Text Book Solutions All Class

Q1: What is the tone of the poem The Road Not Taken?
(a) Sad
(b) Hesitation
(c) Reflective
(d) Happy

Correct Answer is Option (c)
The poem reflects on the choices that people make in their life and the outcome that they face.

Q2: How many roads diverged into the yellow woods?
(a) 4
(b) 3
(c) 2
(d) 1

Correct Answer is  Option (c)

Q3: Why is the poet asking to be wise while choosing a pathway?
(a) Because it is a one-sided road
(b) None of these
(c) Because it is the only one road
(d) Because there is no Going Back option

Correct Answer is  Option (d)

Q4: Which thing decides a person’s future according to this poem?
(a) Success
(b) Path one leaves behind
(c) Path one chooses to walk
(d) Regrets

Correct Answer is  Option (c)

Q5: Read the text carefully and answer the question:

Then took the other, just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear.
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

(i) What does grassy mean in the poem?
(a) the road which is not used by anyone
(b) the road with all the luxuries
(c) the comfortable road
(d) well-built road

Correct Answer is  Option (a)

(ii) Why was the poet looking at the path?
(a) to decide whether it was suitable for him
(b) to see how long it was
(c) to check the road
(d) none of these

Correct Answer is  Option (a)

Q6: What is the message of this poem?
(a) Road is nothing but a pathway
(b) All of these
(c) Be wise while choosing and taking decisions
(d) Two roads are confusing

Correct Answer is  Option (c)

Q7: Why did the poet title his poem as The Road Not Taken?
(a) because he regretted not having chosen the other road.
(b) because he thought it better to say about the road not taken.
(c) because he found the title interesting.
(d) because he couldn’t find a suitable title for his poem.

Correct Answer is  Option (a)
The poet chose to walk down the path less trodden by which had probably led him to despair and suffering and he, therefore, regretted about the road that he had not taken that would presumably lead him to prosperity and happiness.

Q8: What is the rhyme scheme of the poem The Road Not Taken?
(a) ababab cdcdcd efefef ghghgh
(b) abbaa cddcc effee ghhgg
(c) abaab cdccd efeef ghggh
(d) abbab cddcd effef ghhgh

Correct Answer is  Option (c)
The rhyme scheme followed in the poem is abaab, cdccd, efeef, ghggh.

Q9: What has made all the difference in the poet’s life?
(a) Choosing a travelled road
(b) Choosing a less travelled road
(c) By not choosing any road
(d) By not being weak

Correct Answer is  Option (b)
Choosing a less travelled road has made all the difference for the poet.

Q10: Where does the poet find himself?
(a) on the road
(b) on a bus
(c) on a muddy road
(d) on a fork

Correct Answer is Option (d)

Reference Based Questions 

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

Q1:
‘‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth; ”

(a) What does the narrator mean by “a yellow wood”?
Ans: By “yellow wood” the poet means a forest where the trees have yellowing and falling leaves.

(b) What choice did the narrator have to make?
Ans: The narrator had to choose between the two roads.

(c) Which road did the narrator take?
Ans: He took the road that was less travelled upon.

(d) What does the narrator regret?
Ans: The narrator regrets the fact that he cannot travel on both the paths. He also regrets the fact that he cannot come back to the start once he makes a choice.

Q2: 
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry, I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far I could;
To where it bent in the undergrowth, ”

(a) What did the narrator see in the wood?
Ans: The narrator saw two paths diverging in the forest.

(b) Why did the narrator stand there for “long”?
Ans: The narrator stood there for long because he could not make up his mind which path to take.

(c) How were the two roads different?
Ans: While one of the roads was frequently taken, the second road appeared to be less travelled.

(d) The poet here is using “roads” as symbols of:
Ans: Choices one makes in life.

Q3: 
“Then took the other, as just as fair, ‘
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same, ”

(a) What does “other” refer to in the above lines?
Ans: In the above lines “other” refers to the road that was grassy and less travelled upon.

(b) Which road did the narrator choose?
Ans: The narrator chose the one that was grassy and less travelled upon.

