PRACTICE PAPER –II CLASS XII ENGLISH CORE – READING AND WRITING SECTION.

Read the passage given below.

I. The town of Mandawa in Rajasthan has come a long way since its days as a trading outpost
on an ancient caravan route for goods from the Middle East and China but it still remains
one of the little-known attractions on the tourism map of the state. But did you know that
about 170 km by road from state capital Jaipur, Mandawa can be your springboard into the
splendors of Shekhawati, a region known for its splendid painted mansions?
II. II. It was their business acumen that found the men from Shekhawati entering into trade
with the British and settling down in Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Bombay (now Mumbai).
Most of them would remit the money home which was used both for luxurious living and
social welfare. On one hand, people had their homesteads painted with murals, as well as
with intricate marble work and woodwork. On the other, they built dharamsalas and baolis
for public use.
III. III. Mandawa, like other towns in the Shekhawati region, is dotted with painted havelis. It
is amazing to note that not an inch of the mansion was missed by the artists. From the
front porch to the bedrooms, all walls, ceilings, door jambs, window sills, were painted
upon. Temples, cenotaphs, even local dharamsalas and baolis were not excluded. With the
mansions being lived in by successive generations, the paintings were a study in evolution,
from the use of colours to subjects.
IV. The murals were based on diverse themes – social and folk tales, stories from the epics,
contemporary lifestyles, Raagmala paintings, people from various walks of life, portraits of
the merchants’ families, etc. In the later paintings, the European influence, especially in the
lifestyle images, became prominent. So, do not be surprised if you find motor cars,
aeroplanes or gramophones finding a place in the murals.
V. V. Occupying the heart of the town is the Mandawa Castle (now a luxury hotel). Said to
have been built by Thakur Nawal Singh to protect the trade post, it later became the focus
around which the town grew up. It has some amazing murals. However, according to local
residents, owners of these havelis began to move away starting at the turn of the 20th
century. Some left for good while others left them with the caretakers. There was no
maintenance and the paintings began to fade away. Even today as you go around the town,
you will find many dilapidated buildings with the famous murals peeling off or faded away,
the woodwork rotting off. ( Source- www.outlookindia.com)
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer ANY EIGHT questions from the nine
given below.
1.Give a reason for dilapidated paintings that began to fade away in the havelis?
2. Explain the statement- “Mandawa, like other towns in the Shekhawati region, is dotted
with painted havelis.”
3. Completes the given sentence as per the context in paragraph II. The people of
Shekhawati “entered into trade with the British” because……...
4. A keyword is a word that occurs in a text more often than would be expected to occur by
just chance. Choose a word that is a keyword in the above passage.
5.Mention the difference in the town of Mandawa before and after entering into trade
with the British.
6 . Cite a point in evidence, from the text, to suggest that the murals depicted the European
influence.
7.What does the writer mean when he mentions the fading away of the murals?
 8.List out the feelings of the writer with reference to the description of the town, Mandawa
in the passage.
9.Who built the Mandawa Castle and why?

1. Read the passage given below.

I. India’s unemployment rate – the share of labour force that is without work but available
for it – rose sharply to 7.11% in the pandemic year 2020 to reach the highest level in at
least three decades, according to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) ILOSTAT
database. For over a decade, India’s joblessness has been more acute than its immediate
neighbours, while till 2009 Sri Lanka had a higher rate.
II. Though the methodology may not be strictly comparable, going by the Centre for
Monitoring Indian Economy’s(CME) data for the subsequent period, the second COVID-19
wave seems to have pushed India’s unemployment rate further and the current calendar
year could possibly see an even higher rate of joblessness in the country. Monthly
unemployment rate of the country, as per CMIE, rose from 6.62% in January 2021 to 7.97%
in April2021. Amidst lockdown and restrictions on mobility, the unemployment rate
touched 14.5% in the week that ended on 16th May, 2021 and rose further to 14.7% for
the week that ended 23rd May, according to CMIE.

Figure 1
III. As per Indian Government’s Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data, the country’s
unemployment rate was6.1% in 2017-18, a 45-year high. While that hogged headlines, the
rate dipped to 5.8% in 2018-19, but is sure to have gone up to a much higher level in 2020-
21. The National Statistical Office (NSO) has been conducting PLFS since April 2017 to
estimate the key employment and unemployment indicators.
IV. According to the ILO database, India’s unemployment rate rose between 2008 (5.36%)
and 2010 (5.65%), and then fell between 2013 (5.67%) and 2019 (5.27%). It then rose
sharply in 2020.
VI. Globally, the average unemployment rate was 6.47% in 2020, up from 5.37% in 2019. In
1991, the average global unemployment rate was 4.8%. Sri Lanka had the higher
unemployment rate of 5.85% in 2009 compared with India’s 5.61%; but since then, the
island nation has improved on the most important parameter of the labour market that
gauges ability of an economy to generate employment.
Based on your understanding of the passage, answer ANY SIX out of the seven questions
given below:
(i) Justify whether the statement is true/ false with reference to Fig 1. “The highest
rate of unemployment between 2015 and 2020 was in India and Bangladesh.”
(ii) According to the passage, what is one of the reasons behind the increase in the
unemployment rate in India?
(iii) Read the two statements given below and write a statement that suitably explains
them. (1) The island nation has improved on the most important parameter of the
labour market that gauges ability of an economy to generate employment. (2) Sri
Lanka had the higher unemployment rate of 5.85% in 2009 compared with India’s
5.61%.
(iv) Based on your reading of the passage, write the appropriate counter-argument to
the given argument. Argument-“The unemployment rate in India remained
unaltered in the face of the worldwide pandemic.”
(v) What is the central idea of the paragraph preceding paragraph IV.
(vi) Fill in the blanks with a suitable word from the passage- ……….. in India has been
more acute than its immediate neighbours, while till 2009 Sri Lanka had a higher
rate.
(vii) Justify whether the statement is true/ false with reference to the passage-
“Analysts predict that India is going to see dip in the unemployment rate in the
coming years.”

3.You are Neha / Nakul, the President of the English Literary and Cultural Society of
Government Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 19, Chandigarh. You are organising an Inter
Zonal Declamation Competition on the topic "Communication Skills are very important in
modern world" at the +2 level. You wish to invite Dr. Shailesh Gupta, Professor, Punjab
University, an eminent educationist to preside over the function to be held on 19 Jan, 20xx
at 9:30 a.m.

4.You are Sudha / Sudhir, resident of A-7, Shanti Park. You read the following
advertisements in a newspaper. Draft an application in response to the advertisement
giving your detailed resume.

SITUATION VACANT
Wanted a young and experienced graduate with fluency in English and Hindi to work as
receptionist at customer care booths of NCR group of hotels, Delhi. Contact Manager
along with your complete C.V. within 7 days of this advertisement.
0R

4.Your state government has banned the use of plastic bags. You are Amarjeet, a reporter
of ‘The National Herald’. Write a report in 120-150 words on how the ban is being ignored
and what damage the indiscriminate use of plastic bags is causing to the environment.