SAINIK SCHOOL GOPALGANJ
SUB- ENGLISH
CLASS-IX
ASSIGNMENT - 3
Part - I (The Sound of Music)
Q1. Given below are four options against each question. Choose the option which
you consider the most appropriate as your answer.
(a) What was wrong with Evelyn?
(i) she was blind
(ii) she was deaf
(iii) she was lame
(iv) she was mentally weak
(b) Evelyn learned music from
(i) Royal Academy of Music in London
(ii) Royal Academy of Music in Paris
(iii) Royal Academy of Music in Delhi
(iv) Royal Academy of Music in New york
(c) Why did the crowd jostle at the station?
(i) to get free food
(ii) to listen to Evelyn’s music
(iii) to get position for the train
(iv) to see the train
(d) How did Evelyn Glennie become deaf?
(i) she was deaf by birth
(ii) in an accident
(iii) attack of chicken-pox
(iv) through a gradual process
(e) What did Evelyn’s parents conceal about her from her teachers and friends?
(i) her deafness
(ii) her mental retards
(iii) her speaking problem
(iv) all of these
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(f) What did the headmistress advise Evelyn’s parents?
(i) they should withdraw her
(ii) they should shift her to another school name from the school
(iii) they should teach her at home
(iv) they should take her to a specialist doctor
(g) What was Evelyn not going to give up?
(i) her struggle to deafness
(ii) her hope for becoming a great musician
(iii) her ambition in life
(iv) all the options are correct
Q2. Answer the following questions: (Short Answer Questions)
(a) When and how was Evelyn’s hearing problem noticed?
(b) When was Evelyn’s deafness confirmed? What advice was given to her?
(c) What did James Blades say about Evelyn’s music?
(d) Where was Sehanai played traditionally? How did Bismillah Khan change this?
(e) When and how did Bismillah Khan get his big break?
(f) How is Sehnai different from a pungi?
(g) Why did Aurangzeb ban the playing of the pungi?
Q3. From the text on Bismillah Khan, find the words and phrases that match these
definitions and write them down. The number of the paragraph where you will find the
words/ phrases has been given for you in brackets.
(a) the home of royal people (1) __________
(b) the state of being alone (5) __________
(c ) a part which is absolutely necessary (2) __________
(d) to do something not done before (5) __________
(e) without much effort (13) __________
(f) quickly and in large quantities (9) __________ and __________
Q4. Write a letter to your friend telling him how Evelyn inspired you.
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Q5. Strong determination, motivation and right directions helped Bismillah Khan
being what he was. Do you agree? How important are these characteristics traits in our
life?
Q6. What were the recurring themes of Bismillah Khan’s music and how did they
originate? What does this tell you about Bismillah Khan?
Q7. You attended one of the concerts of Bismillah Khan. Write a letter to your friend
describing your experience.
Q8. “If you work hard and know where you’re going, you’ll get there,” says Evelyn
[Link] have now read about two musicians, Evelyn Glennie and UstadBismillah Khan.
Do you think that they both worked hard? Where did they want to ‘go’? Answer these
questions in two paragraphs, one on each of the two musicians.
Part – II (The Lost Child)
Q1. Given below are four options against each question. Choose the option which
you consider the most appropriate as your answer.
(a) How were the people going to the festival?
(i) Going on foot
(ii) Riding on horses
(iii) Carried in bamboo and bullock carts
(iv) All the above
(b) Who was the little boy going with?
(i) with his father
(ii) with his mother
(iii) with his father and mother
(iv) None of the above
(c ) How was the little boy feeling while going to the fair?
(i) Nervous
(ii) Frightened
(iii) Sad and unhappy
(iv) Full of life and laughter
(d) What did the parents say when the child lagged behind?
(i) Come, child, come
(ii) ‘Come, or you’ll be lost
(iii) ‘Come, have these toys.’
(iv) ‘Come, we’re getting late.’
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(e) What did the child do when his parents said, ‘Come , child ,come’?
(i) He refused to move
(ii) He hurried towards them
(iii) He looked at them angrily
(iv)He began to cry
(f) What did the father do when the child said, “I want that toy.”?
(i) He at once bought the toy for the child
(ii) He said, “Look , child, what is before you.
(iii) He looked at the child red-eyed
(iv) He began to beat the child.
Q2. Answer the following questions. (Short Answer Type Questions)
(a) In the fair the child wants many things. What are they? Why does he move on without
waiting for an answer?
(b) Why does the lost child lose interest in the things that he had wanted earlier?
(c) What do you think happens in the end? Does the child find his parents?
(d) When does he realize that he has lost his way? How have his anxiety and insecurity been
described?
(e) What are the things the child sees on his way to the fair? Why does he lag behind?
(f) How did the child react in front of the juggler?
(g) Why would his parents have refused to buy a garland of Gulmohar?
(h)What values of humanity are reflected through the character of the kind man?
(i) What kind of lady was his mother?
Q3. Answer the following questions. (Long Answer Type Questions)
(a) What were the reactions of the child on seeing the flower-seller and the balloon-seller? Do
you think it was an obvious reaction of a child?
(b) If you had been lost child, what would you have done to find your parents in the fair?
(c ) How did the child behave at the shop of the sweetmeat seller? What does it show about
the values of the child? Was he a considerate child?
Q4. You are a counselor. Write a paragraph advising parents how to ensure that the
children are not lost in any crowded place like a fair, etc.
Q5. Write a letter to your friend comparing the attitude of the child before and after
his separation from his parents. The company of parents is more important than the
things of pleasure. Discuss the same in your letter in 80-100 words.
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Part – III (The Rain on the Roof)
Q1. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:
When the humid shadow hover
Over all the starry spheres
And the melancholy darkness
Gently weeps in rainy tears
What a bliss to press the pillow
Of a cottage-chamber bed
And lie listening to the patter
Of the soft rain overhead!
(a) What does ‘humid shadows’ stand for?
(b) Which line shows that the poet is happy when it rains?
(c ) What does the poet like to do when it rains?
(d) Which poetic device is used in “The melancholy darkness gently weeps in rainy tears”?
Every tinkle on the shingles
Has an echo in the heart;
And a thousand dreamy fancies
Into busy being start,
And a thousand recollections
Weave their air-threads into woof,
As I listen to the patter
Of the rain upon the roof.
(a) What echoes into the poet’s heart/
(b) What starts a thousand dreamy fancies’?
(c) What does ‘ a thousand recollections weave their air into woof refer to ?
(d) What do you mean by ‘ an echo in the heart’?
Q2. Answer the following questions: (Short Answer Type Questions)
(a) What is the single major memory that comes to the poet’s mind?
(b) Who are the ‘darling dreamers’ he refers to in the poem?
(c) When you were a young child, did your mother tuck you in as poet’s mother did?
(d) What shows the poet loved his mother?
(e) When does the ‘thousand dream fancies’ begin to weave in the poet’s mind?
(f) How does the memory of his mother haunt the poet?
(g) What finds echo in the poet’s heart and what starts weaving in his mind?
Q3. Answer the following questions: (Long Answer Type Questions)
(a) How is the rain bliss for the poet? Describe.
(b) What virtue do you find in the sound of the raindrops?
(c ) How can the sweet moments of life help us?
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(d) Does everybody have a cozy bed to lie in when it rains? Look around you and describe
how different kinds of animals and peoples spend time seek shelter etc in the rain.
(e) How does the poet describe the falling rain in the poem ‘Rain on the Roof’?
(f) “When the humid shadows hover over all the starry spheres.” What does the ‘shadows’
stand for? What does the poet want to convey?
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