FIRST FLIGHT

CHAPTER 1
A LETTER TO GOD
RTC
1. But in the heart of those who lived in that solitary house in the middle of the valley, there was a single
hope: help from God. "Don’t be so upset, even though this seems like a total loss. Remember no one
dies of hunger.” “That’s what they say: no one dies of hunger”
a) Who lived in that solitary house?
b) What single hope they were left with?
c) How did the speaker console his family?
d) What does it show about the speaker?
2. He put the money in an envelope addressed to Lencho and with it a letter containing only a single word
as a signature: God. The following Sunday Lencho came a bit earlier than usual to ask if there was a
letter for him. It was the postman himself who handed the letter to him while the postmaster,
experiencing the contentment of a man who has performed a good deed, looked on from his office.
a) Why did the postmaster put the signature God on the letter?
b) What unusual act was done by Lencho on the following Sunday?
c) Why did the postmaster himself hand over the letter to Lencho?
d) What sort of good deed did the postmaster perform?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Why and how did Lencho’s happiness turn into deep worry?
2. Why was Lencho not surprised on seeing the money?
3. Describe the damage caused by the falling of the hailstones.

LONG ANSWER QUESTION

1. Describe the ironical ending of the story. Why did Lencho think the post office employees as a bunch of
crooks?

CHAPTER 2
NELSON MANDELA- LONG WALK TO FREEDOM

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1. It is from these comrades in struggle that I learned the meaning of courage. Time and again, I have seen
men and women risk and give their lives for an idea. I have seen men stand up to attacks and torture
without breaking, showing a strength and resilience that defies the imagination. I learned that the
courage was not absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel
afraid, but he who conquers the fear.
a. What has he seen time and again?
b. What did he learn about courage?
c. Who, according to him, is a brave man?
 d. Find a word in the extract which means ‘the ability to deal with any kind of hardships and
recover from its effects’.
2. But then I slowly saw that not only was I not free, but my brothers and sisters were also not free. I saw
that it was not just my freedom that was curtailed, but the freedom of everyone who looked like I did.
That is when I joined African National Congress, and that is when hunger for my own freedom became
the greater hunger for the freedom of my people.
a. Who is I and what did he gradually realize?
b. Whose freedom was curtailed?
c. How did he feel after joining the African National Congress?
d. Find a word in the extract that means ‘reduced’.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. How was apartheid an extraordinary disaster for the blacks in South Africa?
2. Why did Mandela say that freedom is ‘indivisible’?
3. How did the military show its loyalty to the democratically elected government of Nelson Mandela?
4. Why was it impossible for a man of Mandela’s birth and colour to fulfill the twin obligations?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION-

1. The apartheid regime, the whites created in South Africa, was one of the harshest and most inmumane
societies the world has ever known. Elucidate.

CHAPTER 3
TWO STORIES ABOUT FLYING

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1. His mother had picked up a piece of fish and was flying across to him with it. He leaned out eagerly, tapping the
rock with his feet, trying to get nearer to her as she flew across. But when she was just opposite to him, she
halted, her wings motionless, the piece of fish in her beak almost within reach of his beak.
a. With what was his mother flying across to him?
b. Did she give it to him? Why?
c. What did he do when he was maddened by hunger?
d. Where did he fall with a loud scream?
2. Paris was about 150 kilometers behind me when I saw the clouds. Storm clouds. They were huge. They looked
like black mountains standing in front of me across the sky. I knew I could not fly up and over them, and I did not
have enough fuel to fly around them to the north or south.
a. When did he see the clouds?
b. What kind of clouds were they?
c. How did the clouds look like to the narrator?
d. Why could he not fly around the clouds towards north or south?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. How did the young seagull feel sitting alone on the ledge?
2. How did he soar down to the sea and float on it?
 3. How did his family celebrate his success?
4. Why did the narrator fly straight into the storm?
5. Who rescued the narrator when he was hopelessly lost in the storm clouds?
6. What was the narrator dreaming of?

LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. What motivated the young seagull to make the final plunge? Were the encouragements, taunts and
threatening of his parents goaded him to dive at the fish that his mother was holding in her beak while
flying near him or his hunger maddened him to do it?
2. The pilot who helped the narrator to land safely remained a mystery which was not solved till the end.
Comment.

CHAPTER 4

FROM THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

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1. The class roared. I had to laugh too, though I had nearly exhausted my ingenuity on the topic of
chatterboxes. It was time to come up with something else, something original. My friend, Sanne, who’s
good at poetry, offered to help me write the essay from beginning to end in verse and I jumped for joy.
Mr. Keesing was trying to play a joke on me with this ridiculous subject, but I’d make sure the joke was
on him.
a. How had Anne exhausted her ingenuity?
b. What was the ridiculous topic on which Anne had to write an essay?
c. How did her friend Sanne help her?
d. Find a word in the extract which means ‘the quality of being clever, original and inventive.’
2. My entire class is quaking in its boots. The reason, of course, is the forthcoming meeting in which the
teachers decide who’ll move up to the next form and who’ll be kept back. Half the class is making bets.
G.N. and I laugh ourselves silly at the two boys behind us, C.N. and Jacques, who have stacked their
entire holidays saving on their bet. From morning to night, it’s “You are going to pass”, “No, I’m not”.
Even G’s pleading glances and my angry outbursts can’t calm them down. If you ask me, there are so
many dummies that about a quarter of the class should be kept back, but teachers are the most
unpredictable creatures on earth.
a. Why did G.N. and Anne laugh themselves silly?
b. What was supposed to happen in the forthcoming teacher’s meeting?
c. What was Anne’s opinion about her class?
d. Find a word in the extract which means ‘gamble money or something else of value on the
outcome of a game or race or anything else’.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Why did Anne Frank think of writing a diary?

2. Why did she call teachers the most unpredictable creatures on earth?
3. How did Anne pay Mr. Keesing in the same coin?
 4. Anne Frank had a great attachment with her grandmother. Justify.

LONG ANSWER QUESTION-

1. On the one hand Anne says that she is not all alone in the world. On other hand, she says that she seems
‘to have everything, except my one true friend’. Why can’t she confide in and come closer to her
friends?

CHAPTER 5

THE HUNDRED DRESSES-I

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1. Today Monday, Wanda Petronski was not in her seat. But nobody, not even Peggy and Madeline, the
girls who started all the fun, noticed her absence. Usually Wanda sat in the seat next to the last seat in
the last row in Room Thirteen. She sat in the corner of the room where the rough boys who did not make
good marks sat, the corner of the room where there was most scuffling of feet, most roars of laughter
when anything funny was said, and most mud and dirt on the floor.
a. On which day of the week was Wanda’s absence noticed?
b. Mention two things that happened in the corner of the room.
c. What fun had Maddie and Peggy started?
d. Find a word in the extract which means ‘to see or become aware of something or someone’.
2. She pictured herself in the school yard, a new target for Peggy and other girls. Peggy might ask her
where she got the dress she had on, and Maddie would have to say it was one of Peggy’s old ones that
Maddie’s mother had tried to disguise with new trimmings so no one in Room Thirteen would recognize
it.
a. How would Maddie become a new target for Peggy and other girls?
b. What could Peggy ask her?
c. Why did Peggy wear Maddie’s old clothes?
d. What did Maddie’s mother do and why?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. How did Maddie know that Peggy was better at drawing than anybody else in the class?
2. Why did Peggy often mock Wanda by asking embarrassing questions?
3. What was the reaction of Peggy and Maddie when they saw the drawings of Wanda Petronski?
4. Why did Maddie think of writing a letter to Peggy? Why did she tear it into bits?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION-

1. Maddie was Peggy’s close friend. A friend should be able to correct and guide you. What stopped
Maddie from doing so? What would you have done to stop Peggy from teasing Wanda?
 CHAPTER 6

