DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL NEWTOWN

SESSION 2022-23
PRE BOARD EXAMINATION

CLASS: X FULL MARKS: 80

SUBJECT: ENGLISH PAPER I (Set A) TIME: 2 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.

Attempt all five questions.

The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets [ ].
This paper consists of seven printed pages.

Question 1

Write a composition (300-350 words) on any one of the following: [20]

i) Write an original short story where a young boy, a blind man and an old lady are the
main characters.

ii) You had recently visited your uncle’s house in a remote village. Describe what you
saw, heard and experienced there. How was the village surrounding different from
that of the city?

iii) “Internet has made our lives better.” Express your views either for or against this
statement.

iv) Teaching someone else how to do something can be a rewarding experience. Think of
a skill that you have taught someone. Perhaps you taught someone to swim or to bake
a cake or to use a gadget etc. Narrate the experience of teaching any one skill to

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 another person. How did you feel to see the outcome? Why was the experience so
memorable to you?

v) Study the picture given below. Write a story or a description or an account of what it
suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or you may
take suggestions from it; however, there must be a clear connection between the
picture and your composition.

Question 2
Select any one of the following: [10]

i) Your father has been transferred to another town and you had to shift with him.
Write a letter to your cousin describing the new town and the new school you are
attending. Also mention how you are missing your previous school.

ii) You had recently visited the zoo. The poor and unhygienic conditions of the enclosed
animals saddened you. Write a letter to the Director of the zoological park of your city
mentioning what you have witnessed and suggest ways to improve their condition.

Question 3

i) Your school is hosting an Inter-School Recitation Competition for the students of

classes VIII to X. Write a notice informing the students about the event. [5]

ii) Write an e-mail to the Principal of a neighbouring school informing him/her about the
Inter-School Recitation Competition and requesting him/her to send three children to
participate. [5]

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Question 4
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Richard Parker was so named because of a clerical error.

A panther was terrorizing the Khulna district of Bangladesh, just outside the Sunderbans. It
had recently carried off a little girl. She was the seventh person killed in two months by the
animal. It was growing bolder day by day. The previous victim was a man who had been
attacked in broad daylight in the field. The beast dragged him off into the forest and his
corpse was later found hanging from a tree. The villagers kept a watch that night, hoping to
surprise the panther and kill it but it never happened.

The Forest Department hired a professional hunter. He set up a small, hidden platform in a
tree near a river where two of the attacks had taken place. A goat was tied to a stake on the
river’s bank. The hunter waited for several nights. He assumed the panther would be an old,
wasted male with worn teeth, incapable of catching anything more difficult than human.
Surprisingly, it was a sleek tiger that stepped into the open one night: a female with a single
cub. The goat bleated. Oddly, the cub that looked to be about three months old, paid little
attention to the goat. It raced to the edge of the water where it drank eagerly. Its mother
followed it. Of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater urge. Only once the tiger had quenched
her thirst did she turn to the goat to satisfy her hunger.

The hunter had two rifles with him: one with real bullets, the other with immobilizing darts.
The animal was not the man-eater but so close to human habitation that she might pose a
threat to the villagers, especially as she was with a cub. He picked up the gun with the darts.
He fired as the tiger was about to attack the goat. The tiger reared up and snarled and raced
away. Immobilizing darts don’t bring on sleep gently –it knocks the creature out without
warning. The activities on the animal’s part make it act faster. The hunter called his
assistants on the radio. They found the tiger about two hundred yards from the river. She
was still conscious. Her back legs were given way and her balance on her front legs was
shaky. When the men got close, she tried to get away but could not manage it. She turned
towards them, lifting a paw that was meant to kill. It only made her lose her balance. She
collapsed and the Pondicherry Zoo had two new tigers. The cub was found in a bush close by,
meowing with fear.

The hunter whose name was Richard Parker, picked it up with his bare hands and
remembering how it had rushed to drink in river, named it Thirsty. Unfortunately, the
shipping clerk at the Howrah station was evidently a man both confused and diligent. All the
papers received with the cub clearly stated that its name was Richard Parker. It also stated
that the hunter’s first name was Thirsty and his surname was ‘None Given’. Richard
Parker’s name was fixed. I don’t know if the hunter was ever called Thirsty None Given.

