NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOL, WHITEFIELD

GRADE 9
ENGLISH-REVISION-BEEHIVE
The Fun They Had
1.Why did Margie hate the slot most?

2.What do you mean by a regular teacher?

3.What do you think a telebook is?

4. Had Margie ever seen a book before?

5. Describe the characteristics of the old school? How did it influence Margie?

The Road Not Taken

1. A Two roads diverged in yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

2. At which point in the woods, the poet had reached?

3. Why was the traveller feeling sorry?
4. Where did the first road lead to?
5. Give the opposite to ‘met at a point’ from the passage?
6. At what point did the roads diverge?
7. At what point did one road lead to?
8. Was the traveller feeling sorry?
9. What does ‘yellow wood’ stand for?

2. After reading the poem, The Road Not Taken, can you detail the tone in the entire
poem?

The Sound of Music

1.How did the ‘shehnai’ get its name?

.

2.Why was the shehnai played in temples and weddings?

3. Who was Ali Bux? Where was he employed and what was his influence on Bismillah
Khan?

4. What did Evelyn want to do? How did her teachers react to that? Who helped her?

5. How is she a source of inspiration for the handicapped? What do you learn from her
life?

Wind

1.What are the figures of speech in the poem ‘Wind’?

2. Can wind ever be friends with us?

3. Is wind regarded as a symbol of destruction in the poem? Explain.

4. How and why does the poet plan to befriend the wind?

The Little Girl

1. Who was Mr MacDonald? How was he different from Kezia’s father?

2. How did Kezia’s grandmother console her after she was punished by her father?

3. What did Kezia usually find when she wanted to interact with her parents?
 4. How did Kezia’s attitude towards her father change? What brought them closer?

Rain on the Roof

1. ‘And the melancholy darkness gently weeps in rainy tears.’ What does the melancholy
darkness mean and what does it do?

2. “And a thousand dreamy fancies into busy heart.” When does the ‘thousand dreamy
fancies’ begin in the poet’s heart?

3. As I list to this refrain.’ Which kind of refrain is the poet referring to?

4. Now in memory comes my mother,

As she used in years agone,
To regard the darling dreamers
Ere she left them till the dawn:
O! I feel her fond look on me
As I list to this refrain
Which is played upon the shingles
By the patter of the rain.

(a) In the above stanza, the poet is dreaming of……………

(b) The poet still feels that his mother is …………..

(c) The poet’s mother has already left for her heavenly abode.(True/False)

(d) …………….is the word in the passage which means ‘a repeated part of a song or a
poem’.

A Truly Beautiful Mind

1. Read the given extract to attempt the questions that follow:

He also felt a special interest in a fellow student, Mileva Maric, whom he found to be a
“clever creature.” This young Serb had come to Switzerland because the University in
Zurich was one of the few in Europe where women could get degrees. Einstein saw in her
an ally against the “philistines”— those people in his family and at the university with
whom he was constantly at odds. The couple fell in love. Letters survive in which they put
their affection into words, mixing science with tenderness. Wrote Einstein: “How happy
and proud I shall be when we both have brought our work on relativity to a victorious
conclusion.” In 1900, at the age of 21, Albert Einstein was a university graduate and
unemployed. He worked as a teaching assistant, gave private lessons and finally secured a
job in 1902 as a technical expert in the patent office in Bern. While he was supposed to be
assessing other people’s inventions, Einstein was actually developing his own ideas in
secret.
He is said to have jokingly called his desk drawer at work the “bureau of theoretical
physics.”
Q1. Select the most appropriate option for (1) and (2)
(1) Mileva Maric didn't come to the University of Zurich
(2) It was the only University which gave degree to women
A. 1 is true but 2 is false.
B. 1 is false but 2 is true.
C. Both (1) and (2) are false.
D. Both (1) and (2) are true.

Q2. . Where did not Einstein decide to study after finishing school?
I. Basel
II. Zurich
III. Switzerland
IV. Frankfurt
Which of the options given above is/are correct:

A. II only

B. II, III and I only

C. III, I and IV only
D. All the above.
Q3. Why did Mileva Maric come to the University at Zurich?
A. It was the only university which gave degrees to women.
B. It was a good university.
C. It was near her city.
D. She liked the place.
Q4. When Einstein said,“How happy and proud I shall be when we both have brought our
work on relativity
to a victorious conclusion.”, in it "Victorious" means____________
A. Defeated
B. Triumphant
C. Unsuccessful
D. Failing
Q5. When did Einstein secure a job?
A. 1901
B. 1903
C. 1902
D. 1904

2. What did Einstein call his desk drawer at the patent office and why?

3. What is Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity?

4. Why did Einstein write a letter to the American President Roosevelt?

5. How did Einstein react to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

6. Why does the world remember Einstein as a world citizen?

 The Lake Isle of Innisfree

1. Why does the poet repeat “I will arise and go now”?

2. What does the poet hear in the deep “heart’s core”? What is his reaction to it?

3. Why does the poet want to have ‘bean rows’ and a ‘hive’ at Innisfree?

4. How can we make our lives enjoyable? Discuss with reference to the poem “The Lake
Isle of Innisfree”.

The Snake and the Mirror

1. What made the doctor utter ‘Death lurked four inches away’?
2. Why did the snake leave the doctor’s arm?

.3. Has the author given a suitable ending to the story ‘The Snake and the Mirror’?

