1. Read the passage and answer the questions A and B.
As a child you must have been told to greet your elders and visitors to your home according to your culture and tradition. You must also have been taught to be polite in company and keep quiet while others, especially your elders, spoke. Possibly, you at times grudged such schooling.
Possibly, at times you even protested such disciplining. Now, certainly you know that you can’t always behave the way you want specially in the presence of others. There are rules of behaviour you have to follow in a company. We are social beings and have to consider the effect of our behaviour on others, even if we are at home and dealing with our family members.
We have two terms to describe our social behaviour – ‘etiquette’ and ‘manners’. ‘Etiquette’ is a French word and it means the rules of correct behaviour in society. The word ‘manners’ means the behaviour that is considered to be polite in a particular society or culture. Manners can be good or bad.
For example, it is a bad manner to speak with food in one’s mouth. No one likes a bad-mannered person. Remember that etiquette and manners vary from culture to culture and from society to society. We learn etiquette and manners from our parents, families and various institutions, such as schools, colleges or professional bodies.
There are rules of behaviour for all kinds of social occasions and it is important to learn them and practise them in everyday life. The manners that are correct in a wedding reception will not do in a debating club.
Therefore, we have to be careful about etiquette and manners. We know how important it is to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ in everyday life. A few more polite expressions such as ‘pardon me’, ‘excuse me’, ‘may I’, are bound to make your day smooth and pleasant.
A. Choose the correct answer from the alternatives.
(a) The word ‘possibly’ refers to ——.
(i) really (ii) perhaps (iii) exactly (iv) eventually
(b) The best synonym of ‘smooth’ is ——.
(i) glossy (ii) uneven (iii) peaceful (iv) urbane
(c) Therefore, we have to be —— about etiquette and manners.
(i) judicious (ii) liberal (iii) sensitive (iv) cautious
(d) The word ‘vary’ is a/an ——.
(i) adverb (ii) verb (iii) adjective (iv) noun
(e) If there are elders or visitors at your home, the proper attitude towards them is to ——.
(i) annoy them (ii) avoid them (iii) accost them (iv) rebuke them
B. Answer the following questions.
(a) What is meant by ‘etiquette’ and ‘manners’?
(b) Who likes a bad-mannered person? Give an example of a bad manner.
(c) Why is it important to learn and practise the rules of behaviour in everyday life?
(d) Where do we learn etiquette and manners from?
(e) Write a few polite expressions mentioned in the passage.
3. Summarize the following text.
Beauty is easy to appreciate but difficult to define. As we look around, we discover beauty in pleasurable objects and sights – in nature, in the laughter of children, in the kindness of strangers. But asked to define, we run into difficulties. Does beauty have an independent objective identity? Is it universal, or is it dependent on our sense perceptions? Does it lie in the eye of the beholder? – we ask ourselves. A further difficulty arises when beauty manifests itself not only by its presence, but by its absence as well, as when we are repulsed by ugliness and desire beauty. But then ugliness has as much a place in our lives as beauty, or may be more – as when there is widespread hunger and injustice in a society. Philosophers have told us that beauty is an important part of life, but isn’t ugliness a part of life too? And if art has beauty as an important ingredient, can it confine itself only to a projection of beauty? Can art ignore what is not beautiful?
5. Fill in the blanks with appropriate word in each gap.
There goes a proverb that child is (a) —— of the man. Today’s child is the (b) —— of a nation. He will (c) —— the country. The whole (d) —— depends on their proper (e) ——. It is our fundamental (f) —— to rouse their (g) —— talent. A sound environment is (h) —— both in the family and society so that a child (i) —— up physically, mentally and spiritually. Only then it will be (j) —— to build up a beautiful and developed country.
6. Rearrange the following sentences to make a coherent order.
(a) He is the author of several books, including “What the Economy Needs Now” (2019), “Poor Economics” (2011).
(b) The subject of his doctoral thesis was “Essays in Information Economics.”
(c) His mother Nirmala Banerjee was a professor of economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences in Kolkata.
(d) Abhijit completed his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 1988.
(e) Indian-born Abhijit Banerjee, French-American Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer of the US have won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize.
(f) Later, he completed his MA in economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1983.
(g) Abhijit’s father Dipak Banerjee was a professor and the head of the Department of Economics at Presidency College in Kolkata.
(h) Banerjee is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
(i) He went to South Point School and completed his BS degree in economics from Presidency College in Kolkata in 1981.
(j) Fifty-eight-year-old Abhijit was born in Kolkata of India in 1961.
Part II : Writing (40 Marks)
7. Write a paragraph on ‘Dowry’ on the basis of the answer to the following questions in about 200 words.
(a) What is dowry? (b) What is the main reason of dowry? (c) Who take dowry and who are the victims of dowry? (d) How does it affect the whole society? (e) How can this vice be eliminated?
8. The following is the beginning of a story. Complete it in your own words.
Sheikh Saadi was a great poet. He used to put on simple dress. Once he took………………
9. Suppose, your locality has been seriously hit by a recent cyclone named ‘Aila’. Now, write an email to the DC of your district for relief for the cyclone affected people.
11. Write down the theme of the following poem. (Not more than 50 words)
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death,
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns’ he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
‘Forward, the Light Brigade!
Was there a man dismay’d?
No tho’ the soldiers knew
Some one had blunder’d:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
