Compulsory English: Unit-wise Subjective Question Bank

The subjective part of the Grade 11 English paper is 60 of the 75 marks: the unseen passage (15), the short literary questions (5 x 2 = 10), the long literary questions (2 x 5 = 10) and the three writing tasks (7 + 8 + 10 = 25). This chapter gives, for the texts of the Grade 11 book, the questions that can be asked, with model answers; and then a model for each writing task and for the unseen passage.

18.1 Unseen reading (Question 1, 15 marks)

Read the passage and answer the questions that follow.

Every morning at six, the tea shop beside the Bhaktapur bus stop opens its shutters. Maya Tamang, who is fifty-two, lights the stove, wipes the benches and sets out glasses. She has done this for twenty years, ever since her husband fell ill and the family needed an income. At first only the bus drivers came. Now the shop is crowded with students, shopkeepers and old men who read the newspaper aloud to each other.

Maya is not a rich woman, but she is a careful one. Each evening she writes the day's earnings in a small notebook and puts one coin in a clay pot. "A coin a day is not much," she says, "but the pot has paid for my daughter's college fees." Her daughter, Sunita, is now a nurse in Kathmandu and sends money every month, but Maya refuses to close the shop. "If I sit at home," she says, "I will grow old in a week."

A. Choose the correct answer. (1 mark each)

1. Why did Maya start the tea shop?aShe loved cookingbHer husband was ill and money was neededcHer daughter asked her todThe bus drivers asked her to
2. Who came to the shop at first?astudentsbold mencbus driversdshopkeepers
3. The word careful in the second paragraph meansafearfulbthrifty and attentiveclazydgenerous

B. Write true or false. (1 mark each)

4. Maya has been running the shop for ten years.
5. Sunita is a teacher in Bhaktapur.

C. Answer the questions. (2 marks each)

6. How does Maya save money?
7. Why does Maya refuse to close the shop although her daughter sends money?
8. What does the clay pot stand for in the passage?

D. Do as directed. (1 mark each)

9. Find a word in the passage that means money earned.
10. What does "she" refer to in "She has done this for twenty years"?

E. Write a short summary of the passage in about 40 words. (2 marks)

18.2 Short stories

The Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde)

Short (2). Why does winter stay in the giant's garden? The giant builds a high wall and puts up a notice to keep the children out. Spring, summer and autumn will not visit a garden without children, so only Snow, Frost and the North Wind live there.

Long (5). How does the giant change, and what does the story teach? At first the giant is selfish: he says the garden is his own and drives the children away. One morning he hears a linnet and finds that spring has come, because the children crept in through a hole in the wall. Only one little boy in a corner, too small to climb the tree, still stands in snow. The giant's heart melts; he lifts the child into the tree, breaks down the wall and plays with the children. Years later the boy returns with wounds in his hands and feet, and the old giant dies and is taken to a paradise garden. The story teaches that selfishness brings winter and love and sharing bring spring.

The Oval Portrait (Edgar Allan Poe)

Short (2). How does the narrator come to the chateau? He is badly wounded, and his servant forces his way into an abandoned chateau so that his master need not spend the night in the open.

Long (5). Explain the story of the oval portrait and what it says about art. The narrator lies in a turret bedroom and notices a portrait of a young girl that seems alive. A small book in the room explains it: the painter loved art more than his bride, and she sat for him for weeks in a dark tower, smiling and fading while he worked on without noticing. When the painting was finished he cried that it was life itself, turned to look at his wife and found her dead. The tale shows how art can take the life of what it copies, and how obsession can make a man blind to the person he loves.

God Sees the Truth, but Waits (Leo Tolstoy)

Short (2). Why was Aksionov sent to Siberia? A merchant was murdered at an inn where Aksionov had stayed, and a bloody knife was found in his bag. Although he was innocent, the court condemned him and he was sent to Siberia.

Long (5). How does Aksionov show forgiveness? Aksionov spends twenty-six years in prison, where he becomes quiet and religious. Then Makar Semyonitch arrives and Aksionov recognises him as the real murderer. When Makar's escape tunnel is discovered, the governor asks Aksionov who dug it, and Aksionov refuses to name him, saying that God sees the truth. Makar is moved, confesses and begs forgiveness, and Aksionov forgives him, finding peace. The order to release him arrives, but by then he has died. The story shows that forgiveness can set a man free even when justice comes too late.

The Wish (Roald Dahl)

Short (2). What are the rules of the boy's game? The black parts of the carpet are snakes, the red parts are burning coals and only the yellow parts are safe. If he crosses the carpet without a mistake, he will get a puppy for his birthday.

