Basic English Grammar rules can be tricky. In this article, we’ll get you started with the basics of sentence structure, punctuation, parts of speech, and more.
We also providing Extra Questions for Class 10 English Chapter wise.
Unseen Passage For Class 10 Literary CBSE With Answers
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. At this moment, Five, who had been anxiously looking across the garden, called out ‘The Queen! The Queen!’ and the three gardeners instantly threw themselves flat upon their faces. There was a sound of many footsteps, and Alice looked round, eager to see the Queen.
2. First came ten soldiers carrying clubs; these were all shaped like the three gardeners, oblong and flat, with their hands and feet at the comers: next the ten courtiers; these were ornamented all over with diamonds, and walked two and two, as the soldiers did. After these came the royal children; there were ten of them, and the little dears came jumping merrily along hand in hand, in couples: they were all ornamented with hearts. Next came the guests, mostly Kings and Queens, and among -Them Alice recognized the White Rabbit: it was talking in a hurried nervous manner, smiling at everything that was said, and went by without noticing her. Then followed the Knave of Hearts, carrying the King’s crown on a crimson velvet cushion; and, last of all this grand procession, came the King and the Queen of Hearts.
3. When the procession came opposite to Alice, they all stopped and looked at her, and the Queen said severely ‘Who is this?’ She said it to the Knave of Hearts, who only bowed and smiled in reply.
4. ‘Idiot! ’ said the Queen, tossing her head impatiently; and, turning to Alice, she went on, ‘What’s your name, child?’
5. ‘My name is Alice, so please your Majesty,’ said Alice very politely; but she added, to herself, ‘Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them! ’
6. ‘That’s right! ’ shouted the Queen. ‘Can you play croquet?’
7. The soldiers were silent, and looked at Alice, as the question was evidently meant for her.
8. ‘Yes!’shouted Alice.
9. ‘Come on, then! ’ roared the Queen, and Alice joined the procession, wondering very much what would happen next.
10. ‘Get to your places! ’ shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder, and people began running about in all directions, tumbling up against each other; however, they got settled down in a minute or two, and the . game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingos, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.
11. The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo, she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.
-Adapted from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll
1.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) Why did the gardeners throw themselves flat upon their faces? ……………………………………………… .
(b) Who did the Queen’s procession consist of? ……………………………………………… .
(c) Why did Alice decide that she had nothing to fear from the Queen or the other members of the procession? ……………………………………………… .
(d) Why was the game of croquet played by Alice different from a normal game of croquet? ……………………………………………… .
(e) Why did Alice find the game very difficult to play? ……………………………………………… .
1.2 On the basis of your reading of the passage, complete the following statements.
(a) The first ten soldiers came carrying ……………………………………………… .
(b) The croquet ground was a curious one because ………………………………………………. and ……………………………………………… .
2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Walter and Charlie Harrison were the sons of a sea captain, and lived in one of the fine old seaport towns.
2. These boys were as unlike as two brothers could well be. Walter was a rough, plain boy, large of his age, and rather clumsy, with a passionate, jealous temper, which gave his friends a great deal of trouble. But he had some noble qualities; he was as brave as a young lion, faithful, diligent, perfectly honest and truthful, and sometimes very tender in his feelings. Charlie, some two years younger than Walter, was a delicate, beautiful, sweet-tempered boy, who loved everybody, and, in return, was greatly beloved.
He was fair, pale, and slight, with blue eyes and golden curls. Walter said he looked like a girl, and sometimes laughed at his delicacy; but, for all that, he was jealous of the poor child’s beauty—even of his weakness.
3. Captain Harrison was most of the time at sea, and his gentle wife found it difficult to control the impatient spirit, or correct the even more inexplicable moodiness, of her eldest son. If she reproved him sternly, he would often accuse her of being partial to her youngest and handsomest son. He said that she petted and indulged Charlie so much, that he could not be disobedient, or give her any trouble. He himself said that he would be good, if he were so treated.
4. Walter really thought himself slighted and unloved, because he knew he was very plain, and he saw his sickly brother cared for constantly. He never seemed to think how ridiculous it would look if his mother would be nursing and petting a stout, healthy boy, who was one of the strongest wrestlers, and the best hand with the ball, in the whole town.
