Author name: Prasanna

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

Childhood NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 4

Childhood NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

Childhood About the poet

Markus Natten was a Norwegian poet. In this poem he tries to find out when he lost his childhood. Through his poem he wrote that people do not live the lives that they preach. In the last stanza of his poem “Childhood” the poet changes the question from “when” to “where” and answers it has gone into hiding.

Childhood Main Theme

This is a delightful poem where the poet wonders when his childhood came to an end. He wonders if it happened when he could distinguish between factual knowledge and concepts. He then moves on to the ideas children have about grown-ups. They notice that though adults speak of love, they do not behave lovingly. The poet wonders if his childhood got over when he started thinking independently.

Childhood Think it out

Question 1.
Identify the stanza that talks of each of the following:
individuality rationalism hypocrisy
Answer:
individuality—stanza 3.
rationalism—stanza 1.
hypocrisy—stanza 2.

Question 2.
What, according to the poem, is involved in the process of growing up?
Answer:
The poet feels that.growing up means the development of the mind as well as a sense of self. The mind learns to rationalise and see beyond appearances. When the child acquires the ability to think for himself, he takes a giant step towards growing up.

Question 3.
What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?
Answer:
The poet does not feel a sense of loss that his childhood has gone. He feels he can witness childhood in other infants and children.

Question 4.
Which, do you think, are the most poetic lines? Why?
Answer:
The last stanza is the most poetic. In the first three, the tone is quite rational as the poet speaks of aspects of growing up. In the last stanza, he mentions where childhood can be found. The thought is gentle and sweet.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

The Voice of the Rain NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 3

The Voice of the Rain NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

The Voice of the Rain About the poet

Walter “Walt” Whitman (31 May 1819 – 26 March 1892) was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection ‘Leaves of Grass’.

Born in Huntington on Long Island, Whitman worked as a journalist, a teacher, a government clerk, and—in addition to publishing his poetry—was a volunteer nurse during the American Civil War. Early in his career, he also produced a temperance novel ‘Franklin Evans’. Whitman’s major work, ‘Leaves of Grass’, was first published in 1855 with his own money. The work was an attempt at reaching out to the common people with an American epic. He continued expanding and revising it until his death in 1892.

The Voice of the Rain Main Theme

The poem is in the form of the answer to a question that the poet puts to the rain, “Who are you”? The rain says that it is the poem of the earth. It rises out of land and sea and comes down to give life to the earth. It makes the earth pure and more beautiful just as a song does when it comes back to the singer.

The Voice of the Rain Think it out
I.
Question 1.
There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this?
Answer:
The two voices belong to the poet and rain.
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,

Question 2.
What does the phrase ‘strange to tell’ mean?
Answer:
The phrase ‘strange to tell’ here refers to the rain that answered the poet’s questions. What the poet found strange was that the rain was speaking. It has been portrayed here as a living being.

Question 3.
There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate this? Explain the similarity between the two.
Answer:
Rain and music are similar because they return to the place of their origin and spread happiness all round. Rain returns to the earth and brings new life and happiness. The pleasure created by a song enriches the singer with love and admiration of the listeners.

Question 4.
How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem? Compare it with what you have learnt in science.
Answer:
The poet has brought out the cyclic movement of the rain. The rain evaporates from land and sea ‘ and forms clouds. These clouds then again descend on the earth in the form of rain only to go back into the atmosphere as vapours. In science too, the cyclic movements of rain are described as accurately as they have been done in the poem.

Question 5.
Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
Answer:

• These lines are not part of the rain’s answer.
• They are additional comments by the poet to show the similarity between rain and song.

Question 6.
List the pairs of opposites found in the poem.
Answer:
Changed – same – line 7.
I rise – I descend – lines 4 & 6.
Day and night – line 12.
Reck’d or unreck’d – line 15.

II. Notice the following sentence patterns:
1. And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.
2. I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain.
3. Eternal I rise
4. For song … duly with love returns Rewrite the above sentences in prose.
Answer:
1. I asked the shower,‘Who are you’?
2. The voice of the rain said, ‘I am the poem of Earth!
3. I rise eternal.
4. For song duly returns with love.

