EVALUATION- I (2016-2017) SET A
NAME:  _______________                                         R.NO:  ____                                       DATE: 
CLASS:  XI                                                                           MARKS:  25                                         TIME: 1 Hr.
SUBJECT: ENGLISH CORE
                          SECTION A –READING SKILLS                                                                        (5)
I.    Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
                        The Sluggard
‘tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain,
“you have wakened me too soon, I must slumber again.”
As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed,
Turns his sides and shoulders and his heavy head.

“A little more sleep, and a little more slumber;”
Thus he wastes half his days, and his hours without number,
And when he gets up, he sits folding his hands,
Or walks about sauntering, or trifling he stands.
I pass’d by his garden, and saw the wild brier,
The thorn and the thistle grow broader and higher;
The clothes that hang on to him are rags;
And his money still wastes till he starves or he begs.

I made him a visit, still hoping to find
That he took better care for improving his mind:
He told me his dreams, talked of eating and drinking;
But scarce reads his Bible, and never loves thinking.

Said I then to my heart, “Here’s a lesson for me,”
This man’s but a picture of what I might be:
But thanks to my friends for their care in my breeding,
Who taught me betimes to love working and reading.

1.1 Choose the correct option:                                                                                                     (1)
a.   The word ___________, in stanza 1, means the same as ‘sleep’
                       i.      Sluggard
                      ii.      Slumber
                    iii.      Heavy head
b.   ‘sauntering’ means the same as_______
                       i.      Running very fast
                      ii.      Walking in a very slow manner
                    iii.      Hectic activity


1.2. Find words or phrases in the poem which mean the same as:                                                 (1)
     i.     Countless
    ii.     rarely

1.3   Answer the given questions briefly:                                                                                          (3)
        i.            What does the sluggard long for?
       ii.            Why did the poet visit him?
     iii.            What does the simile in stanza 1 imply?
                            
                                       SECTION B: ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS AND GRAMMAR                        (12)                                         
                                                                                                                                                 
2. Put the verbs in bracket in the correct tense and rewrite the following:                                                           (2)
    India (have) many calendars which Indians (use) since very early times. More than thirty (be) still in use.
    One  difficulty about having so many calendars (be) that the same date falls on different days according to    
    each.

3. Literary Club of your school is going to organize a Literary Meet at Cluster level. Write a notice in about 50  
     words being the Secretary of the Literary Club of your school inviting students from higher classes for being   
     volunteers. Invent other details.                                                                                                                                        (4)

4.  ‘All over the verandah and in her room right up to where she lay dead and stiff wrapped in the red shroud,  
       thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor. There was no chirruping. ‘
      The sparrows took no notice of the bread. When we carried my grandmother’s corpse off, they flew away  
      quietly.’ Animals do recognize and value a relationship established with human beings. Write an article
      pertaining to the above sentence.                                                                                                                                    (6)

            SECTION C: LITERATURE                                                                      (8)                                                                                    
5.  Answer the following questions briefly:                                                                                                                            (2)
‘And forever, by day and night,
I give back life to my own origin.
And make pure and beautify it.
(For song, issuing from its birth place, after fulfilment,
wandering reck’d or unreck’d, duly with love returns)’

 1) How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem?
2) What is the significance of the world ‘song’ here?
6. Answer the following questions in about 30-40 words:                                                                   (6)
         i.      January 2 was crucial for the voyagers. How?
       ii.      What philosophy of life does the poem by Toulson  reflect?



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