You are Shahneela/Sameer Malik living at No. 4, Zakir Bagh, Meerut. You and your friends decide to host a dinner to honour the teachers who have taught you in Class XII. Draft a formal invitation in not more than 50 words to all your teachers to a grand dinner at your residence.

OR

You are Sutapa/Damodar Dey of 22, Kalinga Nagari, Bhubaneswar. You want to sell your car as you plan to buy a new one. Draft a suitable

advertisement in not more than 50 words to be published in a local newspaper in the classified columns.

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow :

1 Archaeology is the scientific study of the remains of past human culture. Archaeologists investigate the lives of early people by studying the objects those people have left behind. Such objects include buildings, artwork, tools, bones and pottery. Archaeologists may make exciting discoveries, such as a tomb filled with gold or the ruins of a magnificent temple in the midst of a jungle. However, the discovery of a few stone tools or grains of hardened corn may reveal even more about early people.

2 Archaeological research is the chief means to learn about societies that existed before the invention of writing about 5,000 years ago. It also provides an important supplement to our knowledge of ancient societies that left written records. In America, archaeology is considered a branch of anthropology, the scientific study of humanity and human culture. European archaeologists, however, think of their work as closely related to the field of history. Archaeology differs from history in that historians mainly study the lives of people as recorded in written documents. Archaeologists look for information about how, where, and when cultures developed. Like other social scientists, they search for reasons why major changes have occurred in certain cultures. Some archaeologists try to understand why ancient people stopped hunting and started farming. Others develop theories about what caused people to build cities and to set up trade routes. In addition, some archaeologists look for reasons behind the fall of such early civilizations as the Mayas in Central America and the Romans in Europe.

3 Archaeologists examine any evidence that can help them explain how people lived in past times. Such evidence ranges from the ruins of a large city to a few stone flakes left by someone making a stone tool long ago.

4 The three basic kinds of archaeological evidence are artefacts, features and Eco facts. Artefacts are objects that were made by people and can be moved without altering their appearance. Artefacts include objects like arrowheads, pots and beads. Artefacts from a society with a written history may also include clay tablets and other written records. Features consist mainly of houses, tombs, irrigation canals and other large structures built by ancient peoples. Unlike artefacts, features cannot be separated from their surroundings without changing their form. Eco facts reveal how ancient people responded to their surroundings. Examples of Eco facts include seeds and animal bones. Any place where archaeological evidence is found is called an archaeological site. To understand the behaviour of the people who occupied a site, archaeologists must study the relationship among the artefacts, features and Eco facts found there. For example, the discovery

of stone spearheads near bones of an extinct kind of buffalo at a site in New Mexico showed that early human beings had hunted buffalo in that area.

5 If objects are buried deep in the ground, their position in the earth also concerns archaeologists. The scientists study the layers of soil and rock in which objects are found to understand the conditions that existed when the objects were placed there. In some places, archaeologists find many levels of deposits called strata. The archaeological study of strata, called stratigraphy, developed from the study of rock layers in geology. Archaeologists use special techniques and equipment to gather archaeological evidence precisely and accurately. They also keep detailed records of their findings because much archaeological research destroys the remains being studied. Locating sites is the first job of the archaeologist. Sites may be above ground, underground or underwater. Some large sites are located easily because they are clearly visible or can be traced from descriptions in ancient stories or other historical records. Such sites include the pyramids of Egypt and the ancient city of Athens in Greece.

6 Archaeologists use systematic methods of discovering sites. The traditional way to find all the sites in a region is through a foot survey. In this method, archaeologists space themselves at measured distances and walk in preset directions. Each person looks for archaeological evidence while walking forward. Scientific methods are used to help discover underground sites. Aerial photography, for example, can reveal variations in vegetation that indicate the presence of archaeological evidence. Archaeologists describe, photograph and count the objects they find. They group the objects according to type and location. Three steps are followed to interpret the evidence found. They are classification, dating and evaluation.

1.1 On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer each of the questions given below by choosing the most appropriate option:

(a) The best sources of finding out archaeological facts are

(i) artwork, buildings, bones and pottery.

(ii) tombs filled with gold.

(iii) grains of hardened corn.

(iv) ruins of a magnificent temple.

(b) The basic kinds of archaeological evidence are

(i) artefacts, features and ecofacts.

(ii) Mayan and Roman civilizations.

(iii) cultural developments in written documents.

(iv) cities and trade routes.

(c) An archaeological site is one where

(i) tombs and buildings exists.

(ii) archaeological evidence is found.

(iii) extinct animal bones are located.

(iv) ancient civilisations perished.

(d) In America, archaeology is taken as

(i) lives of people as recorded in written documents.

