he would take her kitchen utensils and she and I would dig the rocky, white ant – infested

surroundings. We planted flowering bushes. The whi

nd governments as a mechanism to meet part of the needs of several international environmental treaties. These individual and institutions h
house. Why was she planting seeds that would only benefit the next occupant? My mother replied that it did not matter to her that she would
OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

SECTION A:
PROSE

(READING SKILLS, GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY, NOTE – MAKING AND SUMMARY)

Q1. (A) SEEN EXTRACT PROSE UNITS ONE TO FOUR)

Read the following extract and answer the questions: (11 marks)

Questions:
1. What did the mother and the narrator dig? 1
2. What did the white ants destroy? 1
3. What did the mother mix in the earth? 1
4. Why did the mother beautify a government house? 2
5. How would you beautify a government house? 2
6. Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
i. We planted flowering bushes. (Rewrite beginning with ‘Flowering bushes…’)1
ii.This time, they bloomed. (Add a question tag) 1
iii.At that time, my father’s transfer order came. (Rewrite as a complex sentences) 1
7. Find from the extract words that mean:
i. Rarely 12
ii.Termite. 12

Q1. (B) GRAMMAR

Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:

Questions:
1. ……… Yamuna is ……… tributary of the Ganges. (Rewrite using appropriate articles). 1
2. Most children remain ………school……… the ages of six and sixteen. (Rewrite using appropriate
prepositions.)1
 Government houses seldom came with fences. Mother and I collected twigs and built a small fence. After lunch, my mother would never slee
s? At that time, my father’s transfer order came. A few neighbours asked my mother why she was taking so many pains to beautify a governm
That was my first lesson in success. It is not about what you create for yourself, it is what you leave behind.
speech)2

the environment and how it works, can we make the necessary decisions to protect it! We are told the assessment is recognized by world leade
OMTEX CLASSES

3. The doctor said, “I have given an injection and it will make you sleep.” (Change into indirect
ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
 . Significantly, it fills a global knowledge gap. As Kofi Annan, secretary – general of the U.N., a major fund provider, puts it, only by understandi
ble to read him, we would be on the horns of a dilemma: Was it fine to go for a football match? Or, would that invite a fine of two slaps, if not three penalty
OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

Q2. (A) SEEN EXTRACT (PROSE UNITS FIVE TO EIGHT)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: (11 marks)

QUESTIONS:
1. What was Kofi Annan?
2. What is the warning from the assessment team?
3. What should be the pledge of the individuals for?
4. How should we ensure the posterity of humankind?
5. Why, according to you, is tree – plantation necessary?
6. Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
i. If we don’t seize it, it’s curtains for us earthlings. (Rewrite using ‘unless’)
ii.We can make the necessary decisions to protect it. (Rewrite showing ‘obligation’ form
of the modal auxiliary)
iii.It offers tools for managing the environment. (Rewrite using the infinitive form of the
underlined part)
7. Give the meanings of
i. Averted
ii.Coherent
 ntries, and identifies the changes in institutions and policies that will be needed if we are to deal with the root causes of environmental degrada
. On the other hand, when his throat produced grunts and fumbles, we knew we had had it for the day. The most difficult situation was when he was silent.
OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

Q2. (B) NOTE MAKING: (4 MARKS)

Read the following extract carefully and draw a tree – diagram on the “Types of Tomatoes”.

Bush type. It grows to 1-3 ft high but its growth is rather untidy. The fruit type varieties are – Hybrid, Beefsteak a

Q3. (A) READ THE FOLLOWING EXTRACT AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS: (11 MARKS)
ther has dispensed with his rigid, cold facade.

Questions:
our father the way he was.

1. When could the children move freely?

2. What were father’s moods compared to?
3. Why did father keep the children on a tight lash?
4. What was the most difficult situation for the children? Why was it so?
grateful to him.

5. On what different occasions does your father get angry with you? Why?
6. Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed:
i. We would try to gauge father’s mood from the movement of his eyes. (Rewrite using ‘used to’.)
ii.I am grateful to him. (Add a question tag.)
 rn countenance, fearing that we would go astray if given any liberties. Discipline was his motto, perhaps inherited from his own English professors. For that,
father’s mood from the movement of his eyes or the few words he spoke. If his voice didn’t have a rough edge, we would breathe and move around a bit fr
climate – hot, hotter, and hottest. Yet, like millions of ‘Madrasis’ who have not only survived their city’s climate but have also grown to love it, we came to l

ed and sets out coherent strategies for the protection of species and habitats. It offers tools for managing the environment particularly in poor
t smile of satisfaction at having reared a brood of worthy citizens, if not exactly highly ‘valuable’ ones. Fred now from the burden of bringing up children,
OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

iii.He exudes a quite smile of satisfaction. (Rewrite using the Present Perfect Continuous Tense.)
7. Find from the extract words that mean:
i. appearance
ii.strict.

