Plus Two English Previous Year Question Paper March 2017

Kerala Plus Two English Previous Year Question Paper March 2017 with Answers

Time: 2 ^1/2 Hour
Cool off time: 15 Minutes
Maximum: 80 Score

General Instructions to candidates:

• There is ‘cool off time’ of 15 minutes in addition to the writing time of  2^1/2 hours.
• You are not allowed to write your answers or to discuss anything with others during the cool off time’.
• Read questions carefully before answering.
• All questions are compulsory and the only internal choice is allowed.
• When you select a question, all the sub-questions must be answered from the same question itself.
• Electronic devices except non-programmable calculators are not allowed in the Examina­tion Hall.

Questions 1 – 3: Read the passage and answer the questions given below:

“I knew then that this could be my country, and that whatever I did here could make more of a difference than in the manicured reality of my university life in the states.”

Question 1.
Who is the narrator? (1)
Answer:
Shaheen Mistri

Question 2.
What does the author mean by the word “manicured”? (1)
a) Scholastic
b) Polished
c) Commonplace
d) Exciting
Answer:
b) Polished

Question 3.
Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions :
The teacher was obliged ………… begin the story ………… a bison and a tiger, and then he passed on ………… “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and “Aladdin’s Lamp”. The boy listened, rapt and ordered “I want to hear the story of the bison again. It is good …………”. The teacher was short ………… breath. (4)
Answer:
to, about, to, of

Question 4.
Edit the following letter of recommendation correcting the mistakes, if any. (4)

Dear Sir,
The purpose of this letter was to provide a character reference to Mr. Ram whom I have known as a colleague and a friend for a period of five years. I believe I were in a position to provide you with a pretty accurate assessment of his character.

As an employee, he has been very hard working and highly committed to his job. He has also been very outgoing and always willing to help others. I would conclude saying that Mr. Ram is a fine, well-balanced person with an abundant of positive qualities.

Yours Sincerely,
Sankar

Answer:

(Questions 5 – 6): Read the passage and answer the questions:

“It is time to create a world where all women can meet their potential without impediment or prejudice and the world will reap the benefits. The three Ls will help us get there.”

Question 5.
What are the three Ls referred to? (1)
Answer:
Learning, Labour and Leadership

Question 6.
What does ‘impediment’ mean? (1)
Answer:
Obstacle

Question 7.
The Amigo brothers left the ring arm in arm, without waiting for the verdict. Prepare the script for an announcement to be made soon after their exit. (3)
Answer:
Antonio Cruz and Felix Vargas fought valiantly. And the winner is ……. Oh My God! Where are they? Look at that! They are going arm in arm as it they never fought. A moment ago they were fighting like mad bulls. And now? Look at them! They are going like intimate friends! What do you call it? Yes, friendship!
Who is the winner? Both are winners!

Question 8.
“Some tortures are physical and some are mental But the one that is both is dental”.
Why does the poet find it hard to keep calm while sitting before a dentist? (4)
Answer:
The poet finds it hard to keep calm while sitting before the dentist because he knows he is going to have some torture and he will have to suffer some agony. Some tortures are physical and some are mental. But here he is going to have both – physical and mental torture. Sitting on a dentist’s chair with one’s jaws on the chest and the mouth wide open is a situation that does not allow a person to be in confidence or self control. Naturally he can’t keep calm thinking of the impending torture that is going to be inflicted on him.

Question 9.
“We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own indeed, to embrace the world of creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder.” Prepare a blog entry based on your understanding of Wangari Maathai’s speech. (4)
Answer:
Emerson once said, “Nature never hurries, atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work.” He is very right when we think how the trees grow taking their time to reach their full status as trees. Before a tree becomes a full-fledged tree it passes through many stages – seed, seedling, sapling and then tree. Some trees take years to become real trees. But look at man! How cruelly he cuts them down in just a few minutes to use it as fuel, for furniture work, construction works and even to make paper. Sometimes man destroys entire forests to convert into farm lands or to make factories and residential areas. Large scale deforestation brings about climatic changes.

Trees absorb the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and supply us oxygen. They prevent the soil from eroding. They help in blocking the clouds and bring rain. They supply us a lot of forest products like honey, wax and different kind of herbs and roots. Nowadays forests are converted into National Parks attracting tourists from all over the world. That way also, trees bring us money. Thus forests help us in so many ways and so destroying them will be suicidal.

We all should emulate Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan lady and the Nobel Prize Winner, who led a crusade against deforestation. She rightly said: We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own.” She wanted a world of creation, in all its diversity, beauty and wonder. She wanted each person to plant some trees as his duty to help himself and also posterity. John Keats, the famous English Romantic poet said, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” I believe a tree is a thing beauty and we should do our best to preserve our trees and plant new ones.

