MADHYAMIK EXAMINATION- 2007 English (Second Language)
Time- Three Hours
SECTION—A
Reading Comprehension (Seen)
1. Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Meanwhile the municipality was pressing me to clear the ground as a cattle show was to be held there. I became desperate. I begged every passing bus-driver; I even approached a mail engine driver; but without use. At last the local priest offered me the service of his temple elephant. I also engaged fifty coolies to push the engine from behind. This drained all my resources. My plan was to take the engine to a field owned by a friend. I also hired one Joseph, a dismissed bus-driver who said he could steer an engine if it was kept in motion. It was a fine sight; the temple elephant yoked to the engine with stout ropes, with fifty determined men pushing it from behind, and Joseph sitting in the driving seat. A huge crowd stood around and watched in great glee. The engine began to move. It seemed to me the greatest moment of my life. When it reached the road, it began to behave in a strange manner. The elephant dragged it one way, Joseph turned the wheel without any idea where he was going and fifty men clung to it and pushed it just where they liked.
(a) Complete the following with information from the text above: 2 x 3 = 6
sons who helped the narrator How they helped him
i) The priest (ii) The coolies (iii) Joseph the bus-driver
(b) Complete the following with information from the text above: 2x3=6
(i) The narrator was desperate because ---------------------.
(ii) The narrator's plan was--------------------------------.
(iii) A huge crowd stood around to-----------------------.
2. Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow:
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky, The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
