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Question
"Boxer lives his life in patience and unquestioning service." How far is this statement true? Throw light on Boxer's character.
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Solution
Horses are all around prized for their quality, and Boxer is no exemption. Standing just about six feet tall, Boxer is a cart-horse and as strong as two horses put together. Though he has tremendous power to work, he is not of first-rate intelligence and cannot get beyond the letter D.
But later he is sad at the boy who lies face down in the mud which provides a strong contrast to Napoleon's cruelty later. When he finds out about Animalism, Boxer devotes himself completely to the insubordination's cause. At the Battle of the Cowshed, Boxer turns out to be an important trooper, thumping a steady kid oblivious with his powerful foot.
He works for the community. He pulls through the tremendous work of treading out corn with his astonishing muscle power. On certain days the entire work of the farm seems to rest on his mighty shoulders. From morning till night he pushes and pulls, always at the spot where the work is the hardest. He makes an arrangement with a cockerel to call him in the mornings half an hour earlier than anyone else.
He has only two rules. "Napoleon is always right' and "I will work harder".
Notwithstanding when he crumples while remaking the windmill, his first contemplations are not of himself but rather of the work: "It is my lung ... It doesn't make a difference. I think you will have the capacity to complete the windmill without me."
Boxer is brave enough to challenge the pigs but is outsmarted by Squealer, leaving his faith in Napoleon undisturbed. He is the most faithful disciple of Animalism. Despite his split hoof, Boxer refuses to take even a day off from work. The only ambition left in him is to see the windmill well underway before he reaches the age for retirement. He is the backbone of the farm. He is not discouraged by the destruction of the windmill on two occasions. Finally, his illness, caused by overwork, gives the pigs their chance for revenge. He sacrificed his life for his comrades.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Describe in your own words the poet’s feelings when he sees the host of golden daffodils ?
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Lying in bed, Swami realized with a shudder that it was Monday morning. It looked as though only a moment ago, it had been the last period on Friday; already, Monday was here. He hoped that an earthquake would reduce the school building to dust but that my good building, Albert Mission School, had withstood similar prayers for over a hundred years now.
At nine o'clock, Swaminathan wailed, “I have a headache.”
His mother said, “Why don’t you go to school in a bullock cart?”
“So that I may be completely dead at the other end? Have you any idea what it means to be jolted in a cart?”
“Have you any important lessons today?”
“Important! Bah! That geography teacher has been teaching the same lesson for over a year now. And we have arithmetic, which means for a whole period we are going to be beaten by the teacher............ Important lessons!”
And Mother generously suggested that Swami might stay at home.
At 9:30, when he ought to have been lining up in the school prayer hall, Swami was lying on the bench in Mother’s room.
Father asked him, “Have you no school today?”
“Headache,” Swami replied,
“Nonsense! Dress up and go.”
“Headache.”
“Loaf about less on Sundays, and you will be without a headache on Monday.”
Swami knew how stubborn his father could be and changed his tactics.
“I can’t go so late to class.”
“I agree, but you’ll have to; it is your own fault. You should have asked me before deciding to stay away.”
“What will the teacher think if I go so late?”
“Tell him you had a headache, and so are late.”
“He will beat me if I say so.”
“Will he? Let us see. What is his name?”
“Mr. Samuel.”
“Does he beat the boys?”
“He is very violent, especially with boys who come late. Some days ago, a boy was made to stay on his knees for a whole period in a corner of the class because he came late, and after getting six cuts from the cane and having his ears twisted, I wouldn’t like to go late to Mr Samuel’s class.”
“If he is so violent, why not tell your headmaster about it?”
“They say that even the headmaster is afraid of him. He is such a violent man.”
And then Swami gave a lurid account of Samuel’s violence; how when he started caning, he would not stop till he saw blood on the boy’s hand, which he made the boy press to his forehead like a Vermillion marking. Swami hoped his father would be made to see that he couldn’t go to his class late. But his father’s behaviour took an unexpected turn. He became excited.
“What do these people mean by beating our children? They must be driven out of service. I will see…..”
The result was that he proposed to send Swami late to his class as a kind of challenge. He was also going to send a letter with Swami to the headmaster. No amount of protest from Swami was of any avail: Swami had to go to school.
By the time he was ready, his father had composed a long letter to the headmaster, put it in an envelope, and sealed it.
“What have you written, father?” Swaminathan asked apprehensively.
“Nothing for you. Give it to your headmaster and go to your class.”
Swami’s father did not know the truth—that, actually, Mr. Samuel was a very kind gentleman.
(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage. (3)
One-word answers or short phrases will be accepted.
- jolted
- stubborn
- avail
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:
- What did Swami wish for on a Monday morning? Why was his wish unlikely to be answered? (2)
- Which sentence tells us that Swami’s father was completely unsympathetic to his son’s headache? (2)
- In what way was Swami’s mother’s response different from his father’s? (2)
- Why did Swami give a colourful account of Mr. Samuel to his father? (2)
- In what way did Father’s behaviour take an unexpected turn? (2)
- What was Swami finally ordered to do by his father? (2)
(c)
(i) In not more than 60 words, describe how Swami tries to prove that Mr. Samuel is a violent man. (8)
(ii) Give a title to your summary in 3
(c). Give a reason to justify your choice. (2)
He had plenty of wealth but he was not happy.
(Begin: In spite............................................ )
Locate the following words in the text and study their connotation.
1. gripped the imagination of
2. dawned upon
3. ushered in
4. passed into current coin
5. passport of the future
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Examples:
- behold – look
- afeared – frightened
- forsooth – indeed
- hither – this place
Now find out some archaic words from your mother tongue or another language that you are proficient in and write down at least ten of them, and against each, their modern equivalent and meaning in English.
| Archaic Language | |||
| Archaic Word | Modern Equivalent | Meaning in English | |
| 1. | |||
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| 3. | |||
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Translate the following sentence into your mother tongue.
The first question we must ask ourselves before we speak is - is it true?
Write a composition (in approximately 400-450 words) on the following subject:
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