Past Papers › 2025
In short: The 2025 Std 10 English (Second/Third Language) board paper, held on 1 March 2025, tested Bholi and Book Review: Swami and Friends from the textbook, plus one unseen passage and the usual writing and grammar sections.
- Date: 1 March 2025, 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
- Marks & duration: 80 written marks (out of 100) · 3 hours
What This Paper Tested
| Section | What it was based on |
|---|---|
| Prose passage | Bholi |
| Prose passage | Book Review: Swami and Friends |
| Poem (comprehension) | Basketful of Moonlight |
| Poem (for appreciation) | Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening |
| Unseen passage | a passage on Indian classical dance forms — what the Natya Shastra says, the major styles such as Bharatanatyam, and the benefits of dancing |
Grammar Items Tested
- question tags
- degree of comparison (positive degree)
- joining with ‘as well as’
- antonyms
- sentence rewriting/transformation
Brush up with: Passive Voice.
Original Model Answers
These are written fresh for this page, in the same style and length expected in the exam — not copied from any official answer key.
Letter (formal): Write to the Manager of a Youth Club asking about the fee, food and facilities at a summer camp advertised in a poster.
Sunrise Youth Club,
Pune.
Subject: Enquiry about the Summer Camp
Dear Sir/Madam,
I saw your club’s poster about the upcoming summer camp and I am interested in joining, along with a few friends.
Could you kindly let me know the total fee, whether food and stay are included, and if there is any concession for students? It would also help to know the exact dates and the age group the camp is meant for.
I look forward to your reply at the earliest.
Yours sincerely,
Sanika Pawar
Story: Continue a story about a schoolboy who notices something unusual while walking home along the railway line, and give it a title.
Ravi was walking home along the railway embankment, as he did every evening, when he noticed a small cloth bundle lying near the signal post. Curious, he stopped and looked around — there was no one nearby.
He picked it up carefully. Inside was an old ration card and a few crumpled notes, nothing more. Ravi’s first thought was to keep walking, but he remembered his grandmother’s words: whatever isn’t yours brings no peace if you keep it.
He walked straight to the railway station master’s office and handed over the bundle, explaining where he’d found it. Two days later, an elderly woman came looking for it — she had dropped it while rushing to catch her train, and it held her month’s pension.
She thanked Ravi with tears in her eyes. He walked home that evening feeling lighter than he had in a long time.
Exam Tips for This Pattern
The unseen passage and Q2 both leaned on descriptive, informational prose (dance forms, a novel review) rather than a narrative. Practise summarising non-fiction paragraphs, not just stories.
These notes describe the pattern and topics of past board papers in our own words, for revision purposes. They are not copies of the official question paper or the official answer key, and the model answers are written fresh by englishresources.in, not reproduced from any answer key.