III. Look for some more poems on the rain and see how this one is different from them.
Answer:
To be done by the student.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

The Laburnum Top NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 2

The Laburnum Top NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

The Laburnum Top About the poet

Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet and children’s writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation, and one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. He served as Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death. In 2008, The Times ranked Hughes fourth on their list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”.

The Laburnum Top Main Theme
The first three lines of the poem impress upon the reader the stillness of the laburnum tree. A small goldfinch comes and the tree bursts with movement and sound. The bird’s family lodges in the thickness of the tree. The goldfinch enters the tree’s thickness to feed her young ones and flies away. The tree becomes silent once again when the bird flies away. The poet has used imagery of sound and movement to show the tree coming alive.

The Laburnum Top Find out

Question 1.
What laburnum is called in your language?
Answer:
To be done by the student. In Hindi it is called ‘Amaltaas’. It flowers in summer.

Question 2.
Which local bird is like the goldfinch?
Answer:
To be done by the student.

The Laburnum Top Think it out

Question 1.
What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem? ‘
Answer:
The poem begins with the laburnum tree’s stillness and quietness. It ends also with silence and emptiness of the tree.

Question 2.
To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?
Answer:
The bird’s movement has been compared to that of a lizard. Her movement is smooth and unexpected like a lizard’s.

Question 3.
Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
Answer:
The image of the engine has been evoked to give the reader an idea of energy, movement and sound that fill the tree when the goldfinch enters. The tree vibrates with life.

Question 4.
What do you like most about the poem?
Answer:
The poet’s depiction of the goldfinch is the most charming part of the poem. She brings life to the. silent tree with her entry. The poet has created beautiful images of colour, sound and movement.

Question 5.
What does the phrase ‘her barred face identity mask’ mean?
Answer:
The goldfinch has dark stripes on her face. The poet describes this as a mask which identifies the bird.

Note Down

Question 1.
the sound words
Answer:
chirrup, chitterings, trilling, whistle—whisperings

Question 2.
the movement words
Answer:
twitching, enters, tremor, trembles, launches away

Question 3.
the dominant colour in the poem.
Answer:
yellow: yellow September sunlight, leaves yellowing, laburnum tree has yellow flowers

List the following

Question 1.
Words which describe ‘sleek’, ‘alert’ and ‘abrupt’.
Answer:

• sleek — flirt out
• alert — startlement
• abrupt — suddenness

These three words describe the movement of the bird and show how she enters the thick leaves and branches. Suddenness and startlement mean the same as above.

Question 2.
Words with the sound ‘ch’ as in ‘chart’ and ‘tr’ as in ‘trembles’ in the poem.
Answer:

• ch — chirrup, chittering
• tr — trillings, trembles

Question 3.
Other sounds that occur frequently in the poem.
Answer:

• ‘s’ — September, ‘sunlight’, silent, still
• ‘I’ — leaves, yellowing, all, fallen
• ‘tr’ — tree, trembles

The Laburnum Top Thinking about language

Question 1.
Look for some other poem on a bird or a tree in English or any other language.
Answer:
To be done by the student.

Try this out

Question 1.
Write four lines in verse form on any tree that you see around you.
Answer:
To be done by the student.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

A Photograph NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 1

A Photograph NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

A Photograph About the poet

Shirley Toulson was born on 20 May 1924, in Henley-on-Thames, England, as the daughter of Douglas Horsfall Dixon and Marjorie Brown. She had a huge passion for writing and was greatly influenced by her father who was a writer too. She secured a BA in Literature from Brockenhurst College in London in 1953. Shortly after, she took to writing as a career and also served as the editor for many magazines in the meantime.

A Photograph Main Theme

The poet sees the photograph of her mother at a seaside holiday along with her two cousins. The mother is only twelve years old in the photograph. Now she has been dead for twelve years.
The poetess is acutely conscious of her loss. She speaks of the shortness of human life against the permanence of the sea. The finality of death is stressed in the last stanza—particularly in the last two lines.

