West Bengal Board Class 12 English Core Sample Papers 2011

ENGLISH  SAMPLE  PAPER – 1
CLASS 12


1. Complete each of the sentences which follow by choosing the correct answer from the alternatives given : 1 x 4 = 4
(i) “The young lady stepped close to the expert” ___ The ‘young lady’ was
(a) Miss Bennet (b) Miss Smith
(c) Miss Sullivan (d) Miss Raby

(ii) The man who was sitting on the bench near the writer was a
(a) cotton merchant (b) tobacco merchant
(c) hide merchant (d) wheat merchant

2. Answer the questions which follow (each in about 30 words)
“The idea originated with Ram Saran” ___ What was the idea and how was it carried out ?


3. Answer the question which follow (in about 50 words) :
Q. What were the Christmas Day celebrations at Mokameh Ghat ?

Q. How does Nature lead us to an unknown world ?

6. Answer the question which follow (in about 50 worlds) :
Q. Bring out the significance of the title of the poem
“Where The Mind Is Without Fear”.

7. Answer the question which follow (in about 30 words) :
Q. How was the convict treated in the prison ?

8. Answer the question which follow (in about 50 worlds) :
Q. Sketch the character of Bishop.


9. Rewrite the sentences which follow as directed, without changing their meaning. 2 x 5 = 10
i) Move him into the Sun. ( Change the voice)

OR

You are asked to move him into the Sun.
ii) In many cases environmental plunder is an infringement of distributive justice (Use the verb form of ‘infringement’)

iii) ‘Into that heaven of freedom let my country awake’ (Turn into indirect)

iv) Nature deals with us and takes away our playthings one by one. (Turn into a simple sentence)

v) All of this was very primitive. (Make it negative)

B. Fill in the blanks with appropriate articles and prepositons :
   ____ me ____ young man ____ England who had recently joined ____ railway and who had been sent ____ me ____ study the system of work.

C. With each of the following wh−words, frame a question in such a way that the answer matches the given content :
i) How :
Content : Work at the start had been very strenuous for us.

ii) What :
Content : Environmental degradation has compromised many improvements.


11. Write a summary of the passage which follows in about 100 words :
The historian is a person whose questions are about the past. He is generally supposed to be a person whose question are exclusively about the past, about a past, namely, that is dead and gone, and in no sense at all living on into the present. This is a delusion. The historian cannot answer questions about the pastunless he has evidence about it. His evidence, if he has it, must be something existing here and now in his present world. If there were a past event which had left no trace of any kind in the present world it would be a past event for which now there was no evidence and nobody −− no historian −− could know nothing about it. The past which a historian studies is not a dead past but a past which in some sense is still living in the present. There are in history no beginnings and no endings. History books begin and end, but the events they describe do not.

ENGLISH  SAMPLE  PAPER – 2

Q.1. Complete each of the sentences which follow by choosing the correct answer from the alternative given :
(i) The Mohammedan passenger on the upper deck of the steamer was actually a
[(a) tobacco dealer (b) hide merchant]

(ii) Standing on  the  bench,  Swaminathan  could obs e rve   four  heads  wear ing
[(a) red caps (b) fur caps]

(iii) The doctor asked the Secretary to fill out a card for the patient for the  .
[(a) Soaping room (b) Shaving room]

(iv) The type of problem of the Narmada Dam Project is  . [(a) distributional
(b) financial]


Q.2. Answer any two of the questions which follow (each in about 30 words) :
(i) ‘These jars contain water ...’Who are carrying these jars with them and why ?

(ii) ‘Oh, Mani ! I beg a hundred pardons of you.’
– Why does the speaker beg hundred pardon of Mani ?

(iii) ‘You’ll have to go to the other chair’
– Who is the speaker ? Why does he suggest so ?


(iv) Why does Kalahandi occasionally make headlines in newspapers ?

Q.3. Answer any one of the questions which follow (in about 50 words) :
(i) ‘‘On this day custom ordained that I should remain in my house until ten o’clock’’
– What is the day referred to here ? What is said about the day ? Describe briefly.

(ii) ‘‘It is hot in summer and cold in winter’’
– What is the description about ? Briefly state what happened to the pupil who made such statement.

