Practice Test – 01 RADIANT 2024 02/06/2023

ENGLISH

General Instruction: v. Where is Oliver at the beginning of the story?

 The paper has four Sections (A) An orphanage/ a workhouse
 Section A is compulsory – All questions in (B) Mr. Bumble’s house
Section A must be answered. (C) Mr. Limbkin’s house
 You must attempt one question from each of the (D) In a church
Sections B, C and D and one other question
from any section of your choice
vi. The master is _________.
 The intended marks for questions or parts of
questions are given in brackets [ ]. (A) amused at Oliver’s request for more gruel.
Section-A (B) happy at Oliver’s request for more gruel.
(C) Sad at Oliver’s request for more gruel.
(Multiple Choice Questions)
(D) Shocked and angry at Oliver’s request for
Section-A
more gruel.
1. Read the following questions and choose the most
appropriate response from the choices given
below (Please do not copy the question - vii. The daily ration for the boys at mealtime was
simply write out in correct serial order the ______.
appropriate word or phrase.) (A) Two ounces
[16] (B) One porringer
(C) One porringer and bread
i. The moving point of light seen by the residents of (D) Whatever they wanted.
Kankurgacchhi three months ago turned out to be
______. viii. Oliver was imprisoned in the dark room because
(A) a shooting star ______.
(B) a Russian satellite called Khotka (A) he was an orphan
(C) a Chinese satellite (B) a criminal
(D) an American spaceship (C) he had stolen food
(D) he had asked for more soup
ii. Bonku Babu was the first person to spot the strange
light but another got the credit for it. Who was that ix. How do the birds react to the train? (The mail train)
person? (A) They chirp
(A) Sripati Majumdar(B) Chandi Babu (B) Fly away
(C) Nidhu Babu (D) Ramkanai (C) They stare
(D) Are frightened
iii. According to Sripati Babu, if someone from a
different planet came to Earth, he would land in x. The dogs: (The mail train)
_____. (A) Chase the train
(A) India (B) Continue to sleep
(B) Some eastern country (C) Bark
(C) USA (D) Bite her
(D) Some western country
xi. The coaches of the train appear impassive because
iv. The object that Bonku saw behind the pond looked (A) They are painted grey
like a big ______.
(B) They have no windows
(A) Satellite
(C) There are no humans
(B) glass bowl turned upside down
(D) All the above
(C) mountain
(D) a tomb
xii. The train descends towards.(The mail train)
(A) Edinburgh
(B) Beattock
(C) London
(D) Glasgow
xiii. What is Caesar celebrating in Act 1, Scene 2?
(A) His conquest in Rome
(B) The feast of Lupercal
(C) His victory over Pompey
(D) His throngs of loyal followers
xiv. What does Caesar tell Antony to do to his wife as
he passes her in the street during his race at the
celebration?
(A) Bid her farewell
(B) Speak kind words to her
(C) Strike her with a goatskin thong
(D) Smile kindly upon her
xv. Why does Caesar want Antony to greet Calpurnia
in a certain manner in Act 1, Scene 2?
(A) To show her she is loved
(B) To lift her low spirits
(C) To let her say goodbye to him
(D) To cure her barrenness
xvi. What does a soothsayer tell Caesar in Act 1, Scene
2?
(A) “Honor to our great warrior”.
(B) “Your wife shall bear thee a son.”
(C) “Kindness begets power and glory.”
(D) “Beware the Ides of March”.
Section – B
Drama
(Answer one or more questions from this section)
(Julius Cesar by Shakespeare)
2. Read the extract given below and answer the
questions that follow:
Hence! Home you idle creatures, get you home;
Is this a holiday? What know you not.
Being mechanical, you ought not walk
Upon a labouring day without the sign
Of your profession? Speak, what trade art
thou?
Why, sir, a carpenter.
Where is the leather apron, and they rule?
What dost thou with the best apparel on?
You, Sir, what trade are you
i. Describe the circumstance in which the above
conversation takes place. Where does this scene
take place? Name the person who enter his
scene. [3]
ii. Explain the term ‘Tribune’. Who does it refer to
here? [3]
iii. Who are the idle ‘Creature’? Who addresses
them as such? Why? What does the speaker
want them to do? [3]
iv. What makes the speaker ask if it is a holiday?
Explain the phrase. [4]
(a) “being mechanical”
(b) “sign of your profession”
(c) “a labouring day”.
(d) Pick out from the extract above, an
example of a “sign” of a profession.
v. Who does Marullus address in the last line of
this extract? What answer does he get? How
does he react to this? [3]
3. Read the extract given below and answer the
questions that follow:
Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he
home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?
i. Who speaks these lines? What does he want his
listeners to realise through these questions?[3]
