ICSE Class 10 English Language Half Yearly Sample Paper 2025: Download PDF for FREE

Board

ICSE

Class

10

Subject

English Language

Full Marks

80

Total Section

Section one

Exam Duration

2 Hours 15 Mins

Question 1:  (Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this question.)  

Write a composition (300 - 350 words) on any one of the following: [20]  

(i) Write a short story in which a little girl, her twin brother and the school bully are the main  characters.  

(ii) “Nothing is impossible in this world.” Narrate an incident from your experience which brings  out the truth of this statement.  

(iii) Study the picture given below. Write a story or a description or an account of what it suggests  to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or may take suggestions  from it; however, there must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition.  

(iv) “No other subject taught in school is as important as Moral Science”. Express your views either  for or against this statement.

(v) Elements of Western Culture have had a very influential role on cultures of the world. How are these elements different from those of Indian culture? What, according to you, should we as Indians adopt from the West to make life more meaningful?

Question 2:  (Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.)  

Select any one of the following: [10]  

(i) Write a letter to the Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, complaining about the  street lights of your locality that do not function and have not been repaired for long. 

(ii) Your younger brother has written a letter requesting you to advise him whether he should  take Computer Science as one of the elective subjects for the ICSE Examination. Write a  reply to this letter giving useful suggestions.

Question 3:  

(i) Write an email to the Chairman of your school to request him to attend the mentioned  event. [5]  

(ii) Write a notice to be put up on a school notice board informing the students about the  Blood Donation Camp organised by the Interact Club of your school. Give the necessary  details about the event. [5]

Question 4:  Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:  

Lying in bed, Swami realized with a shudder that it was Monday morning. It looked as though only a  moment ago it had been the last period on Friday; already Monday was here. He hoped that an  earthquake would reduce the school building to dust, but that good building — Albert Mission School –had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years now. At nine o’clock Swaminathan wailed, “I  have a headache.” His mother said, “Why don’t you go to school in a bullock cart?”  

“So that I may be completely dead at the other end? Have you any idea what it means to be jolted in  a cart?” 

“Have you any important lessons today?”  

“Important! Bah! That geography teacher has been teaching the same lesson for over a year now. And  we have arithmetic, which means for a whole period we are going to be beaten by the teacher…..  Important lessons!”  

And Mother generously suggested that Swami might stay at home.  

At 9:30, when he ought to have been lining up in the school prayer hall, Swami was lying on the bench  in Mother’s room. Father asked him, “Have you no school today?”  

“Headache,” Swami replied.  

“Nonsense! Dress up and go.”  

“Headache.”  

“Loaf about less on Sundays and you will be without a headache on Monday.”  Swami knew how stubborn his father could be and changed his tactics. “I can’t go so late to class.”  

“I agree, but you’ll have to; it is your own fault. You should have asked me before deciding to stay  away.”  

“What will the teacher think if I go so late?”  

“Tell him you have a headache and are late.”  

“He will beat me if I say so.”  

“Will he? Let us see. What is his name?”  

“Mr. Samuel.”  

“Does he beat the boys?”  

“He is very violent, especially with boys who come late. Some days ago a boy was made to stay on  his knees for a whole period in a corner of the class because he came late, and that after getting six  cuts from the cane and having his ears twisted. I wouldn’t like to go late to Mr. Samuel’s class.”  

“If he is so violent, why not tell your headmaster about it?”  

“They say that even the headmaster is afraid of him. He is such a violent man.”  

And then Swami gave a lurid account of Samuel’s violence; how when he started caning he would not  stop till he saw blood on the boy’s hand, which he made the boy press to his forehead like a vermillion  marking. Swami hoped that his father would be made to see that he couldn’t go to his class late. But  Father’s behaviour took an unexpected turn. He became excited. “What do these people mean by  beating our children? They must be driven out of service. I will see…”  

The result was he proposed to send Swami late to his class as a kind of challenge. He was also going  to send a letter with Swami to the headmaster. No amount of protest from Swami was of any avail:  Swami had to go to school.  

By the time he was ready Father had composed a long letter to the headmaster, put in an envelope  and sealed it.  

“What have you written, Father?” Swaminathan asked apprehensively.  

“Nothing for you. Give it to your headmaster and go to your class.”  

Swami’s father did not know the truth, that actually Mr. Samuel was a very kind and gentle man. 

