English - I 2024 Board Question Paper

Definition of Desire in Not the Non-Existent (Nasadiya Sukta)

In the creation hymn Not the Non-Existent (Nasadiya Sukta, Rig Veda 10.129), Desire (Kama) is defined as the primal seed and first impulse of the mind (manaso retaḥ prathamam).

Before creation, there was neither existence nor non-existence, but darkness concealed in darkness. Desire arose in that primordial void as the cosmic longing for manifestation, serving as the essential ontological bridge linking the unmanifest potential to the manifest material universe.

Looking at the World Through Prosaic Eyes

In All-Pervading Poetry, when we view the world through prosaic eyes, reality is reduced strictly to utilitarian utility, material necessity, and mechanical routine.

Under this narrow, prosaic gaze:

• Objects and nature lose their intrinsic wonder, emotional resonance, and spiritual interconnectedness.
• We see things merely as commodities to be consumed or exploited rather than as living expressions of universal beauty and cosmic harmony.

Relationship Between the Speaker and the Addressee in Girl

In Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, the probable relationship between the speaker and the addressee is that of a mother and her adolescent daughter (or an older matriarch socializing a young girl).

The monologue consists of an urgent, protective, yet domineering stream of domestic instructions, moral warnings, and social etiquette, delivered to groom the young girl into a respectable woman and prevent her from becoming what the mother recurrently dreads—the “slut you are bent on becoming.”

The Speaker as Like a Fly in Blake’s The Fly

In William Blake’s poem The Fly, the speaker sees himself as like a fly because both are fragile, mortal beings subject to arbitrary fate and uncontrollable cosmic forces.

Blake writes:

“Am not I / A fly like thee? / Or art not thou / A man like me?”

Just as a thoughtless human hand can inadvertently crush the fly’s summer joy, some blind hand of fate or divine destiny will eventually brush away the speaker’s own transient life.

Existential Parallels Between Man and Fly in The Fly

The speaker equates the human condition with that of the fly through their shared dependency on consciousness and transience:

1. Equivalence of Life and Thought: Blake muses that if thought is life and the lack of thought is death, then both human beings and insects experience existential validity as long as they live and feel.
2. Acceptance of Mortality: Whether living a long human lifespan or an ephemeral insect summer, both man and fly partake in the same fleeting dance of existence before being extinguished by mortality.

Correct Word Forms

a. You should let the airline know of any special dietary requirements in advance. (The noun form ‘requirements’ is required following the adjective ‘dietary’).

b. Clearly confused, she looked at me with no sign of recognition on her face. (The abstract noun ‘recognition’ is required following the prepositional phrase ‘sign of’).

Correct Word Choices in Idiomatic Context

a. Some people stay young at heart all their lives. (The established English idiom is young at heart, meaning retaining youthful enthusiasm, vitality, and outlook despite aging).

b. Many teenagers consider anyone over 30 to be as old as the hills. (The standard simile is as old as the hills, meaning extremely ancient).

Distinction Between Imaging and Smuggling

• Imaging: Refers to the technical process of capturing, digitizing, scanning, or producing an exact digital or visual reproduction of an object, graphic, or computer hard drive (commonly used in medicine, forensics, and information technology).
• Smuggling: Refers to the criminal act of illegally, secretly importing or exporting goods, contraband, prohibited substances, or human beings across national borders or customs barriers in violation of statutory law.

Word Formations (Parts of Speech)

• fortune (noun) $\to$ fortunate (adjective) (also: unfortunate)
• misery (noun) $\to$ miserably (adverb)
• expert (noun) $\to$ expert (adjective) (e.g., expert testimony, expert opinion)
• hazardous (adjective) $\to$ hazard (noun)

Sentence Completions with Earth, World, or Ground

a. My grandfather is always telling me that if I graduate from university, I will have the world at my feet. (Idiom: to have the world at one’s feet, meaning to have countless opportunities and the prospect of great success).

b. I fell behind at college last term and now I have a lot of ground to make up. (Idiom: to make up ground, meaning to regain lost distance, progress, or disadvantage).

Metonymic Association Between Smoking, Sex, and Good Health in Light My Lucky

In Judith Ortiz Cofer’s autobiographical essay Light My Lucky, the Lucky Strike cigarette functions as a potent metonymic symbol engineered by American mass advertising and cultural mythology during the mid-twentieth century:

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1. The Metonymy of Smoking and Sex (Erotic Allure)

• Commercial billboards and Hollywood cinema systematically equated cigarettes with glamorous, smoldering sexuality, sophistication, and romantic availability.
• For the teenage narrator, watching older girls and screen sirens smoke transformed the cigarette into a physical token of mature womanhood, seductive mystery, and erotic autonomy.

