From the beginning, however, I had an aversion to the water when I was in it. This started when I was three or four years old and father took me to the beach in California. He and I stood together in the surf. I hung on to him, yet the waves knocked me down and swept over me. I was buried in water. My breath was gone. I was frightened. Father laughed, but there was terror in my heart at the overpowering force of the waves. My introduction to the Y.M.C.A. swimming pool revived unpleasant memories and stirred childish fears. But in a little while, I gathered confidence. paddled with my new water wings, watching the other boys and trying to learn by aping them. I did this two or three times on different days and was just beginning to feel at ease in the water when the misadventure happened. Questions: Q.1. The writer had an intense dislike for water …………………….. . A. since he was three or four. B. when he was in water. C. when he was at some beach. D. Both A’ and ‘B’ Q.2. ………………………….. caused terror to the writer. A. The beach in California B. His father’s pressure on him C. The overpowering force of the waves D. The swimming pool Q.3. What were the unpleasant memories for the writer? A. Those that he had been in the surf with his father in California. B. Those that he had learnt about the dangers of being in water in his school. C. Those stories that he had heard from his friends. D. All of these three

1. D. Both A’ and ‘B’ 2. C. The overpowering force of the waves 3. A. Those that he had been in the surf with his father in California.

From the beginning, however, I had an aversion to the water when …

“Why not organise yourselves into a cooperative ?” I ask a group of young men who have fallen into the vicious circle of middlemen who trapped their fathers and forefathers. “Even if we get organised, we are the ones who will be hauled up by the police, beaten and dragged to jail for doing something illegal,” they say. There is no leader among them, no one who could help them see things differently.

Their fathers are as tired as they are. They talk endlessly in a spiral that moves from poverty to apathy to greed and to injustice. Listening to them, I see two distinct worlds – one of the family, caught in a web of poverty, burdened by the stigma of caste in which they are born; the other a vicious circle of the sahukars, the middlemen, the policemen, the keepers of law, the bureaucrats and the politicians. Together they have imposed the baggage on the child that he cannot put down. Before he is aware, he accepts it as naturally as his father.

To do anything else would mean to dare. And daring is not part of his growing up. When I sense a flash of it in Mukesh I am cheered. “I want to be a motor mechanic,’ he repeats. He will go to a garage and learn. But the garage is a long way from his home. “I will walk,” he insists. “Do you also dream of flying a plane?” He is suddenly silent. “No,” he says, staring at the ground. In his small murmur, there is an embarrassment that has not yet turned into regret. He is content to dream of cars that he sees hurtling down the streets of his town. Few aeroplanes fly over Firozabad.
Questions :
Q.1. The meaning of the phrase ‘hauled up’ is ……………………… .
A. ‘punished’. B. ‘tortured’. C. ‘arrested’. D. ‘supported’.

Q.2. The ‘baggage on the child’ is ………………………… .
A. ‘force the profession on the child’.
B. ‘the load of the bag full of rags’.
C. ‘the debts that their parents have incurred’.
D. None of these three.

Q.3. What is different with Mukesh?
A. He dreams of flying a plane.
B. He wants to be a motor mechanic.
C. He does not want to be seized to be a ragpicker.
D. Both ‘B’ and ‘C’.

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Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which fastened her apron strings. The delicate - seeming bow and the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the windows and the small room was steamy from the stove and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner. Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for her brother Geoff. He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the far side of the city. Questions Q.1. Whom was Sophie watching near the sink?
A. Father	B. Mother	C. Geoff	D. Derek
Q.2. What is untrue about Sophie's house?
i. The kitchen was a small room.		ii. Dirty washing was piled up in a corner of the room.
iii. The kitchen was steamy from ancient fire place.		iv. The next room had a carpet.
A. iii and iv	B. only ii	C. i and ii	D. only iii
Q.3. What was Sophie's brother doing?
A. He was tinkering the carpet.		B. He was lying on the carpet
C. He was mending a part of his motorcycle		D. He was reading a book on the carpet.

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One dark evening as he was trudging along the road he caught sight of a little grey cottage by the roadside, and he knocked on the door to ask shelter for the night. Nor was he refused. Instead of the sour faces which ordinarily met him, the owner, who was an old man without wife or child, was happy to get someone to talk to in his loneliness.

Immediately he put the porridge pot on the lire and gave him supper; then he carved off such a big slice from his tobacco roll that it was enough both for the stranger’s pipe and his own. Finally, he got out an old pack of cards and played ‘mjolis’ with his guest until bedtime.

The old man was just as generous with his confidences as with his porridge and tobacco. The guest was informed at once that in his days of prosperity his host had been a crofter at Ramsjo Ironworks and had worked on the land. Now that he was no longer able to do day labour, it was his cow which supported him. Yes, that bossy was extraordinary. She could give milk for the creamery every day, and last month he had received all of thirty kronor in payment.
Questions:
Q.1. The writer saw ……………………….. while trudging along the road.
A. an old man B. a little grey cottage C. a cave D. a huge house

Q.2. In this passage ‘sour faces’ means ………………… .
A. Unlikable faces. B. Faces with warm feelings.
C. Fearful faces. D. Unhappy faces.

