CBSE Class 12 English HOTs Going Places Set 04

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS 

Question. Why was Sophie jealous of Geoff's silence?
Answer: Geoff never spoke much. Sophie always pondered over the areas of his life which he never talked about. His world remained a fascination for her. She felt that when he was not speaking, his mind was away at some unknown place, and so she felt jealous of him.

Question. Why did Sophie long for her brother's affection?  or Why did Sophie like her brother Geoff more than any other person? 
Answer: Sophie found in her brother, Geoff a patient listener to all her fantasies and also one she could confide in. The other members of her family and even her friend Jansie made fun of her fantastic stories. This made her quite fond of Geoff and long for his affection.

Question. Why is Sophie attracted to Danny Casey?
Answer: Danny Casey is a young, tall and handsome football player who is successful. Romantic young girls of Sophie's age indulge in day-dreaming about things beyond their reach or means. Naturally, she was attracted to him.

Question. Did Geoff keep up his promise? How do you know? 
Answer: Geoff didn't keep his promise to Sophie. Sophie told Geoff about her meeting with Danny Casey at the Royce arcade. Geoff told the story to Frank who in turn told his sister, Jansie, about it. However, Geoff never revealed the full story, as he did not talk about Sophie's supposed 'date' with Danny Casey.

Question. ’Damn that Geoff, this was a Geoff thing not a Jansie thing.' Why did Sophie say so? 
Answer: Sophie knew that her friend Jansie was a bit nosey. She was also a rumour-monger. Sophie feared that Jansie would spread the story about this meeting with Danny and then people would come to her house asking about it. That was why she was annoyed with her brother Geoff for telling others the information she had shared with him.

Question. Why did Jansie discourage Sophie from entertaining thoughts about the sports-star, Danny Casey? 
Answer: Jansie was a realist and not a daydreamer like Sophie. She discouraged Sophie from entertaining thoughts about the sports-star, Danny Casey, because she knew that her dreams were far from reality.

Question. What thoughts came to Sophie's mind as she sat by the canal? 
Answer: Sophie was waiting for Danny Casey, sitting by the canal. In the beginning, she imagined him coming, and even began to fantasise his actions and dialogues. However, after some time, when he did not turn up, reality hit her and she became sad. She thought that her family would never believe her. She also thought that Geoff would be disappointed.

Question. What did Sophie imagine about her meeting with Danny Casey? 
Answer: Sophie imagined that she met the United football player, Danny Casey, at the Royce arcade. She asked him for an autograph but neither of them had a pen. Then they began talking about the clothes in the shop. Casey promised to meet her again next week.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS 

Question. What were Sophie's plans for her future? Why would you call her dreams unrealistic? 
Answer: Sophie planned to open a boutique after she passed out of school. When Jansie told her that it would require a lot of money, she said that she would become a manager and save money for her boutique. She later also added that she would either become an actress or a fashion designer. For a girl from a lower middle class family, such dreams are certainly far from reality. Sophie's friend Jansie, who is quite practical, dissuades Sophie from indulging in such childish fantasies. Sophie lives in her own world, a world of imagination. She wants to materialise all those things which were simply not possible on practical grounds. Never for once in the story does the girl think practically or comes out of her dream world.

Question. "I can see the future and now I will have to live with this burden, " says Sophie. Discuss the statement in the light of the chapter 'Going Places'.
Answer: Sophie always lived in a make-believe world of her own. It was probable that in the course of her wishful thinking she imagined that Danny Casey had promised her for a date. Nobody in the family believed her. However, she went to her favourite haunt to meet Casey, who did not show up. This made her realise that Geoff had been right. Still she was under the compulsion to insist that she had really met Danny Casey. She would never be able to tell about her family, ''they're wrong to doubt me''. She was filled with sadness because her life would not undergo the transformation she had imagined. The glamour of the exotic world she dreamt of was not within her reach. This was a burden that she found difficult to come to terms with and carry.