5. Walter, with all his fine health, was often silent and sullen, while his brother was seldom prevented by his illness.from being cheerful and talkative. So it was very natural for visitors to notice Charlie the most. They supposed that he needed amusing and therefore sent him books and made him presents. All this ‘partiality’ was shown to his brother, Walter said, because he happened to have a fair face; while he did not know how to put himself forward. Charlie was grieved at this, and always wished to share his gifts with his brother but Walter could never be persuaded to accept anything.
6. One time, when Charlie was about ten years old, his mother had a visit from a pious maiden aunt, who spent some weeks in the family. During Miss Hannah Perkins’ stay, she became much attached to quiet little Charlie. But as Walter gave way to his temper two or three times before her, and made sport of some of her queer ways, she did not like him much, though she thought he might be made a good boy of, with proper management. She wondered how his mother could let such fits of passion and such naughty tricks pass without severe punishment. If he were her child, she said, she would soon whip that bad temper out of him. But Mrs Harrison believed that one blow would put more evil passion into the heart of such a proud boy as Walter than she could ever get out.
-Adapted from Little Charlie’s Will, a short story by an anonymous author
2.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) How did Walter express his jealousy of his brother?
(b) Why did Walter’s mother find it very difficult to control him?
(c) What did Walter often accuse his mother of?
(d) While Walter was usually sullen and silent in spite of his good health, what was Charlie like?
(e) Why did Mrs Harrison feel that beating Charlie to control his bad behaviuor was not a good idea?
(f) What do we know of Captain Harrison?
(g) Write brief character sketches of the following:
Walter: ……………………………………………… .
Charlie: ……………………………………………… .
3. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Except for the Marabar Caves—and they are twenty miles off—the city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary. Edged rather than washed by the river. Ganges, it trails for a couple of miles along the bank, scarcely distinguishable from the rubbish it deposits so freely. There are no bathing-steps on the river front, as the Ganges happens not to be holy here; indeed there is no river front, and bazaars shut out the wide and shifting panorama of the stream. The streets are mean, the temples ineffective, and though a few fine houses exist they are hidden away in gardens or down alleys whose filth deters all but the invited guest.
Chandrapore was never large or beautiful, but two hundred years ago it lay on the road between Upper India, then imperial, and the sea, and the fine houses date from that period. The zest for decoration stopped in the eighteenth century, nor was it ever democratic. In the bazaars there is no painting and scarcely any carving. The very wood seems to be made of mud, the inhabitants of mud moving. So abased, so monotonous is everything that meets the eye, that when the Ganges comes down it might be expected to wash the excrescence back into the soil. Houses do fall, people are drowned and left rotting, but the general outline of the town persists, swelling here, shrinking there, like some low but indestructible form of life.
2. Inland, the prospect alters. There is an oval maidan, and a long sallow hospital. Houses belonging to Eurasians stand on the high ground by the railway station. Beyond the railway—which runs parallel to the river—the land sinks, then rises again rather steeply. On this second rise is laid out the little Civil Station, and viewed hence Chandrapore appears to be a totally different place. It is a city of gardens. It is no city, but a forest sparsely scattered with huts. It is a tropical pleasance, washed by a noble river. The toddy palms and neem trees and mangoes and peepul that were hidden behind the bazaars now become visible and in their turn hide the bazaars. They rise from the gardens whose ancient tanks nourish them, they burst out of stifling purlieus and unconsidered temples.
Seeking light and air, and endowed with more strength than man or his works, they soar above the lower deposit to greet one another with branches and beckoning leaves, and to build a city for the birds. Especially after the rains do they screen what passes below, but at all times, even when scorched or leafless, they glorify the city to the English people who inhabit the rise, so that newcomers cannot believe it to be as meagre as it is described, and have to be driven down to acquire disillusionment. As for the Civil Station itself, it provokes no emotion. It charms not, neither does it repel. It is sensibly planned, with a red-brick Club on its brow, and further back a grocer’s and a cemetery, and the bungalows are disposed along roads that intersect at right angles. It has nothing hideous in it, and only the view is beautiful; it shares nothing with the city except the overarching sky.
-Adapted from A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
3.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) Which lines by the author tell us that the bazaars and the banks of Chandrapore were plain?
(b) What does ‘Inland, the prospect alters’ mean? ……………………………………………… .
(c) Who watered the gardens of the city? ……………………………………………… .