(c) Explain “grassy and wanted wear”?
Ans: The road was covered with grass as not many people had walked this road so it was more inviting.

(d) What did the narrator decide about the road he did not take?
Ans: He decided to walk down that road another day.

Q4:
‘And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way;
I doubted if I should ever come back. ”

(a) What does “both” refer to?
Ans: In the given lines “both” refers to the two roads that forked out in different directions.

(b) Explain the line “In leaves no step had trodden back”.
Ans: The given line means a path not commonly used so the dried leaves that lay on the ground and had not been trampled upon.

(c) Why did the narrator wish to come back?
Ans: He wanted to walk down the road he had left.

(d) What made the narrator doubt whether he “should ever come back”?
Ans: The fact that one road generally leads to another made the narrator doubt that he should ever come back.

Q5:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference ”

(a) Where was the narrator walking one day?
Ans: He was walking in the woods.

(b) Which road did the narrator leave?
Ans: The narrator left the road on which most people travelled.

(c) When will the narrator look back on his life?
Ans: The narrator will look back on his life after a very long time – when he is an old man.

(d) Why do you think the narrator says this “with a sigh”?
Ans: The narrator is regretful; he could not return and take the road he had left behind to travel on another day. OR He is content as the road he took led him on to glory and a better life.

Q6:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference ”

(a) Where is the narrator standing?
Ans: The narrator is standing at a place where the road forked into two.

(b) Why was the narrator sorry?
Ans: The narrator was sorry because he could not travel both roads.

(c) Which road did the narrator finally decide to take and why?
Ans: The narrator finally decided to take the road that not many people had walked on because it seemed more adventurous than the route everyone seemed to take.

(d) Whom will he tell this with a sigh?
Ans: The narrator will tell this to the people with whom he is sharing the story of his life.

Q7: 
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference. ”

(a) What will the narrator tell “with a sigh”?
Ans: The narrator will tell about the fork that he had come to in the woods and the choice he had to make; the fact that he had taken the road less frequented by people.

(b) Why does the narrator say, “And that has made all the difference”?
Ans: The narrator said that later in life he shall be retrospectively telling people how his life has been different due to the choices he had made long ago.

(c) What did the narrator wish to do when he takes the road that he has not been able to do?
Ans: The narrator wanted to come back and take the other road.

(d) What difference did the road he took make to his life?
Ans: The road he took led him on to glory and a better life.

Q8:
“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference “

(a) What is the theme of the poem?
Ans: The theme of the poem is the various problems we face in life and the choices we make.

(b) Which poetic device defines the roads in the wood?
Ans: A metaphor has been used to define the two roads in the wood.

(c) What is the tone of the narrator in the last stanza?
Ans: The narrator adopts a reflective tone in the last stanza.

(d) Where is the narrator when he makes the choice?
Ans: While out for a walk in the woods, the narrator comes to a fork in the road and has to decide which path to take.

Q1: In the chapter, The Fun They Had, Where did Tommy find the book?
(a) In his study room
(b) In the playground
(c) In his school
(d) In the attic

Correct Answer is Options (d)
Tommy told Margie that he had found the book in the attic of his house when she asked him where he got the book from.

Q2. Which subject did Margie face problems in learning?
(a) Geography
(b) History
(c) Mathematics
(d) Science

Correct Answer is Options (a)
Margie had problems with learning Geography from her mechanical teacher.

Q3. Whose father knew as much as a teacher?
(a) Blair
(b) Evelyn
(c) Margie
(d) Tommy

Correct Answer is Options (d)

Q4. How much time was taken to repair Tommy’s teacher?
(a) 15 days
(b) 20 days
(c) 25 days
(d) One month

Correct Answer is Options (d)

Q5. According to Tommy, the real book was
(a) Wrong
(b) Boring
(c) A waste
(d) Fiction

Correct Answer is Options (c)

Q6. To which world does the story take the readers?

