Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: |
1. While there is no denying that the world loves a winner, it is important that you recognise the signs of stress in your behaviour and be healthy enough to enjoy your success. Stress can strike anytime, in a fashion that may leave you unaware of its presence in your life. While a certain amount of pressure is necessary for performance, it is important to be able to recognise your individual limit. For instance, there are some individuals who accept competition in a healthy fashion. There are others who collapse into weeping wrecks before an exam or on comparing mark-sheets and finding that their friend has scored better. |
2. Stress is a body reaction to any demands or changes in its internal and external environment. Whenever there is a change in the external environment such as temperature, pollutants, humidity and working conditions, it leads to stress. In these days of competition when a person makes up his mind to surpass what has been achieved by others, leading to an imbalance between demands and resources, it causes psycho-social stress. It is a part and parcel of everyday life. |
3. Stress has a different meaning, depending on the stage of life you are in. The loss of a toy or a reprimand from the parents might create a stress shock in a child. An adolescent who fails in examination may feel as if everything has been I lost and life has no further meaning. In an adult the loss of his or her companion, job or professional failure may appear as if there is nothing more to be achieved. |
4. Such signs appear in the attitude and behaviour of the individual, as muscle tension in various parts of the body, palpitation and high blood pressure, indigestion and hyper-acidity. Ultimately the result is self-destructive behaviour such as eating and drinking too much, smoking excessively, relying on tranquilisers. There are other signs of stress such as trembling, shaking, nervous blinking, dryness of throat and mouth and difficulty in swallowing. |
5. The professional under stress behaves as if he is a perfectionist. It leads to depression, lethargy and weakness. Periodic mood shifts also indicate the stress status of the students, executives and professionals. |
6. In a study sponsored by World Health Organisation and carried out by Harvard School of Public Health, the global burden of diseases and injury indicated that stress diseases and accidents are going to be the major killers in 2020. |
7. The heart disease and depression - both stress diseases- are going to rank first and second in 2020. Road traffic accidents are going to be the third largest killers. These accident are also an indicator of psycho-social stress a fast-moving society. Other stress diseases like ulcers, hypertension and sleeplessness have assumed epidemic proportions in modern societies. |
8. A person under stress reacts in different ways and the common ones are flight, fight and flee depending upon the nature of the stress and capabilities of the person. The three responses can be elegantly chosen to cope with the stress so that stress does not damage the system and become distress. |
9. When a stress crosses the limit, peculiar to an individual, it lowers his performance capacity. Frequent crossings of the limit may result in chronic fatigue in which a person feels lethargic, disinterested and is not easily motivated to achieve anything. This may make the person mentally undecided, confused and accident prone as well. Sudden exposure to un-nerving stress may also result in a loss of memory. Diet, massage, food supplements, herbal medicines, hobbies, relaxation techniques and dance movements are excellent stress busters. |
(a) (i) What is stress ? What factors lead to stress? |
(ii) What are the signs by which a person can know that he is under stress? |
(iii) What are the different diseases a person gets due to stress? |
(iv) Give any two examples of stress busters. |
(v) How does a person react under stress? |
(b) Which words in the above passage mean the same as the following? |
(i) Fall down (para 1) |
(ii) Rebuke (para 3) |
(iii) Inactive (para 9) |
Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow: |
Research has shown that the human mind can process words at the rate of about 500 per minute, whereas a speaker speaks at the rate of about 150 words a minute. The difference between the two at 350 is quite large. So, a speaker must make every effort to retain the attention of the audience and the listener should also be careful not to let his mind wander. Good communication calls for good listening skills. A good speaker must necessarily be a good listener. Listening starts with hearing but goes beyond. Hearing, in other words is necessary, but is not a sufficient condition for listening. Listening involves hearing with attention. Listening is a process that calls for concentration. While listening, one should also be observant. In other words, listening has to do with the ears, as well as with the eyes and the mind. Listening is to be understood as the total process that involves hearing with attention, being observant and making interpretations. Good communication is essentially an interactive process. It calls for participation and involvement. It is quite often a dialogue rather than a monologue. It is necessary to be interested and also show or make it abundantly clear that one is interested in knowing