Examination Sample Question

Time: 2.15 Hrs          Examination                     Full marks: 75

Grade: IX                       English                             Pass Mark: 30

Candidates are required to answer the questions in their own words as far as possible. You must copy the statements for true/false, sentence completion, cloze test, reordering, and grammar items. The figures in the margin indicate full marks.

1. Read the poem and do activities given.     [5]

The Rivals

I heard a bird at dawn

Singing sweetly on a tree,

That the dew was on the lawn,

And the wind was on the lea;

But I didn’t listen to him,

For he didn’t sing for me!

I didn’t listen to him,

For he didn’t sing to me

That the dew was on the lawn

And the wind was on the lea!

I was singing at the time,

Just as prettily as he!

I was singing at the time,

As prettily as he!

About the dew upon the lawn,

And the wind upon the lea!

So I didn’t listen to him,

As he sang upon the tree!

By James Stephens

(Credit source: Collected Poems of James Stephens, Macmillan, 1928)

A. Find the words from the poem which are similar in meaning to the following word.[2]

a. beautifully b. breeze

B. Answer these questions in a sentence each.     [3]

a. What were the bird and the speaker singing about?

b. Reason who was singing the song more sweetly.

c. What aspects of the poem appeal to your senses more?

2. Read the passage and do the activities given.     [10]

Once there lived a great hermit, who was famous for telling the truth. He had taken a vow not to lie and was popularly known as “Mr. Truthful”. No matter what he said, everyone believed him because he had earned a great reputation in the community where he lived and did his spiritual practices.

One evening, a robber was chasing a merchant to rob him. The merchant was running for his life. To escape from the robber, the merchant ran towards the forest where the hermit lived outside the village.

The merchant felt very safe because there was no way the robber could find out where he was hiding in the jungle. But the hermit had seen the direction in which the merchant went.

The robber came to the hermit’s cottage and paid his respects. The robber knew that the hermit would tell only the truth and could be trusted, so he asked him whether he had seen somebody running away. The hermit knew that the robber must be looking for somebody to rob, so he faced a big problem. If he told the truth, the merchant would certainly be killed. If he lied, he would incur the sin of lying and lose his reputation. Any immoral act that may harm others is called sin. Ahimsa (nonviolence) and truthfulness are the two most important teachings of all religions that we must follow. If we have to choose between these two, which one should we choose?

For his unflinching integrity and truthfulness, the hermit said, “Yes, I saw someone going that way.” So the robber was able to find the merchant and kill him. The hermit could have saved a life by hiding the truth, but he did not think very carefully and made the wrong decision.

In the Gita, Lord Krishna had related this story to Arjun with a purpose to teach him that sometimes we have to choose between a rock and a hard place. The robber could not have found the merchant if the hermit had not told him the truth. So when two noble principles collide with each other, we have to carefully judge which one is the higher principle. Ahimsa is a universal principle of the highest priority, the hermit, however, failed to understand this, and had to share the sin of homicide with the robber.

I. Answer the following questions in a sentence.     [4]

a. Why was the Hermit called Mr. Truthful?

b. What was the blunder on the part of the merchant that cost him his life?

c. Why should the hermit share the sin of homicide with the robber?

d. Give a suitable title to the story in not more than three words.

II. Choose the best answer.     [4]

a. The antonym of ‘revealing’ is …………..

i.  hiding

ii.finding

iii.disclosing

b. The word ‘popularly’ in the passage means …………..

i.  amazingly

ii.widely

iii.seriously

c. The meaning of the word ‘incur’ in line 11 is ………

i.  to allow yourself to be defeated

ii.to cause yourself to lose

iii.to cause yourself to experience something

d. When two noble principles collide with each other, we…….

i.  choose non-violence

ii. choose the higher principle

iii. listen to Lord Krishna

III. State whether these statements are true or false.      [2]

a. The hermit taught how to do spiritual practices to the merchant.

b. The hermit saved the merchant’s life.

3. Read the passage below and do the given activities.  [10]

The Japanese have always loved fresh fish. But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades. So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever. The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish. If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh. The Japanese did not like the taste.

To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats. They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea. Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer. However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin. After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving. They were tired and dull, but alive. Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference. Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste. The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish. 

