9th English: The Fun They Had

CBSE ADDA

9th CBSE English - Chap 1 - The Fun They Had

Question: 

I. Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.
1. How old are Margie and Tommy?
2. What did Margie write in her diary?
3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?
4. What things about the book did she find strange?
5. What do you think a telebook is?
6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?

Answer: 

1. How old are Margie and Tommy?

Ans. Margie is eleven and Tommy is thirteen yrs old.

 

2. What did Margie write in her diary?

Ans. She wrote “Today Tommy found a real book!”.

 

3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?

Ans. No, she hadn’t.

 

4. What things about the book did she find strange?

Ans. The things she found strange about the book were-

*All stories were printed on paper.

*They turned the pages then, which were yellow and crinkly.

*It was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to — on a screen.

*And then when they turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it that it had had when they read it the first time.

 

5. What do you think a telebook is?

Ans. A telebook is a virtual book which you can see and read on a television screen. The words and pages there scroll up and you don’t have to turn any pages to read further.

 

6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?

Ans. Margie’s school was in her home, right next to her bedroom. And no, she didn’t have any classmates.

 

7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?

Ans. Geography, Arithmatic etc.

Question: 

II. Answer the following with reference to the story.

1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
(i) Who says these words?
(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?
(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?

2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
(iii) What is it contrasted with?

Answer: 

1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”

(i) Who says these words?

Ans. Tommy said these words.

 

(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?

Ans. ‘It’ refers to the television screen which shows all the telebooks content.

 

(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?

Ans. ‘It’ is being compared to a real book.

 

2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”

(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?

Ans. ‘They’ refers to the children living centuries back, i.e., children like us.

 

(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?

Ans. ‘Regular means normal, of the usual kind.

 

(iii) What is it contrasted with?

Ans. It is contrasted with a mechanical teacher.

Question: 

III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
3. What did he do?
4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?

Answer: 

1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?

Ans. They had a mechanical teacher with a big screen on which all the lessons were shown and the questions were asked. It had a slot where they had to put homework and test papers. And they had to write them out in a punch code.

 

2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?

Ans. Margie’s mother sent for the CountyInspector because the mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse.

 

3. What did he do?

Ans. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart. He finally put it together again after an hour or so, making it right.

 

4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?

Ans. Margie was doing badly because the geography sector was geared a little too quick. So theCountyInspector slowed it up to an average ten-year level, to help her.

 

5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?

Ans. They had once taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

 

6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?

Ans. Yes Margie had to attend her school on at the same time every day except Saturday and Sunday, because her mother said that little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.

 

7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?

Ans. Tommy described the old kind of school as the one which existed centuries ago. A special building where all kids went together and where the teacher was a man.

8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?

Ans. Tommy said that the old kind of teacher was a man and he lived in a special building where all kids went together. And he just told the boys and girls things and gave them homework and asked them questions.

IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 –150 words).

1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?

2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?

3. Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer: 

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1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?

Ans. Being robots the mechanical teacher could live in the house and the schoolrooms could be made in the house as well. The books used were telebooks whose words and pages scrolled up for reading. Millions of these telebooks could be stored in the memory and could be flashed on screen. The mechanical teacher was voice enabled too, so as to instruct the kids and ask questions. The homeworks and test papers were were written in a punch code and the mechanical teacher could calculate the marks in no time. The added advantage to this system was that the teacher could be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it taught.

 

2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?

Ans. She hated school because there she had to sit alone and listen to the mechanical teacher. She had started hating it more because recently there was a problem in the geography sector which was geared a little too quick. So the mechanical teacher gave her test after test and she kept doing worse and worse. So she started hating the complete slot where she had to put the homework and testpapers after writing them in the punch code.

She thought that the old school system must have been fun because there all the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom and going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another with the homework and talk about it. And the teachers were people.

 

3. Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.

Ans. Yes, the schools today are more fun than the school in the story. This is because today, all kids come together to study. The learn and grow together learning the same thing. They make friends there and enjoy the environment. The teachers being human, have feelings and they understand the problems of the students. If anyone has any problem, they can come front and ask their doubt. No such case is available with the mechanical teacher. Further learning together with kids of the same age makes them help each other and teaches them co operation and team work.