Question

Read the following passage and do the activities:

One morning in a small apartment in Bombay a girl of about sixteen looked up from the newspaper and said excitedly, ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar’s playing tomorrow at the Shanmukhananda auditorium’. ‘Sh-sh,’ said her mother pointing to the figure sleeping on the bed. ‘You’ll wake him up. You know he needs all the sleep and rest he can get. But the boy on the bed was not asleep. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar!’ he said. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro?’ He raised himself up on his elbows for one second, then fell back. But his eyes were shining. ‘We mustn’t miss the chance,’ he said. ‘I’ve – ‘I’ve – always wanted to hear him and see him...’ ‘Lie down son, lie down.’ His mother sprang to his side. ‘Hе actually raised himself up without help,’ she murmured with a catch in her throat and her eyes turned to the idols on a corner shelf. The prayer, which she uttered endlessly, came unbidden to her lips.

B1. Complete the web from passage:     [2]

B2. Find the reasons for each of the sentence given below from the passage:     [2]

1. The mother ‘sh-sh’ed her ............     [1]
2. The boy’s eyes were shining ............     [1]

B3. Vocabulary:

1. Find out two onomatopoeic words from the passage.     [1]
2. Complete the cross puzzle in the given ladders in capital letters.     [1]
   (The words should be from the passage only)
   

B4. Grammar:     [2]

1. He raised himself up on his elbows for one second, then fell back.     [1]
   (Make it simple.)
2. The boy on the bed was not asleep.     [1]
   (Make it affirmative.)

B5. Why do you think the boy’s mother’s eyes turned towards the idols kept in the corner?     [2]

Answer 1

B1.

B2.

1. The mother ‘sh-sh’ed her because she did not want her son, who was sleeping on the bed, to wake up.
2. The boy’s eyes were shining because he wanted to go to the concert, since he had always wanted to see and hear Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro.

B3.

1. Two onomatopoeic words:
   1. sh-sh
   2. murmured
2. 
   

B4.

1. After raising himself on his elbows for one second, he fell back.
2. The boy on the bed was awake.

B5.

The boy’s mother was aware that the doctors had given up on her son and that he had a terminal and incurable condition. She was aware that asking the gods for a miracle through prayer was her only remaining choice. She therefore turned to the idols whenever she could to offer prayers for her son’s well-being. They served as her sole source of support and hope.