Unseen passage: a literal idiom, an opinionated भावार्थ and a Kannada answer

Split: (i) word meanings 1 (½ + ½); (ii) भावार्थ 2 (1 per marked sentence: sense conveyed, no distortion); (iii) summary 1 (compression, not quotation).

• Student 1 - ½ of 1 for this part. अक्षरांची गोडी लागणे means acquiring a relish for reading, a habit that becomes pleasurable; the rendering given is word-for-word and yields a meaningless image, so 0 for that word. The second word is correct for ½. The test is whether the figurative sense has been transferred, not whether every word has an equivalent.
• Student 2 - 2/2 for भावार्थ. Both sentences are rendered accurately. The two sentences of personal advice are extra material; they do not distort the meaning and must not be deducted here. Record in the margin: 'भावार्थ नेमका; शेवटची दोन वाक्ये उताऱ्यात नाहीत' - the candidate should know, but the marks stand.
• Student 3 - refer, do not decide alone. The content is right, but the language of the answer is a Board instruction, not an examiner's preference. Award nothing silently and deduct nothing silently: place the script before the chief examiner with a note. If the Board permits answers in the medium of instruction, award full marks; if it does not, the script is treated as not attempted under the Board's rule, not your rule.
• Student 4 - ½ of 1. The copied sentence may capture the central point, which earns content credit, but a summary must be the candidate's compression; 25 words copied is a quotation.

Rubric - अपठित उतारा (4 marks)

1. शब्दार्थ (1): ½ per word. Any rendering that carries the sense in the passage is correct. For idioms, the figurative meaning is required; a word-for-word rendering earns 0. Idiom in this passage: अक्षरांची गोडी लागणे = वाचनाची आवड निर्माण होणे / पुस्तके वाचण्यात रस निर्माण होणे (accept either).
2. भावार्थ (2): 1 per marked sentence. Award the mark when the sense is conveyed in the candidate's own Marathi and nothing in the sentence is contradicted. Extra sentences are not deducted here; note them in the margin.
3. सारांश (1): ½ for the central point, ½ for compression in the candidate's own words. Copied sentences earn at most ½. A one-line summary that merely repeats the title of the passage earns 0.
4. Language of the answer: answers are expected in Marathi. Scripts written in another language are referred to the chief examiner and are not marked by the assistant.
5. General: no deduction for handwriting or for a single spelling slip; the item tests comprehension.

• Half right, and half dangerous. A gloss in the key is necessary - without it every examiner invents a threshold. But one gloss alone is not enough, because two candidates can write quite different Marathi and both be right.
• Add an accepted range, not one answer: list two or three renderings (वाचनाची आवड निर्माण होणे; पुस्तकांशी गोडी निर्माण होणे; अक्षरांशी नाते जुळणे) and one explicit reject (अक्षरे गोड लागली, in the literal sense). The examiner then matches sense, not wording.
• Add a test sentence: the key should say 'award the mark if the candidate's phrase could replace the idiom in the passage and the sentence would still mean the same'. This is what makes the item portable to another passage with another idiom.
• Add the boundary case: if a candidate writes only 'आवड' without indicating reading or learning, award ½ rather than 0 - the sense is partially there. Boundaries written down in advance are what keep 60 scripts consistent.
• Principle: in unseen comprehension the key must specify the range of acceptable sense, because the candidate's exact words cannot be predicted; in the prescribed-text questions it is the evidence that must be specified.