Roll.No. Code.No.

101

• Please check that this question paper contains 4 printed pages

• Code number given on the right hand side of the question paper should
be written on the title page of the answer book by the candidates.
• Please check that this question paper contains 8 questions.
• Please write down the serial number of the question before attempting
it.

ENGLISH (COMMUNICATIVE)

This paper consists of four sections.

Section A – Reading 6 marks
Section B – Writing 8 marks
Section C – Grammar 4 marks
Section D – Literature 7 marks

Instructions:
1. Attempt all questions.
2. Do not write anything in the question paper.
3. All the answers must be correctly numbered as in the question paper and written
in the answer sheet provided to you.
4. Attempt all questions in each section before going on to the next section.
5. Strictly adhere to the word limit given with each question. Marks will be
deducted for exceeding word limit.

SECTION A
READING

Read the following passage:

SAY “PLEASE”

The young liftman in a City office who threw a passenger out of his lift
the other morning was fined for the offence was undoubtedly in the
wrong. It was a question of ‘Please’. The passenger, entering the lift
said “Top”. The liftman demanded “Top, please”, and his demand
being refused, the liftman hurled the passenger out of the lift.
While it is true that there is no law that compels us to say ‘Please’,
there is a social practice much older and much more sacred than any
law which enjoins us to be civil. And the first requirement of civility is
that we should acknowledge a service. ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ are the
small change with which we pay our way as social beings. They are the
little courtesies by which we keep the machine of life oiled and running
sweetly. They put our intercourse upon the basis of a friendly co–
operation and easy give–and–take instead of on the basis of superiors
dictating to inferiors. It is a very vulgar mind that would wish to
command when he can have the service for asking and have it with
willingness and good feeling instead of resentment.

If bad manners are infectious, so also are good manners. If we could

encounter incivility most of us are apt to become uncivil but it is an
unusually uncouth person who can be disagreeable with sunny people.
It is with manners as with weather. “Nothing clears up my spirits like a
fine day”, said Keats, and a cheerful person descends on even the
gloomiest of us with something of the benediction of the day.

It is a matter of general agreement that the war has had a chilling

effect upon these little everyday civilities of behaviour that sweeten
the general air. We must get those civilities back if we are to make life
kindly and tolerable for each other. We cannot get them back by
invoking the law. The policeman is a necessary symbol and the law is a
necessary institution for a society that is still somewhat lower than the
angels. But the law can only protect us against material attack. Nor will
the liftman’s way of meeting moral affront by physical violence help us
to restore the civilities. I suggest to him that he would have had a
more subtle and effective revenge if he had treated the gentleman
who would say ‘please’ with elaborate politeness. He would have had
victory, not only over the boor, but over himself, and that is the victory
that counts.
– A. G. Gardiner (Abridged)

1. Based on your reading of the above passage, complete

the
following: 6 Marks
a. The young liftman was fined because
_______________________________.
b. While law compels us to follow a certain practice,
social practice ___________________________________________________.
c. The first requirement of civility is
__________________________________.
d. Little courtesies like ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ are important
because ________________________________________________________.
e. The author blamed the war because
______________________________.
f. The policeman and law are necessary because
_______________________.

SECTION B: WRITING
2. Unnikrishnan of class X is the Student Editor of ‘The Winged
Word’, the school magazine of Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Kochi. The
school is planning to bring out a special silver jubilee edition. He
has been asked by the Principal to put up a notice inviting
articles from students. Write this notice in not more than 50
words. Place the notice in a box.
3

3. Read the following extract:

New Delhi: Health Minister A. Ramadoss has said that all villages
affected by chikungunya fever would get Rs.10,000 to prevent
mosquito breeding and to spread awareness among people even
as 17,000 suspected cases of the viral disease have been
reported so far this year.

The heavy rains in the country have aggravated the spread of

chikungunya fever. Write an article for the local newspaper,
highlighting the importance of personal as well as community
hygiene in order to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes, in about
150 words. 5

SECTION C: GRAMMAR

4. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verb given in
brackets 2

Many animals are in the danger of extinction if special efforts

(a) ....................... (be) not made to save them. In India, the black
buck (b) ....................... (be) one of such animals that are
(c) ....................... (consider) endangered. People
(d)....................... (begin) to kill animals indiscriminately and as a
result, the population of these species (e) ....................... (start)
declining. If this practice (f)....................... (continue), these
animals (g) ....................... (become) extinct. If we go on killing
species after species of animals, we (h) ....................... (be)
removing thread after thread from the rich and beautiful tapestry
of life.

5. There is a word missing in each of the lines given below. Write

the missing word along with the word that comes before and the
word that comes after it in your answer sheets against the
correct blank number. Ensure that the word that forms your
answer is underlined. 2
 Within each the dialect areas, there is eg: each
of the
Considerable variation in speech according education
(a) ..............
social standing. There is important polarity
(b) ...............
of uneducated and educated speech in
which former can be identified with
(c) ..............
the regional dialect most completely latter
(d)................
moves away from dialect usage a form of
(e)................
English cuts across dialectical boundaries, so
(f).................
do features of uneducated use; a
(g)................
prominent example the double negative
(h).................
as in “I don’t want no cake.”

SECTION D: LITERATURE

6. How did Babuli’s wife react to the news of the partition?

2

7. I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision I would ne'er have striven

a) In what way was the speaker, as a child, like the West Wind?
1
b) How has he changed? ½
c) What does the speaker ask of the wind? Why? 1½

8. Explain who pays the tribute, to whom and what for in the story
“The Tribute”. 2

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