Question 10.
Fill in the blanks choosing the correct expressions from those given in brackets:
After Marshall left Baldwin took out his diary and wrote as follows:
God! What a turn of events! I never thought that my own wife and children would persuade me to do a dishonourable thing. I was almost …………. (pushing/pushed) into accepting the bribe. Thank God, Marshall …………. (coming/came) at the right time. His …………. (offering/offered) the position came as a pleasant surprise, though. I …………. (feels / feel) pity for poor Gresham. May God bless him. (4)
Answer:
pushed, came, offering, feel

Question 11.
While reading about Irfan Alam’s Sammaan rickshaws, you are reminded of ‘She taxi’ introduced in Kerala. Write an e-mail to Irfan Alam informing him about this project for the social and economic empowerment of women.
(‘She taxi’ – technology – enabled safety cab services – operated by women – to carry women commuters – first of its kind in India – 24 x 7 – with emergency response systems and control room – ensures the safety of women travellers – empowers the women – makes them financially independent) (5)
Answer:
[email protected]
Sub: Empowering Women – ‘She Taxi’ Kerala’s Expenment

Dear Irfan, I read about the SammaN Foundation and how it has been helpful in empowering the poor rickshaw pullers to have a comfortable life. I want to congratulate you on your initiative in starting this Foundation and its continued support of its members. I thought about your foundation when I saw the ‘She Taxi’ that is recently introduced in Kerala. In our State we have a very large number of women workers who commute to work. Because of the IT companies, hospitals and newspaper offices and such other place which continue working in the night, women are required to travel at night also. There were cases of molestations and rapes. And this has led to the concept of ‘She Taxi’.

She-Taxi is a technology enabled safety cab services operated by women. They carry women passengers, mainly commuters. This is the first of its kind in India. Their services are available 24 × 7. There is provision for emergency response systems and access to police control room. The main idea behind ‘She-taxi’ is ensuring the safety of female travellers. It empowers the women who drive these taxis and those who manage them by making them financially independent. The She-taxi venture has been receiving good support from the public.

Question 12.
The teacher in “Crime and Punishment’ is a pathetic figure at the mercy of his student who blackmails him. Don’t you think that he should change his approach to the child for making him disciplined? Write four sentences giving your suggestions to the teacher. (4)
Answer:

1. The teacher should change his attitude toward his job. Here he seems to work only to get his extra 30 rupees a month.
2. He should use more positive methods to make the child listen to him.
3. Make the lesson inter¬esting for the boy so that the boy is properly motivated.
4. Teachers should never resort to corporal punishment. Slapping a small boy hard on the cheek, leaving a scar there is not at all good for a teacher.

Question 13.
The incident that occurs in the play “Post Early for Christmas” shows the lack of security measures in the post office as well as the ignorance of the postal and the police personnel about handling an issue. Prepare a news report of the incident highlighting the corrective measures to be taken. (1)
Answer:
London: 20 December 2016. There was a time bomb scare at the Milton Square Post Office in London in the rush hours of the morning. From my talks with the Post office Assistant and some onlookers this is what transpired at the post office. A foreign tourist arrived with well-wrapped parcel and he said it contained something precious and he was sending it to his friend as a special Christmas present.

Some questions he asked about the safety of the parcel and about the time it would reach the central post Office for clearing created some doubts in the minds of the Postal Assistant.

The parcel was booked and the tourist left forgetting his gloves on the counter. Soon the Assistant noticed that there was a ticking sound coming from the parcel. She mentioned it and immediately a farmer who was present there said it must be a time bomb. He had read an alert in the Newspaper which was issued by the Scotland Yard asking people to be on their alert for ominous looking parcels.

He was certain that his parcel contained a time bomb. People got scared and they ran for cover. The farmer asked for a bucket of water. In the meantime a police man was brought. Soon the tourist returned to take his gloves back. There was an argument between the policeman and the tourist. The policeman then threw the parcel into the bucket of water. The tourist was angry with everyone there for spoiling his precious Swiss Watch he had bought for his friend.

It is obvious that the both the Postal Assistant and the policeman made mistakes. The post office should not have accepted any suspicious looking parcel. The contents of the packet should be verified before accepting it. This can be done in two ways. The packet should be transparent. Or the content should be packed before the person accepting the parcel. The policeman should not have rushed to the conclusion that it was a time bomb. Would the foreign tourist return to the place if it was a time bomb? Simple logic should have told the policeman it is not a time bomb.

