PRE-BOARD EXAMINATION (DEC – 2023)

GRADE-10 ENGLISH (SUBJECT CODE 184)

ANSWER KEY & MARKING SCHEME- SET A

SECTION A READING
I
1 (c) For the side effects of using the brand 1
2 (b) It increases awareness, trust and familiarity 1
3 (a) Association of product with the celebrity’s desired 1
feature
4 (a) Neerav belongs to Gen Z and Neelam is a Millennial 1
5 (c) (i) (II) and (iv) 1
6 It allows to engage and build connections with the 1
celebrities
7 There is no relationship between endorsements and 1
purchase decision making
8 Boomers and Gen Z category 1
9 social media advertisement and endorsement. 1
10 ‘wane’ 1
II
1 c. Securing rock formations 1
2 b. Explosive residue, silica, and coal dust 1
3 False 1
4 c. It has decreased drastically 1
5 d. careless 1
6 b. II only 1
7 C. believes that MTR companies care little for the 1
environment or for the Appalachian community
8 (b) Increased rates of various cancers and pulmonary 1
disorders
9 c. Dams containing toxic runoff 1
10 False 1

III GRAMMAR
1 (b) has announced 1

2 she had no clue as she had not been there during the 1
briefing
3 must 1
4 He was showing his stereotyped mentality 1
5 washed 1
6 Were -was 1
7 Pancy asked Binny how much time she had spent at the 1
War Memorial
8 b. are-is 1
9 c. will 1
10 (a) has now planned 1
11 (b) Atulya whether she had attended the previous class of
biology the previous day.

12 who- which
 CREATIVE WRITING SKILLS
IV. 40. Civil Lines
1. New town Total-5
(A) FORMAT – 1 mark
20 August, 20XX (full credit if all aspects
included. Partial credit
The Chairman (½ mark) if one-two
Municipal Corporation aspects are missing. No
Agra credit if more than two
aspects are missing)
Subject: Dilapidated condition of historical monuments
Sir CONTENT – 2 marks
Through the columns of your esteemed newspaper, I (½ mark for each
would like to draw the attention of the concerned content
authorities towards the dilapidated condition of several Point area addressed-
historical monuments. suggestion, importance,
The monuments in India are slowly being eroded away implication,
and they are in a pathetic state as they have turned recommendation)
hideous. Recently, we visited the monuments and had a
horrible experience. Some of them have lost their shine, ORGANISATION OF
some have blackened, some left ruined in acid rain. We IDEAS -1 mark
have thousands of big and small monuments spread (Highly effective style
across the length and breadth of the country. But I don’t capable of conveying
find anybody who cares for it. the ideas convincingly
Therefore, the concerned authority is being requested to with appropriate layout
kindly pay heed to the issue mentioned above and take of a formal letter viz.
immediate measure conducting awareness camp or so. addresses, salutation,
Yours sincerely subscription, and
Anuj Tiwari ending)

ACCURACY -1 mark
(Spelling, punctuation
and grammar
consistently/largely
accurate, with
occasional minor errors,
that do not impede
communication)

IV. 36 D, Ring Road

1. ITO
(B) New Delhi

20 July, 20XX

The Director
Set Fire Dance Academy
MG Road
New Delhi

Subject: Enquiry regarding course in choreography

Sir
This is with reference to your advertisement regarding
the courses in choreography offered by your reputable
 institute. I want to state that I am currently in class X and
preparing for my final examinations.
I am very much interested in dancing and want to take it
as a career. I’m also given to understand that this
institute is by far the best as far as choreography is
concerned and I would very much like to be a part of it.
Kindly send me the prospectus and the application form.
I would be highly grateful if you could provide me with
the following information:
• the course structures
• scholarships, if any
• admission procedure
• eligibility criteria
• hostel facilities
• nearest metro station
Kindly send me the brochure along with the enrolment
form for further formalities.
Yours sincerely
Anshul Gupta