A Photograph Think it out

Question 1.
What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?
Answer:
A photograph; it recreates a happy past which is now as lifeless as the cardboard it is printed on.

Question 2.
What has the camera captured?
Answer:
Two cousins on each side of a twelve-year-old girl holding hands, smiling. The three girls are on a seaside holiday.

Question 3.
‘What has not changed over the years?’ Does this suggest something to you?
Answer:
The sea shows the permanence of nature as compared to temporariness of human lives.

Question 4.
The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?
Answer:
Carefree happiness of a twelve-year-old girl on a holiday at seaside.

Question 5.
What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”?
Answer:
The sea holiday and her laughter have now become distorted due to ease acquired with great difficulty. The loss of mother is extremely painful to the poet. Over the years, with difficulty, she has come to terms with it; therefore, she uses the words ‘the laboured ease of loss.’ The joy of the mother’s sea holiday and her laughter in the photograph only bring her pain. Therefore, the expression used is ‘wry’.

Question 6.
What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?
Answer:
The mother being dead.

Question 7.
The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?
Answer:

• First stanza—mother’s childhood.
• Second stanza— her passing away.
• Third stanza— the poet’s sense of loss at her mother not being there

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

Silk Road NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 8

Silk Road NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

Silk Road About the Author

‘Nick Middleton (born 1960) is a British physical geographer and supernumerary fellow of St Anne’s College, Oxford. As a geographer, he has travelled to more than 50 countries. He has appeared on BBC 2’s Through the Keyhole.

Silk Road Main Theme

‘Silk Road’ is an account of travel to Manasarovar Lake in Tibet. The narrator was travelling to the lake to complete ‘Kora’, a pilgrimage. He set off with Tsetan in his car.
Tsetan knew a route that would take them south-west from Ravu almost directly towards Mount Kailash. They had to cross several high mountain passes. They went across pastures, passing some gazelles and a great herd of wild asses, some ‘drokbas’ or shepherds, and Tibetan mastiffs.

They entered a valley where the river was wide but mostly clogged with ice. Negotiating sharp turns, they climbed away from the river. At a sharp bend they encountered snow. Tsetan, the narrator and Daniel stepped on the snow to ascertain how sturdy it was. They put handfuls of dirt on the snow and covered the snow sufficiently. The narrator and Daniel walked while Tsetan carefully drove the car across the snow. Tsetan negotiated the next blockage skilfully.

They crossed 5,400 metres and started feeling the effect of the high altitude. At 5,515 metres, they came across a cairn of rock decorated with white scarves. By 2 p.m. they reached the other side of the pass. The plateau was marked with salt flats where workmen loaded trucks laden with salt.They reached Hor on the old trade route from Lhasa to Kashmir. The narrator found Hor bare and dirty. It was at the shore of Lake Manasarovar, venerated by Hindus and Buddhist. The narrator had read glowing account of the lake, but his own experience was not the same.

At 10.30 p.m. the party reached a guest house in Darchen. The author suffered from breathlessness and could not sleep the entire night. Next day, Tsetan took him to the medical college where he was given some Tibetan medicine. He felt relieved. At Darchen Tsetan left him. Luckily, the narrator met Norbu who worked in Beijing at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He too had come to do the ‘Kora’. The narrator decided to do the pilgrimage not on foot but on yaks as Norbu suggested.

Silk Road Understanding the text

I. Give reasons for the following statements:

Question 1.
This article has been titled ‘Silk Road’.
Answer:
The narrator was travelling on the old silk road from Lhasa to Kashmir to reach Mansarover Lake. Therefore, he has named the lesson Silk Road.

Question 2.
Tibetan mastiffs were popular in China’s imperial courts.
Answer:
Because they were extremely fierce, swift and dogged.

Question 3.
The author’s experience at Hor was in stark contrast to earlier accounts of the place.
Answer:
Earlier travellers were moved to tears when they encountered the Mansarovar Lake. The narrator was repelled by the starkness and the rubbish lying around in Hor.

Question 4.
The author was disappointed with Darchen.
Answer:
The author was quite unwell at Darchen. He had severe cold and gasped for breath. He spent a sleepless night. This depressed him. The town of Darchen was dirty, somewhat derelict and had pits of rubblend refused.

