English ( Beehive ) Class for 9

Q.1. In which town does the author stay?

Q.2. What is the restriction about entry at Pashupatinath?

Q.3. Where does a monkey jump?

Q.4. Why does everyone bow and make away?

Q.5. What did the writer describe about Pashupatinath Temple?

Q.6. The writer says, “All this I wash down with Coca Cola.” What does ‘all this’ refer to?

Q.7. Name five kinds of flutes.

Q.8. What is the proclamation at the entrance of Pashupatinath temple? Was it implemented strictly?

Q.9. What difference does the author note between the flute seller and the other hawkers?

Q.10. What is the belief at Pashupatinath about the end of Kaliyug?

Reference to Context Questions

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I get a cheap room in the centre of town and sleep for hours. The next morning, with Mr. Shah’s son and nephew, I visit the two temples in Kathmandu that are most sacred to Hindus and Buddhists.
(a) Who does “I” refer to in the above lines?
(b) Where is he at the time?
(c) With whom does the author visit the two temples?
(d) Which two temples in Kathmandu does he visit? With which religions are they associated?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
There are so many worshippers that some people trying to get the priest’s attention are elbowed aside by others pushing their way to the front.
(a) Which place of worship is the narrator describing here?
(b) How do devotees behave inside the temple?
(c) Why do you think some people are pushing their way to the front?
(d) What sort of an atmosphere is being created by the crowd in the temple?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A princess of the Nepalese royal house appears; everyone bows and makes way. By the main gate, a party of saffron-clad Westerners struggle for permission to enter.
(a) Which place is being talked about in the above extract?
(b) How had the crowd of worshippers been behaving before the princess appeared? How is their behaviour different now?
(c) How are the Westerners trying to convince the policeman they are Hindus? Why?
(d) Which river flows next to the temple?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
By the main gate, a party of saffron-clad Westerners struggle for permission to enter.
(a) Which place is the author talking about here?
(b) Who are the saffron-clad Westerners at the main gate?
(c) Why do they struggle for permission to enter?
(d) What does this show about the cultural practices of this place?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A fight breaks out between two monkeys. One chases the other, who jumps onto a shivalinga, then runs screaming around the temples and down to the river, the holy Bagmati, that flows below.
(a) What are the two monkeys doing?
(b) Where are the two monkeys?
(c) What is the atmosphere at Pashupatinath Temple?
(d) What is the belief about the shrine that half protrudes from the stone platform on the river bank?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A corpse is being cremated on its banks; washerwomen are at their work and children bathe. From a balcony a basket of flowers and leaves, old offerings now wilted, is dropped into the river.
(a) Which river is referred to in this extract?
(b) What is the significance of this river?
(c) How is the river being polluted and by whom?
(d) What light does this polluting of the river throw on the people?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
There are no crowds: this is a haven of quietness in the busy streets around.
(a) Which place is being talked about here?
(b) How does this contrast with the other place of worship?
(c) Who owns the shops on the ‘busy streets around’?
(d) What did the shops sell?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Kathmandu is vivid, mercenary, religious, with small shrines to flower-adorned deities along the narrowest and busiest streets; with fruit sellers, flute sellers, hawkers of postcards; shops selling Western cosmetics, film rolls and chocolate; or copper utensils and Nepalese antiques.
(a) Explain the meaning of the word “mercenary”.
(b) How does the author describe the streets of Kathmandu?
(c) What are the things that the author buys?
(d) Which things are sold in the market of Kathmandu?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Go home, I tell myself: move directly towards home. I enter a Nepal Airlines office and buy a ticket for tomorrow’s flight.
(a) What route had the writer thought of taking?
(b) Why did he change his plan?
(c) How did he plan to travel now?
(d) When is he leaving Kathmandu?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
In his hand is a pole with an attachment at the top from which fifty or sixty bansuris protrude in all directions, like the quills of a porcupine. They are of bamboo: there are cross-flutes and recorders. From time to time, he stands the pole on the ground, selects a flute and plays for a few minutes.
(a) What attracts the writer in the market?
(b) How is he different from other hawkers?
(c) Why does he sometimes break off playing flute?
(d) What does Vikram Seth compare to the quills of a porcupine?

Q11: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I find it difficult to tear myself away from the square.
(a) Which square does the writer refer to?
(b) What was the writer doing in the square?
(c) Why does ‘he’ find it difficult to tear himself away from the square?
(d) Explain the expression ‘tear myself away’. Why does the writer use the expression?

Q12: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It weaves its own associations. Yet to hear any flute is, it seems to me, to be drawn into the commonality of all mankind, to be moved by music closest in its phrases and sentences to the human voice. Its motive force too is living breath: it too needs to pause and breathe before it can go on.
(a) What does ‘it’ refer to?
(b) How does ‘it’ weave its own associations?
(c) Why is its music closest to the human voice?
(d) Why does it draw the author in the ‘commonality of all mankind’?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.

Q.1. Do we need to kill trees in the present scenario?

Q.2. What do you understand by the lines ‘Rising out of it, feeding upon its crust, absorbing years of sunlight, air, water’.

Q.3. What are the circumstances that compelled the poet to write such a poem?

Q.4. What is the contemplation of the poet when he says, ‘Not so much pain will do it’?

Q.5. Do you think, the poet is describing the way to kill a tree, or there is something else in his mind?

Q.6. Why does the poet write such a poem?

Q.7. Justify the title of the poem ‘On Killing a Tree’.

Q.8. Is this poem ironical or is it a satire on modernization?

Q.9. What will be the effect of hacking and the chopping on the tree?

Q.10. How can the tree get back to its former size?

Reference to Context Questions

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
(a) Why does it take so much time to kill a tree?
(b) What does it consume?
(c) What does a tree absorb?
(d) Explain “leprous hide”.

