ELEMANTARY SCHOOL

Q1- Who has written the poem Elementary School Classroom in a Slum?

A) Kipling
B) Wordsworth
C) Kamlanath
D) Stephen Spender

Q2- What theme did the poet concentrate on in the poem?

A) themes of social injustice and class inequalities.

B) theme of children and their happiness
C) theme of insecurities
D) none

Q3- What does the poet portray in the poem?

A) young minds
B) playfulness of the children
C) questions of children
D) the plight of young children in the slums

Q4- What does the poet compare in the poem?

A) the young and old

B) generation gaps
C) old age and childhood
D) rich (haves) and poor children (have nots)

Q5- What kind of life do the children living in slums have?

A) full of love
B) full of care and warmth
C) Hopeless and full of struggle
D) all of these

Q6- What does the poet compare the colour of walls with?

A) rotten fruits
B) stale chapatis
C) rotten vegetables
D) sour cream

Q7- What are the poetic devices used in the poem?

A) alliteration and simile
B) metaphor and imagery
C) synecdoche, and irony
D) All of these

Q8- What do the words “Their future is painted with fog” convey?

A) no love and care

B) no warmth
C) no hard work
D) no hope of improvement

Q9- What do the faces of children in the slum areas reflect?

A) happiness
B) their aspirations
C) their energy
D) sadness and lack of enthusiasm

Q10- What is ironical about the wall hangings and donations in the classroom?

A) set up in very clean environment

B) completely opposite to the needs of the children in the classroom
C) set up in happy environment
D) set up in gloomy set up

Q11- What does paper-seeming boy mean?

A) had a paper in his hand

B) was as thin as a sheet of paper
C) was white in colour like a sheet of paper
D) All of these

Q12- What is the Tree Room in the poem?

A) A tree - shaped room

B) A room on a tree where squirrels play
C) A room on a tree where rats play
D) A room on a tree where pigeons play

Q13- What do Catacombs signify?

A) relevance of the map hanging on the wall of the classroom

B) confinement to the slums, the maps being irrelevant
C) importance of the school
D) death

Q14- Why are the pictures and maps meaningless?

A) they are fake and show a false thing

B) they are old and have faded away
C) they show vastness which is opposite to the world and needs of the children in the classroom
D) All of these

Q15- How can powerful people help the poor children?

A) by fighting with the government

B) by fighting with the powerful
C) by bridging gaps of inequalities and injustice
D) by fighting with the rich

Q16- What does the poem describe?

A) A classroom in a slum area

B) social setup of India
C) different mindsets
D) beauty of the surroundings

Q17- What does the poet wish for the children of the slums?

A) He wishes them to be happy and healthy

B) He wishes a good change for them
C) he wants them to enjoy the bounties of nature
D) All of these

Q18- “Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.

Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor”: what do these words express?

A) poor state of the classroom

B) poor plight of children's homes
C) poor plight of teachers
D) poor plight of the slum children

Q19- Why is the head of the tall girl 'weighed down'?

A)by the burden of studies

B) by the burden of work
C) by the burden of her world
D) All of these

Q20- What is the meaning of 'The paper seeming boy, with rat eyes'?

A) rich people
B) rich children
C) powerful people and their influence
D) weak and malnutritioned boy

Q21- What kind of look do the faces and hair of the children give?

A) rich and beautiful faces

B) bright, neat faces
C) healthy appearances
D) pale faces, scattered and undone hair

Q22- His eyes live in a dream- what is the dream?

A) watching a movie
B) going abroad
C) eating ice cream
D) dream of better times with games and open spaces

Q23- Who was sitting at the back of the dim class?

A) a girl
B) an old man
C) a teacher
D) a young boy

Q24- Who is the unlucky heir and what has he inherited?

A) a fat boy, has inherited obesity from his mother

B) a short, thin boy, has inherited stunted growth from his family
C) an intelligent boy, has inherited intelligence
D) thin boy with rat's eyes, has inherited a deformed body from his father

Q25- What is the stunted boy reciting?

A) a happy song from his seat

B) a religious song in a group
C) a sad song from the front of the class
D) a lesson from his desk
 

Q26- What does the color of the classroom walls point out?

A) happy and poor state

B) happy and rich state
C) poor condition of the slum
D) none of these

Q27- What does the expression 'Open handed map " show?

A) power of the poor

B) the poor can not access the world
C) the poor are powerless
D) maps are open to all, they reveal everything

Q28- ‘Awarding the world its world' what do these words express?

A) the world is ours

B) the world is yours
C) the world belong to the poor
D) the world belongs to the rich

Q29- In what sense are the slum children different?

A) their IQ
B) their wisdom
C) their dresses
D) because of no access to hope and openness of the world

Q30- What kind of future do the slum children have?

A) very hopeful
B) bright
C) clear like water
D) hopeless and uncertain

Q31- What attracts the slum children?

A)The animals
B) The movies
C) icecream
D) All beautiful things like ship, Sun

 
Q32- What do the words 'From fog to endless night ' mean?

A) bright light outside

B) bright future
C) hopelessness
D) Dark and uncertain future of slum children from birth to death

Q33- Mention any two images used to explain the plight of the slum children.

A) open handed map

B) from his desk
C) belled,flowery
D) foggy slums and bottle bits on stones

Q34- What blots the maps of the slum children?

