An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Important Questions Class 12 English

An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Important Questions CBSE Class 12 English

An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum Important Questions Short Answer Type Questions (3-4 Marks)

Question 1.
Why does Stephen Spender say that the pictures and maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless? (Delhi 2009)
Answer:
According to the poet the pictures and maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless because the map does not include their world of narrow lanes. They live like rats in their cramped holes where fog and darkness dominate their lives.

Question 2.
How does the world depicted on the classroom walls differ from the world of the slum children? (All India 2009)
Answer:
The map of the world on the classroom walls is drawn in accordance with the will of the powerlords. This world is not even remotely related to the world of the dirty slums. The world depicted in the pictures that decorate the walls holds a stark contrast with the world of the underfed poverty stricken slum children who live in cramped dark holes. The pictures suggest beauty, well-being and prosperity. So there is no connection whatsoever between the map of the civilized world to that of the world of the children.

Question 3.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India 2010)
…….On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.

1. Which two images are used to describe these slums?
2. What sort of life do these children lead?
3. Which figure of speech is used in the last line?

Answer:
1. The images used to describe these slums are: ‘slag heap’, ‘bottle bits on stones’ and ‘slums as big as doom’.
2. These children lead a life worse than death. The dirt and garbage of the slum is their world so their lives are pathetic, full of misery and poverty.
3. A simile has been used in the last line where slums are compared to a living hell.

Question 4.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2010)
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.
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.

1. What does the poet mean by ‘open-handed?
2. What can be seen through these windows?
3. How is the children’s world different from the one on the map?

Answer:
1. By the phrase ‘open-handed’ the poet implies to the map of the world that is drawn and reshaped at will by dictators like Hitler who want to gain supreme power over the world.
2. The bleak and uncertain future of the slum children can be seen through these windows.
3. For these children the map of the world is meaningless as their own dirty and filthy
surroundings form their world. They are doomed to live in a world with narrow streets and crowded lanes and they crave for a world of rivers, capes and a starry sky. Their world is far-removed from the things that the map shows.

Question 5.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. All India 2010)
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.
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far from rivers, capes, and stars ofivords.

1. What does the poet mean by ‘a lead sky’?
2. What does the poet say about the children’s future?
3. What kind of world do we see on the map?

Answer:
1. ‘A lead sky’ suggests a grey and dull sky which means that there is no hope for the slum children. They have a bleak future.
2. The children’s future is bleak and dark. They nurture hopes for a better future but achieving these hopes is merely a dream for them.
3. The map of the world is symbolic of hopes and aspirations and a mere look at this world motivates the children to explore this world, which is full of the bounties bestowed by God.

Question 6.
How does the poet describe the class-room walls? (Delhi 2010)
Answer:
The sour cream coloured walls which were probably painted with the help of donations present a rather poor and pale sight. A picture of Shakespeare, given as a gift, hung on the . unpleasant creamy wall. The pathetic conditions of the wall symbolises the equally sordid and miserable lives of the children who are surrounded by these walls.

Question 7.
The poet says, “and yet for these children, these windows, not this map, their world”. Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them? (Delhi 2010)
Answer:
These children belong to the world of the dirty and stinking slums with its narrow lanes and cramped holes. Their world is the world of poverty and disease. The world that is inaccessible to them is one which has high domes of buildings, the music of bells and the fragrance of flowers.

Question 8.
“So blot their maps with slums as big as doom”, says Stephen Spender. What does the poet want to convey? (Delhi 2010)
Answer:
The poet wants to convey that these slums are blots on the map of the civilized and rich world. The filthy slums that comprise the world for the slum children are living hells. Life is worse than death for them. These slums stalk them like death stalks its victim.

Question 9.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Delhi 2011)
Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a had
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? On their slag heap,
these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles
of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.

1. Why is Shakespeare described as wicked?
2. Explain: ‘from fog to endless night’.
3. What does the reference to ‘slag heap’ mean?

Answer:
1. Shakespeare is described as wicked because there is no correlation between Shakespeare’s works and the life of the slum children. Shakespeare’s works are no good to the children in slum schools.
2. This phrase describes the miserable, bleak and hopeless life of the slum children who have a gloomy future. Fog and darkness dominates their lives.
3. The reference to the ‘slag heap’ signifies the misery and extreme poverty of the slum children who are forced to live in the most dirty and unhygienic conditions.

Question 10.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India 2011)
Break O break open till they break the town
And show tire children to green fields, and make
their world
Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white & green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun.

1. To whom does ‘they’ refer?
2. What would they break?
3. What other freedom should they enjoy?

Answer:
1. ‘They’ refers to the slum children.
2. They would break free from the atrocities and injustice that they are subjected to.
3. They should enjoy the freedom of being exposed to the world of books and being educated. They should break free from the shackles of slums and be allowed to read voraciously and excel professionally.

