ELPRO INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, PUNE

Session: 2021-22
Unit Test 1
Set B

Name: Date: 22/07/2021

Class: XI Time: 2 Hours

Subject: English Core Max Marks: 50 Marks

General Instructions
1) Please check that this question paper contains 8 printed pages.
2) Please check that this question paper contains 11 questions.
3) Please write down the serial number of the question before attempting it.
4) 15-minute time has been allotted for reading the paper. During this time the
students will read the question paper only and will not write any answer in the
answer book.
5) This paper consists of 2 parts:
Part A- 25 marks
Part B- 25 marks.
6) All sections are compulsory.
7) Do not exceed the word limit, wherever specified.

PART A- 25 MARKS

Reading Comprehension-10 Marks

Q1 Read the passage given below:

1. Today, India looks like it is on course to join the league of developed nations.
It is beginning to establish a reputation not just as the technology nerve centre
and back-office to the world, but also as its production centre. India’s
secularism and democracy serve as a role model to other developing countries.
There is great pride in an Indian that easily integrates with a global economy
yet maintains a unique cultural identity.

2. But what is breath-taking is India’s youth. For despite being an ancient

civilization that traces itself to the very dawn of human habitation, India is
among the youngest countries in the world. More than half the country is under
25 years of age and more than a third is under 15 years of age.

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3. Brought up in the shadow of the rise of India’s service industry boom, this group
feels it can be at least as good if not better than anyone else in the world. This
confidence has them demonstrating a great propensity to consume, throwing
away ageing ideas of asceticism and thrift. Even those who do not have enough
to consume today feel that they have the capability and opportunity to do so.

4. The economic activity created by this combination of a growing labour pool

and rising consumption demand is enough to propel India to double digit
economic growth for decades. One just has to look at the impact that the baby
boomers in the US had over decades of economic activity, as measured by
equity and housing prices. This opportunity also represents the greatest threat
to India’s future. If the youth of India are not properly educated and if there are
not enough jobs created, India will have forever lost its opportunity. There are
danger signs in abundance.

5. Fifty-three per cent of students in primary schools drop out, one-third of

children in Class V cannot read, three quarters of schools do not have a
functioning toilet, female literacy is only 45 per cent and 80 million children in
the age group of 6-14 do not even attend school.

6. India’s IT and BPO industries are engines of job creation, but they still account
for only 0.2 per cent of India’s employment. The country has no choice but to
dramatically industrialize and inflate its domestic economy. According to a
forecast by the Boston Consulting Group, more than half of India’s unemployed
within the next decade could be its educated youth. We cannot allow that to
happen. India is stuck in a quagmire of labour laws that hinder employment
growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Inflexible labour laws inhibit
entrepreneurship, so it is quite ironic that laws ostensibly designed to protect
labour discourage employment.

7. Employment creation needs an abundant supply of capital. Controls on foreign

investment have resulted in China getting five times the foreign direct
investment, or an advantage of $200 billion over the past five years. The
growing interest in India by global private equity firms offers well as they
represent pools of patient and smart capital, but they too face many bureaucratic
hurdles.

8. When it comes to domestic capital availability, budget deficits adding up to 10

per cent of the national GDP impede capital availability for investment and
infrastructure.

9. Raising infrastructure spending, coupled with rapid privatization, may not only
create employment but also address the growing gaps in infrastructure China
has eight times the highway miles and has increased roads significantly in the

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 past few years while India has only inched along. Freight costs at Indian ports
are almost double the worldwide average, just to give two examples.

10. Moreover, like the Lilliputians that kept the giant Gulliver tied down there are
some 30,000 statutes in India of which only a portion are even operational, and
these keep the employment creation engine tied down. Since there are no sunset
provisions in any laws the regulatory morass only grows every year.

11. In the meantime, we as citizens of the world and descendants of India have to
make a difference, we have to ensure that India and its youth attain that potential
both through our business pursuits and the support of educational charities, on-
the-ground proponents of participative democracy as well as other deserving
organizations and initiatives.

12. I believe that hope can triumph and that this can be India’s century — not one
that will happen as surely as the sun will rise each day, but one that many willing
hands will need to create together.

On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer the following 1X10=10
questions:

1. India is on its way to establish a reputation as _________ .

a) technology nerve centre

b) back office to the world
c) production centre
d) all of these

2. India is amongst the youngest countries of the world because:

a) More than half the country is under 25 years of age and more than a third is
under 15 years of age.
b) India is a developing country.
c) India only gained independence a few decades ago.
d) India has more than a half of its population under 20 years

3. “This confidence has them demonstrating a great propensity to consume” the

confidence here refers to:

a) India being a young country.

b) the feeling that India can be at least as good if not better than anyone else in
the world.
c) India being the world’s back office.
d) India being the biggest spender.

