CBSE Class 10 English Sample Paper 2017 Set 03

SECTION A (READING)

Q.1 Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : 

(1) Mother Teresa was a humanitarian. This means she did things to help out other people. Her entire life was devoted to helping the poor, the sick, the needy, and the helpless.

(2) Mother Teresa was born in Uskub, Ottoman Empire on August 26, 1910. This city is now called Skopje and is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. Her birth name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. Her father died when she was eight and she was raised by her mother. She was raised as a Roman Catholic and decided at a young age to devote her life to God. She joined the Sisters of Loreto at the age of 18 to become a missionary in India. She first had to learn English. So she went to Ireland to learn English at the Loreto Abby.

(3) A year later she started her missionary work in Darjeeling, India. She learned the local language, Bengali, and taught at the local school. She soon took her first vows as a nun and took the name, Teresa. She taught for many years in India, becoming the headmistress at a school in eastern Calcutta.

(4) When she was 36 years old, she felt the call from God to help the poor of India. She received some basic medical training and then set out to help the sick and the needy. This wasn't an easy task in 1948 India. She had very little support and, while trying to feed and help the poorest of the poor, she herself was constantly hungry and even had to beg for food.

(5) Soon other women joined her and she formed the Missionaries of Charity. Mother Teresa described the purpose of the Missionaries of Charity as an organization to take care of "the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved and uncared for throughout society."

(6) It wasn't an easy task to build such an organization and to keep the focus on the poorest people. In 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitutes a threat to peace. She was beatified in 2003, the first step on the path to sainthood, within the Catholic church. She worked almost up until her death on September 5, 1997.

(a) Why was Mother Teresa called a ‘humanitarian’ ?

(b) When and where was Mother Teresa born ?

(c) Why did she go to Ireland ?

(d) When did Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu change her name to ‘Teresa’ ?

(e) When did she decide to help the poor in India ?

(f) What hardships did she face while helping the poor ?

(g) What is the purpose of the Missionaries of Charity according to Mother Teresa ?

(h) Why was Mother Teresa honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize ?

Q.2 Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.

1. Monday morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. He wished he was sick; then he could stay home from school. Suddenly he had an idea. One of his upper front teeth was loose. This was lucky. He fell groaning with considerable spirit. But Sid slept on unconscious.

2. Tom shook him. Sid brought himself up on his elbow, and began to stare at Tom. Sid said: “What is the matter, Tom ? How long you been this way ? Why didn’t you wake me sooner ?”

3. Sid flew down-stairs shouting: “Oh, Aunt Polly, Tom’s dying!”

4. “Dying! Rubbish!” But she fled up-stairs, nevertheless. Her face grew white, and her lip trembled. When she reached the bedside she gasped out, “Tom, what’s the matter ?”

5. “Oh, auntie, my tooth hurts.”

“Your tooth? What’s the matter with it ?”

“One of them is loose, and it aches awful.”

“Open your mouth. Well – your tooth is loose, but you’re not going to die. Mary, get me a silk thread, and a chunk of fire out of the kitchen.”

6. Tom said: “Oh, please don’t pull it out. It doesn’t hurt any more. I’ll go to school.”

“So all this was because you thought you’d get to stay home from school and go fishing ? Tom, I love you so, and you seem to try every way you can to break my old heart with your outrageousness.”

7. By this time the dental instruments were ready. The old lady made one end of the silk thread fast to Tom’s tooth with a loop and tied the other to the bedpost. Then she seized the chunk of fire and suddenly thrust it almost into the boy’s face. The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost.

8. But all trials bring their compensations. As Tom wended to school after breakfast, he was the envy of every boy he met because the gap in his upper row of teeth enabled him to expectorate in a new and admirable way. He gathered quite a following of lads interested in the exhibition; and one that had cut his finger and had been a centre of fascination and homage up to this time, now found himself suddenly without an adherent, and shorn of his glory. His heart was heavy, and he said with a disdain which he did not feel that it wasn't anything to spit like Tom Sawyer; but another boy said, "Sour grapes!" and he wandered away a dismantled hero.

(a) Why did Tom wish he were sick ? 

(b) Why did Sid rush downstairs ?

(c) Why did Aunt Polly thrust a ‘chunk of fire’ into Tom’s face ?

(d) What compensation did the removal of tooth bring to Tom ?

(e) What is meant by the word, ‘outrageousness’ ? (para 6) 

(i) shocking         (ii) amusing         (iii) tiring             (iv) courageous

(f) What is meant by the word, ‘seized’ ? (para 7)

(i) cried               (ii) sought            (iii) picked up         (iv) found

(g) Find the word opposite in meaning to ‘pull’. (para 6)

(i) draw        (ii) push          (iii) run             (iv) knit

(h) Find the phrase opposite in meaning to ‘wended to’. (para 8 )

(i) came from          (ii) walked from             (iii) cried at            (iv) ran back

SECTION B (WRITING& GRAMMAR)

Q.3 You are Arun/Aarti, 112 Bank Street Agra. In 100-120 words, write a letter to the Editor, of a national daily, regarding your views on the topic - Education in India Vs. Education abroad. 

Q.4 Write a story in about 150-200 words using the hints given below:

Sitting near a window - enjoying the rain - cars splash - pitter patter on the windowpane - khar-khar of the FM station - unable to access Radio Stations- the near-by patch of green - vibrant - soothing smell of the wet soil - noise of foot steps - bell rings... 

Q.5 Read the paragraph given below. Fill in the blanks by choosing the most appropriate words / phrases from the given options.

Our shop had an exceptionally interesting stock, yet I doubt (a) __________ ten percent of our customers knew a good book from a bad one. First edition snobs were much more common than lovers of literature, but poor oriental students haggling (b) __________ cheap textbooks were common. Vague-minded people looking (c) __________ birthday presents for their nephews were the most common of all.

Q.6 The following paragraph has not been edited. There is one error in each line. Write the error word and the correction in your answer sheet against the correct blank number. The first one has been done as an example.

Q.7 Re-arrange the following words/phrases to make meaningful sentences.

(a) to be believed/if advertisements/will soon be/were/out of work/dentists/for toothpaste

(b) to your/and you can/this brand/gorge on sweets/heart's content/just use

(c) no harm/ring/will be done/it guards you/with its/ protective/as

SECTION C (LITERATURE& LONG READING TEXT)

Q.8 Read one of the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:

How amused everyone would be if they knew what really happened.

(a) Who is the speaker ?

(b) What had ‘really happened’ ?

(c) What does the word, 'amused' mean ? 

OR

“Pringle attended him when he was alive and Pringle shall attend him when he’s dead. That’s professional etiquette”.

(a) Who is Pringle ?

(b) Why couldn’t Pringle attend him recently ?

(c) What does ‘professional etiquette’ mean ? 

Q.9 Answer the following questions in about 30 - 40 words.

(i) Which qualities of the two brothers touched the writer deeply ? 

(ii) The atmosphere of the bog changed immediately after the arrival of the nightingale. How? 

(iii) What changes did grandfather want to make in his will and why? 

(iv) What is your impression of the postmen and the postmaster in the story, “The Letter” ? 

Please click the link below to download CBSE Class 10 English Sample Paper 2017 Set C