Question 11.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2011)
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
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 & green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun.

1. Who does the poet appeal to?
2. What is the appeal made by the poet?
3. What does the expression, ‘their tongues run naked into books’ mean?

Answer:
1. The poet appeals to the governors, inspectors and visitors, the people in authority from all walks of life.
2. The poet’s appeal is to ensure that the world of the map becomes an opening for these slum children and opens the avenues of new opportunities, progress and a better life for them to ensure that they are saved from their miserable condition.
3. This expression means to enable them to read and understand books independently by providing them liberal education.

Question 12.
Why does Stephen Spender say that the pictures and maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless? (Comptt. All India 2011)
Answer:
According to the poet the pictures and maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless because the map does not include their world of narrow lanes. They live like rats in their cramped holes where fog and darkness dominate their lives.

Question 13.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Delhi 2012)
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.

1. Who is the ‘unlucky heir’ and what has he inherited?
2. What is the stunted boy reciting?
3. Who is sitting at the back of the dim class?

Answer:
1. The ‘unlucky heir’ is a thin and lean slum boy who has inherited his parents’ poverty, disease and misery. He is also the unfortunate heir of his father’s physical deformities so his bones are twisted.
2. The stunted boy is reciting a lesson in his weak and mellow voice.
3. An unnoted, sweet and young boy is sitting at the back of the dim class where he creates his own fantasy world.

Question 14.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India 2012)
Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair tom around their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed-down head, the paper:
seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.

1. What are the children compared to?
2. Why do you think the tall girl is sitting with a weighed down head?
3. Give two phrases which tell us that the children are under-nourished.

Answer:
1. The children are compared to rootless weeds.
2. The tall girl is sitting with a weighed down head because she is burdened by her poverty, the hardships of life and her misfortunes.
3. The two phrases that tell us that the children are under-nourished are -‘paper- seeming’ and ‘with rat’s eyes’.

Question 15.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2012)
……..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.

1. Where is the map?
2. Who does the word, ‘their’ refer to?
3. What does the poet think of their future?

Answer:
1. The map hangs on the sour cream wall of the classroom.
2. The word ‘their’ refers to the slum children.
3. The poet thinks the future of these children is rather bleak and foggy. Their hopes and aspirations of a better future will always remain an unfulfilled dream for them and they will live a life of misery and despair.

Question 16.
Why does Stephen Spender feel the maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless? (Comptt. All India 2012)
Answer: Stephen Spender feels the maps in the elementary school classroom are meaningless for the slum children as their slum is not a part
of this map. The map rouses in them hopes and aspirations which will remain unfulfilled. This map with all its bounties is beyond their grim world of narrow lanes and cramped houses.

Question 17.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India 2013)
……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.

1. Who is the unlucky heir?
2. What will he inherit?
3. Who is sitting at the back of the dim class?

Answer:
1. The unlucky heir is a weak and timid- looking slum boy whose eyes are like those of a rat. He is a boy with stunted growth and twisted bones.
2. He will inherit his father’s gnarled disease wherein he will have a deformed and twisted body.
3. A young and sweet girl, unnoticed by others and lost in her world of dreams, is sitting at the back of the dim class.

Question 18.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2013)
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?

1. Why is the map called a bad example?
2. Where do the children spend their lives?
3. What do ‘fog7 and ‘endless night’ stand for?

Answer:
1. The map is called a bad example for the children because it does not include their world of narrow and dirty lanes of the slum.
2. The children spend their lives living like rats in their cramped holes in the slum. They live in the most dirty and unhygienic conditions.
3. ‘Fog7 and ‘endless night’ describe the miserable and pathetic life of the slum children. From early foggy mornings till very late at night these children make vain attempts to sustain themselves despite all odds.

Question 19.
What message does Stephen Spender convey through the poem: ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’? (Delhi 2013)
Answer:
Through the poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’, Stephen Spender makes a frantic appeal to the affluent sections of the society to improve the lot of the slum children whose only hope for redemption is through the medium of education.

Question 20.
In spite of despair and disease pervading the lives of the slum children, they are not devoid of hope. How far do you agree? (Delhi 2013)
Answer:
Though despair and disease do make these slum children look at the world with hollow eyes yet they are not devoid of hope. They fight the battle of life courageously, like heroes whose victories are never celebrated, but they still make desperate attempts to live life against all odds. Their hope comes from the governor, the inspector, the visitor and the sympathetic attitude of the people.

