CBSE Class 9 English Communicative Sample Paper Set 67

 Section A

Reading 20 marks

Q1. Read the following passage carefully:

The young liftman in a City office, who threw a passenger out of his lift the other morning and was fined for the offence was undoubtedly in the wrong. It was a question of „Please‟. The passenger, entering the lift said „Top‟. The liftman demanded “Top, please,” and his demand being refused, the liftman hurled the passenger out of the lift.

While it is true that there is no law that compels us to say „Please‟, there is a social practice much older and much more sacred than any law enjoins us to be civil. The first requirement of civility is that we should acknowledge a service. „Please‟ and „Thank you‟ are the small change with which we pay our way as social beings. They are the little courtesies by which we keep the machine of life oiled and running sweetly. They put our interaction upon the basis of a friendly co-operation and easy give-and-take instead of superiors dictating to inferiors. It is a very vulgar mind that would wish to command when he can have the service for asking and have it with willingness and good feeling instead of resentment. If bad manners are infectious, so also are good manners. If we encounter incivility most of us are apt to become uncivil but it is an unusually uncouth person who can be disagreeable with sunny people. It is with manners as with weather. “Nothing cleers up my spirits like a fine day,” said Keats, and a cheerful person descends on even the gloomiest of us with something of the benediction of a fine day.

It is a matter of general agreement that the war has had a chilling effect upon these little everyday civilities of behaviour that sweeten the general air. We must get those civilities back if we are to make life kind and tolerable for each other. We cannot get them back by invoking the law. The policeman is a necessary symbol and the law is a necessary institution for a society that is still somewhat lower than the angles. But the law can only protect us against material attack. Nor will the liftman‟s way of meeting moral affront by physical violence help us to restore the civilities. I suggest to him that he would have had a more subtle and effective revenge if he had treated the gentleman who would say „please‟ with elaborate politeness. He would have had the victory, not only over the boor, but over himself, and that is the victory that counts.

(I) Answer the following questions briefly :

(1) The young liftman was fined because _______________

(2) The demand of the liftman was _______________

(3) While law compels us to follow a certain practice, social practice _______________

(4) The first requirement of civility is _______________

(5) Little courtesies like „Please‟ and „Thank you‟ are important because_______________

(6) The author blames the war because _______________

(II) Fill in the blanks by using one word : 

Please‟ and „Thank you‟ are small words but they add (a) __________ to life. It is, therefore, very  

(b) __________ that we cultivate this good social

(c) __________ to make the machine of life run __________ .

(III) Find words in the passage which mean the same as the following :

(a) hurl

(b) resentment

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 9 English Communicative Sample Paper Set K