Tackling the Question Paper [Semester III]

Tackling the Question Paper - Semester III - Part II English

The first three Essay questions carry 20x3=60 marks each, and so give your best time and effort to these three questions. You will have one question each from Poetry/Prose/Short Stories with internal choice too!  

Spend between twenty and thirty minutes on each ESSAY question, which totally takes 1 hr and 30 mts of your time.

Essay questions are meant to be at least three to four sides in length. Do not waste answer sheets by writing a mere five or six lines in it. Make sure you write at least a minimum of 14 lines per page.

Make your introductory paragraph sound attractive. So, write a good and concise introduction to the essay lasting ½ to 2/3 of the first page. Do not write extensively about the author’s biography. It is not needed! And, please... do not write the story. The examiner does not expect you to write the story, which even a fourth grader can write down with extreme finesse. On the other hand, the examiner expects you to give a critical evaluation of the text that you have studied. A critical analysis involves a creative analysis.  And, always stick to one tense form. If you start with the present tense, continue in the same tense form till the end of your essay. Finally, while summing up your ESSAY, remember to make it memorable!

And please do not overwrite. It is a great irritant to the examiner.

Now, let us deal with Story Completion:(10 marks) Spend 20 mins on this question.

Observe the opening lines of the story.

This task is to test you for your ability at creativity using a range of adequate vocabulary. Try to finish your story by arriving at an interesting climax. The four parts of the short story, that we have discussed in class, should prove useful for you here. To recap on them, the four features of a short story are:

1.      Premise (Introduce all the major characters)

2.      Development (Move the story towards the crisis)

3.      Complication (Crisis), and

4.      Denoument (Climax)

Make your endings memorable and to the point. See the tense of the opening lines. If the opening lines begin in the present tense, better stick to it till you finish the story. If it begins in the past, it is always good to stick to the past tense till the end.

Note-Making: (10 marks) Take around 20 minutes.

You should read each paragraph carefully to know what it is all about.

After you have found out the main idea or the central theme, you should write down the Topic Sentence and the topic.

Then, using proper indentations, present the key words/phrases/signpost words of each paragraph in proper order.

An example is given below:

Read the following essay and make notes on it:  

Noise, by definition, is unwanted sound. What is pleasant to some ears may be extremely unpleasant to others, depending on a number of factors. The natural environment contains many sources of noise - wind, volcanoes, oceans, and animal sounds are all familiar intrusions accepted at various levels. Man-made noises - from machines, automobiles, trains, planes, explosives and firecrackers, etc. - are more contentious. Both kinds of noise affect sleep, hearing, communication, as well as mental and physical health.

When toxic substances enter lakes, streams, rivers, oceans, and other water bodies, they get dissolved or lie suspended in water or get deposited on the bed. This results in the pollution of water whereby the quality of the water deteriorates, affecting aquatic ecosystems. Pollutants can also seep down and affect the groundwater deposits.

The effects of water pollution are not only devastating to people but also to animals, fish, and birds. Polluted water is unsuitable for drinking, recreation, agriculture, and industry. It diminishes the aesthetic quality of lakes and rivers. More seriously, contaminated water destroys aquatic life and reduces its reproductive ability. Eventually, it is a hazard to human health. Nobody can escape the effects of water pollution.

One of the formal definitions of air pollution is as follows – ‘The presence in the atmosphere of one or more contaminants in such quality and for such duration as is injurious, or tends to be injurious, to human health or welfare, animal or plant life.’ It is the contamination of air by the discharge of harmful substances. Air pollution can cause health problems and it can also damage the environment and property. It has caused thinning of the protective ozone layer of the atmosphere, which is leading to climate change.

Modernisation and progress have led to air getting more and more polluted over the years. Industries, vehicles, increase in the population, and urbanization are some of the major factors responsible for air pollution.

Air pollution results from a variety of causes, not all of which are within human control. Dust storms in desert areas and smoke from forest fires and grass fires contribute to chemical and particulate pollution of the air. The source of pollution may be in one country but the impact of pollution may be felt elsewhere. The discovery of pesticides in Antarctica, where they have never been used, suggests the extent to which aerial transport can carry pollutants from one place to another.

Answer:

Topic Sentence: The Various Types of Environmental Pollution

A.     1. Sound Pollution

a)      Causes of Sound Pollution

(i)

(ii)

b)      Effects of Sound Pollution

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

c)      Experts’ Opinion on Sound Pollution

(i)                  

(ii)                

B.     2.  Water Pollution

a)      Causes for deteriorating Water Quality

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

b)      The Various Pollutants:

(i)

(ii)

c)      Impact of Water Pollution

(i)

(ii)

C.     3.   Air Pollution

a)      Definition of Air Pollution

(i)

            b)   Harmful Effects of Air Pollution

                  (i)

                  (ii)

                  (iii)... ... ...

Cloze Test (10 marks) is supposed to be very easy once you get to understand the story well.

Grammar questions (10 marks) are similar to the ones that you’ve faced in your I, II Semester Qn.Papers.