SET-2

Series SGN

Code No. 1/2

Roll No.

Candidates must write the Code on the

title page of the answer-book.

Please check that this question paper contains 16 printed pages.

Code number given on the right hand side of the question paper should be written on the title page of the answer-book by the candidate.

• Please check that this question paper contains 13 questions.
• Please write down the Serial Number of the question before attempting it.

• 15 minute time has been allotted to read this question paper. The question paper will be distributed at 10.15 a.m. From 10.15 a.m. to 10.30 a.m., the students will read the question paper only and will not write any answer on the answer-book during this period.

ENGLISH (Core)

Time allowed: 3 hours

Maximum Marks: 100

General Instructions:

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

P.T.O. 1/2

30 SECTION A — (Reading) 12

1. Read the passage given below:

1 When you grow up in a place where it rains five months a year, wise elders help you to get acquainted with the rain early. They teach you that it is ignorant to think that it is the same rain falling every day. Oh no, the rain is always doing different things at different times. There is rain that is gentle, and there is also rain that falls too hard and damages the crops. Hence, the prayer for the sweet rain that helps the crops to grow.

2 The monsoon in the Naga hills goes by the native name, khuthotei (which means the rice-growing season). It lasts from May to early or

1. October. The local residents firmly believe that Durga Puja in

October announces the end of rain. After that, one might expect a couple of short winter showers, and the spring showers in March and April. Finally, comes the "big rain" in May; proper rainstorms accompanied by heart-stopping lightning and ear-splitting thunder. I have stood out in storms looking at lightning arc across dark skies, a light-and-sound show that can go on for hours.

3 This is the season when people use the word sezuo or süzu to refer to the week-long rains, when clothes don't dry and smell of mould, when fungus forms on the floor and when you can't see the moon or the stars because of the rainclouds. But you learn not to complain. Rain, after all, is the farmer's friend and brings food to the table. Rituals and festivals centre around the agricultural rhythm of life, which is the occupation of about 70 percent of the population. 1/2 2