THE HUNDRED DRESSES-II

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1. Goodness! Wasn’t there anything she could do? If only she could tell Wanda she hadn’t meant to hurt
her feelings. She turned around and stole a glance at Peggy, but Peggy did not look up. She seemed to be
studying hard. Well, whether Peggy felt bad or not, she had to do something. She had to find Wanda
Petronski. May be she had not yet moved away. May be Peggy would climb the Heights with her, and
they would tell Wanda she had won the contest, that they thought she was smart and the hundred dresses
were beautiful.
a. Whom does ‘she’ refer to here? What did she want to do?
b. What did she find Peggy doing?
c. What did they wish to tell Wanda?
d. Which phrase in the extract means ‘looked stealthily’?
2. “I am sure that none of the boys and girls in Room Thirteen would purposely and deliberately hurt
anyone’s feelings because his or her name happened to be a long, unfamiliar one.” “I prefer to think that
what was said was said in thoughtlessness. I know that all of you feel the way I do, that this is a very
unfortunate thing to have happened- unfortunate and sad, both. And I want you all to think about it.”
a. What was the opinion of Ms. Mason of the boys and girls of Room Thirteen?
b. Why were Wanda’s feelings hurt?
c. How did she react to them?
d. What did she think about the incident that happened to her?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Why did Maddie have a very sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach?
2. How did Peggy and Maddie become sure that Petronskis had left Boggins Heights?
3. What could be the reason of not getting any reply from Wanda? What did the girls think about it?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION-

1. Wanda is the main character of the story. In spite of being poor, how does she win everyone’s heart?

CHAPTER 7

GLIMPSES OF INDIA

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1. Marriage gifts are meaningless without the sweet bread known as the bol, just as a party or the feast
loses its charm without bread. Not enough can be said to show how a baker can be for a village. The
lady of the house must prepare sandwiches on the occasion of her daughter’s engagement. Cakes and
bolinhas are a must for Christmas as well as other festivals. Thus the presence of the baker’s furnace in
the village is absolutely essential.
a) Who is important for a Goan village?
 b) When is it essential for the lady of the house to prepare sandwiches?
c) What is considered a must for Christmas and other festivals?
d) Which part of speech is the word ‘absolutely’?
2. The climb to the Brahmagiri hills brings you into a panoramic view of the entire misty landscape of
Coorg. A walk across the rope bridge leads to the sixty-four acre island of Nisaragdham. Running into
Buddhist monks from India’s largest Tibetan settlement, at nearby Bylakuppe, is a bonus. The monks, in
red, ochre and yellow robes, are amongst the many surprises that wait to be discovered by visitors
searching for the heart and soul of India, right here in Coorg.
a) How can we see the entire landscape of Coorg?
b) How can you reach Nisargadham.
c) Where is India’s largest Tibetan settlement?
d) How are the monks dressed?
3. The train clattered into Mariani junction. The boys collected their luggage and pushed their way to the
crowded platform. Pranjol’s parents were waiting for them. Soon they were driving to Dhekiabari, the
tea-garden managed by Pranjol’s father.
a) In which state was the Mariani junction?where were the boys coming from?
b) Name the other boy. Why was he coming to Dhekiabari?
c) Find a word in the extract which means ‘ to make a continuous rattling sound’.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Why was baker the friend, companion and guide of the children?
2. How was baking a profitable profession in the old days in Goa?
3. Describe the people and culture of Coorg.
4. How has the tradition of courage and bravery been recognized in modern India. Give example from the
text.
5. What is the Indian legend regarding the discovery of tea?
6. Why did Pranjol’s father say in surprise that Rajvir had done his homework before coming there?

LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Give a pen-portrait of the baker or the pader highlighting the changes that came in his fortune and dress
with the passage of time?
2. Why does the author call Coorg a ‘piece of heaven’ that must have drifted from the kingdom of God?
3. Describe Rajvir’s journey to Dhekiabari Tea Estate in Assam and his experience there.

