See below CBSE Class 10 English Term 2 Sample Paper Set D with solutions. We have provided CBSE Sample Papers for Class 10 English as per the latest paper pattern issued by CBSE for the current academic year. All sample papers provided by our Class 10 English teachers are with answers. You can see the sample paper given below and use them for more practice for Class 10 English examination.
CBSE Sample Paper for Class 10 English Term 2 Set D
SECTION-A (READING)
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
(1) Madan’s father was a rich landlord, who was loved and respected by all his tenants. When he died, he left large tracts of land to his son. But Madan did not spend a single day looking after his land. He had a funny idea, that there existed a magic potion which if it was poured on any object would turn it into gold. He spent all his time trying to learn about this potion. People took advantage of him and cheated him. His wife grew anxious.
(2) Given the amount of money Madan was spending, she was sure that they would soon be paupers. One day, a widely respected sage who had been to the Himalayas came to their town. Madan asked him about the potion. To his surprise the sage answered, “I have learnt how to brew such a potion. But it is a difficult process.” “Tell me,” insisted Madan, hardly able to believe his luck.
(3) “You have to collect the dew which settles on the leaves of a banana tree every morning during winter.There is a condition though. The tree should be planted and watered regularly with your own hands. Store the collected dew in an earthen vessel and when you have five liters, bring it to me. I will recite a sacred mantra to transform the dew into the potion. A drop of the potion will be sufficient to change any object into gold.”
(4) Madan was worried. “Winter is only for a few months in the year. It will take me years to collect the dew.” “You can plant as many trees as you want,” replied the sage. Madan went home and after talking to his wife, began clearing the large fields which had been lying vacant for years. He planted rows of banana saplings. He tended them with great care. His wife helped him too. She would take the banana crop to market and get a good price. Over the years the plantation grew and finally after six years Madan had five liters of dew. He went to the sage who smiled, uttered a mantra and sprinkled a few drops of dew on a copper vessel. To Madan’s dismay, nothing happened. “You have cheated me!” he shouted at the sage.
(5) The sage, however, smiled. Madan’s wife then came forward with a box. The sage opened it and revealed stacks of gold coins inside. Turning to Madan he said, “You worked hard on your land and created plantation. Your wife sold the produce in the market. It was your hard work which created this wealth, not magic. If I had told you this earlier, you would not have listened.” Madan understood the wisdom behind the sage’s words and worked even harder from that day on.
On the basis of your understanding of the passage, answer ANY FIVE questions from the six given below:
(i) Why did Madan not look after the land he inherited from his father?
Answer.Madan did not look after the land because he sought the magic potion that turned everything into gold.
(ii) Why did Madan’s wife worry that they would turn into paupers?
Answer.Madan’s wife worried that they would turn into paupers because of his unnecessary overspending and because he was being taken advantage of by others.
(iii) Why was Madan cultivating banana crop ?
Answer.Madan was cultivating banana leaves which will be turned into magic potion by the sage.
(iv) What was the one condition in which Madan was supposed to collect the dew from the banana leaves ?
Answer.Madan was supposed to collect the dew from the banana leaves from the tress that he planted and watered regularly by his own hands.
(v) From where did Madan’s wife get the box of gold coins ?
Answer.Madan’s wife get the box of gold coins by selling the bananas in the market.
(vi) What is the very important message contained in this passage?
Answer.The passage conveys the message that magic is created by hard work.
2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
(1) I am a very lucky girl and my family is the nicest in the world. Mummy and Daddy are important of course and when we’re out we have to behave properly, but when we’re at home, we play and laugh and have lots of fun. “You spoil them!” Mummy says, and she frowns and folds her arms in front of her but then she laughs and hugs him so I know she’s not really serious. We have all sorts of games like the one where the hall is the world and the tables and chairs are different countries. Then Daddy tells us all about his travels, but he says the best thing was when he met Mummy and fell in love with her. “Now that’s a happy ending,” he says.
(2) He’s a wonderful Daddy and is always nice and funny. When Mummy sighs and says she’s getting lots of grey hairs he laughs and says, “I’ll be getting them soon and then we’ll be two little old people nodding off on the terrace together,” then he hugs her till she cheers up. And he lets me ride on his back and gallops around the room making horse noises, then rolls on the floor. “I want to see everything all the time,” he says, “Just look at my beautiful wife and fine children!” but then he laughs and plays it anyway, so he really is a good Daddy.
