English Question Paper' 2018
AHSEC Class 12 Question Papers

Full Marks: 100
Pass Marks: 30
Time: Three hours

The figures in the margin indicate full marks for the questions.

SECTION A

(Reading Skill : 10 Marks)

1. Read the following passage carefully:

Among the natural resources which can be called upon in national plans for development, possibly the most important is human labour. Since the English language suffers from a certain weakness in its ability to describe groups composed of both male and female members, this is usually described as “manpower”.

Without a productive labour force, including effective leadership and intelligent middle management, no amount of foreign assistance or of natural wealth can ensure successful development and modernization.

The manpower for development during the next quarter century will come from the world’s present population of infants, children and adolescents. But we are not sure that they will be equal to the task. Will they have the health, the education, the skills, the socio-cultural attitudes essential for the responsibilities of development?

For far too many of them the answer is no. The reason is basic. A child’s most critical years, with regard to physical, intellectual, social and emotional development, are those before he reaches five years of age. During those critical formative years he is cared for almost exclusively by his mother, and in many parts of the world the mother may not have the capacity to raise a superior child. She is incapable of doing so by reason of her own poor health, her ignorance and her lack of status and recognition of social and legal rights, of economic parity, of independence. One essential factor has been overlooked or ignored. The forgotten factor is the role of women. Development will be handicapped as long as women remain second-class citizens, uneducated, without any voice in family or community, married when they are still practically children, and henceforth producing one baby after another, often to see half of them die before they are of school age.

We can enhance development by improving “women power”, by giving women the opportunity to develop themselves. Statistics show that the average family size increases in inverse ratio to the mother’s years of education – is lowest among college graduates, highest among those with only primary school training, or no education.

Malnutrition is most frequent in large families, and increases in frequency with each additional sibling. The principle seems established that an educated mother has heather and more intelligent children, and that this is related to the fact that she has fewer children. The tendency of educated, upper class mothers to have fewer children operates even without access to contraceptive services.

The educational level of women is significant also because it has a direct influence upon their chances of employment, and the number of employed women in a country’s total labour force has a direct bearing on both the Gross National Product and the disposable income of the individual family. Disposable income, especially in the hands of women, influences food purchasing and therefore the nutritional status of the family. The fact that the additional income derives from the paid employment of women provides a logical incentive to restrict the size of the family.

On the basis of your reading of the passage answer the following questions:

(A) Choose the most appropriate option: 1x4-4

a) Among the natural resources which can be called upon in national plans for development –

i. The most important is certainly human labour.

ii. The most important is possibly human labour.

iii. The least developed in certainly human labour.

iv. The least developed is undoubtedly human labour.

b) Without a productive labour force, including effective leadership and intelligent middle management

i. No productive work is possible.

ii. Entrepreneurs will incur heavy loss.

iii. Economic development will not keep peace with national movements.

iv. No amount of foreign assistance or of natural wealth can ensure successful development and modernization.

c) The manpower development during the next quarter century

i. Will be adversely affected by the threat of war.

ii. Will come from the world’s present population of infants, children and adolescents.

iii. Will be taken care of by the current emphasis on free education for women.

iv. Will be adversely affected by the country’s economic losses and political instability.

d) “Women power” means

i. Giving women the opportunity to develop themselves.

ii. Giving women the opportunity to fight themselves.

iii. Giving women the opportunity to dominate others.

iv. Giving women the opportunity to befool others.

(B) Answer the following questions briefly: 1x6=6

a) What will be the source of the manpower development during the next quarter century?

b) During which period is a child’s growth maximum?

c) Why can’t the first teacher be effective in some of the regions of India?

d) What will happen to development if the womenfolk are neglected?

e) How can we accelerate the rate of progress?

f) What is the difference between an educated mother and an illiterate mother?

SECTION B

(Advanced Writing Skills : 25 Marks)

2. You are the Proprietor of Grassland Resort, Kaziranga. Write an advertisement to be published in an English newspaper offering attractive discount to Holiday Packages. (Word Limit: 50 words) 5

You are Anil/Amrita, the Cultural Secretary of Tezpur Govt. Higher Secondary School. You are planning to organise a cultural programme. Write a notice for the school notice-board inviting names of students willing to participate. (Word Limit: 50 words) 5

3. You are Imran/Rita of Sunrise Academy, Guwahati. Recently your school celebrated the World Environment Day. Giving details of the celebrations write a report in 100-125 words for your school magazine. 10

You have witnessed a train accident in which a Delhi bound Guwahati Express got derailed. Write a report in 100-125 words to be published in The Sentinel, Guwahati. You are Jayanta/Juri.

4. Write a letter to the Editor of The Telegraph, complaining about the noise pollution in your locality drawing the attention of the Government to takes steps to check the same. Sign as Mohan/Anjali, Fancy Bazaar, Guwahati. 10

You are Sourabh/Rimpi, of North Lakhimpur. You have seen an advertisement for the post of Assistant Teacher in Mathematics to teach classes IX and X in Gohpur High School. Write a letter to the President of the managing committee of the school, applying for the job. Give your detailed bio-data as well. 10

SECTION C

(Grammar : 20 Marks)

5. Change the form of narration in the following sentences: 2x2=4

a) The Speaker said, “I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for giving me a kind hearing. When I arrived here yesterday I did not believe that I might meet so large a gathering”.

b) His mother exclaimed in sorrow that she had not a bit of bread to give him and that he had eaten up all the provisions she had in the house the previous day.