ii. Who does ‘he’ refer to? Whom had he
triumphed over? Why had he not brought any
territory to Rome by his conquest? [3]
iii. Explain, “What tributaries follow ____ chariot
wheels? [4]
iv. What names does the speaker hurl at the
commoners? Why? [3]
v. What else does the speaker remind them of?
What actions in their past does he refer to? [3]
Section – C
Prose
(Answer one or more questions from this section)
(Treasure Chest)
4. Read the following passage carefully and
answer the questions that follow:
No one had ever seen Bonku Babu get cross. To
tell the truth, it was difficult to imagine what he
might say or do, if one day he did get angry. It
was not as if there was never any reason for
him to lose his temper. For the last twenty-two
years, Bonku Babu had taught geography and
Bengali at the Kankurgachhi Village Primary
School. Every year, a new batch of students
 replaced the old one, but old or new, the
tradition of teasing poor Bonku Babu continued
among all the students. Some drew his cartoon
on the blackboard; others put glue on his chair;
or, on the night of Kali Puja, they lit a chasing-
rocket and set it off right behind him. Bonku
Babu did not get upset by any of this. Only
sometimes, he cleared his throat and said,
"Shame on you, boys!"
One of the reasons for maintaining his calm
was simply that he could not afford to do
otherwise. If he did lose his temper and left his
job in a fit of pique, he knew how difficult it
would then be to find another, at his age.
Another reason was that in every class, there
were always a few good students, even if the
rest of the class was full of pranksters.
Teaching this handful of good boys was so
rewarding that, - Babu, that alone made life as
a teacher worth living. At times, he invited
those boys to his house, offered them snacks
and told them tales of foreign lands and
exciting adventures. He told them about life in
Africa, the discovery of the
North Pole, the fish in Brazil that ate human
flesh, and about Atlantis, the continent
submerged under the sea. He was a good
storyteller, he always had his audience,
enthralled.
i. Who was Bonku Babu? What were the two
reasons that prevented him from leaving his
job? [3]
ii. How did Bonku Babu behave with the good
students of his class. Based on the passage
illustrate how Bonku Babu was a good
storyteller.[3]
iii. What was difficult for the students to imagine?
Why? Which tradition continued among the
students? [3]
iv. The students teased Bonku Babu in different
ways. What were they? How did Bonku Babu
sometimes lightly condemn the students? [4]
v. What impression do you form of Bonku Babu?
[3]
5. Read the following passage carefully and
answer the questions that follow:
The master hit Oliver with his spoon, then
seized him and cried for help, Mr. Bumble
rushed into the room, and the master told him
what Oliver had said. He asked for more? Mr
Bumble cried. “I cannot believe it. One day
they will hang the boy.”
He took Oliver away and shut him in a dark
room. The next morning a notice appeared on
the workhouse gate. Five pounds were offered
to anybody who would take Oliver Twist.
i. Why did the master hit Oliver with his
spoon?[3]
ii. Whom did he call for help? What did that
person do? [3]
iii. ‘He asked for more’? In which tone is this
sentence spoken? Why?[3]
iv. What did the notice on the gate of the
workhouse say?[3]
v. What impression do you form of the working of
the workhouse? What does the prophecy of Mr.
Bumble imply? [4]
Section – D
Poetry
(Treasure Chest)
6. Read the extract given below and answer the
questions that follow:
Birds turn their heads as she approaches,
Stare from bushes at her blank faced coaches.
Sheep-dogs can not turn her course;
They slumber on with paws across.
In the farm she passes no one wakes,
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes.
i. What do sheepdogs do? What is their
purpose?[3]
ii. Comment on the phrase ‘blank faces’ for the
train coaches. [3]
iii. How do the sleeping people react as the train
passes? Why? [3]
iv. What impression do we get about the train from
these lines? What do you feel is the reason that
the people do not wake up with the noise of the
train? [3]
v. Discuss the imagery used by the poet.[4]
7. Read the extract given below and answer the
questions that follow:
Down freshens, her climb in done.
Down towards Glasgow she descends,
Towards the steam tugs helping down a glade
of cranes
Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen.
All Scotland waits for her.
In dark glens, beside pale-green lochs
Men long for news.
i. How is the train representing hope and joy for
the people of Glasgow or Scotland as a whole?
 [3]
ii. How is the landscape of Glasgow described?[3]

