2018
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)
Echo was a lovely nymph, who was so fond of the sound of her own voice that she seldom stopped talking. One day she met the goddess Juno, and talked so much to her that she was rebuked for chattering. Echo answered the goddess rudely and angered her.
“For punishment you shall lose your voice!” said Juno. “You shall never speak again except to repeat the last words of others! Go and hide yourself away among the hills, and do not dare to come forth and show yourself until someone bids you do so!”
Echo ran away in dismay. When she tried to speak she found that her voice was gone. It was only when she heard others that she could say anything – and even then she could say nothing but the last word she heard.
One day there came to the hills a beautiful youth called Narcissus. His body was straight and white, and his face was fairer than any nymph’s. His black hair curled over his broad forehead, and his bright eyes sparkled and shone. Eco peeped from behind a tree and saw him.
At once she fell in love with him, and longed for him to love her. But how could she show herself to him, for Juno had forbidden her to come forth from her hiding place unless someone bade her do so.
Echo followed the beautiful youth up the mountain. He heard a rustling noise behind him, and stopped. He looked round, but could see no one. On he went again – but soon stopped once more, certain that someone was following him.
“Who is there?” he cried.
“There!” answered Echo, repeating his last word.
“Who are you?” asked the youth, seeing no one.
“You!” answered Echo.
“Do not mock me!” cried Narcissus angrily.
“Me!” said poor Echo.
“Come forth and show yourself here!” commanded Narcissus.
“Here!” Echo answered gladly, and stepped forth in all her loveliness. But Narcissus was angry. He was very vain, and thought that Echo had mocked him. He paid no heed to her loving looks, and when she put her arms round him, he pushed her roughly away.
“I heard you mocking me!” he said angrily. “Why do you pretend to love me? You are only making fun of me, and doubt your friends are behind the trees, laughing. Go away!”
Sadly Echo obeyed him, murmuring “Away!” as she glided between the trees, wishing with all her heart that the proud youth might himself love in vain, and know what pain it was.
Narcissus went on his way up the mountain. Soon he felt thirsty, and coming to a clear pool, he lay down to drink from it. Suddenly he saw in the water the reflection of his own beautiful face – but he thought it was a nymph looking up at him from the pool, and straightaway he fell in love with his own reflection.
“Sweet nymph, between nymphs, will you not come from your pool and play with me?” he begged. The lovely face in the water moved its lips as he moved his – but Narcissus could hear no sound coming from them. He stretched out his arms into the pool but no sooner did they touch the surface of the water than the lovely face vanished.
He waited patiently until the water become smooth again, and then once more he leaned over. He smiled at the face below, and was overjoyed to see it smile back. He spoke again, and saw the lips move with his. But plead as he might, the nymph would not come from the pool.
Echo, seeing him talking to someone in the water, peeped over his shoulder to see who it might be. When she saw that there was only his own reflection there, she longed to tell him that he had fallen in love with himself. But she could not, for she could only repeat his last words. Then she became very sad, for she saw that her wish had come true – Narcissus loved in vain, for his reflection could never return the fondness he showed it.
The poor youth would never leave the pool. In vain he begged the nymph to come forth, in vain he smiled and stretched out his arms. All day long he lay there, and all night, for when the bright moon rode in the sky, he saw his reflection clearly, and spoke to it lovingly.
Days went by, and still Narcissus lay by the water. He neither ate nor drank, for he had forgotten everything save his love for nymph in the pool. He wept tears into the water, but when he found that sent away his reflection, and broke it up, he wept no more. He could not bear the nymph to go away.
Soon he grew thin and pale, and the nymph in the water did likewise. Narcissus was very unhappy. Echo too was miserable, for she knew that he would soon die – but she could say nothing to warn him.
One morning when the sun rose, the beautiful youth lay pale and dead. So white he was and so lovely as he lay there by the pool, that the gods themselves wept for him and his hopeless love. In pity they changed his body into a flower as white and lovely as himself – the little Narcissus that loves to grow by the side of water.
