HBSE Class 12 Question Paper 2023 English Elective

CLASS : 12th (Sr. Secondary) Code No. 202
Series : SS/Annual-2023
Roll No.

ENGLISH (Elective)
ACADEMIC/OPEN
(Only for Fresh/Re-appear/Improvement/Additional Candidates)

Time allowed : 3 hours ] [ Maximum Marks : 80
• Please make sure that the printed pages in this question paper are 8 in number and
it contains 11 questions.
• The Code No. on the right side of the question paper should be written by the
candidate on the front page of the answer-book.
• Before beginning to answer a question, its Serial Number must be written.
• Don’t leave blank page/pages in your answer-book.
• Except answer-book, no extra sheet will be given. Write to the point and do not
strike the written answer.

• Candidates must write their Roll No. on the question paper. Except Roll No. do not
write anything on question paper and don't make any mark on answers of objective
type questions.
• Before answering the questions, ensure that you have been supplied the correct and
complete question paper, no claim in this regard, will be entertained after
examination.

General Instructions :

(i) This question-paper is divided into four Sections : A, B, C and D.

(ii) All the Sections are compulsory.

(iii) Attempt all the parts of a question together.

(iv) Stick to the word-limit wherever prescribed.

202 P. T. O.

(2) 202
SECTION – A

1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : 1×6=6
Among the many effects of the climate crisis that became evident in 2022, the
impact on India's food security was among the most significant. Some more
proof of this came this week via a study by the National Dairy Research
Institute. Researchers found that increasing spells of the summer heatwaves are
hurting milk productivity, or output per cattle, while raising costs of production
for farmers. Milk productivity in the world's largest producer has also been on a
decreasing trend during summers due to heat stress, the recent study found.
The study found that each unit increase in the temperature humidity index
above a "critical level" reduces the fortnightly milk productivity of dairy animals
by 0.42-0.67% in northern Indian plains. More animals fell sick due to extreme
temperatures and dairy farmers had to buy cooling equipment, raising the cost
of milk production by up to 12% (2021 Indian Council of Agriculture Research
paper).
This has been a rough year for the dairy Industry, which also dealt with
an outbreak of the lumpy skin disease which killed around 100,000 cows and

buffaloes between April and September. Worse, this adversely affected small
cultivators, whose marginal earnings from agriculture are often supplemented
by incomes from milch cattle.
The experience of 2022 –– spring heatwaves shrivelling the wheat crop and
uneven rainfall affecting rice yields –– underlines the need for more climate
sensitive policies and better undergirding of agricultural processes to deal with
vagaries in weather patterns. Even more urgently required is a prediction and
forecast system because it can help deal with climate shocks. The importance of
strategic food reserves and buffer stocks are only likely to grow in the coming
years.
(i) What was the most significant impact among many effects of climate
crisis ?
(A) Environment (B) Air Pollution
(C) Water Crisis (D) Food Security
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(ii) What is the impact of the increasing summer heatwaves ?
(A) raise milk productivity (B) hurting output of milk
(C) equal effect (D) no effect
(iii) What do milk producers have to buy to keep animals away from extreme
temperatures ?
(A) Construct sheds
(B) Build barbed wire structures
(C) Cooling equipment
(D) Do nothing
(iv) Why was there the rough year for dairy industry ?
(A) outbreak of lumpy skin disease
(B) corona
(C) heatwaves
(D) lack of cooling equipments

(v) What does the experience of 2022 underline ?

(A) more climate sensitive policies

(B) better agricultural process to deal with the vagaries of weather

(C) Both (A) & (B)

(D) Neither (A) nor (B)

(vi) What is required to help deal with climate shocks ?

(A) Prediction

(B) Forecast system

(C) Prediction and forecast system

(D) Help of government

202 P. T. O.

(4) 202
2. Read the stanza given below and answer the questions that follow : 1×6=6
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little, or too much:
Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd;

Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd:
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world !
(i) What does the poet want human beings to do ?
(ii) What is the proper study of mankind ?
(iii) What is man hanging between ?
(iv) What doubt does man has about himself ?
(v) What is man created to do ?
(vi) What is he to all things, yet a prey to fall ?
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3. Attempt any one of the following : 6
(i) Write a letter to your brother advising him to devote more time to studies
rather than sports.
(ii) Write a paragraph on "Air Pollution".
(iii) You are an editor of your school magazine. You have recently attended a
prize distribution function in your school. Write a report about it.

