CBSE Question Paper 2014 class 12 English Elective NCERT

• Question Nos. 1 – 4 are compulsory.
• Attempt either Question 5 or 6.
• Your answers should be to the point. Stick to the given word limit.

SECTION A — (Reading) (20)

1. (a) Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : (12)

One morning, about half-way between my front gate and the tram track, I noticed two little boys playing in the garden of the more modest cottages. They were both very little boys, one was four years old perhaps, the other five. The bigger of the two was a sturdy youngster, very dark, with a mat of coarse hair on his head and coal-black eyes. He was definitely a little Jamaican – a strong little Jamaican. The other little fellow was smaller, but also sturdy – he was white, with hazel eyes and light-brown hair.

Both were dressed in blue shirts and khaki pants. They wore no shoes and their feet were muddy. They were not conscious of my standing there, watching them: they played on. The little white boy walked authoritatively up and down, and every now and then shouted at his bigger playmate. The brown boy shuffled along quietly behind him and did what he was told.

‘Pick up that stick !’ The dark boy picked it up.

‘Jump into the flowers !’ The dark boy jumped.

‘Get me some water !’ The dark boy ran inside. The white boy sat down on the lawn.

I was amazed. Here before my eyes, a white baby – for they were little more than babies – was commanding his will upon a black baby. And the black baby submitted. I puzzled within myself as I went down the road.

Was it that even as a boy he sensed that in his own country he would be at the white man’s beck and call? Could he, even at his age, tell the difference between himself and the white boy? And did the little white youngster, so young, such a baby, realize that he would grow to dominate the black man?

I could not bring myself to believe such a thing, and yet, with my own eyes I had seen a little dark boy take orders from a little white boy – a little white boy, obviously his social equal, and younger and smaller. Were we, as a race, really inferior? So inferior that even in our infancy we realized our deficiencies, and accepted our position as the white man’s servant. For a whole day, I puzzled over this problem.

The next morning, the boys were there again, and a man was standing at the gate watching them. I stopped and looked, just to see what the white boy was making his little servant do. To my utter astonishment, the little dark boy was striding imperiously up and down the lawn, while the white youngster walked abjectly behind him.

‘Get me a banana !’

The little white boy ran into the house and reappeared shortly with a banana.

‘Peel it for me !’

The little white boy peeled the banana and handed it to his dark master.

I saw it now. It was indeed a game, a game I had played as a child. Each boy took it, in turn, every alternate day to be the boss, the other, the slave.

I smiled as I remembered. I looked at the man standing by the gate. He was a white man. I remembered what I had thought yesterday. He, no doubt, I thought to myself, was wondering if the black race is superior to the white. I laughed gently to myself. How silly grown-ups are! And yet how clever we are, how wonderfully able we are to assign deep motives to childish actions! This man, I thought to myself, will puzzle all day on whether the blacks will eventually rise and rule the world. I will save him his puzzle. I will explain it to him. I went across to him.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ I said. ‘You’re thinking that maybe the black race is superior to the white because you just saw the little dark youngster on the lawn ordering the little white boy around. Don’t think that; it’s a game they play. Alternate days one is boss, the other, servant. It is a grand game. Yesterday, I saw the little white boy bossing the dark one and I worried all day over the dark boy’s realization of his inferiority so young in life! We are silly, we grown-ups, aren’t we ?’

The man was surprised at my outburst. He looked at me smiling. ‘I know all about the game,’ he said. ‘The boys are brothers, my sons.’ He pointed to a handsome brown woman on the verandah who had just come out to call in the children. ‘That’s my wife,’ he said. I smiled. My spirit laughed within me. This is Jamaica, I said in my heart, this is my country, my people.

(i) What difference did the narrator notice between the two boys whom he saw one morning? (2)

(ii) When the narrator saw the boys the first time, what questions cropped up in his mind? (2)

(iii) What surprised the narrator when he saw the two boys engaged in their game the next morning? (2)

(iv) What did the narrator realize then? (2)

(v) Why did the narrator go to talk to the white man who was standing at the gate watching the two boys? (2)

(vi) What surprise did the narrator get from his encounter with the white man ? (2)

(b) Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow:

Don’t

1 Don’t put your feet up on the table

Don’t dump your trainers on the stair

Don’t stick your old socks in the wardrobe

Don’t leave the plughole full of hair.

And

2 Stop causing trouble in the playground

Stop yelling pop songs in the street

Stop spraying walls with dirty slogans

Stop dropping litter at your feet!

3 Don’t kill those people for the profit

Don’t build your bombs for one last fight

Don’t tell us God’s your only reason

Don’t dream up monsters for the night.

And

4 Stop making clouds of glowing poison

Stop dumping rubbish in the seas

Stop turning pastures into deserts

Stop burning up our planet – please.

