English Medium Class 10 - CBSE Question Bank Solutions for English - Language and Literature

Read the given extract and answer the following questions.

i. Fill the blank with one word.    (1)

When the speaker says that ice could also bring about the end of the world, he refers to _______ as the means for destruction.

ii. What does the speaker’s alignment with those who favour ice suggest?    (1)

iii. Which of the following best describes the speaker's attitude towards destruction caused by ice?

1. Indifferent
2. Fearful
3. Dismissive
4. Respectful

iv. Comment on the poet’s use of language in these lines.    (2)

Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to buy another ball?

“… staring down/All his young days into the harbor where/His ball went…”

Do you think the boy has had the ball for a long time? Is it linked to the memories of days when he played with it?

What does “in the world of possessions” mean?

Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the answer.

What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this in your own words.

Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest.

What picture do these words create in your mind: “... sun bury its feet in shadow...”? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet’?

Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves and their twigs do?

What does the poet compare their branches to?

1. How does the poet describe the moon: (a) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?
2. What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
3. Why do you think the poet does not mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters? (Could it be that we are often silent about important happenings that are so unexpected that they embarrass us? Think about this again when you answer the next set of questions)

Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here is one suggestion. Can you think of others?

Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the Zoo. Is the poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down, are ‘imprisoned’, and need to ‘break out’?

Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here is one suggestion. Can you think of others?

On the other hand, Adrienne Rich has been known to use trees as a metaphor for human beings: this is a recurrent image in her poetry. What new meanings emerge from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?

Answer the following question in 30-40 words:

Why does the poet not offer the boy money to buy another ball?

Answer the following questions in 30-40 words : 

What are the three things that can't happen in a treeless forest?

i. Complete the sentence appropriately.  (1)

It is clear that Personification is the poetic device used for ‘No sun bury its feet….’ because ______.

ii. The poet has used a poetic device in the given lines. What effect does she wish to create by its use?  (1)

1. emphasis
2. comparison
3. rhyme
4. humour

iii. State whether the following statement is TRUE or FALSE:  (1)

The extract uses trees as a symbol for conservative people.

iv. Select the appropriate option to complete the sentence, according to the extract.  (1)

The idea of a forest that has been ‘empty all these days’ is ______.

1. unnatural
2. scary
3. magical
4. legendary

v. How does the use of enjambment impact this extract?

1. It forces frequent pauses.
2. It simplifies the meaning.
3. It builds momentum.
4. It makes the lines lyrical.

Answer the following question in 40 – 50 words.

‘The Ball Poem’ initially appears simple but it is actually quite impactful and intense. Comment upon the theme of ‘The Ball Poem’.