CBSE Class 12 English Term 2 Exam 2022: Sample Paper By Experts For Last Minute Revision!

1. From the moment a baby first opens its eyes, it is learning, sight and sensation spark off a learning process which will determine in large measure the sort of person it will become. Language stands head and shoulders over all other tools as an instrument of learning. It is a language that gives man his lead in intelligence over all other creatures. Only man can stand off and contemplate his own situation. No other creature can assemble a list of ideas, consider them, draw conclusions and then explain his reasoning. Man can do all this because he possesses language. And if thought depends on language, clearly the quality of an individual's thought will descend on that person's language- rudimentary or sophisticated, precise or approximate, stereotyped or original.
2. Very young babies are soothed by the human voice and comforting words close to them. This essentially emotional response provides early evidence that feeling is an important component of language learning. Children learn to use language in interaction with other human beings, and this learning precedes best against a background of affectionate feedback from the person who is closest to them. This is seen to perfection in the interaction between parent and baby: eyes locked together, the adult almost physically drawing 'verbal' response from the baby, both engulfed by that unique experience of intimate and joyful 'connecting' which sets the pattern of relationships between two people.
3. Thus, long before they can speak, children are involved in a two-way process of communication which is steadily building a foundation on which their later use of language will be based. Constantly surrounded by language, they are unconsciously building structures in their minds into which their speech and reading will later fit-grammatical constructions, tense sequences and so on. The forms of these structures will depend on the amount and complexity of speech they hear. The fortunate children are those who listen to articulate adults expressing ideas and defending opinions. They will know, long before they can contribute themselves that relationships are forged through this process of speaking and listening; that warmth and humour have a place in the process, as have all other human emotions.
4. Using books is the most important means of ensuring a child's adequate language development. None of us can endlessly initiate and maintain speech with very small children; we run out of ideas, or just get plain sick of it. Their lives are limited and the experience just isn't there to provide the raw material for constant verbal interaction, without inevitable boredom on the child's part and desperation on the adult's.
5. Parents and children who share books share the same frame reference. Incidents in everyday life constantly remind one or the other of a situation, a character, an action, from a jointly enjoyed book, with all the generation of warmth and wellbeing that is attendant upon such sharing. All too often, there is a breakdown of communication between parents and children when the problems of adolescence arise. In most cases this is the most acute when the give and take of shared opinion and ideas has not been constantly practiced throughout childhood. Books can play a major part in the establishment of this verbal give and take, because they are rooted in language.
6. Young children's understanding greatly outruns their capacity for expression as their speech strains to encompass their awareness, to represent reality as they see it. Shades of meaning which may be quite unavailable to the child of limited verbal experience are startling talked-to; toddler. All the wonderful modifying words-later, nearly, tomorrow, almost, wait, half, lend-begin to steer the child away from the simple extremes of "yes" and 'no' towards the adult word of compromise; from the child's black and white world to the subtle shades and tints of the real world. The range of imaginative experience opened up by books expands the inevitably limited horizons of children's surroundings and allows them to make joyful, intrigued, awe-struck acquaintances with countless people, animals, objects and ideas in their first years of life, to their incalculable advantage.
7. Books also help children to see things from other points of view besides their own as they unconsciously put themselves into other people's places – 'if that could happen to him, it could happen to me.' This imaginative self-awareness brings apprehensions and fears as well as heightened hopes and joys.
8. Our society is increasingly dominated by visual images and crude noise. Television selects what we look at advertisements are designed so that non-readers will get the points; the sound is often loud, strident and undifferentiated. In books children can experience language which is subtle, resourceful, exhilarating and harmonious; languages which provide the human ear (and understanding) with a pointed and precise pleasure, the searing illuminating impact of good and true words. All this is in danger of being lost against the blaring and glaring background of the modern child's world. (Adapted from Babies Need Books by Dorothy Butler)

On the basis of your understanding of this passage answer the following questions with the help of the given options:

1. a) Of all other creatures man leads in intelligence due to:

(i) ideas,

(ii) conclusions

(iii) reasoning

(iv) language

1. b) For very young babies an important component of language learning is:

(i) feelings

(ii) interaction

(iii) experience

(iv) feedback

1. c) Books can help in child's adequate language development only when:

(i) children are given a book to read on their own

(ii) parents and children share a book reading

(iii) books have colourful visual image

(iv) books are new and expensive

1. d) Which of the following statement is NOT correct?

