PREBOARD EXAMINATION – 2020-21

Class: X (CBSE) Total Marks: 80

Date……………. SUBJECT - ENGLISH Time: 3 hrs.

SECTION A - READING
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

1. Walter Elias “Walt” Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois. He lived most of
his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, where he began drawing, painting and selling pictures to
neighbours and family friends. Disney attended McKinley High School in Chicago, where he took
drawing and photography classes and was a contributing cartoonist for the school paper. At night, he
took courses at the Chicago Art Institute.

When Disney was 16, he dropped out of school to join the army but was rejected for being underage.
Instead, he joined the Red Cross and was sent to France for a year to drive an ambulance. When Disney
returned from France in 1919, he moved back to Kansas City to pursue a career as a newspaper artist.
His brother Roy got him a job at the PesmenRubin Art Studio, where he met cartoonist Ubbe Eert
Iwwerks, better known as Ub Iwerks. From there, Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad
Company, where he made commercials based on cutout animation. Around this time, Disney began
experimenting with a camera, doing hand-drawn cel animation, and decided to open his own animation
business. From the ad company, he recruited Fred Harman as his first employee

3. Walt and Harman made a deal with a local Kansas City theater to screen their cartoons, which they
called Laugh-O-Grams. The cartoons were hugely popular, and Disney was able to acquire his own
studio, upon which he bestowed the same name. Laugh-O-Gram hired a number of employees,
including Harman’s brother Hugh and Iwerks. They did a series of seven-minute fairy tales that
combined both live action and animation, which they called Alice in Cartoonland. By 1923, however,
the studio had become burdened with debt, and Disney was forced to declare bankruptcy

4. Disney and his brother, Roy, soon pooled their money and moved to Hollywood. Iwerks also
relocated to California, and there the three began the Disney Brothers’ Studio. Their first deal was with
New York distributor Margaret Winkler, to distribute their Alice cartoons. They also invented a
character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and contracted the shorts at $1,500 each.

On the basis of your reading of the passage given above, answer the following questions:

(a) Why was Walt not selected in the army? 1

(i) For being overweight
(ii) For being underage
(iii) For being colour blind
(iv) For being underweight

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(b) The first employee of the Ad Company was: 1
(i)Fred Harman
(ii) Ubbe Eert Iwwerk
(iii) Roy
(iv) Hugh

(c) The studio was burdened by debt in: 1

(i) 1927 (ii) 1926 (iii) 1923 (iv) None of these

(d) Walt Disney moved back to Kansas City to pursue a career as a: 1

(i)Newspaper
(ii) Cartoonist
(iii) Studio artist
(iv) distributor

(e) Walt and Harman made a deal with a local Kansas City theater to: 1
(i) act as their distributor
(ii) screen their cartoons
(iii) Self their cartoons
(iv) become a studio artist

(f) Walt Disney learnt to _____ in his childhood. 1

(i) do woodwork
(ii) (ii) be a mimic
(iii) (iii) paint
(iv) (iv) sing

(g) Disney worked at the Kansas City Film Ad Company, where he made commercials based on. 1
(i) Cutout animations
(ii) Painting
(iii) Drama
(iv) Music

(h) Their first deal was with New York distributor Margaret Winkler, to distribute their Alice 1
cartoons.
(i) True
(ii) False

(i) Who was Walt’s first employee?

1
(i)Ubbe Eert Iwwerks
(ii) Margaret Winkler
(iii)Fred Harman

(j) Whom did Walt meet at the PesmenRubin Art Studio? 1

(i)Roy
(ii)Fred Harman
(iii) Ubbe Eert Iwwerks
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2. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Britain’s first taste of tea was belated – the Chinese had been drinking it for 2,000 years. The English
diarist, Samuel Pepys, mentions tea in his diary entry from September 25, 1600. “Tcha,” wrote Pepys,
the “excellent and by all Physicians approved, China drink,” was sold in England from 1635, for prices
as high as £6 to £10 per pound of the herb (£600 to £1,000, today). In 1662, when King Charles II
married the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, her dowry constituted a chest of tea, and the
island of Bombay for an annual lease of £10, equivalent then to the cost of a pound of tea in England.
Catherine, who was used to drinking tea in the Portuguese court, had her first sip of the beverage in
England in May 1662 – the month of her wedding – at Portsmouth.

In the 18th century, Dutch firm J.J. Voute & Sons ruthlessly exploited the incapacity of the English
East India Company to supply tea to Britain’s thriving domestic elites and coffee houses, smuggling
about eight million pounds of tea, annually. Yet, Dutch tea soon became a “name for all teas that are
bad in quality and unfit for use.” Meanwhile, the English company began strengthening its commercial
ties with China, as Bombay turned into the seed of British India’s commerce, escalating all other
European – especially Portuguese and Dutch – operations.