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide ‘
Sprouting leaves.
(a) What kind of task is it to kill a tree?
(b) Why can a “simple jab of the knife” not kill a tree?
(c) How is the task of cutting a tree represented in the poem?
(d) What happens if the branches of a tree are cut off?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
So hack and chop
But this alone won’t do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
(a) Why does the poet say ‘killing’ a tree rather than cutting it?
(b) “But this alone won’t do it..- What does ‘this’ refer to here? What does ‘it’ refer to?
(c) What does the phrase ‘bleeding bark’ mean?
(d) What are processes suggested to do it?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
So hack and chop
But this alone won’t do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
(a) Explain “hack and chop”?
(b) What do you mean by ‘not so much pain will do it’?
(c) Where will the curling green twigs rise from?
(d) What finally kills the tree?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
No,
The root is to be pulled out – 
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
(a) What does the poet mean by the word “No”?
(b) Why should the root be pulled out?
(c) What is the meaning of “anchoring earth”?
(d) What is the condition of the root of the tree?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
No,
The root is to be pulled out –
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
(a) Where does the strength of the tree lie?
(b) How does the earth protect the tree?
(c) What role do the sun and air play in killing a tree?
(d) Explain the meaning of “earth cave”?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
(a) How do the roots look like when they are pulled out?
(b) What happens to the tree after it is pulled out?
(c) What happens to the tree after withering?
(d) “And then it is done” – What is done?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
(a) “Then the matter..” What does ‘Then’ refer to?
(b) What role do the sun and air play in killing a tree?
(c) “The strength of the tree exposed.” Explain.
(d) What will happen if the miniature boughs are left unchecked?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.

Q.1. Read the following passages and answer the questions:
Santosh’s parents were affluent landowners who could afford to send their children to the best schools, even to the country’s capital, New Delhi, which was quite close by. But, in line with the prevailing custom in the family, Santosh had to make do with the local village school. So, she decided to fight the system in her own quiet way when the right moment arrived. And the right moment came when she turned sixteen. At sixteen, most of the girls in her village used to get married. Santosh was also under pressure from her parents to do the same.
(i) Why was Santosh sent to the local village school despite being from an affluent family?
(ii) Why was Santosh waiting to turn sixteen?
(iii) What was the normal custom of the society?
(iv) What was the pressure of parents on Santosh?

Q.2. What did the holy man assume the family would ask as a blessing?

Q.3. How was Santosh’s upbringing?

Q.4. What reason did Santosh give her parents to avoid getting married at the age of sixteen?

Q.5. Do you think that Santosh had a nature in accordance with her name?

Q.6. Read the following passages and answer the questions:
The only woman in the world who has scaled Mt Everest twice was born in a society where the birth of a son was regarded as a blessing, and a daughter, though not considered a curse, was not generally welcome. When her mother was expecting Santosh, a travelling ‘holy man’, giving her his blessing, assumed that she wanted a son. But, to everyone’s surprise, the unborn child’s grandmother, who was standing close by, told him that they did not want a son. The ‘holy man’ was also surprised! Nevertheless, he gave the requested blessing … and as destiny would have it, the blessing seemed to work.
(i) What are the records that Santosh has made while scaling the Mt. Everest?
(ii) In which society was Santosh born?
(iii) Why was the holy man surprised?
(iv) What was the requested blessing that worked?

Q.7. What is the normal custom of the society about the birth of a girl child?

Q.8. Why did the grandmother ask for a different blessing than one would normally ask for?

Q.9. How did Santosh think of becoming a mountaineer?

Q.10. How did Santosh manage to pursue her mountaineering career?

Reference to Context

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
There is something disarming about Maria Sharapova, something at odds with her ready smile and glamorous attire. And that something in her lifted her on Monday, 22 August 2005, to the world number one position in women’s tennis. All this happened in almost no time.
(a) What contrast does Maria present?
(b) What position did Maria achieve in 2005?
(c) How long had it taken her to reach this position?
(d) Where had Maria come from? How old was she then?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
However, the rapid ascent in a fiercely competitive world began nine years before with a level of sacrifice few children would be prepared to endure.
(a) What does the phrase “rapid ascent” refer to?
(b) What had happened nine years ago?
(c) What sacrifice did Maria have to make?
(d) What lesson did this teach the young Maria?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Little Maria had not yet celebrated her tenth birthday when she was packed off to train in the United States. That trip to Florida with her father Yuri launched her on the path to success and stardom. But it also required a heart-wrenching two-year separation from her mother, Yelena.
(a) How old was Maria when she came to the United States?
(b) From where did she make the journey to Florida, and why?
(c) What was the ‘heart-wrenching’ thing about the journey?
(d) Why could her mother not accompany her?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I used to be so lonely, ” Maria Sharapova recalls. “I missed my mother terribly. My father was working as much as he could to keep my tennis training going. So, he couldn’t see me either. ”
(a) What does the word ‘recalls’ in the passage imply?
(b) Why was Maria lonely at the time?
(c) Why did Maria’s father have to work so hard?
(d) Where was Maria’s mother at the time? How long did it take for her to arrive in the USA?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Instead of letting that depress me, I became more quietly determined and mentally tough.
(a) Where was the speaker at the time?
(b) What was ‘that’ which could not depress her?
(c) What was the impact of ‘that’ on her?
(d) What does the extract reveal about the speaker’s character?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The straight looks and the answers she gives when asked about her ambition make it amply clear that she considers the sacrifices to be worth it. “I am very, very competitive. I work hard at what I do. It’s my job. ” This is her mantra for success.
(a) How does Maria show she is not a sentimental person?
(b) What does the writer mean by “straight looks”?
(c) What helped Maria win the women’s singles crown at Wimbledon in 2004?
(d) Why does the writer say there is no room for sentiment in her life?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I’m Russian. It’s true that the U.S. is a big part of my life. But I have Russian citizenship. My blood is totally Russian. I will play the Olympics for Russia if they want me. ”
(a) What light does this statement throw on Maria’s character?
(b) What does she say about the US?
(c) Why does the speaker say, ‘My blood is totally Russian’?
(d) Given a chance, what would Maria like to do for Russia?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Few would grudge her the riches she is now reaping.
(a) How is she ‘reaping’ the ‘riches’?
(b) Why would few grudge her the riches?
(c) Why has the word ‘reaping’ been used for riches?
(d) What, according to her, is the biggest motivation for her to do well?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Tennis is a business and a sport, but the most important thing is to become number one in the world.
(a) Why does Maria call tennis “a business”?
(b) According to Maria, why is tennis also a ‘sport’ in addition to being a business?
(c) What light does the extract throw on Maria’s personality?
(d) Why did Maria wish to become number one in the world?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Like any number of teenage sensations, Maria Sharapova lists fashion, singing and dancing as her hobbies. She loves reading the novels of Arthur Conan Doyle. Her fondness for sophisticated evening gowns appears at odds with her love of pancakes with chocolate spread and fizzy orange drinks.
(a) What are Maria’s hobbies?
(b) What does Maria like to read?
(c) What contrast does Maria present in her tastes?
(d) What light does this throw on Maria’s character?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.