Question 5.
The author thought that his positive thinking strategy worked well after all.
Answer:
Upto Darchen the author he was disappointed with what he saw. High altitudes, the difficulties of the drive, breathing problem at Darchen were not pleasant. The prospects of doing the Kora alone in the traditional way were unattractive. Then he met Norbu who was good company and intended to do the Kora on Yaks. This cheered the narrator.

II. Briefly comment on:

Question 1.
The purpose of the author’s journey to Mount Kailash.
Answer:
Nick Middleton, an oxford professor as well as an adventurer, followed the most difficult terrain through the Silk Road to reach Mount Kailash. He visited a Buddhist pilgrimage to complete the Kora, going around the place. He also wanted to see Lake Mansarovar.

Question 2.
The author’s physical condition in Darchen.
Answer:
The author didn’t feel physically fit when he reached Darchen. He suffered from extreme due to the chilly winds. He was unable to breathe with ease, was restless at night, could not have a wink that he would die if he would sleep.

Question 3.
The author’s meeting with Norbu.
Answer:
After Tsetan had left for Lhasa, the author was feeling lonely. He couldn’t see any pilgrims at Darchen as he had reached the place earlier. It was then that he met Norbu, an academician who was Tibetan but, worked in Beijing at the Chinese Academy of social sciences. The narrator liked him to the extent that he decided to do the pilgrimage in his company. The author felt a lot of relief and comfort after meeting Norbu.

Question 4.
Tsetan’s support to the author during the journey.
Answer:
All through the author’s journey Tsetan had been very supportive. He drove him from Ravu to Hor through high mountain passes where the tract was covered with snow, and through the deep valleys. He even took the narrator to Darchen Medical College when he suffered from cold and breathlessness.

Question 5.
“As a Buddhist, he told me, he knew that it didn’t really matter if I passed away, but he thought it would be bad for business.”
Answer:
Buddhists do not grieve too much over death as they take a philosophical attitude about it. The narrator had just suffered an acute attack of breathlessness and could have died. He had come out of the crisis when Tsetan decided to return to Lhasa. He told the narrator that death was not a matter of grief but if the narrator had died it would have affected his business adversely.

Silk Road Talking About the Text

Discuss in groups of four

Question 1.
The sensitive behaviour of hill-folk.
Answer:

• Hill-folks are simple and unsophisticated.
• They are courteous to outsiders/tourists.
• They look after the tourists because they earn through them.

Question 2.
The reasons why people willingly undergo the travails of difficult journeys?
Answer:

• On pilgrimages due to faith.
• For some emergency when the journey has to be made whatever the circumstances.
• Out of a sense of adventure and a desire to explore.

The accounts of exotic places in legends and the reality.

• Often legends and earlier accounts were glowing and exaggerated.
• Reality often proved to be shabby and different.
• The author had heard accounts of the superlative beauty of Mansarover but the author did not find it so.

Silk Road Thinking about language

Question 1.
Notice the kind of English Tsetan uses while talking to the author. How do you think he picked it up?
Answer:
semi-educated – picked up English to interact with tourists

Question 2.
What do the following utterances indicate?
(i) “I told her, through Daniel…”
(ii) “It’s cold,” he said finally through Tsetan.
Answer:
(i) Daniel acted as an interpreter between the narrator and Lhamo.
(ii) the doctor .informed Tsetan who would tell the narrator.

Question 3.
Guess the meaning of the following words,
kora, drokba, kyang
In which language are these words found?
Answer:
Kora – pilgrimage
Drokba — shepherd, shepherd’s coat
Kyang-wild asses. Probably Tibetan
(Probably Tibetan)

Working with words

Question 1.
The narrative has many phrases to describe the scenic beauty of the mountainside like:
A flawless half-moon floated in a perfect blue sky.
Scan the text to locate other such picturesque phrases
Answer:
To be found by the student.

