ICSE Class 10 English Literature Sample Question Paper 4 with Answers
Maximum Marks: 40
Time: 1 1/2 Hours
Section – A [10 Marks]
Attempt all questions
Question 1.
Choose the correct answers to the questions from the given options. (Do not copy the question, write the correct answer only.)
(i) What does the angel’s appearance for the second time with a list where Abou’s name topped prove?
(a) God loves all those who love him
(b) God loves those who love his creation more than him
(c) God loves all those who love and adore him
(d) God rejects those who love his creation more than him
Answers:
(b) God loves those who love his creation more than him
(ii) Identify the figure of speech used here “youngest among them stumbled and staggered.” in the poem ‘Nine Gold Medals’.
(a) Hyperbole
(c) Personification
(b) Alliteration
(d) Metaphor
Answers:
(b) Alliteration
(iii) What message does Jesse Owens give in the lesson ‘My Greatest Olympic Prize’?
(a) The essential thing in life is to do anything to win
(b) The essential thing in life is never bow down
(c) The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well
(d) The essential thing in life is to be a winner.
Answers:
(c) The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well
(iv) Jesse Owens in the lesson ‘My Greatest Olympic Prize’ says Luz offered him a ‘firm handshake’ indicating a sign of ………..
(a) Strength and assuredness
(b) Jeering and Pride
(c) Assurance and shakiness
(d) Jeering and taunting
Answers:
(a) Strength and assuredness
(v) In the story ‘All Summer in a Day’ when the sun comes out it sends a flaming .
(a) Golden colour
(b) Pale Yellow colour
(c) Bronze colour
(d) Floral and bright
Answers:
(c) Bronze
(vi) In the story ‘All Summer in a Day’ the narrator states that the children ran without stopping in the sunlight for:
(a) Fifteen minutes
(b) Sixty minutes
(c) Thirty minutes
(d) Sixty Seconds
Answers:
(b) Sixty minutes
(vii) What does Gratiano offer shylock after the latter has lost his property and case?
(a) Help
(b) Water
(c) Food
(d) Rope
Answers:
(d) Rope
(viii) Where does scene (ii) of Act IV take place?
(a) Outside the court, in Venice
(c) A street in Belmont
(b) A street in Venice
(d) Outside the court, in Belmont
Answers:
(b) A street in Venice
(ix) How does Lorenzo realise that Portia is back from Venice?
(a) From her ‘lyrical’ voice
(b) From her ‘bad’ voice
(c) From her ‘sweet’ voice
(d) From her ‘husky’ voice
Answers:
(b) From her ‘bad’ voice
(x) Nerissa’s love story runs almost the same course as Portia’s love story.
Which of the given statements is true in this respect?
(a) The above statement is false
(b) Nerissa’s love story is not important to the structure of the play
(c) Nerissa’s love story is more important than Portia’s love story
(d) Nerissa’s love story is a faint echo of Portia’s love story
Answers:
(d) Nerissa’s love story is a faint echo of Portia’s love story
Section-B [10 Marks]
DRAMA
(The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare – Acts 4 and 5)
Question 2.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Shylock: You’ll ask me, why I rather choose to have A weight of carrion flesh than to receive Three thousand ducats: I’ll not answer that! But, say, it is my humour: is it answer’d?
(i) What is Shylock’s quest on seeking justice about and where does the scene takes place? [2]
Answers:
‘We’, here refers to Jesse Owens, an American track and field athlete, and Luz Long, the German athlete. The Olympic Games were held in Berlin and Hitler declared that his performers were members of the ‘master race’. This affected Owens’ performance and being a Negro, he was hot under collar. He got angry and made mistakes in his trial performances. He fouled in three qualifying jumps and this was eating him.
(ii) How does Shylock express his reasoning for the pursuit of revenge? [2]
Answers:
Jesse Owens ‘My Greatest Olympic Prize’ mentions Nazis idea of Aryan Superiority theory. The Aryan races were thought to predominate among Germans and other Northern Europeans. Nazis believed in the theory of racial hierarchy. They considered Germans as the part of Aryans, the master race and others inferior. Although Luz Long was schooled in the Nazi Youth movement, he didn’t believe in the Aryan supremacy business.