iii. Comment on the line, ‘fields of apparatus’ and

‘furnaces/ Set on the dark plain line gigantic
Chessmen. [3]
iv. What is the picture the poet draws of the
waiting men? Where do they wait? [3]
v. What important change in his line of thought
does the poet introduce in the end of this
stanza? [4]
 HINTS AND SOLUTIONS

1. i. (B) A Russian satellite called Khotka

ii. (C) Nidhu Babu

iii. (D) Some western country

iv. (B) Glass bowl turned upside down

v. (A) An orphanage/ a workhouse

vi. (D) Shocked and angry at Oliver’s request for more gruel.

vii. (B) One porringer

viii. (D) He had asked for more gruel

ix. (C) They stare

x. (B) Continue to sleep

xi. (C) There are no humans

xii. (D) Glasgow

xiii. (B) The feast of Lupercal

xiv. (C) Strike her with a goatskin thong
xv. (D) To cure her barrenness
xvi. (D) “Beware the Ides of March”.

2. i. The above conservation takes place on the day of the celebration of Julius Caesar’s triumph over Pompey’s
sons. The victory also marked an end of the bloody civil wars that had split the Roman empire. This scene
takes place in a street in Rome. Flavius, Marullus and two citizens enter the scene.

ii. The term ‘Tribune’ refers to government officials who had been vested with immense legal authority as they
were appointed to protect the rights of the common people.

iii. The two humble artisans are addressed as ‘idle creatures’ by Flavius because these commoner’s have taken a
holiday from their respective occupations in order to watch the procession of Cesar’s triumph. Flavius wants
them to disperse and go home as he was not in sympathy with Caesar.

iv. Flavius query about it being a holiday a infect rebuke to the commoners for rejoicing in the street when it was
not a declared holiday.
 The phrase ‘being mechanical’ was used to refer to labourers or artisan of that era.
 Sign of your profession has been used to denote the law of that period according to which every labourer
was supposed to carry the signs or badges of his occupation upon him on ordinary working days.
 A labouring day is a phrase used to mean an ordinary working day.
 A leather apron and a rule were the badges or signs of a carpenter.

v. In the last line of this extract Marullus addresses the second citizen, who is a shoemaker by profession. He
receives a flippant reply whereby the shoemaker tells him that he mends the soles of shoes with a clear
conscience. Marullus loses his temper when the commoner offers to mend his temper meaning to repair his
shoes if they were worn out.

