Question

Read the following extract and do the activities.
I remember the night my mother
was stung by a scorpion. Ten hours
of steady rain had driven him
to crawl beneath a sack of rice.
Patting with his poison – flash
Of diabolic tail in the dark room -
he risked the rain again.
The peasants came like swarms of flies
And buzzed the name of God a hundred times
to paralyse the Evil One.
With candles and with lanterns
throwing giant scorpion shadows
on the mud-baked walls
they searched for him: he was not found.
They clicked their tongues.
With every movement that the scorpion made his poison
moved in Mother’s blood, they said.

(A1) Choose the correct option for the following.
(1) The incident in the poem took place in
(i) the morning (ii) the night
(iii) the afternoon (iv) the evening

(2) ‘The Evil’ mentioned in the poem was
(i) the peasant (ii) the God
(iii) the scorpion (iv) the mother

(3) The scorpion crawled beneath a sack of
(i) sugar (ii) a wheat
(iii) corns (iv) rice

(4) The peasants are compared with
(i) flock of sheep (ii) group of monkeys
(iii) swarms of flies (iv) herds of cattle

(A2) Write the reactions of the people when they knew that the mother was stung by a scorpion.
(i)..................................................................
(ii)................................................................
(iii)...............................................................
(iv)...............................................................

(A3) Write down the rhyming words from the stanzas for the following.
(i) fight - (ii) clash -

Answer 1

(A1)  02
(1) The incident in the poem took place in the night.   
(2) ‘The Evil’ mentioned in the poem was the scorpion.
(3) The scorpion crawled beneath a sack of rice.
(4) The peasants are compared with swarms of flies.

(A2) The reactions of the people when they knew that the mother was stung by scorpion…….    02
(i) By hearing about the incident, they came into the poet’s house like a swarms of flies.
(ii) They prayed to God countless times to immobilize the evil creature.
(iii) They searched the scorpion with candles and lanterns.
(iv) They found it is necessary for the scorpion to stay still to reduce the pains of the poet’s mother.

(A3) (i) fight - night (ii) clash - flash     01