CBSE Class 11 English Question Paper Set 25 Solved

SECTION-A (READING) 

1 Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 

1.‘The Father of White Revolution’, Verghese Kurien could’ve had a glorious career abroad, with multiple degrees to his name. But he chose to stay back in Gujarat and the rest is history. He believed that a country’s biggest assets are its people. He improved the living standards of millions of poor farmers by placing technology and professional expertise in their hands. Kurien was born on 26th November, 1921 at Calicut, Kerala in a Syrian Christian family. His father was a civil surgeon in Cochin. He graduated in Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940 and then obtained his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras. He also studied at Tata Steel Technical Institute, Jamshedpur, after which he went to USA to pursue his masters.

2. Kurien came back from USA and was immediately assigned to work at Anand in Gujarat’s Kheda district in 1949. He had made up his mind to ‘quit’ but was persuaded to stay by Tribhuvandas Patel who had brought together farmers as a union to process and sell milk. He stayed and his sincere efforts were applauded by the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri who had come to inaugurate Amul’s plant.

3. Kurien was mentioned by the Ashoka Foundation as one of the eminent present day social entrepreneurs. His ‘billion-litre’ idea or ‘Operation Flood’ is the world’s biggest agricultural development programme. The operation transformed India from a milk-lacking nation to the largest milk producer in the world, surpassing the US in 1998, with 17% of global output in 2010- 11. He also made the country self-reliant in edible oils. He also founded 30 institutions which are owned by farmers.

4. Kurien was behind the creation of Amul, where milk powder from buffalo milk was produced for the first time in the world. Kurien’s life story is chronicled in his personal memoir—‘I too had a dream.’ Film-maker Shyam Benegal produced a film, Manthan, based on the cooperative milk movement in India. Not able to finance it himself, he sought Kurien’s help, who got half a million farmers to contribute for the making of the movie. The farmers loved ‘their’ own film and it won many awards. UNDP planned to use the movie to start such cooperative ventures in Latin America.

5. Verghese and his wife Molly had one daughter and a grandson. Verghese died on 9th September, 2012 after a brief illness in Nadiad, near Anand. Interestingly, the man behind the milk revolution didn’t drink milk himself. His cooperative movement alleviated the misery and poverty of millions, not only in India but also outside India. His contributions will always be admired.

a) Make notes on the passage in a suitable format using recognizable abbreviations wherever necessary. Give a title to your notes.

b) Write a summary of the passage in about 80 words based on your notes. 

2 Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 

1. Travel is a bug that was in me when I was born, probably inherited from my father. In twenty years of travelling widely through India, I have been most fascinated by those little islands that dot the Bay of Bengal off the East Coast of India. Yes, I am talking about the Andaman Islands. Andaman Islands somehow seemed almost sinister, with images of being haunted, bleak and scary, until my parents actually returned from a trip to Port Blair and told us about these serene islands. We immediately awaited the first opportunity to take a break and check them out.

2. Finally, the D-Day came and we were all ready. We boarded the aircraft and to our surprise found that there were several empty seats. On enquiry, we learnt that all supplies to the Andaman including newspaper and meat go from the mainland and so there is always more cargo and less people.

3. Port Blair airport is a small, old airport that was constructed in 1947. On my way to the hotel I noticed that there are none of the usual auto rickshaws that noisily wend their way through most Indian towns. There was only one traffic signal in the entire town and the roads were more upsand- downs than level. This was all surprising for a person like me who has lived in the coastal towns of Chennai and Mumbai.

4. The colour of the sea was an unpolluted blue, a colour that I had not seen in any of the beaches in India. It was calm and beautiful. I was thrilled with the fact that we were going to spend ten entire days there. All we had to do was sit in the open restaurant, look at the sea, enjoy the cool breeze and feel good.