(d) What is the city for the birds built on? ……………………………………………… .
(e) What are the houses of the English people built on? ……………………………………………… .
13.2 On the basis of your reading the passage, complete the following sentences.
(a) Chandrapore was never large or beautiful, but two hundred years ago it lay on the road between ……………………………………………… .
(b) Chandrapore is located on the bank of ……………………………………………… .
(c) The Civil Station can be described as ……………………………………………… .
4. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Iam not a man of letters, and I am not prepared to say that the many years I have spent in gaol have been the sweetest in my life, but I must say that reading and writing have helped me wonderfully to get through them. I am not a literary man, and I am not a historian; what, indeed, am I? I find it difficult to answer that question. I have been a dabbler in many things; I began with science at college, and then took to law, and, after developing various other interests in life, finally adopted the popular and widely practiced profession of gaol-going in India!
2. You must not take what I have written in these letters as the final authority on any subject. A politician wants to have a say on every subject and he always pretends to know much more than he actually does. He has to be watched carefully. These letters of mine are but superficial sketches joined together by a thin thread. I have rambled on, skipping centuries and many important happenings, and then pitching my tent for quite a long time on some event which interested me. As you will notice, my likes and dislikes are pretty obvious, and so also sometimes are my moods in gaol. I do not want you to take all this for granted; there may, indeed, be many errors in my accounts.
A prison, with no libraries or reference books at hand, is not the most suitable place in which to write on historical subjects. I have had to rely very largely on my many note-books which I have accumulated since I began my visits to gaof twelve years ago. Many books have also come to me here; they have come and gone, for I could not collect a library here. I have shamelessly taken from these books facts and ideas; there is nothing original in what . I have written. Perhaps, occasionally, you may find my letters difficult to follow; skip those parts, do not mind them. The grown-up in me got the better of me sometimes, and 1 wrote as I should not have done.
3. I have given you the barest outline; this is not history; they are just fleeting glimpses of our long past. If history interests you, you will find your way to many books which will help you to unravel the threads of past ages. But reading books alone will not help. If you would know the past, you must look upon it with sympathy and with understanding. To understand a person who lived long ago, you will have to understand his environment, the conditions under which he lived, the ideas that filled his mind.
It is absurd for us to judge past people as if they lived now, and thought as we do. There is no one to defend slavery today and yet, the great Plato held that slavery was essential. Within recent times, scores of thousands of lives were given in an effort to retain slavery in the United States. We cannot judge the past from the standards of the present. Everyone will willingly admit this. But everyone will not admit the equally absurd habit of judging the present by the standards of the past.
-Adapted from Letters from a Father to a Daughter by Jawaharlal Nehru
4.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) How did the writer pass his time in gaol? ……………………………………………… .
(b) Why does the writer feel his account of history mentioned in the letter is biased? ……………………………………………… .
(c) According to the writer, why should books on history be written outside gaol? ……………………………………………… .
(d) Why does the writer say that his books are not original? ……………………………………………… .
(e) Why is it not right to judge the people of the past? ……………………………………………… .
(f) Who is the writer of this passage? How is he well-known in Indian history? ……………………………………………… .
(g) What is the writer’s view on politicians? ……………………………………………… .
(h) What are the parameters to be understood in order to understand a person who existed long ago?
5. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Prema was eight when a stove on which she was making coffee burst and the flames leapt up to swallow her face. Prema was a beautiful child with dark almond eyes and chiselled features. But on that fateful day in 1965, within seconds, her face had melted into a mass of flesh.
2. She was admitted to Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, with 50 per cent bums. Seeing her first-bom battle for life, Rosie her mother made a pact with, God, ‘If you save my child, I vow to dedicate her to the service of your people. I will make her a doctor and work in this same hospital,’ she prayed.
3. Prema survived. Dr. LBM Joseph, renowned surgeon, painstakingly reconstructed every inch of Prema’s face. ‘It was excruciatingly painful,’ recollects Prema. ‘I used to be angry with the doctors all the time.’ After six months in the hospital, Prema returned to Bangalore to resume school. Her scarred face attracted attention; it baffled, confused and embarrassed people. School was never the same again. Prema completed high school privately.