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the  options provided: [2]  

1. jolted  

a. cushioned b. buffered c. jarred d. comforted  

2. stubborn  

a. flexible b. adamant c. compliant d. docile  

(ii) Which word in the passage means the opposite of the word ‘calm’. [1]  

a. violent b. lurid c. excited d. protest  

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:  

1. Why did Swami give a colourful account of Mr. Samuel to his father? [2]

2. Which sentence tells us that Swami’s father was completely unsympathetic to his son’s  headache? [2]  

3. In what way did father’s behaviour take an unexpected turn? [2]  

4. What did Swami wish for on a Monday morning? Why was his wish unlikely to be  answered? [2]  

5. In what way was Swami’s mother’s response different from his father’s? [1]

(iv) In not more than 50 words describe how Swami tries to prove that Mr. Samuel is a violent  man. [8]

Question 5:  

(i) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not  copy the passage but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank  space. [4]  Example: Answer (0) started  

My mother ___(0)___ (start) school when she ___(1)___ (be) six and ___(2)___ (stop) the  same term. She was unusual in the village as she had a father and brother who ___(3)___  (encouraged) her to go to school. She was the only girl in a class of boys and claims she was  brighter than the boys. But every day she ___(4)___ (will) leave behind her girl cousins  ___(5)___ (play) at home and she ___(6)___ (envy) them. There ___(7)___ (seem) to be no  point in ___(8)___ (go) to school just to end up doing housework.  

(ii) Fill in the blanks with appropriate words. [4]  

1. They were sitting ____ the shade of the tree.

2. The paper dart went gliding ____ the air.   

3. Rosie is very good ____ art and craft. 

4. The poor man is afflicted ____ arthritis.  

5. The young man put the flute ____ his lips and began to play. 

6. I prevailed ____ him to join the Gymnasium.   

7. Their path was beset ____ difficulties yet they succeeded.

8. He just scraped ____ his examination.    

(iii) Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or so. Choose the correct option. [4]  

1. I know the man. He stole the bicycle.  

a. I knew the man for stealing the bicycle. 

b. I know the man who stole the bicycle.  

c. I know the man who stole the bicycle. 

d. The man stole the bicycle as I knew him.    

2. Sneha is a team leader. She is very smart.  

a. Sneha, who is a team leader, is very smart.  

b. Sneha being the team leader is very smart.  

c. Sneha is very smart as she is the team leader.  

d. Sneha is the team leader as well as smart.   

3. We are moving to Bengaluru. Bengaluru is in the South.  

a. We moved to Bengaluru, which is in the South.  

b. We are moving in the South to Bengaluru.  

c. We were moving to Bengaluru in the South.  

d. We are moving to Bengaluru which is in the South.

4. He collects old stamps. This is his hobby.  

a. His hobby is collecting old stamps.  

b. He collects old stamps for his hobby.  

c. His hobby is to collect old stamps.  

d. It is his hobby so he is collecting old stamps.

(iv) Choose the correct option to rewrite the following according to the instructions given after  each sentence. [8]  

1. If you are not a member, you cannot borrow books. (Begin: Only….)  

a. Only you can borrow books unless you are not a member.  

b. Only members are allowed to borrow books.  

c. Only members cannot borrow books.  

d. Only members and no one else can borrow books.    

2. Rohan was the tallest boy in the basketball team. (Rewrite using: “taller”)  

a. Rohan was taller than any other boy in the basketball team.  

b. No other boy in the basketball team was taller than Rohan.  

c. Rohan was the taller boy in the basketball team.  

d. Rohan is taller than the boys on the basketball team.    

3. There is no success without effort. (Begin: Whenever….)  

a. Whenever there is no success, there is no effort.  

b. Whenever there is success, there is effort.  

c. Whenever is there effort, there is success  

d. Whenever there is effort, there is success.

4. This horse is better trained than yours. (Begin: Your….)  

a. Your horse is better trained than this one.  

b. Your horse is not better trained as this one.  

c. Your horse is not as well trained as this one.  

d. Your horse is better trained as this one.

5. The Principal said, “All the prizes will be distributed tomorrow.” (Begin: The Principal said  that ….)  

a. The Principal said that all the prizes would be distributed the following day.  

b. The Principal said that all the prizes will be distributed the following day.  

c. The Principal said that all the prizes will be distributed tomorrow.  

d. The Principal said that all the prizes would be distributed tomorrow.   

6. Put your tools away, the children may fall over them. (Use: least)  

a. Put your tools away lest the children might fall over them.  

b. Put your tools away lest the children should fall over them.  

c. The children might fall over lest put away your tools.  

d. The children may fall over them lest you put your tools away.    

7. The memory is so vivid that I will never forget it. (Use ‘too’ in place of so)  

a. The memory is so vivid that I will never forget.  

b. The memory is so vivid that I will never forget it.  

c. The memory is too vivid for me to forget.  

d. The memory is too vivid for me to be forgotten.

8. I prefer playing a game to watching television. (Begin: I would rather….)  

a. I would rather play a game than watch television.  

b. I would rather play a game than watching television.  

c. I would rather play a game than watch television.  

d. I would rather play a game than watch television.

CHECK:ICSE Class 10 English Language Half Yearly Sample Paper 2025, Download PDF