(ii) study of humanity and human culture.

(iii) closely related to the field of history.

(iv) written records of ancient people.

(e) Archaeologists do not study

(i) ancient hunting and farming.

(ii) ancient cities and trade routes.

(iii) fall of some civilisations.

(iv) weather and climate.

1.2 Answer the following questions briefly:

(a) What do archaeologists do?

(b) What is archaeological research?

(c) What do European archaeologists think of their subject?

(d) What kinds of evidence are used by archaeologists?

(e) What methods do archaeologists employ to discover archaeological sites?

(f) What is stratigraphy?

1.3 Answer any three of the following questions in 25 – 30 words each :

(a) How do archaeologists find out how people lived in the past?

(b) How is archaeology different from history?

(c) What are features and how are they different from artefacts?

(d) How do archaeologists study the behaviour of the people from a particular place?

1.4 Find words/phrases from the passage which are similar in meaning to each of the following :

(a) examine/enquire about (para 1)

(b) exactly (para 5)

(c) system of arranging in classes (para 6)

Read the passage given below carefully and answer the questions that follow :

1 Occasional self-medication has always been part of normal behaviour in India. Only during the last hundred years or so has the development of scientific techniques made diagnosis possible. The doctor is now able to follow up the correct diagnosis of many illnesses — with specific treatment of their causes. In many other illnesses of which the cause remains unknown, he is still limited to the treatment of symptoms. The doctor is trained to decide when to treat symptoms only and when to attack the cause. This is the essential difference between medical prescribing and self-medication.

2 The advance of technology has brought about much progress in some fields of medicine, including the development of scientific drug therapy. In many countries public health organisation is improving and people’s nutritional standards have risen. Parallel with such beneficial trends are two trends which have an adverse effect: one is the use of high-pressure advertising by the pharmaceutical industry which has tended to influence both patients and doctors and has led to the overuse of drugs generally. The other is the emergence of the sedentary society with its faulty ways of life: lack of exercise, overeating, unsuitable eating, insufficient sleep, smoking and drinking. People with disorders arising from faulty habits such as these, as well as from unhappy human relationships, often resort to self-medication and so add the taking of medicines to the list. Advertisers go to great lengths to catch the market.

3 Clever advertising, aimed at chronic sufferers who will try anything because doctors have not been able to cure them, can induce such

faith in a preparation, particularly if steeply priced, that it will produce — by suggestion though — a very real effect in some people.

Advertisements are also aimed at people suffering from mild complaints such as simple cold and cough which clear up by themselves within a short time.

4 These are the main reasons why laxatives, indigestion-remedies, painkillers, cough mixtures, tonics, vitamins and iron tablets, etc. are found in many households. It is doubtful if taking these things ever improves a person’s health, it may even make it worse. Worse, because the preparation may contain unsuitable ingredients; worse because the taker may become dependent on them; worse because they might be taken in excess; worse because they may cause food poisoning and worst of all because symptoms of some serious underlying cause may be masked and therefore medical help may not be sought. Self-diagnosis is a greater danger than self-medication.

2.1 On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, make notes on it using headings and subheadings. Use recognisable abbreviations (wherever necessary – minimum four) and a format you consider suitable. Also supply an appropriate title to it.

2.2 Write a summary of the above passage in about 100 words.

You are Bhai Bajrang/Radha Joshi, Principal, Basant Public School, Nashik. Your school has just decided to plant trees along the boundary wall of your school, for which you need saplings. You also want to place a large number of potted plants in all the corridors to help make the school green and reduce pollution. Write a letter in 120 – 150 words to the proprietor of Masjid Nursery, Nashik, wholesale suppliers of all kinds of saplings and indoor/outdoor plants, placing an order for saplings of plants for the school.

OR

Blue Waters Public School, Port Blair, urgently requires a Physical Education Teacher to teach the senior classes. The instructor should also be able to teach swimming. The school places an advertisement in ‘The National Express’. You are Bharat/Madhu Sharma, from 21, First Cross Street, Chennai. Draft a letter in 120 – 150 words along with your biodata for the advertised post.

You are Amir/Shikha and you love comics. Write an article in 150 – 200 words to be published in ‘The National Times’ on ‘Children’s love for comics and the role that comics play in every child’s life’.

OR

You are Yogita/Vignesh, Sports Captain, Maywood School, Chandigarh. You are very excited on hearing that Indian women wrestlers, Geeta and Babita have won many medals in Wrestling in Commonwealth Games. Write a speech in 150 - 200 words, which you will deliver in the school assembly on the occasion of your school’s Sports Day, in which you show your appreciation of the achievements made by Geeta and Babita under adverse circumstances and how they have become role models for women athletes in future.