Model Paper CBSE 2010
SECTION A - READING 20
1. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: 8
ROMANCING THE RAIL
1 A Couple of weeks ago, while detailing the many ways in which coping with the
bleak economy can actually better our lives, I touched upon the romance of train
travel and suggested that we would do well to introduce our children to its charms.
I have to confess that I was surprised by the kind of response this triggered from
readers with stories to tell of their own rail adventures.
2 Browsing through them reminded me yet again why trains have such a special
place in our lives. Well, perhaps not in the lives of a generation brought up on the
dubious pleasures of cheap air travel.
3 I still vividly recall every detail of my first such excursion, taking a train from Sealdah
station in Calcutta to visit my aunt’s tea garden in Assam. I settled down at my
window seat and even before the train had pulled out, I was burrowing deep into
the pleasures of Indian mythology.
4 But as the scene outside grew more rustic, even picturesque, my attention wandered
to the marvelous moving display outside my window. There were gentle rolling
fields, green and lush, more palm trees than I could count and endless expanse
of bright blue sky.
5 Just then, a man entered my peripheral vision. Scythe in hand, he was intently
cutting down some tall grass in the fields. “Oh look,” I cried out my mother, “It’s a
farmer, a real-life farmer!” A city-bred child, I hadn’t realzed until then that farmers
actually had an independent existence outside of my story books.
6 That wasn’t the only discovery I made in the course of that first train journey or the
many others to follow. Gazing out of the train window as I traveled across the
country, I was introduced to a new India that was far removed from the bland boundaries
of my middle-class urban existence. And I like to believe today that this made
me more aware of the complexities of the society that we live in.
Seema Goswami
(337 words)1.1 On the basis of your reading, answer the following questions : 8
(a) Readers response to her suggestions made the writer realize _____________. 1
(b) The pleasure/joys of traveling by train would not be appreciated by __________. 1
(c) The writer was lured away from the pleasures of Indian mythology when
__________________ . 1
(d) The two discoveries made during the train journey were 2
(i) _________________________.
(ii) _________________________.
(e) Traveling by train, enhanced the writer’s awareness of
(f) While traveling by train, the writer’s time was spent 2
(i) ______________________.
(ii)______________________.
Q 2. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow : 12
SUMMER BREAKS
(1) Do children really need such long summer breaks, was a question posed by some
experts recently. Apparently, such a long break disrupts their development and
comes in the way of their learning process. Let’s get them back to their books, is
perhaps the expert view, if not in so many words. One would have thought the
children are doing too much during their vacations and not too little, given the plethora
of classes, camps and workshops involving swimming, art, personality development,
music, computers and the like that seem to cram their calendar. Even the
trips taken in the name of holidays seem laden with exotic destinations and customized
experience packed into a short period of time. We can do Europe in ten
days and Australia in a week and come back armed with digital memories and
overflowing suitcase. Holidays are in some ways, no longer a break but an intensified
search for experience not normally encountered in everyday life.
(2) It is a far cry from summer holidays one experienced while growing up. For holidays
every year meant one thing and one thing alone - you went back to your native
place, logged in with the emotional headquarters of your extended family and spent
No. Questions Marks
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two months with a gaggle of uncles, aunts and first and second cousins. The happiest
memories of the childhood of a whole generation seem to be centred around
this annual ritual of homecoming and of affirmation. We tendered tacit apologies
for the sepe rateness entailed in being individuals even as we scurried back into
the cauldron of community and continuity represented by family. Summer vacation
was a time sticky with oneness, as who we were and what we owned oozed out
from our individual selves into a collective pot.
(3) Summer was not really a break, but a joint. It was the bridge used to re-affirm one’s
connectedness with one’s larger community. One did not travel, one returned. It
was not an attempt to experience the new and the extraordinary but one that emphatically
underlined the power of the old and the ordinary. As times change, what
we seek from our summer breaks too has changed in fundamental way. Today, we
are attached much more to the work and summer helps us temporarily detach from
this new source of identity. We refuel our individual selves now; and do so with
much more material than we did in the past. But for those who grew up in different
times, summer was the best time of their lives.
(418 Words)
Source : The Times of India
2.1 Complete the following sentences taking help from text : 4
(a) Experts questions the summer breaks given to children because breaks _______. 1
(b) Students are kept busy during the summer vacations ______________. 1
(c) The writer’s happiest memories of childhood were centered around ___________ 1
(d) Summer break in the present times are a way of _______________. 1
2.2 Fill in the blanks using one word only. 4
The realization that children’s summer breaks are (a) ________________ with a
plethora of activities makes one conclude that they are doing (b) _____________.
Holidays have now turned into a (c) ___________________ for new experiences.
These are far removed from the times when summer breaks were a time of
(d) _____________ with the extended family.
2.3 Find words/phrases which mean the same as : 4
(i) Clearly seen or understood (para 1) 1
(ii) Excess (para 1) 1
(iii) State as a fact, declare formally (para 2) 1
(iv) Beyond what is usual (para 3) 1
SECTION B – WRITING 30
Q. 3 You are Saurabh / Sapna Gupta, the Sports Captain of Birla Public School,
New Delhi. Draft a notice informing the members of the School football team
about a special coaching camp that is being organized in the school
premises during the summer vacations. Inform the team members of the
presence of eminent Indian Footballers during the duration of the Camp. Write
the notice in not more than 50 words.
Q. 4 Rani / Rakesh visited Ranikhet during summer vacations and experienced oneness
with nature. He/she decided to send a postcard to a friend describing the
beauty & serenity of this picturesque hill station and advising her/him to plan a trip
to Ranikhet in the near future. Write the postcard in not more than 50 words.
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5
5
9
No. Questions Marks
Q. 5 You are Rohan / Ragini. During a visit to Mumbai you happened to visit the 10
sets of a television reality show featuring children. The long shooting hours
made you wonder whether the children were losing their precious childhood
years, which should have been spent enjoying a carefree life in the lap of
nature rather than satisfying the desires of over ambitious parents and
contributing to the family income. Write a letter to the Editor of a leading
National daily expressing your concern in not more than 150 words. Take
ideas from the hints given below :
• Loss of innocence
• Neglect of Studies
• Overriding parental ambition.
• Burdened with responsibilities at tender age
Q. 6 Over the years there has been a steady increase in the number of students 10
from different towns and cities of India seeking admission in colleges in the
metropolitan cities. As a consequence,Colleges in the metros have failed to
accommodate the rising number of students due to severe shortage of seats.
Write an article for your school magazine drawing attention to the anxiety
and pressure faced by students during admission time, using your own ideas
& ideas from the visual given below. Suggest ways to combat the shortage of
seats. Write the article in about 200 words.You are Mohan / Mohita , a student
of AKS International school, Agra.
