English

Read the Extract Given Below and Answer the Question that Follow. Explain the Line, ‘There Was Nothing to Do About Him.’ - English 2 (Literature in English)

Advertisements
Advertisements

Question

“If you are rested I would go,” I urged. “Get up and try to walk now.”
“Thank you,” he said and got to his feet, swayed from side to side and then sat down backwards in the dust.
“I was taking care of animals,” he said dully, but no longer to me. “I was only taking care of animals.”
There was nothing to do about him. It was Easter Sunday and the Fascists were advancing toward the Ebro. It was a grey overcast day with a low ceiling so their planes were not up. That and the fact that cats know how to look after themselves was all the good luck that the old man would ever have.

Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.

Explain the line, ‘There was nothing to do about him.’

Short Note

Solution

This line expresses the sadness and pity that the soldier feels for the old man as he realises that if the old man sits on the bridge he would surely die. He is loyal to the military system and has to obey orders and do his duty. He can do nothing for the old man and knows that inevitable death is in his fate.

shaalaa.com
Reading
  Is there an error in this question or solution?
Chapter 2.02: Old Man at the Bridge - Passage 5

RELATED QUESTIONS

Answer these question in a few words or a couple of sentence.

When was her deafness first noticed? When was it confirmed?


Answer the following question in 30 to 40 words.

Was Bruno a loving and playful pet? Why, then, did he have to be sent away?


Mr. Oliver, an Anglo-Indian teacher, was returning to his school late one night on the outskirts of the hill station of Shimla. The school was conducted on English public school lines and the boys – most of them from well-to-do Indian families – wore blazers, caps and ties. “Life” magazine, in a feature on India, had once called this school the Eton of the East.

Mr. Oliver had been teaching in this school for several years. He’s no longer there. The Shimla Bazaar, with its cinemas and restaurants, was about two miles from the school; and Mr. Oliver, a bachelor, usually strolled into the town in the evening returning after dark, when he would take short cut through a pine forest.

Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.

Who was Mr Oliver? Where was he working?


Abbu Khan pushed Chandni into a small hut. This shows that he


What all facts Maya collected about Mr Nath?


Why were the sunrays keen to go down to the earth the next day?


Why did the dog prefer a strong master to live in the jungle?


Answer the following question.

Why do you think the writer visited Miss Beam’s school?


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.

  1. feature
  2. reaching
  3. riches
  4. archery
  5. nature
  6. batch
  7. picture
  8. matches
  9. church

Read the following extract from Stephen Leacock’s short story, ‘With the Photographer’ and answer the questions that follow:

“The photographer beckoned me in. I thought he seemed quieter and graver than before. I think, too, there was a certain pride in his manner.

He unfolded the proof of a large photograph, and we both looked at it in silence.

‘Is it me?’ I asked.

“Yes,” he said quietly, ‘it is you,” and we went on looking at it.”

  1. Where was the narrator?
    Why had he gone there?
    Why do you think that there was a certain pride in the photographer's manner?  [3]
  2. What does the word "proof” mean in this context?
    Why did the narrator ask, “Is it me?”?  [3]
  3. Which of the narrator's facial features had the photographer altered?  [3]
  4. What was the only part of the narrator's face that seemed original in the photograph?
    How did the photographer plan to ‘fix’ this?  [3]
  5. At the end of the story, the narrator flies into a rage.
    What makes him angry?
    How would you justify the narrator's angry outburst?  [4]

Share
Notifications

Englishहिंदीमराठी


      Forgot password?
Use app×