Basic English Grammar rules can be tricky. In this article, we’ll get you started with the basics of sentence structure, punctuation, parts of speech, and more.
We also providing Extra Questions for Class 11 English Chapter wise.
Unseen Passage for Class 11 Literary CBSE With Answers
1. Read this passage and answer the questions that follow.
Bores
by E.V. Lucas
1. It requires a sense of superiority, assurance and self-confidence to write about bores at all, except as one of them. But since your true bore is always unconscious of his boorishness, and indeed usually thinks of himself as the most companionable of men, to write as one of them is to acquit oneself of the stigma.
2. None the less, at some time, I fear, everybody is a bore, because everybody now and again has a fixed idea to impart, and the fixed ideas of the few are the boredom of the many.
3. Also, even the least self – centered of men can now and then have a personal experience sufficiently odd to lose its true proportions and force him to inflict it over much on others.
4. But bores, as a rule, are bores always, for egotism is beyond question the bore’s foundation stone; his belief being that what interests him and involves himself as a central figure must interest you.
5. Since he lives all the time, and all the time something is happening in which he is the central figure, he has always something new to discourse upon: himself, his house, his garden, himself, his wife, his children, himself, his car, his handicap, himself, his health, his ancestry, himself, the strange way in which, without inviting them to, all kinds of people confide in him and ask his advice, his humorous way with waiters, his immunity from influenza, his travels, the instinct which always leads him to the best restaurants, his clothes, his dentist, his freedom from shibboleths, he being one of those men who look upon the open air as the best church, his possible ignorance of the arts but certitude as to what he himself likes, his triumphs over the income – tax people. These are happy men, these world’s axle trees.
6. (I have been referring to bores exclusively as men. Whether that is quite just, I am not sure; but I shall leave it there.)
7. Bores are happy largely because they have so much to tell and come so well out of it; but chiefly because they can find people to tell it to. The tragedy is, they can always find their listeners, me almost first. And why can they? Why can even notorious bores always be sure of an audience? The answer is, the ineradicable kindness of human nature. Few men are strong enough to say, ‘For Heaven’s sake, go away, you weary me.’ Bores make cowards of us all, and we are left either to listen and endure or take refuge in craven flight. We see them in the distance and turn down side streets or hasten from the room. One man I know has a compact with a page – boy, whose duty it is, whenever my friend is attacked by a certain bore in the club, to hasten up and say he is wanted on the telephone. In ingenious device, but it must not be worked too often; because my dear friend, although he can stoop to deceit and subterfuge, would not for anything let the bore think that he was avoiding him; would not bring grief to that complacent candid face. For it is one of the bore’s greatest assets that he has a simplicity that disarms. Astute, crafty men are seldom bored; very busy men are seldom boring.
8. Of all bores the most repellent specimen is the one who comes close up; the buttonholing bore. This is the kind described by a friend of mine with a vivid sense of phrase as ‘the man who spreads birdlime all over you’. A bore who keeps a reasonable way off can be dealt with; but when they lean on you, you are done. It is worst when they fix your eyes, only a foot away, and tell you a funny story that isn’t funny. Nothing is so humiliating as to have to counterfeit laughter at the bidding of a bore; but we do it. The incurable weakness and benignancy of human nature once again!
9. Then there is the bore who begins a funny story, and although you tell him you have heard it, doesn’t stop. What should be done with him? Another of the worst types of bore is the man who says, ‘Where should we be without our sense of humour?’ He is even capable of saying, ‘Nothing but my unfailing sense of humour saved me.’ There is also the man who says, ‘Live and let live’ as my poor dear father used to say.
10. There was once an eccentric peer – I forget both his name and the place where I read about him – who had contracted, all unconsciously, the habit of thinking out loud; and in this world of artifice, where society is cemented and sustained very largely by a compromise between what we think and what we say, his thoughts were very often at a variance with his words. One of the stories in the memoirs in which I found him describes how he met an acquaintance in St. James’ Street, and, after muttering quite audibly to himself for a few minutes as they walked side by side, ‘Confound it, what a nuisance meeting this fellow. I’ve always disliked him. But now that we have met I suppose I must ask him to dinner,’ he stopped, and said with every appearance of cordiality, ‘You’ll dine with us this evening, won’t you?’
