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Question
In what respect was Miss Beam’s school different from others?
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Solution
Miss Beam ran a school. But it was very different from others. The children were taught how to spell words, do sums and write. The teacher taught to them interesting lessons. But the real aim of the school was to make children sensitive and good citizens, kind and responsible. They were given practical training to develop such a character.
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“…whenever we are told to hate our brothers…” When do you think this happens?
Why? Who ‘tells’ us? Should we do as we are told at such times? What does the poet say?
1. In 1953, Hooper was a favoured young man. A big genuine grin civilized his highly competitive nature. Standing six-foot-one, he'd played on the university football team. He was already a hard-charging Zone Sales Manager for a chemical company. Everything was going for him.
2. Then, when he was driving home one autumn twilight, a car sped out in front of him without warning. Hooper was taken to the hospital with a subdural haemorrhage in the motor section of the brain, completely paralysing his left side.
3. One of Chuck's district managers drove Marcy to the hospital. Her husband couldn't talk; he could only breathe and see, and his vision was double. Marcy phoned a neighbour, asking him to put Duke in a kennel.
4. Hooper remained on the critical list for a month. After the fifth week some men from his company came to the hospital and told Hooper to take a year off. They would create a desk job for him at the headquarters.
5. About six weeks after the accident, the hospital put him in a wheelchair. Every day there was someone working his paralysed arm and leg followed by baths, exercise, a wheeled walker. However, Chuck didn't make much headway.
6. In March, they let him out of the hospital. After the excitement of homecoming wore off, Chuck hit a new low. At the hospital there had been other injured people, but now, each morning when Marcy quietly went to work, it was like a gate slamming down. Duke was still in the kennel, and Chuck was alone with his thoughts.
7. Finally, they decided to bring Duke home. Chuck said he wanted to be standing when Duke came in, so they stood him up. Duke's nails were long from four months' confinement, and when he spied Chuck he stood quivering like 5000 volts; then he let out a bellow, spun his long-nailed wheels, and launched himself across three metres of air. He was a 23-kilo missile of joy. He hit Chuck above the belt, causing him to fight to keep his balance.
8. Those who saw it said the dog knew instantly. He never jumped on Chuck again. From that moment, he took up a post beside his master's bed round the clock.
9. But even Duke's presence didn't reach Chuck. The once-iron muscles slacked on the rangy frame. Secretly, Marcy cried as she watched the big man's grin fade away. Severe face lines set in like cement as Chuck stared at the ceiling for hours, then out of the window, then at Duke.
10. When two fellows stare at each other day in, day out, and one can't move and the other can't talk, boredom sets in. Duke finally couldn't take it. From a motionless coil on the floor he'd spring to his feet, quivering with impatience.
11. "Ya-ruff"
12. "Lie down. Duke!"
13. Duke stalked to the bed, poked his pointed nose under Chuck's elbow and lifted. He nudged and needled and snorted.
14. "Go run around the house, Duke."
15. But Duke wouldn't. He'd lie down with a reproachful eye on Hooper. An hour later he would come over to the bed again and yap and poke. He wouldn't leave but just sit there.
16. One evening Chuck's good hand idly hooked the leash onto Duke's collar to hold him still. It was like lighting a fuse: Duke shimmied himself U-shaped in anticipation. Even Hooper can't explain his next move. He asked Marcy to help him to his feet. Duke pranced, Chuck fought for balance. With his good hand, he placed the leash in his left and folded the paralysed fingers over it, holding them there. Then he leaned forward. With Marcy supporting him by the elbow, he
moved his right leg out in front. Straightening his right leg caused the left foot to drag forward, alongside the right. It could be called a step.
17. Duke felt the sudden slack in the leash and pulled it taut. Chuck swayed forward again, broke the fall with his good right leg, then straightened. Thrice he did that, then collapsed into the wheelchair, exhausted.
18. Next day, the big dog started early; he charged around to Hooper's good side, jabbed his nose under the elbow and snapped his head up. The big man's good arm reached for the leash. With Hooper standing, the dog walked to the end of the leash and tugged steadily. Four so-called steps they took that day.
19. Leaning back against the pull, Hooper learned to keep his balance without Marcy at his elbow. Wednesday, he and Duke took five steps; Thursday, six steps; Friday, failure- two steps followed by exhaustion. But in two weeks they reached the front porch.
20. By mid-April neighbours saw a daily struggle in front of Marcy's house. Out on the sidewalk they saw the dog pull his leash taut then stand and wait. The man would drag himself abreast of the dog, then the dog would surge out to the end of the leash and wait again. The pair set daily goals; Monday, the sixth fence post, Tuesday, the seventh fence post, Wednesday ......