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2. Smoking and Health / Physical Vitality

• Mid-twentieth-century cigarette advertisements paradoxically portrayed smoking as an attribute of vigorous outdoor life, athletic competence, and active living.
• Soldiers, athletes, and rugged adventurers were depicted smoking Lucky Strikes, associating the brand with stamina, fearlessness, and pristine physical condition.

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3. Adolescent Initiation and Illusion of Autonomy

• For Cofer as an adolescent Latina navigating rigid parental oversight and cultural displacement, lighting a Lucky Strike became a desperate ritual of rebellion and self-assertion.
• The physical cigarette stood metonymically for adult liberation, self-determination, and the seductive promise of American modern identity.

Refutation of Defenses for Animal Exploitation in The Rights of Animals

In her foundational essay The Rights of Animals, Brigid Brophy systematically dismantles the traditional human defenses used to justify hunting, meat consumption, and vivisection:

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1. Refuting the Defense of Hunting (Sport and Wildlife Management)

• Opponents’ claim: Hunting is a traditional rural pastime, an athletic sport, or necessary population control.
• Brophy’s refutation: Brophy exposes hunting as sheer, institutionalized sadism. Concealing cruelty beneath aristocratic ceremony and “sporting” jargon does not alter the ethical reality: inflicting terror, exhaustion, and violent death upon sentient creatures purely for human recreation is morally indefensible.

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2. Refuting Meat Consumption and Factory Farming

• Opponents’ claim: Eating meat is natural, biologically necessary, and an ancient human prerogative.
• Brophy’s refutation: Brophy argues that modern nutritional science proves humans can flourish entirely on vegetarian diets. Slaughtering animals for culinary pleasure is a product of unexamined prejudice—speciesism—where humans indulge their appetites by inflicting immense suffering on defenseless beings.

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3. Refuting Vivisection and Laboratory Experimentation

• Opponents’ claim: Animal testing is indispensable for scientific advancement and human medical welfare.
• Brophy’s refutation: Brophy challenges the utilitarian premise that the suffering of one species can be justified by benefits to another. She points out that if intellectual superiority gave the right to torture sentient beings for scientific curiosity, humans would logically be permitted to experiment on human infants or individuals with severe cognitive disabilities.

Mixed Conditional Sentences

a. Our firm would not be in debt today if we had listened to our accountant’s past warnings. (Past condition $\to$ Present result: Third Conditional if-clause + Second Conditional main clause).

b. If our parents hadn’t lent us money, we would not be living (or would not live) in our own flat now. (Past condition $\to$ Present continuous state result).

c. If you did not listen (or haven’t listened / don’t listen) just now, you will have trouble using the equipment later. (Recent past/present event condition $\to$ Future consequence).

d. I would be a lot better off this year if my last tax bill had not been so high. (Present state $\to$ Past condition: Second Conditional main clause + Third Conditional if-clause).

e. If I did not have to leave early tomorrow, he would come out tonight. (Future obligation condition $\to$ Present/future conditional result).

Summary of the Main Theme of The Allegory of the Cave

In Book VII of The Republic, Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave presents an allegorical examination of human knowledge, philosophical enlightenment, and ethical responsibility:

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1. The Realm of Illusion vs. True Reality

• The cave represents the visible, sensory world where ordinary human beings, chained since childhood, mistake projected shadows on the wall for absolute reality.
• The shadows symbolize societal illusions, dogma, unexamined opinions (doxa), and superficial sensory impressions.

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2. The Arduous Ascent of Education (Paideia)

• The liberation of a prisoner and his painful journey out of the cave up a steep, rugged path represents philosophical education.
• Turning toward the fire, emerging into the sunlight, and beholding real objects, stars, and finally the Sun symbolizes the soul’s ascent into the intelligible realm of Forms, culminating in the apprehension of the Form of the Good (the ultimate source of truth and reason).

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3. The Ethical Duty of the Philosopher

• True philosophers cannot remain in comfortable, isolated contemplation; they bear a profound moral duty to descend back into the dark cave to guide and govern their fellow citizens, even if doing so invites mockery, hostility, or martyrdom.

Vocabulary of Sight and Watching

a. A crowd of curious onlookers had gathered around the street performer. (Onlookers: spectators watching an event unfold in a public space).

b. At the end of the match, the players thanked the spectators for the fantastic support they had given throughout the tournament. (Spectators: people watching a public sporting event or display).

c. TV companies desperate to win back viewers, have vowed to cut the number of repeats as ratings reach an all-time now. (Viewers: people who watch television broadcasts).

d. Police are appealing for witnesses of the accident to come forward and give statements. (Witnesses: people who directly saw an event, crime, or accident).

e. I didn’t actually take part in the debate as I’d simply been sent along as an observer. (Observer: a person attending an event to monitor, notice, or record proceedings without active participation).

