1:- It had happened when I was ten or eleven years old.

I had decided to learn to

swim. There was a pool at the Y.M.C.A. in Yakima that offered exactly the
opportunity. The Yakima River was treacherous. Mother continually warned
against it, and kept fresh in my mind the details of each drowning in the river.
But the Y.M.C.A. pool was safe. It was only two or three feet deep at the
shallow end; and while it was nine feet deep at the other, the drop was gradual.
I got a pair of water wings and went to the pool. I hated to walk naked into it
and show my skinny legs. But I subdued my pride and did it.
a) Who is ‘I’ in the above lines?
• President Roosevelt
• The instructor
• William Douglas
• Alphonse Daudet
b) What does the word ‘Treacherous’ mean?
• Dangerous
• Safe
• Punitive
• All of these
c) How was YMCA pool safer?
• For it had instructors
• For it had life guards
• For it had shallow water to learn swimming
• All of these
d) What does the speaker mean by ‘I subdued my pride’?
• Put pride down by force
• Brought pride out of control
• Raised his pride
• All of these
Answers:

a. William b. d. Put pride down

c. All of these
Douglas Dangerous by force
2:-From the beginning, however, I had an aversion to the water when I was in it.
This started when I was three or four years old and father took me to the beach
in California. He and I stood together in the surf. I hung on to him, yet the waves
knocked me down and swept over me. I was buried in water. My breath was
gone. I was frightened. Father laughed, but there was terror in my heart at the
overpowering force of the waves. My introduction to the Y.M.CA. swimming
pool revived unpleasant memories and stirred childish fears. But in a little while
I gathered confidence.
a) Who is the author of Deep Water?
• John Updike
• Gertrude Simmons
• William Blake
• None of these
b) What does the word ‘Revived’ mean?
• Given fresh life
• Restored to consciousness
• Resuscitated
• All of these
c) What does the speaker mean by ‘I was buried in water’?
• That he was drenched
• That he was drowned
• That he lost his breath in the pool
• All of these
d) Why did he go to Y.M.C.A pool?
• Because it was safer
• Because it was riskier
• Because it had personal instructor
• All of these
Answers:

b. All of c. That he was d. Because it was

a. None of these
these drowned safer
3:-I went to the pool when no one else was there. The place was quiet. The
water was still, and the tiled bottom was as white and clean as a bathtub. I was
timid about going in alone, so I sat on the side of the pool to wait for others. I
had not been there long when in came a big bruiser of a boy, probably eighteen
years old. He had thick hair on his chest. He was a beautiful physical specimen,
with legs and arms that showed rippling muscles. He yelled, “Hi, Skinny! How’d
you like to be ducked?” With that he picked me up and tossed me into the deep
end.
a) Who threw the narrator into the pool?
• Big bully
• Big lad
• Big chap
• All of the above
b) What does the word ‘Timid’ mean?
• Bold
• Coward
• Lazy
• Agile
c) Who has been called ‘Skinny’ in the extract?
• The instructor
• William Douglas
• Douglas Mother
• Both i and ii
d) Name the chapter.
• Deep water
• On the Face of It
• Evans Tries an O Level
• Indigo
Answers:
 a. All of the c. William
b. Coward d. Deep Water
above Douglas

4:-I landed in a sitting position, swallowed water, and went at once to the
bottom. I was frightened, but not yet frightened out of my wits. On the way
down I planned: When my feet hit the bottom, I would make a big jump, come
to the surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the edge of the pool. It seemed a long
way down. Those nine feet were more like ninety, and before I touched bottom
my lungs were ready to burst. But when my feet hit bottom I summoned all my
strength and made what I thought was a great spring upwards. I imagined I
would bob to the surface like a cork. Instead, I came up slowly.
a) What does the phrase ‘Frightened out of wits’ imply?
• Badly scared
• Badly wounded
• Badly managed
• All of these
b) Where is the narrator?
• At Yakima river
• At Tieton
• At YMCA Pool
• None of these
c) What strategy was made by the narrator to rescue him?
• To swim across the pool and reach safely
• To drown and remember his mother
• To go to bottom, hit it hard and reach the surface
• All of these
d) What does the speaker mean by ‘I summoned all my strength’?
• That he gathered his strength
• That he accumulated his strength
• That he called up his strength
• All of these
 c. To go to bottom, hit
a. Badly b. At YMCA
it hard and reach the d. All of these
Scared Pool
surface

