Class XII - English Core - Paper - 2

English core (301)

Time Allowed: 3 hours. Maximum Marks: 80

General Instructions: Read the following instructions very carefully and strictly follow them:

i. This question paper has 13 questions. All questions are compulsory.

ii This question paper contains three sections:

Section A: Reading Skills

Section B: Creative Writing Skills

Section C: Literature.

iii. Attempt all questions based on specific instructions for each part. Write the correct question number and part thereof in your answer sheet.

iv. Separate instructions are given with each question/part, wherever necessary.

v. Adhere to the prescribed word limit while answering the questions.

SECTION A – READING SKILLS

1. Read the following passage carefully:

1. India is the largest producer of milk globally, contributing over 22% of the world’s milk supply. The country’s transformation into a dairy giant began with Operation Flood in the 1970s, an initiative led by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Operation Flood, also known as the White Revolution, aimed to create a nationwide milk grid, increase milk production, and establish a reliable dairy infrastructure. As a result, India moved from being a milk-deficient country to becoming the top producer of milk, with key dairy-producing states including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Punjab.

2. Milk production in India is largely driven by small-scale farmers who own just a few cattle. These farmers contribute to a vast network of dairy cooperatives, which collect, process, and distribute milk across the country. The cooperative model, pioneered by organizations like Amul, ensures that small farmers receive fair compensation for their milk. It also provides consumers with affordable dairy products such as milk, butter, curd, and paneer. Dairy farming is a critical source of income for millions of rural households, and it plays a significant role in supporting the rural economy.

3. Dairy products hold cultural and economic importance in India. Milk is an essential part of the daily diet and is used in many traditional dishes, such as kheer, paneer, and ghee. Milk also has religious and cultural significance, being offered during rituals and used in festivals and celebrations. Demand for dairy products has grown steadily due to the country’s increasing population, rising income levels, and urbanization. This growing demand has fueled the expansion of the dairy industry, leading to the modernization of milk processing facilities and improvements in cold storage and transportation.

4. Despite its success, India’s dairy industry faces several challenges. Fluctuations in milk prices can destabilize the incomes of small farmers, who depend heavily on the consistency of dairy sales. Additionally, climate change poses a significant threat, as rising temperatures and erratic rainfall patterns affect the availability of water and feed for livestock. The health and productivity of cattle are also ongoing concerns, with a need for better veterinary services, breeding practices, and nutrition.

5. The future of India’s dairy industry lies in adopting sustainable practices and investing in technological innovations. Improvements in breeding techniques, cattle feed, and cold storage systems will be crucial for the industry to meet the growing demand for milk while ensuring the livelihoods of farmers and protecting the environment.

Answer the following questions, based on the passage above.

i. According to paragraph 1, what was the goal of Operation Flood in the 1970s?

ii. How do dairy cooperatives benefit small-scale farmers, as mentioned in paragraph 2?

iii. Read and complete the following sentence suitably.

The phrase “the cooperative model” in paragraph 2 suggests that India’s dairy industry is structured in a way that supports farmers through collective efforts. Choose the correct response from the two options to complete the sentence.

The cooperative model benefits small farmers because _____.

(A) it helps them get fair compensation for their milk

(B) it allows them to access milk at lower prices

iv. Complete the following with ONE example, with reference to paragraph 3 :

Milk is important in Indian culture because _____.

v. Why does the writer mention climate change in paragraph 4?

Because

(A) Climate change threatens the sustainability of dairy farming by affecting water and feed supplies for livestock.

(B) Climate change will boost the dairy industry’s productivity.

(D) It helps stabilize milk prices in India.

vi. Provide ONE textual evidence with reference to paragraph 4, to support the following :

Fluctuations in milk prices affect the incomes of small-scale farmers.

vii. In the line, ‘The future of India’s dairy industry lies in adopting sustainable practices and investing in technological innovations’ (Paragraph 5), what does the phrase ‘sustainable practices’ suggest about the future of the dairy industry?

viii. Complete the analogy with ONE word from paragraph 1:

Operation Flood: White Revolution :: dairy cooperatives: _____

(A) government

(B) livestock

(D) milk

ix. Why is it fair to say that the statement ‘Milk holds cultural and economic importance in India’ in paragraph 3 uses factual language?

(A) It refers to the role of milk in religious rituals and as a part of the daily diet.

(B) It explains how milk consumption is limited to rural areas.

(D) It highlights the effect of dairy products on climate change.

x. Assess the potential challenges or benefits of adopting technological innovations in India’s dairy industry, as suggested in paragraph 5.

2. Read the following carefully.

1. A large portion of India’s elderly population lacks access to long-term and palliative care. A United Nations study, conducted in May-June 2018 with 10,000 respondents across five regions of India, revealed that 62.1% of the elderly do not receive such care. More than half of these respondents (52.4%) stated they primarily rely on traditional family support, as reported by the Agewell Research and Advocacy Centre.

