N.C.E.R.T. Simplified

Q. What are the contrasting images that Kamala Das has presented in the poem? A.  The first contrast in the poem is when there is sadness, depression and anxiety inside the car while there is cheerfulness and happiness outside the car. The second contrast is that the children Kamala sees, were playing merrily, with a sureity that the'll return home to their parent's protection. Kamala, on the other hand, is anxious whether she'll see her mother again. The third contrast is shown at the airport. Kamla's facial expression and her feelings present this contrast. On the outside she smiles and seems happy and excited bt inside she is anxious, sad and in a dillema.  Q.What does 'Trees Sprinting' and ' Merry children spilling out of their homes' symbolise? A.  The  'Trees Sprinting' and ' Merry children spilling out of their homes' symbolises youth and vigour. Q. What 'familiar aches' does the poet talk about? A. The 'fa...

Q RTC "More Gringoire indeed!Mere Gringoire! What the old watch who lives at the top of the hill, and who says she is bedridden because she is too lazy to do any work? And what did Mere Gringoire want with the money?" i) Identify the speaker. Why is she in a foul mood? A. Persome is the speaker. She is in a foul mood because her brother, the Bishop has sold a salt cellar to help Mere Gringoire. ii) What light do the above lines reflect on the character of the speaker? A. Persome was quite insensitive towards the poor. She had a more practical approach to things, unlike her brother, the Bishop. iii) Why does the speaker call Mere Gringoire an 'old witch'? A. Persome out of rage, calls Mere Gringoire an old witch because she thinks that the old lady pretends to be bedridden but, actually is very lazy to do any work. Q. What effect did the inhuman treatment in the jail have on the convict? A. The inhuman treatment in jail converted ...

Q. RTC " While you were upstairs, I have been thinking a lot about your papa and mamma. You see I am really unselfish and then the rooms for your sister's children." i) How has the speaker's attitude changed in these lines? A.i)  The speaker Gaston, is pretending to be very caring towards and fond of his in-laws. His attitude here is very selfless, concerned and gentle towards his in-laws. ii) What is the reason behind this change? A.ii)  Gaston has changed his behaviour as he has sealed the deal with Mrs. Al Smith to sell her the house for three hundred thousand. But for the deal to come true, Gaston must first buy the house to sell it. Thus he changes his attitude to persuade his wife and buy the villa. iii) What does the above statement reveal about the person's character? A.iii)  The above statement reveals that Gaston is a shrewd, double-faced and business minded person. He can change colours whenever he needs to. Q. Why did Juliette put up the...

Q. RTC "I wish I'd been that much more willin' When I had more tooth there than fillin' To pass up gobstoppers. From respect to me choppers, And to buy something else with me shillin'." a) ' I wish I'd been that much more willin' ' What does this line tell us about the poetess. a)  This line tells that the poetess now regrets not taking appropriate care of her teeth. b) What the poetess should not have bought with the shillings to avoid cavities? b) The poetess should not have bought candies, gobstoppers and other sweet food which she relished but was harmful to her teeth. c) What is the tone of the poetess in the poem? c)  The tone of the poetess is that of regret and repentance. Q. Imagine you are the poet. The day you visit the dentist for the first time, you write a letter to your best friend. Express the dilemma of guilt that you experience. A. 21-B, Baker's Street London 23 July 1989 Dear Robert         ...

Q. John is a hypocrite. Do you agree with this statement? Substantiate your answer. A. No, John Pescud is not a hypocrite, even though condemns "the best sellers" ironically his life has the same sort of story. But John is not aware, yet about this fact. Had he been aware, he would not have been critical of the best sellers, or must have not narrated his story with such enthusiasm, had he been a hypocrite. Q. RTC  "I don't see why people go to work and buy hundreds of thousands of books which are best sellers. You don't see or hear any such capers in real life" i)  Who is the speaker of these lines? A. John A Pescud is the speaker of these lines. ii) What is he discussing in these lines? A. In these lines, John is discussing that people go and buy books with unrealistic and bizarre stories, love stories, so much that they become best sellers. iii) What is ironical about this statement? A. The ironical thing about this sta...

F.1 Two Gentlemen of Verona F.2 Mrs. Packletide's Tiger F.3 The Letter F.4 A Shady Plot F.5 Patol Babu, Filmstar F.6 Virtually True P.1 Frog And The Nightingale P.3 Not Marble Nor The Guilded Monuments (Sonnet 55) P.4 Ozymandias P.5 The Rime of The Ancient Mariner P.6 Snake D.1 The Dear Departed D.2 Julius Caesar

Q. The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience conflicting emotions on seeing the snake? A. When the poet first sees the snake, he thinks of the snake as a magnificent, quasi-harmless creature. He gives it as much respect as he gives to any other human. But soon the 'voice of education', i.e. the man-centric education challenges the poet to kill the snake lest he lacks the courage to do so. Q. Why did the snake flicker its tongue? And what does the poet compare it to? A. The snake uses its tongue as a sense organ. It flickers its tongue to check whether its surroundings are safe or not. The poet compares this flickering to lightning. The lightning on a dark night is easily comparable to the snake's tongue and its realm of the underworld. Q. RTC "And immediately I regretted it  I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what mean act! I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education  And I thought of the albatross...

