Delhi Public School Class 8 English Past Paper PDF 2023-24
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Uploaded by MagnificentParody1958
Delhi Public School, Durgapur
2024
Delhi Public School
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This is a past paper for class 8 English from Delhi Public School, Durgapur for the 2023-2024 academic year. The exam paper covers reading comprehension, grammar, and literature topics. The provided text includes questions on educational philosophies, asking students to analyze and summarize historical viewpoints.
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## DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, DURGAPUR Half Yearly Examination, (2023-24) **CLASS- VIII** **SUBJECT- ENGLISH** **SEC:** **Time: 3 Hours** **Maximum Marks: 80** **NAME:** **ROLL NO.** **General Instructions:** - This question paper consists of 5 no. of pages and 10 questions. - This question paper is div...
## DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, DURGAPUR Half Yearly Examination, (2023-24) **CLASS- VIII** **SUBJECT- ENGLISH** **SEC:** **Time: 3 Hours** **Maximum Marks: 80** **NAME:** **ROLL NO.** **General Instructions:** - This question paper consists of 5 no. of pages and 10 questions. - This question paper is divided into 4 sections: - - All questions are compulsory. Marks are indicated against each question. ## **SECTION A: READING SKILLS (22 marks)** ### 1 Read the following passage: (12 marks) A. Philosophy of Education is a label applied to the study of the purpose, process, nature and ideals of education. It can be considered a branch of both philosophy and education. Education can be defined as the teaching and learning of specific skills, and the imparting of knowledge, judgment and wisdom, and is something broader than the societal institution of education we often speak of. B. Many educationalists consider it a weak and woolly field, too far removed from the practical applications of the real world to be useful. But philosophers dating back to Plato and the Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and emphasis, and there is little doubt that their work has helped shape the practice of education over the millennia. C. Plato is the earliest important educational thinker, and education is an essential element in "The Republic" (his most important work on philosophy and political theory, written around 360 B.C.). In it, he advocates some rather extreme methods: removing children from their mothers' care and raising them as wards of the state, and differentiating children suitable to the various castes, the highest receiving the most education, so that they could act as guardians of the city and care for the less able. He believed that education should be holistic, including facts, skills, physical discipline, music and art. D. Plato believed that talent and intelligence is not distributed genetically and thus is be found in children born to all classes, although his proposed system of selective public education for an educated minority of the population does not really follow a democratic model. E. Aristotle considered human nature, habit and reason to be equally important forces to be cultivated in education, the ultimate aim of which should be to produce good and virtuous citizens. He proposed that teachers lead their students systematically, and that repetition be used as a key tool to develop good habits, unlike Socrates' emphasis on questioning his listeners to bring out their own ideas. F. He emphasized the balancing of the theoretical and practical aspects of subjects taught, among which he explicitly mentions reading, writing, mathematics, music, physical education, literature, history, and a wide range of sciences, as well as play, which he also considered important. G. During the Medieval period, the idea of Perennialism was first formulated by St. Thomas Aquinas in his work "De Magistro". Perennialism holds that one should teach those things deemed to be of everlasting importance to all people everywhere, namely principles and reasoning, not just facts (which are apt to change over time), and that one should teach first about people, not machines or techniques. It was originally religious in nature, and it was only much later that a theory of secular perennialism developed. H. During the Renaissance, the French skeptic Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592) was one of the first to critically look at education. Unusually for his time, Montaigne was willing to question the conventional wisdom of the period, calling into question the whole edifice of the educational system, and the implicit assumption that university-educated philosophers were necessarily wiser than uneducated farm workers, for example. #### Answer the following questions, based on the passage above. i. Analyse the meaning of 'the societal institution of education we often speak of': (1 mark) - An institution that teaches academic knowledge and learning skills - An institution where people come with an ulterior motive - An institution that only promotes social development - An institution that defines philosophy ii. Trace why do educationists consider the philosophy of education weak: (2 marks) iii. Deduce the reason behind Plato's 'The Republic' being considered an extreme book: (1 mark) - The Republic primarily