21. When Marcy saw what Duke could do for her husband, she told the doctor, who prescribed a course of physiotherapy with weights, pulleys and whirlpool baths and above all walking every day with Duke, on a limited, gradual scale.
22. By now neighbours on their street were watching the pattern of progress. On June 1, news spread that Hooper and Duke had made it to an intersection quite far away.
23. Soon, Duke began campaigning for two trips a day, and they lengthened the targets, one driveway at a time. Duke no longer waited at each step.
24. On January 4, Hooper made his big move. Without Duke, he walked the 200 metres from the clinic to the local branch office of his company. This had been one of the district offices under his jurisdiction as zone manager. The staff was amazed by the visit. But to Gordon Doule, the Manager, Chuck said, "Gordon, this isn't just a visit. Bring me up to date on what's happened, will you - -so I can get to work?" Doule gaped, "It'll just be an hour a day for a while," Hooper continued. "I'll use that empty desk in the warehouse. And I'll need a dictating machine. 16
25. Back in the company's headquarters, Chuck's move presented problems -- tough ones. When a man fights that hard for a comeback, who wants to tell him he can't handle his old job? On the other hand, what can you do with a salesman who can't move around, and can work only an hour a day? They didn't know that Hooper had already set his next objective: March 1, a full day's work.
26. Chuck hit the target, and after March 1, there was no time for the physiotherapy programme; he turned completely to Duke, who pulled him along the street faster and faster, increasing his stability and endurance. Sometimes, walking after dark, Hooper would trip and fall. Duke would stand still as a post while his master struggled to get up. It was as though the dog knew that his job was to get Chuck back on his feet.
27. Thirteen months from the moment he worked full days. Chuck Hooper was promoted to regional manager covering more than four states.
28. Chuck, Marcy and Duke moved house in March 1956. The people in the new suburb where the Hoopers bought a house didn't know the story of Chuck and Duke. All they knew was that their new neighbour walked like a struggling mechanical giant and that he was always pulled by a rampageous dog that acted as if he owned the man.
29. On the evening of October 12, 1957, the Hoopers had guests. Suddenly over the babble of voices, Chuck heard the screech of brakes outside. Instinctively, he looked for Duke.
30. They carried the big dog into the house. Marcy took one look at Duke's breathing, at his brown eyes with the stubbornness gone. "Phone the vet," she said. "Tell him, I'm bringing Duke." Several people jumped to lift the dog. "No, please," she said. And she picked up the big Duke, carried him gently to the car and drove him to the animal hospital.
31. Duke was drugged and he made it until 11o'clock the next morning, but his injuries were too severe.
32. People who knew the distance Chuck and Duke had come together, one fence post at a time, now watched the big man walk alone day after day. They wondered: how long will he keep it up? How far will he go today? Can he do it alone?
33. A few weeks ago, worded as if in special tribute to Duke, an order came through from the chemical company's headquarters: ".......... therefore, to advance our objectives step by step, Charles Hooper is appointed the Assistant National Sales Manager."
About the Author
William D. Ellis was born in Concord, Massachusetts. He began writing at the age of 12, on being urged by an elementary-school teacher who discerned his talent at an early age. Ellis's study of the history of Ohio provided him material that he eventually used as the foundation for a trilogy of novels: Bounty Lands, Jonathan Blair:Bounty Lands Lawyer, and The Brooks Legend. Each of his novels appeared on best-seller lists, and the trilogy itself eventually earned its author a Pulitzer Prize nomination. The most important recurring theme in his works is the triumph of survival.
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Explain with reference to context.
She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance. “Grandmother,” cried the little one, “O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious Christmas-tree.” And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.
In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and the New-year’s sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. “She tried to warm herself,” said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year’s day.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why was there a smile on the girl’s lips? Did the people understand?
Suddenly all the tension seemed to ebb out of my body as the truth of what he said hit me. Confidently, I drew a line a full foot in back of the board and proceeded to jump from there. I qualified with almost a foot to spare.
That night I walked over to Luz Long’s room in the Olympic village to thank him. I knew that if it hadn’t been for him I probably wouldn’t be jumping in the finals the following day. We sat in his quarters and talked for two hours—about track and field, ourselves, the world situation, a dozen other things.
When I finally got up to leave, we both knew that a real friendship had been formed. Luz would go out to the field the next day trying to beat me if he could. But I knew that he wanted me to do my best—even if that meant my winning.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
How did Owens manage to qualify for the finals with a foot to spare?
I could hear the squeaking that heralded the evening arrival of the bats. I listened to the noises of the approaching night. Every day my hearing grew sharper. I was learning to filter out whatever I did not need to listen to, and giving no sign that I could hear everything that went on in the house.
