Kerala SSLC English Previous Question Papers with Answers 2017

Kerala SSLC English Previous Question Papers with Answers 2017 are part of Kerala SSLC English Previous Year Question Papers with Answers. Here we have given Kerala SSLC English Previous Question Papers with Answers 2017.

Kerala SSLC English Previous Question Papers with Answers 2017 Free Download English Medium

Time Allowed: 2 1/2 hours
Maximum Marks: 80

Instructions

• 15 minutes is given as cool-off time.
• This time is to be used for reading the question paper.
• You are not supposed to write anything during the cool-off time.
• Attempt all questions according to the instructions

Questions 1-5: Read the excerpt from Adichie’s speech ‘The Danger of a Single Story’ and answer the questions that follow:
A professor once told me that my characters were too much like him, an educated and middle-class man. My characters drove cars. They were not starving. Therefore they were not authentically African.

When I learned, some years ago that writers were expected to have had really unhappy childhoods to be successful, I began to think about how I could invent horrible things my parents had done to me. But the truth is that I had a very happy childhood,

Question 1.
Why did the Professor think that Adichie’s characters were not authentically
from juvenile courts reminds the past story gambling ruins life suicide attempts no money to live help from the sergeant, landlady, and the author)

Question 2.
What kind of a person was the Professor?

Question 3.
Adichie thought of inventing horrible things her parents had done to her. Why

Question 4.
What kind of a childhood did Adichie have?

Question 5.
Find out from the passage an expression that means ‘closely connected’.

Questions 6 – 9: Read the lines from the poem ‘The School Boy’ and answer the questions that follow:

I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O What sweet company!
But to go to school in a summer morn,
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Question 6.
What are the sounds that welcome the boy on a summer morning?

Question 7.
What drives ‘all joy away’ from the boy’s mind?

Question 8.
Whose cruel eyes keep the children under control? 1

Question 9.
How do the children spend their day at school? 1

Question 10.
Read the poem ‘Mother to Son’ by Langston Hughes. 5

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards were torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbing on,
And reachin’ Landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So, boy, don’t you turn back

Attempt a brief appreciation of the poem, focusing on the theme, imagery and the language used in the poem.

Questions 11-14: Read the following story and answer the questions given below:
There was once a big flood in the river. The water came down from the mountain and the hills, the river came up and up, and a lot of houses on the low land were soon under the water.

An old man lived in a small house near the river. He was poor and there were no houses near his. There was a heavy rain one night and in the morning, the old man looked out of the window and saw the flood. The water was nearly up to his bedroom window.

The water came up and up. Then the flood got worse and the old man went up on to the roof. “What am I going to do?” he said. “ The water is very deep and I can’t swim”.

But after three hours, the old man saw a boat. It slowly came near, and the old man saw two young men in it. “ We’ve come from the Red Cross….”, one of the young men said.

“I’m sorry”, the old man answered, “ but I’ve just given you some money this month, and I haven’t got much. I’m a poor man”.

Question 11.
Where did the water come from? 1

Question 12.
When did the old man see the flood? 1

Question 13.
Why did the old man go up to his roof? 1

Question 14.
Why did the Red Cross men go there? 1

Questions 15-20: The following are the online advertisements of some Tour Operators. Study the details and answer the questions that follow:

 Question 15.
Which company was established in 2007? 1

Question 16.
Which tour operator says it wants to ensure customer satisfaction? 1

Question 17.
Which company should we opt for, if we want to make an international trip? 1

Question 18.
Which company is ISO certified? 1

Question 19.
Which tour operator offers full holiday packages? 1

Question 20.
Name the company that conducts reviews of services delivered. 1

Question 21.
Answer any ONE of the following in about 120 words. 7
“I could hardly believe my ears. I spoke in a trembling rush. ‘Oh! Thank you, “sir Suddenly I felt great”. These words of happiness show how much the scholarship jacket means to Martha. Briefly narrate her story in your own words. You may use the hints given.
(Hints: wishes to get the scholarship jacket-works hard-overhears the conversation between Boone and Schmidt-principal asks her to pay for the scholarship jacket-grandpa refuses-finally awarded)

OR

“As we sat in silence, I could not but reflect that it was the best investment I had made in my life. It had paid me no dividends in worldly goods, but had turned out to be immensely profitable.” Why does the narrator say so? Narrate in your words the events that led to this remark.

