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ICSE Class 10 English Literature Question Paper 2012 Solved
** Answer is not provided due to change in the present syllabus
Section – A (Drama)
As you like It: Shakespeare
Question 1. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Duke Senior :
Here feel we but the penalty ofAdam,
The season s difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter’s wind;
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say
‘This is no flattery: these are counsellors
That feelingly persuade me what I am. ’
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like a toad, ugly and venomous, …….
(i) Where does this scene take place ? Why is Duke Senior here ? To whom is he talking ? [3]
(ii) How does he address his listeners at the beginning of his speech? Why is the present location morefreefrom danger than the court? [3]
(iii) What do you understand by the line – [3]
“Here feel we but the penalty of Adam / The Seasons ’ difference ……”?
What was the old belief about the toad ?
(iv) In what way does the Duke find good in evrything that he sees about him ? What does it reveal about his character? [3]
(v) Jacues moralises on the wounded deer by comparing it to the actions of human beings. What does he say in this regard ? [4]
Question 2. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Adam: Know you not, master, to some kind of men
Their graces serve them but as enemies?
No more do yours: your virtues, gentle master,
Are sanctified and holy traitors to you.
O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!
Orlando: Why, what’s the matter ?
Adam: O unhappy youth!
(i) Who is Adam ? Where are Adam and Orlando now ? Who is the enemy of Orlando’s graces? [3]
(ii) Explain in your own words the meaning of [3]
“O, what a world is this, when what is comely Envenoms him that bears it!”
What warning does Adam go on to give Orlando immediately after the extract?
(iii) What does Adam say and do to show his love and affection for Orlando ? [3]
(iv) What comment does Orlando make on Adam s sense of devotion to duty ? [3]
(v) How does Orlando act on the advice given by Adam ? What are yourfeelings for Adam? Give a reason to justify your feelings for Adam. [4]
Loyalties: John Galsworthy
Question 3. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Margaret: Here’s the wind!
Winsor : What’s the move now, General ?
Canynge : You and I had better see the Inspector in De Levis’s room, Winsor. [To the others] If you’ll all be handy, in case he wants to put questions for himself.
Margaret: I hope he ’ll want me; it just too thrilling.
Dancy : I hope he won’t want me; I am dog-tired. Come on
Mabel. [ He puts his arm in his wife .V.]
Canynge : Just a minute, Charles.
(i) Who is Winsor ? What does Margaret mean by ‘here s the wind! ’ ? Where is the scence taking place ? [3]
(ii) What does Canynge say to Winsor immediately after the extract ? What reply does Winsor give to Canynge ? [3]
(iii) Who enters soon after ? What two things had he been asked to do earlier ? [3]
(iv) Who is De Levis ? Whom does he suspect for the theft of his money ? Canynge also suspects this same person later on. What is the basis of his suspicions? [3]
(v) How did De Levis have such a large amount of money on him that day ? [4]
Question 4. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Graviter : No. I suppose not [A pause] By Jove. I don’t like losing this case. I don’t like the admission we backed such a wrong ’un.
Twisden : Impossible to go on.
(i) Who are Graviter and Twisden ? What ‘Case ’ are they discussing? Why does Graviter feel that he will lose the case ? [3]
(ii) What was the latest evidence putforward which convinced them of the thief’s identity? [3]
(iii) How can you say that Twisden is loyal to his profession ? What does Twisden ask Graviter to do immediately after this? [3]
(iv) What does Twisden advise Dancy to do ? Later, in the play, De Levis calls on Twiden. Briefly state what is the purpose of this visit. [3]
(v) How does Mabel show loyalty to her husband? Mention any one character trait of Ronald Dancy that appeals to you. What happens to him in the end ? [3]
Answer:
Section – B (Poetry)
The Golden Lyre
Question 5. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
He did not feel the driver s whip,
Nor the burning heat of day;
For Dealth had illumined the Land of Sleep.
And his lifeless body lay A worn-out fetter, that the soul Had broken and thrown away!
(The Slave s Dream : H.W. Longfellow)
(i) Explain in your own words the meaning of— [3]
‘A worn-out fetter, that the soul
Had broken and thrown away!
(ii) Where does ‘he ’lie in the beginning of the poem? In what condition does he lie there? [3]
(iii) Who does ‘he ’see once more ? What do they do to him? [3]
(iv) What does‘he’hear at night? How does it pass? [3]
(v) In the poem it is said that ‘he started in his sleep and smiled’.
Why does he start and smile? How has the poem appealed to you?
Give a reason to justify your answer. [4]
Question 6. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Parting with his poison – flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room –
he risked the rain again.
(Night of the Scorpion : Nissim Ezekiel)
(i) Explain in your own words the meaning of, [3]
‘Parting with his poison-flash
of diabolic tail in the dark room –
he risked the rain again.
(ii) Who comes immediately after this extract ? What do they do and why ? [3]
(iii) What is said about the previous birth and the next birth by those who have come ? [3]
(iv) What is said about the father ? What does the father do ? [3]
(v) How long did it take for the poison to lose its sting ? What does the mother say at the end? What is your opinion about what the mother says ? [4]
Section – C (Prose)
A Treasure Trove of Short Stories
Question 7. **
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
‘You go up to bed, ’I said. ‘You ’re sick. ’
‘I’m all right, ’he said.
When the doctor came he took the boy’s temperature.
‘What is it ? I asked him.
‘One hundred and two ’.
Downstaris, the doctor left three different medicines in different coloured capsules with instructions for giving them.
(i) When the boy came into the room to shut the window what did his father notice about him? . [3]
(ii) After the doctor left the room, the father wished to read to the boy stories about pirates. Why did he choose such stores ? What showed that the boy was not interested in what he was reading? [3]
(iii) Why didn’t the boy want his father to stay with him in the room? When the father returned a little later, what -was the boy’s reaction? How did the father find him? [3]
(iv) Why did the boy fear that he was going to die? How was this fear removed? [3]
(v) How does the story end? In what way does the boy in the story represent children in general? [4]
Question 8. **
In the story ‘The Case for the Defence ’, the author says that it was the strangest murder trial he had ever attended. Give details from the story to bring out the truth of this statement. [16]