Answer any four of the following questions in 30 – 40 words each:

(a) Why did Franz not want to go to school that day?
(b) What was Sophie’s ambition in life ? How did she hope to achieve that?
(c) What kind of pain does Kamala Das feel in ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’?
(d) How can ‘mighty dead’ be things of beauty?
(e) Why was the Maharaja once in danger of losing his kingdom?
(f) What was the basic plot of each story told by Jack?

(a) Franz did not want to go to school that day because not only he was late for the school but also because he had not even prepared his lesson on participles.

(b) Sophie wishes to rise above her middle class status and to obtain sophistication. She aspires to open a boutique or become an actress or fashion designer. Though she belongs to a middle class society, she never misses in taking a plunge because she is not the type who would accept regrets in life. Her dreams were sometimes proved unachievable to Sophie but she took the support of her dreams to fulfill her desires. She gracefully maintained the balance between reality and dreams and in this way, lived her unachievable dreams.

(c) When the poet looked at her mother’s face she found that it had become pale and withered. She realized that her mother was at the edge of her life and her end was near. The thought that her mother would be soon separated from her and that she would never see her again caused unbearable pain and ache in the poets’ heart.

(d) The glory of death lies in the promise of an eternal sleep which continues undisturbed without the usual earthly concerns and strife that plagues us daily. The dead also have a power over us, they do not leave us free but imprint themselves in our memory. The death live on in those who are alive.

(e) The Maharaja had not allowed the British officer to hunt tigers in his kingdom and so he had a fear of losing his own kingdom to the British. So, the King thought of a plan to lure the officer and his wife by extending some really expensive gift. So he ordered few rings worth three lakh of rupees from a jeweler and sent them to duraisani. The bill raised was the price of those rings.

(f) The basic plot of all the stories told by Jack dwelt with the idea that whether parents should always decide what their children should do or give the children the freedom to make their own choices or decision. It is visible from the clear contrast between the adults’ perspective of live and a childs own world view.