CBSE Academic XII STD English Sample Question Paper 2016 – 17
Name of the Board : CBSE Academic
Class : XII STD
Document Type : Sample Question Paper
Subject : English
Year : 2016 – 2017
Website : http://cbseacademic.in/SQP_CLASSXII_2016_17.html
Download Sample Question Paper :
English Core : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/10061-EngCore17.pdf
English Elective CBSE : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/10061-EngElective17.pdf
English Elective NCERT : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/10061-ENGLISHNCERT.pdf
Marking Scheme :
English Core : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/10061-MSEngCore.pdf
English Elective CBSE : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/10061-MSEngElective.pdf
English Elective NCERT : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/10061-MSEnglishNCERT.pdf
CBSE Academic English Sample Question Paper
Time allowed : 3 Hrs
Maximum Marks : 100
Related : CBSE Academic XII STD Engineering Graphics Sample Question Paper 2016 – 17 : www.pdfquestion.in/10056.html
General Instructions :
1. This paper is divided into three sections:A, B and C. All the sections are compulsory.
2. Separate instructions are given with each section and question, wherever necessary. Read these instructions very carefully and follow them faithfully.
3. Do not exceed the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.
Section-A : (Reading) (Marks:30)
1. Read the passage given below :
1. No student of a foreign language needs to be told that grammar is complex. By changing word sequences and by adding a range of auxiliary verbs and suffixes, we are able to communicate tiny variations in meaning. We can turn a statement into a question, state whether an action has taken place or is soon to take place, and perform many other word tricks to convey subtle differences in meaning. Nor is this complexity inherent to the English language.
All languages, even those of so-called ‘primitive’ tribes have clever grammatical components. The Cherokee pronoun system, for example, can distinguish between ‘you and I’, ‘several other people and I’ and ‘you, another person and I’. In English, all these meanings are summed up in the one, crude pronoun ‘we’. Grammar is universal andplays a part in every language, no matter how widespread it is. So the question which has baffled many linguists is – who created grammar?
2. At first, it would appear that this question is impossible to answer. To find out how grammar is created, someone needs to be present at the time of a language’s creation, documenting its emergence. Many historical linguists are able to trace modern complexlanguages back to earlier languages, but in order to answer the question of how complex languages are actually formed, the researcher needs to observe how languages are started from scratch. Amazingly, however, this is possible.
1.1 On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer each of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option
(a) In paragraph 1, why does the writer include information about the Cherokee language?
i. To show how simple, traditional cultures can have complicated grammar structures.
ii. To show how English grammar differs from Cherokee grammar.
iii. To prove that complex grammar structures were invented by the Cherokees.
iv. To demonstrate how difficult it is to learn the Cherokee language.
(b) What can be inferred about the slaves’ pidgin language?
i. It contained complex grammar.
ii. It was based on many different languages.
iii. It was difficult to understand, even among slaves.
iv. It was created by the land-owners.
1.2 Answer the following questions briefly :
(a) What is common to all languages?
(b) How can we find out who created grammar?
(c) According to the passage what can be attributed as a consequence of the Atlantic slave trade?
(d) What is pidgin?
(e) What are creoles?
(f) Why does the author say that even the most widespread languages were partly created by children?
1.3 Pick out the words/phrases from the passage which are similar in meaning to the following
i) simple and temporary (Para 3)
ii) uniform (Para 4)
2 Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow
1. Close at hand is a bridge over the River Thames, an admirable vantage ground for us to make a survey. We are here to consider facts; now we must fix our eyes upon the procession—the procession of the sons of educated men.
There they go, our brothers who have been educated at public schools and universities, mounting those steps, passing in andout of those doors, ascending those pulpits, preaching, teaching,administering justice, practising medicine, transacting business, making money. It is a solemn sight always—a procession, like a caravan crossing a desert….But now, for the past twenty years or so, it is no longer a sight merely, a photograph, or fresco scrawled upon the walls of time, at which we can look with merely an aesthetic appreciation.
2. For there, traipsing along at the tail end of the procession, we go ourselves. And that makes a difference. We who have looked so long at the pageant in books, or from a curtained window watched educated men leaving the house at about nine-thirty to go to an office, returning to the house at about six-thirty from an office, need look passively no longer. We too can leave the house, can mount those steps, pass in and out of those doors,…make money, administer justice.