Answers^
5:-I opened my eyes and saw nothing but water — water that had a dirty yellow
tinge to it. I grew panicky. I reached up as if to grab a rope and my hands
clutched only at water. I was suffocating. I tried to yell but no sound came out.
Then my eyes and nose came out of the water — but not my mouth. I flailed at
the surface of the water, swallowed and choked. I tried to bring my legs up, but
they hung as dead weights, paralysed and rigid. A great force was pulling me
under. I screamed, but only the water heard me.
a) What does the word ‘Tinge’ mean?
• Colour
• Fear
• Filthy
• None of these
b) What did the narrator swallow?
• Water
• Fear
• Anger
• All of these
c) Why could no one come to help the narrator?
• For he was alone there
• For everyone thought he was fooling
• For he was able to swim himself
• All of these
d) Which of the following is incorrect?
• He was alone at the pool
• He was saved at the eleventh hour
• He was rescued by big bully
• He was learning swimming at the deep end
Answers:

c. For he was alone d. He was rescued

a. Colour b. Water
there by big bully

1:-The presidents of the New York Central and the New York,
New Haven and Hartford railroads will swear on a stack of
timetables that there are only two. But I say there are three,
because I’ve been on the third level of the Grand Central Station.
Yes, I’ve taken the obvious step: I talked to a psychiatrist friend
of mine, among others. I told him about the third level at Grand
Central Station, and he said it was a waking dream wish
fulfillment.
a. Name the chapter.
• The Last Lesson
• Should Wizard Hit Mommy
• On the Face of It
• The Third Level
b. Name the author of this chapter.
• Alphonse Daudet
• Jack Finale
• Jack Finney
• John Updike
c. Who is ‘I’ in the above extract?
• Charley
• Louisa
• Sam
• Coin Dealer
d. “There are only two” What is two in this statement?
• Blocks
• Platforms
• Levels
• Towers
 Answers

a. The Third b. Jack

c. Charley d. Levels
Level Finney

2:-He said I was unhappy. That made my wife kind of mad, but
he explained that he meant the modern world is full of
insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it, and that I just
want to escape. Well, who doesn’t? Everybody I know wants to
escape, but they don’t wander down into any third level at Grand
Central Station. But that’s the reason, he said, and my friends all
agreed. Everything points to it, they claimed. My stamp
collecting, for example; that’s a ‘temporary refuge from reality.’
Well, maybe, but my grandfather didn’t need any refuge from
reality; things were pretty nice and peaceful in his days, from all
I hear, and he started my collection.
a. Who is ‘He’ in the above extract?
• President of America
• Louisa
• Charley
• Sam
b. What does the word ‘Refuge’ mean?
• Safe place
• Risky place
• Neither safe nor risky place
• Both i and ii
c. What did Charley’s friends think of him?
• That he was true
• That he wanted to go to a safe place
• That Charley was right in his discovery
• That there existed the third level seriously
d. Who was Charley’s wife?
• Louisa
• Clare
• Hana
• None of these

A. B. Safe C. That he wanted to go D. Louisa

SAM place to safe place

3:-It’s a nice collection too, blocks of four of practically every

U.S. issue, first-day covers, and so on. President Roosevelt
collected stamps too, you know. Anyway, here’s what happened
at Grand Central. One night last summer I worked late at the
office. I was in a hurry to get uptown to my apartment so I
decided to take the subway from Grand Central because it’s
faster than the bus. Now, I don’t know why this should have
happened to me.
a. What did Charley collect?
• Philately
• Stamps
• Both i and ii
• None of these
b. Why did Charley get the subway?
• It was faster than the bus
• The bus was slower than subway
• Both i and ii
• None of these
c. What happened to Charley?
• He got lost
• He found the third level
• He reached to a different level
• All of these
d. Who is ‘I’ in the above extract?
• President Roosevelt
• Charley
• Louisa
• Sam
Answers

