REFERENCE TO CONTEXT

REFERENCE TO CONTEXT BASED QUESTIONS (POETRY)

1. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

(a) Why did the poet feel sorry?    1

Answer: There were two roads. The poet felt sorry as he could not travel on both the roads.

(b) What does ‘yellow wood’ stand for?    1

Answer: It was the season of autumn. The leaves had turned yellow. The wood looked yellowish due to yellow leaves.

(c) Pick out a word from the extract that means the same as ‘deviated’.    1

Answer: Diverged.

 

2. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Then took the other, just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear ;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same.

(a) Which road did the poet take?   1

Answer: The poet took the road which was less travelled.

(b) Why did he take the second road?   1

Answer: He took the second road as it was less travelled. He wanted to do something different from others.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘decent’.   1

Answer: Fair.

 

3. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

(a) What does ‘both’ stand for in the first line ?   1

Answer: ‘Both’ in the first line stands for the two roads which diverged in a yellow wood.

(b) What does the poet think about the first road?   1

Answer: The poet thinks that he will travel the first road some other day.

(c) Which word in the stanza stands for ‘set foot’?   1

Answer: Trodden.

 

4. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence ;

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

(a) What does the poet tell with a sigh?   1

Answer: The poet tells with a sigh that he came across two roads in the wood and he chose the one which was chosen by only a few travellers.

(b) Pick out the phrase from the stanza that conveys ‘future time’.   1

Answer: Ages and ages.

(c) What do the last two lines convey?   1

Answer: In the last two lines, the poet conveys that his decision of choosing the road influenced his life. If he had taken the first road, his life would have been different.

5. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

(a) Where does the poet want to go?    1

Answer: The poet wants to go to Innisfree, a place where he had spent a lot of time as a boy.

(b) What does he wish to do there?    1

Answer: He wishes to build a small hut of clay and wattles. He will sow nine rows of beans and keep a hive for the honeybee.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘get up’.   1

Answer: Arise.

6. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow.
And evenings full of the linnet’s wings.

(a) How does peace come in the morning?   1

Answer: The peace comes dropping from the veil of the morning when the sun rises behind the curtains of mist; it gives immense pleasure to the poet.

(b) Why is midnight a glimmer, and noon a purple glow?   1

Answer: The poet’s dream place, Innisfree, is an island in the middle of a lake. At midnight the lake glimmers faintly but at noon it shines brightly.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘shine’.   1

Answer: Glimmer.

7. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

I will arise, and go now, for always night and day
I hear the lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in deep heart’s core.

(a) What does he hear in his heart’s core?     1

Answer: He hears the low sounds of the lake water lapping its shore.

(b) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘river bank’.   1

Answer: Shore.

(c) Find the example of Alliteration from the stanza.   1

Answer: Alliteration (the repetition of the first letter) can be seen in the following line: “Lake water lapping with low sounds”.

8. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

(a) What does the word “there” in the above lines refer to?   1

Answer: The word ‘there’ in the above lines refers to Innisfree, a place full of beauty and peace in Ireland.

(b) How does peace enter the huts of peasants?   1

Answer: Peace enters the huts of the peasants through small dewdrops of the morning which gives the poet aesthetic pleasure.

(c) Name the literary device used in the poem.    1

Answer: The literary device used in the above lines is ‘metaphor’ because peace is compared with the vails of the morning (‘like’ is not used here). Repetition is also used here (e.g. dropping) to stress images.

9. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few.
And the nights are so long in winter,
That they cannot sleep them through;

(a) Where is the place under reference? What kind of place is it?   1

Answer: The place under reference is ‘Northland’ which is far off in the north. Here days are short and the nights are long.

(b) Why can’t people sleep through the nights?    1

Answer: People can’t sleep through the nights because the nights are very long in this region.

(c) Which word in the stanza stands in the opposite of ‘many’?   1

Answer: Few.

10. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Where they harness the swift reindeer,
To the sledges when it snows;
And the children look like bear’s cubs
In their funny, furry clothes:

(a) What do the children look like?   1

Answer: The children wear funny furry dresses. They look like bear’s cubs.

(b) What does ‘swift reindeer’ convey?   1

Answer: ‘Swift reindeer’ conveys that the reindeer are very fast when they pull the sledges on the snow.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘fastening of a horse to the cart’.   1

Answer: Harness.

11. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

They tell them a curious story —
I don’t believe ‘tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.

(a) What is the curious story?   1

Answer: The curious story is a legend of an old greedy lady who angered St. Peter who cursed the lady for her greed.

(b) What lesson does it give?   1

Answer: The tale teaches us a lesson that greed is a vice. One should not be greedy like the old lady who was cursed by St. Peter.

(c) Which word in the stanza stands for ‘story’?    1

Answer: Tale.

12. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just us he did, you know,

(a) Which line shows that St. Peter is not alive today?   1

Answer: ‘Once, when the good Saint Peter lived in the world below’ shows that St. Peter is not alive today.

(b) What did St. Peter do?   1

Answer: St. Peter was an apostle of Jesus Christ. His mission was to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ.

(c) Find the word from the passage which means the same as ‘sermonising’.   1

Answer: Preaching.

13. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

He came to the door of a cottage.
In travelling round the earth.
Where a little woman was making cakes.
And baking them on the hearth;

(a) Where did St. Peter reach one day?    1

Answer: One day, St. Peter reached the door of a cottage.

