English Medium कक्षा १० - CBSE Question Bank Solutions

Much of the humour in the poem arises from the way language is used. Although the ideas are funny as well. If there are particular lines in the poem that you especially like, share these lines with the class, speaking briefly about what it is about the ideas or the language that you like or find funny.

Reference to Context

i. Why was Pranjol not as excited as Rajvir about the tea gardens?  (1)

1. He disliked looking at tea gardens.
2. He had worked in tea gardens himself.
3. He had grown up in and around tea gardens.
4. He was bored with tea gardens.

ii. What does Pranjol mean by saying that Assam has the largest concentration of plantations in the world?  (1)

iii. Fill in the blank with one word only.  (1)

Pranjol’s ______ comes through clearly when he exclaims, “You will see enough gardens to last you a lifetime!”

iv. How according to Rajvir does the world know about the discovery of tea?  (1)

1. Historical places
2. Traditional tales
3. Authentic anecdotes
4. Popular publications

v. Select the option that correctly captures the application of the word ‘cried’ as used in line 1 of the extract.  (1)

1. Jaspreet cried a lot in spite of winning second place in a competition.
2. Jaspreet cried out loud when she saw a white tiger in the sanctuary.
3. Jaspreet cried for hours when the police were unable to find her lost pet.
4. Jaspreet has barely cried since she was three years of age.

Explain why the poet personally holds the conviction that the world will primarily end in fire?

(Fire and Ice)

What impressed Mr. Barua about Rajiv?

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow by choosing the most appropriate option:

1. One can find out that it is a leopard by the way it ______.     (1)
   
   1. leaps
   2. eats
   3. looks
   4. roars
2. State whether the following statement is true or false:   (1)
   When an animal repeatedly leaps at a person, it is a leopard.
3. Complete the sentence appropriately:  (1)
   It is clear that repetition is a poetic device used for 'lep and lep again' because ______.
   (Clue: explain how repetition is applied here.)
4. The Royal Bengal Tiger has black stripes on yellow skin whereas a leopard has ______.      (1)
5. Complete the analogy with a word from the extract:      (1)
   claws : nails :: ? : skin

Read the given extract and answer the following questions.

i. Fill the blank with one word.    (1)

When the speaker says that ice could also bring about the end of the world, he refers to _______ as the means for destruction.

ii. What does the speaker’s alignment with those who favour ice suggest?    (1)

iii. Which of the following best describes the speaker's attitude towards destruction caused by ice?

1. Indifferent
2. Fearful
3. Dismissive
4. Respectful

iv. Comment on the poet’s use of language in these lines.    (2)

Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to buy another ball?

“… staring down/All his young days into the harbor where/His ball went…”

Do you think the boy has had the ball for a long time? Is it linked to the memories of days when he played with it?

What does “in the world of possessions” mean?

Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.

What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this in your own words.

Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.

What picture do these words create in your mind: “... sun bury its feet in shadow...”? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?

Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves and their twigs do?

What does the poet compare their branches to?

1. How does the poet describe the moon: (a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?
2. What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
3. Why do you think the poet does not mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters? (Could it be that we are often silent about important happenings that are so unexpected that they embarrass us? Think about this again when you answer the next set of questions)

Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here is one suggestion. Can you think of others?

Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down, are ‘imprisoned’, and need to ‘break out’?

Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here is one suggestion. Can you think of others?

On the other hand, Adrienne Rich has been known to use trees as a metaphor for human beings: this is a recurrent image in her poetry. What new meanings emerge from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?

Answer the following question in 30-40 words:

Why does the poet not offer the boy money to buy another ball?

Answer the following questions in 30-40 words : 

What are the three things that can't happen in a treeless forest?