ICSE X | English

Board Paper – 2015

ICSE Board
Class X English Language
Board Paper – 2015
(Two hours)
Total Marks: 80

General Instructions:
1. Answers to this paper must be written on the paper provided separately.
2. You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.
This time is to be spent in reading the question paper.
3. The time given at the head of the paper is the time allotted for writing the answers.
4. Attempt all questions
5. The intended marks of questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].
6. You are advised to spend not more than 35 minutes in answering Question1 and 20
minutes in answering Question 2.

Attempt all questions from this section

Question 1
(Do not spend more than 35 minutes on this question.) [25]

Write a composition (350–400 words) on any one of the following:

(a) Write an original story that begins with the words: "He was the funniest boy I had
ever met. He would make everyone laugh............. "
(b) You had booked a ticket on an early morning train. However, you woke up late and
missed it. You then decided to run to catch a bus to the next station where you hoped
to catch up with the train. Narrate the entire event, how you felt, the effort you made
and how you finally caught the train. What did you learn from this stressful
experience?
(c) All Girls or all Boys Schools provide u better learning environment than coeducational
schools. Express your views either for or against the statement.
(d) Describe in detail the view from your bedroom window. Does your room overlook a
park? A busy street? What are the sights, sounds and smells you would typically see,
hear and experience at different times of the day?
When do you most enjoy the view? In the morning, in the evening or late at night?
(e) Study the picture given below. Write a short story or description or an account of
what the picture suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the
picture or you may take suggestions from it; however, your composition must have a
clear connection with the picture.

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Board Paper – 2015

Question 2
(Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.)

Select one of the following: [10]

(a) Break time (recess) at your school is only for duration of minutes.
Write a letter to your Principal requesting an extension in the break-time from fifteen
minutes to half an hour. Give reasons for your request and explain in what an
extended break would make a difference to you as a student.
(b) You are to be awarded a special prize at the Annual Prize Day ceremony of your
school. Write a letter to a lady relative her the news. Be sure to include details of the
prize that you are to receive and tell her why you have been chosen for this honour.

Question 3
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Lying in bed, Swami realized with a shudder that it was Monday morning. It looked as
though only a moment ago it had been the last period on Friday; already Monday was here.
He hope that an earthquake would reduce the school building to dust, but that good
building Albert Mission School had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years
now. At nine o’clock Swaminathan wailed, “I have a 5 headache.” His mother said, “Why
don’t you go to school in a bullock cart?”
“So that I may be completely dead at the other end? Have you any idea whit it means to be
jolted in a cart?
“Have you nay important lessons today?”
“Important! Bah! That geography teacher has been teaching the same lesson for over a year
now. And we have arithmetic, which means for a whole period we are going to be beaten by
the teacher Important lessons!”
And Mother generously suggested that Swami mighty stay at home.
At 9:30, when he ought to have been lining up in the school prayer hall, Swami was lying on
the bench in Mother’s room. Father asked him, “Have you on school today?”
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Board Paper – 2015

“Headache,” Swami replied.

“Nonsense! Dress up and go.”
“Headache.”
“Loaf about less on Sunday and you will be without a headache on Monday.”
Swami knew how stubborn his father could be and changed his tactics. “I can’t go so late to
class.”
“I agree, but you ‘ll have to; it is your own fault. You should have asked me before deciding
to stay away.”
“What will the teacher think if I go so late?”
“Tell him you had a headache and so are late.”
“He will beat me if I say so.”
“Will he? Let us see. What is his name?
“Mr. Samuel.”
“Does he beat the boys?”
“He is very violent, especially with boys who come late. Some days ago a boy was made to
stay on his knees for a whole period in a corner of the class because he came late, and that
after getting six cuts from the cane and having his ears twisted. I wouldn’t like to go late to
Mr. Samuel’s class”
“If he is so violent why not tell your headmaster about it?”
“They say that event the headmaster is afraid of him. He is such a violent man.”
And then Swami gave a lurid account of Samuel’s violence; how when he started caning he
would not stop till he saw blood on the boy’s hand, which he made the boy press to his
forehead like a vermillion marking. Swami hoped that his father would be made to see that
he couldn’t go to his class tale. But Father’s behavior took an unexpected turn. He became
excited. “What do these people mean by beating our children? They must be driven out of
service. I will see.”
The result was he proposed to send Swami late to his class as a kind of challenge. He was
also going to send a letter with Swami to the headmaster. No amount of protest from
Swami was of any avail: Swami had to go to school.
By the time he was ready Father had composed a long letter to the headmaster, put in an
envelope and sealed it.
“What have you written, Father?” Swaminathan asked apprehensively.
“Nothing for you. Give it to your headmaster and go to your headmaster and go to your
class.”
Swami’s father did not know the truth, that actually Mr. Samuel was a very kind and gentle
man.
(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. One word
answers or short phrase will be accepted.
(i) jolted (line 21)
(ii) stubborn (line 21)
(iii) avail (line 45) [3]

