Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Read the extract and do all the activities that follow:
We used to think seven generations ahead
Now we have become selfish
Only thinking about me, myself and I
Only thinking in the present, not learning from the past.
We used to stroll barefoot through the overgrown grass,
Its morning dew tickling our feet
Now we step outside onto the rugged concrete
No more natural than the over-processed food we eat
We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail,
Maybe catch a glimpse of a bobcat, playing eye tricks with its tail
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is fur-free, clearing the pavement of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees.
Swaying on my rearview mirror, labelled pine breeze
we used to watch the valley play hide and seek
A1. Web :
Complete the web with the things man used to do in the past:
A2. Poetic Devices :
'We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail'
Name the figure of speech in the above line and find out another example of the same from the extract.
A3. Personal Response :
Write in brief your views about past and present lifestyle.
A4. Poetic Creativity :
'Now we step outside onto the rugged concrete No more natural than the over-processed food.'
Read the above lines and compose at least two lines of your own. based on the same theme.
Solution
A1.
A2. The figure of speech - Alliteration
Another example: The one that is fur-free.
A3.
In the past, life was simple in the company of nature and natural things. More importance was given to human values and contentment with one's lifestyle. However, life today is full of artificial things, which are momentary and do not give any lasting pleasure. They do not lead to any fulfillment or satisfaction with one's life.
A4.
Now, we have no more nature, values, and simplicity, but only greed, artifice, and complexity.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
A1. Saving Motherland
I can save my motherland by putting an end to ……..
Republic Day! We grow aware
That nothing can be wrought by prayer
-Prop of the credulous-until
It is supported everywhere
By an all-powerful people's will !
We have been witness in the past to sights impossible to bear:
Famine and drought and dread and doom
Continue still to spread the gloom
Of humans turned to skeletons, to shrivelled bags of naked bones
Who have not even strength to vent their suffering through sobs and groans……
MAY EVERY Indian's heart become
An unafraid announcing drum
Echoing and re-echoing a new hope and a new desire
To burn up rubbish-heaps of hate,
Once and for all. Time cannot wait!
Burn up all selfish aims and ends in a great nation's cleansing fire!
Let India's millions chant in chorus:
A mighty future stands before us-
Down with all ruthless tyranny, down with all exploitation which
Renders the poor the poorer-and renders the bloated rich, more rich !
A 2. How does the poet express the condition of people during famines and droughts? (2)
Match:
Match the line with the figure of speech:
| 'A' | ‘B’ |
| (i) Drought and dread and doom | (a) Personification |
| (ii) Time cannot wait | (b) Alliteration |
| (c) Metaphor |
Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
All lovely tales that we have heard or read;
An endless fountain of immortal drink.
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) What is the thing of beauty mentioned in these lines?
(c) What image does the poet use in these lines?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :
'Never shall a young man,
Thrown into despair
By those great honey-coloured
Ramparts at your ear."
(a) Who is the speaker of these lines? Who is he speaking to ?
(b) What does the young man mean by 'honey-coloured ramparts' ?
(c) What does the word 'despair' mean ?
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 questionsgiven below:
By this time, I felt very small
And now my tears began to fall.
I quietly went and knelt by her bed;
"Wake up, little girl, wake up," I said.
"Are these the flowers you picked I'm me?"
She smiled, "I found' em, out by the tree.
I picked'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you would Iike'em, especially the blue."
I said, Daughter, I'm sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way"
(1) Why did the mother go to her daughter "s room? (1)
(2) How can the mother be a friend to her daughter' (1)
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line
" ..... they're pretty like you". (1)
(4) What is the effect of dialogues in the poem? (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 :
We, heroes and poor devils;
the feeble, the braggarts; the unfinished,
and capable of everything impossible
as long as it's not seen or heard
Don Juans, women and men, who come and go
with the fleeting passage of a runner
or of a shy hotel for travellers.
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.
(1) Who are heroes and what are they capable of? (1)
(2) According to you, what difficulties do the middle-class people face? (1)
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line :
... Women and men, who come and go. (1)
(4) Pick out the line from the extract, which shows the overambitious nature of the middle-class people. (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:
If we continue to live in impracticality
No more vast, endless oceans-
Only littered swamps, the colour of a witch's potions.
No more soaring birds overhead-
Only planes, so loud they rock your bed.
No more woods
No more natural goods
We have little time
To change our self-centered, one-track minds.
Before we are stuck with a great heap of a jumble.
Left only with an artificial concrete jungle.
(1) According to the poet, what would replace the oceans and birds?
(2) Do you feel we are really impractical towards nature? How?
(3) Which words are frequently used in the extract and what
figure of speech does it indicate?
(4) Which lines fro1n the extract suggests the overexploitation of natural resources?
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
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 ofter no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.
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.
(1) How should you behave when you are a winner and a loser?
(2) Do you agree with the poet's view about an ideal person? Justify your answer.
(3) Pick out an example of Antithesis from the extract.
(4) Pick out the words from the extract showing our stubbornness and expression of displeasure.
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:
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) What did the mother think as she lay sleepless in the bed?
(2) According to you, why shouldn't we hurt the feelings
of others?
(3) Pick out any two pairs of rhyming words from this
extract.