what the other person has to say. Good listening is an art that can be cultivated. It relates to skills that can be developed. A good listener knows the art of getting much more than what the speaker is trying to convey. He knows how to prompt, persuade but not to cut off or interrupt what the other person has to say. At times the speaker may or may not be coherent, articulate and well-organised in his thoughts and expressions. He may have it in his mind and yet he may fail to marshal the right words while communicating his thought. Nevertheless a good listener puts him at ease, helps him articulate and facilitates him to get across the message that he wants to convey. For listening to be effective, it is also necessary that barriers to listening are removed. Such barriers can be both physical and psychological. Physical barriers generally relate to hindrances to proper hearing whereas psychological barriers are more fundamental and relate to the interpretation and evaluation of the speaker and the message. |
(a) On the basis of your reading of the above passage, make notes in points only, using abbreviations wherever necessary. Supply a suitable title. |
Title: Qualities of a Good Listener (b) Write a summary of the above passage in about 80 words. |
You are Mohan/Mohini, General Manager of P.K. industries Hyderabad. You need an accountant for your company Draft, in not more than 50 words, an advertisement to be published in 'The Hindu' in classified columns. |
Or |
You lost your Titan wrist watch in your school. Draft a notice in not more than 50 words, to be placed on your school notice board. You are a student of class XII of Rani Ahalya Devi Senior Secondary School, Gwalior. Sign as Rani/Ram. |
Your school has recently arranged a musical night in the school auditorium. Write a report in 100-125 words on this programme, for your school magazine. You are Mahima/ Mahesh, Cultural Secretary of Vasant Vihar Public School, Itarsi. Invent the details. |
Or |
You witnessed a fire accident in a slum area near your colony on Saturday night. You were very much disturbed at the pathetic sight. Write a report in 100-125 words for your school magazine. You are Lakshmi/Lakshman, a student of P.D.K. International School, Madurai. |
Write a letter to the station master, Anand, informing him about the loss of your suitcase which you realised only on alighting at Anand. You travelled by Navjivan express from Chennai to Anand. You are Priya/Prasad of 12, Kasuri Bai Street, Chennai-20. |
Or |
As a parent, write a letter to the Principal, ABC School Delhi, requesting him/her to grant your ward Akhil/Asha Arora, permission to attend the school two hours late for a month as he/she has to attend the coaching classes arranged by Sports Authority of India, on being selected for participation in National Swimming Championship. |
Dance, as shown in some reality shows on TV, seems to be a mix of Gymnastics and P.T. exercises. Actually it is neither. India has a rich tradition of classical and folk dances. Write an article in 150-200 words on the need to have a reality show exclusively based on Indian classical dances. You are Anu/Arun. |
Or |
You are Ajay/Anu, Head Boy/Girl of Kendriya vidyalava, Kanpur. You have seen some students of junior classes littering the school compound and verandahs with tiffin left-overs. It makes the school look unclean and untidy Write a speech in 150-200 words to be delivered in the morning assembly, advising such students to keep the school neat and clean. |
(a) Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: |
Or |
Far far from gusty waves these children?s faces, like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor: The tall girl with her weighted down head. The paper- Seeming boy, with rat's eyes |
(i) What are the children compared to? |
(ii) Why do you think the girl is sitting with a weighted down head? |
(iii) Give two phrases which tell us that the children are under-nourished. |
(b) Answer any three of the following in 30-40 words each: |
(i) What were the poet's feelings at the airport? How did she hide them? |
(ii) How can suspension of activities help? |
(iii) Why is 'grandeur' associated with the 'mighty dead'? |
(iv) How do the words 'denizens' and 'chivalric' add to our understanding of Aunt Jennifer's tigers? |
Answer the following in 30 - 40 words each:` |
(a) How did M. Hamel say farewell to his students and the people of the town?` |
(b) Who was the owner of Ramjso iron mills? Why did he visit the mills at night? |
(c) Why did Douglas go to Lake Wentworth in New Hampshire? How did he make his terror flee? |
(d) Why could the bangle makers not organize themselves into a cooperative? |
(e) Why did Sophie not want Jansie to know anything about her meeting with Danny Casey? |
Answer the following in 125-150 words: |
Give an account of Gandhiji's efforts to secure justice for the poor Indigo sharecroppers of Champaran. |
Answer the following in 125-150 words: |
How was 'injured' McLeery able to befool the prison officers? |
Or |
What impression do you form about Dr. Sadao as a man and as a surgeon on your reading the chapter 'The Enemy'? |
Answer the following in 30-40 words each: |
(a) Why was the Maharaja so anxious to kill the hundredth tiger? |
(b) How does Jo want the story to end? |
(c) What peculiar things does Derry notice about the old man, Lamb? |
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