Answer any four of the following question in 30-40 words each:

i. How did Kisa Gotami realise that life and death is a normal process?

ii. Why did Maddie write a note to Peggy and tore it?

iii. How can you say that Horace Danby was good and responsible but not completely honest?

iv. What difficulty do the crew of the space probe face on the Earth?

V. What was the most fascinating thing that Valli saw on the street?

i. Kisa Gotami realised that life and death is a normal process and also that all she was doing was out of grief and selfishness. At first she was being selfish by thinking about her son’s loss and constantly asking for medicine that would cure him. This realisation came in the second time when she discovered that every family had lost a beloved one and she was not the only one to suffer this loss. On the first time, to bring in this realisation of life and death Buddha advised Kisa Gotami to bring mustard seeds from a household where no beloved one had died. She went for a second round to check all houses again to know if any beloved one hadn’t died but this taught her that death was natural and inevitable and that no human had control over it. Therefore it was Buddha who made her accept this truth of life and death.

ii. Maddie was fed up of Peggy teasing and making fun of Wanda. Wanda was not the same as the others, she was a different child. She would travel to and from school all alone. She was always dressed in a faded blue dress that wouldn’t even fit her properly. She didn’t even prefer to talk to everyone. Maddie felt embarrassed by Peggy’s questions to Wanda and she decided to write a note to inform Peggy about her disappointment and ask her not to bully Wanda. Maddie had realised that it was every child’s fantasy to own a hundred dresses but situations didn’t favour Wanda to own them which made her wear a dress which was given to her by someone else. But she was struck by the thought that Peggy would start mocking and teasing her instead of Wanda and so she tore the note.

iii. Horace Danby was good and responsible but not completely honest. Though he was a kind man once he was imprisoned. It was fifteen years ago that he was imprisoned on charges of stealing. He wasn’t a thief but he was habituated to stealing once every year to fulfil his desires of owning rare books. He would not steal regularly but sufficiently to suffice for 12 months not as typical thieves do. He would steal only when he desired to own a rare and expensive book and wouldn’t keep repeating it. He would buy these books through an agent. But keeping aside all his kindness and responsibility, he was dishonest on this ground.

iv. The crew of the space probe weren’t acquainted with usual things on Earth. They landed in a public library which was a strange place for them as they did not know what books were meant for. They first guessed that they were sandwiches and told their Captain that they had landed on some canteen. They also guessed that sandwiches were the main diet food for the people on Earth. To confirm that it was a sandwich they tried to eat one. Upon eating they realised that it was not so tasty and was very dry like Martian dust. Then they guessed that they were meant for communication and tried to listen to them. When this failed they concluded that it was meant for eye communication.

V. It was Valli’s favourite pastime to watch outside her window and observe all that was happening on the streets. Valli was most fascinated by the bus that ran between the nearest town and her village. What gave her joy was the new faces she saw every hour when the bus came to pickup new passengers. She always desired to travel on that bus. To fulfil this desire she found out all the details of the bus by listening to the people who travelled regularly. Valli had planned her bus trip with all the information that the town was six miles away and it was a 45 minutes journey. Also that the one way fare was 30 paisa and if she wanted to return back she would have to pay another 30 paisa.