Long (5). How does Dahl build suspense in "The Wish"? Dahl begins with an ordinary child picking a scab and then lets the child's imagination turn a carpet into a dangerous world. The rules become stricter and the safe yellow patches fewer. The boy takes off his slippers, holds out his arms for balance and at last meets a wide black band. His enormous stride, the toes that barely reach, and the final sentence outside in the sunshine, where his mother is searching, all leave the reader to imagine what happened. Suspense comes from a simple game and a silent ending.

Civil Peace (Chinua Achebe)

Short (2). What does Jonathan Iwegbu mean when he says "Nothing puzzles God"? He accepts whatever happens, good or bad, as part of God's plan, and so he never complains. The phrase shows his hopeful and practical character.

Long (5). Why does Jonathan consider himself lucky, and is he right? After the war Jonathan counts five blessings: his own head, his wife's and three of his four children's. His bicycle survived, and he earns a hundred and fifteen pounds from it as a taxi. His small house is still standing. He also receives twenty pounds in the ex-gratia payment for turning in rebel money. When thieves demand a hundred pounds at night he gives them the twenty pounds and says it came from nowhere. We admire his courage, but the story also shows the cost of war and a "civil peace" in which robbery is still common. His luck is real, but it is a luck that survives loss.

Two Little Soldiers (Guy de Maupassant)

Short (2). Why do Jean and Luc go to the same place every Sunday? The place near the forest of Champioux reminds these two homesick Breton soldiers of their village in Brittany. They sit there to eat and to remember home.

Long (5). How does Maupassant show Jean's loneliness and its result? Jean and Luc are close friends who rarely need to talk. When a dairymaid begins to share their meal, Luc starts to meet her alone. One Sunday Jean sees Luc go off with her into the wood and is left alone, staring at a wall of leaves. She does not offer him milk that day. On the way home he leans over the bridge at Bezons and falls into the river. Luc weeps at the barracks, and the ending, "If he had only known", is full of regret. The story shows how jealousy and loneliness can destroy a friendship and a person.

An Astrologer's Day (R. K. Narayan)

Short (2). How does the astrologer attract his customers? He dresses in a saffron turban, sacred ash and vermilion and spreads out cowrie shells and charts, which impress people. He sits in a half-lit place under a tamarind tree.

Long (5). What is the surprise at the end of the story? The astrologer, who knows nothing about the stars, tells a stranger accurate facts about his past, including a knife wound and being left for dead. The stranger, Guru Nayak, is convinced. He has searched for years for the man who stabbed him. The astrologer tells him that his enemy died four months ago under a lorry, and advises him to go home and never travel south again. At home the astrologer tells his wife that a heavy weight has gone from his mind: he had stabbed Guru Nayak years ago and run away from his village. The twist is that he told the stranger his own past, and that a clever lie saved his life.

18.3 Poems

Corona Says (Vishnu S. Rai)

Short (2). Who is the speaker of "Corona Says"? The speaker is the coronavirus itself. It talks to human beings, so the poem is a dramatic monologue.

Long (5). Why is "Corona Says" a satire? A satire ridicules human faults to make people change. The virus admits that people hate it, then asks who is the greater killer. It reminds humans of forests cut down, poisoned rivers and air, animals hunted and wars that killed millions. It says it does not look at wealth, religion, colour or country, and so teaches the equality that humans only preach. When people stayed indoors, the air cleared and animals returned, which supports its case. The accuser has become the accused, and the poem ends by leaving us with the question whether we shall learn.

A Red, Red Rose (Robert Burns)

Short (2). What two comparisons does the speaker use in the first stanza? He compares his love to a red, red rose that has newly bloomed, and to a melody that is sweetly played in tune.

Long (5). How does the poet show that his love will last? The speaker says he will love her until the seas go dry. He lists impossible events, such as the rocks melting with the sun and the sands of life running out, and says his love will last until then. The images are huge and natural, and the repeated "till" makes the promise seem endless. In the last stanza he says goodbye for a while and promises to return, though it were ten thousand miles. The poem uses simple words, simile, hyperbole and a song-like rhythm to convey constant love.

All the World's a Stage (William Shakespeare)

Short (2). What is the main metaphor in the speech? The world is compared to a stage and all men and women to actors who enter and exit. Each person plays many parts in a lifetime.

Long (5). Describe the seven ages of man. Jaques says a man plays seven parts. First is the infant, mewling and puking in his nurse's arms. Second is the whining schoolboy, creeping unwillingly to school. Third is the lover, sighing like a furnace and writing a ballad to his mistress's eyebrow. Fourth is the soldier, bearded and quick to quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation. Fifth is the justice, with a round belly and wise sayings. Sixth is the old man in slippers, with spectacles and a shrunk shank and a voice turning to a treble. The seventh is second childishness, without teeth, eyes, taste or anything. The speech is a pessimistic but vivid view of human life.

