SAMPLE PAPER

ENGLISH

SET - I

A. Reading 30 marks

B. Writing 30 marks

C. Grammar 15 marks

D. Literature 25 marks

Instructions :

1. Answer all questions.

2. All answers must be written in the spaces provided on this paper.

3. Please do not write anything in the margins.

SECTION - A (READING)

Look at any waste garbage dump. In addition to vegetable scraps, paper and broken glass, you will notice a considerable amount of plastic material such as shampoo bottles, bags, worn-out slippers, and the like. Vegetable scraps and paper are biodegradable, but glass and plastic continue to accumulate and harm the environment. Plastic is often mistaken for food by birds, animals and fish, leading to their death. It also chokes sewer pipes and becomes a trap for living beings in ponds, rivers and oceans.

Investigations have been going on for a long time to produce an environment - friendly plastic in the sense that it decays and becomes a part of the soil like rotting vegetable scraps do.

The scientists of Imperial Chemical Industries at London have been able to develop just such as plastic called 'Biopol'. It is manufactured by microbes. Bottles, film and fibers can be made out of it. Fungi and bacteria can eat it and break it down into carbon dioxide and water. This new plastic can also be used to make capsules for slow release in the body of some types of medicines, and of pesticides in fields.

Plastic can kill animals in two different ways. Animals may die :

Stories of dolphins saving human lives have been told throughout history. The latest incident happened in January this year when dolphins saved the life of an Australian surfer attacked by shark which tore a chunk surfboard. As the shark moved in for the kill it was by a group of dolphins.

Some scientists argue that such behaviour is an instinctive response to distress signals. Other insist that incidents like these are deliberate acts of compassion - adding support to the widespread belief that dolphins are highly intelligent.

Two factors were initially responsible for sparking off the popular idea that dolphins might possess high intelligence.

The first was the size of the dolphin brain. In some species it is about the same weight as our own. The second factor was the work of Dr. John Lilly who, convinced that dolphins must possess a language, set about trying to prove this theory by teaching captive dolphins to speak English. But Lilly's work, though appealing, proved nothing except that dolphins are talented vocal mimics.

But in seeking to establish whether dolphins share human characteristics, we may be barking up the wrong tree. As dolphins have evolved in an environment completely like our own, it is reasonable to expect that their intelligence will be of a different kind too.

Many researchers believe that the echo-location system which dolphins use to explore their surroundings may be so advanced that dolphins can actually use it to "see" inside other living things. So, while we've been testing dolphins to see if they can speak English - and concluding. When they've been unable to do so that they can't be that bright after all

It is just possible that they've been communicating all the time in ways which even now we can barely comprehend.

(a) It may be :

(b) It may be :

(c) the fact that ;

(d) and the theory that

(e) to

(f) to

(g) "We may be barking up the wrong tree" (line 20). This means that the scientists may be :

DOWN THE MINE
Probably you have to go down several coal-mines before you can get much grasp of the processes that are going on round you. You get into the cage, which is a steel box about as wide as a telephone box and two or three times as long. It holds ten men, but they pack it like pilchards in a tin, and a tall man cannot stand upright in it. The steel door shuts upon you and somebody working the winding gear above drops you into the void. In the middle of the run the cage probably touches sixty miles an hour in some of the deeper mines it touches even more, when you crawl out at the bottom you are perhaps four hundred yards underground. But because of the speed at which the cage has brought you down, and the complete blackness through which you have travelled, you hardly feel yourself deeper down than you would at the bottom of the Piccadily tube.

What is surprising, on the other hand, is the immense horizontal distances that have to be travelled underground. Before I had been down a mine I had not realised that before he even gets to his work he may have had to creep along passages long as from London Bridge to Oxford Circus. But these distances bear no relation to distances above ground. For in all that mile or three miles as it may be, there is hardly anywhere outside the main road, and many places even there,

where a man can stand upright. AT the start to walk stooping is rather a joke, but it is a joke that soon wears off. I am handicapped by being exceptionally tall, but when the roof falls to four feet or less it is touch job for anybody except a dwarf or a child. You not only have to bend double, you have also got a keep your head up all the while so as to see the beams and girders and dodge them when they come. You have, therefore, a constant crick in the neck, but this is nothing to the pain in your knees and thighs. After half a mile it becomes ( I am not exaggerating ) an unbearable agony. You come to a stretch of a couple of hundred yards where it is all exceptionally low and you have to work yourself along in a squatting position. Then suddenly the roof opens out to a mysterious height - scene of an old fall of rock, probably - and for twenty whole yards you can stand upright. The relief is overwhelming. But after this there is another low stretch of a hundred yards and then a succession of beams you have to crawl under. You go down on all fours; even this is a relief after the squatting business. But when you come to the end of the beams and try to get up again, you find that your knees have temporarily stopped work and refuse to lift you. You call a half, ignominiously, and say that you would like to rest for a minute or two. Your guide ( a miner) is sympathetic. He knows that your muscles are not the same as his. 'Only another four hundred yards', he says encouragingly; you feel that he might as well say another four hundred miles. But finally you somehow creep as far as the coal face. You have gone a mile and taken the best part of an hour; a miner would do it in not much more than twenty minutes. Having got there, you have to sprawl in the coal dust and get your strength back for several minutes before you can even watch the work in progress with any kind of intelligence.

coal face difficult. One example is already given.

the darkness

SECTION - B (WRITING)

Mr. A.Mathur is the Manager of Super Chemicals Ltd., He has made the following notes about a job candidate called Mohan Srivastava. He asks his Personal Assistant to write a letter to Mr. Srivastava. Complete the letter using information from the notepad below.

