CBSE Class 12 English The Elementary School Stephen Spender Assignment

CBSE Class 12 English The Elementary School Stephen Spender Assignment. Students are advised to refer to the attached assignments and practice them regularly. This will help them to identify their weak areas and will help them to score better in examination. Parents should download and give the assignments to their children for practice.

Extract Based MCQs :

1. Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.
The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,

Question. ‘The tall girl with her head weighed down’ means
(a) the girl is ashamed of something
(b) has untidy hair
(c) is ill and exhausted
(d) is shy

Answer: C

Question. One of the following phrases implies unhealthy children. It is
(a) unlucky heir
(b) these children’s faces
(c) a paper seeming boy
(d) from gusty waves

Answer: C

Question. Through the description of the slum children, the poet wants to express the prevailing in society
(a) social injustice and class inequalities
(b) poverty
(c) disease
(d) slums

Answer: A

Question. ‘The stunted unlucky heir of twisted bones’ means the boy
(a) is short and bony
(b) is poor and unlucky
(c) is sad and unwell
(d) has an inherited disability

Answer: D

2. Surely, Shakespeare is wicked,
The map a bad example
‘’with ships and sun and love
Tempting them to steal-
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night?’’

Question. Who is the poet of these lines?
(a) W.B. Yeats
(b) Stephen spender
(c) Robert Frost
(d) Pablo Neruda

Answer: B

Question. What does the map represent?
(a) World of the rich and the powerful
(b) World of the poor
(c) World of the slum children
(d) A world which poet desires for these slum children

Answer: D

Question. What all tempts these children?
(a) Pictures of Shakespeare
(b) Pictures of sun, ships and love
(c) Pictures of Tyrolese valley
(d) All of these

Answer: D

Question. What does the expression ‘cramped holes’ imply?
(a) Small holes in school walls
(b) Very small houses
(c) Dingy congested shacks
(d) None of above

Answer: C

3. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its world. And yet, for these
Children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,

Question. How are the pictures in contrast to the classroom life of the children?
(a) walls are not clean
(b) brightness required in the class to see the pictures clearly.
(c) sour cream walls are not a good background
(d) dull and dim class with weak children.

Answer: D

Question. What does 'open-handed map' mean?
(a) maps are drawn on the orders of powerful people or conquerors expanding their territories.
(b) map of the children where they can go
(c) Powers of the rulers who command the teachers
(d) open map or political map of the country

Answer: A

Question. Which are the two worlds does the poet is bringing out here?
(a) beautiful scenes & slum children
(b) The poverty world and the slum children.
(c) Map of the rich and slum children
(d) The world of poverty of the slum children & the prosperity of the rich.

Answer: D

Question. What do the pictures on the wall suggest?
(a) happiness, richness, well- being and beauty
(b) donations of the rich people.
(c) generosity of the rich
(d) charity of the rich

Answer: A

4. And yet, for these
Children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future's painted with a fog.

Question. Who is the poet of the poem 'An Elementary School Clssroom in a Slum'?
(a) Stephen Spender
(b) Slender
(c) Kamal Das
(d) John Keats

Answer: A

Question. 'future painted with fog' means 
(a) Classroom is as foggy and unclear
(b) Fog is painted in the wall
(c) Future of slum children is unclear
(d) Broken classroom walls

Answer: C

Question. Which is their world mentioned here?
(a) The rich world is reflected
(b) Their world is limited to the window of the classroom.
(c) the beautiful scenes of the class room
(d) the outside world is beautiful

Answer: B

Question. How is the world of the slum children?
(a) It is full of happiness
(b) It is full of hopelessness.
(c) It is full of beautiful scenes.
(d) It is full of despair and despondency.

Answer: D

5. A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky.
Far far from rivers, capes and stars of words.

Question. What does 'stars of words' mean?
(a) Literacy aspect of books that these slim children don't understand
(b) Stars in the sky are far away
(c) Words which are written in the book
(d) Stars that look bright in the sky

Answer: A

Question. Far far from rivers, capes and stars of words. Which poetic device is used.
(a) simile
(b) metaphore
(c) repetition
(d) pun

Answer: C

Question. What does the poet mean by 'a narrow street'?
(a) There is no wide scope available for the slum children' future growth.
(b) roads are very narrow
(c) Narrow roads traffic jam
(d) Narrow roads in their streets

Answer: A

Question. How are the 'rivers , capes and star of words' far for the slum children?
(a) They are away from the books.
(b) They are living far away from their rivers.
(c) peaceful living and deprived from knowledge and education.
(d) There are no schools.