As for the poor Nymph Echo, she pined away in sorrow, until there was nothing left of her but a voice. You may hear still, among the hills, repeating your last words – but never again will she be seen.
a)State True or False: 1/2x2=1
i. Juno completely took away Echo’s power of speech.
ii. Echo’s friends were hiding behind the trees and mocking Narcissus.
b) Why did Juno curse Echo? 1
c) Why was Narcissus angry with Echo? 1
d) What did the gods change Narcissus’s dead body into? 1
e) What did Narcissus look like? 2
f) Narrate in your own words what happened when Narcissus went near the pool. 2
g)How did Narcissus die? 2
2. Read the poem given below and on the basis of your reading answer the questions given below:
Children’s Song
We live in our own world,
A world that is too small
For you to stoop and enter
Even on hands and knees,
The adult subterfuge.
And though you probe and pry
With analytic eye,
And eavesdrop all our talk
With an amused look,
You cannot find the centre
Where life is still asleep
Under the closed flower…
a)Find a word in the poem which means “listening without the speaker knowledge”. 1
b) Why are adults not able to enter the world of children?
c) The adults in the poem look at the children with concern/curiosity/a feeling of delight. Tick the correct option. 1
d) What do the children do in their world? 1
e) Describe the children’s world. 1
UNIT-II
(POETRY AND PROSE)
3. Answer either (a) or (b):
a) … it stripped them down to the skin,
Left their ebony bodies naked.
It shook out their hearts, the yellow leaves,
Scattered them over the ground.
Anyone could trample them out of shape
Undisturbed by a single moan of protest.
I. Answer any two of the following: 1x2=2
i. What does the word “ebony” mean?
ii. What is the “it” referred to in the above lines?
iii. What are the trees compared to?
II.Describe in your own words the leaves as portrayed in the given lines. 3
b) And I have learned, too,
To laugh with only my teeth
And shake hands without my heart.
I have also learned to say, “Goodbye”
When I mean “Good-riddance”;
I. Answer any two of the following: 1x2=2
i. Who is the “I” in the above lines? Who he talking to?
ii. What does “Good-riddance” mean?
iii. What does “shake hands without my heart” mean?
II. What are the different kinds of laugh that the poet talks about? 3
Or
What are some of the qualities of the modern man which the poet does not like? 3
4. Answer any one of the following question in about 80 words: 5
a) What impact do the daffodils have on Wordsworth’s life?
b) Describe in your own words some of the faces that a modern man wears as described by Gabriel Okara in “Once Upon a Time”.
5. Answer any three of the following within 25 words each: 2x3=6
a) Why are the daffodils compared to the Milky Way?
b) Who does the poet pray to and for what?
c) Describe in your own words the Listeners.
d) What according to Okara are the “many things” that he has learnt?
6. Answer any two of the following in about 40 words each: 3x2=6
a) Describe after Wordsworth the waves. In what ways are they similar to or different from the daffodils?
b) Describe in your own words the house to which the traveler goes to meet the Listeners.
7. Answer any three of the following in one sentence each: 1x3=3
a) What happens to the poet when he is in a “vacant or pensive mood”?
b) The birds sang about their dreams. (State True/False)
c) What disturbs the bird from its nest in the turret?
d) What does the father in “Once Upon a Time” want to be?
8. Answer either (a) or (b):
a) “You’re getting married, I hear!” said one of his friends to Pyotr Petrovich Milkin at the summer ball. “When are you going to throw your stag party?”
i. What is a ‘stag party’? 1
ii. How does Pyotr react to his friend’s query? 1
iii. Describe the situation which leads to Pyotr’s friend asking this question. 3
b) “What colour would you have a man to be, who has been setting up long leaders for a daily paper all right?”
i. Who says this and to whom? 1
ii. What is the profession of the speaker? 1
iii. What kind of a mood is the speaker in? 1
iv. What does “setting up long leaders for a daily paper” mean? 2
9. Answer any one of the following: (80 words) 5x1=5
a) Attempt a character sketch of Councillor Kondrashkin.
b) What is bio-diversity? Why is it important in our lives?
c) Describe in your own words the incident about the stout old lady of Petrograd. What is Gardiner conveying through this example?