Question 2.
Explain the use of the adjectives in the following phrases.
(i) shaggy monsters
(ii) brackish lakes
(iii) rickety table
(iv) hairpin bend
(v) rudimentary general stores
Answer:
(i) shaggy – thick fur of Tibetan dogs.
(ii) brackish — water tasting of salt and minerals.
(iii) rickety — table with loose joints — shaky, unstable.
(iv) hairpin – very sharp bends, comparable to the bend of a hairpin.
(v) rudimentary – basic, having the bare necessities.

Noticing form

1. The account has only a few passive voice sentences. Locate them. In what way does the use of active voice contribute to the style of the narrative?
2. Notice this construction: Tsetan was eager to have them fixed. Write five sentences with a similar structure.
Answer:
To be done by the student.

Silk Road Things to do

Question 1.
“The plateau is pockmarked with salt flats and brackish lakes, vestiges of the Tethys Ocean which bordered Tibet before the continental collision that lifted it skyward.” Given below is an extract from an account of the Tethys Ocean downloaded from the Internet. Go online, key in Tethys Ocean in Google search and you will find exhaustive information on this geological event. You can also consult an encyclopaedia.

Today, India, Indonesia and the Indian Ocean cover the area once occupied by the Tethys Ocean. Turkey, Iraq and Tibet sit on the land once known as Cimmeria. Most of the floor of the Tethys Ocean disappeared un(Jer Cimmeria and Laurasia. We only know that Tethys existed because geologists like Suess have found fossils of ocean creatures in rocks in the Himalayas. So, we know those rocks were underwater, before the Indian continental shelf began pushing upward as it smashed into Cimmeria. We can see similar geologic evidence in Europe, where the movement of Africa raised the Alps.
Answer:
Read the note and find information on the net about the Tethys Ocean.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

The Adventure NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 7

The Adventure NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

The Adventure About the Author

Jayant Vishnu Narlikar (born 19 July 1938) is an Indian astrophysicist. He developed with Sir Fred Hoyle the conformal gravity theory, known as Hoyle-Narlikar theory. In 1966, Fred Hoyle established Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, and Narlikar served as the founding staff member of the institute during 1966-72. In 1972, Narlikar took up Professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India.

The Adventure Main Theme

The author, Jayant Vishnu Narlikar, is an astrophysicist of international repute. This is another science fiction that he has offered to his readers. The story contains an episode of a person being in another dimension of history. The basic premise is “What would have been the state of affairs if a certain crucial event had taken place differently?” The event in question here is the Third Battle of Panipat. The author has visualised the situation as if Marathas won the war and Vishwas Rao remained alive to lead his people.

Prof. Gaitonde travels to Bombay which is under the British. He feels it is different from how he knows it to be. He looks for traces of his son in the city but does not find any. He consults history books written by himself and finds a different account of the battle of Panipat. The Marathas won the battle and became very powerful and had influence all over India. In the twentieth century, they put up centres of science and technology with the help of the British. In the twentieth century, India moved towards democracy, but the Sultanate of Delhi continued and Bombay remained a British territory. In this India, ruled by the Marathas, the people were confident and self-reliant.

Prof. Gaitonde wanted to know how this had happened. He looked at the history books again and discovered that Vishvas Rao did not die of bullet injury. A bullet brushed past his ear and he was in no danger.In the evening, after the library closed, Prof. Gaitonde went to Azad Maidan where a meeting was in progress. He noticed that there was no chairperson. He himself went up to the dais and started speaking. The public, however, chased him away.

After this, he found himself in the present time speaking to his friend, Rajendra. He still had the ‘Bakhar’ In his pocket from the library and had been missing for two days.

Where had he gone? His friend Rajendra tried to rationalise this experience on the basis of two theories— the catastrophe theory or ‘a crucial event gone the other way’ and the lack of determinism in the quantum theory, which means that the behaviour of electrons in atoms cannot be predicted. Rajendra says that ‘catastrophic situations offer radically different alternatives for the world to proceed. Therefore, there was a bifurcation in the battle of Panipat and Prof. Gaitonde experienced a different world not in past or future but at the present time.

How this happened is a mystery to science. Prof. Gaitonde had a collision with a truck and was thinking of the Battle of Panipat at that moment. Probably, that caused the transition.