Question 14.
After reading “Mending Wall” and in the wake of newspaper reports about millions of refugees who are denied entry into the developed nations you feel that there should be one world for all without any walls or boundaries. Prepare a script for presentation as the first speaker in a panel discussion on “One World Without Walls”. (5)
Answer:

One World without Walls

Dear friends,
I’m happy to open this panel discussion on the topic “One World without Walls”. You are hearing reports that refugees are refused entry into many countries. Where will they go? They flee their motherland because of the suicidal wars going on there in the name of religion, tribe, race, language, region or some kind of ‘isms’. In their own land they will be killed. So what is their choice except to run away and seek shelter in another country? But the country to which they intend to go blocks them and says, “Don’t come here!”

In Mending the Wall, Robert Frost says that we make walls to keep some things in and some things out. We want to keep those things and people we like inside the wall. We want the things and people we don’t like to be outside the wall. Building wall is against the natural process and it brings calamity. We all heard about the Berlin Wall which divided East and West Germany. Where is the Wall now? Gone! Gone into history.

Look at our own country. Before our independence we had one unified India. Then there was partition, dividing India into India and Pakistan. So many people were killed in India and Pakistan and so much suffering came to people. Families, kith and kin were separated into two countries. Then what happened? In 1971 there was the Indo-Pakistani War leading to the creation of Bangladesh. Pakistan was divided into two – Pakistan and Bangladesh. So, one person who was an Indian in 1947, became a Pakistani after the Partition and then a Bangladeshi after 1971. The same person becoming three different citizens at three different stages of his life! Isn’t it ridiculous!

Science and technology have made the world a big village. So why don’t we think of a world without walls? Things happening in one county affect the others also. What we need is a peaceful, joyful world where we all can live like brothers and sisters enjoying all the good things of life. A dream? I’m not sure!

Question 15.
What are the personality changes manifested due to the sensory deprivation induced by drug addiction, according to Dr. Hardin B. Jones? (4)
Answer:
Dr. Hardin B. Jones shows that there are many per¬sonality changes manifested due to the sensory deprivation induced by drug addiction. Sensual drugs and alcoholic drinks play havoc with the body and mind of their users. The drug and alcoholic addicts experience sensory deprivation. They feel physical discomfort and there are personality changes in them. They often feel depressed. They fail to respond either to their environment or to other people. Their mental disturbances can be like paranoia.

The addicts know they have a problem, but they can’t solve it. Drugs and alcoholic drinks cause hair fall and the addicts can easily catch diseases like pneumonia tuberculosis, malnutrition and weight loss. Overdoses of drugs and alcohol can cause respiratory and cardiac failure and result even in death. It is easy to start any bad habit but it will be difficult to stop it. So say no to drugs and alcoholic drinks.

Question 16.
Read the following advertisement and prepare a letter of application and a resume in response to it.
Vidyajyothi High School, Pathanamthitta
We are a dynamic and progressive educational institution with a strong and firm focus on quality and innovative practices in education.
We are on the lookout for High School Teachers
Subject: Maths
Candidates must have

• Bachelor’s / Master’s Degree in Maths with first class
• A minimum of two years of teaching experience
• Excellent communication skills

Interested candidates may send their resume with recent photograph to [email protected]
Last Date of Submission : 31.01.2016 (6)
Answer:
Letter of application and resume
[email protected]
Sub: Application for the post of a Maths Teacher

I saw your advertisement, l am interested in applying for the post as I thought my qualification and experience would suit your requirements.

I am enclosing my detailed resume for your perusal.

I will be available for an interview from now till the end of this month. You may decide the time and place. I will present all the original documents at the time of the interview.

Hoping to get the interview letter soon,

Yours faithfully,
Hamza Mohammed

RESUME OF HAMZA MOHAMMED

Question 17.
Wangari Maathai’s Nobel Price Acceptance speech reveals how environmental degradation is carried out on a large scale basis. Prepare an essay on the factors that lead to a destruction of our environment.
(OR)
“The challenge is to restore the home of the tadpoles . and give back to our children a world of beauty and wonder”. Wangari Maathai calls upon the youth to save the earth from destruction. Write an essay exploring the positive steps that we can take to save the planet from environmental degradation (8)
Answer:
Factors that Lead to the Destruction of our Environment:
With the growth of the world population, there is an increasing need for space. Land is needed for agricultural, industrial and most importantly urban needs to contain cities. People find an easy solution in “Deforestation”. Deforestation is the basic cause of the destruction of our environment. Deforestation means the felling of trees and clearing of forest to make that land available for residential, commercial or industrial purposes.

