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Holiday Homework-SET-2

READING SECTION

I. Read the passage given below.

1 The National Basketball Championship Women's finals had all the ingredients of the Chak De climax.
Till half-time, the Railways team, playing against the Chhattisgarh girls' team, led on the scoreboard.
And then, the unexpected happened. The Chhattisgarh girls tore into the Railway's defences and every
time they took a shot, the ball made it through the hoop. The scoreboard kept moving and at the final
whistle, it stood in Chhattisgarh's favour.

2 But more important than the victory, it is the stories of some of these players that make it a fantastic
match. Most of the players come from poor families and have dealt with severe setbacks. Take the story
of India's tallest woman hoopster, Poonam Chaturvedi. A severe headache that had been bothering her
for a long time, was diagnosed with brain tumour six months ago. She had lost her will to live but had
joined the team to please her father, a constable in Uttar Pradesh. Within a few minutes into the game
the headache had returned and she was benched. But when Captain Seema Singh fouled out, she was
forced to return. She went on to put up a brilliant performance, despite the pain and anxiety.

3 Behind this stupendous success is coach Rajesh Patel, who has been running the Chhattisgarh
Basketball Development Academy for 13 years. With financial backing from the steel plants in his area,
he has been mentoring deserving boys and girls from tribal belts and training them for the game. A
promise of employment and promotion if they excel in the game, keeps his girls going, says Patel.

4 So far, Patel has trained 1500 youngsters. Of the lot, the really disadvantaged children are taken into a
hostel run by him and his wife Anita, till they are independent. Many of Patel's protégés have gone on
to perform at national and international events and the Chhattisgarh girls he has trained, claim a unique
record of bringing home 74 medals in their 80 national-level appearances.

5 Yet none of these players have had an easy life. Seema Singh of the current team is its most
experienced player. She had represented Chhattisgarh for the first time iIJ 2002. When she was dropped
from the Railways team earlier, due to a knee injury, she picked herself up and resumed playing for
Chhattisgarh and won the national trophy for her coach, as she puts it.

6 Another team member, L Deepa, triumphed over a physical drawback. She is short and has found this
a great disadvantage in a sport like basketball where height matters. But when Patel gave her a chance
to come up to his expectations, Deepa more than measured up.

7 Others, like Bharti Nigam, came into the team as she could not make to the Railways team this year.
This daughter of a police constable, she took this snub as a challenge and went on to become a
professional player. Her sports teacher, she feels, motivated her to take up the sport as a career.

8 All these women together have thus scripted an unusual tale of great val our, indomitable courage and
implicit trust in their coach to secure for India a great honour. For their team the win, over the giants,
the Railways team, this victory has spelt a personal rewind of the typical underdog-who-triumphs movie
of how they dunked the odds.
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(a) Choose the most appropriate statement to complete the sentence.

At the National Basketball Women's Finals ----------
(i) The Chhattisgarh team was leading till half time
(ii) The Railway Women's team was unexpected winners
(iii) The Chhattisgarh Women's team tore at the opponent's defences after half time
(iv) the Chhattisgarh Women's team began to play professionally past half time

(b) Comment on Poonam Chaturvedi's role towards the victory of her team.

(c) List two reasons behind the motivation of coach Rajesh Patel for training tribal girls.
Rajesh Patel has continued training the girls at the Basketball Academy because ____________

(d) Select the antonym for the word 'resumed' (Para 5) from the text.
(i) Suspected (ii) suspended (iii) subsumed (iv) subverted

(e) Based on your understanding of the text tell what role does stature play, in a game of basketball?

(f) With which statement given below would the readers of the passage disagree?
(i) The women's team owes their success to their brilliant coaching.
(ii) The women's team owes their success to their sports teacher.
(iii) The women's team owes their success to how they dunked the odds against them.
(iv) The women's team owes their success to their taking snubbing as a challenge.

(g) Give one reason why Seema Singh, the team's most experienced player, has not had an easy life.

(h) Choose the most appropriate comment for the given sentence.
Patel and his wife take the really disadvantaged girls and train them till ___________________
(i) they become independent (ii) they become dependents
(iii) they become dependable (iv) they become dispensable

(i) Mention two players whose success is a personal rewind after health and physical disadvantage came
their way.
(j) Select a suitable sub-title if the title of the passage is 'The Women Who Scripted History'. The
sub title could be -----------------
(i) Challenging the underdog syndrome (ii) challenging their superiors
(iii) Challenging themselves (iv) challenging and winning
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LITERATURE SECTION

MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX

-KAMALA DAS

Points to remember-
A. The poet is driving to the Cochin airport. When she looks outside, the young trees seem to be walking
past them. With the speed of the car they seem to be running fast or sprinting. The poet presents a
contrast—her ‘dozing’ old mother and the ‘sprinting’ young trees.

B. The poet has brought in the image of merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’ to present a contrast.
The merry children coming out of their homes in large numbers present an image of happiness and
spontaneous overflow of life. This image is in stark contrast to the ‘dozing’ old mother, whose ‘ashen’
face looks lifeless and pale like a corpse. She is an image of ageing, decay and passivity. The contrast of
the two images enhances the poetic effect.

C. The poet’s mother is sixty-six years old. Her shrunken ‘ashen’ face resembles a corpse. She has lost her
shine and strength of youth. Similarly the late winter’s moon looks hazy and obscure. It too lacks shine
and strength. The comparison is quite natural and appropriate. The simile used here is apt as well as
effective.

D. The poet’s parting words,see you soon,Amma,of assurance and her smiles provide a stark contrast to
the old familiar ache or fear of the childhood. Her words and smiles are a deliberate attempt to hide her
real feelings. The parting words: “See you soon, Amma” give an assurance to the old lady whose ‘ashen
face’ looks like a corpse. Similarly, her continuous smiles are an attempt to overcome the ache and fear
inside her heart.

Some Literary Devices

1.Simile- similarity between two different objects shown by the use of words namely as, so, like.

I. Her face is ashen like that of corpse.**

II. She was as old as she looked**
III. as a late winter's moon **Simile- similarity between two different objects shown by the use of words
namely as, so, like.

2.Personification -means infusing and attributing human characteristics, powers or feelings in non-living
objects

Eg- 1 Trees sprinting

Alliteration - repetition of the same consonant sounds at the outset of the words.

For example:- i)see you soon, Amma.

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ii) Smile and smile and smile

Metaphor- is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated. With metaphor, the
qualities of one thing are figuratively carried over to another without using the word like or as

Eg- Merry children spilling

 Q1. Note down the summary in your homework copy and give your personal review (or what did
you learn from the chapter) in not less than 50 words

1. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow. (1x4 =4 marks)
“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?

(b) What did she do then?
(c) What did she see outside?
(d) Find words from the passage which mean (i) Running fast (ii) Happy

2.Read the extract and answer the questions that follows (4 marks)
“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.

 (b) What did the narrator do after the security check?
(c) Why did the narrator compare her mother’s face to a late winter’s moon?
 .(d) Find words from the extract which mean the same as (i) Colourless (ii) Faded yellowish