IV The given double bar graph shows the preferences of Total-5

2 children in a school in playing different games over the CONTENT – 2 marks
(A) period of six years i.e., from 2014 to 2019. The graph All points included &
shows that the highest number of children, interested in Well-developed with
playing volleyball is in the year 2016 whereas in the year sustained clarity
2019, very less number of children preferred volleyball.
The graph shows a hike in the game of volleyball again ORGANISATION OF
in the year 2018. The data shows that the preference of IDEAS -2 marks
people in basketball is almost constant, like in the years (Effective style capable
2014, 2017, and 2018 same number of children showed of conveying the ideas
interest in it. Basketball got a slight hike of interested convincingly • Carefully
children in the year 2016 but a decline has been seen in it structured content with
in 2019 which is equal to 2015. If we observe the graph an organised single
we can see that children’s preference related to paragraph, presented
volleyball is continuously changing every year. Although cohesively, formal tone
initially 200 children were interested in volleyball in and vocabulary)
2014. Then it reached 300 in 2015, the greatest hike of
450 in 2016, but it again declined to 250 children in ACCURACY-1 mark
2017, it again showed a hike of 400 children in 2018 and (Spelling, punctuation
the lowest number of children i.e., only 150 in 2019. and grammar
Whereas basketball was much preferred in 2014 than consistently/largely
volleyball. It shows a decline of 100 children in 2015 but accurate, with
again reached 400 in 2016 and then remained same in occasional minor errors,
2017 and 2018. To conclude the data shows that that do not impede
throughout the six years basketball was more preferred communication)
in comparison to volleyball. Although data shows that
volleyball has got the highest number of interested
children in 2016 but the numbers are constantly
flickering which reached the lowest and is less preferred
by the children in the year 2019 also
OR
2 The given line graph illustrates the decline in the use of
(B) television and newspaper with the
 excessive use of smartphones over the span of three
years. The graph shows that in the year 2014 there were
around 180 people who were using television, then there
is a huge decline towards 2015where only 85 people
were interested in using it and then there is continuous
downfall in the number of people which levelled off to
only around 72 people in 2016. On the other side, there
were around 200 people who are likely interested in
reading newspaper rather than watching television. It
stagnated to 190-150 people for the next few months
and started to fall with a drop down of around 80 people
in 2015. The number of people interested in reading
newspaper shows a striking increase in the next few
months which has reached 130 people in 2016. Overall,
the graph shows that there is a huge decline in the use of
television and newspaper but there were still more
people who were using newspaper in comparison to the
use of television. However, the excessive use of
smartphones has declined the usage of television and
newspaper. In 2016 television has become less popular
among people whereas newspaper is still preferred over
television by many of them.

SECTION C LITERATURE
V (i) (d) He was angry about his ___________________ 1
1.A from the team
(ii) They accepted him as a member of the gang 1
(iii) (a) Sharp comparison between tiger and Tricky 1
(iv) (d) None of the stated reasons 1
(v) bowled 1

1.B i) d) Indian legend on tea and how it travelled from 1

China to Europe.
ii) c) He was amused and tickled at what Rajvir shared. 1
iii) d) Enthusiastic and passionate. 1
iv) Bodhidharma was an ancient Buddhist ascetic 1
v) He felt sleepy during meditation 1

2.A (i) (a) the sounds made by the outgoing trees 1

(ii) whisper 1
(iii) personification 1
(iv) (d) A—1, B—3, C—4, D—2 1
(v) (a) nature and womanhood in particular 1

2.B i) You should go to the jungles in the east by chance 1

ii) d) The east means the countries in the eastern part of 1
the world.
iii) b) The described animal looks large and yellow 1
coloured.
iv) You will know it is an Asiatic lion when it is roaring 1
at you when you are dying with fear.
 v) c) The poet’s real purpose to give such suggestion is 1
to create humour.
VI
Total-3
Content – 2
Award 2 marks for inclusion of any one impact with
explanation. Award 1mark if the impact is listed without
explanation. No credit of ½ mark

Expression – 1 mark when both given aspects are

included.

Deduct ½ mark from the overall score if the error density

is high (more than a total of 2 spellings and/or
grammatical errors).
1 Absolutely true. People are not objects. Appearances 3
may be deceptive. A person should be liked and loved
for being himself or ‘herself’. Outwardly appearances do
tempt and dazzle us. There may be many persons who
would love to see Anne‘s beautiful hair falling over her
ears like the ramparts of a fort. Many would love Anne
Gregory for her beautiful yellow hair. It would be
difficult to find a real lover who loves Anne for `herself
alone‘. What is so great about yellow hair? Anne
ridicules the idea of being loved for her yellow hair. She
can dye her hair the way she likes — brown, black,
carrot or yellow. But the irony of this world is that
people will go on being tempted and dazzled by
glamour, show and outwardly appearances. Only God
can love a person for ‘himself or ‘herself‘ alone
2 The poet understands the intensity of pain that the boy is 3
experiencing on his first loss. He knows that buying
another ball would be no consolation and it would be the
best approach to leave the boy alone so that he should
develop a sense of responsibility and maturity, and know
how to face losses in life boldly. So, he doesn't offer him
money to buy another ball
3 After Anne submitted her third assignment, Mr Keesing 3
took the joke the right way. He read Anne's poem about
the ducklings to the class, adding his own comments. He
also read it to several other classes. After that he did not
assign any extra homework to Anne, allowed her to talk
in the class and also started making jokes.
4 Immediately after coming across a few suffering people, 3
Siddhartha felt very upset to see so much of grief and
sorrow in the world. He left the comforts of his palace,
became an ascetic and went out into the world to
experience the pangs of suffering and to seek
enlightenment
5 Lomov thinks that Natalya is an excellent housekeeper, 3
is not bad-looking, and is well-educated. This shows that
he does not love her. However, he is afraid that his
advancing age and poor health might deprive him of
 marriage to anyone else, so he comes to propose to
Natalya