11. Well, as a sheet of armour – plate against bores, I don’t think we could do much better than cultivate the habit of thinking truthfully aloud. Unless we can do this or train ourselves to be downright offensive, there is no remedy against bores, except total evasion. No bore ever says, after no matter how many hints, “I’ll avoid that man in future; I know I bore him.’
12. So they will always flourish. But if a certain famous weekly humorous paper were to cease publication (distasteful and incredible thought!) there would automatically be a decrease in bore topics, because then no one could any longer repeat those sayings of his children which are ‘good enough for Punch.’
Unseen Passage With Answers for Class 11 CBSE Literary
1.1 (i) Answer the following questions.
a. What qualities must a person possess to qualify himself to write about bores?
b. How is the true bore an egotist?
c. Even ‘notorious bores’ can be sure of an audience. Why?
Answer:
a. In order to write about bores, a person must have a sense of superiority, assurance and self-confidence about himself.
b. A true bore is egoistic as he is of the belief that what interests him and involves himself would certainly appeal to others.
c. The ‘notorious bores’ can be also be assure of an audience because people are too kind to shun them away and therefore have to either listen and endure them.
(ii) What is the synonym of the following words in paragraph 7:
a. ineradicable
b. ingenious
c. complacent
Answer:
a. inerasable
b. inventive
c. self-satisfied
1.2 Choose the correct options.
(i) The writer feels that to write about bores one has to be
a. cautious.
b. sure of oneself.
c. dominating
d. unaware.
Answer:
b
(ii) The writer feels all of us are bores because
a. we are unchanging about what we have to talk about.
b. we do not wish to listen to anyone.
c. we interact only with a limited number of people.
d. we talk endlessly about ourselves.
Answer:
d
(iii) The writer feels bores have an inflated self – image because
a. they show disrespect towards others.
b. they do not let others talk.
c. they like talking about themselves.
d. they are good conversationalists.
Answer:
c
(iv) A bore’s happiness stems from the fact that
a. they have a ready audience.
b. their friends love them.
c. they have endless topics.
d. they are invited to gatherings.
Answer:
b
(v) The writer has devised a way of saving people from bores by
a. listening to the bore.
b. by talking himself.
c. helping his friend excuse himself.
d. by snubbing the bore.
Answer:
a
(vi) The buttonholing bore is the one who
a. is usually friendly with you.
b. can be dealt with.
c. keeps away from you.
d. forces himself on you.
Answer:
d
2. Read the poem and answer the questions that follow.
I REMEMBER, I REMEMBER
I remember, I remember
The house where I was born,
The little window where the sun
Came peeping in at morn;
He never came a wink too soon
Nor brought too long a day;
But now, I often wish the night
Had borne my breath away.
I remember, I remember
The roses red and white,
The violets and lily cups
Those flowers made of light!
The lilacs where the robin built,
And where my brother set
The laburnum on his birthday,
The tree is living yet!
I remember, I remember
Where I was used to swing,
And thought the air must rush as fresh
My spirit flew in feathers then
That is so heavy now,
The summer pools could hardly cool
I remember, I remember
The fir trees dark and high;
I used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky:
It was a childish ignorance,
But now ’tis little joy
To know I’m farther off from Heaven
Than when I was a little boy.
– Thomas Hood
2.1 (i) Answer the following questions.
a. What was the poet’s observation about the sun?
b. What is that one thing that surprised the poet?
c. What does the poet refer to as his childish ignorance?
Answer:
a. The poet feels nostalgic remembering his childhood and remembers the early sunrise and the perfect sunset.
b. Answers may vary.
c. By ‘childish ignorance the poet refers to the fir trees which he as a child thought to touch the sky.