(iii) Why did doctor Follicle hesitate a bit for applying shampoo to the patient ?

(iv) What are the three main reasons, as detected by the authors, for being concerned about environmental degradation in India ?

Q.4. Which of the following statements are True and which are False :
(i) The moon is isolated from the stars as its origin is different from that of the stars in the poem ‘The Moon’.

(ii) In ‘Where the Mind is without Fear’ the word ‘where’ signifies an ideal place of bondage.

(iii) The poem ‘Nature’ is about the scenic beauties of nature.

(iv) In ‘Futility’ the old sun is kind because his presence helped life to sprout on earth.

Q.5. Answer any two of the questions which follow (each in about 30 words) :
(i) What for does the poet imagine the moon to be a ‘shapeless mass’ ?

(ii) ‘ into the dreary deserts and of dead habit’ – What is meant by ‘dead habit’ in the poem ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ ?

(iii) ‘‘... takes away
Our play things one by one.’’
– What do our playthings signify ? Who takes it away ?

(iv) In what sense Owen has used the word ‘futility’ in his poem ?

Q.6. Answer any one of the questions which follow (in about 50 words) :
(i) ‘‘Wandering companionless
Among the stars ...’’
Why does the poet trace out the moon as companionless even through she is surrounded by stars ?

(ii) ‘‘Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake’’
– What is meant by ‘heaven of freedom’ ? State briefly what kind of freedom that Rabindranath prays for his countrymen to achieve ?

(iii) What relationship does Longfellow show between Nature and man in his poem, ‘Nature’ ?

(iv) ‘‘O what fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all’’
– Why does the poet consider the toil of the sunbeams to break earth’s sleep fatuous in the poem ‘Futility’ ?

Q.7. Complete each of the sentences which follow by choosing the correct answer from the alternatives given :
(i) The name of the convict’s wife is
(a) Jeanette
(b) Marie
(c) Mere Gringoire

(ii) ‘‘They are sold, madam’’ Here they refers to
(a) the silver candlestics
(b) furniture
(c) silver salt cellars

(iii) Persome, you may leave us, this gentleman will excuse you. Here ‘this gentleman’ refers to
(a) the convict
(b) sergeant
(c) bailiff

(iv) The convict was sentenced to
(a) twelve years in the prison hulks
(b) ten years in the prison hulks
(c) eleven years in the prison hulks

Q.8. Answer any two of the questions which follow (each in about 30 words) :
(i) Why did the Bishop sell his silver salt cellars ?

(ii) What did the Bishop say to the gendarmes to save the convict from prison ?

(iii) ‘That is why they are left open’
– What does ‘they’ refer to ? Why are they left open ?

(iv) ‘There’s gratitude for you !’
– Whose gratitude is challenged and why ?


Q.9. Answer any one of the questions which follow (in about 50 words) :
(i) ‘My punishment is just, but oh God, it is hard, it is very hard’
Whose punishment is referred to here ? What is the punishment ? Why is it very hard ?

(ii) Describe the thoughts of the convict just before he steals the candlesticks.

(iii) ‘The Bishop’s Candlesticks’ is based on a famous novel by a famous foreign novelist. Name them. Briefly analyse how far the title of the play is significant.

Q.10.A. Rewrite the sentences which follow as directed, without changing their meaning :

(i) They did not think of my mother. (Change the voice)

(ii) I wish Persome would not lock the cuphoard. (Split into two simple sentences)

(iii) ‘Swaminathan, stand up’ said the teacher. (Change into Indirect speech)

(iv) I was responsible for the running of the steamers. (Rewrite using noun form of ‘responsible’)

(v) Always it woke him, even in France. (Turn into complex sentence)

B. Fill in the numbered blanks with appropriate articles and preposition :
(i) This pleased Mani greatly  the first time that evening he laughed,and laughed heartily too. He shook Swaminathan and gave such affectionate twist  his ear that Swaminathan gave long howl. And then he suddenly asked, ‘Did you bring  thing that I wanted ?’

C. With each of the following wh-words, frame a question in such a way that the answer matches the given content :
(i) When :
Content : Rajam shouldered his gun and fired a shot in the air.Mani was startled.


