PT3/ENG9/23-24

DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL VADODARA

Academic Session 2023-24
Periodic Test 3

Class : IX Time : 90 min.

Subject : English (184) M.M : 40
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G General Instructions: Total no. of pages: 05

1) The question paper contains THREE sections-READING, WRITING & GRAMMAR and LITERATURE.
2) Attempt questions based on specific instructions for each part.
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SECTION A: READING 10

1. Read the passage given below. [1x5=5]

1. I personally dread it and I avoid eye contact. I see that child, hair tangled from years of being
on the streets and unwashed, the colour of his/her skin is almost unknown because it has been
caked by dirt and flimsy clothes completely unfit for the cold winter morning.
2. If you attempt to look into their eyes, you wonder at how persistent they are - they must get a
dime out of you or at least attempt to sell you a pack of tissue that you do not want. However,
when you don't give in, they can easily start banging on your windshield and maybe even
start swearing at you.
3. I would always drive off angry, wondering who did this to them and how can this be
happening in the world. I have an inner fight with myself about whether I should have given
them money to 'help' them or by not having given it; this might discourage them from their
current practice and try to find a more honourable way to earn money.
4. Today I thought about it a little bit more. The person who is doing this to them...is me. I have
been contributing to the ugliness of their world on a daily basis and then I self-righteously
wonder how people can grow up to be thieves, criminals or terrorists.
5. How is this relevant? Let's consider these children's daily life. They are met daily by
rejections from passersby who struggle just as I do about whether to acknowledge their
existence or not. They don't know what it is like to sleep in comfort or even in privacy. I
shiver to think about the daily exploitation they must see from those closest to them;
conditioning them that life is in fact ugly and you can only survive through violence, begging,
stealing and all the other things that privileged people don't have to live with.
6. This begs the question; do these street children know what being smiled at is? Is anyone ever
happy to see them? Consequently, I wonder, if in my own capacity and in your own daily life,
we give each street child that comes across our way a smile, even from behind our closed car
windows, would it make a difference? Reject their asking for money if you must, but if you
do it with a smile, could it change their future?
7. I don't know, but I am willing to try, because at the worst it would be ineffective but it will
not hurt.

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the following questions.

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 1.1 The author calls the child in the passage persistent because he/she_________.

a. acts bossy
b. threatens to attack the author
c. won’t budge unless attended upon
d. blocks the author’s way

1.2 In the passage, the author seems to be constantly fighting with herself as she ________.
a. cannot stand these children
b. cannot decide the right course of action
c. wants a world free of such children
d. wants to provide financial aid to them

1.3 Which option best describes the central idea of the passage?

a. ‘I love those who smile in trouble’ -Leonardo da Vinci

b. ‘If you smile when you are alone, then you really mean it’ -Andy Rooney
c. ‘Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the
goodness in people’ -Roy T Bennett
d. ‘Never regret anything that made you smile’ -Mark Twain
1.4 How does the author want these children to be treated?

1.5 Find a word from the passage which means the same as ‘refuse’ in para 6?

a. wonder
b. reject
c. consequently
d. ineffective

2. Read the passage given below. [1x5=5]

1. The crowd at bus stops in Mumbai and its suburbs were growing bigger by the day.
Packed buses used to come and leave, with few able to get in. Frustration was building up
but commuters had little choice. As Mumbai tried to unlock its economy and more and more
offices opened up and industries were trying to get back to business, the attempt at normalcy
still required the restoration of a vital missing link, suburban, or ‘local’, commuter trains, the
city’s lifeline.

2. Since the Covid outbreak, local trains had stopped running in the Mumbai Metropolitan
Region (MMR), except restricted operations for health and essential services workers, those
in the pharmaceutical & food industries and bankers and lawyers. An exception was also
made for women commuters for whom train services resumed in October 2022 in two-time
slots, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 12.40 a.m., the last train.

