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प्रश्न
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason.
In the poem, Small Towns and the River, the dead are placed pointing west because ______.
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उत्तर
In the poem, Small Towns and the River, the dead are placed pointing west because when the soul rises, it will walk towards the east toward heaven. / it was a ritual passed down from generation.
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
This story about a frightening incident is narrated in a humorous way. What makes it
humorous? (Think of the contrasts it presents between dreams and reality. Some of them
are listed below.)
1. (i) The kind of person the doctor is (money, possessions)
(ii) The kind of person he wants to be (appearance, ambition)
2.(i) The person he wants to marry
(ii) The person he actually marries
3.(i) His thoughts when he looks into the mirror
(ii) His thoughts when the snake is coiled around his arm
Write short paragraphs on each of these to get your answer.
Thinking about the Poem
Which country or countries do you think “the Northland” refers to?
As you know, from the previous lesson you have just read, there are people in our country who have traditional knowledge about snakes, who even catch poisonous snakes with practically bare hands. Can you find out something more about them?
Read the poem silently.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and II
took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
About the Poet
Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Franscisco, Frost spent most of his adult
life in rural New England and his laconic language and emphasis on individualism in
his poetry reflect this region. He attended Dartmouth and Harvard but never earned a
degree. As a young man with a growing family he attempted to write poetry while
working on a farm and teaching in a school. American editors rejected his submitted
poems. With considerable pluck Frost moved his family to England in 1912 and the
following year, a London publisher brought out his first book. After publishing a
second book, Frost returned to America determined to win a reputation in his own
country, which he gradually achieved. He became one of the country's best-loved
poets. Unlike his contemporaries, Frost chose not to experiment with the new verse
forms but to employ traditional patterns, or as he said, he chose "the old-fashioned
way to be new." Despite the surface cheerfulness and descriptive accuracy of his
poems, he often presents a dark, sober vision of life, and there is a defined thoughtful
quality to his work which makes it unique.
Working in groups of four, create your own mystery story. You may use the following chart to plan your story.
| Title of 'Solve-it Story' | |
| Main Character | |
| Secondary character | |
| Setting (where and when) | |
| Problem | |
| Main events | |
| Climax | |
| Solution |
Notice how ideas are connected in the story.
Write what the following words you just used in 1.1 imply by choosing suitable options from the box.
- and:
- but:
- where:
- while:
- after:
- until:
- so :
connects similar actions, objects
denotes contrast
denotes time.
The words given above are called connectors. Connectors do not simply join sentences together; they also show how ideas are related.
There are many different ways of classifying connectors according to their meaning. We shall start with the ones you are already familiar with.
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story's told.
Their dying fire in need of logs;
The first man held his back.
For on the faces around the fire,
He noticed one was black.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow:
What does the phrase ‘six humans’ signify?
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.
What gave the old man pleasure?
Unleashing the goats from the drumstick tree, Muni started out, driving them ahead and uttering weird cries from time to time in order to urge them on. Me passed through the village with his head bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies lounging in the temple corridor hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable grawky goats that he had today.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Describe Muni’s prosperous times.
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 had Muni owned in his days of prosperity? What did he do every morning?
“Jane,” said the wheelwright, with an impressiveness of tone that greatly subdued his wife, “I read in the Bible sometimes, and find much said about little children. How the Savior rebuked the disciples who would not receive them; how he took them up in his arms, and blessed them; and how he said that ‘whosoever gave them even a cup of cold water should not go unrewarded.’ Now, it is a small thing for us to keep this poor motherless little one for a single night; to be kind to her for a single night; to make her life comfortable for a single night.”
The voice of the strong, rough man shook, and he turned his head away, so that the moisture in his eyes might not be seen. Mrs. Thompson did not answer, but a soft feeling crept into her heart.
“Look at her kindly, Jane; speak to her kindly,” said Joe. “Think of her dead mother, and the loneliness, the pain, the sorrow that must be on all her coming life.” The softness of his heart gave unwonted eloquence to his lips.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why does the author make the character repeat the phrase, ‘a single night’?
