KARNATAKA ICSE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION

ISC STD. XII Preparatory Examination 2024

Subject – English Paper 1
(Language)

Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 80 Date: .01.2024

(Candidates are allowed additional 15 minutes for only reading the paper.
They must NOT start writing during this time.)
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Attempt all four questions.
The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].
(You are advised to spend not more than 45 minutes on Question 1, 55 minutes on Question 2,
30 minutes on Question 3 and 50 minutes on Question 4.)
(You should begin each answer on a fresh page.)

Question 1

Write a composition (in approximately 400 – 450 words) on any one of the following [20]
subjects:

(You are reminded that you will be rewarded for orderly and coherent presentation of matter, use of
appropriate style and general accuracy of spelling, punctuation and grammar.)

(i) During summer vacation, you had been to a sea beach where you went for scuba diving. Give a
detailed description of what you saw, heard and felt during the diving expedition. Also, give an
account of your overall experience.
(ii) You had gone for a walk and lost your way in a foreign land. As you didn’t know the language,
you could not read the signboards. Narrate how you found your way back.
(iii) Elections are never the true index of the desires of the masses. Express your views either FOR
or AGAINST the statement.
(iv) Empathy.
(v) It is said that there is no unemployment in India but unemployable workforce. Present your
reflections on this statement.
(vi) Write an original short story that ends with the following words:
“I hope I will never have to go there again.”

Question 2

(i) Your school took you for an excursion to a nearby historical site. Write a report (in approximately
300 words) for your school magazine about the excursion. Use the following points given below.
You may include other relevant details: [15]

Arrangements for the excursion – date, place and time for assembling – transport – fun during
the journey – arrival at the site – historical significance of the site – efforts made for conservation
– your experience and feelings.

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 KARNATAKA ICSE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
ISC STD. XII Preparatory Examination 2024
Subject – English Paper 1
(Language)

Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 80 Date: .01.2024

(ii) As the Head Girl/ Head Boy of your school, you have been given the task of organising a play
on the topic ‘Gender Equality.’ Write a proposal in not more than 150 words, stating the steps
you would take to organise this play. [10]

Question 3

Answer sections (i), (ii) and (iii).

(i) In each of the following items, sentence I is complete, while sentence II is not. [5]
Complete sentence II, making it as similar as possible to sentence I. Write sentence II in each case.

Example:
(z) (I) The heavy showers of rain revived the plants.
(II) The plants ……..…………………………….

Answer: (z) The plants were revived by the heavy showers of rain.

(a) (i) No sooner did he take off his coat than it began to snow.
(ii) As soon as ………………………………………………
(b) (i) Sam is shorter than all other boys in the class.
(ii) No other ………………………………………………
(c) (i) Amber amazed everyone with her excellent performance in hockey.
(ii) Amber’s …………………………………………………………….
(d) (i) The entire country’s honour is at stake.
(ii) What………………………………….
(e) (i) My ailing grandmother requested me to visit her in Mumbai.
(ii) My ailing grandmother said, ……………………………….

(ii) Fill in each blank with a suitable word. (Do not write the sentence). [5]

(a) He sent his application for the post of lecturer.

(b) The Principal sent __________ the circulars to the teachers.
(c) Dirt often brings disease.

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 KARNATAKA ICSE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
ISC STD. XII Preparatory Examination 2024
Subject – English Paper 1
(Language)

Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 80 Date: .01.2024

(d) The couple has to bring three children.

(e) Place one pastry for me to eat later.
(f) One extra guard was placed the victim’s house.
(g) Listen ___________ for the bell of the ice-cream vendor.
(h) Rita refused to listen ________ anyone complain against her daughter.
(i) The musicians have just enough time for a run __________ before the concert.
(j) As an adult I cannot run __________ my parents for help .

(iii) Fill in the blanks in the passage given below with the appropriate form of the verb [5]
given in brackets. Do not write the passage but write the verbs in the correct order.

He was a mongoose, rather like a cat in his fur and his tail, but quite like a weasel in his
head and his habits. He could fluff up his tail till it looked like a bottlebrush, and his war cry, as
he ________ (1) (scuttle) through the long grass, was, ‘ Rikki-tikki-tikki-tikki-tikki.’
One day a summer flood ___________ (2) (wash) him out of the burrow where he lived
with his father and mother, and ____________ (3) (carry) him kicking and ___________ (4)
(cluck) down a roadside ditch. He ___________ (5) (find) a wisp of grass floating there, and
clung to it till he lost his senses. When he __________(6) (revive), he _________ (7) (lie) in the
middle of a garden path, very wet and still. Teddy, a young boy of around eleven, saw him and
said, “Here’s a dead mongoose.”
“No,” said his mother, “let’s _________ (8) (take) him in and dry him. Perhaps he isn’t
really dead.
Teddy’s father, a big man, picked him up between his finger and thumb, and said he was
not dead. They __________ (9) (wrap) him in cotton wool, and warmed him, and he opened his
eyes and sneezed.
“Now,” said Teddy’s father, “don’t _____________ (10) (frighten) him. We will see what
he’ll do.”

