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प्रश्न
I could hear the squeaking that heralded the evening arrival of the bats. I listened to the noises of the approaching night. Every day my hearing grew sharper. I was learning to filter out whatever I did not need to listen to, and giving no sign that I could hear everything that went on in the house.
I could not sleep. The air was heavy and still, the moon hidden behind thick banks of cloud. Lord Otori was sound asleep. I did not want to leave the house I'd come to love so much, but I seemed to be bringing nothing but trouble to it. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if I just vanished in the night. [5]
Now I heard the hiss of hot water as the bath was prepared, the clatter of dishes from the kitchen, the sliding sigh of the cook's knife, a dog barking two streets away, and the sounds of feet on the wooden bridges on the canals. I knew the sounds of the house, day and night, in the sunshine and under the rain. This evening I realized I was always listening for something more. I was waiting too. For what? [10]
I began to wonder if I could get out of the house without setting the dogs barking and arousing the guards. I started consciously listening to the dogs. Usually, I heard them bark on and off throughout the night, but I'd learned to distinguish their barks and to ignore them. I set my ears for them but heard nothing. Then I started listening for the guards: the sound of a foot on stone or a whispered conversation. Nothing. Sounds that should have been there been missing from the night's familiar web. [20]
Now I was wide-awake, straining my ears to hear. There came the slightest of sounds, hardly more than a tremor, between the window and the ground.
For a moment I thought it was the earth-shaking, as it so often did. Another tiny tremble followed, then another. Someone was climbing up the side of the house [25]
My first instinct was to yell out, but cunning took over. I rose from the mattress and crept silently to Lord Otori's side. I knelt beside him and whispered in his ear, "Lord Otori, someone is, outside." [30]
He woke instantly and then reached for the sword and knife that lay beside him. I gestured to the window. The faint tremor came again.
Lord Otori passed the knife to me and stepped to the wall. I moved to the other side of the window. We waited for the assassin to climb in.
Step by step he came up the wall, stealthy and unhurried as if he had all the time in the world. We waited for him with the same patience. [35]
He paused on the sill to take out the knife he planned to use on us and then stepped inside. Lord Otori took him in a stranglehold. The intruder wriggled backwards. I leaped at him, and the three of us fell into the garden like a flurry of fighting cats. [40]
The man fell first, across the stream, striking his head on a boulder. Lord Otori landed on his feet. My fall was broken by one of the shrubs. The intruder groaned, tried to rise, but slipped back into the water.
"Get a light," Lord Otori said.
I ran to the house, took a light that still burned in one of the candle stands and carried it back to the garden. [45]
The assassin had died without regaining consciousness. It turned out he had a poison pellet in his mouth and had crushed it as he tell. He was dressed in black, with no marking on his clothes. I held the light over him. There was nothing to tell us who he was. [50]
(i) Given below are four words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage:
(1) Coming near
( 2 ) Disappeared suddenly
(3) Awakening from sleep
(4) Moved slowly and gradually
(ii) 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:
(1) Bats ( line 1 )
( 2 ) Sign ( line 4 )
( 3 ) Banks ( line 6 )
( 4 ) Back ( line 43 )
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उत्तर
(i)
(1) Coming near - arrival
( 2 ) Disappeared suddenly - vanished
(3) Awakening from sleep - woke
(4) Moved slowly and gradually - crept
(ii)
(1) Bats: I am afraid of bats.
( 2 ) Sign: I will sign for him.
( 3 ) Banks: I work for a bank.
( 4 ) Back: Then he handed the wallet back to his wife.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
Go to the local library or talk to older persons in your locality and find legends in your own language. Tell the class these legends.
Now rewrite the pair of sentences given below as one sentence.
He gave the little girl an apple. He took the computer apart.
Imagine a child has been caught stealing in school. In groups of eight play the
roles of
- The child caught stealing
- The child she/he stole from
- The teacher
- The headmaster
- The witnesses
Try to find the reason why the child stole and the possible advice you can give her/him.
Should the child be punished? Or should she/he be counselled?
CHARACTERS
The Bishop : An ordained or appointed member of clergy.
Persome : The sister of the Bishop.
Marie : Their house hold helper.
Convict : A prisoner who has been proved guilty of a felony.
Sergeant of Gendarmes : Policeman
In pairs, study the completed sentences in 5 above. You will notice that words like a little and much go with certain nouns. Are these nouns Countable [C] or Uncountable [U]?
Read the following story
There lived a wise old man in Purkul, Dehradun. The villagers looked up to him and approached him for all their problems. Three naughty boys Amar, Naveen and Praveen wanted to test the old man's wisdom. One fine morning they caught a butterfly while playing in the garden. Amar had the
butterfly in his hand. He said, "We will go to the old man and ask him ifthe butterfly is dead or alive. If the old man says, 'the butterfly is dead', I will open my hands and release the butterfly. It will fly away." "If he says it is alive?" asked N aveen looking at Amar with a smirk. "I will crush the butterfly and show him the dead insect," said Amar. The three of them set forth with their wonderful plan.
Amar went to the old man and said, "Sir, the villagers say you can predict the future. Now tell us if the butterfly in my hand is dead or alive?" The old man looked at the three boys with a serene smile and said, "It is in your hands."
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest's heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see___
These things he plants who plants a tree.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow:
What is meant by the phrase ‘days to be’?
"They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro'won,
And our good Prince Eugene."
"Why,'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay...nay...my little girl,"quoth he,
"It was a famous victory.
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why that I cannot tell,"said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
How does the poet describe the scene on the field after the battle?
It was my business to cross the bridge, explore the bridge head 3 beyond and find out to what point the enemy had advanced. I did this and returned over the bridge. There were not so many carts now and very few people on foot, but the old man was still there.’’Where do you come from?” I asked him.
