CLASS 10+1 ENGLISH CHAPTER WISE QUESTION ANSWER
CHAPTER 1 GENDER BIAS
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1. What advertisement did the author see on the notice board?
Ans. She saw a standard job requirement notice from the famous automobile company, Telco.
Q2. What course was the author pursuing at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore?
Ans. The author was pursuing a Master’s in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Q3. How did Sudha feel about the panel before the interview?
Ans. Sudha told the panel that she thought that it was only a technical interview.
Q4. Why did Sudha write a postcard to Telco?
Ans. Sudha wrote a postcard to Telco to complain against gender discrimination in the company.
Q5. How many girls are now studying in engineering colleges?
Ans. Fifty percent of students studying degrees in engineering colleges are girls.
Q6. Why did the author’s hostel mates want her to go to Pune for the interview?
Ans. The author’s hostel mates wanted her to use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy the famous Pune saris for cheap.
Q7. What did Sudha become angry after reading the job advertisement from the automobile company Telco?
Ans. A line in the advertisement that lady candidates need not apply made the author very upset.
Q8. When did Sudha first see JRD Tata?
Ans. Sudha first saw JRD Tata when she was showing some reports to Sumant Moolgaokar in his Bombay office.
Q9. How many people were there on the interview panel? What did the author realize?
Ans. There were six people on the interview panel. She realized that it was a serious business.
Q10. What would the author want from life, if time stops?
Ans. Sudha would want JRD to be alive so that he could see how the company he started had grown.
Q11. What was the reason given by the elderly man for not employing women in Telco?
Ans. The elderly gentleman told Sudha that they had never employed any ladies on the shop floor of the company. "This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory," he said to prove his point.
Q12. Who told Sudha first about her achievement at Telco?
Ans. Sumant Moolgaokar told JRD Tata that Sudha was the first engineer to work on Telco’s shop floor.
Q13. What type of questions was the author asked by the interview panel?
Ans. The author was asked technical questions by the interview panel.
Q14. What delegation did the author receive from Telco?
Ans. She received a telegram to appear for an interview at Telco’s Pune office.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1. What were Sudha’s plans after completing her master’s course in Computer Science?
Ans. Sudha was a young, bold, and bright girl. She was doing her master’s course in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She was the only girl in her postgraduate department. She wanted to go abroad to complete her doctorate in Computer Science. She had been offered scholarships by many universities in the USA. She had not thought of taking up a job in India.
Q2. Why did Sudha write a letter to the topmost person at Telco?
Ans. There was a small line at the bottom of the job advertisement from the famous company, Telco. It said, “Lady candidates need not apply.” Sudha was shocked to read this. She was surprised how a company such as Telco was discriminating on the basis of gender. She grew so angry that she decided to write to the topmost person in Telco’s management. She wanted to inform him about the injustice being perpetrated by the company. And she wrote a letter to Mr. JRD Tata, expressing her displeasure at the discrimination against women. She took it as a challenge to apply for the job which was not considered applicable for women by the Telco Company.
Q3. When did Sudha come to know who JRD Tata was? When did she happen to meet him?
Ans. It was only after joining Telco that Sudha came to know that Mr. JRD Tata was the uncrowned king of Indian industry. However, she did not get a chance to meet him till she was transferred to Mumbai. One day, she was showing some reports to Sumant Moolgaokar in his Bombay office when suddenly JRD Tata came there. That was the first time she met "appro JRD." ‘Appro’ means “our” in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him. Sumant Moolgaokar told JRD that Sudha was the first engineer to work on Telco’s shop floor. She was feeling very nervous, remembering her postcard episode.
Q4. Draw a character sketch of Sudha Murthy (or) Describe Sudha’s life as a student at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Ans. Sudha was a young, bold, and bright girl. Life was full of fun and joy. She was doing her master’s course in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. She was the only girl in her postgraduate department. She wanted to go abroad to complete her doctorate in Computer Science. She had not thought of taking up a job in India. But when she saw the line “Lady Candidates need not apply” in the job requirement notice from Telco, she thought of complaining against the injustice and gender bias to the topmost person in Telco. She wrote a post card to JRD Tata. She faced the interview panel confidently and became the first woman engineer to work on Telco’s shop floor.
CHAPTER 2 THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1. Why was Grandmother unhappy about the school education?
Ans. When the author came back from school, his grandmother would ask him what the teacher had taught him. He would tell her English words and little things of western science. This made her unhappy.
Q2. How did the sparrows (on the last day) that they had not come for the bread?