(ii) Find phrases in the poem which mean the following.
a. not even a little
b. taken away
c. lean summits
Answer:
a. ‘tis little
b. my breath away
c. slender tops
2.2 Choose the correct options.
(i) What is the mood of the poet?
a. delighted
b. nostalgic
c. irritable
d. depressed
Answer:
b
(ii) What is the figure of speech in these two lines?
The little window where the sun Came peeping in at morn
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. personification
d. antithesis
Answer:
c
(iii) Violets are a type of
a. tree.
b. flower.
c. leaf.
d. shrub.
Answer:
b
(iv) Laburnum is a type of
a. tree.
b. flower.
c. leaf.
d. shrub.
Answer:
b
(v) The word “ignorance” means
a. immoral.
b. shabby.
c. unawareness.
d. knowledge.
Answer:
c
(vi) Robin is a type of
a. colour
b. a mythical figure.
c. insect.
d. bird.
Answer:
d
3. Read the poem and answer the questions that follow.
THE BANYAN TREE
O you shaggy – headed banyan tree standing on the bank of the pond,
have you forgotten the little chile, like the birds that have
nested in your branches and left you?
Do you not remember how he sat at the window and wondered at
the tangle of your roots and plunged underground?
The women would come to fill their jars in the pond, and your
huge black shadow would wriggle on the water like sleep struggling to wake up.
Sunlight danced on the ripples like restless tiny shuttles
weaving golden tapestry.
Two ducks swam by the weedy margin above their shadows, and
the child would sit still and think.
He longed to be the wind and blow through your resting
branches, to be your shadow and lengthen with the day on the water,
to be a bird and perch on your topmost twig, and to float like
those ducks among the weeds and shadows.
– Rabindranath Tagore
3.1 (i) Answer the following in your own words.
a. Why does the poet call the banyan tree shaggy – headed?
b. From where did the poet look at the banyan tree when he was a boy?
c. In the poet’s eyes what did sunlight appear to do?
Answer:
a. Because there are too many leaves at the top of the tree.
b. his window
c. Sunlight appeared to dance on the ripples in the pond like restless tiny shuttles weaving golden tapestry.
(ii) Give synonyms of the following words from the poem
a. cluster
b. dove
c. line
Answer:
a. tangle
b. plunged
c. margin
3.2 Choose the best option.”
(i) The words for a thick material in which coloured weft threads are woven to form designs is
a. sunlight
b. tapestry
c. shuttles
d. windows
Answer:
b
(ii) The word for horizontal branch used by a bird to rest on is
a. restless
b. margin
c. nested
d. perch
Answer:
d
(iii) The word for a pointed tool used in making a cloth is
a. shuttle
b. twig
c. tapestry
d. weeds
Answer:
a
(iv) The word for a small wave is
a. ripple
b. bank
c. pond
d. wriggle
Answer:
a
(v) The poet enjoyed watching
a. the wind breaking the thin branches of the tree.
b. the wind blowing through the branches of the tree.
c. both a and b
d. none of the above
Answer:
b
(vi) The mood of the poet is that of:
a. sorrow
b. nostalgia
c. joy
d. glory
Answer:
b
4. Read the passage about Helen Keller and answer the questions.
1. The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. I am filled with wonder when I consider the immeasurable contrasts between the two lives which it connects. It was the third of March, 1887, three months before I was seven years old.
2. On the afternoon of that eventful day, I stood on the porch, dumb, expectant. I guessed vaguely from my mother’s signs and from the hurrying to and fro in the house that something unusual was about to happen, so I went to the door and waited on the steps. The afternoon sun penetrated the mass of honeysuckle that covered the porch, and fell on my upturned face. My fingers lingered almost unconsciously on the familiar leaves and blossoms which had just come forth to greet the sweet southern spring. I did not know what the future held of marvel or surprise for me. Anger and bitterness had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle.
3. Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding – line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding – line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. “Light! give me light!” was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.