A Legend of the Northland

1. What is a legend? Why is this poem called a legend?

2. What happened to the cake every time when the old lady tried to bake it?

3. Describe the landscape of the Northland as described in the poem.

4. Why does the poet tell a story which he does not believe to be true?

My Childhood

1. What characteristics did Abdul inherit from his parents?

2. What did Abdul tell about his days during the World War?

3. Why was the science teacher called a rebel?

4. Once you decide to change the system, such problems have to be confronted. What system is this
sentence referring to? What are such problems?

No Men are Foreign

1.How does the poet prove that there are no foreign countries?

2.What does the poet ask us to remember in the last stanza?.

3.How do we defile and outrage the ‘human earth’ that is ours?

4.Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

Let us remember, whenever we are told

To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other….

1. Who have been called ‘our brothers’?

2. Who instigates the commoners to hate their brothers?
3. Who is the poet?
4. What does ‘condemn’ mean?

Reach for the Top I & II

1.What kind of society was Santosh born in?

2.How did Santosh begin to climb mountains?

3.Why did Santosh write a letter of apology to her father?

4.Why was Maria brought to Florida in the U.S. by her father? Why didn’t her mother go
with her? How did Maria respond to this separation? 

5. How did Maria’s co-trainees at the tennis academy trouble her? How did Maria cope
with this?

6. Why does Maria call tennis business and a sport?

On Killing a Tree

1.“No, The root is to be pulled out.” Why has the poet started this stanza with “No”? Or
The poet says “No” at the beginning of the third stanza. What does he mean by this?

2.What is the meaning of “anchoring earth” and “earth cave”?

3.How does the tree grow up? What is not enough to kill a tree and why?

4.The bleeding bark will heal

And front close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
 Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
Questions :
 (a) How should we kill a tree?
(b) That alone can’t kill a tree?
(c) What will happen to Its bleeding skin?
(d) What rises from close to the ground?
(e) What is the meaning of ‘miniature boughs’?

Katmandu

1. At the Baudhnath Stupa, the Buddhist shrine of Kathmandu, there is in contrast; a sense
of stillness. Its immense white dome is ringed by a road. Small shops stand on its outer
edge: many of these are owned by Tibetan immigrants; felt bags, Tibetan prints and silver
jewellery can be bought here.
1. What is the Baudhnath Stupa contrasted to?
2. What is the contrast that he mentions?
3. Where are the small shops situated?
4. What is sold in the shops?
2. Where did the writer stay in Kathmandu? Which two different places of worship did he
visit and with whom?

3. What is written on the signboard outside the Pashupatinath temple? What does the
proclamation signify?

4.What does the author imply by ‘febrile confusion’ in the Pashupatinath temple?
5.Where did Vikram Seth find the flute seller? What did he compare his flutes to?

A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

1. A slumber did my spirit seal-

I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
(i) A slumber did my spirit seal means ………….
a. the poet has been sealed in a box
b. the poet's beloved is lost
c. the poet's beloved is dead
d. the poet is dying
(ii) The poet's tone in these lines is……………….
a. happy
b. sad
c. angry
d. resenting
(iii) She in the poem refers to…………………
a. a spirit
b. a deep sleep
c. the poet's beloved
d. the poet
C. It has grown
4. Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it,
feeding Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
(i) The tree grows ..............................
a. in a yea
r b. in a short time
c. over many years
d. fast
(ii) The tree is nourished by .............
a. sunlight, air and water
b. leaves and sprouts
c. the earth's crust
d. soil, sunlight, air and water
(iii) The poetic device used in the phrase the 'leprous hide' is ................
a. onomatopoeia
b. metaphor
c. simile
d. personification
2.Why does the poet refer use the word ‘slumber’ in the poem?

3.Why has the poet used the rocks, stones and trees? What context does he express through
them?
 4.Is the author’s loved one visible? If not, why not?

If I Were You

1.Why the intruder was not scared to have a punishment for killing Gerrard?
The intruder had already murdered a person and was being chased by the police. So if he
will do another one, the punishment would still remain same and they could not scared to
have a punishment for killing Gerrard.
Question 1.
“At last a sympathetic audience.”

1. Who says this?

2. Why does he say it?
3. is he sarcastic or serious?

2. Explain: ‘they can’t hang me twice.’

3. Why does the intruder call himself ‘a poor hunted rat’? Why is he longing for freedom?
4. Gerrard says, “In most melodramas, the villain is foolish enough to delay his killing long
enough to be frustrated. Does this statement hold good for the play ‘If I Were You’?