4. ‘My family had hidden all the mirrors in the house. Only after a year I happened to catch a reflection of my face in a mirror. I cried. I was angry. I threw tantmms. My mother waited patiently for my tears to dry.’ Then she told Prema, ‘This is your face and you will have to live with it. No one can change that. But what you do with your life is in your hands and only you can change it.’ It was a hard lesson to leam.
5. ‘I barely scrapped through my class 10 exams,’ Prema reminisces. ‘But the fact that I cleared my exams gave me immense confidence.’ She obtained a B.Sc. degree. Between 1965 and 1971, Prema underwent. 14 reconstructive surgeries before she put an end to it. It was time for me to concentrate on other things in life.’ Prema obtained her MBBS degree in 1980, and went to work at CMCH, Vellore, thus fulfilling her mother’s promise to God. She specialised in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
6. Prema agrees that bitterness and anger were a part of her life for a long time.
7. ‘My mother taught me how to channelise my negative emotions in a positive manner.’ Today, Prema’s only regret in life is that her mother is not alive to witness her success in life. ‘She would have been happy and proud.’ However, those dark days are now behind her. ‘If not for my accident I would not have achieved so much in life. I have got more than I bargain ;d for. I never thought that I could reach far in life with my face.’
Prema’s advice to all those who feel defeated in life. Stop comparing yourself with others. Be willing to face reality and move on in life: ‘Develop a cheerful attitude. Be humble and trust in God. Then sit back and enjoy life.’
-Adapted from Face of Courage by Sudha Pillai
5.1 On the basis of your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) How did Prema fulfil the promise that her mother had made to God? ……………………………………………… .
(b) Why had Prema’s family hidden all the mirrors in the house? ……………………………………………… .
(c) What do Prema words, ‘school was never the same’ mean? ……………………………………………… .
(d) ‘This is your face and you will have to live with it. No one can change that.’ What was Prema’s mother trying to tell her by these words? ……………………………………………… .
(e) Owing to what did Prema become successful in spite of all her problems? ……………………………………………… .
(f) At what age did Prema have the accident? ……………………………………………… .
(g) What treatments did Prema undergo from 1965 to 1971? ……………………………………………… .
(h) What is Prema’s advice to all those who feel defeated in life? ……………………………………………… .
Type 2 Questions
1. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. He was concealed by this time, behind another tree trunk; but he must have been watching me closely, for as soon as I began to move in his direction he reappeared and took a step to meet me, then he hesitated, drew back, came forward again and at last, to my wonder and confusion, threw himself on his knees and held out his clasped hands in supplication.
2. At that I once more stopped.
3. ‘Who are you?’ I asked.
4. ‘Ben Gunn’, he answered, and his voice sounded hoarse and awkward, like a rusty lock, ‘I’m poor Ben Gunn, I am; and I haven’t spoke with a Christian these three years’.
5. I could now see that he was a white man like myself, and that his features were even pleasing. His skin, wherever it was exposed, was burnt by the sun; even his lips were black; and his fair eyes looked quite startling in so dark a face.
6. Of all the beggar-men that I had seen or fancied, he was the chief for raggedness. He was clothed with tatters of old ship’s canvas and old sea cloth; and this extraordinary patchwork was all held together by a system of the most various and incongruous fastenings. Brass buttons, bits of stick, and loops of tarry gaskin. About his waist he wore an old brass-buckled leather belt, which was the one thing solid in his whole accoutrement.
7. ‘Three years!’ I cried. ‘Were you shipwrecked?’
8. ‘Nay mate,’said he‘marooned’.
9. I had heard the word, and I knew it stood for a horrible kind of punishment common enough among the buccaneers, in which the offender is put ashore with a little powder and shot and left behind on some desolate and distant island.
10. ‘Marooned three years agone,’ he continued, ‘and lived on goats since then, and berries, and oysters. Wherever a man is, says I, a man can do for himself. But, mate, my heart is sore for Christian diet. You mightn’t happen to have a piece of cheese about you, now? No? Well, many’s the long night I’ve dreamed of cheese—toasted, mostly—and woke up again, and here I were.’
-Adapted from Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson
1.1 Based on your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) Why did the narrator feel that Ben had been watching him?
(b) How did the narrator realize that Ben Gunn had no intention of harming him?
(c) Why was Ben’s voice hoarse?
(d) Describe ‘the chief for raggedness’ according to the author.
