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प्रश्न
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
There’s nobody on the house-tops now …..
Just a palsied few at the windows set;
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the Shambles’ Gate …… or, better yet,
By the very scaffold’s foot, I trow.
– The Patriot, Robert Browning
(i) Who is the speaker? Where is he being taken? Why?
(ii) Describe the scene when he had walked down the same street a year ago.
(iii) Where does the speaker think all the people had gathered that day? Why does he think so?
(iv) Describe the speaker's physical condition.
(v) What is the central message of the poem? Does the poem and on a note of hope or despair? Give one reason for your answer.
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उत्तर
(i) The speaker here is the patriot. He is being taken to the scaffold to be hanged for his misdeeds. He is passing through some street in a town.
(ii) A year ago, the patriot was worshipped like a hero. He was accorded a warm welcome on his return after a glorious victory. His path was strewn with flowers. The church towers were decorated with victory-flags. Huge crowds were there to welcome him.
(iii) The speaker thinks that all the people have left the town and gone to the Shambles’ Gate or quite near the scaffold in order to have a better view of the patriot’s (his) execution. Only a few paralysed persons are sitting at the windows.
(iv) The speaker’s physical condition is pathetic. He is being led to the gallows. A long rope has been used to tie his hands on the back. The rope is so tight that it cuts both his hands. His forehead is bleeding. It is due to the stones hurled at him by some callous and cruel fellows. All this shows that he is being treated very harshly.
(v) The central message of the poem is the fickle mindedness of the ordinary people who go enthusiastic at welcoming a hero but soon get disappointed with him and begin to hurl abuses and stones on him.
The poem ends on a note of hope. Though the hero in this poem feels betrayed and abandoned, he achieves a moral victory. He feels that he has not been rewarded for his services on the earth, he hopes he would be rewarded by God in heaven. So he feels safe in the bosom of God. His faith in God being a true judge marks his unbounded sense of optimism.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
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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) |
Lights were shining from every window, and there was a savoury smell of roast goose, for it was New-year’s eve—yes, she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses, one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off the cold; and
she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches, and could not take home even a penny of money. Her father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them, through which the wind howled, although the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. She drew one out—“scratch!” how it sputtered as it burnt! It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron stove, with polished brass feet and a brass ornament. How the fire burned! and seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished, and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Where did the girl seek some shelter from the cold?
The women came out on the shore, and made for the stepping—?stones. They had plenty to laugh and bicker about, as they approached the river in a noisy crowd. They girded up their skirts, so as to jump from stone to stone, and they clanked their sickles and forks together over their shoulders to have ease of movement. They shouted their quarrels above the gush of the river. Noise frightens crocodiles. The big mugger did not move, and all the women crossed in safety to the other bank. Here they had to climb a steep hillside to get at the grass, but all fell to with a will, and sliced away at it wherever there was foothold to be had. Down below them ran the broad river, pouring powerfully out from its deep narrow pools among the cold cliffs and shadows, spreading into warm shallows, lit by kingfishers. Great turtles lived there, and mahseer weighing more than a hundred pounds. Crocodiles too. Sometimes you could see them lying out on those slabs of clay over there, but there were none to be seen at the moment.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What were they doing on the hill?
Give the character sketch of the bear in The Bear Story’.
How did the monkey and the crocodile become good friends?
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What does Nishad find out about Mr Nath from Ramesh?
Arrange the information as suggested below.
- What he eats
- When he eats
- What he drinks and when
- How he pays