(b) Why did he travel from one place to another?    1

Answer: St. Peter was an apostle of Jesus Christ. He preached the teachings of Jesus Christ, so he travelled from one place to another.

(c) What is the meaning of ‘hearth’?    1

Answer: A day oven.

14. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

And being faint with fasting,
For the day was almost done,
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.

(a) Who is ‘he’ in the above stanza? What was his condition?   1

Answer: ‘He’ in the stanza stands for St. Peter. His travelling from one place to another made him almost fainted. He was hungry and thirsty.

(b) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘collapse’.    1

Answer: Faint.

(c) What did he ask the old lady?   1

Answer: Being hungry, he asked the old lady to give him a single piece of cake from her store.

15. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it, and thought it seemed
Too large to give away.

(a) Why did the lady make a little cake?   1

Answer: The old lady was greedy. She did not want to give St. Peter a big cake. So she made a little cake for him.

(b) How did the little cake appear to her? What does it show about her nature?    1

Answer: The little cake also appeared too large to be given. It shows her greedy nature.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘appeared’.    1

Answer: Seemed.

16. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat ;
And baked it thin as a wafer,
But she shouldn’t part with that.

(a) Why did the old lady take a tiny scrap of dough?    1

Answer: The old lady was a greedy woman. She wanted to give St. Peter, the smallest cake.

(b) Why did she make a thin cake?    1

Answer: She wanted to save some dough. She wanted to give him a very small cake. So, she made a cake as thin as a wafer.

(c) Find the words from the stanza that mean the same as (i) little, and (ii) paste of flour.    1

Answer: (i) tiny; (ii) dough.

17. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

For she said, “My cakes that seem too small
When I eat of them myself
Are yet too large to give away.”
So she put them on the shelf.

(a) Who is ‘she’ in the stanza?    1

Answer: ‘She’ in the stanza stands for the little greedy woman who angered St. Peter.

(b) What shows that she was a greedy woman?    1

Answer: Her greed makes her think that the cakes were very small when she eats them herself but appeared too large to be given away. It shows that she was a greedy woman.

(c) Pick out the word that means the same as ‘appear’.    1

Answer: Seem.

18. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

And he said, “You are too selfish
To dwell in a human form,
To have both food and shelter,
And fire to keep you warm.”

(a) Who is ‘he’ in the first line? Whom is he talking to?   1

Answer: ‘He’ in the first line is St. Peter. He is addressing the greedy old woman.

(b) What did he say to the woman?   1

Answer: He said that she was so greedy that she did not deserve to be called a woman, a human being. She could not get food, shelter and other comforts of human life.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza which means the same as ‘to live’.    1

Answer: Dwell.

19. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Then good Saint Peter grew angry,
For he was hungry and faint,
And surely such a woman
Was enough to provoke a saint.

(a) Why did the saint grow angry?    1

Answer: Saint Peter was hungry. He asked the old lady for a cake. But the lady was so greedy that she did not oblige him. So he grew angry.

(b) What do the above lines show about the lady?    1

Answer: These lines show that the lady lacked decency. She was a greedy woman. She did not part even with a wafer-like cake. She angered the saint.

(c) Pick out the word that means the same as ‘to make angry’.    1

Answer: Provoke.

20. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same ;
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.

(a) ‘And that was left the same’. What was left the same?   1

Answer: The old woman had a scarlet cap on her head. When she was changed into a bird, her cap remained scarlet.

(b) Who was responsible for her condition?   1

Answer: Her greed was responsible for her condition.

(c) Pick out the word from the stanza that means the same as ‘blaze’.   1

Answer: Flame.

21. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

(a) What does the poet mean by the word ‘earth’ in this line?   1

Answer: Soil.

(b) ‘In which we shall all lie.’ When will this happen?   1

Answer: After death.

(c) Find the antonym of ‘above’ from the passage.   1

Answer: Beneath.

22. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.

(a) What does the first line of the stanza imply?   1

Answer: The first line implies that the importance of sun, air, and water is universally recognised.

(b) What has war been compared to?   1

Answer: War has been compared to winter.

(c) Which word in the above lines means the same as ‘to suffer or die from cold?    1

Answer: Starved.

23. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Remember they have eyes like ours that wake,
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.

(a) Who are ‘they’ in the stanza?    1

Answer: The foreigners.

(b) According to the poet, how can we win all?    1

Answer: Through love.

(c) Which word means the same as ‘to identify’?    1

Answer: Recognise.

24. Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn
Remember, we who take arms against each other

(a) What is the central idea of these lines?    1

Answer: In hating our countrymen, we are hating ourselves.

(b) The poet implies that one picks up arms for three reasons. What are they?   1

Answer: Terrorism, militancy, patriotism.

(c) Pick out a word from the extract that is the opposite of ‘love’.   1

Answer: Hate.

25. Read the following extract carefully and answer the questions that follow.

A slumber did my spirit seal —
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

(a) How many characters are there in this stanza?    1

Answer: Two.

(b) A slumber did my spirit seal—what kind of slumber is this?    1

Answer: It is the slumber of death.

(c) Which word in the stanza means the same as to sleep?   1

Answer: Slumber.

26. Read the following extract carefully and answer the questions that follow.

No motion has she now, no force —
She neither hears nor sees,
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.

(a) Where is she now? 1

Answer: She is buried under the earth.

(b) What does the speaker try to tell us when he says that she is in earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees?  

Answer: She has died.

(c) Which word in the stanza means the same as taking one day?   1

Answer: Diurnal.