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Read the Following Extract and Answer the Questions that Follow: with Ships and Sun and Love Tempting Them to Steal... for Lives that Slyly Turn in Their Cramped Holes from Fog to Endless Night? - English Core

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प्रश्न

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal...
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night?

(i) Who are 'them' referred to in the first line?
(ii) What tempts them?
(iii) What does the poet say about 'their' lives?

उत्तर

(a) The word 'them' refers to the children studying in a slum school.

(b) Shakespeare and the world map present a ‘bad example’ to these children. The beauty, vastness and radiance of such things tempt them.

(c) According to the poet, these children spend their whole lives confined in ‘their cramped holes’, like rodents. The undernourished bodies of these children look like skeletons, comprising only bones. Their steel-framed spectacles with repaired glasses make them appear like the broken pieces of a bottle scattered on stones. Since their entire lives revolve around slums, their future also seems blotted.

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Unseen Poem Comprehension
  क्या इस प्रश्न या उत्तर में कोई त्रुटि है?
2013-2014 (March) All India Set 1

संबंधित प्रश्न

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you have the will to live and courage to die
You are a beacon-light for people far and wide
If you ignore the j eers and, thus, expose the lie
' That virtue and success do not go side by side.'
You are the person I am looking for.

(1) What advice does the poet give us about the interaction with others?  (1)
(2) According to you, how should you behave with your parents?  (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line : If you have the will to live and courage to die'  (1)

(4) Pick out the words from the extract which indicate negative traits.  (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

(1) Why are the wealthy kingdoms unstable'? (1)

(2) Do you feel wars are the only solution to the problems between nations'? Explain. (1)

(3) Give the rhyming scheme used in the extract.  (1)

(4) Pick out the words/expressions related to the mighty kingdom.  (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
As a raw mythology revealed to us its age
Soon afterwards we left Baroda for Bombay
Where there are no trees except the one
Which grows and seethes in one's dreams, its aerial roots Looking for ground to strike.

(1) What did the rings of the trunk of the tree reveal about its age? (1)

(2) According to you, how do trees help the mankind? (1)

(3) Give an example of 'Repetition' from the extract. (1)

(4) The poem has picturesque expressions. They make the poem lively. Pick out such expressions from, the extract. (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek .
Shadowed by the mountain's immeasurable peak
Considered the largest thing known to man
Now skyscrapers are the most extravagant and titanic part of the plan
We used to sit next to the stream, the wind caressing our crown
Watching the magnificent untamed beasts roam far, far from town
Now they are just characters of folk tales, memories we pass down
An adjective to describe someone, no more a noun
This could be our reality.

(1) What was the largest thing known to man? (1)

(2) What would be the possible result of ignoring nature? (1)

(3) Give an example of personification from the extract. (1)

( 4) Pick out from the extract some expressions of geographical images. (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below
All the rest of her children, she said, are on the nuclear
blacklist of the dead,
all the rest, unless
the whole world understands - that peace is a woman:
A thousand candles then lit
in her starry eyes, and I saw angels bearing a moonlit message :
Peace is indeed a pregnant woman Peace is a mother.

(1) What is the situation of the children in absence of peace? (1)

(2) Why should we avoid wars? (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
that peace is a woman. (1)

(4) What message does the poet give through this poem? (1)


Read the following extract a.nd answer the questions given below:
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten 
because it seems that is the way of the world:
an endless track of champions
and in a corner we, forgotten
maybe because of everybody else,
since they seemed too much like us
until they were robbed of their laurels,
their medals, their titles, their names.

(1) What is the way of the world?

(2) Do you think the middle-class people are satisfied with 
their lives? Explain.

(3) Name and explain the figure· of speech in the following lines:  ''Since they seemed so much like us.''
(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract showing the failure of man.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Old women do not fly on magic wands
nor make obscure prophecies
from ominous forests.
They just sit on vacant park benches
in the quiet evenings,
call doves by their names
and charm them with grains of maize.
Or, trembling like waves
they stand in endless queues in
government hospitals.