Question. Sophie was a dreamer. The lesson 'Going Places' reminds us that mere dreams will not help us to accomplish anything. What qualities, do you think, would help Sophie to realise her dreams?  or Given the socio-economic conditions in which Sophie lived, should she have big dreams? Why? Why not? 
Answer: Sophie needed to work hard to realise her dreams, instead of just fantasising about her meeting with Danny Casey. She should understand her reality that she is from a middle class working family. Initially she would face many difficulties because of her poor financial condition, but after she started working, she should save her earnings and try to improve her education so that she could take up better jobs. This requires her character to be determined and hard-working, instead of being just a daydreamer like she is now. Gradually she can raise her status to the level when she would be able to attract successful people like Danny.

Question. It is not unusual for a lower middle class girl to dream big. How unrealistic were Sophie's dreams? (All India 2015) or It is normal for adolescents to fantasise and indulge in hero worship. How far is it true of Sophie? 
Answer: Sophie was an adolescent girl who always lived in a make-believe world of her own. She always had the unrealistic expectation that she will have a successful career as a boutique owner, store manager, actress or even a fashion designer. This was totally unrealistic, as she was from a working class family and would have to work in the local biscuit factory after passing out from school. Similarly, she unrealistically imagined that a famous footballer like Danny Casey would date her. She even went to the extent of waiting beside the canal for him. After he did not turn up, she realised that this was only her dream and Danny would never date her. Even then, she is lost in her dream world, becoming sad that Danny did not come. This shows how unrealistic were her dreams.

Question. Attempt a character sketch of Sophie as a woman who lives in her dreams. 
Answer: Sophie has been portrayed as the central character in the story 'Going Places'. She represents the girls of her age from poor families. As in reality they can't have the things they want, they dream about them. Sophie always lives in her dreams. She makes up the story of meeting Danny Casey, a young, charming and upcoming footballer. Nobody believes her but she refuses to accept that it is her dream. Rather, she starts believing that she has met him. To show that she is telling the truth, she makes up another story that she has fixed a date with him. She is so lost in her dream that she actually goes to the canal and waits for him. Of course, he does not show up. Her dreams have become an integral part of her life, and she cannot distinguish between her world of imagination and the real world.

Question. Contrast Sophie's real world with her fantasies. 
Answer: The story 'Going Places' is a journey into the dream world of the protagonist, a school girl named Sophie, who drifts from one dream to another. Sophie finds the reality of her life too harsh to accept. She belongs to a lower middle class family where nobody encourages her to dream of better prospects. Still she dreams of owning the best boutique, becoming a manager in some store or at other times becoming an actress or a fashion designer. In reality, the pitiable condition of her life does not let her venture into such sophisticated professions. However, in her dream world, she visits Royce's arcade, meets Danny Casey, the sports icon, and even fixes up a date with him.

Question. Justify the title of the story 'Going Places'.
Answer: The story 'Going Places' is a journey into the dream world of the protagonist who drifts from one dream to another. Sophie, the protagonist in the story, finds the reality of her life too harsh to accept. She belongs to a lower-middle class family. Still, she dreams of owning the best boutique, becoming a manager in some store or at other times becoming an actress or a fashion designer. In reality, the pitiable conditions of her life do not let her venture into such sophisticated professions. In her dream world, she visits Royce's arcade, meets Danny Casey, the sports icon, and even fixes up a date with him. It's all in her mind but she considers it true and actually waits for him to show up at a specified spot and time. The flight of her imagination is such that it flits from one dream to another and from one place to the other. Thus, the title suits the story, because throughout the narration the protagonist jumps from one dream to the next, from one place to the other.

Question. In one's approach to life one should be practical and not live in a world of dreams. How is Jansie's attitude different from that of Sophie? 
Answer: Although Sophie and Jansie were classmates and intimate friends, both of them had an altogether different approach towards life. Jansie's feet are grounded in reality and she tries her best to pinpoint reality. In contrast, Sophie is a dreamer who travels on the wings of imagination. Sophie plans to become either a fashion designer or an actress after she passes out from school. Jansie, on the other hand, knows that they have been earmarked for working in the biscuit factory and accepts her fate. Sophie seems immature and fickle-minded. Jansie is a gossip monger who pokes her nose into other's affairs. This is the reason why Sophie does not tell her about her meeting with Casey. Sophie is a loving sister who admires her brother Geoff. She lives in a make-believe world where she befriends sports stars like Casey and is loved and admired by all. Jansie resigns to her fate and, although of the same age, she does not indulge in fantasising and hero worship like Sophie.