“From San Carlos,” he said, and smiled.
That was his native town and so it gave him pleasure to mention it and he smiled.
“I was taking care of animals,” he explained.
“Oh,” I said, not quite understanding.
“Yes,” he said, “I stayed, you see, taking care of animals. I was the last one to leave the town of San Carlos.”
He did not look like a shepherd nor a herdsman and I looked at his black dusty clothes and his gray dusty face and his steel rimmed spectacles and said, “What animals were they?”
“Various animals,” he said, and shook his head. “I had to leave them.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did the old man leave his hometown? Why did he leave it reluctantly?
At Denver there was an influx of passengers into the coaches on the eastbound B. & M. express. In one coach there sat a very pretty young woman dressed in elegant taste and surrounded by all the luxurious comforts of an experienced traveler. Among the newcomers were two young men, one of handsome presence with a bold, frank countenance and manner; the other a ruffled, glum-faced person, heavily built and roughly dressed. The two were handcuffed together.
As they passed down the aisle of the coach the only vacant seat offered was a reversed one facing the attractive young woman. Here the linked couple seated themselves. The young woman’s glance fell upon them with a distant, swift disinterest; then with a lovely smile brightening her countenance and a tender pink tingeing her rounded cheeks, she held out a little gray-gloved hand. When she spoke her voice, full, sweet, and deliberate, proclaimed that its owner was accustomed to speak and be heard.
“Well, Mr. Easton, if you will make me speak first, 1 suppose 1 must. Don’t vou ever recognize old friends when you meet them in the West?”
The younger man roused himself sharply at the sound of her voice, seemed to struggle with a slight embarrassment which he threw off instantly, and then clasped her fingers with his left hand.
He slightly raised his right hand, bound at the wrist by the shining “bracelet” to the left one of his companion.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What is strange about the way the two men are travelling? Why do you suppose they are like this?
From the day, perhaps a hundred years ago when he sun had hatched him in a sandbank, and he had broken his shell, and got his head out and looked around, ready to snap at anything, before he was even fully hatched-from that day, when he had at once made for the water, ready to fend for himself immediately, he had lived by his brainless craft and ferocity. Escaping the birds of prey and the great carnivorous fishes that eat baby crocodiles, he has prospered, catching all the food he needed, and storing it till putrid in holes in the bank. Tepid water to live in and plenty of rotted food grew him to his great length. Now nothing could pierce the inch-?thick armoured hide. Not even rifle bullets,
which would bounce off. Only the eyes and the soft underarms offered a place. He lived well in the river, sunning himself sometimes with other crocodiles-muggers, as well as the long-? snouted fish-?eating gharials-on warm rocks and sandbanks where the sun dried the clay on them quite white, and where they could plop off into the water in a moment if alarmed. The big crocodile fed mostly on fish, but also on deer and monkeys come to drink, perhaps a duck or two.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
How did he survive as a baby crocodile from the day he was hatched.
Why does Portia disapprove of the County Palatine? Who would she rather marry?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
'Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.'
(A Psalm of Life-H. W. Longfellow)
(i) Explain-'Tell me not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!' What should not be considered the goal of life?
(ii) What is the beating of the heart compared to? How is the heart described? IV/wt does the beating of the heart remind us of?
(iii) What does the poet mean when lie compares the world to a battlefield? What should our role be in this battle?
(iv) How should we view the past and the future? what advice does the past give in this context?
(v) What do we learn from the lives of great men? What is the final message of the poem ? Give one reason why the poem appeals to you.
Discuss the following topic in groups.
Why did the wise old bird say, “Chandni is the winner”?
Answer the following question.
What did the bear eat? There were two things he was not allowed to do. What were they?
Complete the following sentences by adding the appropriate parts of the sentences given below.
Someone suggested that there should be a council of wise men______________________.
Find in the poem lines that match the following. Read both one after the other.
The rebel refuses to cut his hair.
The author felt sorry for complaining about his boots. What made him feel so?
Author’s friend had taken out the parts of the bicycle easily, but he really had tough time fixing them Explain this with suitable example.
- What happens if Raga Deepak is sung properly?
- Why did Tansen’s enemies want him to sing the Raga?
What was Tansen famous for?
How did the jealous courtiers plan to harm Tansen? How did the great musician save his honour as well as official position?
How did the monkey and the crocodile become good friends?
What warning did the teachers give to Patrick?
Now that you have completed the above project, write a brief report stating what you did, how you did it, and the conclusion.
Who was the bearded man?
Teasing is the poet’s way of ______ with the squirrel.
Why does the poet say it is not good to be a rebel oneself?
The words helper, companion, partner and accomplice have very similar meanings, but each word is typically used in certain phrases. Can you fill in the blanks below with the most commonly used words? A dictionary may help you.
the thief’s ……………
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
| Portia: | ... Lorenzo, I commit into your hands The husbandry and manage of my house Until my lord's return: for mine own part, I have toward heaven breathed a secret vow To live in prayer and contemplation, Only attended by Nerissa here, Until her husband and my lord's return. |
- Who does Portia refer to as 'my lord'?
Where is her lord?
Why had he left in such haste? [3] - What does Portia ask Lorenzo to do? Why does she make this request? [3]
- Explain, in your own words, the ‘secret vow’ that Portia speaks of. [3]
- What instruction does Portia give to her servant, a little later in the scene? [3]
- What do we learn about Portia’s real intention from her conversation with Nerissa?
Which Portia do you prefer- the modest Portia of the Casket scene or the businesslike Portia we meet in this scene?
Give one reason for your response. [4]
With close reference to Act V, describe how Prospero has used the spirits of "hills, brooks, groves" to give shape to his magical acts. What does he finally decide to do with his magical powers?
