HSC Examination
Comilla Board
English (Compulsory) First Paper
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Time: 3 hours: Full Marks:100
[N.B. The figures in the margin indicate full marks.]
Part I: Reading Test (60 marks)
1. Read the following text and answer the questions A and B:
Folk music consists of songs and music of a community that are uninfluenced by any sophisticated musical rules or any standard music styles. Bangladesh has a heritage of rich folk music which includes both religious and secular songs. Folk music may be described as that type of ancient music which springs from the heart of a community, based on their natural style of expression uninfluenced by the rules of classical music and modern popular songs. Any mode or form created by the combination of tune, voice and dance may be described as music. Thus, the combination of folk song, folk dance and folk tune may be called folk music. For example, Baul songs are a combination of tune, music and dance.
In Bangladesh folk music has great variety, with songs being composed on the culture, festivals, views of life, natural beauty, rivers and rural and riverine life. These songs are also about social inequality and poverty, about the material world and the supernatural. Mystical songs have been composed using the metaphors of rivers and boats. Since the country is basically riverine, the Bhatiyali forms an important genre of folk music. Folk music is formed and develops according to the environment. Differences in the natural environment are reflected in the people of the different regions. The dialects too vary across the different regions. Bangladeshi folk music therefore varies from region to region.
[Text Unit -14; lesson-02]
A. Choose the correct answer from the alternatives: 1×5=5
(a) What could be the closest meaning of 'sophisticated'?
(i) Latest (ii) Old
(iii) Last (iv) Past
(b) The word 'heritage' refers to __
(i) heir (ii) tradition
(iii) legitimacy (iv) intimacy
(c) The word 'natural' could be replaced by __
(i) artificial (ii) spontaneous
(iii) deliberate (iv) wanton
(d) Folk music emanates from __ of a community.
(i) background (ii) heart
(iii) core (iv) inside
(e) The synonym of 'mystical' is __
(i) dull (ii) material
(iii) classical (iv) spiritual
Answer to the question No. 1.A
(a) i. Latest; (b) ii. tradition; (c) ii. spontaneous; (d) ii. heart; (e) iv. spiritual.
B. Answer the following questions: 2×5=10
(a) What do you mean by folk music according to the text?
(b) What does folk music reflect?
(c) How are mystical songs composed of ?
(d) What makes the Bhatiyali an important genre?
(e) What are the reasons of great variety in folk music?
Answer to the question No. 1.B
a. Folk music is a kind of ancient music that springs from the heart of a community, based on their natural style of expression uninfluenced by the dogmas of classical rule and modern popular songs.
b. Folk music reflects the culture, festivals, views of life, natural beauty and rivers and riverine life. It also reflects the social inequality and poverty of human life. Thus, folk music is the expression of joy and sorrows of common people.
c. Mystical songs are composed using the metaphors of rivers and boats.
d. Bangladesh is basically riverine. So, the Bhatiyali forms an important genre of folk music.
e. Bangladesh has a varied set of culture, festivals, views of life, natural beauty, rivers and rural and riverine life based on which folk music is composed. For this reason, there is a great variety of folk music.
2. Read the following text and make a flow-chart showing the painful experiences a street child has to suffer to survive. (One is done for you): 2×5=10
The streets are now my home. Sometimes I find work. I used to collect trash and sell it to a vendor. I stopped doing that after I had a serious infection and a doctor told me to stay away from the trash dump. Once I worked for an ice-cream shop owner and sold ice-cream on the beach. But I got no money in return. The owner of the shop gave me something to eat, and let me sleep in his hut at night. The work was difficult and painful. The ice-cream box is quite heavy when it is full. I had to walk for hours, offering my ice-cream to whoever wanted to buy. There were days when I could not even sell one ice-cream.
[Unit-7, lesson-4, page-87]
1.Homeless Providing economic benefits | → | 2 | → | 3 | → | 4 | → | 5 | → | 6 |
Answer to the question No. 2
1. Homeless |
↓ |
2. Jobless |
↓ |
3. Sick |
↓ |
4. Hungry |
↓ |
5. Unpaid |
↓ |
6. Helpless |
3. Summarize the following text: 10
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?
[Unit -14, lesson-1, page-180]
Answer to the question No. 3
Beauty is something appreciable but quite indefinable. In our surroundings, beauty can be seen in various enjoyable forms. But defining it on one's part is very much difficult. Various types of questions about its existence, form and shape move around our mind. We are moved not only by its presence but also by its absence. So, ugliness occupies as much a place in our life as beauty. Though beauty is an important part of art, art cannot ignore ugliness.
