AUXILIUM CONVENT SCHOOL

ICSE SEMESTER 1 PART II EXAMINATION

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
English Paper - 2
Maximum Marks: 40
Time allowed: One hour (inclusive of reading time)
ALL QUESTIONS ARE COMPULSORY.
The marks intended for questions are given in brackets [ ].
Select the correct option for each of the following questions.
Section A
1. What does Shylock say, a man’s flesh is good for? [1×10=10]
a) Selling on the Rialto
b) Making Stew
c) Baiting fish
d) Feeding Dogs

2. How long was the crocodile?

a) Thrice the length of a tall man
b) Twice the length of a woman
c) Twice the length of a child
d) Twice the length of a tall man

3. “Whenever a star falls, a soul goes up to God.” – Who is the speaker?

a) The Little Match Girl
b) A Boy
c) The girl’s mother
d) The girl’s old grandmother

4. “… its shape wobbling in the movement of the stream.” – Which object is being referred to here?
a) The sickle
b) The blue bead
c) The silver bracelet
d) The crocodile

5. How many times richer did Portia wish to become for Bassanio?
a) Ten thousand times
b) Trebled twenty times
c) A thousand times
d) Ten times

6. Why does the caged bird sing?

a) He wants to challenge the free bird
b) He makes others feel good
c) He wants to entertain people
d) He has only one way to express himself

7. What is the meaning of Shambles?

a) A platform on which criminals are punished by being hanged
b) A place where people gather together to watch public hanging
c) Jewish place of worship
d) An instrument of torture

8. Who all have persuaded Shylock to deface the bond as stated by Salerio?
a) Antonio, Bassanio and Portia
b) Duke, nobleman and Antonio
c) Duke, twenty merchants and noblemen
d) Duke, Bassanio and ten merchants.

9. “Something did! I found a blue bead for my necklace, look!” – Which literary device is used here?
a) Situational irony
b) Pun
c) Metaphor
d) Dramatic irony

10. The crocodile had swallowed a ___________

a) Silver anklet
b) Silver bracelet
c) Silver chain
d) The blue bead
Section B

I. Read the following extract from The Merchant of Venice (Act 3) and answer the questions that follow
by choosing the most appropriate response from the choices given below: [1 × 5=5]
Away then! I am lock’d in one of them:
If you do love me, you will find me out.-
1. As the scene opens, what does Portia ask Bassanio?
a) Don’t hazard a guess at the caskets
b) Not to select either the gold or the silver caskets
c) To wait a few days before he chooses a casket
d) Just to leave Belmont

2. Who/what is Bassanio referring to in the following lines?

“…thou pale and common drudge
‘Tween man and man:”
a) Shylock
b) The gold casket
c) The lead casket
d) The silver casket

3. What is Portia’s hair in the portrait compared to?

a) Cobwebs
b) Blonde hair
c) Medusa
d) Indian beauty

4. What does Bassanio feel like, after choosing the right casket and winning Portia?
a) Like a Jason
b) Like Hercules
c) Like a contender who has won the prize
d) Like a proud person

5. After Bassanio chose the right casket, what does Portia give him that he must swear never to part
with?
a) Her portrait
b) A lock of her golden hair
c) A ring
d) Her love
II. Read the following extract from The Merchant of Venice (Act 3) and answer the questions that
follow by choosing the most appropriate response from the choices given below: [1×5=5]
Lorenzo, I commit into your hands
The husbandry and manage of my house
Until my lord’s return:
1. What does the word ‘husbandry’ mean in the above extract?
a) Agronomy
b) Control
c) Conservation
d) Frugality

2. Who has breathed a secret vow towards heaven?

a) Portia
b) Nerissa
c) Jessica
d) Bassanio

3. Where will Portia stay until her husband’s return?

a) Padua
b) Venice
c) Monastery
d) Convent

4. Who is the bosom lover of ‘my lord’ referred to in the extract?

a) Bassanio
b) Antonio
c) Lorenzo
d) Gratiano

5. What is Portia’s response to Nerissa when she asks of Bassanio and Gratiano “shall they see us”?
a) No, we will stay hidden
b) Yes, but we’ll be dressed like men
c) Yes, and we will provide them inspiration
d) No, but they will hear our voices

