CBSE Guess > Papers > Question Papers > Class X > 2009 > English > English Communicative

SECTION D (LITERATURE)

Q. 12. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. Write each answer in one or two lines only. 3
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she had drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
(a) What replaces the darkness each morning? 1
(b) Why is ‘an old woman’ compared to a terrible fish? 2

Ans. (a) Each morning when the old woman looks at herself in the mirror, it is her reflection that replaces the darkness.
(b) The ‘old woman’ is compared to a ’terrible fish’ to compare her misery to that of a fish when it is caught by a fisherman. It is a terrible experience for her to accept the truth that she is ageing.

Q. 13. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. Write each answer in one or two lines only. 3
Oh! Lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed.
One too like thee—tameless, and swift and proud.
(a) Who is being addressed? 1
(b) What appeal is the poet making to it? 1
(c) Name the figure of speech used in the last line. 1

Ans. (a) The West Wind is being addressed here.
(b) The poet’s appeal to the West Wind is to carry him like it lifts the wave, the leaf or the cloud, so that he can be free from the woes of life.
(c) The poet uses a simile and uses contrasting traits to highlight the similarities between himself and the West Wind.

Or

They clicked their tongues. With every movement that the scorpion made his poison moved in mother’s blood, they said.
(a) Who are they? 1
(b) Why are they clicking their tongues? 1
(c) Which superstitious belief is referred to here? 1

Ans. (a) ‘They’ refers to the villagers/peasants.
(b) They clicked their tongues to express their dismay and regret over the tragedy that had befallen the poet’s mother.
(c) The superstitious belief referred to here is that the villagers felt that with every movement that the scorpion made, his poison moved in the mother’s blood.

Q. 14. Answer the following in 50-75 words. 4
What happened when the ship reached the land of mist and snow?

Ans. When the ship reached the land of the mist and snow, it became extremely cold and a mast-high iceberg, emerald green in colour came floating by. The floating ice and the steep sides of the ice-berg
presented a very dismal scene. The mariners could see no form of life as they were totally surrounded by ice which cracked and made growling sounds.

English Communicative 2009 Question Papers Class X
Delhi		Outside Delhi		Compartment Delhi		Outside Delhi		Foreign
	Set 1 (PDF)		Set 1 (PDF)		Set 1		Set 1		Set 1 (PDF)
					Set 2		Set 2
					Set 3		Set 3