CBSE Class 11 English Sample Paper Set 08

CBSE Class 11 English Sample Paper Set H. It’s always recommended to practice as many sample papers as possible before the examinations. Students can download the sample papers and also question papers of previous years to practice and score better marks in examinations. Refer to other links too for more sample papers.

SECTION- A

(READING)

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

1. It's the quality, not the quantity that counts. What has happened to the art of conversation? By conversation, I do not mean mere word exchanges between individuals. I am thinking, rather of the ability to convey images from one mind to another; the ability to build a mutual edifice of ideas, in short, the ability to engage in a civilizing experience.

2. But where does one find good conversation these days? Certainly not in the presence of television set. No matter how rewarding 'bridge talk' may be, it is not conversation. Neither it is chatter.

3. What makes good conversation? In the first place, it is essentially a mutual search for the essence of things. It is a lively exchange of ideas, not a briefing or lecture. The Russian poet Alexander Pushkin correctly identified the willingness to listen as one of the vital ingredients of any exchange. When two people are talking at the same time, it is not conversation -it is collision.

4. Nothing is more destructive to good talk than for one participant to hold the ball too long, like an over-zealous football dribbler playing to the crowd. Pity the husband or wife with a garrulous mate who insists on talking long past the point where he or she has anything to say. To be meaningful, a conversation should head in a general direction. It need not be artfully plotted but it should be gracefully kept on course, guided by unforeseen ideas.

5. It has been said that if speech is silver, silence is golden. Certainly silence is preferable, under most circumstances, to inconsequential chit-chat. Why, then, are so many people discomfited by the absence of human sound waves? Why are they not willing merely to sit with each other, silently enjoying the unheard, but real linkages, of congeniality and understanding? Made conversations should not be a necessity among intimates. If there is nothing to say- don't say it.

6. It is true that strangers meeting for the first time seem to feel uncomfortable if they do not engage in small talk. Usually this is harmless and even necessary if strangers are to size each other up. But, small talk aside, what are some elementary rules for general conversation? In the first place, certain subjects should be taboo. Kitchen topics, the best cleansers, business, bus time-tables and other dull or specialized things should be barred from general discussion. Next, let us remember that our illnesses and operations are not something to be offered to friends at conversation time.

7. Then there is the conversationalist who must under every circumstance be right, one who always has to win the game. And there are those of us who want to moralise. Let's not. Conversation need not always be purposeful, but it must at least be for pleasure. It must be congenial, aiming for example, at knowing better one's conversation partner. Above all, it should be joyful and amiable, for, as the essayist Joseph Addison put it, 'Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit'.

8. I do not object to enforced conversation, say by the hostess who interrupts an afterdinner group with, 'We simply must hear about John's trip to Africa.' I am less tolerant, however of those who halt a good conversation with a flat, 'Come now, let's stop all this serious talk.' A good conversation is a fragile thing that must be nurtured carefully. 6

1.1 Read the questions given below and write the option you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet:

a) What does conversation mean? 

(i) Exchange of words between individuals

(ii) Exchange of ideas between individuals

(iii) The ability to convey images from one mind to another

(iv) None of the above

b) The essential features of a good conversation does not include 

(i) mutual understanding

(ii) lively exchange of ideas

(iii) giving lectures

(iv) ability to convey images in each other's mind.

c) The elementary rules of general conversation include

(i) kitchen topics, the best cleansers, business talk 

(ii) illnesses and operations

(iii) deep silence

(iv) it must be at least for pleasure if not for purpose 

d) A good conversation is fragile and must be nurtured

i) carelessly 

ii) silently

iii) carefully

iv) hastily

e) According to Pushkin, one of the important aspects of any exchange is ;

i) the ability to talk fluently 1

ii) the willingness to listen

iii) the ability to moralize

iv) the ability to be witty

f) Which of the following words in para 4 is the synonym of talkative?

i) unforeseen 

ii) over-zealous

iii) garrulous

iv) dribbler

Please click the link below to download CBSE Class 11 English Sample Paper Set H