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Question
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?
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Solution
Some facts about snake charmers are as follows:
• Delhi government's amnesty scheme gave licence to many snake charmers rendering it legal to practice this trade.
• The snake charmers belong to the Nath sect and are followers of Lord Shiva or Bhole Nath.
• The skills of catching snakes are taught to them in their childhood.
• The snakes usually lie about in the open in the snake charmers' colonies.
• Small boxes, filled with sand, are also set up for the snakes there.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Answer the following question.
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(i) Who does ‘he’ refer to?
(ii) Why was he delighted?
Take down the following scrambled version of a story, that your teacher will dictate to
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“If you sang all summer,” said the ant, “you can dance all winter.”
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Tiger in Trouble
Since some tiger parts are used in traditional medicine, the tiger is in danger. Apart from its head being used as a trophy to decorate walls, tigers are also hunted for the following.
- Head: As a trophy on the wall.
- Brain: To cure laziness and pimples.
- Teeth: For rabies, asthma and sores.
- Blood: For strengthening the constitution and will power.
- Fat: For vomiting, dog bites, bleeding haemorrhoids and scalp ailments in children.
- Skin: To treat mental illness and to make fur coats.
- Whiskers: For toothache.
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?
“I love the West,” said the girl irrelevantly. Her eyes were shining softly. She looked away out the car window. She began to speak truly and simply without the gloss of style and manner: “Mamma and I spent the summer in Deliver. She went home a week ago
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The bound travellers rose to their feet, Easton with the Same slow smile on his face. “I can’t deny a petition for tobacco,” he said, lightly. “It’s the one friend of the unfortunate. Good-bye, Miss Fairchild. Duty calls, you know.” He held out his hand for a farewell. “It’s too bad you are not going East,” she said, reclothing herself with manner and style. “But you must go on to Leavenworth, I suppose?” “Yes,” said Easton, “I must go on to Leavenworth.”
The two men sidled down the aisle into the smoker. The two passengers in a seat near by had heard most of the conversation. Said one of them: “That marshal’s a good sort of chap. Some of these Western fellows are all right.” “Pretty young to hold an office like that, isn’t he?” asked the other. “Young!” exclaimed the first speaker, “why—Oh! didn’t you catch on? Say—did you ever know an officer to handcuff a prisoner to his right hand?”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why is it ironic when Fairchild says, “people always misunderstand things and remain stupid —”?
“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’?
Nishad decides to trust Mr Nath. Do you think we should trust others, why so?
Who were wrongly blamed for the theft of the bananas?
Why and when did Dad say the following?
Never mind
Word in the box given below indicates a large number of… For example, ‘a herd of cows’ refers to many cows.
Complete the following phrase with a suitable word from the box.
a _________________ of ships
Multiple Choice Question:
What does the word ‘soars’ in the above extract mean?
Answer the question.
What do you think these phrases from the poem mean?Leave their greens.
What does he want to know about his teacher? Why?
With your partner, complete the following sentence in your own word using the ideas in the poem.
One has to match __________________.
Look at the following phrases and their meanings. Use the phrase to fill in the blank in the sentence given below.
Why don’t you __________________ your ideas on paper?
What does he carry in his hand?
Comment on the speaker’s resolve to go inside the shed.
Read the following sets of words loudly and clearly.
cot – coat
cost – coast
tossed – toast
got – goat
rot – rote
blot – bloat
knot – note
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.
business ……………
What else do you think Nishad and Maya will find out about him? How? Will they ever be friends? Think about these questions and write a paragraph or two to continue the story.
