NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues NCERT Text Book Questions and Answers

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues About the Author

A.R. Williams lives in Virginia Beach, VA. She developed a love for reading at a very young age and in the fourth grade, when an assignment to write their own works of fiction was given, it occurred to her that she too could have the ability to craft tales for others to enjoy.

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues Main Theme

The lesson describes the historic archaeological event that took place on January 5, 2005. On this day, the remains of King Tut were brought out of the burial chamber at 6 p.m. for about three hours and a CT scan was carried out.

Howard Carter had found the tomb in 1922 surprisingly intact. It contained splendid golden jewels and artefacts and King Tut’s three gold coffins. King Tut was the last King of the eighteenth dynasty and died young unexpectedly. His grandfather Amenhotep III had ruled for about forty years. His reign was the golden period of this dynasty. Amenhotep IV, Tut’s father, changed the religion of the country. Tut restored the worship of Amun.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

King Tut’s mummy was the first one to be subjected to CT scan. Earlier in 1922, Carter had the mummy cut into several pieces in order to lift it from the coffin to which it had stuck due to hardened resins. The CT scan pictures of the mummy showed clearly the vertebrae, head, hand, ribcage and other parts of the body.

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues Understanding the text

Question 1.
Give reasons for the following.

(i) King Tilt’s body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny.
Answer:
King Tut was laid to rest in a solid gold coffin. His mummy had been stuck to the ritual resins at the bottom of the solid gold coffin. Thus Carter’s men removed the mummy’s head and severed nearly every major joint for closer scrutiny.

(ii) Howard Carter’s investigation was resented?
Answer:
Carter had cut the hardened resins which held Tut’s body glued to his coffin. His men cut off the mummy’s head and severed nearly every major joint.

(iii) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king’s remains.
Answer:
King Tut’s body was cemented to his solid gold coffin. In order to examine the body, he needed to free it from the resinous cement.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

(iv) Tilt’s body was buried along with gilded treasures.
Answer:
Egyptians believed in resurrection. So, they buried the pharaoh with all the golden artifacts he might need in afterlife.

(v) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Thtankhamun.
Answer:
The new name Tutankhamun means ‘the living image of Amun. Amun was the god whose worship buts father hold stopped. But restored the worship.

Question 2.
(i) List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as ‘wacky’.
Answer:
The new pharaoh Amennotep IV promoted the worship of Aten, the sun disk. He shifted his capital from Thebes to Akhetaten, now known as Amarna. He shocked the country by attacking Amun, a major god, smashing his images and closing his temples.

(ii) What were the results of the CT scan?
Answer:
The CT scanner created 1700 digital images, in 0.62 millimetre slices, in cross-sections, to registered intimate structures. It revealed a grey head, followed by the neck vertebrae, a hand, several views of the rib cage and a transection of the skull.

(iii) List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.
Answer:
Forensic medical technology—X-ray, CT or computed tomography.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

(iv) Explain the statement, “King T\it’ is one of the first mummies to be scanned—in death, as in life…”
Answer:
King Tut is the first of over 600 Egyptian mummies to be scanned. Thus, even after death, he is a royal leader. In life, King Tut had changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun. He brought back the worship of Amun which his father had stopped. In life too, he was thus a leader.

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues Talking about the text

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

Question 1.
Scientific intervention is necessary to unearth buried mysteries.
Answer:
Scientific intervention
Speaking for scientific intervention — Dates can be confirmed using carbon dating.

  • Materials used in old cultures can be examined.
  • X-ray techniques can find hidden facts without damaging the bodies, remains.
  • Satellite imaging can help find buried cities.
  • Yet, while using scientific intervention, we have to guard against these dangers.
  • Scientific intervention removes artifacts from their original sites.
  • Damages, mutilates objects in the process.
  • Findings and conclusions are refuted by subsequent scientific investigation.

Question 2.
Advanced technology gives us conclusive evidence of past events.
Answer:
For —Advanced technology—dates can be confirmed using carbon dating, materials used in old cultures can be examined, satellite imaging can help find buried sites.
Against — Advanced technology can be destructive, e.g. Carter’s mutilation of Tut’s mummy.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

Question 3.
Traditions, rituals and funerary practices must be respected.
Answer:
Traditions must be respected.
For

  • Maintaining continuity of culture.
  • Passing on values of ancestors to younger generations.
  • Giving identity to a community.

Against

  • May get outdated.
  • Encourage superstition.
  • Make a community backward.

Conclusion

  • Traditions need to be examined and cleansed of outdated practices from time to time.

