Date :

AHMEDABAD
Class : Xl
PUBLIC SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL WS No. : 2
Subject : Eng. Lit
Name: Roll No. :

HORNBILL CH.1 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY

Q1 Why was it hard for the author to believe that the grandmother was once young and pretty?
Q2 The grandmother has been portrayed as a very religious lady. What details in the story create
this impression?
Q3 The grandmother had a divine beauty. How does the author bring it out?
Q4 What proof do you find of friendship between the grandmother and grandson in the story?
Q5 Draw a comparison between the author’s village school education and city school education
Q6 Everybody including the sparrows mourned the grandmother’s death. Elaborate.
Q7 Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

The priest taught us the alphabet and the morning prayer. While the children sat in rows on either side of
the verandah singing the alphabet or the prayer in a chorus, my grandmother sat inside reading the
scriptures. When we had both finished, we would walk back together. This time the village dogs would
meet us at the temple door. They followed us to our home growling and fighting with each other for the
chapattis we threw to them.

1. What did the grandmother do in the temple?

A Read scriptures
B Play with the kids
C Feed the dogs
D All of these
2. Who made chapatis for dogs?
A Narrator
B His Grandmother
C Both of them
D None of them
3. What does the word ‘Chorus’ mean?
A Sing in a group
B Sing alone
C Sing in a group of two
D Sing in a group of three
4. Which literary device has been used in the line ‘They followed us to our home growling’?
A Onomatopoeia
B Transferred epithet
C Epithet
D Repetition

POEM .1 A PHOTOGRAPH

1. Explain: The sea holiday was her past, mine is her laughter.
2. When and where were the three cousins photographed?
3. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”?
4. Read the stanza carefully and answer the questions that follow :

Now she’s been dead nearly as many years

as that girl lived. And of this circumstance
 There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.

Questions
(i) How many years ago had the poetess’s mother died?
(ii) What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?
(iii) Explain Its silence silences.

SNAPSHOTS CH.1 THE SUMMER OF THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE HORSE

1. Why Aram does not believe his eyes when he saw Mourad in one summer morning?
2.Was it safe for Mourad to tell Aram about the white horse?
3.According to Aram, what was the definition of stealing a horse?
4.How the farmer was convinced that this horse was not his?
5. Give the charater sketch of Uncle Khosrove.
6. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

Every family has a crazy streak in it somewhere, and my cousin Mourad was considered the natural
descendant of the crazy streak in our tribe. Before him was our uncle Khosrove, an enormous man with
a powerful head of black hair and the largest mustache in the San Joaquin Valley, a man so furious in
temper, so irritable, so impatient that he stopped anyone from talking by roaring. It is no harm; pay no
attention to it.

1) What does the word ‘Furious’ mean?

A) Calm
B) Composed
C) Angry
D) Soothing
2) What was uncle Khosrove’s pet dialogue?
A) It is no harm; pay attention to them
B) It is no harm; pay no attention to it
C) It is no harm; pay no attention to them
D) It is no harm; pay attention to it
3) 3) What superlative feature did uncle Khosrove have?
A) Largest head
B) Largest hair
C) Largest mustache
D) Largest brain
4) 4) What was the common feature between uncle Khosrove and Mourad?
A) Both were impatient
B) Both had crazy streak
C) Both repeated their own pet dialogues
D) All of these