SECTION A: Reading

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

Q.1. The composer came of a musical family; for his grandfather was Kapellmeister, and his father, a tenor

singer, filled a small musical post at Cologne. He was born at Bonn in December 1770. His father had become a

confirmed toper, and the boy suffered in consequence. The father had heard of the prodigy Mozart, and the

money he had brought his parents; and he conceived the notion of exploiting his own son in the same way. Thus

he kept him slaving at the piano, and thrashed him when he did not practice long enough. There are stories of

the sot coming home late and dragging the little fellow out of bed to go to the keyboard. This degraded

specimen ended his life by his own hand, but not before his conduct had cast a gloom over his son's youth which

greatly affected his after years.

Beethoven seems to have had no regular course of instruction in Bonn, but when he was seventeen he went to

Vienna and had some lessons from Mozart. Later on, he had lessons from Haydn; but the two did not get on well

together, their natures being totally different. Beethoven finally left Bonn when he was twenty-two, and settled

in Vienna, where he gradually made a name for himself. He began to appear in public as a player and in 1796

played before the King in Berlin; but he soon gave up playing for composing.

His first works were roundly abused by the critics -- even some that we now regard as among his greatest

creations. Weber said of the Seventh Symphony that its composer was "quite ripe for the madhouse." Then,

when deafness came upon him -- the tragedy of his life -- the sapient fellows found that the "horrors of sound"

in his works were due to the fact that he could not hear them himself. When "Fidelio" was first performed, it

was said that never before had anything so incoherent, coarse, wild, and ear-splitting been heard! Of course, the

deafness had nothing to do with it. Beethoven, like all really great composers, was simply before his time.

But the deafness had a great deal to do with Beethoven himself. It turned him into a wretched misanthrope, and

well-nigh caused him to end his life. Indirectly it prevented him from marrying. In the theatre he had to lay his

ears close to the orchestra in order to understand the actors, and the higher notes of the instruments and voices

he could not hear at aU when only a little distance away. "Fidelio" was begun in 1804 and the affliction, first

evidenced in 1798, had become acute four years before that. We need not dwell on it. From the time of his

deafness onwards, he was constantly adding to the world's stores of the best in music. His humour was of the

sardonic kind, as when he sent a tuft of hair from a goat's beard to a lady admirer, who had asked for a strand

from his own leonine locks. When lying on his death-bed he had to be tapped. "Better water from the body than

from the pen," he observed to the doctor. When he realized that his end was near, he said to those around him:

"Clap hands, friends; the play is over." And so, on the 26th of March, 1827, this great master of tone went out to

the darkness of the Silent Land.

Q1.1 On the basis of your reading of the above passage, complete the following statements briefly.

(1 x 4 = 4 marks)

Beethoven’s father __________________________.

The father ended his life by ____________________________.

The effect it had on Beethoven’s youth was ________________________.

The response to Fidelio was_____________.

a)

b)

c)

d)

Q1.2 Answer the following questions briefly.

What effect did Beethoven’s deafness have on him?

What kind of a person Beethoven was?

a)

b)

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Q1.3 Find words from the passage which mean the same as the words given below:

a) Great musician

b) Scornful or bitter

Q.2 Read the poem given below and complete the statements that follow by writing the correct option in

your answer sheet.

(1 x 7 = 7 marks)

DAFFODILS

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills.

When all at once I saw a crowd

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in lively energetic dance

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed — and gazed —but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils

Q 2.1 Read the questions given below and write the option you consider the most appropriate in your

answer sheet:

(1x 7= 7 marks)

(a) The poet saw the daffodils

(i) in the valley.

(iii) in the village.

(b) The daffodils

(i) danced in the breeze. (ii) were smiling.

(iii) looked pretty.

(c) The poet felt he was in………………….. company.

(i) good

(iii) sad

(d) “What wealth the show to me had brought” means_______

(i) he had earned lot of money

(ii) he had seen a wealthy show

(iii)the sight of daffodils brought him lot of pleasure and happiness.

(iv) none of the above

— William Wordsworth

(ii) in the garden.

(iv) near the lake and under the trees.

(iv) none of the above.

(ii) cheerful

(iv) happy

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(e) When the poet remembers the daffodils he________

(i) is happy and feels like dancing with the daffodils

(ii) wants to go back to the valley

(iii) feels like singing

(iv) none of the above

(f) Whom did the daffodil out did in dance?

(i) stars

(iii) waves

(g) Find a word from the passage which means same as

(i) thoughtful

(iii) pensive

(ii) trees

(iv) poet

(ii) glee

(iv) jocund