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Zahira College EM
Board of Examinations
3 rd
term Examination–2023/2024

Appreciation of English Literary Texts

G Grade 10 3Hours

Admission No: - --------------------- Class: ------------

Answer question 1 and four others selecting one from each section – poetry, drama, prose
Answer five questions only.

PART 1
Section A – Answer all questions. Read the given extracts and answer the questions given below.

i. “Was she that dumb, did she go in or not,We’ll see when they carry them out”.
a. From where are these lines taken? Name the poet.
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b. What is the situation described here?
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c. Who is referred to as ‘she’ here?
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d. Describe the tone of the narrator in the above lines.
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ii. “……Then he said slowly. (5 marks) Never since I was born of my mother Have I seen or
heard of a skull which spoke”
a. Name the work that carries these lines. Name the writer.
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 b. Who is the speaker in these lines?
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c. Why does the speaker utter these words?
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d. Comment on the attitude and the tone of the speaker towards the news of the ‘skull’?
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iii. “…….I want to re-learn (5 marks) how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror Shows only my
teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!”
a. Name the work from which these lines are taken. Name the author.
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b. Who utters these words?
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c. Name a literary device used in these lines.
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d. What message is conveyed through these lines?
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 iv. “I have read all that the wise men have written and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet
for want of a red rose is my life made wretched”. (5 marks)
a. From which text are these lines taken? Who is the writer?
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b. Who is referred to as ‘I’?
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c. Why is this speaker unhappy?
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d. What type of a person is the speaker?
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v. “As bullets started bursting through the bus all we could do was stay still and quiet, hoping
and praying to avoid death and injury.” (5 marks)
a. Name the work from which these lines are taken? Whose work is this?
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b. Who are referred to as ‘we’?
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c. What is the situation described here?
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 d. What does this incident say about life?
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vi. “… aren’t you ashamed, you bad child? You deceived me, had rows with me, left me alone
for weeks on end...” (5 marks)
a. From which text are these lines taken? Who is the author?
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b. Who is referred to as ‘you’?
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c. What is the effect created through these lines?
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d. Comment on the relationship between ‘you’ and ‘me’.
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Section B – Answer the following question.

(a) The Vendor of Sweets “The bathroom was a shack, roofed with corrugated sheets; beaten out tin was fixed
anyhow to a wooden frame to serve as the door on rusty hinges; the wooden frame was warped and the door
never shut flush, but always left a gap through which one obtained a partial glimpse of anyone bathing. But it
had been a house practice, for generations, for its members not to look through. This bathroom remained very
much what it had been in the days of his father, who had resisted all suggestions for improvement, declaring,
‘After all, no one is expected to live in a bathroom; one had better come out of it soon so that the rest may
have a chance of tidying themselves.’
i. Whose bathroom is described here? (2 marks)
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 ii. Describe the condition of the bathroom in your own words. (2 marks)
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iii. Explain the following terms in your words. (2 marks)

a. Shack - …………………………………………………………………….
b. Partial glimpse - ……………………………………………………………………
iv. What is your idea about the residents of this house? Explain. (4 marks)
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PART II
POETRY
(Answer one question only)
(Each question carries 15 marks)
2. Write an appreciation of the bird’s independent and dignified behaviour in the poem, A Bird Came Down
the Walk.
3. The Clown’s Wife is about the distressed lives of two people due to two different reasons. Do you agree?
4. Silence of a couple is well highlighted to disclose the grudge between them in the poem, ‘Breakfast’.
Comment on this statement.
5. Is it fair to categorize the poem, Big Match, 1983 under the theme, ‘Society’? Discuss with reference to the
poem.
6. How effectively does Edward Lowbury bring his message through the poem, The Huntsman? Discuss.
DRAMA
(Answer one question only)
7. Discuss the effectiveness of the title of the drama The Bear.
8. Human mind is always subjected to change. Do you agree? Comment with reference to the drama, TheBear.
PROSE
(Answer one question only)
9. Compare and contrast the characters of the aunt and Nicholas in The Lumber Room.
10. One’s pride for his own country is successfully portrayed through Sangakkara’s speech in The Lahore
Attack. Comment.
11. Human behaviour is spontaneous and unpredictable in a crisis situation. How do you support this
statement with close reference to Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala.

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 12. What messages are brought out by Oscar Wilde in his prose, The Nightingale and the Rose? Discuss.
FICTION
13. Critically comment on the character of Jagan in the novel, The Vendor of Sweets by R.K.Narayan.

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