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प्रश्न
Narrate the story of the reptiles as told by Zai Whitaker in not more than 80 words.
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उत्तर
Prem was a native of a village far from Pambupatti. Communal riots broke out and Prem left the village. He walked and got free lifts. He reached Pambupatti. There an old man told him a tale of reptiles—snakes, crocodiles, lizards, and turtles. Makara, the biggest crocodile was the master of the forest. He became selfish and vain. He managed to get rid of all the cobras and other reptiles. As a result, the forest was infested with rats. Awful things happened. The reptiles were welcomed back to strike a balance.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
Think about the Text
Discuss in pairs and answer question below in a short paragraph (30 − 40 words).
“I looked into the mirror and smiled,” says the doctor. A little later he says, “I forgot my danger and smiled feebly at myself.” What is the doctor’s opinion about himself when:
(i) he first smiles, and
(ii) he smiles again? In what way do his thoughts change in between, and why?
What is the single major memory that comes to the poet? Who are the “darling
dreamers” he refers to?
Why is his finger bleeding? What is his wife’s reaction?
Reporting verbs
Did you know?
Sometimes it is not necessary to report everything that is said word for word. It may be better to use “reporting verbs” which summarise what was communicated. Below are some of the most commonly used verbs of this kind.
| accept | advice | apologise | ask | assure | blame |
| complain | compliment | congratulate | explain | greet | hope |
| introduce | invite | offer | order | persuade | promise |
| refuse | regret | remind | say | suggest | tell |
| sympathise | thank | threaten | answer | warn | encourage |
|
can you hear me? (speaker) |
what did she say? (you) | she asked if you could hear her? (friend) (ask) |
| you should go to the doctor now? (speaker) | what did he say? (you) | he advice you to go to the doctor now? (friend) (advice) |
What does he plant who plants a tree? a
He plants a friend of sun and sky;b
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard____
The treble of heaven's harmony_____
These things he plants who plants a tree.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow:
Some are meet for a maiden's wrist,
Silver and blue as the mountain mist,
Some are flushed like the buds that dream
On the tranquil brow of a woodland stream,
Some are aglow with the bloom that cleaves
To the limpid glory of new born leaves
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Explain ‘silver and blue as the mountain mist’
The village consisted of less than thirty houses, only one of them built with brick and cement. Painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud, and other unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of forty sheep and goats and sallied forth every morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What did Muni feed his flock with? When did he come back home? What did he carry home?
The boy looked up. He took his hands from his face and looked up at his teacher. The light from Mr. Oliver’s torch fell on the boy’s face, if you could call it a face. He had no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. It was just a round smooth head with a school cap on top of it.
And that’s where the story should end, as indeed it has for several people who have had similar experiences and dropped dead of inexplicable heart attacks. But for Mr. Oliver, it did not end there. The torch fell from his trembling hand. He turned and scrambled down the path, running blindly through the trees and calling for help. He was still running towards the school buildings when he saw a lantern swinging in the middle of the path. Mr. Oliver had never before been so pleased to see the night watchman. He stumbled up to the watchman, gasping for breath and speaking incoherently.
What is it, Sahib? Asked the watchman, has there been an accident? Why are you running?
I saw something, something horrible, a boy weeping in the forest and he had no face.
No face, Sahib?
No eyes, no nose, mouth, nothing.
Do you mean it was like this, Sahib? asked the watchman, and raised the lamp to his own face. The watchman had no eyes, no ears, no features at all, not even an eyebrow. The wind blew the lamp out and Mr. Oliver had his heart attack.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What did the watchman ask Mr Oliver? ‘
Its a cruel thing to leave her so.”
“Then take her to the poorhouse: she’ll have to go there,” answered the blacksmith’s wife, springing away, and leaving Joe behind.
For a little while the man stood with a puzzled air; then he turned back, and went into the hovel again. Maggie with painful effort, had raised herself to an upright position and was sitting on the bed, straining her eyes upon the door out of which all had just departed, A vague terror had come into her thin white face.
“O, Mr. Thompson!” she cried out, catching her suspended breath, “don’t leave me here all alone!” ,
Though rough in exterior, Joe Thompson, the wheelwright, had a heart, and it was very tender in some places. He liked children, and was pleased to have them come to his shop, where sleds and wagons were made or mended for the village lads without a draft on their hoarded sixpences.
“No, dear,” he answered, in a kind voice, going to the bed, and stooping down over the child, “You she’n’t be left here alone.” Then he wrapped her with the gentleness almost of a woman, in the clean bedclothes which some neighbor had brought; and, lifting her in his strong arms, bore her out into the air and across the field that lay between the hovel and his home.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Who said, ‘It’s a cruel thing to leave her so.’ Why did he say this?
Joe did not see the Guardians of the Poor on that day, on the next, nor on the day following. In fact, he never saw them at all on Maggie’s account, for in less than a week Mrs. Joe Thompson would as soon leave thought of taking up her own abode in the almshouse as sending Maggie there.
What light and blessing did that sick and helpless child bring to the home of Joe Thompson, the poor wheelwright! It had been dark, and cold, and miserable there for a long time just because his wife had nothing to love and care for out of herself, and so became soar, irritable, ill-tempered, and self-afflicting in the desolation of her woman’s nature. Now the sweetness of that sick child, looking ever to her in love, patience, and gratitude, was as honey to her soul, and she carried her in her heart as well as in her arms, a precious burden. As for Joe Thompson, there was not a man in all the neighbourhood who drank daily of a more precious wine of life than he. An angel had come into his house, disguised as a sick, helpless, and miserable child, and filled all its dreary chambers with the sunshine of love.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did Joe not see the Guardians of the poor on that day or ever again?
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.
What helped him grow to his present size?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :
Bassanio: A gentle scroll. - Fair lady, by your leave; (Kissing her)
I come by not, to give and to receive.
Like one of two contending in a prize,
That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes
Hearing applause and universal shout
Giddy in spirit, still gazing, in a doubt
Whether those peals of praise be his or no;
(i) Where did Bassanio find the 'gentle scroll'? What 'prize' had Bassanio just won?
(ii) Explain why Basscmio said he felt 'Giddy in spirit, still gazing, in a doubt'.
(iii) Shortly after this exchange, Port: it gave Bassanio a ring as a token of her affection. What did the gift symbolize?
(iv) What assurance did Bassanio give her when he accepted the ring?
(v) What did Portia urge Bassanio to do when she learned that his friend Antonio was in trouble? What aspect of her character is revealed through her words?
Discuss the following topic in groups.
If you had to live in a home like Tilloo’s, what parts of life would you find most difficult? What compensations might there be?
What does the poet refer to as ‘they’ in the following stanza?
"I saw a snake and ran away Some snakes are
dangerous, they say"
Multiple Choice Question:
Where can we see beauty?
The child wishes so because ____________.
Referring closely to the poem, The Darkling Thrush, examine the poet's encounter with the aged thrush as a passage from amazement to introspection.
When Lorenzo says, 'Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way/of starved people.' he means that Portia and Nerissa have ______.
| Caliban: |
No noise, and enter |
In the above lines taken from Act IV Scene i of the play, The Tempest, what does Caliban refer to by the phrase “good mischief“?
What is the phrase 'The Century's corpse outleant' in the poem, The Darkling Thrush, a metaphor for?
