O. P.

Jindal School, Raigarh

Revision Worksheet- 2
Class: VIII
Reading Comprehension, Grammar, Writing
Subject: ENGLISH & Literature

Section –A (Reading Comprehension)

Q. 1. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.
The world dismisses curiosity by calling it idle or mere idle-curiosity even though curious
persons are seldom idle. Parents do their best to extinguish curiosity in their children because it makes life difficult
to be faced everyday with a string of unanswerable questions about what makes fire hot or why grass grows.
Children whose curiosity survives parental discipline are invited to join our university. With the university, they
go on asking their questions and trying to find the answers. In the eyes of a scholar, that is what a university is
for. Some of the questions which the scholars ask seem to the world to be scarcely worth asking, let alone
answering. They asked questions too minute and specialised for you and me to understand without years of
explanation. If the world inquires of one of them why he wants to know the answer to a particular question he
may say especially if he is a scientist, that the answer will in some obscure way make possible a new machine or
weapon or gadget. He talks that way because he knows that the world understands and respects utility.
But to you who are now part of the university, he will say that he wants to know the answer simply
because he does not know it, the way the mountain climber wants to climb a mountain, simply because it is there.
Similarly, a historian asked by an outsider why he studies history may come out with the argument that he has
learnt to repeat on such occasions, something about knowledge of the past making it possible to understand the
present and mould the future. But if you really want to know why a historian studies the past, the answer is much
simpler, something happened and he would like to know what. All this does not mean that the answers which
scholars find to their questions have no consequences. They may have enormous consequences but these seldom
form the reason for asking the question or pursuing the answers. It is true that scholars can be put to work
answering questions for the sake of the consequences as thousands are working now, for example, in search of a
cure for cancer. But this is not the primary function of the scholars. For the consequences are usually subordinate
to the satisfaction of curiosity.

Q. 1. Tick the correct answer.

i. According to the passage, parents do their best to discourage curiosity in their children
(a) because they have no time
(b) because they have no patience to answer them
(c) because they feel that their children ask stupid questions continuously
(d) because they are unable to answer all their questions

ii. The common people consider some of the questions that the scholars ask unimportant
(a) as they are too lazy and idle
(b) as they are too modest
(c) as it's beyond their comprehension
(d) as it is considered a waste of time

iii. A historian really studies the past

(a) to comprehend the present and to reconstruct the future
(b) to explain the present and plan the future
(c) to understand the present and make fortune
(d) to understand the present and mould the future

iv. Children whose curiosity survives parental discipline means

(a) children retaining their curiosity in spite of being discouraged by their parents
(b) children pursuing their mental curiosity
(c) children's curiosity subdued due to parents' intervention
(d) children being disciplined by their parents
v. Choose the option that gives the meaning of the word ‘extinguish’
a. bear out b. put out c. turn out d. call out

Q. 2. Read the passage carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Hiuen Tsang, the famous Chinese traveller, visited India in the seventh century. He travelled extensively in India.
He stayed for some time in Kanouj, at the court of the great emperor Harsha Vardhana. He has left for us graphic
descriptions of the pomp and ceremony of the royal regalia and the lavish celebrations of Hindu festivals. During
one particular festivity at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna, many princes would come to participate in
the giving of gifts to the poor and the orphans. Oh, how the footsteps of pilgrims and the cries of poor and needy
have resounded across the length and breadth of the land from the most distant time! How those ancient banks of
sacred rivers have heard voices of collective prayers and the shouts of joy of periodic pilgrims! If only the mute
stones and steps could tell all the thrills they have witnessed, volumes of stirring stories would flow from them.
Hiuen Tsang spent a long period at the famed Nalanda, the great centre of learning in classical India, where
students by the hundreds flocked from all over India and abroad. It has flourished in the remote century of the
Buddha and Mahavira, and now when the Chinese pilgrim visited the place it seemed to have been still full of
life and intellectual vigour. For this is what the pilgrim notes: "The day is not sufficient for asking and answering
profound questions. From morning till night they engage in discussions; the old and the young mutually help one
another." If such is not an ideal place of learning, then what is?
Q. 2. i. Answer the questions.
a. What has been considered as the most significant aspect of Nalanda?
b. Why did many princes use to visit the festivity at the confluence of Ganga and Yamuna?
Q. 2. ii. Complete the following sentence with information from the text.
a. Hiuen Tsang has left us _____________________________________________________________
b. He stayed for ____________________________________________________________________
Q. 2. iii. Answer the following questions from your understanding of the passage.
a. Why did Hiuen Tsang spend considerable time at Nalanda?
b. What does the line mean ‘If such is not an ideal place…..then what is?”
Q. 2. iv. Choose the word which is most nearly the same in meaning as the word or group of words given in
capitals as used in the passage.
’VIGOUR’ - (a) delighted (b) grandeur (c) catastrophe (d) arrived
Q. 2. v. Choose the word which is opposite in meaning as the word or group of words given in capitals as used
in the passage.
‘PROFOUND’ - (a) different (b) humorous (c) breakable (d) diverse

Section –B (Grammar & Writing)

Q3. Write a descriptive paragraph on ‘Your Dream Career’ in 150 words.

Q4. You have a sweet tooth. You are very fond of sweets but your doctor has asked you not to eat it on medical
grounds. Write a diary entry on how you feel about it.

