Question 1 (b) Find words in the above passage which convey a similar meaning as the following:

(i) Pieces (1 mark)

(ii) feel around (1 mark)

(iii) causing excitement (1 mark)

Question 2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

How you can best improve your English depends on where you live and particularly on whether or not you live in an English speaking community. If you hear English spoken every day and mix freely with English speaking people, that is on the whole an advantage. On the other hand, it is often confusing to have the whole language, poured over you at once. Ideally, a step-by-step course should accompany or lead up to this experience. It will also help a great deal if you can easily get the sort of english books in which you are interested.

To read a lot is essential. It is stupid not to venture outside the examination `set books' or the text books you have chosen for intensive study. Read as many books' in English as you can, not as a duty but for pleasure. Do not choose the most difficult books you find, with the idea of listing and learning as many new words as possible; choose what is likely to interest you and be sure in advance that it is not too hard. You should not have to be constantly looking up new words in the dictionary, for that deadens interest and checks real learning. Look up a word here and there, but as a general policy try to push ahead, guessing what words mean from the context. It is extensive and not intensive reading that normally helps you to get interested in extra-reading and thereby improve your English. You should enjoy the feeling which extensive reading gives of having some command of the language. As you read you will become more and more familiar with words and sentence patterns you already know, understanding them better and better as you meet them in more and more contexts, some of which may differ only slightly from others.

Some people say that we cannot learn to speak a language better with the help of a book. To believe this is to believe that the spoken language and the written language are quite different things. This is not so. There is a very great deal in common between the two . In learning the patterns and vocabulary of the written form we are learning to a considerable extent those of the spoken form too. We are, in fact, learning the language and not merely one form of the language.

Question 2 (a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage make notes on it, using headings and sub-headings. Use recognizable abbreviations (wherever necessary-minimum 4) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to it. ( 5 marks)

Question 2 (b) Write a summary of the above passage. (3 marks)

SECTION B-(ADVANCE WRITING SKILLS)

Question 3 (a) You are Manav/Manasi working as he Students's Representative on the School Development Committee. The committee is going to meet next week to prepare a Calendar of Activities for the School for the year 1999-2000. To ensure that you play your role effectively at the proposed meetingyou have decided to invite the students' suggestions on this subject. Write a notice in this regard innot more than 50 words to be put up on your school notice-board. (5 marks)

Question 3 (b) You are Abhinav/Aakriti. You have received a letter from your close friend, inviting you to attend the marriage of his sister. But unfortunately, you can not attend it due to your previous commitments. Write him a letter regretting your inability to attend the marriage ceremony. (5 marks)

Question 4. You are Kushan/Kajol working for The Times of India as a reporter. Yesterday you were invited to attend a press conference called by the Chief Minister of delhi on "Unprecedented Price Rise of Vegetables and Pulses." Write a report for the paper in not more than 100 words covering what the Chief Minister said to tackle this issue against the background of the forthcoming assembly elections.( 5 marks)

OR

You are Rajat/Ranjita. The other day you participated in an inter-school debate competition as a contestant, organized by the Lions Club of your area, in which you spoke for the motion and stood first. The topic for the debate was "In the opinion of the house, free education upto Secondary level is the fundamental right of every Indian child"" Write a reporton this event in not more than 100 words for publication in your school magazine.

Question 5. You are Amol/Anubha staying at 162, Kailash Hills, New Delhi. Last month, you bought a cordless electric iron from 'Premier electronic Goods', South Extn., New Delhi against a warranty of 2 years. Now you discover that there is something wrong with this iron. Its heat lasts hardly for a few seconds after it is taken off the mains. Write a letter to the dealer complaining about it. Also request him to change this defective iron against the warranty that goes with it (Word limit: 2000 words). (10 marks)

OR

You are Aakanksha/Abhijeet staying in Kanishka Cooperative Group housing Society, Indira Nagar, Mumbai. There are no street lights on themain road leading to this colony. The road gets so dark after seven in the evenings in winter that the possibility of some major accident cannot be ruled out. Write a letter to the editor of a national daily drawing attention of the government to this serious problem of the residents of Indira Nagar. (Word limit: 200 words) (10 marks)

Question 6. While going to your school in the morning you noticed hundreds of men and women queuing up before the vegetable booth of your locality. On inquiring you were told that they were waiting to buy 2 Kgs. Of onion on their ration cards, which were available only at a very high price in the open market. In anguish you decide to write an article for publication in a national daily, suggesting ways and means to overcome this problem and avert its recurrence in future . (Word limit : 200 words) (10 marks)

OR

This year children of many schools in Delhi took a vow not to use crackers and other fire-works on the occasion of Deepawali to reduce air and noise pollution and also to register their protest against the child labour involved in this industry. The next day, almost all the important national dailies published this news with great appreciation for this unique gesture on the part of the children. Getting motivated by this news, write an article on `Role of children in curbing Black-Marketing and Criminalization in Politics' for publication in the Education Times. (Word limit: 200 words.) (10 marks)

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