LETTER TO GOD

1. What did Lencho hope for?

2. 2. Why did Lencho say the raindrops were like “new coins”?
3. 3. How did the rain change? What happened to Lencho fields?
4. 4. What were Lencho’s feelings when the hail stopped?
5. 1. Who or what did Lencho have faith in? What did he do?
6. 2. Who read the letter?
7. What did the postmaster do then?
8. Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it ?
9. What made him angry ?
10.. Who does Lencho have complete faith in? Which sentences in the story tell you this?
11.Why does the postmaster send money to Lencho? Why does he sign the letter ‘God’?
12.Did Lencho try to find out who had sent money to him? Why/why not?
13.There are two kinds of conflict in the story : between humans and nature, and between
humans themselves. How are these conflicts illustrated ?
NELSON MANDELA
1. Where did the ceremonies take place? Can you name any public buildings in India that are
made of sandstone?
2. Can you say how 10 May is an ‘autumn day’ in South Africa?
3. At the beginning of his speech, Mandela mentions “an extraordinary human disaster.”
What does he mean by this? What is the “glorious … human achievement” he speaks of at
the end?
4. What ideals does he set out for the future of South Africa?
5. Why were two national anthems sung?
6. Why did such a large number of international leaders attend the inauguration?
TWO STORIES ABOUT FLYING
1. Why was the young seagull afraid to fly? Do you think all young birds are afraid to make
their first flight, or are some birds more timid than others? Do you think a human baby
also finds it a challenge to take its first steps?
2. “The sight of the food maddened him.” What does this suggest? What compelled the
young seagull to finally fly?
3. “They were beckoning to him, calling shrilly.” Why did the seagull’s father and mother
threaten him and cajole him to fly?
4. “I’ll take the risk.” What is the risk? Why does the narrator take it?
5. Describe the narrator’s experience as he flew the aeroplane into the storm.
6. Why does the narrator say, “I landed and was not sorry to walk away from the old
Dakota…”?
7. Who do you think helped the narrator to reach safely? Discuss this among yourselves and
give reasons for your answer.
From the Diary of Anne Frank
1. What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?
2. Why does Anne want to keep a diary?
3. Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?
4. Why does Anne provide a brief sketch of her life?
5. What tells you that Anne loved her grandmother?
6. Why was Mr. Keesing annoyed with Anne? What did he ask her to do?
7. How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?
8. Do you think Mr. Keesing was a strict teacher?
9. What made Mr. Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?
10.What does Anne write in her first essay?
Glimpses of India
1. What are the elders in Goa nostalgic about?
2. Is bread-making still popular in Goa? How do you know?
3. What is the baker called?
4. When would the baker come everyday? Why did the children run to meet him?
5. What did the bakers wear: (i) in the Portuguese days? (ii)when the author was young?
6. Is bread an important part of Goan life? How do you know this?
7. Where is Coorg?
8. What is the story about the Kodavu people’s descent?
9. What are some of the things you now know about
(i) The people of Coorg?
(ii) The main crop of Coorg?
(iii) The sports it offers to tourists?
(iv) The animals you are likely to see in Coorg?
(v) Its distance from Bangalore, and how to get there?
(vi)
 Mijbil the Otter
1. What ‘experiment’ did Maxwell think Camusfearna would be suitable for?
2. Why does he go to Basra? How long does he wait there, and why?
3. How does he get the otter? Does he like it? Pick out the words that tell you this.
4. Why was the otter named ‘Maxwell’s otter’?
5. What happened when Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom? What did it do two days
after that?
6. How was Mij to be transported to England?
7. What did Mij do to the box?
8. Why did Maxwell put the otter back in the box? How do you think he felt when he did
this?
9. Why does Maxwell say the airhostess was “the very queen of her kind”?
10.What happened when the box was opened?
11.What game had Mij invented?
12.What are ‘compulsive habits’? What does Maxwell say are the compulsive habits of : (i)
school children (ii) Mij
13.What group of animals do otters belong to?
14.What guesses did the Londoners make about what Mij was ?
15.What things does Mij do which tell you that he is an intelligent, friendly and funloving
animal who needs love?
Madam Rides the Bus
1. What was Valli’s favourite pastime?
2. What was a source of unending joy for Valli? What was her strongest desire?
3. What did Valli find out about the bus journey? How did she find out these details?
4. What do you think Valli was planning to do?
5. Why does the conductor call Valli ‘madam’?
6. Why does Valli stand up on the seat? What does she see now?
7. Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?
8. What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?
9. How did Valli save up money for her first journey? Was it easy for her?
10.Why didn’t Valli want to go to the stall and have a drink? What does this tell you about
her?
11.What was Valli’s deepest desire? Find the words and phrases in the story that tell you this.
12.How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she find out about the bus, and how did she
save up the fare?
13.Why does the conductor refer to Valli as ‘madam’?
14.Why does Valli refuse to look out of the window on her way back?
15.What does Valli mean when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said about things
happening without our knowledge” ?
The Sermon at Benares
1. Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does
she ask for, the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?
2. When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does
she get it? Why not?
3. What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first
time? Was this what the Buddha wanted her to understand?
4. Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the
Buddha change her understanding?
The Proposal
1. What does Chubukov at first suspect that Lomov has come for? Is he sincere when he later
says ‘And I’ve always loved you, my angel, as if you were my own son”? Find reasons for
your answer from the play.
2. Chubukov says of Natalya: “……. as if she won’t consent! She’s in love; egad, she’s like a
lovesick cat……” Would you agree? Find reasons for your answer.
3. (i) Find all the words and expressions in the play that the characters use to speak about
each other, and the accusations and insults they hurl at each other. (For example, Lomov
in the end calls Chubukov an intriguer; but earlier,Chubukov has himself called Lomov a
“malicious, doublefaced intriguer.” Again, Lomov begins by describing Natalya as “an
excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking, well-educated.”)
(ii)Then think of five adjectives or adjectival expressions of your own to describe each
character in the play.
(iii)Can you now imagine what these characters will quarrel about next?

