Unseen passage: lifting a line versus inferring a title
Your Class IX half-yearly paper carries a 5-mark अपठित गद्यांश of about 90 words. The passage argues that a library is not a godown of books but a workshop of ideas, that a reader should argue with a writer rather than worship him, and it closes: 'जिस विद्यालय में पुस्तकालय नहीं, वह शरीर है पर मन नहीं।' The questions are: (i) पुस्तकालय को भंडार न कहकर कार्यशाला क्यों कहा गया है? (1) (ii) लेखक के अनुसार विद्यालय में पुस्तकालय क्यों अनिवार्य है? (2) (iii) इस गद्यांश का उचित शीर्षक लिखिए। (2). In the scripts, Meera answers (i) by lifting 'पुस्तकालय विचारों की कार्यशाला है, भंडार नहीं' word for word. Sanjay writes his own sentence but adds 'इसलिए सरकार को हर विद्यालय में पुस्तकालय खोलना चाहिए', which is nowhere in the passage. For (iii), 12 students wrote 'पुस्तकालय', 9 wrote 'पुस्तकों का भंडार', 4 wrote 'विचारों की कार्यशाला' and 3 wrote 'विद्यालय और पुस्तकालय'.
1. Mark question (i) for Meera and for Sanjay, and state the principle you are applying.
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Both get 1/1.
Meera's lifted sentence does answer 'क्यों' - the reason (ideas are debated and made, not stored) is contained in the words she copied. Unless the question says 'अपने शब्दों में', an unseen-comprehension item at 1 mark tests whether the candidate located the reason, not whether the phrasing is original. Penalising her would be marking style, not comprehension.
Sanjay's first clause is a correct paraphrase, so he has done the harder thing. The added 'इसलिए सरकार को...' is an unsupported extension - it is not in the passage, but it neither contradicts the answer nor displaces it. The principle: at 1 mark, credit the correct element; irrelevant addition costs marks only when it contradicts the passage or replaces the required element. At 2 marks you might withhold the second mark if the extra material shows the candidate has drifted from the text; at 1 mark there is nothing left to withhold. Write both decisions into the key so the second marker applies the same line.
2. Decide which of the four titles in question (iii) earn full marks, and justify each on the marking logic rather than on taste.
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A title must do three things at once: name the central idea (not just the topic), stay brief, and not contradict the passage.
- 'विचारों की कार्यशाला' - 2/2. It captures the thesis (the library as a place where ideas are made and contested), it is short, and it is not merely lifted as a label. This is the intended answer.
- 'पुस्तकालय' - 1/2. Accurate topic, but it would fit a passage about library timings equally well; it does not carry the argument. Credit the identification, withhold the second mark.
- 'पुस्तकों का भंडार' - 0/2. The passage explicitly denies this ('भंडार नहीं'); a title that states the opposite of the thesis is wrong, not merely weaker.
- 'विद्यालय और पुस्तकालय' - 1/2. Names two things the passage links but does not state the link; it is a topic, not an idea.
Announce the rule before the next test: 'शीर्षक विषय नहीं, केंद्रीय भावना बताए' - the nine 'भंडार' answers show the class reads the last line and stops.
3. Write one additional 1-mark question on this same passage that cannot be answered by copying a sentence, and give its key.
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Question: 'गद्यांश के आधार पर बताइए कि पुस्तकालय में पुस्तकों की संख्या अधिक होना पर्याप्त क्यों नहीं है?' (1)
Key: 'क्योंकि लेखक के अनुसार पुस्तकालय भंडार नहीं, विचारों की कार्यशाला है; पुस्तकें केवल सामग्री हैं, आवश्यक विचारों का विमर्श है; भंडार में पुस्तकें बढ़ती हैं, कार्यशाला में विचार।' Accept any answer containing the contrast भंडार/कार्यशाला applied to quantity.
The passage never says this in one sentence - the candidate has to take 'भंडार नहीं, कार्यशाला' and 'लेखक से बहस करो, पूजा नहीं' and apply both to the idea of quantity. That is why it cannot be lifted. It also gives you a legitimate 1-mark inference item to replace the copying-friendly (i) in the next paper.