ICSE 10th English Language Sample Paper 10 Page 1

Sample Paper 10
ICSE Class X 2024-25
English Language
English Paper - 1
Time: 2 Hours Max. Marks: 80
General Instructions:
1. Answer to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately.
2. You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.
3. This time is to be spent in reading the question paper.
4. The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers.
5. Attempt all five questions
6. The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].
7. You are advised to spend not more than 30 minutes in answering Question 1 and 20 minutes in
answering Question 2.

QUESTION 1.
(Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this question.)
Write a composition (300-350 words) on any one of the following. [20]

(i) Write an original short story entitled ‘Ghost in the Storm!’

(ii) ‘All girls or all boys schools provide a better learning environment than co-educational schools’. Express
your views either for or against the statement.

(iii) You are fond of reading books and always look for opportunities to explore new reading experiences.
Recently a ‘World Book Fair’ was held at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. Describe your visit and experiences
to this book fair.

(iv) “Fast food may tickle our taste buds, but it harms our health in more ways than we can count.” When fast
food fanatic Gauri Shankar heard her doctor says these words; she was horrified and immediately decided
to quit fast food. She even took on the responsibility of spreading awareness about the harmful effects of
fast food.
Write a composition for her to be printed in school magazine on the topic ‘Junk This Food’.

(v) Study the picture given below. Write a story or a description or an account of what it suggests to you. Your
composition may be about the subject of the picture or you may,take suggestions from it. However, there
must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition.

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QUESTION 2.
(Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.)
Select any one of the following. [10]

(i) You had taken an Annual Maintenance Contract from M/s Cool Service Agency, Panchkula for maintenance
of the 16 Samsung air conditioners installed in your office in Sector 17, Chandigarh. However, the service is
irregular and unsatisfactory. Write a complaint letter to the proprietor of the agency. Invent the necessary
details. You are Rahul Yadav, Punjab Coaching Institute, Sector 7, Chandigarh.

(ii) Write a letter to your neighbour, Ms Arora, apologising to her on breaking of her window glass by your son.
You are DS Murti.

QUESTION 3.

(i) You are Rohan/Roma, the Students’ Representative of the School Development Committee. Next week, the
Committee is meeting to prepare a Calendar of Activities for academic year 20XX-20XY. Write a notice, to
be put up on your school notice board, inviting students’ suggestions on the subject. [5]

(ii) Write an e-mail to Sunita Jalan, a business executive of Hotel Victoria Group, as a reply to her interest in
buying software from your firm. Assume your e-mail id to be learn-english [email protected]. [5]

QUESTION 4.
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follows.
Curious as it may sound, I have always felt I am an Indian by accident. Let me explain why I say this. I was
born in Bhagalpur. This ought to make me a Bihari. But I am not one because my mother was a Bengali
whose family had settled in Bihar. Within weeks of being born I came to Calcutta, where I spent all my
growing up years. My school was founded by a Frenchman, a soldier of fortune. And though I scored far
better marks in Bengali and Hindi there, the only language I learnt was English. How and why I have no
clue, since we all spoke Bengali at home. My first English article appeared in the Statesman when I was 13.
Soon, I published my first book of poems, again in English. I dropped out of college.

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ICSE 10th English Language Sample Paper 10 Page 3

I wrote more books till the desire to change the world (yes, in those days we actually thought we could)
brought me to what was then Bombay, to be a journalist.
Mumbai is where I have lived for most of my life. In between, for what seemed like six long years, I also lived
in Lutyens’ Delhi. In a charming bungalow just opposite the BJP office on Ashoka Road, eating subsidised
meals in Parliament and representing Maharashtra’s interests on a Shiv Sena ticket. So, am I a Mumbaikar?
Or a Bengali from Calcutta?
A Bihari? Or a born again Anglophile like Nirad C Chaudhari? I have no clue. Most Indians are like me,
put together by accident. That’s the magic of being a migrant in your own land, trying to discover your
many identities.
My mother’s maiden name seemed to suggest that someone in her family in the past had Muslim connection
though her first name was Hindu (or Bengali, depending on how you see it). The only place of worship I
ever saw her visit was the St Paul’s cathedral on New Year’s eve more out of convention than faith. My
father was born a Hindu and his family home was in Kalighat. His father remarried and chucked them out.
My father, his mother and two sisters found themselves on the street trying to fend for themselves, when a
passing Jesuit took pity on them. He gave them shelter in Bishnupur where he ran a school.
The freedom struggle brought my parents together. They married and we three brothers were born.
Never did it once strike me what my religion was, which state I belonged to, what my language ought to
be, which culture I should fight for.
My adolescent years were spent in protesting against the Russians invading Czechoslovakia and the
Americans in Vietnam. My Bengali DNA I guess, if you look around you, you will find many people like me
who, in the midst of their many identities, accidentally chanced upon their Indianness. Each of them will
swear by their regional culture, the language they speak, the faith they follow or (like me) do not. And, as
they wander through all these, and discover themselves, they also discover the magic of being Indian.

