English

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: Perhaps the Earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive. Now I’ll count upto twelve

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Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

Perhaps the Earth can teach us

as when everything seems dead

and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count upto twelve

and you keep quiet and I will go.

(i) What does the Earth teach us? (1)

(ii) What does the poet mean to achieve by counting upto twelve? (1)

(iii) What is the significance of ‘keeping quiet’? (1)

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Solution

(i) The Earth teaches us that there can be life under apparent stillness.

(ii) By counting upto twelve, the poet means to achieve peace and tranquility through introspection and self-analysis.

(iii) 'Keeping quiet' signifies the importance of silence, self-examination and introspection.

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Unseen Poem Comprehension
  Is there an error in this question or solution?
2012-2013 (March) All India Set 1

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A mighty future stands before us-
Down with all ruthless tyranny, down with all exploitation which
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All lovely tales that we have heard or read;
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With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal...
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From fog to endless night?

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What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.

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(3) Give the rhyming scheme used in the extract.  (1)

(4) Pick out the words/expressions related to the mighty kingdom.  (1)


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By this time, I felt very small
And now my tears began to fall.
I quietly went and knelt by her bed;
"Wake up, little girl, wake up," I said.
"Are these the flowers you picked I'm me?"
She smiled, "I found' em, out by the tree.
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I said, Daughter, I'm sorry for the way I acted today;
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(1) Why did the mother go to her daughter "s room? (1)

(2) How can the mother be a friend to her daughter' (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line
" ..... they're pretty like you". (1)

(4) What is the effect of dialogues in the poem? (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek .
Shadowed by the mountain's immeasurable peak
Considered the largest thing known to man
Now skyscrapers are the most extravagant and titanic part of the plan
We used to sit next to the stream, the wind caressing our crown
Watching the magnificent untamed beasts roam far, far from town
Now they are just characters of folk tales, memories we pass down
An adjective to describe someone, no more a noun
This could be our reality.

(1) What was the largest thing known to man? (1)

(2) What would be the possible result of ignoring nature? (1)

(3) Give an example of personification from the extract. (1)

( 4) Pick out from the extract some expressions of geographical images. (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
We, heroes and poor devils;
the feeble, the braggarts; the unfinished,
and capable of everything impossible
as long as it's not seen or heard
Don Juans, women and men, who come and go
with the fleeting passage of a runner
or of a shy hotel for travellers.
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten
because it seems that is the way of the world.

(1) Who are heroes and what are they capable of? (1)

(2) According to you, what difficulties do the middle-class people face? (1)

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line :
... Women and men, who come and go. (1)

(4) Pick out the line from the extract, which shows the overambitious nature of the middle-class people. (1)


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly ...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.

(1) What do you think is the underlying message of the extract?

(2) Which qualities of great men would you like to imbibe in you?

(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words of the first stanza.

(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract which show the hard work of brave men.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
How do you know
Peace is a woman?
I know, for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way
to the world's fare.
She had such a wonderful face.
just like a golden flower faded
before her prime.

(1) How does the poet describe the face of peace?

(2) Do you feel mother can be a symbol of peace? Explain it in your own words.

(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Peace is a woman.'

(4) How does the Poet come to know that peace is a woman?


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

If you crave not for praise when you win   
And look not for sympathy while you lose 
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a set-back you ofter no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.

If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge. not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.

(1) How should you behave when you are a winner and a loser?

(2) Do you agree with the poet's view about an ideal person? Justify your answer.

(3) Pick out an example of Antithesis from the extract.

(4) Pick out the words from the extract showing our stubbornness and expression of displeasure.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or more so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk 
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter

(1) How does the poet describe the banyan tree?

(2) According to you, how are trees important to maintain ecological balance?

(3) Pick out an example of repetition from the extract.

(4) Pick out the words in the extract which are related to the killing.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or me>re so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years

Questions:
(1) What revealed the age of the banyan tree?

(2) How would you save the natural habitat of wildlife?

(3) Find from this extract an example of 'Repetition'.

(4) Pick out any two lines from the extract showing the pictorial quality of human action.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: 
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in the battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.
Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away.
(1) Why, according to the poet, are wealthy kingdoms unstable?
(2) What aspects of life in India are you proud of?
(3) Note down the pairs of rhyming words from the extract.
(4) What purpose does the use of questions serve in the extract?

Read the given extract and then do all activities that follow: 

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give into gossips and lies
Rather heed them not,- saying, ‘Who bothers?’
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a set-back you offer no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And reassess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.