Answer: A

Read the passage given below and answer the following questions……..

Break O break open till they break the town
And show the children to green fields, and make their world
Run azure on gold sands and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white and green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun.

Question. Whom does ‘they’ refer to?
(a) The authorities.
(b) The teachers.
(c) The children.
(d) The rich patrons.
Answer: A

Question. The prose chapter, “Lost Spring” represents the plight of slum children in a similar manner with the poem. Which of the following is not common among the two?
(a) Ill health due to unhygienic living conditions.
(b) Deprived of proper education.
(c) Neglect by the society.
(d) Enthusiasm for having a better future.
Answer: D

Question. What does the poet want for the children?
(a) Proper education for children to get the light of knowledge.
(b) To go to the fields and learn the art of agriculture.
(c) Children should create a world for themselves and enjoy.
(d) The story of these children should be written in history books.
Answer: A

Question. Choose the correct option out of the ones given.
I. Simile: Language is the sun
Metaphor: white and green leaves
II. Simile: Green fields, gold sands
Metaphor: Run naked into books
III. Symbolism: Green fields, gold sands
Metaphor: white and green leaves
IV. Simile: white and green leaves
Imagery: Language is the sun
(a) Option I.
(b) Option II.
(c) Option III.
(d) Option IV.
Answer: C

Far far from gusty waves, these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed down hea(d) The paperseeming
boy, with rat’s eyes. The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lesson, from his desk. At the back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.’

Question. Which of the following is not likely to be in the classroom?
(a) Under nourished children.
(b) Deformed body.
(c) Enthusiastic children.
(d) Clean and well-dressed children.
Answer: D

Question. Why are the children compared to ‘rootless weds’?
(a) They are unwanted and insignificant as weeds.
(b) They suffer from various ailments.
(c) They have no future.
(d) They are deprived of education.
Answer: A

Question. Which of the following phrases/words does not indicate that the children are undernourished?
(a) Paper-seeming.
(b) Rat’s eyes.
(c) Stunte(d)
(d) Tall girl. 
Answer: D

Question. Identify the correct combination?
1 Gusty waves               A Metaphor
2 Rat’s eyes                   B Simile
3 Reciting a father’s       C Imagery
gnarled disease
4 Like rootless weeds     D Pun
1:A, 2:B, 3:C, 4:D
1:C, 2:A, 3:D, 4:B
1;D, 2;C, 3:B, 4:A
1:B, 2:D, 3:A, 4:C
Answer: B

Read the passage given below and answer the following questions……..

The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lesson, from his desk. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel's game,in tree room, other than this

Question. Who is the unlucky heir?
(a) A burly boy
(b) Boy with stunted growth
(c) Boy with twisted lip
(d) Boy with a rippling muscle
Answer: B

Question. What had the boy inherited?
(a)Twisted bones and stunted growth
(b) Deformed body and long hair
(c) Twisted hand
(d) Twisted bones, stunted growth and Gnarled disease
Answer: D

Question. Who is sitting at the back of the dim class?
(a) Intelligent boy
(b) Delighted students
(c) Late comer students
(d) Dreamy boy
Answer: D

Question. Which game is referred to in the last line?
(a) The squirrel’s game
(b) Hide and seek
(c) The unlucky hair’s game
(d) The rabbit’s game
Answer: A

Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal-
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night.

Question. Why is Shakespeare wicked?
(a) His works have given way to these children.
(b) His works are popular only with grown- ups.
(c) His works are motivating for these children.
(d) His works are of no use to children.
Answer: D

Question. What tempts the children in the classroom to steal?
(a) The dream of achieving a better life for themselves.
(b) Desire to travel
(c) Dream to work
(d) Dream to visit places.
Answer: A

Question. Why is the map a bad example?
(a) Does not depict world as a whole.
(b) Does not depict some less important countries.
(c) Does not depict the narrow lanes of the slums
(d) Does not depict the details of the city.
Answer: C

Question. What is the condition of these children as described in these lines?
(a) Their lives are full of brightness.
(b) Their lives are full of Hopes for the future.
(c) Their lives are full of dullness.
(d) Their lives are full of surprises.
Answer: C

SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS

Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal-
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night?