Q5. A. Suppose you are Jasvinder/Jasmine Bhumra of Guru Harkishan Public School. You are suffering from
cold and mild fever and have to see a doctor for a thorough check-up. Write an application to your Principal,
requesting him to grant you leave for three days.

B. Write a letter to the Editor of a newspaper, complaining against the nuisance of beggars in your locality.

C. You are Sunil Kumar. Write a letter to your friend asking him to stay with you after the final examination.
Tell him also how you would make his stay pleasant.

Q.6. Rearrange the jumbled words to form meaningful sentences.

i. Saudi Arabia/lifestyle/discovery/has changed/of/of the people/the/petroleum/in/the
ii. from the very beginning/status of women/there/but/question mark/has been/a/big/the/ an/in
iii.it/plants/which/supports/food/provide/all living things/to/planet/on/this
Q. 7. Fill in the blanks with correct forms of the verbs given in brackets.
a. _____________ you ____________ (read) newspaper everyday?
b. Mr. Das ____________________ (sleep) when the incident took place.
c. This small sapling _______________(grow) into a big plant in next 5 years.
d. It ____________________ (rain) since last Monday.
e. The fat lady ________ already ___________(finish) the cake before we reached the party.
Q. 8. Choose the verb that agrees with the Subject.
i. Each of the students (is/are) responsible for doing his or her work.
ii. Either my father or my brothers (is/are) going to sell the car.
iii. Neither my sister nor my mother (has/have) asked to see you.
iv. The samples on the tray in the lab (need/needs) testing.
v. Mary and John usually (plays/play) together.
vi. Both of the dogs (has/have) collars.
vii. Neither the dogs nor the cat (is/are) very hungry.

Q. 9. Change the sentences from Active to Passive

i. Why do you waste time?
ii. He does not obey his teachers.
iii. I told her a story.
iv. Whom did you meet?
v. They should help us.
vi. Raja might postpone the wedding function.
vii. Don’t write with gel pen.
viii. Please give me a glass of water.
ix. Have you understood the chapter?
x. You have disappointed me.
Q. 10. The following passage has not been edited. There is an error in each line against which a blank is
given. Write the incorrect word and the correction in your answer sheet against the correct blank
number. The first one has been done for you as an example.

Incorrect Correct
An inter school football match has being e.g. being been
organized among our school and city a.
Montessori School. The match will be playing b.
in 18th March at our school ground c.
since 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. d.

SECTION -D( LITERATURE)

Q. 11. Read the extract and answer the questions that follow:

A. “A sudden rush from the stairway,

A sudden raid from the hall!
By three doors left unguarded
They enter my castle wall!”

1. Who raided from the hall?

a) The poet himself
b) Edith and Alice
c) the poet’s three daughters

2. The phrase “my castle wall ” means _______________ .

a) poet’s study room
b) the entire house
c) a castle

3. The rhyme scheme of these lines is _________.

a) AAAB
b) ABCB
c) ABAB

B. “No sir, unless I find that missing mop, I cannot give you the needle and catgut.”

1. Who is the speaker?

a) the narrator
b) the nurse
c) the doctor

2. Who is the author of the story?

a) Kailash Satyarthi
b) Sudha Murty
c) Pika Nani

3. Why was the speaker telling so?

a) because the surgery was over
b) because the doctor behaved rudely
c) because the mop count did not tally

Q12. Answer the questions in 20 words:

a) Why does the speaker in the poem ‘Travel’ want to go with the camel caravan?
b) Who was the artist among the March sisters and how did she conduct herself always?
c) Why was an OT nurse respected by doctors and surgeons?
d) Where did Rehan cut his birthday cake?
e) What is the ‘Children’s Hour’?

Q.13. Answer the questions in 60-80 words:

a) What did Mr. March’s letter say?
b) What do we learn from the poem ‘Wishing’? Describe in your own words.
c) Why does the OT nurse count the used and unused mops at the end of a surgery?
d) Describe how the speaker’s imagination is vividly brought out in the description of the places he
wishes to visit.

Q. 14. Answer the questions in 100 words:

a) Comment on the tone of the poem ‘Wishing’. How far does this tone justify the title of the poem?
b) In what way was the visit to eatery in Chandni Chowk different and enjoyable?
c) What picture of the March family is brought out in ‘Planning a Surprise’?

Q15. Vocabulary
a. Find out the correct word.
(i) The first indications of any kind of illness are called _____________________.
(ii) This method is used to clean medical equipment so that it doesn’t have bacteria and other
microorganisms - _________________________
(iii) The meaning of the word ‘banditti’ is __________

b. Find the meaning of the following phrasal verbs:

i. get-together - _________________________________________________
ii. break out - ____________________________________________________

c. Fill in the blanks to get the correct words.

i) the state of being completely alone – S ___ L___ T___ ___ E
ii) an animal that preys on others -- PR ___ ____ A____O ____

d. Choose the correct option:

i) Subsidizing ____________________ activities may be costlier than simply buying land outright and
not conducting any activity on it.
a) short-sighted b) mid-air c) eco-friendly
ii) There is a higher ___________________ in the number of voters this year as compared to last year.
a) turnout b) takeover c) follow-up