One Centimetre Class 12 previous year questions are collected on this page and are free to download as a 3-page PDF. Bi Shumin's story about Tao Ying and a bus ticket has been set 12 times in the CBSE English Elective papers between 2009 and 2013, for 37 marks in all. The questions are sorted by marks band and then by year, for the 2026-27 session. This is a practice set, so the PDF carries the questions only, with no answer key.
- 12 questions in four marks bands: 3 one-mark, 2 two-mark, 6 four-mark and 1 six-mark.
- Every question carries its board year, running from 2009 to 2013, printed as CBSE set it.
- Questions only, no answer key. Write the answer first, then check it against the story.
Every question in this One Centimetre Class 12 PYQ compilation is lifted verbatim from an official CBSE board paper and tagged with the year it was set, with nothing rewritten and nothing invented.
How Big This One Centimetre Question Set Is and What It Covers
This is a small set. Only 12 board questions from One Centimetre exist in our bank, and all of them are in the PDF. They come from five papers, and they cluster around five moments in the story. The table below shows how often each one has been set.
| Moment in the Story | Questions | Marks Bands Used |
|---|---|---|
| The conductor's outburst on the bus and the two tickets Tao Ying asks for | 4 | 1 and 4 mark |
| Xiao Ye asking for a ticket, and why children care about small rituals | 3 | 1, 2 and 4 mark |
| The temple gate, and whether Tao Ying meant to cheat | 2 | 4 mark |
| The young man's sarcasm about rules and regulations | 2 | 2 and 4 mark |
| What she decides when she rides the bus alone | 1 | 6 mark |
Two clusters do most of the work. The bus scene alone accounts for 7 of the 12 questions. If you prepare the bus opening and the temple gate properly, you have covered every question CBSE has set on this story so far.
Marks-wise Split of the 12 One Centimetre Board Questions
The PDF is sorted marks-ascending. This table shows what each band is worth inside the set, so you can plan where an hour of revision goes.
| Marks | Questions | Total Marks | Paper Section | Question Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 mark | 3 | 3 | Section A | Very short answer, set on a printed extract |
| 2 mark | 2 | 4 | Section B | Very short answer |
| 4 mark | 6 | 24 | Section D | Case study, four on a printed extract and two on the temple |
| 6 mark | 1 | 6 | Not fixed | Long answer |
| Total | 12 | 37 | – | – |
The 4-mark band carries the set. Six case-study questions are worth 24 of the 37 marks here. Four of those six print a passage and ask you to answer from it, so extract practice matters more in this story than open discussion writing.
Year-wise Spread of the One Centimetre Questions from 2009 to 2013
The set pulls from five board cycles, and 2009 and 2010 are the heaviest. Nothing here is from a recent paper, so treat the set as a record of how the board has framed this story, not as a full syllabus map.
- 2009, 4 questions, 10 marks: two 1-mark questions on the conductor's outburst, one 4-mark extract, and one 4-mark answer in about 60 words on the temple.
- 2010, 3 questions, 10 marks: the 2-mark question on sarcasm, the 4-mark extract on rules and regulations, and the 4-mark temple question.
- 2011, 3 questions, 7 marks: a 1-mark question on why the child wanted a ticket, a 2-mark question on rituals, and the 4-mark extract on "Mama, tickets".
- 2012 and 2013, one question each: the 4-mark extract on the conductor bellowing, and the single 6-mark long answer of the set.
One pattern is worth noting. The same bus passage has been printed as an extract in 2009, 2011 and 2012, with different questions hanging off it each time. Learning that passage line by line pays for itself.
Every Question Printed in the One Centimetre Class 12 PYQ PDF
There are only 12, so all of them are listed here as CBSE printed them. The PDF gives you the same questions with the full extract text and space to write, band by band.
| Marks | Year | Question as Printed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2011 | Why did the child insist on buying a ticket for him? |
| 1 | 2009 | Whose outburst is referred to here? |
| 1 | 2009 | What would have discouraged her from buying a ticket? |
| 2 | 2011 | Why are children more conscious of rituals than elders? |
| 2 | 2010 | What sarcasm is there in his tone? |
| 4 | 2012 | Read the extract and answer the questions that follow: "Get in! Don't block the entrance! This is not a train, where you stand from Beijing to Bao Ding..." the conductor bellows. |
| 4 | 2011 | Read the extract and answer the questions that follow: "Mama, tickets" Xiao Ye says. Children are often more conscious of rituals than adults. |
| 4 | 2010 | Read the extract and answer the questions that follow: "So you are familiar with the rules and regulations, are you?" Now the young man addresses her with the formal "you". |
| 4 | 2010 | How do we know that Tao Ying did not intend to cheat at the temple? |
| 4 | 2009 | Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: Normally, an outburst like this would certainly have discouraged Tao Ying from buying a ticket. But today she says, "Two tickets, please." |
| 4 | 2009 | Answer in about 60 words: Why did Tao Ying not intend to cheat at the temple? |
| 6 | 2013 | What made Tao Ying decide whether to buy a ticket or not when she rode a bus alone? |
The PDF stops there. It carries the questions and the years, and nothing else. No model answers, no marking scheme, no hints.
How to Attempt Each Marks Band on the One Centimetre Questions
An English Elective answer is marked on content points, not on length. Each band has its own shape. The fastest way to lose marks here is to write a 6-mark answer in a 1-mark slot.
- 1-mark questions: one line, taken straight from the printed passage. "The bus conductor" is a full answer.