(1) What do old women do in the quiet evenings?

(2) Do you feel old women should be looked after by their
families? Justify your answer.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Or, trembling like waves.'

(4) Pick out two pictorial images from the extract.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
How do you know
Peace is a woman?
I know, for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way
to the world's fare.
She had such a wonderful face.
just like a golden flower faded
before her prime.

(1) How does the poet describe the face of peace?

(2) Do you feel mother can be a symbol of peace? Explain it in your own words.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Peace is a woman.'

(4) How does the Poet come to know that peace is a woman?


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or me>re so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years

Questions:
(1) What revealed the age of the banyan tree?

(2) How would you save the natural habitat of wildlife?

(3) Find from this extract an example of 'Repetition'.

(4) Pick out any two lines from the extract showing the pictorial quality of human action.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes.
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give in to gossips and lies
Rather heed them not, saying, 'Who bothers?"
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a setback you offer no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.
1. How does the poet expect us to react to winning and losing?
2. What efforts would you take to be a good citizens?
3. Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line.
"If you do not get lowered in your own eyes while you raise yourself in those of others"
4. Pick out the lines that express the expected reaction to rumours.

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: (4) 

All dawns pass
leaving them in the dark.
They do not fear death,
they died long ago.
Old women once
were continents.
They had deep woods in them,
lakes, mountains, volcanoes even,
even raging gulfs.
When the earth was in heat
they melted, shrank,
leaving only their maps.
You can fold them
and keep them handy :
who knows, they might help you find
your way home. 
Questions: 
1. What do ‘maps’ symbolize? (1)  
2. Do you feel that you should look after your grandparents? Why? (1) 
3. Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line.
“All dawns pass leaving them in the dark” (1) 
4. What examples of geographical imagery are mentioned in the poem? (1) 
 

Read the extract and do the activities that follow: (4)

Tom : (down L.). I believe the place is haunted
George : Nonsense. No one believes in haunted houses nowadays. There's someting gueer about the place, I'II admit, but can't be haunted. (Scream off R.)
Ginger : Listen! What was that ?
(Scream repeated. This time much louder.)
Alfie : I want to go home !
Tom : It sounds as though someone's being murdered. (Grappling with the door). I'm going to force this door.
Ginger : (Crossing L.) It's going to be a tough job, Tom
Alfie : (more lustily). I want to go home
George : (up C.) Shut up Alfie, you'II rose the house. Listen! There's someone coming _____ and
it's someone in white
Ginger : It's a ghost
Alfie : (rushing to the door L.) I'm going home!
George : (coming down L.) Let me give you a hand with this door.
Tom : Buck up!
Ginger : Put your shoulder against it. (Enter the Ghost R. In the dim light his figure has a distinctly uncanny appearance).
Ghost : What on earth's the meaning of this commotion? (IIe switches on the light and is seen to be a dentist, wearing a white surgical coat. The “grinning mouths'' are seen to be models made of plaster of Paris. The boys stare about them in amazement)
Dentist : (sternly). Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?
Tom : I say – I'm awfully sorry – but we thought you were a ghost.
Dentist : (bewildered). A ghost! Why on earth should you think I was a ghost?
George : (crossing C.) I'm awfully sorry, sir. You see, we were out carol-singing, and____
Dentist : Oh, so it was you who who were making that horrible din outside?
George : Yes – that was Ginger's idea ____


B1. Complete _____
Complete the following sentences:
(i) The boys considered the dentist as a ghost , because ________
(ii) Listening to the repeated scream, Tom thought that ________
(iii) The grinning mouths were models made of ________
(iv) The idea of carol-singing was given by _______

B2. Convert dialogue into a story:
Convert the above dialoguc into a story in about 50 words.


