12th English 1st Paper

Subject: English (First Paper)

Set-2

Time: 3 Hours Max. Marks: 50

1. Explain with reference to the context any one of the following passage:

(a) Certain psychologists tell us that we forget things because of their antipathy to pills and potion that many people fail to remember them at the appointed hours. This does not explain, however, how it is that a life-long devotee of medicines like myself is as forgetful of them as those who take them most unwillingly. The very prospect of a new and widely advertised care-all delights me. Yet, even if I have the stuff in my pockets. I forget about it as soon as the hour approaches at which I ought to swallow it. Chemists make their fortunes out of the medicines people forget to take.

(b) Passion is not power; it is the abuse of power, the dispersion of power. Passion is like a furious storm which beats fiercely and wildly upon the embattled rock, whilst power is like the rock itself which remains silent and unmoved through it all.

(c) Caste is vanishing; the process began long ago, but its pace is now so rapid that the more objectionable features of caste may have. Disappeared within a generation or so. The old family system is adapting itself to present-day conditions. In fact the whole face of India is altering, but the cultural tradition continues, and it will never be lost.

2. Read one of the following passages and answers the questions that follow:

(a) These were refugee children. When partition between India and Pakistan was decreed, hundreds or thousands of people pulled up their roots and changed their residences. Nine million people left Pakistan and came of India driven by the fear of religious fanaticism. They were poor people to start with; they were poorer as they began their long trek; for all they could carry was a bit of food and a few belongings. Soon they were out of food. A few day after they started they began to fall by the way-side from the weakness of hunger , and died where they fell.

i. Who were refugees? When did they come to India?

ii. How many refugees came to India?

iii. How did many of them reach India?

iv. Why did many refugees die on the way?

v. Why did refugees leave Pakistan?

vi. Could all of them reach India well? If not, why?

(b) So, should I, so would lots of people. Anyway we have discovered some of things that count as being civilized, making beautiful things, and keeping the rules without which people couldn’t get on together. Grown-ups call the first of these things art, the second science and philosophy, and the third political justice, and ethics. Now these things may not be all civilization is, but anyway they will do to go on with.

i. Which things have we discovered?

ii. Name the things which make us civilized.

iii. How do the rules keep people together?

iv. What do you understand by political justice and ethics?

v. What is art concerned with?

vi. What makes one civilized?

vii. What do you understand by the word ‘ethics’ used in the paragraph?

3. Answer any two of the following questions in not more than 30 words each:

(a) Why was the writer asked to learn the fable about “The Ant and the Grasshopper”?

(b) Give a brief description of the train Mr. A.G. Gardiner travelled by.

4. Answer any one of the following questions in not more than 150 words each:

(a) What relationship did A.G. Gardiner develop with his fellow traveler?

(b) What is Nehru’s personal vision of India? What natural features of the country most appeal to him?

5. Fill in the blanks in the followings sentences with suitable words or phrases given against each within the brackets:

(a) I ………… expected to see her again and thus our parting was all the more sad.

(i) never (ii) hardly (iii) scarcely (iv) seldom

(b) I continued working on this vessel …………… .

(i) for many days (ii) for a number of days (iii) for much time (iv) for a long time

(i) necessarily (ii) undoubtedly (iii) inevitably (iv) unexpectedly

(d) There is pleasant sense of freedom ………… being alone in a carriage that is jolting noisily through the night.

(i) of (ii) over (iii) for (iv) about

6. Answer any one of the following questions in not more than 150 words each:

(a) Who do you think is the hero of the play – Julius Caesar or Brutus?

(b) Why is Antony successful in his speech while Brutus fails?

7. Answer any one of the following questions in not more than 30 words each:

(a) Why does Caesar dislike Cassius?

(b) How did Decius interpret Calphurnia’s dream?

8. Answer any one of the following questions in not more than 150 words each:

(a) Bring out the qualities of Jimmy as a policeman and as a friend.

(b)Sketch the character of astrologer.

9. Answer any one of the following questions in not more than 30 words each:

(a) Why did Gafur kill the bull?

(b) Why did Sanku curse himself?

10. Explain with reference to the context any two of the following extracts:

(a) His state,

Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed,

And post o’er land and ocean without rest;

They also serve who only stand and wait.

(b) The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,

And all that beauty, all that wealthe’er gave

Awaits alike th’ inevitable hour:

The paths of glory lead but to the grave.

But I have promises to deep.

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

11. Give the central Idea of one of the following poems:

(a) Marcy

(b) One his Blindness

12. Answer any one of the following questions in not more than 150 words each:

(a) Why did king try to keep the Prince away from the pain and sufferings of the world?

(b) Give a character sketch of Prince Siddhartha on the basis of the text read.

13. Point out the figures of speech in any two of the following:

(a) And having nothing he hath all.

(b) O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts.

14. Define Motaphor and give an illustration of it.