2017
ALTERNATIVE ENGLISH
Full Marks: 100
Time: 3 hours
The figures in the margin indicate full marks for the questions
UNIT – I
(Reading an Unseen Passage and a Poem)
When summer came, the sun hit Madras with a ferocity that made people flee the city. Rich people went away to the hill stations like Kodaikanal and Ootacamund. For me the retreat would be where my parents lived. My father was the headmaster of a government high school at Chennapatna in Mysore State which could be reached by a night’s journey on one train to Bangalore, and then on by another one, a slow puffing train which passed through a rocky landscape. My grandmother generally escorted me to Chennapatna when my school closed for summer, but she wasted nearly three weeks of my vacation in preparation for the trip. Her particular preoccupation at this time was the making of various sun-dried edibles out of rice and pulses, which would be fried and used as a side dish all through the year. She would also soak certain green legumes in salt water and sun-dry them for use out of season all through the year. All this was an elaborate ceremony, planned weeks ahead from February, when the air was a little damp. “In about ten days after the Shiva Rathri festival, there will be no mist and in must get things ready”, she would say cataloguing several items of preparation; first shopping for the spices and pulses. Fortunately, we had a cooperative consumer store occupying a whole wing of our home, which we could reach by a side door beyond the bathroom. Actually our house was one big unit which my grandmother had partitioned and rented out to different offices and stores and families, keeping only a kitchen, living room and my uncle’s upstairs room, for our own use. I did not realise at that time how much she depended on the rents for our survival. (Para 1)
My grandmother would select a quiet afternoon for visiting the store with her indent. When In returned home from school the floor would be strewn with gunny sacks and paper parcels. Somehow the sight of it filled me with delight. But when my uncle came home from college and noticed this activity, he frowned and made unpleasant comments, which upset my grandmother. She would retort hotly, and my uncle would say something more pointed in reply. I never made out what they said or argued about, although I watched and studied their faces keenly by turns, and tried to read a meaning. I only understood when she mentioned ‘Gnana’, which was my mother’s name. My grandmother would say, “Can’t go barehanded, I have to give Gnana something. She can’t prepare anything herself; she is so sick and week.” My uncle was a devoted brother to my mother and would not carry his objections further but, murmuring something vaguely, would disappear up the staircase. (Para 2)
My grandmother would soon have a battalion of helpers around the house, pounding and sifting and grinding and mixing and kneading on a large scale-her helpers were her friends, admirers, tenants, and paid servants. The house resounded with a variety of orchestration-the iron clad pounder crushing, the swish of winnows, the ceaseless roar of the grinding stone, and the chatter of people over it all. Grandmother would have pulled out great rolls of palmyra mats and spread them out on the terrace. Differently shaped edibles would issue from little brass hand-pressers, and be set on the mats, and left there to dry in the blazing sun; she allotted the task by turns to the younger members of her following to watch with stick in hand for crows and to drive them off. When my turn came, I sat in a strip of shade all afternoon and scared away the crows by screaming at them, and was rewarded with an anna at the end of the day. Apart from the money, I rewarded myself, in the course of my watch, by peeling the half-dry stuff of the mat and eating it raw till I felt ill. My uncle ignored the turmoil in the house, averted his head, and preferred to make no comment whenever he passed the terrace; but my grandmother fried some of her product for him at the end of the day, and he relished it when I carried a plate to his room. (Para 3)
Eventually jars and containers would be filled and stored away for distribution at the appropriate time to various members of the family living far and near. My mother’s share would be particularly heavy. “Poor thing, so many child-births, so sickly, can’t do a thing for herself”, my grandmother would keep saying to her friends. “She needs more help than anyone else. She’s helpless if I don’t help.” (Para 4)
My grandmother’s preoccupations were several and concerned a great many others. She was a key figure in the lives of many. She was versatile and helpful. She was also a match-maker; she pored over horoscopes and gave advice and used her influence to get marriages settled. I always picture her with a little spade or pruning sheers in hand, for all her spare moments were spent in the garden. She would carry on discussions on vital matters with her friends while her hands were busy trimming off unwanted branches. Some days, mostly in the evening, someone would be brought in howling with pain from a scorpion bite. Granny would first tell the person to remain quiet; then she would go to the backyard and pluck the leaves of a weed growing on an untended wall, crush it between her fingers, squeeze its juice on the spot where the scorpion had stung, and then make the sufferer also chew the bitter leaves. If the victim made a wry face, she would remark, “This leaf is Sanjeevini, mentioned in the Ramayana. It can save you even from the venom of the darkest cobra. Don’t make that face. Go on, swallow it.” (Para 5)
a) State True or False: 1/2x4=2
i. The writer belongs to a rich family.
