The City School

Darakhshan Campus
Prep Section
AY 22-23
Comprehensive Examination EoY
English
Class 8

Index No: __________________________ Section: _________________________

School/Campus: ____________________ Date: ___________________________

Maximum Marks: 100 Time Allowed:

(Core Subject): 2Hours

INSTRUCTIONS

 Write your index number, section, school/campus and date clearly in the space
provided.
 Read and follow the instructions given in the questions.
 Answer all question in the spaces provided.
 Check your answer paper before you hand it in.
 Marks for each section are shown below.

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SECTION: A WRITING: PART 1 (DIRECTED WRITING) MARKS: 25

WORD LIMIT 150 – 180 words

Q1. Write on the topic below and follow instructions.

Task 1

Your school is very popular and the number of students is increasing. This means that it is more
difficult to buy snacks at break time. Your Principal wants to make break time easier for everyone.
She asks you to write a report for her about how to do this.
Write your report. You must include the following:

• Some of the difficulties that you and other students have at break time

• Suggestions about how the school can make break time easier

• How the students and the school will benefit.

Cover all three points above in detail. You should make your report polite and informative. Start
your report ‘To the Principal’. Remember to give your name and a date.

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SECTION: A WRITING: PART 2 (CREATIVE WRITING) MARKS: 25

WORD LIMIT 180 – 200 words

Q2. Choose any One of the given topics for your creative writing:

a) What are the most important qualities a friend should have? Give reasons and
examples to support your view.

b) Describe your favourite holiday location. Provide sensory details.

c) Describe two places which you have been to with your friends, one which you all liked
and one which you all disliked. (Remember that you are describing the atmosphere
and any people as well as the places)

d) Use sentence below in creating a narrative:

‘It was my fault so I decided to do something about it.’

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SECTION: B READING: PART 1 (Unseen passage) TOTAL MARKS: 30

Q3. Read the following passage carefully and answer the following questions:

Hortense

1 From the age of two, the only thing I ever wanted to do was to study animals and become a
zoologist. I am an exceptionally lucky person; people say that a child whose ambition is to have a
particular job rarely grows up to fulfil that role. But my dream came true when I got the job I’d
always wanted.

2 Throughout my formative years, I drove my family mad by catching or buying, and bringing into
the house, every conceivable type of creature, ranging from monkeys to the common garden snail.
My family members comforted each other with the thought that my hobby was just a phase I was
passing through and that I would soon grow out of it, although they were harassed by my vast
assortment of wildlife. But with each fresh acquisition my interest in animals deepened until, by my
late teens, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to be a collector of animals for zoos.

3 One day I received a phone call from a school friend who lived in the countryside and who
possessed a deer, called Hortense, which he had looked after since its birth and which he described
– wrongly, as I discovered later – as young. He explained that, as he was moving to a town
apartment, he was unable to keep his pet, even though it was tame and house-trained, he said, and
his father could deliver it to me within twenty-four hours, or even sooner. I should have picked up
on his desperation to be rid of it.

4 I was in a quandary. I should have asked my mother how she felt about the addition of a deer to
my already extensive animal collection, but she was not at home. However, the deer owner was
clamouring for an immediate reply, saying that, unless I took it, it would have to be humanely
destroyed. That clinched it. It was not a wise decision but I agreed to take Hortense the following
day, without even having seen him. By the time my mother returned, I had rehearsed my story over
and over again, a story that would have softened a heart of stone, much less such a susceptible one
as she had. She said that to allow it to be killed was unthinkable when we could keep it in a tiny
corner of the garage.

5 Hortense arrived the next day. Stepping from his truck, he delicately plucked one of my mother’s
prize roses, which he proceeded to chew slowly. He had a pair of horns with a forest of lethal-
looking spikes, and he was about four feet high. Hurriedly, before my mother could recover from
the shock of Hortense’s appearance, I thanked the boy and his father profusely, attached a rope to
Hortense’s collar, and took him into the garage. Before I could tie him up, he spotted a
wheelbarrow which he tried to toss into the air with his horns. ‘I do hope he isn’t going to be
fierce,’ said my mother worriedly. ‘You know how Larry feels about fierce things.’ I knew only too
well how my elder brother felt about any animal, fierce or otherwise, and I was delighted that both
he and my sister were out when Hortense arrived.

6 All that week I managed to keep Hortense away from my family, but my success was shortlived.
One bright sunny afternoon, when Hortense and I got back from our walk, with me leading him by
a rope attached to his collar, we were treated to the sight of the family seated round the garden table

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laden with sandwiches, teacups, cakes and a large bowl of raspberries and cream. Hortense decided
that the table was a four-legged enemy, so he lowered his head and charged, whipping his rope out
of my fingers. He hit the table, getting his horns tangled in the tablecloth and scattering food in all
directions. My mother and sister were scalded with tea and my brother Larry was covered with
raspberries and cream.

7 ‘This is the last straw,’ roared Larry, ‘so get that animal out of here!’ He pointed a quivering
finger at Hortense, who, astonished by the havoc he had created, was standing there demurely with
the tablecloth hitched to his horns. So, in spite of my pleas, Hortense was banished to a nearby
farm, and with his departure vanished my only chance of experience with large animals in the
home.