Short Answer Questions 

Q.1. What is the motive of the poet about the poem?

Q.2. Why does the poet say that under the uniform the same body lies?

Q.3. What is the poet trying to convey through this poem?

Q.4. What was the mood of the poet when he wrote this poem?

Q.5. Why does the poet say, ‘it is ourselves that we shall dispossess, betray, condemn’?

Q.6. What is the attitude of the poet towards human race as a whole?

Q.7. The poem is all about ‘Xenophobia’. Does the poet like the idea of the people to create their societies propagating xenophobia or jingoism?

Q.8. What is the central idea of the poem?

Q.9. What is the perception of the poet?

Q.10. What are the similarities between them and us?

Multiple Choice Questions

Q1: What is the main theme of the poem?

1. Love and War
2. Unity and Brotherhood
3. Nature and Humanity
4. Struggle and Victory

Q2: What do the author’s words suggest about human life?

1. It is filled with hatred
2. It is a struggle for power
3. It is universal and interconnected
4. It is meant for individual gain

Q3: What do the lines “Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence Of air that is everywhere our own” imply?

1. Human actions impact the environment negatively
2. Humanity is inherently destructive
3. Wars create a polluted atmosphere
4. People are indifferent to nature

Q4: What should individuals remember according to the text?

1. To always prioritize their own country
2. That all men are foreign
3. To hate their brothers
4. To recognize common humanity

Q5: What is the consequence of taking arms against each other as per the poem?

1. Victory and glory
2. Unity and peace
3. Ruin and desolation
4. Freedom and prosperity

 Fill in the Blanks

Q1: The land our brothers walk upon is earth like this, in which we all shall lie. They, too, aware of sun and air and water, are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter __________.

Q2: Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read a labour not different from our __________.

Q3: Remember they have eyes like ours that wake or __________, and strength that can be won by love.

Q4: In every land is common life that all can __________ and understand.

Q5: Let us remember, whenever we are told to hate our brothers, it is ourselves that we shall __________, betray, condemn. 

True or False

Q1: All countries are strange and all men are foreign.

Q2: Human actions do not impact the environment according to the poem.

Q3: Taking arms against each other defiles the human earth.

Q4: The author suggests that hatred towards our brothers is justified.

Q5: Unity and brotherhood are not important values to uphold.

 Match the FollowingColumn AColumn BNo men are foreignStrength that can be won by loveThe land our brothers walk uponPeaceful harvestsHuman earth that we defileEarth like this War’s long winter starvedOur hells of fire and dustRemember they have eyes like oursUnity and Brotherhood

Reference to Context

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.
(a) Who does the poet address in the poem? Name the poetic device used in line 1.
(b) What does the word “uniform” mean?
(c) What breathes beneath all uniforms?
(d) What is the irony in uniform?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.
(a) Why does the poet feel ‘no men are foreign’?
(b) Who are referred to as brothers?
(c) What two things are common to all people as referred to in lines three and four of the extract?
(d) ‘In which we shall all lie.’ When will this happen?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.
(a) Whom does ‘they’ refer to?
(b) What is the significance of the word “too”?
(c) What does the poet mean by ‘peaceful harvests’?
(d) What is the message of the poem?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv ’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.
(a) What are the common elements in the universe that are shared by all?
(b) What happens to people during wartime?
(c) Explain “Their hands are ours.” What can we see in ‘their’ hands?
(d) “In their lines we read.” What do we read in their lines?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.
(a) How does the author show that men from other countries have the same basic requirements as his own countrymen?
(b) In what respect are their eyes compared to ours?
(c) Whose strength is referred to in the extract?
(d) Explain how strength can be won by love?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.
(a) Name three basic requirements the author feels that men from other countries have which are the same as his own countrymen.
(b) What is it that can be recognised and understood?
(c) Explain: In every land is common life That all can recognise and understand.
(d) What is the poet’s message in this stanza?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other
(a) Who are our brothers?
(b) Why do we hate our brothers?
(c) The poet implies that one picks up arms for three reasons. What are they?
(d) What happens when we hate our brothers?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other
(a) Who is the narrator of the poem? To whom is the poem addressed?
(b) Who tells us to hate our brothers?
(c) Why do they tell us to hate our brothers?
(d) Should we believe those who tell us to hate our brothers? Why/why not?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It is the human earth that we defile.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.
(a) How do we defile earth?
(b) What you mean by the innocence of the air?
(c) How does air become defiled?
(d) State briefly the theme of the poem.

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It is the human earth that we defile.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.
(a) What do you understand by ‘human earth?’
(b) Explain: hells of fire and dust?
(c) How is the innocence of air outraged?
(d) How does the poet bring out the idea that men are not strangers to one another?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.

