Class XI Practice Paper Half Yearly Exams 2022-23 English-Prose (Hornbill) Brief Questions: 1. Why did the narrator’s grandmother give the impression of ‘winter landscape in the mountains’? 2. How can you say that the grandmother was a deeply religious-minded lady? 3. And at her age, one could never tell. What was it that one could never tell? 4. Who was the narrator? What adventurous task did he take on? 5. What happened on the evening of 2 January? 6. What were the difficulties that they faced that night? 7. Why did the narrator feel that it was the most beautiful island. 8. Mention three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school. 9.The story “The Portrait of a Lady” is about which lady? 10. “...thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor. There was no chirruping.” Why does the author say so? 11. What was the first indicator of rough weather? 12. Why did the narrator feel that he was not the best captain? What was the surprise in store for him? 13. Tut was buried in March-April. How did Carter conclude this? 14. What were the treasures found in the coffin? Why were they put there? 15. Why was King Tut’s death a big event? 16. With King Tut was being finally laid to rest, nature was at rest too. Explain. 17. “The mummy is in a very bad condition because of what Carter did in the 1920s.” What did Carter do and why? 18. What is the difference between the Chinese and European art? 19. How does shanshui express the Daoist view of the universe? 20.How did the theory of ‘brut art’ put forward by Jean Dubuffet get credence? Long questions Q1) Give a brief character—sketch of Khushwant Singh’s grandmother on the basis of the portrait of a Lady. Q2) Why were they desperate to look for an island? How did they manage? Q3) How has the archaeological investigation changed in the modem times? Q4) Narrate the anecdote that brings out that Europeans endeavoured to achieve ‘a perfect, illusionistic likeness’. Q5) Nek Chand’s work is acclaimed as the work of a genius and is appreciated world over. Justify. Q6) What were the troubles that they faced on the morning of 2 January? How did they counter nature’s wrath? Q7) What was the warning? What was the disaster that followed? (Solve the seen Passage) Extract 1) This concept is expressed as shanshui, literally ‘mountainwater’ which used together represent the word ‘landscape’. More than two elements of an image, these represent two complementary poles, reflecting the Daoist view of the universe. The mountain is Yang — reaching vertically towards Heaven, stable, warm, and dry in the sun, while the water is Yin — horizontal and resting on the earth, fluid, moist and cool. The interaction of Yin, the receptive, feminine aspect of universal energy, and its counterpart Yang, active and masculine, is of course a fundamental notion of Daoism. What is often overlooked is an essential third element, the Middle Void where their interaction takes place. This can be compared with the yogic practice of pranayama; breathe in, retain, breathe out — the suspension of breath is the Void where meditation occurs. The Middle Void is essential — nothing can happen without it; hence the importance of the white, unpainted space in Chinese landscape. Q1. Which literary device has been used in “The Mountain is Yang”? a. Simile b. Metaphor c. Personification d. Alliteration Q2. What is Shanshui in the passage? a. A Painting b. The Mountain c.The Water d. All of these. Q3. What does Yang symbolises? a. Masculanity b.Feminism c. Neutralism d. None Q4. What is Yin Symbolises in the passage? a. The sky b. The universe c. The Water d. The mountain Q5. What is important for the Meditation according to passage? a. Breathe in b. Breathe out c. Void d. suspension Q6. What according to the passage refers to “the white, unpainted space in Chinese landscape”? a. the middle void b. the inner void c. the external beauty d. the element Extract 2) Its 80-year-old creator– director, Nek Chand, is now hailed as India’s biggest contributor to outsider art. The fiftieth issue (Spring 2005) of Raw Vision, a UKbased magazine pioneer in outsider art publications, features Nek Chand, and his Rock Garden sculpture ‘Women by the Waterfall’ on its anniversary issue’s cover. Q1) Where did Nek Chand create the Rock Garden? a. Kangda b. Chandigarh c. Morni Hills d. Panchkula Q2) Who is hailed as India’s biggest contributor to outside art? a. Swami Vivekanand Chand b. Rabindra Nath Tagore c. Nek Chand d. Prem Q3) what is the other name given to Outsider Art? a. Fine Arts b. Artistry c. Art Brut d. Pablo’s Art Q4) what do you understand by the term “Outsider Art”? a. Art with formal training d. None b. Art occupied without formal training Q5) what was the name of the U.K. based magazine pioneer in Outsider art Publications? a. Raw Division b. Raw Horizon c. Raw Vision d. None c. Both Q)6 What did outsider art publications, features Nek Chand, and his Rock Garden sculpture? a. women by the waterfall Women’s power b. the ultimate women c. Women’s Era d. Q7) A person who is among the first to study or develop something of human knowledge? a. issue b. outsider c. pioneer d. art Extract 3) My grandmother and I were good friends. My parents left me with her when they went to live in the city and we were constantly together. She used to wake me up in the morning and get me ready for school. She said her morning prayer in a monotonous sing-song while she bathed and dressed me in the hope that I would listen and get to know it by heart; I listened because I loved her voice but never bothered to learn it. Then she would fetch my wooden slate which she had already washed and plastered with yellow chalk, a tiny earthen ink-pot and a red pen, tie them all in a bundle and hand it to me. After a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar spread on it, we went to school. She carried several stale chapattis with her for the village dogs. Q1) Here “ I” in the above lines refers to……………………… a. narrator b. mother c. father d. grandmother Q2) What according to the narrator “monotonous sing-song” refers to….. a. exciting songs b . dull, boring songs c. musical night d. none Q3. What the narrator’s grandmother wanted to listen and get to know by heart? a. An evening prayer morning raga b. a morning paryer c. morning mantra Q4) What did narrator’s grandmother takeaway with her