(a) Future world where computers will play a major role
(b) Past world
(c) Present World
(d) A future world where humans will play a major role

Correct Answer is Options (a)

Q7 Who was the regular teacher who taught the lessons?
(a) Who teaches
(b) Human teacher
(c) Computer teacher
(d) Mechanical robot teacher who teaches Margie and Tommy

Correct Answer is Options (d)

Q8. In the chapter, The Fun They Had, why were the two children surprised to know that once children were taught different subjects by human teachers?
(a) Because humans were mechanical teachers.
(b) Human teaching the children was an offensive crime.
(c) Because humans were not mechanical teachers.
(d) Human beings were not allowed to teach.

Correct Answer is Options (c)
The prose being set in future portrays the digital world where books no longer existed and people studied from mechanic screens. Therefore, there were no human teachers for centuries since the time books became extinct. Hence, they have never seen or heard of human teaching children in schools.

Q9. In the chapter, The Fun They Had, which date has been mentioned in her diary by Margie?
(a) 15th May 2156
(b) 17th May 2158
(c) 17th May 2157
(d) 15th May 2157

Correct Answer is Options (c)
The day Tommy found a book, Margie recorded the date in her diary where she wrote 17 May 2157.

Q10. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
(a) Geography
(b) Science
(c) Mathematics
(d) All of these

Correct Answer is Options (d)

Fill in the Blanks

Q1: Margie’s grandfather once said that there was a time when all stories were printed on ____.

Ans: paper

Q2: Tommy found a ___ book in the attic.

Ans: real

Q3: Margie’s mechanical teacher gave her test after test in ____.

Ans: geography

Q4: Margie had to write her homework and test papers in a punch code she learned when she was ____ years old.

Ans: six

Q5: The Inspector adjusted the geography sector to an average ____ level.

Ans: ten-year

True or False

Q1: Margie loved school.

Ans: False

Q2: Tommy found a million books in the attic.

Ans: False

Q3: Margie’s mother never intervened in her education.

Ans: False

Q4: Margie hoped the Inspector would take away the mechanical teacher.

Ans: True

Q5: Margie was happy when the Inspector adjusted the geography sector.

Ans: False

Match the FollowingColumn AColumn B1. Margie’s feelings about schoola. A real book 2. Tommy’s ageb. Thirteen3. Margie’s agec. Adjusted the geography sector4. Tommy’s discoveryd. Hated school5. The Inspector’s actione. Eleven

Ans:

Margie’s feelings about school- Hated School
Tommy’s Age- Thirteen
Margie’s Age- Eleven
Tommy’s Discovery- A real book
The Inspector’s action- Adjusted the geography sector 

Reference Based Questions 

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

Q1: “Today Tommy found a real book! ”
It was a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper.

(a) Who are Margie and Tommy?
Ans: Tommy is a thirteen-year-old boy and Margie an eleven-year-old girl who live in the twenty second century.

(b) Where had Tommy found the book?
Ans: Tommy had found the book in the attic of his house.

(c) What is meant by “real book”?
Ans: The book is “real” as it is printed on paper rather than a telebook.

(d) How had Margie heard of such a book?
Ans: Margie’s grandfather had told her that he had heard from his grandfather about a time when all stories were printed on paper.

Q2: It was a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper. They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to-on a screen, you know.

(a) Why were the pages of the book yellow?
Ans: The pages of the book were yellow because the book was quite old.

(b) What kind of books did Margie and Tommy read?
Ans: Margie and Tommy read telebooks

(c) What do you think a telebook is?
Ans: A book that is not printed on paper, but one that can be read on a screen. Words move on the screen for the students to read.

(d) Why did Tommy find the book a “waste”?
Ans: Unlike their telebooks, the words on the page stayed the same and did not change. He felt when one was through with the book, one would just throw it away.

Q3: They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to-on a screen, you know.

(a) Who are ‘they’ in this extract?
Ans: ‘They’ are Margie and Tommy, the young children who are reading the book.

(b) Which book had yellow and crinkly pages?
Ans: The book that Tommy found in the attic of his house had yellow and crinkly pages.