(i) modern child's world is full of visual images and crude noise

(ii) advertisements are so designed that even a non-reader can understand

(iii) in books children can experience language which is subtle, resourceful and harmonious

(iv) television is good for the proper development of a child's language

1. e) The role of books in maintaining a good relationship is when:

(i) children learn to use language in interaction

(ii) children unconsciously build structures in their minds.

(iii) children‘s horizons expand inevitably.

(iv) children see things from others' points of view.

2. Answer the following questions briefly; (1×5= 5 Marks)

1. List three things that a baby can do from the moment it is born that enable it to learn about the world around it.
2. How does the range of language affect a person's thinking?
3. What advantages do children who listen to articulate adults enjoy in comparison with the others?
4. Why according to the writer is talking alone an inadequate base for language development?
5. Pick out two other advantages of books mentioned in the passage.

3. Find words from the passage that mean the same as

(a) Think about (Para 1)

(b) Pronounce distinctly (Para 3)

Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow:

2. COURAGE

It takes courage

to refrain from gossip

when others delight in it,

to stand up for the absent person

who is being abused?

It takes courage

to live honestly

within your means

And not dishonestly

On the means of others.

It takes courage

to be a real man or a true woman,

To hold fast to your ideals

When it causes you

To be looked upon

As strange and peculiar.

It takes courage

To be talked about,

And remain silent,

when a word would justify you

In the eyes of others

But which you dare not speak

Because it would injure another.

It takes courage

To refuse to do something

That is wrong

Although everyone else

May be doing it

with an attitude as carefree

As a summer song

It takes courage

To live according

To your own convictions

To deny yourself

What you cannot afford.

2.1 Choose the correct option: 

1. It is __________ to keep away from gossip.

(i) difficult

(ii) chaotic

(iii) dynamic

(iv) desirable

2. The poet wants us to support people even in their absence because it is ________

(i) not right to harm them

(ii) not right to talk about anyone behind their back

(iii) not right to abuse them

(iv) not right to misuse them

3. Only a courageous person can _________

(i) sing a summer song

(ii) listen to a summer song

(iii) have his convictions

(iv) do something wrong

4. The courageous people remain silent because they do not know want to _________

(i) speak all the time

(ii) hurt other people

(iii) show their smartness

(iv) justify themselves

5. The poem is encouraging readers to be______

(i) full of honesty and thought fullness

(ii) full of resolution and conviction

(iii) full of heroism and conviction

(iv) full of ideas and beliefs

2.2 Answer the following questions briefly. (1x7=7 Marks)

1. How can one not participate in gossip?
2. When does one become a real man or a true woman?
3. Why does it take courage to remain silent?
4. How can one be different from the others?
5. Write in one line (15-20 words) your understanding of the word  courage‘

2.3 Find a word which means the same as the following:

(i) strong beliefs

(ii) strange

3. Write an Article on any one of the following:

1. Effect of the internet on Teenagers
2. Make in India
3. Cruelty to animals

CBSE Class 12 English Term 2 Exam 2022: Literature Section

1. How do denizens‘ and chivalric‘ add to our understanding of the tiger‘s attitudes?
2. Why do you think Aunt Jennifer‘s hands are fluttering through her wool‘ in the second stanza? Why is she finding the needle so hard to pull?
3. What is suggested by the image massive weight of Uncle‘s wedding band‘?
4. Of what or of who is Aunt Jennifer terrified with in the third stanza?
5. What are the  ̳ordeals‘ Aunt Jennifer is surrounded by, why is it significant that the poet uses the word ringed? What are the meanings of the word ringed in the poem?
6. Reflecting on the story, what did you feel about Evans‘ having the last laugh?
7. When Stephens comes back to the cell he jumps to a conclusion and the whole machinery blindly goes by his assumption without even checking the identity of the injured  ̳McLeery‘. Does this show how hasty conjectures can prevent one from seeing the obvious? How is the criminal able to predict such negligence?
8. What kind of a person was Evans?

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Term 2: CBSE Class 12 English Core Question Bank- CBSE Board English Exam 2022!