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Question
Was the old woman’s gift to Vijay Singh eccentric? Why?
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Solution
The old woman’s gift to Vijay Singh was eccentric or unusual because it contained nothing but a lump of salt and an egg. Both of these were not enough for one travelling through a desert.
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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.
Read these sentences from the story.
1. We will go to the old man.
2. Iwillopenmyhands.
3. It will flyaway.
4. I will crush the butterfly.
The modal will is used to talk about a temporary event in progress at some
point in future.
Will is used to denote _________ time.
Did you know?
There are different constructions in English which can be used to refer to
future time.
1. Use of the simple present tense.
a. The IPL begins on 20th April.
b. If the newly introduced vaccine works, AIDS can be cured.
2. Use of shall/will
Will/shall is used to make a prediction about future events, in
advertisements, posters etc.
e.g. a. You will win the 1st prize.
b. The Nano car will be on the roads soon.
c. You shall lead a happy life.
3. Use of going to
Going to is normally used to refer to future events in two cases
(a) If there is a present indication of the future event.
e.g. India is going to emerge as a Super Power in 2020.
(b) to express intention
e.g. Smitha is going to marry Akshay.
4. Use of present continuous tense (be+ verb+ ing)
Present continuous tense is used to refer to future events that have been
already planned.
e.g. a. I'm meeting the Project Manger this evening.
b. I'm sorry I can't meet you tomorrow. I'm visiting my friend.
5. Use of be + about to + infinitive.
e.g. The train is about to leave.
6. Useofbe+to+v
e.g. Obama is to visit India in October.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good____
His blessing on the neighbourhood,
Who in the hollow of his hand
Holds all the growth of all our land____
A nation's growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow:
How is the man holding the blessing on his neighborhood in his hand?
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.
It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun,
And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.
She saw her brother Peterkin
Roll something large and round,
Which he beside the rivulet
In playing there had found;
He came to ask what he had found,
That was so large, and smooth, and round.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Who was Peterkin?
"Now tell us what 'twas all about,"
Young Peterkin, he cries;
And little wilhelmine looks up
with wonder-waiting eyes;
"Now tell us all about the war,
And what they fought each other for."
"It was the English," Kaspar cried,
"Who put the French to rout;
But what they fought each other for,
I could not well make out;
But everybody said,"quoth he,
"That 'twas a famous victory.
Read the lines given above and answer the question that follow.
Explain with reference to context.
The athletes had come from all over the country
To run for the gold, for the silver and bronze
Many weeks and months of training
All coming down to these games.
The spectators gathered around the old field
To cheer on all the young women and men
The final event of the day was approaching
Excitement grew high to begin.
Read the lines given above and answer the following question:
Were the contestants well prepared for the event? Pick the line that illustrates this.
We will ponder your proposition and when we decide we will let you know. But should we accept it, I here and now make this condition that we will not be denied the privilege without molestation of visiting at any time the tombs of our ancestors, friends, and children. Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Our departed braves, fond mothers, glad, happy hearted maidens, and even the little children who lived here and rejoiced here for a brief season, will love these somber solitudes and at eventide they greet shadowy returning spirits. And when the last Red Man shall have perished, and the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth among the White Men, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead of my tribe^ and when your children’s children think themselves alone in the field, the store, the shop, upon the highway, or in the silence of the pathless woods, they will not be alone. In all the earth there is no place dedicated to solitude. At night when the streets of your cities and villages are silent and you think them deserted, they will throng with the returning hosts’that once filled them and still lover this beautiful land. The White Man will never be alone.
Let him be just and deal kindly with my people, for the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What plea does the speaker make to the white men?
Mr. Oliver, an Anglo-Indian teacher, was returning to his school late one night on the outskirts of the hill station of Shimla. The school was conducted on English public school lines and the boys – most of them from well-to-do Indian families – wore blazers, caps and ties. “Life” magazine, in a feature on India, had once called this school the Eton of the East.
Mr. Oliver had been teaching in this school for several years. He’s no longer there. The Shimla Bazaar, with its cinemas and restaurants, was about two miles from the school; and Mr. Oliver, a bachelor, usually strolled into the town in the evening returning after dark, when he would take short cut through a pine forest.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Which route did Mr Oliver take on his way back?
The women came out on the shore, and made for the stepping—?stones. They had plenty to laugh and bicker about, as they approached the river in a noisy crowd. They girded up their skirts, so as to jump from stone to stone, and they clanked their sickles and forks together over their shoulders to have ease of movement. They shouted their quarrels above the gush of the river. Noise frightens crocodiles. The big mugger did not move, and all the women crossed in safety to the other bank. Here they had to climb a steep hillside to get at the grass, but all fell to with a will, and sliced away at it wherever there was foothold to be had. Down below them ran the broad river, pouring powerfully out from its deep narrow pools among the cold cliffs and shadows, spreading into warm shallows, lit by kingfishers. Great turtles lived there, and mahseer weighing more than a hundred pounds. Crocodiles too. Sometimes you could see them lying out on those slabs of clay over there, but there were none to be seen at the moment.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What all lived in the river below the hill?
Answer the following question.
Where did the lady find the bear cub? How did she bring it up?
Discuss the following topic in groups.
Do you think there is life on other planets? Can you guess what kind of people there may be on them? In what ways are they likely to be different from us?
Answer the following question
Would you like to be a rebel? If yes, why? If not, why not?
Where did the old flea collected by Mr Wonka live?
Write ‘True’ or ‘False’ against each of the following sentences.
Gopal was too poor to afford decent clothes.________
“Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy...”
These lines tell us that Antony is ______.
The poem Beethoven explores the role of pain and suffering in the process of artistic creativity and excellence. Justify this statement in 200-250 words.
