English · Sample Paper 1

General instructions

Section A · Reading

1. Question 112 marks

   Read the passage and answer the questions.

   1. In a small town in the hills, the public library had been closing slowly for years. Fewer people came; the newspapers piled up unread; the roof leaked over the history shelves. When the council proposed shutting it down to save money, almost nobody objected.

   2. Then a retired schoolteacher, Mrs Bhatia, asked a simple question at a council meeting: if the library closed, where would the children without internet at home do their homework? No one had an answer. She offered to run a free reading hour every Saturday if the council kept the doors open for six more months.

   3. The first Saturday, four children came. By the end of the month there were thirty. Parents who dropped them off began to stay and borrow books themselves. A carpenter repaired the shelves for free; a local shop donated old computers. Teenagers volunteered to teach older residents how to send email and pay bills online.

   4. The library stopped being a silent room of books and became a meeting place. It now hosts chess on Sundays, a job-search corner, and a corner where farmers check weather forecasts. Membership has tripled. The council, which once wanted to close it, has added a reading room for students preparing for exams.

   5. Mrs Bhatia says the building was never the problem. A library, she argues, is not its shelves but the people it brings together. Places of learning survive, she believes, only when a community decides they are worth keeping.

   (i) What problems did the library face in paragraph 1? (Any two.) (1 mark)

   (ii) Why did almost nobody object to closing it? (1 mark)

   (iii) What question did Mrs Bhatia ask the council? (1 mark)

   (iv) What did she offer in return for keeping the library open? (1 mark)

   (v) How did the number of children change in the first month? (1 mark)

   (vi) Name two ways in which local people helped. (1 mark)

   (vii) How did teenagers help older residents? (1 mark)

   (viii) List two new activities the library now offers. (1 mark)

   (ix) What change did the council make later? (1 mark)

   (x) Find a word in paragraph 3 that means ‘gave freely’. (1 mark)

   (xi) What, according to Mrs Bhatia, is a library really? (1 mark)

   (xii) Suggest a suitable title for the passage. (1 mark)

2. Question 210 marks

   Read the passage and answer the questions.

   A survey of 1,200 college students asked how they spend their screen time on a typical day. On average students spent 7 hours a day on screens: 3 hours on study, 2 hours on social media, 1.5 hours on videos and streaming, and 0.5 hours on games. Students who used social media for more than 3 hours reported poorer sleep twice as often as those who used it for less than an hour. When asked what would help, 55% said ‘app timers’, 25% said ‘phone-free study rooms’ and 20% said ‘switching notifications off’.

   (i) How many students were surveyed? (1 mark)

   (ii) What was the average total screen time per day? (1 mark)

   (iii) What fraction of screen time was spent on study? (1 mark)

   (iv) How much time was spent on games? (1 mark)

   (v) Which activity took 2 hours a day? (1 mark)

   (vi) What link did the survey find between social media and sleep? (1 mark)

   (vii) Which suggestion was most popular? (1 mark)

   (viii) How many students chose ‘phone-free study rooms’? (1 mark)

   (ix) What percentage of screen time went on videos and streaming? (1 mark)

   (x) Suggest one more way students could reduce screen time. (1 mark)

Section B · Writing

1. Question 34 marks

   You are the head girl/boy of City Public School. Write a notice in about 50 words informing students about a blood donation camp.

2. OR

   Question 34 marks

   Write a notice in about 50 words about a lost wristwatch, for your school notice board.

3. Question 44 marks

   Draft a formal invitation in about 50 words for the inauguration of your school's new science laboratory.

4. Question 55 marks

   Write a letter in 120–150 words to the editor of a newspaper about the need for more public libraries in your town.

5. OR

   Question 55 marks

   Write a letter in 120–150 words applying for the post of a part-time content writer at a children's magazine. Include a short résumé.

6. Question 65 marks

   Write an article in 120–150 words on ‘Screen time and student well-being’.

Section C · Literature

1. Question 76 marks

   Read the extract (John Keats, A Thing of Beauty) and answer the questions.

   A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

   (i) What does a thing of beauty give us? (1 mark)

   (ii) What happens to its loveliness over time? (1 mark)

   (iii) What is a ‘bower’? (1 mark)

   (iv) What kind of sleep does beauty give us? (1 mark)

   (v) Name the poetic device in ‘a bower quiet for us’. (1 mark)

   (vi) What is the rhyme scheme of the first two lines? (1 mark)

2. OR

   Question 76 marks

   Read the extract (John Keats, A Thing of Beauty) and answer the questions.

   Some shape of beauty moves away the pall From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon, Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon For simple sheep; and such are daffodils With the green world they live in;

   (i) What does ‘pall’ mean here? (1 mark)

   (ii) What does beauty do for our ‘dark spirits’? (1 mark)

   (iii) Name two beautiful things mentioned. (1 mark)

   (iv) What ‘boon’ do the trees give the sheep? (1 mark)

   (v) Why does the poet mention the ‘green world’ of daffodils? (1 mark)

   (vi) What is the tone of the extract? (1 mark)

3. Question 82 marks

   Why were the village elders sitting in the classroom on the day of the last lesson?

4. Question 92 marks

   Why could Mukesh's family not break out of bangle-making?

5. Question 102 marks

   Why did the poet look out of the car window?

6. Question 112 marks

   What does the poet of ‘Keeping Quiet’ want us to do when we count to twelve?

7. OR

   Question 112 marks

   What do Aunt Jennifer's tigers stand for?

8. Question 122 marks

   How did the Maharaja finally die?

9. Question 134 marks

   How did the Champaran episode change the lives of the peasants? Answer in 80–100 words.

10. Question 144 marks

    How did Edla's kindness change the peddler? Answer in 80–100 words.

11. OR

    Question 144 marks

    How did Douglas overcome his fear of water? Answer in 80–100 words.

12. Question 154 marks

    Was the third level a medium of escape for Charley? Answer in 80–100 words.

13. Question 166 marks

    Dr Sadao is torn between his duty as a doctor and as a patriot. How does he resolve this conflict? Answer in 120–150 words.

14. Question 176 marks

    How does Mr Lamb help Derry see life differently? Answer in 120–150 words.

15. OR

    Question 176 marks

    Compare how Zitkala-Sa and Bama responded to injustice in their childhood. Answer in 120–150 words.