Q8 of 18 Page 1

Answer any four of the following questions in 30 – 40 words each:

(a) What sort of pain does the poet feel in ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’?


(b) Why does Mr. Lamb say to Derry, ‘‘So you are not lost, are you? Not altogether?’’


(c) How did the peddler show his gratitude to Edla?


(d) What made the Lieutenant Governor drop all charges against Gandhiji?


(e) Why did Roger Skunk’s mother dislike the new smell? What does it tell us about mothers in general?


(f) Why did the Maharaja decide to double the land tax in a hillside village?


(a) In the poem, ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’, the poet feels the pain of having to see her mother turning old day-by-day. The fear of having to lose her soon as she has stepped into old-age grips her. She is burdened with the pain of seeing her beloved mother in the frailties of old age.


(b) Mr. Lamb says to Derry, “So you are not lost, are you? Not altogether?”. This is because he notices a tiny ray of positivity in the tone of Derry’s voice when is appreciating Mr. Lamb’s garden, and it doesn’t seem like he has lost all positivity from life.


(c) The peddler shoed his gratitude to Edla by sending her a package through the valet, which contained a small rattrap and three crumpled ten kronor notes. He had also written her a letter, expressing his gratitude, asking her to give the money to the poor old man on the roadside, and also thanking Edla for raising the poor peddler to the status of a captain, while meaningfully gifting her the rattrap as a token of gratitude.


(d) A number of events led the Lieutenant Governor to drop all charges against Gandhiji. Firstly, there was a demonstration by thousands of villagers when Gandhiji was called to appear in court, leaving the officials helpless and the government baffled. This was followed by postponement of the trial and holding up for the sentence for several days, wherein Gandhiji was released thrice without bail. All these incidents prompted the Lieutenant Governor to drop all charges against Gandhiji.


(e) Roger Skunk’s mother disliked the new smell of her son because this was not what she was used to, and this was not how her son was actually. no matter how well he fitted now in the society, to her his original smell was the best. This tells us that mothers can be really fond of their children, no matter how they are and what qualities they have. They do not want to see their children changing for anyone but remain true to themselves.


(f) Being very eager to kill the hundredth tiger, after having slaughtered ninety-nine of them before, the Maharaja announced exemption of taxes on the land and the people were happy. But when he couldn’t manage to hunt the tiger down even after all his patience and time, he got really anxious and impatient. He then doubled the land tax in the hillside village where he had been hunting for the hundredth tiger.


More from this chapter

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6

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a sanitation programme that has caught everybody’s attention. Your school held a sanitation programme where students cleaned the school as well as the streets in the neighbourhood and collected and segregated garbage. You are Vinod/Asha of St. Agnes School, Kanpur. Write a report in 150 - 200 words for your school magazine giving details of the programme that was held. Add details wherever necessary.

OR


Write a debate in 150 – 200 words either for or against the motion:


‘A person himself is his own best career counsellor’.


 7

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire,


victory with no survivors, would put on clean clothes


and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing.


(a) Who are ‘those’ in line 1?


(b) What are ‘green wars’?


(c) Explain : ‘victory with no survivors’.


(d) What is the significance of: ‘put on clean clothes’?


OR


And yet, for these


Children, these windows, not this map, their world.


Where all their future’s painted with a fog,


A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky


Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.


(a) Who are these children?


(b) What future do these children have in store for themselves?


(c) What does ‘lead sky’ symbolize?


(d) What facilities are these children deprived of?


 9

Answer any one of the following questions in 120 – 150 words:

(a) It is important to maintain a balance between dreams and reality in order to avoid unhappiness. Comment on Sophie’s character in the light of the above statement.


(b) Mukesh dares to dream of a different life. What circumstances forced Mukesh not to pursue his family business of bangle making?


(c) Douglas says, ‘‘The instructor was finished, but I was not.’’ What did the instructor teach Douglas? How did Douglas finish the task begun by the instructor?


 10

Answer any one of the following questions in 120 – 150 words :

(a) The arrival of the American prisoner upsets Sadao’s home. Give instances from the text in support of the above statement.


(b) Evans outwits everyone, and in spite of the precautions taken by the Governor, he is able to escape from the prison. Describe how he was able to do so.


(c) ‘‘Since the day I was taken from my mother I had suffered extreme indignities.’’ Elaborate with the help of the account written by Zitkala-Sa in ‘Memories of Childhood’.