A1. Enlist (2)

Enlist any four things that inspire you to live inspire of failures:
(i) ____________________
(ii) ___________________
(iii) ___________________
(iv) ___________________ 

A2. Poetic Device? (2)

Figure of speech :
Pick out an example of Refrain from the extract and write down its criteria to identify it. 

A3. Personal Response (2)

Express your views in about 50 words, the need to look for an ideal person. 

A4. Poetic creativity? (2)

If you do not get lowered in your own eyes.
While you raise yourself in those of others.
If you do not give in to gossips and lies
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You may be the person I am looking for.
Compose a line of your own to rhyme with the second line in the given stanza. 


Read the following extract and then do all the activities that follow :

How do you know
Peace is a woman?
I know for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way
to the world’s fare,
She has such a wonderful face
just like a golden flower faded
before the prime.
I asked her why
She was so sad?
She told me her baby
was killed in Auschwitz,
her daughter in Hiroshima
and her sone in Vietnam,
Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon,
Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo and Chechnya ......

A1. Web -

Completely the following web by listing character mentioned in the extract :

A2. Poetic device -

Figure of speech :
‘Peace is a woman ?’
Name and explain the figure of speed in the above line.

A3. Personal response :

Suggest two solutions to avoid wars.

A4. Creativity : 

Compose two poetic lines titled “Say ‘no’ to wars”. 


Read the following extract and then do all the activities that follow:
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek.
Shadowed by the mountain's immeasurable peak.
Considered the largest thing known to man.
Now skyscrappers are the most extravagant and titanic part of the plan.
We used to sit next to the stream. The wind caressing our crown Watching the magnificent untamed beasts
roam far, far from town. Now they are just characters of folktales, memories we pass down.
An adjective to describe someone, no more a noun
This could be our reality
If we continue to live in impracticality
No more vast, endless oceans _______
Only littered swamps, the colour of a witch's potions.
No more soaring birds overhrad _______
Only planes, so loud they rock your bed.
No more woods
No more natural goods.
We have little time
To change our self centered, one track minds
Before we are stuck with a great heap of jumble
Left only with an artifical concrete jungle.

A1. Complete ______
Complete the following sentences choosing correct alternatives:

(1) The poet used to watch the valley play hide and seek, because _______
(i) he had integration with the nature and landscape
(ii) he had no park to enjoy playthings
(iii) he had no friends

(2) According to the poet, only littered swamps could be reality, because _______
(i) vast, endless oceans are getting polluted due to our neglect of flora and fauna.
(ii) water from oceans will become magical potions.
(iii) Oceans are changing into swamps for fishing purposes.

A2. Poetic device
Figure of speech
Name and explain the figure of speech used in the following line: ‘We used to watch the valley play hide and seek’.

A3. Personal response:
Suggest some remedies on how we can enrich our nature.

A4. Poetic creativity
Compose the following four lines as a free verse using the words life, oxygen, trees, nature with the help of
clue given in each line so it would covey message :
No _________
No __________
No __________
No __________


Read the extract and do the activities that follow: (4)

Tom : (down L.). I believe the place is haunted
George : Nonsense. No one believes in haunted houses nowadays. There's someting gueer about the place, I'II admit, but can't be haunted. (Scream off R.)
Ginger : Listen! What was that ?
(Scream repeated. This time much louder.)
Alfie : I want to go home !
Tom : It sounds as though someone's being murdered. (Grappling with the door). I'm going to force this door.
Ginger : (Crossing L.) It's going to be a tough job, Tom
Alfie : (more lustily). I want to go home
George : (up C.) Shut up Alfie, you'II rose the house. Listen! There's someone coming _____ and
it's someone in white
Ginger : It's a ghost
Alfie : (rushing to the door L.) I'm going home!
George : (coming down L.) Let me give you a hand with this door.
Tom : Buck up!
Ginger : Put your shoulder against it. (Enter the Ghost R. In the dim light his figure has a distinctly uncanny appearance).
Ghost : What on earth's the meaning of this commotion? (IIe switches on the light and is seen to be a dentist, wearing a white surgical coat. The “grinning mouths'' are seen to be models made of plaster of Paris. The boys stare about them in amazement)
Dentist : (sternly). Who are you, and what are you doing in my house?
Tom : I say – I'm awfully sorry – but we thought you were a ghost.
Dentist : (bewildered). A ghost! Why on earth should you think I was a ghost?
George : (crossing C.) I'm awfully sorry, sir. You see, we were out carol-singing, and____
Dentist : Oh, so it was you who who were making that horrible din outside?
George : Yes – that was Ginger's idea ____


B1. Complete _____
Complete the following sentences:
(i) The boys considered the dentist as a ghost , because ________
(ii) Listening to the repeated scream, Tom thought that ________
(iii) The grinning mouths were models made of ________
(iv) The idea of carol-singing was given by _______

B2. Convert dialogue into a story:
Convert the above dialoguc into a story in about 50 words.


