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HALF YEARLY EXAMINATION Session - 2011-12 Class: XI Subject: English Time: 3 Hrs. M.M.

: 100

General Instructions: a) The paper is divided into four Sections-A, B, C and D. All the sections are compulsory. b) Please write down the serial number of the question in the answer sheet before attempting it. c) Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions. SECTION - A Reading Skills (20 marks) 1. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow: Cosmetic surgery is the latest beauty mantra in India, as more and more people want to look young and feel good. Be it a crooked nose, cleft lip or excessive body flab, cosmetic surgery can correct it all. Moreover, in the last decade, the popularity of medical tourism has soared among people in developed nations due to the elevated cost of healthcare in their own countries. A career as a cosmetic surgeon entails years of training and developing exceptional skill. However, once established, clients will flow in. Cosmetic surgery entails specialization in a wide variety of arenas such as rhinoplasty (nose job), abdominalplasty (tummy tuck), otoplasty (ear surgery), chin, cheek, and liposuction. The level of education is expanding in the field of medical science, and the demand for cosmetic surgeons in India is at an all time high. Cosmetic or aesthetic surgery is a fine tuned branch of medicine and requires intensive training. After an MBBS degree, students would have to pursue a three-year Masters in Surgery (MS) degree and decide upon their area of specialization. The MS degree involves a house job, a junior residency and a senior residency for one year each. Students then have to give a dissertation for approval to the university, after which they can sit for the MS examinations. Aspiring cosmetic surgeons need to specialize in plastic and reconstructive surgery, also known as MCh degree. Another option after MBBS is the Diploma National Board DNB), which is parallel to the conventional medical system and offers various specialization options including plastic and cosmetic surgery. The
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basic requirement of a cosmetic surgeon is an elevated sense of aesthetics and beauty. A sense and perception for the perfection of the human anatomy is vital in cosmetic surgery. During their practising years, students must aim to train under renowned surgeons in the field, and soak up as much as possible from their expertise. Being an apprentice to a good surgeon will not only give you the much required exposure to the reality of the cosmetic operations but will also build your confidence and client base. The practising years are crucial because in cosmetic surgery, perfect results are essential. Medical science is not a stagnant field, and hence one must also keep abreast of the latest in the field of cosmetic surgery. The biggest profit for a truly dedicated cosmetic surgeon is the beautiful result of his work and the clients satisfaction. After training under reputed cosmetic surgeons, one can either seek employment in a hospital as a full time surgeon or open up a private clinic, or do both. If you are good, people will come to you. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising for a cosmetic surgeon. a) Answer the following questions briefly a) Why has the popularity of medical tourism soared in the developed nations in the last decade? b) What is the basic requirement of knowledge a cosmetic surgeon must have? c) Why is it useful being an apprentice to a good surgeon? b) Find words in the passage which mean the opposite of. i. ii. iii. 2. Abolish Excluding Loss Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 12 1 2 2 1x3=3

1. In the democratic countries, intelligence is still free to ask whatever question it chooses. This freedom, it is almost certain, will not survive another war. Educationists should, therefore, do all they can, while there is yet time, to build up in the minds of their charges, a habit of resistance to suggestion. If such resistance is not built up, the men and women of the next generation will be at the mercy of that skilful propagandist who contrives to seize the instruments of information and persuasion. Resistance to suggestion can be built up in two ways. First, children can be taught to rely on their own internal resources and not to depend on incessant stimulation from without. This is doubly important. Reliance on external stimulation is bad for the character. Moreover such stimulation is the stuff with which propagandists bait their books, the jam in which dictators conceal their ideological pills. An individual

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who relies on external stimulations thereby exposes himself to the full force of whatever propaganda is being made in his neighbourhood. For a majority of people in the West, purposeless reading, purposeless listening-in, purposeless listening into radios, purposeless looking at films, have become addictions, psychological equivalents of alcoholism and morphinism. Things have come to such a pitch that there are many millions of men and women who suffer real distress if they are cut off for a few days or even few hours from newspapers, radio, music or moving pictures. Like the addict to a drug, they have to indulge their vice, not because the indulgence gives them any real pleasure, but because, unless they indulge, they feel painfully subnormal and incomplete. Even by intelligent people, it is now taken for granted that such psychological addictions are inevitable and even desirable, that there is nothing to be alarmed at in that fact that the majority of civilized men and women are now incapable of living on their own spiritual resources, but have become abjectly dependent on incessant stimulation from without. 2. How can children be taught to rely upon their own spiritual resources and resist the temptation to become reading addicts, hearing addicts, seeing addicts? First of all, they can be taught how to entertain themselves by making things, by playing musical instruments, by purposeful study, by scientific observation, by the practice of some art, and so on. But such education of the hand and the intellect is not enough. Psychology has its Greshams Law, it is: bad money that drives out the good. Most people tend to perform the actions that require least effort, to think the thoughts that are easiest to feel, the emotions that are most vulgarly commonplace, to give rein to the desires that are most nearly animal. And they will tend to do this even if they possess the knowledge and skill to do otherwise. Along with the necessary knowledge and skill must be given the will to use them even under the pressure of incessant temptation to take the line of least resistance and become an addict to psychological drugs. Most people will not wish to resist these temptations unless they have a coherent philosophy of life, which makes it reasonable and right for them to do so. The other method of heightening resistance to suggestion is purely intellectual and consists in training young people to subject the diverse devices of the propagandists to critical analysis. The first thing that the educators must do is to analyze the words currently used in newspapers, on platforms by preachers and broadcasters. Their critical analysis and constructive criticism should reach out to the children and the youth, with such a clarity that they learn to react to forceful suggestions in the right way at the right time. 3. What, for example, does the word nation mean? To what extent are speakers and writers justified in talking of a nation as a person? In what sense can a nation be

