ICSE – Grade X

PRACTICE QUESTION PAPER - 3

ENGLISH LITERATURE (ENGLISH PAPER 2)

Maximum Marks: 80 Time Allowed: Two hours.

Answers to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately.

You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.

This time is to be spent in reading the question paper.

The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers.

The paper has four Sections.

Section A is compulsory – All questions in Section A must be answered.
You must attend one question from each of the Sections B, C and D and one other question from any
Section of your choice.

The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].

Section: A
(Attempt all questions from this Section.)

Question 1

Choose the correct answers to the questions from the given options.

(Do not copy the question, write the correct answers only.)

(i) What news of Jessica does Tubal bring to Shylock? [1]

(a) She was spending Shylock's money extravagantly.

(b) She had exchanged Shylock's ring for a donkey.

(c) She had given away Shylock's diamond worth two thousand ducats in Frankfort.

(d) She had died and had been buried with jewels in her ears.

(ii) The Duke refers to Shylock as a 'stony adversary' in the opening lines of Act 4 of 'The Merchant
of Venice'. What does the phrase 'stony adversary’ mean? [1]

(a) An enemy made of rock (b) A hard-hearted enemy

(c) A difficult enemy (d) A dangerous enemy

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(iii) When Shylock speaks of Jessica's elopement he exclaims, 'My own flesh and blood to rebel!’
What feeling do his words convey? [1]
(a) pride (b) envy
(c) betrayal (d) remorse

(iv) Who is the merchant of Venice? [1]

(a) Gratiano (b) Bassanio
(c) Lorenzo (d) Antonio

(v) What did Bassanio send to Balthazar when he won the case? [1]
(a) A ring (b) A necklace
(c) A large amount of money (d) An invitation to breakfast

(vi) "How far that little candle throws its beams". What is Portia comparing this light to? [1]
(a) Sun
(b) Moon
(c) A good deed
(d) Stars

(vii) ‘An Angel in Disguise' is about the transformative and restorative power of ………... [1]
(a) self-love (b) self-aggrandizement
(c) selfless love (d) All of the above

(viii) How long had Jesse Owens set the world record, a year ago? [1]
(a) 26 feet 8-1⁄4 inches at Ohio State University.

(b) 26 feet 5-5⁄16 inches at Ohio State University

(c) 26 feet 7-1⁄4 inches at Ohio State University.

(d) 26 feet 6-5⁄16 inches in Berlin.

(ix) Sibia's day was made with ………... [1]

(a) killing the crocodile.
(b) rescuing the Gujjar woman
(c) killing the crocodile and rescuing the Gujar woman.
(d) finding the blue bead for her necklace.

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(x) The dawn of the new year rose on the ……….. figure of the girl. [1]

(a) bent (b) little

(c) huddled (d) frozen

(xi) Which among the following does not describe the presence of the sun? [1]

(a) roaring silence and stillness

(b) radiant light

(c) it was the colour of flaming bronze

(d) the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces.

(xii) What special quality of the young participants does the poem 'Nine Gold Medals' celebrate? [1]

(a) Competitive spirit (b) Empathy

(c) Sporting spirit (d) Self-aggrandisement

(xiii) The song sung by the caged bird symbolizes ………… [1]

(a) food (b) home

(c) freedom (d) all of the above

(xiv) 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' is a poem on ………… [1]

(a) Racial injustice (b) Music

(c) Nature (d) Love

(xv) David Roth, an artist, conveys a wealth of ……….. in his poems. [1]

(a) physically felt intensity (b) anecdotes

(c) racism (d) both (A) and (B)

(xvi) ‘His dreams and his efforts dashed in the dirt.' Name the figure of speech used this line. [1]

(a) Repetition (b) Hyperbole

(c) Metonymy (d) Alliteration

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 Section B:
(Answer one or more questions from this section.)
(The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)
Question 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
STEPHANO:
Stephano is my name; and I bring word
My mistress before the break of day
Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about
Be holy crosses where she kneels and prays
For happy wedlock hours
LORENZO:
Who comes with her?

