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Question
Why did the wicked couple drop their tools?
Solution
The wicked couple found the foul smell of the dead kitten unbearable so they dropped their tools.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Why does the world remember Einstein as a “world citizen”?
Thinking about the poem
Where does the traveller find himself? What problem does he face?
A Russian girl, Maria Sharapova, reached the summit of women’s tennis when she was barely eighteen. As you read about her, see if you can draw a comparison between her and Santosh Yadav.
Match the following.
| something disarming | something that makes you feel friendly, taking away your suspiciousness |
| at odds with | in contrast to; not agreeing with |
| glamorous attire | attractive and exciting clothes |
| in almost no time | quickly, almost immediately |
| poised beyond her years | more calm, confident and in control than people of her age usually are |
| packed off | sent off |
| launched | started |
| heart wrenching | causing strong feelings of sadness |
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :
Billy Weaver had travelled down from London, and by the time he arrived, it was nine o’clock in the night, and the moon was coming up.
“Excuse me,” he asked a porter. “But is there a cheap hotel nearby?”
“Try the Bell Hotel,” the porter answered, pointing down the road.
Billy thanked him, picked up his suitcase, and set out to walk the distance to the Bell Hotel. He had never been to Richmond before, but the man at the office had told him it was a splendid city.
Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy blue overcoat, a new brown hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He walked briskly down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. The big shots up at the head office were fantastically brisk all the time. They were amazing.
The road was lonely and dark, with a few scattered houses.
Suddenly, in a downstairs window, Billy saw a printed notice propped up against the window glass. It said bed and breakfast.
He moved a bit closer and peered through the window into the room, and the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning in the hearth. On the carpet in front of the fire, a little dog was curled up asleep with its nose tucked into its belly. The room, in its half-darkness, was filled with pleasant furniture. There was a piano, a big sofa, and several plump armchairs. In one corner, he spotted a large parrot in a cage. Animals were usually a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself, and it looked to him as though it would be a pretty decent house to stay in.
Then a queer thing happened to him. He was in the act of stepping back and going away from the window when he felt a strange urge to ring the bell!
He pressed the bell. He heard it ring, and then, at once, the door swung open, and a woman stood there.
She gave him a warm, welcoming smile.
“Please come in,” she said pleasantly. Billy found himself automatically moving forward into the house.
“I saw the notice in the window,” he said, holding himself back.
“Yes, I know.”
“I was wondering about a room.”
“It’s already for you, my dear,” she said. She had a round, pink face and very gentle blue eyes.
“How much do you charge?”
“Five dollars a night, including breakfast.”
It was fantastically cheap. He could easily afford it.
(a) Give the meaning of the following words used in the passage: One-word answers or short phrases will be accepted. [3]
(i) splendid (line 7)
(ii) spotted (line 20)
(iii) automatically (line 29)
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
Listen to this extract from Shakespeare's play As You Like It. As you listen, read
the poem aloud; you can do this more than once.
All the world's a stage
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier.
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation.
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
About the Poet
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is
considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. He wrote 154 sonnets, two
long narrative poems and about three dozen plays. Shakespeare used poetic and
dramatic means to create unified aesthetic effects. In verse, he perfected the dramatic
blank verse.
We will ponder your proposition and when we decide we will let you know. But should we accept it, I here and now make this condition that we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe^ and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts’that once filled them and still lover this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone.
Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What plea does the speaker make to the white men?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Trotter: Yes. You've been extraordinarily foolish, you know. You've run a very good chance of being killed by holding out on me. As a result, you've been in serious danger more than once.
Mollie: I don't know what you mean.
Trotter: (moving slowly above the sofa table to the Right of the sofa, still quite natural and friendly) Come now, Mrs. Ralston. We, policemen, aren't quite so dumb as you think. All along I've realized that you had first-hand knowledge of the Langridge Farm affair. You know Mrs. Boyle was the magistrate concerned. In fact, you knew all about it. Why didn't you speak up and say so?
Mollie: (Very much affected) I don't understand. I wanted to forget-forget. (She sits at the Left end of the sofa.)
(i) What was the 'Longridge Farm' affair?
(ii) Trotter revealed to Mollie some facts that he had uncovered about her past. What were they?
(iii) What did Mollie want to forget? How was she linked with the ‘Longridge Farm affair’?
(iv) How did Trotter manage a pass himself off as a policeman? How had he reached Monkswell Manor?
(v) What did Trotter reveal to Mollie about this true identity? How was Mollie saved at the end of the play?
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______________.
How did Mr Gessler found that the boot was not comfortable for author?
Why did the narrator climb the trees?
Why didn’t the farmer’s wife want to leave the baby alone with the mongoose?
Why was the crocodile unwilling to invite his friend home?
Answer the following question.
What was the ‘game’ that every child in the school had to play?
Which incident made the visitor to the school ten times more thoughtful than ever?
Which is more desirable-friendship or enmity? When does a person hear strongly the voice of his conscience?
Comment on the speaker’s resolve to go inside the shed.
Now let us look at the uses of the word break. Match the word with its meanings below. Try to find out at least three other ways in which to use the word.
- The storm broke – could not speak; was too sad to speak
- Daybreak – this kind of weather ended
- His voice is beginning to break – it began or burst into activity
- Her voice broke and she cried – the beginning of daylight
- The heat wave broke – changing as he grows up
- Broke the bad news – end it by making the workers submit
- Break a strike – gently told someone the bad news
- (Find your own expression. Give its meaning here)
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
| 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 take-off board for a foul. |
- When and where is this narrative set? [2]
- What reason does the narrator Jesse Owens give for the heightened nationalistic feelings at this time? [2]
- In which event had Owens been confident of winning a gold medal? Why? [3]
- What had made Owens angry enough to make mistakes? Name Owens’ rival who approached him at this point. [3]
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]