focusses on the need of physical discipline - The Republic gives more importance to the social hierarchy in imparting education - The Republic discusses the practical as well as theoretical aspects of education - The Republic states the philosophy of education system systematically iv. Propose one alternative to the 'extreme' methods as advocated by Plato: (2 marks) v. Summarize Socrates' approach towards education in two sentences: (1 mark) vi. Point out the essence of 'Perennialism': (1 mark) vii. Infer the theme of the passage from the following: (1 mark) - Advantages of education - Evolution of education with time - Education and the philosophers - Traditional aspects of education viii. Illustrate what did Aristotle want to cultivate in the system of education: (1 mark) ix. Critically analyze how the renaissance period made a difference to the system of education: (1 mark) x. Determine how was Montaigne's approach towards education different: (1 mark) ### 2 Read the following passage: (10 marks) A. The postmaster first took up his duties in the village of Ulapur. Though the village was a small one, there was an indigo factory near by, and the proprietor, an Englishman, had managed to get a post office established. Our postmaster belonged to Calcutta. He felt like a fish out of water in this remote village. B. His office and living-room were in a dark thatched shed, not far from a green, slimy pond, surrounded on all sides by a dense growth. The postmaster's salary was small. He had to cook his own meals, which he used to share with Ratan, an orphan girl of the village, who did odd jobs for him. C. When in the evening the smoke began to curl up from the village cowsheds, and the birds chirped in every bush; when the mendicants of the Baül sect sang their shrill songs in their daily meeting-place, when any poet, who had attempted to watch the movement of the leaves in the dense bamboo thickets, would have felt a ghostly shiver run down his back, the postmaster would light his little lamp, and call out "Ratan." D. On some evenings, seated at his desk in the corner of the big empty shed, the postmaster too would call up memories of his own home, of his mother and his sister, of those for whom in his exile his heart was sad, memories which were always haunting him, but which he could not talk about with the men of the factory. E. One heavily clouded morning, the postmaster's little pupil had been long waiting outside the door for her call, but, not hearing it as usual, she took up her dog-eared book, and slowly entered the room. F. She found her master stretched out on his bed, and, thinking that he was resting, she was about to retire on tip-toe, when she suddenly heard her name--"Ratan!" She turned at once and asked: "Were you sleeping, Dada?" The postmaster in a plaintive voice said: "I am not well. Feel my head; is it very hot?" G. It was some time before the postmaster, with weakened body, was able to leave his sick-bed. "No more of this," said he with decision. "I must get a transfer." He at once wrote off to Calcutta an application for a transfer, on the ground of the unhealthiness of the place. #### Answer the following questions, based on the passage above. i. The Postmaster was like a 'fish out of water'. Supplement your answer with proper reasons: (2 marks) ii. '...the proprietor, an Englishman, had managed to get a post office established.' Infer the meaning of the word 'proprietor' from the following: (1 mark) - Helper - Patron - Resident - Owner iii. Describe the occasions during which the postmaster gave a shout out to Ratan: (2 marks) iv. The postmaster's heart did not reside in the village. Validate with reference to the passage above: (1 mark) v. Determine the reason behind the postmaster's inability to share his thoughts with anyone in the factory: (1 mark) vi. Produce an evidence to show that Ratan cared for the postmaster: (1 mark) vii. Uncover if the unhealthiness of the place was the only reason for the postmaster to apply for a transfer: (1 mark) viii. Select the reason that best describes the postmaster's plaintive response to Ratan: (1 mark) - The postmaster was talking to a woman - The postmaster was emotionally and physically weak - The postmaster was in a deep slumber - None of the above ## **SECTION B: WRITING SKILLS (22 marks)** 3. You are the school captain of Stonehill High School, Bangalore. Draft a notice in not more than 50 words for all the prefects and office bearers of your school to attend a meeting on school discipline. Include details regarding time, place and agenda. (3 marks) 4. Write an email to your friend Lupin explaining your success as a team leader in a quiz competition which was held at your school. Your name is Girish. (4 marks) 5a. Imagine yourself to be a 'Martian'. Describe your stay on Earth for seven days in the form of a diary in about 100-120 words. [You could write this diary after your return or during your stay on Earth.] (7 marks) OR 5bWrite a story with an appropriate title in about 100-120 words that begins with the following words: It had been over two hours waiting for the train. Ruhi was getting restless. Suddenly she noticed a child begging at the platform...... (7 marks) 6a. You are Raman / Ranjana, a student of PPS, Kozikode. Write a letter to Principal informing her that you are COVID Positive and are seeking