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ICSE - X : 2023 – ’24 ENGLISH LITERATURE Mock Test – 2

Model Answer

SECTION A
1. (i) (d) Antonio's letter to Bassanio
(ii) (a) All his belongings shall be confiscated by the State of Venice.
(iii) (a) 3000 ducats owed to Shylock.
(iv) (c) Gloves and a ring
(v) (c) Portia and Nerissa
(vi) (d) a deed for all of Shylock's possessions after he dies.
(vii) (a) He believed in Aryan-supremacy theory
(viii) (d) Crocodile
(ix) (c) 1, 2, 4, 3
(x) (d) 1 is a contradiction of 2
(xi) (c) Four
(xii) (a) 1 and 2
(xiii) (a) Power and dominance
(xiv) (c) To call attention to something
(xv) (a) Empathy
(xvi) (b) They fought like cats and dogs.
SECTION B
DRAMA
(The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)
2. (i) Antonio, Shylock and gaoler are present in a street in Venice.
Antonio has taken a loan of three thousand ducats from Shylock for three months on the condition
that if he fails to repay the amount, Shylock will cut one pound of Antonio's flesh from his body.
Three months have passed and Antonio has suffered a heavy loss due to his ship wreck, so
he has been arrested.
(ii) Shylock asks the gaoler to guard Antonio closely. He says that the gaoler should not ask him
to have mercy on Antonio. Antonio was a stupid person who lent money to people without charging
any interest.
(iii) Antonio says to Shylock ‘Hear me yet’ so that Shylock would first listen to his request without
rushing ahead with his decision about the bond.
‘Good Shylock’ is meant to pacify him so that he may grant an ear to Antonio's request.
(iv) In this extract, Shylock attitude towards Antonio is extremely harsh and unforgiving.
Antonio used to call Shylock’s a dog and lends out money gratis, thus bringing down the rate
of interest in Venice.
ICSE – X : 2023–’24 English Literature : Mock Test–2 MODEL ANSWER

(v) Salarino tries to bring hope to Antonio regarding the bond by assuring him that the Duke would
not follow the course of law in this case since the condition of forfeiture is ridiculous and inhuman.
Antonio says that the Duke cannot deny the course of law. It benefits to which the foreigners
living with them in Venice are entitled, be denied to them, the justice of the state will be exposed
to strong criticism because the trade of the city belong to all the nations.
3. (i) Portia is on the avenue approaching her house in Belmont.
She had gone to Venice.
Nerissa, her maid, is with her.
(ii) Portia had gone to Venice to try to save Antonio from the clutches of Shylock, the Jew.
She told Lorenzo that she had made a secret promise to heaven that she would live in prayer
and contemplation till her lord's return. So she was going to a monastery which was two miles
away.
(iii) While approaching the house, Portia hears music being played by her own musicians.
Portia comments that the music sounds much better at night than it does in the daytime because
nothing is good in itself. It is the surroundings which makes it good or bad.
(iv) By these lines Portia means that most things seem better when they are done at the right time
and are praised for their perfection. The true value of a thing depends on the way it has been
seen or heard at the most fitting time. Even good things do not attain perfection and fail to deserve
the praise due them simply because they are not well-timed.
(v) Portia's states that the crow seems to sing as sweetly as the lark when no one listens attentively
to their song. If the nightingale would sing during the day when every geese is cackling then
the nightingale's song would not appear as sweet as it does in the night. What Portia wants
to state is that it is the surroundings that bring perfection to everything.

SECTION C
PROSE – SHORT STORIES
(Treasure Trove – A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)
4. (i) Sibia.
Sibia has ebony hair and great eyes. Her skin was of oiled brown cream. She was a thin, starveling
child.
(ii) Sibia is from a poverty–stricken family. In all her life, she had never owned anything but a rag.
Moreover, she had torn the rag in two to make skirt and sari. Her meal consisted of a chapatti
wrapped round a smear of green chilli and rancid butter. She did not possess any slippers to
wear. She had never owned even one anna – not a pice, not a pi. even to buy a handful of
blown glass beads or one of the thin glass bangles.
(iii) Sibia saw the wonders of the world in the bazaar situated in the little town at the railhead. She
was amazed to see the sweetmeat stall which had green and magenta sweets. Then there was
the cloth stall, stacked with great rolls of new cotton cloth. Also, she saw satin sewn with real
silver thread, tin trays from Birmingham and a sari which had got chips of looking-glass embroidered
into the border. A Kashmiri merchant showed dawn coloured silks. He had a little locked chest
with turquoises and opals in it. Best of all, a box which, when pressed, a bell tinkled and a
yellow woolen chicken jumped out.

