DELHI PUBLIC SCHOOL, GREATER NOIDA

CLASS – VII

THE RUMPHIUS STORY (Answers)

Making connections
Quick answers
1. Complete the following sentences.
a. Alice’s grandfather painted pictures of sailing ships and places across the sea.
b. In the library, Miss Rumphius dusted books, kept them from getting mixed up and helped people find the
ones they wanted.
c. Miss Rumphius went to a real tropical island, where people kept cockatoos and monkeys as pets.
d. Everywhere she went, Miss Rumphius made friends that she would never forget.
e. Miss Rumphius started a little garden among the rocks that surrounded her house, and she planted a few
flower seeds in the stony ground.
f. Miss Rumphius couldn’t plant more seeds that first summer because her back was bothering her again
and she had to stay in bed most of the time.

Reference to context
2. a. Miss Rumphius said this to Bapa Raja and his wife.
b. Miss Rumphius said this when Bapa Raja and his wife gave her a mother-of-pearl shell on which a bird of
paradise was painted and these words were written: ‘You will always remain our friend.’
c. She met these friends when she was walking along long beaches on a tropical island, picking up beautiful
shells.

3. a. Miss Rumphius hurt her back when she got off a camel in the Land of the Lotus eaters.
b. Miss Rumphius called it foolish because she felt she was not careful. She had travelled far and wide, and
done more adventurous things without hurting herself.
c. She decided to find her place by the sea.

4. a. Miss Rumphius was happy in her house by the sea. She watched the sun come up, cross the heavens
and sparkle on water, and set in glory in the evening. She also started a little garden around her house.
b. She was almost perfectly happy because she had done nearly all that she had set out to do, except one
thing.
c. She had to make the world more beautiful.

Read, reflect and write

5. Miss Rumphius went to live in another city far from the sea and the salty air. There she worked in a
library, kept books in order and helped people find books. She also read about faraway places. Then she
went to a tropical island, walked along beaches and made many new friends. She climbed tall mountains,
where the snow never melted. She went through jungles and across deserts. She saw lions playing and
kangaroos jumping. And everywhere, she made friends that she would never forget.

6. Miss Rumphius saw how the lupine flowers that she had planted grew on stony ground as well. She saw
how the wind and the birds had carried the seeds of these flowers, and how they had grown in many colours
on the other side of the mountain. She saw how beautiful the flowers looked. So she decided to plant more
lupine flowers to make the world beautiful. Her grandfather had told her that she had to do three things, one
of which was to make the world more beautiful.
 7. Miss Rumphius would go around the fields, hills and open places, throwing seeds of the lupine flowers.
People called her ‘That Crazy Old Lady’ because they were not aware of what she was doing. They were not
right in calling her that because they did not know what she had in mind. Also, it is not right to call people
names. When the lupine flowers grew in large numbers, making the whole place look beautiful, they knew
that it was she who had made the place beautiful. She became known as the Lupine Lady.

8. The narrator’s friends stood outside Miss Rumphius’ gate because they were curious to see the old, old
lady who planted the fields of lupines. They thought that she was the oldest woman in the world.

9. The Lupine Lady, because the story is all about a girl who went on to become the Lupine Lady: her
journey, her experiences and how she made the world beautiful.

10. Yes, each one of us should try to make the world beautiful.
(Write your own answer)

11. Write your own answer.