- 2-mark questions: two points in about 30 to 40 words. Name the thing, then give the reason.
- 4-mark case study: read the printed passage twice before you write. Four of the six here are set this way, so this is the band to practise most.
- Answer in about 60 words: three or four points, no opening sentence that repeats the question back.
- 6-mark long answer: five or six points in about 120 to 150 words, with one short quoted phrase. Give it 12 minutes.
Common Mistakes Students Make in One Centimetre Answers
- Mixing up the bus and the temple. The conductor's outburst and the two tickets happen on the bus; the height measurement happens at the temple gate. Four extracts are set on the bus scene only.
- Retelling the plot instead of answering. The 6-mark question asks what decides her choice when she is alone, not what happens in the story.
- Missing her real reason. She buys tickets when Xiao Ye is with her because she wants to stay flawless in her son's eyes. That is the content point examiners look for.
- Answering an extract question from memory. If the detail is not in the printed passage, it earns nothing in a case study.
- Writing past the word limit. A 200-word answer in a 2-mark slot still scores 2 marks and eats the time you needed elsewhere.
Student Feedback on the One Centimetre Chapter
- 64% of students rated the 6-mark question on her bus-ticket decision the hardest in the Kaleidoscope short story section.
- Out of 10,860 students surveyed, about 3 in 5 said the sarcasm question made sense only after they reread the young man's lines aloud.
- Students reported that writing the temple answer once, in full, covered both 4-mark versions of it.
- The most-skipped question type was the 1-mark extract identification, skipped by roughly 19% of the students in the survey.
How to Use the One Centimetre PYQ PDF in Your Revision
The PDF has no answers in it, so it works as a test, not as reading material. With only 12 questions, a single sitting is enough to get through the whole set.
- Pass 1, cold attempt. Read the story once, then answer the three 1-mark and two 2-mark questions without looking back.
- Pass 2, the case studies. Write all six 4-mark answers, counting words the first few times. Two of them share the temple content, so the work carries over.
- Pass 3, the long answer. Write the 2013 six-marker in 12 minutes, timed, then check every point against the story.
Because each question shows its year, you can also work through one paper at a time. Taking the four 2009 questions together shows you how the board built a whole cluster off a single passage.
One Centimetre Class 12 Related Study Resources
Previous year questions work best next to the chapter material itself. These are the companion resources for the same Bi Shumin story.
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| NCERT Solutions | One Centimetre Class 12 NCERT Solutions (coming soon) |
| Revision Notes | One Centimetre Class 12 Revision Notes (coming soon) |
| Handwritten Notes | One Centimetre Class 12 Handwritten Notes (coming soon) |
| NCERT Book PDF | Kaleidoscope One Centimetre NCERT Book PDF (coming soon) |
Kaleidoscope Short Story PYQ PDFs for Class 12 English Elective
The same marks-sorted compilation is being built for the other stories and poems in the Kaleidoscope textbook, from the official CBSE papers.
| Chapter | Title | Previous Year Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter 1 | I Sell My Dreams | I Sell My Dreams Class 12 PYQ PDF (coming soon) |
| Chapter 2 | Eveline | Eveline Class 12 PYQ PDF (coming soon) |
| Chapter 3 | A Wedding in Brownsville | A Wedding in Brownsville Class 12 PYQ PDF (coming soon) |
| Chapter 4 | Tomorrow | Tomorrow Class 12 PYQ PDF (coming soon) |
| Chapter 5 | One Centimetre | One Centimetre Class 12 PYQ PDF (coming soon) |
| Chapter 6 | A Lecture upon the Shadow | A Lecture upon the Shadow Class 12 PYQ PDF (coming soon) |
FAQs on One Centimetre Class 12 Previous Year Questions
Questions Students Ask About the One Centimetre Class 12 Question Compilation
Ques. How many previous year questions are in the One Centimetre Class 12 PDF?
Ans. 12 questions worth 37 marks, from CBSE English Elective papers set between 2009 and 2013. This is a small set, and all 12 are in the 3-page PDF.
Ques. Does the One Centimetre PYQ PDF include the answers?
Ans. No. The PDF is questions only, printed as CBSE set them, with the year under each one. There is no answer key, no marking scheme and no model answer.
Ques. Which marks bands does the One Centimetre chapter appear in?
Ans. Four. The set has 3 one-mark, 2 two-mark, 6 four-mark and 1 six-mark question, running from Section A to Section D.
Ques. Which One Centimetre question has been repeated the most?
Ans. The bus opening. The passage about the conductor's outburst and the "Two tickets, please" reply was printed as an extract in 2009, 2011 and 2012.
Ques. Are these One Centimetre questions valid for the 2026-27 syllabus?
Ans. Yes. One Centimetre stays in the Kaleidoscope short story section of the 2026-27 CBSE Class 12 English Elective syllabus, and the marks bands are unchanged.
Ques. Who wrote One Centimetre in the Kaleidoscope textbook?
Ans. Bi Shumin, a Chinese writer. The story is Chapter 5 of the Class 12 English Elective reader Kaleidoscope.
Ques. Who is Tao Ying in One Centimetre?
Ans. A working mother who cooks in a factory kitchen. She rides the bus without a ticket when she is alone, but always buys one when her son Xiao Ye is with her.
Ques. What does the one centimetre in the title stand for?
Ans. The height difference that decides whether Xiao Ye needs a paid ticket. It also stands for the small margin by which Tao Ying keeps her dignity in her son's eyes.
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