Notice the way Mr Gessler speaks English. His Englishis influenced by his mother tongue. He speaks Englishwith an accent.• When Mr Gessler speaks, p,t,k, sound like b,d,g. Canyou say these words as Mr Gessler would say them?It comes and never stops. Does it bother me? Not atall. Ask my brother, please.
- Mr. Gessler used to speak English with a German accent. His English sounded funny and a bit difficult to understand.
- Mr. Gessler would have spoken these lines as. Id comes and never sdobs. Does Id bodder me? Nod ad all. Ask my brother please.
(i) After a very long spell of heat, the weather is at last. (ii) We have no right to people who do small jobs.
(iii) Nitin has always his uncle, who is a self-made man.
(iv) The police are the matter thoroughly.
(v) If you want to go out, I will the children for you.
(vi) I promise to on your brother when I visit Lucknow next.
(vi) when you are crossing the main road.
Speak to five adults in your neighbourhood. Ask them the following questions (in any language they are comfortable in). Then come back and share your findings with the class.
(i) Do they buy their provisions packed in plastic packets at a big store, or loose, from a smaller store near their house?
(ii) Where do they buy their footwear? Do they buy branded footwear, or footwear made locally? What reasons do they have for their preference?
(iii) Do they buy ready-made clothes, or buy cloth and get their clothes stitched by a tailor? Which do they think is better?
What was the effect on Mr Gessler of the author’s remark about a certain pair of boots?
Look at the picture.Ajit: I have decided to go abroad for higher studies.Anisa: Have you? I dont think I ll ever do that. I love my country.Let pairs of students talk to each other about leaving thecountry. One student repeats Ajit’s statement. The other
gives a reason for not agreeing with Ajit. The sentenceopenings given below should be used.
What was Mr Gessler’s complaint against “big firms”?
What is the significance of the title? To whom or to what does it refer
What was the author’s opinion about Mr Gessler as a bootmaker?
Do you think Mr Gessler was a failure as a bootmaker or as a competitive businessman?
Why did the author visit the shop so infrequently?
What did Nishad give Mr Nath? Why?
Why did the king want to know answers to three questions?
What is the secret that Meena shares with Mridu inthe backyard
Why did the king want no more talk about the hilsa-fish?
Why did the neighbours kill the dog?
What is “strange” about Mr Nath’s Sundays?
Messengers were sent throughout the kingdom
(i) to fetch wise men.
(ii) to find answers to the questions.
(iii) to look for the wise hermit.
(iv) to announce a reward for those who could answer the questions.
Mark your choice.
How does Ravi get milk for the kitten?
What did the king ask Gopal to do to prove that he was clever?
Mark the right item.
(i) The old farmer and his wife loved the dog
(a) because it helped them in their day-to-day work.
(b) as if it was their own baby.
(c) as they were kind to all living beings.
(ii) When the old couple became rich, they
(a) gave the dog better food.
(b) invited their greedy neighbours to a feast.
(c) lived comfortably and were generous towards their poor neighbours.
(iii) The greedy couple borrowed the mill and the mortar to make
(a) rice pastry and bean sauce.
(b) magic ash to win rewards.
(c) a pile of gold.
Put each of the following in the correct order. Then use them appropriately to fill in the blanks in the paragraph that follows. Use correct punctuation marks.
Ravi Kant is a writer and ………….. Of course, he is much happier writing in English than in Hindi. He has written …………….. . I find his books a little hard to understand ………………… .
Why does Maya think Mr Nath is a crook? Who does she say the Sunday visitor is?
Did the wise men win the reward? If not, why not?
The king forgave the bearded man. What did he do to show his forgiveness?
Why was the king advised to go to magicians?
Read the following sentences.
It was a cold morning and stars still glowed in the sky.
An old man was walking along the road.
The words in italicised are articles. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are indefinite articles and ‘the’ is the definite article. ‘A’ is used before a singular countable noun. ‘An’ is used before a word that begins with a vowel.
Use a, an or the in the blanks.
There was once ………… play which became very successful. ………… famous actor was acting in it. In ………. play his role was that of ……….. aristocrat who had been imprisoned in …………. castle for twenty years. In……… last act of ……….. play someone would come on ……… stage with ………… letter which he would hand over ……….. to prisoner. Even though …………. aristocrat was not expected to read ………. letter at each performance, he always insisted that ………… letter be written out from beginning to end.
Why did the neighbours kill the dog?
What three things did Gopal do before he went to buy his hilsa-fish?
Read the following.
1. A group of children in your class are going to live in a hostel.
2. They have been asked to choose a person in the group to share a room with.
3.They are asking each other questions to decide who they would like to share a room with.
Ask one another questions about likes/dislikes/ preferences/hobbies/personal characteristics. Use the following questions and sentence openings.
(i) What do you enjoy doing after school? I enjoy... (ii) What do you like in general? I like...
(iii) Do you play any game? I don’t like...
(iv) Would you mind if I listened to music after dinner? I wouldn’t...
(v) Will it be all right if I...? It’s fine with me...
(vi) Is there anything you dislike, particularly? Well, I can’t share...
(vii) Do you like to attend parties? Oh, I...
(viii) Would you say you are...? I think...
(i) Who was the bearded man?
(ii) Why did he ask for the king’s forgiveness?