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

Multiple Choice Questions

Q.1. A legend of the Northland, which is a song narrating a story in short stanzas is also called ________.
(a) Song
(b) Poem
(c) Short story
(d) Ballad

Q.2. What did the woman do when Saint Peter asked for a cake?
(a) She started making the smallest cake
(b) She refused to give him cake
(c) She gave the largest cake from the bakery
(d) She gave him some fruits

Q.3. Identify the literary device repetition into the given stanza:
Then she took tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat;
And baked it thin as a wafer
But she couldn’t part with that.
(a) Then she took
(b) Baked it thin
(c) Part with that
(d) Rolled and rolled

Q.4. Who was Saint Peter?
(a) God itself
(b) A begger
(c) Disciple of Christ
(d) A traveller

Q.5. What did Saint Peter ask for from the little woman?
(a) A single cake
(b) Something to eat
(c) A loaf of bread
(d) A dozen cakes

Q.6. Which cake was given to Saint Peter finally?
(a) Second cake
(b) No one
(c) First cake
(d) Third cake

Q.7. The animal which is used to pull the sledges in Northland:
(a) Polar bear
(b) Bull
(c) Reindeer
(d) Sheep

Q.8. Why did not woman give a cake to Saint Peter?
(a) Every cake was looking too large to give anyone
(b) No cake was tasty
(c) Saint Peter refused to take cake
(d) Every cake was looking too small

Q.9. When do people go for sledging?
(a) All of these
(b) During vacations
(c) In summers
(d) When snow falls

Q.10. The vehicle, which is used to carry things and passengers over the snow in Northland:
(a) Bus
(b) Cart
(c) Sledge
(d) Train

Reference to Context

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few,
And the nights are so long in winter
That they cannot sleep them through;
(a) Why is the word ‘away’ repeated twice?
(b) Which place is discussed in this stanza?
(c) What does “hours of the day are few” mean?
(d) Why can the people not sleep through the night?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Where they harness the swift reindeer
To the sledges, when it snows;
And the children look like bear’s cubs
In their funny, furry clothes:
(a) What does ‘Where’ refer to?
(b) Where are the reindeer harnessed? What does ‘swift reindeer’ convey?
(c) Why do children look like bear cubs?
(d) Mention two characteristics of the place.

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
They tell them a curious story—
I don’t believe ’tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.
(a) What is the ‘curious story’ that the people tell?
(b) Who does not believe in the story?
(c) Why does the poet narrate this tale?
(d) What lesson does it give?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just as he did, you know
(a) Which line shows that St. Peter is not alive today?
(b) Who was St. Peter?
(c) What does the line “Lived in the world below,” mean?
(d) What did St Peter do when he ‘Lived in the world below’?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
He came to the door of a cottage,
In travelling round the earth,
Where a little woman was making cakes,
And baking them on the hearth;
(a) Who does “he” refer to in the first line?
(b) What was the little woman doing?
(c) What request did “he” make to the woman? Why?
(d) Why did Saint Peter curse the woman?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And being faint with fasting,
For the day was almost done,
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.
(a) Why was St Peter about to faint?
(b) What had Saint Peter been doing?
(c) What time of the day was it?
(d) What did he ask the woman for?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it, and thought it seemed
Too large to give away.
(a) Why did she bake a small cake?
(b) What did she think about it as she saw it being baked?
(c) What aspect of her character does this reveal?
(d) How was she punished for her greed?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Therefore she kneaded another,
And still a smaller one;
But it looked, when she turned it over,
As large as the first had done.
(a) Who does ‘she’ refer to?
(b) Who had come to her door? Why?
(c) Why was she kneading smaller and smaller cakes?
(d) What quality of the woman do her actions reveal?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat;
And baked it thin as a wafer —
But she couldn’t part with that.
(a) Who had asked the woman for a cake? Why?
(b) Why did the old lady take a tiny scrap of dough?
(c) Why did she make the thin cake?
(d) What did Saint Peter do?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
For she said, “My cakes that seem too small
When I eat of them myself
Are yet too large to give away. ”
So she put them on the shelf.
(a) Who is the speaker in these lines?
(b) When do the cakes seem too small?
(c) What kind of cakes did the woman make?
(d) What did the woman do with her cakes? Why?

Q11: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Then good Saint Peter grew angry,
For he was hungry and faint;
And surely such a woman
Was enough to provoke a saint.
(a) Who was Saint Peter?
(b) Who was Saint Peter angry with? Why?
(c) How had the woman provoked the Saint?
(d) What did Saint Peter do?

Q12: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And he said, “You are far too selfish
To dwell in a human form,
To have both food and shelter,
Andfire to keep you warm.
(a) Who is ‘he’? Who is he speaking to?
(b) What did the saint say about the woman?
(c) Why was he angry with her?
(d) What benefits did he want her to forego?

Q13: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Now, you shall build as the birds do,
And shall get your scanty food
By boring, and boring, and boring,
All day in the hard, dry wood. ”
(a) What did St Peter turn the old woman into?
(b) Why did he curse her?
(c) What would she build?
(d) How would she get her food?

Q14: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Then up she went through the chimney,
Never speaking a word,
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird.
(a) Who is ‘she’? How did she go up?
(b) Who changed her into a bird?
(c) Why did she change into a woodpecker?
(d) Where did the woman live?

Q15: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same;
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.
(a) What did Saint Peter ask the old lady for?
(b) What was the lady’s reaction?
(c) Why did Saint Peter feel the woman should leave her human form?
(d) How does the woodpecker get its food?

Q16: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And every country schoolboy
Has seen her in the wood,
Where she lives in the trees till this very day,
Boring and boring for food.
(a) Where can the woman be seen now?
(b) What is she doing?
(c) What lesson do you learn from the poem?
(d) Who was Saint Peter?

The solutions of the worksheet “Worksheet Solutions: Poem – A legend of Northland“

Multiple Choice Questions

Q1: While looking at the mirror, the doctor smiled, and he found his smile
(a) Ugly
(b) Wide
(c) Attractive
(d) Unattractive

Q2: The doctor described the snake as the one
(a) That had bitten the thief
(b) Thick and ugly
(c) Taken with its own beauty
(d) Very poisonous

Q3: According to the doctor, the thief had a sense of
(a) Good clothes
(b) Logic
(c) Cleanliness
(d) None of the above

Q4: Why did the doctor have very few things to carry?
(a) A thief had stolen most of the things
(b) The room was too small to keep a lot of things
(c) He was too poor to have many things
(d) Because the storm destroyed most of the things

Q5: What did the doctor do immediately after reaching his friend’s house?
(a) Narrated the incident of the snake
(b) Took medicines
(c) Drank a glass of water
(d) Smeared oil all over his body and took a bath

Q6: How did the doctor’s wife actually look?
(a) Thin
(b) Short
(c) Fat
(d) None of the above

Q7: After the snake moved towards the mirror, the doctor was
(a) A paralysed man
(b) A crying man
(c) A man of flesh and blood
(d) A stone in the flesh

Q8: From the doctor’s arm, the snake slithered into his
(a) Back
(b) Head
(c) Lap
(d) Leg

Q9: The snake looked at the mirror. Seeing that, the doctor wondered
(a) If it’s going to smile
(b) If it’s going to make a noise
(c) If it’s going to bite him
(d) If the snake was admiring its own beauty

Q10: While sitting wrapped around by a snake, the doctor felt
(a) The presence of devils
(b) The presence of rats
(c) The presence of the ghost
(d) The presence of God

Very Short Answer Questions

Q1: What kind of snake did the doctor say it was?
Q2: What kind of house does the doctor live in?
Q3: Where did the snake fall from the gable?
Q4: Somebody asked, “Doctor, is your wife very fat?”
Q5: “Are there any other funny stories related to cobras?” The young wife enquired.

