Select one of the following:

Formal Letter:

From address (home/school)

Date

To address ONLY Principal, [spelling counts] + School address

Salutation [ Sir/ Madam/ Dear…/ Rev. Mother etc

Subscription. Yours faithfully

Name + surname/initial

Informal letter:

Address (Home/school)

Date

Salutation- Dear/My dear [-name]/female relative

Subscription- Yours lovingly, /Yours affectionately, /Your loving,/affectionate…

First name

Ensure that the format is correct and that the following points of each letter are clearly brought out:

a) Formal Letter (format, content, expression)

1. Why? [Reason for request eg. Not enough time to visit library/ school canteen/ play/ eat]

2. How? [it’ll make a difference-eg. Students feel refreshed / ready for next half / less rushed]

b) Informal Letter (format, content, expression)

(i) Name the prize [eg. Attendance / Maths Prize/ Courage or Bravery Prize]

(ii) Why is awarded? [to reward regular attendance/ to honour the top scorer in maths / for having displayed courage / for doing an act of valour]

(iii) What is the award?- details of award- eg a trophy/ a book/ a cash prize/ cheque, etc.

Question 3: Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Lying in bed, Swami realized with a shudder that it was Monday morning. It looked as though only a moment ago it had been the last period on Friday; already Monday was here. He hoped that an earthquake would reduce the school building to dust, but that good building — Albert Mission School – had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years now. At nine o’clock Swaminathan wailed, “I have a headache.” His mother said, “Why don’t you go to school in a bullock cart?”

“So that I may be completely dead at the other end? Have you any idea what it means to be jolted in a cart?”

“Have you any important lessons today?”

“Important! Bah! That geography teacher has been teaching the same lesson for over a year now. And we have arithmetic, which means for a whole period we are going to be beaten by the teacher….. Important lessons!”

And Mother generously suggested that Swami might stay at home.

At 9:30, when he ought to have been lining up in the school prayer hall, Swami was lying on the bench in Mother’s room. Father asked him, “Have you no school today?”

“Headache,” Swami replied.

“Nonsense! Dress up and go.”

“Headache.”

“Loaf about less on Sundays and you will be without a headache on Monday.”

Swami knew how stubborn his father could be and changed his tactics. “I can’t go so late to class.”

“I agree, but you’ll have to; it is your own fault. You should have asked me before deciding to stay away.”

“What will the teacher think if I go so late?”

“Tell him you had a headache and so are late.”

“He will beat me if I say so.”

“Will he? Let us see. What is his name?”

“Mr. Samuel.”

“Does he beat the boys?”

“He is very violent, especially with boys who come late. Some days ago a boy was made to stay on his knees for a whole period in a corner of the class because he came late, and that after getting six cuts from the cane and having his ears twisted. I wouldn’t like to go late to Mr. Samuel’s class.”

“If he is so violent, why not tell your headmaster about it?”

“They say that even the headmaster is afraid of him. He is such a violent man.”

And then Swami gave a lurid account of Samuel’s violence; how when he started caning he would not stop till he saw blood on the boy’s hand, which he made the boy press to his forehead like a vermillion marking. Swami hoped that his father would be made to see that he couldn’t go to his class late. But Father’s behaviour took an unexpected turn. He became excited. “What do these people mean by beating our children? They must be driven out of service. I will see…”

The result was he proposed to send Swami late to his class as a kind of challenge. He was also going to send a letter with Swami to the headmaster. No amount of protest from Swami was of any avail: Swami had to go to school.

By the time he was ready Father had composed a long letter to the headmaster, put in an envelope and sealed it.

“What have you written, Father?” Swaminathan asked apprehensively.

“Nothing for you. Give it to your headmaster and go to your class.”

Swami’s father did not know the truth, that actually Mr. Samuel was a very kind and gentle man.

(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage.

One word answers or short phrases will be accepted.

(i) jolted (line 8)

(ii) stubborn (line 21)

(iii) avail (line 45)

(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:

(i) What did Swami wish for on a Monday morning? Why was his wish unlikely to be answered?

(ii) Which sentence tells us that Swami’s father was completely unsympathetic to his son’s headache?

(iii) In what way was Swami’s Mother’s response different from his father’s?

(iv) Why did Swami give a colourful account of Mr. Samuel to his father?

(v) In what way did Father’s behaviour take an unexpected turn?

(vi) What was Swami finally ordered to do by his father?

(c) (i) In not more than 60 words describe how Swami tries to prove that Mr. Samuel is a violent man.

(ii) Give a title to your summary in 3(c). Give a reason to justify your choice.

Answer:

a) (i) Jolted: shaken up badly, jerked, rattled, jarred, jounced, bounced, lurched, [tossed/ bumped/ thrown/ knocked + about. DO NOT accept these words without ‘about’]

(ii) Stubborn: obstinate, unbending, unyielding, adamant, rigid, inflexible, obdurate, mulish, pig-headed

(iii) Avail: use, purpose, benefit, advantage

b) (i) That an earthquake would reduce the school building to dust + that the building had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years now

(ii) His father said; “Loaf about less on Sundays and you will be without a headache on Mondays” [Must quote exactly. NO MARKS for paraphrasing. Marks deducted if only a part of the sentence is quoted.] No marks for more than one sentence.