5. The Andaman Islands are a group of several islands, so most of our sightseeing was by boats. There are a total of more than 356 islands there. Even the oldest boatman, Rathnam, had seen only 200 of them. I figured that ten days was surely not enough to get a full picture of this place, so I started to store every sight, every sound and every smell. The sound and light show at the jail sent a shiver down my spine. (This trip was before the movie ‘Kalapani’ was released). The realisation that those who fought for our Independence had lived, struggled, suffered and even died here left an impact.
2.1 Read the questions given below and write the correct option you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet:

1. What kind of a passage is this?

(a) Fiction    (b) Travelogue (c) Persuasive (d) Biography

2. Why was the author interested in taking a trip to Andaman Islands?

(a) It had a haunted, bleak and scary image.
(b) As his parents had recently taken a trip there.
(c) He loved travelling.
(d) He was largely fascinated by what his parents told him about the islands.

3. Why was the author surprised when he reached Port Blair?

(a) The airport was very small.
(b) There was only one traffic signal in the entire town.
(c) The roads were more ups and downs than level.
(d) All of the above

4. What is the meaning of the phrase ‘sent a shiver down my spine’?

(a) Feel very frightened
(b) Feel very excited
(c) Feel very relaxed
(d) None of these

5. The synonym of ‘sinister’ in the second paragraph is……………

(a) threatening
(b) left side
(c) benign
(d) good

6. One thing that left a major impact on the author was……………

(a) the serenity of the place
(b) the wholesome experience
(c) vastness of the islands
(d) the realisation that freedom fighters had lived, struggled and died there

2.2 Answer the following questions very briefly. 

(a) Why were there several empty seats in the aircraft?

(b) What was unusual about Port Blair?

(c) How did the author describe the beaches?

(d)Why was most of their sightseeing by boats?

(e) Which word in the passage means ‘provisions’(para 2).

(f) Which word in the passage is an antonym of ‘contaminated’ (para 4).

SECTION-B (ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS & GRAMMAR) 

3. You are Sreenath / Srinidhi of D.P. Public School, Nagpur. As the Student Editor of your school magazine, draft a notice in not more than 50 words for your school notice board inviting articles / sketches from the students of all classes.

OR

You propose to sell your flat as you are going abroad. Draft an advertisement to be published in the classified columns of ‘The Times of India’, New Delhi. Invent necessary details.

4. After passing the Secondary School Examination, a candidate has to make a very difficult choice from a number of streams available to him for further study at the senior school level. There is no valid mechanism to assess the suitability of a candidate for a particular stream. Write a letter to the Editor of a national daily emphasizing the need of educational counsellors for guidance in this matter in each school. You are Vinita/Vinay, 48, Agra Fort, Agra.( 120-150 words)

OR

You are Vishal / Veena, a student of Class XII of 10, Green Park, New Delhi. You come across an advertisement in The Times of India issued by The Institute of Foreign languages, New Delhi about the certificate course in Japanese offered by them. Write a letter to the Director of the Institute seeking more information about the course duration, working hours, fee structure, etc.

5. With the rising number of people in almost all the big cities of the country, the rate of crime has also increased proportionately. The police needs to be trained in new methodology of combating crime besides changing the mindset. Write an article in 150 – 200 words on the role of police in maintaining law and order in the metropolitan cities. You are Ravi/ Ravina.

OR

Write a narrative in 150-200 words, ending with the given line-‘….ultimately I won it as I was determined to achieve my goal.’

6. In the following passage one word is missing in each line. Write the missing word against the question number with the word that precedes and follows it. Underline the word that forms your answer.

It is difficult reverse the wrong decisions                                a)_________________

taken in past but it is possible to train                                    b)_________________

ourselves becoming a good decision-maker                             c)_________________

for the future. If we don’t, we’ll end doing what                       d)_________________

we’ve always done. All sorts decisions punctuate                      e)_________________

our lives. Sometimes we even realize that we are                    f)________________

taking a decision. Those avoid taking a decision                      g)_______________

leave everything chance.                                                       h)_______________

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