CBSE Class 12th English Elective Sample Paper and Marking Scheme 2025: Download Free PDF

1. 

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

(1)

The postmaster’s office was located in the village of Ulapur. He was a young man from Calcutta. Stationed here, away from the known limits of civilisation, he often felt like a fish out of water. The plantation workers nearby seemed to have their own community. Social miscegenation between two different classes of people seemed all but impossible.

(2)

In truth, the boy from the city wasn’t good at mixing with people. Uprooted and exiled to a foreign land, his feelings oscillated between arrogance and shame. He rarely met any of the villagers. At times, he tried writing. He wrote poems: poems in which the marrow of life seemed to resonate with the faint tremble of young leaves, where the memory of existence was rejuvenated by the sight of rain clouds—and yet, in his heart of hearts, he knew that the only way he’d welcome the sight of a new life would be if some fantastical djinn from the Arabian Nights arrived at night, unawares, and secretly swept away this maze of maddening vegetation. He longed for the security of metalled roads, of tall houses which blocked the sight of clouds in the open sky. The city was spreading its tentacles, calling him back.

(3) 

The postmaster’s salary was meagre. He had to cook his own meals and his housework was under the care of an orphan girl called Ratan. Ratan was thirteen years old and called him dadababu. Her marital prospects seemed bleak. Evenings would arrive with plumes of smoke rising from the cowshed. The postmaster would light his lamp. The flame would sputter as he’d call out, “Ratan?” Ratan would be waiting for this call. But on its arrival, she’d rush into the room, feigning surprise. “You called, dadababu?” “Are you busy?” “Well, I need to go and make the fire . . .” “You can afford to do that later, can’t you? Do be a dear and dress my tobacco..”

(4) 

Ratan would enter with the coal-filled hookah, blowing on it feverishly. The postmaster would snatch it from her hands and ask, quite suddenly, “Ratan, do you remember your mother?” Memories would flow back in. Her father, she remembered, loved her more than her mother. She remembered his smile clearly, Page | 2 the smile he’d carry home when he returned every evening. His face would return to her like a revenant, and the little girl, still lost in thought, would proceed to sit on the floor by the postmaster’s feet. Looking at the young man, she’d remember how she had a brother once. She’d remember the past like it was only yesterday; how they’d played by that old pond, using a branch as a fishing pole! She’d find herself remembering bits of insignificant things. The larger tragedies of life were murky.

(5) 

There were days of magnetic nostalgia—sitting on the wooden plank by the hut, the postmaster would find himself remembering his own history—as he’d think of his little brother, his sister, of everyone he’d left behind. He was infinite and infinitesimal, engulfed by a gaping emptiness—if only, if only he had someone to share this with! And just like that, all of nature was echoing his abyssal vacancy. My heart is in free fall. Won’t anyone catch it?

(6)

On one afternoon during monsoons, Ratan walked into the postmaster’s room and found him lying on his cot under a pile of blankets and was running a fever. Something was happening to Ratan. The pale fire of steady resolution crackled under her skin. In the force of an instant, she assumed the authority of a mother. Rushing out of the hut, she called the local doctor, stayed awake for the entirety of the night, crushing herbs, and feeding them to her patient, punctuating the stillness of this frightening night with the words, “Are you feeling better, dadababu?”

(7) 

It took the postmaster weeks to recover from his illness. When he had completely

recuperated, he thought to himself, “Enough is enough!” He had to get out of here.

He had to. He immediately wrote a letter to his superiors in Calcutta asking for a

transfer on medical grounds. Her duties relieved, Ratan spent her days outside

his room, book in hand, waiting for that old call. But the call never arrived. Finally,

after weeks of waiting, Ratan was called in one evening. Nursing secret

excitement and tender trepidation, she walked into the room.

“Dadababu, you called?”

“Ratan,” he began, “I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“Where are you going, dadababu?”

“I’m going home.”

“When will you come back?”

The postmaster pursed his lips.

“I don’t think I will.”

Ratan stood still for a while. Words seemed to be losing their way in the labyrinth

of her silence.

 “Dadababu, will you take me with you?”

 The young man stared at the girl and then laughed.

 “That’s ridiculous!”

 Shaken, she burst into tears.

