CBSE Class 11 English Sample Paper Set D

SECTION- A

READING

·1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow:

I. It was a great shock to me to discover that I had motor neuron disease, I had never been very well co-ordinated physically as a child, I was not good at ball games, and my handwriting was the despair of my teachers. May be for this reason, I didn't care much for sport or physical activities. But things seemed to change when I went to Oxford, at the age of 17, I took up coxing and rowing. I was not Boat Race standard, but I got by the level of inter-college competition.

2. In my third year at Oxford, however. I noticed that I seemed to be getting more clumsy and I fell over once or twice for no apparent reason. But it was not until I was at Cambridge, in the following ye r, that my father noticed and took mto the family doctor. He referred to me a specialist, and shortly after my 21st birthday, I went into hospital for tests. Although, there was a cloud hanging over My future I found, to my surprise that I was enjoying life in the present more than before. I began to make progress with my research, and I got engaged to a girl called Jane Wilde, whom I had met just About the time my condition was diagnosed. That engagement changed my life. It gave me something. · To live for. But it also meant that I had to get a job if we were to get married. I, therefore, applied for a research fellowship at Gonville and Cains College, Cambridge. To my great surprise, I got a fellowship up to 1974, I was able to feed myself and get in and out of bed. This lasted until! Caught pneumonia in 1985. I had to have a tracheotomy operation.

3. Before the operation, my speech had been getting more slurred, so that only few people who knew me well, could understand me. But at least I could communicate. I wrote scientific papers by dictating to a secretary, and I gave seminars through an interpreter, who repeated my words more clearly. However, the tracheotomy operation removed my ability to speak altogether. For a time, the only way I could communicate was to spell out words letter by letter, by raising my eyebrows when someone pointed to the right letter on a spelling card. It is pretty difficult to carry on a conversation like that. let alone write a scientific paper. However, a computer exper1in California called Walt Woltosz. heard of my plight. He sent me a computer programme he had written, called Equalizer. This allowed me to select words from a series of menus on the screen: by pressing a switch in my hand. The programme could also be controlled by a switch, operated by head or eye movement. When I had built up what I wanted to say, I got it sent into a speech synthesizer. At first, I just ran the Equalizer programme on a desktop computer.

4. However, David Manson, of Cambridge Adaptive Communication, fitted a small portable computer and a speech synthesizer to my wheel chair. This system allowed me to communicate much better than I could before. I can, manage upto 15 words a minute. I can either speak what I have written, or save it to disk. I can then print it out, or call it back and speak it sentence by sentence. Using this system, I have written a book, and dozens of scientific papers. I have also given many scientific talks. They have all been well received. I think this is in a large part due to the quality of the speech synthesizer, which is made by Speech Plus. One's voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people are likely to treat you as mentally deficient. This synthesizer is by far the best I have ever heard of, because it varies the intonation, and does not speak like a Dalek. The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent.

5. I have had motor neuron disease for practically all my adult life. Yet it has not prevented me from having a very attractive family, and being successful in my work. This is thanks to the help I have received from Jane, my children, and a large number of other people and organisations. I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope.

I.Answer the following questions choosing the most appropriate options:

1. The narrator didn't seem to be much interested in sport/physical activity because

(a) he didn't have a good hand writing

(b) he avoided company of others

(c) he was more interested in academics

(d) he had not been very well co-ordinated physically as a child

2. At the age of 17 at Oxford he took up

(a) swimming and diving

(b) skating and surfing

(c) cycling and horse-riding

(d) coxing and rowing

3. Speech synthesizer helped the narrator 

(a) in communicating better than before

(b) in singing better

(c) in playing video games

(d) in making calculations better

4. Tracheotomy operation 

(a) helped the narrator in speaking better

(b) improved his diction

(c) removed his ability to speak altogether

(d) made him speak with a slur

5. Pick out a word/words from the passage having the same meaning as 'hopelessness'. (para I) 

(a) sadness

(b) disappointment

(c) despair

(d) dejection 

6. Pick out a word/words from the passage having the same meaning as 'completely'. (para3) 

(a) impartially

(b) fully

(c) as a whole

(d) altogether

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