(3) Nobody is as nice as my Daddy and when I was little I wanted to marry him. Well, I was just little. When I told him he said, “What about Mummy? You don’t want me to make Mummy unhappy, do you?” Of course I didn’t, and he said that I would always be his best and favourite girl and that we would always be special friends, but really special like brother and sister, even if I’ve got a brother but he is very serious – lot more serious than Daddy.
(4) Mummy is nice too but in a different way. Daddy plays with us and makes us laugh and Mummy tells us bedtime stories. I like the ones she tells about when she was little and learning how to be a queen. She says her Mummy and Daddy were very strict and never had any fun and she only started having fun when she met Daddy. Then she tells us about how they met and it is a wonderful story, just like the old tales but not scary like them. Then she smiles and I know she’s remembering.
On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer ANY FIVE questions.
(i) Why does narrator feel she is a very lucky girl ?
Answer.The narrator feels that she is a very lucky girl because she has the nicest family in the world.
(ii) What kind of stories does the father tell the narrator ?
Answer.The father tells the narrator, stories about his travels and about how he met the narrator’s mother and fall in love.
(iii) How does the father comfort the mother when the mother is sad over getting grey hair ?
Answer.The narrator’s father comfort her mother when the mother is sad over getting grey hair by hugging and saying that they’ll grow old together.
(iv) How does the narrator’s father play with the narrator?
Answer.The narrator father plays with the narrator by letting her ride on his back making horse noises.
(v) What kind of bed-time stories did the narrator like to hear?
Answer.The narrator likes the bed-time stories about when her mother was little and learning how to be a queen.
(vi) What would be an appropriate title for the given passage?
Answer.The appropriate title for the given passage is “Why my family is the nicest family in the world”.
SECTION-B (WRITING AND GRAMMAR)
3. Attempt any one of the given questions.
The pie chart shows the level of engagement or popularity of different social media platforms amongst the youth namely the college students in India during the year 2019. Write an analytical paragraph in 100 – 120 words describing the information.
OR
You are Ameeta living in 14/B Ganga Villa, Vellore. Your family plans to go for a vacation to Udaipur this vacation. Write a letter in 100-120 words to the Front Office Manager of a five-star hotel seeking information about the types of rooms, tariffs, facilities, availability, etc. in their hotel.
Answer.The given pie chart illustrates the frequency of usage or popularity of different platforms of social media amongst college students of India in 2019. We can clearly see the preference of the young people from this pie chart.
It is clearly evident from the pie chart that instagram is the most favourite amongst the young people with a whopping 34% using it. Followed closely by tiktok with 26%. The one social media platform with the least engagement from the young population of the country is Twitter with only about 8% using it regularly. Facebook and Quora have fairly the same amount of engagements taking up a decent 18% and 14% respectively. Facebook beating quora by a mere 2% but given the fact that Quora is a new platform against the old and standard Facebook says a lot for its rising popularity.
Instagram and tiktok coming out as the most popular app gives us this impression that the young people of India prefer the visually driven apps with little or no room for writing think-pieces. The pie chart establishes that the youth is not keen on socially and politically engaging platforms like Twitter.
OR
H. No. 14/B ‘Ganga Villa’
Pragati Colony Vellore, Karnataka
9th December, 20XX
The Manager
Front Office
The Shangria Hotel
Udaipur, Rajasthan
Subject : Enquiry about Tariffs and Availability of
Rooms
Sir/Ma’am
My family plans to visit Udaipur for sight-seeing in the month of June this year. We may stay at your esteemed hotel which is located at the most beautiful part of the city; provided your tariff plans suit our budget. We are four persons including two adults and two children and will be staying from the 2nd of June to the 6th of June 20XX. We will prefer ‘premier rooms’ and will be requiring two such rooms.
Kindly, let me know your tariff plans for the above mentioned room type and also give details of the facilities provided by your hotel. Also, let me know about the availability on the mentioned dates and whether you provide pick and drop and sight-seeing facilities.
I would request you to mention any special
concession offers, if going on.
Awaiting your reply.
Thanking you
Yours faithfully
Ameeta
4.The following paragraph has not been edited. There is an error in each line. Identify the error and write its correction against the correct blank number. Remember to underline the correction. The first has been done for you.
Answer.
