हिंदी
तमिलनाडु बोर्ड ऑफ सेकेंडरी एज्युकेशनएचएससी विज्ञान कक्षा १२

Human greed led to the mighty fall of the citadel. Explain.

Advertisements
Advertisements

प्रश्न

Human greed led to the mighty fall of the citadel. Explain.

संक्षेप में उत्तर
Advertisements

उत्तर

The loyal soldiers and their brave captain expected enemies from outside the castle. Their arms and army were ready to fight them. But they could not identify the enemy within. The soldiers were proud that no might would tear their castle down. But they were unaware of the • invisible soul-dead enemy within. The ingredients of personal downfall went unnoticed by them. If a person never looks within, the faults that can be their doom go overlooked. Their reality could crumble while they gaze outward and pride themselves on their sureness. This is what happened precisely with the soldiers of the castle. They only focused on the strength of their physical surroundings and what was beyond the castle. Human greed-propelled betrayal from within caused the castle’s downfall.

shaalaa.com
Poem (Class 12th)
  क्या इस प्रश्न या उत्तर में कोई त्रुटि है?
अध्याय 1.2: The Castle - Exercise [पृष्ठ २१]

APPEARS IN

सामाचीर कलवी English Class 12 TN Board
अध्याय 1.2 The Castle
Exercise | Q 3. c) | पृष्ठ २१

संबंधित प्रश्न

What thoughts come to your mind when you think about a castle? Add your ideas to the list

moat, huge buildings, soldiers, weapons ______,______.


How safe was the castle? How was it conquered?


Read the given line and answer the question that follow in a line or two.

We could do nothing, being sold.

  1. Why couldn’t they do anything?
  2. Why did they feel helpless?

Our gates were strong, our walls were thick,


Read the poem and complete the table with suitable rhyming words.

 

All through that summer at ease we lay,
And daily from the turret wall
We watched the mowers in the hay
And the enemy half a mile away
They seemed no threat to us at all.

For what, we thought, had we to fear
With our arms and provender, load on load,
Our towering battlements, tier on tier,
And friendly allies drawing near
On every leafy summer road.

Our gates were strong, our walls were thick,
So smooth and high, no man could win
A foothold there, no clever trick
Could take us dead or quick,
Only a bird could have got in.

What could they offer us for bait?
Our captain was brave and we were true…
There was a little private gate,
A little wicked wicket gate.
The wizened warder let them through.

Oh then our maze of tunneled stone
Grew thin and treacherous as air.
The cause was lost without a groan,
The famous citadel overthrown,
And all its secret galleries bare.

How can this shameful tale be told?
I will maintain until my death
We could do nothing, being sold:
Our only enemy was gold,
And we had no arms to fight it with.

lay hay
   
   
   

Underline the alliterated word in the following line.

With our arms and provender, load on load.


Underline the alliterated word in the following line.

A little wicked wicket gate.


Underline the alliterated word in the following line.

The wizened warder let them through.


The casuarina tree will be remembered forever. Why?


Read the line given below and answer the question that follow.

A creeper climbs, in whose embraces bound No other tree could live.

  1. Which tree is referred to in the above lines?
  2. How does the tree survive the tight hold of the creeper?
  3. Why does Toru Dutt use the expression ‘a creeper climbs’?

Identify the figure of speech used in each of the extract given below and write down the answer in the space given below. 

“ A creeper climbs, in whose embraces bound

No other tree could live. But gallantly

The giant wears the scarf, and flowers are hung......”


Explain the following line briefly with reference to the context.

“They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,”


Explain the following line briefly with reference to the context.

“Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”


Pick out the word in ‘alliteration’ in the following line.

“Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel.”


Read the given line and answer the question that follow.

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.

  1. What is the soldier ready to do?
  2. Explain ‘bubble reputation’.
  3. What are the distinguishing features of this stage?

Complete the table based on your understanding of the poem.

Stage Characteristic
  crying
judge  
soldier  
  unhappy
second childhood  
  whining
old man  

Identify the figure of speech employed in the following line.

Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea...


Read the set of line from the poem and answer the question that follow.

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

  1. Though made weak by time and fate, the hearts are heroic. Explain.
  2. Pick out the words in alliteration in the above lines.

Explain with reference to the context the following line.

I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees:


Explain with reference to the context the following line.

We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven;


What makes Ulysses seek newer adventures?


Read the line given below and answer the question that follow.

“Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.”

  1. How should one face life?
  2. Identify the figure of speech in the above line.

Read the line given below and answer the question that follow.

Tell him to be a fool ever so often

and to have no shame over having been a fool

yet learning something out of every folly

hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies

  1. Is it a shame to be a fool at times?
  2. What does one learn from every folly?

Describe the posture of Napoleon.


What did the rider do when he reached Napoleon?


Why did Napoleon’s eyes become soft as a mother eagle’s eyes?


How did the young soldier face his end?


Share
Notifications

Englishहिंदीमराठी


      Forgot password?
Use app×