ICSE Class 10 English Literature Pre Board Question Paper 2026: Important Questions for High Marks

Particulars

Details

Conducting Body

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE)

Examination Name

ICSE Class 10 English Literature Exam 2026

Category

Board Examination

Exam Date

Friday, 20 February 2026

Exam Time

11:00 AM

Exam Duration

2 Hours

Total Marks

100 Marks

External Marks

80 Marks

Internal Assessment

20 Marks

Exam Mode

Offline (Pen and Paper)

Question Paper Type

Pre Board/Prelim Question Paper

Official Website

cisce.org 

Question Number

Questions

Marks

SECTION A

(Attempt all questions from this Section)

1

Read the following questions and choose the most appropriate response from the choices given below. (Please do not copy the question – simply write it out in the correct serial order with the appropriate word or phrase) 

(i) Which quotation from the story conveys Nana’s change in attitude about her granddaughter?

a) “But Kaya, I am not sure about her legs.”

b) “Mother, why are you always complaining about Adjoa’s legs?”

c) “But Adjoa has legs… except that they are too thin.”

d) “Thin legs can run… then who knows?”

(ii) In the poem, ‘A Considerable Speck’, the speaker realises something at the end. What does he ultimately try to convey in the poem?

a) A reminder of Life’s fragility

b) We are insignificant in this vast world

c) Find beauty in small things

d) Reflects the chaos of existence

(iii) The second visit to the photographer was paid by the narrator –
a) the next day
b) next Saturday
c) the same evening
d) after a fortnight

(iv) What are Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus doing in Act 4, Scene 1?

a) Compiling a list of their political enemies

b) Making plans to go into exile

c) Planning to spark a civil war

d) Plotting to murder Brutus

(v) How does Brutus respond to discovering the bodies of Cassius and Titinius?

a) He prepares for another battle

b) He blames their deaths on Pindarus

c) He orders his army to retreat

d) He surrenders to Antony and Octavius

(vi) Martin first met the lady on the ________ floor.

a) seventeenth

b) fourteenth

c) thirteenth

d) eighteenth

(vii) What happens to Cinna the poet when he encounters the plebeians on the way to Caesar’s funeral?

a) They praise his poems and ask him to recite one at the funeral.

b) They mistake him for one of the conspirators and attack him.

c) They accuse him of belittling Caesar in his poetry.

d) They ask him to join their plot to assassinate Brutus and Cassius.

(viii) Why does Antony spare Lucilius’s life?

a) He mistakes Lucilius for Brutus

b) He believes Lucilius can be turned into an ally

c) He respects Lucilius’s courage in battle

d) He trades Lucilius for his own captive soldier

(ix) What is the Count’s motivation for throwing the glove back in the lady’s face?

a) Anger at her reckless behaviour

b) Disappointment in her lack of true love

c) A desire to humiliate her in public

d) A playful gesture to match her prank
(x) What does the falling of a great tree symbolize according to the reference text?

a) The growth of a new tree

b) The beginning of a new era

c) The loss of a great person

d) The celebration of a new life

(xi) What does the speaker mean by ‘There are more guests at table than the hosts invited’ in the poem ‘Haunted Houses’?

a) The hosts have invited more people than they can accommodate.

b) The speaker is imagining additional guests at the table.

c) The presence of ghosts makes it feel like there are more people present.

d) The speaker is referring to uninvited guests who have crashed the party.

(xii) Select the option that shows the correct relationship between statements (1) and (2).
(1) But this one particular house had all of its electric lights brightly lit, every window a loud, yellow illumination, square and warm in the cool darkness.
(2) And on his way, he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard.

a) 1 is the cause for 2
b) 1 is an example of 2
c) 1 is independent of 2
d) 1 is a contradiction of 2

(xiii) Choose the option that lists the sequence of events in the correct order –
A. The news M. Hamel gave the class seemed like a thunderclap to Franz.
B. Franz thought of skipping his class and spending the day outdoors.
C. Franz saw the back benches in his class occupied by the village people.
D. In his school that day, everything was as quiet as Sunday morning.

a) 1,2,3,4
b) 4,3,2,1
c) 2,4,1,3
d) 2,4,3,1

(xiv) Bhisma’s song can be heard from Delhi to _______.

a) Agra

b) Sri Lanka

c) Burma

d) Mumbai

(xv) What reason does Brutus give to Volumnius for asking him to assist in his suicide?

a) Brutus fears the humiliation of capture

b) Brutus believes his actions deserve death

c) Brutus is afraid Caesar’s ghost will hurt him

d) Brutus thinks the enemy troops will retreat if he dies

(xvi) How does Caesar react to Brutus joining the conspirators’ violent attack on him?

a) He continues to resist and fight back against the conspirators

b) He appears shocked by the betrayal and gives up resistance

c) He pulls out a dagger and stabs Brutus in self-defence

d) He reveals that he knew about the conspiracy all along

16 marks

SECTION B DRAMA

(Answer one or more questions from this section)
(Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare)

2

Read the extract from William Shakespeare’s play ‘Julius Caesar’ given below and answer the questions that follow: 

Cassius –
Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign
Two mighty eagles fell, and there they perched,
Gorging and feeding from our soldiers’ hands,
Who to Philippi here consorted us.
This morning are they fled away and gone,
And in their steads do ravens, crows, and kites
Fly o’er our heads and downward look on us
As we were sickly prey. Their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal, under which
Our army lies, ready to give up the ghost.

a) In this extract, Cassius narrates something he has seen. What is it? Did he believe in the significance of such things earlier in his life? Give reasons for your answer.
b) Give the meaning of –
“As we were sickly prey, Their shadows seem
A canopy most fatal.”
What do these lines signify?
c) What did Cassius see the previous day and that morning? What do these signs signify?
d) What can you conclude from what Cassius says, a little later, that he was prepared for a possible defeat? How does Brutus console Cassius after this?
e) Briefly state how the play propagates the idea that disloyalty and conspiracy do not succeed. 