(c) What do the yellow and crinkly pages reveal about the book?
Ans: The yellow and crinkly pages reveal that it was a very old book and had not been lying in the attic for a long time.

(d) What did ‘they’ find funny? Why?
Ans: The children found the fixed and still words in the book funny because they were used to reading electronic books on the television screen in which the words kept moving.

Q4: “I wouldn’t throw it away. ”
(a) Who says these words?
Ans: Tommy, a thirteen-year-old boy says these words.

(b) What does ‘it’ refer to?
Ans: ‘It’ refers to the television screen of the computer on which Tommy reads books. It has a million books . and space for a lot more.

(c) What is it being compared with, by the speaker?
Ans: ‘It’ is being compared with the paper book that Tommy had found in the attic of his house.

(d) Why would the speaker not throw it away?
Ans: The speaker, Tommy, wouldn’t throw the television screen on which he read books away because it had a million books on it and it could be used many times.

Q5: “What’s it about? ”
“School. ”
Margie was scornful. “School? What’s there to write about school? I hate school. ”

(a) What does ‘it’ refer to?
Ans: ‘It’ refers to the book Tommy found in his attic.

(b) Why was Margie scornful about the book?
Ans: Margie was scornful about the book as it was about school. She hated her school and felt school would not be an interesting enough topic to read about.

(c) Why did Margie not like school?
Ans: Margie had never liked her school, but now she hated her mechanical teacher so she disliked school even more.

(d) Why did Margie hate her mechanical teacher?
Ans: The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse.

Q6: He was a round little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with dials and wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart.

(a) Who is ‘he’?
Ans: He is the County Inspector.

(b) Why had he been called?
Ans: Margie’s mother, Mrs Jones, had called him because Margie’s mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse. She wanted the County Inspector to fix the teacher.

(c) Why did he give Margie an apple?
Ans: He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple to reassure her.

(d) How did he fix the teacher?
Ans: The County Inspector found that the teacher’s the geography sector was geared a little too quick. He slowed it up to an average ten-year level.

Q7: He said to her mother, “It’s not the little girl’s fault, Mrs Jones. I think the geography sector was geared a little too quick. Those things happen sometimes. ”

(a) Who is ‘he’ and which ‘little girl’ is he talking about?
Ans: He is the County Inspector. He is talking about Margie.

(b) What, according to him, is not the girl’s fault?
Ans: According to him, the girl’s continuous poor performances in Geography tests was not her fault.

(c) What was wrong with the geography sector of the mechanical teacher?
Ans: He finds that the pace of the geography sector has been a bit too fast for the girl’s level.

(d) What does the County Inspector do to correct the fault?
Ans: The County Inspector took apart the mechanical teacher and slowed it up to an average ten-year level.

Q8: “Actually, the overall pattern of her progress is quite satisfactory. ” And he patted Margie’s head again. Margie was disappointed. She had been hoping they would take the teacher away altogether.

(a) Who is the speaker? Whose progress is being talked about?
Ans: The speaker is the County Inspector. He is talking about Margie’s progress.

(b) Why was Margie disappointed?
Ans: Margie was disappointed as her teacher was not taken away as she wished for.

(c) Whose teacher had been taken away? Why?
Ans: Tommy’s teacher had been taken away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

(d) What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Ans: Margie and Tommy learnt geography, history and arithmetic.

Q9: Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes. “Because it’s not our kind of school, stupid. This is the old kind of school that they had hundreds and hundreds of years ago. ” He added loftily.

(a) What does Tommy mean by “our kind of school”?
Ans: They study in classrooms in their own homes with mechanical teachers.

(b) Why did Tommy call Margie stupid?
Ans: Tommy called Malgie stupid because she was ignorant about schools of the past.

(c) Whom does ‘they’ here refer to?
Ans: ‘They’ here refers to the students of centuries ago who were mentioned in the book.

(d) How was ‘their’ school different?
Ans: Their school was a special building that they went to and they learned the same thing if they were the same age. They had a person as a teacher who taught the whole class.

Q10: “Sure they had a teacher, butit wasn ’t a regular teacher. It was a man. ”

(a) Who speaks these words and about what?
Ans: Tommy speaks these words about the schools in the olden times.

