Class 10 Social Science: CBSE Sample Question Paper- Term I (2019-20) - 1 | CBSE Sample Papers For Class 10 PDF Download

Q.1. Underemployment is a situation when people
(a) do not want to work
(b) are not paid for their work
(c) are working in a lazy manner
(d) are working less than what they are capable of doing
Ans. (d) When people are underemployed, they do not have enough work to do during the time that is at their disposal.

Q.2. Which of the following is a non-material benefit which increases welfare of a population? 
(a) Availability of more motorcycles and cars 
(b) Provision of more rented houses 
(c) Security and freedom measures improved by the government 
(d) All of the above 
Ans. (c) The other two options given are material benefits.

Q.3. Consider the following three statements.
(i) India is no longer a federation because some powers of states have been devolved to the local bodies.
(ii) Sri Lanka is a federation because the country is divided into provinces.
(iii) In a federation, the powers of the federal and state governments are clearly demarcated.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) All of them
(b) (i) and (iii)
(c) (ii) and (iii)
(d) Only (iii)
Ans. (d) Statement (iii) correctly states the position of power-sharing in a federation. The other two statements are false.

Q.4. In India, seats are reserved for women in 
(a) Panchayati Raj bodies
(b) Cabinets of ministers
(c) Lok Sabha
(d) state legislative assemblies
Ans. (a) Currently, only Panchayati Raj bodies have reservations for women, which vary from state to state. There is no reservation for women in any of the other bodies mentioned, although a Bill for reserving seats for women in Parliament is under consideration for the last few years.

Q.5. This question consists of an Assertion (A) and a Reason (R). Indicate your answer by selecting the correct alternative.

Assertion (A): The Infant Mortality Rate in Kerala is 11, while that in Punjab is 49. 

Reason (R): More children below the age of one year die in Punjab than in Kerala. 

(a) Both A and R are right and R is the correct explanation for A 
(b) Both A and R are right, but R is not the correct explanation for A 
(c) A is right, but R is wrong 
(d) Both A and R are wrong  
Ans. (a) Reason R correctly explains assertion A.

Q.6. How did the system of floating exchange rates come into existence after the 1960s? 
OR 
What was the system of advances and how did it affect the lives of the weavers when dealing with the East India Company? 
OR 
What were the reasons for the city of London attracting migrant population in large numbers during the late eighteenth century?  
Ans. 

• Despite years of stable and rapid growth, the USA's finances and competitive strength were weakened during the 1960s due to the rising costs of its overseas involvements. 
• Thus, the US Dollar no longer commanded confidence as the world's principal currency and could not maintain its value in relation to gold. This led to the collapse of the system of fixed exchange rates and the introduction of a system of floating exchange rates.
  OR
• Under this system, weavers were given loans to purchase the raw material for their production and they had to hand over the finished products to the gomastha, who represented the East India Company, and not to any other trader, The weavers' lives changed for the better, as many of them were also cultivators, which took care of their family's food requirement. 
• They leased out the cultivation to others and became fully engaged in the weaving process.
  OR
  The reasons for London attracting a large migrant population were:
  (i) A large number of jobs were available in London for all types of people like skilled artisans, shopkeepers, casual labourers etc.
  (ii) Many major industries like clothing, footwear, furniture, metals and engineering, printing, precision products etc. required workmen to work in them.
  (iii) The London dockyards required a large number of dockhands. Later on, the number of large factories increased due to war efforts, further increasing employment.
  
  

Q.7. Why was the imperial state in China, a major producer of printed material for a long time?   
OR 
Explain what is an epistolary novel, giving an example of the same. 
Ans. 

• China had a huge bureaucratic system which recruited its personnel through civil service examinations. Textbooks for this examination were printed in vast numbers under the sponsorship of the imperial state.
• From the sixteenth century, the number of examination candidates went up and that increased the volume of print. That is why the imperial state in China was a major producer of printed material for a long time.
  OR
• The epistolary novel was written in the form of a series of letters, using this private and personal form of narrative to tell its story. 
• An example was Samuel Richardson's 'Pamela', written in the eighteenth century, which told much of its story through an exchange of letters between two lovers. These letters tell the reader of the hidden conflicts in the heroine's mind.
  