Question. Every teenager has a hero/heroine to admire. So many times they become role models for them. What is wrong if Sophie fantasises about Danny Casey and is ambitious in life? 
Answer: Sophie was a girl having unrealistic dreams. She felt that she would become either a boutique owner, shop manager, actress or fashion designer, though her friend Jansie realised that with their background and education, they would just become workers in a biscuit factory. Like every young girl, Sophie also had in her fancies a strong feeling of knowing the unknown, seeing the unseen and even dating famous people like Danny Casey. So she visited the perfect place for lovers and sat on the solitary wooden bench under the tree. She waited for her lover coming out of the shadows but there was no sign of him. She became burdened with sadness. This may lead to depression among teenagers, as their life's ambitions are not fulfilled. Thus, such fantasies are not good for her to develop into a mature adult.

Question. Teachers always advise their students to dream big. Yet, the same teachers in your classrooms find fault with Sophie when she dreams. What is wrong with Sophie's dreams? 
Answer: We all are asked to dream big in our lives by our teachers and people around us. A life without dreams would be dull and monotonous. But, living life completely on dreams and separating the self from the reality is harmful. Sophie knows that the fantasies that she creates in her mind can never be a part of her real life, yet she creates her own dream world and even tries to involve the people around her in her fake world. She willingly leads herself into believing things that might not be true or only made up in her mind. For human beings, fact and fiction do not belong to water-tight compartments because often the lines between the two become blurred in our mind. Sophie thinks of having a boutique and becoming a fashion designer. This imagination of hers shows her desire to move above her social status. But meeting Danny Casey, an Irish footballer, in her imagination, and even involving her brother Geoff in this unreal situation shows the destructive aspect of her dreams.

EXTRACT BASED QUESTIONS 

Read the extract given below and choose the correct option. Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which fastened her apron strings. The delicate-seeming bow and the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the windows and the small room was steamy from the stove and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner. Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for her brother Geoff. He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the far side of the city.

Question. Whom does 'her' in the first line refer to?
(a) Jansie
(b) Sophie's mother
(c) Sophie
(d) Casey's girlfriend
Answer: (b) Sophie's mother

Question. Why was the small room getting steamy?
(a) Because of Sophie's heated arguments with her father
(b) Because of smoke coming out of Geoff's bike
(c) Because of the weather being too hot
(d) Because of cooking of food on the stove
Answer: (d) Because of cooking of food on the stove

Question. What was Geoff doing in his room?
(a) Tinkering with a part of the bike
(b) Reading newspaper
(c) Listensing to the music
(d) Talking to her girlfriend
Answer: (a) Tinkering with a part of the bike

Question. ............ in the extract means 'discrepancy'.
(a) Crooked
(b) Cluttered
(c) Incongruity
(d) Tinkering
Answer: (c) Incongruity

Read the extract given below and choose the correct option. Here I sit, she said to herself, wishing Danny would come, wishing he would come and sensing the time passing. I feel the pangs of doubt stirring inside me. I watch for him but still there is no sign of him. I remember Geoff saying he would never come, and how none of them believed me when I told them. I wonder what will I do, what can I tell them now if he doesn’t come? But we know how it was, Danny and me-that’s the main thing. How can you help what people choose to believe? But all the same, it makes me despondent, this knowing I’ll never be able to show them they’re wrong to doubt me.

Question. What was Sophie feeling while waiting for Danny?
(a) Dizziness
(b) The pangs of doubt
(c) Elated
(d) Enthralled
Answer: (b) The pangs of doubt

Question. What did Sophie remember at that point of time?
(a) Her father's disbelief
(b) Jansie's advice
(c) Casey's promise
(d) Geoff saying he would never come
Answer: (d) Geoff saying he would never come

Question. Why was Sophie getting worried?
(a) That Danny had not come
(b) That Jansie had not believed her
(c) That she won't be able to prove her doubters wrong
(d) That her father had been angry
Answer: (c) That she won't be able to prove her doubters wrong

Question. The word 'despondent' in the extract means ......... .
(a) depressed
(b) spirited
(c) elated
(d) cool
Answer: (a) depressed