(a) The poet is talking about the children who go to the elementary school in a slum.

(b) The two figures of speech used in the two lines are:

Alliteration- “Far from gusty waves”

Simile- “Like rootless weeds”

(c) The head of the tall girl is weighed down because she is ill and exhausted.

(d) The word “pallor” describes the pale and unhealthy appearance of the slum children.

(a) The tigers are called Aunt Jennifers tiger as they are knitted by her. With their chivalrous, ferocious, bright and carefree attitude, she creates an alternate world for herself.

(b) Aunt Jennifers tigers are described as ferocious, fearless, always harmful, sleek and chivalric.

(c) The tigers are depicted as brave, strong, confident and happy. They are fearless beings and the presence of men does not scare them at all. Contrarily, Aunt Jennifer is burdened by a life which, most probably, others chose for her.

(d) The word “chivalric” refers to the confidence of the tigers about their power and brevity in their actions.

(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.

Seemapuri is a place on the outskirts of New Delhi. Those who live there are unlawful residents who came from Bangladesh in 1971. It is a place where about 10,000 rag pickers live. They live without identity and have no basic amenities, yet they are happy here because they get food which is more important than identity. It is a slum where they could find many things and rag picking was their only means of survival.

Rag picking was the means of survival for the rag pickers. According to the author, it is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. Thus, it is equivalent to gold for them. Besides, for the children it is wrapped in wonder for they, at times, chance upon a rupee, even a ten-rupee note.

The life of the peddler is bound with loneliness. This idea of being completely alone made the peddler a pessimist. After stealing the money, the peddler tried to escape through the forest but got lost. Left in despair, he recollected his own thoughts on the world being a giant rattrap. A sudden realization came to him that he had finally got himself caught in the rattrap because he allowed himself to be tempted by the bait, the thirty kronor bills. Even the kindness of the ironmaster and especially his daughter failed to make the peddler optimistic about the world. Unlike the other characters in the story, peddler is the only one who got succumbed to loneliness and is far away from the human bonds of love and sympathy that made him the cynic and consider the world as a rattrap.