  

Q.8. How did the ideas of science and reason become popular among the masses due to the print revolution?
OR
Explain briefly how the terrible effects of industrialization on people's lives and characters were depicted by Charles Dickens in his novel, 'Hard Times'.
Ans.

• The ideas of scientists and philosophers became accessible to the common people. 
• Ancient and medieval scientific texts were published, along with maps and scientific diagrams. 
• Scientists like Isaac Newton published their discoveries, thus influencing a larger number of scientifically minded readers.
• Thinkers such as Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau printed their ideas, which were widely read.
• Thus their ideas about science, reason and rationality found their way into popular literature.
  OR
• Charles Dickens wrote about the terrible effects of industrialization on people's lives and characters in the novel 'Hard Times'.
• This describes Coketown, a fictitious industrial town, as full of machinery, smoking chimneys, polluted rivers and buildings that all looked the same.
• Here, workers are known as 'hands', as if they had no identity other than as operators of machines.
• Dickens criticised not just the greed for profits but also the ideas that reduced human beings into simple instruments of production.
  
  

Q.9. What is resource planning? Why is the planning of resources essential? Explain any two reasons. 
Ans. 

• Resource Planning is the widely accepted strategy for judicious use of resources. It is essential, as resources are limited and unevenly distributed over the country. 
• Planning helps in (i) reducing wastage, and (ii) taking care of the requirements of future generations.
• An example of uneven distribution of resources is Arunachal Pradesh, which has abundance of water resources but lacks in infrastructural development. 
• Irrational consumption and over-utilisation of resources leads to socio-economic and environmental problems like shortages and pollution.
  
  

Q.10. Why do we need to conserve our forest and wildlife resources? Explain any three reasons.
Ans. The reasons are:
(i) These resources provide a variety of essential environmental services like production of oxygen, reduction of carbon dioxide, maintaining the hydrological cycle etc.
(ii) These resources are essential for preserving ecological processes like fixing and recycling of nutrients in the soil, watershed protection, circulation and cleansing of air and water etc.
(iii) Human beings utilise the plant and animal resources for their long term survival. Examples are milk from cows, cotton for making clothes etc.

Q.11. Power-sharing is practiced among different social groups very effectively in certain circumstances. Which of the following is an example of this?
(a) The Indian Panchayati Raj system.
(b) The Indian federal system of government.
(c) Tamils in Sri Lanka demanding their own Eelam.
(d) Community Government in Belgium.
Ans. (d) Only Belgium has power-sharing among different social groups.

Q.12. Explain any three institutional reforms carried out by the government to improve agricultural production in India.  
Ans. Institutional reforms carried out by the Government of India are:
(i) Provision for crop insurance against drought, flood, cyclone, fire and disease.
(ii) Establishment of Grameen (regional rural) banks, cooperative societies and banks for providing loan facilities to the farmers at lower rates of interest
(iii) Establishment of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), agricultural universities, veterinary services and animal breeding centres, horticulture development, research and development in the field of meteorology and weather forecasting etc.

Q.13. Why is power-sharing important? Explain any three reasons.
Ans. Power-sharing is important for the following reasons:
(i) It avoids or minimises the conflict between different social groups.
(ii) Since, it is based on democratic principles, it leads to stability of the political order; otherwise, social conflicts may lead to violence and political instability. People have to be consulted on how they should be governed and this stabilises the government.
(iii) It has been proved in the past that power-sharing brings better results than other forms of governance.

Q.14. State any two differences between the local governments in India before and after the constitutional amendment in 1992.
Ans. Two differences are:
(i) Elections were not held regularly to the local governments prior to the amendment, but now it has been made mandatory to hold regular elections.
(ii) Earlier to the amendment, local governments did not have any powers or resources of their own. With the amendment, the State governments are required to share some of their powers as well as some of their revenues with local bodies.