Who are you, little i? (E. E. Cummings)

Short (2). Who is "little i"? Little i is the poet's own childhood self, aged five or six, seen from adulthood. The lower-case i suggests how small and young the child was.

Long (5). What does the poem suggest about childhood and endings? The poet, as an adult, looks back at himself as a child peering out of a high window at a November sunset. The child thinks that if the day must end, this is a beautiful way for it to go. The sunset stands for the end of a day and also for the end of a life. The grown man, closer to his own ending, sees that the child was right. The odd typography, with its lower-case letters and missing spaces, is deliberate and makes the poem look as fragile as the child. The poem is calm and accepting about death.

The Gift in Wartime (Tran Mong Tu)

Short (2). Who is the speaker, and where is she? She is a young widow, and she stands at the grave of a soldier she loved. The poem is set in the time of the Vietnam War.

Long (5). Explain the irony of the word "gift" in the poem. The widow offers gifts such as roses, a ring and her youth to the dead man. Then she names what he has given her in return: the smell of blood on his uniform, his returned body, medals and loneliness. She calls these gifts too, though every one is an injury. The calm use of the same word makes the horror sharper than anger would. The poem ends with no comfort: the last gift the war gives her is the rest of her life without him. It is an anti-war poem told through the quiet voice of one woman.

18.4 Essays

Sharing Tradition (Frank LaPena)

Short (2). What does LaPena say a traditional person is? A traditional person is someone who lives the tradition, joins the ceremonies and keeps the obligations. It is not the person with the most facts or objects.

Long (5). Explain LaPena's view that tradition must be shared. LaPena says tradition is a living practice and not a set of old objects. It is learnt slowly from elders, who teach by example, stories, songs and ceremony, not by lessons. The traditional artist makes work that has a purpose in the community, unlike objects kept in a museum. Knowledge brings a responsibility: the person who learns must pass it on, or it will die. The essay draws on his own experience as a dancer, painter and teacher, and argues that sharing keeps a culture alive.

How to Live Before You Die (Steve Jobs)

Short (2). What is the first story Jobs tells? It is about connecting the dots: he dropped out of Reed College but stayed on to study calligraphy, which later shaped the fonts of the Macintosh.

Long (5). What are the three lessons of Jobs' speech? The first story says that you cannot connect the dots looking forward, only backward, so you must trust that they will connect in the future. The second, love and loss, tells how he was fired from the company he started, yet came to see it as the best thing that happened, started NeXT and Pixar and later returned to Apple; he urges everyone to do work they love. The third is about death: remembering that he will die helps him avoid fear and pride and follow his heart. The speech ends with "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." It is a simple, honest and encouraging talk to graduates.

What I Require from Life (J. B. S. Haldane)

Short (2). What does Haldane mean by a "heroic age"? It is a time of wars and upheavals in which ordinary safety cannot be assumed. Haldane says he lives in one, unlike the peaceful age of his birth.

Long (5). What does Haldane require from life? Assuming food, water, clothes and shelter, Haldane asks for four things. First, work and a decent wage, work that is hard but interesting, since happiness is activity without obstacle. Second, freedom, particularly freedom of speech, which the libel law limits. Third, health: not perfect health, but fitness to work in between occasional illness. Fourth, friendship, and he wants it for others as well. He does not ask for peace or security because he does not expect them in his age. The essay is plain, humorous and generous: what he wants for himself he wants for all.

What is Poverty? (Jo Goodwin Parker)

Short (2). How does Parker describe poverty at the opening? She says poverty is dirt and a smell, and she asks the reader to listen without pity. She makes the reader feel poverty through the senses.

Long (5). How does Parker make her essay powerful? Parker does not define poverty from outside; she speaks as a poor mother and addresses the reader directly. She makes poverty a smell, and shows it in rotting teeth, insects in the food and cooking without food. She describes humiliation at the relief office and the three official answers she meets. Her sons and daughter have no future she can see. She uses short, plain sentences and repeats "poverty is", so that each sentence lands like a blow. She asks for anger, not pity, and ends: "The poor are always silent. Can you be silent too?"

Scientific Research is a Token of Humankind's Survival (Vladimir Keilis-Borok)

Short (2). What does a scientist receive instead of high pay, according to the author? A scientist gets freedom, independence, comradeship and the thrill of uncovering nature's secrets. The discovery itself is the reward.

Long (5). How does the story of 1960 support the author's argument? Keilis-Borok was working on the mathematics of seismic waves when he was called to Geneva, where the nuclear powers were discussing a test ban. The question was how to detect a secret underground explosion, which shakes the ground like an earthquake. His pure research on seismic waves was needed to tell the two apart. With such methods, countries could trust each other enough to sign a treaty. He argues that science, even when it seems far from life, can save humankind, and that is why scientists follow it.