(b) Who does ‘they’ refer to in these lines?
Ans: ‘They’ refers to the students from the schools of the olden times.

(c) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
Ans: Here ‘regular’ means a mechanised teacher like the ones Margie and Tommy had.

(d) What is ‘regular’ contrasted with?
Ans:‘Regular’ is contrasted with the teachers from the olden days who were real men and not programmed machines.

Q11: “A man? How could a man be a teacher? ”
“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them homework and asked them questions. ”

(a) Who feels a man cannot be a teacher? Why?
Ans: Margie feels a man cannot be a teacher as a man is not smart enough. Moreover, she was used to being taught by a mechanical teacher.

(b) What does ‘he’ refer to here?
Ans: ‘He’ refers to a man, a human teacher of the twentieth century.

(c) What job did ‘he’ do?
Ans: His job was to teach boys and girls and give them work to do at home and ask them questions.

(d) Where had the speaker got this information?
Ans: The speaker, Tommy, had found this information in the old book that he had found in the attic of his house.

Q12: Tommy screamed with laughter. “You don’t know much, Margie. The teachers didn ’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there. ”

(a) Why did Tommy scream with laughter?
Ans: Tommy screamed with laughter at the ignorance of Margie who thought that in old times the human teacher lived in the house of a student and taught him there.

(b) What did Margie not know? Why?
Ans: Margie did not know about the functioning of the schools of olden times because she lived in the year 2157 when education had been made fully computerized.

(c) What ‘special building’ does the speaker refer to?
Ans: By ‘special building’ Tommy means the buildings that housed schools in olden times.

(d) How is the special building a unique place for Margie and Tommy?
Ans: Margie and Tommy are the students of the year 2157. They are taught at home by mechanical teachers. Their television screen is their school. Therefore, a special building for teaching children is a unique thing for them.

Q13: Margie went into the school room. It was right next to her bedroom and the mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her. It was always on at the same time every day except Saturday and Sunday because her mother said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.

(a) What was ‘it’? Where was ‘it’?
Ans:‘It’ in these lines is Margie’s schoolroom. It was next to her bedroom.

(b) Why was ‘it’ next to ‘her’ bedroom?
Ans: It was next to her bedroom because in the twenty-second century students were taught through a customized education system under where students were taught at home by mechanical teachers.

(c) Why was the mechanical teacher on and waiting for her?
Ans:The mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her because it was a programmed machine that worked . as per a fixed time-plan and Margie’s mother wanted her to follow a fixed time plan.

(d) Why did Margie not like the mechanical teacher?
Ans: Margie did not like the mechanical teacher because it was very boring and demanding. She had to sit in front of it regularly at fixed hours.

Q14: Margie did so with a sigh. She was thinking about the old schools they had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighbourhoods came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the school room going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so that they could help one another with the home work and talk about it.

(a) What did Margie do with a sigh?
Ans: Margie put her homework into the slot of her mechanical teacher with a sigh.

(b) Which school is Margie thinking about in the above lines?
Ans: Margie was thinking about the old schools of centuries ago as written about in the book Tommy had found.

(c) Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Ans: Margie’s school was in her home itself. It was right next to her bedroom. No, she did not have any classmates.

(d) How is the school under reference different from the present ones?
Ans: The present schools were located in the student’s house, where a mechanical teacher taught the student as per the child’s individual capacity. The schools under reference had a separate building where all children of a certain age were taught together by human teachers.

Q.1. What was the profession of Gerrard? How did he manage his work?

Q.2. How did Gerrard react on seeing the intruder?

Q.3. Why did Gerrard tell the intruder ‘you will not kill me for a very good reason’?

Q.4. The way Gerrard behaved when the intruder entered his cottage presented that he was amused to see him. Do you think that he was really amused, or he was pretending?

Q.5. What was the intention of the intruder when he entered Gerrard’s cottage?

Q.6. What does the intruder threaten?

Q.7. What was Gerrard doing when the intruder entered his cottage?

