Q.11. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: 5
His parents and his brothers and sister had landed on this green fl ooring ahead of him. They were beckoning to him, calling shrilly. He dropped his legs to stand on the green sea. His legs sank into it. He screamed with fright and attempted to rise again fl apping his wings. But he was tired and weak with hunger and he could not rise, exhausted by the strange exercise. His feet sank into the green sea, and then his belly touched it and he sank no farther. He was fl oating on it, and around him his family was screaming, praising him and their beaks were offering him scraps of dog-fish.
(a) What does the phrase, ‘this green fl ooring’ refer to? 1
(b) The seagull thought that the sea was like land. Pick out the phrase that suggests this. 1
(c) When did the seagull get over his fear of water? 1
(d) How did the whole family praise and reward the success of the seagull’s fl ight? 1
(e) Find our a word from the passage which means the same as ‘pieces’. 1
Ans. (a) This green flooring refers to the green sea.
(b) The phrase that suggests this is ‘He dropped his legs to stand on the green sea’.
(c) The seagull got over his fear of water only when his belly touched it and he sank no farther and was fl oating on it.
(d) His whole family was around him screaming, praising him and their beaks were offering him scraps of dog-fish.
(e) The word ‘scraps’ means the same as ‘pieces’
Q.12. Answer the following question in about 80 words: 6
How did Nelson Mandela’s understanding of freedom change with age and experience?
Or
How did the pilot of the black aeroplane help the pilot of the old Dakota to land safely at the airport?
Ans. Mandela was not born with a hunger to be free. He was born free in every way that he knew. As long as he obeyed his father and abided by the customs of his tribe, no laws troubled him. Gradually he began to realise that his boyhood freedom was a mere illusion. Then when he discovered as a young man, that his freedom had already been taken from him, he actually began hungering for it. As a student he had wanted transitory freedom but then as a young man he yearned for basic and honourable freedom for the people of his race, freedom for his brothers and sisters to live with dignity and respect.
Or
See Q.12 (Or), 2000 (I Outside Delhi).
Q.13. Answer the following question in 30-40 words: 4
Why does Valli stand up on the seat during her bus-ride to the city?
Or
What is the play, “The Proposal” about?
Ans. When Valli started to look outside the bus, she found her view blocked by a canvas blind that covered the lower part of her window. So she stood up on the seat to look over the blind, during her bus-ride to the city.
Or
See Q.13 (b), 2008 (Comptt. I Delhi).
