CBSE Question Paper 2009 class 12 English Elective NCERT

General Instructions:

• Attempt all questions.
• Your answers should be to the point. Stick to the word limit where given.

1. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow: (8)
(a) My association with film goes back to the world of childhood. My grandmother had a very large old apartment in Uppsala. I used to sit under the dining-room table there, listening to the sunshine which came in through the gigantic windows. The cathedral bells went ding-dong, and the sunlight moved about and ‘sounded in a special Way.
(i) Since when does the author trace his relationship with films?

(ii) Where did he live?

(iii) What experience did he get there?

OR

Mother: I don’t know how to answer you, child. Very good. I’ll go to him myself, and cling to his feet. “You accept food from every home’, I’ll say. “Come to our house too, and accept from our hands at least a bowl of water.

(i) Name the ‘child’.

(ii) To whom does the mother intend to go?

(iii) Why does she intend to go?

(b) Or listen to the clocktowers of any old well-managed city beating their gongs round the clock, each slightly off the others’ time, deeper or lighter In its bronze, beating out a different sequence each half-hour, out of the accidents of alloy, a maker’s shaking hand in Switzerland, or the mutual distances…

(i) Name the poem and the poet. (ii) What causes the differences between the time keeping of various clocks? (iii) What is the significance of “Switzerland’?

OR

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures, And now my heart is sore. All’s changed since I, hearing at twilight, The first time on this shore, The bell-beat of their wings above my head, Trod with a lighter tread.

(i) Identify “brilliant creatures.

(ii) Why is the poet’s heart sore?

(iii) Where did he see these creatures for the first time

2. Answer any two of the following questions in about 100 words each: (12)
(a) What were the personality traits that endeared Dr. Margolin to others in his community?

(b) What is the contrast between the loveliness of the Swans and human life

(c) What is Sen’s interpretation of the positions taken by Krishna and Arjuna in the debate between them?

3. Answer any five questions in about 60 words each: (20)
(a) What gives science fiction its validity?

(b) What are the things that mark animate things from the inanimate?

(c) How does the process of inquiry lead to true freedom?

(d) Why do you think Eveline let go of the opportunity to escape?

(e) What connection does the author draw between film making and conjuring?

(f) How did Pablo Neruda know that somebody behind him was looking at him?

4. The following passage has not been edited. There is one error in each of the lines. Write the incorrect word and the correction in your answer sheet as given below. (5)
Remember to underline the word that you have supplied.

He lay in bed, plan ways to                 e.g.    plan      planning

avoid going at School. An idea           (a)     ………       ………

came to him that if he is sick              (b)    ………        ………

he could stayed at home. But            (c)    ………        ………

after a completely search he could   (d)   ………        ………

not find nothing wrong with him.     (e)    ………       ………

Suddenly he made a discovery that  (f)    ………        ………

one of his upper front tooth               (g)    ………       ………

was lose. He was about to                  (h)    ………        ………

begin crying of pain when he             (i)     ………        ………

remembered that his aunt Will         (j)     ………        ………

simply pull it out.

5. Change the narration in the following sentences: (5)

(i) He said, “Alas! How foolishly have I acted ”

(ii) The Prime Minister said, “You should be united to fight the enemy tooth and nail.’

(iii) She said, “Whatever Saroj does displeases her mother-in-law.”

(iv) I said to him, “Don’t worry about me.”

(v) She told her son that she was going to the market.

6. Answer the following question in about 100 words: (6)

(a) What idea did the tiger have of the human beings while at circus ‘? Why did this idea change when he roamed through the streets of the town?

OR

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

7. Answer either (a) or (b) of the following questions in about 60 words: (4)
(a) How do the tiger and his Master spend their time after they return to the hills?

OR

Describe Margayya’s search for the red lotus.

(b) Why did the Master scold the crowd when they used the word ‘brute’ in reference to the tiger?

OR

How did Margayya lose the red account book?

8. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: (12)
(1) Driving for long hours can be strenuous. You exert more pressure on your spine while sitting than standing. Life can’t be easy if you live in Gurgaon and drive to work to Noida. Rohit working for a French company in Noida shares, “I spend on an average three hours everyday in commuting. By the end of the week I am washed out and have to resort to the services of a masseuse to rejuvenate my aching limbs. “Now, all of us can’t be fortunate enough to have a masseuse at our beck and call. Hence, it helps to know which posture is good for driving.

(2) When a vehicle is in motion, your body is subject to forces that it is not used to while sitting and standing. Remaining behind the wheel for long can cause poor posture and back pain. Dr. Harsha Hegde, Consultant Orthopaedics at Artemis Hospital, Gurgaon advises, “After you sit in the car you have to adjust your seat till you achieve the ideal driving posture that supports the small of your back. If your seat does not allow that, you can keep a small cushion between your seat and the back to provide support. Allow your head to rest on the head rest and incline your seat at an angle slightly more than 90 degrees.” Dr. SKS Marya, Director, Orthopaedics and Joint Replacement Surgery, Max Hospitals says, “While driving, your foot should be on the accelerator with the
knee bent between 30 to 45 degrees.”

(3) Normally, men drive with wallet in their back pocket. This is a perfect recipe for nagging back pains. Your car is provided with a glove compartment to keep the wallet. Motorcycle drivers can employ their jacket pocket to keep their wallet while driving.

(4) Dr. Marya has a special word of caution for women drivers. “Avoid sitting behind the wheel with shoes that have heels. It is better to drive barefoot rather than with shoes that have heels. Your heels can get caught between the brake and accelerator pedals of the car causing accidents’, says she. If you are diabetic and pregnant, avoid driving.

(5) Driving is a demanding skill and long distance driving over a long period of time starts taking its toll on your back and neck. And, considering the traffic conditions that we have these days, driving is no longer enjoyable in your precious wheels, rather you push ahead through the bumper-to-bumper drive. As if this much is not enough we are surrounded by insensitive drivers who fly into rage at the top of a hat.

(6) Read rage is violent behaviour that may lead to unsafe driving conditions. Most psychologists consider it as a behavioural disorder caused by many factors. “People who lose their cool regularly over minor traffic disputes suffer from Impulse Control Disorder and find it difficult to control their bouts of anger’, says an eminent, consultant psychologist.

(7) Personality traits apart, whether or not someone would blow his top at the slightest provocation on the road is also linked to several other factors like the amount of stress the person is under, the weather, influence of alcohol or other drugs, intensity of noise pollution, and even social disparity.

(8) “You can keep road rage under control if you avoid reacting and confronting the other drivers. Always believe in defensive driving and let such people have the right of way’, advises a doctor. Deep breathing and counting backward to ten before you speak helps too.

(i) How can along drive with a wrong posture affect the health of the driver? (2)

(ii) What should a driver do to avoid the ill effects of strenuous driving? (2)

(iii) What special care should the women drivers take and what can be the repercussions if they are reckless about driving? (2)

(iv) What care should be taken by the pregnant women drivers and also by those who are diabetic? (1)

(v) What are the possible reasons for the road rage? (2)

(vi) How can one keep it under control? (2)

(vii) Find from the passage the noun form of the word provoke. (para 7) (1)

9. Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow: (8)

Hail comrades denounce the useless

Dust and dirt of an age gone by

See before us rise the glorious

Mankind’s hopellit spire of fire

Come like serpents

Come kike greyhounds

Like “Dhananjays’ claim the world

Hail the morn

And sound the horn

A newer truer World shall be born

Then sing in chorus

Lo before us there is another world

Yonder yonder

Lo the splendour

And the wonder

Of its faery fiery crown

And the red flag of its dawn

Like the ritual flame of time.

(a) How does the poet view the social order of ‘the age gone by?

(b) In what manner does he want the comerades to act?

(c) How does he want to celebrate the new world?

(d) Why has the crown been called “faery fiery?

(e) What has the red flag of dawn been compared to?

10. Write an essay in 150-200 words on any one of the following topics: (10)

(i) Students should not take part in politics.

(ii) Havoc caused by the floods.

(iii) Popularity of mobile phones.

11. As a reporter of a newspaper prepare a report in 150-200 words on the stray cattle that often block the smooth flow of traffic in big cities. (10)