Q3. (b) SUMMARY (4 MARKS)

Write a brief summary of the above extract and suggest a suitable title.

SECTION B:
POETRY

Q4. POETRY (8 MARKS)

Read the following lines of the poem and answer the questions given below:

Ageing In America
– Sukrita Paul.
Words and sounds
gushing out of the
woman’s mouth
the woman with the hat
she found found eager ears and
eyes alert
in the Greybound
from Chicago to lowa
“Me don’t want them tall buildings,
See, that small house there”
All faces turned that way
“That’s what I want.”
“Friday evening, leaving home,
Reaching Monday morning to work,
Los Angeles to New York…
many times,
many many times!”

Questions
1. What does the woman like to have? 1
 Every morning, we would try to gau
My father’s moods were like Chenn
He kept us on a tight leash with his
At the end of the day, he exudes a
he ability of Earth’s ecosystem to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted.
all hope for the posterity of humankind and leave? Not just yet, for the report also tells – if anyone’s listening, that is – of how disaster can be a
eager ears and eyes alert’. 1
OMTEX CLASSES

3. What, according to you, are the demerits of the modern busy life?

5. Which lines highlight the fast, busy and globalised life in America?
2. What does a ‘small house’ symbolise as against ‘tall buildings’? 2

2
2
4. Name and explain the figure of speech in the following expression: ‘She found
ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION
 More ominously, the assessment team warns th
Having heard all this should our visiting ET give
OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

SECTION C: RAPID READING AND

COMPOSITION

Q5. (a) Read the following extract and answer the questions given below. (4 MARKS)

But he had not gone very much further when, all of a sudden, clear
out of the blue, there was something wrong; he could feel it. At first it was
only a feeling, a suspicion; then it grew and thickened in him, it began
whispering in his ear ‘Don’t go!’ It swelled in him and became heavier and
he had to slow down. He slowed down to a snail’s pace and then came to a
dead stop, thinking. Everything was so quiet and strange, a bird chirped in a
tree and after the wound had died away, it seemed quieter and stranger.
He felt himself getting goose – pimples when he started to take a few
steps further.
Then he saw that there were no flying curtains beckoning to him and
all the windows were closed; the flowers and plants were drooping in a
pathetic sort of way. And he had a sudden and full recollection; that he was
not living there any more but up the hill at his aunt’s that the house was
empty and his mother had died one week ago. At first, he just stood still,
looking, not knowing what he should do. There was a big lump in his throat
and he felt like crying. Then tears came into his eyes and he wanted to cry
a lot. But he could only quietly.

Questions
1. Where was the boy living? 1
2. In what condition were the flowers and plants? 1
3. Why did the boy feel like crying? 2

Q5. (b) COMPOSITION (4 MARKS)

Imagine that you were the boy in the story and rewrite the above given extract in
your own words.

SECTION D: WRITING
SKILLS

Q6. (a) LETTER WRITING (4 MARKS)

Q. Write any one of the following letters:

Write a letter to the editor of a newspaper highlighting the water pollution problem in
your area.
 OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

OR

Write a letter to your father informing him about your plans after passing the HSC
examination.
 OMTEX CLASSES ENGLISH PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION

Q6. (b) LEAFLET/APPEAL/FACTFILE/REPORT WRITING (4 MARKS)

Q. Write on any one of the following items as directed:

Write a tourist leaflet about any hill station with the help of the following points:

i. How to go there. ii. Where to say. iii. Places worth seeing. iv. Anything special
about the place.

OR

Write a report about the celebration of Republic Day in your junior college.

Q6. (c) INFORMATION TRANSFER/ SPEECH WRITING/ DEVELOPING A COUNTER – VIEW

Q. Read the following table and prepare a short paragraph regarding the
formation of different types of soil:

Sr. Types of soil Formation

No.

1. Laterite soil Washing of silica, salt, organic matter, accumulation of

sulphur oxides.

2. Sandy desert The action of winds.

soil

3. Black cotton Mechanical weathering of igneous rocks

soil

4. Alluvial soil Deposition processes of rivers.

OR

Imagine you are a class – representative. Your college has arranged for ‘Blood Donation
Camp’. Write a speech, appealing the students to donate blood generously for a good
cause.

Q7. ESSAY WRITING (Any 1) (7 MARKS)

1. Students and Social Service.

2. The importance of computers in Modern Age.
3. Role of Mobiles in the Modern World.