2. The elderly population in India faces challenges like disability, limited mobility, loneliness, poverty, and difficulty accessing care. Rapid population aging, the growing generation gap, and the fast-paced lifestyle of the younger generation have worsened these issues, making life a constant struggle for independence for the elderly.

3. According to 64% of elderly respondents, loneliness, marginalisation, and isolation are the most critical issues for bedridden seniors, as they are unable to interact with relatives or friends. Himanshu Rath, founder of the Agewell Foundation, highlighted that this lack of social contact deepens the sense of isolation among the elderly.

4. The study also noted that 67.6% of elderly individuals, cared for by family members, are often required to help with household chores or babysitting to ensure they receive basic care and support from their families.

5. About 73.7% of elderly respondents mentioned that taking care of the family’s house or property guarantees them better care. Additionally, 75% of respondents limit their social interactions due to pressure from family members to ensure continued support for food and medicines.

6. Rath also noted that home care for the elderly in India remains a challenge, as unorganised service providers such as nursing agencies and physiotherapists offer incomplete care, and geriatric care remains a neglected aspect of the country’s healthcare system.

Answer the following questions, based on given passage.

i. Complete the following suitably.

In the introduction, the researcher links elderly care in India with the reliance on traditional family support to highlight _____.

ii. What would the following be classified as?

To explore the challenges faced by the elderly in accessing long-term and palliative care in India. Select the appropriate response.

(A) Secondary objective

(B) Research outcome

(D) Primary objective

iii. Give two points to support why family involvement was included as a focus in the study on elderly care in India.

iv. Paragraph 3 includes words – ‘isolation’ and ‘family support.’

Classify the following sentences as ‘isolation’ or ‘family support’:

Sentence 1: Elderly individuals who are bedridden feel lonely due to lack of social interaction.

Sentence 2: Many elderly people help with household chores to receive care from family members.

v. Read the following :

Seema regularly helps her family with household chores to ensure she receives the care she needs. Mohan, who lives next door, suffers from isolation because he is bedridden and unable to engage with friends or family. Arindam, their mutual friend, spends much of his time caring for his family’s property in exchange for support. Select the option that identifies the correct situations Seema, Mohan, and Arindam face.

(A) Seema – household chores; Mohan – isolation; Arindam – property management

(B) Seema – isolation; Mohan – social interaction; Arindam – family care

(D) Seema – neglect; Mohan – family care; Arindam – household chores

vi. Although both mobility and poverty contribute to elderly challenges, why is isolation considered the most critical issue for bedridden seniors?

vii. Analyse how the involvement of family in care provision impacts the independence of elderly individuals. (Paragraph 4)

viii. What is the ultimate goal for stakeholders, based on the insights from the study?

(A) Strengthen the involvement of organised service providers for elderly care

(B) Ensure traditional family care systems are maintained

(D) Limit the role of family in elderly care

SECTION B – CREATIVE WRITING SKILLS

3. Attempt ANY ONE of the two, (A) or (B), in about 50 words.

A. While walking in a park in your colony you found a small briefcase with some documents and cash. Write a notice in about 50 words to be put on the park noticeboard asking the owner to identify and collect it from you. You are Rajat/Rani.

B. As the head of Physical Education Department, write a notice in about 50 words informing the students about the selection of athletes for the coming Zonal Athletic meet.

4. Attempt ANY ONE of the two, (A) or (B), in about 50 words.

A. Christ King College, Lalitpur, is celebrating its Annual Day and wants to invite the parents and other guests to the occasion. Design an invitation card for the same in 50 words. Invent necessary details.

B. Your friend has invited you to her sister’s wedding to be held at Nasik. Write a letter declining the invitation because of prior engagement. You are Abha of C-4/140, sector 8 Tandon Road, Nasik.

5. Attempt ANY ONE of the two, (A) or (B), in 120-150 words.

A. You are Wasim/Wahida of New Ashok Colony, Agra. The main road leading to the colony is in a very bad condition with many potholes and open manholes. To add to the woes, there is no streetlight that makes the matters worse at night. Write a letter in about 120-150 words to the Editor of The Times of India drawing attention of the authorities concerned to the problem and to seek immediate remedial action.

B. You are Suraj/Sohana. You came across the following advertisement in a national daily. You consider yourself suitable and eligible for the post. Write an application in about 120-150 words in response to the advertisement.

6. Attempt ANY ONE of the two, (A) or (B) in 120-150 words.

A. Recently you got a chance to participate in a week-long workshop on ‘Energy Conservation’. By the end of the workshop, you were much enlightened about the need and ways of conserving energy. Write an article titled ‘Energy Conservation: the need of the hour’. You are Amrit/Annie of Sarvodya Vidyalaya No. 1, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.

