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Question
What three things did Gopal do before he went to buy his hilsa-fish?
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Solution
Gopal half-shaved his face. Smeared ash on his body himself and wore rugs before going out to buy hilsa-fish.
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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.”
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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.
Listen to the poem.
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth,
And spotted the perils beneath.
All the toffees I chewed,
And the sweet sticky food,
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
I wish I'd been that much more willin'
When I had more tooth there than fillin'
To pass up gobstoppers.
From respect to me choppers,
And to buy something else with me shillin'.
When I think of the lollies I licked,
And the liquorice all sorts I picked,
Sherbet dabs, big and little,
All that hard peanut brittle,
My conscience gets horribly pricked.
My mother, she told me no end.
'If you got a tooth, you got a friend.'
I was young then, and careless,
My toothbrush was hairless,
I never had much time to spend.
Oh, I showed them the toothpaste all right,
I flashed it about late at night,
But up-and-down brushin'
And pokin' and fussin'
Didn't seem worth time-I could bite!
If I'd known, I was paving the way
To cavities, caps and decay,
The murder of fillin's
Injections and drillin's,
I'd have thrown all me sherbet away.
So I lay in the old dentist's chair,
And I gaze up his nose in despair,
And his drill it do whine,
In these molars of mine.
"Two amalgum," he'll say, "for in there."
How I laughed at my mother's false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin'
It's me they are beckonin'
Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth.
About the Poet
Pam Ayres (1947- ) is a contemporary writer, a great entertainer who writes and performs
comic verse. She started writing poems and verses as a hobby and has appeared in every
major TV show in the U.K. She has published six books of poems, and cut seven record
albums including a collection of 50 best known poems.
Oh yes, we know it keeps them still,
They don't climb out the window sill,
They never fight or kick or punch,
They leave you free to cook the lunch
And wash the dishes in the sink....
But did you ever stop to think,
To wonder just exactly what
This does to your beloved tot?
IT ROTS THE SENSE IN THE HEAD!
IT KILLS IMAGINATION DEAD!
IT CLOGS AND CLUTTERS UP THE MIND!
IT MAKES A CHILD SO DULL AND BLIND
HE CAN NO LONGER UNDERSTAND
A FANTASY, A FAIRYLAND!
HIS BRAIN BECOMES AS SOFT AS CHEESE!
HIS POWERS OF THINKING RUST AND FREEZE!
HE CANNOT THINK - HE ONLY SEES!
Read the lines given above and answer the question given below.
The children Describe the effects of television on children’s mind.
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.
From the day, perhaps a hundred years ago when he sun had hatched him in a sandbank, and he had broken his shell, and got his head out and looked around, ready to snap at anything, before he was even fully hatched-from that day, when he had at once made for the water, ready to fend for himself immediately, he had lived by his brainless craft and ferocity. Escaping the birds of prey and the great carnivorous fishes that eat baby crocodiles, he has prospered, catching all the food he needed, and storing it till putrid in holes in the bank. Tepid water to live in and plenty of rotted food grew him to his great length. Now nothing could pierce the inch-?thick armoured hide. Not even rifle bullets,
which would bounce off. Only the eyes and the soft underarms offered a place. He lived well in the river, sunning himself sometimes with other crocodiles-muggers, as well as the long-? snouted fish-?eating gharials-on warm rocks and sandbanks where the sun dried the clay on them quite white, and where they could plop off into the water in a moment if alarmed. The big crocodile fed mostly on fish, but also on deer and monkeys come to drink, perhaps a duck or two.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What protected him now? How?
Discuss the following topic in groups
Most people keep dogs and cats as pets. Can you think of some unusual pets that people keep?
Why did the narrator’s Grandfather visit Lucknow?
Why did the farmer’s wife strike the mongoose with her basket?
Do you agree that it is difficult not to go along with someone who is very strong and powerful? Express your views frankly and clearly.
Describe the tone in which the narrator’s father dismissed his wife’s warnings every single time.
How did the villagers come to know of the magic waterfall?
What decides the choices made by the rebel?
What does this passage say about the speaker?
What was Mr Gessler’s complaint against ‘big farms’?
Read the lines given below and answer the following question:
| Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Agean… |
Who is Sophocles?
Referring closely to the short story, The Singing Lesson, show how the Headmistress’ summons to Miss Meadows eventually brings the latter out from cold despair to a realm of hope, love and joy.
Which of the given options contains the figure of speech that appears in the following line from Leigh Hunt's poem “The Glove and the Lions’: ‘Ramped and roared the lions’:
