CBSE Class 9 English Language and Literature Sample Paper Set B

Section A

Reading Comprehension 15 Marks

1. Read the passage given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheets: (5 marks)

Many animals are able to communicate with each other very well – but none of them can talk as we do. That is, no animals use words. Birds cry out and make sounds that other birds understand. Smells, movements, and sounds are used for communication by animals, through which they express joy or anger or fear.

Human speech is a very complicated process, which no animal can perform. One reason is that in a very special way we use a whole series of organs to produce the sounds we want to make when we utter words. The way our vocal cords are made to vibrate, the way the throat, mouth and nasal cavities are adjusted, the way the lips, teeth, lower jaw, tongue, and palate are moved – just to make vowel and consonant sounds, is something animals can’t do. They cannot produce a whole series of words to make a sentence. And there is another, perhaps more important reason why animals can’t talk. Words are only labels for objects, actions, feelings, expressions and ideas. For example, the word ‘bird’ is a label for a living, flying object. Other words describe its colour, shape, flying  and singing. Still other words would be used to tell what the speaker thinks or feels about the bird or its actions.

For human beings, therefore, the use of words means the use of labels or symbols, and then organizing them in a certain way to communicate something. This requires a degree of  intelligence and logical thinking that no animals have. So, they can’t talk the way people do.

A. Communication in animals is made through

a. smells, movements and sounds

b. smells, setting and flying

c. smells, sitting and running

d. smells, sitting and eating

B. The emotions which are expressed by birds are

a. joy, love, hate

b. joy, jealousy or zeal

c. joy, fear or anger

d. joy, cry or anger

C. Animals cannot talk like us as human speeche is a

a. complete process

b. easy process

c. complex process

d. confused process

D. For using words properly human beings require

a. a degree of graduation

b. intelligence and logical thinking

c. logical thinking and vocal cords

d. logical thinking and imagination

E. The noun form of ‘communicate’ is

a. communicative

b. communicated

c. communication

d. communicating 

2. Read the passage given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheets: