CBSE Class 11 English Reading Passages And Poems Notes

CBSE Basic Concepts for Class 11 English -Reading Passages and Poems. Revision worksheets, Sample papers, Question banks and easy to learn study notes for all classes and subjects based on CBSE and NCERT guidelines. Students and parents can download free a collection of all study material issued by various best schools in India. The study material has been carefully compiled by the best teachers in India. The students should practice the questions database to get better marks in examination. Please refer to other links for free download of high quality study material. Based on CBSE and NCERT guidelines. Based on the same pattern as released by CBSE every year. Study material for final/ term/ SA1/ SA2 Examinations conducted by various schools affiliated to Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India and abroad. CBSE Study material has been compiled to help students preparation which will helps the students to concentrate more in areas which carry more marks. 

A.2 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate :

The island dreams under the dawn
And great boughs drop tranquillity;
The peahens dance on a smooth lawn,
A parrot sways upon a tree,

Raging at his own image in the enamelled sea.
 Here we will moor our lonely ship
 And wander ever with woven hands,
 Murmauring softly lip to lip,
 Along the grass, along the sands,
Murmauring how far away are the unquiet lands:

How we alone of mortals are
Hid under quiet boughs apart,
While our love grow and Indian star,
A meteor of the burning heart,
One with the tide that gleams, the wings that gleam and dart,

The heavy boughs, the burnished dove
That moans and sighs a hundred days:
How when we die our shades will rove,
When eve has hushed the feathered ways,
With vapoury footsole by the water’s drowsy blaze.

A. ‘boughs drop tranquillity means the wind...
i) has started blowing
ii) has stopped blowing
iii) has disturbed islanders dreams
iv) caused a sea storm

B. The parrot is very excited to find its
i) swaying joy
ii) image formed in the mirror
iii) reflection in the sea.
iv) loneliness on the tree

C. The narrator and his companion would
i) leave their ship and rest on sands
ii) fasten their ship and go for a walk
iii) repair their ship and restart their journey
iv) fasten their ship to the parrot’s tree

D. ‘alone of mortal’s means away from the company of ..
i) animal kingdom
ii) other sailors
iii) human beings
iv) parrots and peahens

E. When the islanders die, the evening will become
i) noisy and violent
ii) silent and tranquil
iii) snowy and frosty
iv) damp and dull

F. Find the word in the poem which means same as - ‘wander without a settled destination’.
i) sways
ii) dart
iii) rove
iv) moans

A.2 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate :

Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me. What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?'

To make the matter more succinct;
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.
Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than mu aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.
Ogden Nash

A. The narrator believes that the only purpose of his fellow man’s existence is ....
i) creating something new
ii) producing food grains
iii) reproducing individuals of his kind
iv) cultivating good culture.

B. The fellow man should be saved to preserve his entity / existence before he ....
i) becomes outdated
ii) becomes old and tired
iii) becomes incapable of doing any work.
iv) becomes extinct'

C. The narrator believes that human beings on this planet have given them a..
i) bad name
ii) bad home
iii) sad future
iv) better future

D. The man has designed and devised many things but he has been very harsh and unkind to ....
i) neighbouring people
ii) people across the seas
iii) lower forms of life
iv) aliens from other planet.

E. ‘Our feathered friends’ refer to ....
i) people with fur hats
ii) friends who accompany us to 300
iii) Birds in general
iv) Bird watches.

F. Find the word in the poem which means ____ terse, concise.
i) worse
ii) spacious
iii) succinct
iv) wrinkled

A.2 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate :

MENDING WALL - Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbours’.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,.
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘.Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again. “Good fences make good neighbours.

A. Something is there that makes
i) cracks in a wall
ii) wall writing on a wall
iii) gaps in a wall
iv) nests in a wall

B. Hunters also bring down a wall so that they can help their
i) friends who dislike wall
ii) dogs which are hungry
iii) neighbours who are unfriendly
iv) cattle which need fodder

C. The narrator and his neighbour undertake the mending task ....
i) Whenever they get hired labourers
ii) When there is a chance of quarrel
iii) during spring season
iv) during summer holidays.

D. The narrator compares the mending exercise with .....
i) an outdoor game
ii) a theatre show
iii) an adventure
iv) a friends get together

E. The neighbour has been compared with a ...
i) beggar
ii) savage
iii) soldier
iv) fighter.

F. ‘darkness’ refers to...
i) complete absense of light
ii) cloudy weather
iii) ignorance and lack of knowledge
iv) dense shade of trees and plants.

A.2 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate :

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!
I gazed - and gazed - but little tought
What wealth the show to me bad brought :

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

A. The narrator has compared himself with a ...
i) Valley
ii) hill
iii) cloud
iv) crowd

B. The expression ‘a crowd’ is used for ....
i) lake
ii) trees
iii) breeze
iv) daffodils

C. ‘never-ending line’ of daffodils is compared with ....
i) margin of a bay
ii) sprightly dance
iii) stars on the milky way
iv) long line of honeybees

D. The narrator just felt excited and cheerful seeing the dance of ....
i) waves
ii) breeze
iii) daffodils
iv) stars

E. The sight of dancing daffodils was a ....
i) painful experience for the narrator
ii) memorable experience for the narrator
iii) a shocking experience for the narrator
iv) loss causing experience for the narrator.

F. Find the word in the poem which means — loneliness
i) bliss
ii) jocund
iii) pensive
iv) solitude.

A.3 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate :

Upon Westminster Bridge

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the field, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

A. The narrator call a person dull if he/she....
i) does not talk to him openly
ii) does not know about romantic sites
iii) passes by without experiencing the beauty of the site.
iv) passes over the site and shouts londly.

B. The city of London appear as if it is ............
i) covered with thick layer of smoke
ii) clad in attactive colourful clothings.
iii) desolate and lonely
iv) sleeping beauty

C. The morning sight of the city bears a ..........
i) peaceful and serene look
ii) noisy and crowdy look
iii) dark and dreary scene
iv) enchanting and haunting appearance

D. ‘All bright and glittering’, ‘all refers to ...
i) residents of the city.
ii) gardens of the city
iii) malls and multiplexes of the city.
iv) ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples.

E. The movement of the river is .....
i) rough and rumbling
ii) fast and gushing.
iii) smooth and continuous
iv) dead slow and motionless

F. Find the word in the poem which means same as ___ ‘magnificence or grandeur’.
i) bare
ii) splendour
iii) glideth
iv) mighty

A.3 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate
Upon Westminster Bridge
Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the field, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill;
Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

- William Wordsworth.

A. The narrator call a person dull if he/she....
i) does not talk to him openly
ii) does not know about romantic sites
iii) passes by without experiencing the beauty of the site.
iv) passes over the site and shouts londly.

B. The city of London appear as if it is ............
i) covered with thick layer of smoke
ii) clad in attactive colourful clothings.
iii) desolate and lonely
iv) sleeping beauty

C. The morning sight of the city bears a ..........
i) peaceful and serene look
ii) noisy and crowdy look
iii) dark and dreary scene
iv) enchanting and haunting appearance

D. ‘All bright and glittering’, ‘all refers to ...
i) residents of the city.
ii) gardens of the city
iii) malls and multiplexes of the city.
iv) ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples.

E. The movement of the river is .....
i) rough and rumbling
ii) fast and gushing.
iii) smooth and continuous
iv) dead slow and motionless

F. Find the word in the poem which means same as ___ ‘magnificence or grandeur’.
i) bare
ii) splendour
iii) glideth
iv) mighty

A.2 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most appropriate

Ballad of the Tempest

We were crowded in the cabin,
Not a soul would dare to sleep,
It was midnight on the watres,
And a storm was on the deep
Tis a fearful thing in winter
To be shattered by the blast,
And to hear the rattling trumpet
Thunder : ‘Cut away the mast!’
So we shuddered there in silence,
For the stoutest held his breath,
While the hungry sea was roaring
And the breakers talked with death.
As thus we sat in darkness
Each one busy with his prayers,
“We are lost!” the captain shouted,
As he staggered down the stairs.
But his litter daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand,
‘Isn’t God upon the ocean,
Just the same as one the land?
Then we kissed the littel maiden,
And we spake in better cheer,
And we anchored safe in harbour
When the morn was shining clear.

James T Fields

A. Why the people in the cabine were unable to sleep?
i) Because the party was going on.
ii) Because no one wanted to sleep.
iii) Because their ship had got cought in a storm
iv) Because the captain had not permitted them.

B. ‘The stoutest held his breath’ means, even the..
i) captain was scared
ii) bravest was scared
iii) captain’s little daughter was panicked
iv) The sea was afraid

C. The sea wa roaring because ....
i) the sailors had insulted it.
ii) the ship had hit it hard
iii) the cloud had disturbed it.
iv) the storm had disturbed it.

D. ‘We are lost’ , the captain meant that...
i) the ship had gone to a wrong diretion
ii) the ship had been hijacked by the Somalian pirates
iii) the ship was going to sink due to heavy storm
iv) the ship had got some technical problem.

E. The captain’s hands were ‘icy’ because ...
i) he had taken a dip in the chilled sea.
ii) he was suffering from high fever
iii) he had noticed an ice-berg on his way.
iv) he was scared and had given up hope.

F. Find the word in the poem which means __ ‘large sea waves’.
i) strom
ii) blast
iii) breakers
iv) roaring.

A.2 Read the poem given below and write the option that you consider the most suitable

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring.
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red!
Where on the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up! for you the flag is flung, for you the bugle trills:
For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths, for you the shores a-crowding;
O Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still:
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will.
The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed and done:
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won!
Exult, O shores! and ring, O bells!
But I, with silent tread,
Walk the spot my captain lies
Fallen cold and dead.
Walt Whitman

A. The narrator says that they have ....
i) achieved their target
ii) missed their target
iii) left their trip in mid-way
iv) completed their sail of Indian ocean

B. The prize is the USA’s
i) Victory in the World War II.
ii) Victory in its civil war
iii) Successful launch of Endeavour
iv) No. 1 position in militory power.

C. The Vessel refers to ....
i) Largeship used in the war
ii) the USA and it people.
iii) a large pot that belongs to captain
iv) the warship captured by Caribbean Pirates

D. The bells, bugle and bouquets are there to ..
i) honour the victorious ship
ii) honour the champion player
iii) honour the country’s flag
iv) honour the leader of the country.

E. ‘My Captain’ does not respond because he is ...
i) too tired
ii) very excited and jubilant
iii) bleeding profusely
iv) dead and no more.

F. Find the word in the poem that mean same as ____ ‘a long water journey’.
i) trip
ii) exulting
iii) anchored
iv) voyage.

A.3 Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow :

IN INDIAN homes, the floor of the house is always the best maintained elment, cleaned twice a day and wiped down to a sparkling state. In front of the threshold of the home the floor often is decorated with Rangoli and other ritual diagrams. This is true in rural as well as in many urban homes in metropolitan cities. When building a new home people spend as much money per sq. foot for a beautiful floor as they would spend on the entire structure. Yet, this pride and obsession for a clean floor suddenly vanish as we step out into the street: the floor of the city.

In Delhi where 80% of the people are pedestrians in some stage of their
commuting, least attention is paid to pedestrian paths. Delhi’s sidewalks are too narrow, very poorly maintained and full of potholes, poles, junction
boxes and dangerous electrical installations, not to speak of the garbage dumps that stink and stare at the pedestrian. Ashram Chowk is a good case
in point where thousands of pedestrians change direction from the Mathura Road radial to the Ring Road. A flyover facilitates the automobiles while the pedestrian is orphaned by the investment- hungry authorities. One corner of the Ashram Chowk has a ridiculous imitation wood sculpture with an apology of a fountain and across the same Chowk, you have the open mouthed, massive garbage dump right on the pedestrian path, in full exhibition for the benefit of the public. These symbols of poor taste and abject apathy are then connected by narrow dangerous and often waterlogged footpaths for the hapless pedestrians to negotiate. In the night, street lighting in the central median light up the carriageway for cars and leave the pedestrian areas in darkness.

Delhi’s citizens leave home and want to get to their destination as fast they can. No one wants to linger on the road, no leisure walks, no one looks a stranger in the eye. It is on the pedestrian path that the citizen encounters head-on the poor pubic management and the excuse called ‘multiplicity of authorities”. One agency makes the road, another dig sit up to lay cables, third one comes after months to clear up the mess and the cycle of unaccountability goes on. Meanwhile crones are spent in repairing the carriageway for vehicles and in construction of flyovers without a care for the pedestrians below. Solution offered is to make an expensive underpass or an ugly foot overbridge, ostensibly for facilitating the pedestrian, while in reality they only facilitate the cars to move faster at the expense of the pedestrians. Take Kashmiri Gate, ITO, Ashram Chowk, AlIMS or Dhaula Kuan. At all these important pedestrian cross-over points the story is the same: They have pulled the sidewalk from under the pedestrians feet.

In modern cities across the world, the pedestrian is king. The floor of the city is designed and maintained as an inclusive environment, helping the physically challenged, the old and the infirm, children and the ordinary citizen to move joyfully across the city. Delhi aspires to be ‘ world class city’. Hopefully the authorities would look once again at the floor of Delhi.
The pleasure of strolling on the road is deeply connected to our sense of citizenship and sense of belonging. Pride in the city grows only on a well designed floor of the city

A. On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and sub-headings. Also use recognizable abbreviations, wherever necessary (Minimum 4) Supply Suitable title.

B. Write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet.

a) Aspire means the same as
i) Perspire
ii) Inspire
iii) Respire
iv) Desire

b) Apathy is related to
i) Homeopathy
ii) Indifference
iii) Allopathy
iv) Interference

c. Commute is related to
i) compute
ii) Travel
iii) Calculate
iv) unravel

2. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :

Here are some questions to ponder. Do you know why a certain flim star received an arsenal of weapons from a gangster terrorist’ Do you know why witnesses who turn hostile do not get prosecuted for either perjury or wasting police time, or both? Do you know why it takes a decade or longer to try a criminal case in India? Have you ever thought through any solutions to these problems? If you haven’t it might be because of the Type of education you received !

Most of us reluctantly accept the way things are because we have beeneducated to be accepting. We are not educated to be openly critical. We  are not educated to argue, protest or confront. The Brits made no bones about it - in their schools we were educated to accept given values and ways of doing things. We were trained to be loyal servants to the status quo.

Most of us oldies were subjected to the traditional approach to learning that focused on mastery of content, with little emphasis on the development of analytical skills and the nurturing of inquiring attitudes. We were the receivers of information, and the teacher was the dispenser. The passivity encouraged by teachers was typified by one of my principals who implored all the girls to be like ‘limpid water in a crystal vase’.

These days I am kept very busy by schools that are running teacher-training courses to introduce the ‘inquiry approach’ to learning. Unlike traditional learning, this approach is focused on using and learning content as a means to develop information-processing and problem-solving skills. This system is more student-centered, with the teacher as a facilitator of learning. There is more emphasis on “how we come to know” and less on “what we know”. Students are more involved in the construction of knowledge through active analysis and investigation. They are encouraged to ask questions, and give opinions and share what they know.
They are encouraged to criticise and argue, and confront the conventional wisdom.

At the moment this new approach is restricted to a few schools. However this year the ability to critically analyse has been introduced as part of the CBSE school syllabus. It is a small start but it is a move towards introducing thinking skills into all of our schools. It is the start of a big change.
Our government and bureaucracy are full of old, well-educated people of a traditionalist background, who also see, read and hear the news reports about hostile witnesses, gangsters and film stars, and murders by politician’s sons. Like us they find them outrageous, but they don’t know how to change things. Critical analysis, change management and innovation were not part of their schooling, and in adult life they have not become freely critical, outspoken analysts capable of applying the fruits of their analysis to increasingly complex problems.

We often come across the shortcomings of our government, judiciary and media. With very little effort these shortcomings will become a thing of the past. But they will be a long time coming. Not because our ‘leaders’ and societal managers are unfeeling, immoral, self-seekers. but because they were educated and excelled in consulting a textbook, and regurgitating someone else’s opinion and knowledge. As the newly educated might say: we can expect the same for a long time to come.

A. On the basis of your readings of the above passage, make motes on it using headings and sub-headings. Also use recognizable abbreviations, where ever necessary. (Min. 4). Supply a suitable title.

B. Write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet.

a) Arsenal is a place where
i) Grain is stored
ii) Arsenic is stored
iii) Horses are kept
iv) Weapons are stored

b) Perjury is the act of
i) Being prejudiced to someone
ii) Forgery of documents.
iii) Telling an untruth
iv) Cheating someone

c) Outrageous means
i) Violent
ii) Convincing
iii) Shocking
iv) Encouraging

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

I saw heaps of plastic (cups and foam plates) being burnt at the Trade Fair. Chemicals and toxins were released in the air -- you could smell the foul odour from a kilometre. The fire smouldered on for hours, releasing poisonous fumes slowly in the air.
Then I stopped in my tracks when I saw hot, boiling tea being poured into a plastic bag to be carried to a nearby construction site. They pour the tea into plastic cups and then casually threw away all the plastic! How convenient.

From a highway dhaba to a high tech conference like the prestigious IFFI, tea and coffee are usually served in plastic cups. Gone are the china cups, glasses, and, of course. the clay kullad. Plastic is in. Unknown to all, it can be very costly - not only to our environment but also our health.

Another culprit is that Dal Makhani in a plastic bag or thermocol foam tub delivered at your doorstep from the local takeaway. Often we reheat it in the plastic container in the microwave. Again, very convenient. But these cheap plastic containers are made for one time use only. Not for re-heating food in them. Light weight poor quality plastics are es- pecially vulnerable to chemicals leeching out when exposed to heat. Food high in fat should never be reheated in plastic as the fat absorbs the chemicals

In the USA, foam food containers and plastic containers for food takeaways are being substituted by paper containers. Research coming. from Japan warns us that when heat and plastic combine, chemicals or toxins can be leeched into the food. Dioxin is one such toxin that one has to be wary of. It is known to cause damage to the immune system, cause Diabetes and even Cancer. This Dioxin can never be
flushed out of our system. It accumulates in our bodies. It gets stored in the fatty tissues and can play havoc.

So what is the safe alternative? Wax coated paper cups are safer although paper too contains chemicals and of course safest is the good old fashioned chai in a glass tumbler, the plebian steel or the clay kullad. Food should be heated in steel or glass. It is best to use microwave safe crockery which is free of plastic or lead (contained in many pottery items).

Of course, plastic is a wonderful invention. It is practical and indispensable today. Hospitals and modern medicine rely on plastic syringes, intravenous sets, pipes, tubes, catheters. In surgery, shunts placed in arteries and hip and knee joints are replaced by hardened plastic parts. Plastic has to be used intelligently and disposed off even more intelligently. Whether it is disposing off, hospital waste or garden garbage, we are callous and un-thinking. People find it hard to dispose this very bulky waste. Every garbage dump, gutter, drain, is choked with plastic. Even if every part of the country has a proper waste diposal system, the quantity of plastic waste will be unmanageable. Disposal has become a huge issue. We have to have safe recycling units.

One possible safe way to dispose off plastic bags is to shred it and mix (melt, not burn) it with tar and layer the roads that are being constantly built. Kilometers of roads criss-crossing the country can absorb the plastic waste.

Schools too can show the way. Not only should they inform and educate the school children but have good practices. Children can be encouraged to collect plastic bags which can be stuffed into gymnastic mattresses. Thousands of plastic bags will be used in this exercise. I am sure people can come up with many such ideas once they make up their minds.

A. On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and subheading. Also use recognisable abbreviations, wherever necessary (Min.4) Supply a suitable title.

B. Write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet :

a) Accumulate is the same as
i) Distribute
ii) Divide
iii) Gather
iv) Accomodate

b) The opposite of plebian is
i) Common
ii) Refined
iii) Ignoble
iv) Coarse

c) Callous can be replaced by
i) careful
ii) Sensitive
iii) Sentimental
iv) Hard

4. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :

ARE YOUR children toxic? I don't mean 'toxic' as in the pain-in-the neck teenager state that occurs between the ages of 12 and 16 and makes you wish you could flush them down the toilet because they grunt instead of talk, and loll about sighing endlessly for hours on end. I mean, are your children having the kind of childhood that is damaging them in a way that will debilitate them for the rest of their lives?
If they are not having a toxic childhood it is probably because you are not letting them lead the kind of lifestyle that many, if not most, of their friends are leading; a lifestyle that is causing great concern among teachers from many countries around the world.

All around the world, teachers are examining and discussing how the cultural and lifestyle changes of the past 25 years are affecting the lives of children. They know that many of the changes that benefit adults are far from healthy for our children. "A toxic cocktail of the side effects of cultural change is now damaging the social, emotional and cognitive development of a growing number of children with knock-on effects on their behaviour," is how educationist and author Sue Palmer explains it.

110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and leading childcare experts called on the government of Britain to act to prevent childhood being killed off altogether. According to them, processed food, computer games and over-competitive education are poisoning today's children, and increasingly children are being forced "to act and dress like mini adults", Research backs what these childcare experts are saying. Changes in diet,childcare patterns, parenting, family structures, play, bed times, family interaction, education, marketing, peer pressure, technology, electronics, and the way we communicate with our children are creating a 'toxic mix' that is damaging them. Children are becoming increasingly unhealthy and depressed, and are experiencing growing levels of behavioural and developmental problems. Not only this, the experts also point out that children lack first-hand experience of the world and regular interaction with their parents.

Of course, we do not need experts or research to tell us that academic pressure, marketing, absent careerist parents and the rest of the modern toxic mix is damaging our children. We can see it here in the increase in childhood obesity and childhood diabetes; in the rise in the number of children with attention deficit problems and in the increase in numbers of hyperactive children. We know it from the stress and strain related to exams and study, and in the increase in study/exam-related suicides.

So before you answer the question "are your children toxic?" take a good long look at them and their lifestyle. And remember, parents don't usually poison their children on purpose. Adults too are susceptible to "market forces" and peer pressure. It is almost natural when all around you other people's kids are eating junk and living toxic lives to look at your own child and think: mine must too.... But it doesn't have to be that way. Luckily, for all of us there are plenty of changes we can make to detoxify our children's childhood. All it needs is a little thought and some common sense. In the process we can help detoxify ourselves.

A. On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and subheading. Also use recognisable abbreviations, wherever necessary (Minimum 4). Supply a suitable title.

B. Write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet :

a) Toxic is something that can
i) Intoxicate
ii) Purity
iii) Poison
iv) Refine

b) Depressed is the opposite of
i) Encouraged
ii) Motivated
iii) In high spirits
iv) In low spirits

c) Deficit is the synonym of
i) Abundance
ii) Rampant
iii) Scarcity
iv) Prevalent

5. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :

It has been a long time since the days when some of us imagined that major Indian languages could be like Chinese and become languages of high technology, bringing rich and poor together in a race to the top. It hasn't happened, and now it won't. It's going to be English. And that means that every child in India should have the chance to learn English, and be able to compete with the ones who can take it for granted.

The only thing that remains to be settled is strategy: how to ensure that children do learn English. It's a much-abused truism that any child can learn any language'. It is true that children are genetically empowered to discern language structure from the welter of sound all around them, and by five can speak their first language, and maybe chunks of other languages around them too. But children in Indian schools do not pick up Japanese. Why? Because they are not exposed to it.

If you ever sat and tried to help children from Hindi medium schools with their English lessons this is exactly the scenario you would find. The comprehension passages they have to read are written in abstruse adult language, so much so that it is hard to imagine even their teachers catching all the word play there. So children who are probably very bright get used to living with incomprehension. They somehow learn English eventually, in spite of their lessons at school.

How do children in the top English medium schools learn English? Well, more than half of them come in already knowing English, and together with the teacher they provide the rich environment that constitutes exposure for the others. Many of the other children can understand English, but not speak it. These children remain in listening mode, and then one fine day they start speaking English in full sentences. With children who do not understand English at all, the teacher at first communicated one-to one in the local Indian language, so that the child is never actually lost. But all the while the child hears simple instructions in English to the class : ‘Line up, take out your books, put away your books, come here’. And the child simply sees the others and follows. And the meaning of these wods sinks in subconsciously.

It takes more than a bad textbook or a child to make use of the genetic aptitude for learning a second language. Suppose you cannot achieve this rich English-learning environment in all the schools, what then? Can we appeal to this natural ability for language learning? We can, but here is where you need to use a lot of strategy. There is a big misconception that you save time by rushing at the start, especially in language learning. Here is where we would do well to take a look at poor Indian migrants and see how they manage to pick up I languages so easily as they move to a new place.

The first thing the child needs is time. Time to just listen, and not be rushed to speak or write. Not be rushed into making mistakes which ; might become endemic. The child needs to steep ; in an environment where the teacher is speaking English, where each child is being spoken to, with no pressure to respond in English. We have to respect the child's wish to avoid making mistakes, even if it means silence. The other thing the child needs is for learning to go on, on a parallel track, in a language the child knows. The child needs to be clear about a lot of things, and it is just possible that these things won't be learnt at all if the child has to learn English in order to understand. We also need to understand what sort of reading material a child new to English would need. We need writer who know how to put information across simply and clearly, and who care whether their young readers enjoy the pieces they read in their textbooks. At the moment what we have is adult-level text which needs deciphering. We need to evolve separate curricula for children new to English, so that they go slow at first and develop a feel for English. Later on, we can think about whether it is necessary for them to face the same English papers in Boards as children from English-medium schools.

A. On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and subheadings. Also use recognisable abbreviations, wherever necessary (Minimum 4). Supply a suitable title.

B. Write the option that you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet :

a) Chunk can be replaced by
i) Whole
ii) Fragment
iii) Complete
iv) Total

b) Abstruse is the opposite of
i) Profound
ii) Obscure
iii) Lucid
iv) Hard

c) Decipher means to
i) Decide
ii) Examine
iii) Determine
iv) Destroy

Please refer to attached file for CBSE Class 11 English Reading Passages and Poems