A) garbage
B) blockage
C) stones in the streets
D) Dirty slums

Q35- What does the poet show through expressions 'so blot their maps with slums as big as doom'?

A) his clot the street

B) enjoy the maps
C) big maps
D) the slums spell doom for the poor

Q36- What do the 'governor', inspector, visitor’ in the poem depict?

A) higher officials
B) Government officials
C) Political people
D) Powerful and influential people

Q37- What have the windows done to the children's lives in the poem?

A) shut the doors

B) blocked the passage
C) clocked the Sunlight
D) have shut the children inside and blocked their growth

Q38- What other freedom the poet wants the slum children to enjoy?
A) Freedom of roaming
B) freedom to spend money
C) freedom to eat
D) freedom of knowledge,wisdom and expression

Q39- What does the expression 'Break O break open' suggest?

A) barriers on the road

B) barriers of garbage heap
C) barriers of dirty environment must be broken
D) None

Q40- What does the poet want?

A) to send the children out of the slums
B) to send the children to America
C) to send the children to open fields
D) to send the children to a beach

Stanza 1

Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.

Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor :
The tall girl with her weighed-down head.

Questions
(a) Who are these children ?
(b) Which figure of speech has been used in the first two lines ?
(c) Why is the tall girl’s head weighed-down ?
(d) What does the word ‘pallor’ mean ?
Answers
(a) These children are very poor children who live in a slum and sitting in a school
classroom of the slum.
(b) The figure of speech used in the first two lines ‘simile’ A. like rootless weeds.
(c) The tall girl appears to be very sad with the condition of life. She might have
many responsibilities. Therefore, her head is weighed-down.
(d) The word ‘pallor’ means the pale faces of the children due to malnutrition.

Stanza 2
At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.

Questions
(a) Why is the class dim ?
(b) How is the young child different from others ?
(c) What is he doing ?
(d) What is a tree room ?
Answers
(a) The class is dim because no one takes care of its paint as a result it has become
dark and dingy. Possibly, the poet here also wants to indicate the poor class of
society and their dark and dim future.
(b) All the other children look gloomy. But the young child is quite different from
them. He is full of bright dreams of his future.
(c) He is possibly dreaming about the squirrel’s game in the tree room.
(d) A tree room is a type of hole in the trunk of a tree where the little animals or birds
make their homes.

Stanza 3

On sour cream walls, donations.  Shakespeare’s head,

Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its world.

Questions
(a) Name the poem and its poet.
(b) What is meant by ‘sour cream walls’ ?
(c) What donations are displayed on the walls ?
(d) Why does the poet call the map ‘open-handed’ ?
Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘An Elementary School Class¬room in a Slum’ and the
name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
(b) Sour cream walls mean damp and faded walls of the classroom that give foul
smell.
(c) There are many things donated by people are displayed
on the walls. They include pictures, map and Shakespeare’s bust. .
(d) The map has been called ‘open-handed’ because all the places of the world are
shown in it and it is big.

Stanza 4
And yet, for these
Children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky Far far from rivers,
capes, and stars of words.

Questions
(a) Who are the children referred to here ?
(b) Which is their world ?
(c) How is their life different from that of other children ?
(d) Why is the future of these children ‘painted with a fog ?
Answers
(a) The children referred to here are the children living in the slum.
(b) Their world is confined to the slum in which they are living.
(c) The other children of well-to-do families have all basic facilities of life. They are
free to go anywhere. But the children living in the slum are confined to their little dark
world.
(d) The future of these children is very dark. Therefore the poet calls it ‘painted with a
fog’.

Stanza 5

With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal

For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night ?

Questions
(a) Who are ‘them’ referred to in the first line ?
(b) What tempts them ?
(c) What does the poet say about ‘their’ lives ?
(d) What do you understand ‘from fog to endless night’ ?
Answers
(a) The word ‘them’ in these lines referred to the children living in the slum.
(b) The beautiful places shown in the map tempt them.
(c) The poet says that ‘their’ lives are like a life of a mouse. The children are
compelled to live in very small rooms as the mice live in holes.
(d) This phrase means that the children living in the slum have a very miserable
existence. They have to suffer a lot from dawn till night and would never overcome.

Stanza 6
On their slag heap, these children Wear skins peeped through by bones and
spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.

Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) Which two images are used to describe these slums ?
(c) What sort of life do these children lead ?
(d) Which figure of speech is used in the last line ?
Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘An Elementary School Class¬room in a Slum’. The
name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
(b) The sickly bodies of the children has been compared to a slag heap. Their
mended spectacles have been compared to the bottle bits on stones.
(c) These children live a very poor and miserable life.
(d) The poetic device simile is used in the last line – slums as big as doom.

Stanza 7

Unless, governor, inspector, visitor,

This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs,
Break O break open till they break the town.

Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
Ob) What does the poet want from the governor, inspector and visitors ?
(c) What are ‘these windows’ which the poet talks of ?
(d) ‘That shut upon their lives like catacombs’. Which figure of speech has been used
in this line ?
Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ and the
name of the poet is Stephen Spender.
(b) The poet wants that they should come and do something for the betterment of
the children living in a slum.
(c) They are the classroom windows from where the children can see the narrow
street of their slum.
(d) The figure of speech used here is simile