Joined Cleft Sentences for Focus and Emphasis

a. The thing you didn’t tell me was that the grammar would be so difficult.

b. The person who upset your mother was you.

c. The only place you will get a gorilla suit for tomorrow’s fancy dress party is a joke shop.

d. My reason for having to leave work early today is that I am holding a dinner party for twenty people tonight.

e. What I am curious to know is who you went to the disco with last night.

Who Appears More Powerful: Mrs. X or Miss Y in The Stronger

In August Strindberg’s The Stronger, power is depicted as dynamic, contested, and psychological. Between the vocal speaker Mrs. X and the completely silent Miss Y, Mrs. X emerges as the truly stronger individual:

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1. The Initial Illusion of Miss Y’s Dominance

• At first glance, Miss Y appears to command the encounter through her enigmatic, disdainful silence.
• Mrs. X reveals that Miss Y formerly captured her husband Bob’s romantic fascination, dictating household tastes—from tulip embroidery to hot chocolate—which Mrs. X unconsciously adopted.

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2. Mrs. X’s Vitality, Family, and Social Reality

• Unlike Miss Y, who sits isolated, unmarried, and lonely in an empty café on Christmas Eve, Mrs. X possesses tangible human fulfillment: a loving husband, healthy children, a joyful domestic home, and public respectability.
• Even if Mrs. X had to mimic Miss Y’s preferences to keep Bob, she converted those preferences into real happiness:

  “I took your tastes and made them mine, but I got the man, the home, and the life. You sat alone and withered.”

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3. Catharsis and Triumphant Exit

• By voicing her fears, confronting the truth of the affair, and actively refusing to be broken by it, Mrs. X achieves profound emotional catharsis.
• She walks out of the café with head held high to celebrate Christmas with her family, leaving Miss Y defeated in silent, impotent bitterness.

Comprehensive Model Solutions

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Part 1: Professional Character Reference Letter for Kumari Bank

Kumari Bank Limited Human Resources Department Central Office, Durbarmarg, Kathmandu, Nepal

Date: 24 May 2024

Subject: Character Reference for Mr. Rohan Shrestha (Applicant for Trainee Assistant)

Dear Hiring Committee,

It is a privilege to write this character reference on behalf of Mr. Rohan Shrestha, who has applied for the position of Trainee Assistant at Kumari Bank Limited. I have known Rohan personally and academically for over four years, having studied alongside him during our Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) program at Tribhuvan University, as well as collaborating with him on various student council initiatives.

Throughout our academic career, Rohan has consistently distinguished himself by his unimpeachable integrity, high ethical standards, and conscientious work ethic. In coursework involving financial accounting, business statistics, and banking operations, he showed exceptional numerical accuracy and analytical problem-solving abilities. During our final-year capstone project, Rohan acted as group treasurer, managing research funds with meticulous accuracy and absolute transparency.

Beyond his technical and scholastic abilities, Rohan possesses outstanding interpersonal strengths. He is an empathetic listener, communicates clearly under stressful deadlines, and works effectively in diverse team environments. His polite deportment and customer-centric mindset make him exceptionally suited for retail banking operations and client relationship management. Furthermore, he is punctual, dependable, and always eager to learn and adapt to organizational protocols.

I have no doubt that Rohan Shrestha possesses the character, reliability, and capability required of a banking professional. I recommend him for the Trainee Assistant position at Kumari Bank without reservation. Please do not hesitate to contact me if any additional information is required.

Yours sincerely,

(Signature) Bikash Adhikari Senior Research Fellow & BBA Alumnus, Tribhuvan University Phone: +977-9841234567 | Email: bikash.adhikari@email.com

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Part 2: Orwell’s Encounter with the Elephant and the True Nature of Imperialism

In his classic essay Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell recounts his experiences as a sub-divisional police officer in Moulmein, Lower Burma, using his fatal encounter with a working elephant in musth to lay bare the inner contradictions and corrupting essence of colonial imperialism:

1. The Colonizer as a Helpless Puppet

• Orwell realizes that despite holding legal authority and a powerful rifle, he is not free. When an expectant crowd of more than two thousand Burmese locals gathers behind him, watching his every move, his autonomy vanishes:

  “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.”

• The imperial master is reduced to a hollow, posturing actor bound to fulfill the expectations of the subjugated populace solely to preserve face.

2. The Compulsion to Avoid Humiliation

• Personally and professionally, Orwell knows the elephant is no longer dangerous, having passed its attack phase, and that killing it is an economic waste and moral atrocity.
• Yet, the overriding law of imperial rule is that the master cannot afford to appear hesitant, weak, or ridiculous. To avoid being laughed at by the colonial subjects, he is compelled to shoot the beast against his conscience.

3. Imperialism as an Agonizing, Inhumane Farce

• The slow, torturous death of the elephant—which collapses, groans, and bleeds profusely while Orwell fires shot after shot unable to extinguish its suffering—symbolizes the brutal, drawn-out destruction inflicted by imperial machinery upon conquered lands and innocent life.
• Through this encounter, Orwell proves that imperialism degrades both the colonized and the colonizer, hollowing out the moral soul of the oppressor.