Ans. When the grandmother’s corpse was lying in the verandah, thousands of sparrows sat scattered on the floor. There was no chirruping. The author’s mother broke some bread into pieces and threw them to the sparrows. The sparrows took no notice of the pieces of bread and flew away quietly.
Q3. What details in the story show that grandmother was a religious woman?
Ans. The author’s grandmother has been portrayed as a deeply religious lady. She spent most of her time saying prayers and telling beads of her rosary. Her lips always moved in inaudible prayer. She was fond of reading holy books. Grandmother would read the scriptures in the village temple.
Q4. What took place of the village dogs in Grandmother’s life in the city?
Ans. Sparrows took the place of the village dogs in Grandmother’s life in the city.
Q5. Why did the author’s grandmother go to school with the author?
Ans. The author’s grandmother went to school with him. The school was attached to the temple. While the author attended his class, she would read the holy books inside the temple. When they both had finished, they would walk back together.
Q6. How did they feed the village dogs while returning home?
Ans. When the author’s grandmother went to leave the author to school, she would take some chapattis with her. On the way back, the village dogs met them. Then they would feed the village dogs with stale chapattis.
Q7. What according to the author, was absurd and undignified on Grandmother’s part?
Ans. When grandmother told about the games she used to play as a child that was absurd and undignified on her part.
Q8. What was their breakfast?
Ans. They had a thick stale chapatti with butter and sugar spread on it.
Q9. What could have been the cause of Grandmother’s falling ill?
Ans. She had been thumping the drum for several hours, so she fell ill.
Q10. Why did she say her prayer in a monotonous sing song?
Ans. The author lived with his grandmother in the village. She used to wake him up and got him ready for school. She said her prayer in a monotonous sing-song manner so that the author might listen and learn it by heart.
Q11. How did the author go to school in the city?
Ans. In the city the author went to school in a motor bus.
Q12. What was the common link of friendship between the author and his grandmother?
Ans. The common link of friendship between the author and his grandmother was broken when the author was given a room of his own.
Q13. What was Grandmother’s daily routine in the city?
Ans. From sunrise to sunset, grandmother would sit by her spinning wheel. She rarely left it to talk to anyone. Only in the afternoon, she took rest for a while to feed the sparrows.
Q14. Why did she feel disturbed when the author announced that they were being given music lessons at school?
Ans. She felt disturbed because she thought that music was a monopoly of harlots and beggars.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
Q1. Give a brief re-portrait of the grandmother.
Ans. Grandmother was an old woman. She was short, fat, and slightly bent. Her face was full of wrinkles. She put on spotless white clothes. There was a great friendship between her and the author. She woke him up every morning and got him ready for school. She would help him in his studies. Grandmother was a religious woman. She would say her prayer regularly in the morning. She would go to the temple and read holy books. The grandmother was a noble and kind woman. She loved to feed birds and animals. She used to feed dogs in the village and sparrows in the city. She did not lose her temper. Thus she was a grand old lady.
Q2. What information in the text would you cite in support of your answer?
Ans. No, it is not true, as the first paragraph of the chapter tells us that she was once young and pretty. Besides, this passage also reveals that Grandmother often told the author about the games she used to play in her childhood. This shows that the author’s grandmother had not always been ‘short and fat and slightly bent’. It is also mentioned in the passage that people would say that she had once been young and pretty and even had a husband. But the author doesn’t want to believe it as he finds her terribly old. The author says that he had known her for twenty years and she had always looked too old to grow older. That is why the author considers her stories about the games she used to play as a child quite funny and undignified on her part.
Q3. How would Grandmother prepare the author for school?
Ans. Grandmother used to wake up the author in the morning. She bathed and dressed him while she said her morning prayer. She said her morning prayer in a sing-song manner. She wanted the author to hear it and get to know it by heart. Then she would fetch his wooden slate, a tiny earthen ink-pot, and a reed pen. She would then give him a breakfast of a thick, stale chapatti with a little butter and sugar spread on it. She would carry several stale chapattis with her for the village dogs. They went to school together.
Q4. Write a brief note on Grandmother’s relationship with sparrows.
Ans. In the city, Grandmother used to feed the sparrows in the verandah with breadcrumbs. She would feed them very lovingly. Hundreds of sparrows collected round her. But she never showed any emotions. The sparrows seemed to enjoy her company. When grandmother died, the sparrows were full of grief. They did not touch the food that the author’s mother threw to them. But they did not touch them even. They flew away quietly when Grandmother’s dead body was carried off for cremation.
Q5. Grandmother is portrayed as a very religious woman. What details in the story illustrate this?