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 i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from
the options provided: [3]

1. corpse
a) belonging
b) one type of precious stone
c) dead body
d) younger son

2. quenched
a) satisfied
b) overpowered
c) attacked
d) ignored

3. collapsed
a) captured
b) lost consciousness
c) roared in pain
d) looked feebly

ii) Answer the following questions briefly in your words:

a) Why does the author say that the panther was ‘getting bolder’? [2]
b) What arrangements were made by the hunter to catch the animal? [2]
c) What did the hunter expect to encounter? What did he finally encounter? [2]
d) Why did the tiger move towards the edge of the water before attacking the
goat? Why did the hunter decide to shoot the tiger though he knew it was not
the man-eater? [2]
e) What was the name given to the cub at first? [1]

iii) In not more than 50 words, describe the condition of the tiger after it was shot. [8]

Question 5

i) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in
brackets. Do not copy the passage but write in correct serial order the word or
phrase appropriate to the blank space. Example: (0): saw [4]

One morning, I __ (0)__ (see) the python curled up on the dressing table. It was
__(1)___ (gaze) at its own reflection in the mirror. I __(2)___ (go) for grandfather

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 but by the time we ___(3)___(return) to the room, the python had ___(4)___ (move)
on. He was seen in the garden and once the cook saw him ___(5)___ (crawl) up the
ladder to the roof. Then we ___(6)___ (find) him on the dressing table again
___(7)___ (admire) himself in the mirror. I was ____(8)_____ (impress) to see it in
that manner.

ii) Fill in the blanks with appropriate words: [4]

a) The soldiers were devoid ______ sympathy.

b) She broke ______ at the news of her friend’s death.
c) I paid for the lunch ______ advance to save time.
d) The children entered the haunted house ______ mistake.
e) This shop does not have the books we were looking ______.
f) The brothers fought ______ a trivial issue.
g) Injured leg prevented me _______ participating in the dance competition.
h) It is raining heavily _______ morning.

iii) Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or
so. Choose the correct option. [4]

1. We lost our ticket. We lost our luggage.

a) We lost our ticket and our luggage.

b) We lose our ticket as well as our luggage.
c) Having lost our ticket, we lost our luggage.
d) We lost our ticket as well as our luggage.

2. The roads were flooded. I reached the station on time.

a) As the roads were flooded, I reached the station on time.

b) Although the roads were flooded, I reached the station on time.
c) The roads were flooded but I reached the station on time.
d) Although the roads had been flooded, I reached the station on time.

3. My sister gave me a piece of cake. I was unable to eat it.

a) My sister gave me a cake which I was unable to eat.

b) My sister gave me a piece of cake which I am unable to eat.

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 c) My sister gave me a piece of cake which I was unable to eat.
d) As my sister gave me a piece of cake, I was unable to eat it.

4. I will not visit the library. I will not visit the church.

a) Neither I will visit the library nor the church.

b) Neither will I visit the library nor the church.
c) Neither will I visit the library nor will I visit the church.
d) I will not visit the library and the church.

iv) Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make
other changes that may be necessary but do not change the meaning of each sentence.
Choose the correct options. [8]

1. The Mayor was busy but he came to give away the prizes. (Begin: Despite…)

a) Despite being very busy, the Mayor came to give away the prizes.
b) Despite being busy, he came to give away the prizes.
c) Despite being busy, the Mayor came to give away the prizes.
d) Despite of being busy, the Mayor came to give away the prizes.

2. Sohini is one of the tallest girls in our group. (End: …..Sohini.)

a) No other girl in our group is as tall as Sohini.

b) Very few girls in our class are as tall as Sohini.
c) Very few girls in our group are as tall as Sohini.
d) The tallest girl in our group is Sohini.

3. My grandmother had gifted me a blue bag. (Begin: A blue…)

a) A blue bag has been gifted to me by my grandmother.

b) A blue bag had been gifted to me by my grandmother.
c) A blue bag was gifted to me by my grandmother.
d) A blue bag had been gifted to my grandmother by me.

4. As soon as I opened the parcel, I jumped in joy. (Begin: Hardly…)

a) Hardly did I opened the parcel than I jumped in joy.

b) Hardly had I open the parcel when I jumped in joy.

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 c) Hardly did I open the parcel, I jumped in joy.
d) Hardly did I open the parcel when I jumped in joy.

5. The boy said to his friend, “I went to the temple yesterday.” (Begin: The boy
told his friend that….)

a) The boy told his friend that he had gone to the temple the day before.
b) The boy told his friend that he went to the temple the day before.
c) The boy told his friend that he had gone to the temple yesterday.
d) The boy told his friend that he went to the temple the following day.

6. I will not be able to join the school this month. (Use: unable)

a) I would be unable to join the school that month.

b) I will be able to join the school this month.
c) I will be unable to join the school that month.
d) I will be unable to join the school this month.

7. The computer is too slow to download the movie in twenty minutes.

(Remove: 'too')

a) The computer is so slow to download the movie in twenty minutes.

b) The computer is so slow that it cannot download the movie in thirty
minutes.
c) The computer is so slow that it can download the movie in twenty
minutes.
d) The computer is so slow that it cannot download the movie in twenty
minutes.

8. Unless he submits the project, he will not be marked. (Begin: If…)

a) If he submits the project, he will be marked.
b) If he submits the project, he will not be marked.
c) If he does not submit the project, he will be marked.
d) If submits the project, she will be marked.

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