Steve Bowkett

(i) List any four things which the adult is telling the child not to do at home. (2)

(ii) Which behaviour outside the home is forbidden to the child? ( 2)

(iii) Why does the child give advice to adults not to build bombs for one last fight? (1)

(iv) What advice does he give to the adults in stanza 4? (1)

(v) Whose behaviour do you think is worse, the child’s or the adult ’s? Why ? ( 2)

SECTION B — (Writing)( 20)

2. (a) Write an essay in 150 – 200 words on the following topic : (10)

Growing intolerance in society

OR

Positive attitude improves the quality of man’s life

(b) You are Mudit/Mudita, a press reporter. You visited a park in Yamuna Vihar and found it in a mess. Using the information given below, write a report in 150 – 200 words for your newspaper. as many cattle as the people – garbage dumped – slabs on the pathway chipped off at several places – boundary wall crumbling – thoroughfare for cyclists and scooterists – used even for getting relieved (10)

SECTION C — (Applied Grammar) (10)

3. (a) In the passage given below, one word has been omitted in each line. Write the missing word along with the word that comes before and the word that comes after it in your answer book. Ensure that the word that forms your answer is underlined. The first one has been done as an example. (5)

Ganesha is universal god. e.g. is a universal

There not a single city or (i) ________ ________ ________

village India without a Ganesha’s (ii) ________ ________ ________

statue, sitting somewhere a (iii) ________ ________ ________

street corner or a tree. (iv) ________ ________ ________

Elephant deities also commonplace (v) ________ ________ ________

in China, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand. (vi) ________ ________ ________

There is Ganesha rock in (vii) ________ ________ ________

Sedona the native Americans call (viii)________ ________ ________

‘elephant’ rock. However, Ganesha

is not exalted deity. He (ix) ________ ________ ________

is represented the door-keeper. (x) ________ ________ ________

(b) Read the dialogue given below and using the given information complete the following paragraph in your own words. (5)

Teacher: If you give hundred rupees to your friend when he needs only fifty rupees, how much will he return to

you?

Lakshita: Nothing.

Teacher: You don’t know even ABCD of mathematics!

Lakshita: Madam, you do not know my friend.

The teacher asked Lakshita (i) _________________ when he needed only fifty rupees (ii) _______________ to her. Lakshita instantly replied that (iii) _____________ . The teacher despairingly said that (iv) _______________ even ABCD of mathematics to which Lakshita respectfully replied (v) ________________ her friend.

SECTION D — (Text for Detailed Study) (50)

4. (a) Choose any two of the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow : (8)

(I) I have never known anyone closer to the idea one has of a Renaissance pope: He was gluttonous and refined. Even against his will, he always presided at the table. Matilde, his wife, would put a bib around his neck that belonged in a barbershop rather than a dining room, but it was the only way to keep him from taking a bath in sauce.

(i) Who has been compared to a Renaissance pope? (1)

(ii) What would his wife do and why? (2)

(iii) What does it show about his character? ( 1)

(II) In Xanadu did Kubla Khan

A stately pleasure-dome decree:

Where Alph, the sacred river, ran

Through caverns measureless to man

Down to a sunless sea.

(i) What did Kubla Khan order? ( 1)

(ii) What type of caverns are referred to here? (1)

(iii) What runs through them and up to which place? ( 2)

(III) She had hard work to keep the house together and to see that the two young children who had been left to her charge went to school regularly and got their meals regularly.

(i) Who is ‘she’? (1)

(ii) Which circumstances obliged her to look after the two children? (2)

(iii) Why was ‘she’ now thinking of leaving this hard work? (1)

(b) Answer any two of the following questions in about 100 words each : (12)

(i) Why do people have respect for science and scientists?

(ii) What were the personality traits that endeared Dr. Margolin to others in his community?

(iii) What childhood memories does the author recollect that had a bearing on his later involvement with film-making?

(c) Answer any five of the following questions in about 60 words each : (15)

(i) What made Tao Ying decide whether to buy a ticket or not when she rode a bus alone?

(ii) Why is Captain Hagberd’s son not living with him? What great hope does the father live on?

(iii) According to Milton, what is the best tribute that posterity has bestowed on Shakespeare?

(iv) What is Virginia Woolf’s perception of the limitations of knowledge and learning?

(v) How does the poet express his sad and thoughtful feelings towards communal disharmony in his poem, ‘Time and Time Again’?

(vi) According to Krishnamurthi, why do most people find it easier to conform, imitate and follow a self-appointed guru?

(d) Answer the following question in about 100 words : (5)

Frau Freida is believed to have the power to be able to see future events. Unfortunately she herself meets a tragic end in an accident which she has not been able to predict. Do you think the story is a satire on the prevailing belief in superstitions? How much harm, in your opinion, do superstitions cause to people?

Fiction

Note: Attempt either question no. 5 or 6.

5. (a) Answer one of the following in about 100 words. (6)

Describe the experience of the tiger during the training given to him by the Captain of the circus.

OR

What effect did the news of the tiger in the town have on the school children? How did the tiger like it?

(b) Answer one of the following in about 60 words :(4)

What did the constables do at the sight of the tiger?

OR

‘‘I’m not out to kill …… I’m too full.’’ What does the tiger say through these words?

6. (a) Answer one of the following in about 100 words : (6)

How did Margayya’s career outside the Co-operative Bank come to an end?

OR

What estimate do you form of the character of Dr. Pal from his dealings with Margayya?

(b) Answer one of the following in about 60 words : (4)

Describe the character of Meenakshi as a traditional Indian housewife.

OR

How did the throwing of the red book into the gutter by Balu affect Margayya’s life?

CBSE Question Paper 2014 class 12 English Elective NCERT

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