Pawar Public School, Nanded City, Pune

Revision Worksheet PT II / Half Yearly

Subject- English Std- IX

Section A- ( Reading)
Q1. Read the following passage carefully.

SO, YOU WANT TO BE A CARTOONIST?

1. What writers struggle to express through numerous newspaper columns, the cartoon
Page 1 manages in a pointed one-liner. Little wonder then, that the first thing most of
us like to see when we pick up a newspaper is the cartoon. Simple though it may
seem, making a cartoon is an art that requires a combination of hard work, training
and a good sense of humour. Cartoonists say that the cartoons that make us laugh the
most are in fact the cartoons that are hardest to make. Even celebrated cartoonists like
R.K.Laxman admit that making a cartoon is not a piece of cake.

2. Laxman says he has to wait for over six hours, which includes spending a lot of time
scanning newspapers and television channels before any idea strikes him.
So how does one become a cartoonist? Which of us has the talent to make it? How
can we master the rib-tickling strokes and the witty one-liners? How can we make
people smile or laugh? There are few colleges or schools for cartoonists.

3. Most cartoonists come from art colleges, while some learn the craft on their own.
Most established cartoonists are of the view that no institute can teach you to make a
cartoon. "You can pick up the craft, you may learn to sketch and draw in institutes,
but no one can teach anyone how to make a good cartoon," says Uday Shanker, a
cartoonist with Navbharat Times. While basics, like drawing and sketching can be
learnt in an art college, and are important skills, these alone, do not make a good
cartoonist. Because it's a question of one's creativity and sense of humour; two
qualities one simply may not have. The advice established cartoonists give is that just
because you can sketch, don't take it for granted that you will become a cartoonist.

1.1. On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following

(a) What, according to Laxman, is the challenge in creating a good cartoon?

(i) waiting for the right thought

(ii) browsing newspapers to emerge and television.
(iii) getting the right kind of skills.
(iv) good drawing and sketching training.

(b ) According to the passage, which group of people is of the opinion that one cannot
learn to make a cartoon in institutions?

(i) many struggling writers. (ii) highly creative artists.

(iii) well- respected cartoonist. (iv ) all newspaper editors.

(c) Which of these words best describes this passage?

(i) humorous (ii) technical

(iii) challenging (iv) informative
 (d) "Don't take it for granted that you will become a cartoonist." Choose the option that
is closest in meaning to the sentence.

(i) Don't assume that you will become a cartoonist

(ii) Don't hope that you will become a cartoonist.
(iii) Don't believe that you will become a cartoonist.
(iv) Don't imagine that you will become a cartoonist.

(e) What is the first thing most of the readers like to see in the newspaper?
(f) What are the characteristics require for making a cartoon as per the passage?
(g) Find the word from the passage which means the same as „several‟( paragraph 1)

2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

1. The idea that coffee is bad for the heart pops up periodically. It was found that
regularly drinking very strong coffee could sharply increase cholesterol levels.
Researchers even isolated fat-like chemicals, cafestol and kahweol, responsible for the
rise.
2. It turned out that in the European brewing method, boiling water sits on the coffee
grounds for several minutes before straining , a high concentration of cafestol
kahweol were produced. By contrast, the filter and percolation method removes all
but a trace of these chemicals. Moreover, the studies involved large amounts of
coffee, five or six cups a day. Moderate coffee drinkers deink only two cups.
3. Research has also shown that regular moderate coffee drinking does not dangerously
raise blood pressure. And studies have failed to substantiate fears that coffee might
tigger abnormal heart rhythms in healthy people.
4. “For heart disease, I think the issue is closed”, says Meir Stampfer ,an epidemiologist
at Harvard who had studied many aspects of coffee and health. “Coffee drinking at
reasonable levels is unrelated to heart risk,” Evidence suggests that coffee may help
fend off Parkinson‟s disease. A 30 year study of 8000 Japanese and American men
found that coffee drinkers had one-fifth the risk of those who didn‟t drink the brew.
5. Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, found indirect evidence that
caffeine, the habit forming stimulant in coffee, may actually combat Parkinson‟s
disease. The caffeine seemed to protect mice brain cells from deletion of the nerve
chemical dopamine, the problem underlying Parkinson‟s in humans. However, these
are preliminary findings; human studies have not consistently supported caffeine‟s
protective role.
6. Caffeine is such a powerful stimulant that the International Olympic Committee and
the National Collegiate Athletic Association have set limits on how much content can
remain in the blood during competition. In addition to boosting physical enolvrance,
caffeine increases alertness and improve mood.
7. The question now arise, how much to drink? Those with heartburn and anxiety may
want to see, if cutting back on coffee improves their conditions. For most people,
however, there‟s virtually no risk in consuming up to three normal cups a day.