A. Both I and B. Both I and C. All of

D. Charley
II II these

4:-I’m just an ordinary guy named Charley, thirty-one years old,

and I was wearing a tan gabardine suit and a straw hat with a
fancy band; I passed a dozen men who looked just like me. And I
wasn’t trying to escape from anything; I just wanted to get home
to Louisa, my wife. I turned into Grand Central from Vanderbilt
Avenue, and went down the steps to the first level, where you
take trains like the Twentieth Century. Then I walked down
another flight to the second level, where the suburban trains
leave from, ducked into an arched doorway heading for the
subway — and got lost. That’s easy to do.
a. What is ‘Gabardine’?
• A firm durable fabric
• Brown colour
• Kind of tight outfit
• None of these
b. What does the speaker mean by ‘suburban’?
• Place located on the outskirts of the city
• Place located in the city
• Place located far away from the city
• Place located in the centre of the city
c. What does ‘Duck into’ mean?
• To move downwards and enter
• To move upwards and enter
• To move aside and enter
• None of these
d. Where does the narrator get lost?
• On the first level
• On the second level
• On the third level
• All of these

C. To
B. Place
move
A. A firm located on the D. On the
downward
durable fabric outskirts of second level
s and
the city
enter

But I never told my psychiatrist friend about that idea. The

corridor I was in began angling left and slanting downward and I
thought that was wrong, but I kept on walking. All I could hear
was the empty sound of my own footsteps and I didn’t pass a
soul. Then I heard that sort of hollow roar ahead that means
open space and people talking. The tunnel turned sharp left; I
went down a short flight of stairs and came out on the third level
at Grand Central Station.
a. Why did Charley not tell anything to his psychiatrist?
• Because his psychiatrist would have gone to Galesburg
• Because his psychiatrist would have rejected his claims
• Because his psychiatrist would have told everything to Louisa
• None of these
b. What does ‘pass a soul’ mean?
• That nobody was there
• That everybody was there
• That lots of people were there
• That there were many roaming souls
c. Choose the synonym of the word ‘Empty’ from the following.
• Hollow
• Vacuous
• Drained
• All of these
d. Which noun has been used in ‘flight’ of stairs?
• Proper noun
• Common Noun
• Collective noun
• None of these
Answers

A. Because his
B. That C. All
psychiatrist would D. Collective
nobody of
have rejected his Noun
was there these
claims.

1:-“The child will grow up to become the warrior of warriors, hero of heroes,
champion of champions. But…” they bit their lips and swallowed hard. When
compelled to continue, the astrologers came out with it. “This is a secret which
should not be revealed at all. And yet we are forced to speak out. The child born
under this star will one day have to meet its death.”
a) Name the chapter.
1) Evans Tries an O Level
2) Memories of Childhood
3) The Tiger King
4) The Third Level
b) Who is the author of this chapter?
1) Tishani Doshi
2) Kalki
3) Pearl S Buck
4) William Saroyan
c) Who has been referred as child in this extract?
1) Jilani Jung Jung Bahadur
2) Khiledar Major
3) The Tiger King
4) All of these
d) What does the narrator mean by the phrase ‘They bit their lips’?.
1) They hesitated
2) They spoke confidently
3) They replied angrily
4) They replied happily
ANSWER:

a. The Tiger d. They

b. Kalki c. All of these
King hesitated

2:-Everyone stood transfixed in stupefaction. They looked wildly at each other

and blinked. ‘‘O wise prophets! It was I who spoke.’’ This time there were no
grounds for doubt. It was the infant born just ten days ago who had enunciated
the words so clearly. The chief astrologer took off his spectacles and gazed
intently at the baby. ‘‘All those who are born will one day have to die. We don’t
need your predictions to know that. There would be some sense in it if you could
tell us the manner of that death,’’ the royal infant uttered these words in his little
squeaky voice.
a) Who is ‘I’ in the above lines.
1) The Tiger King
2) Kalki
3) Astrologer
4) The Tiger King‘s Wife
b) Who spoke at the age of 10?
1) The Tiger King
2) Dr. Sadao
3) Jack
4) Evans
c) What did the royal infant want to know?
1) The exact manner of his marriage
2) The exact manner of his death
3) The exact manner of his sitting on his throne
4) The exact manner of his life
d) Find out the synonym of ‘Utter’ from the following.
1) To speak
2) To Express
3) To Let out
4) All of these

c. The exact
a. The Tiger b. The Tiger
manner of his d. All of these
King King
death

3:-‘‘The prince was born in the hour of the Bull. The Bull and the Tiger are
enemies, therefore, death comes from the Tiger,’’ he explained. You may think
that crown prince Jung Jung Bahadur was thrown into a quake when he heard the
word ‘Tiger’. That was exactly what did not happen. As soon as he heard it
pronounced, the crown prince gave a deep growl. Terrifying words emerged from
his lips. ‘‘Let tigers beware!’’
a) How old was The Tiger King when he spoke?
1) 10 days old
2) 15 days old
3) 20 days old
4) 25 days old
b) Which literary device has been used in ‘Jung Jung Bahadur’?
1) Alliteration
2) Repetition
3) Simile
4) Epithet
c) Whom did The Tiger King want to be alert?
1) Tigers
2) Lions
3) Sheep
4) All of these
d) Find out the synonym of ‘Terrifying’ from the following.
1) Scaring
2) Fearing
3) Frightening
4) All of these

a. 10 days old b. Repetition c. Tigers d. All of these

4:-Crown prince Jung Jung Bahadur grew taller and stronger day by day. No other
miracle marked his childhood days apart from the event already described. The
boy drank the milk of an English cow, was brought up by an English nanny,
tutored in English by an Englishman, saw nothing but English films — exactly as
the crown princes of all the other Indian states did. When he came of age at
twenty, the State, which had been with the Court of Wards until then, came into
his hands.
a) How was the tiger king brought up.
1) By royalty
2) In penury
3) Beggarly
4) None of these
b) What is nanny?
1) Nurse
2) Nursemaid
3) Custodian of a child
4) None of these
c) At what age was he handed in the throne?
1) 10 Years
2) 15 Years
3) 20 Years
4) 25 Years
d) What is court of wards?
1) A legal body created by East India Company
2) A illegal body created by East India Company
3) A neutral body created by East India Company
4) None of these

d. A legal body
b. Custodian of
a. By royalty c. 20 Years created by East
a child
India Company

5:-‘‘What do you say now?’’ he demanded. ‘‘Your majesty may kill ninety-nine
tigers in exactly the same manner. But…’’ the astrologer drawled. ‘‘But what?
Speak without fear.’’ “But you must be very careful with the hundredth tiger.’’
‘‘What if the hundredth tiger were also killed?’’ ‘‘Then I will tear up all my books
on astrology, set fire to them, and…’’ ‘‘And…’’ ‘‘I shall cut off my tuft, crop my hair
short and become an insurance agent,’’ the astrologer finished on an incoherent
note.
a) How many tigers could he kill according to the astrologer?
1) 98
2) 97
3) 99
4) 100
b) What would have Astrologer done had the the tiger King killed hundred tiger?
1) He would have cut off his tuft
2) He would have become an insurance agent
3) He would have set fire to astrology books
4) All of these
c) Find out the antonym of the word ‘Incoherent’ from the following?
1) Coherent
2) Logical
3) Rational
4) All of these
d) What should the tiger King be afraid of according to the astrologer?
1) 100th tiger
2) 99th tiger
3) 98th tiger
4) 97th tiger