Ans. The most prominent examples are the practice of feeding stray dogs in the village with leftover chapattis, the act of feeding sparrows in the courtyard with breadcrumbs, her affectionate care towards her grandson, particularly when preparing him for school each morning. All these details create the impression that she was a kind lady.
LESSON 3: LIBERTY AND DISCIPLINE
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What, according to the author, is meant by democracy?
Ans: According to the author, democracy means that responsibility is decentralized.
2. Why does one have a natural inclination to avoid discipline?
Ans: One has a natural inclination to avoid discipline because discipline is considered to be a restraint on liberty.
3. How can the leader build up the leadership of his team?
Ans: A leader can build up a team with discipline.
4. What did the Colonel tell the author about discipline?
Ans: The Colonel told the author that discipline begins with the officers.
5. What is discipline?
Ans: Discipline means to do something under rules and regulations. While driving, you keep to the left of the road—that is discipline.
6. How does pure discipline differ from enforced discipline?
Ans: Pure discipline is self-discipline that comes from within by consent or understanding. Enforced discipline is imposed through physical violence and fear.
7. How can you say that discipline is not derogatory?
Ans: Discipline is not derogatory because it is only discipline that enables man to enjoy liberty.
8. Why is discipline unavoidable for a modern man?
Ans: Modern man's life is complex. We all are interdependent. Discipline keeps us on the right track.
9. What type of discipline is deliberately designed to submerge the individual?
Ans: Totalitarian discipline is deliberately designed to submerge the individual.
10. How did the Colonel punish the author for not returning a salute properly?
Ans: The Colonel told the Sergeant Major to plant his staff in the ground and let the author practice how to return a salute until he learned it.
11. How does the author define liberty?
Ans: Liberty means the freedom to make a choice. When you get in a car, you can choose where you want to go—that is liberty.
12. What types of liberty do the British believe in?
Ans: The British believe in the freedom to think what they like, say what they like, work at what they like, and go where they like.
13. How did the author acknowledge the salute of a private soldier?
Ans: The author acknowledged his salute in a very casual way with an airy wave of his hand.
14. What, according to the author, was not a new technique invented in the last war?
Ans: According to the author, taking men into your confidence was not a new technique in the last war.
15. How does the author commend the role of British railway signalmen in the last war?
Ans: The author commends their role by saying that they knew the importance of their work.
16. How can a nation overcome an economic or military crisis?
Ans: A nation can overcome an economic or military crisis with discipline.
17. Why should one keep to the left?
Ans: For one's own safety, for the consideration of others, and due to the fear of punishment.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What are the advantages of discipline?
Ans: Discipline enables men to live in a community. It is the backbone of society. It ensures security for the poor and weak, keeps people systematic and focused. The author quotes the example of British railway signalmen who, during the war, never left their post. They knew its importance to others and their country. One can have discipline without liberty, but one cannot have liberty without discipline.
2. What does indiscipline lead to?
Ans: Discipline is unavoidable for the modern man. It is only discipline that enables men to live in a community and yet retain individual liberty. Indiscipline leads to economic and social ruin of a nation. Without discipline, the security of the poor and the weak vanishes. Indiscipline is an enemy of a man and a nation. It leads to chaos and civil war. Indiscipline eats up the roots of our moral, social, and national life.
3. How does history teach us the need for disciplined living? Explain.
Ans: History teaches us that in the absence of discipline, order fades away in a nation, its economic life decays, its standard of living falls, and security for the weak and the poor vanishes. Then, to enforce discipline, some military power or a dictator steps in. He imposes some form of discipline to control the situation. As a result, the liberty of the people is curbed and crushed.
4. How can an officer inculcate a sense of discipline in his subordinates?
Ans: An officer can inculcate a sense of discipline in his subordinates by becoming an example. It is rightly said that discipline begins with officers. Being a role model, an officer must impose discipline on himself first. He must accept a higher degree of responsibility. If he does, he doesn’t need to enforce it on his subordinates—his order will be obeyed readily.
5. What is the relationship between liberty and discipline?
Ans: Liberty and discipline exist together. They are two sides of the same coin. When you get in a car, you can choose where you want to go—that is liberty. But while driving, you must keep to the left of the road—that is discipline. Discipline is a restraint on liberty. Many of us have an inclination to avoid it. But we cannot get anything worthwhile without paying for it. Liberty and discipline go hand in hand to strengthen a nation and its people.
SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. In which war did Captain Vikram Batra display exemplary bravery to win the Param Vir Chakra?
Ans: Captain Vikram Batra displayed exemplary bravery during the 1999 Kargil War in Kashmir between India and Pakistan. He attained martyrdom while trying to rescue an injured officer and was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his valour and sacrifice.