Errors Corrections
(a) a an
(b) of from
(c) in with
5. Read the conversation between Anu and Tanu and complete the passage that follows :
Anu : How many marks have you got in the test ?
Tanu : Only 80 out of one hundred.
Anu asked Tanu (a) . Tanu replied that (b) .
Answer.(a) how many marks she had got in the test
(b) she got 80 out of one hundred.
SECTION-C (LITERATURE)
6. Answer ANY SIX of the following in about 30-40 words.
(i) Does Bholi find her teacher different from the people at home?
Answer.Yes, Bholi found her teacher different from the people at home as the teacher was kind and compassionate towards her and instead of mocking her, she spoke to Bholi very politely. This touched Bholi’s heart.
(ii) What was Ebright’s eighth grade project?
Answer.When Ebright was in his eighth grade, he tried to find out why a viral disease killed all monarch caterpillars every few years. He thought it all happened because of a beetle, so he tried to raise caterpillars in the presence of those beetles. Although he did not get any satisfactory results, he showed his experiments anyway.
(iv) Why did the Custard, the dragon cry for a nice, safe cage?
Answer.Custard cries for a safe cage because he is a coward dragon. He is called cowardly dragon because other characters are defined to be very brave in the poem. Belinda is described to be as brave as a barrel full of bears. Ink and Blink can chase lions down the stairs, therefore they are considered brave. Mustard was as brave as a tiger in rage.
(v) What changes can be seen in the dress of the baker with the passage of time?
Answer.The traditional bakers of the good old days wore a peculiar dress known as Kabai. It was a single-piece long frock reaching down to the knees. During the narrator’s childhood bakers were seen wearing a shirt and trousers, which were shorter than full-length ones and longer than half pants.
(vi) Why does the poet show a fondness for living with the animals?
Answer.The poet shows a fondness for living with animals because he believes that it is better to live with animals as they show tokens of goodness. They are peaceful, self-contained and happy. Animals show innate goodness which is lacked in human beings. Animals do not grumble about their lives or cry over their sins.
(vii) Why did Prince Siddhartha Gautama leave the palace and become a beggar?
Answer.Before he had come across the sick man, the aged man, the funeral procession and the monk begging for alms, during his hunting expedition, Prince Siddhartha Gautama lived a life of comfort, unaware of the sufferings of the world. After he chanced upon those sufferings, Siddhartha Gautama left his comfortable life at the palace and wandered off into the world seeking enlightenment, concerning the sorrows he had witnessed.
7. Answer ANY TWO of the following in about 120-150 words each.
(i) The author describes the things that Valli sees from an eight-year-old’s point of view. Can you find evidence from the text for this statement?
Answer.The author has described the things that Valli saw from an eight-year-old’s point of view. She was fascinated by a bus. Watching the bus filled with a new set of people each time was a source of unending joy for her. Her strongest desire was to ride the bus. She saved money by cutting on peppermints, toys, and balloons, and even resisting the temptation to ride the merry-go-round at the fair. When the author describes the bus, the points he stresses on are the colour and look of the bus. It was a ‘new bus’, painted a ‘beaming white’. The overhead bars ‘shone like silver’. The seats were ‘soft and luxurious’.
The descriptions that the author gives when Valli looked outside are also typical for an eight-year-old. The ‘blue, blue sky’ and the ‘acres and acres of green fields – green, green, green’ shows the enthusiasm of a kid on looking at different colours. Valli clapped her hands in glee on watching a cow run right in front of the bus. She found it so funny that tears came into her eyes. On the other hand, she was overcome with sadness on her way back when she saw the same cow lying dead. It had been a lovable, beautiful creature’ and later it ‘looked so horrible’. The memory of the dead cow haunted her so much that she refused to look outside the window. These are the typical reactions of a young child.
(ii) Do you find The Tale of Custard the Dragon to be a serious or a light-hearted poem? Give reasons to support your answer.
Answer.The Tale of Custard the Dragon is a light-hearted, humourous poem. All the characters have names which are rhyming with each other and they have been described in a funny way. They all are defined to be very brave in their own way including Belinda except Custard the dragon. But in reality, when the adverse situation arises and they are attacked by a pirate only the dragon proves to be the real hero. The dragon gulps him. Though all the other characters were not brave enough to handle the pirate but still they define themselves as more powerful than the dragon after the incident is handled by the dragon alone.