3. The Maharashtra government was keen on a full resumption of local train services and had
been in talks, albeit unsuccessful so far, with the railways. In October 2022, the state
government requested the railways to open up the local train network for everyone in
Mumbai and suggested three time- bands for travel: 4 a.m. (the first local train) to 7.30 am,
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. to 12.40 a.m. The railways refused citing the risk to passengers
from the pandemic.

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4. Before Covid struck, the suburban rail network used to run some 2,200 daily train services
across MMR. While the official capacity of each train is 1,700 passengers, nearly double that
number cram in during rush hour.

5. Under pressure to alleviate commuter woes while still ensuring that the new travel
arrangements were Covid-safe, the state government had considered staggered working
hours in the MMR. Most private and government offices in the MMR have 9-to-5 timings,
which puts great pressure on the city’s public transport system between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. in
the morning and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the evening. Officials believed crowding on public
transport could be significantly reduced, or at least managed, by changing office timings to
11 a.m.-7 p.m. and 2 p.m.-10 p.m.

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the following questions.

2.1 Why was the Maharashtra government keen on a full resumption of local train
services?
2.2 Choose the option that lists the correct answers for the following:

Indian Railways was keen to resume Railways thought that resumption of local train
local train services in MMR. services was too risky for the commuters.
1 2

a. (1) is True and (2) is also True

b. (1) is True and (2) is False
c. (1) is False and (2) is True
d. (1) is False and (2) is also False

2.3 List any two problems of commuters in MMR.

2.4 How many passengers were being carried by a local during the rush hours before the
Covid outbreak?

2.5 What suggestion was proposed by the state railway officials to reduce pressure on
public transport?

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SECTION B: WRITING AND GRAMMAR
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3. Write a factual description on any childhood memory that has had a great impact on your life. 5
(100-120 words)

OR

A Career Fest was recently organised in your school wherein reputed colleges and universities
of Europe participated and gave information about their undergraduate and graduate programs.
Write a factual description of the same in 100-120 words.

4. i. Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option. 1

There is ________ concern about mobile addiction amongst students in India than in the U.S.
a. many
b. much
c. any
d. every

ii. Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option. 1

Either she or her friends ______ responsible for this mishap.

a. is b. are c. was d. might

iii. Select the option that identifies the error and supplies the correction for the following 1
line.
The school has organized ‘The Achiever’s Award Ceremony’ to give recognition to the bright
intellects in the year.

Option No. Error Correction

A has had
B the a
C in of
D intellects intellectuals

iv. Fill in the blank by choosing the correct option to complete the following. 1
I gave away ________ money that I had to the person in need.
a. little
b. few
c. a little
d. the little

v. Report the statement as spoken by the patient. 1

The male patient said, “I have tried all medication but this medicine is working well with me.”

SECTION C : LITERATURE 20

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5. Read the given extract and answer ANY THREE of the following questions. [1x3=3]

Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign

Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land of our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

i. Who are ‘our brothers’ in the above stanza?

ii. What does the poet mean by ‘Beneath all uniforms a single body breathes’?
iii. What does the poet want everyone to realise?
iv. Mention the rhyme scheme of the stanza.
6. Answer ANY THREE of the following questions in about 40-50 words each. [3x3=9]

i. How did Abdul Kalam’s father help to reconcile his mother to his leaving home for further
studies?
ii. In which way did the sight of the last leaf affect Johnsy?
iii. What thoughts passed through the doctor’s mind as he looked into the mirror?
iv. How did St. Peter meet the old woman?
7. Answer ANY TWO of the following questions in about 100-120 words each. [4x2=8]

i. ‘The Last Leaf’ is a message of courage, hope and optimism. Do you agree? Why/Why not?

ii. How did the stupidity and greed bring about the downfall of the foolish king and his
minister?

iii. “…his (Einstein’s) mother thought Albert was a freak.” Do you think geniuses show
eccentricity in their behaviour? Explain giving your reasons and with reference to the
lesson ‘A Truly Beautiful Mind’.

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