a. 99 b. All of these c. All of these d. 100th tiger

1:- Early this year, I found myself aboard a Russian research vessel the Akademik
Shokalskiy heading towards the coldest, driest, windiest continent in the world:
Antarctica. My journey began 13.09 degrees north of the Equator in Madras, and
involved crossing nine time zones, six checkpoints, three bodies of water, and at
least as many ecospheres.
a) Name the chapter.
1) Evans Tries an O Level
2) Memories of Childhood
3) The Tiger King
4) Journey to the End of the Earth
b) Who is ‘I’ in the above lines?
1) Tishani Doshi
2) Kalki
3) Pearl S Buck
4) William Saroyan
c) What was Akademik Shokalskiy ?
1) A Boat
2) A Canoe
3) A Watercraft
4) All of these
d) Where was the narrator travelling to?
1) Amsterdam
2) Antarctica
3) Australia
4) America

a. Journey to the b. Tishani

c. A Watercraft d. Antarctica
End of the Earth Doshi

2:-By the time I actually set foot on the Antarctic continent I had been travelling
over 100 hours in combination of a car, an aeroplane and a ship; so, my first
emotion on facing Antarctica’s expansive white landscape and uninterrupted blue
horizon was relief, followed up with an immediate and profound wonder. Wonder
at its immensity, its isolation, but mainly at how there could ever have been a
time when India and Antarctica were part of the same landmass.
a) What is horizon?
1) The line where sky and earth appears to meet
2) The line where sky and earth appears to get apart
3) The line where sky and water appears to meet
4) None of these
b) How long did the narrator have to travel to reach Anrarctica?
1) 100 Hours
2) 150 Hours
3) 200 Hours
4) 250 Hours
c) How did the narrator feel after setting foot on Antarctica ?
1) Stressed
2) Distressed
3) Relieved
4) Baffled
d) Find out the synonym of the word ‘Immense’ from the following?
1) Tiny
2) Monstrous
3) Lagged
4) None of these

a. The line where

b. 100
sky and earth c. Relieved d. Monstrous
Hours
appears to meet

3:-Six hundred and fifty million years ago, a giant amalgamated southern
supercontinent Gondwana did indeed exist, centred roughly around the present-
day Antarctica. Things were quite different then: humans hadn’t arrived on the
global scene, and the climate was much warmer, hosting a huge variety of flora
and fauna. For 500 million years Gondwana thrived, but around the time when
the dinosaurs were wiped out and the age of the mammals got under way, the
landmass was forced to separate into countries, shaping the globe much as we
know it today.
a) For how long did Gondwana thrive?
1) 600 Million years
2) 500 Million years
3) 400 Million years
4) 300 Million years
b) How was Gondwana different from today’s world?
1) It was cooler
2) It was warmer
3) It was hotter
4) Both 2 and 3
c) What does the phrasal verb ‘Wipe out’ mean?
1) Cleaned
2) Disappeared
3) Removed
4) All of these
d)Name the chapter.
1) Evans Tries an O Level
2) Memories of Childhood
3) The Tiger King
4) Journey to the End of the Earth

d. Journey to
b. Both 2
a. 500 Million years c. All of these the End of the
and 3
Earth

4:- For a sun-worshipping South Indian like myself, two weeks in a place where
90 per cent of the Earth’s total ice volumes are stored is a chilling prospect (not
just for circulatory and metabolic functions, but also for the imagination). It’s like
walking into a giant ping-pong ball devoid of any human markers – no trees,
billboards, buildings. You lose all earthly sense of perspective and time here. The
visual scale ranges from the microscopic to the mighty: midges and mites to blue
whales and icebergs as big as countries (the largest recorded was the size of
Belgium). Days go on and on and on in surreal 24-hour austral summer light, and a
ubiquitous silence, interrupted only by the occasional avalanche or calving ice
sheet, consecrates the place. It’s an immersion that will force you to place
yourself in the context of the earth’s geological history. And for humans, the
prognosis isn’t good.
a) How many day did the narrator spend in and around Antarctica?
1) 14 Days
2) 16 Days
3) 18 Days
4) 12 Days
b) Which literary device has been used in ‘It’s like walking into a giant ping-pong
ball’?
1) Transferred Epithet
2) Metaphor
3) Alliteration
4) Simile
c) Find out the synonym of ‘Ubiquitous’ from the following?
1) Present Everywhere
2) Omnipresent
3) That is everywhere present
4) All of these
d) What is avalanche?
1) Slide of sun and mud down the mountain
2) Muddy Storm
3) Tornedo
4) All of these

