YADI CENTRAL SCHOOL

Trial Examination, 2021

Invigilator’s Initial
Class: XII
Subject: English II (Reading & Literature)
Marks: 100 Time: 3 hours

Index No: 2 0 2 1 1 2

Section Question Weighting Marks Initial

Awarded
Section A: Question 1-MCQ 5
Short Question 2-SRQ 10
Stories
Question 3-ERQ 10
Question 1-MCQ 5
Section B: Question 2-SRQ 10
Essay
Question 3-ERQ 10
Question 1-MCQ 5
Section C: Question 2-SRQ 10
Poetry
Question 3-ERQ 10
Question 1-MCQ 5
Section D: Question 2-SRQ 10
Play
Question 3-ERQ 10
Final Mark 100

Signature of Tabulator: __________________________

• Please attach the cover sheet to your answer script.

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 1 of 12

 ENGLISH II: Reading & Literature (Paper-II)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
General Instructions:
1. This paper has four Sections:A, B, C and D corresponding to
Short Stories, Essay,Poetry and Drama respectively.
2. Each Section has three types of Questions
3. All questions are compulsory UNLESS where specified.
4. The intended marks for each question is given in brackets.
5. Mention the section and question number before writing the
responses.
6. Begin each section on a fresh page.
7. No marks will be awarded for any extra questions attempted

Section A: Short Stories.

Direction: Answer the following questions with reference to the

stories: The Elephant by Slawomir Mrozek; Mirror Image by Lena
Coakley and Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl.

Question 1 [1 x 5 =5]
Direction: Each question below is followed by four responses.
Choose the correct answeror response that best fits the given question
and circle the letter of your choice.

i. Alice says, “I found a new mole today on my new body”. What is

the literary device used by Alice?
a. Personification b. Epithet
c. Flashback d. Imagery

ii. Mirror Image is narrated in

a. Linear form. b. Non-linear form.
c. Quest Narrative form. d. Viewpoint Narrative form.

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 2 of 12

iii. The Elephant is written by Slawomir Mrozek. It is a
a. political satire. b. social satire.
c. economic satire. d. religious satire.

iv. “Three thousand rabbits were a poor substitute for the noble giant”
is an example of
a. irony. b. symbolism.
b. satire. d. personification.

v. The strength of the two drinks that Mary fixes - her drink is weak
and Patrick’s is strong, is an example of
a. irony. b. symbolism.
c. metaphor. d. alliteration.

Question 2

Direction: Answer BOTH the questions. [5 x 2 = 10]

i. For long, humans have been looking for immortality at all costs.
Do you think this will lead to our eventual dehumanization?
ii. What point of view is Lamb to the Slaughter told from? Why is
that important?

Question 3
Direction: Answer any ONE. [1 x 10 = 10]
i. In many science fiction stories, the existence of God is
denied. Could we call science fiction as an atheist literary
genre?
ii. How does Roald Dahl use dramatic irony to enhance the
overall effect on the readers in his story, Lamb to the
Slaughter?

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 3 of 12

 iii. Imagine yourself as one of the children who witnessed the
elephant’s flight. Write a satirical account of the event and
how it affected you.

Section B: Essay

Direction: Read the essay given below and answer the questions that
follow in reference to the essay.

No place offered better prospects to the thieves and kidnappers of

human beings than the ravished shores of Africa. With her powerful
old kingdom broken by sickness, firearms and the moral confusion
brought about by new religions, Africa was laid wide open to the
guile of the slavers who collected their victims from tribes that had
never previously laid eyes on each other.
Thus in the holds of the slave ships, in the slave markets of the west
indies, on the plantations of America, men and women from all parts
of the vastness of Africa faced each other for the first time-unable to
communicate, as strange to each other as a Russian and a Spaniard, as
unlike in background and temperament as a Sicilian and an Icelander.
With no common language, no common culture, no common music,
they learnt to speak to each other in sign language, or – as time went
by – in the tongues of their masters. And it was in these languages –
French, Spanish, Portuguese and English – that they made up their
first new song on alien soil. Turning to their new religion for comfort
and inspiration, as well as to the tribal instinct from chant and rhythm,
the Negroes gave birth to a new kind of music. Tribal music, as such
ceased to exist. Few, if any, of the ancient ritual remained intact. But
as the exiled Africans began to make up their new religious songs, or
spirituals as they came to be called, they built them around the dimly
remembered, already half distorted remnants of tribal culture.
This was a new music – neither European nor African: a genuine
synthesis, which brought out new musical elements not previously
YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 4 of 12
manifest in either of the parent idioms. It came into existence more or
less simultaneously all over the mainland and on many of the islands
of the New World, but it was doomed to remain an isolated flowering
as long as the exigencies of slavery prevented any form of cross-
fertilization.
Each plantation developed its own repertoire of songs and dances.
But since there was no labour mobility in the plantation system, and
since the masters tried their best to prevent contact between slaves
other than their own, each local growth of music remained largely out
of contact with all others. The only link between them was the rare
slave sold from one plantation to another, Small wonder then, that
American Negro music should have remained in incoherent form,
flourishing here and languishing there, rudimentary in one plantation
and highly complex in another.

The civil war changed all this. Uprooted by the war, set free from
slave labour, thrown together with other men from other plantations in
the short lived Negro regiments that helped defeat the confederate
troops, the Negro, released from parochialism as much as from
bondage, became a wanderer on the face of America.

Just as the troubadours of another age had linked the East with the
West in Europe and Asia, moving with the Crusaders into Arab
territory and carrying the wealth of Mohammedan culture back to
Christian lands, so the Negro singers of the New America, now linked
not only the scattered groups of their own people, but helped to link
Americans of all races by giving them the ground work of what was
to become their first common musical language – jazz. That
groundwork was the blues, the music of a rootless, alien people first
finding the link of community.

