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Question
What actions of the schoolmates change the author’s understanding of life and people, and comfort him emotionally? How does his loneliness vanish and how does he start participating in life?
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Solution
The author’s understanding of life and people changed when at the gym class, he saw a big table set up with all the important things he had lost in the fire. His schoolmates had collected money and bought for him school supplies, notebooks, and all kinds of different clothes such as jeans, tops, and sweatsuits. He felt as if it was Christmas. People who had never spoken to him before introduced themselves to him. This genuine concern touched him. This was when his loneliness vanished.
He was watching his house getting rebuilt along with two of his new friends from school. After the fire, he had stopped focusing on his feelings of insecurity and had opened up to all the people around him. His life had taken a new turn.
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Answer the following with reference to the story.
“I wouldn’t throw it away.”
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Answer of these question in a short paragraph (30–40 words).
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Here are some sentences from the text. Say which of them tell you, that the author:
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1. I was turned to stone.
2. I was no mere image cut in granite.
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5. I didn’t tremble. I didn’t cry out.
6. I looked into the mirror and smiled. It was an attractive smile.
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Read the information given below.
Do you know that tigers are the biggest cats in the world? There are five different kinds or sub-species of tigers alive in the world today. Tigers are called Panthera tigris in Latin, Bagh in Hindi & Bengali, Kaduva in Malayalam & Pedda Puli in Telugu.
Total Population of Tigers in the world
| SUB SPECIES | COUNTRIES | ESTIMATED Minimum |
POPULATION Maximum |
| P.t. altaica | China | 12 | 20 |
| Amur Siberian, | N. Korea | 10 | 10 |
| Manchurian | Russia | 415 | 476 |
| N .E. China Tiger | |||
| TOTAL | 437 | 506 | |
| Royal BengalTiger | Bangladesh | 300 | 460 |
| P.t. tigris | Bhutan | 80 | 460 |
| China | 30 | 35 | |
| India | 2500 | 3800 | |
| Nepal | 150 | 250 | |
| TOTAL | 3060 | 5005 |
| P.t. corbetti | Cambodia | 100 | 200 |
| (Inda-Chinese Tiger) | China | 30 | 40 |
| Laos | |||
| Malaysia | 600 | 650 | |
| Myanmar | |||
| Thailand | 250 | 600 | |
| Vietnam | 200 | 300 | |
| TOTAL | 1180 | 1790 | |
| P.t. sumatrae | Sumatra | 400 | 500 |
| (Sumatran Tiger) | |||
| TOTAL | 400 | 500 | |
| P. t. amoyensis | China | 20 | 30 |
| (South China Tiger) | |||
| TOTAL | 20 | 30 | |
| GRAND TOTAL | 5097 | 7831 |
Extinct Species
P.t. virgata (Caspian Tiger)
P. t. sondaica (Javan Tiger )
P. t. balica (Bali Tiger)
Tiger in Trouble
Since some tiger parts are used in traditional medicine, the tiger is in danger. Apart from its head being used as a trophy to decorate walls, tigers are also hunted for the following.
Head : As a trophy on the wall.
Brain: To cure laziness and pimples.
Teeth: For rabies, asthma and sores.
Blood: For strengthening the constitution and will power.
Fat: For vomiting, dog bites, bleeding haemorrhoids and scalp ailments in children.
Skin: To treat mental illness and to make fur coats.
Whiskers: For toothache.
There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. 1 will not dwell on, nor mourn over, our untimely decay, nor reproach my paleface brothers with hastening it, as we too may have been somewhat to blame.
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“Your name is Maggie?” he said, as he sat down and took her soft little hand in his.
“Yes, sir.” Her voice struck a chord that quivered in a low strain of music.
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“He used to come”
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The lane is dark and lonely because __________.
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What is the significance of the title? To who or to what does it refer?
