CBSE Class 12 English Sample Paper 2014 Set A

SECTION ‘A’

 READING

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

1. One summer day, the huge hills of granite through which the Tungabhadra snaked with swift-moving grace woke to the sound of marching feet. In the black-cotton plains ahead Krishna Deva Raya was advancing in a north-eastern direction with a million men. The soldiers alone numbered 73,600. Of these, 35,000 were cavalry, clad in shining armour. There were 550 elephants. The archers and musketeers wore tunics of strong raw leather, protection against sword and lance. The shield men with swords and daggers in their girdles carried shields so huge that they covered the whole body. The horses were magnificently caparisoned. The elephants were huge beasts with sharp knife blades fastened to their curved tusks.

2. Ten thousand carriers with filled water skins followed the army. In the scorching heat the soldiers suffered from thirst. All kinds of merchandise were for sale, even rubies and diamonds.

3. Krishna Deva Raya, King of Kings, Lord of the greater lords in India, Lord of the three seas and of the land (that, precisely, was his title), was of medium height, faircomplexioned, with a good figure and signs of smallpox on his face. Monarch of a vast kingdom full of wealth and luxury and splendour, he was fond of display. His capital was one of the richest cities in the world. He was now marching to fight his hereditary enemy, Sultan Adil Shah of Bijapur.

4. Vijayanagar, the City of Victory, was built by two brothers, Harihar and Bukka, in 1336. Southern India had been held by a number of old Hindu dynasties. There was neither unity nor goodwill. The result was that in 1293, Ala-ud-din Khilji, spearhead of Muhammadan inroad into the Deccan, found it easy enough to capture Devagiri. Some years later, his General, Malik Kafur, took Warangal and Dwarasamudra, and  pierced into the Malabar Coast where he erected a mosque. A new attack on Devagiri took place in 1312, when its Prince, Haripala Deva was flayed alive, and is head was set up to stare with unseeing eyes from the carved gate of his city.

5. The Muslimshad complete sway over the countries down to the Vindhya Mountains. The terror that stalked the north was now relentlessly making its way to the south. “Everything”, writes Swell, “seemed to be leading up to but one inevitable end- the ruin and devastation of the Hindu provinces, the annihilation of their old royal houses, the destruction of their religion, their temples and their cities. All that the dwellers in the South held most dear seemed tottering to its fall. Suddenly, about the year 1344 A.D., there was a check to this wave of foreign invasion-a halt- then a solid wall of apposition; and for 250 years Southern India was saved.

6. How did it happen? When the Muhammadans thrust down to the bank of the Krishna River, the rear-stricken Hindu State, worn by age, nevertheless combined all their power for a final struggle and marshalled themselves under the lead of the warrior kings of Anegundi. They gained a decisive victory over the enemy, but lost themselves. The union of small states became a single solid body. The old kings submitted to the new leadership, and round the nucleus of Anegundi there grew up the great empire of Viyayanagar, stretching from the Krishna to Cape Comorin.

7. The Capital of the name, standing on the south bank of the Tungabhadra along the tumbled mass of rock, was sixty miles in circumference. A contemporary traveller, Abdul Razaak, writes: “The city of Vijayanagar is such that the pupil of the eye has never seen a place like it, and the ear of intelligence has never been informed that there existed anything to equal it in the world. Roses sold everywhere. These people could not live without roses”.

1.1 Answer the following questions:

1. Name the kingdom ruled by Krishna Deva Raya. (1M)

2. What was the quality of army led byKrishna Deva Raya? (1M)

3. What tragedy struck in 1312? (1M)

4.Why did the Hindu kings lose to Ala-ud-din Khilji? (2M)

5. “They gained a decisive victory but lost themselves”.Explain the statement.(2M)

6. For how many years was South India saved after the decisive victory?(1M)

7. What was the weakness of the Hindu Kings?(1M)

1.2. Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following: (3M)

1. decorated with a covering (para 1)

2. exactly/ really (para 3)

3. command/ authority (para 5)

Q2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: Despite all the research, every one of us catches cold and most of us catch it frequently. Our failure to control one of the commonest of all ailments sometimes seems ridiculous. Medical science regularly practises transplant surgery and has rid whole countries of such killing diseases as typhus and the plague. But the problem of common cold is unusually difficult and much has yet to be done to solve it.

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 12 English Sample Paper 2014 Set A