Q.15. Explain the three determinants to accommodate social divisions in politics. 
Ans. The determinants are:
(i) Identity If people see their identities in singular and exclusive terms, it becomes very difficult to accommodate them.
(ii) Community and Culture It is easier to accommodate demands that are within the constitutional framework and are not at the cost of another community.
(iii) Government Reaction to Demands of Different Groups If the rulers are willing to share power and accommodate reasonable demands of the minority community, social divisions become less threatening for the country.

Q.16. Describe any three public facilities needed for development.
Ans. Public facilities are provided, lay the government. 

Examples of these are:
(i) The Public Distribution System (PDS), which provides fair average quality of food grains and other essential items to weaker sections at subsidised prices.
(ii) Government schools, which provide elementary education up to class 8 totally free for all children up to the age of 14 years.
(iii) Healthcare in government hospitals and dispensaries is provided to all at subsidized rates. This includes outpatient as well as hospitalization facilities.

Q.17. What is meant by disguised unemployment? Give one example of each from rural and urban areas.
Ans. Disguised unemployment occurs when more people are employed for some work than actually required. The output will not reduce even if some are removed. 

Examples are:
(i) Rural Area: The family of a small farmer works throughout the year on his field, even though all of them are not required all the time.
(ii) Urban Area: All members of a family work in a shop owned by them, even though all may not be required for the whole day.

Q.18. "Workers are exploited in unorganised sectors in India". Support this statement with suitable examples. 
Ans. The following examples indicate worker exploitation:
(i) Low Salary: 90% of unorganized sector labourers received wages below the national minimum wage during 2004-05.
(ii) Long Working: Hours In most construction sites, labourers work for a period spread over 10-11 hours in a day.
(iii) Temporary Jobs: On average, a farm labourer finds employment for less than 200 days in a year.
(iv) No Facilities and Benefits Many construction companies do not provide helmets to their workers or food to their labourers.

Q.19. Explain the causes of the Great Depression of 1929.
OR 
Describe the important features of 'proto-industrialization' in Europe. 
OR 
Explain with examples of how industrialization changed the form of urbanization in England during the modern period?  
Ans. The Great Depression was caused lay a combination of factors. 

Some of these were:
(i) Agricultural overproduction led to falling agricultural prices. To maintain their overall income, farmers tried to expand production, which led to a glut in the market. Farm produce rotted due to lack of buyers.
(ii) The USA withdrew loans given earlier to European and Latin American countries. Causing some banks in Europe to fail and European currencies to collapse.
(iii) In Latin America and elsewhere, it intensified the slump in agricultural and raw material prices.
(iv) The USA doubled import duties to protect its economy, dealing a severe blow to world trade. Intensifying the depression.
OR
Important features of proto-industrialization are given below:
(i) Cloth merchants shifted their supply base to the countryside, providing loans to peasants and artisans for producing cloth for an international market.
(ii) The peasants and artisans could continue cultivating their small plots while producing cloth, thus supplementing their shrinking income from cultivation.
(iii) Within this system, a close relationship developed between the towns and the countryside, as the merchants were based in the towns, but the work was done in the countryside.
(iv) This domestic system of proto-industrialization was a primitive system of production but became part of a vast network of commercial exchanges.
OR

• The city encouraged a new spirit of individualism among both men and women, which was different from that of the smaller rural communities. As women lost their industrial jobs and conservative people opposed their presence in public spaces, women withdrew into domesticity.
• Most political movements of the nineteenth century mobilized large numbers of men, but gradually women started participating in political movements for universal suffrage and other rights.
• By the twentieth century, the urban family had been transformed by the experience of the valuable wartime work done by women, who were employed in large numbers to meet war demands. The family now consisted of much smaller units. The family became the centre of a market for goods, services, and ideas.
  
