An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
TEXTBOOK EXERCISES
THINK IT OUT
1. Tick the item which best answers the following.
a) The tall girl with her head weighed down means, the girl
I)is ill and exhaustedi)
ii)has her head bent with shame
iii) has untidy hair
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b) The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes means, the boy is
I)Sly and secretive
ii)thin, hungry and weak
iii) unpleasant looking
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c) The stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones means, the boy
i)has an inherited disability
ii)was, short and bony
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d) His eyes live in a dream of squirrel’s game, in the tree room, other than this means, the boy is
i) full of hope in the future
ii) mentally
iii) distracted from the lesson
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e) The children’s faces are compared to ‘rootless weeds’, this means they
i) Are insecure
ii)are ill-fed
ii) Are wasters
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2. What do you think is the colour of ‘sour cream’? Why do you think the poet has used this expression to describe the classroom walls?
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4. What does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be made to change?
Or
What does Stephen Spender want for the children of the slums? How can their lives changes? Or
What does the poet wish for the children of the slums?
Or
What does Stephen Spender want to be done for the children of the school in a slum?
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SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS
1. What is the message that Stephen Spender wants to give through the poem ‘An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum’?
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3. “So blot their maps with slums as big as doom”, says Stephen Spender. What does the poet want to convey?
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4. What should governors, teachers, inspectors and other important and powerful persons do to improve the lot of children living in slums?
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5. ‘History is theirs whose language is the sun.’ Justify the veracity of this statement?’
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6. Why does Spender call Shakespeare wicked and the map a bad example?
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