CHAPTER 8

MIJBIL, THE OTTER

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1. Mijbil, as I called the otter, was in fact, of a race previously unknown to science, and was at length
christened by zoologists Lutrogale persspicillata Maxwell, or Maxwell’s otter. For the first twenty four
hours Mijbil was neither hostile nor friendly; he was simply aloofand indifferent, choosing to sleep on
the floor as far from my bed as possible. The second night Mijbil came onto my bed in the small hours
 and remained asleep in the crook of my knees until the servant brought tea in the morning, and during
the day he began to lose his apathy and take a keen, much too keen, interests in his sorroundings.
a) What name was given by the zoologists to the otter? Why?
b) How did the mijbil behave in the first twenty four hours?
c) Where did mijbil sleep?
d) Find a word in the extract which means ‘absence of interest’.
2. When I returned, there was an appalling spectacle. There was complete silence from the box, but from
its airholes and chinks around the lid, blood had trickeled and dried. I whipped of the lock and tore open
the lid, and Mij, exhausted and blood-spattered, whimpered and caught at my leg. He had torn the lining
of the box to shreds; when I removed the last of it so that there were no cutting edges left, it was just ten
minutes until the time of the flight, and the airport was five miles distant. I put the miserable Mij back
into the box, holding down the lid with my hand.
a) Who is 'I’ and what did he find when he returned?
b) What had Mij done to the box?
c) How much time was left for his flight and how far was the airport?
d) Find a phrase in the extract which means ‘quickly took off’.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Why was Mijbil christened ‘Maxwell’s otter’?

2. Why did Maxwell call the air-hostess’ the very queen of her kind’?
3. What funny scenes did Mijbil create in the aircraft?
4. What is the main characteristic of otters?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION-

Maxwell takes good care of the otter. Similarly other human beings should take care of animals. Based on
the reasing, write a paragraph on ‘Save Wildlife’.

CHAPTER 9

MADAM RIDES THE BUS

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1. Day after day she watched the bus, and gradually a tiny wish crept into her head and grew there: she
wanted to ride on that bus,even if just once. This wish became stronger and stronger until it was an
overwhelming desire. Valli would stare wistfully at the people who got on or off the bus when it stopped
at the street corner. Their faces would kindle in her longings, dreams and hopes. If one of her friends
happened to ride the bus and tried to describe the sight of the town to her, Valli would be too jealous to
listen and would shout, in English : “Proud! proud!” neither she nor her friends really understood the
meaning of the word, but they used it often as a slang expression of disapprova
a) What would Valli ‘wistfully’ stare at?
b) Did Valli know the meaning of the word ‘proud’?
c) Why would Valli not listen to her friends’s description of the sights in the town?
 d) Find a word in the extract which means ‘a very strong or difficult to fight against, especially
emotion’.
2. The bus rolled on now cutting across a bare landscape, now rushing through a tiny hamlet or past an odd
wayside shop. Sometimes the bus seemed on the point of gobbling up another vehicle that was coming
towards them or a pedestrian crossing a road. But lo! Somehow it passed on smoothly, leaving all
obstacles safely behind. Trees came running towards them but then stopped as the bus reached them and
simply stood helpless for a moment by the side of the road before rushing away in the other direction.
a) How did the trees appear from the moving bus?
b) What all did the bus pass by during its journey?
c) What was the bus about to gobble up?
d) What does the line ‘a tiny hamlet’ mean?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. How did Valli calculate and plan the bus journey?

