SECTION A – READING COMPREHENSION (26 MARKS)

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

QI) Read the passage and answer the questions given below. (10x1 = 10 Marks)
1. Overweight and obesity are affecting many countries in the world; more than 300 million people are
overweight or obese. In India, some people tend to be overweight because of their high-calorie diet and lack
of physical activities. In the United States, obesity is more prevalent in lower economic groups. Obesity is
now well recognized as a disease in its own right. Though obesity commonly means very overweight, it is
defined as an excess amount of body weight that includes muscles, bone, fat, and water. 'Obesity' specifically
refers to an excess amount of body fat. Some people, such as bodybuilders or other anthracitic with a lot of
muscle can be overweight without being obese.
2. Women have more body fat than men. Usually, men with more than 25c, body fat, and women with more
than 30% of body fat are regarded as obese. Obesity occurs when a person consumes more calories than he or
she burns.
3. Obesity tends to run in families, suggesting a genetic cause. Environmental factors mean lifestyle
behaviours such as what a person eats and his or her level of physical activity. Although you cannot change
your genetic makeup, you can change your eating habits and levels of activity. You can learn how to choose
more nutritional meals which are low in fat and become more active.
4. Then there are the psychological factors. Negative emotions, such as boredom, sadness, or anger respond to
people who overeat. There is also 'binge eating' when people eat a large amount of food thinking that they
cannot control how much they are eating. Those with the most severe binge eating problems are also likely to
have symptoms of depression and low self-esteem.
5. Obesity is a health hazard. Several serious medical conditions have been linked to obesity, including type-2
diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and stroke. Obesity is also linked to higher rates of certain types
of cancer. Other diseases and health problems linked to obesity include gall bladder disease and gallstones,
liver disease, and deterioration of joints.
6. The benefits of exercise are much more than any other way of losing weight. Not only does exercise help
you to lose weight but it also improves your fitness and flexibility and improves skin texture. Exercises also
free one from the harmful side effects of crash dieting, slimming capsules, and the heat treatment used by
slimming centers.

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.

1) Complete the sentence by choosing an appropriate option. Obesity can be rightly defined as a state of -
a) Combine muscle, bone, fat, and water
b) Excess amount of body fat
c) Low-income results in Poverty
d) High-Calorie Diet and Lack of Physical Activities

2) Choose the right comment on the writer’s reference to the obesity problem in women.
a) When she has more than 30% of body fat
b) When she has a BMI greater than 25
c) When she doesn’t exercise and grows a belly
d) When she consumes more calories than she burns

3) The environmental factor/s mentioned as a cause of obesity is/are:

A. Lifestyle C. Weather Conditions
B. Physical Activities D. Genes
 a) Only A and B c) Only A and C
b) Only C and D d) Only C

4) 'Binge eating’ refers to:

a) A sign of depression and low self-esteem c) People eating food with no control
b) A psychological disorder d) All of these

5) Disease/s linked to obesity mentioned in the text is/are:

A. Cancer C. Gallstone
B. Low Blood Pressure D. Type 1 Diabetes

a) Only A and B c) Only C and D

b) All of these d) Only A and C

6) Select the option that conveys the opposite of ‘unpopular’, from words used in paragraph one.
a) Recognized c) Specifically
b) Prevalent d) Includes

7) The writer would not agree with the given statements based on the extract, EXCEPT:
a) By consulting a dietician, we can be active.
b) By taking nutritional meals we can be active.
c) By controlling the eating disorder, we can be active.
d) By seeing a therapist, we can be active.

8) The psychological factor leading to over-eating is:

a) Stress c) Peacefulness
b) Happiness d) Excitement

9) The main idea presented in the first paragraph is:

a) Explaining what obesity is
b) Explain how we can solve obesity problems
c) Explain how we can enhance our body health
d) Explain how obesity is related to diseases

10) A word opposite in meaning to "danger" in paragraph 5 is:

a) Gallstones c) Deterioration
b) Hazard d) Safe

QII) Read the passage and answer the questions given below. (8x1 = 8 Marks)
1. The white tiger is an offspring of Bengal tiger, which has the necessary gene for white colouring. It
has beautiful black stripes on a white coat. This species of animal has blue eyes and a pink nose.
2. A pure white tiger is totally white without any stripe, which is due to the presence of a double
recessive allele in the genetic code. It happens only in the Bengal tiger subspecies, and only one in
10,000 births can have it naturally. White tigers are rarely seen in the wild, and only twelve of them
have been spotted in India since last one-hundred years. Tigers have a life-span of 10-15 years.
They are solitary animals, and are fond of hunting at night. Their diet consists of any animals that
 they can catch, and can eat up to 40 pounds of meat at one time. After such a big meal, they usually
remain away for several days from food.
3. They are slow runners, but good swimmers. They are poor climbers and cannot climb a tree easily.
They live in an area ranging from 10 to 30 square miles depending upon the availability of prey,
water and shelter. Habitat loss, poaching and expansion of human population have together
contributed to their becoming endangered. They are widely hunted for their body-parts, which are
used in traditional Chinese medicines.
4. Genetic inbreeding is a major reason for their endangerment. Due to shortage in their number, this
species of animal has been subjected to inbreeding. It has resulted in high mortality rates and severe
disabilities. About 80 percent of the white tiger cubs are born with serious birth-defects related to
inbreeding, and they soon die-off.
5. The critical condition of this animal has attracted the attention of conservationists worldwide.
World Wildlife Federation (WWF), defenders of wildlife, and many other wildlife organizations are
working with the support of the government for the cause of protecting them from becoming
extinct. Once they become extinct, it will not be possible to bring them back to life

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.

i) Does the following statement agree with the information given in the passage?
The foremost reason to put tiger species in the category of endangered species is genetic inbreeding.
Select from the following:
a) True - if the statement agrees with the c) Not Given - if there is no information
information on this
b) False - if the statement contradicts the d) Not relevant to the passage
information

ii) Based on the reading of the text, state a point to challenge the given statement.

As there is no apparent befit for human beings with tiger population, it is utter waste spending fund on
tiger restoration.
a) They are slow runners, but good swimmers.
b) Habitat loss, poaching and expansion of human population have together contributed to their
becoming endangered.
c) They are widely hunted for their body-parts, which are used in traditional Chinese medicines.
d) They are poor climbers and cannot climb a tree easily.

iii)The life span of a tiger is:

a) 20-25 years b) 5-10 years
 c) 10-15 years d) 15-20 years

iv) The White tiger is an offspring of:

a) Bengal tiger c) Punjab tiger
b) Rajasthan tiger d) Chennai tiger

v) The central idea in paragraph 3 is:

a) Genetic inbreeding possibilities c) Problems related to genetic inbreeding
b) Genetic Inbreeding methods d) Advice about genetic inbreeding

vi) The sentence that does not reflect the meaning of ‘expansion’ in para 3 is:
a) Alexander tried to conquer many regions for his impulsive desire for power.
b) King Ashoka widened his kingdom by seizing many of the adjacent regions.
c) Materialistic ideology has reached many areas of the world with the advent of modernism.
d) Many thinkers have criticized the way we deal with animals.

vii) The diagram shown above suggests:

a) A gradual decline c) Rapid increase
b) Gradual growth d) Rapid decline

viii) The number of tigers in 2018 shows an increase by almost than in 2014.
a) Half c) One fifth
b) One third d) One tenth

QIII) Read the passage and answer the questions given below:

1. The one industry that remains unaffected by any depression in trade is the beauty industry. Women
world over continue to spend money on their faces and bodies even when there is a great slump in
other areas of trade. The number of advertisements proclaiming the miracles performed by the
various beauty aids goes to support the fact that, today, with all the talk about emancipation,
equality of sexes and feminism, women are still observed with their physical beauty as they were in
the times of Cleopatra.
2. America leads the figures, literally and metaphorically. Many parts of Europe by virtue of being
affected by political and economic instability, leave precious little for women to beautify
themselves. May be, all that women in Europe, can then do is to wash and hope for the best. But,
the rich and upper middle-class women, everywhere in the world, block a substantial amount of
their income on beautifying themselves. Why is it so?
3. The richer the man gets the more obsessed he becomes with high powered cars and electronic
gadgets and bank balances. On the contrary, the women, especially the urban upper middle-class
women, find their bodies and faces worthy of investing a major part of their income.
4. Women, these days, are much freer than they were in the last century. Not only are they free to take
part in social and professional functions of a society as an equal to man, but also to look attractive
in any given situation. The beauty industry is shrewd enough to exploit this trend and women in
 every walk of life have something to buy from the range of products that the beauty industry offers.
The British matron, today, is the thing of the past.
5. As a result of the number of beauty parlours that have sprung up in every street corner of the
metropolises, and the exercises, the health motors and the skin foods that they offer, you can hardly
run into an old woman these days. One could say ‘old ladies’ are fast becoming an extinct species.
White hair, wrinkles, bent backs and hollow cheeks are features of a bygone era. Cosmetic surgery
has slowly eradicated these unwanted phenomena. If children of posterity want to look at an old
woman, they might have to run to an art gallery and find a medieval painting.

1) On the basis of your reading of the passage make NOTES on it using headings and subheadings.
Use recognizable abbreviations. Also, supply a suitable title to it. (5 Marks)

2) On the basis of your note making write a SUMMARY of the passage in not more than 80 words.
(3Marks)
SECTION-B WRITING AND GRAMMAR (23 MARKS)

QIV) Answer the following questions as per the instructions given

1) Fill in the blanks with suitable options given below: - (6x ½ = 3 Marks)
Agriculture is a/an (i) __________sector of our economy and credit plays an important role in increasing
agricultural production. Availability and (ii) __________ to adequate, timely and low-cost credit from
institutional sources is of great (iii)…………………. especially to small and marginal farmers. Along with
other inputs, credit is essential for establishing sustainable and (iv)…………………. farming systems.
Most farmers are small producers engaged in agricultural activities in areas of widely (v)……………….
potential. The major (vi) concern of the Government is therefore, to bring all the farmer households within
the banking fold and promote financial inclusion.

(i) (a) integral (b) centre (c) dominant (d) proven

(ii) (a) excess (b) access (c) express (d) coalesce
(iii) (a) view (b) importance (c) urgency (d) source
(iv) (a) isolated (b) apportioned (c) abject (d) profitable
(v) (a) justified (b) true (c) most (d) varying
(vi) (a) view (b) understanding (c) concern (d) idea

2) Rearrange the following words to form meaningful sentences. (2x1=2 Marks)

(i) own/their/live/overconfident/thoughts/people/within
(ii) others/they/of/know/unaware/are/but/themselves/they
3) Read the dialogue given below and complete the passage that follows. (4x ½ = 2 Marks)
Doctor : Have you got the tests done?
Ravi : No, I have not.
 Doctor : Get them done today itself.
Ravi : I will get it done today itself.
The Doctor asked Ravi if (i) __________ . Ravi replied that (ii) ______________. The doctor asked him to
(iii) ____________ . Ravi said that (iv) _______________.
c) he had got the tests done?
(i) a) he have got the tests done? d) he had got the tests done.
b) he have got the tests done.

(ii) a) he had not. c) I have not

b) he has not d) I had not.

(iii) a) do the test the same day. c) get the tests done today itself
b) get the tests done immediately d) get the tests done that day itself

(iv) a) I will do it today itself c) I would do it today itself

b) he will do it today itself d) he would do it that day itself.

QV) Answer the following questions as per the instructions given

1) You are Mohan/Mohini, General Manager of PJC. Industries, Hyderabad. You need an accountant
for your company. Draft, in not more than 50 words, an advertisement to be published in classified
columns of The Hindu.
OR (3 Marks)

British Institute, Delhi offers courses in foreign languages — German, French, Spanish. Write an
advertisement in about 50 words to be published in the Education Times page of The Times of
India.