leave on medical grounds for two weeks. (8 marks) OR 6b. Books are our best friends. They are our closest companions and we learn a lot from them. Without them our lives seem dull, boring and incomplete. But not everyone can afford them. So, we should come together and donate our books to the underprivileged children to bring a smile on their faces. Write an article in about 120-150 words titled 'Donate books to the underprivileged children.' While drafting your article, you may use the following points: (8 marks) - Condition of books should be good; not torn or in a bad/poor state - Encouraging students to donate generously - Bringing a smile on someone's face! ## **SECTION C: GRAMMAR (10 marks)** 7. Complete the tasks,as directed. (10 marks) (A)Fill in the blanks with the appropriate word. (3 marks) When we speak, we do not go on speaking continuously and in the same tone. We (i) (at/in/on) other times, pause while speaking. Sometimes, we raise our voice while (ii) (low/lower/lie) it. We lend a particular quality of voice to the same words to convey a particular meaning. Marks of punctuation perform (iii) (a/the/an) same function as pauses and stresses perform in speech (B) Identify the error in the following lines and supplement it with a proper word. (4 marks) | | CORRECTION | ERROR | |---|---|---| | As you're aware, I've been a loyal dog of five years. | | (i) | | The doghouse you made for me is wonderful built | | (ii) | | I has hired an architect to draw up a plan for my new house. | | (iii) | | Its pictures will come in an latest issue of Dog Fancy | | (iv) | (C) Do as directed: (3 marks) (i)They cut down the dried trees in the garden. (State whether the verb is transitive or intransitive and identify the object/s as direct or indirect, if any) (1 + 1 marks) (ii)Jane is not coming today as she is ill. (Identify the type of clause) (1 mark) ## **SECTION D: LITERATURE (26 marks)** 8 Read the given excerpts and answer the questions briefly (A) I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, (Ozymandias) i. List the meaning of the phrase 'sneer of cold command'. Substitute the word 'sneer' with another word close in meaning. (2 marks) ii. Locate the figure of speech in the above quoted lines and give a reason to label the same. (1 mark) iii. What can be inferred about the person's character from the excerpt? (1 mark) (B) Wangchuk has spent around three months from August to October every year at the Complex to guide and care for the pilgrims who visit the site during the small window of time' (The Monk Protectors Of Arunachal's Wetlands) i. Recall any two incidents to show that Wangchuk is a true monk protector of the wetlands. (2 marks) ii. Interpret the meaning of the phrase 'the small window of time'. (1 mark) iii. Detect the personality trait of Wangchuk from the above passage. OR (C)'Immediately everyone left whatever they were doing and ran to the spot to collect some of the wine before it disappeared into the ground. Some knelt down and tried to drink it from their hands, but most of it ran through their fingers' (A Tale of Two Cities) i. Point out two incidents to show the urgency of the people in the above passage. (2 marks) ii. 'Some knelt down and tried to drink it from their hands, but most of it ran through their fingers'. Deduce how this is symbolic of the status of the people. (1 mark) iii. Dickens have made use of the word wine in place of liquor. Illustrate why. 9. Answer ANY FIVE of the following six questions in about 30-40 words each. (10 marks) i. Elaborate on the effect the word 'where' creates at the beginning of each line of the poem Where The Mind Is Without Fear. (2 marks) ii. The word 'mocked' has two meanings in the poem Ozymandias. Differentiate. (2 marks) iii. Gopala inscribed his name on a dead tree stump. Critically analyse this act of Gopala in the story The River Came Home. (2 marks) iv. Kamal Medhi proved to be the right coordinator at that difficult situation. Justify this statement with reference to the chapter The Monk Protectors Of Arunachal's Wetlands. (2 marks) v. Based on Lucie's condition can you justify Lucie's fear when she stood in front of her father in A Tale of Two Cities? (2 marks) vi. In your opinion, did the holy man make his point in The Monkey's Paw? Give evidence for your answer. (2 marks) 10. Answer ANY ONE of the following two questions in about 150 words. (8 marks) (A) Imagine you are a tourist named Villabhai Patel from Mumbai who had recently visited the Arunachal wetlands. You have learned from The Monk Protectors Of Arunachal's Wetlands that they have teamed up with conservation groups as it has become a necessity for people residing in Bhagajang who are genuinely concerned about the impact of tourism on the environment. Write an article in not more than 150 words on the measures and regulations that were taken and are being taken to protect the place. OR (B) You had recently been taught the text The Monkey's Paw at school. You found it extremely intriguing. The way the story ended was unexpected and unusual to you. Write a paragraph in not more than 150 words and share your thoughts on what you think the reader is supposed to believe; did everything that take place was just a series of coincidences, or that there really were metaphysical forces involved? Share your reasons behind your thoughts in the paragraph.