CBSE Class 12 English Sample Paper 2018 Set A

SECTION A- READING

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

My first tryst with Shakespeare several years ago was an enforced one. The Merchant of Venice was a prescribed book in class IX at school. I had read the wonderful Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and  Considered myself an authority on when I read the stories. I did not think it necessary to read the Antiquated language or trudge through several seemingly abstruse paragraphs to get to the main point.

To spend a whole year to decipher a play when I had understood the story in a few pages seemed to be a sheer waste of time. Yet,  somewhere along the way, I was drawn into the world of the Merchants of Venice; their portly argosies, the signors and rich burghers and the news on the Rialto. The language yielded its riches slowly, the characters b e c ame well drawn, more rounded and the impassioned

speeches of Shylock and Portia stirred up a flurry of unexamined questions. Since then, I read several other plays, saw a couple of theatrical performances and watched young Leonardo Di Capriol in a modem Romeo and Juliet film. Shakespeare has been around. Shakespeare has shaped the writing and storytelling the English language like no other writer has.He liberally borrowed, bent and brought new words into the English language from addiction, bump, and critic to. Worthless and zany. The phrases that he coined roll. Off our tongues as overused adages-

All that glitters is not gold (Me r c h a n t of Venice), Jealousy is a green eyes monster (O t h e l l o )and the perennial' All is well that ends well.' He has influenced several writers andn quoted by many of them. One of my favorite authors P.G Wodehouse had the odd Shakespearean phrase popping up in whacky situations like the 'milk of human kindness' sloshing inside someone or references to Banquo

. And Macbeth explained to Bertie by the estimable Jeeves who knew his Shakespeare. The plays have been translated into most languages including several regional Indian bashes. They have lent themselves to film adaptations including the Vishal Bhardwaj’s Cabool (Macbeth) and Omari (Othello).

The tragedies and comedies of Shakespeare cover every possible theme and idea-love, greed, jealousy, race is friendship, mistaken identities, murder, mutiny, politics, feminism and revenge. Like any other celebrity, he has been the subject of speculation and controversy. There have been several conspiracy theories afloat on.the 'real' authorship of the plays eluding a recent claim by a professor in Sicily that Shakespeare was actually Italian. Despite everything, Shakespeare's appeal is universal, the stories transcend language and nationalities. However more than 400 years after Shakespeare's birth, I can't help wondering if anyone will read his works in the days to come.

The average attention span in front of a television channel is about 4 seconds before flicking on the remote to move to another.It is perfectly acceptable to massacre the rules of grammar and syntax b4 u en say why dis kolaveri di. When you can tell a whole story in 140 characters, reading 14 sentences can be a chore. Who will have the desire or patience to delve into the viscous text of a Shakespearean play to dredge up the treasures that lie within?

· Shakespeare's works have proved to be sturdy, unshakeable through the centuries, moving with the times, lending themselves to newer forms. I hope they don't get relegated to a few die-hard literature students or musty libraries.Who knows, we might yet have a different form of Shakespeare that will appeal to the GenNext, a form that will induce them to approach an original play with a sense of anticipation, of beginning a quest to understand and appreciate a good story, well told.

Nothing ofh.im that does fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

1.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions by choosing the best Of the given choices. 

l.The writer considered himself an authority on Shakespeare after reading - - - ----:-

a)The Merchant of Venice

b)Romeo and Juliet

c)Lamb's Tales

d)Leonardo Di Caprio

2.The best known Shakespearean quote is

a)AII that glitters is not gold b)All

is well that ends well c)Jealousy is

agreen-eyed monster d)Milk of human kindness

3.The claim of the Italian professor from Sicily was

a)Shakespeare was an Italian

b)that he covers every theme and idea

c)that there have been many conspiracy theories

d)shakespeare was a subject of speculation

1.2Answer the following questions briefly : 5

a)Why was the author's first tryst with Shakespeare an enforced one?

b)What did the author like about the play after reading it thoroughly?

 c)What is Shakespeare's contribution to shaping the English language?

d)What, according to the writer, will make GenNext read Shakespeare?

e)What was the speculation of the author about the GenNext?

l.3Find worin the passage hich means the same as the following. 

a)a private romantic meeting (para 1) ,

b)go beyond the range (para 3)

c)persuade'or influence (para 5)

2.Read the following passage carefully and answe'r the questions that follow: 

I .It was three in the afternoon when Philip left the realms of commonsense. He was so weary with travelling that he had fallen asleep in the train. His fellow-passengers had the usual. Italian gift of divination, and when Monteriano came they knew he wanted to go there, and dropped -him out. His feet sank into the hot asphalt of the platform, and in a dream he watched the train depart, while the porter who ought to have been carrying his bag, ran up the line playing touch-you-last with the guard. Alas! he was in no humour for Italy. Bargaining for a legno bored him unutterably. The man asked six lire; and though Philip knew that for eight miles it should scarcely be more than four, yet he was about to give what he was asked, and so make the man discontented and unhappy for the rest of the day. He was saved from this social blunder by loud shouts, and looking up the road saw one cracking his whip and waving his reins and driving two horses furiously, and behind him there appeared the swaying tigure of a woman, holding star-fish fashion on to anything she could touch. It was Miss Abbott, who had just received his letter from Milan announcing the time ofhis arrival, and had hurried down to meet him.

2. He had known Miss Abbott for years, and had never had much opinion about her one way or the other. She was good, quiet, dull, and amiable, and young only because she was twenty-three:.there was nothing in her appearance or manner to suggest the fire of youth. All her life had been spent at Sawston with a dull and amiable father, and her pleasant, pallid face, bent on some respectable charity, was a familiar object of the Sawston streets. Why she had ever wished to l ave them was surprising; but as she truly said, "I am John Bull to the backbone, yet I do want to see Italy, just once. Everybody says it is marvellous, and that one gets no idea of it from books at all." The curate suggested that a year was a long time; and Miss Abbott, with decorous playfulness, answered him, "Oh, but you must let me have my fling! I promise to have it once, and once_ only. It will give me things to think about and talk about for the rest of my life." The curate had consented; so had Mr. Abbott. And here she was in a legno, solitary, dusty, frightened, with as much to answer and to answer for as the most dashing adventuress could desire.

3.They shook hands without speaking. She made room for Philip and his luggage amidst the loud indignation <;>fthe unsuccessful driver, whom it required the combined eloquence of the station-master and the station beggar to confute. The silence was prolonged until they started. For three days he had been considering what he should do, and still more what he should say. He had invented a dozen imaginary conversations, in all of which his logic and eloquence procured him certain victory. But how to begin? He was in the enemy's country, and everything-the hot sun, the cold air behind the heat. the endless rows of olive-trees, regular yet mysterious--seemed hostile t0 the plaCid atmosphere of Swaston in which his thoughts took birth.(Adapted from Where Angels Fear to Tread by E.J. Forster)

2.1 On the basis of your reading ofthe passage, answer the following questions by choosing the best of the given choices 

!.Philip was able to reach Monteriano with the help of

a)his co-passengers

b) Miss Abbot

c)the legno driver

d) his own commonsense 

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