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प्रश्न
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Portia: .......But this reasoning is not in fashion to choose me a husband. O me, the word “choose”! I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse whom I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?
(i) What test had Portia’s father devised for her suitors? What oath did the suitors have to take before making their choice?
(ii) Who is Nerissa? What does she say to cheer up Portia?
(iii) Why does Portia disapprove of the County Palatine? Who would she rather marry?
(iv) How, according to Portia, can the Duke of Saxony’s nephew be made to choose the wrong casket? What do these suitors ultimately decide? Why?
(v) Whom does Portia ultimately marry? Who were the two other suitors who took the test? Why, in your opinion, is the person whom she marries worthy of her?
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उत्तर
(i) Portia’s father had devised a lottery of caskets for the suitors. There were three caskets namely gold, silver and lead. One of them was the portrait of Portia. Whichever suitor chose the casket which contained Portia’s picture would win her as his wife.
The suitors had to take the oath if he chose the wrong casket he will never speak to a lady in the subject of marriage, will not reveal to anyone which casket he chose and thirdly if he fails to immediately leave Belmont and go away from there.
(ii) Nerissa is Portia’s lady-in-waiting and close confidant. She is a smart lady with an intelligent mind and a true sense of humor.
Nerissa says to cheer up Portia that her father was always a good man, and such men have good guidance inspirations from Heaven at the time of their death when making their wills. Therefore Nerissa assures Portia that none but the person who really loves her and not her money will choose the right casket.
(iii) Portia disapproves of County Palatine saying he is always frowning as much to say that if Portia will not marry him, she may choose someone else. He bears happy stones but does not smile. She is afraid that he will become a sad philosopher like Heraclitus when he grows old because he is so sad at his young age.
She would rather be married to a grinning skeleton with a bone in his mouth than to these suitors.
(iv) Portia in order to safeguard against the worst she tells Nerissa to place a tall glass of Rhenish wine on the wrong casket. Portia is sure that the German suitor will not be able to resist the temptation of the wine even if the picture of the Devil himself is inside the casket. She will do anything rather than be married to a drunkard.
The suitors have informed Nerissa of their decision to back to their home not to trouble Portia with any more suit unless her father’s decree concerning the caskets can be set aside and they may woo her in an ordinary way.
(v) Portia ultimately marries Bassanio. Prince of Morocco and Prince of Arragon were the other two suitors who took the test.
Bassanio is worthy of Portia because both of them love each other deeply. Bassanio like a nobleman has sent greetings, polite salutations, gracious speeches, and costly presents before his arrival.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest's heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see___
These things he plants who plants a tree.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow:
Explain with reference to context.
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 is the narrator’s job?
The boy looked up. He took his hands from his face and looked up at his teacher. The light from Mr. Oliver’s torch fell on the boy’s face, if you could call it a face. He had no eyes, ears, nose or mouth. It was just a round smooth head with a school cap on top of it.
And that’s where the story should end, as indeed it has for several people who have had similar experiences and dropped dead of inexplicable heart attacks. But for Mr. Oliver, it did not end there. The torch fell from his trembling hand. He turned and scrambled down the path, running blindly through the trees and calling for help. He was still running towards the school buildings when he saw a lantern swinging in the middle of the path. Mr. Oliver had never before been so pleased to see the night watchman. He stumbled up to the watchman, gasping for breath and speaking incoherently.
What is it, Sahib? Asked the watchman, has there been an accident? Why are you running?
I saw something, something horrible, a boy weeping in the forest and he had no face.
No face, Sahib?
No eyes, no nose, mouth, nothing.
Do you mean it was like this, Sahib? asked the watchman, and raised the lamp to his own face. The watchman had no eyes, no ears, no features at all, not even an eyebrow. The wind blew the lamp out and Mr. Oliver had his heart attack.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did the torch fall from Mr Oliver’s hand? Why was his hand trembling?
“You haven’t brought home that sick brat!” Anger and astonishment were in the tones of Mrs. Joe Thompson; her face was in a flame.
“I think women’s hearts are sometimes very hard,” said Joe. Usually Joe Thompson got out of his wife’s way, or kept rigidly silent and non-combative when she fired up on any subject; it was with some surprise, therefore, that she now encountered a firmly-set countenance and a resolute pair of eyes.
“Women’s hearts are not half so hard as men’s!”
Joe saw, by a quick intuition, that his resolute bearing h«d impressed his wife and he answered quickly, and with real indignation, “Be that as it may, every woman at the funeral turned her eyes steadily from the sick child’s face, and when the cart went off with her dead mother, hurried away, and left her alone in that old hut, with the sun not an hour in the sky.”
“Where were John and Kate?” asked Mrs. Thompson.
“Farmer Jones tossed John into his wagon, and drove off. Katie went home with Mrs. Ellis; but nobody wanted the poor sick one. ‘Send her to the poorhouse,’ was the cry.”
“Why didn’t you let her go, then. What did you bring her here for?”
“She can’t walk to the poorhouse,” said Joe; “somebody’s arms must carry her, and mine are strong enough for that task.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Does the attitude of the villagers convey some truth about society at large?
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The story ‘Taro’s Reward’ shows that Taro is thoughtful, hardworking and also wise. Read aloud the parts of story that show these qualities in Taro.