Read the following poem and write an appreciation of it with the help of the given points in a paragraph format:

The Pulley

When God at first made Man,
Having a glass of blessings standing by;
Let us (said He) "pour on him all we can":
Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,
Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;
Then beauty flow'd, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:
When almost all was out, God made a stay,
Perceiving that alone of all His treasures
Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said He)
Bestow this jewel also on my creature,
He would adore my gifts instead of me,
And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature.
So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,
But keep them with repining restlessness:
Let him be rich and weary, that at last,
If goodness lead him not, yet weariness
May toss him to my breast.

  • The title of the poem       (1)
  • The poet                          (1)
  • Central idea/theme          (2)
  • Rhyme scheme                (1)
  • Figure of speech              (1)
  • Special features               (2)
  • Favourite line/lines         (1)
  • Why I like/don’t like the poem    (1)

But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth ?

(a) Who does ‘him’ refer to ? 

(b) What dilemma did the poet face ?

(c) Pick out and explain the figure of speech used in line 2.

(d) Explain : ‘burning bowels of this earth’.


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:

We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail,

Maybe catch a glimpse of a bobcat, playing eye tricks with its tail

Now there is only one type of bobcat we see

The one that is for free, clearing the pavements of all debris

We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine

The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind

Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees

Swaying on my rear-view mirror, labelled pine breeze

Questions:

(1) What does the poet miss?

(2) What, according to you, are the causes of the degradation of our ecosystem?

(3) 'We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail.'
Name and to explain the figure of speech from the above line.

(4) What kind of feelings are aroused after reading the extract?


Read the following extract and answer the questions given below : 
All the rest of her children, she said,
are on the nuclear
blacklist of the dead,
all the rest, unless
the whole world understands -
that peace is a woman.

A thousand candles then lit
in her starry eyes, and I saw angels bearing a moonlit message.

(1) What appeal does the mother make to the world?
(2) What according to you, are the evils of war?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
'A  thousand candles then lit.'
(4) Pick out the lines that suggest the hope for world peace.


Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:

And as the light came on, Fowler had his first authentic thrill of the day. For halfway across the room, a small automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.

Ausable blinked a few times.

  1. Who was standing in the room with a pistol in his hand?
    1. Ausable
    2. Fowler
    3. Max
    4. A waiter
  2. Ausable blinked because he:
    1. was getting adjusted to the light.
    2. got afraid of the man with a pistol.
    3. was thrilled to have reached his room.
    4. started thinking of how to get rid of the man.
  3. Fowler was thrilled because what he saw looked like a ______.
  4. Which word in the extract means the same as ‘genuine/real’?

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition.

  1. The poet who has written these lines is ______.
    1. Robert Frost
    2. Carolyn Wells
    3. Walt Whitman
    4. Ogden Nash
  2. Who are ‘they’ referred to here?
    1. Animals
    2. Tigers
    3. Ananda’s friends
    4. Wanda’s dresses
  3. The poet looks at them long and long because he ______.
  4. Which word in the extract means ‘complain’?

Read the following extract and do the given activities:

A1. Match the describing words from the Cloud ‘A’ with Cloud ‘B’: (02)

  Cloud ‘A’   Cloud ‘B’
1. broad a. noise
2. humorous b. jest
3. chuckling c. way
4. trifling d. grin

 

“There to the printer,” I exclaimed,
And, in my humorous way,
I added (as a trifling jest,)
“There’ll be the devil to pay.
He took the paper, and I watched,
And saw him peep within
At the first line, he read, his face
Was all upon the grin
He read the next; the grin grew broad.
And shot from ear to ear;
He read the third; a chuckling noise
I now began to hear.
The fourth; he broke into a roar;
The fifth; his waistband split;
The sixth; he burst five buttons off
And tumbled in a fit.

A2. Pick out two lines from the extract that indicate humour. (02)

A3. Write two pairs of rhyming words from the extract. (01)


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