CBSE Board Class 10 English Elective Sample Papers 2005

SAMPLE PAPER 2005
ELECTIVE ENGLISH
CLASS 10

SECTION A - READING 20
1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow 8
ROMANCING THE RAIL
1 A couple of weeks ago, while detailing the many ways in which coping with the bleak
economy can actually better our lives, I touched upon the romance of train travel and
suggested that we would do well to introduce our children to its charms. I have to
confess that I was surprised by the kind of response this triggered from readers with
stories to tell of their own rail adventures.
2 Browsing through them reminded me yet again why trains have such a special place
in our lives. Well, perhaps not in the lives of a generation brought up on the dubious
pleasures of cheap air travel.
3 I still vividly recall every detail of my first such excursion, taking a train from Sealdah
station in Calcutta to visit my aunt’s tea garden in Assam. I settled down at my window
seat and even before the train had pulled out, I was burrowing deep into the pleasures
of Indian mythology.
4 But as the scene outside grew more rustic, even picturesque, my attention wandered
to the marvellous moving display outside my window. There were gentle rolling fields,
green and lush, more palm trees than I could count and an endless expanse of bright
blue sky.
5 Just then, a man entered my peripheral vision. Scythe in hand, he was intently cutting
down some tall grass in the fields. “Oh look,” I cried out to my mother, “It’s a farmer, a
real-life farmer!” A city-bred child, I hadn’t realised until then that farmers actually had
an independent existence outside of my story books.
6 That wasn’t the only discovery I made in the course of that first train journey or the many
others to follow. Gazing out of the train window as I travelled across the country, I was
introduced to a new India that was far removed from the bland boundaries of my middleclass urban existence. And I like to believe today that this made me more aware of the
complexities of the society that we live in.
Seema Goswami
(337 words)
No. Questions Marks6
1.1 On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions 8
(a) Readers response to her suggestions made the writer realise _____________. 1
(b) The pleasure/joys of travelling by train would not be appreciated by __________. 1
(c) The writer was lured away from the pleasures of Indian mythology when
__________________ . 1
(d) The two discoveries made during the train journey were 2
(i) _________________________.
(ii) _________________________.
(e) Travelling by train, enhanced the writer’s awareness of ____________ 1
(f) While travelling by train, the writer’s time was spent 2
(i) ______________________.
(ii)______________________.
Q 2. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow 12
SUMMER BREAKS
(1) Do children really need such long summer breaks, was a question posed by some
experts recently. Apparently, such a long break disrupts their development and comes
in the way of their learning process. Let’s get them back to their books, is perhaps the
expert view, if not in so many words. One would have thought the children are doing
too much during their vacations and not too little, given the plethora of classes, camps
and workshops involving swimming, art, personality development, music, computers
and the like that seem to cram their calendar. Even the trips taken in the name of
holidays seem laden with exotic destinations and customized experience packed into
a short period of time. We can do Europe in ten days and Australia in a week and
come back armed with digital memories and overflowing suitcases. Holidays are in
some ways, no longer a break but an intensified search for experience not normally
encountered in everyday life.
(2) It is a far cry from summer holidays one experienced while growing up. For holidays
every year meant one thing and one thing alone - you went back to your native place,
logged in with the emotional headquarters of your extended family and spent two months
No. Questions Marks7
with a gaggle of uncles, aunts and first and second cousins. The happiest memories
of the childhood of a whole generation seem to be centred around this annual ritual of
homecoming and of affirmation. We tendered tacit apologies for the separateness
entailed in being individuals even as we scurried back into the cauldron of community
and continuity represented by family. Summer vacation was a time sticky with oneness, as who we were and what we owned oozed out from our individual selves into a
collective pot.
(3) Summer was not really a break, but a joint. It was the bridge used to re-affirm one’s
connectedness with one’s larger community. One did not travel, one returned. It was
not an attempt to experience the new and the extraordinary but one that emphatically
underlined the power of the old and the ordinary. As times change, what we seek from
our summer breaks too has changed in a fundamental way. Today, we are attached
much more to the work and summer helps us temporarily detach from this new source
of identity. We refuel our individual selves now; and do so with much more material
than we did in the past. But for those who grew up in different times, summer was the
best time of their lives.