Q.3. The old man showed his hospitability by ………………….. .
A. offering him wine.
B. serving him supper of porridge.
C. offering him tobacco and pipe to smoke.
D. Both ‘B’ and ‘C’

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Even in the matter of education, specially formal education, Subbun couldn’t an appreciable lead over our boy. But by virtue of being born a Brahmin- a virtue,indeed!- he must have had exposure to more affluent situations and people. He had the ability to look cheerful at all times even after having had a hand in a flop film. Questions Q.1. Why did Subbu score over others?
A. He was a Brahmin and had influential contacts.		B. He was cheerful on making a flop film.
C. He had special formal education.		D. He was a friend to all.
Q.2. Who has penned the passage?
A. Kothamangalam Subbu	B. Asokamitran	C. Vasan	D. Krishna Sastry
Q.3. What was the full name of Subbu?
A. K D S Subbu	B. Krishna Subbu	C. Kothamangalam Subbu	D. Vasan Subbu

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The world had, of course, never been very kind of him, so it gave him unwonted Joy to think ill of it in this Way. It became a cherished pastime of his, during many dreary plodding, to think of people he knew who had let themselves be caught in the dangerous Snare, and of others who were still circling around the bait. Questions
Q.1. Who is ‘he’ in the Passage ?
A. The peddler	B. Nils Olof	C. Stjernstrom	D. Von Stahle
Q.2. What joy did he experience ?
A. Knowing that people are in a rattrap.		B. Thinking ill of unkind People.
C. Seeing People circling around the bait.		D. Thinking ill about himself.
Q.3. Who has penned the above Passage ?
A. William Douglas	B. A R Baron	C. Louis Fischer	D. Selma Lagerlof

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After dark she walked by the canal, along a sheltered path lighted only by the glare of the lamps from the wharf across the water, and the unceasing drone of the city was muffled and distant. It was a place she had often played in when she was a child. There was a wooden bench beneath a solitary elm, where lovers sometimes came. She sat down to wait. It was the perfect place, she had always thought so, for a meeting of this kind. For those who wished not to be observed. She knew he would approve. Questions Q.1. Who was walking by the canal?
A. Sophie	B. Jansie	C. Casey	D. Melissa
Q.2. Who as penned the story?
A. Alphonse Daudet		B. Going Places
C. Louis Fischer		D. We too are human beings
Q.3. Whom was she waiting for?
A. Geoff	B. Danny	C. Louis	D. Frank

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A mass of yellow water held me. Stark terror took an even deeper hold on me, like a great charge of electricity. I shook and trembled with fright. My arms wouldn’t move. My legs wouldn’t move. I tried to call for help, to call for mother. Nothing happened.
Questions
Q.1. Where did the incident take place ?
A. In a pool	B. In a lake	C. In the sea	D. In a river
Q.2. What is meant by ‘stark terror’ ?
A. unlikely co-ordination	B. horrible feeling	C. naked thoughts	D. utter fright
Q.3. How is the force of the water described by the boy ?
A. Like a mass of yellow water		B. Like a great charge of electricity
C. Like stark terror		D. Like shaking and trembling stuff

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One winter morning I see Saheb standing by the fenced gate of the neighbourhood club, watching two young men dressed in white, playing tennis. “I like the game,” he hums, content to watch it standing behind the fence. “I go inside when no one is around,” he admits. “The gatekeeper lets me use the swing.”Saheb too is wearing tennis shoes that look strange over his discoloured shirt and shorts.

“Someone gave them to me,” he says in the manner of an explanation. The fact that they are discarded shoes of some rich boy, who perhaps refused to wear them because of a hole in one of them, does not bother him. For one who has walked barefoot, even shoes with a hole is a dream come true. But the game he is watching so intently is out of his reach.

This morning, Saheb is on his way to the milk booth. In his hand is a steel canister. “I now work in a tea stall down the road,” he says, pointing in the distance. “I am paid 800 rupees and all my meals.” Does he like the job? I ask. His face, I see, has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was his. The canister belongs to the man who owns the teashop. Saheb is no longer his own master!

Questions:

Q.1. Saheb is satisfied with ……………………. .
A. just watching tennis being played.
B. just having a ride on the swing.
C. entering the club with the permission of the watchman.
D. entering the club without the permission of the watchman.

Q.2. ………………………….. is ‘out of reach’ for Saheb.
A. Tennis shoes B. Game of Tennis
C. Nice clothes. D. The milk booth.

Q.3. What was wrong with the tennis shoes?A. They were given by some rich boy.
B. They were discarded ones.
C. In one of them there was a hole.
D. They did not suit him over his discoloured shirt and shorts.

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Such a charitable and improvident man, and yet he had enemies! Was it because he seemed so close and intimate with The Boss? Or was it his general demeanour that resembled a sycophant's ? Questions Q.1. Which man is being spoken about?
A. Vasant	B. Subbu	C. Sastry	D. Sangu
Q.2. The above passage is an excerpt from...............
A. The Boss and me		B. Ananda Vikatan
C. My Years with Boss		D. My stint with Gemini Studio
Q.3. Who is a sycophant? (Which one is incorrect?)
A. yes man	B. fawner	C. critic	D. flatterer

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While every other member of the Department wore a kind of uniform - khadi dhoti with a slightly oversized and clumsily tailored white khadi shirt - the legal adviser wore pants and a tie and sometimes a coat that looked like a coat of mail. Often he looked alone and helpless - a man of cold logic in a crowd of dreamers - a neutral man in an assembly of Gandhiites and khadiites. Questions Q.1. Which one of the following was not a characteristic feature of the lawyer?
A. He was a Gandhian.		B. He reasoned without emotion.
C. He looked alone and helpless.		D. He was a neutral man.
Q.2. Who is the narrator of the passage?
A. Kothamangalam Subbu	B. Asokamitran	C. Vasan	D. Krishna
Q.3. What is meant by 'coat of mail'? A. A garment worn by a postman B. An armoured coat made of chains and metal plates C. A coat with stamps printed on It D. None of the above

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