CBSE Class 10 English Assignment - Reading (2). Students are advised to refer to the attached assignments and practice them regularly. This will help them to identify their weak areas and will help them to score better in examination. Parents should download and give the assignments to their children for practice.

WORKSHEET-2

SUB- ENGLISH CLASS-X

READING

Q1. Read the passage given below and answer the following questions :- (12 Marks)

(i) What's wrong with ageing? A recent article in a US newspaper said many people were embarrassed at being called "grandma" and "grandpa" because it made them sound old. They were apparently encouraging their grandchildren to continue calling them by their childhood nicknames. Actor Goldie Hawn was thrilled, we are told, when her grandchild called her "glam-ma", which sounded more like "glamour". The vision of people desperately clinging on to their youthful image is not only pitiable and laughable but at the same time alarming. The alarmist would point that what is good for them, may not be good for us and since many western trends trickle down to our country sooner or later, fashions come to us at lightning speed while social trends percolate drop by drop-the 'paati' of the year 2030 may well be known as 'Pat' and 'ajja' as 'Ajax' not to mention Don and Di, the new 'dada' and 'daadi' and they would all come trooping out into the street with coloured hair and pale, smooth faces like a scene from the fifth remake of "Night of the Living Dead."

(ii) It’s not gross exaggeration, as some might think. Our obsession with looks might be getting out of hand. Take a look at Indian cosmetics industry. The increase in popularity of its products is in inverse proportion to the health of its customers. While tomorrow's glammas and glampas are busy conquering the five enemies of hair damage and six enemies of fairness, their sun-starved bodies, are crumbling from within. A doctor I met recently was fuming, "Twenty year olds are getting osteoporosis! They're eating rubbish, the sugar in their soft drinks is leaching the calcium from their bones, and they're indoors all the time, getting no sunlight," Today's girl would probably noble about on cruches by the age of 40. If she had allowed sunlight to act on her skin, particularly her face and arms, it would have produced the vitamin D she needed to strengthen bones and keep all sorts of disease at bay. But she is showed older by the advertising blizzard that obsecures the goodness of the sun and highlights the dangers of skin cancer. The sunscreen ads with high SPF numbers keep away the sunlight and with it, the vitamin as well. But it claims to protect her skin from darkening and wrinkling, and this is what matters to her the most.

(iii) "Old is gold" is one of those patronizing expressions meant to make the ageing population feel special and valuable. Frankly, I don't take kindly being compared with the over rated yellow metal. "You're only as old as you feel" is another cliche to fool people. The truth is you're exactly as old as the number of years you've lived on this earth. You might say, "I'm 45, but after losing eight kilos I feel 10 years younger," but you're only fooling yourself. You're still 45, though perhaps a more vigorous 45. Old is bold. Now I like the sound of that. Besides, it’s true. I've seen how some of the meekest people, once they attain a certain age, grow more confident about themselves. To grow old is to care less about how you appear to others, and to speak your mind without caring too much about the consequences. In short, be bindaas!

I. Answer the following questions (2×4=8)

(a) What is considered as alarming?

(b) What are the reasons for early osteoporosis?

(c) Why are sunscreens harmful?

(d) Old is gold. How?

II. Choose the correct meaning for the following words which are the same in passage from the options given: (1×4=4)

(a) enlarged (Para 2)

(i) gross (ii) exaggertion (iii) most (iv) crutches

(b) to feel shameful (Para 1)

(i) embarrassed (ii) desperately (iii) percolate (iv) pale

(c) modest (Para 3)

(i) valuable (ii) frankly (iii) meekest (iv) younger

(d) Find the antonym for the word, 'to lose' from the passage.

Q 2 Read the following passage carefully: (8)

First introduced in 1927, The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories are a series of books about the adventures of brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, teenaged detectives who solve one baffling mystery after another. The Hardy Boys were so popular among young boys that in 1930 a similar series was created for girls featuring a sixteen-year-old detective named Nancy Drew. The cover of each volume of The Hardy Boys states that the author of the series is Franklin W. Dixon; the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories are supposedly written by Carolyn Keene. Over the years, though, many fans of both series have been surprised to find out that Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene are not real people. If Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene never existed, then who wrote The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries?

The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew books were written through a process called ghostwriting. A ghostwriter writes a book according to a specific formula. While ghostwriters are paid for writing the books, their authorship is not acknowledged, and their names do not appear on the published books.Ghostwriters can write books for children or adults, the content of which is unspecific. Sometimesthey work on book series with a lot of individual titles, such as The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series.The initial idea for both the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series was developed by a man named Edward Stratemeyer, who owned a publishing company that specialized in children’s books. Stratemeyer noticed the increasing popularity of mysteries among adults, and surmised that children would enjoy reading mysteries about younger detectives with whom they could identify. Stratemeyer first developed each book with an outline describing the plot and setting. Once he completed the outline, Stratemeyer then hired a ghostwriter to convert it

into a book of slightly over 200 pages. After the ghostwriter had written a draft of a book, he or she would send it back toStratemeyer, who would make a list of corrections and mail it back to the ghostwriter. The ghostwriter would revise the book according to Stratemeyer’s instructions and then return it to him. Once Stratemeyer approved the book, it was ready for publication. Because each series ran for so many years, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys both had a number of different ghostwriters producing books; however, the first ghostwriter for each series proved to be the most influential. The initial ghostwriter for The Hardy Boys was a Canadian journalist named Leslie McFarlane. A few years later, Mildred A. Wirt, a young writer from Iowa, began writing the Nancy Drew books. Although they were using prepared outlines as guides, both McFarlane and Wirt developed the characters themselves. The personalities of Frank and Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew arose directly from McFarlane’s and Wirt’s imaginations. For example, Mildred Wirt had been a star college athlete and gave Nancy similar athletic abilities. The ghostwriters were also responsible for numerous plot and setting details. Leslie McFarlane used elements of his small Canadian town to create Bayport, the Hardy Boys fictional hometown.

1.1 On the basis of your reading of the above passage, fill in the blanks with appropriate words /phrases:

1) The ‘Hardy Boys’ mystery stories are a series of books that

contain__________________

2) _________ was a similar series created like ‘The Hardy Boys’ created for the girls.

3) The process of writing the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew was called ______________

4) The initial idea for both the Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew series was developed

by______________________________

5) The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books were created based on the idea that

children___________________________

6) Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys both had a number of different ghostwriters

producing books___________

7) The personalities of Frank and Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew arose directly from

__________and___________ imaginations.

8) The ghostwriters were responsible for __________ plot and _________ details.

ANSWER KEYS

1 a) The vision of people desperately clinging on to their youthful image is alarming

b) eating junk food, the sugar in their soft drinks is leaching the calcium from their bones, and they're indoors all the time

c) sunscreen ads with high SPF numbers keep away the sunlight and with it, the vitamin as well

d) to grow old is to care less about how you appear to others, and to speak your mind without caring too much about the consequences. In short, be bindaas!

2 a. ii

b. i

c. iii

. 2.a. for the leader to respond in a precise and unambiguous manner

b. looking at innovative and effective ways

c. the new generation is used to modes like ATM and onlineshopping

d. organizations run the risk of falling into a trap where ideas emerge from all corners but don’t get executed

2.a iii disordered

B I original and new

c. iii doubtful

d. ii a plan of action

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