Term – II, Session 2024-25

Date: Subject: English Language Max. Marks: 80

Name: ____________________ Class: XI Roll No. _____ Time: 3 hours

Instructions:-

You will not be allowed to write for the first 15 minutes. This time is to
be spent in reading the question paper.
The time given at the head of the Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers.

Attempt all four questions.

The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ]

Question 1.

Write a composition (in approximately 450-500 words) on any one of the following subjects: [20]

(You are reminded that you will be rewarded for orderly and coherent presentation of material, use of appropriate style
and general accuracy of spelling, punctuation and grammar.)

(a) ‘One should judge a man not by what he has, but by what he is. ’ Express your views on this statement.

(b) Write a description of the most interesting person you have ever met.

(c) It is right for a person to interfere in the affairs of another. ’ Write for or against this statement.

(d) Memories.

(e) Relate how travel has been of educational value to you.

(f) Write an original story with the following ending :

“…………………… It was exactly as he had said it would be.”

Question 2.

(a) Write a review of a book you have recently read (in approximately 300 words) for your school magazine. Make use of
the given points.

Name of the book — author — publisher — readership — cover and illustrations—plot — characters — insight into
some interesting incidents — message if any — appeal the book holds for you. [15]

(b) you see that the Senior Citizens of your locality sit idle in the park. Make a proposal to the Mayor of your Municipal
Corporation to establish a public library in your locality. [10]
Question 3.

Answer sections (a), (b) and (c).

(a) In each of the following items, sentence A is complete, while sentence B is not Complete sentence B, making it as
similar as possible to sentence A. Write sentence B in each case. [5]

Example : (0)

(A) : Though it was a cloudy day, the temperature was 45°C.

(B) : Despite ………………………………….

Answer :

(0) Despite it being a cloudy day. the temperature was 45°C

(1)

(A) : They are demolishing the entire block of flats.

(B) : The entire ………………………………….

(2)

(A) ; Anil thought the examination would be held later.

(B) ; Anyway ………………………………….

(3)

(A) : I do not like this food as much as you do.

(B) : You ………………………………….

(4)

(A) : Raju failed in the examination, yet he was not upset.

(B) : In spite of ………………………………….

(5)

(A) : “Don’t lend Ramesh any money;” I said to Rita.

(B) : I advised ………………………………….

(b) Fill in each blank with a suitable word. (Do not write the sentence.) [5]

(1) Let us talk ………………………………... then tomorrow about their homework.

(2) The Principal gave us a talk ... …………………………………. bullying.

(3) Manoj was not at home when his grandfather passed ………………………………….

(4) When we visited Daihousie, we passed …………………………………. the house in which we had lived twenty years ago.
(5) This novel has been written …………………………………. Jeffrey Archer.

(6) In the Middle Ages, books were written …………………………………. a variety of subjects.

(7) He had promised her that he would come to the party but he didn’t turn ………………………………….

(8) I was forced to turn …………………………………. Maya’s invitation as I was going to be out of town the following week.

(9) R.ashi has applied ………………………………... a scholarship to an American university.

(10) Arjun applied …………………………………. the university for higher studies but was denied admission.

(c) Fill in the banks in the passage given below with the appropriate form of the verb given in brackets. Do not write the
passage, but write the verbs in the correct order. [5]

Breathing is good, on this we …………………….. (1) (can) agree. That is why sleep apnoea. a condition in which sufferers
repeatedly …………………….. (2) (stop) breathing and …………………….. (3) (awake) during the night …………………….. (4) (be) so
distressing and dangerous. Doctors …………………….. (5) (Xhave) long known that the majority of people with sleep apnoea
also …………………….. (6) (havc) gas and reflux, so they oflen …………………….. (7) (treat) the reflux with heartburn medica
tion. To prove the connection between reflux and sleep apnoea, scientists at an army hospital …………………….. (8)
(observe) apnoea patients as they …………………….. (9) (sleep). They (10) (find) that reflux could, in fact, be the cause of
many night-time awakenings.