B. You are a reporter with ‘India Today’. You recently witnessed ‘illegal trade of rare animals on some websites’. Write a report in about 120-150 words about the same for your magazine.

SECTION C- LITERATURE

7. Read the following extracts and answer the questions for any one of the given two – (A) or (B).

A. Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool,

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.

The massive weight of uncle’s wedding band,

Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

(Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers)

i. Which of the following themes is best represented in the given extract?

(A) The hopeful and positive bent of mind of Aunt Jennifer

(B) The oppressed and frightened bent of mind of Aunt Jennifer

(D) The creative bend of mind of Aunt Jennifer

ii. Read the assertion and the reason below, with reference to the given extract.

Assertion : Aunt Jennifer struggles with the burdens of her marriage, symbolized by the difficulty in pulling the needle.

Reason : The weight of the wedding band on Aunt Jennifer’s hand represents the oppressive nature of her married life, making even simple tasks hard for her.

Choose the correct option regarding their relationship:

(A) Both the assertion and the reason are true, and the reason is the correct explanation of the assertion.

(B) Both the assertion and the reason are true, but the reason is not the correct explanation of the assertion.

(D) The assertion is false, but the reason is true.

iii. Complete the following suitably. Aunt Jennifer is suffering at the oppressive hands of the _____.

iv. Select the correct option from those given in brackets, to fill in the blank. The ivory _____ (needle/stick) used to embroider is in sharp contrast to the difficulty in using it.

v. Based on the poem rhyme scheme, evident in lines 2-4, of the given extract, which word would rhyme with line 1?

vi. Give an example of alliteration from the extract.

B. I saw my mother

Beside me,

Doze, open mouthed, her face

Ashen like that

Of a corpse and realized with pain

That she was as old as she

Looked but soon

Put that thought away

(My Mother at Sixty-Six)

i. Which of the following themes is best represented in the given extract?

(A) Depiction of human relationships

(B) Power of imagination

(D) Immortality of art and literature

ii. Where is the poetess going when she said, “home to Cochin last Friday”?

iii. Select the correct option from those given in brackets, to fill in the blank.

The extract discusses fear of _____ (childhood/brotherhood).

iv. Read the assertion and the reason below, with reference to the given extract.

Assertion : The poet is overwhelmed with a painful realization of her mother’s aging.

Reason : The poet immediately accepts the reality of her mother’s old age without any emotional struggle.

Choose the correct option regarding their relationship:

(A) Both the assertion and the reason are true, and the reason is the correct explanation of the assertion.

(B) Both the assertion and the reason are true, but the reason is not the correct explanation of the assertion.

(D) The assertion is false, but the reason is true.

v. What message do these lines highlight, in the context of familial relationships, and the speaker’s sense of anxiety and fear at the prospect of losing her mother?

vi. Complete the following suitably. The daughter cringed with pain at the realisation that her mother _____.

8. Read the following extracts and answer the questions for any one of the given two, (A) or (B).

A. MR LAMB : And that’s all true, and you know it.

DERRY It won’t make my face change. Do you know, one day, a woman went by me in the street-I was at a bus stop-and she was with another woman, and she looked at me, and she said… whispered… only I heard her… she said, “Look at that, that’s a terrible thing. That’s a face only a mother could love.”

MR LAMB : So you believe everything you hear, then?

DERRY It was cruel.

(On the Face of It)

i. List the playwright’s purpose of using ellipses (…) in this extract.

ii. Select the option that best describes the reason for using the word ‘cruel’ in conversation.

(A) He feels hurt and pained by the comments of the people on his face.

(B) He feels overheard comments are cruel.

(D) He was not aware of the people’s cruelty.

iii. The people treated Derry because they made _____.

iv. Who called Derry ‘a terrible thing’?

B. You lose all earthly sense of perspective and time here. The visual scale ranges from the microscopic to the mighty: midges and mites to blue whales and icebergs as big as countries (the largest recorded was the size of Belgium). Days go on and on and on in surreal 24-hour austral summer light, and a ubiquitous silence, interrupted only by the occasional avalanche or calving ice sheet, consecrates the place. It’s an immersion that will force you to place yourself in the context of the earth’s geological history. And for humans, the prognosis isn’t good.

(Journey to the End of the Earth)

i. Complete the sentence appropriately.

The range of the ‘visual scale’ in Antarctica as mentioned by the author is _____.

ii. In the line, “You lose all earthly sense of perspective and time here”, what could be the best synonym for the word ‘perspective’ in the context of the passage?

(A) awareness

(B) insight

(D) outlook

iii. Which elements influence earth’s physicality?

iv. How does the narrator feel to see the grandeur of the icy region?

