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प्रश्न
Irony is when we say one thing but mean another, usually the opposite of what we say. When someone makes a mistake and you say, Oh! That was clever!” that is irony. You’re saying ‘clever’ to mean ‘not clever’.
Expressions we often use in an ironic fashion are:
• Oh, wasn’t that clever!/Oh that was clever!
• You have been a great help, I must say!
• You’ve got yourself into a lovely mess, haven’t you?
• Oh, very funny!/How funny!
We use a slightly different tone of voice when we use these words ironically.
Read the play carefully and find the words and expressions Gerrard uses in an ironic way.
Then say what these expressions really mean. Two examples have been given below.
Write down three such expressions along with what they really mean.
| What the author says | What he means |
| Why, this is a surprise, Mr – er – |
He pretends that the intruder is a social visitor whom he is welcoming. In this way he hides his fear. |
| At last a sympathetic audience! | He pretends that the intruder wants to listen to him, whereas actually the intruder wants to find out information for his own use. |
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उत्तर
| What the author says | What he means |
| You won’t kill me for a very good reason. | Gerrard is just pretending to have a ‘very good reason’ even though there is no such reason. |
| Sorry I can’t let you have the props in time for rehearsal, I’ve had a spot of bother – quite amusing. | The ‘spot of bother’ that Gerrard calls ‘quite amusing’ is actually a life-threatening situation, where a criminal actually threatens to kill him. |
| You have been so modest. | Here, Gerrard means that it is immodest on the part of the intruder to know so much about him without disclosing his own identity. |
APPEARS IN
संबंधित प्रश्न
Thinking about Language
Match the words/phrases in Column A with their meanings in Column B.
| A | B |
| 1. slaving | (i) a quarrel or an argument |
| 2. cgaos | (ii) remove something from inside another thing using a sharp tool |
| 3. rummage | (iii) strange, mysterious. Difficult to explain |
| 4. scrape out | (iv) finish successfully, achieve |
| 5. stumble over, tumble into |
(v) search for something by moving things around hurriedly or carelessly |
| 6. accomplish | (vi) completer confusion and disorder |
| 7. uncanny | (vii) fall, or step awkwardly while waking |
| 8. (to have or get into) a | (viii) working hard |
Thinking about the Poem
How does the poet suggest that all people on earth are the same?
Think and write a short account of what life in Rameswaram in the 1940s must have been like. (Were people rich or poor? Hard working or lazy? Hopeful of change, or resistant to it?)
Why does the author say that Iswaran seemed to more than make up for the absence of a TV in Mahendra’s living quarters?
Discuss with your partner the similarities and differences between your dream
houses.
Bangle sellers are we who bear
Our shining loads to the temple fair...
Who will buy these delicate, bright
Rainbow-tinted circles of light?
Lustrous tokens of radiant lives,
For happy daughters and happy wives.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
What is the tone in this stanza? Quote.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?"..... The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
Read the lines given above and answer the following question.
Why was Abou not afraid?
There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. 1 will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it, as we too may have been somewhat to blame.
Youth is impulsive. When our young men grow angry at some real or imaginary wrong, and disfigure their faces with black paint, it denotes that their hearts are black, and that they are often cruel and relentless, and our old men and old women are unable to restrain them. Thus it has ever been. Thus it was when the white man began to push our forefathers ever westward. But let us hope that the hostilities between us may never return. We would have everything to lose and nothing to gain. Revenge by young men is considered gain, even at the cost of their own lives, but old men who stay at home in times of war, and mothers who have sons to lose, know better.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What hint does he give regarding the cause for the depletion of his race?
Mr. Oliver, an Anglo-Indian teacher, was returning to his school late one night on the outskirts of the hill station of Shimla. The school was conducted on English public school lines and the boys – most of them from well-to-do Indian families – wore blazers, caps and ties. “Life” magazine, in a feature on India, had once called this school the Eton of the East.
Mr. Oliver had been teaching in this school for several years. He’s no longer there. The Shimla Bazaar, with its cinemas and restaurants, was about two miles from the school; and Mr. Oliver, a bachelor, usually strolled into the town in the evening returning after dark, when he would take short cut through a pine forest.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Which route did Mr Oliver take on his way back?
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 did the women carry?
Why does Portia disapprove of the County Palatine? Who would she rather marry?
Give a brief description about Mr Nath’s visitor.
What all facts Maya collected about Mr Nath?
How did the monkey and the crocodile become good friends?
What did the specialist prescribe in addition to medicine?
Make a sentence of your own using the word ‘drag.’
(i) Like Patrick in the story ‘Who Did Patrick’s Homework’, Taro is helped by magic. Do you believe in magic? What are the magical things that happen in these stories?
(ii) Which story do you like better, and why? Do you know such stories in other languages? Discuss these questions in class.
Who says this to whom and why?
“Victory to the panchayat. This is justice.”
The lane is dark and lonely because __________.
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.
find a good …………..
