English – Important Question Bank for West Bengal Class XII HS (HSC) Board Exam 2019

1. Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions that follow
   All acquisitions are fruitful in their proper form. So is the case with learning and knowledge. Learning is a long and open-minded pursuit. Only those who have humility have real learning and knowledge. This humility comes from their enlightened realization and learning and knowledge are too vast for any individual to grasp them all. The higher one goes on the mountain of knowledge more and more peaks come to one’s sight. Finally he has to realise that he is too limited to have access to them all. But a person having only a little learning thinks that he has known everything. He has not gone to the height of knowledge so he cannot know the peaks. He is like an empty vessel that sounds much but has nothing inside it.Thus a little learning is a very dangerous thing.
   Questions :
   (a) What is learning?
   (b) Who is like an empty vessel?
   (c) Who has real learning and knowledge?
   (d) Who knows that he has known everything?
2. Read carefully the passage given below and answer the questions that follow
   Butter flies are some of the most interesting insects on the Planet Earth. There are more than seventeen thousand different kinds of butter flies. Butter flies come in all shapes and sizes. Butter flies go through four main stages of life. The first stage is the egg stage followed by the larva stage. As a larva, or caterpillar, the future butter fly eats as much as possible. As it grows it sheds it outer skin, or exoskeleton. This may happen four or five times. After a few weeks, the caterpillar enters the next stage of its life, the chrysalis stage. In the chrysalis, the caterpillar will liquefy into a soup of living cells. Then it will reorganize into a butterfly and the metamorphosis is complete. Parts of the chrysalis stage, you can see the forming utterfly through the chrysalis. When the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis, it pumps its wings to send blood through them so that it can fly. Most butterflies only live a couple of weeks, first enough time to drink flower nectar and to mate, some,like the monarch butterfly, however, may live many months.
   Questions :
   (i) How many kinds of Butterflies are there on the planet Earth?
   (ii) How many stages of life does a Butterfly go through?
   (iii) What is the second stage of life for a Butterfly?
   (iv) How long do most Butterflies live?
3. Like rivers, trees are our natural wealth. Trees prevent erosion or washing away of the soil. The thick roots or the trees absorb large quantity of water, hence reduce the danger of the flood by checking the flow of water. Trees provide a home for wild animals they produce many kinds of timber. To keep the air clean, trees are needed. We must grow more and more trees in and around our houses. “Grow more Trees” is a programme, patronized by the Indian govt. Under this programme, we plant new trees every year. This scheme has a great significance cutting down trees has resulted in the imbalance of environment. Trees are important not only to human beings but also to birds and animals. Their branches give shelter to millions of birds, and the forests support the life of wild animals.
   WRITE A SUMMARY ON THE ABOVE PARAGRAPH WITH A SUITABLE TITLE.

   WRITING SKILLS

4. Your school is organizing a speech competition on the occasion of International Women’s Day. You are selected for the competition. Prepare a speech in 150- 200 words on the topic “Women In Modem India”.
5. Prepare a speech on the topic ‘Value Education- a remedy for social evils’, in about 150-200 words, to be delivered in the school assembly. You are Aniket/ Aradhana.
6. You are Sona I Sandeep, a worker in NGO – ‘Awareness India’. You feel that media can play an important role in spreading awareness about ‘Rights and Responsibilities of a citizen’. Write an article in about 150-200 words on the subject
7. You are Jeetender I Jeetu. You have been working on a project related to ‘Effect of Modem Life on Youth’. You interviewed school and college students for the project. Write an article on the subject in about 150-200 words.
8. The Literacy Club of your locality is organizing a caricature contest in the school. Draft an invitation inviting the famous cartoonist Sudhir Tailang to be the guest of honour for the contest.
9. The Resident’s Welfare Association of your area is organizing a fair on Children’s Day. There will be food stalls, games and rides along with many attractive prizes. Extend an invitation to the residents to participate in the same in about 50 words.
10. In wake of the floods in Uttarakhand, the Youth Association of Navjeevan Society, had organized various cultural programmes to collect funds for the victim’s families. As the Cultural Secretary of the club, write a report on it for the Society’s news letter is about 125 words.
11. A recent survey showed that there are still many communities in India which do not welcome the birth of a girl child. Can a country which does not give equal rights to all its citizens even dream of becoming great? Write a letter to the Editor of a national daily, condemning the discrimination shown to the girl child. Make suitable suggestions to solve the problem
12. Mandeep Sharma of 59, Sea Road, Bandra, Mumbai, sees an advertisement in the ‘Everyday Times’ and decides to apply for the job of a Sales executive. Write the application along with the complete biodata to the Pers:onal Manager, V.K. Publications, Worli, Mumbai.
13. Education which aims at creating only means of livelihood is not complete in itself unless it is supplemented with human values. Write a speech in 150-200 words on the ‘Need of value education’ especially in the current scenario of declining ethical values in the country. You are Shreya or Shrey
14. Write an article on the topic “Poverty, the root of all evil” to be published in the Young World magazine.

    UNSEEN POETRY

15. 1. If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death.
    2. a) What are we so single minded about? Explain.
    3. b) Why does the poet want us to ‘for once could do nothing’?
    4. c) What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
    5. d) How can a huge silence do good to us?

     

    2. Some shape of beauty moves away the pall From our dark spirits.

    (a) How does beauty help us when we are burdened with grief?

    (b) Explain: ‘Some shape of beauty’.

    (c) Identify the figure of speech used in the above lines.

    (d) Why are our spirits referred to as ‘dark’?

     

    3. On their slag heaps, these children Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones. All of their time and space are foggy slums So blot their map with slums as big as doom.

    (i) Which two images are used to describe the slum ?

    (ii) What sort of life do these children lead ?

    (iii) ‘slag heap’ refers to …………….. .

    (iv) Identify the figure of speech used in the last line

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