Total number of printed pages : 6 NB /XII/ENG/1

2021
ENGLISH
Full marks : 90 Time : 3 hours

General instructions:
i) Approximately 15 minutes is allotted to read the question paper and revise the
answers.
ii) The question paper consists of 13 questions. All questions are compulsory.
iii) Marks are indicated against each question.
iv) Internal choice has been provided in some questions.
N.B: Check that all pages of the question paper is complete as indicated on the top left side.

SECTION-A (Literature)

1. Answer the following questions: 5x2=10

(a) How did Jean –Victor describe his stay with the chair mender?
(b) What happened when the Duke threw away the rest of his bread into the
mud?
(c) How does the speaker describe the price women have paid for the brutality
against them?
(d) What brainwave struck Susan as she sat under the November tree?
(e) Why does Bill want to charge an extra amount in the ransom?

2. Answer any one of the following questions in about 150 words:

a. Write the character sketch of the Red Chief.
Or 5
b. Elaborate how Susan gave a befitting response to her neighbours.

3. Read the lines from the poem and answer any two questions that follow:
I. It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown although his height be taken.

(a) What does ‘it’ refer to? 1

(b) What do you understand by the phrase ‘wandering bark’? 1
(c) What poetic device does Shakespeare use here? 1

II. I am not yet born ;O fill me.

With strength against those who would freeze my humanity,
 -2- NB/XII/ENG/1

Would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,

Would make me a cog in a machine.

(a) What is the speaker’s plea in these lines? 1

(b) What does the speaker want to fight? 1
(c) What do ‘ lethal automaton’and ‘a cog in a machine’signify? 1

III. When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder’d.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!
(a) Whose ‘glory’ is the poet referring to? 1
(b) What is the world wondering over? 1
(c) The poem ends with a couple of commands. What do the speaker want
the readers to do ? 1

4. How is the central idea of the poem, ‘ Let Me Not To The Marriage Of True
Minds’ presented through different images? 4

5. When that the poor have cried,Caesar hath wept;

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus said he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: Was this ambition?

(a) What do you understand by the term ‘ambitious’ used for Caesar? 1

(b) ‘Ambition should be made of sterner stuff’. What is Antony referring to? 2

(c) Why , according to you, might Caesar have refused the kingly crown? 2

6. Answer any two of the following questions in about 150 words: 5x2=10

(a) Give a detailed character sketch of the Otis twins.

 -3- NB/XII/ENG/1

(b) Describe in detail the funeral service arranged for Sir Simon,the ghost.
(c) Why is Mr. Otis reluctant to let Virginia keep the jewels and what reason
does Lord Canterville give to convince Mr.Otis to accept the jewels?

SECTION –B (Reading)

7. Unlike India, a student in the US is not eligible for postgraduate study,

unless he has completed four years of undergraduate study. This criteria holds
true for any foreign national too. For Indian students seeking to study in the
US, this is a problem. Majority of bachelor’s degree courses here are of three
years’s duration, except the professional courses like engineering and
medicine. So the advice is to put in an extra year of study.
As in undergraduate study, the admission process begins 18 months
prior to getting enrolled in a university. While applying for a postgraduate
course, one has to keep in mind the high degree of improbability of securing a
master’s level admission in a field that is remotely connected to the
undergraduate field of study. Those who do choose such an option, must clear
some minimum prerequisites in the opted major. The prerequisites deal with
subjects taught at the undergraduate level in the concerned subject.
One has to be particularly careful about the universities one applies to.
Though the general trend is to apply to the Ivy League universities, “students
carry one percent chance of selection, considering the flood of applications
from students the world over”,says Vijaya Rao,educational counselor,
USEFI,New Delhi. Hence, one must apply to the lesser ranked universities as
well. One can seek advice from USEFI on this issue.
Once the ball has been set rolling with the admission procedure, one
needs to take the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) general test, a
requirement for all graduate programme except MBA and related management
degrees. The exam measures a candidate’s verbal, quantitative and analytical
reasoning. The duration of the exam is three and a half hours,divided into seven
section-verbal,quantitative and analytical-carries a maximum score to GRE
general,there is a GRE subject also.
The total testing time for each subject is two hours and fifty minutes and
only one subject test can be taken on any given test date.The test is not
mandatory, though some universities, especially engineering schools,ask for
the subject test scores. The purpose of the subject test is to measure knowledge
and understanding of subject ,matter basic to graduate study in specific fields.
TOEFL(Test of English as a Foreign Language),however, remains a
compulsory exam for a university admission.
One can choose from 16 subjects ranging from biochemistry,cell and
molecular biology, biology, computer, science, economics, education,
 -4- NB/XII/ENG/1

engineering, geology, history, mathematics, music, English literature, physics,

political science, psychology to sociology.
The range of financial assistance at the graduate level is very broad. One
might be awarded fellowships,scholarships and grants. These awards are
usually decided on the basis of merit and competition for them is high. No
service to the university or faculty is required in return. Unfortunately foreign
students,except in rare cases,are not eligible for such assistance in the first year
of admission. Teaching assistantships provide for full or partial tuition
waivers.The recipients have to provide the institution with some specified
amount of undergraduate teaching. Some teaching assistantships are limited to
grading papers, monitoring lab readings and so on.

