English — Model Question Paper (Set 3)

1. Sleep is often treated as the first thing to sacrifice when life gets busy. Students trade it for one more hour of revision, workers for one more task, and almost everyone for one more episode or scroll. Yet of all the things the body does, sleep may be the least optional. It is not a passive switching-off but an intense period of repair, during which the brain sorts the day’s experiences, files away what matters and quietly discards the rest.

2. Scientists now describe sleep as a kind of overnight housekeeping for the mind. While we rest, the brain strengthens the connections tied to new learning and clears away waste products that build up during waking hours. This is why a problem that seems impossible at midnight can look surprisingly simple after a good night’s sleep. The phrase ‘let me sleep on it’ turns out to be sound advice, not mere delay.

3. The cost of skimping is steep. Even modest, regular sleep loss dulls attention, weakens memory and shortens temper, and over years it is linked to poorer health. Teenagers are especially affected: their body clocks naturally shift later, yet school begins early, leaving many chronically short of rest. The result is a generation trying to learn on a tank that is rarely full.

4. The remedies are unglamorous but effective. A steady bedtime, a cool dark room and a screen switched off an hour before sleep do more than any supplement. Sleep cannot be stored in advance or fully repaid at the weekend; it has to be taken, in reasonable amounts, night after night. Treating it as a foundation rather than a luxury may be one of the simplest investments a person can make.

Answer the following (1 mark each):

1. According to paragraph 1, sleep is best described as — (a) a passive switching-off (b) an intense period of repair (c) a waste of time (d) optional rest.
2. What does the brain do with the day’s experiences during sleep? (one line)
3. Why, according to paragraph 2, can a hard midnight problem look simple after sleep?
4. The phrase “let me sleep on it” is called — (a) mere delay (b) sound advice (c) laziness (d) a joke.
5. State True/False: Sleep can be fully ‘repaid’ by sleeping extra at the weekend.
6. Why are teenagers “especially affected” by sleep loss?
7. The word “skimping” in paragraph 3 most nearly means — (a) saving too little (b) sleeping well (c) exercising (d) eating little.
8. List any TWO remedies the writer recommends for better sleep.
9. What metaphor does the writer use for a sleep-deprived generation (para 3)?
10. Which word in paragraph 4 means ‘not attractive or exciting’?

1. A wildlife trust recorded the population of a protected tiger reserve over four counts. In 2010 there were 40 tigers; in 2014, 58; in 2018, 75; and in 2022, 92. Over the same period, the area under forest cover in the reserve rose from 180 sq km to 240 sq km, and the number of reported poaching incidents fell from 14 a year to just 2.

2. The trust noted that the sharpest rise in tiger numbers (from 58 to 75) came in the four years after a village was relocated away from the core zone and a new team of forest guards was trained. Prey animals such as deer also became more plentiful during this period.

3. However, the report warned that the reserve was now close to its ‘carrying capacity’ — the maximum number of tigers the available land and prey can support — and that further growth would need either more connected forest corridors or risk pushing tigers into human settlements.

Answer the following (1 mark each):

1. How many tigers were counted in 2010?
2. By how many did the tiger population grow between 2010 and 2022?
3. In which four-year span did the sharpest rise occur?
4. By how many sq km did forest cover increase over the period?
5. State True/False: Poaching incidents rose over the period.
6. Name ONE action that preceded the sharpest rise in tiger numbers.
7. Why did prey animals matter to the tiger count?
8. What does ‘carrying capacity’ mean, as used in the passage?
9. What TWO options does the report suggest for further growth?
10. Which single conclusion best fits the data? (a) protection efforts have worked (b) tigers are declining (c) forests shrank (d) poaching rose.

(a) You are Neha / Nikhil. Write a letter to the Editor of a newspaper on the importance of adequate sleep for students and the harm of late-night screen use. (100–120 words)

OR

(b) Write a letter of enquiry to the warden of a wildlife reserve seeking permission and details for a school educational visit. (100–120 words)

(a) Write an analytical paragraph (100–120 words) interpreting the tiger-reserve data in Q2: describe the growth and explain what caused it.

OR

(b) Write an analytical paragraph (100–120 words): “Why students must treat sleep as a foundation, not a luxury.”

(A) “His mother and father, his brothers and sisters, had all flown away … and he was hungry. He stepped slowly to the brink of the ledge, and there he stood, his toes clasping the rough, projecting rock.”

1. Name the lesson and its author.
2. Who is ‘he’, and why is he alone on the ledge?
3. What is ‘he’ afraid to do?
4. What finally makes him act?
5. Find a word that means ‘the edge of something’.

OR

(B) “There are many ways of flavouring tea … some drink it with milk. For a better flavour some use cardamoms, ginger, cloves and even peppercorns.”

1. Name the lesson and its author.
2. Which region of India is being described in this chapter?
3. What legend about tea is mentioned in the lesson?
4. Name any two things used to flavour tea here.
5. What does the chapter celebrate about India?

(A) “The trees inside are moving out into the forest, / the forest that was empty all these days / where no bird could sit / no insect hide / no sun bury its feet in shadow.”

1. Name the poem and the poet.
2. Where were the trees, and where are they moving?
3. What does the ‘empty forest’ symbolise?
4. What might the trees symbolise?
5. Find a phrase that uses personification.

OR

(B) “The fog comes / on little cat feet. / It sits looking / over harbour and city / on silent haunches / and then moves on.”

1. Name the poem and the poet.
2. To what is the fog compared?
3. What quality of the cat does the fog share?
4. Name the figure of speech used throughout.
5. What does ‘moves on’ suggest about the fog?

(a) ‘Madam Rides the Bus’ shows that growing up means meeting both the wonder and the sorrow of the world. Discuss with reference to Valli’s journey. (Madam Rides the Bus)

OR

(b) How does ‘The Sermon at Benares’ teach that sorrow is universal and must be accepted? (The Sermon at Benares)

(a) ‘The Thief’s Story’ suggests that trust can reform a person more powerfully than punishment. Discuss. (The Thief’s Story — Footprints)

OR

(b) Anne Frank’s diary turns a private record into a window on history and the human spirit. Explain. (From the Diary of Anne Frank)