Short Answer Questions 

Q1: Where did the snake slither on the doctor?
Q2: Describe the house in which the doctor lived when the snake came?
Q3: What was the doctor thinking about the creator of the universe when the snake had coiled around his arm?
Q4: Where was the snake when the doctor ran out of his house?
Q5: Why did the doctor have to stay in an unelectrified house?

Reference to Context

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I had my meal at the restaurant and returned to my room. I heard a noise from above as I opened the door. The sound was a familiar one.
(a) Who does ‘I’ refer to in this extract?
(b) At what time did ‘I’ return to his room? Where did he return from?
(c) When did ‘I’ hear a noise?
(d) What type of noise was it?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The sound was a familiar one. One could say that the rats and I shared the room. I took out my box of matches and lit the kerosene lamp on the table.
(a) What sound did the narrator hear as he entered the room?
(b) Why does the narrator say that it was a familiar sound?
(c) How many times did he hear it?
(d) When and why did the noise stop?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It had a tiled roof with long supporting gables that rested on the beam over the wall. There was no ceiling. There was a regular traffic of rats to and off.
(a) What did the narrator do after entering the room?
(b) Why could the narrator not sleep?
(c) Where did he go and why?
(d) Why did he return to his room?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I went back into the room and sat down on the chair. I opened the box beneath the table and took out a book, the Materia Medica. I opened it at the table on which stood the lamp and a large mirror; a small comb lay beside the mirror.
(a) Where was he before going back into the room? Why had he gone out of the room?
(b) Why did he take a book from the box?
(c) What objects stood on the table?
(d) What did the speaker do after this?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
One feels tempted to look into a mirror when it is near one. I took a look. In those days I was a great admirer of beauty and I believed in making myself look handsome. I was unmarried and I was a doctor. I felt I had to make my presence felt. I picked up the comb and ran it through my hair and adjusted the parting so that it looked straight and neat.
(a) Why did the narrator look into the mirror?
(b) Why did he want to make himself look handsome?
(c) What did the narrator do to make his presence felt?
(d) What two important decisions did the narrator take to improve his appearance?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was unmarried and I was a doctor. I felt I had to make my presence felt. I picked up the comb and ran it through my hair and adjusted the parting so that it looked straight and neat. 
(a) Explain “I had to make my presence felt.”
(b) Why did the narrator feel he had to make his presence felt?
(c) What did the narrator do to make his presence felt?
(d) What do you learn about the narrator from this extract?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I made an important decision—I would shave daily and grow a thin moustache to look more handsome. I was after all a bachelor, and a doctor! I looked into the mirror and smiled. It was an attractive smile. I made another earth-shaking decision.
(a) Where is the narrator? What is he doing?
(b) What discovery did he make about himself?
(c) What two important decisions did he take? Why?
(d) What is the narrator’s tone in these lines?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I got up, paced up and down the room. Then another lovely thought struck me. I would marry.
(a) Where did the narrator get up from? Why?
(b) Which lovely thought struck him?
(c) What sort of lady did he wish to marry?
(d) What prompted him to make this choice?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
There was no time to do any such thing. The snake slithered along my shoulder and coiled around my left arm above the elbow.
(a) What alerted the narrator to the snake’s presence?
(b) What does “any such thing” refer to?
(c) What did the snake do after crawling over the narrator’s shoulder?
(d) How did the narrator react to the snake’s presence?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I didn ’t jump. I didn ‘t tremble. I didn ’t cry out. There was no time to do any such thing. The snake slithered along my shoulder and coiled around my left arm above the elbow. The hood was spread out and its head was hardly three or four inches from my face!
It would not be correct to say merely that I sat there holding my breath I was turned to stone.
(a) Why did the author not jump, tremble and cry?
(b) What did the narrator do as the snake coiled itself around his arm?
(c) Did the snake bite the speaker? What distracted it?
(d) What were the narrator’s thoughts as he looked at the snake?

Q11: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
At my slightest movement the snake would strike me! Death lurked four inches away. Suppose it struck, what was the medicine I had to take? There were no medicines in the room. I was but a poor, foolish and stupid doctor. I forgot my danger and smiled feebly at myself
(a) What does Death lurked four inches away imply?
(b) Why did the doctor call himself a poor and stupid doctor?
(c) What danger does he refer to?
(d) Why did he smile feebly at himself?

Q12: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The snake unwound itself from my arm and slowly slithered into my lap. From there it crept onto the table and moved towards the mirror. Perhaps it wanted to enjoy its reflection at closer quarters.
(a) Where was the narrator at the time?
(b) What did the snake do as it landed on the narrator’s chair?
(c) Where did the snake go after uncoiling from the writer’s arm?
(d) Why did the snake move towards the mirror?

Q13: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I felt then the great presence of the creator of this world and this universe. God was there. Suppose I said something and he did not like it.
(a) When did the narrator feel the presence of the creator?
(b) Why does the narrator feel he may have displeased God?
(c) What did the narrator do then?
(d) What was the result of his realisation?

Q14: There was some pain in my left arm. It was as if a thick leaden rod—no, a rod made of molten fire—was slowly but powerfully crushing my arm. The arm was beginning to be drained of all strength. What could Ido?
(a) Why did the narrator feel a pain in his arm?
(b) Where had the snake come from?
(c) What had alerted the narrator to the snake’s presence at first? What had been his first reaction?
(d) Why did the narrator sit still in the chair?