2) Design a poster warning the people about the ill-effects of pollution and giving them tips to reduce
environmental pollution. (50 words)
OR (3 Marks)

A week-long Asian Book Fair is being held in Pragati Maidan. Draft a poster informing the
general public about it. (50 words)

3) You are Ankit/Ankita. You have to deliver a speech on the topic “Education Gives One Power”.
Compose a speech in about 120-150 words on the power of education. Include ideas on how to
make education more effective for the new generations.
OR (5 Marks)
You are Anshu/Anita. You have secured 95 per cent marks in English. Your English teacher has
persuaded you to share the secret of your success with your schoolmates. You decide to deliver a
speech ‘English is an extremely scoring subject’ in the morning assembly. Write the speech in
about 120-150 words.

4) Imagine that your school authorities are unhappy with the amount of mobile phone usage inside the
school campus. Teachers have complained that the students are distracted by their mobile phones.
Your school has decided to organize a debate to decide the measures to be undertaken. You are
Aditya/Manali. Write a debate on the theme, ‘Students should be allowed to own and use mobile
phones’ in 120 - 150 words.
OR (5 Marks)
Sruti/Sharman is deeply disturbed by the growing levels of pollution in her/his town with the
opening of more and more factories on land which was once used for farming. She/He participates
 in a debate on the topic, ‘Industrial Development of Towns is Essential’ and speaks for/against the
topic. Write her/his debate in 120-150 words.

SECTION-C LITERATURE (31 MARKS)

QVI) Read the stanza given and answer the questions that follow. (ANY ONE) (3x1 = 3 Marks)

“Some twenty – thirty years later

She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty
A Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they
Dresses us for the beach.” The sea holiday
Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry
With laboured wase of loss”

i) Which poetic device has been used in “Laboured ease of loss”?

a) Inversion c) Hyperbole
b) Oxymoron d) Personification

ii) Read the following statements and choose the correct option to answer the question.
Assertion (A): The poet’s mother laughed when she looked at the snapshot
Reason (R) : She looked pretty
a) A is true R is false c) R is the explanation of A
b) A is the explanation of R d) Both A and R are true
iii) Given below are two statements. Read each statement and choose the right answer.
1) The three cousins had gone to the beach
2) They enjoyed a lot

a) Statement 1 is the reason for statement 2 c) Statement 1 is false

b) Statement 2 is the reason for statement 1 d) Statement 2 is false

OR
“When did my childhood go?
Was it when I found my mind was really mine,
To use whichever way, I choose,
Producing thoughts that were not those of other people
But my own, and mine alone Was that the day!”

i) The stanza deals with the realization of poet’s

a) Hypocrisy c) Individuality
b) Consciousness d) Rationality

ii) Choose the refrain in the given stanza.

a) Was it when I found c) To use whichever way, I choose
b) Was that the day! d) But my own, and mine alone

iii) Identify the literary device employed in the second line of the stanza
a) Irony b) Alliteration
 c) Inversion d) Oxymoron

QVII) Read the extract and answer the questions that follow. (ANY ONE) (3x1 = 3 Marks)

When I went up to the University, I was given a room of my own. The common link of friendship was
snapped. My grandmother accepted her seclusion with resignation. She rarely left her spinning wheel to
talk to anyone. From sunrise to sunset, she sat by her wheel spinning and reciting prayers. Only in the
afternoon, she relaxed for a while to feed the sparrows. While she sat in the verandah breaking the bread
into little bits, hundreds of birds collected round her creating a veritable bedlam of chirrupings.
i) Who is “I” in the extract
a) A R Williams c) Khushwant Singh
b) Prof Gaitonde d) Jayant Narlikar

ii) What did the author mean by the statement ‘accepted her seclusion with resignation’?
a) Accepted her shifting to the city with calmness and composure
b) Accepted her loneliness without any complaints
c) Accepted her separation from her grandson without equanimity
d) Accepted her situation and started weaving

iii) What did the author mean by ‘veritable bedlam of chirrupings’?