d. Slide of sun
a. 14 Days b. Simile c. All of these and mud down
the mountain

5:- Human civilisations have been around for a paltry 12,000 years barely a few
seconds on the geological clock. In that short amount of time, we’ve managed to
create quite a ruckus, etching our dominance over Nature with our villages,
towns, cities, megacities. The rapid increase of human populations has left us
battling with other species for limited resources, and the unmitigated burning of
fossil fuels has now created a blanket of carbon dioxide around the world, which
is slowly but surely increasing the average global temperature.
a) What is responsible for all the ruckus according to the narrator?
1) Human Population
2) Building up of cities
3) Deterioration of Nature
4) All of these
b) What does the word ‘Unmitigated’ mean?
1) Complete
2) Incomplete
3) Partial
4) None of these
c) How can global warming be curbed?
1) By controlling the population
2) By visiting places like Antarctica
3) By begetting more and more children
4) None of these
d) How long have humans been living on this planet?
1) For 12000 Months
2) For 12000 Years
3) For 12000 Decades
4) None of these

b. c. By controlling d. For 12000

a. All of these
Complete the population Years
1:-Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
beside me,

doze, open-mouthed, her face

ashen like that
of a corpse and realized with pain
that she was as old as she looked but soon

put that thought away…

(a)Where was the narrator driving to? Who was sitting beside her?
Ans. The narrator was driving to the airport on her way to Cochin. Her mother was sitting next
to her.

(b) What did the narrator notice about her mother?

Ans. The narrator noticed that her mother had dozed off and she was looking old, pale and
weak.
(c) Why did her mother’s face look like that of a corpse?

Ans. The mother looked old, pale and ashen. Since she had dozed off, with her mouth open,
the narrator felt she looked like a corpse in that condition.
(d) Find words from the passage which mean (i) Sleep lightly (ii) Dead body
Ans.(i) Dozed; (ii) Corpse

2:-looked but soon

put that thought away, and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes
(a)What did the narrator realize? How did she feel?
Ans. The narrator realized that her mother had grown old and would not be around for
very long. This thought pained her.
(b) What did she do then?
Ans. She started looking out of the car window in order to divert her attention to
something else.
(c) What did she see outside?
Ans. She saw young trees moving fast as if they were sprinting and also saw young
children happily running out of their homes to play.
(d) Find words from the passage which mean (i) Running fast (ii) Happy
Ans.(i) Sprinting; (ii) Merry

3.
but after the airport’s
security check, standing a few yards
away, I looked again at her, wan,
pale
as a late winter’s moon
(a)Name the poem and the poet.
Ans. The poem is ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’ and the poet is `Kamala Das’.
(b) What did the narrator do after the security check?
Ans. The narrator stood a few yards away and looked at her mother’s face again.
(c) Why did the narrator compare her mother’s face to a late winter’s moon?
Ans. The narrator’s mother is old, frail and very pale like the moon in late winter. Hence,
the comparison.
(d) Find words from the extract which mean the same as (i) Colourless (ii) Faded
yellowish
Ans. (i) Pale; (ii) Wan

4.
….as a late winter’s moon and felt
that old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
(a)What has been compared to a late winter’s moon?
Ans. The narrator’s ageing mother has been compared to the late winter’s moon.
(b) Why has the comparison been made?
Ans. The narrator’s mother looked old, frail and very pale like the moon in late winter.
Hence, the comparison.
(e) Identify the poetic device in the lines.
Ans. The poetic device used in the line ‘as a late winter’s moon’ is a simile.
(d) What is the ‘familiar ache’ mentioned in these lines?
Ans. It refers to the narrator’s childhood fear of losing her parent or fear of separation
from her.

