Class XI

Subject English
Time 3 hrs Max. Marks 80
General Instructions:
This paper is divided into three Sections: A, B and C. All the sections are compulsory.
Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these
instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.
Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
Section A (Reading) [20 Marks]
1. Read the passage carefully. [12]
From the ramparts of the Red Fort for some years now, our prime ministers have been
promising the eradication of child labour in hazardous industries. The truth is, if the
government really wanted, child labour in hazardous industries could have been
eliminated long time ago; and yes, every Indian child would have been in school by 2003.
The government has failed to eliminate this dehumanization of childhood. It has also failed
to launch compulsory primary education for all, despite the rhetoric. Between 60 and 100
million children are still at work instead of going to school and around 10 million are
working in hazardous industries. India has the biggest child population of 380 million in the
world, plus the largest number of children who are forced to earn a living.
We have many laws that ban child labour in hazardous industries. According to the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, the employment of children (below the age
of 14) in hazardous occupations has been strictly banned. But each state has different
rules regarding the minimum age of employment; this makes implementation of these
laws difficult.
Also, there is no ban on child labour in non-hazardous occupations. The act applies to the
organized or factory sector and not to the unorganized or informal sector where most
children find employment as cleaners, servants, porters, waiters, among other forms of
unskilled work. Thus, child labour continues because the implementation of the existing
laws is lax.
There are industries which have a special demand for child labour because of their
nimble fingers, high level of concentration and capacity to work hard at abysmally low
wages. The carpet industry in UP and Kashmir employs children to make hand-knotted
carpets; there are 80,000 child workers in J&K alone. In Kashmir, because of the political
unrest, children are forced to work while many schools are shut. Industries like gem-
cutting and polishing, pottery and glass want to remain competitive by employing
children.
The truth is that its poverty which is pushing children into the brutish labour market. We
have 260 million people below the poverty line in India; a large number of them are
women. Poor, vulnerable parents, especially women-headed families, have no option but
to push their little ones in this hard life in hostile conditions, with no human or labour
rights.
There is a lobby which argues that there is nothing wrong with children working as long as
the environment for work is conducive for learning new skills. But studies have shown that
children are made to do boring, repetitive and tedious jobs and are not taught new skills
as they grow older. In these hell-holes, like the sweatshops of old, there is no hope.
 Children working in hazardous industries are prone to debilitating diseases which can
cripple them for life. By sitting in cramped, damp, unhygienic spaces, their limbs become
deformed for life. Inside matchstick, fireworks and glass industries, they are victims of
bronchial diseases and TB. Their mental and physical development is permanently
impaired by long hours of work. Once trapped, they cant get out of the vicious circle of
poverty. They remain uneducated and powerless. Finally, in later years, they too are
compelled to send their own children to work. Child labour perpetuates its own nightmare.
If the government was at all serious about granting children their rights, an intensive effort
ought to have been made to implement the Supreme Courts directive of 1997 which laid
down punitive action against employers of child labour (! 20,000 per child to be paid by
offending employers). Only compulsory primary education can eliminate child labour.
Surely, if 380 million children are given a better life and elementary education, Indias
human capital would be greatly enhanced. But that needs, as President Abdul Kalam says,
a second vision. Can our political establishment see beyond the haze of shallow real
politics?

Questions:

A. Choose the most appropriate option:

[1 x 4 = 4]
I. Child labour can be eliminated if
a. compulsory primary education is given to the poor
b. industries are abolished
c. industries are abolished
d. the poor children are sent behind the bars
II. Poverty
a. enhances creativity
b. encourages child labour
c. kills people
d. humiliates human beings
III. Human capital may be greatly enhanced
a. if child labour is abolished
b. if children are given employment
c. if children are educated
d. all of the above
IV. Children working in hazardous industries are prone to
a. bronchial diseases
b. TB.
c. mental and physical impairment
d. all the above
B. Answer the following questions briefly: [1 x 6
= 6]
I. On what two counts has the government failed in respect of children?
II. We have many laws that ban child labour Even then child labour continues.
What makes implementation of laws difficult?
III. What forces the children to work in hazardous industries? Why do these
industries prefer child labour?
IV. What are the adverse effects of hazardous industries on children? Give any two.
V. How can Indias human capital be vastly enhanced?
VI. How is poverty responsible for child labour?
C. Find words in the passage similar in meaning as:
[1 x 2 = 2]
I. Complete destruction (Para 1)
 II. Putting into practice (Para 3, 4)

2. Read the passage carefully. [8]

The best Eskimo carvings of all ages seem to possess a powerful ability to reach across the great barriers
of language and time and communicate directly with us. The more we look at these carvings, the more
life we perceive within them. We discover subtle living forms of the animal, human and mystical world.
These arctic carvings are not the cold sculptures of a frozen world. Instead, they reveal to us the
passionate feelings of a vital people well aware of all the joys, terrors tranquility, and wildness of life
around them.

Eskimos carvers are people moved by dreams. In spite of all their new contacts with the outsiders, they
are still concerned with their own kind of mystical imagery. The most skilful carvers possess a bold
confidence; a direct approach to their art has a freedom unsullied by any kind of formalized training.
Eskimo carvers have strong skilled hands, used to forcing hard materials with their simple tools. Their
hunting and the northern environment invigorates them. Bad weather often imposes a special kind of
leisure, giving them time in which to perfect their carvings.

