Question

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow. (20)

It seemed to me that the shilling lying on the table reared itself on its edge, and gave me the following

account of its life and adventures:

"I was born near a little village of Peru, and made a voyage to England in an ingot. I was, soon taken out of my

native habit, refined, naturalised and put into the British mode, with the face of Queen Elizabeth on

one side, and the arms of the country on the other. Being thus equipped, I found in me a wonderfulinclination to ramble and visit all parts of the new world into which I was brought. The people favoured

my natural disposition, and shifted me so fast from hand to hand, that before I was five years old, I had

travelled into almost every corner of the nation.

In the beginning of my sixth year, I fell into the hands of a miserable old fellow, who clapped me into an iron

chest, where I found five hundred more of my own quality who lay under the same confinement. The

only relief we had was to be taken out and counted over in the fresh air every morning and evening.

After an imprisonment of several years, we heard somebody knocking at our chest, and breaking it

open with a hammer. This we found was the old man's heir, who, when his father lay a-dying was so

good as to come to our release; he separated us that very day.

In the midst of this pleasant progress, I was arrested by a superstitious old woman, who shut me in a greasy

purse, in pursuance of a foolish saying, ‘That while she kept a Queen Elizabeth's shilling with her, she

would never be without money.’

After many adventures, I was sent to a young spendthrift in company with the will of this deceased father.

The young man, who I found was extravagant, gave great demonstrations of joy at the receiving of the

will; but opening it, he found himself disinherited and cut off from the possession of a fair estate, by

virtue of my being made a present to him.

I fell into the hands of an artist, who conveyed me underground, and with an unmerciful pair of shears, cut

off my titles, clipped my brims, retrenched my shape, and, so spoiled and pillaged me, that he did not

leave me worth a groat. You may think what a confusion I was in, to see myself thus disfigured. I should

have been ashamed to show my head, had not all my old acquaintances been reduced to the same

shameful figure. In the midst of this general calamity, when everybody thought our misfortune

irretrievable, we were thrown into the furnace together, and appeared with greater beauty and lustre

than we could ever boast of before.

I would like to narrate an adventure, as being very extraordinary. It was, my being in poets pocket, who was

so taken with the brightness and novelty of my appearance, that it gave occasion to the finest

descriptive poem in English, entitled, 'The Splendid Shilling'.

(a) Answer the following questions briefly, in your own words.

i. What did the old fellow do with the shilling?

ii. How was the shilling released from the confinement of the old man?

iii. How did the artist reduce the shilling to a shameful figure?

iv. What did the poet do to make the shilling’s adventure an extraordinary one?

v. Give the meaning of the word ‘ramble’
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Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:The shilling was in possession of the old man for a long time.

It had passed many hands and was a Victorian shilling.

It was kept in a greasy purse for a long time and finally was exchanged with a cost of eight & forty farthings. The journey of the shilling was very strange.

Answer 2

Answer:

Answer the following questions briefly, in your own words.