HALF YEARLY EXAMINATION, 2019 – 20 
ENGLISH CORE
Class: XI

Time Allowed: 3 Hours                                                                                                Maximum Marks: 80

General Instructions:

(i) This paper is divided into three Sections: A, B and C. All the sections are compulsory.
(ii) Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.
(iii) Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.

Section – A (Reading) 20 Marks

Q1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: 12 Marks

1. Like Celine Dion’s Academy Award-winning Titanic theme song, ‘My Heart Will Go On’, the mystery around what led to the sinking of the superliner on 14th April, 1912, it seems, will continue forever. So even one hundred years after the incident happened, we have yet another theory bobbing to the surface. To recount the old official tale, MS Titanic was on its way from Southampton to New York when it struck an iceberg just off the coast of Newfoundland. The glancing blow hit the 100-metre long standard section of the hull, creating a huge fissure in its hull. Seawater rushed inside its six supposedly watertight compartments. Soon all the cabins were flooded and within the next three hours, the ship went down. More than 1500 people lost their lives in the disaster. According to some hypotheses, Titanic was doomed from the start by the design so many lauded as state of the art.

2. But not many bought this theory and a legion of stories about the legend began to come out.The latest has been floated by science writer Richard Corfield who says that the rivets that held the ship’s powerful hull together were not according to their specifications in composition or quality and gave way when the ship hit the iceberg. A quick web search, however, reveals that the fascinating thing called the human mind is capable of much more, while one pinned the accident down to a fire inside the ship’s coal bunkers, another one talked about the curse of the Pharaohs because a traveller had with him a sarcophagus containing the mummy of an ancient Egyptian priestess. Other than these glamorous theories, there are the ordinary ones: the helmsman making a steering blunder and the ship moving too fast to win the Blue Riband ,a prestigious prize awarded to a ship for making the fastest North Atlantic crossing.

3. So what makes the Titanic story tick? From the very beginning, its story was tailor-made to be fascinating .Investigating it made good business too: from books to research grants to underwater expeditions, not to mention a mega budget movie. In other words, the Titanic story has been done to death. May be the hundredth year is a good time to leave the ship in its watery grave once and for all.

A. On the basis of your reading the above passage, complete the statements given below by choosing the most appropriate option: (1X6=6)

(i) The Titanic had started from…………………………………..

(a) Southampton
(b) New York
(c) New Foundland
(d) Egypt

(ii) According to Richard Corfield, the cause of sinking of the Titanic was………..

(a) The cursed mummy being carried in the ship
(b) The helmsman moving the ship too fast
(c) The poor quality of the rivet
(d) A fire inside the ship’s coal bunkers

(iii)The prize for the fastest ship to cross the North Atlantic was the …………….

(a) Sarcophagus
(b) Blue Riband
(c) North Atlantic prize
(d) Both (a) and (c)

(iv) Investigation of the Titanic story led to good business in…………………………

(a) Ship construction
(b) underwater fishing
(c) Tailor-made stories
(d) Publishing books

(v)The idiom ‘done to death ‘means

(a) discussed so much that it would not be forgotten
(b) discussed so much that it has become boring
(c) discussed so much that it has become interesting
(d) none of these

(vi) The word…………………………….in paragraph 3 means ‘remain in the limelight’

(a) fascinating
(b) tick
(c) prominent
(d) business

B. On the basis of your reading of the above passage, answer the following questions briefly. (1X4=4)

(i) How can Celine Dion’s Academy Award-winning Titanic theme song be compared with the mystery around what led to the sinking of the Titanic?
(ii) How did the Titanic sink, according to the official story?
(iii) What blunder did the helmsman make and why?
(iv) The people who benefitted from the Titanic disaster were ______

C. Which word in the passage means the same as:(1X2=2)

(i) highly praised(para 1)
(ii) attached (para 2)

2. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: ( 8 marks)

For more than half a century a number of Indian universities have been running courses in journalism but it remains an enigma that even now the country is without a well-developed educational programme for the mass media. We have developed some fine and prestigious training institutions for catering, business management, architecture, engineering, medicine and other professions but university programmes for training in journalism have remained anemic.

Prof, Eapen, who has been associated with journalism education since the mid fifties, pleads strongly for universal participation in journalism education and training and maintains that our universities which turn out excellent material in engineering, medicine and several other fields of human activity, should also succeed where journalism is concerned.

Eapen sees the Indian Press patterned on the British model in the matter of recruitment and training. Britain had its Fleet Street but no schools of journalism. Then why should there be university courses in journalism in India? London did have a journalism course at King’s College as early as 1919. But he feels that the conventional frame of education may not be fully relevant to an occupation such as journalism which relies so much on the conscience of the practitioner. At the same time, he holds on to his contention that information workers need to be given high quality education in the art and science of communication which is possible only in an academic atmosphere. He points to the success of the American experiment in this regard.

The author laments that, ethics as a topic is not treated at length in any of the universities. Doctors, lawyers, other professionals, have taken hold of their training. They have established their standards of proficiency and developed codes of ethics and means of enforcing them, but there is no Hippocratic oath for journalists.

Discussing the shortcomings of journalism education as it stands in India today, he says senior journalists, are not interested in teaching journalism. This has stunted the growth of journalism education. It has created a situation where there hardly is another field of study in India in which the standard on instruction is as low as in journalism training. Some faculty members do not have the necessary academic or professional qualifications to be university teachers.

University courses in journalism are in such a sorry state, that editors do not depend on these courses as the suppliers of trained manpower for their papers. But a substantial newspaper initiative in this direction is required. 