4. I felt approaching footsteps. I stretched out my hand, as I supposed to my mother. Someone took it, and I was caught up and held close in the arms of her who had come to reveal all things to me, and, more than all things else, to love me.
5. The morning after my teacher came she led me into her room and gave me a doll. When I had played with it a little while, Miss Sullivan slowly spelled into my hand the word “d – 0 – 1 – 1.” I was at once interested in this finger play and tried to imitate it. When I finally succeeded in making the letters correctly I was flushed with childish pleasure and pride. Running downstairs to my mother I held up my hand and made the letters for doll. I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed; I was simply making my fingers go in monkey – like imitation.
6. One day, while I was playing with my new doll, Miss Sullivan put my big rag doll into my lap also, spelled “d – 0 – 1 – 1” and tried to make me understand that “d – 0 – 1 – 1” applied to both. Earlier in the day we had had a tussle over the words “m – u – g” and “w – a – t – e – r.” Miss Sullivan had tried to impress it upon me that “m – u – g” is mug and that “w – a – t – e – r” is water, but I persisted in confounding the two. In despair, she had dropped the subject for the time, only to renew it at the first opportunity. I became impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth, and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure.
4.1 (i) Answer the following questions.
a. What was something unusual that was about to happen?
b. What about spelling the ‘doll’ delighted Helen?
c. …seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. What emotion of the child does it reflect?
Answer:
a. The unusual thing that happened was that Helen’s teacher Miss Sullivan visited her and spelled the word ‘doll’into her hand. Interested, Helen too imitated Miss Sullivan’s fingers until she finally succeeded in spelling the letters into her hand correctly.
b. Helen was delighted by correctly imitating Miss Sullivan’s fingers to write the word. She did not even realize that she was spelling a word or even that words existed, she drew her delight from simply making her fingers go in monkey-like imitation.
c. When Helen seized the doll and dashed it upon the floor, it reflected her impatience.
(ii) Write the meanings of the italicized words.
a. A deep languor had succeeded this passionate struggle.
b. I persisted in confounding the two.
c. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness.
Answer:
a. the state of feeling lazy and without energy
b. to confuse between two things
c. gentleness or loving
4.2 Choose the correct options.
(i) What are the two lives that are being contrasted?
a. Helen’s and Anne’s
b. Helen’s and her parents
c. before and after her education
d. before and after Anne came
Answer:
c
(ii) What was the similarity in the great ship that groped her way toward the shore and Helen?
a. both were directionless
b. both had a long life ahead
c. both were waiting
d. both were sinking
Answer:
a
(iii) What is a honeysuckle?
a. a type of flower
b. a type of plant
c. a type of leaf
d. a type of honey
Answer:
a
(iv) The word “imitate” means
a. fake.
b. real.
c. emulate.
d. artificial.
Answer:
c
(v) A hearth is
a. a fireplace.
b. an emotion.
c. damage.
d. distress.
Answer:
a
(vi) The word “tangible” means
a. pungent.
b. immaterial.
c. palpable.
d. all of the above options.
Answer:
c
5. Read this passage and answer the questions that follow.
INDIA 2020
by Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
1. Nations are built by the imagination and untiring enthusiastic efforts of generations. One generation transfers the fruits of its toil to another, which then takes forward the mission. As the coming generation also has its dreams and aspirations for the nation’s future, it therefore adds something from its side to the national vision; which the next generation strives hard to achieve. This process goes on and the nation climbs steps of glory and gains higher strength. The first vision: Freedom of India
2. Any organisation, society or even a nation without a vision is like a ship cruising on the high seas without any aim or direction. It is clarity of national vision which constantly drives the people towards the goal.