Dust of Snow
1. What is a “dust of snow”? What does the poet say has changed his mood? How has the
poet’s mood changed?
2. How does Frost present nature in this poem? The following questions may help you to
think of an answer :
(i) What are the birds that are usually named in poems? Do you think a crow is often
mentioned in poems? What images come to your mind when you think of a crow?
(ii) Again, what is “a hemlock tree”? Why doesn’t the poet write about a more
‘beautiful’ tree such as a maple, or an oak, or a pine?
(iii) What do the ‘crow’ and ‘hemlock’ represent — joy or sorrow? What does the dust
of snow that the crow shakes off a hemlock tree stand for?
3. Have there been times when you felt depressed or hopeless? Have you experienced a
similar moment that changed your mood that day ?
Fire and Ice
1. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world will end
some day? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that it ‘burst’,
or grew colder and colder?
2. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas : (Greed, avarice, cruelty,
lust, conflict, fury, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference, hatred.)
3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting
ideas in the poem? (HINT BY RAHUL SIR :- ( The rhyme scheme of the poem is—a b a a, b c
b c b)
A Tiger in the Zoo
1. Write whatever you know related to poem
How to Tell Wild Animals
1. Does ‘Dyin’ really rhyme with ‘lion’ ? Can you say it in such a way that it does?
2. How does the poet suggest that you identify the lion and the tiger? When can you do so
according to him?
3. Do you think the words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ in the third stanza are spelt correctly? Why does
the poet spell them like this?
4. Can you find other examples of poets taking liberties with language, either in English or in
your own language? Can you find examples of humorous poems in your own language(s)?
The Ball Poem
1. Why does the poet say, “I would not intrude on him”? Why doesn’t he offer him money to
buy another ball?
2. What does “in the world of possessions” mean?
3. Do you think the boy has lost anything earlier? Pick out the words that suggest the
answer.
4. What does the poet say the boy is learning from the loss of the ball? Try to explain this in
your own words.
 5. Have you ever lost something you liked very much? Write a paragraph describing how
you felt then, and saying whether — and how — you got over your loss.
Amanda!
1. How old do you think Amanda is? How do you know this?
2. Who do you think is speaking to her?
3. Why are Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 given in parenthesis?
4. Who is the speaker in Stanzas 2, 4 and 6? Do you think this speaker is listening to the
speaker in Stanzas 1, 3, 5, and 7?
5. What could Amanda do if she were a mermaid?
6. Do you know the story of Rapunzel? Why does she want to be Rapunzel?
7. What does the girl yearn for? What does this poem tell you about Amanda?
The Trees
1. . (i) Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest? (take
your books out)
2. What picture do these words create in your mind: “… sun bury its feet in shadow…”? What
could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet?’
3. Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves, and their twigs do?
4. What does the poet compare their branches to?
5. What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
Fog
1. (i) What does Sandburg think the fog is like?
(ii)How does the fog come?
(iii)What does ‘it’ in the third line refer to?
(iv)Does the poet actually say that the fog is like a cat? Find three things that tell us that
the fog is like a cat.
2. You know that a metaphor compares two things by transferring a feature of one thing to
the other (See Unit 1).
Find metaphors for the following words and complete the table below. Also try to say how
they are alike. The first is done for you.

Answer:-
3. Does this poem have a rhyme scheme? Poetry that does not have and obvious rhythm or
rhyme is called ‘free verse’
The Tale of Custard the Dragon
1. Who are the characters in this poem? List them with their pet names
2. Why did Custard cry for a nice safe cage? Why is the dragon called “cowardly dragon”?
3. “Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful...” Why?
4. The poet has employed many poetic devices in the poem. For example: “Clashed his tail
like iron in a dungeon” — the poetic device here is a simile. Can you, with your partner, list
some more such poetic devices used in the poem?
5. Read stanza three again to know how the poet describes the appearance of the dragon?
For Anne Gregory
1. What does the young man mean by “great honey-coloured Ramparts at your ear?” Why
does he say that young men are “thrown into despair” by them?
2. What colour is the young woman’s hair? What does she say she can change it to? Why
would she want to do so?
3. Objects have qualities which make them desirable to others. Can you think of some
objects (a car, a phone, a dress…) and say what qualities make one object more desirable
than another? Imagine you were trying to sell an object : what qualities would you
emphasise?
4. What about people? Do we love others because we like their qualities, whether physical or
mental? Or is it possible to love someone “for themselves alone”? Are some people ‘more
lovable’ than others? Discuss this question in pairs or in groups, considering points like the
following :
(i) a parent or caregiver’s love for a newborn baby, for a mentally or physically challenged
child, for a clever child or a prodigy
(ii) the public’s love for a film star, a sportsperson, a politician, or a social worker
(iii)your love for a friend, or brother or sister
(iv)your love for a pet, and the pet’s love for you