HSC February 2024 Prose Section

HSC February 2024 Prose Section– See activities and answers.

Q.1 and Q.2

Important instructions–

1) Each activity has to be answered in complete sentence/s. One- word answers will not be given complete credit. Just the correct activity number written in case of options will not be given credit.

2) Web diagrams, flow charts, tables etc. are to be presented exactly as they are with answers.

3) In point 2 above, just words without the presentation of the activity format/design, will not be given credit. Use of colour pencils/pens etc. is not allowed. (Only blue/black pens are allowed.)

4) Multiple answers to the same activity will be treated as wrong and will not be given any credit.

5) Maintain the sequence of the Sections/Question Nos./Activities throughout the activity sheet.

SECTION-I: PROSE

(Reading for Comprehension, Language Study, Summary and Mind Mapping)

(Here expected answers are given.)

Q. 1. (A) Read the extract and complete the activities given below: (12) [16]

This is what Camus meant when he said that “what gives value to travel is fear”- disruption, in other words, (or emancipation) from circumstance, and all the habits behind which we hide. And that is why many of us travel not in search of answers, but of better questions. I, like many people, tend to ask questions of the places I visit, and relish most the ones that ask the most searching questions back of me: “The ideal travel book,” Christopher Isherwood once said, “should be perhaps a little like a crime story in which you’re in search of something.” And it’s the best kind of something, I would add, if it’s one that you can never quite find.

I remember, in fact, after my first trips to Southeast Asia, more than a decade ago, how I would come back to my apartment in New York, and lie in my bed, kept up by something more than jet lag, playing back, in my memory, over and over, all that I had experienced, and paging wistfully though my photographs and reading and re-reading my diaries, as if to extract some mystery from them. Anyone witnessing this strange scene would have drawn the right conclusion: I was in love.

When we go abroad is that we are objects of scrutiny as much as the people we scrutinize, and we are being consumed by the cultures we consume, as much on the road as when we are at home. At the very least, we are objects of speculation (and even desire) who can seem as exotic to the people around us as they do to us.

All, in that sense, believed in “being moved” as one of the points of taking trips, and “being transported” by private as well as public means; all saw that “ecstasy” (“ex-stasis”) tells us that our highest moments come when we’re not stationary, and that epiphany can follow movement as much as it precipitates it.

A1. Read and rewrite the following sentences and state whether they are True or False: (2)

(a) A traveller may sink in love with his travel- memoirs.

(b) One gets inspected as he inspects the world around him.

(d) Staying in comfort at home gives one more happiness than travelling.

Answer-

(a) A traveller may sink in love with his travel- memoirs.- True

(b) One gets inspected as he inspects the world around him.- True

(d) Staying in comfort at home gives one more happiness than travelling.- False

A2. Match the persons given in column ‘A’ with opinions/ characteristics given in column ‘B’: (2)

Column ‘A’	Column ‘B’
(1) Narrator	a) ideal travel should be like a crime story.
(2) Camus	b) in love with his memoirs.
(3) Isherwood	c) more happy when on move.
(4) Traveller	d) fear gives value to travel.

Answer-

Column ‘A’	Column ‘B’
(1) Narrator	b) in love with his memoirs.
(2) Camus	d) fear gives value to travel.
(3) Isherwood	a) ideal travel should be like a crime story.
(4) Traveller	c) more happy when on move.

A3. Give reasons:(2)

“We are objects of scrutiny,” because —————

(i) ————————–

(ii) ————————-

Answer-

(i) We are being consumed by the cultures we consume.

(ii) We are objects of speculation and even desire.

We are exotic to the people around us.

A4. “Travelling is an interesting teacher.” Write your views in 3-4 sentences. (2)

Answer-

“Travelling is an interesting teacher.” I agree with this view. Travelling teaches us how to behave in outer world. It gives knowledge of different cultures and customes of other countries. It increases our understanding about various places and their values. Travelling brodens our outlook and make us social person.

A5. Do as directed:

(1) I like to ask questions of the places I visit.

(Choose the correct tense form of the above sentence from the following options and rewrite.)

(a) Simple past tense

(b) Simple present tense

(d) Present perfect tense

Answer-

(b) Simple present tense

(ii) I would come back to my apartment in New York.

(Choose the correct option using ‘used to’ for the given sentence and rewrite.)

(a) I use to come back to my apartment in New York.

(b) I have used to come back to my apartment in New York

(d) I had used to come back to my apartment in New York.

Answer-

A6. Find out the words from passage which mean: (2)

(i) reminiscence

(ii) exhilaration

Answer-

(i) memory, remember

(ii) ecstasy, relish

B1. Language study

Do as directed:

(1) Avneesh said, “Sanchit, what are you doing in the garden at this time?”

(Identify and rewrite the correct ‘indirect narration’ from the following options.)

(i) Avneesh asked Sanchit what he was doing in the garden at that time.

(ii) Avneesh wanted to know from Sanchit his cause of being there in the garden.

(iii) Avneesh asked Sanchit whether he was present in the garden at that time.

(iv) Avneesh asked Sanchit whether he was doing in the garden at that time.

Answer-

(i) Avneesh asked Sanchit what he was doing in the garden at that time.

(2) Neeraj Chopra may not participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(Choose the correct option from the following sentences which uses a more definite modal auxiliary.)

(i) Neeraj Chopra cannot participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(ii) Neeraj Chopra will not participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(iii) Neeraj Chopra should not participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(iv) Neeraj Chopra might not participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

Answer-

(i) Neeraj Chopra cannot participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(ii) Neeraj Chopra will not participate in the world championship due to ankle injury.

