• Each question carries 1 mark. No negative marking. • Recommended time: 40–45 minutes. • Use the OMR on the right (bottom on mobile) to navigate. • Mark-for-Review flags questions (purple).

PART A — LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION (Prose passage: Q1–8)

Passage — Read carefully
Cities often present themselves as engines of progress; yet within their thrum there are quieter geographies — the edges where policy, memory and daily struggle meet. In recent years, municipal initiatives promised to streamline services and open up opportunities. But the poorest residents, whose lives depend on informal networks and precarious livelihoods, experienced those reforms unevenly. Formalisation improved clarity in records and taxation but also disrupted long-standing reciprocal supports. For some, new regulations reduced unpredictability; for others, they severed informal safety nets. Faced with these mixed outcomes, civic activists advocate hybrid approaches: policy that recognises informal mechanisms and deliberately designs bridges between formal institutions and local practices. The passage suggests that progress is not a single trajectory; it is negotiated in practice, and its impacts depend on how policies interface with everyday social realities.
1. The author’s central claim about urban reforms is that
2. The phrase "quieter geographies" most nearly refers to
3. Which inference is BEST supported by the passage?
4. The author uses "reciprocal supports" to mean
5. Which choice best captures the author's stance toward activists?
6. The passage implies that "clarity in records and taxation" primarily produced
7. Which of the following, if true, would most weaken the author's argument?
8. The tone of the passage is best described as

PART A — LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION (Poetry: Q9–14)

Poem — Read carefully
She folds the hush into her hands,
Countless small bright things she keeps;
A key of wind, the map of sands,
The ledger where the evening sleeps.
Between the stars she finds a seam;
She stitches time with quiet thread;
A single lamp, a single dream,—
The world grows patient as she treads.
9. In the poem "folds the hush into her hands" most nearly conveys
10. The "map of sands" and "ledger where the evening sleeps" function as
11. The "seam" and the act of "stitch[ing] time" together primarily suggest
12. The final line "The world grows patient as she treads" most likely means
13. Which literary device is used in "stitches time with quiet thread"?
14. The poem's mood is best described as

PART B — ADVANCED GRAMMAR (Q15–22)

15. Choose the most grammatical and stylistically appropriate revision: "Had she known of the inspection, she would have prepared."
16. Select the sentence in which the underlined clause is correctly punctuated:
17. Choose the option that corrects the sentence: "Neither of the answers are correct."
18. Choose the sentence that uses the subjunctive mood correctly:
19. Find the option that best corrects the ambiguity: "They told the teacher the story about the test."
20. Identify the correct use of ellipsis to avoid repetition:
21. Choose the most concise correction for: "In spite of the fact that she was ill, she attended."
22. Which sentence demonstrates correct use of a reduced relative clause?

PART C — PEDAGOGY OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT (Q23–30)

23. A teacher notes that several students overgeneralise regular past tense endings ("goed"). According to interlanguage theory, the most appropriate response is to
24. In a multilingual classroom, which assessment best supports learning while respecting students' L1 resources?
25. A teacher wants to build vocabulary for Class VII. Which approach is MOST likely to foster long-term retention?
26. Which classroom activity best exemplifies Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)?
27. A child from a marginalized background hesitates to speak in class. The teacher should first
28. Diagnostic assessment is most useful when it is used to
29. Remedial teaching is best characterised as
30. A teacher wants to evaluate speaking skills authentically. The best approach is to