:
Question 1: Read the lines and answer the questions:
‘Nothing is lucky if you put it away. If you want luck, you must put it to some use.’
(a) Who said this and to whom?
Answer: Grandfather said this to Rakesh.
(b) What was the speaker referring to?
Answer: Rakesh’s grandfather was referring to the cherry seed that Rakesh had with him.
(c) How did the person being spoken to ‘put it to some use?’
Answer: Rakesh put it to some use by planting it into the ground.
Question 2: Read the line and answer the questions:
‘Hey, not there!’
(a) Who said these words?
Answer: Grandfather said these words.
(b) Why did the speaker say, ‘not there’?
Answer: The speaker (Grandfather) did not want Rakesh to plant the cherry seed there because he had planted mustard in that flower bed.
(c) Did the listener go somewhere else? If so, where?
Answer: Yes, the listener went somewhere else. He went to a corner of the garden where the earth was soft and yielding.
Question 3: Grandfather says, ‘Nothing is lucky if you put it away. If you want luck, you must put it to some use. What, do you think, he means?
Answer: I think Grandfather wants Rakesh to realize that we should make use of the opportunity given to us to achieve something. If things are not put to proper use and just stored, they will be of no use to us.
Question 4: How did Rakesh and his grandfather spend the winter evenings?
Answer: In the winter evenings, grandfather and Rakesh used to sit by a charcoal fire. Grandfather would tell Rakesh stories about people who turned into animals and in turn, Rakesh would read to him from the newspaper.
The Cherry Tree Questions & Answers
Question 5: Read the lines and answer the questions:
‘What’s so special about this tree? Why do we like it so much?’
(a) Who said this?
Answer: Rakesh said these words.
(b) Why did they like the tree so much?
Answer: They liked the tree so much because they had planted the seed themselves and had watched it grow into the tree.
(c) How did the speaker feel about himself after watching the tree grow?
Answer: The speaker felt almost like God who had created everything.
Question 6: Rakesh thought that the cherry tree had died on two occasions. Narrate the incident briefly.
Answer: Rakesh thought that the cherry tree had died on two occasions, when a goat had eaten all its leaves, and when a woman had chopped off half the tree while cutting the grass.
Question 7: Who benefitted from the cherry tree besides Rakesh and Grandfather and how?
Answer: Besides Rakesh and Grandfather, the birds benefitted from the cherry tree. They came to feed on the nectar in the blossoms and tiny birds pecked at the blossoms. They liked the cherries too, especially the bigger birds, such as bulbuls and scarlet minivets which flitted in and out of the foliage, feasting on the fruit.
Question 8: Read the lines and answer the questions:
‘Come back when you are butterfly,’ he said.
(a) Who said this and to whom?
Answer: Rakesh said this to a hairy caterpillar.
(b) Why did the speaker not want the creature to stay?
Answer: Rakesh did not want the caterpillar to stay because it was feasting on the cherry tree’s leaves.
(c) What does it tell you about the speaker?
Answer: This line tells us that Rakesh was a kind boy. Though the caterpillar was feasting on the cherry tree’s leaves, he did not want to harm it.
Question 9: Why did Rakesh only look at the tree out of the corner of his eye?
Answer: Rakesh thought that the tree had stopped growing. So, he stopped looking at it as he knew he would be disappointed. Yet, he couldn’t resist looking at it. So, he looked at it from the corner of his eye to see if there was any sign of its growth.
Question 10: Do you think that Grandfather was as excited as Rakesh about the cherry tree? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer: Yes, Grandfather was as excited as Rakesh about the cherry tree. He was the first to see the pale pink blossom at the end of cherry tree. When the tree was fully grown, he sat under it on a cane chair and enjoyed looking at the leaves.
The Cherry Tree Questions & Answers
Question 11: Read the line and answer the questions:
“……he could see the mountain striding away into the clouds.”
(a) Who is referred to as ‘he’ in this line?
Answer: Rakesh is referred to as he in this line.
(b) From where could ‘he’ see the mountain?
Answer: Rakesh could see the mountain from where he lay under the cherry tree.
(c) What does the expression ‘striding away into the clouds’ mean?
Answer: The expression striding away into the cloud means that the range of mountains extended a great distance up to the horizon, where they were covered by the clouds. It appeared as if the mountains ended in the clouds
