CBSE Sample Papers for Class 9 SA2 English Communicative Solved 2016 Set 7

CBSE Sample Papers for Class 9 SA2 English Communicative Solved 2016 Set 7

1.(a)Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow : 
If there is life on the planet-Mars, it will have to stand extreme cold at night. This should not be too difficult for plants. Cold country plants on the earth tolerate Arctic conditions for some months each winter, and plants that grow on high mountains in the tropics severe temperatures which frequently fall below freezing point during the night. Large animals on the earth try to keep from freezing, but many insects spend the winter in frozen surroundings. Bacteria, protozoa and other small organisms can be kept frozen for many years and thawed out alive and healthy. So life on Mars should not have toomuch trouble with cold. An obvious way to avoid the short-period cold of the Martian night would be to burrow into the ground as many cold-country animals do on the earth.
Another difficulty for life on Mars is scarcity of oxygen and water, but there lack may not be as serious as they appear from the human point of view. Perhaps, an atmosphere like the earth’s is a luxury, not a necessity. Martian plants might have strong impervious skins to keep the moisture in their tissues from evaporating into the thin dry air. If they need oxygen when the sun is not shining, as the earth’s plants do, they may store it as a gas or as some oxygen-rich chemical compound. They would need some way of absorbing a little carbon dioxide, but in other respects they could live for most martian springtime they would absorb enough water to last them until the following year, and during the same season they would probably do most of their growing and reproducing.
1.What kind of weather should be expected on the Mars ?
2.What kind of life could easily exist on the Mars ?
3.Why is shortage of oxygen and water not a serious problem, according to the author?
4.How could plants live on the Mars ?
5. What difficulties would human being face on the Mars if they ever went there ?
(b) Read the following passage carefully :(5)
In the early days we had very few students who had been used to handling carpenter’s tools, and the bedsteads made by the students then were very rough and very weak. Not unfrequently when I went into the students’ rooms in the morning I would find at least two bedsteads lying about on the floor. The problem of providing mattresses was a difficult one to solve. We finally mastered this, however, by getting some cheap cloth and sewing pieces of this together so as to make large bags. These bags we filled with the pine straw- or, as it is sometimes called, pine needles-which we secured from the forests near by. I am glad to say that the industry of mattress-making has grown steadily since then, and has been improved to such an extent that at the present time it is an important branch of the work which is taught systematically to a number of our girls, and that the mattresses that now come out of the mattress shop at Tuskegee are about as good as those bought in the average store. For some time after the opening of the boarding department we had no chairs in the students’ bedrooms or in the dining rooms. Instead of chairs we used stools which the students constructed by nailing together three pieces of rough board. As a rule, the furniture in the students’ rooms during the early days of the school consisted of a bed. some stools, and sometimes a rough table made by the students. The plan of having the students make the furniture is still followed, but the number of pieces in a room has been increased, and the workmanship has so improved that little fault can be found with the articles now. One thing that I have always insisted upon at Tuskegee is that everywhere there should be absolute cleanliness. Over and over again the students were reminded in those first years-and are reminded now-that people would excuse us for our poverty, for our lack of comforts and conveniences, but that they would not excuse us for dirt.
1. On the basis of your reading of the passage complete the following statements.
(а)  Pine straw was used_________ .
(b)  The students were encouraged to keep__________ .
2.Answer the following questions.
(a) Did the students find life comfortable in their hostel rooms ? Name two difficulties faced by them.
(b) What kind of teacher was the narrator ?
3.Find a word from the passage which means the same as ‘in an orderly manner’.
2.Read the following passage carefully and on the basis of your study of the passage answer the questions given below : (OTBA)(10)
Doing housework, taking care of children and carrying out assorted jobs for husbands are work just as much as is performing paid employment in an office or factory. To ignore this is to do a disservice to women in the labour force. The reality of housework is that women’s work in the home averages 56 hours per week for the full time home-maker and 26 hours per week for the employed wife/mother. Husbands and children barely increase their contribution to housework and child care when the wife/mother is in the labour force. As a result, the employed woman gives up most of her leisure to carry out the responsibilities of family life.
We realize that it may sound strange to hear women’s activities in the home, called work. Since women, who do housework and take care of children receive no salary or wages; home-making is not considered ‘work’. Economists have finally helped us to recognise the importance of women’s work in the family by estimating the monetary value of home-making. These estimates range from $ 4,705 (1968) through $ 8,200 (1972) to over $ 13,000 per year in 1973 depending on whether the work of the home-maker is considered equivalent to an unskilled, skilled or a professional worker, respectively. For example, is child care comparable to baby-sitting at $ 0.75 per hour, to a nursery school aid at $ 3 per hour, or to the care of a child psychologist at $ 30 per hour ? Some people have proposed that the solution to the problems of the employed housewife would be simply to pay women for being housewives. Hence, women with heavy family responsibilities would not have to enter the labour force in order to gain income for themselves and/or their families. This is not a solution for many reasons – wages provide income, but they do not remedy the isolating nature of the work itself nor the negative attitudes housewives themselves have towards housework (but not towards child care).
Wages for housework would reinforce occupational stereotyping by freezing women into their traditional roles. Unless women and men are paid equally in the labour force and there is no division of labour based on sex, women’s work in the home will have no value.
Since it is not clear what constitutes housework, and we know that housework standards vary greatly, it would be difficult to know how to reward it.
Pay for housework might place home-makers (mainly wives) in the difficult position of having their work assessed by their husbands, while in the case of single home-makers, it is not clear who would do the assessing.
Wages for housework, derived from spouse payments overlook the contribution women make to the society by training children to be good citizens and assume that their work is only beneficial to their own families.
Finally, payment for housework does not address itself to the basic reason why women with family responsibilities work to increase family income over that which the employed husband/father makes. Also, single women with family responsibilities work because they are the family bread winners.
It may seem puzzling that the hours of U.S. women’s home activities have not declined because of the availability of many appliances (washing machines, gas and electric ranges, blenders etc.) and convenience products (prepared soaps, frozen foods, dried food etc.). The truth is that appliances tend to be energy-saving, rather than time-saving, and lead to a rise in the standard of house-keeping. Hence women today spend more time than their grandmothers, doing laundry, since family members demand more frequent changes of clothing today than in earlier generations. Husbands and children expect more varied meals. Advertising encourages women to devote an inordinate amount of time and money to waxing floors, creating rooms free of ‘odourcausing’ germs and seeking to meet other extraordinary standards of cleanliness. Furthermore, the increasing concern with good nutrition means that many homemakers are now spending more time preparing foods that are not available in the market­place, or which are only available at great costs.
(а)  Should housewives be paid for housework ? What do you think ? Give a reasoned answer.
(b)  Compare and contrast the conditions of working women and housewives in India.
SECTION-B
(Writing & Grammar)                                   (25 Marks)
3.Write an article in 100-120 words on the topic ‘Sports in our Age’. You can take ideas from the MCB unit ‘Sports and Games’ and use the hints given below : (5)
(a) sports becoming highly competitive
(b) modern gadgets and technique
(c) the role of media in turning sportspersons into stars
4. Write a story in about 150-200 words. The story should end with the
line:   (10)
… All were happy on this pleasant turn of events.
5. Choose the most appropriate options from the ones given below
complete the following paragraph.  (3)
It (a)_________ raining since morning. Everyone was tense (b)____________ they were really very late. No one was ready to go to the bed and sleep. At last I went (c)______ .
(a) (i)was   (ii)is    (iii) has    (iv)has been
(b) (i)so     (ii)but (iii) and    (iv)as
(c) (i)in     (ii)out  (iii) off     (iv)around