2.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions:

i) Describe the effect of drinking coffee on blood pressure.

ii) “Coffee may help fend off Parkinson‟s disease”. Explain.
iii) How much coffee should one drink?
iv) What are the findings of the scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital , USA ?
2.2 On the basis of your reading of the passage , answer the following:

a) The word in paragraph 1 which means „from time to time‟ is

i) Annually ii) periodically iii) yearly iv) monthly
b) Coffee could sharply increase ____ level.
ii) thyroid ii) cholesterol iii) migrane iv) heart attack
c) Caffeine increases _____
i) Alertness and improves mood
ii) Creates panic
iii) Leads to depression
d) Meaning of the word „ evidence‟ is __________ ( paragraph 5)
i) clue ii) unwind iii) falsehood

SECTION B ( Writing and Grammar)

Q3. Write an article on “The Dependence of Youth on Gadgets”
OR
It was your birthday yesterday. Your parents gave you a surprise birthday party. You are
delighted and also touched by their gestures. Write a diary entry.

Q4. Write a story with the following ending

We caught him and handed him over to the police.

Q5. Fill in the following blanks by choosing the most appropriate option from the ones given
below:

(a) ….. the first prize in the debate competition. Raghu decide to put in his maximum
effort in all the (b) ……. Inter-school competitions. His teacher advised him not
(c)………. Overconfident. (d)…… is not always necessary (e) ……. A good
students, he knew the meaning of what his teacher advised him.

(a) (i) Win ii) Won iii) To win iv) Winning

(b) (i) comes ii) come iii) came iv) coming
(c) (i) feeling ii) to feel iii) felt iv) feel
(d) (i) Winning ii) will win iii) win iv) won
(e) (i) Be ii) is iii) Being iv) Been

Q6. The following passage has not been edited . Write the omitted word and the word that
comes before and the word that comes after against the blank number.
Before Missing After
Partnership is association of two or more (a) ………. ……….. …………
Persons agree to jointly pursue business. (b) ……… ………. …………
They pool their managerial financial (c) ……. ……… ………..
resources the purpose (d) …… …….. ………….

Q7 Rewrite the following words and phrases to form meaningful sentences.

(a) ideal citizen / the nation/ an / to / an asset / is

(b) makes / he/ a valuable contribution / nation building to /activities
(c) he / his /knows / and / rights / responsibilities
(d) his country / of / he abides/ the / by / laws
(e) instrumental / nation / thus / development of / he is / in / the
 SECTION C ( Literature )

Q8. Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow:

1) Immediately I smeared oil all over myself and took a bath. I changed into fresh
clothes. The next morning I took my friend to my room to move my things from there.
But, we found we had little to carry. Some thief had removed most of my things.

(a) Why did the narrator change into fresh clothes?

(b) Why did they have little to carry?
(c) Fine the word from the extract that means „spread‟
(d) Where did the doctor stay that night?

2) Now in memory comes my mother,

As she used in years agone,
To regard the darling dreamers,
Ere she left them till the dawn
a) What memory comes to the poet‟s mind?
b) Who are the „darling dreamers‟ in the extract?
c) What do the words „ till the dawn‟ mean here?
d) Name the poem and the poet.

Q 9 Answer the following questions in about 30-40 words :

1. How does the poet connect nature to the human situations in the poem „ The Road
Not Taken‟?
2. Give the central idea of the poem „Wind‟
3. For whom does the Prince send the Sapphires and why?
4. How was the kingdom of Fools different from other places ?
5. How is Kezia‟s father different from Mr Macdonald?
6. What was the first important decision taken by the doctor in “The Snake and the
Mirror‟ and why?
7. How does Abdul Kalam describe her mother?

Q10. Answer the following question in 100-150 words:

1. What are the similarities between the doctor and the snake? What traits of their
characters are revealed here? How are those traits helpful?
2. What were the circumstances that forced Kezia to change her opinion about her
father?
Q 11. Answer the following in 100- 150 words:

1. What reasons did the guru give to be executed with his disciple on the stake in the
chapter „ In the Kingdom of Fools‟?
3. How did Iswaran build up his ghost story?