Multiple Choice Questions
Q1: Who influenced Prof. Kalam?
(a) His father
(b) His friends
(c) His society people
(d) None of these
Q2: When did Kalam become India’s 11th President?
(a) 2003
(b) 2000
(c) 2001
(d) 2002
Q3: By whom and when did Kalam second time face discrimination and humiliation on the basis of religion?
(a) By a teacher when he was in elementary school
(b) By Sivasubramania’s wife, when he was invited to their home for a meal
(c) By the priest, during the Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony
(d) By students, when he went to higher studies
Q4: What did Kalam think and say about his parents?
(a) Wise
(b) All of these
(c) They were tall
(d) Handsome
Q5: Where was A.P.J. Abdul Kalam born?
(a) Madurai
(b) Bangalore
(c) Chennai
(d) Rameswaram
Q6: Who was Kalam’s close friend?
(a) None of these
(b) His father
(c) Samsuddin
(d) Ramanadha Sastri
Q7: Which word in the lesson means unnecessary?
(a) Inessential
(b) Inconvenience
(c) None of these
(d) Essential
Q8: In which standard was Abdul when the new teacher with a conservative mind came to his class?
(a) 5th standard
(b) 6th standard
(c) 7th standard
(d) 4th standard
Q9: Which seeds did Kalam collect during the Second World War?
(a) Guava seeds
(b) Flax seeds
(c) Mango seeds
(d) Tamarind seeds
Q10: Who said this statement, “Kalam, I want you to develop so that you are on par with the highly educated people of the big cities”?
(a) Sivasubramania Iyer
(b) Pakshi Lakshman Sastry
(c) Jainulabdeen
(d) Samsuddin
Short Answer Questions
Q1: Kalam’s childhood was a secure one, both materially and emotionally. Illustrate.
Q2: What kind of person was Kalam’s father?
Q3: How was Kalam’s appearance different from that of his parents?
Q4: How did the Second World War allow Abdul Kalam to earn his first wages?
Q5: Had Kalam earned any money before that? In what way?
Long Answer Questions
Q1: What incident took place at the Rameswaram Elementary School when a new teacher came to the class?
Q2: When Sivasubramania told Kalam, “Once you decide to change the system, such problems have to be confronted”. What system was he referring to? What are “such problems”? What values did he want to teach Kalam?
Q3: How did Abdul Kalam earn his first wages? How did he feel at that time? Explain.
Q4: What do you learn about APJ Abdul Kalam’s family from the lesson “My Childhood”?
Q5: Narrate the incident of the new teacher’s behaviour in the classroom. Was his action appropriate? What values did the new teacher learn after that incident?
Reference to Context
Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was born into a middle-class Tamil family in the island town of Rameswaram in the erstwhile Madras State. My father, Jainulabdeen, had neither much formal education nor much wealth; despite these disadvantages, he possessed great innate wisdom and a true generosity of spirit. He had an ideal helpmate in my mother, Ashiamma.
(a) Where was Abdul Kalam born?
(b) What qualities did Abdul Kalam’s father possess?
(c) In what ways was Ashiamma an ideal helpmate for her husband?
(d) What characteristics does he say he inherited from his parents?
Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was one of many children – a short boy with rather undistinguished looks, born to tall and handsome parents. We lived in our ancestral house, made of limestone and bricks, on the Mosque Street in Rameswaram. My austere father used to avoid all inessential comforts and luxuries. However, all necessities were provided for, in terms of food, medicine or clothes. In fact, I would say mine was a very secure childhood, both materially and emotionally.
(a) How was Kalam different from his parents in looks?
(b) What does Kalam tell us about his home?
(c) How do we know that Kalam’s father was austere?
(d) What kind of childhood did Kalam have?
Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
In fact, I would say mine was a very secure childhood, both materially and emotionally.
(a) In what way was Kalam’s childhood ‘secure’?
(b) What does Kalam mean by ‘material security’?
(c) What is meant by ‘emotional security’?
(d) How did his parents provide Kalam with material and emotional security?
Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I used to collect the seeds and sell them to a provision shop on Mosque Street.
(a) Which seeds did the narrator collect?
(b) Why did he collect these seeds?
(c) What did he do with the collected seeds?
(d) What light does the extract throw on the narrator?
Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The first casualty came in the form of the suspension of the train halt at Rameswaram station. The newspaper had now to be bundled and thrown out from the moving train on the Rameswaram road between Rameswaram and Dhanuskodi. That forced my cousin Samsuddin, who distributed the newspapers in Rameswaram, to look for a helping hand and catch the bundles and as if naturally, I filled the slot.
(a) What does he mean by first casualty?
(b) Who was Samsuddin? What did he do?
(c) Why did the cousin need a helping hand? How did he help Kalam earn a salary?
(d) How did Kalam feel later about his job?
You can find Worksheet Solutions here: Worksheet Solutions: My Childhood