6. Change the voice of any three of the following sentences: 3x1=3

a) A Japanese firm makes these television sets.

b) An earthquake destroyed the town.

c) Whom did you laugh at?

d) He was taught this in his boyhood.

e) Shut the window.

7. Rewrite any five the following sentences using the verbs given in brackets in their correct tense forms: 5x1=5

a) He _____ (work) here since 2011.

b) I _____ (write) the letter last night.

c) He _____ (sit) in the library when I saw him.

d) If I were you, I _____ (not do) it.

e) The first World War _____ (last) for four years and ended in 1918.

f) The rubbish van _____ (come) again in the afternoon tomorrow.

8. Rewrite any four of the following sentences filling in the blanks with appropriate prepositions: 4x1=4

a) He is fond _____ playing cards.

b) She was annoyed _____ missing the bus.

c) Who is responsible _____ breaking this mirror?

d) We tried to dissuade her _____ marrying an old man.

e) They are thinking _____ moving to another house.

9. Rewrite any four of the sentences as directed: 4x1=4

a) This is one of the best colleges in the North. (Change it into comparative degree)

b) You are richer than I. (Make it negative without changing the meaning)

c) There is no smoke without fire. (Make it affirmative without changing the meaning)

d) We heard of her failure. (Make it a complex sentence)

e) He admitted that he had done wrong. (Make it a simple sentence)

f) Unless you work hard, you will fail. (Make it a compound sentence)

SECTION D

(Text books : 45 Marks)

10. Read one of the following extracts and answer the questions that follow:

a) “Perhaps the Earth can teach us

As when everything seems dead

And later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve

And you keep quiet and I will go”.

Questions:

a) What can the Earth teach us? 2

b) Why does the poet count up to twelve? 1

c) What will ‘keeping quiet’ help us achieve? 1

b) “No, in country money, the country scale of gain,

The requisite lift of spirit has never been found,

Or so the voice of the country seems to complain,

I can’t help owing the great relief it would be,

To put these people at one stroke out of their pain

And then next day as I come back into the sane,

I wonder how I should like you to come to me

And offer to put me gently out of my pain.”

Questions:

a) Where do these lines occur? 1

b) Why has the requisite spirit never been found? 1

c) What does the voice of the country people seem to say? 1

d) What will be of great relief for the poet? 1

11. Answer any three of the following questions in 30-40 words: 3x2=6

a) What increases continuously in ‘A Thing of Beauty’?

b) What is considered to be ‘an exotic moment’ in ‘Keeping Quiet’?

c) What are the ‘merry children spilling out of there homes’ symbolic of?

d)Who are referred to as the ‘flower of cities’ in ‘A Roadside Stand’?

e)Which things irritated the passers-by who stopped at the road-side stand?

12. Answer any five of the following questions: 5x1=5

a) What is the name of the blacksmith in “The Last Lesson”?

b) What is the ‘great trouble with Alsace’?

c) Why have Saheb and his family migrated to Seemapuri?

d) Who is the ‘Chota Sahib’ in the ‘Memories of a Chota Sahib”

e) How did John Rowntree find the weather when he arrived at Gauhati?

f) Where was Champaran?

g) Which country does Danny Casey play for?

13. Answer any five in 30-40 words: 5x2=10

a) ‘Will they make them sing a German, even the pigeons?’ What does this sentence suggest?

b) What are the two different world’s Firozabad?

c) What was the promise made by Anees Jung to Saheb?

d) What unusual visitor did Rowntree have in his bungalow one night?

e) Why did Gandhi choose to go to Muzzafarpur first before going on to Champaran?

f) What job is Geoff engaged in? Does he entertain wild and impractical dreams like his sister?

g) What kind of a person is Geoff?

14. Answer any one of the following question in 80-100 words? 1x5=5

a) Describe the bangle makers of Firozabad. How does the vicious circle of the Sahukars, the middlemen never allow them to come out of their poverty? 1x5=5

b) Relate Rowntree experiences of floods in Assam.

15. Answer any one of the following questions in 152-150 words: 1x7=7

a) Describe Tishani’s journey to the end of the earth – the Antarctic region, and his experience during that journey.

b) Discuss the forms of discrimination projected in the narrations of Zitkala-Sa and Bama.

16. Answer any four of the following questions in 30-40 words: 4x2=8

a) What was Zitkala-Sa’ immediate reaction to the cutting of her hair?

b) What did Annan say about his community to the narrator?

c) How has Antarctica remained relatively pristine?

d) What are Geoff Green’s reasons for including high school students in the ‘Students of Ice’ expedition?

e) What is it that draws Derry towards Mr. Lamb in spite of himself?

f) Why aren’t there any curtains at the windows of Mr. Lamb’s house?