Q15: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It seemed as if God appreciated that. The snake turned its head. It looked into the mirror and saw its reflection. I do not claim that it was the first snake that had ever looked into a mirror. But it was certain that the snake was looking into the mirror. Was it admiring its own beauty? Was it trying to make an important decision about growing a moustache or using eye shadow and mascara or wearing a vermilion spot on its forehead?
(a) What was it that God appreciated?
(b) What did the snake do as it landed on the narrator’s chair?
(c) Where did the snake move its head?
(d) Why did the narrator call it the “first snake”?

Q16: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was no mere image cut in granite. I was suddenly a man of flesh and blood. Still holding my breath I got up from the chair. I quietly went through the veranda. From there 1 leapt into the yard and ran for all I was worth.

(a) What does the narrator mean when he says, “I was no mere image cut in granite”?
(b) Why had he been sitting turned to stone?
(c) Where had the snake gone?
(d) What did the narrator do?

Q17: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I was no mere image cut in granite. I was suddenly a man of flesh and blood. Still holding my breath I got up from the chair. I quietly went through the veranda. From there 1 leapt into the yard and ran for all I was worth.
(a) When had the narrator felt like an “image cut in granite”?
(b) What is the meaning of ‘a man of flesh and blood’?
(c) What made the narrator suddenly turn into ‘a man of flesh and blood’?
(d) What did the narrator do as soon as he turned into ‘a man of flesh and blood’?

Q18: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The doctor replied, “I ran and ran till I reached a friend’s house. Immediately I smeared oil all over myself and took a bath. I changed into fresh clothes.
(a) Why did the doctor run?
(b) Where did the narrator spend the night?
(c) Why did the doctor smear oil all over his body?
(d) What did he do the next morning?

Q19: The next morning at about eight-thirty I took my friend and one or two others to my room to move my things from there. But we found we had little to carry.
(a) What does the narrator mean by the phrase “the next morning”?
(b) Which friend is being referred to?
(c) Why did the narrator want to remove his things?
(d) Why was there little to carry?

Q20: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“No, ” the doctor said. “God willed otherwise. My life companion is a thin reedy person with the gift of a sprinter. ”
(a) Explain “God willed it otherwise”.
(b) What qualities did the narrator want in his wife?
(c) Why did he want those qualities?
(d) What kind of person did he marry?
Answer: The woman he married was a thin and slender person who could run like a sprinter.

The solutions of the worksheet “Worksheet Solutions: The Snake and the Mirror“

Multiple Choice Questions

Q1: What does the poet hear night and day in the core of his heart?
(a) The sound of the lake water lapping against the shore of Innisfree.
(b) The cries of his children telling him to come back home.
(c) The cries of his countrymen to fight for his country
(d) The cries of birds and animals to come and live with them in the forest.
Q2: What beautiful sight will he get to see there?
(a) The glimmer of midnight stars.
(b) The linnets flying about in the evening.
(c) The purple glow of the noon.
(d) All the above.
Q3: What does the poet hope to get there?
(a) Peace.
(b) Wealth.
(c) Friends.
(d) Name and fame.
Q4: Where does the poet want to go?
(a) To London.
(b) To Paris.
(c) To Innisfree.
(d) To Switzerland.
Q5: Name the poet of The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.
(a) James Kirkup.
(b) Robert Frost.
(c) W.B. Yeats.
(d) Phoebe Cary.
Q6: Select the name of the poet of the poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’.
(a) Robert Frost
(b) Subramania Bharati
(c) Coates Kinney
(d) W.B. Yeats
Q7: What does the poet hear at Innisfree Island?
(a) the sound of raindrops
(b) the noise of the wind
(c) the lapping low sounds of the
(d) none of these three options lake water
Q8: What does the poet see in Innisfree land?
(a) glimmering midnight
(b) purple noon
(c) the evening full of linnet’s wings
(d) all the options are correct
Q9: Where will the poet have peace?
(a) in his home
(b) in heaven
(c) in Innisfree land
(d) in a lake
Q10: What thing will the poet not do on the Innisfree land?
(a) build a restaurant
(b) build a small cabin
(c) plant nine bean rows
(d) build a hive for the honeybee
Very Short Answer Questions

Q1: Read the following passages and answer the questions:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
(i) What kind of garden does he want to have?
(ii) Why does he want to build a hive?
(iii) What is a glade?
(iv) What does he want to do there?

Q2: What is the poet going to build in Innisfree and why?
Q3: What kind of house does the poet want to build?
Q4: How the poet wants to spend his time in Innisfree?
Q5: Where was the poet at the time of penning the poem?
Q6: Read the following passages and answer the questions:
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
(i) Who is I in the first line?

(ii) What’s his resolve?
(iii) What is he going to build there?
(iv) What are wattles?

Q7: What is the intension of the poet?
Q8: Why does the poet want to live alone?
Q9: The poet in the last two lines presents a different picture. What is it?
Q10: Why does the poet want to go to Innisfree and what he intends to do there?

Short Answer Questions

Q1: Describe the Lake Isle of Innisfree as seen through the eyes of the poet.
Q2: What kind of life does the poet William Butler Yeats imagine in his poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”?
Q3: How does the poet describe the lake’s waves?
Q4: Why does the speaker in the poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” desire to spend his time alone in his cabin?
Q5: What words does the poet use to describe how calmness and tranquillity will come to him at Innsifree?

Long Answer Questions

Q1: How does Yeats create the atmosphere of the island and its sights and sounds in “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”? Refer closely to the use of language in the first two stanzas.
Q2: Explain the contrast between the last four lines of “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” and the rest of the poem.
Q3: Briefly describe the major theme of the poem ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree”, Nature vs City life.
Q4: Why does the poet want to go Innisfree?
Q5: In W.B. Yeats’s poem, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree,” what indications does the speaker give of his present environment?