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Board Paper – 2015

(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(i) What did Swami wish for on a Monday morning? Why was his wish unlikely to be
answered? [2]
(ii) Which sentence tells us that Swami’s father was completely unsympathetic to his
son’s headache? [2]
(iii) In what way was Swami’s response different from his father’s? [2]
(iv) Why did Swami give a colourful account of Mr. Samuel to his father? [2]
(v) In what way did Father’s behavior take an unexpected turn? [2]
(vi) What was Swami finally ordered to do by his father? [2]

(c) (i) In not more than 60 words describe how Swami tries to prove that Mr. Samuel is a
violent man. [8]
(ii) Give a title to your summary in 3(c). Give a reason to justify your choice. [2]

Question 4
(a) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct from of the word given in
brackets. Do not copy the passage, but write in correct serial order the word or phrase
appropriate to the blank space.
Example:
(0) One morning I (0)….. (see) the python curled up on the dressing table.
Answer: saw
It was (1)….. (gaze) at its own reflection in the mirror. I(2)…. (go) for grandfather but
by the time we (3)…. (return) to the room, the python (4) …..(move) on. He was seen
in the garden and once the cook saw him (5)….. (crawl) up the ladder to the roof.
Then we (6)…. (find) him on the dressing table again (7)…... (admire) himself in the
mirror. “He’s trying to look better for Aunt Mable” I said. I (8)…… (regret) this remark
immediately because grandmother overheard and held up my pocket money for the
rest of the week! [4]
(b) Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word:
(i) He found the key just _________ the front door.
(ii) I could not accompany my cousin ________ the trip because I had fever.
(iii) The noise prevented us ________ sleeping.
(iv) The young man put the flute _______ his lips and began to play.
(v) Ashok leaned ________ the wall tiredly.
(vi) The paper dart went gliding _______ the air.
(vii) The cyclist rode quickly ________ the path.
(viii) The young child carried the heavy bucket ________ the stairs. [4]
(c) Join the following sentence to make one complete sentence without using and, but or
so
(i) He has learnt to cycle. He has yet to learn to swim.
(ii) The child helped her mother to make breakfast. She washed the tomatoes.
(iii) They bought a new car. They can travel long distance.
(iv) Sunita opened her purse. She found the money missing. [4]
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Board Paper – 2015

(d) Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make
other changes that may be necessary, but do not change the of each sentence.
(i) Arun gave Ramesh some excellent advice.
(Begin: Ramesh was ……………………)
(ii) As soon as Sania sat down to study, the lights went off.
(Begin: No Sooner…………………………….)
(iii) Has Alia written to you?
(Begin: Hardly had ……………………………)
(iv) As soon as the function got over. The crowd dispersed.
(Begin: Hardly had …………………………….)
(v) The monsoon is the best season in our country.
(Rewrite using ‘good’………………………...)
(vi) Harish was so tired that he could not keep his eyes open.
(Begin: Harish was too ………………………...)
(vii) (vii) Father said so Sunil, “I can help you with your homework.”
(Begin: Father told Sunil………………………..)
(viii) Naresh goes to a school which has over a thousand students.
(Begin: There ………………………………………) [8]

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