Sample English Question Paper- Hsc Maharashtra Board
Subject: English Standard: 12th
Total Marks: 50
Section – I (Prose)
Q.1 A. Read the extract and complete the activities given below: (12 Marks )
At a corner of Sixth Avenue electric lights and cunningly displayed wares behind plateglass made a shop window attractive. Soapy took a stone and dashed it through the glass. People came running round the corner, a policeman in the lead. Soapy stood still with his hands in his pockets, and smiled at the sight of brass buttons. “Where’s the man that done that?” inquired the officer agitatedly. “Don’t you think that I might have had something to do with it?” said Soapy, with a friendly voice, as one greets good fortune. The policeman refused to accept Soapy even as a clue. Men who smash windows do not remain to chat with the police. They take to their heels. The policeman saw a man half-way down the block running to catch a car. With drawn club he joined in the pursuit. Soapy, with disgust in his heart, drifted along, twice unsuccessful. On the opposite side of the street was a restaurant of no great pretensions. It catered to large appetites and modest purses. Its crockery and atmosphere were thick; its soup and napery thin. Into this place Soapy betook himself without challenge. At a table he sat and consumed beefsteak, flapjacks, doughnuts and pie. And then he told the waiter the fact that the minutest coin and himself were total strangers. “Now, get busy and call a cop”, said Soapy. “And don’t keep a gentleman waiting.” “No cop for you,” said the waiter, with a voice like butter cakes and an eye like the cherry in the Manhattan cocktail. “Hey, con!” Neatly upon his left ear on the callous pavement two waiters pitched Soapy. He arose, joint by joint, as an acarpenter’s rule opens, and dusted his clothes. Arrest seemed now but an elusive dream. The island seemed very far away. A policeman who stood before a drugstore two doors away laughed and walked down the street.
A1. Global Understanding: 2 Marks
Correct the sentence that are false and rewrite them.
1. Soapy broke the glass of the shop window.
2. Nobody heard the breaking of the window
3. The policeman chased the soapy.
4. Soapy did not run away from the place.
A2. Complex Factual 2 Marks Complete the following giving reasons:
1. The cop did not arrest soapy for breaking the glass window because………
2. Soapy was disgusted with the police because………..
A3. Inference / Interpretation / Analysis 2 Marks
Discuss the meaning in the following expressions/sentences
1. It catered to large appetites and modest purses.
2. He told the waiter the fact that the minutest coin and himself were total strangers.
A4. Personal Responses 2 Marks
Narrate an incident when you bought/ate something and then found that you did not have enough money to pay for it. And your reactions.
A5. Language Study (Do as directed): 2 Marks
Convert the following sentences into the negative without changing their meaning:
1. The policeman refused to accept soapy even as a clue.
2. The island seemed very far away.
A6.Vocabulary: 2 Marks
Fill in the blanks with the correct nouns from the extract:
1. friendly………… 3. electric………..
2. large……….. 4. Callous……….
Q.1.B. Language Study 4 Marks
B1. Do as directed: 3 Marks
1. Most important of all, is the issue of who carries these cellphones in today’s India. (Frame a Wh-question to get the underlined part as the answer)
2. Attitudes have also changed. (Rewrite beginning ‘There…)
3. It is making a huge difference. (Rewrite as a rhetorical question.)
B2. Spot the error/s in the given sentence and rewrite the correct sentence: 1 Mark
I never accused she of breaking the glass, didn’t I?
Q 2 A Read the extract and complete the activities given below 12 Marks
To read a lot is essential. It is stupid not to venture outside the examination 'set books' or the textbooks you have chosen for Intensive study. Read as many books in English as you can, not as a duty but for pleasure. Do not choose the most difficult books you find, with the idea of listing and learning as many new words as possible: choose what is likely to interest you and be sure in advance, that it is not too hard. You should not have to be constantly looking up new words in the dictionary, for that deadens interest and checks real learning. Look up a word here and there, but as a general policy try to push ahead, guessing what words mean from the context. It is extensive and not intensive reading that normally helps you to get interested in extra reading and thereby improve your English. You should enjoy the feeling which extensive reading gives. As you read you will become more and more familiar with words and sentence patterns you already know, understanding them better and better as you meet them in more and more contexts, some of which may differ only slightly from others. Some people say that we cannot learn to speak a language better with the help of a book. To believe that the spoken language and written language are reason quite different things. This is not so.