Q.11.(a) Write a letter within 120 words to the editor of an English daily expressing your concern at the price hike of everyday commodities.
[inflation shot to a 13 year high of 11.05%, Government taking measures to give middle class relief from high prices, urgent need to look into this problem]

OR

(b) Write a letter within 120 words to your friend describing the festival of your state you enjoy most.
[Name of the festival; when takes place; a brief description of the festival; your feelings]

Q.12.(a) East Midnapore got inundated by the rain for several successive days. Write a report in about 150 words about the miserable condition of the flood victims – Lakhs of people wading through 20 to 30 km of neck-deep water in search of shelter;
reluctantly having house; many got stranded leaving neither drinking water nor food ; rescue operation and distribution of food and drinking water by Government and NGOs.

13. Read the passage below and answer the questions which below :
Those who say that at the time of Gurucharan’s death his sicond wife was playing cards in the inner appartments are scandalmongers who would make a mountain of a molehill.

In fact the lady of the house was seated with one knee folded under her resting her chin on the other, absorbed in eating watered rice with raw tamarind, green chillies and a hot prawn savoury. When she was called ou, she left a heap of well-chewed drumsticks, and an empty rice-bowl, saying displeasedly , I don’t even, get the time to swallow, a couple of mouthfuls of rice. Meanwhile, after the doctor left saying there was no more to be done, Gurucharan’s younger brother Ramkanai sat down by his side and said gently, ‘Dada, tell me if you want to make a will’. Gurucharan replied in a faint voice,

‘Write it down as I speak’. Ramkanai took pen and paper and made ready. Gurucharan said, ‘I bequeath all my immovable and movable goods and property to my wedded wife, Shrimati Baradasundari’. Ramkanai wrote – but he wrote with reluctance. He had cherished the hope that his only son Nabadwip would inherit his childles uncle’s wealth and property. Although the two brothers lived separately, this hope had led Nabadwip’s mother to keep her son from any kind of employment, and to marry him off early. Moreover as if to spite her enemies – the marriage had borne fruit. But despite all this Ramkanai wrote down the will and gave the pen to his brother to sign it.

What Gurucharan wrote in a failing hand might have been his signature or just a few wavering strokes of the pen : it was hard to tell. When his wife arrived, having finished her watered rice, Gurucharan’s speech had failed. At this she began to weep. Those who had been deprived of the coverted property, said, ‘‘Crocodile tears !’’ But we should not believe them. Having heard the details of the will, Nabadwip’s mother rushed in and began an uproar, saying, ‘One’s reason fails when one’s dying. When he had such a treasure of a nephew.... ! [Adapted from Rabindranath Tagore, selected Short Stories]

(A) Complete each of the sentences which follow by choosing the correct answer from the alternatives given :
(i) Baradasundari was
(a) first wife
(b) second wife
(c) nearest neighbour.

(ii) In the will Gurucharan gave his property to
(a) Ramkanai
(b) Nabadwip
(c) Baradasundari.

(iii) When Gurucharan was at his deathbed, Baradasundari was
(a) playing cards
(b) finishing her lunch
(c) consulting with physician.

(iv) After hearing the will Nabadwip’s mother
(a) started shouting
(b) made arrangement of the funeral process
(c) was engaged in merry-making.

(v) Nabadwip was Gurucharan’s
(a) only son
(b) one of the nephews
(c) only nephew.

(vi) On being asked whether he would make a will, Gurucharan
(a) rejected the proposal
(b) appreciated the proposal
(c) remained  silent.

(vii) Having heard the intension of Gurucharan
(a) Ramkanai was happy
(b) Ramkanai was not at all happy
(c) Ramkanai called for Nabadwip.

(B) Answer the questions which follow (each in about 20 words) :
(i) What was Baradasundari doing when her husband was at deathbed ?

(ii) Why did Ramkanai write the will with reluctance ?

(iii) How was the signature of Gurucharan on his will ?

(iv) Why was Nabadwip kept out from any kind of employment ?

(C) Re-arrange the sentences which follow in their proper order :
(i) Ramkanai wrote the will with reluctance
(ii) Ramkanai’s wife did not allow her son to marry.
(iii) Gurucharan had no child to inherit his property.
(iv) Gurucharan wanted to make a will.
(v) Gurucharan requested his brother to write down his will