SECTION – B
4. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : 1×4=4
I have never known anyone closer to the idea one has of a Renaissance pope: He
was gluttonous and refined. Even against his will, he always presided at the
table. Matilde, his wife, would put a bib around his neck that belonged in a
barbershop rather than a dining room, but it was the only may to keep him from
taking a bath in sauce. That day at Carvalleiras was typical. He ate three whole
lobsters, dissecting them with a surgeon's skill, and at the same time devoured

everyone else's plate with his eyes and tasted a little from each with a delight
that made the desire to eat contagious: clams from Galicia, mussels from
Cantabria, prawns from Alicante, sea cucumbers from the Costa Brava. In the
meantime, like the French, he spoke of nothing but other culinary delicacies, in
particular the prehistoric shellfish of Chile, which he carried in his heart. All at
once he stopped eating, tuned his lobster's antennae, and said to me in a very
quiet voice:
'There's someone behind me who won't stop looking at me.'
(i) Name the story and its writer.
(ii) How did the Renaissance Pope appear to be ?
(iii) What did Pope's wife wear around his neck and why ?
(iv) What did the Pope do at Carvalleiras ?

202 P. T. O.

(6) 202
5. Read the stanza given below and answer the questions that follow : 1×4=4
We shall new shadowes make the other way.
As the first were made to blinde
Others; these which come behinde
Will worke upon our selves and blind our eyes.
If our loves faint, and westwardly decline;

To me thou, falsely thine;
And I to thee mine actions shall disguise.
The morning shadowes were away,
But these grow longer all the day,
But oh, loves day is short, if love decay.

Love is a growing, or full constant light;
And his first minute, after noone, is night.

(i) Name the poem and the poet.
(ii) What will the poet do with his actions ?
(iii) What is the duration of love if it decays ?
(iv) In the growth of love, what is the first minute after noon ?
6. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow : 1×4=4
So beware! If you allow any person, or class of persons, to get the upper hand of
you, he will shift all that part of his slavery to Nature that can be shifted on to
your shoulders; and you will find yourself working from eight to fourteen hours
a day when, if you had, only yourself and your family to provide for, you could
do it quite comfortably in half the time or less. The object of all honest
governments should be to prevent your being imposed on in this way. But the
object of most actual governments. I regret to say, is exactly the opposite. They
enforce your slavery and call it freedom. But they also regulate your slavery,

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keeping the greed of your masters within certain bounds. When chattel slavery
of the negro sort costs more than wage slavery, they abolish chattel slavery and
make you free to choose between one employment or one master and another
and this they call a glorious triumph for freedom, though for you it is merely the
key of the street. When you complain, they promise that in future you shall
govern the country for yourself. They redeem this promise by giving you a vote,
and having a general election every five years or so.
(i) Name the chapter and its author.
(ii) What should be the object of the honest governments ? Do they fulfil it ?
(iii) How do they regulate the your slavery ?
(iv) What do they call a glorious triumph for freedom ?

7. Answer in about 100 words any two of the following : 6 + 6 = 12
(i) Why did Eveline review all the familiar objects at home ?
OR
Why did Dr. Margolin not particularly want his wife to accompany him to
the wedding ?

(ii) Why has John Milton pitted the flight of Time against the "lazy leaden –
stepping hours" and "the heavy Plummets pace" ?
OR
Summarize John Milton's ideas based on the poem "On Shakespeare".

8. Attempt any four questions selecting at least two from each Section : 2×4=8
(a) (i) Why "Pity world be no more" ? (The Human Abstract)
(ii) What do Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love do in distress ?
(iii) What did Kubla Khan build in Xanadu ?
(b) (i) Give the association of Ingmar Bergman to film making. (Film – Making)
(ii) What is a novel according to D. H. Lawrence ?
(Why the Novel Matters)
(iii) "Prolixity is not alien to us in India." What does Amartya Sen mean to
say ? (The Argumentative Indian)

202 P. T. O.

(8) 202
SECTION – C

9. Answer in about 100 words : 6 + 6 = 12
(a) How does Prakriti's mother react when she hears of Prakritis encounter
with the monk ?
OR
Will Prakriti resign herself to her lot ? Yes or No. Explain.
(b) Sketch the character of Manjula on the basis of your reading of "Broken
Images".
OR
What is the theme of Girish Karnad's "Broken Images".

10. Answer any four of the following in about 30 words each, choosing two from
each of the two plays : 2×4=8
(a) (i) What, according to Mother is the role and power of woman ?

(ii) What is Prakriti's idea of religion ?
(iii) How does Mother offer to call Bhikshu ? Does Prakriti agree ?
(b) (i) What do you know about Manjula's first Novel in English ?
(ii) How was Manjula's novel in English not a matter of choice ?
(iii) Who is Malini ?

SECTION – D

11. Write short notes on any five of the following : 2 × 5 = 10
sonnet, lyric, ode, dramatic monologue, simile, metaphor, alliteration.

S
202