(Hints: The narrator meets a man on his way back from New York-he recounts an old incident-goes to attend one who had attempted suicide-young man saved-he later becomes a solicitor and a social activist-the meeting prompts the narrator to reflect on the best investment he had made)

Question 22.
‘Now, things changed when I discovered African books”. Prepare a write-up on 5 how the reading of African books influenced Adichie’s writing.

Question 23.
The doctor in the story ‘The Snake and the Mirror’ writes about his strange experience in his diary. Prepare the likely diary entry.

Question 24.
Poor Vanka is in a miserable condition. Imagine that as a resident of the locality, you come to know about Vanka’s pitiable life at the shoemaker’s house. Write a letter to a police official describing Vanka’s hardships and also the cruelty of his master, and requesting him to save the child.

Question 25.
The English Club of your schools is organizing a debate on ‘Social Media: A Boon or Bane’. You are the secretary of the club. Draft a notice inviting the students and teachers to the programme.

Question 26.
Complete the following conversation between Martha and a News reporter.
Reporter: You are Martha, …..(a)…..?
Martha: Yes. I am.
Reporter: …..(b)…..?
Martha: I’m in class eight.
Reporter: You won the Scholarship Jacket, …..(c)…..
Martha: Yes. I did.
Reporter: …..(d)…..?
Martha No: I didn’t pay anything.
Reporter: Indeed you deserve it …..(e)…..!
Martha: Thank you, sir.

Question 27.
There are a few errors in the passage given below. They are underlined. 4 Edit the passage making corrections.
Another lovely thought struck me. I would get (a) married to a woman doctor who has (b) Plenty of money and good medical practice. She had to be fat; for a valid reason. If I made some, mistake silly (c) and needed to run away, she should not be able to run after (d) me.

Question 28.
Report the following dialogue. 2
Son: Where did you get it, father?
Father: I picked it up.
You may begin in this manner:
The Son asked his father ………
The father ……….

Question 19.
Supply the missing words in the passage given below. 4
Needless to say, in our own country it/(a) not at all easy to find trained animals, (b) some films have been made/(c) Bombay and Madras that involved working /(d) elephants, horses, and tigers.
(in, is, that, although, with)

Question 30.
Complete the following passage choosing appropriate phrasal verbs 4 given in the box.
Amal has never been able to ……….(a)………. early from a bed. Though his mother would set the alarm clock, Amal simply turned it off and went back to sleep. Every morning, he would ……….(b)………. late to school. So he ……….(c)………. the class late every day. Amal knew well that his class teacher would not ……….(d)………. with the situation.

Question 31.
Write a short profile of Rabindranath Tagore using the details given below: 5
Born: 1861
Famous as: poet, short story writer, musician, educationist, and philosopher
Achievement: The first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature
Important works: ‘Gitanjali’, ‘The Golden Boat’, ‘Cabuliwalah’, ‘The Poet Office’, The Broken Nest’ etc. 1941

Answers

Answer 1.
Adichie’s characters drove cars. They were not starving. So the professor thought that was not authentically African.

Answer 2.
The professor was an educated and a middle-class man.

Answer 3.
Writers were expected to have had a really unhappy childhood to be successful.

Answer 4.
Adichie had a very happy childhood, full of laughter and love in a very close-knit family.

Answer 5.
Close-knit

Answer 6.
The song of the birds, the horn of the distant huntsman and the song of the skylark.

Answer 7.
To go to school on a summer morning.

Answer 8.
The unfriendly cruel teacher’s eyes.

Answer 9.
The children spend their day in sighing and dismay at school.

Answer 10.
A straight forward and politically relevant poem ‘Mother to Son written by Langston Hughes is structured in the form of a conversation between a mother and her son. The mother advises her son that he will face many adversities in life, all of which he must overcome and keep going. The poet uses the ‘stairway’ metaphor to represent life. The mother to whom life has not been kind reminds her son that life is not a crystal stair. Rather it was quite tough with ‘tacks and splinters’. The mother has trodden the unsuspecting dark patches courageously. She says, ‘I’se been a climbin’ on. She encourages her son by giving examples of her own perseverance. The poet wishes to convey the message that one has to display steady persistence to go up the stairway of life. Obstacles may be harsh but one has to move on with patience and resilience.

