CBSE Guess > Papers > Question Papers > Class X > 2009 > English > English Language and Literature

Q. 15. Answer any two of the following questions in 30—40 words each: 4
(a) Chubukov says about Natalya—‘as if she won’t consent! She’s in love; egad, she’s like a lovesick cat, …’
Give two examples to show that she’s like a lovesick cat.
(b) What did the pilot of the Dakota experience?
(c) What is the Indian legend about the discovery of tea?

Ans. (a) Natalya is like a lovesick cat because she insists that her father, Chubukov, fetch Lomov back or she will be ill and she will also die. Moreover she quickly agrees later that the Oxen Meadows do actually belong to Lomov and his family.
(b) See Q.15 (b), 2009 (Comptt. I Delhi). [Page 32 (c) See Q.13
(b), Sample Question Paper I. [Page xii

Q. 16. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow. 4
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfi ed, not one is demented with the mania of owning things.
(a) Who are ‘they’? 1
(b) Mention two things which ‘they’ don’t do. 2
(c) Who, do you think, have the mania of owning things? 1

Ans. (a) ‘They’ are the animals.
(b) They do not whine about their condition and they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. (c) Humans have the mania of owning things.

Or

The trees inside are moving out into the forest,
the forest that was empty all these days
where no bird could sit no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow.
the forest that was empty all these nights
will be full of trees by morning.
(a) Why was the forest empty all these days? 1
(b) Which two things can’t happen in a treeless forest? 2
(c) What will happen in the morning? 1

Ans. (a) The forest was empty all these days because it was devoid of trees.
(b) Birds cannot sit and insects cannot hide in a treeless forest.
(c) The forest will be full of trees in the morning.

Q. 17. Answer any two of the following questions in 30-40 words each: 6
(a) ‘Money is external.’ What does the poet mean by this expression taken from ‘The Ball Poem’?
(b) What message does the poet want to convey through the poem, ‘Amanda’?
(c) ‘Some say the world will end in fi re Some say in ice!’ What is the underlying idea which the poet wants to convey?

Ans. (a) By this expression the poet intends to make us realize the mere material value of money which in no way helps us to understand the essential worth of a commodity. In this world of possessions, the value of money is only to buy things and not to understand the true value of things.
(b) Through the poem ‘Amanda’ the poet wishes to convey a young girl’s longing for freedom. He wants us to know that children should not be controlled and instructed in everything they do. Too much of instructions force them to create their own world of illusions.
(c) The poet wants to convey that today’s world is fi lled either with ‘fi re’ which stands for hatred, lust, cruelty, fury and avarice or ‘ice’ which stands for insensitivity, coldness, indifference and intolerance.