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 KARNATAKA ICSE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
ISC STD. XII Preparatory Examination 2024
Subject – English Paper 1
(Language)

Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 80 Date: .01.2024

Question 4

Read the passage given below and answer the questions (a), (b) and (c) that follow:

One afternoon I was sitting outside the Café de la Paix, watching the splendour and shabbiness of
Parisian life, and wondering over my vermouth at the strange panorama of pride and poverty that was
passing before me, when I heard someone call my name. I turned round, and saw Lord Murchison.
We had not met since we had been at college together, nearly ten years before, so I was delighted to
come across him again, and we shook hands warmly. At Oxford we had been great friends. I had liked
him immensely, he was so handsome, so high-spirited, and so honourable. We used to say of him that
he would be the best of fellows, if he did not always speak the truth, but I think we really admired him
all the more for his frankness. I found him a good deal changed. He looked anxious and puzzled, and
seemed to be in doubt about something. I felt it could not be modern scepticism, for Murchison was
the stoutest of Tories, and believed in the Pentateuch as firmly as he believed in the House of Peers;
so I concluded that it was a woman, and asked him if he was married yet.

‘I don’t understand women well enough,’ he answered.

‘My dear Gerald,’ I said, ‘women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.’

‘I cannot love where I cannot trust,’ he replied.

‘I believe you have a mystery in your life, Gerald,’ I exclaimed; ‘tell me about it.’

‘Let us go for a drive,’ he answered, ‘it is too crowded here. No, not a yellow carriage, any other colour
- there, that dark green one will do’; and in a few moments we were trotting down the boulevard in
the direction of the Madeleine.

‘Where shall we go to?’ I said.

‘Oh, anywhere you like!’ he answered - ‘to the restaurant in the Bois; we will dine there, and you shall
tell me all about yourself.’

‘I want to hear about you first,’ I said. ‘Tell me your mystery.’

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 KARNATAKA ICSE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
ISC STD. XII Preparatory Examination 2024
Subject – English Paper 1
(Language)

Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 80 Date: .01.2024

He took from his pocket a little silver-clasped Morocco case, and handed it to me. I opened it. Inside
there was the photograph of a woman. She was tall and slight, and strangely picturesque with her large
vague eyes and loosened hair. She looked like a clairvoyant, and was wrapped in rich furs.

‘What do you think of that face?’ he said; ‘is it truthful?’

I examined it carefully. It seemed to me the face of someone who had a secret, but whether that secret
was good or evil I could not say. Its beauty was a beauty moulded out of many mysteries - the beauty,
in fact, which is psychological, not plastic - and the faint smile that just played across the lips was far
too subtle to be really sweet.

‘Well,’ he cried impatiently, ‘what do you say?’

‘She is the Gioconda in sables,’ I answered. ‘Let me know all about her.’

‘Not now,’ he said; ‘after dinner,’ and began to talk of other things.

Adapted from: The Sphinx Without a Secret

By Oscar Wilde

(i) (a) Given below are three words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar [3]
meaning in the passage:
(1) doubt as to the truth of something
(2) proceeding at a pace faster than a walk
(3) a person who can perceive events in the future

(b) For each of the words given below, choose the correct sentence that uses the [3]
same word unchanged in spelling, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the
passage:
(1) passing

(A) With the passing of the years, Mr. John had become a little eccentric.
(B) He was merely making a passing reference to the original text.

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 KARNATAKA ICSE SCHOOLS ASSOCIATION
ISC STD. XII Preparatory Examination 2024
Subject – English Paper 1
(Language)

Time Allowed : 3 hours Maximum Marks : 80 Date: .01.2024

(C) Sudha could not bear to witness the passing of time and do nothing.
(D) Time and tide pass on their whims, caring little for the world.
(2) Drive
(A) The sleepy town has undergone a much needed facelift after the cleanliness drive.
(B) The long drive rejuvenated him after a rather tiring day at work.
(C) The flash sale drove the enthusiastic shoppers to the shopping mall.
(D) He makes sure to drive cautiously while navigating the serpentine roads.
(3) Slight
(A) Unlike the mother, the daughter was short, slight and strikingly slender.
(B) When the child began to cry, the teacher lowered her voice slightly.
(C) She was deeply hurt after being slighted in the birthday party.
(D) A slight increase in the price of commodities was expected after the election.

(ii) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible:

(a) What was the narrator doing when he heard someone call his name? [2]
(b) State the reasons for which the narrator liked Lord Murchison immensely. [2]
(c) “I found him a good deal changed.” State any two evidences from the story that
substantiate the change in Lord Murchison. [2]

(iii) Summarise the description and the narrator’s interpretation of the woman’s [8]
photograph. You are required to write the summary in the form of a connected passage in about
100 words. Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalised.

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