I could not sleep. The air was heavy and still, the moon hidden behind thick banks of cloud. Lord Otori was sound asleep. I did not want to leave the house I'd come to love so much, but I seemed to be bringing nothing but trouble to it. Perhaps it would be better for everyone if I just vanished in the night. [5]
Now I heard the hiss of hot water as the bath was prepared, the clatter of dishes from the kitchen, the sliding sigh of the cook's knife, a dog barking two streets away, and the sounds of feet on the wooden bridges on the canals. I knew the sounds of the house, day and night, in the sunshine and under the rain. This evening I realized I was always listening for something more. I was waiting too. For what? [10]
I began to wonder if I could get out of the house without setting the dogs barking and arousing the guards. I started consciously listening to the dogs. Usually, I heard them bark on and off throughout the night, but I'd learned to distinguish their barks and to ignore them. I set my ears for them but heard nothing. Then I started listening for the guards: the sound of a foot on stone or a whispered conversation. Nothing. Sounds that should have been there been missing from the night's familiar web. [20]
Now I was wide-awake, straining my ears to hear. There came the slightest of sounds, hardly more than a tremor, between the window and the ground.
For a moment I thought it was the earth-shaking, as it so often did. Another tiny tremble followed, then another. Someone was climbing up the side of the house [25]
My first instinct was to yell out, but cunning took over. I rose from the mattress and crept silently to Lord Otori's side. I knelt beside him and whispered in his ear, "Lord Otori, someone is, outside." [30]
He woke instantly and then reached for the sword and knife that lay beside him. I gestured to the window. The faint tremor came again.
Lord Otori passed the knife to me and stepped to the wall. I moved to the other side of the window. We waited for the assassin to climb in.
Step by step he came up the wall, stealthy and unhurried as if he had all the time in the world. We waited for him with the same patience. [35]
He paused on the sill to take out the knife he planned to use on us and then stepped inside. Lord Otori took him in a stranglehold. The intruder wriggled backwards. I leaped at him, and the three of us fell into the garden like a flurry of fighting cats. [40]
The man fell first, across the stream, striking his head on a boulder. Lord Otori landed on his feet. My fall was broken by one of the shrubs. The intruder groaned, tried to rise, but slipped back into the water.
"Get a light," Lord Otori said.
I ran to the house, took a light that still burned in one of the candle stands and carried it back to the garden. [45]
The assassin had died without regaining consciousness. It turned out he had a poison pellet in his mouth and had crushed it as he tell. He was dressed in black, with no marking on his clothes. I held the light over him. There was nothing to tell us who he was. [50]
(i) Given below are four words and phrases. Find the words which have a similar meaning in the passage:
(1) Coming near
( 2 ) Disappeared suddenly
(3) Awakening from sleep
(4) Moved slowly and gradually
(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:
(1) Bats ( line 1 )
( 2 ) Sign ( line 4 )
( 3 ) Banks ( line 6 )
( 4 ) Back ( line 43 )
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
All that year the animals worked like slaves. But they were happy in their work, they grudged no effort or sacrifice, well aware that everything that they did was for the benefit of themselves and those of their kind who would come after ·them and not for a pack of idle thieving human beings. Throughout the spring and summer, they worked a sixty-hour week, and in August ...............
(i) What did Napoleon announce in August?
(ii) How much time had elapsed since the constitution of the Animal Farm? As summer wore on, what unforeseen shortages began to be felt?
(iii) What new policy did Napoleon make? The new • policy brought a vague uneasiness among the animals. What did they recall?
(iv) Who had agreed to act as an intermediary between the Animal Farm and the outside world ' Describe him?
(v) What roused the pride of the animals and made them reconcile to the new arrangement? In the meanwhile, what sudden decision was taken by the pigs? What do we learn about Napoleon at this juncture?
What did the leader of the van do with the kind old man?
He used to work really hard to make each pair of shoe. But still everything he earned went on paying the rent of his shop and in buying leather. There wasn’t much money with him. He nearly killed himself working for hours at the shop without any food and rest.
Whom does ‘his’ refers to in the above lines?
When and how did Timothy become unfriendly?
How did Tilloo’s father manage to survive on the surface of the planet?
Why has sleep been called a wonder?
How did Saeeda’s mother feel on that sunny day?
What went wrong when the tortoises, snakes and lizards left the forest?
How does a tree prove to be beneficial during Summers?
What was Patrick’s chief interest?
Replace the italicised portion of the sentence below with a suitable phrase from the box. Make necessary changes, wherever required.
It will free me from worry to know that I had done nothing wrong.
Complete the following sentence by providing a reason:
Towards the end of the poem Birches, the poet expresses a wish to return to Earth because ______.
In Stephen Leacock’s ‘With the Photographer’, while waiting for the photographer, the narrator spent time ______.
