Read the following passage and do the activities.
One morning in a small apartment in Bombay a girl of about sixteen looked up from the newspaper and said excitedly, ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar’s playing tomorrow at the Shanmukhananda auditorium’.
‘Sh-sh,’ said her mother pointing to the figure sleeping on the bed. ‘You’ll wake him up. You know he needs all the sleep and rest he can get.
’But the boy on the bed was not asleep. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar!’ he said. ‘Pandit Ravi Shankar, the sitar maestro?’ He raised himself up on his elbows for one second, then fell back. But his eyes were shining. ‘We mustn’t miss the chance,’ he said. ‘I’ve – ‘I’ve – always wanted to hear him and see him …
‘Lie down son, lie down.’ His mother sprang to his side. ‘He actually raised himself up without help,’ she murmured with a catch in her throat and her eyes turned to the idols on a corner shelf. The prayer, which she uttered endlessly, came unbidden to her lips.
B1. Complete the web from passage.
Parts of the body…
- throat
- elbows
- eyes
- lips
B2. Find the reasons for each of the sentence given below from the passage :
(i) The mother ‘sh-sh’ed her . → because she did not want her son, who was sleeping on the bed, to wake up.
(ii) The boy’s eyes were shining
B3. Vocabulary :
- Find out two onomatopoeic words from the passage. → (i) sh-sh (ii) murmured
- Complete the cross puzzle in the given ladders in capital letters. → A P A R T M E N T. ↓ A U D I T O R I U M
B4. Grammar
- He raised himself up on his elbows for one second, then fell back. (Make it simple.) → After raising himself on his elbows for one second, he fell back.
- The boy on the bed was not asleep. (Make it affirmative.) → The boy on the bed was awake.
B5 : Personal Response Question:
Why do you think the boy’s mother’s eyes turned towards the idols kept in the corner?
Answer : The boy’s mother knew that her son was suffering from an incurable and fatal illness, and that the doctors had given up hope. She knew that the only option left to her was to pray and ask the gods for a miracle. Therefore, at every possible moment, she turned towards the idols to pray for her son’s health. They were her only hope and support.
