CLASS TEST SUBJECT: ENGLISH LANGUAGE CLASS: 9 ( Nine)

Name: ____________________________________, Section: _______, Date: _______________

[Important Instructions: You are reminded of the necessity of good English. Write with legible lettering and avoid writing
with smudge, scribble or shade to keep your answer book neat and clean. Finish your exam with time to revise your answers
before the submission. Attempt all questions .]

1. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. (15 marks)

It had been a pleasantly warm day, without much wind, and without enough cloud to prevent the heat
of the sun becoming too great. Charles had spent a long time studying the level of the water in the boat,
and had discovered that, by evening, it had fallen very slightly. This, it would seem, must mean that the
boat was not taking in water, which was fortunate, because any attempt to empty it out suggested
greater effort than he felt equal to. One other immediate problem had his wandering thoughts for a few
moments at long intervals. This was the problem of Harcourt. The thing to do, Charles realised was to
put poor Harcourt into the sea. It should be a simple matter and take no more than a few seconds.
Charles arranged in his mind how it could most easily be done, but his body did not react to the
suggestions of his mind. Charles told himself that it was his hands that were the trouble. It was better,
really, not to find out how badly they had been burned. There was nothing to be done about them
except not to use them.

But then suddenly, almost without knowing how he did it, Charles moved, stood up, bent over the body
of poor Harcourt, lifted it and let it slip as gently as possible into the sea. Afterwards he stood in the
stern of boat for a long time, watching the colour of the sea deepen and the sky become increasingly
farther off with the coming of night. In a curious way he felt strangely happy. The problem of his rescue
had not yet begun to trouble him.

After a time Charles’s returning interest in living showed itself in the simple form of hunger. With some
difficulty, owing to the water in the boat, he explored its stores, and found food and water in airtight
tins. He also found a neat package wrapped in green oiled silk. He unwrapped it and found maps. Neat,
beautifully designed and printed, spotlessly new, they lay across his knees and he was no longer alone in
a world of water. At that moment those clean official maps, correct in every detail, were as comforting
as the sound of a human voice, as cheering as a candle in darkness.

a. Why would an effort to empty out the water have been greater than Charles felt equal to? (1 mark)
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b. For what two main reasons was Harcourt a problem? (Use your own words) (2 marks)
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c. What does the conflict in line 8, between Charles’s mind and his body mean? (2 marks)
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d. Why do you think he’d decided not to see how badly his hands had been burned? (2 marks)
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e. Why did he let the body of Harcourt slip as gently as possible into the sea? (2 marks)
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f. What could be two reasons why he began to feel strangely happy? (2 marks)
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g. What was he not thinking of at this moment? (1 mark)
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h. Which words in the 1st paragraph show that at one time Charles had become unable to think steadily
and with concentration? (1 mark)
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i. Which words in the last para suggest that at one time Charles must have given up of surviving? (1 mark)
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j. He stood in the stern of the boat (line 14). Where is the stern? (1 mark)
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2. Summarize the last paragraph of the above text using your own words as far as possible. (10 marks)
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