a) The sparrows trying to eat the bread from the grandmother
b) Noise and chaos caused by the sparrows.
c) The crowding of sparrows around the grandmother
d) The confusion caused by the sparrows when they tried to sit next to the grandmother
OR
Today diagnostic imaging can be done with computed tomography, or CT, by which hundreds of X-rays in
cross section are put together like slices of bread to create a three-dimensional virtual body. What more
would a CT scan reveal of Tut than the X-ray? And could it answer two of the biggest questions still
lingering about him?

i) Which two questions lingering about King Tut?

a) Age and time of Tut’s death d) Whether Tut died a normal death or it
b) Age and cause of Tut’s death was murder
c) The disease Tut was suffering from
and the treatments done

ii) Did the CT scan finally reveal the mystery behind ‘him’?
a) Yes, because we came to know that he died at the age of 9
b) Yes, because we came to know that he died of malaria
c) Yes because we guessed the age of death as 9 and cause as malaria
d) No, the mystery still exists

iii)What is meant by CT technology

a) Computer technology c) Computed technology
b) Computer tomography d) Computed tomography

QVIII) Read the extract and answer the questions that follow. (ANY ONE) (4x1 = 4 Marks)

Usually so perceptive, Andrew now felt dull and listless. He had no premonition that this night
call would prove unusual, still less that it would influence his whole future in Blaenelly.
 i) Why was Andrew feeling ‘dull and listless’?
a) Because it was past midnight c) Both A and B
b) Because he was thinking about his d) None of the above
relationship with Christine

ii) What was the ‘night call’ that he was called to?
a) Andrew was called to supervise the first and crucial delivery of Susan Morgan
b) Andrew was called to sort out an altercation between Morgan and Christine
c) Andrew was summoned to Blaenelly for Morgan’s grandmother’s check-up
d) Andrew was asked to attend a house call in Christine’s house

iii) What is not a synonym of ‘premonition?’

a) Foreboding c) Intuition
b) Hunch d) Astonishment

iv) What was Andrew’s reaction after averting the crisis?

a) Andrew was grateful to God
b) He was satisfied and happy that he had something
c) His heart was filled with the feeling of having achieved something great
d) All of the above

OR

That afternoon my uncle Khosrove came to our house for coffee and cigarettes. He sat in the parlour,
sipping and smoking and remembering the old country. Then another visitor arrived. My mother bought the
lonely visitor coffee and tobacco and he rolled a cigarette and sipped and smoked. Sighing sadly, he said–
“I cannot understand it.”

i) What was the name of the other visitor?

a) Mourad c) John Byro
b) Aram d) Zorab

ii) What was the mood of the other visitor?

a) Happy c) Unpleasant
b) Sad d) Guilty

iii) What was the other visitor thinking about?

a) His loneliness c) His horse
b) His health d) His problems

iv) What could he not understand?

a) His loneliness c) His land was not giving him returns.
b) His boat had capsized and was drowned. d) His horse which was stolen last month.

QIX) Answer the following questions in about 50-60 words each. (3 x 3= 9 Marks)
1) What difference do you notice between the reaction of the adults and children when faced with
danger?
OR
List the various things noticed by Prof Gaitonde when he was wandering in the British Raj.

2) How does the Laburnum Tree ensure security for the nestlings?
OR
 Is the rain justified in calling itself ‘The Poem of the Earth’?

3) How do we understand that the narrator was convinced that Mrs Dorling was the right person to
keep their valuables in safe custody?
OR
What is the significance of a melon being made the king of the city?

QX) Answer the following questions in 150-200 words. (2x6 = 12 Marks)

1) The poem ‘Father to Son’ has a universal appeal, although it deals with the poet’s personal
experience. Justify this statement with reference to the poem.

OR

The story ‘We’re not afraid to Die….. is a story of human endurance, selflessness and courage in
the face of adversity. Discuss.

2) Can stealing be justified for any reason? Discuss Aram and Mourad’s stealing of a horse in the light
of this statement?

OR

Does a mother enjoy her status anywhere in the world or is it a bundle of responsibility only?
Discuss with reference to the chapter ‘Mother’s Day’.