18.5 One-act plays

Trifles (Susan Glaspell)

Short (2). Why do the women notice what the men miss? The men look for large, obvious evidence and laugh at "trifles". The women notice small domestic things such as the quilt and the birdcage, which show Mrs Wright's life.

Long (5). What do the women discover, and what do they decide? While the men search upstairs, Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters notice the badly stitched quilt, a broken birdcage and a dead canary with a broken neck in a pretty box. They realise that John Wright, a hard, silent man, killed the bird that was Minnie Wright's only joy, and that she then killed him with a rope. Remembering their own loneliness, the women hide the bird and undo the stitches. They choose to protect her. The title "Trifles" is ironic, since small things solve the crime and expose the men's blindness.

A Sunny Morning (Serafin and Joaquin Alvarez Quintero)

Short (2). Where does the play take place? It takes place on a bench in a quiet corner of a park in Madrid on an autumn morning. Two old people meet there.

Long (5). How do Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo discover each other's past? Dona Laura and Don Gonzalo quarrel over the bench, then make peace over a pinch of snuff. When he reads a poem on love and old age, both are touched. Mention of a villa called Maricela startles them, for fifty years ago they were lovers. Each hides the discovery, pretending that the other is someone else, so as not to hurt or embarrass. At the end he stoops to pick up fallen violets, and each secretly whispers that it is the other. They part, promising to meet again if the morning is sunny. The play is a gentle comedy about old love and delicacy.

Refund (Frigyes Karinthy)

Short (2). Why does Wasserkopf return to his old school? He asks for his tuition fees back, because he says he learned nothing there. He has a certificate, but no education to match it.

Long (5). How does Karinthy satirise the examination system? Wasserkopf wants the school to give back his fees, so he plans to fail an examination on purpose. The staff, afraid of scandal and of a queue of former pupils, plan to pass him whatever he says. His rudeness is marked as manners, and his absurd answers, such as the Thirty Years' War lasting "exactly seven metres", are explained as clever theory. In the end the Mathematics Master traps him: his correct calculation of the refund proves his genius, so he passes with distinction and is thrown out. The play mocks certificates given for nothing and teachers who defend the school, not learning.

18.6 Guided writing (Question 4, 7 marks)

Story from an outline

Question. Write a story of about 150 words using the outline below. Give your story a title and a moral.

A poor boy finds a purse on the road, opens it and sees a lot of money; he thinks of his sick mother and the medicine; decides to return it; finds the owner; the owner rewards him; the boy learns that honesty is rewarded.

Describing a chart

Question. Study the table and write a paragraph of about 100 words describing it.

18.7 Functional writing (Question 5, 8 marks)

A formal letter

Question. You are Sunita Rai of Shree Janata Higher Secondary School, Butwal. Write a letter to the Principal requesting permission to organise a science exhibition in your school.

                                         Shree Janata Higher Secondary School
                                         Butwal
                                         12 Falgun 2082

The Principal
Shree Janata Higher Secondary School
Butwal

Subject: Request for permission to organise a science exhibition

Respected Sir/Madam,

With due respect, I would like to state that the students of Grade 11 (Science)
wish to organise a one-day science exhibition in our school. The purpose is to
let students show their projects and models and to encourage curiosity about
science among juniors and parents.

We propose to hold it on 28 Falgun in the school hall, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Our science teachers have agreed to guide us, and we shall bear the cost of the
materials ourselves.

I therefore request you to kindly grant us permission and the use of the hall
for that day. We shall be grateful for your kind support.

Thank you.

Yours obediently,
Sunita Rai
Grade 11, Science

A notice

Question. Write a notice for the school notice board about a blood donation camp.

              Shree Janata Higher Secondary School, Butwal
                              NOTICE
                                                    10 Falgun 2082

                        Blood Donation Camp

All students and teachers above the age of 18 are informed that a blood
donation camp will be organised by the Red Cross Society in the school
hall on Friday, 20 Falgun 2082, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Interested
donors should register with the class teacher by Wednesday.

                                                    Sunita Rai
                                                    Secretary, Red Cross Club

An email

Question. Write an email to your friend inviting him or her to your sister's wedding.

18.8 Free writing (Question 6, 10 marks)

Question. Write an essay of about 250 words on "The Importance of Education".

Practice questions

Short literary questions (2 marks each)

1. Why does Aksionov refuse to name Makar Semyonitch to the governor? [2]
2. What is the central idea of "Corona Says"? [2]
3. Why do the women in Trifles hide the dead canary? [2]

Long literary question (5 marks)

1. "Honesty and forgiveness are the strongest virtues." Discuss with reference to any one story you have read. [5]