Read the following poem and write an appreciation of it with the help of the given points in a paragraph format:

The Pulley

When God at first made Man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
Let us (said He) "pour on him all we can":
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all His treasures
Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature.
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at last,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.

  • The title of the poem       (1)
  • The poet                          (1)
  • Central idea/theme          (2)
  • Rhyme scheme                (1)
  • Figure of speech              (1)
  • Special features               (2)
  • Favourite line/lines         (1)
  • Why I like/don’t like the poem    (1)

Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

I celebrate the virtues and vices

of suburban middle-class people 

who overwhelm the refrigerator 

and position colourful umbrellas 

near the garden that longs for a pool:

for my middle-class brother

this principle of supreme luxury:

what are you and what am I, and we go on deciding

the real truth in this world. 

(1) Give a list of the objects of luxury as given in the extract.

(2) What is your idea about a Luxurious life?

(3) Give an example of a 'paradox' from the extract.

(4) This poem does not follow any fix-verse pattern (rhyme scheme). What type of poem is it? 


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.

If you have the will to live and courage to die
You are a beacon-light for people far and wide
If you ignore the jeers and, thus, expose the lie
"That virtue and success do not go side by side."
You are the person I am looking for.

(1) What does the poet advise us about interacting with others?
(2) What good qualities do you expect in your friend?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
"If you have the will to live and the courage to die."
(4) Pick out the words from the extract which denote negative traits.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given  below:

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children you love, you seem to abuse.
Look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself, pink, yellow and blue.
She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise,
And you never saw the tears in her eyes."

(1) How did the mother deal with a stranger? 
(2) What do you learn from this extract? 
(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words from the extract. (Any two)
(4) Pick out the line from the extract suggesting the mother's
insensitive behavior towards her daughter.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below : 

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes 
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give in to gossips and lies 
Rather heed them not, saying, 'Who bothers'? 
You may be the person I am looking for. 
If you crave not for praise when you win 
And look not for sympathy while you lose 
If cheers let not your head toss or spin 
And after a set -back you offer no excuse. 
You may be the person I am looking for. 

(1) What care should you take while raising yourself in the eyes of others?

(2) What good qualities of your parents impress you the most? 

(3)  Pick out the example of antithesis from the first stanza of the above extract. 

(4) Pick out the lines from the extract which advise you how to react at your success and defeat. 


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 

I asked her why 
She was so sad? 
She told me her baby 
was killed in Auschwitz. 
her daughter in Hiroshima 
and her sons in Vietnam,
Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, 
Bosnia. Rwanda, Kosovo, and Chechnya.

(1) Why was the woman in the extract sad? 

(2) What do you think. are the dire consequences ofa war? 

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines :

'I asked her why 
she was so sad ?'

(4) What purpose docs the dialogue form serve in the extract? 


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Old women once
were continents.
They had deep woods in them,
lakes, mountains, volcanoes even,
even raging gulfs.
When the earth was in heat
they melted, shrank,
leaving only their maps.
You can fold them
and keep them handy:
who knows, they might help you find
your way home.

Question
(1) For what purpose did the old women leave their 'maps' behind them?

(2) How can old people be helpful to us?

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines:
Old women once
were continents.

(4) Make a list of geographical expressions from the extract.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly ...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

(1) What qualities of people according to poet, are essential to build a nation?

(2) “Not gold but only men make A people great and strong” Do you agree? Explain.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the line “ Stand fast and suffer long”.

(4) What is the underlying message of the extract


And as the light came on,
Fowler had his first authentic thrill of the day.
For halfway across the room,
a small automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.
Ausable blinked a few times.

(a) Who was standing in the room with a pistol in his hand?
i. Ausable
ii. Fowler
iii. Max
iv. A waiter

(b) Ausable blinked because he:
i. was getting adjusted to the light.
ii. got afraid of the man with a pistol.
iii. was thrilled to have reached his room.
iv. started thinking of how to get rid of the man.

(c) Fowler was thrilled because what he saw looked like a ……………..

