CBSE Class 12 English Core Sample Paper 2013 Solved Set C

Section A : Reading

1. Read the passage given below and then answer the questions which follow:

1. Concern about the effects of television on children has centred exclusively upon the contents of the programs which children watch. Social scientists and researchers do complex and ingenious experiments to find out whether watching violent programs make children behave aggressively. But it is easy to overlook the simple fact that one is always just watching television when sitting in front of the screen rather than having any other experience.

2. Parents who are deeply troubled about the effects of television upon their children have centred their concern on the subject matter of the programmes. A group called Action For Children's Television (ACT) was formed in the USA not only to reduce the amount of violence in programmes but also to protest against incessant commercial breaks which encouraged children to crave for fashionable toys and unhealthy foods. One of its founders described its aims "....parents have the rights to ask that programmes aimed at the young should meet the specific needs of children....." But is it the needs of children which are at stake when parents demand better programmes? Surely the fact that young children watch so much television reflects the needs of parents to find a convenient source of amusement for their offspring and a period of quiet for themselves. Their anxieties about the possible ill effects of those hours of passive, quiet viewing are lessened if the time spent at least seems to be educational.

3. The real needs of young children are quite different. They need to develop initiative, and to find out things for themselves; television provides answers too easily. Children need to acquire fundamental skills of communication; television retards verbal development because the child is silent while watching it. Television discourages the sort of games that enable the young to discover their strengths and weaknesses, with the result that as adults they will be less fulfilled. Their need for fantasy is gratified far better by their own make-believe activities than by the adult-made fantasies offered on television. Intellectual stimulation is provided more completely by manipulating, touching and doing than by passively watching and listening.

4. Oddly enough, the television industry, though often cynical and self-serving in its exploitation of children, sometimes unknowingly serves their best interests. Because television offers cheap junk programs, conscientious parents do in fact limit their children's viewing when such undesirable programs are the only ones available. Unfortunately, if organizations like ACT succeed in improving the quality of programs significantly, the, effects on young children will be more harmful because their permitted viewing time will increase, and no matter how good their content, TV programmes are always a poor substitute for other activities.

5. There are a number of fallacies that have misled parents into thinking that the problem of television will be solved by improving its quality. It is suggested, for example, that a youngster unfamiliar with TV programmes will find making friends difficult and will be labeled as an outsider. On the contrary, other children will usually respect their independence and recognise  - even envy - the richness of their alternative activities. More subtle is the mistaken belief that the experience that children gain from watching television is the same as the adults watch television, their own past and present experiences come into play, so that they can test the view of the world presented on the small screen against their knowledge of real life. But young children have very few real-life experiences to set against their viewing, so that for them TV is primary source of experience; their formative years are spent largely in an unreal, unnatural, second- hand world.

6. It is also universally assumed that TV is an important source of learning. Like an animated picture book it presents in an easily digested and entertaining way a great deal of information about the natural world, history, current affairs, other countries and so on. But the 'knowledge' of today's television-educated ,children, spouting words and ideas they do not fully understand and 'facts' whose accuracy they cannot judge from their limited experience, cannot compare with the knowledge acquired by reading or activity. It is then that-children use their minds and their bodies, their imaginative and reasoning power, to enrich their lives.

7. Only when parents begin to question the nature of television itself and its effects on their children and on themselves as parents will they begin to realize that it is not the program but television itself- and especially the good program - which poses the greater threat to their children's well-being. (Adapted from Plug-in Durg by Marie Winn)

a) On the basis of your reading the passage answer the questions given below:

(i) Why is the ACT against frequent commercial breaks on the small screen 

(ii) What are the three reasons given by the author to justify the harmful effect  TV has on the children?

(iii) How are adults able to relate to the programme on TV ? 

(iv) What do you understand by the phrase second-hand world? 

(v) How does the author differentiate between the knowledge gained  by watching TV programmes and that gained by reading?

b) Pick out the words from the passage which mean 

(i) continuous (para 2) 

(ii) tendency to have a low opinion 

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 12 English Core Sample Paper 2013 Solved Set C