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प्रश्न
I could hear the squeaking that heralded the evening arrival of the bats. I listened to the noises of the approaching night. Every day my hearing grew sharper. I was learning to filter out whatever I did not need to listen to, and giving no sign that I could hear everything that went on in the house.
I could not sleep. The air was heavy and still, the moon hidden behind thick banks of cloud. Lord Otori was sound asleep. I did not want to leave the house I'd come to love so much, but I seemed to be bringing nothing but trouble to it. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if I just vanished in the night. [5]
Now I heard the hiss of hot water as the bath was prepared, the clatter of dishes from the kitchen, the sliding sigh of the cook's knife, a dog barking two streets away, and the sounds of feet on the wooden bridges on the canals. I knew the sounds of the house, day and night, in the sunshine and under the rain. This evening I realized I was always listening for something more. I was waiting too. For what? [10]
I began to wonder if I could get out of the house without setting the dogs barking and arousing the guards. I started consciously listening to the dogs. Usually, I heard them bark on and off throughout the night, but I'd learned to distinguish their barks and to ignore them. I set my ears for them but heard nothing. Then I started listening for the guards: the sound of a foot on stone or a whispered conversation. Nothing. Sounds that should have been there been missing from the night's familiar web. [20]
Now I was wide-awake, straining my ears to hear. There came the slightest of sounds, hardly more than a tremor, between the window and the ground.
For a moment I thought it was the earth-shaking, as it so often did. Another tiny tremble followed, then another. Someone was climbing up the side of the house [25]
My first instinct was to yell out, but cunning took over. I rose from the mattress and crept silently to Lord Otori's side. I knelt beside him and whispered in his ear, "Lord Otori, someone is, outside." [30]
He woke instantly and then reached for the sword and knife that lay beside him. I gestured to the window. The faint tremor came again.
Lord Otori passed the knife to me and stepped to the wall. I moved to the other side of the window. We waited for the assassin to climb in.
Step by step he came up the wall, stealthy and unhurried as if he had all the time in the world. We waited for him with the same patience. [35]
He paused on the sill to take out the knife he planned to use on us and then stepped inside. Lord Otori took him in a stranglehold. The intruder wriggled backwards. I leaped at him, and the three of us fell into the garden like a flurry of fighting cats. [40]
The man fell first, across the stream, striking his head on a boulder. Lord Otori landed on his feet. My fall was broken by one of the shrubs. The intruder groaned, tried to rise, but slipped back into the water.
"Get a light," Lord Otori said.
I ran to the house, took a light that still burned in one of the candle stands and carried it back to the garden. [45]
The assassin had died without regaining consciousness. It turned out he had a poison pellet in his mouth and had crushed it as he tell. He was dressed in black, with no marking on his clothes. I held the light over him. There was nothing to tell us who he was. [50]
(i) Given below are four words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage:
(1) Coming near
( 2 ) Disappeared suddenly
(3) Awakening from sleep
(4) Moved slowly and gradually
(ii) For each of the words given below, write a sentence of at least ten words using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage:
(1) Bats ( line 1 )
( 2 ) Sign ( line 4 )
( 3 ) Banks ( line 6 )
( 4 ) Back ( line 43 )
उत्तर
(i)
(1) Coming near - arrival
( 2 ) Disappeared suddenly - vanished
(3) Awakening from sleep - woke
(4) Moved slowly and gradually - crept
(ii)
(1) Bats: I am afraid of bats.
( 2 ) Sign: I will sign for him.
( 3 ) Banks: I work for a bank.
( 4 ) Back: Then he handed the wallet back to his wife.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
Answer following question in short.
How did kangaroos react to duck’s request?
Thinking about Poem
What does he mean by “the strength of the tree exposed”?
What is the significance of the title?
Is Lushkoff a willing worker? Why, then, does he agree to chop wood for Sergei?
Why does the disciple’s decide to stay in the Kingdom of Fools? Is it a good idea?
