A1. Read the following passage carefully. (12 marks)
If we would see our dream of Panchayat Raj, i.e., true democracy realized, we would regard the humblest and lowest Indian as being the ruler of India with the tallest in the land. This presupposes that all are pure, or will become pure if they are not. And purity must go hand-in-hand with wisdom. No one would then harbour any distinction between community and community, caste and out-caste. Everybody would regard all as equal with oneself and hold them together in the silken net of love. No one would regard another as untouchable. We would hold as equal the toiling labourer and the rich capitalist. Everybody would know how to earn an honest living by the sweat of one’s brow, and make no distinction between intellectual and physical labour. To hasten this consummation, we would voluntarily turn ourselves into scavengers. No one who has wisdom will ever touch opium, liquor or any intoxicants. Everybody would observe Swadeshi as the rule of life and regard every woman, not being his wife, as his mother, sister or daughter according to her age, never lust after her in his heart. He would be ready to lay down his life when occasion demands it, never want to take another’s life. If he is a Sikh in terms of the commandment of the Gurus, he would have the heroic courage to stand single-handed and alone-without yielding an inch of ground-against the “one lakh and a quarter” enjoined by them. Needless to say, such a son of India will not want to be told what his duty in the present hour is.
A1.1 On the basis of your reading of the above passage, complete the following sentences. Write the answers in your answer sheet against the correct blank numbers. (1 x 3 = 3 marks)
(a) Panchayat Raj is true democracy because ………….. .
(b) When purity goes hand-in-hand with wisdom there will not be any …………………
(c) A man of wisdom will never use ……………………in democracy.
A1.2 On the basis of your reading of the passage write two advantages of true democracy. (l x 2= 2 marks)
A1.3 On the basis of your reading of the passage answer the following questions: (2 x 2½ = 5 marks)
(a) The Panchayat Raj will eradicate untouchability. How?
(b) How will Swadeshi promote patriotism and a sense of national pride?
A1.4 Find words / phrases from the passage which mean the same as the following from the paragraphs indicated. (1 X 2 = 2 marks)
a). The act of making something complete or perfect.
(b) Without being forced.
A2 Read the following passage carefully. (8 marks)
1. An overseas poll conducted by the BBC has concluded that Sir Isaac Newton was the “Greatest Briton” of all time, followed by Churchill and Princess Diana.
2. Newton’s enormous scientific achievements seem to have influenced the outcome; while in the case of Churchill, it was his leadership qualities during World War II.
3. Ranking Diana third has destroyed the credibility of the whole exercise. Her charm, kindness and involvement in charitable causes contributed greatly to make her an icon all over the world. But that is where the admiration for her has to stop.
4. However, I was shocked to find Shakespeare, the greatest genius of all time, had been relegated to the status of a ‘runner-up’. There is also no justification to deny Darwin his rightful place, in as much as his contribution to biology is as significant as Newton’s is to physics. For all these reasons, opinion polls of this kind are unreliable, misleading and invite ridicule.
5. Take a look at Shakespeare’s enormous vocabulary. He employed 9,36,433 words in his writings, out of which 27,780 are different words. The average person uses less than 1,000 words in writing, a little more than that in speech and has a recognition vocabulary of about 5,000 words. Some of the greatest writers may have twice this capability.
6. Today, English has a total vocabulary of two million words followed by German as a pathetic second with 1,86,000 words, Russian with 1,36,000 words, and French with 1,26,000 words. Thus Shakespeare in the 16th Century used five times the number of words in modem German!
7. Shakespeare is the most quoted writer in history. His plays have been translated into 50 languages. In the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations containing about 20,000 quotations, Shakespeare alone monopolises a staggering 60 pages (10 percent). He coined 1700 new words. Many of the phrases and terms created by him are in daily use. Some of them have been used as titles for books and movies.
8. The vastness of vocabulary and the ability to see the relationship between words is one of the major factors in measuring genius. Shakespeare excelled any other human being in this aspect. His encyclopaedic knowledge of science, history, mathematics, classical literature, sociology, psychology, law, Latin, French politics, music and art acquired by studying books relating to almost every mental discipline and observing the habits and style of life of various sections of people all around him enabled him to draw ideas generously from all those sources for being. used in his plays.
9. The lyrical grandeur of his language covers every known figure of speech from metaphor to simile, hyperbole to hendiadys. The alchemic process in the crucible of Shakespeare’s brain transmuted emotions, like ambition, frustration, jealousy, greed, romantic love, joy, and sorrow he found all around him in people into the rich gold of his ever-lasting plays. Hence there is no emotion or activity or situation in the human condition that is not found in his plays.
10. Then what justification is there for any voter, whatever his profession, to place this extraordinary man who is “In judgement a Nestor / In genius a Socrates! In art a Virgil” in the position of a runner-up in a ranking of the greatest Briton ever.
11. Is it not ironical that a great poet like Coleridge had once equated Shakespeare to 500 Newtons but the voters who took part in the BBC poll have placed him far below Newton?
1 On the basis of your understanding of the passage above complete the following sentences. Write the answers in your answer sheet against the correct blank numbers. (8 marks)
According to the BBC overseas poll (a) ……, (b) …………and Princess Diana are ranked as first, second and third respectively in the list of ten greatest Britishers (2)
The author says the opinion poll lacks credibility because (c) ……. (1)
According to the poll conditions, Shakespeare (d) ……, which is unjust. (1)
(e) Four instances quoted quoted by the author in support of Shakespeare’s genius
are: (4)
i. ___________________
ii.___________________
iii.__________________
iv.__________________
Section B
B1. Given below is a portion of the diary entry of an astronaut. Complete the paragraph given below using the words and phrases. Write the answers in your answer sheet against the correct blank numbers. (1 x 5=5)
24th Nov.
moon - weightless - cannot be precise - on how body behaves astronauts adapt - balance sensors - confuse them - soon body balances - move no gravity - on return - time to reorient
The (a)___________in moon is totally new and unimaginable. One cannot say with any degree of (b)______________ Gradually, the astronauts are guided by the balance sensors. But many a time, (c)_______________The body in a short period learns to balance itself and (d) __________This can be a problem and so one may need (e) ____________ on returning to earth
B2. Given below is an extract from an article in ‘Newsweek’:
‘For years, I ate fast food because it was efficient and cheap. I had no idea I could be damaging my health’ says Ceasar Barbar, 56 ‘ maintenance worker with heart disease. Write a letter to the editor of the newspaper on the health hazards caused by junk food using your own ideas and ideas from the unit on ‘Health and Medicine.’ Your answer should be in about 150 words. (10 marks)
5. You are Rekha/Rohit. You have seen the following news item in the newspaper.
Video Games, Internet, cell phones and other high-tech gear are just part of growing up in a digital world. But parents are concerned about the amount of time their children spend with these and worry that it might be distracting and cramping academic and social development.
Using your own ideas and those taken from the unit ‘Science’, write an article in about 200 words describing both the benefits and drawbacks of using these high-tech devices. (10 marks)
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