2. Why was flying officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon awarded the Param Vir Chakra?
Ans: He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for showing great bravery in the defence of Srinagar during the Indo-Pak War of 1971.
3. How did Vikram Batra come to join the Indian Army?
Ans: Vikram Batra was selected to join the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun in 1996 in Jessore Company of Manekshaw Battalion. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant of the 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles at Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir and later rose to the rank of Captain.
4. When and where did Major Som Nath Sharma die?
Ans: Major Som Nath Sharma died on 3rd November 1947 in Badgam village of Kashmir during the Indo-Pak War of 1947-48.
5. Havildar Abdul Hamid is known as a killer of tanks. Why?
Ans: Because Havildar Abdul Hamid knocked out some enemy tanks during the Indo-Pak War of 1965.
6. In which war did Lieutenant Colonel Dhan Singh Thapa distinguish himself as a great soldier?
Ans: Lieutenant Colonel Dhan Singh Thapa distinguished himself as a great soldier during the Chinese attack in Ladakh.
7. What was Abdul Hamid’s role during the Sino-Indian War of 1962?
Ans: During the Sino-Indian War of 1962, Abdul Hamid’s battalion was part of the 7th Infantry Brigade commanded by Brigadier John Dalvi. It participated in the battle of Namka Chu against the Chinese.
8. How did Major Som Nath Sharma face the mortar firing from the enemy?
Ans: Major Som Nath Sharma took upon himself the task of filling magazines with his right hand in plaster and issuing them to his men, operating light machine guns. Meanwhile, a mortar shell exploded on the ammunition near him, but he urged his men to continue fighting bravely.
9. What was the effect of the capture of Point 5140 during the Kargil War?
Ans: Captain Vikram Batra captured Point 5140 in the Kargil War, setting in motion a string of successes, such as Point 5100, Point 4700, Junction Peak, and Three Pimples.
10. Name the five recipients of the Param Vir Chakra mentioned in the lesson "Let’s Not Forget The Martyrs".
Ans: Major Som Nath Sharma, Dhan Singh Thapa, Abdul Hamid, Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, and Captain Vikram Batra.
LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. Describe the role of Lt. Col. Dhan Singh Thapa during the Chinese attack.
Ans: Lt. Col. Dhan Singh Thapa was an Indian Army Major. In October 1962, China attacked India. The Chinese forces attacked the Chushal airport in Ladakh. Major Thapa and his men repulsed their attack twice. When the Chinese army attacked for the third time, Major Thapa fought bravely, killed many Chinese soldiers, and was captured as a war prisoner but later released.
2. Explain the bravery displayed by Havildar Abdul Hamid in the Indo-Pak War of 1965.
Ans: Abdul Hamid was posted in the Khem Karan–Bhikhiwind Sector in Punjab. On 10 September 1965, Pakistan forces attacked near village Cheema with a regiment of Patton tanks. Realizing the grave situation, Abdul Hamid moved out with his gun mounted on a jeep and started firing on enemy tanks. He destroyed two enemy tanks but was mortally wounded by a high-explosive shell. He kept firing on yet another tank until he died.
3. Explain the part played by Captain Vikram Batra in the Kargil War in June 1999.
Ans: Captain Vikram Batra was given the task of recapturing Point 5140. Leading from the rear, he and his men climbed up under heavy enemy firing, hurled grenades at the machine gun post, and killed three enemy soldiers in close combat. He was seriously injured but regrouped his men to continue the mission. Inspired by his courage, the soldiers charged and recaptured Point 5140, setting in motion successes at Point 5100, Point 4700, Junction Peak, Three Pimples, Point 4750, and Point 4875.
4. Describe the circumstances of the martyrdom of Major Som Nath Sharma.
Ans: Major Som Nath Sharma was the first recipient of the Param Vir Chakra. In 1947, Pakistani soldiers disguised as tribals attacked Badgam. His right hand was plastered due to an injury while playing hockey. Seven hundred enemy soldiers surrounded his company and fired heavily. Despite being outnumbered, he and his soldiers killed 200 enemy soldiers. He died when a shell exploded on the ammunition near him, showing great courage and fighting for his country’s dignity. He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously.
5. How did Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon defend the Srinagar air base in 1971?
Ans: Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his lone defense of Srinagar Air Base during the Indo-Pak War of 1971. On 14 December 1971, Srinagar airfield was attacked by six Pakistan Air Force F-86 jets. Under heavy fire, he took off and was able to destroy two enemy planes. After a lengthy dogfight at tree-top level, his aircraft was hit, and he was killed. His flying skill was even praised by the pilot who shot him down.