(d) Which word in the extract means the same as ‘genuine/real’?


Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition.

(a) The poet who has written these lines is ____________
i. Robert Frost
ii. Carolyn Wells
iii. Walt Whitman
iv. Ogden Nash

(b) Who are ‘they’ referred to here?
i. Animals
ii. Tigers
iii. Ananda’s friend's
iv. Wanda’s dresses

(c) The poet looks at them long and long because he __________

(d) Which word in the extract means ‘complain’?


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

(There is a languid, emerald sea,
where the sole inhabitant is me-
a mermaid drifting blissfully.)

Questions :

(a) Who does 'me' stand for?

(b) How does 'me' feel?

(c) Who is 'me' compared to?

(d) Which word in the extract means the opposite of 'sorrowfully'?


Read the following extract and do the given activities:

A1. Match the describing words from the Cloud ‘A’ with Cloud ‘B’: (02)

  Cloud ‘A’   Cloud ‘B’
1. broad a. noise
2. humorous b. jest
3. chuckling c. way
4. trifling d. grin

 

“There to the printer,” I exclaimed,
And, in my humorous way,
I added (as a trifling jest,)
“There’ll be the devil to pay.
He took the paper, and I watched,
And saw him peep within
At the first line, he read, his face
Was all upon the grin
He read the next; the grin grew broad.
And shot from ear to ear;
He read the third; a chuckling noise
I now began to hear.
The fourth; he broke into a roar;
The fifth; his waistband split;
The sixth; he burst five buttons off
And tumbled in a fit.

A2. Pick out two lines from the extract that indicate humour. (02)

A3. Write two pairs of rhyming words from the extract. (01)


Based on the careful reading of the passage given below, answer any four out of five questions that follow:

 

1. When you see me sitting quietly,
Like a sack left on the shelf,
Don’t think I need your chattering.
I’m listening to myself.
Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me!
Hold! Stop your sympathy!
Understanding if you got it,
Otherwise, I’ll do without it!

2. When my bones are stiff and aching,
And my feet won’t climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:
Don’t bring me no rocking chair.
When you see me walking, stumbling,
Don’t study and get it wrong.
‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy
And every goodbye ain’t gone.

3. I’m the same person I was back then,
A little less hair, a little less chin,
A lot less lungs and much less wind.
But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.

- Maya Angelou

  1. What does the poet think she looks like, when sitting quietly?
  2. Does the poet invite pity? Quote a line to support your argument.
  3. What has changed in the poet over the course of years?
  4. Pick out a word from the second stanza which means ‘faltering’.
  5. Why does the poet consider herself lucky?

Read the poem ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney, given below.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

Digging by Seamus Heaney

Based on your understanding of the poem, answer the given questions.

  1. What is the significance of the comparison of the pen to a gun in the second line of the poem?         1
    1. It highlights the violence and aggression associated with writing.
    2. It emphasizes the power of the written word to bring about change.
    3. It suggests that the act of writing can be just as dangerous as using a weapon.
    4. It demonstrates the speaker's admiration for their father's skill with both a pen and a spade.
  2. Which of the following statements best describes the speaker's attitude towards his father's work in the poem?      1
    1. The speaker admires his father's hard work and dedication to his task.
    2. The speaker is critical of his father's choice of profession and feels it is beneath him.
    3. The speaker is indifferent to his father's work and does not place much value on it.
    4. The speaker is resentful of his father for making them participate in the work.
  3. Complete the sentence appropriately.       1
    The poet’s use of a metaphor in the line "The coarse boot nestled on the lug, ...” compares ______.
  4. What can be inferred about the setting of the poem based on the description of the sound of the spade sinking into the ground?      1
    1. The setting is rural and quiet.
    2. The setting is urban and noisy.
    3. The setting is industrial, yet serene.
    4. The setting is suburban and bustling.
  5. What is the effect of the repetition of the word "digging" throughout the poem?     1

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