CBSE Sample Paper for Class 11 English (Solved) – Set B
English Paper consists of three sections. Section A is Reading, Section B is Writing Skills and Grammar and Section C is Literature Textbooks and Long Reading Texts. Each section is of equal marks i.e. 30 marks. CBSE Sample Paper for Class 11 English and its solutions are strictly based on the CBSE Board latest syllabus and guidelines. Set B of Solved CBSE Sample Paper for Class 11 English is given below with its solutions.
Sample Question Paper
SECTION A: READING [20 Marks]
1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow it by choosing the correct options. (1 x 6 = 6 Marks)
Time was when even wild horses could not drag me within miles of a barber’s shop or salon as they are called nowadays. Those were days when hippie cut held sway and a close cropped guy was an exception. Yet, even in those days civilization was measured by the length of your locks and I was no exception. Much water has flown under the bridge since then in recent times I begin to yearn for barber’s ministration the moment my hair kiss my ears. But then there is another reason for this yearning and that is my barber Salim. He is more educated than me, having done his masters in literature with a first class first, capable of quoting Chaucer & Byron with equal felicity as he could Raja Rao and Narayana. He had been an English Professor for a couple of years but when his father, who ran the salon, kicked the bucket he found that it was good economics to make a switchover.
Salim’s salon was a salon with a difference. A big sign board announced that Politics was a taboo. Salim once enlightened me on this, recalling that he had sent a customer packing though only half of his hair had been cut because he had dared to take a political stand, which to add insult to injury was contrarian to Salim’s view point I once asked him, “Don’t you miss all those students whom you were teaching English Literature. I have heard a couple of them say that you were the best among the lot.” “Not at all” said Salim without batting an eyelid, “they might no longer be my students but they are my customers now. And I do manage to clear a doubt or two when they came for a sitting”. ft was then that I realised that the barber’s itch for literature had not dampened one bit though combs and scissors had replaced his original tools of trade (C.V. Aravind)
Answer the following questions by choosing the best option from the ones given below.
(a) In earlier days civilization was measured by
(i) Wild horses
(ii) Length of hair locks
(iii) Number of cropped guys
(iv) Number of salons in the town
(b) Salim switched over from professor to a barber because
(i) Of his family pressure
(ii) Of his passion for this profession
(iii) Of the advice of his students
(iv) It was good economics to make a switchover
(c) Salim considered politics
(i) To be having liberality
(ii) To be a taboo
(iii) He had no viewpoint about politics
(iv) To be good and essential for everyone
(d) The word that means the same as ‘Kicked the bucket’
(i) To harm as well as humiliate
(ii) To show no surprise or concern
(iii) Past events that are over or done with
(e) Was Salim still in touch with his students ?
(i) No, he was not in contact with them
(ii) Yes, he met them occasionally but never solved their problems.
(iii) He used to take extra sitting / extra classes for them.
(iv) His students were his customers and he used to solve their doubts.
(f) The writer often thought about Salim as he
(i) Was more educated
(ii) Had received his masters degree in first class
(iii) Was well versed with Indian an well as English Literature
(iv) All the above
1.2.Answer the following questions : (1 x 4 = 4 Marks)
(i) Why was it an exception to find a close cropped guy ?
(ii) Why did the writer get his hair cut frequently ?
(iii) Why was Salim’s salon with a difference ?
(iv) Salim did not miss his old students. Why ?
1.3. Which words in the passage mean the same as the following : (2 Marks)
(i) help or care (para 1)
2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow : (8 Marks)
1. The international military, political, economic and demographic crisis of the seventeenth century had its social aspects too. The later sixteenth and earlier seventeenth centuries saw the climax of a unique wave of social violence. This was the great surge of witch-hunting, the witch craze as it is often called, which peaked between 1550 and 1650. Medieval and early modern witches sometimes called “wise women” or “cunning men,” were probably most often herb healers who combined spells and charms with their folk remedies. Most were women (though about a fifth were men), and more were old than young. Those accused of witchcraft frequently came from the marginal elements of society : beggars, poor widows without families, midwives (commonly blamed for high infant mortality). They were often outsider in other ways-quarrelsome neighbours, people known to be disrespectful of authority, emotionally disturbed people. Only when a local witch-hunt was in full cry did suspicion reach as high as the middle or upper classes of society.
2. European views of witchcraft had undergone a drastic transformation in the fifteen century. The Inquisition had decided that witches were actually agents of Satan and as such a major threat to Christendom. Books like the ‘Hammer of the Witches’ (1487) by Heinrich Kraemer and Johan Springer spread the notion that these local weavers of spells and cures had gained their magical powers by swearing allegiance to the Devil. In return, they had received “familiars” demons in the guise of animals, to do their will, as well as the power traditionally assigned to witches : the ability to conjure up stroms, ruin crops, kill livestock, cause illness or death in humans, and transform themselves into animals. Satan’s servants were also believed to rub themselves with a salve that allowed them to fly through the air to the Witches Sabbath, where they paid obscene homage to the Devil, feasted danced, and flung themselves into orgiastic sex in defiance of all the laws of God man.
