Q1. Write essays on any 2 of the following in about 500 words each: (2×40=80)
(a) Artificial intelligence: Boon or threat to creativity in Assam universities
(b) The role of the Indian Constitution in shaping a plural society
(c) Women in the armed forces: Breaking barriers and building capability
(d) Wisdom lies in knowing what one does not know
(e) Climate change and Assam’s food security
(f) Federalism in India: Cooperation, competition and conflict
Q2. Write arguments for and against each of the following statements: (2×20=40)
(a) Social media has strengthened democracy more than it has weakened it.
(b) The pen is mightier than the sword.
Q3. Write reports on the following in about 200 words each: (2×10=20)
(a) Road accidents in Assam
(b) Drug abuse among the youth in Assam
Q4. Attempt a précis of the given passage in one-third of its length. Do not suggest a title. Write, as far as possible, in your own words. The précis must be written only in the précis-format given below: (15)
The habit of reading is one of the most valuable that a person can acquire, yet it is often neglected in an age crowded with more immediate amusements. A book offers what no passing image can wholly supply: the chance to stop, to reflect, and to return to a difficult sentence until its meaning becomes clear. The reader is not carried along at the speed of another person’s narration. He sets his own pace, and in doing so he learns to think for himself. Reading also enlarges the vocabulary, and a person with a rich vocabulary can express finer shades of thought and feeling.
It is sometimes argued that the printed page is a dying medium, and that information is now so easily obtained that the labour of reading whole books has become unnecessary. This argument confuses information with understanding. A fact can be looked up in a moment, but the ability to weigh one fact against another, to see how an argument is built, and to detect where it is weak cannot be looked up. These are skills of the mind, and like the muscles of the body they grow only through steady exercise. Those who read little are therefore easily persuaded by whoever speaks loudest.
Reading also gives a person access to lives and worlds that he could never visit in person. Through a novel he may enter the thoughts of someone born in another century or another country, and he learns that people whose customs differ from his own share his hopes and fears. In this way literature is a school of sympathy. The person who has learnt to imagine the feelings of others is less likely to be cruel and more likely to be fair in his dealings with them.
Finally, reading is a private pleasure that costs little and can be enjoyed at any age. It is a companion in loneliness and a comfort in illness. A well-stocked shelf is a form of wealth that cannot be taxed or stolen. Parents and teachers who wish to give a child something that will last a lifetime cannot do better than to place a good book in his hands and leave him alone with it. (Approx. 380 words)
Q5. Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow: (5×4=20)
There is a common belief that success is the opposite of failure, and that those who fail have somehow been marked out for a life of disappointment. History does not support this belief. Most of the discoveries that have changed human life were preceded by long chains of mistakes, and the men and women who made them were distinguished from their fellows not by their freedom from error but by their refusal to be stopped by it. The scientist who repeats an experiment a hundred times and fails ninety-nine has not wasted ninety-nine days. He has learnt ninety-nine ways in which the world does not behave, and this knowledge is the ground on which the final success is built.
Our schools and our society, however, tend to teach the opposite lesson. A child who gives a wrong answer is corrected, and often laughed at, and soon learns that safety lies in silence. As he grows older he chooses only those tasks in which he is sure to succeed and avoids all that might expose his ignorance. Such a person may lead a comfortable life, but he will seldom produce anything new. Originality demands a willingness to be wrong in public.
What is needed is a change in our attitude to failure. It should be regarded not as a verdict on a person but as a piece of information about a method. A failed attempt tells us what to alter next time. The nation that teaches its young to accept honest failure, to examine it without shame, and to try again with greater skill will not lack inventors, explorers and reformers. It will be a nation that is truly unafraid of the future.
(i) What, according to the author, distinguishes the makers of great discoveries from other people?
(ii) Explain the statement: “He has learnt ninety-nine ways in which the world does not behave.”
(iii) What wrong lesson do our schools and society often teach a child?
(iv) Why does the author say that a person who avoids all risk of failure seldom produces anything new?
(v) What change in attitude towards failure does the author recommend? Do you agree with him? Give reasons.
Q6. (a) Rewrite the sentences as directed: (10×1=10)
(i) He is ________ honest man who has never told a lie.
(Fill in the blank with the correct article)
(ii) The committee has decided to abstain ________ voting on the resolution.
(Fill in the blank with the correct preposition)
(iii) By the time the police arrived, the thieves ________ escaped.
(Fill in the blank with the correct auxiliary verb)
(iv) The Chief Minister will inaugurate the bridge tomorrow.
(Change into passive voice)
(v) Let the work be finished by the workers before noon.
(Change into active voice)
(vi) The teacher said to the students, “Where did you keep the answer sheets?”
(Change into indirect speech)
(vii) She told me that she had been waiting for me since morning.
(Change into direct speech)
(viii) Nobody can deny the importance of discipline, ________ ?
(Put the correct question tag)
(ix) He worked hard so that he might win the scholarship.
(Change into simple sentence)
(x) He is so weak that he cannot climb the stairs.
(Rewrite the sentence using “too”)
(b) Give the plural form of the following words and make sentences using the plural form: (5×2=10)
(i) criterion
(ii) bacterium
(iii) phenomenon
(iv) stratum
(v) index
(c) Correct the following sentences without making any unnecessary changes: (5×1=5)
(i) Each of the boys have submitted their assignment.
(ii) The furniture in the rooms are very old.
(iii) He prefers walking than riding.
(iv) Hardly had he reached the station when the train had left.
(v) Neither the manager nor the clerks was present in the office.
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