(iii) Why does Shylock reply with vehemence and intensity [3]
Answers:
Jesse did not tell Luz Long about his trouble but he seemed to understand Jesse’s anger. Long tried to ease out the situation by explaining that he didn’t believe in the Aryan-Supremacy business and when Jesse calmed down, he suggested him to draw a line a few inches back of the board and aim at taking off from that line. He assured him that he would never foul from that point.
(iv) Shylock confesses his hate and loathing towards Antonio openly. Explain. [3]
Answers:
When Owens won the finals, Luz Long came to him and congratulated him by warmly shaking hands with him. Owens found no feeling of regret or jealousy in him as he was also an opponent. He was highly influenced by Long’s sportsmanship. Luz Long’s friendship was the greatest Olympic Prize that he won in his whole life. His helpful nature and camaraderie touched Owens greatly. His friendship and his congratulating Owens over his victory were of value greater than the Gold Medal. Luz Long was a man of pure and genuine heart and soul. He represented the best example of Coubertin’s message that the important thing at the Olympic Games was not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
Question 3.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Bassanio : Were you the doctor, and I knew you not?
Gratiano : Were you the clerk?
Antonio : Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
For here I read for certain that my ships Are safely come to road.
Portia : How now, Lorenzo!
My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.
(i) Where does this scene take place? What had Portia directed Antonio to give to Bassanio, just moments before the above words were spoken? [2]
Answers:
sleep after a day full of work and service. The poet says that he was deep in a dream of peace, which indicates that he was sleeping very soundly. He was dreaming a peaceful dream and this shows that he was in a very calm state of mind. Abou Ben Adhem had no trouble sleeping at all. He was a pious man who had gone to
(ii) Portia had just given Antonio, Bassanio and Gratiano a letter to read. Who had written this letter? What does Bassanio learn about Portia from this letter? [2]
Answers:
Deep in his sleep, Abou Ben Adhem was having a wonderful and peaceful dream. The poet says that he was dreaming deeply and that shows he was having a very sound sleep. A night of sound sleep and a calming dream are both signs of a healthy mind and a clean conscience. Portia says the letter that came from Padua was written by Bellario, a lawyer. Bassanio learns that it was his wife who had pretended to be a lawyer and saved Antonio.
(iii) What good news does Portia have for Antonio? How does he respond to it? [3]
Answers:
Portia gives the good news that Antonio will find three of his argosies at the harbour laden with rich cargo and hearing this, Antonio is too surprised to react. Antonio says, ‘You have given me my life and my livelihood.
(iv) How was Bassanio persuaded to give away the ring that Portia had given him at the time of their marriage? What does this reveal about Bassanio’s relationship with Antonio? [3]
Answers:
Portia who had played the role of a lawyer defending Antonio had asked for the ring that Bassanio had received from her earlier as an appreciation of her role in saving his friend. Bassanio, at first refused to part with it saying his wife would be upset if he gave the ring away. He was supposed to keep it as a token of faith. Portia said, he was giving a lame excuse as all husbands do and pretended to be disappointed when Bassanio did not part with it even after she had saved his friend from the clutches of death. Antonio also persuaded him in the name of friendship and for the lawyer’s service. Bassanio valued Antonio’s friendship highly and could not refuse him. He was prepared to risk Portia’s anger as Antonio was his dearest friend.
Section-C [10 Marks]
PROSE – SHORT STORIES
(Treasure Trove – A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)
Question 4.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
He gave her a shove. But she did not move, rather she let herself be moved only by him and nothing else. They edged away from her; they would not look at her. She felt them go away.
(i) Who is ‘she’ ? Describe her.[2]
Answers:
‘She’ is referred to the nine-year-old Margot, who came to planet Venus five years ago, from Earth. It is difficult for her to adapt to the conditions of Venus, where it had been raining continuously for seven years. It looked as if the incessant rain had washed the red colour from her face, the blue colour of her eyes and the golden colour of her hair. Without the sight of the Sun, she became a faded, whitened photograph from an old album and looked sick like a ghost.
(ii) Where is this story set ? Mention any two ways in which the way of life on their planet differs from life on Earth. [2]
Answers:
The story is set on the planet Venus, where it rains constantly, except for two hours after every seven years, when the sun come out. Unlike the Earth, there is a continuous raining climate for seven years and the Sun shows only for two hours, after every seven-year-period. Because of the continuous showers, “a thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again” i.e., there must be thick vegetation all around the place.
(iii) Why did the other children not come to her aid when William shoved her? [3]
Answers:
The other children or Margot’s classmates were cruel towards Margot, because she knew more than them about Earth and the Sun. There was a sense of jealousy in them, as they could not accept the fact that Margot had the experience of living under the Sun when they hardly remember it. That is why the other children did not come to help her when William locked her in the closet.
(iv) How does her behaviour set her apart from the others? Why do you suppose the other children treat – her the way they do? [3]
Answers:
It seemed that the rains had affected her mentally as well. She never answered questions from other children. Even if they tried to involve her in the game of chasing by tagging her, she stood blinking after them and did not follow. She did not even sing songs of happiness and life with other children in the class, but only sang about the Sun and the summer. She stood quite apart from all of them and watched the patterning windows, thinking about the time she would return back to Earth. There was a sense of jealousy in the other children towards Margot as she knew more than them about life on Earth and the Sun. Also, she would not play with them nor talk to them whenever they tried.
Question 5.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I wasn’t too worried about all this. I’d trained, sweated, and disciplined myself for six years, with the Games in mind.
While I was going over on the boat, all I could think about was taking home one or two of those gold medals.
(i) Who is the ‘I’? What is meant by ‘all this’? Which games are mentioned here? [2]
Answers:
Jesse Owens, the Black Olympic gold medal winner of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, is the ‘I’ referred here. Hitler had proclaimed that his performers were superior as they belonged to the ‘Master Race’, and no black man would ever win the games but Jesse did not allow ‘all this’ to bother him. The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games are mentioned here.
(ii) Which event was the speaker focussing on? Why? What was the surprise that awaited him? [2]
Answers:
Jesse was focussing on running the broad jump. A year before, at Ohio State University competition, he had set a world record of 26 feet 8-1/4 inches and everyone expected him to win the gold medal. When the time came for broad jump trials, he saw a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet with supreme ease, and this startled Jesse.
(iii) Why did the narrator make mistakes? What was the mistake that he was doing? Who came to his .. help? Describe the physical features of this person. [3]
Answers:
The narrator was angry as he came to know that Hitler had kept an ace athlete under wraps to prove the Nazi Aryan race superiority theory. He was determined to prove him wrong. An angry athlete is bound to make mistakes and this was exactly what he did. He leaped several inches beyond the take off board for a foul in the first three qualifying jumps. Luz Long, the German broad jumper, came to his rescue. He was taller than Jesse, strikingly handsome, with a chiseled face, a lean muscular frame, and clear blue eyes, looking every inch an Aryan.
(iv) Evaluate the friend of the narrator as a sportsman. [3]
Answers:
Luz Long, the narrator’s friend proved to be an embodiment of sportsman spirit. [n spite of knowing very well that Jesse could win the medal with the right frame of mind, the German encouraged him and advised him on how to avoid fouling. By doing this, he rose up to the motto of the Olympic spirit that the important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part that the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well. Luz genuinely wanted the Negro to do his best and was the happiest one when he finally won. Thus, the true sportsman in him transgressed the feelings of racism and nationalism and even risked Hitler’s anger when he congratulated the winner.
Section-D [10 Marks]
POETRY
(Treasure Trove – A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)
Question 6.
