ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2025 with Solutions, Download PDF

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) published the ICSE Class 10 English Specimen Paper 2025 (Paper 1) on its portal. The ICSE Specimen Paper 2025 for English language is a guide that helps students to know the actual ICSE 10th English question paper 2025.

ICSE students should be aware that in Class 10 there are two parts in English –  English Language / Paper 1 and English Literature/ Paper 2. Two separate exams will also be conducted for two papers. On this page, we have discussed the latest ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2025 with Solutions. Candidates can directly download the ICSE English Language Specimen Paper PDF from this post.

ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2025

The English Language (Paper 1) subject in ICSE is concerned with comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar. Whereas Literature English (paper 2) is concerned with reading and analyzing poems, stories, and plays. If students in Class 10 want to perform well, it is very crucial to practice this English Specimen Paper 2025 ICSE several times before the exam. Read a brief overview of ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2025 below.

ICSE English Paper 1 Question Paper with Answer Key

ICSE English Paper 1 Specimen Paper pattern

Check out the pattern of the ICSE Class 10 English Language question per below.

• The ICSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE or (ENGLISH PAPER – 1) is a maximum mark of 80 and total time allowed is Two hours
• Answers to this Paper must be written on the paper provided separately.
• You will not be allowed to write during the first 15 minutes.
• This time is to be spent reading the question paper.
• The time given at the head of this Paper is the time allowed for writing the answers.
• The intended marks for questions or parts of questions are given in brackets.
• Attempt all five questions. You are advised to spend not more than 30 minutes answering Question 1 and 20 minutes in answering Question 2.

ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2025 with Answers

Question 1

(Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this question.)

Write a composition (300 – 350 words) on any one of the following:

1. Write an original short story in which a woman, her strange neighbour and a police officer form the main characters.

Answer: The story must be original and must have at least three characters the woman, her neighbour and the policeman. The ‘strangeness’ of the neighbour must be qualified, the encounter described and the action that arises out of the encounter.

2. Your teacher has asked you to form a group and work on a particular project. Write an account of how you worked together and what each of you learned from the experience.

Answer:  This is a first-person account and must be narrated from within the plausible experience of a Class X candidate. There must be a clear description of the work entailed, the way in which the students learned to work together, the take-away or lesson learned.

3. ‘Peer pressure is a force for good’ Express your views either for or against this statement.

Answer: Views either for or against are to be accepted. The candidate should take a clear stand and give valid reasons for whatever stand he/she takes. There should be a cohesive well-constructed logical argument and ideas based on logical reasoning and personal experience

4. Describe the locality in which you live. Give details of the things you see and hear as you walk around your locality. What do you especially like about the place?

Answer: Words of sight and sound must form the main body of this composition. Describe clearly the sights and sounds. Explain what about the locality appeals to you.

5. Study the picture given below. Write a story or a description or an account of what it suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or you may take suggestions from it; however, there must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition.

Answer: A wide interpretation will be accepted. Any relevant ideas taken from the picture should be accepted. However, a mere itemization/listing/description of the picture is to be avoided.

Question 2

(Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.) Select any one of the following:

1. Your uncle was unable to attend your birthday celebrations but has sent you one thousand rupees as a gift. Write a letter thanking him, tell him how you will spend the money, and why you have made that particular choice.

Answer: Friendly/Informal letter
Format, Content, and Expression are important.
Content

Thank your uncle – you could use words like ‘grateful’, ‘thoughtful’
Describe how/on what you will spend the money – at least two things
Explain why you chose the two – how they will be useful, for example

2. The garbage bins in your locality have not been cleared regularly resulting in the overflow of garbage in the area. Write a letter to the Municipal Commissioner of your city / town, complaining about the problem. Offer suggestions for the removal of the garbage and cleaning up of the place.

Question 3

1. Your school is hosting an Art and Craft exhibition. Write a notice informing
the pupils at your school about the event.

2. Write an e-mail to a local artist inviting him / her to inaugurate the exhibition and be the Chief Guest on the occasion.

Question 4

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

One day I found the pond occupied by several buffaloes. Their keeper, a boy a little older than me, was swimming about in the middle. Instead of climbing out on the bank, he would pull himself up on the back of one of his buffaloes, stretch his naked brown body out on the animal’s glistening hide, and start singing to himself.

When he saw me staring at him from across the pond, he smiled, showing gleaming white teeth in a dark face. He invited me to join him in a swim. I told him I couldn’t swim, and he offered to teach me.

His name was Ramu, and he promised to give me swimming lessons every afternoon, so it was during the afternoons — especially summer afternoons when everyone was asleep – that we usually met. Before long I was able to swim across the pond to sit with Ramu astride a contented buffalo. Sometimes I would slip into the water. Emerging in shades of green and khaki, I would sneak into the house through the bathroom and bathe under the tap before getting into my clothes.

One afternoon Ramu and I found a small tortoise in the mud, sitting over a hole in which it had laid several eggs. I presented the tortoise to Grandfather. He had a weakness for tortoises and was pleased with this addition to his menagerie, giving it a large tub of water all to itself, with an island of rocks in the middle. If one of the dogs bothered it too much, it would draw its head and legs into its shell and defy all its attempts at rough play. Ramu came from a family of bonded laborers and had received no schooling. But he was well-versed in folklore and knew a great deal about birds and animals.

