Read the following passage and complete the activities : (10 marks)B1. State whether the given statements are true or false : (2) (i) The age of the girl was six. (ii) The boy on the bed was fast asleep. (iii) Pandit Ravi Shankar was a tabla maestro.…
Q.2 (B) Read the following passage and complete the activities : (10 marks)
B1. State whether the given statements are true or false : (2) (i) The age of the girl was six. (ii) The boy on the bed was fast asleep. (iii) Pandit Ravi Shankar was a tabla maestro. (iv) She had seen how the doctors had shaken their heads gravely.
One morning in a small apartment in Bombay a girl of about sixteen looked up from the newspaper and said excitedly, ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar’s playing tomorrow at Shanmukhananda auditorium’.
‘Sh-sh,’ said her mother pointing to the figure sleeping on the bed. ‘You’ll wake him up. You know he needs all the sleep and rest he can get.’
But the boy on the bed was not asleep. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar!’ he said. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro ? He raised himself up on his elbows for one second and then fell back. But his eyes were shining. ‘We mustn’t miss the chance,’ he said. ‘I’ve – ‘I’ve – always wanted to hear him and see him ....’
‘Lie down son, lie down.’ His mother sprang to his side. ‘He actually raised himself without help,’ she murmured with a catch in her throat and her eyes turned to the idols on a corner shelf. The prayer, which she uttered endlessly, came unbidden to her lips.
‘I must hear him and see him,’ the boy repeated. ‘It’s a chance of a lifetime.’ Then he began to cough and gasp for breath and had to be given oxygen from the cylinder that stood under the bed. But his large eyes were fixed on his sister.
Smita bit her lip in self-reproach. She had been so excited at seeing the announcement that she had not remembered that her brother was very ill. She had seen how the doctors had shaken their heads gravely and spoken words that neither she nor even her parents could understand. But somewhere deep inside Smita had known the frightening truth – that Anant was going to die. The word cancer had hung in the air – her brother was dying of cancer even though she pretended that all would be well and they would return together, a small family of four, to their home in Gaganpur. And he was only fifteen and the best table-tennis player in the school and the fastest runner. He was learning to play sitar; they were both taking sitar lessons, but Anant was better than her as in many things. He was already able to compose his own tunes to the astonishment of their Guru.
B2. Complete the following statements giving reasons : (2) (i) Anant was better than his sister in playing sitar because ................. (ii) The girl was excited because ..............................
B3. (2) (i) Find any two adverbs from the passage ending with ‘ly’. (ii) Find any two compound words from the passage.
B4. Do as directed : (2) (i) ‘‘I’ve always wanted to hear him and see him,’’ he said. (Change into indirect speech). (ii) His mother sprang to his side. (Add a question tag).
B5. Describe your experience of any musical concert that you have attended. (2)