3. Our last generation, the glorious generation of freedom fighters, led by Mahatma Gandhi, and many others set for the nation, a vision of free India. This was the first vision, set by the people for the nation. It therefore went deep into the minds and the hearts of the masses and soon became the great inspiring and driving force for the people to collectively plunge into the struggle for freedom movement. The unified dedicated efforts of the people from every walk of life won freedom for the country. The second vision: Developed India
4. The next generation (to which I also belong) has put India strongly on the path of economic, agricultural and technological development. But India has stood too long in the line of developing nations. Let us, collectively, set the second national vision of Developed India. I am confident that it is very much possible and can materialise in 15 – 20 years’ time. Developed status
5. What does the developed nation status mean in terms of the common man? It means the major transformation of our national economy to make it one of the largest economies in the world, where the countrymen live well above the poverty line, their education and health is of high standard, national security is reasonably assured, and the core competence in certain major areas gets enhanced significantly so that the production of quality goods, including exports, is rising and thereby bringing all-round prosperity for the countrymen.
6. What is the common link needed to realise these sub-goals? It is the technological strength of the nation, which is the key to reach this developed status. Build around our strength
7. The next question that comes to the mind is, how can it be made possible? We have to build and strengthen our national infrastructure in an all-round manner, in a big way. Therefore, we should build around our existing strengths including the vast pool of talented scientists and technologists and our abundant natural resources. The manpower resource should be optimally utilised to harness health care, services sectors and engineering goods sectors.
8. We should concentrate on the development of key areas, namely agriculture production, food processing, materials and also on the emerging niche areas like computer software, biotechnologies and so on. The common link required to bring this transformation is the human resources. Therefore, adequate attention needs to be paid to the development of special human resource cadre in the country to meet these objectives. Beyond 2020
9. The attainment of a developed status by 2020 does not mean that we can then rest on our laurels. It is an endless pursuit of well – being for all our people. Our vision of a developed nation integrates this element of time within it as well. Only people with many embodied skills and knowledge and with ignited minds can be ready for such a long – term vision. We believe that it is possible to develop our people to reach such a state, provided we can follow a steady path and make available to the people the benefits of change all through their lives. They should see their lives and those of others improving in actual terms, and not merely in statistical tables.
5.1 (i) Answer the following questions.
a. Why are visions necessary for a nation?
b. What does technological advancement expedite?
c. What is the key to reaching the status of a developed nation?
Answer:
a. A vision is necessary for a nation to drive the people towards the goal. Without a vision, the nation is like a ship cruising on high seas without any aim or direction.
b. Technological advancement expedites all-round prosperity for the people of a country.
c. The key to reaching the status of a developed nation is the technological strength of the nation.
(ii) Answer the following questions.
a. for the people to collectively plunge into the struggle for freedom movement. Here, “plunge” means ………………………… .
b. …we can then rest on our laurels. Here, “laurels” means ………………………… .
c. …with ignited minds can be ready for such a long – term vision. Here the antonym of “ignited” is ………………………… .
Answer:
a. to move suddenly into something
b. honour or praise
c. extinguish
5.2 Choose the correct options.
(i) How do generations contribute in taking the nation to glorious heights?
a. by using their imagination
b. by putting in huge efforts
c. by having dreams and aspirations
d. by adding to the achievements of their predecessors
Answer:
d
(ii) What does the development of a nation imply?
a. evolving politically
b. evolving culturally
c. evolving economically
d. all the above options
Answer:
d
(iii) The word “infrastructure” means
a. the process or method of building or making something.
b. the different parts which something is made of.
c. the basic systems and services that are necessary for a country or an organization to run smoothly.
d. all the above options
Answer:
c
(iv) The word “key” in paragraph 8, means
a. important
b. a specially shaped piece of metal used for locking a door, starting a car, etc.
c. a set of related notes, based on a particular note.
d. a set of answers to exercises or problems.
Answer:
a
(v) The word “pursuit”, in paragraph 9, means
a. pressed.
b. follow.
c. scrutinize.
d. chase.
Answer:
d
(vi) The word “prosperity” means
a. the state of being successful, especially in making money.
b. possibility.
c. chance.
d. none of the above options.
Answer:
d