Q. What unnatural scenes and sights had been reportedly seen that stormy night? A. The bizarre scenes seen that night were that of a lioness giving birth to her cubs on the street, the dead being thrown out of their graves. Moreover, armies battling each other were seen, which caused a rain of blood over the Capitol. Q. How did Brutus explain Calpurnia's dream? A. Brutus very cleverly turned Calpurnia's negative and depressing dream into an optimistic one for his own advantage. He deciphered Calpurnia's dream of many young Romans bathing their hands in Ceaser's blood as a sign of Ceaser's greatness. He said that Ceaser's blood was a source of energy and inspiration for the youth, urging them to grow Rome's glory. Q. RTC "Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears, I come to bury Ceasar, not to praise him, The evil the men do lives after them, The good is often erred with their bones." i) Who speaks the words...

Q. How was Schultz rescued from 'Warzone'? A. Michael rescued Schultz from 'Warzone' by escorting him safely to the helicopter. They both found a jeep amongst the heavy machine gun and tank fire. But the jeep crashed into a tank. Michael could easily escape the accident but Schultz was thrown into the air. Fortunately, he landed just below the hatch of the helicopter from where Michael rescued him and they both escaped. RTC "It couldn't be the Sebastian Schultz I'd met. I leant forward to read the rest of the article." Q. Who says these words? A. Michael is the speaker of these words. Q. Who is Sebastian Schultz? Where did the person in question meet him? A.  Sebastian Schultz was a 14 year old schoolboy from South London. Michael, the person in question, had first met him in a psycho drive game. Q. "....rest of the article". What article is referred to here? A. The newspaper article about Sebastian...

Q. RTC " Day after day, day after day We stuck, nor breath nor motion As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean." i) Who was stuck and where? A. The ancient mariner was stuck along with his shipmates in the motionless, still sea. ii) What is the effect of repetition in the first line? A. The repetition 'Day after day, day after day' signifies that the ancient mariner's ship was stuck at the same spot in the middle of the lifeless sea for days. iii) What literary devise has been used in the last lines? What effect does it create? A. Simile has been used in the last line. The still ship has been compared to a ship of a painted ship. It shows the lifelessness, stillness and the silence of the sea. Q. What shows the fickle mindedness of the sailors? How did they become partners in crime later? A. When the Ancient Mariner had killed the albatross, the very Christian albatross that made the wind blow, all his comrade...

Q. RTC "I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said: two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert near them, on the sand, half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown." i) Who does 'I' stand for? A.i)  'I' refers to the poet Percy B. Shelly. ii) What does 'antique land' refer to? A.ii)  'Antique land' refers to the place from where the traveller has come and where he saw the dilapidated statue and Ozymandias. It is actually an allusion to Egypt. iii) What does the speaker mean by 'trunkless legs'? A.iii)  The speaker, by this phrase, refers to the dilapidated statue of Ozymandias, which consists only of two legs standing on a pedestal devoid of the upper body. iv) Apart from trunkless legs, what did the traveller see there? A.iv)  Apart from the legs, the traveller saw a frowning and cold face partially sunk in the sand. This face once belonged to the statue of Ozymandias, but w...

Q. Despite being short of money and facing a struggle to make a living, Patol Babu left the scene immediately after his performance without waiting to be paid for it. What light does the incident throw on his character?  A. Patol Babu's act of rejecting money shows how passionate he was about acting. For Patol Babu, playing his role with finese and perfection was more important than getting money. Despite the necessity of moey, Patol Babu was free of avarice. Patol Babu was in financial turmoil since he was laid off from Hudson and Kimberley and getting a role in a film seemed like striking diamond in a coal mine. But he was not excited aboit the financial perks of acting; instead it was the chance to pursue his long lost passion of acting. Although Patol babu neither became rich nor got anything like the lead role in a film, he still made the most out of his piddly role by grasping self satisfaction. Q. Patol Babu was a very punctual man. Find two instances from the story...

Q. Why does Helen say people would not have believed in Hallock's ghosts if they had looked like her? A. Helen had the looks of a sophisticated woman. There was nothing 'ghostly' about her except the way she had appeared in bits and parts from nowhere. However, fiction writers like Hallock often describe ghosts as ugly, horrifying creatures. Helen feels that since people were so used to reading about such stereotypical ghosts, they would not believe in Hallock's ghost if they looked anything like her. Q. "Well I was in no position to contradict Jenkins." Why does Hallock make this statement? A. Jenkins was the editor of the magazine, the only magazine, which published John Hallock's short stories, thus providing him with an additional income. John needed this income very much to cope up with his wife's expenses and thus had no option but to oblige to the demands of Jenkins. Q. RTC "And somehow I had always been able t...

Q. In what ways are the wars wasteful? A. Wars are wasteful because war, like time spare none. Both the parties in a war, be it the winner or be it the loser, face tremendous loss and destruction. Wars are unproductive and a sheer waste of life and resources. Q. RTC "So, till the judgement that yourself arise, You live in this and dwell in lover's eyes." i) "You live in this". What does 'this' stand for here? A.i) 'This' is the sonnet written by Shakespeare for his beloved. ii) Explain 'dwell in lover's eyes'. A.ii) It means that the person this sonnet is dedicated to shall live in Shakespeare's eyes and other admirers who read this poem, even after he/she dies. iii) What would happen on the day of judgement? A.iii) On the judgement day, the world shall face the final judgement by God and Shakespeare's beloved would resurrect for this judgement. iv) Identify the figure of speech i...