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Question
List the characters in the play and write one or two lines about each.
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Solution
- Motiram: He is a farmer. He has had a good produce that year. He doesn't like others to know how well his crops have grown because he doesn't like to entertain unwanted guests. He is very direct and rude with unwanted guests.
- Sonabai: She is a farmer's wife. Her husband's farm has had a good product that year. She too doesn't like uninvited guests. She is clever at making excuses.
- Hirabai: Hirabai too is a farmer's wife. She doesn't like to waste good food and money on others. She is also good at making excuses.
- Rupabai: She is a simple lady. She is not as well to do as her neighbours. She is not as clever in making excuses as her neighbours. She usually speaks the truth.
- Traveller: He is poor and footsore and hungry. But he is very clever. He manages to get the villagers to contribute something or the other to the soup he makes.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Read the passage and complete the activities given below
B1 Complete the table :
A few facts about the Mehendi rituals during marriage ceremonies are given below :
Write them into appropriate columns :
(i) A simple family affair.
(ii) Song and dance performances accompanied by lavish food and entertainment.
(iii) Creative family members, apply Mehendi to the bride.
(iv) Beauticians are appointed to apply Mehendi to the bride.
Fill in the table as :
| Yesteryears | Present times |
| (i) | (i) |
| (ii) | (ii) |
Mehendi enjoys special attention during the wedding. In India, the day before the wedding is devoted exclusively to the elaborate ritual of applying Mehendi on the hands and feet of the bride. This practice is followed in Arab countries as well, except that it is held a few days prior to the wedding day. Songs are woven around the healing properties and lucky omens associated with mehndi are sung by the bride’s family and friends. An age-old belief handed down to generations lays great emphasis on the color of the bride’s Mehendi – a darker color suggests bountiful love and affection from the future in-laws and husband, and for this reason, brides take the pain to ensure that only the best quality henna is used for her wedding day.
The ritual of adorning the bride with henna is a sacred one and in some communities requires the initiation by the mother-in-law. A popular game during marriage function is the search for their names, by the bride and groom hidden within the elaborate pattern on the bride’s hands.
In certain parts of India, the bridegroom has his hands decorated with henna. The Mehendi function during marriages has evolved from simple family affairs of yesteryears to elaborate events of today. A lavish spread of food and entertainment in the form of song and dance performances have transformed it from a small function to a gala prelude. In earlier days, the task of applying Mehendi on the bride was the sole prerogative of creative family members. The demand for intricate and different style now, sees this job outsourced to beauticians skilled in this art. Beauty salons charge according to the style and complexity of pattern desired by the clients.
B2 What is the age-old belief related to the bride’s Mehendi color and its significance?
B3 Find the words :
Find the words from the passage :
| Noun | Verd | Adjectives |
| (i) attention | attend | _______________ |
| (ii) creation | _________________ | creative |
A lot of money is spent nowadays on marriage ceremonies. What is your opinion about it?
'On reading Shelley's A Defence of Poetry, the question insistently occurs why there is no similar A Defence of Science written of equal endowment.'
'Whose roots lay deeper than our lives' – what aspect of human behaviour does this line reflect?
Read each invitation carefully, keeping in mind the list of eight questions given below. Note the answers in your notebook. Verify that the formal invitation ‘A’ covers all the eight points. Now see which of these eight points are covered in the other invitations ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’. Put tickmarks against the points that are covered.
- A formal invitation
- An oral invitation
- A notice
- Another oral invitation
- Who is sending/giving the information?
- What is the programme?
- What is the name of the project?
- Who will inaugurate it?
- Who will preside over the function?
- What time will the function start?
- Where will it take place?
- How many names get mentioned in the invitation?
| Points | A | B | C | D |
| (1) | ✓ | |||
| (2) | ✓ | |||
| (3) | ✓ | |||
| (4) | ✓ | |||
| (5) | ✓ | |||
| (6) | ✓ | |||
| (7) | ✓ | |||
| (8) | 6 |
Who was challenged for a race?
Master trained Akilan on a ______.
Who is incharge of this case?
Read the poem.
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe the horse was lost,
For want of a horse, the rider was lost,
For want of a rider, the battle was lost,
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail!
[traditional rhyme]
Now form questions for the answers given in the speech bubbles.

Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow
Humans have long been fascinated by fiction. We experience excitement in assigning supernatural power to imaginary characters in fictional stories – and so we have Spider man, Batman, He–man, Titans and many more. The ‘Cyborg’ was an offshoot of such wild imagination of humans to invest our species with superhuman powers. Today, the Cyborg is no more an imaginary organism. We are living in a world where a sizeable population of humans have merged their bodies with technological implants. The term ‘Cyborg’, short for ‘cybernetic organism’, was coined to describe a man, whose body is implanted with technological devices to supplement and substitute body functions.
Cyborgs include people with cardiac pacemakers, contact lenses, bionic ears and eyes, prosthetics and so on. In other words, a cyborg is partly human and partly machine. The technological innovations in the field of medicine and healthcare augment humans with machines, producing a beta version of the human body. The advent of brain machine interfaces is certain to blur the boundary between humans and machines. Scientists are working hard to find a technique for age reversal too. People do not want to die, so mankind is striving to get to the final frontier, which is development of machines and devices that would accord man immortality.
The needs of humans are not limited. As time passes, food habits change, thinking patterns change, and even appearances change. We are about to travel by driverless, fully automated vehicles. Computers and smart phones have become our masters. The more we depend and merge with technological advancements, the more the humanness in us slowly erodes. Intelligence is sought to be infused into machines and robotics are designed in such a way to give man a virtual human companion. The field of artificial intelligence is overtaking the human brain and many fear that it could even harm the human race. Despite certain limitations and potential threats, many believe that cyborgs will be the next step in the evolution of mankind. The amalgamation of man and machine is sure to add a new dimension to the life of mankind and this will prove to be the ‘biggest evolution in Biology’ since the emergence of life, four billion years ago.
Questions:
a) Account for the popularity of characters with supernatural powers.
b) Who is referred to as a ‘Cyborg’?
c) What is expected to happen with the advent of the brain machine interface?
d) The needs of humans are not limited. How is this statement elaborated in the passage?
e) How can a machine turn into a virtual companion for humans?
f) Explain the flipside of the rapid technological advancement.
g) Identify the word in para 1 which means ‘everlasting life’.
h) Which of the following words is synonymous with ‘amalgamation’?
- recreation
- integration
- exploration
- proposition
i) Which of the following options is the antonym of the word ‘advent’?
- drawback
- dispute
- departure
- danger
j) Find out the word which is the antonym of ‘natural’ in para 3.
Should children be discouraged from playing online games?