“Listen, Ratan. I never thanked you for everything you did. Now that I’m leaving,

I want to give you something. Keep this. It’ll make your ends meet for some time

at least.” The postmaster handed her a pouch. Peering inside, Ratan found that it

contained all of her master’s earnings. Stunned, the little girl fell onto the floor,

clutching the postmaster’s feet.

“Dadababu!” she stuttered, “I b-beg of you! You don’t have to give me anything!

Please! Please! I don’t want your kindness! No one—no one has to take charge

of me!”

And she ran out, vanishing into the mist enveloping the hut.

(8)

I II III IV V Sighing, the postmaster picked up his bags, and walked to the riverbank where a boat was waiting for him. When the boat finally slid into the current, it was then that the postmaster felt the sudden weight of crushing grief that his heart was gravitating with. “I should turn back,” he thought to himself. “Let me take her with me; she, who has always been neglected. She, who has never been welcomed.” But by then, the wind had begun pushing the sails. The lukewarm heart of the voyager consoled itself with eternal philosophy: ‘life was a river of partings and departings, of death and uprooting, of longing and belonging. What was the use of looking back? Who belonged to whom in this world?’ But Ratan’s little heart harboured no such philosophy. She had been circling the old hut cradled in the river of her own tears. Perhaps she nursed a tender hope that her dadababu would return one day. Anchored by its roots, she refused to move away from the debris of her own heartbreak. (1155 words) ‘The Postmaster by Rabindranath Tagore’ - translated from the Bengali by Utsa Bose

On the basis of your reading of the above excerpt, choose the correct option to answer the following questions: (Any twelve)

I

What was the postmaster's relationship with the villagers?

A. Close and friendly

B. Distant and aloof

C. Hostile

D. Collaborative

II

The postmaster’s decision to leave reveal about his character shows that

he is __________

A. determined and resolute

B. indifferent and uncaring

C. hopeful and optimistic

D. weak and indecisive

III

What all would Ratan recall while conversing with the postmaster?

A. A lot of things about her mother

B. Large tragedies of her life

C. Her father, brother and many insignificant things

D. Her father, brother and many significant things

IV

What does the postmaster mean when he thinks- ‘My heart is in free fall.’?

A. His heart is aching

B. His heart is longing for love

C. His heart is longing to explore

D. His heart is throbbing at a fast pace

V

Statement 1: Ratan refuses to take the salary offered by the postmaster.

Statement 2: Ratan is annoyed at the postmaster’s refusal to take her along with

him.

A. Both 1 & 2 are correct and 2 is the reason for 1.

B. Both 1 & 2 are correct and 2 is not the reason for 1.

C. 1 is correct and 2 is incorrect.

D. Both 1 & 2 are incorrect.

VI

What does the image of the "faint tremble of young leaves" symbolize in the

poem?

A. The postmaster's longing for the city

B. The beauty of nature

C. The fragility of life

D. The growth and renewal of life

VII

What literary device is used in the phrase “life was a river of partings and

departings”?

A. Metaphor

B. Simile

C. Hyperbole

D. Personification

VIII

The postmaster often felt like a ‘fish without water’ in Ulapur because:

A. His urban background made him a bad mixer in an unfamiliar place like

Ulapur.

B. He was always thirsty and hungry.

C. The villagers were cordial with him.

D. He had forgotten his native place. 

IX

What does the river symbolize in the final paragraph?

A. The postmaster's journey to a new life

B. Ratan's grief and isolation

C. The passage of time

D. The inevitability of change

X

And just like that, all of nature was echoing his abyssal vacancy.’’ What does this tell about the mental condition of the postmaster?

XI

Tagore seems to be suggesting that the powerful natural world is capable of influencing those who come into contact with it—for better or for worse. Justify it with an example from the story. 

XII

Complete the sentence appropriately.

Ratan could not reconcile herself to the postmaster’s ‘eternal philosophy’ and therefore chose to ___________________

XIII

State whether the following opinion is TRUE or FALSE.

When the postmaster fell ill, Ratan took up the role of a dictator and called the doctor

XIV

What does the postmaster mean when he thinks, “Who belonged to whom in this world?”

XV

In paragraph 3, the narrator says, “But on its arrival, she’d rush into the room, feigning surprise. “Which of the following expressions correctly display the meaning of ‘feigning surprise’?

A. genuinely surprised

B. pretending to be surprised

C. trying earnestly to be surprised

D. elated at being surprised”