The Adventure Understanding the text

I. Tick the statements that are true.

Question 1.
The story is an account of real events.
Answer:
For discussion only—to be conducted by the teacher as spoken activity. Any point of view may be taken.

Question 2.
The story hinges on a particular historical event.
Answer:
For discussion only—to be conducted by the teacher as spoken activity. Any point of view may be taken.

Question 3.
Rajendra Deshpande was a historian.
Answer:
False

Question 4.
The places mentioned in the story are all imaginary.
Answer:
False

Question 5.
The story tries to relate history to science.
Answer:
True

II. Briefly explain the following statements from the text.

Question 1.
“You neither travelled to the past nor the future. You were in the present experiencing a different world.”
Answer:
The story is based on the theory that catastrophic situations offer radically different alternatives. Prof. Gaitonde experienced a different world where he spent two days. In that world a catastrophic event, the Third Battle of Panipat, had a different outcome.

Question 2.
“You have passed through a fantastic experience: or more correctly, a catastrophic experience.”
Answer:
Prof. Gaitonde had experienced living in a different world which had a different history. The bifurcation took place in the Battle of Panipat, which had a different outcome. In this world Marathas had won the Battle and Vishwas Rao had remained alive to lead India. Consequently, the British presence in India was confined to Bombay, Calcutta and Madras.

Question 3.
Gangadharpant could not help comparing the country he knew with what he was witnessing around him.
Answer:
The country which Prof. Gaitonde knew had endured British rule for two centuries, whereas in the other world they had a very minor presence. The Marathas had supremacy all over India. The Mughals were confined to Delhi. The Peshwas had taken steps to ensure scientific and technological advance in the twentieth century.

Question 4.
“The lack of determinism in quantum theory !”
Answer:
The behaviour of very small systems like atoms and their constituents, cannot be predicted definitively even if all the physical laws governing those systems are known. For example, if an electron is shot, it cannot be said with certainty where it will go. This is lack of determinism in the quantum theory.

Question 5.
“You need some interaction to cause a transition.”
Answer:
Rajendra was not quite clear about how the transition from this world to another was made by
Prof. Gaitonde. He explained the occurrence thus. At the time of the collision with a truck
Prof. Gaitonde was thinking about the Catastrophe Theory and its role in wars. He was also thinking about the Battle of Panipat. Perhaps the neurons in his brain acted as a trigger. This interaction brought about the transition.

The Adventure Talking about the text

Question 1.
Discuss the following statements in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group taking opposite points of view.

(i) A single event may change the course of the history of a nation.
Answer:
The following points may be discussed. the death/survival of a leader, e.g. what if Mahatma Gandhi had died before India got free.
(i) the outcome of a war, e.g. what if Italy and Germany had won the Second World War.

(ii) Reality is what is directly experienced through the senses.
Answer:

• Reality may be extra sensory, e.g. the experiment of ghosts, etc.
• Reality may be intuitive, e.g. extra sensory perception.
• Reality may exist in another dimension of time or space.

(iii) The methods of inquiry of history, science and philosophy are similar. Discuss.
Answer:

• Similar — because analysis, reasoning, inference are employed.

Question 2.
(i) The story is called ‘The Adventure’. Compare it with the adventure described in ‘We’re Not Afraid to Die…’
Answer:
‘The Adventure’ is not a narration of real events; ‘We’re Not Afraid to Die is ….’

• ‘The Adventure’ is based on a hypothesis; ‘We’re Not’ is based on real incidents.
• ‘We’re Not…’ is a story of a family’s courage, resourcefulness and bonding together.

The Adventure’ has none of these because it is not a real story.

(ii) Why do you think Professor Gaitonde decided never to preside over meetings again?
Answer:

• because he had a bad experience in Azad Maidan.

The Adventure Thinking about language

Question 1.
In which language do you think Gangadharpant and Khan Sahib talked to each other? Which language did Gangadharpant use to talk to the English receptionist?
Answer:
Gangadharpant and Khan Sahib talked to each other in English G. spoke to the receptionist too the English.