Reference to Context

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; 
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
(a) Who does T refer to in the stanza?
(b) Where is he at the present moment?
(c) Where does he want to go?
(d) What does he wish to do there?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
(a) Name the poetic device used in the first line.
(b) What does the word ‘there’ in the above lines refer to?
(c) Why does the poet wish to do go to Innisfree?
(d) What does the stanza suggest about the poet?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow.
And evenings full of the linnet’s wings.
(a) What is the poet going there to find?
(b) Explain: What do you think “for peace comes dropping slow/ Dropping from the veils of the morning”?
(c) How has noon been described in the stanza?
(d) What is a ‘Linnet’?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow.
And evenings full of the linnet’s wings.
(a) Where is the poet at the moment?
(b) What did the poet see in the morning?
(c) What did the poet hear?
(d) How does peace come in the morning?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
(a) What is the poet’s tone as he repeats “I will arise and go now”?
(b) What does the poet hear?
(c) What do you learn about the poet in this stanza?
(d) How does the poet contrast London and Innisfree?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
(a) Explain the line “lake water lapping with low sounds”.
(b) Bring out the internal rhyme used in the above lines.
(c) Why does the poet want to go to Lake Isle of Innisfree?
(d) Why is the poet looking for peace in Innisfree?

The solutions of the worksheet “Worksheet Solutions: Poem – The Lake Isle of Innisfree“

Multiple Choice Questions

Q.1. What did the school headmaster say about Einstein?
(a) None of these
(b) He is great
(c) He can’t be a success at anything
(d) He would be a genius

Q.2. What did the newspapers proclaim Einstein’s work?
(a) A scientific revolution
(b) An unscientific revolution
(c) A cinematic revolution
(d) An economic revolution

Q.3. What kind of prose do you think, A Truly Beautiful Mind can be categorised as?
(a) Novel
(b) Biographical text
(c) Autobiographical text
(d) Short story

Q.4. By what age did Einstein not learn to speak?
(a) Five and half years
(b) Three and half years
(c) Two and half years
(d) Four and half years

Q.5. A Truly Beautiful Mind, what did Albert’s playmates call him?
(a) Boring Brat
(b) Brother Brown
(c) Brother Boring
(d) Big Brother
Q.6. Why did Einstein write a public missive to the UN?
(a) He wanted to propose his theory in the UN.
(b) He wanted the membership of the UN.
(c) He was in favour of the world government.
(d) He was moved by world destruction.

Q.7. Why did Einstein leave the school?
(a) For good
(b) He had clashed with the teachers
(c) All of these
(d) He didn’t like discipline and order in the school

Q.8. Who was Einstein’s second wife?
(a) Mileva Maric
(b) Maja
(c) Einstein’s cousin Elsa
(d) He did not marry a second time

Q.9. When was Albert Einstein born as per the date given in the text, A Truly Beautiful Mind
(a) 14th March 1859
(b) 14th March 1879
(c) 14th March 1889
(d) 14th March 1869

Q.10. To which the American President did Einstein write a letter about the destructive powers of such atomic bombs?
(a) Abraham Lincoln
(b) Theodore Roosevelt
(c) Franklin Pierce
(d) Franklin D. Roosevelt

Reference to ContextQ1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
At the age of two-and-a-half, Einstein still wasn ’t talking. When he finally did learn to speak, he uttered everything twice. Einstein did not know what to do with other children, and his playmates called him “Brother Boring
(a) What did Einstein’s mother think of him when he was a baby? Why?
(b) Why does the writer point out that Einstein wasn’t talking till the age of two-and-a-half?
(c) How did Einstein speak when he finally started talking?
(d) Why was Einstein called “Brother Boring” by his playmates?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A headmaster once told his father that what Einstein chose as a profession would not matter, because “he will never make a success at anything ” Einstein began learning to play the violin at the age of six, because his mother wanted him to. He later became a gifted amateur violinist, maintaining this skill throughout his life.
(a) What was the headmaster’s opinion about Einstein?
(b) Why did Einstein leave the school in Munich?
(c) Why did Einstein learn to play violin?
(d) What kind of a violin player was Einstein?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
But Albert Einstein was not a bad pupil. He went to high school in Munich, where Einstein’s family had moved when he was 15 months old, and scored good marks in almost every subject.
(a) What had Einstein’s Headmaster said about him?
(b) What were Einstein’s achievements at school?
(c) Where did Einstein attend high school?
(d) What kind of a school did Einstein wish to join?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Einstein hated the school’s regimentation and often clashed with his teachers. At the age of 15, Einstein felt so stifled there that he left the school for good.
(a) Why did Einstein clash with his teachers?
(b) When did Einstein leave his school in Munich and why?
(c) Where did Einstein go after leaving his school in Munich?
(d) What does this tell you about Einstein?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Einstein was highly gifted in mathematics and interested in physics, and after finishing school, he decided to study at a university in Zurich. But science wasn ’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man with the walrus moustache.
(a) Where did Einstein want to continue his education? Why?
(b) What were his favourite subjects?
(c) Explain: But science wasn’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man.
(d) Why did he see Mileva as an ally?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
He worked as a teaching assistant, gave private lessons and finally secured a job in 1902 as a technical expert in the patent office in Bern. While he was supposed to be assessing other people’s inventions, Einstein was actually developing his own ideas in secret.
(a) How did Einstein earn a living before securing a job?
(b) When did Einstein secure a job? What was the nature of this job?
(c) Why did Einstein develop his ideas in secret?
(d) Where did he store his inventions? What did he call it?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
One of the famous papers of 1905 was Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, according to which time and distance are not absolute.
(a) Explain the term “absolute”
(b) What according to Einstein are not absolute?
(c) What is described by the formula E=mc²?
(d) How did this formula establish Einstein as a scientific genius?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
While Einstein was solving the most difficult problems in physics, his private life was unravelling. Albert had wanted to marry Mileva right after finishing his studies, but his mother was against it. She thought Mileva, who was three years older than her son, was too old for him. She was also bothered by Mileva’s intelligence. “She is a book like you, ” his mother said. Einstein put the wedding off.
(a) Where was Mileva from? Why did she join Zurich University?
(b) Why did Einstein’s mother oppose his marriage with Mileva?
(c) Why did Einstein put the wedding off?
(d) When did Einstein get married to Mileva?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The pair finally got married in January 1903, and had two sons. But a few years later, the marriage faltered.
(a) Name the couple being talked about?
(b) What happened to their marriage?
(c) Why did their marriage falter?
(d) Whom did Einstein marry later?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Many of them had fled from Fascism, just as Einstein had, and now they were afraid the Nazis could build and use an atomic bomb.
(a) What does the word ‘fascism’ mean?
(b) Who does ‘they’ refer to in the above lines?
(c) When and where had many of them fled from? Why?
(d) What were they afraid of and why?

