Advertisements
Advertisements
Question
The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Advertisements
Solution
The poet’s mother laughed while recalling a moment of her past captured in the photograph. She looks back at her childhood days with nostalgia and recollects her innocent joys. Looking at the picture years later brings in her mind the fond memories. She laughs at the way they were dressed up for the beach holiday.
But in the midst of these pleasant memories, lies the pain of loss. The pain comes from the acknowledgment that the lovely days of her childhood will never come back to her.
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
Attempt a character sketch of Otto Frank, Anne's father.
Answer any four of the following in 30 – 40 words each:
(a) How did his experience at the YMCA swimming pool affect Douglas?
(b) What hospitality did the peddler receive from the crofter?
(c) Aunt Jennifer;s efforts to get rid of her fear proved to be futile. Comment.
(d) What does Stephen Spender want to be done for the children of the school in a slum?
(e) What kind of life was enjoyed by crown prince Jung Bahadur till he reached the age of twenty?
(f) Where, when and how did Dr. Sadao meet Hana?
Read the extract and do the following activities :
B1 Likes and dislikes :
(i) The child likes eating _______
(ii) The child dislikes eating _______
They won’t eat peas, don’t like your bread -
For something in it crunches;
They gag on fat, the gravy’s gross,
They won’t eat grapes in bunches.
Tomatoes, onions, peppers, fish
Garlic nor cottage cheese;
Oh, it’s a dish uncommon rare
That truly seems to please.
No red sauce may the ice cream have,
“It’s bleeding,” they will say;
And gravely hand it to their mum
To take it to clean away
But let us speak of chocolate cake,
It must be frosted o’er;
They’ll devour three full slabs,
And calmly ask for more.
Oh, I do so always love to eat
With picky little pests,
Whose parents joy to make them
The most undesirable guests!
B2 What message does the poem convey for children?
B3 Pick out two pairs of rhyming words from the poem.
'Luck is necessary for success in life'.
Why did the author finally give up on his watch?
In English, the peacock is associated with pride. ‘As proud as a peacock’ is a commonly used simile. With what qualities is the peacock associated with the literature of your language?
Read the following statement and mark those that apply to you.
I make friends easily.
Read the extract and state whether the following statement is true or false. Correct the false statement.
The aroma of the ‘desi’ rice would spread around the village.
Complete the following sentence.
Sujoy reported about ___________________.
Read the poem below and fill in the gaps, choosing appropriate pairs of rhyming words, to make them meaningful.
|
Little things Little drops of water, Thus the little minutes, Little deeds of kindness, |
(love - above / sand - land / be - eternity)
Say where . . . . . . .
______ do squirrels store their food?
Go through the poem and state whether the following statement is true or false.
Planners plan to construct buildings wherever they find a place.
Pick out the statements which aptly depict the theme of the poem.
- In the poem, the speaker memorises the past.
- In ‘The Planners’ the poet describes the unstoppable force of modernisation.
- The poet talks about the replacement of natural environment by the concrete jungle.
- The poet proposes to stop modernisation.
- The poet laments helplessly.
Expansion of Idea:
Expand the following idea in about 100-150 words by using the points.
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'.
- Meaning of the proverb
- Significance of the proverb
- Add your own points.
Honey-bees live an organized life like human beings. Discuss what work the following honey-bees do, as per the poem. Write it down in your own words, in your notebook.
- King/Emperor bee
- Magistrate bees
- Merchant bees
- Soldier bees
- Mason bees
- Civilian bees
- Porter bees
- Judge bee
Find at least five other Akbar and Birbal stories and share them with your friends. Make a list of the stories collected by the entire class. Put your list in alphabetical order.
Fill in the gap, choosing a word from the bracket to make an appropriate comparison.
(tall / quiet / humble / merry / busy / slippery / fast / sly / slow / big)
as ______ as a snail
Fill in the gap, choosing a word from the bracket to make an appropriate comparison.
(tall / quiet / humble / merry / busy / slippery / fast / sly / slow / big)
as ______ as an elephant
Visit a library:
This story is a fable. Find two more fables. Share them with your friends.
Who was Shalihotra?
The merchant ships brought spices and other treasures from India and other countries to Italy.
Read aloud a paragraph of your choice from the passage.
Apart from class/school, where else are you likely to find a time table useful?
In the novel, the Lethargarians give a whole day’s time table of their activities. Can you guess what it would be like?
Use your own ideas and prepare their time table.
Write one line about the following with the help of the poem.
wind in the autumn evening
Turn the story into a play as a group activity and present the scenes in the classroom.
Think and answer:
Does the last line make you happy or sad? Why?
Sayali made a hasty purchase.
Write the rhyme scheme of the poem (Autumn).
Answer in your own words.
How is the boy from the 1500s dressed?
Pick out from the poem, two lines each that reflect an optimistic (positive) attitude and pessimistic (negative) attitude.
Optimism :
- ______
- ______
Pessimism :
- ______
- ______
Say whether you agree or disagree.
The prince had rare, uncommon likes and dislikes.
Using the following points frame a character sketch of the narrator. Support each character trait with instances from the lesson.
- Diffident and timid
- Unusual behavior
- Ignorant about banking
- Nervous and careless
- Economical.
Guess the meaning of the following word.
novel
Look at the speaker in each picture. Say whether each one is a good speaker. Give reasons for your answer.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Read the following.
- Skipper: captain of a ship or boat.
- Dipper: This word has two meanings. Dipper means a container for taking out water. Also, there are two constellations called Little Dipper (Little Bear) and Big Dipper (Big Bear) in the sky.
- Milky Way: The band of light consisting of stars that spreads across the sky at night.
Have you ever seen or used a computer?
Guess the meaning of the following word.
finely
What was Ariel ordered to do with the people on the ship?
Who were the narrator neighbours?
What did the Bodwells think when they heard the mother shout.
In New York, Mr. Scotti left the plane because he thought he.
What made John Shepherd-Barron to come up with the idea of ATM?
Teachers help me to learn ______ things.
- new
- bad
- difficult
Neerja passed on the warning in a code to the pilots because she______.
Vasantha made a lot of noise because ______
What did mother ask Raj to buy?
What made the trip a memorable one?
What does it give to the farmer?
How does it welcome all?
A robot advised her to______.
Anbu was talented in catching______.
Write the rhyming word.
one
Where did Kani see the old cracked cup?
Where do the moles save their food?
Leaf cutter ants drink ______.
Who came to Akbar’s court?
Now, read the following biographical extract on Sujatha Rangarajan, a Sciencefiction writer, and answer the questions that follow.
- Sujatha is the allonym of the Tamil author S. Rangarajan and it is this name that is recognised at once by the Tamil SciFi reading community. You might have seen the Tamil movie ‘Endiran’ where the robot Chitti exhibits extraordinary talents in an incredible manner. The robot could excel a human being in any act, beyond one’s imagination. Jeeno, a robotic dog which appeared in Sujatha’s science fiction novel “En Iniya Iyandhira” (My Dear Robot) formed the basis of Chitti’s character. Like Chitti, Jeeno was an allrounder who could cook, clean and fight. High-tech computer technology terms are used in the story. Jeeno, a pet robot, plays an important role throughout the story. As the story proceeds, it behaves and starts to think on its own like a human and instructs Nila, a human being, on how to proceed further in her crises.
- In the preface of ‘En Iniya Iyandhira’, the writer states the reason for his attraction to the genre: “Science gives us the wonderful freedom to analyse thousands and thousands of alternative possibilities. While using it, and while playing with its new games, a writer needs to be cautious only about one thing. The story should draw some parallels or association from the emotions and desires of the present humankind. Only then it becomes interesting. Jeeno, the robot dog, was intelligent. But the character became popular only because of the robot’s frequently displayed human tendencies.” It is no wonder that all his works echo these words and will remain etched in the minds of the readers who enjoy reading his novels to have a wonderful lifetime experience.
- It was Sujatha, who set the trend for sci-fi stories. He had tracked the origin from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein to his short stories. He has written 50 sci-fi short stories and these were published in various Tamil magazines. His stories have inspired many readers to extend their reading to English sci-fi writers like Isaac Asimov. The themes were bold, even if there was a dependence on a very well-established characterization of English fiction. Sujatha opened up a new world to us with his writings on holograms, computers and works like ‘En Iniya Iyanthira’ inspire many to study computer science.
- He has been one of the greatest writers for more than four decades. He combined reasoning and science in his writings. Being a multifaceted hi-fi and sci-fi humanistic author, he expressed his views distinctively. He was the one who took Tamil novels to the next level. As an MIT alumnus and an engineer at BHEL, he was very good at technology. He could narrate sci-fi stories impressively. His readers always enjoyed reading all his detective and sci-fi novels which featured the most famous duo ‘Ganesh’ and ‘Vasanth’.
- Sujatha has played a crucial role as a playwright for various Tamil movies which have fascinated movie lovers. Hence, it is fathomable that the writer’s perspective of future India enthuses every reader and paves a new way to reading sci-fi stories in English.
A. Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.
- How was Jeeno different from other robots?
- What precaution should one take while writing Science fiction stories?
- What inspired Sujatha’s themes?
- Why were Sujatha’s sci-fi stories impressive?
B. Find words from the passage which mean the same as the following.
- difficult to believe (para 1)
- a style or category of art, music or literature (para 2)
- having many sides (para 4)
- capable of being understood (para 5)
Being a bachelor, the stranger had no patience with children.