(418 Words)
Source : The Times of India
2.1 Complete the following sentences taking help from text 4
(a) Experts question the summer breaks given to children because breaks _______. 1
(b) Students are kept busy during the summer vacation ______________. 1
(c) The writer’s happiest memories of childhood were centred around ___________ 1
(d) Summer break in the present times are a way of _______________. 1
2.2 Fill in the blanks using one word only. 4
The realization that children’s summer breaks are (a) ________________ with a
plethora of activities makes one conclude that they are doing (b) _____________.
Holidays have now turned into a (c) ___________________ for new experiences.
These are far removed from the times when summer breaks were a time of
(d) _____________ with the extended family.
No. Questions Marks8
2.3 Find words/phrases which mean the same as 4
(i) clearly seen or understood (para 1) 1
(ii) excess (para 1) 1
(iii) state  as a fact, declare formally (para 2) 1
(iv) beyond what is usual  (para 3) 1
SECTION B – WRITING 30
Q. 3 You are Saurabh / Sapna Gupta, the Sports Captain of Birla Public School,
New Delhi. Draft a notice informing the members of the School football team
about a special coaching camp that is being organised in the school
premises during the summer vacations. Inform the team members of the
presence of eminent Indian Footballers during the duration of the Camp. Write
the notice in not more than 50 words.
Q. 4 Rani / Rakesh visited Ranikhet during summer vacation and experienced oneness with nature. He/she decided to send a postcard to a friend describing
the beauty and serenity of this picturesque hill station and advising her/him to
plan a trip to Ranikhet in the near future. Write the postcard in not more than
50 words.
No. Questions Marks
5
59
No. Questions Marks
Q. 5 You are Rohan / Ragini. During a visit to Mumbai you happened to visit the 10
sets of a television reality show featuring children. The long shooting hours
made you wonder whether the children were losing their precious childhood
years, which should have been spent enjoying a carefree life in the lap of
nature rather than satisfying the desires of over ambitious parents and
contributing to the family income. Write a letter to the Editor of a leading National daily expressing your concern in not more than 150 words. Take ideas
from the hints given below :
• Loss of innocence
• Neglect of Studies
• Overriding parental ambition.
• Burdened with responsibilities at tender age
Q. 6 Over the years there has been a steady increase in the number of students 10
from different towns and cities of India seeking admission in colleges in the
metropolitan cities. As a consequence, colleges in the metros have failed to
accommodate the rising number of students due to severe shortage of seats.
Write an article for your school magazine drawing attention to the anxiety and
pressure faced by students during admission time, using your own ideas and
ideas from the visual given below. Suggest ways to combat the shortage of
seats. Write the article in about 200 words.You are Mohan / Mohita , a student
of AKS International school, Agra.10
No. Questions Marks
SECTION C - GRAMMAR 20
Q. 7 Look at the notes given below and complete the paragraph that follows. 4
Do not add any new information. Write the answers against the correct blank
numbers in your answer sheet.
Russian Scientist – evacuate – research station – built – ice floe – drift – western – Arctic ocean – global  warming – melt – ice early – force – left – ahead of
schedule
According to newspaper reports, Russian scientists (a) ___________________ a 1
research station. The research station (b) ________________ on an ice floe 1
drifting in the western Arctic Ocean. Global warming is (c) _______________ the 1
Scientists to (d) __________________ ahead of schedule, because of early 1
melting of ice.
Q. 8 In the following paragraph, one word has been omitted from each line. 4
Write the missing word along with the word that comes before and the word
that comes after it in your answer sheet against the correct blank number.
Ensure that the word that forms your answer is underlined.11
No. Questions Marks
Not  a mood to eg. Not in a
waste time the University reopens, (a)
the Dyal Ram College, affiliated to Delhi
University is organizing orientation (b)
program the Freshers on Monday. (c)
The session is organized (d)
for two days before new (e)
session kicks. The college (f)
wants organize the orientation session (g)
because they want to start off
regular classes from very first (h)
day.