(i) What do you know about the first speaker? Where are the characters now? Who else is with them?
[3]
(ii) What news is brought by him? According to him, what had the mistress been doing and why? [3]
(iii) What had she truly been engaged in? Explain in detail. [3]
(iv) Who else had been with her? What was the role played by this other person? What else do
you know about this person? [3]
(v) Who is Lorenzo? Describe the circumstances in which he is present here. What characteristics
of his are evident in the play? [4]

Question 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
SHYLOCK: 'Tis very true. O wise and upright judge!
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
PORTIA: (to ANTONIO) Therefore lay bare your bosom.
SHYLOCK: Ay, his breast.
So says the bond. Doth it not, noble judge?
"Nearest his heart"- those are the very words.

(i) Who is Shylock? What compliment is given by him to Portia when she declares that ‘purpose of
the law hath full relation to the penalty’? [3]

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(ii) How does Shylock react when Portia tells Antonio to prepare his bosom for the knife? What
reasons were given by Shylock to charge Portia to proceed to judgment? [3]
(iii) What reason does Shylock give for rejecting thrice the money offered to him? What reasons
had he stated to the Duke for rejecting his plea to have mercy? [3]
(iv) Why does Portia ask for a balance to weigh the flesh? Whom should Shylock pay for and why?
What impression do you form of Shylock in Act IV? [3]
(v) Who two people had been arguing with the Jew before this? What were their pleadings and
what effect did they have? [4]

Section C:
(Answer one or more questions from this Section.)
(Treasure Trove - A Collection of Poems and Short Stories)
Question 4
Read the extract from the story "The Blue Bead' given below, and answer the questions that
follow:
From that day, perhaps a hundred years ago, when the sun had hatched him in a sand bank, and he had
broken his shell, and got his head out and looked around, ready to snap at anything before he was even
fully hatched:

(i) Who or what is being talked about? Where is he now? Where did he come from? [3]
(ii) What aspects of the 'him' are implied in the extract? [3]
(iii) Describe his fully grown appearance and habits while alive. [3]
(iv) What were the vulnerable spots of his body? How did one of them really prove vulnerable? [3]
(v) Bring out the ironic twist in the story. [4]

Question 5
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Everyone kind of expected me to win that Olympic event hands down.
(i) Who is 'me' in the above extract? Why does everyone expect him to win? [3]
(ii) Why were nationalistic feelings running high during the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games? [3]
(iii) What surprise confronted the narrator when he reached there? Who had maintained this
surprise and why? [3]
(iv) What is the reason behind such bitter thoughts that arise in the narrator's mind? Who offers him
a firm handshake? What friendly advice does this person offer? [3]
(v) What character traits of Luz Long are described here that truly need admiration? [4]

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 Section D:
(Answer one or more questions from this Section.)
(Treasure Trove - A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)
Question 6
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
The signal was given, the pistol exploded
And so did the runners all charging ahead
But the smallest among them, he stumbled and staggered
And fell to the asphalt instead.

(i) What was the strange thing that happened in the Special Olympics? [3]
(ii) What does the phrase 'the pistol exploded' indicate here? What are the runners doing in the
field? [3]
(iii) Why did the youngest athlete go out in deep frustration and a sense of failure? [3]
(iv) What does it mean for an athlete to fall during a race? [3]
(v) What event did the poet talk about? What was the main aim of all the athletes? [4]

Question 7
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun
To give it my loving friends to keep!
Nought man could do, have I left undone:
And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.

There's nobody on the house-tops now…

Just a palsied few at the windows set;
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles' Gate… or, better yet,
By the very scaffold's foot, I trow.

(i) How does the patriot reciprocate the love of his people? What does the word 'Alack' signify? [3]
(ii) What is the difference between what happened one year ago and the present day? Why? [3]
(iii) Where does he expect the people to be? Why? [3]
(iv) Give the meaning of (a) Palsied (b) Shambles’ Gate [3]
(v) What kind of impression of the people is formed here? [4]

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