Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
Explain the following phrase selected from the story in your own word and work with a partner to make sentence using these phrase:
a double-distilled idiot
Advertisements
Solution
Some double-distilled idiots ill-treat their parents in old age.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
You want to start a new club at your school.
Write a letter to your principal requesting permission to start the club, explain your role in it and give reasons to prove that the club will be beneficial for the school.
Read the passage given below and answer the questions (a), (b) and (c) that follow :
(1) At the Literary Society’s meeting, Isola read out the letters written to her Granny Pheen, when she was but a little girl. They were from a very kind man – a complete stranger. Isola told us how these letters came to be written.
(2) When Granny Pheen was nine years old, her cat died. Heartbroken, sitting in the middle of the road, she was sobbing her heart out.
(3) A carriage, driving far too fast, came within a whisker of running her down. A very big man in a dark coat with a fur collar, jumped out, leaned over Pheen, and asked if he could help her. Granny Pheen said she was beyond help. Muffin, her cat, was dead.
(4) The man said, ‘Of course, Muffin’s not dead. You do know cats have nine lives, don’t you?’ When Pheen said yes, the man said, ‘Well, I happen to know your Muffin was only on her third life, so she has six lives left.’ Pheen asked how he knew. He said he always knew - cats would often appear in his mind and chat with him. Well, not in words, of course, but in pictures.
(5) He sat down on the road beside her and told her to keep still – very still. He would see if Muffin wanted to visit him. They sat in silence for several minutes, when suddenly the man grabbed Pheen’s hand.
(6) ‘Ah – yes! There she is! She’s being born this minute! In a mansion – in France. There’s a little boy petting her, he’s going to call her Solange. This Solange has great spirit, great verve – I can tell already! She is going to have a long, venturesome life.’
(7) Granny Pheen was so rapt by Muffin’s new fate that she stopped crying. The man said he would visit Solange every so often and find out how she was faring.
(8) He asked for Granny Pheen’s name and the name of the farm where she lived, got back into the carriage, and left.
(9) Absurd as all this sounds, Granny Pheen did receive eight long letters. Isola then read them out. They were all about Muffin’s life as the French cat − Solange. She was, apparently, something of a feline musketeer. She was no idle cat, lolling about on cushions, lapping up cream – she lived through one wild adventure after another – the only cat ever to be awarded the red rosette of the Legion of Honour.
(10) What a story this man had made up for Pheen – lively, witty, full of drama and suspense. We were enchanted, speechless at the reading. When it was over (and much applauded), I asked Isola if I could see the letters, and she handed them to me.
(11) The writer had signed his letters with a grand flourish :
VERY TRULY YOURS,
O.F. O’F. W.W.
It was highly possible that Isola had inherited eight letters written by Oscar Wilde, for who else could have had such a preposterous name as Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Willis Wilde.
Adapted from : The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – By Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
(a) (i) Given below are four words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage :[4]
(1) adventurous
(2) cat-like
(3) appreciated
(4) received something on someone’s death
(ii) For each of the words given below, write a sentence of at least ten words using the same word unchanged in form, but with a different meaning from that which it carries in the passage :[4]
(1) kind (line 2)
(2) mind (line 13)
(3) still (line 15)
(4) sounds (line 26)
(b) Answer the following questions in your own words as briefly as possible:
(i) Where did Isola get the letters from to read at the Literary Society’s meeting?[2]
(ii) Who consoled Granny Pheen when she was heart-broken? What did he say about Muffin’s lives?[2]
(iii) What did the man say when Granny Pheen asked him how he knew about cats’ lives?[2]
(iv) According to the man, what was Muffin’s new fate?[3]
(c) In not more than 100 words, summarise why the eight letters were a treasure to Granny Pheen. (Paragraphs 2 to 10). Failure to keep within the word limit will be penalised. You will be required to write the summary in the form of a connected passage in about 100 words.[8]
Is there repetition used in the poem? Why?
Discuss the theme of the story ‘ Hearts and Hands.’
The author shows death as a relief from a harsh life. Justify with reference to the story.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
The morning stretched calm, beautiful, and warm.
Sprawling half-clad, I gazed out at the form
Of shimmering leaves and shadows. Suddenly
A strong flash, then another, startled me.
I saw the old stone lantern brightly lit.
(A Doctor’s Journal Entry for August 6, 1945: Vikram Seth)
(i) In which country did the incident described in the poem occur? What had caused the flashes? What happened to his home soon after?
(ii) Describe the injuries suffered by the Doctor.
(iii) What was his wife’s name? What happened to a house standing before them?
(iv) How does he describe the people he met on the way?
(v) Why were the people walking with their hands away from their bodies? What was common to all of them? What message does the poem convey?
Every one of them was an experienced mountaineer.
(Begin: There was no .................................)
Give reasons for the following.
Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king’s remains.
What do you think are the reasons for the extinction of languages?
Given below is an interesting combination of words. Explain why they have been used together.
eternal brilliance
‘Forgiveness is often better than punishment’. Write two paragraphs – one for and another against this notion.
Write a paragraph about beauty. Use your own ideas along with the ideas in the poem. (You may discuss your ideas with your partner.)
Discuss the following with your partner and complete the following sentence.
In a farmers’ market, we find _______________.
Guess the meaning of the above proverbs and write them down along with a sentence of your own.
Write a short passage/essay on ‘Women Power’ in the Neolithic, Medieval, and Present Times.
There are many legends about the ‘nine gems’ in Akbar’s Court. These are popular tales and they may not have a historical basis. Can you name some of the nine gems and the stories associated with them?
Have you experienced any unexpected turn of events in your life? What happened? How did you feel about it at that moment? How do you feel about it now?
Write an article for your school magazine describing your experience in about 150 words.
Look at the picture given below and frame your own slogan.
Look at the image of the familiar advertisement given below. Identify the product and try to frame your own slogan for them.
Describe Hiawatha, his home and friends in ten lines.
Write these sentences in the correct order. Also, choose the right word from the box and add it before each sentence. Remember to put a comma after it, for example, Finally...
| First, Then, After, that, Finally |
- It gave him its branches to make a house.
- It asked him to sit on the stump.
- It gave him its trunk to make a boat.
- The tree gave its apples to the boy.
Give another word from the story that means
| completed | |
| surprised | |
| strange | |
| make up your mind |
Do your work ______[neat]
Given below is a list of tools and equipment. Associate them with the appropriate profession and complete the table.
plough, hammer, oven, thermometer, voltmeter, wood, chisel, seed drill, voltage, detector, cutting boards, stone picker, spatula, cultivator, nail puller, wire strippers, framing square, fork, flashlight
| Farmer | Carpenter | Electrician | Chef |
| plough | hammer | ||
Why do patients leave the clinic without meeting the dentist?
List six gadgets that you want to purchase. Write them according to your priorities and state the reasons.
| S.No. | Gadgets | Reasons |
Write a paragraph of about 150 word, on the following topic.
The importance of Good Health
Write a composition in approximately 350 – 400 words on the following subject:
(You are reminded that you will be rewarded for orderly and coherent presentation of material, use of appropriate style and general accuracy of spelling, punctuation, and grammar.)
Narrate an incident from your own experience when you helped someone to prepare a meal.
Explain what you did and what you gained from this experience.
Discuss the following and write the summary of your discussion in the form of bullet points.
- How are certain ideas/customs/knowledge passed on from one generation to the next?
- Is it necessary for children to follow the footsteps of their forefathers? If yes, why? Why is it sometimes necessary to change the old ways?
