CLASS 11 RETEST EXAM HALF YEARLY

HALF YEARLY   (RETEST) 

Sub: English Core

Class:  XI

Subject : English Core                                                                           M.M: 80

Class : XI                                                                                                         Time: 3 hrs

General Instructions:

1. The paper is divided into three sections- A, B, and C. All the sections are compulsory

Section A  : Reading -20 marks                                                                                  

Section B  : Writing & Grammar  -30 marks

Section C  : Literature and Long Reading Text –30 marks

2. Separate   instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.

3. Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.

4. Please write down the serial number of the question in the answer sheet before attempting it.

Section A (Reading) 20 marks

1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow it by choosing the correct options. (1 x 6 = 6 Marks)

Time was when even wild horses could not drag me within miles of a barber’s shop or salon as they are called nowadays. Those were days when hippie cut held sway and a close cropped guy was an exception. Yet, even in those days civilization was measured by the length of your locks and I was no exception. Much water has flown under the bridge since then in recent times I begin to yearn for barber’s ministration the moment my hair kiss my ears. But then there is another reason for this yearning and that is my barber Salim. He is more educated than me, having done his masters in literature with a first class first, capable of quoting Chaucer & Byron with equal felicity as he could Raja Rao and Narayana. He had been an English Professor for a couple of years but when his father, who ran the salon, kicked the bucket he found that it was good economics to make a switchover.

Salim’s salon was a salon with a difference. A big sign board announced that Politics was a taboo. Salim once enlightened me on this, recalling that he had sent a customer packing though only half of his hair had been cut because he had dared to take a political stand, which to add insult to injury was contrarian to Salim’s view point I once asked him, “Don’t you miss all those students whom you were teaching English Literature. I have heard a couple of them say that you were the best among the lot.” “Not at all” said Salim without batting an eyelid, “they might no longer be my students but they are my customers now. And I do manage to clear a doubt or two when they came for a sitting”. ft was then that I realised that the barber’s itch for literature had not dampened one bit though combs and scissors had replaced his original tools of trade (C.V. Aravind)

Answer the following questions by choosing the best option from the ones given below.

(a) In earlier days civilization was measured by

(i) Wild horses

(ii) Length of hair locks

(iii) Number of cropped guys

(iv) Number of salons in the town

(b) Salim switched over from professor to a barber because

(i) Of his family pressure

(ii) Of his passion for this profession

(iii) Of the advice of his students

(iv) It was good economics to make a switchover

(c) Salim considered politics

(i) To be having liberality

(ii) To be a taboo

(iii) He had no viewpoint about politics

(iv) To be good and essential for everyone

(d) The word that means the same as ‘Kicked the bucket’

(i) To harm as well as humiliate

(ii) To show no surprise or concern

(iii) Past events that are over or done with

(iv) Died

(e) Was Salim still in touch with his students ?

(i) No, he was not in contact with them

(ii) Yes, he met them occasionally but never solved their problems.

(iii) He used to take extra sitting / extra classes for them.

(iv) His students were his customers and he used to solve their doubts.

(f) The writer often thought about Salim as he

(i) Was more educated

(ii) Had received his masters degree in first class

(iii) Was well versed with Indian an well as English Literature

(iv) All the above

1.2.Answer the following questions : (1 x 4 = 4 Marks)

(i) Why was it an exception to find a close cropped guy ?

(ii) Why did the writer get his hair cut frequently ?

(iii) Why was Salim’s salon with a difference ?

(iv) Salim did not miss his old students. Why ?

1.3. Which words in the passage mean the same as the following : (2 Marks)

(i) help or care (para 1)

2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow : (8 Marks)

1. The international military, political, economic and demographic crisis of the seventeenth century had its social aspects too. The later sixteenth and earlier seventeenth centuries saw the climax of a unique wave of social violence. This was the great surge of witch-hunting, the witch craze as it is often called, which peaked between 1550 and 1650. Medieval and early modern witches sometimes called “wise women” or “cunning men,” were probably most often herb healers who combined spells and charms with their folk remedies. Most were women (though about a fifth were men), and more were old than young. Those accused of witchcraft frequently came from the marginal elements of society : beggars, poor widows without families, midwives (commonly blamed for high infant mortality). They were often outsider in other ways-quarrelsome neighbours, people known to be disrespectful of authority, emotionally disturbed people. Only when a local witch-hunt was in full cry did suspicion reach as high as the middle or upper classes of society.

2. European views of witchcraft had undergone a drastic transformation in the fifteen century. The Inquisition had decided that witches were actually agents of Satan and as such a major threat to Christendom. Books like the ‘Hammer of the Witches’ (1487) by Heinrich Kraemer and Johan Springer spread the notion that these local weavers of spells and cures had gained their magical powers by swearing allegiance to the Devil. In return, they had received “familiars” demons in the guise of animals, to do their will, as well as the power traditionally assigned to witches : the ability to conjure up stroms, ruin crops, kill livestock, cause illness or death in humans, and transform themselves into animals. Satan’s servants were also believed to rub themselves with a salve that allowed them to fly through the air to the Witches Sabbath, where they paid obscene homage to the Devil, feasted danced, and flung themselves into orgiastic sex in defiance of all the laws of God man.

