PRESIDENCY SCHOOL

Kasturinagar, Bangalore-East
GAIN MORE KNOWLEDGE
REACH GREATER HEIGHTS
CYCLIC TEST - 4
ENGLISH
Date: 10/01/22 Class: VIII
Time Allowed: 1 hour 30 minutes Max. Marks: 40

General Instructions:

• The duration of the Examination is 1 hours and 30 minutes.

Actual writing time: 08:15 am– 09:45 am (80 min)
Uploading time: 09:45 am – 9:55 am (10mins)
Uploading of the Answer Scripts through the link provided to be completed within the
allotted time as no additional time would be allowed post expiry of the examination.
• Students to keep their cameras ON throughout the Examination. Every student’s
action is recorded.
• Students to refrain from switching tabs or minimizing the team’s window
during the examination as the examination will be locked under suspicious
unfair activity

SECTION A: READING
Q1) Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:
It’s not “cool” to be fat, but that has not prevented an obesity epidemic from occurring
among America’s youth. Childhood obesity increased from 5 percent in 1964 to about
13 percent in 1994. Today, it is about 20 percent – and rising. Excessive time spent
watching television, using the computer, and playing video games is partly to blame
for this escalating rate. Children, on an average, spend up to five to six hours a day
involved in these sedentary activities. Perhaps it wouldn’t matter if they were
sufficiently active at other times, but most of them aren’t.

To make matters worse, children are bombarded with well – crafted TV ads from fast
– food chains and other purveyors of high – fat, high – sugar meals and snacks. A
recent study reported that two-to-six-year-olds who watch television are more likely to
choose food products advertised on TV than children who do not watch such
commercials. These highly effective advertising campaigns, combined with a
physically inactive lifestyle, have produced a generation of kids who are at high risk
for obesity-associated medical conditions.

The major health threat is the early development of Type 2 diabetes (adult onset),
particularly in children with a family history of disease. Doctors are reporting a surge
in young adolescents developing Type 2 diabetes – which can lead to heart disease,
high blood pressure, kidney disease, stroke, limb amputations, and blindness. People
who develop diabetes in adolescence face a diminished quality of life and shortened
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life span, particularly if the disease progresses untreated. It’s a scary prospect for our
children but, in many cases, obesity and diabetes are preventable.

When children are spending most of their free time sitting in front of televisions and
computers, they are not outside running, jumping or engaging in team sports that
would keep their weight down. Parents need to set limits on the time their children are
engaged in passive activities. Pediatricians recommend restricting children to one to
two hours per day on TV and computers combined – though older children may need
additional time for learning activities.

Parental involvement remains the most important key to our children’s healthy diets.
Programs to educate parents about nutrition are essential. Fast foods should be
consumed only in moderation. Caregivers, who are often busy and harried, must avoid
the temptation to whisk their kids into fast-food restaurants or to pick up fast food for
dinner at home. Changing eating habits and lifestyles is not easy, but the health benefit
for our children is a wonderful payoff for parents willing to take on the task.

(i) Answer the following questions briefly. 1x4=4

(a) What is the main cause of obesity?

(b) Whom does Type 2 diabetes normally affect and what does it lead to?
(c) What should the parents do to check obesity?
(d) What do pediatricians suggest?

(ii) Answer the following questions in your own words. 2x2=4

(a) How are advertisements responsible for an obesity-associated medical problem?

(b) How does diabetes affect adolescents?

(iii) Which word from the passage has a meaning similar to the following: 1x2=2

(a) inactive
(b) declined

SECTION B: WRITING

Q2) You are Sandhya/ Sohan an active member of the Animal Lovers Club which
works for the welfare of animals by preventing cruelty to them. Recently you
visited Mahatma Gandhi Animal Care Home. You were pleasantly surprised to
see the good treatment given to the animals. Write a report on your visit, in 150-
200 words. 5x1=5

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 SECTION C: GRAMMAR

Q3) Do as directed. 1x5=5

i) I shall always remember this kindness of yours. (Change to Negative Sentence)

ii) No other metal is as expensive as gold. (Change to Superlative degree)
iii) Dogs are very loyal to their owners. (Identify the kind of sentence)
iv) Everybody has been hurt by the recent hike in fuel prices. (Change the following
sentence into interrogative)
v) The sight of the snow-clad Himalayas was really awe-inspiring. (Change the
following sentence into exclamatory)

Q4) Identify the simple, compound and complex sentences in the passage given
below. 1x5=5

(1) “I was diving a flock of sheep on the mountainside. (2) Suddenly one of them
slipped and went sailing through the air towards the gully. (3) As I looked down, I
could hardly believe what I saw. (4) That sheep never got to the gully. (5) It was an
extremely cold day and the sheep had frozen in mid-air”.

SECTION D: LITERATURE

Q5) Refer to the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:
2x3=6
(a) He fought off the urge to open the door and look up the street. “They’re
checking basements to make shelters.”

i) Who is ‘he’ in the above lines? What has he been told?

ii) Why were they checking the basements?
iii) Why did he avoid looking up the street?

(b) Alerted by all the activity, the male stayed nearby. When he swam close, the
babies climbed onto his head, transforming him from an aggressive fighter into a
devoted parent.

i) Who is the male mentioned above? Why is he called an aggressive fighter?

ii) What activity is the narrator mentioning in the above line?
iii) How do they prove to be a devoted parent?

Q6) Answer the following questions: 2x3=6

i) What is a buzz-snort? How does it function in a gharial?

ii) What trick did Liesel play to get into the house? Did she succeed?
iii) What does the phrase ‘doubly dying’ mean in the poem “My Native Land”?
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Q7) What will happen to a person who does not love his native land? Why is he
considered a wretched person? Answer with reference to ‘My Native Land’.
3x1=3

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