(i) For each word given below, choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options
provided. [2]
1. chucked (line 23)
(a) kept aside (b) threw
(c) retained in the same way (d) throw up something
2. invading (line 30)
(a) conquering (b) taking
(c) occupying (d) Both (a) and (c)

(ii) Which word in the passage means the opposite of the word ‘deliberately’ ? [1]
(a) curious (b) accidentally
(c) together (d) All of these

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly using your own words.
(a) What quality in himself does the author attribute to his Bengali DNA? [2]
(b) What similarity does the author seem to have with Nirad C Chaudhuri, as mentioned in the passage?
[2]
(c) What did the passing Jesuit on road do to the author’s family? [2]
(d) Why does the author say that he is an Indian by accident? [2]
(e) What brought the author to Bombay? [1]

(iv) Write in your own words not exceeding 50, how the author discovers the magic of being Indian. [8]

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QUESTION 5.

(i) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the words given in brackets. Do not copy the
passage but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space. [4]
Example :
The old priest .......... (0) (ask) his congregation to stand up.
Answer : (0) asked
The Singapore Botanical Garden, founded in 1859, is one of the leading tropical gardens in the world. It
.......... (1) (attract) over twenty thousand visitors weekly. Some of these visitors .......... (2) (travel) from
countries as far as France.
Besides .......... (3) (serve) as a public park, it .......... (4) (be) also a center for research on plant growth and
improvement. Currently, some three thousand species of plants .......... (5) (flourish) in the garden. This
collection .......... (6) (expand) through exchange and donations.
Tourists .......... (7) (visit) the garden can also .......... (8) (expect) to see several varieties of orchids,
including our national flower.

(ii) Fill in each blank with an appropriate word. [4]

(a) Can you prepare the dishes _____ I fetch milk from the nearby store?
(b) There is someone _____ the door. Go and check who it is.
(c) Japanese trains are almost always _____time.
(d) I was ill _____ a few days last week.
(e) The kid was so short that he couldn’t see _____ the steering wheel.
(f) I waited for him _____ 8:30 a.m. and then I left for the office alone.
(g) Would you like anything to drink ____ your meal?
(h) I didn’t miss a single class _____ my first year.

(iii) Join the following sentences to make one (complete) sentence without using and, but or so. Choose the
correct option. [4]
1. Sunil is tall. Sanjay is taller.
(a) Sunil is more tall than Sanjay.
(b) Sanjay is more tall than Sunil.
(c) Sunil is taller than Sanjay.
(d) Sanjay is taller than Sunil.

2. The pick pocket saw the policeman. He ran away at once.

(a) As soon as the pick pocket saw the policeman, he run away.
(b) As soon as the pick pocket sees the policeman, he runs away.
(c) As soon as the pick pocket saw the policeman, he ran away.
(d) As sodn as the police saw the pick socket, he ran away.

3. There are no oranges in the shop. We have to buy bananas.

(a) As there are no oranges in the shop, we have to buy bananas.
(b) As there is no oranges in the shop, we have to buy bananas.
(c) As there are no oranges in the shop, we had to buy bananas.
(d) As there are no orange in the shop, we have to buy banana.

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ICSE 10th English Language Sample Paper 10 Page 5

4. He ran for the morning assembly. He was late.

(a) He ran for the morning assembly as he is getting late.
(b) He ran for the morning assembly because he was late.
(c) He running for the morning assembly as he was getting late.
(d) He run for the morning assembly as he got late.

(iv) Choose the correct option to rewrite the following according to the instructions given after each sentence.
[8]
1. Airport authorities will inform you if the flight is delayed
[Begin with : should ......]
(a) Should the flight delays, airport authorities will inform you.
(b) Should the flight delay, airport authorities will inform you.
(c) Should the flight be delayed, airport authorities will inform you.
(d) Should the flight is delayed, airport authorities will inform you.

2. The walls would have been painted green by us.

[Rewrite using : Active Voice.....]
(a) We would paint the walls green.
(b) We would have painted the walls green.
(c) I would have painted the walls green.
(d) We should have painted the walls green.

3. She said to me, ‘I was waiting for my sister.’

[Rewrite using : Indirect speech]
(a) She told me that she had been waiting for her sister.
(b) She told me that she had been waiting for my sister.
(c) She told me that she was waiting for her sister.
(d) She told me that she was waiting for my sister.

4. Do not go to sleep before I return from market.

[Rewrite using : until]
(a) Do not go to sleep until I returns from the market.
(b) Do not go to sleep until I return from the market.
(c) Do not go sleeping until I return from the market.
(d) Do not go sleep until I return from the market.

5. Sachin Tendulkar is the best batsman of the world.

[Rewrite using the positive degree of adjective ‘best’]
(a) No batsmen in the world is so good as Sachin Tendulkar.
(b) No batsman in the world is so good to be like Sachin Tendulkar.
(c) No batsman in the world is as good as Sachin Tendulkar.
(d) No batsman in the world is good as Sachin Tendulkar.

6. She was not certain about the trip.

[Use : decide]
(a) She wouldn’t decide if she wanted to go to the trip.
(b) She wouldn’t decide about the trip.
(c) She couldn’t decide about the trip.
(d) She couldn’t decide if she wanted to go to the trip.


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7. As soon as the teacher went out of the class, the students started talking.
[Begin with : No sooner....]
(a) No sooner did the teacher go out of the class then the students started talking.
(b) No sooner did the teacher went out of the class when the students started talking.
(c) No sooner did the teacher go out of the class than the students started talking.
(d) No sooner did the teacher goes out of the class than the students starts talking.

8. It is too hot to go out.

[Rewrite using : so ... that...]
(a) It is so hot that we can go out.
(b) It is so hot that we cannot go out.
(c) It is so hot that we could not go out.
(d) It is so hot that we should not go out.

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