Question 4.
Knowledge about the past is useful to complete our knowledge of the world we live in.
Answer:
A knowledge of the past

For

  • The study of the past helps us to understand systems of human society.
  • Experiences of war can help prevent further wars.
  • Communities can build on the knowledge acquired in the past.

Against

  • A group / community may become so attached to its past that it resists change and modernising its ways, laws, life style.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues Thinking about language

Question 1.
Read the following piece of information from The Encyclopaedia of Language by David Crystal.
Answer:
Egyptian is now extinct: its history dates from before the third millennium B.C., preserved in many hieroglyphic inscriptions and papyrus manuscripts. Around the second century A.D., it developed into a language known as Coptic. Coptic may still have been used as late as the early nineteenth century and is still used as a religious language by Monophysite Christians in Egypt.

Question 2.
What do you think are the reasons for the extinction of languages?
Answer:
Reasons for the extinction of languages

  • Language is too difficult for the common people, e.g., Sanskrit.
  • Annihilation of a community by conquerors.
  • Mass migration of people to other lands.
  • Loss of state patronage.

Question 3.
Do you think it is important to preserve languages?
Answer:
Yes. Language binds the culture of a community.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

Question 4.
In what ways do you think we could help prevent the extinction of languages and dialects?
Answer:
We can prevent the extinction of language and dialects by

  • continuing their use in administration, business and education
  • being open to the influence of other languages and cultures.
  • support by honouring writers, and poets.

Working with words

Question 1.
Given below are some interesting combinations of words. Explain why they have been used together.
(i) ghostly dust devils
(ii) desert sky
(iii) stunning artifacts
(iv) funerary treasures
(v) scientific detachment
(vi) dark-bellied clouds
(vii) casket grey
(viii) eternal brilliance
(ix) ritual resins
(x) virtual body
Answer:
(i) Ghostly dust devils: Desert dust storms have been described as ghosts. Spirals of dust move at great speed across the desert and look like ghosts.

(ii) Desert sky : Hot, dusty sky of the desert.

(iii) Stunning artefacts: The items found in the tomb were made of gold and were extremely beautiful.

(iv) Funerary treasures: According to the ancient Egyptian custom, articles of daily need were buried with the dead. Kings were buried with articles of gold and precious stones with the belief that they will need them in the afterlife.

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

(v) Scientific detachment: Objectivity of a scientist, unemotional response to a situation. At this moment, Carter is taking a decision which is full of emotional implications. He has to cut the dried resins from under Tut’s body. The body itself could get damaged. Carter’s attitude is that of a scientist who has to carry out the work objectively without getting emotionally involved.

(vi) Dark bellied clouds : Personification used here to show heavy dark clouds containing rain.

(vii) Casket grey : Grey colour of a coffin. The word ‘casket’ means a small box for jewellery and precious items as well as a coffin (American). Both meanings help to create atmosphere here because Tut’s coffin, which had many gold and precious stone adornments, has to be brought up for C.T. scan.

(viii) Eternal brilliance: The shine of thousands of years old gold artefacts was as bright as on the day they were made. This everlasting brilliance was a symbol of resurrection to the Egyptians.

(ix) Ritual resins: Fragrant resins were used in the embalming of the body and in other funeral rites.

(x) Virtual body: Almost a real body; electronically constructed images which use hundreds of X-rays to create an almost real body.

Question 2.
Here are some commonly used medical terms. Find out their meanings.
Answer:

CT scan MRI tomography
autopsy dialysis ECG
post mortem angiography biopsy

C.T. scan: Computed tomography; X-ray image of body giving cross-sections of a body organ used for diagnostic purposes
MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging—a diagnostic tool
Tomography: taking pictures of sections of a human body
Autopsy: post-mortem examination
Dialysis: mechanical filtration of fluids in kidneys
ECG: Electrocardiogram—measures the working of the heart by measuring its electrical currents Post-mortem: examination of a body after death to find out the cause of death
Angiography: picture of the blood vessels of the heart to find out if any obstructions have formed
Biopsy: testing body tissue to check for malignancy

NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues Things to do

Question 1.
The constellation Orion is associated with the legend of Osiris, the god of the after-life.
Find out the astronomical descriptions and legends associated with the following:
(a) Ursa Major (Saptarishi mandala), also called the Great Bear.
(b) Polaris (Dhruva tara)
(c) Pegasus (Winged horse)
(d) Sirius (Dog star)
(e) Gemini (Mithuna)
Answer:
To be done by students.

Question 2.
Some of the leaves and flowers mentioned in the passage for adorning the dead are willow, olive, celery, lotus, cornflower. Which of these are common in our country?
Answer:
To be done by students.

Question 3.
Name some leaves and flowers that are used as adornments in our country.
Answer:
To be done by students.

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