3. i. These lines are spoken by Marullus. He wants his listeners to realise that Caesar had not defeated foreigners or
conquered chiefs who would enrich the Roman Empire by paying rich tributes or taxes in the future. Nor had
he brought back any prisoners of war to walk on foot through the city beside the chariot the of the victorious
 conqueror. Rather he had triumphed over men who were Romans like themselves, so there was nothing to feel
jubilant and celebrate. Infect the two tribunes were angry and express their hostility towards Caesar in these
lines.

ii. Caesar is referred to here by the pronoun ‘he’. He had defeated Pompey’s sons after the death of Pompey. He
had not added any territory to the Roman Empire by his conquest because it was not a victory over foreigners.
He had triumphed over men who were also Romans.

iii. Marullus expresses his bitterness at Caesar’s victory over men who were Romans like themselves. He feels
that there is no reason to celebrate as Caesar’s triumph was not over chiefs who would pay him tributes and
taxes that would add to the wealth of the Roman Empire, nor had Caesar’s conquest brought back prisoners of
war who would accompany, on foot, the public procession of the victor, through the city as was the Roman
custom of that era.

iv. The speaker, Marullus, is derogatory towards the commoners. He calls them “You blocks, you stones, you
worse than senseless things?” his language shows the authority that these officials enjoyed as regards to the
commoners who treated with disdain. He is angry with them because they were rejoicing the triumph of
Caesar over men who were roman and not foreigners.

v. he reminds them of how in the near past they had similarly cheered Pompey as a hero, returning victorious
after his conquests, at the head of his triumphal procession. How these very same commoners had climbed
their roof tops and chimneys to catch a glimpse of the victorious Pompey. How the streets had resounded with
their deafening cheers of jubilation. But Marullus rebukes them now for their fickly memories.

4. i. Bonku Babu had worked as a teacher of Geography and Bengali for the last twenty-two years at the
Kankurgachhi village Primary school. In spite of being ridiculed and made fun of by his students. Bonku Babu
did not leave because he knew that he would not get another job easily at his age. Secondly, in every class
there were good students also, who made teaching them a joy for him.

ii. Bonku Babu would often invite the good students to his house, offer them snack and told them tales of foreign
lands and exciting adventures. Bonku babu enjoyed telling his student this about life in Africa, the discovery
of the North Pole, the fish in Brazil that ate human flesh called piranha, and about Atlantis, the Continent
submerged under the sea. He was an excellent storyteller and always had his audience enthralled.

iii. No one had ever seen Bonku Babu getting angry, hence, it was difficult for the students to imagine what he
would say or do it he did get angry. Every year, a batch of students replaced the old one, but old or new, the
tradition of teasing poor Bonku Babu continued among all the students.

iv. The students teased Bonku Babu in various ways, some drew his cartoon on the blackboard; others put glue on
his chair, or, on the night of Kali Puja, they lit a chasing-rocket and set it off right behind him. However,
Bonku Babu did not get upset by any of this and remained unperturbed. In spite of being teased and ridiculed
by the students Bonku, Babu did not scream or punish them rather he would lightly condemn them by saying.
“Shame on you, boys!”

v. Bonku Babu gives the impression of a timid and submissive man who tolerates all kinds of insults but does not
rebuke anyone or retaliate in anger.

5. i. The master hit Oliver with his spoon because he had asked for more gruel as he was hungry. That was a crime
in the eyes of the master.

ii. The master took hold of Oliver and cried for help from Mr Bumble. Mr. Bumble said that Oliver should be
punished for asked for more soup and he took Oliver and shut him in a dark room.

iii. The sentence, ‘He asked for more’ was spoken in shocked tones by Mr Bumble as he could not believe any
boy in the workhouse had dared to ask for more soup. It was considered a crime to ask for more than the
rationed amount of soup.

iv. The notice on the gate of the workhouse announced that five pounds would be given to anyone who would
taken away Oliver to work with him.
 v. We get the impression that the working of the workhouse was controlled by people like Mr. Bumble who were
cruel and inhumane. In the name of religion and discipline they heaped atrocities on the poor inmates who
were treated like animals and almost starved to death. No one could oppose their authority. Mr. Bumble
predicted that Oliver would die to hanging. This reflects the attitude of the society which considered a small
boy a criminal just because he had asked for more gruel because he was very hungry.

