BIRLA PUBLIC SCHOOL, DOHA, QATAR

Middle School– 2022 - 23

Notes– Unit 2 HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED?

Grade: VII Subject: ENGLISH

1. What is the phrase used for “land” in the business of buying and selling of land? Find
out from the dictionary and fill in the blanks.

Ans) Real estate

2. Give one word for the following phrases. All the words begin with “life”.

a) A story that somebody tells you about their whole life

Ans) life story

b) A jacket which is designed to help you float

Ans) life jacket

c) Lasting throughout life

Ans) lifelong

d) Punishment by which somebody spends their rest of life in prison

Ans) life imprisonment

e) Someone‟s picture or painting that is of the same size as the person

e) life-size
3. a)Why was Pahom confident that he would get a better deal than he had imagined?

Ans. a) Pahom was a greedy man, and when the Bashkirs told him of their condition that they
would sell him however much land he could walk around in one day for a thousand roubles, he
was confident that could get a better deal than he had imagined. He was confident that he
would be able to cover a lot of ground in a day and it would all be his for such a low cost.

b) Why did the Bashkir elder smiled knowingly?

Ans) The Bashkir elder smiled knowingly because he knew what Pahom‟s was thinking. He
knew that Pahom was a greedy man, who thought that the Bashkirs were naïve, and he would
be able to get a very good deal for such little money.

c) Why were the Bashkir cheering Pahom? How did it affect him?

Ans) The Bashkirs were cheering Pahom to keep up his confidence and make him hurry to the
starting point, where the elder was sitting. Their cheering motivated Pahom to keep on going,
even though his feet hurt and he was barely able to walk.

d) What spurred Pahom to go on?

Ans) Pahom was so tired when he reached the hill that he wanted to stop. However, the
cheering of the Bashkirs made him take a deep breath and rush up the hill. He realized that he
still had time to make it up the hill as the sun had not yet set.

e) When did Pahom Began to realize that his greed had become trap for him?

Ans) Pahom began to realize that his greed had become a trap for him in the afternoon, when
the heat was exhausting him and his bare feet were cut and bruised, making his legs feet
weak. He wanted to rest, but could not, as he knew he had to keep going on. Pahom struggled
on, walking faster, and then running.

Think and Appreciate

1.”Nature has enough for man‟s needs not for man‟s greed”. What is the meaning of this
sentence? How does it fit the story?

Ans. This sentence means that nature is capable of satisfying a person‟s needs of food, water,
and shelter, but it cannot satisfy their greed, which entails excessive use and control of
resources. Man‟s needs are never be satisfied; they keep wanting more than they already
have. This was exactly the case with Pahom; he was greedy and not satisfied with the land he
already had. He kept wanting more, which ultimately led to his death.

2. Examine the title of the story “How much land does a man need? How much land did
Pahom need in the end? How much land did he actually need in life? What is the writer trying
to tell us through the title?

Ans. In the end, Pahom only needed six feet of land to be buried because he died in his
attempt of acquiring as much as he could of the Bashkirs‟ land. The writer is trying to tell us
that we keep running after trivial and unimportant things in life, not realizing that ultimately we
all have to die, after which those things would be of no use to us.

3. Read the following sentences fro the story and briefly explain the irony in them.

a)”Pahom feared death, but he feared the villagers”, ridicule more.

Ans) The irony here is that Pahom would rather die than face the villagers ridiculing him for his
defeat.

b)” Oh well done, „exclaimed the elder, “that‟s a lot of land you‟ve earned yourself”.

Ans) The irony here is that Pahom walked around the land the entire day, even when his feel
could go on no more, struggling to move forward, but ultimately died when he reached the
chief. All his effort was for nothing as the deal made him lose his life in the end.

4. What is an irony?

Ans) Irony is a figure of speech that refers to events that turn against a person by his or her
own actions.It also refers to the inability to see things as they are.

Irony is defined as the difference between what is said and what is meant; what is thought and
what actually occurs.

It is an irony that Pahom,who thought that the elder was a fool,was actually proven a fool by
his own actions!