for village dogs? a. Breads b. Stale chappatis c. stale Rice plate d. food d. Q5) Who is the narrator’s good friend in the above lines? a. The teacher Sparrows b. The grandmother c. The village dogs d. The Q6) who wakes up the narrator and get him ready for the school in the lines? a. The village dogs morning prayer b. The grandmother c. The sparrows d. The Extract 4 We protested. But she ignored our protests. She lay peacefully in bed praying and telling her beads. Even before we could suspect, her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. A peaceful pallor spread on her face and we knew that she was dead. Q1. Who according to the narrator ignored the protests? a. His Grandmother All of them. b. His Grandfather c. The narrator’s friend d. Q2. What fell from his grandmother’s lifeless fingers? a. The rosemary b. The garland c. The Rosary d. The Rosewood Q3. What did the narrator came to know soon? a. His grandmother is dead alive d. None of these b. His grandmother is ill c. His grandmother is Q4. Which literary device is used in the “Peaceful Pallor”? a. Simile b. Personification d. Alliteration e. Oxymoron Q5. Find an exact word for “Pale and yellow” in the above lines. a. ignored b. stopped c. peaceful d. pallor Q6. Which word best define “A physical objection”? a. protest b. denial c. rejection d. sorry Extract 5 At dawn on January 2, the waves were gigantic. We were sailing with only a small storm jib and were still making eight knots. As the ship rose to the top of each wave we could see endless enormous seas rolling towards us, and the screaming of the wind and spray was painful to the ears. To slow the boat down, we dropped the storm jib and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stern. Then we double-lashed everything, went through our life-raft drill, attached lifelines, donned oilskins and life jackets — and waited. The first indication of impending disaster came at about 6 p.m., with an ominous silence. The wind dropped, and the sky immediately grew dark. Then came a growing roar, and an enormous cloud towered aft of the ship. With horror, I realised that it was not a cloud, but a wave like no other I had ever seen. It appeared perfectly vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves, with a frightful breaking crest. Q1. Find an exact word for “a very great in size, huge, enormous”. Q2. Which figure of speech refers to “the waves were gigantic”? Q3. Why were they sailing with a small storm jib? a. because the ship was small b. the winds were strong d. none c. waves were small Q4. What is the unit of speed during a voyage? a. kmph b. Mph c. Kmps d. Knots Q5. What do you understand by the “screaming of winds”? a. the huge sound made by wind d. None of these b. color of dark sky c. direction of winds Q6. What other word from the extract is similar to “forthcoming”? Q7. What do you understand with “the wind dropped”? a. wind fell down b. the speed of wind reduced c. the windward high slipped off Q8. Why the sky became dark? d. wind a. due to heavy storm b. due to high wave approaching to ship clouds d. none of these c. due to dark Q9. “suggesting that something unpleasant is likely to happen” refers to exactly which phrase? a. Ominous Silence b. Omnipotent c. Omnipresence d. Omnisilence Q10.” It appeared perfectly vertical and almost twice the height of the other waves” what “It” refers in the lines? a. The dark cloud b. The wild storm c. The approaching wave d. All of these Extract 7) Tutankhamun, also known as Tut, was a teenager when he died. He was the last successor of his powerful Pharaoh Dynasty which ruled Egypt and its empire for centuries. He was laid on rest, heavily loaded with gold. His tomb was discovered in 1922 which made the world raise a question about what had happened to him and whether he had been murdered? After almost 80 years, his body was about to undergo a CT scan which would give new information and clues about his life and death. His face would be recreated with the help of a procedure called forensic reconstruction. Q1. Who was the last successor of the pharaoh dynasty which ruled Egypt for centuries? a. Amun b. Amenhotep c. Tutankhamun d. Akhenaten Q2. When was the Tut’s tomb discovered? a. In1920 b. 1924 c. 1922 d. 1933 Q3. Whose body was about to undergo a CT Scan to get clues of his life and death? a. Tut b. royal mummy c. all the mummies d. Amun Q4. what is the full form of CT Scan? a. consulted topography b. computed topography c. computer technology d. computed terminology Q5. What is Pharoah? a. The Ruler b. The minister c. The mummy d. None Extract 8. Next, Tutankhamun, also known as Tut, sat on the throne and ruled for nine years. He worshipped god Amun in the old ways. However, he died mysteriously. Tut is one of the mummies in Egypt. Whereas, until now with the help of the Egyptian Mummy Project which started in 2003, almost 600 mummies have been recorded so far. King Tut’s mummy was the first one to be scanned by CT under the next phase of scanning the mummies with the machine donated by the National Geographic Society and Siemens. A CT machine scanned the mummy head to toe, creating 1,700 digital X-ray images in cross-section. Tut’s head, scanned in 0.62-millimetre slices to register its intricate structures, takes on eerie detail in the resulting image. With Tut’s entire body similarly recorded, a team of specialists in radiology, forensics, and anatomy began to probe the secrets that the winged goddesses of a gilded burial shrine protected for so long. Q1. How many years did Tutankhamun ruled for in Egypt? a. One hundred years b. Seven years c. Nine years d. Ten years Q2. How many mummies are so far recorded in Egypt? a. 800 mummies b. 700 mummies c. 600 mummies d. 100 mummies Q3. Which machine was donated by the National Geographic society and Siemens? a. X-Ray Machine b. Scanner c. CT Scan d. Ultrasound Q4. What is the meaning of the phrase “eerie details”? a. strange behaviour b. Strange image c. strange habit d. None Q5. The study of the structure of human and animals bodies is called……….? a. radiology b. anatomy c. forensics d. all of these Q6. Which word from the lines refers “the scientific tests to find out about a crime”. a. radiology b Xray c. Forensics d. scanning Q7. Another word for “secretly” is……………………………… Poetry (Extract Que&Ans, Long que’s and brief que’s) Extract 1.