3. Using torture to gain confessions to these crimes, both ecclesiastical and civil courts burned or hanged tens of thousands of alleged witches during the 1500s and 1600s. This savage persecution has been interpreted in many ways. It has been seen as an attempt to suppress a genuine witch cult (a view not now generally accepted), as scapegoating of social outsiders made to take the blame for misfortunes like illness or had harvests, or simply as a form of mass hysteria. The witch craze has also been characterized as an expression of widespread male hatred and fedar of women. Some scholars see the willingness to believe in a diabolical conspiracy of witches as a product of a feverish religious temper. Perhaps three-quarter of the persecutions occurred in the German states, the swill cantons, and France, all areas of intense religious conflict, and as Reformation religiosity waned, this brutal campaign against the “witches” also came to an end.

(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make note on it using heading and sub headings. Use recoginsable abbreviations where necessary. Give a title to your Note Making.

(b) Find the words from the passage-which mean the same as the following.

(i) At height (para 1)

(ii) Dealing with matters in disgusting way (para 2)

(iii) Of the Christrian (para 3)

Writing section                                               30 marks

3. Your are Rita/Rani of Army Public School, Delhi. Design a poster for literary festival to be organised in your school by the literary club during 'Literary week', campaign (5 Marks)

                                                                        or

Your father, a resident of 15 B, Vasant Vihar is transferred to Pune. He wants to sell the electronic goods like T. V., A.C. and music player write an advertisement for the sale in the columns of the time of India. (5 Marks)

4. You are Abhinav/ Aardhana of Rohini. You are appalled to read the survey reports of UNICEF which depicts the miserable condition of millions of children in India. You feel that educated and rich children can play a vital role in changing their attitude towards education and health. Write an article on the topic role of children in the development of society in about 150-200 words. (8 Marks)

or

Your friend Niharika was asked to write a story to participate in 'National story writing contest.' But she could not complete the story as she fell it. Complete her story in about 150-200 words on the basis of the beginning given here. Kiran was wide awake. She tried to sleep but could n't, as per parents were away from home and her maid had to leave early to go to the doctor. She switched on T. V. but suddenly.......................................

5. You are Preeti/Ajay, head of school examination committee of SKV, Mangolpuri you want to placed on order for supply of some articles with Gupta stationers, Daryaganj, Place the order to the dealers regarding stationery items required for the exams. (7 Marks)

 or

Copyright © 2014 CBSE-SPOT You are Raveena/Ravi from Pitam Pura you read the advertisement for the post of coaches for Junior girls and Junior boys table tennis tournaments. Write a letter to the principal secretary of Rohini Sports Club applying for the job giving your complete Bio Data. (7 Marks)

SECTION C-(Grammar)                                              (10)

Q.3 There is an error in each line of the following paragraph. Find and write the       

        incorrect word and   the correction as given in the example against the correct

          blank no. in your answer sheets.                                                                   (1x4=4 Marks)

			Incorrect	Correct
.	Four suspects, who has		Has	have
	been  hold in connection with	a)	________	________
	the kidnapping or murder	b)	________	________
	of Adnan Dede, have confess	c)	________	________
	to his interrogators.	d)	________	________

                                                       

Q4.Complete the following passage with suitable Determiners                                                1x6=06

            Our Principal, (a)………………………..man of honesty and integrity . He does not accept (b)…………………gifts from students, Teachers or parents.On (c)…………………………….occasion of (d)……………………Children Day, he rewarded (e)…………………….students for (f)………………….success.

Section - D Textual Question (30 Marks)

9. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow (any one):-    1X3=3

Some twenty-thirty-years later She'd laugh at the snapshot

"See Betly and Dolly; she'd say, "and look how they dressed us for the beach"

The sea holiday was her past, mine is her laughter.

Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.

a. Who would laugh seeing the snapshot?

b. Who are betty and dolly?

c. When did beach holiday take place?

OR

I descend to lave the drouths, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin,
        and make pure and beautify it;

a)    What is the poetic device used in the first line of the  poem?

                  i.            Similie

                ii.            Metaphor

              iii.            Personification

b)What would happen to the seeds without rain?

               i.     They would grow into plants

             ii.     They would lie hidden and die

           iii.     They would disappear

c)Name the poem and the poet

10.Answer any three of the questions in about 40to 50 words each                                         3X3=09

1)      What were Rangas views on marriage?

2)      Compare and contrast the reactions of the children and the adults when faced with extreme danger in –“we ar not afraid to die……..together”.

3)      “A suspicious man would believe his eyes instead of his heart”.in whatb context was this observation made and by whom?(The summer of the beautiful white Horse)

4)      What were the funerary treasures found in Tut’s tomb?

11. Answer any one  of the questions in about 100 to 120 words each                     6X1=06

a)      Mourad had a crazy streak of the family in him. What do you learn abput him in the story” The summer of the beautiful white Horse”

Or

b)      why did the narrator want to forget “The address”.

LONG READING TEXT

12. Describe the Otis family. What do you think of them?                                                      (6)

       Describe the first encounter of the ghost with the Otis family.                                         (6)