ii. The grandmother used Sanjeevini to make edibles.
iii. The writer’s uncle was jealous of the writer’s mother.
iv. The grandmother depended on the rents she received from her tenants for her survival.
b) What were the mats on which the edibles were spread out to dry made of? 1
c) Where was the grocery shop from which the grandmother bought her provisions located? 1
d) With what did the grandmother make the edibles she prepared at home? 1
e) Where did the writer’s father stay? 1
f) Why was the grandmother partial towards the writer’s mother? 2
g) List any four preoccupations of the writer’s grandmother. 2
2. Read the poem given below and on the basis of your reading, answer the questions that follow:
The Shepherd
How sweet is the Shepherd’s sweet lot!
From the morn to the evening he strays;
He shall follow his sheep all the day,
And his tongue shall be filled with praise.
For he hears the lamb’s innocent call,
And he hears the ewe’s tender reply;
He is watchful while they are in peace,
For they know when their Shepherd is nigh.
a) Why does the poet consider the Shepherd’s lot sweet? 2
b) Mention some of the sounds that the Shepherd hears. 1
c) What makes the sheep feel at peace? 1
d) What does the Shepherd’s tongue speak of? 1
UNIT – II
(Poetry and Prose)
3. Answer either (a) or (b):
a) For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
i. Who is the ‘I’ referred to in the above lines? 1
ii. Who are the ‘they’ referred to in the above lines? 1
Or
What does ‘inward eye’ mean? 1
iii. Why is the poet in a ‘vacant’ and ‘pensive’ mode? 3
Or
Describe the scene that flashes through the poet’s inward eye. 3
b) For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:-
“Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,” he said.
i. Who is the ‘he’ mentioned in the above lines? 1
ii. Why did he smote on the door ‘even louder’?
Or
Who is the ‘them’ referred to in the above lines? 1
iii. Why do you think the ‘I’ had visited the place? Was he able to achieve his purpose? 3
Or
Describe in your own words the place where ‘I’ goes to meet ‘them’. 3
4. Answer any one of the following questions in about 80 words: 5
a) Describe in your own words the Autumn season as described by Faiz Ahmed Faiz in When Autumn Came.
b) State the differences Gabriel Okara brings out between the way people used to greet each other in the past and now.
5. Answer any three of the following within 25 words each: 2x3=6
a) Describe in your own words the sight that Wordsworth sees when he is wandering around ‘lonely as a cloud’.
b) For what does the poet pray to the God of May?
c) Write in your own words a description of the Listeners.
d) What is the difference between how people laughed once upon a time and now?
6. Answer any two of the following in about 30 words each: 3x2=6
a) How are the birds affected when Autumn comes?
b) What are some of those ‘muting things’ which Gabriel Okara says he wants to unlearn in Once Upon a Time?
c) How does Wordsworth personify the daffodils?
7. Answer any three of the following in 1 sentence each: 1x3=3
a) With what does Wordsworth compare the daffodils?
b) What does Faiz Ahmed Faiz mean by the ‘gift of green’?
c) Who accompanies the poet on his visit to meet the Listeners?
d) List any two of the different kinds of face that the poet has learnt to wear.