`Many birds are sacred,’ said Ramu, as we watched a blue jay swoop down from a peepul tree and carry off a grasshopper. Both Ramu and Grandfather were of the opinion that we should be more gentle with birds and animals and should not kill so many of them.

`It is also important that we respect them,’ said Grandfather. ‘We must acknowledge their rights. Birds and animals are finding it more difficult to survive, because we are trying to destroy both them and their forests.’

Ramu and I spent long summer afternoons at the pond. I still remember him with affection, though we never saw each other again after I left Dehra.

— Rusty, the Boy from the Hills, Ruskin Bond

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided:

1. hide (line 4)

A) blanket
B) fur
C) undisclosed
D) skin

Answer: D) skin

2. contented (line 12)

A) cheerful
B) lazy
C) satisfied
D) container

Answer: C) satisfied

(ii)  Which word in the passage is the opposite of ‘easy’?   [1]

A) sneak
B) difficult
C) labourer
D) survive

Answer:B) difficult

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.

• What did Ramu like to do once he had climbed on the back of a buffalo? [2]
• What offer did Ramu make to the narrator? [2]
• Why do you think the narrator would bathe before entering the house? [2]
• Who was the large tub of water for? [1]
• How would the tortoise protect itself from the dogs? [2]

(iv) Despite the lack of schooling what did Ramu know? How, according to Ramu and Grandfather, should we treat birds and animals? Answer in not more than fifty words. {8}

English Language Specimen Paper 2025 PDF Download

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination has published its ICSE specimen paper 2025 for English on its official website – cisce.org. In addition, they make an important modification to Case-based, Assertion-reason, and Images-based critical thinking questions. Download the ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2024-25 PDF Download below.

How to Download ICSE English Language Specimen Paper  PDF ?

Students can get the ISCE English Class 10 Specimen Paper 2025 for free by visiting the CISCE website. Follow the steps outlined below to download the ICSE English Language Specimen Paper PDF

Step 1: Go to the official website at cisce.org.
Step 2: Click on Examination, and three options will appear.
Step 3: Click on ICSE examination, and scroll down until “Important Downloads” topics are visible.

Step 4: Click on “Specimen Question Paper” for ICSE.
Step 5: A new page appears on the screen with a list of many years of specimen paper.
Step 6: Click on the ICSE English Language Specimen Paper 2025.
Step 7: A new page titled “Specimen Question Papers ICSE CLASS X – 2025” appears.
Step 8: Now, click on any subject to view, download, or print any question paper.

Last year ICSE English Language Specimen Paper of Paper 1

Question 1

(Do not spend more than 30 minutes on this question.)
Write a composition (300 – 350 words) on any one of the following: [20]
(i) Write an original short story entitled: ‘A Narrow Escape’.
(ii) Have you ever forgiven someone when it was hard to do so?
Explain what helped you to forgive them, and the positive impact it had. What did you learn from the experience?
(iii) ‘Competition hampers the overall development of students.’. Express your views either for or against this statement.
(iv) You are taking a stroll in a beautiful garden.
Describe what you see around you, adding details about the sounds and the
scents.

(v) Study the picture given below. Write a story a description or an account of what it suggests to you. Your composition may be about the subject of the picture or you may take suggestions from it; however, there must be a clear connection between the picture and your composition.

Question 2

(Do not spend more than 20 minutes on this question.)
Select any one of the following:

(i) You recently read an interesting book that impacted you deeply. Write a letter to your friend highlighting the parts that impressed you. Explain two ways in which you would like to make changes in your behavior or actions based on what you have read.
(ii) As someone who enjoys gardening, you would like other students in your school to experience its benefits. Write a letter to the principal of your school seeking permission to start a club for students to learn about gardening. Give specific reasons for your request and explain why the club would meet after
school hours.

Question 3

(i) Your school is hosting an interschool debate competition. Write a notice informing the students at your school about the event.[5]
(ii) Write an e-mail to the principal of a neighboring school informing him/her of the interschool debate competition being held at your school and requesting him/her to send a team of students to participate.

Question 4

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Tiger Talk:

