This is the official Maharashtra SSC (Class 10) English (First Language) board paper of March 2024, paper code N 580, shared by a Doubtly student. Open or download the full 23-page paper from this page on doubtly.in. Below you’ll find how the paper is built, which textbook chapters came, the answers to every question with the web diagrams filled in, and a 3-hour plan for the exam.
Want the full written solutions or to try the paper as a timed test? Open the solved March 2024 English paper.
The paper at a glance
| Detail | March 2024 paper |
|---|---|
| Board | Maharashtra State Board (MSBSHSE), SSC / Class 10 |
| Subject | English (03), First Language, revised course |
| Paper code | N 580 (activity sheet, 23 pages) |
| Time | 3 hours |
| Total marks | 80 (20 more marks come from the oral/internal assessment) |
| Sections | 7 questions in 6 sections: grammar, textual prose, poetry, unseen passage, writing skills, creative writing |
Which textbook chapters came
| Question | Chapter | Marks |
|---|---|---|
| Q.2 (A) prose passage | Connecting the Dots (Steve Jobs, second story: love and loss) | 10 |
| Q.2 (B) prose passage | The Concert (Smita, Anant and Pandit Ravi Shankar) | 10 |
| Q.3 (A) poem extract | All the World’s a Stage (Shakespeare) | 5 |
| Q.3 (B) appreciation | The Height of the Ridiculous (Oliver Wendell Holmes) | 5 |
Unit 1.1 Where the Mind is Without Fear did not come as a passage this year, but its lines were used in grammar (Q.1: “Every child is free to grow”). Done with that chapter? Take its chapter test from the Tests tab.
Answers: Section I, Language Study (Q.1, 10 marks)
Q.1 (A) A1. Do as directed (any four)
- Infinitive in “Every child is free to grow”: to grow.
- Collocations: ticket counter (or ticket booking); light drizzle (or heavy drizzle).
- Punctuation: Dr Kalam sat contemplating deeply.
- Present participles with the last letter doubled: running, sitting (also swimming, stopping).
- Hidden words in “reverberated”: ever, rate (also read, bear, verb, tear).
Q.1 (A) A2. Do as directed (any two)
- “He gave the reward to none.” The verb gave is finite: it has a subject (He) and shows past tense.
- ware: The hawker spread his ware on the footpath. wear: She likes to wear a saree on festival days.
- As soon as the bill is passed, it will become an act.
Q.1 (B) Do as directed (any one)
- After a long trek we took a short rest and then went back to our daily routine.
- Compound sentence: I awoke late next morning and found that Anil had already made the tea.
Section II, Textual Passages (Q.2, 20 marks)
Q.2 (A) Connecting the Dots
- A1. (i) Apple (ii) Next (iii) Laurene (iv) Pixar.
- A2. Web diagram, filled in below.
- A3. (i) The employee got fired from his post. (ii) It began to dawn on the students that the problems were easy.
- A4. (i) “haven’t found”: present perfect tense. (ii) Main clause: I found; subordinate clause: what I loved to do early in life (noun clause).
- A5. “Failure is the key to success”: write 4–5 sentences in your own words. Use Jobs as the example: fired from Apple, he started Next and Pixar and came back stronger.
Q.2 (B) The Concert
- B1. (i) False: she was about sixteen. (ii) False: he was not asleep. (iii) False: Ravi Shankar was a sitar maestro. (iv) True.
- B2. (i) …because he could already compose his own tunes, to the astonishment of their Guru. (ii) …because she read in the newspaper that Pandit Ravi Shankar was playing the next day at the Shanmukhananda auditorium.
- B3. (i) excitedly, gravely (also endlessly). (ii) table-tennis, somewhere (also self-reproach).
- B4. (i) He said that he had always wanted to hear him and see him. (ii) His mother sprang to his side, didn’t she?
- B5. Personal response: describe one concert you attended in 4–5 sentences (where, who performed, the best moment, how you felt).
Section III, Poetry (Q.3, 10 marks)
Q.3 (A) All the World’s a Stage
| Action | Stage |
|---|---|
| Full of strange oaths | Soldier |
| Creeping like a snail | Schoolboy |
| Sighing like furnace | Lover |
| Having fair round belly | Justice |
A2. First and last stage: in both, man is helpless and depends on others, like a child: the infant in the nurse’s arms, and the old man in “second childishness”, without teeth, eyes or taste. A3. “All the world’s a stage” is a metaphor (b).
Q.3 (B) Appreciation: The Height of the Ridiculous
Cover all four points in one paragraph: title and poet (Oliver Wendell Holmes), rhyme scheme (abcb), figures of speech (hyperbole: the servant bursts his buttons and “tumbled in a fit”; alliteration: “wondrous merry mood”; inversion: “A sober man am I”), and the central idea (the poet’s funny lines make his servant laugh so hard that he never again dares to write “as funny as I can”).
Section IV, Non-textual passage (Q.4, 15 marks)
An unseen passage about tourism in Kerala (Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Alleppey, Munnar, Thekkady).
- A2. Kochi: oldest European-built church, 16th-century synagogue, Kathakali, boat trip on the Malabar Coast. Thekkady: Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary and spice plantations. Thiruvananthapuram: Padmanabhaswamy temple, Napier museum, Kovalam beach. Alleppey: backwaters and canals.
- A3. Charm: magical spell. Craggy: steep. Reflect: throw back light or heat. Spellbinding: enthralling.
- A4. (i) You must choose a place of your dreams. (ii) Kerala is the land not only of magic but also of ayurvedic massages.
- Q.4 (B) Summary: give a title first (for example “Kerala, a Land of Spellbinding Holidays”) and keep it to about a third of the passage.
Section V, Writing Skills (Q.5–Q.6, 15 marks)
- Q.5 Letter (any one): a formal letter to the Editor on the role of sports in a student’s life, or an informal letter to a friend on the advantages of sports and games. Use the sender’s address given in the paper (208, Swarnadham, Hira Colony, Mumbai-400052).
- Q.6 (A) Information transfer (any one): a flow chart on how sugar is made from sugar beet (below), or a paragraph from the table on threats to the environment.
- Q.6 (B) (any one): a speech on “Nothing is more important than self-study”, or a counter-view on “Social networking sites are not a necessity”.
Section VI, Creative Writing (Q.7, 10 marks)
- Q.7 (A) (any one): expand the theme “Trees: Nature’s Gift to Man” (about 100 words), or a news report on “Child labourers rescued from stone quarries” (headline, place and date line, who/what/when/where, a quote).
- Q.7 (B) (any one): a story starting with Anita and the beggar boy outside a cake shop, or an experience ending with “…I had forgotten my wallet at home.” Give a title, keep to 80–100 words.
Full sample letters, speech, news report and stories are in the solved paper.
How to plan the 3 hours
- Draw every web diagram, table and flow chart in the answer sheet the way the paper shows it. Examiners give marks per box.
- In passage questions, copy the exact phrase from the passage for “name”, “true/false” and “complete” activities. Use your own words only where the question asks for it.
- For “any one” questions, choose quickly in the first 10 minutes and don’t switch midway.
Practise next
- Solve the March 2024 paper as a test and check your answers.
- More SSC English chapter tests and previous year papers.
- Stuck on any question? Ask it on Doubtly and get it answered.
- Want this page offline? Use Save as PDF at the top.
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