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 5 of 12

Question 1 [1 x 5 = 5]
Direction: Each question below is followed by four responses.
Choose the correct answer or response that best fits the given question
and circle the letter of your choice.

i. Why did the ‘thieves and kidnappers’ find Africa as a great

place for their trade?
A. Africans as a race were gullible.
B. Africa remained so vulnerable because of constant sickness and
civil disorder.
C. Africans were encouraging slave trade.
D. Africans were all willing to undergo any kind of slavery, as they
were illiterate.

ii. Why did they create their ‘first new song on alien soil’ in very
different manner?
A. They wanted their music to be unique in every respect.
B. They were suffering acutely and sought refuge in composing
religious songs.
C. They were captured from different places and had no common
language to communicate.
D. They were so fond of creating different styles in music.

iii. What importance is there for the civil war in the development of
Negro music?
A. It brought forth parochialism and bondage.
B. It gave them opportunities to make war music.
C. It ended slavery and gave them opportunity to be in creative
togetherness.
D. Civil War uprooted the miseries and sufferings of Negroes.

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 6 of 12

iv. Why was there no labour mobility in the plantations?
A. Because the masters kept them chained all the time.
B. Because the masters prevented them from making contacts with
other slaves in other plantations.
C. Because the slaves lived comfortably with their own job and
music.
D. Because they were provided with all that they needed within
their own plantations.

v. Jazz music can be described as the ultimate outcome of …..

A. African civil war C. African plantations
B. African sickness D. African slavery

Question 2 [5 x 2 = 10]
Direction: Answer BOTH the questions.
i. Explain the term slavery in context to the passage given above.
ii. Why did Negro slave music not develop before the Civil war?

Question 3 [1 x 10 = 10]
Direction: Answer any ONE question
i. Explain the change that overtook Negro slave music after the
civil war and also write why such a change took place?
ii. Make critical evaluation of the passage, bringing out the main
thought content, specially throwing light on the literary aspects.

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 7 of 12

 Section C: Poetry
Direction: Read the poem given below and answer the questions that
follow.
The Heart of the Tree
- Henry CuylerBunner - 1855-1896

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard—
The treble of heaven’s harmony—
These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?

He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good—
His blessings on the neighborhood,
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land—
A nation’s growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 8 of 12
Question 1 [1 x 5 = 5]
Direction: Each question below is followed by four responses.
Choose the correct answer or response that best fits the given question
and circle the letter of your choice.

i. The figure of speech used in the line, “In hushed and happy
twilight heard” is
A. metaphor B. simile
C. personification D. alliteration

ii. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

A. ababcc B. ababbccaa

C. abcb D. aabbcc

iii. The poem “ The Heart of the Tree” is a

A. sonnet. B. lyric.

C. ballad. D. narrative.

iv. Which of the following is an example of personification?

A. Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.

B. In hushed and happy twilight heard.
C. The joy that unborn eyes shall see.
D. He plants a friend of sun and sky.

v. A line which is repeated in every stanza of a poem is called

A. repeat. B. refrain.
B. couplet. D. quatrain.

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 9 of 12

Question 2 [5x2 = 10]

Direction: Answer BOTH questions.

i. Why do you think this poem is a call for the concern about the
future of the Earth?
ii. Why does the poet begin the poem, ‘The Heart of the Tree’ with
a question? What is the figure of speech used here?
Question 3 [1 x 10 =10]

Direction: Answer any ONE.

i. Deduce possible themes of the poem. Elaborate by quoting
relevant lines or phrases from the poem.
ii. The poet states: “A nation’s growth from sea to sea Stirs in his
heart who plants a tree.” Do you agree with the poet? Why or
why not?

Section D: Drama
Direction: Answer the questions in this section with reference to The
Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare.

Question 1 [1 x 5 =5]

Direction: Each question below is followed by four responses.

Choose the correct answer or response that best fits the given question
and circle the letter of your choice.

i. What does Antonio offer as bond against any future infidelity by

Gratiano or Bassanio?
a. His soul b. His estate
c. His flesh d. A chest of gold

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 10 of 12

ii. “If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana,
unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will...”
In the above line by Portia, the literary device used is
a. metaphor. b. allusion.
c. dramatic irony. d. hyperbole.
iii. When Shylock talks to Jessica about Launcelot, how does he
describe Launcelot?
a. A terrible person b. A fine servant
c. Untrustworthy d. Kind but lazy
iv. What Greek Mythology character is Bassanio referring to when
he says that gold is not all there is in life?
a. Midas b. Jason c. Brutus d. Hercules

v. What theory did Pythagoras have that Gratiano thinks relates to

Shylock?
a. That humans and animals can swap souls.
b. That the sum of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the sides.
c. That those who have much on earth will not have much in
Heaven.
d. That the New Testament is more truthful than the Old.

Question 2 [2 x 5 = 10]
Direction: Answer BOTH the questions.
i. Compare Bassanio’s logic in selection with Morocco’s and
Aragon’s. How does his elimination process differ from
theirs?
ii. “Behold, there stand the caskets, noble prince:
If you choose that wherein I am contain’d,
Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemnized:
But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,
You must be gone from hence immediately.”
If you were the chooser before the casket, which one would you
choose? Why?
YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 11 of 12
Question 3 [1 x 10 = 10]
Direction: Answer any ONE question.

i. Imagine you are Jessica. Write a letter to your father,

Shylock, the Jew, explaining why you eloped with Lorenzo
and how you worked out the plan, highlighting your
relationship with Shylock.

ii. How do the women in The Merchant of Venice defy

traditional gender roles?

YCS/Trial Exam/XII Eng II/2021 Page 12 of 12