4. Read the following text and fill in the blanks with suitable words from the box. There are more words than necessary. You may change the form of the word if necessary: 0.5×10=5
eloquent | darkness | awareness | learn |
intellectual | attain | enlighten | choice |
sensibility | purpose | human | parochialism |
Education is the process by which our mind develops through formal (a) __ at an institution. It is mental and (b) __ training. It provides opportunities of growth and helps to meet challenges to (c) __ success. Moreover, the purpose of education is to (d) __ an individual. The aim of education is also to train individuals to make right (e) __ . It ennobles our mind and refines our (f) __ . It broadens our outlook and removes (g) __. It helps us to be (h) __ of rights and responsibilities. Education furnishes us with an (i) __ in expressing truth. Therefore, it is compared to light which dispels the (j) __ of ignorance.
Answer to the question No. 4
(a) learning; (b) intellectual; (c) attain; (d) enlighten; (e) choices; (f) sensibility; (g) parochialism; (h) aware; (i) eloquence; (j) darkness.
5. Fill in the gaps using suitable words: 1×10=10
Bangladesh is a land of (a) __ beauty. Its beauty is so captivating that a stranger cannot but be (b) __ looking at this endless variety. Nature has (c) __ showered its blessings on this country. The rivers, hills and forests are rich in natural (d) __ . The people of this country feel a strong (e) __ for their motherland. They love their motherland from the (f) __ of heart. They work hard to (g) __ its economic condition and to remove poverty. Most of them toil hard from dawn to dusk to accelerate the pace of (h) __ . The progress of this country lies in the (i) __ of common people. They are the (j) __ of a beautiful and prosperous Bangladesh.
Answer to the question No. 5
(a) natural; (b) surprised; (c) bounteously/ plentifully; (d) beauty/resources; (e) love; (f) core; (g) develop; (h) progress/ development; (i) efforts; (j) driving force/builders.
6. The following sentences are jumbled. Rearrange them in proper sequence: 10
(i) As Bagerhat is near the Bay of Bengal, the water is usually saline.
(ii) Khan Jahan Ali was a philanthropic man.
(iii) He, therefore, excavated many tanks to provide fresh water to the people.
(iv) He came to Bagerhat to preach Islam and to promote the plight of common people.
(v) He found Bagerhat beset with many problems.
(vi) His memory will never be sunk into oblivion.
(vii) Thus he redressed the problem of drinking water.
(viii) The scarcity of drinking water is one of them.
(ix) The people of Bagerhat remember him with great respect.
(x) Gora Dighi is one of them.
Answer to the question No. 6
(ii)→ (iv)→ (v)→ (viii)→ (i)→ (iii)→ (x) → (vii)→ (ix)→ (vi)
Khan Jahan Ali was a philanthropic man. He came to Bagerhat to preach Islam and to promote the plight of common people. He found Bagerhat beset with many problems. The scarcity of drinking water is one of them. As Bagerhat is near the Bay of Bengal, the water is usually saline. He, therefore, excavated many tanks to provide fresh water to the people. Gora Dighi is one of them. Thus he redressed the problem of drinking water. The people of Bagerhat remember him with great respect. His memory will never be sunk into oblivion.
Part II: Writing Test (40 marks)
7. Write a paragraph on "An Ideal Student" in about 200 words based on the answers to the following questions: 10
(a) Who is an ideal student? (b) What are the characteristics of an ideal student? (c) What responsibilities does an ideal student perform? (d) How does everyone treat an ideal student? (e) Why do you want to be an ideal student?
8. The following is the beginning of a story. Complete it in your own words: 7
There was a boy who hailed from an obscure background. But he was brilliant, diligent and innovative. He ......
9. Write an e-mail to the Graduate Admissions, International service, 353 South Road, Portico, Sydney 2067, Australia asking them about admission procedure for overseas students. 5
10. The pie chart below shows the time allocation of students daily activities. Analyse the chart focussing the main preoccupations. (At least in 80 words) 10
11. Write down the theme of the following poem. (Not more than 50 words). 8
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!
But to go to school in a summer morn,
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.
Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning's bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.
How can a bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!
HSC English 1st Paper Board Question with answer: Rajshahi Board
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