7th standard English (The Town by the Sea )

 

 

The Town by the Sea

I.. If your answer is “Not true”. say what is true. Substantiate all answers by reading to him/her the relevant sentences in the passage. Write down your answers.

1.The director woke up with the feeling that the building.
a. would be flooded, b. would be burnt down, c. would collapse (Underline the phrase that completes the sentence)
Answer:a. would be collapse

2.The director cut off his wife’s call because he wanted to save himself first.
Answer:True.

3.The director lost the chance of hear¬ing his wife’s last words.
Answer:True.

4.Car Nicobar Islands stand the highest among Nicobar islands.
Answer:True.

 

5.Port Blair was hit by the rising sea before Car Nicobar Islands.
Answer:True.

6.The director heard from Malacca that his family had survived.
Answer:Not True.

7.The director’s heart broke when he felt his son’s misery.
Answer:True.

8.The poor thirteen-year-old’s misery was that he had not been able to save his mother and sister.
Answer:True.

 

9.When did the director become really anxious?
Answer:When the director tried to call his wife he did not get any answer. Suddenly he observed a strange phenomenon. The water in the harbour had begun to rise rapidly and the anchored ship seemed to be swirling. He ran to the higher ground with others.

It occurred to the director that Nicobar Islands are low lying islands and Car Nicobar Islands stand only a few meters above the sea level at their height highest point. This made him anxious.

10.What did the director’s son tell him?
Answer:When the director spoke to his son directly,, director came to know that family had been in the bedroom when the earthquake started. A terrifying sound from the direction of the sea had driven them into the drawing-room, but the boy had kept running; when the wave hit, the house dissolved into splinters and the boy was carried away as if on a wind.

Flailing his arms, he managed to take hold of something that seemed to be fixed to the earth. Through wave after wave he managed to keep his grip. When the water receded, he saw that he was holding on to the only upright structure when the director asked about his mother and sister the boy started crying, by saying that they just disappeared.

11.The mother and her sister had died. The boy feels he is to be blamed. This shows his sense of responsibility. Explain this point.
Answer:The boy began to cry when his lather (director) enquired about his mother and sister because he felt his father may scold him of leaving them alone. Being a body of thirteen years what would he have done or try to rescue them. But in that particular instance without knowingly, the boy ran away in fear. Later when he realized that, he repented a lot which was impossible to rectify. This feeling of repentance made him to cry and also shows his sense of responsibility.

12.The director wanted to mourn alone quietly.
Answer:True.

13.Why did the director choose his slides and not anything else?
Answer:Director took only his slides and not any other things belonging to his wife or daughter because it may cause more pain which brings the memory of the past. It is an expression of the innermost sovereignty of the self because nothing now remains to cloud its vision. In the manner of his choosing there was not a particle of hesitation, but found comfort in the knowledge of an impersonal effort.

14.Words seem futile..”, says the author. Explain what he means.
Answer:The author says that the words seem futile because he realized when the director didn’t want to get sympathy from others, he wanted to mourn alone. So the author felt that mere words are futile or useless to console anybody’s painful feelings.

15.How did the author himself intervene and act in the course of the events?
Answer:The author tried to put himself in the director’s position and wondered what he would have done in those circumstances. He thought to himself that words were of no use to anybody.

Even thinking, reflecting, and writing about the events seemed trivial and wasteful. The truth is that nobody knows how people would react at that time. Only time will tell. It is an expression of the innermost sovereignty of the self.

16.How was he able do go to Car Nicobar islands? Why?
Answer:He went by to Car Nicobar islands with the intervention of local administration and the officers on the airbase, he was able to get the flight. He spent the day searching through the rubble and found many possessions, but no trace of his wife and daughter.

 

17.What surprised the writer after the flood?
Answer:Writer saw to his surprise that many thick strands of coconut palms were still standing even on the edge of the water. As far as the forest the canopy seemed almost undisturbed. It had caused maximum possible damage to life and property and left nature largely Unharmed.

18.Name the objects which were found in the directors house.
Answer:Director hurried to a spot where there was a mound of household objects, his aristocrat suitcase, steel trunk, a cabinet, records of his office and slides. All these made the director to identify his belongings.

19.Why did family live in Malacca?
Answer:Director’s wife was a teacher in school where she could have achieved a lot which the director couldn’t give her. Since transfer never came even after applying many a times, family lived in Malacca.

 

 

II Write the names of five countries and then make words from them using the shuffle -‘an’
Ex: America – American singer India – Indian astrologer Italy – Italian cook Austria-Austrian athlete Canada – Canadian chemist Australia-Australian skier Europe – European Novelist

III Fill in the blanks to supply the correct forms of the word “surprise”.

1.    Surprised at finding the lone, hungry cub grandfather brought it home.

2.  A tiger on the leash surprised people on the street.

3.  It was a surprise, for them to see a man with a tiger.

4.  “Don’t be surprised if he eats up Mahamoud,” said Grandmother.

5.  Surprisingly the tiger didn’t harm the man.

6.  Surprisedly they all watched the man pet¬ting the tiger.

 

IV Write two more sentences beginning with

1.    fortunately.

2.  unfortunately.

fortunately: Fortunately I won the prize in drawing competition.
unfortunately: Unfortunately, I missed the rank by 3 marks.

 

V  Writing:

It so happened that the author met the director again on December 26, 2005. He expressed his condolences on his great misfortune.

Over a cup of tea, they talked about that terrible night the previous year. Imagine what they might have said, and write a coversation between them.
(Conversation between director and author)

• Director: (Sipping the tea) Do you know previous year on the same day I lost my family
• Author: I think it is very difficult to run the family with your son, now. I am sorry for you.
• Director: Of course yes. I have left him at a residential school.
• Author: Past is Past. Try to forget this. It’s future of your son.
• Director: I’m trying to forget, but still everything comes to my mind.

VI Multiple Choice Questions

1.Director was living in _______ .
a) Malacca
b) Delhi
c) Car Nicobar islands
d) Port Blair
Answer:a) Malacca

2.Director knew that government office in Car Nicobar had _____ .
a) rescue force
b) satellite phone
c) mobile
d) none.
Answer:b) satellite phone

3.Director’s son was found _________ .
a) at the banks of the sea
b) in drawing room
c) clinging to rafters of the church
d) no where.
Answer:c) clinging to rafters of the church

 

4.Director showed his daughter’s ___________ .
a) pencil box
b) dress
c) paint box
d) schoolbag
Answer:c) paint box

5.Director saw a mound of household objects but he took up only _ .
a)scutcase
b) steel trunt
c) a cabinet
d) his slides.
Answer:d) his slides.