Q.8. What was the intention of the intruder when he trespassed into the cottage?

Q.9. What does Gerrard start telling?

Q.10. What does Gerrard want?

Reference to Context Questions

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Why, this is a surprise, Mr— er—
(a) Who speaks these words and to whom?
(b) Where are they at the time?
(c) What is the speaker’s tone at the time?
(d) What does this tell you about the speaker?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I’m glad you ’re pleased to see me. I don’t think you ’ll be pleased for long. Put those paws up!
(a) Who is speaking these lines and to whom? Where is the conversation taking place?
(b) Why is ‘the speaker’ so sure that ‘his listener’ won’t be pleased for long?
(c) What does ‘paws’ mean here? Why does the Intruder use the expression?
(d) Why is the speaker asking the listener ‘to put those paws up’?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Thanks a lot. You ’ll soon stop being smart. I’ll make you crawl. I want td know a few things, see.
(a) Who is the speaker? Why is he thanking the listener?
(b) Why does the speaker think that the listener is trying to be smart?
(c) Why does the speaker expect the listener to soon stop being smart?
(d) What does the speaker mean by ‘I’ll make you crawl’?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
At last a sympathetic audience!
(a) Who speaks these words? To whom?
(b) Why does he say it?
(c) Is he sarcastic or serious?
(d) Why does the listener wish to know the story of the speaker’s life?

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I’m sorry. I thought you were telling me, not asking me. A question of inflection; your voice is unfamiliar.
(a) Who is the speaker and who does he speak to?
(b) What had the listener asked the speaker?
(c) What does ‘inflection’ mean here? What logic does the speaker give for misinterpreting the inflection of his voice?
(d) What do these lines tell us about the speaker?

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
That, ’s a lie. You ’re not dealing with a fool. I’m as smart as you and smarter, and I know you run a car. Better be careful, wise guy!
(a) Who is the speaker? Which Tie’ is he talking about?
(b) Why did the speaker think he was smarter than the listener?
(c) Why did he warn the listener to be careful?
(d) What does the extract reveal about the Intruder?

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
You seem to have taken a considerable amount of trouble. Since you know so much about me, won’t you say something about yourself? You have been so modest.
(a) Who speaks these words and to whom?
(b) What is his tone when he speaks these words?
(c) Why does he want to know more about the Intruder?
(d) What light does this throw on the speaker’s character?

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I could tell you plenty. You think you ’re smart, but I’m the top of the class round here. I’ve got brains and I use them. That’s how I’ve got where have.
(a) Who speaks these words to whom and in what context?
(b) Why does the speaker say “I could tell you plenty”?
(c) What does he mean by ‘the top of the class round here’?
(d) What is his tone at the moment?

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
My speciality’s jewel robbery. Your car will do me a treat. It’s certainly a dandy bus.
(a) What does the speaker do? Why does he call it his ‘speciality’?
(b) What does he call ‘a dandy bus’? What does he mean?
(c) What do his words tell you about the speaker?
(d) What does the speaker intend to do?

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I’m not taking it for fun. I’ve been hunted long enough. I’m wanted for murder already, and they can’t hang me twice.
(a) What ‘step’ is the speaker talking about taking? Why is he taking it?
(b) By whom has the speaker been hunted? Why?
(c) Why does he say “they can’t hang me twice”?
(d) What light do these lines reflect on the speaker’s state of mind?

Q11; Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I’ve got freedom to gain. As for myself I’m a poor hunted rat. As Vincent Charles Gerrard I’m free to go places and do nothing. I can eat well and sleep and without having to be ready to beat it at the sight of a cop.
(a) Why is the speaker a ‘hunted rat’?
(b) Why has he chosen to take on Gerrard’s identity?
(c) Why does the speaker have to run at the sight of a cop?
(d) What advantage will the speaker have once he impersonates Gerrard?

Q12: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
It brought me to Aylesbury. That’s where I saw you in the car. Two other people saw you and started to talk.
I listened. It looks like you ’re a bit queer — kind of a mystery man.
(a) What is ‘it’? Where did it bring him?
(b) What did the speaker overhear about the listener? From whom?
(c) What made the two men conclude that the listener was a mystery man?
(d) How did this suit the Intruder’s purpose?