16 marks

3

Read the extract from William Shakespeare’s play ‘Julius Caesar’ given below and answer the questions that follow: 

Brutus –
You must note beside,
That we have tried the utmost of our friends,
Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe.
The enemy increaseth every day.
We, at the height, are ready to decline.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

a) To whom is Brutus giving the arguments in this extract? What is meant by, “Our legions are brim-full, our cause is ripe”?
b) Give two arguments of Brutus to indicate that his military strength is in an advantageous position.
c) Brutus says, “The enemy increaseth every day.” State how it increases every day.
d) “There is a tide in the affairs of men.” What comparison is made between the voyage of life and the voyage on sea?
e) According to Brutus, “On such a full sea we are now afloat.” How is this statement valid?

16 marks

SECTION C, PROSE: SHORT STORIES

(Answer one or more questions from this section)
(Treasure Trove – A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)

4

Read the extract from Alphonse Daudet’s short story ‘The Last Lesson’ given below and answer the questions that follow: 

For a moment I thought of running away and spending the day out of doors. It was so warm, so bright! The birds were chirping at the edge of the woods, and in the open field back of the sawmill, the Prussian soldiers were drilling. It was all much more tempting than the rule for participles, but I had the strength to resist and hurried off to school.

a) Who is referred to as ‘I’ in the extract? Where was he? Why does he think of running away?
b) Why does he want to spend the day outdoors? Which of his characteristic traits is revealed from his wish?
c) What is the presence of Prussian soldiers a reference to, which is revealed later in the story? How does the presence affect the people?
d) What does the narrator find more tempting than the rule for participles? Does he fall for the temptation? What does he do?
e) Explain briefly how is ‘The Last Lesson’ an appropriate title for the story. 

16 marks

5

Read the extract from Ray Bradbury’s short story ‘The Pedestrian’ given below and answer the questions that follow: 

Mr. Leonard Mead would pause, cock his head, listen, look, and march on, his feet making no noise on the lumpy walk. For long ago he had wisely changed to sneakers when strolling at night, because the dogs in intermittent squads would parallel his journey with barkings if he wore hard heels, and lights might click on and faces appear and an entire street be startled by the passing of a lone figure, himself, in the early November evening.

a) Why does Mead deliberately attempt not to produce any sound while walking?
b) What is suggested by Mead’s act of wearing sneakers?
c) Why is he described as a ‘lone figure’? Who would get startled by his walk at night and why?
d) State the characteristic traits of Leonard Mead as reflected in this extract.
e) Explain the theme of non-conformity as presented in the story. 

16 marks

SECTION D, POETRY

(Answer one or more questions from this section)
(Treasure Trove – A Collection of ICSE Poems and Short Stories)

6

Read the extract from Sukumar Ray’s poem ‘The Power of Music’ given below and answer the questions that follow: 

But Bhisma Lochan, unconcerned, goes
booming out his broadside.
The wretched brutes resent the blare the hour
they hear it sounded,
They whine and stare with feet in air or wonder

Quite confounded.
The fishes dived below the lake in frantic search
for silence.
The very trees collapse and shake – you hear the
crash a mile hence –
And in the sky the feathered fly turn turtle while
they’re winging.

a) What was Bhisma Lochan unconcerned about? What is meant by ‘he goes booming out his broadside’?
b) Who were the ‘wretched brute’? Why did they behave abnormally?
c) How are the fishes and the trees affected by Bhisma Lochan’s singing?
d) What happens to the birds in the skies? Do you agree with the speaker of the poem? Justify.
e) The billy goat is ‘a sagacious fellow.’ Comment.

16 marks

7

Read the extract from Robert Frost’s poem ‘A Considerable Speck’ given below and answer the questions that follow: 

I have none of the tenderer-than-thou
Collectivistic regimenting love
With which the modern world is being swept.
But this poor microscopic item now!
Since it was nothing I knew evil of
I let it lie there till I hope it slept.

a) Which trait does the speaker refer to which he says he does not have? What is the result of lacking this trait?
b) Explain with reference to context, the meaning of the phrase ‘Collectivistic regimenting love’.
c) To whom does the speaker refer to as ‘poor microscopic item’? Why? What does it suggest about the speaker?
d) Why did the speaker let the mite lie there? Do you think the speaker was right in doing so? Give one reason to support your answer.
e) What is the central theme of the poem? How is an inconsequential mite used to justify the theme of the poem? 

16 marks

ICSE Class 10 English Literature Pre Board Question Paper 2026 PDF

Date

Time

Subject

Friday, 20 February

11:00 AM

Literature in English – Paper 2