Sometimes we see something beautiful and striking, and we remember it for a
long time afterwards. Can you recollect this ever happening to you? If so, what
was it? What do you remember about it now? Are the details of what you saw or
the feelings you experienced at that time fresh in your mind? Think for a few
minutes, then share your thoughts with the class.
"They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro'won,
And our good Prince Eugene."
"Why,'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay...nay...my little girl,"quoth he,
"It was a famous victory.
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why that I cannot tell,"said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
How does the poet describe the scene on the field after the battle?
It was my business to cross the bridge, explore the bridge head 3 beyond and find out to what point the enemy had advanced. I did this and returned over the bridge. There were not so many carts now and very few people on foot, but the old man was still there.’’Where do you come from?” I asked him.
“From San Carlos,” he said, and smiled.
That was his native town and so it gave him pleasure to mention it and he smiled.
“I was taking care of animals,” he explained.
“Oh,” I said, not quite understanding.
“Yes,” he said, “I stayed, you see, taking care of animals. I was the last one to leave the town of San Carlos.”
He did not look like a shepherd nor a herdsman and I looked at his black dusty clothes and his gray dusty face and his steel rimmed spectacles and said, “What animals were they?”
“Various animals,” he said, and shook his head. “I had to leave them.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What is the narrator’s job?
He flungs himself down in a corner to recoup from the fatigue of his visit to the shop. His wife said, “You are getting no sauce today, nor anything else. I can’t find anything to give you to eat. Fast till the evening, it’ll do you good. Take the goats and be gone now,” she cried and added, “Don’t come back before the sun is down.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Where had Muni gone and why?
I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the broad-jump trials, I was startled to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps! He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. 1 was told that Hitler hoped to win the jump with him. I guessed that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ “master race” (Aryan superiority) theory. After all, I am a Negro. Angr about Hitler’s ways, 1 determined to go out there and really show Der Fuhrer and his master race who was superior and who wasn’t. An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the takeoff board for a foul. On the second jump, I fouled even worse. “Did I come 3,000 miles for this?” I thought bitterly. “To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself ?” Walking a few yards from the pit, 1 kicked disgustedly at the dirt.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
I supposed that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ Aryan- superiority theory. What did Jesse Owens want to show to Hitler?
Grandfather suggested that Timothy should be put in another cage. The reason was that
Complete the following sentence by adding the appropriate part of the sentence given below.
Many wise men answered the king’s questions, _______________.
“He liked to tease and play”. Who is teasing whom? How?
Complete the sentence below by appropriately using anyone of the following:
if you want to/if you don’t want to/if you want him to
He’ll lend you his umbrella______________.
Answer the following question.
Why is it good to have rebels?
How did the dog repay to his masters?
Where did Mr Gessler live?
Why was Tilloo escorted back home?
Why does the author call sleep a wonder?
Which line in the poem suggests that you need a keen eye and a sharp ear to enjoy a meadow? Read aloud the stanza that contains this line.
How did the old woman’s little gifts help Vijay Singh in vanquishing the ghost?
What did Taro’s father wish for one cold day?
Try to make a kite with your friends. Collect the things required such as colour paper/newspaper, thread, glue, a thin stick that can be bent. After making the kite see if you can fly it.
In groups of four, discuss the following lines and their meanings.
(i) All that you do is match the words
To the brightest thoughts in your head
What does the word ‘chasing in the extract mean?
What is meant by a ‘game of chance’? What lesson did the narrator learn from his experience at the fair?
Add im- or in- to each of the following words and use them in place of the italicised words in the sentences given below.
| patient, proper, possible, sensitive, competent |
The project appears very difficult at first sight but it can be completed if we work very hard.
In each of the following words ‘ch’ represents the same consonant sound as in ‘chair’. The words on the left have this sound initially. Those on the right have it finally. Speak each word clearly.
choose bench
child march
cheese peach
chair wretch
charming research
Underline the letters representing this sound in each of the following words.
- feature
- reaching
- riches
- archery
- nature
- batch
- picture
- matches
- church
“You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed.” Who said these words and to whom?
When Cassius says, ‘My life is run his compass’, he means that ______.
