CBSE Class 12 English Elective Question Paper 2014

CBSE Class 12 English Elective Question Paper 2014. Students can download the last year question papers using the link below. Free download of examination question papers with solutions. Last 10 year question papers should be practised to get better marks in examinations.

SECTION A 

(Reading)

1. (a) Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :

One morning, about half-way between my front gate and the tram track, I noticed two little boys playing in the garden of the more modest cottages. They were both very little boys, one was four years old perhaps, the other five. The bigger of the two was a sturdy youngster, very dark, with a mat of coarse hair on his head and coal-black eyes. He was definitely a little Jamaican – a strong little Jamaican. The other little fellow was smaller, but also sturdy – he was white, with hazel eyes and light-brown hair. Both were dressed in blue shirts and khaki pants. They wore no shoes and their feet were muddy. They were not conscious of my standing there, watching them : they played on. The little white boy walked authoritatively up and down, and every now and then shouted at his bigger playmate. The brown boy shuffled along quietly behind him and did what he was told.

‘Pick up that stick !’ The dark boy picked it up.

‘Jump into the flowers !’ The dark boy jumped.

‘Get me some water !’ The dark boy ran inside. The white boy sat down on the lawn.

I was amazed. Here before my eyes, a white baby – for they were little more than babies – was commanding his will upon a black baby. And the black baby submitted. I puzzled within myself as I went down the road.

Was it that even as a boy he sensed that in his own country he would be at the white man’s beck and call ? Could he, even at his age, tell the difference between himself and the white boy ? And did the little white youngster, so young, such a baby, realize that he would grow to dominate the black man ?

I could not bring myself to believe such a thing, and yet, with my own eyes I had seen a little dark boy take orders from a little white boy – a little white boy, obviously his social equal, and younger and smaller. Were we, as a race, really inferior ? So inferior that even in our infancy we realized our deficiencies, and accepted our position as the white man’s servant. For a whole day, I puzzled over this problem.

The next morning, the boys were there again, and a man was standing at the gate watching them. I stopped and looked, just to see what the white boy was making his little servant do. To my utter astonishment, the little dark boy was striding imperiously up and down the lawn, while the white youngster walked abjectly behind him.

‘Get me a banana !’

The little white boy ran into the house and reappeared shortly with a banana.

‘Peel it for me !’

The little white boy peeled the banana and handed it to his dark master.I saw it now. It was indeed a game, a game I had played as a child. Each boy took it in turn every alternate day to be the boss, the other, the slave.I smiled as I remembered. I looked at the man standing by the gate. He was a white man. I remembered what I had thought yesterday. He, no doubt, I thought to myself, was wondering if the black race is superior to the white. I laughed gently to myself. How silly grown-ups are ! And yet how clever we are, how wonderfully able we are to assign deep motives to childish actions ! This man, I thought to myself, will puzzle all day on whether the blacks will eventually rise and rule the world. I will save him his puzzle. I will explain it to him. I went across to him.

‘I know what you’re thinking,’ I said. ‘You’re thinking that may be the black race is superior to the white, because you just saw the little dark youngster on the lawn ordering the little white boy around. Don’t think that; it’s a game they play. Alternate days one is boss, the other, servant. It is a grand game. Yesterday, I saw the little white boy bossing the dark one and I worried all day over the dark boy’s realization of his inferiority so young in life ! We are silly, we grown-ups, aren’t we ?’

The man was surprised at my outburst. He looked at me smiling.

‘I know all about the game,’ he said. ‘The boys are brothers, my sons.’ He pointed to a handsome brown woman on the verandah who had just come out to call in the children. ‘That’s my wife,’ he said.I smiled. My spirit laughed within me. This is Jamaica, I said in my heart, this is my country, my people.

(i) What difference did the narrator notice between the two boys whom he saw one morning ? 

(ii) When the narrator saw the boys the first time, what questions cropped up in his mind ? 

(iii) What surprised the narrator when he saw the two boys engaged in their game the next morning ? 

(iv) What did the narrator realize then ? 

(v) Why did the narrator go to talk to the white man who was standing at the gate watching the two boys ? 

(vi) What surprise did the narrator get from his encounter with the white man ?

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