FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH - KSEEB - CLASS 10 - COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS - TO A PAIR OF SARUS CRANES

 

Poem 1

TO A PAIR OF SARUS CRANES

Manmohan Singh

Comprehension Questions:

A. Answer briefly the following questions

 1) The time of the day suggested in the poem is

a) sunrise    b)  sunset    c) either sunrise or sunset       d) not clear

Ans:  a) sunrise

 

2) The sun is described as the reluctant sun. It means that

a) the sun was unwilling to rise.                         

b) the male bird was impatient.

c) it was the bird’s feeling that the sun was reluctant to rise.  

d) the sun always takes more time to rise than to set.

Ans: c) it was the bird’s feeling that the sun was reluctant to rise

 

3) a) In the first four lines, there is an exaggeration in the description. What is it?  b)  What is the figure of speech used here?

Ans: a) The poet felt that before the male bird was shot, the sun was not willing to rise and the male bird stretched his neck to pull out the sun.

 b) The figure of speech is Personification.

 

4) How was the majestic neck humbled by the hunter?

 Ans: The majestic neck humbled by the hunter by shooting him and carelessly dumped its body like dirty clothes.

 

5) The expression “picked up hands and jaws,” suggests,

a) callousness of the hunters.           b) heartlessness of the hunters.

c) urgency of the hunters.                d) cruelty of the hunters

 Ans: a) callousness of the hunters

6) _____________ is compared to ‘dirty linen’ (complete the sentence using the correct option)

a) the proud neck of the birds                   b) the dead body of the bird

c) the hands and jaws of the bird.   d) the material of the bag,

 Ans: (b) the dead body of the bird

 

7) “and sat to hatch/the bloodstained feathers/into a toddling chick”. This suggests,

a) that the female bird was out of her senses after the death of the male bird.

b)  the intense love of the female bird towards its male partner.

c)  the foolish act of the female bird.

d)  the desperate act of the female bird to bring the male bird back to life.

Ans: d) the desperate act of the female bird to bring the male bird back to life.

 

 8) How is the end of the female crane suggested in the poem?

Ans: The female crane was in grief and sat on shore, a huge wave of the seas she had never seen came over her and she joined her dead male crane. When male crane died then female crane had been broken, it was considered that the partner pines for the other and died with her partner.

 

B. Close Study:

Read the following extract carefully. Discuss in pairs and then write the answers to the questions given below it.

 1) A wave of the seas she had never seen/came to her from far away/ and carried her to him.

a) What does ‘wave of the seas’ refer to?

b) What hadn’t the female bird seen before?

c) What figure of speech is used in the extract?

Ans: a) The wave of the seas was the sign of almighty who came to take away female   crane to unite with him.

b) The female bird hadn’t seen the wave of the seas was not real wave but a blissful envoy.

c)  Personification.

 

III. Paragraph Writing:

Discuss in pairs/groups of 4 each and answer the following questions. Individually note down the points for each question and then develop the points into one-paragraph answers.

 

1) How is the callousness of the bird killers brought out in the poem?

 Ans: Killing of a male sarus bird is the callousness of the bird killers brought out in the poem. The hunters killed the bird and treat the body in cruel manner or we considered it as inhuman. They threw dead male crane into a coarse bag as if it was dirty linen in a washing bag. The lifeless body was not respected by the hunters.

 

2) How does the poet bring out the agony and desperation of the female crane in the poem?

 Ans: Female crane was broken into pieces when she saw dead body of her beloved into front of her eyes. Those hunters so cruelly killed that male crane, the female bird circled the sky in deep sorrow over his disgraceful end. When hunter went away she came down to spot where blood stained feathers scattered. The female crane kissed a few feather of her partner and she went away beyond Hume’s words beyond the legends and fables of human love.

 

3) Pick out any two figures of speech used in the poem and explain how they add to the effectiveness of the poem.

 Ans: Personification: “reluctant sun out from the rim of horizon”, the poet compared that sun was rising slowly to unwillingness which is a human being characteristic.

 Simile: “a proud neck was humbled to lie like dirty linen in a coarse washing bag”, the hunters had shot the male crane and threw its body as a dirty linen in a washing bag. As human beings throw their clothes in washing machine same way male body is compared similar manner.