Question 21.
The poet says, ‘And yet, for these Children, these windows, not this map, their world.’ Which world do these children belong to? Which world is inaccessible to them? (Delhi 2013)
Answer:
These children belong to a world which is confined within the walls of their slum. They belong to a world of poverty, misery and deprivation. The world represented on the map is inaccessible to them. They do get glimpses of this world from the windows of their slums, but they can never be part of the rich outside world.

Question 22.
How is the atmosphere inside an elementary school classroom in a slum different from the one outside it? (Comptt. All India 2013)
Answer:
The world outside the slum abounds in the bounties of nature whereas the atmosphere inside the elementary school classroom is deplorable. The atmosphere inside the classroom is one of morbidity and inactivity. The classroom is poorly lit and not maintained properly with pale cream walls. Deprived of the lush green beauty of nature, the children spend their lives in the barrenness of a wasteland where there is no hope for their future.

Question 23.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Delhi 2014)
With ships and sun and love tempting them to
steal…
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night?

1. Who are ‘them’ referred to in the first line?
2. What tempts them?
3. What does the poet say about ‘their’ lives?

Answer:
1. ‘Them’ in the first line refers to children of the slum school.
2. The ships, sun and love are symbolic of the joy and brightness of life. So to reach out to this life these objects tempt them.
3. The poet says that the lives of these slum children is miserable and pathetic in their cramped holes where they strive and struggle for their sustenance from foggy mornings till late at night in a desperate attempt to survive.

Question 24.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India 2014)
… 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.

1. Who are the ‘children’ referred to here?
2. Which is their world? j
3. How is their life different from that of j other children?

Answer:
1. The ‘children’ referred to here are the children from the elementary school of the slum.
2. Their world is the world of the slum, of deprivation and poverty. A world which is far away from rivers, capes and stars of words. A narrow street sealed with a lead sky.
3. Unlike other children they have a bleak future, without any hope or progress, they live in poverty and are disease-stricken. Their hopes and aspirations of a better future will always remain an unfulfilled dream for them and they will live a life of misery and despair.

Question 25.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2014)
And, yet for these
Children, these windows, not his map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,

1. Which map is the poet talking about in the above lines?
2. To what do the words, “these windows, their world”, refer?
3. What sort of future do the slum children have?

Answer:
1. The poet is talking about the open-handed map of the world that hangs in the classroom.
2. “These windows, their world” refer to the narrow and filthy streets of the slums to which the lives of the slum children is confined. ..These children lead a life of disease and despair within these narrow streets.
3. The future of the slum children is bleak and foggy, deprived of all the bounties of nature.

Question 26.
To whom does the poet in the poem, “An El-ementary School Classroom in a Slum” make an appeal? What is his appeal? (Comptt. Delhi 2014)
Answer:
The poet in ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ makes a frantic appeal to the educated and affluent section of society who should try to improve the condition of the children of the slums through the medium of education. He feels the people in general and the governments in particular have no feeling of these unfortunate children.

Question 27.
Which words/phrases in the poem, “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum” show that the slum children are suffering from acute malnutrition? (Comptt. All India 2014)
Answer:
The words/phrases in the poem that show that the slum children are suffering from acute malnutrition are: ‘rootless weeds’, ‘weighed down head’, ‘paper-seeming boy’, ‘stunted’ and ‘twisted bones’.

Question 28.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Delhi 2015)
Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair tom round their pallor;
The tall girl with her weighed-down head.

1. Who are these children?
2. What does the poet mean by ‘gusty waves’?
3. What has possibly weighed down the tall girl’s head?
4. Identify the figure of speech used in these lines.

Answer:
1. These are the poor and deprived children who are studying in an elementary school in a slum.
2. By the phrase ‘gusty waves’ the poet means that these children do not enjoy their childhood freely in mainstream society. They are deprived of the energy and vitality of better living conditions.
3. The struggles and misery of leading a poverty-stricken life in the slum has possibly weighed down the tall girl’s head.
4. A ‘simile’ is used in these lines (Tike rootless weeds’).

Question 29.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India 2015)
On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles
of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.

1. Who are these children?
2. What is their slag heap?
3. Why are their bones peeping through their skins?
4. What does ‘with mended glass’ mean?

Answer:
1. These are the poor, impoverished children who are studying in an elementary school in a slum.
2. Their slag heap refers to the dirt and garbage on which their childhood gets wasted.
3. These children are undernourished and impoverished and look almost like skeletons with their bones peeping through their skins.
4. The phrase ‘with mended glass’ gives us a glimpse of the impoverished life led by these children who use mended glasses for their spectacles.

Question 30.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2015)
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.

1. Why was the class dim?
2. Who was sitting at the back of the dim class?
3. What was he dreaming about?
4. Name the poem.