6. i. Sheep-dogs are very sensitive and immediately react to noise of any kind. They get up whenever some intruder
tries to get near the heard. But on the arrival of the train they do not stir. The train is no more a subject of
curiosity for them. They know she is harmless. They are also aware of the fact that they are unable to affect
the journey of the train. Realizing the reality, they don not move and remain in the same posture, cross-legged
ad relaxed.

ii. The train coaches appear expressionless and uninteresting as there are no human faces peering from the
window. So, the birds realize that the train has no interest in them as her only aim is to deliver the letters on
time. They stare at the train with keenness and disinterest.

iii. The people living along the railway track have become habitual of her arrival and they do not feel ay
disturbance. They know she is always in service of human beings. They know she is harmless. She does not
cause any change while crossing the fields ad farms except a little vibration. Petty things, like a jug in a
bedroom shakes and vibrates as the train passes by the farms and countryside.

iv. The train’s power is juxtaposed against the fact that no one wakes up as it passes. This is due to its steady and
consistent rhythmic sped but also due to it consistency. It is likely that all those living close enough o the
tracks hear the train passing daily and are well used to hearing it pass and so ignore it. The train is a necessary
and natural part of the environment at this point.

v. The poet deftly takes the reader through the verdant and expansive landscape of fields and meadows and
speaks, briefly on the different elements of it. The poet mentions the “farms” where people are sleeping and
the “sheep-dogs” that continue to sleep unconcerned because they cannot change the train’s course. These are
wonderful and picturesque image that the poet skilfully creates.

7. i. The train is heading for the industrial town of Glasgow, carrying posts for people belonging to different age
groups. Surprisingly, it reaches its destination on time to deliver various colourful letters to the people who are
still enjoying their sleep. No matter whether the sleeping residents of Glasgow are having momentous dreams
or horrid nightmares, its residents will wake up with joyous anticipation of receiving letters. Thus, the train
represents joy and hope in the troubled times when Adolf Hitler had terrorised Europe.

ii. The poet describes Glasgow as an urban industrial town and again uses personification to describe the
screeching of the tugboats and uses the word 'yelps which is generally used for animals crying in pain. Then he
further says that it is a glade of cranes' meaning that the area is full of mechanical cranes unlike the graceful
cranes(birds) which are found in grasslands or glades. The green fields have now been replaced by a field of
industrial machines where the hot furnaces abound as if they were chessmen laid out on a board.

iii. There are “fields of ‘apparatus’ and ‘furnaces’ set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen". The train is
headed towards Glasgow, Scotland in a much less natural and peaceful environment than that which "she"
travelled through in the initial journey of the train. The green fields have now been replaced by a field of
industrial machines where the hot furnaces abound as if they were chessmen laid out on board. This is a great
simile that alludes to planning, building, and working.

iv. The poet uses visual imagery to highlight that anxiousness of how the people of Scotland are waiting for news.
He says they wait for the train to bring them news. The men wait in the narrow, dark valleys of Scotland,
beside lakes filled with pale, green water reflecting the anxiety of the land and their fear which the train will
dispel by giving them hope. Scotland longs for its news with anticipation. International news was particularly
important as Adolf Hitler was becoming increasingly aggressive and attempts at appeasement were faltering,
far from the glens and lochs of Scotland.
v. As the journey of the train transition into an industrial world, everything is still quiet and it appears to wait for
her. Here the poet introduces a change from description of the landscape, he now veers towards a human
aspect. At the end of this stanza for the first time the human element of the mail is really brought into the text.
There are men waiting for the mail train that "long for news". The "news" they're seeking is outlined in the
tenth stanza.

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