  

Q.20. Explain how print culture affected women in nineteenth-century India?
OR
Explain the reasons why novels were popular among women in India?
Ans. Print culture affected the lives of women in India, as given below:
(i) Lives and feelings of women began to be written about extensively, increasing women's readership enormously in middle-class homes.
(ii) Liberal husbands and fathers began educating their womenfolk at home and sent them to women's schools when they were set up.
(iii) Many journals began carrying writings by women and explained why women should be educated.
(iv) Writings by women like 'Amar Jiban', an autobiography by Rashsundari Debt and tales highlighting women's experiences in households by Kailashbashini Debt were published.
(v) In 1926, Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein, a noted educationist and literary figure, strongly condemned men for withholding education from women in the name of religion.
OR
Novels became popular among women in India because of the following reasons:
(i) The novels allowed for a new conception of womanhood. Stories of love showed women who could choose or refuse their partners and relationships. It showed women who could, to some extent, control their lives.
(ii) Novels took women away from their harsh real conditions of life into a world of fantasy where anything could happen.
(iii) The novels were a source of entertainment to older illiterate women, as they were read out to them by their grandchildren.
(iv) Some novels, like 'Sultana's Dream' by Rokeya Hossein, transported them to a topsy-turvy world in which women take the place of men. This novel was much enjoyed by women.

Q.21. What are inter-state water disputes? Why are such issues raised? Give some examples of such disputes. 
Ans. Inter-state water disputes are disagreements on the sharing of water and other resources of rivers and other water bodies between two state governments. They arise due to unresolved problems regarding sharing of the costs and benefits of multi-purpose projects on these rivers.
Examples of such disputes are:
(i) The Kaveri River: Water dispute between Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry.
(ii) The Krishna: Godavari Water dispute between Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
(iii) The Ravi: Beas Rivers Water dispute between Punjab and Haryana.
(iv) The Yamuna River: Water dispute between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Q.22. What is the main contribution of agriculture to the national economy? Explain any three steps taken by the Government of India to modernize agriculture.
Ans. The main contributions of agriculture to file national economy are:
(i) It is the largest employment providing sector.
(ii) It has provided a food surplus to our expanding population.
(iii) It is providing raw material to industries.
(iv) It is providing the majority of exports from India.
Steps taken by the government to modernize agriculture are:
(i) Land reforms leading to consolidation of holdings. This makes agriculture more viable and increases output.
(ii) Providing subsidy for HYV seeds and fertilizers. This gives incentives to farmers for using these inputs for higher output.
(iii) Provision for crop insurance, Kisan Credit Card etc.
These help farmers to avail necessary funds when required and tide over crisis situations.

Q.23. Explain the major initiatives taken in the Constitutional Amendment of 1992 to make the third tier of democracy more effective in India.
Ans. The major initiatives taken in the Constitutional Amendment were:
(i) It became constitutionally mandatory to hold regular elections to local government bodies. Earlier they were not held regularly.
(ii) Seats were reserved in these bodies and their executive heads for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
(iii) At least one-third of all positions were reserved for women in these local bodies.
(iv) An independent State Election Commission was created in each state to conduct Panchayat and Municipal elections.
(v) The State governments were required to share some powers and revenue with local government bodies. Earlier, these local bodies had no source of revenue of their own.

Q.24. Explain the differences between overlapping and cross-cutting differences, citing one example of each.
Ans. The differences are explained below:

Q.25. Suggest any five ways to provide more employment opportunities in rural areas. 
Ans. The following measures can be taken to increase employment in rural areas:
(i) Improve irrigation facilities so that farmers harvest two or three crops in one year. Thus, more people can be employed.
(ii) More dams should be built on rivers so that more water can be provided to small farmers to increase the number of crops grown annually.
(iii) Provide better roads and improve transportation and storage, which will benefit small farmers. Consequently, many people will be employed in these sectors.
(iv) Honey collection centres and vegetable and fruit processing units should be set up.
(v) More cottage industries and services should be promoted in rural areas with soft loans and marketing support.