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ICSE – X : 2023–’24 English Literature : Mock Test–2 MODEL ANSWER

(iv) Sibia is referred to as a child woman because in all her life from birth to death, she is marked
for work. Since she could toddle, she had husked corn and gathered sticks, and put dung to
dry, and cooked and weeded and carried and fetched water, and cut grass for fodder. She went
with her mother and some other women to get paper grass from the cliffs above the river.
(v) The story is a tale of triumph of human courage. In this story, the protagonist, Sibia, is portrayed
as courageous and adventurous girl. When she saw a Gujar woman being attacked by a crocodile,
she from boulder to boulder came leaping like a rock-goat. She heroically came on wings beside
the shrieking woman to save her. Using her presence of mind, she aimed at the reptile's eyes
with a hayfork. Sibia defiantly attacked the crocodile and helped the woman reach encampment
safely.
5. (i) He was surprised to see a tall boy named Luz Long. He was a German athlete. He was hitting
the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps.
(ii) Luz Long, was an inch taller than Jesse Owens, had a lean, muscular frame, clear blue eyes,
blonde hair and a strikingly handsome, chiseled face.
He was told that Hitler had kept him under wraps. Evidently they hoped to win the jump with
him.
(iii) Jesse thought that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ Aryan-superiority
theory, according to which, the German athletes would perform better as they belong to the master's
race. After all, he was a Negro and Luz Long was a German.
(iv) Jesse, the American Negro athlete, was determined to participate in the Olympic Games. He wanted
to show DER FUHRER and his master race who was superior and who wasn't. He wanted to
prove Nazis’ Aryan-superiority theory to be wrong.
(v) Hitler believed ‘in Aryan-superiority theory. Nazis believed in the theory of racial hierarchy, identifying
Germans as part of Aryan or Nordic master race. The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living
in historically German territory, while excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or
belonging to an ‘‘inferior’’ race.

SECTION D
POETRY
(Treasure Trove – A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)
6. (i) The first line of the extract states that exceeding peace had made Abou Ben Adhem bold.
This is significant because it is this boldness resulting from exceeding peace which gave Abou
the courage to question the angel in his room.
(ii) By ‘presence’, the poet means the angel.
It had come to Abou's room at night.
The ‘presence’ or the angel was writing in a book of gold.
(iii) Abou asked the angel what it was writing. The angel raised it head and with an expression of
sweet accord answered Abou that it was writing the names of those who love the lord.
(iv) Abou requested the angel to write his name as one who loves his fellow men. The angel wrote
and vanished. It came again the next night and showed the names whom love of God had blessed.
Abou's name led all the rest.
(v) Abou Ben Adhem was a holy and pious man, who lead a humble life, he was extremely devoted
to God and hoped that God was aware of this devotion. He loved his fellow men and helped
them whenever he could.
The poet wished that Abou Ben Adhem's tribe should increase.
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ICSE – X : 2023–’24 English Literature : Mock Test–2 MODEL ANSWER

7. (i) The patriot had been given a grand welcome on his arrival to the town a year ago. People had
thrown roses and myrtle on his path. The house-roofs were full of people and it seemed to sway.
The church spires were also decorated with beautiful flags.
(ii) ‘‘Shambles’ Gate’’ means the gate of the gallows.
The people had assembled there to witness the execution of the patriot. They know that the best
sight of the action is at the gate of the slaughter-house or at the very foot of the scaffold.
(iii) The patriot is now walking in the rain towards his end. His wrists are cut by the rope used to
tie his hands behind. The common people, who once regarded him with great reverence, now
are throwing stones at him. His forehead is bleeding.
(iv) The patriot feels safe in the hands of god.
The punishment received by the patriot in the mortal world has purged him. He hopes to go to
heaven instead of hell. He feels safer on knowing that god will certainly understand all his action.
He hopes that since he has not received any award for the work he has done in this world,
he will surely be rewarded by the god.
(v) ‘The Patriot’ is a satire on the fickle mindedness of the common people. Love, respect and honour
given to someone are momentary. In this poem, only a year ago has the patriot been acknowledges
as god-like by the common people. He has been given a hero's welcome on his arrival to the
town. But a year later, he is being taken tot he scaffold to be executed. This shows his downfall
from a beloved hero to a condemned traitor. It may have been a single error on the part of the
patriot that led him to cross the boundaries and consequently lose popularity.