Q.1
.......and felt that old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and smile
(a) What was the childhood fear that now troubled the poet?
(b) What do the poet’s parting words suggest?
(c) Why did the poet smile and smile?
(d) Explain, “that old familiar ache.”
Q. 2
.....but soon
put that thought away and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes……………
(a) What thought did the poet drive away from her mind?
(b) What did she see when she looked out of the car?
(c) How do you know that the joyful scene didn’t help her drive away the painful thought from her mind?
(d) What are the merry children symbolic of?
Q. 3
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal….
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes From fog to endless night?”
(a) Who are ‘them’ referred to in the first line? “
(b) What tempts them?
(c) What does the poet say about their lives?
(d) What do you understand by “from fog to endless night”?
Q. 4
Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn around their pallor
The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.
(a) What are the children compared to?
(b) Why do you think the tall girl is sitting with a weighed down head?
(c) Give two phrases which tell us that the children are under-nourished.
(d) What is the condition of the boy?
Q. 5
Break O break open till they break the town
And show the children to green fields, and make their world
Run azure on gold sands and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white and green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun.
(a) To whom does ‘they’ refer?
(b) What would they break?
(c) What does the poet want for them?
(d) What other freedom should they enjoy?
Answers
Answer:
Read the extracts carefully and answer the questions with the help of the given options :
The ceremonies took place in the lovely sandstone amphi theatre formed by Union Buildings in Pretoria. For
decades this had been the seat of white supremacy, and now it was the site of a rainbow gathering of different
colours and nations for the installations of south Africa's first democratic, non racial government.
The ceremonies referred in the first line are the ceremonies held on the occasion of
Nelson Mandela's marriage.
installation of the non-racial government
installation of the racial govemment
inaugration of lovely sandstoneamphi theatre
Rainhhuraathenna manna1. Given the standing of some of its institutions of higher learning, the IITs and IIMs, India is a potential knowledge power. Realising the potential, however, is not going to be easy. The impressive strides made by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) notwithstanding, universal access to quality school education- a minimum necessary condition for any progress towards making India a knowledge society’, as the 2006 report of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) puts it-remains a distant goal
Answer:
.1
.......and felt that old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and smile
(a) What was the childhood fear that now troubled the poet?
(b) What do the poet’s parting words suggest?
(c) Why did the poet smile and smile?
(d) Explain, “that old familiar ache.”
Q. 2
.....but soon
put that thought away and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes……………
(a) What thought did the poet drive away from her mind?
(b) What did she see when she looked out of the car?
(c) How do you know that the joyful scene didn’t help her drive away the painful thought from her mind?
(d) What are the merry children symbolic of?
Q. 3
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal….
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes From fog to endless night?”
(a) Who are ‘them’ referred to in the first line? “