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Question
How did Ravi link his cat with the Pallava kings?
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Solution
Ravi felt that his cat was a descendant of the Rishi Cat of Mahabalipuram. He claimed that during his class trip to Mahabalipuram, he had seen statue of a cat there which he believed was an ancestor of this cat. He felt that the lion in the emblem of the Pallava king was a close relative of his cat.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Thinking about the Poem
What do the following phrases mean to you? Discuss in class.
(i) humid shadows
(ii) starry spheres
(iii) what a bliss
(iv) a thousand dreamy fancies into busy being start
(v) a thousand recollections weave their air-threads into woof
How does the poet imagine her to be, after death? Does he think of her as a person living in a very happy state (a ‘heaven’)? Or does he see her now as a part of nature? In which lines of the poem do you find your answer?
What happens when the zip on his carry-on bag gives way?
You can find more information about Robert Frost at the following websites.
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=1961.
Hear the poet (who died almost forty years ago!) reading the poem at
http://www.poets.org/poems/poems.cfm ?prmID= 1645
To view a beautiful New England scene with each poem on this web site: "Illustrated
Poetry of Robert Frost":
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/1487/index.html
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.
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?
After washing from his hands and face the dust and soil of work, Joe left the kitchen, and went to the little bedroom. A pair of large bright eyes looked up at him from the snowy bed; looked at him tenderly, gratefully, pleadingly. How his heart swelled in his bosom! With what a quicker motion came the heart-beats! Joe sat down, and now, for the first time, examining the thin free carefully under the lamp light, saw that it was an attractive face, and full of a childish sweetness which suffering had not been able to obliterate.
“Your name is Maggie?” he said, as he sat down and took her soft little hand in his.
“Yes, sir.” Her voice struck a chord that quivered in a low strain of music.
“Have you been sick long?”
“Yes, sir.” What a sweet patience was in her tone!
“Has the doctor been to see you?”
“He used to come”
“But not lately?”
“No, sir.”
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
How did Maggie look at Joe when he entered her room?
“Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?”
“Look, look; see for yourself !”The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun. It rained. It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Describe the rain and its effect on life on Venus.
Name some other creatures that live in anthills.
Discuss the following topic in groups.
Retell an episode in the story which is a good example of irony in a situation.
Find in the poem lines that match the following. Read both one after the other.
He is noisy on purpose
Who were the two last-minute shoppers to Ray’s shop?
Read the lines in which the following phrases occur. Then discuss with your partner the meaning of each phrase in its context.
Drinking straws
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 fish
Read the following passage and do the exercises that follow. Then complete the family tree of dogs given on the facing page.
The Dog Family
The dog family is one of the 11 families that make up the Carnivores, a large group of intelligent, flesh-eating, backboned animals. In this group are such varied animals as bears, pandas, raccoons, cats, hyenas, and even seal. The dog or canine family has many wild species like wolves, foxes, coyotes, jackals, and wild dogs. The dog is the only domesticated member of the canine family though now and then someone tames a wolf, fox or coyote as a pet. All members of the dog family are descendants of a wolf-like animal which lived about 15 million years ago. From this distant ancestor, the true dogs gradually developed. But nobody knows the exact ancestor of the modern domestic dog.
Several wild dogs look and behave like domestic dogs. The dingo or wild dog of Australia is one of these. It is possible that the dingo was a tamed dog brought to Australia long ago which then ran wild. Dogs were the first animals tamed by humans — perhaps 20,000 years ago. Tamed dogs were brought from Asia to the New World 5,000 or more years ago. Dogs were first used for hunting.
Find the opposites of these words in the text above.
(i) ancestor _________
(ii) wild t _ m _
(iii) ancient _________
(iv) near d _______ t
(v) suddenly gr ___________
Complete the following sentences.
(i) The dingo is __________________________________________________.
(ii) Dogs were the ____________________________________________animals tamed by humans. The other animals tamed by humans are __________________________
_________________ (Think and name some other such animals.)
(iii) The New World refers to ___________________________.
Dogs were brought there from ________________________.
Family Tree of Dogs
Match the job on the left with its description on the right.
|
Navigator_______________ |
Advises people what to do about jobs, personal problems, etc. |
| Architect _______________ | Works in politics, usually by standing for election. |
|
Engineer _______________ |
Finds and monitors the route to get to a place, or the direction of travel. |
|
Engineer _______________ |
Reports on recent news for newspaper, radio, or TV. |
|
Computer programmer _____________ |
Plans the design of a building, town, or city. |
| Athlete _______________ | Controls and puts together a programme of music. |
|
Disc jockey_____________ |
Works in sports or activities such as running, jumping etc. |
| Composer______________ | Designs and builds things like roads, bridges, or engines. |
| Counsellor _____________ | Makes up notes to create music. |
| Journalist ______________ | Designs the system by which a computer runs or gives information. |
The words given against the sentences below can be used both as nouns and verbs. Use them appropriately to fill in the blanks.
(i) You deserve a ________________________ on the back for your good performance. (pat)
(ii) The teacher _________________________ the child on the cheek to encourage her.
What decides the choices made by the rebel?
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason.
In Act V Scene viii of the play Macbeth, Macbeth initially refuses to fight Macduff because ______.
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason.
In Act III Scene iv of the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth dismissed the guests at the banquet without standing on any ceremony because ______.