However, with resources depleted due to the Anglo-Dutch wars, by the 18th century, the English were
unable to afford the silver that China demanded for continuing trade with Britain. To counter smuggled
tea, on the one hand, and the increasing Chinese demand for silver on the other, the British responded
by growing opium in India – largely in Bengal, Patna, Benares and the Malwa plateau – and smuggling
it into China, in exchange for their beloved beverage.

Still, British tea cultivators were extremely anxious to have Chinese tea and techniques brought to
India. In 1788, The Royal Society of Arts began deliberating on the idea of transplanting saplings from
China. Then, in 1824, tea saplings were discovered in Assam by Robert Bruce and Maniram Dewan.
Tea plantations later expanded across Assam and Darjeeling. In a 19th century lecture to the Royal
Society, it was noted that around this time, carpenters and shoemakers from Chinese settlements in
Calcutta were being sent up to Darjeeling or Assam, “presumably on the belief that every Chinaman
must be an expert in tea cultivation and manufacture,” although many of them had never even seen a
tea sapling

On the basis of your reading and understanding of the above passage, answer the following:

(a) Samuel Pepys refer tea as .......... in his diary. 1

(b)The cost of a pound of tea in England in 1662 was 10 pounds 1
(True/False)?
c) Who took advantage of England’s inability to grow tea in the 18th century 1
(d) England smuggled .......... to China to get tea 1
e) Catherine had her first sip of tea in May 1662 at 1
(i) Portuguese court
(ii) Bombay
(iii) China
(iv) Portsmouth
(f) Which tea soon became synonymous with ‘teas that are bad in quality and unfit for use’? 1
(i) Assamese
(ii) Portuguese
(iii) Dutch
(iv) English

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 (g) England couldn’t buy tea from China in the 18th century because 1
(i) it had lost much wealth in the Anglo-Dutch war.
(ii) China sold tea at an unaffordable rate.
(iii) it had lost in the Anglo-Dutch war.
(iv) it had started growing opium in India
1
(h) Though China had been drinking tea for 2000 years, many of them

(i)had not tasted tea in the 19th century.

(ii) had not seen a tea sapling in the 19th century.
(iii) didn’t like the taste of tea.
(iv) many of them didn’t know how to grow tea.

(i) What is the meaning of the word ‘Presumably’? 1

(i) uncertain
(ii) suppose
(iii) doubtfully

(j)What is the antonym of the word ‘Deplete’? 1

(a) decrease
(b) reduce
(c)increase

3. EXTRACT BASED MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

While the class was circling the room, the monitor from the principal’s office brought Miss Mason a
note.
Miss Mason read it several times and studied it thoughtfully for a while. Then she clapped her hands.
“Attention, class. Everyone back to their seat.”
When the shuffling of feet had stopped and the room was still and quiet, Miss Mason said, “I have a
letter from Wanda’s father that I want to read to you.”
Miss Mason stood there a moment and the silence in the room grew tense and expectant.
The teacher adjusted her glasses slowly and deliberately.
Her manner indicated that what was coming — this letter from Wanda’s father — was a matter of great
importance. Everybody listened closely as Miss Mason read the brief note.
(a) Why did Miss Mason read Wanda’s father’s letter several times? 1
(i) Because she studied it thoughtfully
(ii) For she studied it unattentively
(iii) Because she could not comprehend it
(iv) Because it was written very shabbily

(b) Identify the chapter from which the above extract is taken. 1

(i) Hundred Dresses -II (ii) Hundred Dresses -I

(iii) From the Diary of Anne Frank (iv) Amanda

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 (c) Find out a word from the passage similar in meaning to knowingly. 1

(i) Deliberately (ii) Expectantly (iii) Circling (iv) Thoughtfully

1
(d)What can you say about Wanda’s father feelings as highlighted in the letter?

i) He was delighted (ii) He was petrified

(iii) He was annoyed (iv) He was thrilled

1
(e)Who wrote the note?
(i) Wanda (ii) Wanda’s father (iii) Peggy (iv) Maddie

4. Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears,

And Ink and Blink chased lions down the stairs,
Mustard was as brave as a tiger in a rage,
But Custard cried for a nice safe cage.