Question 2.
In which language do you think Bhausahebanchi Bakhar was written?
Answer:
Bhausahebanchi Bakhar written a Marathi.

Question 3.
There is mention of three communities in the story: the Marathas, the Mughals, the Anglo-Indians. Which language do you think they used within their communities and while speaking to the other groups?
Answer:
The Marathas spoke in Marathi, the Mughals in Persian or Urdu, the Anglo-Indians in English.

Question 4.
Do you think that the ruled always adopt the language of the ruler?
Answer:
The ruled learn the language of the rulers for business official work and jobs. In the interaction within then communities they use their own language. Thus Indians learnt Persian under the Mughals and English under the British but used their own languages too.

The Adventure Thinking Working with words

I. Tick the item that is closest in meaning to the following phrases.

Question 1.
to take issue with
(i) to accept
(ii) to discuss
(iii) to disagree
(iv) to add
Answer:
(iii) to disagree

Question 2.
to give vent to
(i) to express
(ii) to emphasise
(iii) suppress
(iv) dismiss
Answer:
(i) to express

Question 3.
to stand on one’s feet
(i) to be physically strong
(ii) to be independent
(iii) to stand erect
(iv) to be successful
Answer:
(ii) to be independent

Question 4.
to be wound up
(i) to become active
(ii) to stop operating
(iii) to be transformed
(iv) to be destroyed
Answer:
(ii) to stop operating

Question 5.
to meet one’s match
(i) to meet a partner who has similar tastes
(ii) to meet an opponent
(iii) to meet someone who is equally able as oneself
(iv) to meet defeat
Answer:
(iii) to meet someone who is equally able as oneself

II. Distinguish between the following pairs of sentences:

Question 1.
(i) He was visibly moved.
(ii) He was visually impaired.
Answer:
(i) One could see that he was emotionally touched.
(ii) He was blind.

Question 2.
(i) Green and black stripes were used alternately.
(ii) Green stripes could be used or alternatively black ones.
Answer:
(i) One green and one black stripe were used many times in the same order.
(ii) Black stripes could be used in place of green ones.

Question 3.
(i) The team played the two matches successfully.
(ii) The team played two matches successively.
Answer:
(i) The team won the two matches they played.
(ii) The team played two matches one after the other.

Question 4.
(i) The librarian spoke respectfully to the learned scholar.
(ii) You will find the historian and the scientist in the archaeology and natural science sections of the museum respectively.
Answer:
(i) spoke with respect.
(ii) in the given order.

Noticing form

The story deals with unreal and hypothetical conditions. Some of the sentences used to express this notion are given below.
1. If I fire a bullet from a gun in a given direction at a given speed, I know where it will be at a later time.
2. If I knew the answer I would solve a great problem.
3. If he himself were dead in this world, what guarantee had he that his son would be alive?
4. What course would history have taken if the battle had gone the other way?
Notice that in an unreal condition, it is clearly expected that the condition will not be fulfilled.
Answer:
Read the notes and examples.
Notice the use of would, and the conditional clauses to express conditions that cannot be fulfilled.

The Adventure Thinking Things to do

Question 1.
Read the following passage on the Catastrophe Theory downloaded from the Internet.
Answer:
Originated by the French mathematician, Rene Thom, in the 1960s, catastrophe theory is a special branch of dynamical systems theory. It studies and classifies phenomena characterized by sudden shifts in behaviour arising from small changes in circumstances.

Catastrophes are bifurcations between different equilibria, or fixed point attractors. Due to their restricted nature, catastrophes can be classified on the basis of how many control parameters are being simultaneously varied. For example, if there are two controls, then one finds the most common type, called a ‘cusp’ catastrophe. If, however, there are more than five controls, there is no classification.

Catastrophe Theory has been applied to a number of different phenomena, such as the stability of ships at sea and their capsizing, bridge collapse, and, with some less convincing success, the fight- or-flight behaviour of animals and prison riots.

II. Look up the Internet or an encyclopaedia for information on the following theories.

(i) Quantum theory
(ii) Theory of relativity
(iii) Big Bang theory
(iv) Theory of evolution
Answer:
To be done by the student.