Class Test – 1
English Core
Class XII
Time: 90 Minutes M.M: 50
General Instructions:
1. All questions are compulsory.
2. Separate instructions are given with each question. Read them carefully and follow them faithfully
3. Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
Q1. Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow: 12
1. Suspense was over when my high school results finally came out. But I was upset. I hadn’t done as well as I had expected. My father tried to console me. “Why are you worried? You have done very well my dear.” “No, I haven’t, Baba,” I protested, controlling my tears, and wondering if I had disappointed him. “It doesn’t really matter,” he assured me. “Do you know what I got when I finished high school?” I looked into Baba’s face and waited for the answer to his own question. “You know,” he told me. “I’ve never told you this. I got just third division. But, look at me, I’ve done quite well.” Baba got a third division! I was almost in shock, but the thought of my having done a lot better than that made me realize that I had no reason to complain. I certainly felt better! “Everything is under control!” said Baba, smiling. That was his favourite phrase. Posted in Kolkata, my father was then a senior official in the India Railway Service, and an expert in goods traffic operations. He was soon to become a director with the Railway Board. By the time he retired in 1981, he was general manager of the Central Railways. By the time Baba passed away in November 2000, his name had found place in several hearts as well. He was open, easy to know, and full of life. We were extremely close, but I had so much more to learn about him from many things I came to know after his death.
2. In September 2000, he was in hospital for treatment of cancer and given just two months to live. When he found out, his reaction was an extremely rational one. He asked me to fetch files from his cupboard, so that he could explain the details of my mother’s pension. He also dictated his will from his hospital bed. “Everything is under control!” After Baba’s death, Satish, our old family retainer, was inconsolable. We tried to cheer him up. “Your Baba had scolded me only once in all these years!” he cried. Satish pointed to the watch on his left hand. “I had been coming late for work and everyone in the family was complaining about it,” said Satish. “Then, one day, your Baba gave me this watch and told me, ‘now that you have a watch, you can’t be late’.” That was the scolding Satish received. On the fourth day after Baba’s death, my sister and I had to perform a ceremony. Since several relatives were expected, we decided to order lunch from a caterer in our locality, reputed for his home cooked food. But, when we went to pay the owner, we got a surprise. He refused to accept any money! “When I wanted to start my catering business, it was your father who lent me money,” he told us. It seems Baba never asked for it back. Now, after four or five years, the caterer wanted to repay that debt. Of course, we made him accept the full payment for the fine food and service. ‘It was Baba’s gift and it ought to remain so,” I told him.
3. Some days later, there was yet another piece of information as we were preparing for the main ceremony. Vikram, my brother drove me to the local market. On recognizing our car, the parking assistant, in his twenties, came running towards us and asked why he had not seen its owner for long. We had to break the news to him and to our utter surprise, he started crying. We were really surprised by this reaction from a stranger – until the man told us that Baba used to pay his daughter’s school fees and buy her books. It seems, it was on my father’s advice that he’d even started sending the child to school. More than three years after Baba’s death, as we were looking into Baba’s personal things, we came across an old file with Baba’s certificates and I found among them, his high school diploma from 1937, the one he’d told me about 30 years earlier, about the third division that had made no difference in his life or career. It had made me see beyond mere marks and first classes as the main road to success. But there was one more fact. Baba had actually got a first division, a
rare achievement in his day. Today, years after his passing, when I think of Baba, I see a man who was able to sympathise with others so easily and touch their lives in such a special way.
rare achievement in his day. Today, years after his passing, when I think of Baba, I see a man who was able to sympathise with others so easily and touch their lives in such a special way.
1.1 On the basis of your understanding of the passage answer the following questions by choosing the most appropriate options. 1×4 = 4
(a) Why was the narrator in tears when her school results came out?
(i) She did better than she expected.
(ii) She did not do as expected.
(iii) Her Baba had not done well.
(iv) Her Baba had done better than her.
(b) On knowing the result, how did the narrator’s father react?
(i) He scolded her.
(ii) He beat her.
(iii) He consoled her.
(iv) He made fun of her.
(c) Why did the narrator say that she had nothing to complain?
(i) She had done better than her father.
(ii) She had done as well as her father.
(iii) She had topped in her school.
(iv) She had not worked hard at all.
(d) Choose the option that is not correct.
(i) Baba was a senior official in the Indian Railway Service.
(ii) Baba was to become a director with the Railway Board.
(iii) Baba was the general manager of the Central Railways.
(iv) Baba had got a third division in high school
1.2 Answer the following: 1X6 = 6
(a) Why did the narrator’s sick father want her to fetch files from his cupboard?
(b) Why did Baba buy Satish a watch?
(c) Why did the caterer not want to take money from the narrator?
(d) Why were the narrator and her brother surprised on meeting the parking assistant?
(e) Today years after his passing away what has the narrator realized about her Baba?
(f) What was the story that Baba had invented on the day the narrator’s results were published?
1.3 Find words from the passage that mean the same as the following: 1×2 = 2
(a) Tension/anxiety (para 1)
(b) Servant (para 2)
Q2. APJ Public School, Vivek Nagar, Delhi is organizing a Health Exhibition on 15th and 16th July, 2016. The theme of the exhibition is Healthy Living – Better Living. As a secretary of the Health Club, write a notice inviting charts, models, slogans and posters for the exhibition from the students. 4
Q3. Increase in the number of vehicles causes pollution and traffic jams. Write an article in about 150-200 words for a national daily highlighting the urgent need to solve these man made problems, giving suiting suggestions. You are Manav/Manisha. 10
Q4. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow: 3
As a late winter’s moon and felt that old
Familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
But all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
All I did was smile and smile and smile….
(a) What is the speaker’s childhood fear? 1
(b) What is the significance of the parting words and her smile? 2
Q.5. Answer any three of the following in about 30-40 words. 3×3=9
(a) Why was Franz afraid when he was going to school that day?
(b) “What a thunderclap these words were to me!” Which were the words that shocked
and surprised little Franz?
(c) What will the Maharaja do to find the required number of tigers to kill?
(d) Why was Maharaja so anxious to kill the hundredth tiger?
Q6. What was the parting message of M Hamel to his students and village elders on the day of the last lesson at school? 6
Q7. How did the Tiger King stand in the danger of losing his kingdom? How was he able to avert the danger? 6
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Where is the answers of these questions