NCERT Solutions Class 9 English Chapter 4 Keeping it from Harold

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Communicative Chapter 4 Keeping it from Harold

3. Based on your reading of the story, answer the following questions by choosing the correct option.

(i) she was the wife of a famous boxer
(ii) she had motivated her husband
(iii) she was a good housewife
(iv) she was the mother of a child prodigy

Answer 

(iv) she was the mother of a child prodigy

(b) "The very naming of Harold had caused a sacrifice on his part." The writer's tone here is __________________.
(i) admiring
(ii) assertive
(iii) satirical 
(iv) gentle

Answer 

(iv) gentle

(c) Harold had defied the laws of heredity by ______.
(i) becoming a sportsperson
(ii) being good at academics
(iii) being well-built and muscular
(iv) respecting his parents

Answer 

(ii) being good at academics

(d) Harold felt that he was deprived of the respect that his classmates would give him as _________.
(i) they did not know his father was the famous boxer, 'Young Porky'
(ii) his hero, Jimmy Murphy had not won the wrestling match
(iii) he had not got Phil Scott's autograph
(iv) Sid Simpson had lost the Lonsdale belt

Answer 

(i) they did not know his father was the famous boxer, 'Young Porky'

4. Answer the following questions

(a) What was strange about the manner in which Mrs. Bramble addressed her son? What did he feel about it?

Answer 

Mrs. Bramble always referred to herself in the third person and treated ten-year-old Harold as a baby. He would feel irritated and wished that his mother would give him due credit of being a grown-up boy who had won prizes in spellings and dictation.

(b) Why was it necessary to keep Harold's father's profession a secret from him?

Answer 

Harold’s father was a professional boxer but Harold was a scholarly child with a very gentle and sophisticated behaviour. Mr. Bramble and his wife considered that boxing was an inferior profession and it may become difficult for Harold to accept the image and qualities of his father as displayed by any professional boxer. Hence, they thought it was necessary to hide his father’s profession from him.

(c) When Mr. Bramble came to know that he was to become a father what were some of the names he decided upon? Why?

Answer 

Mr. Bramble expressed a desire that the child should be named John after Mr. John L. Sullivan and if it was a girl, then she should be named Marie, after Miss Mary Lloyd.

(d) Describe Mr. Bramble as he has been described in the story.

Answer

Mr. Bramble was thirty one years old, of athletic built and weighed eight stone four. There was no one whom he could not defeat in the twenty round contest of boxing. Very famous, his feats in the ring were well known. But by nature he was too timid and could never have his way with his wife. He was a very devoted and an overprotective father.

(e) Why was Mrs. Bramble upset when she came to hear that Bill had decided not to fight?

Answer 

Although Mrs. Bramble did not like her husband's profession as a boxer, she didn't want him to quit because it earned them good money and made it possible for them to educate Harold. If he beat Murphy at the final match, he would win prize money of five hundred pounds .Even if he lost, he would still get a hundred and twenty, and this money would have been a blessing because it was enough to give Harold a better start in life.