(a) On the basis of your reading of the passage make notes on it using recognizable abbreviations wherever necessary. Give a suitable title also to the passage. (5 marks)

(b) Write a summary of the above passage on the basis of your notes in not more than 80 words. (3 marks)

SECTION – B (WRITING AND GRAMMAR) 30 marks

3. You are Isha of R.K. memorial Sr. Sec. School, Gurgaon. As the cultural secretary of your school, write a notice in about 50 words for your school notice board inviting names for the excursion trip to Goa planned in the last week of October. Give all relevant details. (4 Marks)

OR

There has been a constant rise among school going children in substance use and drug addiction. Your school has decided to organize a workshop to create awareness among the children about the effects of drug addiction. Draft a poster on ‘Say No to Drugs’ to be displayed in the workshop. (4 Marks)

4. You are Ankit/Ankita living at 152, Mayur Vihar, Phase- II, Karnal. Write a letter to the Commissioner of Traffic Police of your city complaining about the absence of Traffic Lights at the crossroads of the main market resulting in regular traffic chaos in the area. Ask him to depute a traffic policeman till the traffic signals are installed. (6 marks)

OR

You are Harsh/Harshita living at G-504, M G Road, Gwalior. Write a letter to the Course Director, Department of Distance Education, Dr. Hari Singh Gour University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, making enquiries about a correspondence course in Diploma in Yoga Education. Request him/her to supply all the details of the course. (6 marks)

5. Write a letter to the Editor, The Indian Express, Mumbai sharing your views and concerns about the problems caused by heavy rains every year in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities. Sign yourself as Sunil/Sunita of H-235, Kasturi Apartment, Juhu, Mumbai. (150-200 words) (6 marks)

OR

You are Gaurav/Garvita living at L-108, Sector-25, Chandigarh. You are disturbed to see the recent trend among the Television and film industry people who prefer to shoot abroad despite India’s rich natural beauty. Write a letter to the Editor of The Tribune, Chandigarh sharing your views and ideas about the need to encourage them to use the Indian locations for shooting. (150-200 words)

6. You are Anil/Anita. You are concerned to notice the drastic climatic changes and rise in global temperature. The need of the hour is to plant more trees Write an article on “Each one plant one” (150-200 words) (8 Marks)

OR

As the School Captain of Delhi Public School, Meerut you have to deliver a speech on the topic “Duties and responsibilities of the School council” Write the speech in about 150-200 words. You are Ritik/Ritika. (8 Marks)

7. The following paragraph has not been edited. There is an error in each line. Read the para carefully and edit the error. The first error has been edited for example. (1/2 x 6 =3)

Elimination of child labour are undoubtedly            _______ is ______
one of a biggest challenges faced by our          (a) _______ ________
country. Much laws of our constitution              (b) _______ ________
prohibits child labour in any form. It                  (c) _______ ________
have been stated in Article 24 that no              (d) ________ _______
child below the age 14 shall be employ            (e) ________ _______
in many hazardous occupation or work.           (f) ________ _______

8. Look at the words and phrases below. Rearrange them to form meaningful sentences. (1×3=3)

(a ) love / of others / good manners / and / win the / respect
(b) when / best / they can / one is / be learnt / young
(c) saves us / turns away / soft answer / anger and / pitfalls / from many/a

SECTION – C (TEXT BOOKS) 30 marks

9. Read the extract given below and answer any two questions that follow: (1 x 2 = 2 Marks)

Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely formed,
altogether changed, and yet the same,
I descend to lave the droughts,
atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were
seeds only, latent, unborn

(a) Who is ‘I’ in the above lines ?
(b) How does the rain make the earth beautiful?
(c) What happens to the seeds after the rain?

OR

The laburnum top is silent, quite still
In the afternoon yellow September sunlight,
A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.

(a) Describe the laburnum tree before the arrival of the goldfinch.
(b) What is the mood in these lines?
(c) What disturbs the peace of the laburnum tree?

10. Answer any five of the following questions in about 30-40 words : (2×5 = 10 Marks)

(i) State the emotional and mental condition of the poet as she looks at the photograph?
(ii) With examples from the text show that the grandmother was a religious lady.
(iii) How has Archeology changed substantially in the modern times? ( Discovering Tut: the saga continues)
(iv) Why was Aram delighted and frightened to see Mourad on a beautiful white horse?
(v) Sometimes it is better to forget old memories as they create hindrance to move on in life .Explain with reference to the chapter The Address.’
(vi) What was the root cause of conflict between the History teacher and Albert?

11. Answer any one of the following questions in about 120-150 words. (6 marks)

(a) What inspired the author to undertake such a risky voyage? What was his experience?

(b) Write a note on the concept of Shanshui. How does it illustrate the Daoist view of the universe?

12. Answer any one of the following question in about 120-150 words. (6 Marks)

(a) Einstein was in conflict with the established norms and values of his school days. Discuss with reference to the story “Albert Einstein at School.”

(b) Do you think Ranga’s marriage was a consequence of the plot of the narrator or the prediction of the astrologer? Substantiate your answer.

13. Answer any one of the following question in about 120-150 words. (6 marks)

(a) In the lesson “The Portrait of a Lady”, describe how the bond of friendship between the author and his grandmother grew strong and then weak with the passage of time.

(b) In 1922 Tut’s tomb was discovered. Much of the treasure buried in the tomb had already been plundered. The materialistic and scientific attitude of man does not allow even the dead to sleep in peace. Discuss with reference to the story: ‘Discovering Tut: the saga continues’

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