(Do not spend more than 35 minutes on this question.)
Write a composition (350 - 400 words) on any one of the following:

Write an original short story that begins with the words: "Its not my fault", he shouted………...”

‘Working women make better mothers than women who stay at home’. Express your views
either for or against this statement.

Describe an early morning walk through your city or town in winter. Give details of the smells,
sights, sounds and feelings you experienced.

Think of a time when you found yourself in an embarrassing situation. Narrate how you got
into that situation, how you dealt with it and the lesson you learnt from it.

Study the picture given below. Write a short story or description or an account what the
picture suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or you may
take suggestions from it; however, your composition must have a clear connection with the
picture.

(Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.)
Select one of the following:

Your uncle has promised to give you a gift of Rs 1000/-. Write a letter thanking him for the
offer; tell him how you plant to spend the money; and why you wish to spend it in this way.

You are the President of the Nature Club in your school which is hosting the Earth Day
Celebrations. Write a letter to the Principal of a neighbouring school inviting the school to
participate in the event. State when, why and how you plan to celebrate Earth Day.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Richard Parker was so named because of a clerical error.
A panther was terrorizing the Khulna district of Bangladesh, just outside the
Sundarbans. It had recently carried off a little girl. She was the seventh person
killed in two months by the animal. And it was growing bolder. The previous
victim was a man who had been attacked in broad daylight in his field. The
beast dragged him off into the forest, and his corpse was later found hanging [5.]
from a tree. The villagers kept a watch nearby that night, hoping to surprise the
panther and kill it, but it never appeared.
The Forest Department hired a professional hunter. He set up a small, hidden
platform in a tree near a river where two of the attacks had taken plate. A goat
was tied to a stake on the river's bank. The hunter waited several nights. He [10.]
assumed the panther would be an old, wasted male with worn teeth, incapable
of catching anything more difficult than a human. But it was a sleek tiger that
stepped into the open one night: a female with a single cub. The goat bleated.
Oddly, the cub, who looked to be about three months old, paid little attention to
the goat. It raced to the water's edge, where it drank eagerly. Its mother
followed it. Of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater urge. Only once the tiger
had quenched her thirst did she turn to the goat to satisfy her hunger.
The hunter had two rifles with him: one with real bullets, the other with
immobilizing darts. This animal was not the man-eater, but so close to human
habitation she might pose a threat to the villagers, especially as she was with [20.]
cub. He picked up the gun with the darts. He tired as the tiger was about to
attack the goat. The tiger reared up and snarled and raced away. But
immobilizing darts don't bring on sleep gently- they knock the creature out
without warning. A burst of activity on the animal's part makes it act all the
faster. The hunter called his assistants on the radio. They found the tiger about [25.]
two hundred yards from the river. She was still conscious. Her back legs had
given way and her balance on her front legs was shaky. When the men got
close, she tried to get away but could not manage it. She turned on them, lifting
a paw that was meant to kill. It only made her lose her balance. She collapsed
and the Pondicherry Zoo had two new tigers. The cub was found in a bush
close by, meowing with fear.
The hunter, whose name was Richard Parker, picked it up with his bare hands
and, remembering how it had rushed to drink in the river, named it Thirsty. But
the shipping clerk at the Howrah train station was evidently a man both
confused and diligent. All the papers received with the cub clearly stated that [35.]
its name was Richard Parker, that the hunter's first name was Thirsty and that
his family name was None Given. Richard Parker's name stuck.
I don't know if the hunter was ever called Thirsty None Given!

Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. One word answers or
short phrases will be accepted.

corpse (line 5)

quenched (line.17)