Question 4.

Read the passage given below and answer the questions (a), (b) and (cj that follow :

(1) I opened the iron gate and walked as softly as I could up the weed-tufted gravel drive. My mind was strangely empty.
I felt no glow of pleasure and was unexcited at the prospect of becoming rich. I was occupied only with the mechanical
task of finding a black box.

(2) The front door was closed and set far back on a very deep porch. The wind and rain had whipped a coating of gritty
dust against the panels, showing that it had been shut.for years. Standing on a derelict flower-bed, I tried to push open
the first window on the left. It yielded to my strength stubbornly. I clambered through the opening and found myself
crawling along the deepest window-ledge I had ever seen. After I had jumped noisily down upon the floor, I looked up.

(3) The room was thick with dust, musty and empty of all furniture. Spiders had erected great stretchings of their webs
about the fireplace. I made my way quickly to the room where the box was and paused on the threshold. It was a dark
morning and the weather had stained the windows with blears of grey wash which kept the brightest part of the weak
fight from coming in. The far comer of the room was a blur of shadow. I had a sudden impulse to finish my task and be
out of this house forever.

I walked across the bare boards, knelt down in the comer and passed my hands about the floor in search of the loose
board. To my surprise, I found it easily. I lifted it up, laid it aside and struck a match. I saw a black metal cash-box nestling
dimly in the hole. I put my hand down and crooked a finger into the loose reclining handle, but the match suddenly
flickered and went out and the handle of the box, which I had lifted up about an inch, slid heavily off my finger. Without
stopping to light another match, I thrust my hand into the opening and, just when it should be closing about the box,
something happened.

(4) I cannot hope to describe what it was but it frightened me very much. It was some change which came upon me or
upon the room, indescribably subtle, yet momentous. It was as if the daylight had changed with unnatural suddenness,
as if the temperature had altered greatly in an instant or as if the air had become twice as rare or twice as dense as it
had been in the twinkling of an eye. Perhaps all of these or other things happened together, for all my senses were
bewildered all at once and could give me no explanation. The fingers of my right hand, thrust in the opening in the floor,
had closed mechanically, found nothing at all, and came up again empty. The box had gone!

(5) I heard a cough behind me, soft and natural, yet more disturbing than any sound that could ever come upon the
human ear. That I did not die of fright was due, I think, to two things: the fact that my senses were already disarranged
and able to interpret to me only gradually what they had perceived, and also the fact that the utterance of the cough
seemed to bring with it some more awful alteration in everything. I collapsed weakly into a limp sitting-down position
upon the floor. Sweat broke out on my brow and my eyes remained open for a long time without a wink.

(6) In the darkest corner of the room near the window, a man was sitting in a chair, eyeing me with a mild but
unwavering interest.

(a) 1. Given below are four words. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage: [3]

(1) neglected

(2) urge

(3) significant

(2) For each of the words using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it
carries in the passage : [3]

(1) handle

a. He tried the handle but the window was locked.

b. The baked potatoes were too hot to handle with our bare hands.
c. She turned the handle and slowly opened the door.
d. He held the shovel by the handle.

(2) thrust

a. She thrust the money into his hand

b. The main thrust of her argument was that women are compromised by the demands of childcare
c. the thrust of my argument is not that we have a device that has constant conversation on it.
d. The major thrust of their research will be to find practical applications

(3) sound

a. A hollow sound echoed through the room

b. The room was filled with the sound of laughter
c. She heard the sound of footsteps outside
d. The tests show that his heart is sound

(b) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible :

(i) What was the narrator’s state of mind when he came to the house in search of a black box? [2]

(ii) What details show that the house had been shut for years? [2]

(iii) Why did the narrator have a feeling of uneasiness and fear when he entered the room? [2]

(iv) What was the strange thing that happened about the box? What impact did it have on the narrator? [2]
(c) Describe the narrator’s purpose behind entering the abandoned house and the strange atmosphere he encountered
there. [6]