Read the extract &‘en below and answer the questions that follow;
For the next fiw minutes uy talked together. I didn’t tell Long what ¡ros “asting” me, but he seemed to understand my anger. and he took pains to reassure me.
(i) Who arr the ‘we’ mentioned here? Give the meaning of ‘what was “eating” me,’ and “took pains to reassure me.” [2]
Answers:
‘We’, here refers to Jesse Owens, an American track and field athlete, and Luz Long, the German athlete, The Olympic Gaznes were held in Berlin and Hitler declared that his performers were members of the ‘master race’. This affected Owens’ performance and being a Negro. he was hot under collar. He got angry and made mistakes in his trial performances. He fouled in three qualifying jumps and this was eating him.
(ii) What is being referred to a Nazi youth movement and Aryan supremacy? [2]
Answers:
Jesse Owens ‘My Greatesi Olympic Prize’ mentions Nazis idea of Aryan Superiority theory. The Aryan races were thought to predominate among Germans and other Northern Europeans. Nazls believed in the theory of racial hierarchy. They considered Germans as the part of Aryal% the master race and others inferior. Although Luz Long was schooled in the Nazi Youth movement, he didn’t believe in the Aryan supremacy business.
(iii) What was the advice given by the person described? [3]
Answers:
Jesse did not tell Luz Long about his trouble but he seemed to understand Jesse’s anger. Long tried tu ease out the situation by explaining that he didn’t believe In the Aryan-Supremacy business and when Jesse calmed down, he suggested him to draw a line a Few inches back of the board and aim at taking off from that line, He assured him that he would never foul from that point.
(iv) What can you say about the quality of Friendship between the two? [3]
Answers:
When Owens won the finals. Luz Long came to him and congratulated him by warmly shaking hands with him. Owens found no feeling of regret or jealousy in him as he was also an opponent. He was highly influenced by Long’s sportsmanship Luz Long’s friendship was the greatest Olympic Prize that he won In his whole life. His helpful nature and camaraderie touched Owen,s greatly His friendship and his congratulating Owens over his victory were of value greater than the Gold Medal. Luz Long was a man of pure and genuine heart and soul. He represented the best example of Coubertin’s message that the Important thing at the Olympic Games was not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life Is not conquering but fighting well.
Question 7.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow;
Abon Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace.
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in Hooin.
An angel writing in a bent of gold:-
(i) Was Abou Ben Adheni having any trouble with sleeping? I low do we know it? [2]
Answer:
Abou Ben Adhem had no trouble sleeping at all. He was a pious man who had gone to sleep after a day full of work and service. The poet says that he was deep in a dream of peace, which indicates that he was sleeping very soundly. He was dreaming a peaceful dream and this shows that he was in a very calm state of mind.
(ii) While asleep, what was Abon Ben Adhem engrossed in? [2]
Answer:
Deep in his sleep, Abou Ben Adhem was having a wonderful and peaceful dream. The poet says that he was dreaming deeply and that shows he was having a very sound sleep. A night of sound sleep and a calming dream are both signs of a healthy mind and a clean conscience.
(iii) How was Abon Ben Adhem able to see during the night? How Is the light in his room? [3]
Answer:
When Abou Ben Adhem woke up from his sleep it was still night. Though it was late night, there was enough light in his room due to moonlight. The poet says that rich moonlight was pouring in through the window because of which the room was richly lit. The light in his room was brilliant and clear.
(iv) What must be Abon Ben Adhem experiencing when he broke away from a dream to find himself once again In a dreamlike situation? [3]
Answer:
When a person is dreaming deeply and wakes up from sleep, one opens up to reality. The memory of the dream begins to recede and our understanding of reality commences. But in the case of Abou Ben Adhem, he wakes up from a dream and finds himself in yet another dreamy situation. There is bright moonlight in his room and an angel is sitting with a golden book. Abou Ben Adhem must have been startled as well as amused at this strange scene. But as he was a pious man with a clean conscience, the angel did not shock him out of his senses, and he was able to strike a conversation with the angel.