(iii) Mother let him rest at home/ believed him/ was kind/ generous/ sympathetic +Father was not (contrast between mother’s response and father’s must be evident.)

(iv) Swami did not want to go to school. + He hoped that his father would believe/ feel sorry for him/ be frightened for him.

(v) Father became excited/angry (with Samuel) + He wrote a letter.

(vi) Give a letter to Headmaster + go to class

c) (i) Swami tries to prove that Samuel was a violent man by saying:

1. that he often beat the boys ( especially late-comers)
2. a boy had been made to kneel for a whole period
3. gave him six cuts
4. twisted his ears
5. Even Headmaster was afraid of him
6. would not stop caning until the boy began to bleed
7. would make the boy press bloodied hand to forehead like a vermillion mark.

[Accept ANY SIX of the points listed above]

(ii) Accept any apt title – suited to the summary NOT to the whole passage. [Tile MUST NOT refer to Headmaster/ Swami’s father/ Swami’s friends]

Reason must justify choice of title [not to lift reason from the question].

Question 4:

(a) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not copy the passage, but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space.

Example:

(0) One morning I (0) … (see) the python curled up on the dressing table.

Answer: saw.

It was (1)… (gaze) at its own reflection in the mirror. I (2) … (go) for grandfather but by the time we (3) … (return) to the room, the python (4) … (move) on. He was seen in the garden and once the cook saw him (5) … (crawl) up the ladder to the roof. Then we (6) … (find) him on the dressing table again (7) … (admire) himself in the mirror. “He’s trying to look better for Aunt Mabel” I said. I (8) … (regret) this remark

immediately because grandmother overheard and held up my pocket money for the rest of the week!

(b) Fill in the blanks with an appropriate word:

(i) He found the key just _______ the front door.

(ii) I could not accompany my cousin _______ the trip because I had fever.

(iii) The noise prevented us _______ sleeping.

(iv) The young man put the flute _______ his lips and began to play.

(v) Ashok leaned ________ the wall tiredly.

(vi) The paper dart went gliding ______ the air.

(vii) The cyclist rode quickly ______ the path.

(viii) The young child carried the heavy bucket ______ the stairs.

(c) Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or so.

(i) He has learnt to cycle. He has yet to learn to swim.

(ii) The child helped her mother to make breakfast. She washed the tomatoes.

(iii) They bought a new car. They can travel long distances.

(iv) Sunita opened her purse. She found the money missing.

(d) Re-write the following sentences according to the instructions given after each. Make other changes that may be necessary, but do not change the meaning of each sentence.

(i) Arun gave Ramesh some excellent advice.

(Begin: Ramesh was………………………………………)

(ii) As soon as Sania sat down to study, the lights went off.

(Begin: No sooner ………………………………………………………)

(iii) Has Alia written to you?

(Begin: Have you ……………)

(iv) As soon as the function got over. The crowd dispersed.

(Begin: Hardly had ………………………………………………..)

(v) The monsoon is the best season in our country.

(Rewrite using ‘good’)

(vi) Harish was so tired that he could not keep his eyes open.

(Begin: Harish was too …………………………….)

(vii) Father said to Sunil, “I can help you with your homework.”

(Begin: Father told Sunil………………………………………..)

(viii) Naresh goes to a school which has over a thousand students.

(Begin: There……………………………………………………)

Answer:

(a)

1. gazing
2. went
3. returned
4. had moved
5. crawl/ crawling
6. found
7. admiring
8. regretted

(b)

(i) near/ by/ beside/outside/ behind

(ii) on

(iii) from

(iv) to

(v) against

(vi) through

(vii) down/along/ across

(viii) up/ down

(c)

1. Although he has learnt to cycle/cycling, he has not yet learned to swim/swimming. [Though he…./Inspite of his having learnt…./ Despite having learnt…)
2. The child helped her mother to make breakfast by washing the tomatoes.
3. Since they have bought a new car, they can travel long distances. [ ‘as’/ ‘because’/ Now that they have bought …]
4. Sunita opened her purse to find the money missing/When Sunita opened her purse, she found the money missing/ On opening her purse, Sunita found her money missing [ Do not accept – ‘missing money’/As soon as…./No sooner than…../Hardly….when]]

(d)

1. Ramesh was given some excellent advice by Arun.
2. No sooner did/had Sania sit/sat down to study, than the lights went off.
3. Have you heard from Alia?/ Have you had/ received a letter from Alia?
4. Hardly had the function got over when the crowd dispersed.
5. No other season in our country is as (so) good as the monsoon.
6. Harish was too tired to keep his eyes open.
7. Father told Sunil that he could help him with his home work.
8. There are more than/ over a thousand students in Naresh’s school/ the school that Naresh goes to/ attends.

For Questions 4C and 4D meaning of the sentence must not change.

The ICSE Class 10 English Language Question Paper Solution 2015 must have helped students with their exam preparation. The answers in the Solution pdf have provided an in-depth to 2015 questions and the way answers to be written to score high marks in the board exam. Apart from the 2015 paper solution, students can find the answers to other papers of ICSE Class 10 Previous Years Questions by clicking here. Happy Learning and stay tuned to BYJU’S for the latest update on ICSE/CBSE/State Boards/Competitive exams. Also, don’t forget to download the BYJU’S App.