Saving Beauty from Women and for Them: Susan Sontag’s Beauty

In her incisive cultural critique Beauty, Susan Sontag examines the historical trajectory through which the concept of beauty has been degraded, fragmented, and weaponized against women in Western civilization:

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1. The Classical Conception of Beauty vs. Modern Degradation

• In ancient Greece, beauty (kalokagathia) was a unified, noble ideal that harmonized physical grace with moral character, wisdom, and intellectual virtue. It applied equally to men and women as a total measure of human excellence.
• With the rise of modern patriarchal commercialism and Christian dualism, beauty became separated from inner virtue and reduced strictly to outward, superficial physical appearance—an ornament assigned almost exclusively to the female sex.

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2. What Sontag Means by “Saving Beauty From Women”

• To save beauty from women means to liberate the concept of beauty from being trapped as a feminine mandate and consumerist burden.
• Society demands that women obsess over their looks, transforming beauty into an obligatory job:
  • Men are valued for what they do, their competence, intellect, and worldly power.
  • Women are judged fundamentally on how they look.
• This reductive division infantilizes women, encouraging them to treat their bodies as decorative objects to be perfected for the male gaze, while treating signs of natural aging as personal failure.

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3. What Sontag Means by Saving Beauty “For Them”

• To save beauty for women means to restore women’s right to experience authentic, expansive beauty without sacrificing their intellect, autonomy, or human dignity.
• Women should be allowed to enjoy aesthetic appreciation and bodily vitality as a source of creative joy and human dignity, rather than as a disciplinary mechanism that undermines their moral and professional credibility.
• By expanding beauty back to its classical, holistic dimension, women can reclaim beauty as an expression of whole human flourishing rather than a patriarchal cage.

Prioritizing Sustainability: Key Corporate Strategies for Green Business

The modern corporate paradigm is undergoing an unprecedented transformation as environmental degradation and climate change challenge the premise of unchecked economic growth. During a recent seminar on “Green Business,” three primary strategies were deliberated to guide corporations toward ecological and social accountability: transitioning entirely to renewable energy, developing a closed-loop circular economy with zero-waste packaging, and funding community-based reforestation offsets. While all three initiatives possess merit, this essay argues that implementing the renewable energy transition and adopting circular packaging systems are the two most decisive and structural imperatives for businesses aiming to meet meaningful sustainability goals.

First and foremost, transitioning corporate operations to renewable energy sources—such as rooftop solar installations, wind-power purchase agreements, and grid-connected micro-hydro—directly addresses the principal catalyst of global warming: carbon dioxide emissions. The industrial and commercial sectors account for a substantial fraction of fossil fuel combustion. By investing in clean energy infrastructure, a company fundamentally decouples its productivity from carbon emissions, resulting in permanent, measurable reductions in greenhouse gases. Beyond environmental stewardship, this transition provides long-term operational resilience, insulating corporations from fossil fuel price volatility, regulatory carbon taxes, and supply chain shocks, while generating tangible goodwill among climate-conscious consumers.

Equally essential is the adoption of a circular economy framework centered on zero-waste, compostable, and recyclable packaging. In conventional linear business models—often characterized as “take, make, and dispose”—packaging materials, predominantly single-use plastics, enter municipal landfills and fragile aquatic ecosystems within minutes of consumer unboxing. By redesigning packaging through biodegradable materials, modular product architectures, and closed-loop take-back initiatives, enterprises eliminate environmental degradation at the design source. A circular approach drastically decreases raw material extraction, diminishes municipal solid waste burdens, and establishes enduring customer engagement through refillable and returnable value propositions.

While corporate contributions to third-party reforestation and carbon-offset programs are outwardly commendable, they frequently operate as superficial compensatory measures rather than genuine structural reforms. Carbon offsetting has frequently been criticized as corporate “greenwashing,” allowing organizations to purchase moral absolution while continuing polluting production practices unabated. In stark contrast, transitioning to renewable energy and engineering circular packaging require companies to internalize ecological responsibility directly within their core operating models. These two strategies remediate environmental damage at its root rather than attempting to mitigate harm after it has already entered the biosphere.

In conclusion, establishing a truly responsible and sustainable business demands fundamental systemic innovation rather than token public relations gestures. By prioritizing the complete transition to renewable energy and institutionalizing circular, zero-waste packaging, corporations construct an authentic foundation for ecological stewardship. These two mutually reinforcing strategies not only dramatically curtail carbon output and municipal waste, but also future-proof corporate competitiveness in an increasingly resource-constrained global economy. Companies that embrace these imperatives today will inevitably lead the regenerative marketplace of tomorrow.