Deforestation can also be seen as removal of forests leading to several imbalances ecologically and environmentally. What make deforestation alarming are the immediate and long term effects it is bound to cause. Some predictions state that the rainforests of the world will be destroyed completely if deforestation continues at its current pace.

Destruction of the environment occurs due to several reasons. They include agricultural activities, logging, urbanization, desertification of land and soil erosion, mining and forest fires. As can be seen, most of them are caused by man whereas a couple of them – like desertification and forest fires – could be natural causes. But even those are aided by man through defective use of land and carelessness.

The effects of the destruction of our Environment can be are calamitous. It brings climate imbalance. It increases global warming. It causes soil erosion. It causes floods in some areas and droughts in some other areas. There is the danger of wild life extinction. Unless we become sensible and conserve our forests we are willingly causing our doom. If we destroy nature, nature has a way of destroying us. Nature has patience but it can run out at anytime and once it runs out only God can save us! Remember that we have only one habitat – the earth. By destroying our environment we are destroying our home, our habitat. Each one of us has to do our bit in protecting our home.

(OR)

Steps We Can Take To Save The Planet:
As Wangari Maathai said, “The challenge is to restore the horned of tadpoles and give back to our children a world of beauty and wonder.” It is a big challenge. Today the environment is destroyed in a mindless manner. There is air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution. There is deforestation. And all these culminate in serious damages to the ecosystem and the environment.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Nature never hurries, atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work,” He is very right when we think how the trees grow taking their time to reach their full status as trees. Before a tree becomes a full-fledged tree it passes through many stages – seed, seedling, sapling and then tree. Some trees take years to become real trees. But look at man! How cruelly he cuts them down in just a few minutes to use it as fuel, for furniture work, construction works and even to make paper. Sometime man destroys entire forests to convert into farmlands or to make factories and residential areas. Large scale deforestation brings about climatic changes. Even in Kerala there are climatic changes because of the large scale destruction of forests.

Trees absorb the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and supply us oxygen. They prevent the soil from eroding. They help in blocking the clouds and bring rain: They supply us a lot of forest products like honey, wax and different kind of herbs and roots. Nowadays forests are converted into National Parks attracting tourists from all over the world. That way also, trees bring us money. Thus forests help us in so many ways and so destroying them will be suicidal.

Wangari Maathai wanted each person to plant some trees as his duty to help himself and also posterity. In India we had the Chipko Movement. When the contractors came to cut down the trees, the women from the locality rushed to the forest and stood near the trees embracing them. Chipko in Hindi means embrace. The men who came to cut down the trees had to go back because of the people em¬bracing the trees. We can help the preservation of our environment by planting trees.

We can also help by having kitchen gardens and herbal groves in our yards and compounds. In the kitchen garden we should ensure that we grow only organic vegetables. No artificial fertilizers and no pesticides.

We can help by keeping our watersheds safe and clean. Avoid the use of plastic bags and bottles. Plastic bags do a lot of harm to the environment. We can also make use of the public transport systems instead of riding our own cars and bikes. We also can try to prevent people from throwing waste here and there and from letting the factory effluents and sewage water running into lakes and streams. Many drops make a mighty ocean. Let us do our bit and see how we can help in preserving the environment.

Question 18.
The literacy club of your school is celebrating the International Women’s Day. Prepare the script for a speech on “Educating the girl child” to be delivered on the occasion.
(OR)
“ …….. They need to change the mindest and reset the narrative in their favour. So it is essential that women be ready to “dare the difference” – to take risks and step outside their comfort zones.” Based on your reading of Christine Lagarde’s speech, prepare an essay on how women can realise their true potential. (8)
Answer:
Educating a girl child:
Respected Principal, dear teachers and friends,

There is a beautiful adage among Africans which says, “If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. But if you educate a girl, you educate a whole village.” They are also fond of saying: “What a man can do, a woman can do better.” I think both these adages carry a lot meaning especially these days when we are keen on talking about women empowerment.

Empowering women is an urgent need of the day, especially in our society. In the Indian society, women do not have equality with men in many areas. Although the Constitution of India ensures equality of women in all aspects of life, in practice that equality remains on paper. In the social, economic and cultural status, women are considered inferior to men. Even now there is the dowry system. When a man marries he not only gets a wife, but he also gets a lot of money or ornaments. Many women don’t get married because they have no money to pay huge dowries to men. Culturally a woman is discriminated against. She is refused entry in many places, even in places of worship just because she is a woman. There is also economic discrimination.

If a man gets Rs. 800 as his daily wages, a woman is paid only Rs. 400, although she may do more work than a man. Look at the Ministries in the Centre and the States. How many women ministers are there? Look at the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies. How many women representatives are there? We find in India equality of women is only on paper. Therefore empowerment of women is very essential.