They are among the last of human societies that have retained some part of the keen sense of observation
that we have long forgotten. The carves are also butchers of meat, and therefore masters in the
understanding of animal anatomy. Flesh and bones and sheath of muscle seem to move in their works.
They show us how to drive the caribou, how to hold a child, how to walk cautiously on thin ice. Through
their eyes we understand the dangerous power of a polar bear. In the very best of Eskimo art we see
vibrant animal and human forms that stand quietly or tensely, strongly radiating a sense of life. We can
see, and even feel with our hands, the cold sleekness of seals, the hulking weight of walrus, the icy
swiftness of trout, the flowing rhythm in a flight of geese. In their art we catch brief glimpses of a people
who have long possessed a very different approach to the whole question of life and death.

In Eskimo art there is much evidence of humors which the carvers have in abundance. Some of the
carvings are caricatures of themselves, of ourselves, and of situations, or records of ancient legends.
Their laughter may be subtle, or broad and Chaucerian.

Perhaps no one can accurately define the right way or wrong way to create a carving. Each carver must
follow his own way, in his own time. Technique in itself is meaningless unless it serves to express
content. According to the Eskimo, the best carvings possess a sense of movement that seems to come
from within the material itself, a feeling of tension, a living excitement.

Questions:
a. On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it, using headings and sub
headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (wherever necessary- minimum four0 and a format you
consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to it. [5]
b. Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words. [3]
Section B (Writing & Grammar) [30 Marks]
3. You are Aakash/Varsha. You have been invited to attend the wedding of your friends sister during
winter vacation. Respond to the invitation, regretting your inability to accept the invitation. [4]
OR
 As secretary of the literacy club of St. Alberts School, Ahmedabad, draft a formal invitation in not more
than 50 words for the inauguration of the club in your school.
4. Write an application for the post of Assistant Manager in Alpha Tech Private Limited, Moradabad.
Include your bio-data. You are Niraj Bhardwaj. [6]

OR
You are Roshan/ Roshini of 125, Tribhuvannagar, Pune. Write a letter to M/s Anubha Sales Corporation
complaining about the poor performance of the washing machine purchased from their showroom,
mentioning clearly the specific problem you are facing and the action you want. Give all the relevant
details.
5. Write an article in 150 200 words on How ruthless cutting of trees will prove harmful to us. You are
Gopal/Gopika. [10]
OR
As a student reporter of your school news-bulletin, write a report in about 150-200 words on the Annual
Day Celebrations in the school.
6. The following passage has not been edited. There is one error in each line. Write the incorrect
word and the correction in your answer sheet as given below, against the correct blank number.

[1/2X8=4]
Incorrect Correct
a. In todays world that is easy to ... ...
b. grow up with inculcating reading ... ...
c. habits. There is so many television ... ...
d. programmes, computer games or the ... ...
e. play station to keep me busy. ... ...
f. For, those not only serve as ... ...
g. entertainment gadgets and are ... ...
h. educational two at the same time. ... ...
7. Rearrange the following words/phrases to form meaningful sentences. [1X2=2]
a. not / children / below / of / the age / must / drive / eighteen years
b. protection/ our / we / must / helmets / own / wear / for
8. Read the conversation below and complete the following passage by filling in the blank places
appropriately. Do not add any new information. [1X4=4]
Seema: Are you going to attend Deeptis marriage?
Preeti: I have an interview tomorrow. So Ill not be able to go.
Seema: The function is at 12 oclock.
Preeti: Then maybe I can come after the interview.
Seema: That is a good idea.

Seema asked Preeti whether [a].. Deeptis marriage. Preeti replied that
[b] .. so [c] ..Seema said that the function was
at 12 oclock. Preeti hoped that she [d] .. which Seema thought was a
good idea.
Section C (Literature and Long reading Text) [30 Marks]
9. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow. [1X3=3]
Yet have I killed
 The seed I spent or sown it where
The land is his and none of mine?
We speak like strangers, theres no sign
Of understanding in the air.
This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
a) What does we refer to?
b) What does the speaker complain about?
c) Explain built to my design.
10. Answer any three of the following in 30-40 words each. [3X3=9]
a. What do you gather about Crocker Harris from the play?
b. Who was Mrs. Fitzgerald? How was she different from Mrs. Pearson?
c. How was Andrew successful in resuscitating the child?
d. Describe why everyone was happy to see a melon as their king?
e. Who is Doris? How does she treat her mother?
11. Answer the following question in 120-150 words. [6]
I have done something; oh, God! Ive done something real at last. Why does Andrew say this?
OR
What qualities should a teacher possess which make him a great teacher? Discuss it with reference to the
story The Browning Version.
12. Answer any two the following question in 120-150 words. [2X6=12]
a. How was teaching at Hampton Institute different from teaching at Washington DC?
b. Miss Olivia A Davidson is described as a compassionate and giving and one of the best assets of
the Tuskegee institute by the narrator. Elaborate.
c. Give a character sketch of Miss Fannie N Smith.