Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Thinking about the Text
Answer these question.
A mystery I propose to explain.” What is the mystery the speaker proposes to explain?
Solution
The mystery that Gerrard proposed to explain was the story he made up to dodge the intruder and save his own life. The story was that Gerrard himself was a criminal like the intruder. He asked the intruder why else would he not meet any trades people and be a bit of a mystery man here today and gone tomorrow. The game was up as things had suddenly gone wrong for him. He had committed a murder and got away. Unfortunately, one of his men had been arrested and certain things were found which his men should have burnt. He said that he was expecting some trouble that night and therefore, his bag was packed and he was ready to escape.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
Thinking about the Poem
Which country or countries do you think “the Northland” refers to?
How has Prashant, a teenager, been able to help the people of his village?
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in springhtly dance.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
How many did the poet see at a glance?
The athletes had come from all over the country
To run for the gold, for the silver and bronze
Many weeks and months of training
All coming down to these games.
The spectators gathered around the old field
To cheer on all the young women and men
The final event of the day was approaching
Excitement grew high to begin.
Read the lines given above and answer the following question:
Explain with reference to context.
There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. 1 will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it, as we too may have been somewhat to blame.
Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black, and that they are often cruel and relentless, and our old men and old women are unable to restrain them. Thus it has ever been. Thus it was when the white man began to push our forefathers ever westward. But let us hope that the hostilities between us may never return. We would have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did Seattle wanted to end up the hostilities?
To us the ashes of our ancestors are sacred and their resting place is hallowed ground. You wander far from the graves of your ancestors and seemingly without regret. Your religion was written upon tablets of stone by the iron finger of your God so that you could not forget. The Red Man could never comprehend or remember it. Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors — the dreams of our old men, given them in solemn hours of the night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sachems, and is written in the hearts of our people.
Day and night cannot dwell together. The Red Man has ever fled the approach of the White Man, as the morning mist flees before the morning sun. However, your proposition seems fair and I think that my people will accept it and will retire to the reservation you offer them. Then we will dwell apart in peace, for the words of the Great White Chief seem to be the words of nature speaking to my people out of dense darkness.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Where was the religion of the White people written?
Beside him in the shoals as he lay waiting glimmered a blue gem. It was not a gem, though: it was sand—?worn glass that had been rolling about in the river for a long time. By chance, it was perforated right through—the neck of a bottle perhaps?—a blue bead. In the shrill noisy village above the ford, out of a mud house the same colour as the ground came a little girl, a thin starveling child dressed in an earth—?coloured rag. She had torn the rag in two to make skirt and sari. Sibia was eating the last of her meal, chupatti wrapped round a smear of green chilli and rancid butter; and she divided this also, to make
it seem more, and bit it, showing straight white teeth. With her ebony hair and great eyes, and her skin of oiled brown cream, she was a happy immature child—?woman about twelve years old. Bare foot, of course, and often goosey—?cold on a winter morning, and born to toil. In all her life, she had never owned anything but a rag. She had never owned even one anna—not a pice.
Why does the writer mention the blue bead at the same time that the crocodile is introduced?
Ans. The author mentions the blue bead at the same time that the crocodile is introduced to create suspense and a foreshadowing of the events’to happen.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Describe Sibia.
Answer the following question.
What did the bear eat? There were two things he was not allowed to do. What were they?
Read the following.
A group of children in your class are going to live in a hostel.
•They have been asked to choose a person in the group to share a room with.
•They are asking each other questions to decide who they would like to share a room with. Ask one another questions about likes/dislikes/preferences/hobbies/personal characteristics.
Use the following questions and sentence openings.
(i) What do you enjoy doing after school?
I enjoy...
(ii) What do you like in general?
I like...
(iii) Do you play any game?
I don’t like...
(iv) Would you mind if I listened to music after dinner?
I wouldn’t...
(v) Will it be all right if I...?
It’s fine with me...
(vi) Is there anything you dislike, particularly? Well, I can’t share...
(vii) Do you like to attend parties?
Oh, I...
(viii) Would you say you are...?
I think...
Why do ants want alien creatures to live in their nests?
What happens after the poet’s father fall off the ladder?
How did the little-bandaged girl make the author much more thoughtful than he ever thought?
