CBSE Class 10 English Communicative Question Paper 2013 (7)

CBSE Class 10 English Communicative Question Paper 2013 (7) - Solved board exam question papers prepared for CBSE students by the best teachers in Delhi. 

ENGLISH (Communicative)

SECTION A — (Reading)

A1. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow : 

1. We’ve just left the dinner table, when I hear music coming from my daughter’s computer. It surprises me that my daughter Ida is listening to music from a time she refers to as the very old days. “What are you playing ?” I ask. “It’s Phil Collins,” is her prompt reply, while she shows how, with a few strokes, she can download almost any song from the Internet. Times have certainly been changing since I scratched my first Beatles record. Tactfully I don’t mention that I had bought the record she’s listening to before she was born. The concept of a phonograph record belongs to a bygone age and I don’t want to spoil the pleasure she’ll get from discovering her “own” new favourite musician. 

2. The music brings memories flooding back. I have a sudden urge to bring back my record collection from the attic, where it has mouldered for almost a decade. Only one thing stops me : my turntable succumbed to the damp air in a cellar where I stored it for a good ten years. No, I don’t care if turntables are ancient technology : I will find one. And I will restore my long lost record collection — which took up a good amount of shelf space — to its former glory. Buying something as uncool as a turntable takes courage and planning. I find a promising TV and radio store in the phone book but I am expecting a mountain of questions from the clerk, who will most certainly have been born and raised after the demise of the turntable. 

3. “A turntable ? Coming right up !” says the young man behind the counter. He disappears into the storeroom and before I can say long-playing record, he’s back with a small cardboard under his arm. It’s too good to be true. An hour later my new acquisition is in the living room and a respectful atmosphere descends. I’ve sorted my records into piles all over the floor. I find a Beatles album. 

4. Behind the wonderful music now flowing through the loud-speaker is the unmistakable sound of vinyl. It doesn’t take long for my twelve year old son’s eagle eye to spot the turntable and he has to try it out. Jonas is technically minded, a child of the computer age, yet I sense a certain reverence as he picks up the tone arm and tries to place it in the middle of the record. Brought up in the CD age how could he know what’s wrong ? I say in a soothing voice : “The starting groove is on the edge of the record.” “Does it matter which side is up ?” queried my daughter. “It does matter,” I replied. Soon we were listening to a Phil Collins number we both like. The generation gap vanishes as the music takes over. I relish the moment to the full and cast a glance at Ida. She’s relaxed and smiling. 

A1.1 Fill in the following summary using only one word for each blank. Write the answers in your answer sheet against the correct blank number.

It was a moment of surprise for the author to (a) _______ that his daughter had the same (b) _________ for music as he had. This brought back (c) ___________ of his (d) ________ collection in the attic. Though, a (e) _________ task, he was (f) _________ in locating a turntable. 

A1.2 Complete the following sentences. Write the answers in your answer sheet. 1×3=3

(a) Jonas did not know how to handle the turntable as __________________ .

(b) Music could bridge the generation gap as _________________________ .

(c) The author was reluctant to bring out his turntable from the cellar because _____________________ . 

A1.3 Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following : 

(a) skilfully avoiding giving offence       (para 1)

(b) a feeling of respect            (para 4) 

A2. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :

1. Legends will tell you that flamingoes are no ordinary visitors to Kutch. They were the honoured guests of Ring Lakho and he had forbidden the hunting of flamingoes, which came to Kutch from various parts of the world every year to breed. For centuries the region has been a haven for the migratory bird. Today, Flamingo City, an island in the middle of the Rann of Kutch, known the world over as one of the biggest breeding grounds of the Greater Flamingo, is strewn with bodies of hundreds of flamingo chicks. The parents of these chicks have fled the island due to lack of food. Zooplanktons, algae and small fish that these birds survive on are dying due to a sudden increase in the salinity of the Rann waters. One can even see dead fish floating. 

2. Flamingoes need salt-encrusted, damp mud to build nests. The place where they build their nests has to be inaccessible to predatory cats and birds. It should also have sufficient food. The right mix of sweet and brackish water in the Rann is crucial for the proliferation of planktons and algae that the flamingoes feed on. Faced with starvation flamingoes have fled the island leaving their chicks to fend for themselves. Till date around a thousand flamingoes have died. 

3. Maharaj Kumarshri Himmatsinghji, a member of the royal family of Kutch and an expert on the birds of Kutch, traces the problem of increased salinity in the Rann waters to the construction of dams on rivers that flow into the region. He emphasizes that efforts should be made to ensure that, at least some water flows into the Rann. In fact over the years, the number of flamingoes coming to the island have decreased because of the change in salinity of the Rann water. In 1945, Salim Ali, the late ornithologist, had found 5 lakh birds on the island. Since then, the number has not gone above 2.2 lakh. However, the studies carried out on the Flamingo City so far cannot be taken as 100 percent accurate because very few ornithologists have conducted regular studies on flamingoes in the area. The reason : the terrain is so inhospitable that it is simply not possible to visit the place every year. 

4. Says Himmatsinghji, “The ringing of flamingoes is mandatory to conduct accurate and long term studies on the bird.” Unfortunately, ever since Flamingo City was discovered in 1893, not a single bird has been ringed. No wonder questions like from where these birds migrate every year remain only partially answered. 

A2.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage given above, complete the following sentences. Write the answers in your answer sheet.

(a) Planktons and algae, which form the food of flamingoes, require _______ .

(b) Ornithologists find it difficult to conduct regular studies on flamingoes in the Rann as ________________________.

(c) To conduct long term studies on the bird, __________________________ .

(d) The increase in salinity in the Rann waters is due to __________________ .

(e) Kutch was referred to as a haven for flamingoes as __________________ .

(f) Lack of food in Rann has caused _______________________________ .

(g) The conditions necessary for the flamingoes to build their nests are :

(i) ______________________________________________________

(ii) ______________________________________________________

(iii) ______________________________________________________

(iv) ______________________________________________________ 

A2.2 Find words from the passage, which mean the same as the following, from the paragraphs indicated. Write the answers in your answer sheet. 

(a) increase in number                         (para 2)

(b) scattered over a surface                 (para 1)   

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