The brilliant use of imagery helps the reader to understand vividly the message of the poem. The central image of the poem is the crystal stair’.

Answer 11.
The water came down from the mountain and hills.

Answer 12.
In the morning.

Answer 13.
The old man went up to his roof when the flood got worse.

Answer 14.
To collect money.

Answer 15.
My Happy Journey

Answer 16.
Miles of Smiles

Answer 17.
Miles of Smiles

Answer 18.
My Happy Journey

Answer 19.
Tourist Travels.

Answer 20.
Miles of Smiles

Answer 21.
It was on the second day of the narrator’s voyage, he noticed that one of the passengers was watching him closely. As he was not interested in a conversation with him at that time, he ignored the passenger. The following afternoon the narrator saw him again Urged by his wife, the fellow voyager approached the narrator. They were Mr. and Mrs. John. But he couldn’t reveal the identity of the fellow voyagers.

Mr. John told the narrator that he was a solicitor by profession and was the director of the charitable organization devoted to the rehabilitation of derelict adolescents. They had been on their first visit to America to visit similar institutions in New England. Curiously, the narrator enquired why he was attracted to social work. As a reply to it, he opens his mind. He reminded the narrator that he was none other than the young man whose life the doctor (narrator) had saved. Mr. John was an orphan,

worked as a clerk in a London solicitor’s office. As he was friendless, he joined the company of bad people and lost all his savings betting on horses. He took some money from the office safe for a final gamble. But his last resort had failed. Terrified of the prosecution that must follow he tried to commit suicide. But the timely intervention of the doctor, landlady and sergeant saved him. The doctor (narrator) came forward with his minor contribution of seven pounds and ten shillings to put back the money in the office safe. The sergeant promised to make no report of the case. The landlady offered him a month’s freeboard. Recollecting those incidents, the narrator felt that it was the finest act he had ever done or it was the best investment he had ever made.

Answer 22.
Adichie’s Stories,
Adichie came from a conventional middle-class Nigerian family. Her father was a professor and mother was an administrator. She was an early reader and read British and American Children’s books. She was also an early writer as she began writing at about the age of seven and wrote exactly the kind of stories she was reading. All her characters were white and blue-eyed, they play in the snow, they ate apples and they talked a lot about the weather. All her characters were foreign. But things changed when she discovered African books. Because of writers like Chinua Achebe and Camara Laye, Adichie went through a mental shift in her perception of literature. She realized that people like her, girls with chocolate color skin and kinky hair existed in literature. She started to write about the things she recognized.

Answer 23.
21 June 2017, Sunday
Oh! my God. Today was an awful day. The cobra had coiled around my left arm. I sat frozen when I realized that it was a big snake. If I had moved, it would have stricken me. I sat on the chair holding my breath. When the snake turned its head it saw its reflection in the mirror. It slowly crept on the table and moved towards the mirror. I ran for my life and reached my friends home. The next morning I found my house looted by some burglars. Anyway, I am going to file a complaint. Hope I get back my belongings.

Answer 24.
Name Address
Date
Sub Inspector of Police
Place
Subject: Complaint regarding the cruelty of a master to a child.
Sir,
I am writing this letter to express my deep concern about a serious issue ‘Child Labour’. My neighbor Mr. Alyakhin who is a shoemaker treats his apprentice Vanka very cruelly. The child who is just nine years old is denied proper food and sleep. The mistress beats him severely if he falls asleep while rocking their baby. The other apprentices also treat him badly. Please take the necessary action to save the child from this misery and also strict action must be taken against the shoe¬maker and his wife. I hope that you will do the needed.
Yours truly
Sd/-
Name

Answer 25.

Answer 26.
a. Aren’t you?
b. In which class are you?
c. Didn’t you?
d. Did you pay anything?
e. Congrats!

Answer 27.
a. would get
b. had
c. silly mistake
d. run after

Answer 28.
The son asked his father where he had got it from.
The father replied that he had picked it up.

Answer 29.
a. is
b. although
c. in
d. with

Answer 30.
a. get up
b. set out
c. got into
d. put up with

Answer 31.
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861. He was famous as a poet, short story writer, musician, educationist, and philosopher. He was the first nonEuropean to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. His important works are Gitanjali, The Golden Boat, Cabuliwalah, The Post Office and The Broken Nest. He passed away in 1941.

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