ALTERNATIVE ENGLISH
AHSEC CLASS 11 - QUESTION PAPER 2021
UNIT – I (READING AN UNSEEN PASSAGE AND A POEM)
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
Those who saw him remarked thus, "Lucky fellow! He has hardly an hour's work a day and he pocket ten rupees-what graduates are unable to earn! Three hundred rupees a month!" He felt irritated when he heard such glib remarks and said, "What these folk do not see is that I sit before the oven practically all day frying all this stuff..."
He got up when the cock in the next house crowed; sometimes it had a habit of waking up at three in the morning and letting out a shriek. "Why has the cock lost its normal sleep?" Rama wondered as he awoke, but it was a signal he could not miss. Whether it was three, four, or five o'clock, it was all the same to him. He had to get up and start his day.
At about 8:15 in the evening he arrived with a load of stuff. He looked as if he had four arms, so many things he carried about him. His equipment was the big tray balanced on his head, with its assortment of edibles, a stool stuck in the crook of his arm, a lamp in another hand, a couple of portable legs for mounting his tray. He lit the lamp, a lantern which consumed six pies' worth of kerosene every day, and kept it near at hand, since he did not like to depend only upon electricity, having to guard a lot of loose cash and a variety of miscellaneous articles. When he set up his tray with the little lamp illuminating his display, even a confirmed dyspeptic could not pass by without throwing a look at it. A heap of bondas, which seemed puffed and big but melted in one's mouth; dosais, white, round and limp, looking like layers of muslin; chappatis so thin that you could lift fifty of them on a little finger; duck's eggs, hard-boiled, resembling a heap of ivory balls; and perpetually boiling coffee on a stove. He had a separate aluminum pot in which he kept chutney, which went gratis with almost every item.
He always arrived in time to catch the cinema crowd coming out after the evening show. A pretender to the throne, a young scraggy fellow, sat on his spot until he arrived and did business, but our friend did not let that bother him unduly. In fact, he felt generous enough to say, "Let the poor rat do his business when I am not there." This sentiment was amply respected, and the pretender moved off a minute before the arrival of the prince among caterers.
His customers liked him. They said in admiration, "Is there another place where you can get coffee for SIX pies and four chappatis for an anna?" They sat around his tray, taking what they wanted. A dozen hands hovered about it every minute, because his customers were entitled to pick up, examine and accept their stuff after proper scrutiny.
Though so many hands were probing the lot, he knew exactly who was taking what: he knew by an extraordinary sense which of the jutka-drivers was picking up chappatis at a given moment; he could even mention his licence number; he knew that the stained hand nervously coming up was that of the youngster who polished the shoes of passers-by; and he knew exactly at what hour he would see the wrestler's arm searching for the perfect duck's egg, which would be knocked against the tray corner before consumption.
His custom was drawn from the population swarming the pavement: the boot-polish boys, for instance, who wandered to and fro with brush and polish in a bag, endlessly soliciting, "Polish, sir, polish!" Rama had a soft corner in his heart for the waifs. When he saw some fat customer haggling over the payment to one of these youngsters he felt like shouting, "Give the poor fellow a little more. Don't grudge it. If you pay an anna more he can have a dosai and a chappati. As it is, the poor fellow is on half-rations and remains half-starved all day."
It rent his heart to see their hungry, hollow eyes; it pained him to note the rags they wore; and it made him very unhappy to see the tremendous eagerness with which they came to him, laying aside their brown bags. But what could he do? He could not run a charity show; that was impossible. He measured out their half-glass of coffee correct to the fraction of an inch, but they could cling to the glass as long as they liked.
(a) State True or False: (\( \frac{1}{2} \times 4 = 2 \))
(i) Rama owned a catering industry for the customers.
(ii) The eatables on the tray were not at all tempting.
(iii) The person in the present context is an early riser.
(iv) The passage details on the activities of a charity show.
(b) Where was the 'establishment' located? (1)
(c) Why did Rama keep the lantern near at hand? (1)
(d) Enlist the food items mentioned in the passage. (2)
(e) Who is the 'poor rat' referred to? What did it' do before the 'prince' arrived? (1+1=2)
(f) How did Rama feel for the waifs? Comment. (2)
2. Read the poem given below and on the basis of your reading, answer the questions that follow:
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
(a) What are the two sounds hinted at in the poem? (1)
(b) The poem indicates a particular season of the year. What is it? (1)
(c) What do you know about the owner of the woods? (1)
(d) Explain the line "And miles to go before I sleep". (2)
UNIT – II (POETRY AND PROSE)
[Poetry]
3. Answer either (a) or (b):
(a) Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
(i) Answer any two: (\( 1 \times 2 = 2 \))
1. Name the poet of the lines given above.
2. Where were 'they' stretching?
3. Give the meaning of the word 'sprightly'.
(ii) Explain any three poetic devices used in the above lines along with their contexts. (3)
OR
How does the poet describe them? (3)
OR
(b) So, I have learnt many things, son,
I have learned to wear many faces
like dresses-homeface,
officeface, streetface, hostface,
cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles
like a fixed portrait smile.
(i) Answer any two: (\( 1 \times 2 = 2 \))
1. Who is being addressed in the given lines?
2. Identify a simile used in the above lines.
3. What does 'conforming' mean?
(ii) Pick up different sorts of faces referred to in the above lines. Enumerate them. (3)
OR
"As a satire on modern life, the poem mocks and ridicules some of the common behavioural patterns." Examine the above lines in the light of the given statement. (3)
4. Answer any one of the following in about 80 words: (5)
(a) Don't you feel that the poem, When Autumn Came presents nature as a negative, decimating force? Argue.