VII
1 Matilda was so irritated and annoyed to see the invitation 3
to the minister's ball party that she angrily threw away
the invitation card and began to sob unconsolably. This
impulsive reaction of her wife astonished her husband
Mr Loisel, who had expected Matilda to be extremely
happy at having been invited to such a grand party. He
stood in silence, absolutely shocked at the sight of his
weeping wife.
2. Think-Tank ordered Captain Omega to eat the book 3
because he wanted to confirm that it was an edible
'sandwich'. But Omega does not eat it and cleverly
passes on this unpleasant task to his subordinate. Iota.
Iota in turn passes it to Oop who 'tries' to eat the book
and concludes that it is 'as dry as Martian dust'. He
wonders how the Earthlings managed to swallow it
without water
3 Mrs Hall confronted Griffin before the arrival of 3
MrJaffers, the constable, because she was furious at
Griffin for using witchcraft on the chair on which her
mother used to sit. She was aghast that the chair rose up
against her. She was also astounded to see that Griffin
had come out of an empty room and had entered a locked
room
VIII Content 3 Expression 2 Accuracy 1
Total-6
1 Valli was faced with a multitude of problems to 6
undertake the journey. The most important one was to
arrange the 'huge' sum of sixty paise as fare for her two-
way journey. She had to make many sacrifices for this
and resist temptations like buying toys, balloons and
peppermints. During the village fair she did not ride even
the merry-go-round and saved that money. In order to
make her bus ride a successful venture, Valli also
collected many details regarding the journey like
inquiring about the bus fare, the time taken by the bus to
go to the town and its return to the village. She had to
plan the excursion without her mother's knowledge,so
the timing of the bus ride was also very important. Valli
had to adjust it in such a way that it would coincide with
the timing of her mother's afternoon nap between one to
four or so. So, she had to make many painstaking,
careful and elaborate plans.
OR
2 The story "A Letter to God" opens with a conflict 6
between humans and nature. This conflict is illustrated
when the hailstorm completely destroys Lencho's crops.
The hard working farmer, along with his sons, toiled in
his fields and expectantly waited for a downpour to seal
the prospects of a very good harvest. However, nature, in
its vicious mood, came in direct conflict with him at this
 time. The helpless Lencho witnessed the ruin of his
labour caused by the hostile nature. The second conflict,
which is between the humans, is illustrated when Lencho
accuses the post office employees as dishonest and calls
them a 'bunch of crooks' in his second letter to God. He
fails to see their act of charity and doubts their integrity.
This situation shows a conflict between humans which is
the outcome of mistrust of one man with another. Nature
is more powerful than man, so human beings accept
defeat in case of a conflict with a superior power.
However, they resent a situation where the conflict is
with another human being who is equally strong.
IX
1 Horace Danby was a meticulous planner. This can be 6
known from the fact that all through the long period of
annual thieving he had never been caught. However, in
the Shotover Grange robbery case, although his planning
was fool proof, his plans got upset when he met a lady
who was more than a match to him. He started faltering
the moment he heard her confident voice and felt that he
had been caught red-handed. This guilt put him on the
defensive and he became absolutely nervous. His
excessive
fear of the prison added to the confidence of the lady-
thief and she started frightening him further. Another
great blunder that he committed was to have removed his
gloves while offering his lighter to the lady. He became
so careless that he broke open the safe with bare hands
thus leaving behind his fingerprints all over the room
through which the police nabbed him.
OR
2 The story "Bholi" presents before the reader two pictures 6
of the young girl - one before her education and the
second after it. The Bholi that the reader meets before
her schooling was timid, lacked confidence, stammered
and never thought that she too had any will of her own.
She accepted all the ill-treatment and discrimination
meted out to her by her family and behaved like a 'dumb-
cow'. However, the second Bholi is the one who evolves
after getting due care from her teacher. This Bholi is
educated, self-asserting, and a courageous young girl
who could accept challenges and was no longer willing
to be treated like a 'dumb-cow'. She could now stand up
for herself and demand her rightful place. Education had
helped Bholi in shedding her diffidence and she had
become a bold girl capable of taking independent
decisions. She had now developed positive self-esteem
that made her believe in her potential. Thus, there are
two Bholis in the story - one who is compelled by
circumstances and the other who faces the challenges
boldly. One is a stammering simpleton and the other is
Sulekha, who can write her own destiny.