Q. 9 In the passage given below, fill in each blank with one word only. Write the 4
correct word in your answer sheet against the correct blank numbers.
After a tepid (a) _______________ half, this year car-makers are planning
(b) _____________ new launches in the (c) ____________ months, hoping
(d) _________________ will bring buyers back to a market that has seen demand
(e) ______________ amid rising cost (f) ______________ finance. The headline
grabber (g) _______________ to be Tata’s Nano-the (h) ____________ cheapest
car.
Q. 10 Read the conversation given below and complete the passage that follows. 4
Write the answers against the correct blank numbers. Do not copy the whole
sentences.
Karan : Are you going to attend Vikram’s birthday party ?
Rohit : I am not sure if my mother will permit me to go .
Karan : You can tell your mother that all of us are going to the party.
Rohit : She knows that all my friends are going, but she also wants me to do well in
tomorrow’s English unit test.
Karan asked Rohit (a) _______________ attend Vikram’s birthday party. Rohit replied that (b) ________________ him to go. Karan advised Rohit  (c) ________
were going to the party. Rohit told Karan that his mother was aware that all his friends12
No. Questions Marks
were going but (d) _____________.
Q. 11 Look at the newspaper items given below. Use the information in the Head- 4
lines to complete the paragraphs. Write the answers against the correct blank
numbers in your answer sheet.
(a) Two pilgrims killed in Amarnath shrine stampede 1
Two Pilgrims to _____________ in a stampede near the cave.
(b) Hundreds of US N-parts Lost 1
The US military __________ sensitive nuclear missile components.
(c) Dead fish flood Satluj-Beas Canal 1
Drinking water supply to several areas in Punjab has been stopped after
__________________ dead fish.
(d) Ribbery undergoes surgery successfully 1
Berlin : France midfielder Franck Ribbery _________________ on his
injured left ankle on Thursday.
SECTION D - LITERATURE 30
Q. 12 Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. Write the 3
answers in your answer sheet in one or two lines only. Number the answers
correctly.
O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.
(a) Which season of the year is depicted in the poem? 1
(b) Identify the figure of speech in the first line. 1
(c) Explain like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing. 1
OR13
No. Questions Marks
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
(a) Why have the candles and the moon been referred to as ‘liars’  ? 1
(b) Why does the woman turn her back to the mirror ? 1
(c) Explain ‘ an agitation of hands’. 1
Q. 13 Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. Write the 3
answers in your answer sheet in one or two lines only. Number the answer
correctly.
Ten hours of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Parting with his poison – flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room-
(a) What had driven the scorpion to take shelter beneath a sack of rice? 1
(b) Explain “flash of diabolic tail”. 1
(c) What happened to poet’s mother after being stung by the scorpion? 1
OR
“Now the nightingale, inspired
Flushed with confidence, and fired
with both art and adoration,
Sang and was a huge sensation.”
a) What had inspired the nightingale? 1
b) How do we know she was a huge sensation? 1
c) Did she remain a huge sensation? Give reasons for your answer. 1
Q. 14 The peasants in ‘ Night of the Scorpion ‘ are ignorant , but their hearts are 4
full of love and compassion. Comment. Attempt in 50-75 words.
OR
Sharing his grief with the wedding - guest helps alleviate the pain of the 4
ancient mariner. Comment. Attempt in 50 - 75 words.
Q.15 Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow14
No. Questions Marks
This dream is all amiss interpreted ;
It was a vision fair and forturnate
(a) Who speaks these lines and to whom are they addressed ? Who had 2
misinterpreted the dream ?
(b) What is the speaker’s interpretation of the dream ? 2
Q.16 ‘The Christmas Carol’ depicts the transformation of a selfish miser into a 4
kind and benevolent man . Comment.
OR
How does Charles Dickens bring out the spirit of Christmas in
‘The Christmas Carol’ ?
Q.17 ‘We were in the war too but we were children’. What does the narrator 4
mean by this statement ?
OR
Why were the scientists unhappy with Ch-tsal? 4
Q.18 Imagine you are Babuli’s wife. Write a diary entry expressing your 8
reactions once Babuli informs you of his decision of giving his share
of land to his elder brother.