1.2 Select appropriate synonyms for the following words from the passage out of the options provided.
(a) concealed
(i) visible
(ii) revealed
(iii) shown
(iv) hidden
(b) awkward
(i) comfortable
(ii) uncomfortable
(iii) convenient
(iv) none of the above
(c) horrible
(i) terrible
(ii) wonderful
(iii) good
(iv) beautiful
(d) sore
(i) painful
(ii) comfortable
(iii) happy
(iv) none of the above
2. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Regarded as the King of chess, Vishwanathan Anand is perhaps the greatest sportsperson that India has ever produced. He has been the World Chess Champion five times.
2. Bom on 11 December 1969 in a small town in Tamil Nadu, Anand was brought up in Chennai. He completed his high school in Don Bosco, Egmore and completed his graduation in commerce from Loyola College. He was introduced to the world of chess at the age of six by his mother. His winning streak began in the year 1984 when he won the national sub junior championship at the age of 14 and went on to become the World Junior Chess Champion in 1987. He became the youngest Indian player to win the title of International Master. Anand won the World Chess Championship for the first time in 2000, thus becoming the first Indian to win that title. He became the world champion again in 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
3. Anand holds the honour to have won the chess championship in all the three formats, namely, knock out, tournament and the classical match. He has won the Chess Oscar which is given to the best player, six times. He is also the recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Aijuna Award and the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. In 1995, Anand shifted to Spain, where he lives in Collado Mediano, a quiet Madrid suburb. His stay in Spain made him the recipient of Jameo de Oro, the highest honour given by the Spanish government.
4. In a country where cricket is supposed to be the most popular game, Anand has brought chess out onto a ‘ wider arena. His chess career spans more than 25 years now and he has taken Indian chess to its peak.
2.1 Based on your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) How old was he when Vishwanathan Anand became the World Junior Chess Champion? What was his achievement with regard to the title of the International Master?
(b) Name the years in which he became the World Chess Champion?
(c) How many times has Anand received the Chess Oscar?
(d) What happened in 1995 to Anand?
2.2 Select appropriate synonyms for the following words from the passage out of the options provided.
(a) Which of the following words from the passage means ‘someone who is skilled at something and has won accolades for it’?
(i) career
(ii) champion
(iii) arena
(iv) achievement
(b) Which of the following words means ‘someone receiving something’?
(i) recipient
(ii) immigrant
(iii) donor
(iv) none of the above
(c) Which of the following is a word from the passage and is a synonym of the word ‘moved’?
(i) transferred
(ii) driven
(iii) shifted
(iv) none of the above
(d) Which of the following words from the passage means ‘a place or area of activity’?
(i) contribution
(ii) arena
(iii) honour
(iv) suburb
3. Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow.
1. Sitting opposite Andre Agassi, you notice something abtmt his eyes. His father saw it, too, when his son was only a few days old, it looked to him like a special kind of alertness. Mike Agassi, tennis coach at the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas, hung a tennis ball above Andre’s cot and let him bat at it all day with his hand. In the 30 years since, those eyes have studied intently the flight of several million tennis balls and they now seem to possess an almost supernatural acuity.
2. Like many tennis stars of his generation, Agassi seemed trapped in his father’s dreams rather than his own. Mike Agassi had represented his native Iran as a boxer in the Olympics but, having immigrated to the USA, he found work as tennis pro. He studied everything he could about the game and by the time Andre was bom in 1970, Mike had his coaching methods honed. He taped a racquet to his youngest son’s hand as soon as he could walk and had him serving over arm on a full-sized court by the time he was two.
3. But young Andre seemed intent on squandering his talent, a prodigy who could not grow up. He turned professional in a blaze of hype, but by 21 he seemed already washed up, eating badly, losing games for fun, and his ever-changing looks reflecting his fragile self-esteem. ‘Maybe I was rewarded too quickly,’ he reflects. ‘I came at a time when tennis was looking for another American. I had so much notoriety before I had accomplished great things. For me to be doing Nike and Canon commercials without ever winning a Grand Slam left me with a bad rap—all image and no substance.’ Thus he attracted a lot of attention from the press for his ‘bad boy’ image.
4. His first major win came in the year 1992 when he won the Wimbledon and was soon ranked as world number 1. He is one of the few players in tennis history to have won all the four major grand slams. After twenty long years in professional tennis, Agassi bid farewell to the game in 2006.