Q13: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Don’t be a fool. If you shoot, you ’ll hang for sure. If not as yourself then as Vincent Charles Gerrard.
(a) Why did the speaker say that the listener will be hanged?
(b) What surprise did the speaker give to the listener?
(c) What proof does the speaker give the listener about his being a criminal?
(d) What do you think was the speaker’s tone as he spoke to the listener?

Q14: This is your big surprise. I said you wouldn’t kill me and I was right. Why do you think I am here today and gone tomorrow, never see tradespeople? You say my habits would suit you. You are a crook. Do you think I am a Sunday-school teacher?
(a) What was the big surprise given by the speaker?
(b) What was the speaker right about? Why was he right?
(c) Explain the phrase Sunday school teacher? What does the speaker imply by his words?
(d) What light does it throw on the character of the speaker and the listener?

Q15: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I said it with bullets and got away ”.
(a) Who says this?
(b) What does it mean?
(c) Is it the truth? What is the speaker’s reason for saying this?
(d) How was he in imminent danger from the police?

Q16: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I have got a man posted on the main road. He’ll ring up if he sees the police, but I don’t want to leave… (telephone bell rings,) Come on! They ’re after us. Through here straight to the garage.
(a) Whose call had Gerrard been expecting?
(b) Whose call had told the Intruder he was expecting?
(c) What did he show the Intruder to convince him that he was going to run away?
(d) What is his tone like as he says these words?

Q17: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
For God’s sake clear that muddled head of yours and let’s go. Come with me in the car. I can use you. If you find it’s a frame, you’ve got me in a car, and you still have your gun.
(a) What does the speaker call the listener’s head “muddled”?
(b) Where does the speaker invite the other person?
(c) What assurance does he give the listener?
(d) What is in the speaker’s mind?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.

Q.1. Read the following passages and answer the questions
“No motion has she now, no force.
She neither hears nor sees
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.”
(i) Name the poem and the poet.
(ii) Why does the beloved has no motion and no force?
(iii) What kind of motion does his beloved have now?
(iv) What changes have come in his beloved now?

Q.2. How much does the poet love his beloved? How can we say that?

Q.3. What does the poet feel about his beloved? Is he contented?

Q.4. What is the state of mind of the poet when he comes to know that his beloved is no more?

Q.5. How does the poet imagine his beloved to be, after death?

Q.6. Read the following passages and answer the questions
“A slumber did my spirit seal.
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.”
(i) What is the poet talking about in these lines?
(ii) What does the poet mean by slumber?
(iii) Who is she in the above lines?
(iv) Why does the poet have no fears?

Q.7. What does William Wordsworth talking about in the poem?

Q.8. How does the poet react to his beloved one’s death?

Q.9. Which lines of the poem shows that the beloved is no more with the poet?

Q.10. The poet has lost his beloved because of which he feels lonely and a great shock. Explain his state of mind.

Reference to Context Questions

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
(a) What was the poet’s state of mind when Lucy was alive?
(b) What was the ‘human fear’ he did not have?
(c) Why did he not have this fear?
(d) How does the poet imagine her to be, after death?

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A slumber did my spirit seal-
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
(a) Who does ‘she’ refer to?
(b) What could she not feel?
(c) Explain “the touch of earthly years”.
(d) Why does the poet say that his loved one is rolling round in the way of the earth?

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
No motion has she now, no force –
She neither hears nor sees,
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.
(a) What happened to the poet’s beloved?
(b) Where is she now?
(c) How does she become an inseparable part of nature?
(d) Explain: she is in “earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees”?

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
No motion has she now, no force –
She neither hears nor sees,
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.
(a) What does the word ‘slumber’ refer to?
(b) How will time not affect the poet’s beloved?
(c) ‘No motion has she now, no force.’ Why is ‘she’ motionless?
(d) What is the central theme of the poem?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.

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“