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described as having a will or national interest? Is it not only advisable but also essential to think in terms of all the above details so that meaningful progress is promoted, thus making democracy thrive better? a) Answer the following questions as briefly as possible. (i) What does the author want educationists to do? i. Mention the two ways in which resistance to suggestion can be built up. ii. What does the author mean by psychological addiction? Give an example. iii. How can children be helped from becoming reading, hearing or seeing addicts? iv. How can critical analysis help us? b) Find words from the passage which mean as same as the following: i. ii. iii. Continuing without interruption (para 1) Hide (para 1) Logical and consistent (para 2) SECTION - B Advanced Writing Skills (25 marks) 3. Your school had recently organized a blood donation camp on the occasion of Independence Day. Now as the Cultural Secretary of your school, write a factual description of the event in not more than 125 words. 4. While reading the newspaper the following news item caught your attention. 7 2 2 2 2 1 3

Cut out the junk food Amita Singh New Delhi These days addiction to junk food is a habit that invites a host of diseases ranging from obesity, diabetes, heart disease, lethargy, depression among others. The problem is that the onset of this addiction is very slow, like committing slow suicide, a little bit everyday.

Children these days are addicted to straight from the microwave noodles, pizzas or readymade chips and cookies instead of the balanced meals they need to take. As Shruti / Sahil Khanna, write a letter to the editor of The Hindustan Times in about 150 words expressing your concern over the problem and suggesting the measures to combat it. 5. 10 Owning a car has become a status symbol these days. However, an increase in the number of cars has added to various types of pollutions and other problems. Write an article in not more than 200 words highlighting the urgent need for reducing these man-made problems, giving suitable suggestions. You are Vinod/Vidhi. 8

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SECTION - C Grammar (15 marks) 6. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs given in the brackets: b) It. (rain) since morning. c) I (study) in this school since 2005. d) Her brother (come) from Chennai last month. e) A speeding lorry crushed her to death while she (cross) the road. Q7. Find out errors and correct them in the sentences given below. Put a / mark if there is no error. a) She is a girl who lives near my house. b) There is little milk in the jug. You can drink it. c) She has given me a lot of problems. d) All person have to shape his own fate. e) None of the news were useful. Q8. Given below are instructions for making soup. Use these to complete the paragraph that follows. 1x5=5 1x5 = 5 1x5 = 5

a) The teacher. (teach) the lesson before Ganga came to school yesterday.

Mix the soup powder with 750 ml of water without allowing it to form lumps Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed vessel Bring it to a boil, stirring continuously Simmer the soup for 5 minutes Pour the soup into 4 soup bowls and serve garnished with fried croutons
The packet is opened and the contents (a) with 750 ml of water without allowing it to form lumps. The mixture is poured into a heavy bottomed vessel. It (b) . continuously and is brought to a boil. Then the soup (c) on a slow flame for 5 minutes. Finally before the soup is served, it (d) . into soup bowls and (e) . with fried croutons.

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SECTION - D Literature (40 marks) 9. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings She launches away, towards the infinite And the laburnum subsides to empty. a) What does the goldfinch finally do? c) Where does she go? d) What is the effect on the tree? 10. Answer the following in 30-40 words each a) b) 11. Explain, Its silence silences in the poem A Photograph? How does the arrival of the goldfinch change the scene in the poem The Laburnum Top? Answer the following questions in about 30-40 words. Cook and family on January 2nd? b) How do you know that the grandmother was a very religious lady? c) Explain the concept of Shanshui. d) What is the cause of the collapse of fisheries? e) What did Carter do to separate Tuts mummy from its solid gold bottom? 12. 13. 14. What is the difference between the Western and Chinese art forms? Elaborate. (125 words) on the boys? (100 words) Answer the following questions in about 30-40 words. a) b) Which tribe did Mourad and Aram belong to? What was the tribe known for? What kind of a man was Uncle Khosrove? 10 7 4 2 2 Describe John Byros meeting with his horse and the 2 boys. What impact did it have 2x5=10 a) What were the first indications of the impending disaster that struck Captain Gordon 1 1 1 2x2 = 4 b) Why has the sound been described as eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings? 2

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