•The Fun They Had
1.what did Margie write in her diary?
2.what things about the book did she find strange?
3.what subject did Margie and Tommy learned?
4."I wouldn't throw it away"
i) who says these words?
ii) what does 'it' refers to?
iii) what is it being compared with by the speaker?
5."Sure they had a teacher but it wasn't a regular teacher. It was a man. "
i) who does 'they' refer to?
ii) what does 'regular' means here?
iii) what is it contrasted with?
6.why did Margie's mother send for the County Inspector?
7.what had once happened to Tommy's teacher?
8.Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
9.how does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
10.How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
11.what are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the school room that Margie and Tommy have in the story?
12.why did the Margie hate school?why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
13.do you agree with Margie that school today are more fun than the school in the story?Give reason for your answer.
•The Road Not Taken
14.where does the travellers find himself?what problem does he face?
15.discuss what these phrases mean to you.
i) a yellow wood
ii) it was grassy and wanted wear.
iii) the passing there
iv) leaves no step had trodden black
v) how way leads on to way.
16.Is there any difference between the two roads as the poet describe them
i) in stanzas two and three?
ii) in the last two lines of the poem?
•The lost Child
17.what are the things the child sees on his way to the fair? why does he leg behind?
18.in the fair he wants many things.what are they? why does he move on without waiting for an answer?
19.when does he realise that he has lost his way? how have his anxiety and insecurity been described?
20.why does the lost child lose interest in the things that he had wanted earlier?
•The Sound Of Music
21.who helped Evelyn to continue with music? what did he do and say?
22.when was her deafness first noticed? when was it confirmed?
23.name the various places and causes for which Evelyn performs?
24.how does Evelyn hear music?
25.why did Aurangzeb ban the playing of the pungi?
26.How is a shehnai different from a pungi?
27.where was the shehnai played traditionally? how did Bismillah khan change this?
28.when and how did Bismillah khan get his big break?
29.why did Bismillah khan refuse to start a shehnai school in the USA?
30.where did Bismillah khan play the shehnai on 15 August 1947? why was the event historic?
•Wind
31.what are the things the wind does in the first stanza?
32.what does the poet say the wind God windows?
33.what should we do to make friends with the wind?
34.the last four lines of the poem mean to you?
•The Little Girl
35.why was kezia afraid of her father?
36.who were the people in kezia's family?
37.what was kezia's fathers routine.
i)before going to his office?
ii) after coming back from his office?
iii) On Sunday?
38.in what ways did kezia's grandmother her to get to know her father better?
39.kezia's effort to please her father resulted in displeasing him very much. how did this happen?
40.kezia decides that there are "different kinds of father's" what kind of father was Mr. MacDonald, and how was he different from kezia's father?
41.how does kezia begin to see her father as a human being who needs her sympathy?
•Rain On The Roof
42.what do the following phrases mean to you? Discuss in class.
i)humid shadows
ii) starry spheres
iii) what a bliss
iv) a thousand dreamy fancies into busy begin start
v) a thousand recollections weave their air-threads into woof.
43.what does the poet like to do when it rains?
44.what is the single major memory that comes to the poet? who are the "darling dreamers " he refers to?
•A Truly Beautiful Mind
45.why did Einstein write a letter to Franklin Roosevelt?
46.How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
47.Why does the world remember Einstein as a "world citizen"?
Answers
Answer:
Margie is eleven while Tommy is thirteen years old.
2. Margie wrote in her diary, “Today Tommy found a real book!”
3. No, Margie had never seen a book before.
4. Margie found it strange that the words printed on a book stood still instead of moving the way they did on a screen. She also found it odd that the words on a page always remained the same as the first time they were read. Besides, the idea that someone would write a book about schools was itself strange for Margie.
5. A telebook is a book that can be read on screen. Words move on the screen for the readers to read.
6. Margie’s school was in her home itself, right next to her bedroom.
No, she did not have any classmates.
7. Margie and Tommy learnt geography, history and arithmetic.
Page No 10:
Question 2:
Answer the following with reference to the story.
1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
(i) Who says these words?
(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?
(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
(iii) What is it contrasted with?
ANSWER:
1.
(i) Tommy says these words.
(ii) ‘It’ refers to the television screen.
(iii) Tommy is comparing the television screen with printed books of the earlier times.
2.
(i) The word ‘they’ refers to the students who studied in the old kind of schools, centuries before the time the story is set in.
(ii) Here, the term ‘regular’ refers to the mechanical teachers that Tommy and Margie has.
(iii) The mechanical teacher is contrasted with the teacher of the earlier times, who was a man.
Page No 10:
Question 3:
Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
3. What did he do?
4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the Country Inspector do to help her?
5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
ANSWER:
1. Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers with large black screens that flashed lessons and questions. These teachers had slots where the students had to put their homework and test papers.
2. Margie had been consistently failing to perform well in the geography tests given by her mechanical teacher. In order to find out the reason behind this, her mother sent for the County Inspector.
3. The County Inspector took apart the teacher and after examining it, assembled it again. He slowed up the geography sector of the teacher because it was 'geared up a little too quick' for an average ten-year old.
4. Margie was doing badly in geography because the geography sector of the mechanical teacher had been adjusted at a higher level.
In order to help her, the County Inspector slowed down this sector to an average ten-year level.
5. Once, Tommy’s teacher was taken away for nearly a month because its history sector had blanked out completely.
6. Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school. The mechanical teacher always turned on at the same time every day except Saturdays and Sundays. This was because her mother believed that learning at regular hours helped little girls learn better.
7. Tommy says that the old kind of school existed 'centuries ago'. They had a teacher, who was a man. This teacher taught in a special building, where all the kids assembled and learned the same things according to their respective ages.
8. Tommy says that the teacher of the old kind were men, who taught the students inside a special building. The teachers taught the children in groups and gave them homework and asked them questions.
Explanation:
What did marriage wrote in her diary
