CBSE Class 12 English Sample Paper 2014 Set F

Section – A (Reading Skill : 20 marks)

Q.1 Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions which follow :

1. It is a mistaken notion that happiness depends on outward circumstances. Very often we find that whatever we may possess, still we feel empty. To be happy, we should cultivate virtues like positive thinking, simplicity, selflessness etc. The story you are going to read tells how the author finds out how futile it is to change one’s outward circumstances to make oneself happy.

2. My parents worked hard for every penny they earned. I was taught at an early age that money cannot buy happiness. As much as my parents tried to teach me these values, I had to learn through my own experiences that happiness comes from within and cannot be measured by material possessions.

3. As a child, my attention was often diverted by the sparkle of the gold and diamonds worn by people around me. As my eyes began to wander, I noticed men dressed immaculately, accompanied by women in their designer dresses with matching handbags and shoes.

My family, on the other hand, was the opposite of glamorous. Our hand-medown clothes had been washed so many times that the colours had become dull and lifeless and the material frayed around the seams. Although our clothes revealed the money struggles of our large family, our faces were always washed, our hair neatly combed. I often fantasised about the glamorous lives led by those driving their brand new cars, wishing I were more like them.

4. I continued these fantasies when I was an adolescent. Since mine was a private school, most of the children came from wealthy families. As a result, I constantly felt inferior to the rest of my classmates. Although I could hide my lack of wealth at school by wearing our mandated school uniforms, my poverty was embarrassingly apparent outside school when my classmates wore designer jeans, and I had no choice but to wear my sister’s outgrown jeans. Once, because I could not afford a birthday gift, I gave one of my own used CDs to a friend in school. When she opened the gift, her face twisted into a strange look as if she did not know whether to laugh or say thank you. It was times like these, when the other kids laughed at me and talked behind my back that convinced me that if  I only had the new clothes, a nice house and other such material possessions, then maybe I would have a chance to fit in. Then I would be happy.

5. When I got my first job, I could afford those ‘things’ that were going to make me happy. Soon I was working two jobs in order to fulfill my needs. I began to purchase the clothes, the jewellery and the perfume. Each purchase was a sign of hope. Each time I thought, this is it, this is really going to make me happy, within a few days, sometimes as little as a few hours, that feeling of emptiness came over me again. I would dream bigger and set my goals higher to purchase something even better. Each time I thought it was going to be different, but it never was.

Please click the below link to access CBSE Class 12 English Sample Paper 2014 Set F