Q. 13. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. Write each answer in your answer sheet in one or two lines only. Remember to number the answers correctly. (4 marks)
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
(a) Who is ‘I’ in the above passage? (1)
(b) What makes the mirror say it has no preconceptions? (1)
(c) In what way is the mirror ‘unmisted’ (2)
Ans. (a) ‘I’ in the above passage refers to the mirror.
(b) The mirror has no preconceptions because whatever it sees, it reflects it back instantly without any distortion.
(c) The mirror is ‘unmisted’ because it has no feelings. It is devoid of any kind of love or hatred for anyone.
Q. 14. In what way does the poet, P.B. Shelley establish a link between his own personality and the personality of the West Wind? Answer in 75–100 words. (5 marks)
Ans. The poet establishes a link between his own personality and the personality of the West Wind. In his childhood the poet was tameless, swift and proud like the West Wind. He compares his early life with the West Wind when he too was swift and uncontrollable. At that time he could not only wander with the West Wind but would also have outstripped it in every way in its might and display of power. The poet identifies his own personality with that of the West Wind so he wants to be a mouth-piece for the West Wind and spread his thoughts to awaken a sleeping mankind.
Q. 15. At the end of the play, ’A Christmas Carol’, Ebenezer Scrooge is a changed man. How do we know that he has changed? Write the answer in about 75 words. (5 marks)
Ans. See Q. 14, 2007 (Comptt. I Delhi).
Q. 16. Give two incidents from the story ‘The Tribute’ to show that Babuli felt guilty of being ungrateful to his elder brother. Answer in 50–75 words. (4 marks)
Ans. See Q. 16, 2003 (I Outside Delhi).
Q. 17. Tortured by doubt and remorse, the postmaster sits in the glow of a charcoal sigri that night, waiting for the news of his daughter. As he sits, he writes his diary. As the postmaster, write the diary entry in 150 - 175 words. (8 marks)
Ans. 12th Sept. 20xx
Tonight as I sit in the glow of the charcoal sigri waiting for news of my daughter’s well-being, I feel absolutely tortured by remorse at my inability to understand a father’s anxiety. My newlyawakened father’s heart is reproaching me for having failed to comprehend Ali’s misery because today I truely understand Ali’s concern. I have now realised the human worth of each letter and will never again view them merely in terms of envelopes and postcards. My heart is filled with compassion and regret at having been rude to Ali and having rebuked him in front of so many people. I think this guilt feeling of having been so callous towards Ali’s feelings and for not having understood a father’s pain, helplessness and misery will continue to haunt me as long as I live. How could I have been so heartless so as not to understand a father’s heart? But today I understand not only Ali’s heart but also his very soul. I have learnt my lesson the hard way.
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