2. Why did Valli find the elderly woman absolutely repulsive?
3. Why didn’t Valli get off the bus when the bus stopped at the town?
4. How did Valli react on seeing the dead cow on the roadside?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION

1. During the journey to the town Valli had to interact with two passengers specially. Write about the
same.

CHAPTER 10
THE SERMON AT BENARES

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1. He wandered for for seven years and finally sat down under a fig tree, where he vowed to stay until
enlightment came. Enlightened after seven days, he renamed the tree the Bodhi Tree (Tree of Wisdom)
and began to teach and to share his new understandings. At that point , he became known as the Buddha
(the Awakened or the Enlightened). The Buddha preached his first sermon at the city of Benaras, most
holy of the dipping places on the River Ganges; that sermon has been preserved and is given here. It
reflects that Buddha’s wisdom about one inscrutable kind of suffering.
a) Why did Gautam Buddha wander for seven years?
b) At what point did he come to be known as the Buddha?
c) What does the Buddha’s sermon at Benares reflect?
d) Find a word in the extract which means ‘maintain something in its original or existing state,
especially to prevent it from being damaged or destroyed’.
2. “Of those who, overcome by death, depart from life, a father cannot save his son, nor kinsmen their
relations. Mark! While relatives are looking on and lamenting deeply, one by one mortals are being
carried off, like an ox that is led to the slaughter. So the world is afflicted with death and decay,
therefore the wise do not grieve, knowing the terms of the world.”
a) What is the fate of mortals?
b) Why do the wise not grieve?
c) Why are the mortals compared to an ox?
 d) Find a word in the extract which means ‘affected adversely with something’.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. What did the Buddha want Kisa Gotami to understand when he sends her on an errand?
2. Describe the early life of Gautam Buddha. Also mention the sights that moved him to abandon
everything.
3. Why does Buddha compare the human life with an earthen vessel?
4. What conclusion did Kisa Gotami come to at last?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION

1. “ He who seeks peace should draw out arrow of lamentation, and complaint, and grief.” What does the
Buddha mean by this statement? What method does he mention to achieve freedom from sorrow?

THE PROPOSAL

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1. CHUBUKOV [interrupting]: My dear fellow…. I’m so glad, and so on….. yes, indeed, and all that sort
of thing. [Embraces and kisses Lomov] I’ve been hoping for it for a long time. It’s been my continual
desire. [Sheds a tear] and I’ve always loved you, my angel, as if you were my own son. May God give
you both- His help and His love and so on, and so much hope.. What am I behaving in this idiotic way
for? I’m off my balance with joy, absolutely off my balance! Oh, with all my soul…. I’ll go and call
Natalya, and all that.
a) Why is Chubukov so glad?
b) What has been his continual desire?
c) Whom does ‘both’ refer to?
d) Which word/phrase in the extract mean ‘foolish’?

2. NATALYA: No you are simply joking, or making fun of me. What a surprise!we’ve had the land for
nearly three hundred years, and then we’re suddenly told that it isn’t ours! Ivan Vassilevitch, I can
hardly believe my own ears. These meadows aren’t worth much to me. They only come to five
dessiatins, and are worth perhaps 300 roubles, but I can’t stand unfairness.
a) To whom is Natalya Stepanovna speaking?
b) What is a matter of surprise for her?
c) How much are the meadows worth?
d) Find a word in the extract that means ‘not based on what is just’.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. How does the argument about Oxen Meadows start?

2. How does Natalya try to prove that her dog Squeezer is better than Guess?
3. Describe the physical health of Lomov as you see throughout the play.
 4. Why was Lomov brought back into the house by Chubukov? What does Natalya say to him after he
returns?

LONG ANSWER QUESTION-

1. Chubukov is a quarrelsome rich Russian landlord. Instead of solving the problem between Natalya and
Lomov, he only adds fuel into the fire in their quarrel over the Oxen Meadows and the dogs. Justify the
statement.

POETRY

DUST OF SNOW

RTC

1. The way a crow

shook down on me
the dust of snow
from a hemlock tree
a) What does ‘dust of snow’ mean?
b) Give the rhyme scheme of the above verse.
c) Where is the poet present?
d) What did the crow do?

