Lost Spring
Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow.
Q1. "There is no school in my neighbourhood. When they build one, I will go."
"If I start a school, will you come?" I ask, half-joking
"Yes," he says, smiling broadly.
A few days later, I see him running up to me. "Is your school ready?"
"It takes longer to build a school." I say, embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant.
But promises like mine abound in every comer of his bleak world.
(a) Cite evidence from the extract to prove that the boy was taken in by the hollow promises.
(b) Why does the author feel anxious and embarrassed on meeting the poor boy?
(i) Her school was not willing to give him admission.
(ii) The school was not ready as yet.
(iii) She had raised the boy's hopes in jest.
(iv) The boy had been harassing her.
(c) Complete the sentence appropriately The phrase "a bleak world" suggests that
(d) The fact that the poor boy fell for the empty promises made by the author shows this character
train in the boy's personality.
(e) What does the statement, "There is no school in my neighbourhood. When they build one, I will
go" suggest about the boy?
(f) Which of the following headlines best suggests the central idea of the extract?
(i) There is no dearth of promises which remain unfulfilled.
(ii) There is a scarcity of people promising things for betterment
(iii) People make a lot of promises which are often fulfilled.
(iv) Promises made, live up to the expectations of people.
Q.2 This morning, Saheb is on his way to the milk booth. In his hand is a steel canister. "I now work in
a tea stall down the road," he says, pointing in the distance. "I am paid 800 rupees and all my meals."
Does he like the job? I ask. His face, I see, has lost the carefree look. The steel canister seems heavier
than the plastic bag he would carry so lightly over his shoulder. The bag was his. The canister belongs
to the man who owns the tea shop. Saheb is no longer his own master!
(a) What does the author wish to convey in 'His face, I see, has lost the carefree look'?
(b) The comparison used in the line, "The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag he would
carry so lightly over his shoulders." can be best classified as:
(i) a fact (ii) an opinion (iii) a contrast (iv) a plot point
(c) Explain any one possible inference that can be drawn from the line, " The bag was his."
(d) Identify the line from the text that bears evidence to the fact that ragpicking for some is not just a
matter of survival but also something they love doing.
(e) Based on the context provided in the extract, select the most likely explanation for the story's title.
(i) Lost wealth (ii) Lost childhood (iii) Lost spring(iv) Lost shoes
(f) Complete the sentence with ONE word.
The steel canister carried by Saheb is a ________for the loss of freedom.
Q.3 None of them know that it is illegal for children like him to work in the glass furnaces with high
temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light, that the law, if enforced, could get him and all those
20,000 children out of the hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing brightness of
their eyes. Mukesh's eyes beam as he volunteers to take me home, which he proudly says is being
rebuilt. We walk down stinking lanes choked with garbage, past homes that remain hovels with
crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no windows, crowded with families of humans and animals coexisting
in a primeval state.
(a) In the statement, 'None of them know that it is illegal for children like him to work in the glass
furnaces with high temperatures', 'None of them' refers to whom?
(b) The abject poverty of Firozabad described in 'stinking lanes choked with garbage, past homes that
remain hovels with crumbling walls, wobbly doors, no windows, crowdedwith families of humans and
animals coexisting in a primeval state' is:
(i) a factual description (ii) a subjective description
(iii) a symbolic theme (iv) a plot point
(c) Explain any one common factor between the hot furnaces and the dingy hovels in which the
people of Firozabad work and live.
(d) Identify the line from the text that bears evidence to the fact that the houses their are not in
proper condition.
(e) Based on the context provided below, select the most likely explanation to justify it.
'That the law, if enforced, could get him and all those 20,000 children out of the hot furnaces where
they slog their daylight hours.'
(i) A law against child labour exists in India.
(ii) The law is not implemented properly.
(iii) People misuse loopholes in the law.
(iv) The law needs to be redrafted.
(f) Complete the sentence with ONE word.20,000 children working in the hot furnaces only in
Firozabad means that child labour is ______ in India.