It was still a busy hour in the city when I entered Market Road. People ran for their lives at the sight of me. As I progressed through, shutters were pulled down, and people hid themselves under culverts, on trees, behind pillars. The population was melting out of sight. At the circus I had had no chance to study human behaviour. Outside the circus ring they sat in their seats placidly while I cowered before Captain’s whip. I got a totally wrong notion of human beings at that angle. I had thought that they were sturdy and fearless. But now I found
them fleeing before me like a herd of deer, although I had no intention of attacking them. When I paused in front of a tailor’s shop, he abandoned his machine and shut himself in a cupboard, wailing, ‘Alas, I am undone, won’t someone shoot that tiger?’ A prisoner between two constables, who had been caught for murder and was just emerging from the Court House, got his chance to escape when the constables fled, abandoning him with his handcuffs. I tore a horse from its jutka and enjoyed the sight of the passengers spilling out of it
and running for their lives. A couple of street dogs invited destruction when they barked madly, instead of minding their business. Later, I learnt from my master of the chaos that befell the city when it became known that Captain had been destroyed and that I was somewhere in the city. Sheer hopelessness seems to have seized the townspeople. They withdrew to their homes and even there remained nervous. All doors and windows
everywhere were shut, bolted, and sealed. Some even thought that I was some extraordinary creature who might pass through the walls and lie in wait on the roof or in the loft or basement. Poor people living in huts had real cause to worry: I could have taken any of their homes apart. But why should I? One could understand their fears, but why should those living in brick and cement feel nervous? It was due to their general lack of a sense of security and an irrational dread of losing their assets. Why should a simple tiger have any
interest in them either to destroy or to safeguard? I rested for a moment at the door of Anand Bhavan, on Market Road, where coffee drinkers and tiffin eaters at their tables sat transfixed, uttering low moans on seeing me. I wanted to assure them, ‘Don’t fear, I am not out to trouble you. Eat your tiffin in peace, don’t mind me … You, nearest to me, hugging the cash box, you are craven with fear, afraid even to breathe. Go on, count the cash, if that’s your pleasure. I just want to watch, that’s all … If my tail trails down to the street, if I am blocking your threshold, it is because, I’m told, I’m eleven feet tip to tail. I can’t help it. I’m not out to kill … I’m too full —
found a green pasture teeming with food on the way. Won’t need any for several days to come, and won’t stir, not until I feel hungry again. Tigers attack only when they feel hungry, unlike human beings who slaughter one another without purpose or hunger …’

— A Tiger in the School, R. K. Narayanan

(i) For each word given below choose the correct meaning (as used in the passage) from the options provided:
1. sturdy (line 7)
(a) brave
(b) strong
(c) compassionate
(d) fixed
2. basement (line 23)
(a) room at the top of the house
(b) library
(c) the ground floor
(d) a room at the bottom of the house

(ii) Which word in the passage means the opposite of the word liabilities.
(a) threshold
(b) chaos
(c) assets
(d) cash box

(iii) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
(a) Which sentence in the passage tells us that the people were fast disappearing?
(b) Why was the prisoner lucky on that day?
(c) What reason does the tiger give to explain why people in brick and cement houses are nervous?
(d) The passage describes a man who is shivering with fear and clutching his cash box. What kind of a person do you think he was?
(e) How would you have reacted if a tiger walked into the street outside your school?

(iv) In not more than 50 words, describe the tiger’s thoughts on how differently people behave inside and outside the circus.

Question 5
(i) Fill in each of the numbered blanks with the correct form of the word given in brackets. Do not copy the passage but write in correct serial order the word or phrase appropriate to the blank space.
Example:
(0) Rikki-tikki ___________ (know) better than to waste time in staring.
Answer: knew
Rikki-tikki was angry. He sat back on his tail and hind legs, and __________ (1) (look) all round him, __________ (2) (chatter) with rage. But Nag and Nagaina __________ (3) (disappear) already into the grass. When a snake misses its stroke, it never __________ (4) (say) anything or __________ (5) (give) any sign of what it means to do next. Rikki-tikki did not care to follow them, for he did not __________ (6) (feel) sure that he __________ (7) (can) manage two snakes at once. So, he trotted off to the gravel path and sat down to think. It __________ (8) (is) a serious matter for him.

(ii) Fill in the blanks with appropriate words.
(a) My sister and I get __________ very well with each other.
(b) Mini plays basketball __________ her friends every day.
(c) It has been twenty years __________ she graduated from college.
(d) Growing up, we were looked __________ and brought up by our grandparents.
(e) Most students take the bus __________ school as it reaches the premises on time.
(f) The cricket match was put __________ because of torrential rains.
(g) Roy backed __________ of the competition at the last minute.
(h) I have been training under her __________ the past two years.

(iii) Join the following sentences to make one complete sentence without using and, but or so. Choose the correct option.[4]

1. We placed our order late. We received the food on time.
(a) Despite placed our order late, the food was received on time.
(b) Despite placing our order late, we received the food on time.
(c) Despite we placed our order late, the food was received on time.
(d) Despite of us placing our order late, we receiving the food on time.

2. The music stopped. The audience left the auditorium.
(a) Hardly had the music stopped so the audience left the auditorium.
(b) Hardly had the music stopped then the audience left the auditorium.
(c) Hardly had the music stopped since the audience left the auditorium.
(d) Hardly had the music stopped when the audience left the auditorium.

3. You cannot enter the club. You do not have a membership.
(a) You cannot enter the club unless you have a membership.
(b) You cannot enter the club since you have a membership.
(c) You cannot enter the club whereas you have a membership.
(d) You cannot enter the club if you have a membership.

4. She was very late. She could not catch the train.
(a) She was to late to catch the train.
(b) She was so late to catch the train.
(c) She was too late to catch the train.
(d) She was as late so as to catch the train.

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