THE INDIAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL, KUWAIT
CODE : M 301
SERIES : SA1 / 2015 - 2016
MAX. MARKS : 80
TIME ALLOWED : 3 HOURS
NO. OF PAGES : 6
ENGLISH
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TO BE ANSWERED ON SEPARATE SHEET
Instructions:
 Please check that this question paper contains 9 pages and 14 questions.
 All questions are compulsory.
 Attempt all the questions in one section before moving to the next section.
 Read the instructions carefully and follow them faithfully.
Section A Reading
Q1.
Read the passage given below.
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Decks have finally been cleared—let us hope—for regulating the real estate sector
through a legislation that had been held hostage by vested interests for years. The
Select Committee of Rajya Sabha, which examined the Real Estate Bill 2013,
submitted its report las t week. The amended draft of the Bill, based on the report of
the parliamentary committee, will be placed before the Cabinet during its next
meeting. After Cabinet approval, it will be re-introduced on the floor of the House.
The 21-member committee headed by BJP MP Anil Madhav Dave was constituted
after protests by Opposition parties over the issue of NDA government watering
down several provisions of the original Bill. The fact that the amended bill has the
support of all opposition parties should make its passage by both the Houses of
Parliament easier.
The need for regulating the real estate sector has been felt for long. The bill bridges
the gap between promoters who have knowledge of market practices and thus more
bargaining power, and first-time home purchasers who tend to be rather green
behind the ears. The comprehensive procedural requirements envisaged in the draft
cleared by the parliamentary panel are intended to bring transparency, uniformity
and organisation into an otherwise unorganised sector. Strong penalties for
defaulting promoters, such as imposition of a fine of 5 per cent of the project cost,
and deregistration of a project, should ensure better compliance. Home-buyers, who
until now were left with no choice but to sign on the dotted lines of an agreement
drafted by developers, will now have a Central government issued Model Draft
Agreement to fall back on.
By requiring developers to adhere to registration and disclosures on each and every
project, imposing penalties for delays and default, and establishing state-level Real
Estate Regulatory Authorities for aggrieved buyers to seek redress, the Bill lays
down some basic ground rules in a sector where there were none. Now that the RS
committee has made its recommendations, the government should accept them
without delay to ensure early passage of the legislation. Home buyers today have no
protection. Once Parliament passes it, the law will bring succour to those whose
only recourse until now was pursuing civil, consumer or criminal cases in the court.
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1.1 Answer the following questions.
a) What would make the passage of the bill easier?
i. Examination of the bill in 2013
ii. Amendment of the bill
ii. The already submitted report
iv. Support of opposition parties
b) What does the drafty intend to bring?
i. Clarity in the parliamentary panel
ii. Transparency, uniformity and orderliness
iii. Better compliance
iv. More bargaining power
c) The idiom ‘green behind the ears’ means
i. inexperienced
ii. ignorant
iii. biased
iv. deaf
e) How does the bill ensure ‘better compliance’?
f)
What can the Home buyers now fall back on?
g) Which word in the passage means the same as:
help/ aid
Q.2
Read the following poem carefully.
To the Cuckoo
O blithe newcomer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice:
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?
While I am lying on the grass
I hear thy restless shout;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
About and all about!
To me, no Babbler with a tale
Of sunshine and of flowers,
Thou tellest, Cuckoo! in the vale
Of visionary hours.
Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing,
A voice, a mystery;
The same whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky.
To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen!
2
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And I can listen to thee yet;
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.
O blessed bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be
An insubstantial, faery place,
That is fit home for Thee!
Q3.
-William Wordsworth
2.1 Based on your reading of the poem answer the following questions.
a. Does the elusiveness of the bird evoke any feeling in the poet?
b. What is the ‘mystery’ associated with the bird?
c. Which ‘golden time’ does the poet wish to beget?
d. Pick out the option with the words used by the poet to give the bird the label of not
being subject to industrial life.
i. blithe, insubstantial, visionary
ii. faery, mystery, love
iii. invisible, insubstantial, visionary
iv. blithe, invisible, mystery
e. Find words from the poem which mean the same as:
i. enigma
ii. wander
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Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Every living creature has a time machine that regulates activities. It tells man or
animal when to wake up, when to sleep, when to slow down physiological
activities, regulating the body temperature and release of specific hormones at the
proper time. A few call it biological clock while others refer to it as circadian clock.
Its study is known as chronobiology.
The human body clock completes its cycle over a period of about 24 hours. In the
normal circumstances activities of nerve cells drive the clock. In day-to-day life,
one never experiences the rhythms of this state because the clock is always
influenced by time cues in the environment.
These cues, called, zeitgebers‟ (a German word meaning time givers), synchronize
the clock with the daily solar cycle. Daylight, physical activity, diet and social
behaviours are well known as zeitgebers. Hoe they influence the clock is still
unknown, but it is certain that all cues are independent. For example, regular cycle
of sleep and activity affects the time we eat, social interaction and even exposure to
daylight.