5.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 does the phrase, ‘familiar ache’ mean?
(b) What was the poet’s childhood fear?
(c) What do the first two lines tell us about the poet’s feelings for her mother?
(d) What does the repeated use of the word, ‘smile’ mean?
Ans. (a) The phrase ‘familiar ache’ here means a persistent painful thought which has
been nagging about her frail old mother.
(b) The poet’s childhood fear was of losing her old and ageing mother one day.
(c) The first two lines tell us that the poet agonizes at the thought of her mother
growing old and she is trying to sound hopeful while bidding farewell to her mother.

1. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces

like rootless weeds, the hair was torn around their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-
Seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.
(a)Which children are referred to here?
Ans. The slum children who are sitting in an elementary
school are referred to here.
(b) Explain ‘like rootless weeds’. Identify the literary
device.
Ans. Rootless weeds suggest growth devoid of any
nurturing. The slum children’s scattered hair look like the
haphazard growth of weeds. The literary device is a simile.
(c) What is the comparison drawn with rat’s eyes?
Ans. Rat’s eyes suggest eyes searching for food. The poet
compares the boy’s eyes with that of a rat because the
undernourished boy looks around as if searching for food,
security or acceptance.

2:-….. The stunted, unlucky heir

of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lessons from his desk. At the back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of Squirrel’s game, in the tree room, other than this.
(a)Who is the unlucky heir? Why is he called unluckily?
Ans. The thin slum boy is the unlucky heir. He is so called
because he has inherited poverty, despair and disease
from his parents.
(b) Who sits back unnoted? Why?
Ans. A young boy sits at the back. He is different from the
others. His eyes like the others in his class are not full of
despair but are lost in a world of dreams.
(c) Pick two images each of despair and disease from
these lines.
Ans. The images of despair are, ‘unlucky heir’, ‘dim class’,
and that of disease are, ‘twisted bones, gnarled disease’.

3:-On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare’s head,

Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese Valley. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its world.
(a) What is the colour of the walls? What is it symbolic of?
Ans. The colour of the walls is pale yellow or sour cream.
Sour suggests a colour that is dull, decaying and
depressing.
(b) Which two words does the poet hint at?
Ans.The poet hints at two worlds. The world of poverty
and disease contrasted with the progressive world
represented in the pictures on the walls.
(c) What does ‘donations’, ‘Shakespeare’s head’ and
‘Tyrolese Valley’ suggest?
Ans. The pictures are all donations which represent a
world that the slum children are deprived of.
Shakespeare’s head or good literature may raise desire
which can never be fulfilled. Tyrolese Valley suggests
natural beauty which is out of reach of these children.

4:-…And yet, for these

children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.
(a)What is ‘their world’ for these children?
Ans. Their world is the slums which are characterized by
poverty and disease.
(b) What future is in store for these children?
Ans. The future for these children is uncertain, bleak and
foggy.
(c) What does ‘lead sky’ symbolize?
Ans. Lead sky symbolizes pollution and the burden of the
industrial world. It also represents a grey and dull
existence which comprises the life of the slum children.
5:-Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example
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)Why is Shakespeare wicked?
Ans. Shakespeare represents good literature which uplifts
a person’s soul. According to the narrator, he is wicked
because he describes a world of kings and noblemen
which the children of the slums aspire for but can never
reach.
(b) What tempts these children?
Ans. The beautiful world of kings, noblemen, ships, the
sun and love tempts these children as they are deprived of
these things.
(c) Explain ‘From fog to endless night’.
Ans. The children in the slums struggle from morning to
night merely to exist. It also means that they struggle from
the beginning of their life to their death i.e. their life is one
of endless struggle and darkness