6. In the unedited passage given below, one word has been omitted in each line. Write the missing word along with the word that comes before and the word that comes after it in your answer sheet. Ensure that the word that forms your answer is underlined. (4)
   When Sohrab heard words, his heart was                       (a)…………….
   filled pride, “Rustum! I am the son of Rustum!               (b)…………….
   Oh! Why you hide this from me all these                      (c)…………….
   years ? Let me go announce my father’s name.”              (d)…………….
   7. Read the conversation given below and then complete the report that follows: (3)
   Teacher :       Do you know what is global warming ?
   Student :        Yes, sir.
   Teacher :       Then write an article on it.
   The teacher asked the student (a)____________ . The student said respectfully
   that (b)________ . The teacher asked him (c)___________ .
   SECTION-C
   (Literature Textbook & Long Reading Text)  (25 Marks)
   8. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow. (3)
   “I hope you are keeping it from Harold. It is the least you can do”
   (а)    Who is the speaker here ?
   (b)    What suggestion does he make to Mrs Bramble ?
   (c) Give the meaning of ‘keeping it from.’
   Or
   “I believe you want to convert me; save my soul, don’t you call it ? Well, it’s no good — see ? I don’t want any demand religion, and as for the Church — bah! I hate the Church”
   (a)When the convict tells the Bishop that he hates the Church, what does the Bishop reply ?
   (b) What does the convict not like ?
   (c) Give the meaning of the word ‘bah’.
   9. Answer these questions in 30-40 words each : (2×4=8)
   (а)    John A. Pescud is a hypocrite. How ?
   (b)    How does Shakespeare describe the last stage of life ?
   (c) What makes the Bishop sentimental for some time ? What does it tell you about him ?
   (d) The convict proves that he is not a born criminal. How ?
   10. ‘They feed you in Hell, but when you escape from it you starvation ?
   Do the convicts prefer imprisonment to starvation? If you were a Jail Superintendent, how would you treat the convicts ? Write a paragraph bringing out the value of compassion.   (4)
   Value Points :

• hunger gives rise to crimes
• food security to be ensured
• sympathetic consideration to the convicts
• reformatory steps needed
• will be humane and considerate

Or
‘All the men and women merely players/
Do you think human beings are the architects of their own destiny and not mere players asked to perform some acts ? Write a paragraph about it, focusing on the value of self-reliance.
Value Points :

• Man has discretion and intellect
• not merely a puppet
• his initiative and enterprise can help him attain his goal
• must be up and doing
• positive and optimistic attitude essential

11.In what ways are the Yahoos and the human heings similar ?
Or
Gulliver’s account of the treatment of horses in his country made the master of Houyhnhnms angry. Why ?
Or
Narrate in your own words George’s bad experience on getting up very early one night.
Or
What does the kettle-episode tell you about Montmorency ?
     

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