3.1 Based on your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) What do we know of Andre Agassi’s father?
(b) Why did Andre’s father hang a ball over his cot? %
(c) Why was Andre’s father determined to make him a tennis player?
(d) What happened to Andre at the age of 21 ?
3.2 Select appropriate synonyms for the following words from the passage out of the options provided.
(a) special
(i) important
(ii) unimportant
(iii) common
(iv) None of the above
(b) honed
(i) wasted
(ii) slipped
(iii) sharpened
(iv) none of the above
(c) professional
(i) expert
(ii) novice
(iii) personal
(iv) none of the above
(d) major
(i) big
(ii) small
(iii) minute
(iv) minor
4. Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow.
Coromandel Fishers
Rise, brothers, rise; the wakening skies pray to the morning light
The wind lies asleep in the arms of the dawn like a child that has cried all night
Come, let us gather our nets from the shore and set our catamarans free,
To capture the leaping wealth of the tide, for we are the kings of the sea!
No longer delay, let us hasten away in the track of the sea gull’s call,
The sea is our mother, the cloud is our brother, the waves are our comrades all.
What though we toss at the fall of the sun where the hand of the sea-god drives?
He who holds the storm by the hair, will hide in his breast our lives.
Sweet is the shade of the coconut glade, and the scent of the mango grove,
And sweet are the sands at the full o’ the moon with the sound of the voices we love;
But sweeter, O brothers, the kiss of the spray and the dance of the wild foam’s glee;
Row, brothers, row to the edge of the verge, where the low sky mates with the sea.
-By Sarojini Naidu
4.1 Based on your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) What does the narrator addresses the fishermen as?
(b) What does the narrator ask the fishermen to do?
(c) Who were the kings of the sea and what did they have?
(d) What are the relationships set up with regard to the sea by the narrator? –
4.2 Read the questions given below and write the option you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet.
(a) What is the word used for ‘get up’ as given in the poem?
(i) rise
(ii) regard
(iii) accept
(iv) enjoy
(b) What does the word ‘glee’ in the poem mean?
(i) happiness
(ii) danger
(iii) singing
(iv) celebration
(c) Which of the following is an antonym of the word ‘delay’?
(i) postpone
(ii) hasten
(iii) later
(iv) none of the above
(d) What does the phrase ‘low sky mates with the sea’ mean?
(i) land
(ii) river bank
(iii) horizon
(iv) none of the above
5. Read the given poem given below and answer the questions that follow.
Summer, Past And Present
That summer, you told me stories
Inside a makeshift palace we made ourselves
Damp sheets arranged over your old wooden bed
The Too’ picked up dust, leaves, every street sound
And scattered the noise on the window
like a huge king’s army on the move
In your stories, princesses braved every storm „
Clouds were strange hoofed creatures in a hot sky
And summer left behind dry golden leaves in the balcony
This summer, the buzz of the air conditioner
Sleeps over everything, even your snores
For you don’t listen to my stories like I did yours
I chase errant flies, fan you in the time
the generator comes on in welcome relief
Outside, another dry yellow summer stretches
drawn curtains have turned its roar into a mere hum,
we grew up every passing year, summer stayed the same
and left behind dry golden leaves in the balcony.
-By Anu Kumar
5.1 Based on your reading of the passage, answer the following questions.
(a) What does the makeshift palace refer to?
(b) What was the cloth used by the narrator used for?
(c) State what has/have been compared to an army and why.
(i) the clouds
(ii) the loo
(iii) the sky
(iv) the flies
(d) Write the basic summary of the poem in a couple of lines.
5.2 Read the questions given below and write the option you consider the most appropriate in your answer sheet.
(a) What is the word used for ‘tales’ as given in the poem?
(i) summer
(ii) stories
(iii) folklore
(iv) none of the above
(b) What is the word used for ‘dispersed’ as given in the poem?
(i) scattered
(ii) blended
(iii) hoofed
(iv) none of the above
(c) What does the word ‘errant’ used in the poem mean?
(i) Following the set course of action
(ii) Setting the course of action
(iii) straying from the set course of action
(iv) none of the above
(d) What does the phrase ‘in welcome relief mean?
(i) being relieved of receiving something awaited
(ii) not receiving something awaited
(iii) receiving something unexpected
(iv) none of the above