2. Has given my heart

a change of mood
and saved some part
of a day I have rued
a) What is the above extract describing?
b) What is the change brought about in the mood of the poet?
c) What has been saved and by what?
d) What does the word ‘rued’ mean?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. How was poet’s mood, before the dust of snow fell down on him?
2. What is the underlying message for us in our hectic life with reference to the poem ‘Dust of Snow’?
3. How has the poet observed nature in the poem ‘Dust of Snow’?
4. ‘Our mental condition depends on our surroundings’. Explain with reference to the poem ‘Dust of
Snow’.

FIRE AND ICE

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 1. Some say the world will end in fire
some say in ice.
From what I have tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire
a) What does ‘I hold with those’ mean?
b) What do the people say?
c) What is suggested by ‘fire’?
d) Mention the poetic device used in the last line of the extract.

2. But if it had to perish twice

I think I know enough of hate
to say that for destruction ice
is also great and would suffice
a) What does ‘it’ refer to?
b) What does the second line of the extract mean?
c) What would suffice?
d) What is the tone at the end of the poem?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. Why does the poet hold with those who believe that the world will end in fire?
2. Do you think ‘Fire and Ice’ is a symbolic poem?
3. What will be the cause of the end of the world if it has to perish twice?
4. How does Robert Frost caution the common man?

A TIGER IN THE ZOO

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1. He stalks in his vivid stripes

the few steps of his cage,
on pads of velvet quiet,
in his quiet rage.
a) Why has the poet used the word ‘quiet’ twice?
b) Why is the tiger in quiet rage?
c) What does the phrase ‘pads of velvet’ mean?
d) Mention the poetic device in first line.

2. He should be snarling around houses

at the jungle’s edge,
baring his white fangs, his claws,
terrorizing the village!
a) Who is ‘he’ and where should he be snarling?
 b) What should he bare?
c) What should he do with with his claws?
d) What does the poet try to suggest through these lines?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. “But he is locked in a concrete cell”. How does the tiger behave in a concrete cell?
2. Explain the line ‘the few steps of his cage’.
3. Why should the tiger snarl around houses at the edge of the forest?
4. How does the tiger prepare himself for hunting when he is in his natural habitat- the jungle?

HOW TO TELL WILD ANIMALS

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1. If ever you should go by chance

to jungles in the east;
and if there should to you advance
a large and tawny beast
if he roars at you as you’re dyin’
you will know it is the Asian Lion.
a) What is the meaning of ‘tawny’?
b) Why has the poet used the contracted form of the word ‘dying’?
c) What is the physical appearance of the lion in the stanza?
d) Which figure of speech has been used in the extract?

2. The true chameleon is small,

a lizard sort of thing;
he hasn’t any ears at all,
and not a single wing.
If there is nothing on the tree,
‘tis the chameleon you see.
a) Whom does a chameleon resemble?
b) Which features of chameleon are mentioned in the above verse?
c) Give the antonym of small.
d) Why does the poet say that ‘if you see nothing on a tree then it is a chameleon there’?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. How do you know that it is the leopard who leaps and leaps again?
2. How can you identify the Asian Lion and the Bengal Tiger?
3. Why does the poet say that a bear’s ‘hug’ may confuse a novice?
4. What is the theme of the poem- ‘How to Tell Wild Animals’?

THE BALL POEM

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1. What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,

What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over there it is in the water!
a) Why does the poet ask a question in the second line?
b) What happened to the ball?
c) The words ‘what’ and ‘merrily’ are represented in the beginning of two lines. Which figure of
speech has the poet used?
d) In the second line, what does ‘it’ stand for?

2. I would not intrude on him;

A dime, another ball, is worthless. Now
He senses first responsibility
in a world of possessions. People will take
Balls, balls will be lost always, little boy.
a) What does the poet intend to tell us in the first line?
b) Name the poem and the poet from which above extract is taken.
c) What does the word ‘ball’ signify?
d) Which figure of speech is used in the above lines?

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS-

1. ‘Money is external’. What does the poet mean by this expression?

2. How is the boy learning ‘the epistemology of loss’ from the loss of his ball?
3. Why did the poet not console the boy?
4. Does the lost ball stand for the metaphor the boy’s lost childhood? How?