Page 48 - Success Plus English Language and Literature Class 10

Practice Paper 1

time: 3 hours total marks: 80

Section A: Reading (20 Marks)

A Read the passage carefully and answer the following questions. (8 marks)

iceland’s rise in football
1) Iceland had a world ranking in the 130s in football six years ago, but then jumped to an
all-time high ranking of 18 in February–March 2018. The 2018 FIFA World Cup was their
first major tournament, and they are the smallest country ever to make it to a major football
tournament’s final round.

2) There are only 21,500 registered football players in Iceland, a country with a population of
just 330,000. The country has based its football surge on building football ‘houses’ because of
a harsh climate. There are eleven football houses at present, containing a full field, changing
rooms, medical facilities and stands.

3) Most players and officials are not into football alone. The unheralded squad includes 32-year-
old goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson, a film director who directed the video for Iceland’s entry
in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest. Icelandic film studio Sagafilm has a job waiting for him
when his football career is over.

4) The Iceland team manager Heimir Hallgrimsson, who took the job in 2013, worked part time
as a dentist but has decided to give it up to run the national football side fulltime from now on.
When asked what the secret to Iceland’s success was, the manager told Scotland’s Daily Record:
“You can’t have success without good players but our current team have been developed by
Icelandic coaches for the last 10–15 years.”

5) Sixteen Icelanders have played for English Premier League (EPL) sides. Former international
defender Hermann Hreidarsson, who had more than 300 EPL games, said: “While the love of
English football is strong in Iceland, we are a football-mad country for our own teams, which
are at the heart of every community.”

6) An interesting fact is that all the squad members’ names end with ‘sson’ or ‘ssen’. This is because
there are no surnames or family names in Iceland – Icelanders use the traditional Nordic
naming system, which includes a last name that is comprised from their father’s (or mother’s)
first name with the addition of ‘-dottir’ (daughter) or ‘-son’.

– NZ Herald (modified)

1. In the year , Iceland was ranked in the 130s in football, but jumped to
number six years later.
2. Less than half a million people live in Iceland. (True/False)

3. Hannes Halldorsson directed a music video for the Contest.
4. Heimir Hallgrimsson has a job waiting for him after his career in football comes to an end.
(True/False)

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