For empowering women there are 3 Ls – Learning, Labour and Leadership.

Modern women think they are equal to men and they have a role to play even outside their homes. In the modern world, women are educated and they also want to work and earn money. They don’t want to depend on the goodwill of their husbands to get certain things they want.

Modern women also want their share in politics and leadership positions. They are no more satisfied to be led by men. They think they too have the capacity for leadership. Women like Golda Meir (Israel), Mrs. Bandaranaike (Sri Lanka), Margaret Thatcher (England) and Indira Gandhi of India have shown that women can be even better leaders than men. Today we have Theresa May as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Angela Merkel as the President of Germany. It was only because of some bad luck Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in the USA. Otherwise, we would have a woman at the helm of affairs in the richest and most powerful nation in the world.

(OR)

Changing the Mindset of Women:
If women are to get empowered and get equality with men in various walks of life, first of all they have to change their mindset. It is essential that women be ready to dare the difference. The problem with women is that most of them are satisfied with the status quo. They are happy to be ‘housewives’ and they willingly change their names to be Mrs. some-body after their marriage! It is this mindset that needs to change. Women should feel that they have their individualities, their personalities and their existence. They are not mere appendage to men.

Many women of today have multiple needs. Gone are the days when they would be happy at home doing the household chores and looking after the children. Today they need good education. They want to get knowledge and thereby increase their wisdom. They want to know what is happening around the world and they want to read great books about which they have been hearing so many things from others.

Today’s women also want equality with men in job opportunities. If we look at the various professions, we find that most of the employees are men. The people on top also will be men. It is rare to find women executives at the top. Except in professions like teaching and nursing women are not given opportunities like men. Women resent it and they believe that what a man can do a woman can do better.

Today’ women want to be leaders also. Women are often kept out of leadership positions and this is more so in African countries. There they believe that women are incapable of good leadership. But today’s women want to change that attitude. In their opinion, women tend to make decisions based on consensus building, inclusion, compassion and sustainability.

They should be ready to take risk and step outside their comfort zones. The life outside the four walls of home is not all that smooth and comfy. Challenges will be there. Risks will be there. Obstacles will there. But then they have to overcome and show the world they are equal to the task. For that they need the 3 Ls of Empowerment – Learning, Labour and Leadership.

Question 19.
Read the following poem and compare it with “Any Woman” by Katharine Tynan. (8)

The Sad Mother

Sleep, sleep, my beloved,
without worry, without fear
although my soul does not sleep,
although I do not rest.

Sleep, sleep and in the night
may your whispers be softer
than a leaf of grass,
or the silken fleece of lambs.

May my flesh slumber in you,
my worry, my trembling,
In you, may my eyes close
and my heart sleep.

– Gabriela Mistral

Answer:
In “Sad Mother” Gabriela Mistral, speaks about the thoughts of a sad mother. She wants her child to sleep without any worry and fear. But she can’t sleep although she is very tired as she was working without rest the whole day. She wants her child to sleep peacefully lulled by sounds softer than a blade of grass or the silken fleece of lambs. She finds her rest in the child. All her worries and fears are forgotten when she sees her child slumbering sweetly. All her dreams and joy are concentrated on her child.

It is beautiful poem with a fine imagery. We can see a mother sitting near her sleeping child watching over it. She does not sleep, but she is contented to see her child is sleeping well. The poem has good rhythm but no rhyme. The language is simple. There is a fine comparison of sounds to a blade of grass and the silken fleece of a lamb. There is repetition the world sleep, making the reader also feel sleepy as he reads the poem.

The poem ‘Any Woman’ by Katharine Tynan speaks of the importance of the woman in the family. She is the pillars of the house. She is the keystone of the arch. She is the roof and walls. She is the fire upon the hearth. The children come to her for love and affection. She holds the family together. She is everywhere in the house – from floor to roof. She protects the children from all dangers. At the end, the woman prays to Jesus to spare her life till the children are grown up.

The language of the poem is very simple. The entire poem is an exquisite metaphor. The imagery is great. The woman doing all kinds of jobs and standing guard at the same time make us admire her capabilities. Her love is superb. There is utter unselfishness in her activities. At last we also see the birth of Jesus in the manger. We see the woman standing before Jesus praying to him to let her live till her children grow up. Katharine has painted a fine picture of a devoted mother with words. The poem in rhyme. Except in the first stanza the rhyming scheme is abab.

Between the two poems I prefer “Any Woman” because it has deeper meaning and better artistic merit.

Plus Two English Previous Year Question Papers and Answers