(Credit Source: Compiled and Edited by Sharad Gupta, Tequila of Life, Inspirational Tales, Allied Publishers, India)

A. Answer the following questions.    [4]

a. What is the text mainly about?

b. What was the need for the fishermen to have bigger boats and sail farther?

c. Why could the deep freezers and the fish tanks in the ship not solve the problem?

d. How do you think can the problem be solved in such a situation?

B. Match the words in column A with their meanings in B.   [4]

Column-A                       Column-B

• decade                   a device or room for keeping food frozen
• freezer                  a period of 10 years
• Install                   moving slowly or lazily
• Sluggish              to make a machine ready to be used in a certain place

C. State True or False against the given statements.    [2]

a. The Japanese liked to eat all types of raw fish.

b. They were never satisfied with the way fish were stored and sold.

4. Read the following passage and do the given activities. [15]

As it came near the corner, the taxi stopped suddenly. The driver got out looking very puzzled. A big lorry which had been following the taxi stopped too. The taxi driver was now standing at the corner looking up at the sky and the lorry driver went and joined him. A number of cars behind were forced to stop as well and soon a large crowd of people had gathered at the corner. The cause of all this trouble was a very strange noise. It sounded as if thousands and thousands of birds were singing together. The noise was quite frightening and many people looked disturbed. The most extraordinary thing was that, apart from one or two pigeons, there was no bird in sight. No one was able to solve the mystery until two policemen arrived. They noticed a large advertisement for a film high upon a wall nearby. As the noise seemed to be coming from the direction, they climbed up and found that a tape recorder had been hidden behind the advertisement. The noise made by the birds singing was being broadcast over powerful loudspeakers so as to attract the attention of the passer-by. The police asked the advertisers to take the recorder away because the advertisement had attracted so much attention that it was impossible for a great many cars and buses to move freely in the street.

A.Write ‘T’ for true statements and ‘F’ for the false ones. [5]

i.  A strange noise was produced by birds.

ii. The noise stopped when two policemen arrived.

iii. The frightening noise disturbed the people.

iv. The policemen arrested the advertisers.

v. The advertisers took the recorder.

B. Rewrite the following sentences in the appropriate order. [5]

a) The loudspeakers were taken away.

b) The policemen arrived.

c) The vehicles stopped and the people stood at a corner of the street.

d) The mystery was found out.

e)  Bird’s singing was expanded to catch the attention of passerby.

C. Answer the following questions. [5]

i.  What caused the traffic to stop?

ii. What had the advertisers actually done?

iii. Why did the police ask the advertisers to take the recorder away?

iv. What was done to catch the attention of the passerby?

v. Give a suitable title to the story.

5. Explain how the witches’ prophecies are fulfilled in Macbeth.  [5]

6. Develop the outlines in the box into an interesting story with a suitable title and the moral. [5]

A wicked shepherd boy….grazes his flock of sheep near forest….a farmer working in a field nearby forest.. boy hits a fun... cries "Wolf! Wolf!... farmers run to help him, …. they boy laughs at them ... no wolf he does so again and deceives them again ….. a wolf really comes.....the boy cries in fright ... no farmers to help…..he loses all his sheep ..... his folly... moral.

7. Write a couple of paragraphs on the advantages and disadvantages of Social Media. [6]

8. Narrate any one of the most memorable events/incidents you have had or witnessed in about 220 words.  [8]

9. Reproduce these sentences as indicated in the brackets.   [6]

a) Open the window, …………? (add a suitable question tag)

b) Ravi scolds his sister. (change into negative)

c) He played tennis. (change into interrogative)

d) Sanvi is a huge fan of Charlie Puth. (put into present perfect tense)

e) Binita said, “May you live long!” (change into indirect speech)

f) Write a letter. (change the voice)

10. Choose and copy the best answers for the numbered blanks below. (Rewriting is not compulsory.)    [5]

There lived .. .1…... (an, a, the) university student near my house. He used to go to university…...2... (on, in, with)

foot. One day I met him while he... 3…. (was going, went, had gone) to the market. He was in a hurry. I stopped and asked him, "Why... 4...... (you are running, he was running, are you running)? In fact, the bus had already started. ...5... (because, but, as) some people were left behind. Neither the boy nor his friends...6.... (was, had, were) able to catch the bus. Everyone. ...7... (were stranded, was stranded, are stranded) on the road. If they were in time, they... 8... (would catch, will have caught, will catch) the bus without any problem. In this way the situation made them... 9…. (to regret, regret, regretted) themselves, ....10...? (did it/didn't it/do they)

***