Read the following passage carefully:                                                      (5 marks)

1. I was shopping in my home town, I heard a young voice boon form across the aisle, “Mum, come here, there‘s a lady my size.   ‘the mortified mother rushed to the boy who looked about seven; then she turned to me to apologise. I smiled and told her, “its okay.       “Then I looked at her wide – eyed son. He studied me form head to   toe and asked, “Why are you so little? “ It’s the way God made me. Some people are little. Some are tall. I’ just not going to grow any bigger. “After five minutes of questioning he returned to his mother. My life as a little person is filled with stories like that. I enjoy talking to children and explaining why I look different from their parents. It has taken many years of developing my confidence to be able to do that. It takes only one glance to see my uniqueness. I stand three feet nine inches tall. I am an achondroplasia dwarf, which is a person having very short limbs. When I was born, my mother was told I was dwarf. Not knowing a lot about dwarfism my mum’s main concern was my health. Our family doctor put her mind at ease when he told her that I would not have any major medical concerns. He was right. When I was growing up, my parents encouraged me to do all the things the kids around me did. So when my neighbors got two – wheel bicycles, I got a two – wheel bicycle. When they roller – roller –skated. Our neighbours treated me as a normal person. I didn’t realize how short I was until I stared school. There a few kids picked on me calling me names. After that I began to gate the first day of school each year. I didn’t know who was new and would stare as I struggled to climb up the school – bus stairs. Some of the kids would point out and say, “Look at that kid. Look at her. “Boys could be especially men. As time went on I tried to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed all my life. I was determined to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. My friends became increasingly protective. What I lacked in height I made up for in personality. I had the ability to laugh, even at myself. I am 47 now, and stares have not diminished, as I’ve grown older. People ask my friends if I live in a dollhouse. They look in disbelieve when they see me get out of my car on the driver’s side. During those times I try to keep a good attitude. When people are rude I remind myself, “children’s questions make my life special. ‘ Look what else I have-a great family, nice friends. “Children’s questions make my life special. “Why are you so short? How old are you? Are you a mummy?” When I talk to children they leave content that their questions have been answered. My hope is that in taking time with them, I will encourage them to accept their peers, whatever size and shape they come in, and treat them with respect.

Answer the following questions by selecting the most appropriate options from the ones given below:

1. The word…………in the passage means the same as ‘inspire with confidence’

(a) encouraged          (b) uniqueness          (c) mortified           (d) personality

2. How did children’s questions make the writer feel?

(a) she felt depressed                                                (b) she felt admired

(c) she felt embarrassed                                            (d) she felt special

3. What special quality has the writer gained over the years?

(a) health                      (b) uniqueness           (c)  confidence  (d) medical concerns

4. The writer’s parents’ only worry was about her ……….about her………

(a) dwarfism                     (b) Physical development  (c) health      (d) over –confidence

5. Who could be especially rude to her?

(a) the boys                   (b) all the children         (c) her neighbours (d) her friends

2.  Read the following passage carefully:                       ( 20 marks)

Men and their activities have affected nature in a very significant manner.

Melting ice and warming waters have raised average sea level worldwide by more than an inch since 1995, new data from space satellites and robotic submarines have revealed.

That’s twice as fast as the rate the oceans rose during the previous 50 years, ocean expets said. If the current ate continues or accelerates, as they say is likely, the world’s seas will rise at least a foot by the end of this century, causing widespread flooding and easing of islands and low- lying coastal areas.

“Even a small change will matter to a whole lot of coastal people, If 15 percent of the Greenland ice sheet were to melt, much of South Florida would   be under water, “said Richard alley, a Geo scientist. The rise in the sea level was caused by a recent speed – up in the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, especially in Greenland and Antarctica, due to global warming, another serious man- made problem threatening the world with severe consequences.

Humans have significantly affected the flow of half ot the world’s major rivers by building dams, according to the first detailed global assessment of the activity’s impact.

Another study shows that dam building, among other human actions, has altered the amount of sediment that rivers carry to the coast, with implications for marine ecology, fisheries and coastal erosion.

The first study, led by Christer Nilson of the Landscape Ecology Group at Umea University, Sweden, assessed the extent to which dams affect 292 large river systems. These rivers drain 54 percent of the world’s land area and carry 60 percent of the planet’s river- water.

Previous surveys had only looked at rivers in the northern hemisphere. Nilson and colleagues added to this collection new data from Africa, Latin America and Australasia.

The team found that river flow has been strongly affected in four of the world’s ten largest fiver systems and moderately affected in the other six.

Fragmenting river systems and controlling their flow with dams has well known potential impacts on the ecology of rivers. Among other effects, dams disrupt the migration of animals up – and downstream, an impact that has been linked to the extinction of species of freshwater fish.

While areas upstream of dams are flooded to create reservoirs, wetlands downstream can dry out and the fertility of flood plain soil can decline.

Geo scientists insist that the severe ecological effects of building dams need to be accounted for in global planning for sustainable river management. They note that large dams are planned or under countries which need to take precautionary steps.

Almost half of these new dams will be on just four rivers: China’s Chang Jiang (also known as the yangtze River), where 49 new dams are planned, the Rio de la Plata in Latin America (29 new dams), the Shatt AL Arab in the Middle East (26 new dams), and the Ganges- Brahmaputra in South Asia (25 new dams).