Q11: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Einstein was deeply shaken by the extent of the destruction. This time he wrote a public missive to the United Nations In it he proposed the formation of a world government. Unlike the letter to Roosevelt, this one made no impact.
(a) What ‘destruction’ shook Einstein?
(b) What did Einstein write and to whom?
(c) Who was Roosevelt? Why had Einstein written to him?
(d) How had Roosevelt responded?

Q12: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Unlike the letter to Roosevelt, this one made no impact. But over the next decade, Einstein got ever more involved in politics – agitating for an end to the arms buildup and using his popularity to campaign for peace and democracy.
(a) What does ‘this one’ refer to?
(b) Who had written a letter to Roosevelt and why?
(c) What had Einstein written in ‘this one’?
(d) Why did Einstein get more involved in politics?

The solutions of the worksheet “Worksheet Solutions: A Truly Beautiful Mind“

Multiple Choice Questions

Q.1. Find the word from the poem Rain on the Roof which means a repeated part of a song or a poem.
(a) Refrain
(b) Fancies
(c) Shingles
(d) Patter

Q.2. What is the favourite activity of the poet during the rainy season?
(a) Eating snacks
(b) Lie on the bed and listen to the pitter-patter sound of the rain
(c) Roaming on the roof
(d) Listening to the music

Q.3. What does the poet attach the darkness with?
(a) Pleasant
(b) Sadness
(c) Soothing
(d) Joyful mood

Q.4. Which figure of speech has been used in the phrase darling dreamers?
(a) Anaphora
(b) Antithesis
(c) Anticlimax
(d) Alliteration

Q.5. Where is the rain making a noise?
(a) In the lanes
(b) On the roof
(c) In the garden
(d) In the room

Q.6. Which figure of speech has been used in the phrase starry spheres?
(a) Antithesis
(b) Apostrophe
(c) Alliteration
(d) Anaphora

Q.7. Whose memory comes to the poet when he listens to the rain?
(a) The memory of his dear friend
(b) The memory of his mother
(c) The memory of his beloved
(d) The memory of his father

Q.8. What does cottage-chamber mean?
(a) A separate building next to the cottage
(b) All of these
(c) Type of bed
(d) A room in the cottage

Q.9. What tinkles on the shingles?
(a) Raindrops
(b) Silver bangles
(c) Brass-bells
(d) Hailstones

Q.10. Select the correct meaning of refrain.
(a) The noise of the rain
(b) Stop making noise
(c) Sound of piano music
(d) Making refined efforts

Very Short Answer Questions

Q1: What do the humid shadows refer to?
Q2: What does the poet like to do when it rains?
Q3: What makes an echo in the poet’s heart?
Q4: Where do the raindrop patter?
Q5: Is the poet, Coates Kinney, a child now?

Short Answer Questions

Q1: How old do you think the poet is? Justify your answer.
Q2: ‘And the melancholy darkness gently weeps in rainy tears.’ Explain the phrase ‘melancholy darkness’. What does it do?
Q3: What does the poet like to do when it rains?
Q4: What are the poet’s feelings as the rain falls on the shingles?
Q5: “And a thousand dreamy fancies into busy heart.” When do the ‘thousand dreamy fancies’ begin in the poet’s heart?

Long Answer Questions

Q1: How does the rain affect the poet? Describe.
Q2: In what way are the poems The Road Not Taken and Rain on the Roof evocative of the past?
Q3: How does the poet describe the falling rain in the poem ‘Rain on the Roof?
Q4: What happens when the poet listens to the patter of the rain? Do you think that rain is a narrative tool in the poet’s life?

Reference to Context Questions

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
When the humid shadows hover
Over all the starry spheres
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears,
What a bliss to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed
And lie listening to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!
(a) What does the phrase “humid shadows” refer to?
(b) What are “starry spheres”?
(c) Why does the poet call the darkness melancholy?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The poet is in his bed in his cottage.
When the humid shadows hover
Over all the starry spheres
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears,
What a bliss to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed
And lie listening to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!
(a) Who weeps in the form of rainy tears?
(b) Which line shows that the poet is happy when it rains?
(c) What memories does the rain bring to the poet’s mind?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Alliteration: Over all the starry spheres
What a bliss to press the pillow
And lie listening to the patter
Every tinkle on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand dreamy fancies
Into busy being start,
And a thousand recollections
Weave their air-threads into woof,
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof
(a) What echoes in the poet’s heart?
(b) Explain: a thousand dreamy fancies into busy being start.
(c) What starts ‘a thousand dreamy fancies’?
(d) What is a refrain? Find lines from the poem that form its refrain.

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Every tinkle on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand dreamy fancies
Into busy being start,
And a thousand recollections
Weave their air-threads into woof
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof
(a) Explain ‘shingles’. What is tinkling on the shingles?
(b) What finds an echo in the poet’s heart?
(c) Who is a busy being? What happens to his mind?
(d) Explain: “A thousand recollections weave their air-threads into woof’.

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Now in memory comes my mother,
As she used in years agone,
To regard the darling dreamers
Ere she left them till the dawn:
O! Ifeel her fond look on me
As I list to this refrain
Which is played upon the shingles
By the patter of the rain.
(a) Whom does the poet remember?
(b) Who are the darling dreamers?
(c) How did the poet’s mother gaze at the dreamers?
(d) What does he feel? Is his mother alive?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Now in memory comes my mother,
As she used in years agone,
To regard the darling dreamers
Ere she left them till the dawn:
O! Ifeel her fond look on me
As I list to this refrain
Which is played upon the
shingles By the patter of the rain.
(a) What is the poet doing at the moment?
(b) What is the memory that comes to the poet?
(c) What are the poet’s feelings for his family?
(d) Name a poetic device used in the last line.
You can find Worksheets Solutions here: Worksheet Solutions: Poem – Rain on the Roof