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Holiday Homework-SET -1

Reading Section

UNSEEN PASSAGE- PRACTICE SET -1

I. Read the passage given below

1. I was born on 30th of November, 1835,in the almost invisible village of Florida, Monroe
County, Missouri, I suppose Florida had less than three hundred inhabitants. It had two streets,
each a couple of hundred yards long; the rest of the avenues mere lanes, with rail fences and
cornfields on either side. Both the streets and the lanes were paved with the same material-tough
black mud in wet times, deep dust in dry.

2. Most of the houses were of logs-all of them, indeed, except three or four; these latter were
frame ones. There were none of brick, and none of stone. There was a log church, with a
puncheon floor and slab benches. A puncheon floor is made of logs whose upper surfaces have
been chipped flat with the adz. The cracks between the logs were not filled; there was no carpet;
consequently, if you dropped anything smaller than a peach, it was likely to go through. The
church was perched upon short sections of logs, which elevated it two or three feet from the
ground. Hogs slept under there, and whenever the dogs got after them during services, the
minister had to wait till the disturbance was over. In winter there was always a refreshing
breeze up through the puncheon floor; in summer there were fleas enough for all.

3 A slab bench is made of the outside cut of a saw-log, with the bark side down; it is supported
on four sticks driven into auger holes at the ends; it has no back and no cushions. The church was
twilighted with yellow tallow candles in tin sconces hung against the walls. Week days, the
church was a schoolhouse.

4 There were two stores in the village. My uncle, John A. Quarles, was proprietor of one of them.
It was a very small establishment, with a few rolls of "bit" calicoes on half a dozen shelves; a
few barrels of salt mackerel, coffee, and New Orleans sugar behind the counter; stacks of
brooms, hovels, axes, hoes, rakes, and such things here and there; a lot of cheap hats, bonnets,
and tin ware strung on strings and suspended from the walls; and at the other end of the room
was another counter with bag of hot on it, a cheese or two, and a keg of powder; in front of it a
row of nail kegs and a few pigs of lead, and behind it a barrel or two of New Orleans molasses
and native corn whisky on top. If a boy bought five or ten cents' worth of anything, he was
entitled to half a handful of sugar from the barrel; if a woman bought a few yards of calico she
was entitled to a spool of thread in addition to the usual gratis "trimmin's"; if a man bought a
trifle, he was at liberty to draw and swallow as big a drink of whisky as he wanted.

5 Everything was cheap: apples, peaches, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, and com, ten cents a
bushel; chickens, ten cents a piece; butter, six cents a pound; eggs, three cents a dozen; coffee
and sugar, five cents a pound; whisky ten cents a gallon. I do not know how prices are out there
in interior Missouri now, but I know what they are here in Hartford, Connecticut. To wit: apples,
three dollars a bushel; peaches, five dollars; Irish potatoes (choice Bermuda’s), five dollars;
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chickens, a dollar to a dollar and a half apiece, according to weight; butter, forty-five to sixty
cents a pound . [An Excerpt from Mark Twain s Autobiography]

Based on your understanding of the passage, answer the questions given below.
(a) Complete the sentence by choosing the appropriate ending.
Both the streets and lanes of Florida in 1835 were paved with ________________________
(i) Tough black tar in wet times and dry black tar in dry times
(ii) Tough coats of tar in wetter places and dry pack mud in drier places
(ii) Tough black mud in wet times and dry dust in dry times
(iv) Toughening of black mud for wet days and dry dust sprayed for dry days

(b) Comment on the economic condition of people from the description of their homes.

(c) List two unique aspects of the church building.

(d) Select the word in the text that is the opposite of 'elevated.
(i) Powered (ii) deflated (iii) demeaned (iv) demented

(e) With which statement given below would the writer not agree?
(i) Hogs would sometimes enter the church when the service was ongoing and the minister
would stop to let them out.
(ii) Dogs would get after the hogs during the service and the minister would have to stop till the
ruckus subsided.
(iii) The hogs resided with the dogs below the church level.
(iv) The minister's dogs would get after the hog owners during the service and make the minister
stop his service.

(f) Based on your understanding, why do you think there was no separate schoolhouse and
lessons were held in church during weekdays?

(g) What were the bonus items for purchases made by customers?
(i) Women buying calico. (ii) Boy spending five to ten cents.
(iii) Men who bought a trifle. (iv) Men buying calico

(h) Complete the sentence with the appropriate inference with respect to the following.
'Prices were cheap I do not know how prices are out there in interior Missouri now.'

(i) How can the conditions described in the passage be described?

(i) meagre (ii) self-sufficient (iii) basic (iv) poverty- stricken

(j) Select the most appropriate title for the passage from the list below.
(i) Historical Price Index by Mark Twain (ii) Life in Nineteenth Century America
(ii) Mark Twain's Autobiography (iv) Mark Twain's Florida Days

LITERATURE SECTION
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The LAST LESSON

-Alphonse Daudet
Story in brief -

The story is narrated by a French boy, Franz. He is lazy but sensitive and likes to play. He dislikes
studying French and hates his teacher M. Hamel.

After overpowering their districts of Alsace and Lorraine in France, Berlin has ordered that German
language instead of French be taught in the schools there.

It is the last day of their French teacher M. Hamel, who has been there for forty years. He is full of grief,
nostalgia and patriotism. As a mark of respect to his hard work, the village men also attend his ‘last
lesson’. They are sad as they did not learn their mother tongue, French in their childhood.

Franz is shocked to know that it’s his last lesson, as he does not know French. Now, suddenly, he gets
interested in learning it and understands everything taught on that day!

He develops an instant liking for the teacher, M. Hamel and respects him for his sincerity and hard
work.

He feels sad at departing from him and is ashamed for not being able to recite the lesson of participles.

M. Hamel tells them that they all are at fault for not being eager enough to learn, putting it off to the
next day. He blames himself for not teaching them sincerely.

His patriotism is reflected in his praise for the French language as being the most beautiful and most
logical language in the world. He tells the class to guard their language as being close to one’s language
is the key to escape from the prison of slavery. It will help them in getting free from the Germans.

They realize the importance of learning their mother tongue and that they have been defeated by the
Germans because of their illiteracy.

Franz feels that it is not possible to take away one’s language from a person as it is natural to each
being, may it be the “coo” to the pigeons or “French” to the Frenchmen

 Note down the summary in your homework copy and give your personal review (or what
did you learn from the chapter) in not less than 50 words

 What changes did the narrator find in the school when the order from Berlin came?