ICSE Board Class 10 English Core Sample Papers 2010

Sample Paper – 2010
Class – X
Subject –  English

Section – A [Drama – Julius Caesar] 

Q.1. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follows : 
Wherefore rejoice ? What conquest brings he home ? What tributaries follow him
to Rome. To grace in captive bounds his chariot wheels ? You blocks, you stones, you
worse than senseless things! O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome. Knew you not
Pompey ?

(i) Who speaks these lines? To whom are there words addressed? What type
of rejoicing is referred to in the extract? 

(ii) Who is ‘he’ referred to in the first line of the extract? What message does
the speaker want to convey to his listeners through these questions? 

(iii) What is the conquest referred to in the extract? Why has the conqueror not
got any territory to Rome by his conquest? 

(iv) Give the meaning of – What tributaries follow him to Rome. To grace in
captive bonds his chariot wheels? 

(v) What does the speaker think of his listeners according to the extract? 

Q.2. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follows : 
Decius : Most mighty Caesar , let me know some cause, Lest I be laughed at when
I tell them so. 
Caesar : The cause is my will. I will not come. That is enough to satisfy the
senate. But for your private satisfaction, Because I love you, I will let you know.
Calphurnia here, my wife, stays me at home. She dreamt tonight …….. . 

(i) Where are the speakers at this moment? What day is this? 

(ii) What did Calphurnia dream? How did she interpret her dream> How does
Decius interpret her dream? 

(iii) Wht other statements did Decius make to convince Caesar that he should
attend the Senate? How is it that Dacius has come on the scene at the
time? 

(iv) What is your opinion of Caesar at this point in the play?

(v) What reasons did Calphurnia state for not wanting Caesar to go the
Senate? 

Section – B [Poetry – Whispers of Immortality] 

Q.3. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follows : 
  Sternlawgiver! Yet thou dost wear. 
  The Godhead’s most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair. 
  As is the smile upon thy face. Flowers laugh before thee on bed. 
And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from
wrong; 
And the most ancient heavens ; through thee, are fresh and strong. 

(i) Who are the two different aspects of Duty that are shown in the first two
lines of the extract? 

(ii) What is the most beautiful thing that you see in Duty?

(iii) What have flowers and stars to do with Duty?

(iv) What do the last two lines of the extract suggest? 

(v) How is this passage different from the rest of the poem? What request
does the poet make to Duty? 

Q.4. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follows : 
  So shall thy chastened spirit yearn. 
  To speak from its blind prayer release, 
  And, Spent and pardoned, sure to learn 
  The simple secret of My peace 
  Will teach thee of My quickening grace, 
  Life is a prism of My light, And Death the shadow of My face. 

(i) When the soul is cleansed and chastened of all desire what does it speak?
What would be the state of mind of the soul? 

(ii) Who is ‘I’ in the fourth line of the extract? What is that person planning to
do? Why? 

(iii) What does God has to say about life and death? 

(iv) What is the supreme knowledge? When and where can this knowledge be
found? 

(v) What does the poem mean to you? 

Section – C [Short Stories – An Anthology of Short Stories]
 
Q.5. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follows : 
‘What shall I say to him?’ though Bikousky. ‘He isn’t listening. It is obvious that
he doesn’t attach any importance to his offence or to my arguments. What can I say to
touch him? The lawyer rose and walked about the study. ‘In my day these questions were
settled with singular simplicity, he reflected. 

(i) How were such questions settled in the childhood of Bikousky? What does
he say about such solutions?

(ii) What is the topic on which Bikousky has a dialogue with Seriozha?
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(iii) How did the mother of Bikousky save such problems? What do you think
about the solution offered by mother?   

(iv) What is advisable for an educator of today to do while scribbling on his
business paper? Give one incident from the story to indicate that Bikousky
loved his son? 

(v) What did the father do to prevent the son from scribbling on his business
papers? Give one incidence from the story to indicate that Bikousky loved
his son? 
Q.6. In what way does the author give a character sketch of his grandmother?