(4) What kind of poem is this? What is its purpose?
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, So strength first made a way; For if I should (said He) Yet let him keep the rest, |
- 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 extract and do the activities that follow: (4)
| Tom | : | (nervously). But, I say, we can’t go prowling about someone else’s house. |
| George | : | We can if we hear any suspicious noises. You never know ? this place might belong to a gang of criminals. |
| Tom | : | (sarcastically). You certainly are trying to cheer us up, George. We don’t want to meet a gang of criminals. |
| George | : | Why not? We’re all strong, healthy chaps, aren’t we? Are you in a funk already? |
| Tom | : | No, of course not; but ? well ? Alfie’s got his best suit on, and |
| Ginger | : | Never mind about Alfie's suit. (With a great show of courage). I’m not afraid of any criminals. Here, George, lend me that torch. (Taking the torch and going up R.C.). I’ll show you if I’m afraid. (Suddenly seeing the White models and letting out a yell of terror.) Ow! W - what's that? |
| Tom | : | (down C., not daring to look round). What’s what? |
| Ginger | : | C- come here. I thought I saw something grinning at me. |
| Tom | : | (crossing hastily to door L.). I’m going to get out of here. |
| Ginger | : | (Coming down C.) So am I. I’m not afraid of criminals, but I believe this place is haunted. |
| George | : | Talk sense, Ginger. Here, give me that torch. (Takes torch and goes up R. C.) |
| Alfie | : | (down L.C.) I want to go home. |
| Ginger | : | Can you see anything, George? |
| George | : | (cautiously approaching white models). I can’t make out what it is, but I believe it's an animal. I say ? there’s something alive in here ? I can see its teeth. (Under the light of George’s torch a row of teeth can be dimly seen). |
| Alfie | : | (rushing to the door) Let me out! Let me out! I want to go home! |
B1. Pick up the false sentences from those given below and write down the correct ones for them :(2)
(i) Alfie wanted to stay at the place to fight with the animal.
(ii) Ginger yelled of terror when he noticed white models grinning at him.
(iii) According to George's opinion, the boys could not go prowling about someone else’s house.
(iv) Tom had no desire to meet a gang of criminals.
B2. Convert dialogue into a story : (2)
Convert the above dialogue into a story form in about 50 words.
But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth ?
(a) Who does ‘him’ refer to ?
(b) What dilemma did the poet face ?
(c) Pick out and explain the figure of speech used in line 2.
(d) Explain : ‘burning bowels of this earth’.
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:
We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail,
Maybe catch a glimpse of a bobcat, playing eye tricks with its tail
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is for free, clearing the pavements of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees
Swaying on my rear-view mirror, labelled pine breeze
Questions:
(1) What does the poet miss?
(2) What, according to you, are the causes of the degradation of our ecosystem?
(3) 'We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail.'
Name and to explain the figure of speech from the above line.
(4) What kind of feelings are aroused after reading the extract?
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is for free, clearing the pavements of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees
Swaying on my rear-view mirror, labelled pine breeze
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek
Questions:
(1) What signs of urbanisation are mentioned in the first six lines of the extract?
(2) Do you think skyscrapers are necessary? Why do you think so?
(3) Pick out the example of personification from the extract.
(4) Pick out the lines from the extract expressing the fond memory of the poet about the pines.
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:
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 more 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
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
As a raw mythology revealed to us its age
(1) What were the feelings of the family members at the felling of the banyan tree?
(2) Why, according to you, did insects and birds begin to leave the banyan tree?
(3) Find out an example of 'Repetition' from the extract.
(4) Pick out the line from the extract expressing the feelings of the people who watched the merciless cutting of the banyan
tree.
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, 2. When my bones are stiff and aching, 3. I’m the same person I was back then, - Maya Angelou |
- What does the poet think she looks like, when sitting quietly?
- Does the poet invite pity? Quote a line to support your argument.
- What has changed in the poet over the course of years?
- Pick out a word from the second stanza which means ‘faltering’.
- Why does the poet consider herself lucky?
Read the poem ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney, given below.
|
Between my finger and my thumb The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Digging by Seamus Heaney |
Based on your understanding of the poem, answer the given questions.
- What is the significance of the comparison of the pen to a gun in the second line of the poem? 1
- It highlights the violence and aggression associated with writing.
- It emphasizes the power of the written word to bring about change.
- It suggests that the act of writing can be just as dangerous as using a weapon.
- It demonstrates the speaker's admiration for their father's skill with both a pen and a spade.
- Which of the following statements best describes the speaker's attitude towards his father's work in the poem? 1
- The speaker admires his father's hard work and dedication to his task.
- The speaker is critical of his father's choice of profession and feels it is beneath him.
- The speaker is indifferent to his father's work and does not place much value on it.
- The speaker is resentful of his father for making them participate in the work.
- Complete the sentence appropriately. 1
The poet’s use of a metaphor in the line "The coarse boot nestled on the lug, ...” compares ______. - 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
- The setting is rural and quiet.
- The setting is urban and noisy.
- The setting is industrial, yet serene.
- The setting is suburban and bustling.
- What is the effect of the repetition of the word "digging" throughout the poem? 1
