NCERT Class 12 English Elective Boards Question Paper Solved 2018

NCERT Class 12 English Elective Boards Question Paper Solved 2018. 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 : 

1 So convinced was Pease by Stephenson’s faith in the potential of the steam engine that he exclaimed, ‘‘If the railway is established and succeeds in conveying not only goods but also passengers, we shall have the whole of Yorkshire and next the whole of the United Kingdom, travelling in railways.’’ He might well have added — ‘the whole of the civilized world’ as a railway writer put it.

2 Stephenson had with him his 18-year-old son Robert to help him. It is interesting to recall that Robert Stephenson was later associated with the first railway in India which linked Bombay to Thane and opened on April 16, 1853.

3 The Stockton and Darlington line was so steep that trains had to be pulled by stationary steam engines. The remaining 32 km stretch was operated by locomotive (for freight) and horse (for passenger services). The work of cutting passage through rocks and building bridges was indeed very difficult considering that there were no bulldozers in those days and everything had to be done manually.

4 A vital decision was to use iron rails or T-sections, almost identical to those used everywhere today. Thus iron rails displaced wooden rails.

5 Simultaneously Stephenson also built his famed steam engine called ‘Locomotion’, which had the honour of pulling the first train on the opening day. It had only four wheels driven by piston rods connected by beams. Its big funnel looked like a factory chimney. This engine ceased working in 1846, but is still carefully preserved in Darlington.

6 The ‘grand opening’ on September 27, 1825 began sensationally. As the engine let forth a sudden burst of steam, the crowds panicked: they thought the monster would blow up! But Stephenson remained calm. He merely smiled and opened the regulator. The 21-truck train carrying 600 people against a seating capacity of 300, steamed on to Stockton to the cheers of some 40,000 people who had gathered all along the track.

7 Guns fired salutes, church bells pealed and the bands played the national anthem. Needless to say, the line proved successful, both commercially and technically. This inspired the merchants of Manchester to promote their own line to the sea. Thus the second public line from Liverpool to Manchester was opened in 1830.

8 Actually it is the Liverpool and Manchester Railway that is regarded as marking the beginning of the Railway Age, because it brought to public attention the possibilities of inter-city steam-hauled rail transport. This line was also established by Stephenson.

9 However, his difficulties were not yet over. There were those who preferred to run trains by pulling, which had to be done by a number of stationary steam engines. It was only the Rainhill Locomotive Trial, held on October 8, 1829, that finally settled this question in favour of the steam locomotive.

10 Four engines designed by different engineers entered the trial which attracted large crowds from far and near. It was Stephenson’s engine, the ‘Rocket’, which performed all the tasks successfully and won the prize of 500 pounds sterling.

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