8. Answer either (a) or (b):
a) Some of us might be familiar with the simile about the ship that is losing one nut at a time … each step does not seem to be a significant loss in itself, but lose enough of them and the ship is surely going to sink.
i. What is being compared to a ship? 1
ii. In this comparison, what do the ‘nuts’ refer to? 1
iii. Do you consider this comparison apt? Justify your answer. 3
b) There is a danger of the world getting liberty-drunk in these days like the old lady with the basket, and it is just as well to remind ourselves what the rule of the road means.
i. What according to the writer does ‘rule of the road’ mean? 1
ii. What does ‘liberty-drunk’ mean? 1
iii. Narrate the incident of the ‘old lady with the basket’ which led the writer on to make this comment.
9. Attempt a character sketch of any one of the following in about 80 words: 5
a) Mrs. Bouncer
b) Mr. Cox
c) Pyotr Petrovich Milkin
10. Answer any two of the following within 25 words each: 2x2=4
a) How does Mrs. Bouncer explain the smoke in the room?
b) What do you understand by ‘charismatic animals’?
c) What is a blue book? Why does the writer read it?
d) Why did everyone expect Pyotr to marry Anastasia?
11. Answer any two of the following questions within 30 words each: 3x2=6
a) What were the topics discussed by the men who boarded the railway carriage that the writer was travelling in?
b) What ‘device’ does Pyotr decide to use to avoid getting hitched to Anastasia?
c) Who is Seattle? What message does he share with the people on economic development and conservation of biodiverse life?
d) How does Cox explain the word grumble to Mrs. Bouncer? What are some of the things he grumbles about?
12. Give the meaning of any five of the following words: 1x5=5
a) Biodiversity
b) Genetic
c) Biopiracy
d) Conservation
e) Ecology
f) Patent
g) Sustenance
UNIT – III
(Grammar)
13. Make sentences with any two pairs of words to illustrate the difference in meaning between them. 2x2=4
Accept, except; holy, wholly; rein, reign; fair, fare; band, banned; air, heir.
14. Fill in the blanks with the suitable form of the verbs given in the brackets (any three): 1x3=3
a) As soon as she _____ (arrive) please bring her to my office.
b) I enjoy ______ (watch) a good movie.
c) I ______ (study) English for six years now.
d) I ______ (return) from Shimla last night.
e) He would have done it if you _____ (tell) him so.
f) This teacher ______ (teach) in this school for ten years.
g) Did you ______ (see) him yesterday?
h) They are ______ (get) their house painted soon.
15. Add tag questions to the following (any four): 1/2x4=2
a) Rahim can cope with the situation, ______?
b) Ram knows that his father is in the hospital, ______?
c) You weren’t listening, ______?
d) I don’t think anyone will volunteer ______?
e) You have got a camera, ______?
f) Sita would like to get a scholarship, _______?
g) He won’t mind if I use his phone, _______?
16. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate prepositions (any six): 1/2x6=3
a) I come _____ a big family.
b) What is this called _______ English?
c) No evil can happen ______ a good man.
d) It is you who are to blame _____ your mistakes.
e) Throw the ball _____ the wicket.
f) Man doesn’t live _____ bread alone.
g) Women wear necklaces _____ their neck.
17. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate articles where necessary (any six): 1/2 x6=3
a) She bought _____ expensive necklace.
b) He went on a holiday tour to _____ Andaman’s.
c) They went for _____ walk.
d) The Taj Mahal is in _____ city of Agra.
e) He is _____ MA in History.
f) She is wearing _____ white skirt.
g) _____ Brahmaputra floods every year.
18. Identify five nouns and five adjectives in the sentence given below: 1/2x10=5
In Japan, some people grow miniature trees that have a famous history and an important place in horticultural art.
UNIT – IV
(Creative Writing Skill)
19. Write a paragraph of about 180 to 200 words on any one of the following: 8
a) India’s performance in international sports
b) Your favorite festival
c) Rhino poaching
d) My grandmother
20. Write a substance of Para 1 of the passage given in Question No. 1 7
Or
Develop a story from the given outline: 7
Boys playing near pond-sees frogs playing inside it-picks up stones-throws at frogs-competes with each other-who could hit most frogs-some rocks hit hard-frogs die. Finally one frog says-stop-fun for you-death for us.
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