(Based on your reading of the passage ,answer the following questions)

I. (a) Under what condition a student in the US can be admitted to postgraduate

study? 1
(b) What is the problem faced by the Indian students seeking to study in the US? 2
(c) Write down the methodology of GRE. 2
(d) What specific purpose does the ‘Subject Test’ involve? 2
(e) Students can get financial aid too. What is the basis of this aid? 2

II. Give the synonyms of the words from the passage: 3x1=3
(a) To get registered
(b) mandatory
(c) scope

8. Read the following passage and prepare notes on the contents of the passage and
summarize in about 80 words using the notes that you have made: 5+3=8
When an animal is attacked by an enemy ,there are various ways in which it
can defend itself. Many animals use the defense of staying and fighting.These
animals may be equipped with special weapons such as claws, sharp teeth,tusks or
beaks which they use in attacking the predators. Snakes like the python and the
boa constrictor and other large snakes have strong coiling bodies which they can
wrap around the enemy so as to cut off its air supply. Still other fighting animals
have chemical weapons such as those used by insects, snakes and even the skunk.
Other animals use the defense of some sort of protective outside covering.
Turtles and clams have shell into which they can withdraw, and the armadillo has
an armour like skin that covers its vulnerable parts when it curls up into a ball.The
porcupine has sharp quills as its protection from predators.
Attempting to escape from the enemy is a defense used by many animals
under attack. The antelope,horse, deer and ostrich find that running away is their
 -5- NB/XII/ENG/1

best defence, because they can usually outran their predators in both speed and
distance. Others , particularly small animals , find that their best defense is fleeing
to a protected spot,such as a hole in the ground or dense foliage where the enemy
cannot get them.
Another defence is playing dead. The opossum is famous for this trick;
hopefully the predator will lose interest if it thinks the intended prey is already
dead.
One last method of defence is not doing anything at all. If the animal stays
very still ,it may blend into the background and hence go undetected. Many birds,
deer and even toads fall into this last category.

SECTION-C (Writing)

9. Crossword Higher Secondary School, Phek, requires an English teacher for

Higher Secondary section. Draft an advertisement for the Situation Vacant
column to be published in a local newspaper.
Or 5
Read the following paragraph and express your opinion in not more than 100
words on whether you agree or disagree with the ideas mentioned in it.
It is crazy to wear high-heeled sandals. They are difficult to walk in. People
who walk in high-heeled sandals have to walk very slowly in order to keep their
balance. It would be very dangerous for the wearer if she were to lose her
balance, as she might break her ankle. I know of three acquaintances who have
sustained injuries because of wearing high heels. Another problem is that they
are bad for posture. So, in my view it is a bad idea to wear high heels even
though it may be fashionable.

10. You are Michael, a staff reporter for a local daily. You have witnessed a fire
accident in Central Market , Dimapur. Write a report in about 150-200 words.
Or 7

Write an article in about 200 words on the topic, ‘The impact of Advertisement
on the younger generations’.

11 . Write a letter to the manager of a bookstore in Guwahati, asking him to supply

textbooks for class XII science stream of your school ,Highhope School Wokha.
Mention that you shall make the payment on delivery of the books. 8
 -6- NB/XII/ENG/1

SECTION-D (Grammar)

12. Rewrite the following as directed: 5x1=5

a. Mike____(learn) to drive by next month. (Future perfect Tense)

b. Jumbo _______( go )to the supermarket. ( Simple Future Tense)

c. I am going to bed early. ( Past Perfect Tense)
d. David has worked on the book for a few years. ( Present Perfect Continuous
Tense)
e. I will read all evening. ( Past Continuous Tense)

13. Fill in the blanks with correct modals: 5x1=5

a. Kriti ____to pay her debts.

b. They______ sell their car because they are in dire need of money.
c. Martha_____ apply for the position soon.
d. _____I assist you?
e. Samantha _____not lose any more weight, she is already slim.

*****************************************