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ICSE Guess >ICSE Papers > Question Bank > Class X > 2003 > English

General Instructions

1. Attempt all four question.
2. The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].
3. You are advised to spend not more than 35 minutes in answering Question 1and 20 minutes in answering Question 2.

Question 1
(Do not spend more than 35 minutes on this question.) 
Write a composition (350-400 words) on any one of the following:- [25]

1. While on a picnic you and your friends decide to go sailing. Unfortunately, your boat capsizes in a violent storm. However, all of you manage to swim to safety. Give a vivid account of the incident.
2. Looking back at the last ten years of your life, describe the events that have been significant in shaping your personality.
3. Animals should not be used for drug development or medical research. Express your views either for or against this statement.
4. Write a short story to illustrate the proverb 'Knowledge is Power'.
5. Study the picture given below. Write a story or a description or an account of what it suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or may take suggestions from it; but there must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition.

Question 2
(Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.) 
Select one of the following. [10]

1. You wish to become a journalist while your parents want you to become a doctor. Write a letter to  your mother giving reasons why you should be allowed to pursue your ambition.
2. You are the manager of a reputed firm. A consignment sent by you to one of your regular customers was returned with a letter complaining of the inferior quality of goods. Write a letter of apology, explaining the causes and your plans for replacement.

Question 3
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:-

An important reason for ants' success is their ability to talk-not with  words but with tastes and smells. Their vocabulary is made up of a mixture of substances they produce in various parts of their bodies and emit via their glands. The so-called pheromones are signals that other ants can smell and taste. The messages they communicate set off a 5

specific kind of behaviour: fetching food for instance or looking after the brood or feeding the queen. Furthermore, ant-talk is not limited to food. Ants use a hundred different scents to communicate a hundred different messages. With such a sophisticated array of messenger fragrances, ants organize complicated tasks with close-to-perfect sefficiency. 10

Every ant is a specialist with a vocation of its own. The queen has one of  the biggest workloads-laying eggs round the clock. Despite the presence of  a queen, an ant colony is not a monarchy. The word 'queen' is actually a  misnomer. "She doesn't reign over the others," says Holldobler. "She's a  machine for laying eggs. "From morning till night she produces her daughters, 15 

the sterile workers of the colony. Males don't have to do much and the queen only produces them when reproduction time is approaching. Their  main job is to fertilize the winged females. After that they die.  Messengers don't have much free time either. When you see a handful  of ants scurrying around in the kitchen without any apparent purpose, 20

it doesn't mean they have lost their bearings. They're scouts foraging  for food. Once they've found something edible, they report back to  base, depositing their chemical spores on the way. "Food located,  please collect," is the taste and smell message for the other members back at the nest. 25

Very soon, long chains of worker-ants begin scurrying back and  forth from their nest ferrying food which they hand over to ants who  specialize in housekeeping. The duties of these ants include keeping  the nest in good order and cleaning and feeding the queen. Jet ants settle in hollow trees where they build papery structures to 30

live in. In these trees they keep herds of greenflies which they  actually milk in the same way we milk cows. It's a model partnership. To satisfy their need for amino acids, the greenflies have to ingest  large quantities of sap. As a result, surplus sugar forms in their  bodies which they excrete through their rear ends. This so-called 35 

honeydew is the jet ants' main source of nourishment. In return, the  ants see to it that the greenflies don't get stuck fast in their own  honey and also protect their herds from marauding predators such  as ladybirds. "It's a form of dairy farming," says Holldobler.   Dairying is only one of the many ingenious ideas ants have come up 40

with in the course of evolution. Small red wood ants, for example,  regulate the temperature in their high-rise ant hills by sunbathing on   warm spring days and then scuttling back to the nest double quick to    give off the warmth they've soaked up.  An ant colony, Holldobler says, is an almost perfectly organized 45

network of equal status elements complementing one another in all they do. Ants will do anything as long as it's in the service of the common weal. "May be socialism does work after all under certain  circumstances," Holldobler grins. "Karl Marx just had the wrong species in mind."49

(a) Five words are given below. Give the meaning of each word as used in the passage. One word  answers or short phrases will be accepted.

1. Array (Line 9)
2. Foraging (Line 21)  
3. Ferrying (Line 27) 
4. Predators {line 38) 
5. Ingenious (Line 40) [5]

(b) Answer briefly the following questions in your own words.

1. What is meant by 'misnomer'? Why is the word 'qneen' a misnomer? [2]
2. When do the chains of worker ants move about in a hurry? [2]
3. What is referred to as 'milk' from the greenflies? [2]
4. What do the greenflies receive in return for giving milk to the ants? [2]
5. What does Holldobler wish to communicate by the following sentence:-
   "Karl Marx just had the wrong species in mind." [2]

(c) In not more than 60 words of your own, state how the ants work in a well organized manner. [10]

Question 4
(a) Rewrite the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make other changes that may be necessary but do not change the meaning of each sentence. [5]

1. Had I not helped her, she would not have succeeded.
   (Begin: But ..............................)
2. (ii) His unexpected victory surprised everybody in the school.
   (Begin: His unexpected victory took .................)
3. (iii) If he apologizes, he will be pardoned. 
   (Use unless instead of if)
4. (iv) Nobody in our city can run as fast as Usha.
   (Begin: Usha .................)
5. (v) Joe requested his friend to wait there till he returned. 
   (End: .................. till I return.")

(b) Fill in the blanks with appropriate words:- [5]

1. The outgoing Manager will hand _______ charge to his successor.
2. Her request for a transfer was turned _______.
3. A man is known _______ the company he keeps.
4. Not all of us are alive _______ the threats arising from global warming.
5. You must reach home _______ sunset.
6. The five players quarrelled _______ themselves.
7. We have lived in this village _______ ten years.
8. He found himself _______ pressure to grant the request.
9. He proved himself equal _______ the task.
10. He was unwilling to take _______ the challenge.

(c) In the following passage fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not copy the passage, but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space. [5]

Example: 0 lived

Once there (0) _______ (live) a monk who (1) _______ (decide) to make his followers always laugh.  People flocked to him to listen to his jokes and (2) _______ (return) home laughing. The monk  would make fun of himself and of others, (3) _______ (make) sure that there (4) _______ (be) not a  single gloomy face in the crowd. After some years when he (5) _______ (die) and yet cheerful, his  followers asked him how he (6) _______ (manage) to be happy even on his deathbed. He did not  reply but made a last wish that he should be cremated with his clothes on. He wished that he  should be kept on the funeral pyre with the same clothes he (7) _______ (wear). His wishes were  carried out, and to every one's surprise, when the pyre was (8) _______ (light) it was found that  the old monk had (9) _______ (hide) firecrackers under his clothes. Even on his cremation pyre, he (I0) _______ (entertain) people.

(d) Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using 'and', 'but' or 'so':[5]

1. He found the book at last. It was in the library.
2. She received the message. Immediately she went to meet her brother.
3. Tom may run fast. He cannot catch the train.
4. I saw men at work on a new building. It was to be a factory.
5. Suresh did not come to school. He did not send in an application.