To prove that humans possess an internal, self-sustaining clock and do not simply
adjust behaviour in response to environmental cues, it was essential to create
‘Time-free’ environment. The first experiments of this kind were carried out in the
late 1970s and the early 1980s by groups in Europe and the US. During the
experiment, which continued for months, the subject chooses when he eats or
sleeps, but nor information is given about time- no TV, no radio, no social
contacts and no clock. It soon emerged that subjects placed in such an
environment do not slip into random habits but maintain a routine, powerful
evidence for the existence of an internal body clock in humans. All of the subjects
in the experiments, regardless of whether were interested in what they were doing,
tended to wake up at regular times.
3
Every person to an extent has an alarm clock fitted in the mind. Give it a try. Think
and set the time in your brain before you go to sleep. To your astonishment your
brain will transmit signals and you will wake up at the required time. Our biological
clock is set accordingly and that is the reason why counselors suggest students not
to disturb their clock during the exams as it disturbs the whole metabolism. The 24hour body clock should start at the regular time to have optimum performance
during the exams. If we are regular and keep our routine under check we hardly
need reminders for everyday activities.
3.1 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 4) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to
it.
3.2 Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words.
Q4.
Q5.
Section B Advanced Writing Skills and Grammar
As Editor of your school magazine draft a notice for the school notice board inviting 4
original entries for the forthcoming issue of the school magazine and the newsletter.
You are Shradheya Thakare/ Mitoshi Nandi. Word limit (40)
Or
Prepare a poster on “Clean Rivers” to be displayed in public places imploring
people to work actively towards cleaning the rivers of our country.
You happened to read the following newspaper clipping’
After an accident there will be a lot of debate, inquiry and pointing of fngers at
various people for the accident. The sad reality is that we collectively do ot
follow safe working practices, or have any safety measures in place by which
accidents can be avoided. Safety culture and safe working practices should be
emphasized and strictly followed be it on roads or at work places.
( Mailbag,The New Indian Express, August 13, 2015)
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In response to this letter write a letter to the editor of the newspaper expressing your
concern about safety at work places in not more than 150 words.
Q6.
Q7.
Write an article for your school magazine about the impact of revolution brought by 10
‘Information Technology’ in India in 150-200 words. You are Anirudha / Arpitha.
Or
‘True greatness resides in humility’. Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam will remain the true
example of humility. High position did not rob him of humanity and humility.
Prepare a speech on “True Greatness” expressing your ideas of a true leader to be
delivered on the occasion of the independence day celebration in your school in
150-200 words. You are Sam Ebey/ Keerthiga Nagarajan.
The following passage has not been edited. There is a missing word in each 4
line. Write the missing word along with the word that comes before and the
word that comes after in your answer sheet against the correct blank number.
Do not forget to underline the word that forms the answer.
Clearly, Science education, once commanded pride of place
among Indians, is becoming less popular the new generation.
What’s truly worrying is the quantity of science graduates
coming out but the quality. If we don’t halt the trend now,
in decade we may not have enough competent scientists
run our research institutions. Perhaps the reasons decline
Have more to do with simple economics science. There
Are just not enough jobs absorb scientists.
4
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Q8.
In the following passage there is an error in each line. Write the error and the 4
correction in your answer sheet against the correct blank number.
They did not have the surface glamour of
a.
Commercial cricket. But they presented a spectacle
b.
the planet had never seen before. Some 6500 men
c.
and women enacted 6500 individual stories
d.
of human endurance and triumph. The special
e.
Olympics World Games provided a stage for
f.
people with intellectual disability to showcase
g.
their talents. It was a platform where they could
h.
participate without fear or failure.
Q9.
Rearrange the following words and phrases to form meaningful sentences.
as/ the/ defined/ of/ rationality/ all/ may/ relevant/ habit/ remembering/ desires/ be/
our
unattainable/ an/ rationality/ doubt/ is/ complete/ no/ ideal
a.
b.
Section C Literary Text Books and Long Reading Text
Read any one of the given extracts carefully and answer the following 3
questions.
Q10.
A sweet face,
My mother’s,that was before I was born.
And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet ”
a.
b.
c.
What is the significance of ‘that was before I was born’?
What does the sea symbolize?
What does the phrase ‘transient feet’ suggest?
Or
“……….. And of this circumstance,
There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.”
a.
b.
c.
Q11.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Q12.
Which circumstance does the poet refer to?
Why is the poet deprived of words?
Explain “Its silence silences”.
Answer any three of the following questions.
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How does the author bring out the ‘divine beauty’ of his grandmother in “The
Portrait of a lady”?
With King Tut being finally laid to rest, nature was at rest too. Explain.
What does the poet mean by “laboured ease of loss”?
Why according to you did the boys return the horse?
Answer any one of the following in 120-150 words.
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Despite trials and tribulations how did the family accomplish their dream? What
greater message does it convey? Discuss your views in the light of the story “We’re
not Afraid to Die If We Can All Be Together”.
Or
Comment on the ending of “The Portrait of a Lady”.
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Q13.
“The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse” is immensely interesting for its 6
refreshing innocence. Justify the statement.
Q14.
Oscar Wilde’s characterization is at its peak in his attempts to criticize the 6
American and British conflict in “The Canterville Ghost”. Discuss your views.
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