Organisation : Council For The Indian School Certificate Examinations
Class : Class XII
Document Type : Specimen Question Paper
Subject : English Language (English Paper – 1)
Semester : 1 And 2
Year : 2022
Website : https://cisce.org/publications.aspx
ICSE Class XII Question Paper
Council For The Indian School Certificate Examinations (ICSE) Class XII English Paper 1 Specimen Question Papers Semester 1 and 2 for the year 2022.
Related / Similar Question Paper : ICSE Class XII Literature English Paper-2 2022
Class XII English Language Paper -1 Questions
Question 1
Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
I heard the main door creak open directly above our heads.
My first natural impulse was to shout, to get help from whoever had come: and then I remembered. Harry had come to this place to meet someone. He didn’t know who. He’d gone there trustingly. He’d walked into the boathouse and tried to pick up an envelope and the floor had given way beneath him; and if I hadn’t been there with him he would certainly have drowned in the dock.
With doubt but also awareness of danger I guessed at an enemy above our heads, not a saviour.
There was silence. Then the creak of a step or two, then the sound of the door being quietly closed. I heard a car door slamming and after that the noise of an engine starting up and being driven away.
No easy exit. The door was solid as a rock. On the wall beside the door, there was a row of three electric switches. I pressed them all without any results from the electric light bulbs along the ceiling. There was also a control box with cables leading to the top of a metal curtain at the level of the river. The arrangement for raising the curtain was a gear designed to turn a rod to wind the metal mesh-up onto it like a blind. Without electricity, however, it wasn’t going to oblige.
‘Harry?’ I called. ‘Sit there and don’t worry. I’ll come back.’
I slipped into the water and swam a couple of strokes to the curtain. Tried standing up, but the water was much deeper there. Hung onto the wire feeling the tug of the current from the river.
With extreme luck, the curtain wouldn’t go all the way down to the river’s bed. There must be a gap of at least two or three feet. I took a breath and pulled myself hand over hand down the curtain, seeking to find the bottom of it with my feet: and there was indeed a gap between the bottom edge of the curtain and the mud.
Deep breath. Dived. Came to the end of the wire, felt the mud below. The bottom edge of the curtain was a matter of free links, not a connecting bar. The links could be raised, but only singly, not altogether. I swung down at the bottom, deciding to go head first… praying that the links wouldn’t catch on my clothes… head under, push the links up with hands, full strength, take care, don’t rush, don’t snag clothes, hold onto the wire outside, don’t let go, hang on, shoulders through, raise the links, back through, legs… short of breath… lungs hurting… careful, careful… unknown things around my ankles, hampering… had to breathe soon… feet catching… feet… through.
I was through. I came up into the air gasping deeply, panting, aching lungs swelling, feeling a rush of suppressed terror, clinging onto the curtain in a shaky state.
‘Harry?’ I called.
‘Oh John…’ His relief was beyond measure. ‘Thank God.’
‘Not long now,’ I said and heard the strain in my own voice too.
I edged along with the curtain in the direction of the shut door and managed to scramble around the boathouse wall and up out of the water to roll at last onto the grassy bank. Bitterly cold, shivering violently from several causes, but out.
Adapted from Longshot by Dick Francis
(a) (i) Given below are five words from the passage along with four options for each. Choose the option which has a similar meaning in the passage
1. Impulse
(a) vibration
(b) a sudden strong wish
(c) whimsical
(d) motive
2. Awareness
(a) knowledge
(b) not knowing
(c) goods on sale
(d) conscience
3. Terror
(a) fight
(b) foreboding
(c) uncanny
(d) extreme fear
4. Strain
(a) trouble
(b) tiresome
(c) anxiety
(d) tight
5. Oblige
(a) be of any help
(b) bow down
(c) beholden
(d) indebted
Download ICSE Class XII Question Paper
Download ICSE English Language – 1 Semester – 1 Class XII Question Paper Here : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/pdf2022/2eng1sem1.pdf
Download ICSE English Language – 1 Semester – 2 Class XII Question Paper Here : https://www.pdfquestion.in/uploads/pdf2022/2eng1sem2.pdf