(3) Unless you are confident, you will not succeed.

(Choose the correct option from the following options to change the sentence beginning with ‘If…..’)

(i) If you are confidence, you will get success.

(ii) If you have confidence, you will get success.

(i) If you are confident, you will not get success.

(iv) If you are not confident, you will get success.

Answer-

(ii) If you have confidence, you will get success.

B2. Spot the error and rewrite correct sentence: (1)

He prescribe medicine along with a few exercises to his patients.

Answer-

He prescribes medicine along with a few exercises to his patients.

He prescribed medicine along with a few exercises to his patients.

How to Prepare for HSC Board Exam

Q. 2. (A) Read the following extract and complete the activities given below: (12)

Love is a great force in private life; it is indeed the greatest of all things, but love in public affairs does not work. It has been tried again and again; by the people of the Middle Ages, and also by the French Revolution, a secular movement which reasserted the Brotherhood of Man. And it has always failed. The idea that nations should love one another, or that business concerns or marketing boards should love one another or that a man in Portugal should love a man in Peru of whom he has never heard – it is absurd, unreal, dangerous. ‘Love is what is needed,’ we chant, and then sit back and the world goes on as before. The fact is we can only love what we know personally. And we cannot know much. In public affairs, in the rebuilding of civilization, something much less dramatic and emotional is needed, namely tolerance. Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things. No one has ever written an ode to tolerance, or raised a statute to her. Yet this is the quality which will be most needed after the war. This is the sound state of mind which we are looking for. This is the only force which will enable different races and classes and interests to settle down together to the work of reconstruction.

The world is very full of people appallingly full; it has never been so full before, and they are all tumbling over each other. Most of these people one doesn’t know and some of them one doesn’t like. Well, what is one to do? If you don’t like people, put up with them as well as you can. Don’t try to love them, you can’t. But try to tolerate them. On the basis of that tolerance a civilized future may be built. Certainly, I can see no other foundation for the post-war world.

A1. Choose two correct alternatives which define the theme of the extract:

(i) Love is a greater force in private as well as in public affairs.

(ii) To rebuild civilization, we need tolerance more than love.

(iii) Patience is the solution in any sort of confrontation.

(iv) When you do not like people, nations or civilizations, you need to love them to change them.

Answer-

(ii) To rebuild civilization, we need tolerance more than love.

(iii) Patience is the solution in any sort of confrontation.

A2. Complete the following table with the help of the extract: (2)

Give one merit and one demerit of ‘Love’ and ‘Patience.’

Love	(i) ————- (ii) ————-
Patience	(i) ————- (ii) ————-

Answer-

Love	(i) Merit: Grate force in private life (ii) Demerit: Love in public affairs is ineffective /Love does not work in public matters.
Patience (Tolerance)	(i) Merit: A force which helps in rebulding civilization (ii) Demerit: Dull, boring and negative virtue

A3. Write how we can build up a civilized society; with the help of the extract.(2)

Answer-

To build up a civilised future, we need to have tolerance in public affairs because this is the very virtue that would make people create an understanding and considerate society. Tolerance would function as a pacifier in the roaring world and make it civilised.

A4. ‘Love and tolerance are the true indicators of a civilized person.’ Justify. (2)

Answer-

It’s true that ‘Love and tolerance are the true indicators of a civilized person.’ Without love we can’t build good relationships. It is a great force to develop greatest things. In the same way, tolerance helps us to deal with other unknown persons with peace and proper ways. It builds healthy relationships between different races and classes.

A5. Do as directed:(2)

(i) It has been tried again and again.

(Identify the correct Active Voice of the above sentence from the given options and rewrite.)

(a) They had tried it again and again.

(b) They has tried it again and again.

(c) They tried it again and again.

(d) They have tried it again and again.

Answer-

(d) They have tried it again and again.

(ii) It is the sound state of mind which we are looking for.

(Identify the correct simple sentence from the given options and rewrite.)

(a) It is the sound state of mind, and we are looking for it.

(b) We are looking for the sound state of mind.

(c) We are looking for it but it is the sound state of mind.

(d) The sound state of mind is looked for.

Answer-

(b) We are looking for the sound state of mind.

A6. Match the words in column ‘A’ with their meanings in column ‘B’.

Column ‘A’	Column ‘B’
(i) Secular	(a) feeling of great friendship and understanding between people.
(ii) Absurd	(b) a society which has its own highly developed culture and ways of life.
(iii) Civilization	(c) not connected with any religion.
(iv) Brotherhood	(d) not at all logical or sensible.

Answer-

Column ‘A’	Column ‘B’
(i) Secular	(c) not connected with any religion.
(ii) Absurd	(d) not at all logical or sensible.
(iii) Civilization	(b) a society which has its own highly developed culture and ways of life.
(iv) Brotherhood	(a) feeling of great friendship and understanding between people.

(B) Summarising: (3)

Write a ‘summary’ of the above extract by using the following points.

(Love as a force —– its limitations—— tolerance —-need of tolerance

Answer-

Title: Importance of Love and Tolerance

Love and tolerance are the important forces to develop sound relationships after post war. Love is greatest of all things in private matters while tolerance is the main instrument to rebuild civilization. We can love what we know personally so in common area it is not usful. Here we have to use tolerance. So love and tolerance can help to build a civilized society. Both are the important foundation of civilized world.

(C) Mind Mapping:

Prepare a mind map on ‘Effects of Music on Human Life’ using your ideas/thoughts/concepts to illustrate.

Answer-