Answer:
1. The class was dim because it was neither well lit nor ventilated. Its surroundings were grey and dreary.
2. A young, sweet boy unnoticed by others was sitting at the back of the dim class.
3. He was dreaming about being like a squirrel in a tree room and the squirrel’s games.
4. The poem is “An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum”.

Question 31.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. All India 2015)
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 world.

1. Name the poem.
2. What are the donations on the wall?
3. What does the map award the world?
4. Why does the poet mention ‘Tyrolese Valley’?

Answer:
1. The poem is ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’.
2. The sour cream walls of the classroom that have been painted with the help of donations.
3. The map awards the world with the beautiful bounties created by God.
4. The poet mentions ‘Tyrolese valley’ because of its natural beauty, which the slum children are deprived of.

Question 32.
How does the map on the wall tempt the slum children? (Comptt. Delhi 2015)
Answer:
The map on the wall shows beautiful rivers, mountains and valleys whereas the world of the slum children only consists of dim lanes covered with a lead sky. The beautiful world of the map is unknown to them. So the map just tempts them without giving them an opportunity to live in the real world.

Question 33.
What does Stephen Spender want to be done for the children of the school in a slum? (Delhi 2016)
Answer:
The poet Stephen Spender wants that the children of the slums should be able to experience the beauty and joy of the outside world. He wants that these children should be removed from their dirty surroundings. They should get the opportunity of being educated and be a part of the outside world. Their lives should not be confined to the cemeteries of the slums. They should come out in the green fields and breathe in open air so that they can grow unrestricted and liberated.

Question 34.
How is ‘Shakespeare wicked and the map a bad example’ for the children of the school in a slum? (All India 2016)
Answer:
‘Shakespeare is wicked and the map is a bad example’ for the children of the school in a slum because they can never reach that level of education to understand the works of Shakespeare. Their dirty, filthy slum has no place in the map of the beautiful world.

Question 35.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2016)
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, ……………

1. Name the poem and the poet.
2. Who are the ‘children’ referred to in these lines?
3. What does the poet want for the children?
4. What is the poet’s attitude towards these children?

Answer:
1. The poem is ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’ by Stephen Spender.
2. The slum children are being referred to in these lines.
3. The poet wants exposure to the world of freedom and knowledge and exposure to nature and education for the slum children.
4. The poet is concerned about the future of these children so he has a sympathetic attitude towards them.

Question 36.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (Comptt. Delhi 2016)
‘ I looked again at her, wan,
pale
as a late winter’s moon and felt that
old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear’,
……………………

1. Name the poem and the poet.
2. Who was the poet looking at?
3. What was the poet’s childhood fear?
4. What does the phrase, ‘familiar ache’ mean?

Answer:
1. The poem is ‘My Mother at Sixty Six’ by Kamala Das.
2. The poet was looking at her mother.
3. The poet’s childhood fear was of losing her mother.
4. The phrase ‘familiar ache’ means the fear felt by the poet even when she was a child.

Question 37.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow (Delhi 2017)
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.

1. Who are these children?
2. Which figure of speech has been used in the first two lines?
3. Why is the tall girl’s head weighed down?
4. What does the word ‘pallor’ mean?

Answer:
1. These are the children from the deprived and poor sections of society who study in an elementary school in a slum.
2. Line 1: Imagery – ‘gusty waves’
Line 1: Repetition – ‘far far1
Line 1: An alliteration has been used – ‘far far from gusty waves’.
Line 1: A metaphor has been used in this line – ‘gusty waves’.
Line 2: A simile has been used – ‘like rootless weeds’.
3. The tall girl’s hair is weighed down because of the trials, tribulations and misfortunes she faces in her poverty- stricken life.

Question 38.
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow (All India 2017)
At back of the dim class
One unnoted, siveet and young. His eyes live in a
dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.

1. Why is the class dim?
2. How is the young child different from others?
3. What is he doing?
4. What is a tree room?

Answer:
1. The class is dim because it is poorly lit.
2. The young child is different from others because his eyes sparkle with dreams about his future.
3. He is trying to live his dream in a frolic and in a happy place which is in stark contrast to this dingy classroom.
4. The room refers to the hollow in a tree where a squirrel takes shelter.

Question 39.
Why is Shakespeare wicked for the slum chil¬dren? (Comptt. All India 2017)
Answer:
Shakespeare is described as wicked because there is no correlation between Shakespeare’s works and the life of the slum children. Shakespeare’s works are no good to the children in slum schools as they cannot identify themselves with the characters. He talks about a world far removed from reality. The slum children can never reach the level of education to understand the works of Shakespeare.