3. Using torture to gain confessions to these crimes, both ecclesiastical and civil courts burned or hanged tens of thousands of alleged witches during the 1500s and 1600s. This savage persecution has been interpreted in many ways. It has been seen as an attempt to suppress a genuine witch cult (a view not now generally accepted), as scapegoating of social outsiders made to take the blame for misfortunes like illness or had harvests, or simply as a form of mass hysteria. The witch craze has also been characterized as an expression of widespread male hatred and fedar of women. Some scholars see the willingness to believe in a diabolical conspiracy of witches as a product of a feverish religious temper. Perhaps three-quarter of the persecutions occurred in the German states, the swill cantons, and France, all areas of intense religious conflict, and as Reformation religiosity waned, this brutal campaign against the “witches” also came to an end.
(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make note on it using heading and sub headings. Use recoginsable abbreviations where necessary. Give a title to your Note Making.
(b) Find the words from the passage-which mean the same as the following.
(i) At height (para 1)
(ii) Dealing with matters in disgusting way (para 2)
(iii) Of the Christrian (para 3)
SECTION B WRITING [20 Marks]
3. Draft a display advertisement for the promotion of a new tooth paste. Invent necessary details. (4 Marks)
Draft a poster on the topic ‘Save Environment Save Earth.’
4. Write a letter in about 150 words to the editor of the local daily complaining about the schools charging high fee without giving promised facilities. (6 Marks)
Recently you bought an A.C. from R.K. Electricals Sadar Bazar, Kanpur, but you found that AC is not working properly. Write a letter complaining about the same. Sign yourself as Ankit.
5. Write an article on How ruthless cutting of trees will prove harmful to us. (150 words) (10 Marks)
Write a speech on the topic ‘Internet is a boon if used judiciously.’
SECTION C GRAMMAR
6. Fill in the blanks with correct form of verb.
A bus driver __________ (crush) to death by a speeding truck near Seernapur Depot on Saturday night. The police ________ (say) that the incident ______ (take) place around 8 p.m. when the victim _________ (stand) near his bus A speeding truck (pass) that way. The driver _________ (lose) control over the vehicle. He ________ (be) drunk, but somehow he _________ (manage) to run away from the spot.
7. There is a word missing in each line. Find the place where you think the word is missing and write the word in your answer sheet. The first one has been done as an example. (112 x 8 = 4 Marks)
8. Look at the words and phrases given below. Rearrange them to form meaningful sentences. The first one has been done for you as an example. Write the correct sentences in your answer-sheet. Remember to number the answer correctly. (1/2 x 4 = 2 Marks)
(a) the few/rupees/I had/I’ve/spent already.
(b) ink/in the bottle/much/how/there/is ?
(d) other/section/in the/any friend/don’t/have/you ?
SECTION D : LITERATURE [30 Marks]
9. Read the extracts given below and choose the most appropriate options : (1 x 3 = 3)
And who art thou ? said I to the soft-falling shower,
which strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated :
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of
the rain, Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
(a) ‘I’ refers to _______
(i) The soft falling shower
(ii) The bottomless sea
(iii) The earth
(iv) The poet
(b) The answer was ‘strange’ as ________
(i) There was no answer
(ii) The rain could not talk
(iii) It is unusual for the rain to reply
(iv) The rain remained silent
(c) The word ‘impalpable’ means __________
(ii) Soft falling
The seed I spent or sown it where The land is his and none of mine ?
We speak like strangers, there’s no sign
Of understanding in the air.
This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.
(a) T refers to
(i) The father
(ii) The son
(iii) The poet
(iv) The stranger
(b) ‘We speak like strangers’ means
(i) They talk to each other like enemies
(ii) They do not understand each other
(iii) They fight with each other
(iv) They don’t like each other
(c) The father is in a mood
10. Answer any three of the following questions (3 x 3 = 9 Marks)
(i) Even the birds have feeling and emotions is well depicted by the sparrows in the story The Portrait of a Lady.’ Elucidate.
(ii) Why did the ancient Egyptians bury a king with all the riches ?
(iii) What does the narrater say about Hosahalli and mention its two distinct features.
(iv) Was the plan of Mrs. Fitzgerald successful in the end ?
11. Answer the following questions in about 150 words. (6 Marks)
What does the notice, “The world’s most dangerous animal” at a cage in the zoo in Lusaka, Zambia signify ?
Describe the journey of the narrator until they finally reached the Amsterdam island.
12. Answer the following questions in about 150 words.
Why do you think the boys returned the horse ? (6 Marks)
Compare and Contrast Andrew’s emotional, mental and physical state at the begining of the story and at the end.
13. Attempt either Section A or B. (6 Marks)
Answer the following question in about 150 words.
(A) Describe the atmosphere of Tuskegee when the news of the American President’s visit reached the students and the teachers ?
In spite of fighting southern white, what was the problem General Armstrong was facing regarding the students ?
(B) What games and tricks did the twins play on the ghost, which terrified and injured the Canterville ghost ?
What do you think is the main cause of the ghosts dejection and depression ?