(a) Name the poem. 1

(i) Animals
(ii) Tiger in the zoo
(iii) How to Tell wild Animals
(iv)Tale of Custard the Dragon

(b) Who is the poet of the poem ? 1

(i) Carolyn Well
(ii) Robert Frost
(iii)Walt Whitman
(iv) Frederic Ogden Nash

(c) Choose the rhyming scheme of the poem.

(i) abab 1
(ii) aabb
(iii)abba
(iv)abcd

(d) Identify the poetic devices in given line “Belinda was as brave as a barrel full of bears” 1

(i) Alliteration and Simile

(ii) Metaphor and Alliteration
(iii)Anaphora and Metaphor
(iv)Personification and Anaphora
1
(e) Who is coward?

(i)Ink
(ii) Blink
(iii)Mustard
(iv)Custard

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 Writing &Grammar

5. The graph is given shows estimated sales of gold in Dubai in 2002. Write an analytical paragraph 5
describing the line graph in around 150 words.

6. Write a letter to M/s Ashwin Books Depot , Nai Sarak, New Delhi telling them that the books you had
ordered have arrived, but some books were with torn pages and a few of them were old editions. Ask 5
for replacement of the books. You are Ankita/Akash, C-10 Vidyanagar , New Delhi.
OR
You are Saurabh Srivastava, a resident of Defense Colony Bagdogra, Siliguri. Your colony is facing
the severe problem of inadequate and contaminated water supply. You decide to express your views
and make the authorities aware of the situation by writing a letter to the Editor of The Siliguri Times,
Siliguri. Write your letter in about 100-120 words.

7. Fill in the blanks in the following passage by using the correct tense form of the verbs given in 6
brackets, choosing the appropriate options from the given ones.

Once Martin Luther King (a) ………………… (Address) a public meeting. Suddenly someone
(b)……………….. (Throw) a shoe at him. But king (c) ………………… (Not lose) his cool. He (d)
……………..(pick) up the shoe and told the gathering that some kind gentleman, knowing that he
could not afford shoes, (e)… (Throw) one for him. He (f)… ................ (Request) the gentle man to
throw him the other one too. After he Said so, a man appeared before him and apologized
(a) (i)addressing, (ii) addressed, (iii) was addressing (iv) were addressing
(b) (i) throwed (ii) threw (iii) throwing (iv) was throwing
(c) (i) do not lose (ii) did not lose (iii) does not lose (iv) have not lose
(d) (i) picked (ii) was picking (iii) picks (iv) has picked
(e) (i) threw (ii) had thrown (iii) was throwing (iv) throws
(f) (i) had requested (ii) have requested (iii) requested (iv) requests

8. Complete the passage given below by choosing the appropriate options: 4

Traditionally, Ilkal saris were made using natural indigo dyes. Then, in the 1970s, (a)
_________(the/that/an) synthetic German indigo replaced (b) _________ (that/this/these/those) vat
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 dyeing process. Today, this has given way to naphtha based dyes. The famed and centuries old indigo
dyeing is now on the verge of extinction. As the new generation steps into more profitable avenues the
skyline of Ilkal is fast changing too. "The (c) _________ (more/most/much/a little) profitable business
in the area now is granite,"states (d) _________ (a/an/the/any) weaver.

LITERATURE
9. Answer any four of the following questions in 20-30 words each: 8
(a )Why did Lencho’s happy mood change into concern?

(b) Why did Anne start writing a diary?

(c) Why did Wanda Petronski sit in the last row?

(d) Why did Jeanne not recognize her friend, Matilda?

(e) The author says: ‘The baker and his family never starved’ Why?

(f ) What is the Chinese legend associated with the discovery of tea?

10. Answer any four of the following questions in 40 to 50 words each 12
(a) Nelson Mandela speaks of ‘Twin Obligations’. Elucidate
(b) Why did Mr.Keesing call Anne ‘an incorrigible chatterbox’? What punishment did he give
her?
(c) Money can’t make a man as much as education can. Elucidate the statement with reference to
the lesson ‘The Thief’s Story
(d)Explain the underlying message in the poem Dust of Snow.
(e)Why is Mr. Herriot tempted to keep Tricki as a permanent guest?
(f) How did Richard Ebright’s mother help him ?
11. Long Answer Questions [100-120words] 5
(a) Write the story of Lencho’s faith in God?
OR
(b) (a) What lesson on death and suffering did the Buddha teach Gotami in the chapter, ‘The
Sermon at Benaras’ ?
12. Long Answer Questions [100-120words] 5
(a) Draw a pen-portrait (character-sketch) of Matilda (The Necklace) in about 100-200 words
OR
(b) Dowry is negation of the girl’s dignity’. Discuss with reference to the story ‘Bholi’.

-END-

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