Sub : Interview for the post of salesman

With reference to your application, we are pleased to ................

.......

................ for interview for the above mentioned post.

Your interview ...........

You are requested .............

Please not that no TA/DA will be paid by the company, and ........

that you are responsible.........

Kindly..........

Your faithfully,

A. Mathur

Manager

Super Chemicals Ltd. Bombay.

Anjali Mehta is head girl of Nina Public School. On 26 September, she attended a meeting with the Principal and Senior Teachers at which it was decided that the school discipline needed improvement. It was also decided that House Captains should allocate special duties to prefects and monitors to ensure this.

Later she wrote a notice for the Students' Notice Board asking House Captains and Vice - Captains to attend a meeting to discuss implementing this proposal. Write this notice in the space below, using not more than 30 words.

A newspaper in Mahapur wants to publish an article about the increasing awareness of health and diet the table below shows some of the changes in Mahapur between 1970 and 1990. Using this information, together with your own ideas and ideas from the unit on 'Health and Medicine', write the article in the space provided.

During his holiday, Rohit Las visited Yoku and Balagudi. Below you can see pictures of these two places. Choose one place and write a postcard from Rohit to his friend, Gita Ramaswamy, describing what he saw and what he liked about the place. Write the postcard in the space provided on the next page.you may use the space at the bottom of this page for rough work.

SECTION - C (GRAMMAR)

Below you can see a letter from Ravi to his father. Complete this letter by writing one suitable word in each space. The first one has been done as an example.

Dear Daddy,

I hope all's well with you. Everything is fine here. I'am sorry I ........ write earlier, but I was very busy with my examinations. ....... are now almost over. I 'm sure you'll be glad to .......... that I've filled up the N.D.A. form. The examination is scheduled ................ the 14th of June, ........... very day I complete my school examinations. I'm thinking of ................ the Bhavishya Tutorial Centre which is within walking disitance. I'm told they produce good result. I'd be really grateful if you .................... send me Rs. 600 for my entrance fee. I know this is a lot to ask, but I will work hard to make it worthwhile. On the brighter side, you .....................send me any pocket money for the next three months.............. I will be working part-time at Leela Restaurant. I look forward to ............. from you.
Yours affectionately.

The following passage is intended for a school textbook, but it has not been edited. There is one effort in each line. Underline each error and write your correction in the space provided. The first correction has been done as an example.

Many cases of food poisoning are resulted from .......result

contamination of food after it had been brought home.

Bacteria grow more quicker in warm conditions,

so food should store in a cool place. A freezer

maintains sub-zero temperatures which bacteria

cannot reproduce. Refrigerators are not keeping

food same cold as this. However, it is still

more safe to store food in a refrigerator

rather than left it out in the open.

Look at the words and phrases below. Rearrange them to form meaningful sentences to complete the dialogue which follows. Write each sentence in the space provided. The first one has been done as an example.

Stay /I'm not/this summer/going to/with grandma

(a) terrible / to get / you want / Delhi's / don't /heat/away from

(b) your holidays/on earth/isn't the only / in / Manila / to spend / place

(c) going to / staying here / your holiday / you're / in Delhi / waste

(d) going with you / is / the unlucky person / who / may I know /

Sister : When exactly are we leaving for Manali ?

Brother : I'm not going to stay with grandma this summer.

Sister : Why not :

Brother : Yes, but

Sister : Oh, you're big bore, Don't tell me that

Brother : Stay in Delhi ! Who said so? I'm going to Ooty and, thank GOD, not with you.

Sister : And

Brother : Be careful what you say ! It's Daddy.

Look at the newspaper items below. Then use the information in the headlines to complete the paragraphs. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one has been done as an example.

Shahpur police report that a suspect has been arrested.

in the Basir Khan murder case.

INDIAN WINS TOP CHESS PRIZE

An Indian school boy from Mirzabad ............. at the International Youth Chess Tournament in Rome, beating over 50 other contestants.

TOURISTS ATTACKED BY SHARK - SURFBOARD BITTEN IN HALF !

Last Monday several Australian tourists .................... while surfing off Pasiraman beach.One of them narrowly escaped death when ..........

MINISTER TO OPEN HOSPITAL

The Health minister arrives next week in Dipganj,

where .............................

SECTION - D(LITERATURE)

Ah! well-a day ! what evil looks

Had I from old and you'd

Instead of the cross, the Albatross

About my neck was hung

(a) Who is "T" in these lines ?

(b) Why did they hand the Albatross around the speaker's neck?

(c) Briefly explain the sailors' attitude towards the death of the Albatross.

And you totter to your feet and think,

Well it's all over now and

After all it was only this once,

And he says come back in three 'monce'

(a) Why does the poet change the word 'months' into 'monce'?

(b) Why was the poet wrong in thinking that it was 'all over'?

(c) You want your teeth in good condition so that you don't have to go to the dentist. What, however, is the reality according to the poet ?

"He lay down full length on the damp grass, crushing his face into it, no longer crying ......." (Games at Twilight). Describe Ravi's feelings at this point in the story, and explain what made him feel that way.

In The Tribune, after writing a note to his elder brother, Babuli decides to write a letter to his wife to tell her about his decision and the reasons for it. Write the letter in the space provided.