Answer the question.
Why does the poet wonder if teachers also do things that other people do?
Why did the speaker find the old banyan tree exclusively his own?
Answer the following question.
How do mongooses kill snakes?
How did Algu and Jumman treat each other?
How did the spirit of the dog help the farmer first?
How did it help him next?
Speak to five adults in your neighbourhood. Ask them the following questions (in any language they are comfortable in). Then come back and share your findings with the class.
- Do they buy their provisions packed in plastic packets at a big store or loose, from a smaller store near their house?
- Where do they buy their footwear? Do they buy branded footwear or footwear made locally? What reasons do they have for their preference?
- Do they buy readymade clothes or buy cloth and get their clothes stitched by a tailor? Which do they think is better?
Read the passage given below and answer the questions (i), (ii) and (iii) that follow:
|
(1) |
Something happens to cats after we have enjoyed a delicious meal. Call it a feline sugar hit or a rush of good feelings. Abandoning our usually sedentary nature, we transform into crazy beasts who thunder down corridors, spring from one piece of furniture to another, or pounce from behind half-closed doors to attack the shoelaces of unsuspecting passersby. It is as though we are temporarily possessed. |
5 |
|
(2) |
That, at least, is my excuse, dear reader - and the only explanation I can offer for my entirely unplanned global TV debut. |
|
|
(3) |
To be fair, I had no way of knowing that my master was receiving visitors that particular afternoon. Nor that he was being interviewed live, let alone by one of America’s most famous journalists. |
10 |
|
(4) |
All I knew was that, a few minutes after gorging myself on a favourite treat of creamy pudding, I felt that sudden, primal explosion of energy. I made my way back to the suite of rooms that I shared with my master and felt an overpowering compulsion to do something completely mad. I wanted to run like a furious jungle cat, at that particular moment. |
15 |
|
(5) |
Bursting through the door of the room in which my master received visitors, I tore up the carpet as I raced towards the sofa opposite where he was sitting. I ripped its fabric as I scrambled up its side like a savage creature clawing its way up a perilous cliff. Then with a final, frenzied burst, I launched myself off one arm of the sofa, leaping towards the other. |
20 |
|
(6) |
It was only at this point that I realised the sofa was occupied by the journalist. She was halfway through a sentence, and my abrupt appearance caught my master's guest completely by surprise. |
|
|
(7) |
You know, when something truly unexpected happens, time can seem to slow down. Well, that’s how it was. As I flew past the woman's face, her expression turned from one of calm engagement to that of total surprise. |
25 |
|
(8) |
I As she pushed back in her seat to avoid me, the shock on her face could not have been more evident. |
|
|
(9) |
But, dear reader, she was not more shaken than me. I had not been expecting anyone on the sofa, let alone a TV celebrity, nor one who was mid-interview. As I headed towards the opposite end of the sofa, for the first time I observed the lighting, the cameras and the crew watching the action from the shadows. By the time I landed on the other arm of the sofa, all the energy that had propelled me was gone. |
30
35 |
|
(10) |
I was, no longer, a furious jungle cat. |
|
|
(11) |
The journalist looked at me. I looked at her. Both of us were taking in what had just happened. I was also conscious of the cameras still rolling as well as many pairs of eyes watching me at that moment. My moment of global glory. |
|
|
|
Adapted from: The Dalai Lama's Cat Omnibus |
|
(i)
- Given below are three words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage: [3]
- inactive
- eating in a greedy manner
- dangerous
- 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: [3]
- thunder (line 3)
- spring (line 3)
- past (line 26)
(ii) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible:
- What is the usual nature of the narrator's kind? How is it differently presented in the passage? [2]
- What did the 'favourite treat of creamy pudding' do to the narrator? [2]
- Describe the actions of the narrator after bursting into the visitors' room. [2]
- How did the journalist react when the narrator 'flew past' her face? [2]
(iii) Summarise how the narrator became a global celebrity (paragraphs 4 to 11). You are required to write the summary in the form of a connected passage in about 100 words. Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalised. [6]
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.” |
- 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] - What does the word "proof” mean in this context?
Why did the narrator ask, “Is it me?”? [3] - Which of the narrator's facial features had the photographer altered? [3]
- 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] - 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]