(b) Analyse the poem, The Daffodils as an illustration of the Wordsworthian dictum about poetry being "the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions recollected in tranquillity".
5. Answer any three of the following within 25 words each: (\( 2 \times 3 = 6 \))
(a) Why has the poet described solitude as being blissful?
(b) Explain the line "I wondered lonely as a cloud".
(c) Why did the speaker want to unlearn the muting things?
(d) What is "resurrection" in the context of the trees' withered bodies?
(e) How does Faiz Ahmed Faiz suggest the sociological dimension in the poem?
6. Answer any two of the following questions: (\( 3 \times 2 = 6 \))
(a) The lonely poet of the beginning finds his heart filled with pleasure towards the end. Explore the reason.
(b) Narrate what had happened to the birds in autumn.
(c) Why, do you think, the poet sees snake's bare fangs in the mirror?
7. Answer any three of the following in 1 sentence each: (\( 1 \times 3 = 3 \))
(a) Name the poetic autobiography written by Wordsworth.
(b) What is the gift of green?
(c) Who is Okolo?
(d) Match List-A with List-B:
List-A: (i) Wordsworth, (ii) Okara, (iii) Faiz
List-B: (1) Urdu poet, (2) English poet, (3) Nigerian poet
[Prose]
8. Answer either (a) or (b):
(a) It was pointed out to her that the pavement was the place for foot passengers, but she replied, "I'm going to walk where I like. We've got liberty now."
(i) Who replies with the words within quotations? (1)
(ii) Which time period is referred to by 'now'? (1)
(iii) What was pointed out to her? (1)
(iv) How did the author comment on the issue of liberty? (2)
OR
(b) ...it also means the tiger and the rhino and the elephant, charismatic animals that evoke awe and excitement, and which are used as 'flagship' species for conservation programmes.
(i) Who is/are the author/authors here? (1)
(ii) Why are certain animals called charismatic? (2)
(iii) Explain 'flagship' species. (2)
9. Answer any one of the following in 80 words: (5)
(a) Prepare a character sketch of Pyotr Petrovich Milkin.
(b) "..if trees, grass, herbs, creepers, etc., all grow then, won't there be economic development?" How do you reply to this?
(c) Discuss the major themes of the essay, The Rule of the Road.
10. Answer any two of the following within 25 words each: (\( 2 \times 2 = 4 \))
(a) What do you understand by "Hamlet's device" in relation to the suitor's trick?
(b) Why did Pyotr's friend ask for a stag party?
(c) Write a very short note on the title, The Many and the None.
(d) What, according to Gardiner, are the liberties to preserve?
11. Answer any two of the following within 40 words each: (\( 3 \times 2 = 6 \))
(a) Who is Hazlitt? What did he say about learning the fearsome instrument trombone?
(b) What is bio-piracy? How does it affect a country?
(c) How does Anton Chekhov deal with the theme of love and marriage in The Suitor and Papa?
12. Vocabulary:
(a) Meaning (any one): (i) embezzlement, (ii) appalled. (1)
(b) Synonyms (any two): (i) banality, (ii) cordial, (iii) chaos. (2)
(c) Antonyms (any two): (i) anarchy, (ii) dumbfounded, (iii) exclusive. (2)
UNIT – III (GRAMMAR)
13. Make sentences with any three pairs of words to show the difference: (\( 2 \times 3 = 6 \))
adopt-adept; sensible-sensitive; advice-advise; book-book; local-locale; hair-hare.
14. Add question tag (any four): (\( 1 \times 4 = 4 \))
(a) Each of them is attentive, ______?
(b) You cannot go there, ____?
(c) Stop fighting, ___?
(d) He hardly visits his old parents, ____?
(e) Let's not waste water, _____?
(f) Everybody is responsible for the loss of democratic values, ______?
(g) The culprits had not yet been punished, ______?
15. Fill in the blanks with appropriate prepositions (any five): (\( 1 \times 5 = 5 \))
(a) The path of our life is beset ______ difficulties.
(b) We cannot prohibit ourselves ____ getting dejected.
(c) Sometimes we do not understand sadness, that is _____ our reach.
(d) In extreme adversity, both our mind and body will break ____.
(e) Still, we need to carry _____ our responsibilities.
(f) Pain too is vital ______ our soul's enhancement.
(g) We are hardly aware _____ others' pain.
(h) During crisis, one should turn ______ strong philosophy.
16. Fill in the blanks with articles (any five): (\( 1 \times 5 = 5 \))
(a) Hrishikesh is _____ MBA.
(b) Just _____ hour ago the result was declared.
(c) He is one of _______ brightest students.
(d) But he needs to be _____ little careful.
(e) He thinks himself ______ Dilip Shangvi.
(f) I met ______ his teacher yesterday.
(g) He should study ______ few books in the library.
(h) His career will come to ______ close once he stops learning.
UNIT – IV (CREATIVE WRITING SKILL)
17. Write a paragraph in about 180-200 words on any one: (8)
(a) Covid-19 | (b) Your Favourite Poet | (c) Your Opinion on Online Class | (d) IPL in UAE
18. Develop a story from the given outlines: (7)
Three men resting under an apple tree—an apple fell—Adam: "Don't touch it, it is the symbol of sin"—Isaac: "Let me discover something new out of this."—Steve: "I can think of a new business with this fruit."—Argument—The tree: "Nonsense! First I must be here, otherwise all your arguments go in vain."
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