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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
Answer of these question in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
Thinking about the Poem
Do you think that the old lady would have been so ungenerous if she had known who Saint Peter really was? What would she have done then?
Look at these words:
...peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings
What do these words mean to you? What do you think “comes dropping slow...from the veils of the morning”? What does “to where the cricket sings” mean?
How does Iswaran describe the uprooted tree on the highway? What effect does he want to create in his listeners?
Based on your reading of the story answer the following question by choosing the correct option:
“_______ even Duke’s presence didn’t reach Chuck”. Why?
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 did the narrator see on the bridge when he returned?
“There were three animals altogether,” he explained. “There were two goats and a cat and then there were four pairs of pigeons.”
“And you had to leave them?” I asked.
“Yes. Because of the artillery. The captain told me to go because of the artillery.” “And you have no family?” I asked, watching the far end of the bridge where a few last carts were hurrying down the slope of the bank.
“No,” he said, “only the animals I stated. The cat, of course, will be all right. A cat can look out for itself, but I cannot think what will become of the others.”
“What politics have you?” I asked.
“I am without politics,” he said. “I am seventy-six years old. I have come twelve kilometers now and I think now I can go no further.”
“This is not a good place to stop,” I said. “If you can make it, there are trucks up the road where it forks for Tortosa.”
“I will wait a while,” he said, “ and then I will go. Where do the trucks go?” “Towards Barcelona,” I told him.
“I know no one in that direction,” he said, “but thank you very much.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Where did the narrator want the old man to go?
Then there it lay in her wet palm, perfect, even pierced ready for use, with the sunset shuffled about inside it like gold—?dust. All her heart went up in flames of joy. After a bit she twisted it into the top of her skirt against her tummy so she would know if it burst through the poor cloth and fell. Then she picked up her fork and sickle and the heavy grass and set off home. Ai! Ai! What a day! Her barefeet smudged out the wriggle— ?mark of snakes in the dust; there was the thin singing of malaria mosquitoes among the trees now; and this track was much used at night by a morose old makna elephant—the Tuskless One; but Sibia was not thinking of any of them. The stars came out: she did not notice. On the way back she met her mother, out of breath, come to look for her, and scolding. “I did not see till I was home, that you were not there. I thought something must have happened to you.” And Sibia, bursting with her story, cried “Something did). I found a blue bead for my necklace, look!”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did Sibia feel overjoyed?
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.
What was actually eating Jesse Owens?
As it turned out, Luz broke his own past record. In doing so, he pushed me on to a peak performance. I remember that at the instant I landed from my final jump—the one which set the Olympic record of 26 feet 5-5/16 inches—he was at my side, congratulating me. Despite the fact that Hitler glared at us from the stands not a hundred yards away, Luz shook my hand hard—and it wasn’t a fake “smile with a broken heart” sort of grip, either.
You can melt down all the gold medals and cups I have, and they couldn’t be a plating on the 24-carat friendship I felt for Luz Long at that moment. I realized then, too, that Luz was the epitome of what Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, must have had in mind when he said, “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What, according to Coubertin, is the true spirit of the Olympics? Explain the reference to Coubertin.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Each Friday morning the whole school spent the pre-recess period in writing their Weekly Review. This was one of the Old Man’s pet schemes; and one about which he would brook no interference. Each child would review the events of his school week in his own words, in his own way; he was free to comment, to criticize, to agree or disagree, with any person, subject or method, as long as it was in some way associated with the school …..
(i) Why did Mr. Florian feel that the weekly review was of advantage to both pupil and teacher?
(ii) Why did Braithwaite feel both relief and disappointment at the first weekly review his students had written since he joined the school?
(iii) How was he given the silent treatment by his students?
(iv) What does Braithwaite term the second and more annoying phase of his relationship with his students? What did some students do to disrupt his class?
(v) Mention two qualities in Braithwaite’s character which help him to become a model teacher. Give suitable examples to illustrate your choice.
Find in the poem lines that match the following. Read both one after the other.
He recommends dogs.
How did the king reach the rishi’s ashram? Why did the two birds behave with the king differently?
Why is it a great pleasure to walk through the meadows?
Use the clues given below to complete this crossword puzzle.

Across
1. very tired
2. had an angry look on the face
3. short trousers
4. a fault in a machine that prevents it from working properly
5. a small and naughty boy-fairy
Down
6. work that must be done every day, often boring
7. a basket with a lid
8. gave a short, high-pitched cry
Multiple Choice Question:
When does the kite lose all its glory?
Find these sentences in the story and fill in the blanks.
Find these sentences in the story and fill in the blanks.
(i) This made Taro ___________________ than ever. (3)
(ii) He decided to work ___________________ than before. (3)
(iii) Next morning, Taro jumped out of bed ___________________ than usual. (4)
(iv) He began to chop even ____________________. (4)
(v) Next morning, Taro started for work even _______________ than the morning before. (10)
Speak to five adults in your neighbourhood. Ask them the following questions (in any language they are comfortable in). Then come back and share your findings with the class.
- Do they buy their provisions packed in plastic packets at a big store or loose, from a smaller store near their house?
- Where do they buy their footwear? Do they buy branded footwear or footwear made locally? What reasons do they have for their preference?
- Do they buy readymade clothes or buy cloth and get their clothes stitched by a tailor? Which do they think is better?
Read the lines given below and answer the following question:
| “But my darling, if you love me,” thought Miss Meadows, “I don’t Mind how much it is. Love me as little as you like.” |
What had the “darling” informed Miss Meadows?
In the poem “Birches,” the poet observes that the birches are bent because ______.