10. Answer any two of the following within 25 words each: 2x2=4
a) How does Kondrashkin respond when Pyotr tells him that he is a runaway convict?
b) What does Gardiner mean when he says that liberty is not a personal affair?
c) What is bio-piracy? How can it be prevented?
d) List some of the complaints that Cox makes to Mrs. Bouncer at the beginning of the play.
11. Answer any two of the following questions within 40 words each: 3x2=6
a) Why does Pyotr go to Fituyev? What does the latter tell him?
b) What is a blue book? Describe very briefly the incident that occurs inside the railway carriage.
c) List three areas mentioned in “The Many and the None” where bio-diversity can be seen.
d) Narrate the series of incidents which led Box and Cox to discover that they were living in the same room.
12. Give the meaning of any five of the following words: 1x5=5
a) Suitor
b) Grumble
c) Effluvia
d) Charismatic
e) Farce
f) Alias
g) Protuberant
h) Dumbfounded
UNIT-III
(GRAMMAR)
13. Make sentences with any two pairs of words to illustrate the difference in meaning between them. 2x2=4
Meddle, medal; sole, soul; idle, idol; coarse, course; main, mane; lessen, lesson.
14. Fill in the blanks with the suitable form of the verbs given in the brackets: (any three) 1x3=3
a) I could repair the roof myself if I ________ (have) a ladder.
b) If I see him I _______ (give) him a lift.
c) Ice ______ (turn) to water if you heat it.
d) If I had known that you were in hospital I _______ (visit) you.
e) If you go to Delhi where you ______ (stay)?
15. Add tag questions to the following: (any four) 1/2x4=2
a) You found your passport, _______?
b) They couldn’t understand him, ______?
c) Neither of them complained ________?
d) Everyone warned you, _______?
e) You can swim, ________?
f) He is coming tomorrow, ________?
g) No salt is allowed, _______?
16. Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions: (any six) 1/2x6=3
a) He insisted _______ seeing the documents.
b) He is always ______ a hurry.
c) I am not very good ______ games.
d) He has been missing _____ two days.
e) The train goes ______ Delhi from Guwahati.
f) He threw stones ______ his attackers.
g) The house is ______ fire.
h) The situation was brought ______ control by the police.
17. Fill in the blanks with appropriate articles where necessary: (any six) 1/2x6=3
a) We shook our hands with ______ host.
b) There’s been ______ murder here.
c) I want to meet _______ Mr. Das who signed the paper.
d) _______ Youngest boy has also started going to school.
e) He was sent to ________ prison for six months.
f) He broke his leg in _____ accident.
g) This is ______ one-way street.
h) ________ Man is a reasoning animal.
18. Identify five nouns and five adjectives in the sentences given below: 1/2x10=5
On hot summer nights, Rohan and the other boys sleep out in the yard. They put up a tent in a dark corner, where the trees and bushes are thick.
UNIT-IV
(CREATIVE WRITING SKILL)
19. Write a paragraph about 180 to 200 words on any one of the following: 8
a) My favourite subject
b) Tea
c) What makes me happy
d) How I see myself five year from now.
20. Develop a story from the given outline: 7
Once upon a time – a old man and his wife – pet goose – laid golden eggs – Becoming rich slowly – became greedy – wanted to become rich quickly – Kill goose thinking gold comes from stomach – Disappointed – inside goose looks like other goose – They repent their greed.
Or
Write a substance of the passage given below: 7
Look round the room you are in and think of all the different kinds of workers that have been needed to make it what it is. First there are the walls. If they are made of bricks, a digger had to dig up the clay; then a maker made they clay into bricks and another one built them up into a wall; and a mover had to move the bricks from the place where they were made to the place where the builder wanted them.
Think of all the other makers who made the furniture and the windows, pictures, and different utensils-carpenters and artists iron-founders-and of all the engine drivers and carriers and perhaps sailors too who helped to bring these things to your house. Then you will see how many different kinds of workers there are, all busy in helping to provide the things that people want.
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