Midterm General English paper for 12th class #CBSE

 Midterm General English paper for 12th class  #CBSE

SECTION A

           (READING COMPREHENSION) 

1. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:         (5marks)

Friendship is one of the most cherished relationship on earth. Poets and priests have alike sung praises of it. It gives to life not only charms but also a meaning. Friendship is a mother of mutual love, respect, and love alone can breed love. In fact,  true friend, is one who stands by us through thick and thin. He knows us well. He knows our positive points,as well as negative ones. He is fearless in telling us our faults and bad qualities. He is understanding, uncomplaining and ever helpful. One is very fortunate if one gets true friends in life. 

 Questions: 

  a) The most cherished relationship on earth is ............... . 

. b) True friend also tells us our ................ . 

c) If one gets true friend, one is ................ . 

 d) Poets and priests have alike sung ........... .

 e)”Thick and thin” means .......... .

              OR 

How often one hears children wishing they were grown up, and old people wishing they were young again. Each age has its pleasures and its pains , and the happiest person is the one who enjoys what each age gives him without wasting his time in useless regrets.

      Childhood is a time when there are few responsibilities to make life difficult. If a child has good parents,he is fed, looked after and loved, whatever he may do. It is improbable that he will ever again in his life be given so much without having to do anything in return. In addition, life is always presenting new things to the child- things that have lost their interest for older people because they are too well-known. A child finds pleasure in playing in the rain , or in the snow. His first visit to the seaside is a marvellous adventure. But a child has his pains : he is not so free to do as he wishes as he thinks older people are; he is continually being told not to do things or being punished for what he has done wrong. His life is , therefore, not perfectly happy. 

When the young man starts to earn his own living he becomes free from the discipline of school and parents; but at the same time he is forced to accept responsibilities. He can no longer expect others to pay for his food, his clothes, and his room, but has to work if he wants to live comfortably. If he spends most of his time playing about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go hungry. And if he breaks the laws of society as he used to break the laws of his parents, he may go to prison. If, however, he works hard, keeps out of trouble and has good health, he can have the great happiness of seeing himself make steady progress in his job and building up for himself his own position in society.

Old age has always been thought of as the worst age to be; but it is not necessary for the old to be unhappy. With old age should come wisdom and the ability to help others with advice wisely given. The old can have the job of seeing their children making progress in life; they can watch their grandchildren growing up around them; and, perhaps best of all, they can, if their life has been a useful one, feel the happiness of having come through the battle of life safely and of having reached a time when they can lie back and rest leaving others to continue the fight. 

Questions: 

1. What kind of person is the happiest, according to the author?

2. What things are mentioned that the child enjoys very much? 

3. What may happen if a young man breaks the law?

4. What are the pleasures of old people? 

5. When is a person forced to accept responsibilities? 

                  SECTION B                          ( WRITING SKILL)   (5marks) 

2 . Covid-19 positive patients are freely roaming outside,  violating SOPs. Write a letter to the surveillance team of your locality about the menace and suggest measures regarding its containment. 

      OR     

Write an essay on the Role of English Language in our daily life. 

                     OR

 Covid-19 pandemic affected the  entire world badly. But it benefitted positively as well, such as  , bringing families together and teaching its values and importance that were lost in the social media- stricken world , or positive changes that occurred in our environment. Write an article on " Covid-19 pandemic ,both  a disaster and a blessing in disguise " .      

     SECTION C     

   (LITERATURE) 

 3. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :    (1*8=8marks).                    a ) On sour cream walls , donations. Shakespeare's head Cloudless at dawn , civilized dome riding all cities.

  Belled, flowery , Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map                Awarding the world its world. And yet, for these 

 Children , these windows, not this map, their world, 

 Where all their future's painted with a fog, 

 A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky 

 Far far from rivers , capes, and stars of words. 

   I) Name the figure of speech used in the first line. 

 ii) Name two things that were hanging on the walls. 

 iii) what does 'civilized dome' refer to ? 

 iv) According to these lines , whose future is painted with a fog ?    

                  OR

Trees sprinting,the merry children spilling 

out of their homes, but after the airport’s 

security check, standing a few yards 

away, I looked again at her, wan, 

pale

as a late winter’s moon and felt that 

old

familiar ache, my childhood’s fear, 

but all I said was, see you soon, 

Amma,

all i did was smile and smile and 

smile. ......

   

Questions:

I) who was looking wan and pale? 

ii) “Sprinting Trees” is an example of :

a) simile b) metaphor c) personification 

d) none

 

iii) Name the author of this poem. 

iv) At what place did the author bid farewell to her mother? 

              

b) A few months later , the telephone lines of the big bosses of Madras buzzed and once again we met at Gemini Studios cleared a whole shooting stage to welcome another visitor. All they said was that he was a poet from England. The only poets from England the simple Gemini staff knew or heard of were Wordsworth and Tennyson; the more literate ones knew of Keats , Shelley and Byron ; and one or two might have faintly come to know of someone by the name Eliot . Who was the poet visiting the Gemini Studios now ? 

i) Name the lesson from which the above lines have been extracted .

ii) What was the name of the visitor cum poet from England? 

iii) In the above lines, whom does ' we' refer to ? 

iv) Who was the owner of Gemini Studios?

        OR

     Savita, a young girl in a drab pink dress, sits alongside an elderly woman, soldering pieces of glass. As her hands move mechanically like the tongs of a machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the bangles she helps make. It symbolises an indian woman’s Suhaag , auspiciousness in marriage. It will dawn on her suddenly one day when her head is draped with a red veil, her hands dyed red with henna , and red bangles rolled onto her wrists. She will then become a bride. Like the old woman beside her who became one many years ago. She still has bangles on her wrist, but no light in her eyes. “Ek Waqt ser bhar khana bhi nahin khaya,” she says, in a voice drained of joy. She has not enjoyed even one full meal in her entire lifetime— that’s what she has reaped! Her husband, an old man with a flowing beard , says , “I know nothing except bangles. All I have done is make a house for the family to live in.”

           Questions: 

   I) who is the author of this lesson? 

   Ii) what do the bangles symbolise? 

   Iii) Name the lesson from which the given extract has been taken.

iV) What does “Suhaag” mean ? 

     4. Answer any three of the following questions in 30-40 words each: (2*3=6marks)

a) What did Franz notice that was unusual about the school that day ? 

b) Why did Gandhi agree to a settlement of 25 percent refund to the farmers? 

c) What were the options that Sophie was dreaming of ? 

d) Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children ' spilling out of their homes'? 

e) Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death ?

    5. Answer the following questions in 120-150 words:  (6marks)

How does Douglas make clear to the reader the sense of panic that gripped him as he almost drowned ? Describe the details that have made the description vivid. 

             OR

 How does the metaphor of the rattrap serve to highlight the human predicament ? 

    OR 

How does the author of the lesson " Poets and Pancakes" come to know the real identity of the poet from England , who visited Gemini Studios ?

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Prepared by my colleague, Nahida Iqbal