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4. What can propel India to double digit economic growth for decades?

a) India’s young population

b) India’s rising status in production and manufacturing.
c) The economic activity created by the combination of a growing labour pool
and rising consumption demand.
d) Growth in public sectors

5. India can lose the opportunity if _________ .

a) there are not enough jobs.

b) housing prices are high.
c) the youth is not educated.
d) both ‘a’ and ‘c’

6. The one factor that is obstructing the growth of employment in manufacturing

sector in India is:

a) Population growth
b) Uneducated youth
c) Labour laws
d) Lack of investors

7. _________ gets five times more foreign direct investment.

a) India
b) US
c) China
d) Russia

8. The narrator suggests _________ for creating more employment.

a) Raising infrastructure spending

b) Rapid privatisation
c) Increase in population.
d) Both ‘a’ and ‘b’

9. Synonym of the word Quagmire as used in para 6 is:

a) Peace
b) Repose
c) Morass
d) Contentment

10. Synonym of the word Asceticism as used in para 3 is:

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 a) Impiety
b) Disrespect
c) Atheism
d) Austerity

Grammar-6 Marks
Q2 Choose the correct option: 1X6=6

1. There has been ________ fruit on the pear tree in our garden this year, so we
won’t be giving _______ away.

a) a little, many
b) every, some
c) all, each
d) little, much

2. I don’t think that’s the only dry cleaner around here. I think there’s
_________ one to the bus station.

a) others
b) other
c) the other
d) another

3. I ___________ the medicine as prescribed by the doctor for a few weeks now.

a) would have taken

b) have had been taking
c) takes
d) have been taking

4. A bus driver __________ to death by a speeding truck near Seemapur Depot

on Saturday night.

a) crushed
b) was crushed
c) has crushed
d) is being crushed

5. Shaan ____________ eat broccoli when he was a kid. He loves it now.

a) willn’t
b) shalln’t
c) wouldn’t
d) shouldn’t

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 6. Jim___________have seen me because he walked past without saying 'Hello'.

a) willn’t
b) shouldn’t
c) can’t
d) couldn’t

Literature-9 Marks

Q3 Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: 1X3=3

Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup

A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end
Then sleek as a lizard, and alert and abrupt,
She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up
Of chitterings, and of tremor of wings, and trillings –
The whole tree trembles and thrills.

1. Who enters the thickness of the laburnum tree?

a) the squirrel
b) the baby goldfinch
c) the lizard
d) the mother goldfinch.

2. Which figure of speech is used in the line ‘of chitterings, and of tremor of
wings, and trilling’?

a) Onomatopoeia
b) Metaphor
c) Refrain
d) Transfer Epithet

3. What does the ‘machine’ refer to in this extract?

a) The machine used to drill a hole in the tree.

b) Machine used to cut the tree
c) Nest of the goldfinch where the young ones are staying
d) Nest of the squirrel

Q4 Choose the correct option. 1X6=6

1. What would the grandmother do in the temple on a daily basis?

a) Meditation
b) Read Scriptures

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 c) Sing religious prayers.
d) teach other kids religious prayers

2. Which is the world's one of the roughest seas as gathered from the prose ‘We
are not afraid to die’?

a) The Indian Ocean

b) The Pacific Ocean
c) The Atlantic Ocean
d) The Arabian Sea

3. What was the age of the Shirley’s mother when the photograph was taken?

a) eleven years old

b) thirteen years old
c) twelve years old
d) fourteen year old

4. Why was Goldfinch’s body barely visible?

a) due to her dark coloured yellow body

b) because she was small
c) because of the height of the tree
d) because she was brown in colour

5. Mourad had been hiding the horse _________.

a) in a stable
b) in a barn of a vineyard
c) at a secret place of his house
d) None of the above

6. Which phrase is the example of Transferred Epithet as used in the poem ‘A

Photograph’?

a) Silence Silences
b) Both wry
c) Terribly transient
d) Laboured ease

PART-B-25 Marks

Writing Skills-11 Marks

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Q5 The present batch of class XII students is about to bid farewell to the school and the 3
class XI students wish to host a farewell party in their honour. As the Senior Prefect of
your school, write a notice in not more than 50 words for the Students House Council
and XI class monitors to attend a meeting to plan the party. You are Roshan/Roshini.

Q6 Your school is organizing a Public Awareness Exhibition. In connection with it, prepare 3
a poster to bring home the importance of conservation of electricity. Your school is
A.K. Public School, Green Park, Delhi. (50 words)
Q7 In today’s world, letter-writing has lost its charm. People and the youth in particular 5
rely more on mobiles and computers to communicate. Write an article on the present
trend in 120 to 150 words. You are Kiran / Kartik.

Literature-14 Marks

Q8 Answer the following questions in about 30 to 40 words each: 2X3=6

a) Feeding the sparrows was the happiest hour of the day for her. Highlight at least
two traits that this statement brings out about the personality of the
grandmother.
b) Why did Jonathan call the narrator the best daddy and best captain in the world?
c) What did the farmer John Byro tell the two boys when one day they accidentally
met him with his horse in their custody?

Q9. Answer the following question in about 40 to 50 words: 3

Each photograph is a memory. Justify the statement, in the light of the poem ‘A
Photograph’.

Q10. Answer the following question in about 120 to 150 words: 5

To maintain the honesty and integrity of the Garoghlanian family was the topmost
priority of Aram and Mourad. Explain.