Question. Which two things the poet considers as bad influence?
(a) Shakespeare and ships
(b) Shakespeare and map
(c) Shakespeare and sun
(d) Shakespeare and love
Answer: B

Question. What is the poet's tone in the above line?
(a) Satiric
(b) Humorous
(c) Indifferent
(d) Insightful
Answer: A

Question. How does poet show the indignity suffered by the poor?
(a) The slum dwellers are compared to insects.
(b) The slum dwellers live a secret and unknown life.
(c) The slum dwellers don't live in homes but holes.
(d) The slum dwellers live in holes under the earth.
Answer: C

Question. What does the poet mean by 'fog to endless night'?
(a) Weather of England
(b) Lack of street lights
(c) Uncertainty and despair
(d) Cataract and night blindness
Answer: C

On sour cream walls, donations. Shakespeare's head,
Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its worl 

Question. What was the impact of the colour of the classroom walls?
(a) Bright and attractive
(b) Dirty and depressing
(c) Yellow and livel
(d) Maintained but unattractive
Answer: B

Question. What does 'cloudless at dawn' refer to?
(a) Shakespeare’s bald head
(b) Beautiful sight of dawn
(c) Beginning of a new day
(d) Clarity of purpose
Answer: B

Question. How does Tyrolese valley and cities complete the scene?
(a) It talks of both urban and rural landscape.
(b) The highlights domes and bells.
(c) It presents cloudless sky and flowers.
(d) It is two sceneries decorating the wall.
Answer: A

Question. What award does the map give?
(a) City
(b) Valley
(c) World
(d) Dawn
Answer: C

Read the passage given below and answer the following

Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old, and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid forest brake
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms;
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

Question. What is the figure of speech used in ‘cooling covert’?
(a) Repetition
(b) Metaphor
(c) Alliteration
(d) Paradox
Answer: C

Question. ‘Mighty dead’ refers to:
(a) Kings and Queens
(b) Powerful people
(c) Common men
(d) Martyrs
Answer: D

Question. Beautiful things help us to
(a) Fight against all odds
(b) Provide us shade
(c) Makes us greedy
(d) Manipulate people
Answer: A

Question. The thick bushes in the mid-forest have abundant growth of
(a) watermelons
(b) muskmelons
(c) musk roses
(d) musk shells
Answer: C

All lovely tales that we have heard or read;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink

Question. Name the poem and the poet.
(a) The Thing of Beauty, William Wordsworth
(b) A Thing of Beauty, William Wordsworth
(c) The Thing of Beauty, John Keats
(d) A Thing of Beauty, John Keats
Answer: D

Question. Why is the fountain termed as ‘endless’?
(a) It is a continuous source of joy.
(b) It gives us nectar.
(c) It is at the brink of heaven.
(d) It makes people immortal.
Answer: A

Question. The figure of speech used in ‘immortal drink’
(a) Metaphor
(b) Simile
(c) Personification
(d) Alliteration
Answer: A

Question. What is the correct synonym of ‘brink’?
(a) End
(b) Edge
(c) Tip
(d) Front
Answer: B

Read the passage given below and answer the following questions by selection correct option.

The tall girl with her weighed-down hea
The paper-seeming boy with rat’s eyes. The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lesson, from his desk. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.

Question. Name the poem and the poet of the above lines.
(a) An Elementary School Classroom in a slum by Stephen Spender
(b) My Mother at Sixty -six by Kamala Das
(c) Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda
(d) An Elementary School Classroom in a slum by Stephen Johnson
Answer: A

Question. Which literary device is used in the second line
(a) Hyperbole
(b) Simile
(c) Metaphor
(d) All the above except B
Answer: D

Question. In the above lines the poet is talking about the ---------------
(a) children who have lost their parents
(b) children who are malnourished due to extreme poverty
(c) children who are involved in rag picking
(d) parents who were suffering from different types of diseases
Answer: B

Question. What was the boy reciting?
(a) A poem from his book
(b) A folklore
(c) his father’s gnarled disease
(d) A prayer
Answer: C

…. And yet, for these
Children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

Question. Who does ‘children’ refer to in the above lines
(a) The children of the slum
(b) All the children of Tyrolese valley
(c) Poor children who did not have books
(d) Children who could not pay the school fee
Answer: A

Question. Why is their future painted with fog?
(a) Due to the extreme poverty they do not have clear vision of their future
(b) Due to lack of schools
(c) due to lack of teachers
(d) Because they were weak in study
Answer: A