From paragraph 1
3 (a) As a child, what did the writer want to do when he became an adult?
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(b) Why did the writer think he was ‘an exceptionally lucky person’ (line 2)?
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From paragraph 2
4 (a) The writer brought into the house ‘every conceivable type of creature’ (line 6). Give the
phrase used later in the paragraph which conveys the same meaning.
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(b) The family comforted each other with the thought that the writer’s hobby ‘was just a phase I
was passing through and that I would soon grow out of it’ (lines 7–8). Explain in your own words
what the family felt about his hobby.
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From paragraph 3
5 (a) Why could the writer’s school friend no longer look after Hortense?
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(b) What two signs were there of the school friend’s ‘desperation’ (line 17) to be rid of Hortense?
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From paragraph 4
6 (a) In what two ways was the writer’s decision to take Hortense not wise?
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(b) In what way can we tell that the writer wasn’t sure his mother would allow him to take
Hortense?
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From paragraph 5
7 (a) Hortense had ‘a pair of horns with a forest of lethal-looking spikes, and he was about four feet
high’ (lines 27–28).
Give one word from the paragraph which shows a surprising contrast between his appearance and
his behaviour.

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(b) Why do you think the writer was in a hurry to thank the boy and his father?
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(c) What do you think the writer’s brother feels about animals?
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From paragraph 7
8 Explain in your own words what the writer means when he describes Hortense as ‘astonished by
the havoc he had created’ (line 44).
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9 From paragraphs 2–7

For each of the words below, circle the letter (A, B, C or D) which has the same meaning that the
word has in the passage.
(a) formative (line 5) A young B original C early D growing [_/1]

(b) quandary (line 18) A dilemma B confusion C disagreement D state [_/1]

(c) clinched (line 21) A held B hugged C arranged D settled [_/1]

(d) profusely (line 29) A excessively B deeply C gratefully D appropriately [_/1]

(e) demurely (line 45) A kindly B shyly C humbly D simply [_/1]

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SECTION: B READING PART: 2 (Literature) TOTAL MARKS: 20
Q4. Read the following passage from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles dickens carefully and
answer the following questions.
“If I might touch him! If I might embrace him once! O, good citizens, if you would have so much
compassion for us!”
There was but a gaoler left, along with two of the four men who had taken him last night, and
Barsad. The people had all poured out to the show in the streets. Barsad proposed to the rest, “Let
her embrace him then; it is but a moment.” It was silently acquiesced in, and they passed her over
the seats in the hall to a raised place, where he, by leaning over the dock, could fold her in his arms.
“Farewell, dear darling of my soul. My parting blessing on my love. We shall meet again, where the
weary are at rest!”
They were her husband’s words, as he held her to his bosom.
“I can bear it, dear Charles. I am supported from above: don’t suffer for me. A parting blessing for
our child.”
“I send it to her by you. I kiss her by you. I say farewell to her by you.”
“My husband. No! A moment!” He was tearing himself apart from her. “We shall not be separated
long. I feel that this will break my heart by-and-bye; but I will do my duty while I can, and when I
leave her, God will raise up friends for her, as He did for me.”
Her father had followed her, and would have fallen on his knees to both of them, but that Darnay
put out a hand and seized him, crying:
“No, no! What have you done, what have you done, that you should kneel to us! We know now,
what a struggle you made of old. We know, now what you underwent when you suspected my
descent, and when you knew it. We know now, the natural antipathy you strove against, and
conquered, for her dear sake. We thank you with all our hearts, and all our love and duty. Heaven
be with you!”
Her father’s only answer was to draw his hands through his white hair, and wring them with a
shriek of anguish.
“It could not be otherwise,” said the prisoner. “All things have worked together as they have fallen
out. it was the always-vain en- deavour to discharge my poor mother’s trust that first brought my
fatal presence near you. Good could never come of such evil, a happier end was not in nature to so
unhappy a beginning. Be comforted, and forgive me. Heaven bless you!”

(a) What does Lucie say to her husband before he is taken away?
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(e) Fill in the blanks with the following words: [_/5]

Bestow required Prosper Doctor amends

“‘For his sake, ____,’ she said, pointing to him in tears, ‘I would do all I can to make what
poor ______I can. He will never _____in his inheritance otherwise. I have a presentiment
that if no other innocent atonement is made for this, it will one day be ______of him. What I
have left to call my own—it is little beyond the worth of a few jewels—I will make it the
first charge of his life to ______, with the compassion and lamenting of his dead mother, on
this injured family, if the sister can be discovered.’
(f) Complete the following passage using appropriate words from the bank below: [_/5]

gravely rule Antoine denounce Entreated

“One word,” the Doctor ________. “Will you tell me who _______him?” “It is against
rule,” answered the first; “but you can ask Him of Saint _______here.” The Doctor turned
his eyes upon that man. Who moved uneasily on his feet, rubbed his beard a little, and at
length said: “Well! Truly it is against ______. But he is denounced—and ______— by the
Citizen and Citizeness Defarge. And by one other.”

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