English 2019 Abroad Set-1

1. This paper is divided into three sections: A, B and C.
2. All the sections are compulsory.
3. Read the instructions very carefully given with each section and question and follow them faithfully.
4. Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.

Question 1

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow:

1. "But have you been to Nimtita? Have you been to the place there?" asked the old

man in the tea-shop, with the thatched roof. we were in the village of Lalgola, one hundred and fifty miles from Kolkata, and we had just seen our thirteenth nobelman's place and found it unsuitable.

1. "Nimtita? Where is that?" we asked without much interest, we had never heard of the

place. "It is sixty miles to the North of here. you drive up the highway. Then You come to a river which you have to cross. A ferry will take your car across. Then up the highway again for twenty miles. A sign tells you were to branch off.... it's on the river Padma, on the eastern bank. it's the palace of the Choudharys. I've been listening to your talk, and I feel you ought to see this one before you give up.

1. We were not very hopeful. We had had enough trouble talking free advice from

people who had no idea of our needs. Anyway, the questions was : do we or do we not undertake this last trip? If we did not like the palace, it might mean either giving up making this film altogether, or seriously changing its nature. We tossed a coin to decide whether to go or not. The coin said, 'Go!' and we set out on our sixty-miles journey.

1. It was when I was in bed with my right leg in plaster that I had decided the film on

Tarasankar Banerjie's famous short story, 'The Music Room' (jalsaghar). A nasty fall on the stone steps at Banaras had brought about a serious knee journey. I lay in bed and real all the Bengali books I could lay my hands on. Just then, the film distribution were not too keen to take my film or distribution, and may be this was one of the things that made me choose 'The music Room'.

1. Here was a dramatic story which could naturally bring in music and dancing, and

distributors loved music and dancing. But here, too, was a story full of feelings. So it would be satisfying for me as an artist. I would cast Chabi Biswas, our greatest actor, in the leading role of the zamindar - the zamindar whose love of the big musical entertainments brings about his ruin. But the most important thing was to find a palace.

As we had a low budget, there was no question of having studio-built sets. I knew that, if we had the money, my art director could easily build a set which looked like our old palace with the right style. But we just didn't have the money for it.

1. Nimtita turned out to be everything that the old man had claimed - and more. No one

could have described in words the feeling of utter sadness that surrounded the palace. the river padma had changed its course over the years, so that now there were endless stretches of sand where once had been villages. The palace itself - Greek pillars and all - was a perfect realization of my dream image. it had somehow escaped being totally destroyed when the river changed its course. The river had reached within ten yards of the front of the place - having swallowed the garden - and then stopped. Ganendra Narayan Choudhary, who is seventy and owns a British title and the palace, told us how it happened: "We were having breakfast one morning when we heard a low rumble. We went out to the verandah and saw a big chunk of our estate - almost a square mile of it - going under water, disappearing forever. it all happened in a few seconds. Padma's appetite is legendary."

1. "But aren't you afraid that the river might encroach further?"
2. "Oh, yes, the rains bring with them the usual fears."
3. On returning from our first trip to Nimtita, I telephoned the author, Mr. Banerji. he had been just as anxious about the location as we were.
4. "we've found our palace at last, Mr. Banerji," I said.
5. "Have you? And where is it?"
6. "At a little known place called Nimtita."
7. "Nimtita? There was a note of recognition in his voice." You don't mean the palace of the Choudharys, do you?"
8. "That's the one."
9. "But that's extraordinary! I haven't been to Nimtita myself, but I have read about the Choudharys in a history of Bengal zamindars, and it was the music-loving Upendra Narayan Choudhary who served as the model for my rajah."

1.1 On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer each of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option.

1. The writer of the passage is a _____by profession.
2. painter
3. filmmaker
4. photographer