I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the broad-jump trials, I was startled to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps! He turned out to be a German named Luz Long. 1 was told that Hitler hoped to win the jump with him. I guessed that if Long won, it would add some new support to the Nazis’ “master race” (Aryan superiority) theory. After all, I am a Negro. Angr about Hitler’s ways, 1 determined to go out there and really show Der Fuhrer and his master race who was superior and who wasn’t. An angry athlete is an athlete who will make mistakes, as any coach will tell you. I was no exception. On the first of my three qualifying jumps, I leaped from several inches beyond the takeoff board for a foul. On the second jump, I fouled even worse. “Did I come 3,000 miles for this?” I thought bitterly. “To foul out of the trials and make a fool of myself ?” Walking a few yards from the pit, 1 kicked disgustedly at the dirt.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
I was in for a surprise. When the time came for the long jump trials, I was startled to see a tall boy hitting the pit at almost 26 feet on his practice leaps. What do these words mean?
Then, trying to hide my nervousness, I added, “How are you?”
“I’m fine. The question is: How are you?“
“What do you mean?” 1 asked “Something must be eating you,” he said—proud the way foreigners are when they’ve mastered a bit of American slang. “You should be able to qualify with your eyes closed.”
“Believe me, I know it,” I told him—and it felt good to say that to someone.
For the next few minutes we talked together. I didn’t tell Long what was “eating” me, but he seemed to understand my anger, and he took pains to reassure me. Although he’d been schooled in the Nazi youth movement, he didn’t believe in the Aryan-supremacy business any more than I did. We laughed over the fact that he really looked the part, though. An inch taller than I, he had a lean, muscular frame, clear blue eyes, blond hair and a strikingly handsome, chiseled face. Finally, seeing that I had calmed down somewhat, he pointed to the take-off board.
“Look,” he said. “Why don’t you draw a line a few inches in back of the board and aim at making your take-off from there? You’ll be sure not to foul, and you certainly ought to jump far enough to qualify. What does it matter if you’re not first in the trials? Tomorrow is what counts.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Describe Luz Long.
So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away. There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family. And so, the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence. They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future. “Get away 1” The boy gave her another push. “What’re you waiting for?”Then, for the first time, she turned and looked at him. And what she was waiting for was in her eyes. “Well, don’t wait around here !” cried the boy savagely. “You won’t see nothing!” Her lips moved. “Nothing 1” he cried. “It was all a joke, wasn’t it?” He turned to the other children. “Nothing’s happening today. Is it ?”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What is the ‘it’ referred to by William?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen
A darker speck on the ocean green;
Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck,
And fixed eye on the darker speck.
(The Inchcape Rock: Robert Southey)
(i) Contrast the weather when Sir Ralph the Rover passed the Inchcape Rock the first time with the weather when he returned to the place.
(ii) Why had the Abbot of Aberbrothok hung a bell on the Inchcape Rock?
(iii) Why did Sir Ralph cut the bell from the Inchcape Rock? Describe the manner in which it sank underwater.
(iv) What did Sir Ralph say to reassure his men when it became very dark? What opinion did one of the sailors have about their location? What did they all wish for?
(v) How did the ship sink? What sound did Sir Ralph imagine he could hear in his dying moments? What is the message of the poem?
Who is Canynge? What scandal is being referred to? Why will it be a scandal?
What is meant by 'dead habit'? What is 'dead habits' compared to and why?
Discuss the following topic in groups.
Suppose no cop came at the end. What would Soapy’s life belike through the winter?
Chandni fought the wolf because she
Who does he say the kitten’s ancestors are? Do you believe him?
What do you know about the Viking Mission to Mars?
Give a character sketch of the shepherd. What qualities pleased the king?
Was the old woman’s gift to Vijay Singh eccentric? Why?
How did Vijay Singh use the egg? How did he use the lump of salt?
Describe the various sights that one comes across in the meadows.
Look at the following phrases and their meanings. Use the phrase to fill in the blank in the sentence given below.
They _______________ on the last stage of their journey.
Who does not like the rebels?
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 following extract from Maya Angelou's poem, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings' and answer the questions that follow:
|
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams |
- How does Angelou describe the state of the free bird in the opening lines of the poem? [3]
- Give a brief description of the caged bird's physical and mental condition. [3]
- Explain the phrase, 'grave of dreams' in your own words.
What does the caged bird sing about? [3] - The 'free bird' and the 'caged bird' in the poem represent different groups of people. Name them.
Name any one group of people that you would call 'caged birds' in today's world. [3] - What does the title of the poem, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings', tell us about Maya Angelou's life?
Mention two ways in which the world of the caged bird differs from that of the free bird. [4]
