had to walk three miles to send a registered reply reminding
her that there had been a violent thunderstorm last week and that the tanks were more than
half full. The answer came back: bath water had not been guaranteed in the contract; and if I
wanted water everywhere I should have checked the pump before taking over the house.

She also replied that she could not continue to have communications with people who wrote so
rudely to her.

After that I put the matter into the hands of a lawyer. Two months later the pump was replaced.
But we had to serve a writ on the lady before she gave in. And the costs were considerable.

A few months after this incident, I met the old gentleman on the road. He stared at me absently
initially and then he recollected who I was. “My dear sir,” said the old gentleman, “I want to
apologise about that wretched pump business. I assure you that, if it had been in my hands, I
would have put things right as soon as you asked. But my wife,” – he lowered his voice – “the
fact is that she likes to trouble even when she knows that she’s in the wrong. And besides, she
hoped, I dare say, that you would get tired of asking and have the job done yourself. I am sorry
that such an inconsequential matter required legal interference.”

A few weeks later we received a registered letter in which the landlady wished to know whether
we proposed to renew our lease with an increase in rent. It was time to look for another house.

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the
options provided: [2]

1. incessant

(a) ceaseless

(b) monotonous

(c) intermittent

(d) occasional

2. inconsequential
(a) significant

(b) relevant

(c) different

(d) trivial

(ii) Which word in the passage means the opposite of ‘energetic’? [1]

(a) mysterious

(b) listless

(c) violent

(d) absently

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(a) What were the reasons for the narrator to accept the tenancy of the new house? [2]

(b) Describe, in your own words, the beauty of the valley in autumn and in spring. [2]

(c) Quote the phrase the narrator uses to describe the owners of the house. [1]

(d) Mention any two replies given by the lady to the registered express letters mailed to her. [2]

(e) How was the behaviour of the old gentleman different from his wife? Which peculiar trait of
his wife did he highlight in his conversation with the narrator? [2]

(iv) In not more than 50 words describe how the landlady convinced the narrator to rent the
house. What were the difficulties faced by the tenants and how was it finally resolved? [8]