A1. Global Understanding: 2 Marks
Based on the extract, pick out and write down the two correct sentences:
1. You must choose the most difficult books you can find to read.
2. You must choose what is likely to interest you.
3. You must read books for pleasure.
4. You should be constantly looking up new words in the dictionary.
A2. Complex Factual: 2 Marks
Write down the different steps that are suggested to improve reading
A3. Inference / Interpretation / Analysis: 2 Marks
Explain what some people say about learning the spoken form of language.
A4. Personal response: 2 Marks
What will you do to improve your English?
A5. Language Study 2 Marks '
Do as directed:
1. Some people say that we cannot learn to speak a language better with the help of a book. (Rewrite it using ‘able to’.)
2. It is extensive. (Make it a rhetorical question.)
A6. Vocabulary 2 Marks
Choose the correct options:
1. ‘You should not have to be constantly looking up new words in the dictionary. For that deadens interest and checks real learning’.
The underline word here means:
(a) Develops (b) diminishes (c) creates
2. ‘You should enjoy the feeling which extensive reading gives’.
The underline word here means:
(a) Covering a large area (b) supplementary (c) creative
Section – II (Poetry)
(Poetry comprehension and Appreciation)
Q.3 A Read the extract and complete the activities given below: 10 Marks
Song of the Open Road
Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.
(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens, I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me
wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill‟d with them, and I will fill them in return.)
-Walt Whitman
A1. Global understanding: 2 Marks
Pick out 4 lines to prove that the poet is prepared to enjoy every moment of his journey.
A2. Inference/Interpretation/Analysis: 2 Marks
The poet is a person who is free from all inhibitions. Discuss how the concept is expressed in the poems
A3. Personal Response: 2 Marks
‘Healthy, free, the world before me.’ Express your views regarding the above line.
A4. Poetic device: 2 Marks
Pick out a line from the poem that is an example of paradox and explain it.
A5. Poetic Creativity: 2 Marks
Write two to four lines of Free Verse on the topic ‘The road that leads to my college’.
Q.3.B. Appreciation 4 Marks
Read the poem and write an appreciation of it. You may use the following points.
1) About the poet and the poem 2) Central Idea/Theme 3) Special features 4) Poetic Devices 5) Your opinion
Indian Weavers
Weavers, weaving at break of day,
Why do you weave a garment so gay?......
Blue as the wing of a halcyon wild,
We weave the robes of a new-born child.
Weavers, weaving at fall of night,
Why do you weave a garment so bright?........
Like the plumes of a peacock, purple and green,
We weave the marriage-veils of a queen.
Weavers, weaving solemn and still,
What do you weave in the moonlight chill……
White as a feather and white as a cloud,
We weave a dead man’s funeral shroud.
- Sarojini Naidu
Section III– (Genre - Novel)
8 Marks
Q. 4. A. Complete the activities given below as per the instructions: 4 Marks
(1) Choose the correct writer from the brackets for the following:
1. The pilgrim’s progress (Daniel Defoe, Thomas Hardy, Henry Fielding, John Bunyan)
2. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Virginia Woolf, Mary Shelley)
3. Robinson Crusoe (Jonathan swift, Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, George Eliot)
4. Frankenstein (Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Agatha Christie, Toni Morrison)
(2) Rewrite the following statements in chronological order: 4 Marks
1. Mulkraj Anand R.k. Narayan and Raja Rao were the major trio who prevailed in the period after that.
2. The novel originated as the literacy from in England.
3. Indian novelists like Arvind Adiga, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai have dazzled with their writing.
4. Many stalwart novelists such as Charles Dickens, Walter Scott became famous.
Appreciate the creator