Answer the following questions by selecting the most appropriate options from the ones given below:

1. A negative effect of building dams is:

(a) melting of ice sheets                       (b) global warming

(c) extinction of freshwater fish           (d) effective river management

2. How has man affected the flow of major rivers?

(a) fragmenting river systems

(b) lack of global planning for river management

(c) altering marine technology

(d) by building dams

3. What will happen if this is not checked?

(a) loss in fertility of flood plain            (b) extinction of fish

(c) island erosion                                   (d) land erosion

4. The word………….  In the passage means the same as ‘an investigative general study’:

(a) assessed                (b) surveys               (c) sustainable               (d) fragmenting

5. What factors has caused a rise in the average sea level?

(a) warming waters                                  (b) dam building

(c) uncontrolled river flows                    (d) creation of reservoirs

3. Complete the following paragraph on the basis  of your reading of the poem by writing the missing  word against the correct blank number in your answer sheet:

SAMPATHY

I lay in sorrow, deep distressed:

My grief a proud man heard;

His looks were cold, he gave me gold

But not a kindly word.

My sorrow passed -1 paid him back

The gold he gave to me;

Then stood erect and spoke my thanks

And blessed his Charity

I lay in want, in grief and pain:

A poor man passed my way;

He bound my head, he gave me bread

He watched me night and day.

How shall I play him back and day?

Four all he did to me?

Oh, gold is great, but greater far

Is heavenly Sympathy!

The poet lay in (a) ……….. and deep (b)  ……………when a rich and (c)  ………..man helped him by giving him some (d) …………..he did not speak any (e)………words The poet’s (f)  ………..and grief passed and he (g) ………..the money he had been lent. Another time when he was in (h) …………a poor man (i) …………… him by giving him (j) …………

4. Read the following passage carefully:

Maria Montessori was born in chiaraavalle near Ancona, Italy, in 1870. As a little girl, she was a dull student, unable to grasp and retain what her teacher taught her. At the age of 10, she suddenly changed. Besides her heightened interest in religion, she felt she had a long way to go.

Meria began topping her class, and her parents felt that she should become a teacher. But she was determined to become an engineer. At the age of 14, she attended a technical school for boys. After a year she took up biology and decided to study medicine. In spite of a strong opposition from her father, she went ahead with medicine.

Maria became the first Italian woman to receive a medical degree after she graduated from University of Rome in 1896. After getting her degree, she joined the university’s psychiatric clinic. As a part of her duty, she had to visit the city’s mental asylum, where disabled children were housed with the insane. She watched  the children shriek, stretching their hands out, with an urge to reach out or to touch something. Maria felt they needed a normal and friendlier environment and a contact with the world. She worked out ways by which he could help the disabled children. Dr. Bacelli opened an experimental state school for disabled children with Dr. Maria Montessori as its head. Meara spent long hours, almost 12 hours of the day with children, observing them and finding out what could really help them. After two years hard work, her students took the normal state school examination. And, her children proved that they were not hopeless cases. In fact, many did almost as well as other normal children.

Later, Maria was appointed professor of anthropology at the university. After seven years, she took up another important mission of the life. She started a kindergarten for the poor, normal children. She first taught them to become tidy, learn self- discipline and then taught them to read and write. In her colorful, stimulating kindergarten. She provided them with innovative made her system of education stimulating, and even inspired the educationists.

One of the world’s great educators, who looked up to a child as an individual and a very one of the world’s human being, was Maria Montessori. She gave the very young children the stimulating kindergarten, where children grew in an atmosphere of freedom and confidence.

On the basis of your reading of the above passage, complete the following sentences.

1. The disabled children’s success in …………….proved that they were as capable as the normal children.

2. Find a word in the passage which means the same as ‘that makes somebody more alert and   active.

3. As a child Maria was ………….student.

4. The children needed ……………environment.

5. The disabled children’s success in ….proved that they were as capable as the normal children.

SECTION-B

5. You are Rahsmitha. You have taken part in a medical camp organized by your club in a remote village. You are surprised to find that the people there area not only unhealthy but also uneducated. The nearest school is 15 km away and does not interest them. As a concerned citizen you decide to take up their cause and set up a Literacy Programme there. Taking ideas from the notes given below and form the unit on ‘Education’ along with your own ideas, write a letter to the editor of a newspaper about the people in the  village, the reasons for their pitiable condition and ways to improve their lot.( 120 words)

1. no schools

2. no idea of  a better life

3. authorities also not interested

4. make them understand the advantages of literacy programme (8 marks)

6. Even after sixty years of Independence women have to walk miles together in certain parts of the country of fetch water as shown in the given visual. There is not only the scarcity of water but water in most places is also contaminated. Using the given visual together with your own ideas, write an article in about 150 words on the scarcity of clean drinking water in the country. Also suggest how this problem can be solved.

7. Write a paragraph based on the given hints in about 80 words:

Recess Period in School.

Recess period – everyone looks forward to –relax time- take things easy- rejuvenates us for latter half of school – mid- day meal – teachers  – take a break – atmosphere of relaxation.

SECTION C-GRAMMAR