III. Read the following extract from the poem ‘The Patriot’ and answer the questions that follow by
choosing the most appropriate response from the choices given below: [1×5=5]

It was roses, roses, all the way,

With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,

1. The poem is in the form of ______

a) Dramatic Monologue
b) Oxymoron
c) Narrative Technique
d) None of the above

2. “With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:” - which literary device is used here?
a) Personification
b) Simile
c) Metaphor
d) Alliteration
3. Name the literary device used in: “And you see my harvest, what I reap”
a) Metaphor
b) Personification
c) Alliteration
d) Simile
4. Why have the people gathered the next year?
a) To award the patriot
b) To execute the patriot
c) To welcome the patriot
d) For celebrating a festival with the patriot

5. What does ‘sun’ signify in the poem?

a) Danger
b) Heat and light
c) Glory and power
d) A gift from people

IV. Read the following extract from the poem ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ and answer the
questions that follow by choosing the most appropriate response from the choices given below:
[1×5=5]
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays

1. The first stanza of the poem is meant to show –

a) The caged bird’s feelings of despair and hopelessness
b) The beauty of the sun’s rays
c) The thrill of being free to live his life as he pleases
d) How a bird flies free and claims the sky

2. Name the literary device used in “orange sun rays”.

a) Personification
b) Alliteration
c) Imagery
d) Simile

3. In line 4 of the poem, the word ‘current’ means –

a) Up-to-date
b) Popular
c) Circulating, like a coin passing between people
d) A large body of water moving in one direction

4. Which stanza of the poem is repeated?

a) Stanza 1
b) Stanza 3
c) Stanza 4
d) None of the above

5. Choose the word which defines the features of the cage –

a) Narrow
b) Broad
c) Small
d) Large
V. Read the following extract from the short story ‘The Little Match Girl’ and answer the questions
that follow by choosing the most appropriate response from the choices given below: [1×5=5]
So the little girl walked about the streets on her naked feet, which were red and blue with the cold.
1. How was the ‘last evening of the old year’?
a) A pleasant evening full of comfort
b) A bleak, cold evening
c) A joyous evening
d) None of the above

2. When the little match girl lights her first match, what does she compare the flame to?
a) A bonfire
b) A large candle
c) A star
d) A little candle

3. Fill in the blanks:

She crept along, ____________ and ___________,
a) Confused, frustrated
b) Hopeless, dejected
c) Shivering, hungry
d) Angry, frustrated

4. What is the irony of the story?

a) The girl died of hunger and cold
b) Fulfillment of the girl’s wish but only after her death
c) The girl came to see her grandmother alive
d) The girl walked through the streets bareheaded and barefoot.

5. The smell of roast goose in the street is an example of __________

a) Olfactory imagery
b) Verbal irony
c) Simile
d) Metaphor

VI. Read the following extract from the short story ‘The Blue Bead’ and answer the questions that
follow by choosing the most appropriate response from the choices given below: [1×5=5]

There was no end to the wonders of the world.

But Sibia, in all her life from birth to death, was marked for work.
1. To which state does the travelling merchant belong?
a) Kerela
b) Kashmir
c) Andhra Pradesh
d) Punjab
2. What were the contents of the locked chest that the merchant was carrying?
a) Silver and gold
b) Diamond and opals
c) Platinum and turquoises
d) Turquoises and opals

3. Sibia was dressed in ________

a) Dawn-coloured rag
b) Earth- coloured rag
c) Green- coloured rag
d) Blue- coloured rag
4. “… creatures of great wet noses and moving jaws and gaunt black bones.”
a) Buffaloes
b) Tigers
c) Leopards
d) Crocodiles

5. The maker’s sign at the edge of the cotton cloth had a _______ symbol.
a) Lion’s head
b) Leopard’s head
c) Tiger’s head
d) Eagle’s head

The End
Best of Luck

WHATSAPP NUMBER TO SEND

XA ANSWER SCRIPTS:
6294440678
WHATSAPP NUMBER TO SEND
XB ANSWER SCRIPTS:
9547623867
WHATSAPP NUMBER TO SEND
XC ANSWER SCRIPTS:
6295693644