Question. Why is the world shown in the map is not their world?
(a) Because their language was different slum
(b) Because they were from different planet
(c) Because the map has shown a rich and beautiful world which contrasted with the
(d) Because they did not like the rich and beautiful world shown in the map
Answer: C

Question. Where did the children live?
(a) in a classroom of an elementary school
(b) in a narrow, dingy, congested lane of the slum
(c) in a house constructed by the government
(d) in a camp
Answer: B

 

THEME: Social injustice and class inequalities

Main Points

Stanza-1

(1) The poem portrays a picture of an elementary school in a slum area

(2) Deprived of basic facilities such as-nutritional food, balanced diet, air, sun. shine and potable water, children are least interested in studies

(3) The tall girl and paper seeming boy-all are victims of malnutrition; they are suffering from various diseases

(4) A boy sitting at the back is dreaming of squirrel's game. He has no interest in class-room activity.

Stanza-2

(1) The class-room wall contains pictures and paintings -like Shakespeare's head developed cities with skyscrapers Tyrolese valley aesthetically beautiful, problem free world (cloudless at down)-they came by donations.

(2) These pictures belong to the world of the rich and prosperous.

(3) The world of these poor and deprived children contrasts with the world depicted on classroom walls.

(4) The rich have drawn an open handed map which is of no use to them as their world is limited to the end of the street.

(5) Far from rivers, capes and stars of words, their future is bleak and uncertain

Stanza-3

(1) Shakespeare is wicked and map a bad example as they do not correspond to their limited, narrow world.

(2) Ships and Sun depicted on the wall tempt them to experience the world of the rich with all its glory.

(3) However, they can not get this opportunity as the responsible people do not want it.

(4) These malnourished children wearing mended glasses oscillate between fog and endless night, having uncertain life with no future.

(5) They pass all their time and space in the hell (the slum). This hell is a blot on the civilised world.

Stanza-4

(1) The poet calls upon governor, inspector and visitor (representing power and position) to review the system before it is too late.

(2) The revised system should empower these children to break away from the shakles of poverty and deprevation.

(3) He urges the civilised people to help them enjoy all the facilities such as blue-sky, sun- shine, sea-waves, fresh air, good and sufficient nutritious diet.

(4) Let the pages of wisdom be open for them and their tongues may run freely on the white leaves of books.

(5) Only those people find a place in history whose language has the warmth and power of the sun.

Major features:

1- Poetic device: Simile-
Like rootless weeds
Like bottle bits on stones
Like catacombs
Slums as big as doom

Metaphors
Rat's eyes, gnarled disease, Paper Seeming boy
Squiriel's game
White and green leaves etc.

Alliteration
Far far from gusty waves
Surely Shakespeare
Bottle-bits

2- Imagery /Symbols
(i) Gusty waves
(ii) Rootless weeds
(iii) Paper-seeming boy
(iv) Sour-cream walls

Extract-1

On Sour cream walls, donations, Shakespeare's head.
Cloudless at down, civilized dome riding all cities
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open handed map
Awarding the world its world.

Question. Which walls are mentioned in the first line?
Answer: Class-room walls in a slum area are mentioned in the first line

Question. Why is the map 'open handed?'
Answer: It is drawn at will irrespective of realities.

Question. Explain the line-'Awarding the world its world?'
Answer: The luxurious world of the rich is imposed upon the poor unjustifiably.

Question. How is the sky at dawn?
Answer: It is clear and cloudless
Explain the Last line of the poem
'History theirs whose language is the sun'
Explanation: History belongs to those who speak the language of the sun-meaning Power, energy, caliber, radiance and strength.

Extract-2

Unless governor, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window and these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs,
Break o break open till they break the town

Question. Who are called upon by the poet in the first line?
Answer: Governor, inspector, visitor, all those in power

Question. What does the poet want them to do?
Answer: To help the slum-dwellers lead respectable life with all the facilities.

Question. What is the poetic device used in the third line?
Answer: Simile_like_catacombs

Question. Explain, "Break ........................... town"?
Answer: The edu system should empower and liberate the children from the shackles and boundries imposed by the rich and powerful.

Short Answer Questions.

Question. Why is Shakespeare wicked?
Answer: Shakespear is a literacy icon and stands for the elite and seems irrelevant to these children from the slum them.

Question. Describe, in brief, the conditions surrounding these slum children?
Answer: Poverty, diseases, malnourishment, uncertainity, bleak future.

Question. Present the two worlds depicted in the poem?
Answer: (1) Slum dwellers
(2)The rich and prosperous