9. Read the following extracts and answer the questions for any one of the given two, (A) or (B).

A. I used every way I knew to overcome this fear, but it held me firmly in its grip. Finally, one October; I decided to get an instructor and learn to swim. I went to a pool and practiced five days a week, an hour each day. The instructor put a belt around me. A rope attached to the belt went through a pulley that ran on an overhead cable. He held on to the end of the rope, and we went back and forth, back and forth across the pool, hour after hour, day after day, week after week. On each trip across the pool a bit of the panic seized me. Each time the instructor relaxed his hold on the rope and I went under some of the old terror returned and my legs froze. It was three months before the tension began to slack. Then he taught me to put my face under water and exhale, and to raise my nose and inhale. I repeated the exercise hundreds of times. Bit by bit I shed part of the panic that seized me when my head went under water.

(Deep Water)

i. Identify the textual clue that allows the reader to infer that the narrator is keen to be free from his fear.

ii. What does the narrator talk about in the given extract?

(A) He wanted to overcome his fears.

(B) He never wanted to swim beyond the pool.

(D) His efforts were half-hearted.

iii. Complete the sentence appropriately.

The writer uses the phrase ‘bit by bit’ to refer to the regular and gradual efforts put in by him as _____.

iv. What kind of act was the hiring of the instructor?

v. What does the phrase ‘I used every way I knew’ refer to?

vi. Which of the following options best suggests the central idea of the extract?

(A) The anxiety of a swimmer

(B) To overcome the fear of water

(D) The importance of a swimmer

B. “Since you have been so nice to me all day long, as if I was a captain, I want to be nice to you, in return, as if I was a real captain-for I do not want you to be embarrassed at this Christmas season by a thief; but you can give back the money to the old man on the roadside, who has the money pouch hanging on the window frame as a bait for poor wanderers.”

The rattrap is a Christmas present from a rat who would have been caught in this world’s rattrap if he had not been raised to captain, because in that way he got power to clear himself.

“Written with friendship and high regard, Captain von Stahle.”

(The Rattrap)

i. Why did the peddler gift a rattrap as a Christmas present?

ii. This communication includes

(A) a promise

(B) regret

(D) (A) and (C)

iii. What is the significance of the letter written to Edla?

iv. Do you think the peddler would have changed if Edla would not have been nice to him?

v. Which of the following CANNOT be attributed to the peddler, according to the above extract?

(A) Indebtedness

(B) Reform

(D) Self-awareness

vi. Complete the sentence appropriately.

The peddler signs himself as Captain Von stable to _____.

10. Answer ANY FIVE of the following six questions, in about 40-50 words.

i. Can you think of some possible reasons for the migration of people from village to city? Explain with reference to ‘Lost Spring’.

ii. What made the peddler think that he had really fallen into a rattrap?

(The Rattrap)

iii. What is the significance of uncle’s ‘wedding band’? Why does Aunt Jennifer find it heavy?

(Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers)

iv. What spreads the pall of despondence over our dark spirits? How is it removed?

(A Thing of Beauty)

v. Why does Pablo Neruda count up to twelve and what is the purpose of this exercise?

(Keeping Quiet)

vi. Why was there a crowd in front of the bulletin-board at the town Hall?

(The Last Lesson)

11. Answer ANY TWO of the following three questions in 40-50 words each:

i. Why did the general spare the American soldier?

(The Enemy)

ii. What qualities of Mr Lamb attracted Derry to him?

(On the Face of It)

iii. Why could Charley not be convinced by his distractions that the third level was only a wish fulfilment?

(The Third Level)

12. Answer ANY ONE of the following two questions, in about 120-150 words.

A. Exploitation is a universal phenomenon. The poor indigo farmers were exploited by the British landlords to which Gandhiji objected. Even after our independence, we find exploitation of unorganized labour. What values do we learn from Gandhiji’s campaign to counter the present day problems of exploitation? Imagine yourself to be a motivational speaker who has to address high school students. Write this address in about 120-150 words elaborating how the weak have always and at all times been the victims of injustice and exploitation.

(Indigo)

B. Sophie lives in her fantasies. She hopes to make it big. You realise that the modern day youth are also like her. You decide to write an article about the need to dream and how it can prove to be harmful sometimes. You are Poorti from class XII.

(Going Places)

13. Answer ANY ONE of the following two questions, in about 120-150 words.

A. ‘Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.’ In light of this quote, examine how knowing the future paved the way for the king’s end.

(The Tiger King)

B. “But this eating by formula was not the hardest trial in that first day”, says Zitkala-Sa. What do you understand by ‘eating by formula’ and how did she find it a hard trial? (Memories of Childhood)

Class XII – English Core – Paper – 2