POEM-5

THE SCHOOL BOY

1. Why child hates going to school?
Answer: Child hates school because he is under strict control of his teacher. He feels like a caged
bird.
2. How child happiness turn into sorrowness?
Answer: The child rise in the fresh and delightful summer morning. He is very happy but his parents
force him to go to the school where he spends his time in sorrowfulness.
3. Find three or four words/phrases in stanza 1 that reflect the child’s happiness and joy.
Answer: The phrases that reflect the child’s joy and happiness are ‘love to rise in a summer mom’,
birds sing on every tree,’ ‘the skylark sings with me’, and ‘sweet company’.
4. In stanza 2, the mood changes. Which words/ phrases reflect the changed mood?
Answer: ‘It drives all joy away’ under a cruel eye outworm. In sighing and dismay.
5. ‘A cruel eye outworm’ (Stanza 2) refers to
(i) the classroom which is shabby/ noisy.
(ii) the lessons which are difficult / uninteresting.
(iii) the dull /uninspiring life at school with lots of work and no play.
Answer: (iii) the dull /uninspiring life at school with lots of work and no play.
II. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
But to go to school in a summer morn,
O’ it drives all joy away,
under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day,
In sighing and dismay.

1. What drives away all the joy?

Ans. Going to school in a summer morning drives away all the joy.
2. What does ‘cruel eye outworn’ refer to?
Ans. ‘Cruel eye outworn’ refers to the teachers and uninspiring life at school.
3. How do the little ones spend the day?
Ans. The little ones spend the day sadly sighing.
LESSON-5
THE SUMMIT WITHIN
1. What does climbing the mountain present?
Ans: Climbing the mountains is challenging. It presents great difficulties. Man takes pleasure in
conquering obstacles. The obstacles in climbing a mountain are physical. A climb to a summit requires
endurance, willpower, and persistence. It requires both the physical and mental power of a human.

2. Why did Major choose to climb the mountain? Answer in relevance with his personal choice. 
Ans: Major chose to climb the mountain because since childhood he has been attracted by the mountains.
He had been miserable and lost whenever he was in the plains, away from mountains. He believes that
mountains are nature at their best. He also believed like everyone else that mountains are ways of making
a connection with god.

3. What did he feel about glimpsing a peak in the distance?

Ans: Major Ahluwalia explains that while looking at the peak in the distance, he felt like he was in some
other world. He experienced a change within himself which was kind of mystical. The beauty of the peak
had his attention like Everest. It was an irresistible challenge for him. 

4. To what questions does Major relate the question “why I climbed Everest”? 
Ans: Major relates his question “why I climbed Everest” to the questions asked such as “Why you
breathe, why do you help your neighbor? Why do you want to do good?``He believes that there is never a
final answer to this question the same as there is no answer to these questions.
5.What does he say about a man who has climbed mountains?
Ans: Major Ahluwalia believes that once someone has climbed mountains it is completely changed. The
experience changes the person. 
6. What does he think of while looking back at having climbed the mountains?
Ans: When Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia looks back at life after climbing Everest Mountains, he does not think
of any other summit. The summit of Everest is the summit of the mind. 
7. What did he think of while getting down from the summit? 
Ans: Major Ahluwalia when coming down from the summit, once his physical exhaustion vanished, he
asked himself why he chose to climb Everest, why was he clingy about having climbed Everest. 
8. What question and answer did he have to his questions about climbing Everest? 
Ans: As he had climbed Everest himself, he had so many positive questions about his choice but he also
wondered why people climb the mountains. He believed there is only one answer that the mountains are
there for climbing.