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Question
Then there it lay in her wet palm, perfect, even pierced ready for use, with the sunset shuffled about inside it like gold—?dust. All her heart went up in flames of joy. After a bit she twisted it into the top of her skirt against her tummy so she would know if it burst through the poor cloth and fell. Then she picked up her fork and sickle and the heavy grass and set off home. Ai! Ai! What a day! Her barefeet smudged out the wriggle— ?mark of snakes in the dust; there was the thin singing of malaria mosquitoes among the trees now; and this track was much used at night by a morose old makna elephant—the Tuskless One; but Sibia was not thinking of any of them. The stars came out: she did not notice. On the way back she met her mother, out of breath, come to look for her, and scolding. “I did not see till I was home, that you were not there. I thought something must have happened to you.” And Sibia, bursting with her story, cried “Something did). I found a blue bead for my necklace, look!”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What all did Sibia not notice as she went home?
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Solution
Sibia was so full of joy at finding the blue bead that she did not notice the thin singing of malaria mosquitoes among the trees, nor was she worried that she might come across the dangerous old makna elephant—the Tuskless One or that the stars had come out in the sky and night was falling.
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Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow :
Billy Weaver had travelled down from London, and by the time he arrived, it was nine o’clock in the night, and the moon was coming up.
“Excuse me,” he asked a porter. “But is there a cheap hotel nearby?”
“Try the Bell Hotel,” the porter answered, pointing down the road.
Billy thanked him, picked up his suitcase, and set out to walk the distance to the Bell Hotel. He had never been to Richmond before, but the man at the office had told him it was a splendid city.
Billy was seventeen years old. He was wearing a new navy blue overcoat, a new brown hat, and a new brown suit, and he was feeling fine. He walked briskly down the street. He was trying to do everything briskly these days. The big shots up at the head office were fantastically brisk all the time. They were amazing.
The road was lonely and dark, with a few scattered houses.
Suddenly, in a downstairs window, Billy saw a printed notice propped up against the window glass. It said bed and breakfast.
He moved a bit closer and peered through the window into the room, and the first thing he saw was a bright fire burning in the hearth. On the carpet in front of the fire, a little dog was curled up asleep with its nose tucked into its belly. The room, in its half-darkness, was filled with pleasant furniture. There was a piano, a big sofa, and several plump armchairs. In one corner, he spotted a large parrot in a cage. Animals were usually a good sign in a place like this, Billy told himself, and it looked to him as though it would be a pretty decent house to stay in.
Then a queer thing happened to him. He was in the act of stepping back and going away from the window when he felt a strange urge to ring the bell!
He pressed the bell. He heard it ring, and then, at once, the door swung open, and a woman stood there.
She gave him a warm, welcoming smile.
“Please come in,” she said pleasantly. Billy found himself automatically moving forward into the house.
“I saw the notice in the window,” he said, holding himself back.
“Yes, I know.”
“I was wondering about a room.”
“It’s already for you, my dear,” she said. She had a round, pink face and very gentle blue eyes.
“How much do you charge?”
“Five dollars a night, including breakfast.”
It was fantastically cheap. He could easily afford it.
(a) Give the meaning of the following words used in the passage: One-word answers or short phrases will be accepted. [3]
(i) splendid (line 7)
(ii) spotted (line 20)
(iii) automatically (line 29)
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
Some are like fields of sunlit corn,
Meet for a bride on her bridal morn,
Some, like the flame of her marriage fire,
Or, rich with the hue of her heart's desire,
Tinkling,luminous,tender, and clear,
Like her bridal laughter and bridal tear.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Besides visual imagery the poet also uses auditory imagery.Pick out the lines.
"They say it was a shocking sight
After the field was won;
For many thousand bodies here
Lay rotting in the sun;
But things like that, you know, must be
After a famous victory.
"Great praise the Duke of Marlbro'won,
And our good Prince Eugene."
"Why,'twas a very wicked thing!"
Said little Wilhelmine.
"Nay...nay...my little girl,"quoth he,
"It was a famous victory.
"And everybody praised the Duke
Who this great fight did win."
"But what good came of it at last?"
Quoth little Peterkin.
"Why that I cannot tell,"said he,
"But 'twas a famous victory."
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
In “The Battle of Blenheim,” why are Wilhelmine’s words “twas a very wicked thing” ironic?
This woman had been despised, scoffed at, and angrily denounced by nearly every man, woman, and child in the village; but now, as the fact of, her death was passed from lip to lip, in subdued tones, pity took the place of anger, and sorrow of denunciation.
Neighbours went hastily to the old tumble-down hut, in which she had secured little more than a place of shelter from summer heats and winter cold: some with grave-clothes for a decent interment of the body; and some with food for the half-starving children, three in number. Of these, John, the oldest, a boy of twelve, was a stout lad, able to earn his living with any farmer. Kate, between ten and eleven, was bright, active girl, out of whom something clever might be made, if in good hands; but poor little Maggie, the youngest, was hopelessly diseased. Two years before a fall from a window had injured her spine, and she had not been able to leave her bed since, except when lifted in the arms of her mother.
“What is to be done with the children?” That was the chief question now. The dead mother would go underground, and be forever beyond all care or concern of the villagers. But the children must not be left to starve.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why did the neighbour’s attitude change when they heard the news of her death?
De Levis: Social Blackmail?
H'm ' Canynge: Not at all - simple warning. If you consider it necessary in your interests to start this scandal-no matter how we shall consider it necessary in ours to dissociate ourselves completely from one who so recklessly disregards the unwritten code.
(i) Where are the speakers at present? What is referred to as Social Black-mail?
Fill in the blanks in the following paragraph.
Today is Sunday. I’m wondering whether I should stay at home or go out. If I_________ (go) out, I__________ (miss) the lovely Sunday lunch at home. If I_________ (stay) for lunch, I_________ (miss)the Sunday film showing at Archana Theatre. I think I'll go out and see the film, only to avoid getting too fat.
Make noun from the word given below by adding –ness, ity, ty or y
Sincere ___________.
