CBSE Class 10 English Language and Literature Sample Paper 2015 Set C

SECTION A

Q. Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheets. 

Once upon a Time

(Gabriel Okara)

     Once upon a time, son,

     they used to laugh with their hearts

     and laugh with their eyes:

     but now they only laugh with their teeth,

     while their ice-block-cold eyes

     search behind my shadow.

     There was a time indeed

     they used to shake hands with their hearts:

     but that’s gone, son.

     Now they shake hands without hearts:

     while their left hands search my empty pockets.

    ‘Feel at home’! ‘Come again’:

     they say, and when I come

     again and feel

     at home, once, twice,

     there will be no thrice –

     for then I find doors shut on me.

     So I have learned many things, son.

     I have learned to wear many faces

     like dresses – homeface,

    officeface, streetface, hostface,

    cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles

    like a fixed portrait smile.

    And I have learned too

    to laugh with only my teeth

    and shake hands without my heart.

    I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’,

    when I mean ‘Good-riddance’;

    to say ‘Glad to meet you’,

    without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been

    nice talking to you’, after being bored.

    But believe me, son.

    I want to be what I used to be

    when I was like you. I want

    to unlearn all these muting things.

    Most of all, I want to relearn

    how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror

    shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

    So show me, son,

    how to laugh; show me how

    I used to laugh and smile

    once upon a time when I was like you.

1. Who is the poem addressed to?

     a. Son                 b. Neighbor

     c. Daughter         d. Friend

2. What does the poet want to relearn?

     a. how to laugh.

     b. how to show his teeth.

     c. how to put on faces.

     d. how to talk to his friends.

3. What is the poet asking his son to show?

     a. He is asking him to show the bare fangs.

     b. He is asking him to show how to put on faces.

     c. He is asking him to show him how he used to laugh and smile.

     d. He wants to learn how to say ‘Goodbye’.

4. Pick out a word from the poem which means. “either of two long sharp teeth at the front of the mouths of some animal”.

     a. muting           b. fangs

     c. riddance        d. hostface.

5. What is the poet trying to convey through the poem ?

    a. He condemns the hypocrisy of adults.

    b. We should learn to put on faces.

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 10 English Language and Literature Sample Paper 2015 Set C