11th Eng all lesson summary & questions

 The Portrait of a Lady-1 lesson

The Portrait of a Lady summary is a real story of the writer’s grandmother. The name of the writer is Kushwant Singh. His grandmother was an old lady. The writer tells us the story of the childhood that he had spent with his grandmother. The writer has explained his relationship with his grandmother over the years. He thinks about her daily activities and how she grew as a character over time. He mentions her appearance, which assists in creating a mental impression of her in the reader’s mind.(पोर्ट्रेट ऑफ़ ए लेडी सारांश लेखक की दादी की एक वास्तविक कहानी है। लेखक का नाम कुशवंत सिंह है. उनकी दादी एक बूढ़ी औरत थीं। लेखक हमें अपने बचपन की कहानी सुनाता है जो उसने अपनी दादी के साथ बिताया था। लेखक ने वर्षों से अपनी दादी के साथ अपने संबंधों के बारे में बताया है। वह उसकी दैनिक गतिविधियों के बारे में सोचता है और वह समय के साथ एक चरित्र के रूप में कैसे विकसित हुई। वह उसके रूप-रंग का उल्लेख करता है, जो पाठक के मन में उसकी मानसिक छाप बनाने में सहायता करता है।)

Detail summary The writer recalls his Grandmother as short, healthy and slightly bent. Her hairs were silver in colour and were scattered on her wrinkled face. She used to walk around the whole house in white clothes. The writer thinks of her as not very pretty but constantly beautiful all the time. He compares her calm face with the winter landscape. During their lengthy stay in the village, Grandmother woke him up from the bed in the early morning, plastered his wooden slate, organized his breakfast, and sent him to the school. The temple was connected to the school. She sat inside and studied the sacred texts while the children learned the alphabet. On their way back to the home she used to give the stale chapattis to the street dogs.

A turning point in their beautiful relationship arrived when they went to live in a city. Despite the fact that they shared a room, their relationship started to grow apart. Now, the writer used to go to the city school on a school bus and studied subjects like English, Physics, mathematics and many more subjects that his grandmother could not understand at all. His grandmother could no longer go to school with him to send him. She felt upset that there was no teaching about God and scriptures at the city school. Instead, he was given music lessons, but she said nothing. She thought music was dreadful. It was just good for prostitutes and beggars, according to her. It was not intended for gentlemen.

When the writer went to a university, he got a separate room in his house. The common link of the relationship between the grandson and the grandmother was broken now. Grandmother rarely talked to anyone in the house now. The writer’s grandmother quietly accepted her loneliness.

When the writer was leaving on a trip abroad for his further studies, his grandmother did not get disturbed at all. Rather she went to the train station to say goodbye, but she didn’t say anything and merely kissed his forehead. Her lips were moving in prayer. Seeing her grandmother at this old age, the writer was thinking that it might be his last meeting with his grandmother. But when he came back home after a duration of 5 years, his grandmother was there to welcome him back and he saw her celebrate his return.

The next morning after the return of his grandson she got ill. Although the doctor told them that it was a slight fever and would go away very soon, still she could foresee that her time to leave this world was near. She went to her bed praying and telling the beads till her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell down from her lifeless hand.  To grieve her death, thousands of sparrows flew in and sat dispersed around her body. All the sparrows flew away without making any noise when the dead body of the old lady was carried away for the last rites.

Conclusion of The Portrait of a Lady

To sum up, in the portrait of a lady summary, the writer and his grandmother had a beautiful bond between them and loved each other a lot. The story tells us how beautiful a relationship can become between a grandson and his grandmother.

The Portrait of a Lady Questions and Answers

Question 1: Mention three reasons why the author’s grandma was upset when he began attending a city school.

Answer 1: The grandmother was bothered by the following:

1.    She was no longer able to assist him in his studies. He began attending an English medium school, where he was taught topics such as English, Physics, and Maths. This became a stumbling block for her.

2.    There were no lessons on God or the Bible.

3.    She didn’t like the fact that he was taking music lessons. Music, she said, was just for beggars and harlots.

Question 2: What would the author’s grandmother do after he grew up and started studying at the university?

Answer 2: His grandmother has changed dramatically since he was a child. She grew increasingly private. She’d spend her days at the spinning wheel, praying and feeding sparrows.

Question 3: The grandmother has been portrayed as a religious Christian. What elements of the story contribute to this impression?

Answer 3: The author remembers his grandma as a religious Catholic. He recalls her hobbling around the home, telling him about her rosary beads. He remembers her morning prayers and scripture reading within the temple. When the author was in high school, he was not taught about God or the Bible, which bothered his grandmother. The author describes how she spent all of her time praying during the last few days.

 

We’re Not Afraid to Die…if We Can All Be Together -2 lesson

We are not afraid to die written by Gordan Cook and Alan East. The story is about a 37 year old businessman who is the narrator of the story. The narrator and his wife plan a voyage around the world just like famous captain James Cook. They get a ship which is 23 meters long and 30 tans wooden-hulled, named Wavewalker.

The writer, his wife Mary his son Jonathan and his daughter Suzanne  started selling from plymouth England in July 1976.The initial phase of the three year long journey was from Africa to Cape Town. It was pleasant. While heading east strong waves hit them and their survival became a question. The story tells us about how they fought each day and survived till the end.

Question:1
List the steps taken by the captain
(i) To protect the ship when rough weather began.
(ii) To check the flooding of the water in the ship.
Answer:
(i) In order to protect the ship from rough weather, the captain decided to slow it down. He dropped the storm jib and lashed heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stem. He double lashed everything, wore lifesaving jackets.
(ii) He went to the bottom of the ship to see how the sea water is in the ship.

Question 2:
Describe the mental condition of the voyages on 4th and 5th January.
Answer:
On January 4, the voyagers felt relieved after 36 hours of continuous pumping out
water. They had their first meal in almost two days. Their respite was short-lived. They faced dangerous situation on January 5. Fear of death loomed large. They were under great mental stress.

Class 11 English Hornbills A Photograph (Poem)-1 

Main Theme

The poem is a paean to her mother while she was looking at a photograph pasted on cardboard. The picture shows three girls each holding mother’s hands from the side. It was clicked on a sea beach when her mother was 12 years or so with her girl cousins, Betty and Dolly. The sea touched her terribly transient feet which explain that nature remained unchanged but humans are mortal. The beach holiday looked like her mother’s favorite memory. Now, the poet’s mother had deceased for 12years and the poet is unable to explain her sorrow for her lost mother.

Questions from Textbook Solved

Question 1: What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

Answer: The word cardboard denotes the photograph pasted on a hard thick paper. This word has been used to refer to a practice in the past when photographs were pasted on cardboard and framed with glass front to preserve them.

Question 2: What has the camera captured?

Answer: The camera has captured the three girls—the poet’s mother and her two cousins, Betty and Dolly, in their swimming dresses with the poet’s mother.

 Question 3: What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

Answer: The sea has not changed over the years. Its waves are as fresh, shining and tireless

as they were years ago. The changeless of sea reminds us of the changes in human face with advancing age.

Question 4:The poetess’s mother laughed at the snapshot? What did this laugh indicate?

Answer:This laugh’ indicated her joy at remembering an incident connected with her past

life, when she was quite young and free from the tensions and worries of life.

Question 5: What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of loss”.

Answer: The sea holiday and the laughter of the poet’s mother are incidents of the past.

There is a sense of loss associated with them. Both are amusing yet disappointing as the state of feeling comfortable or relaxed is unnatural or forced one. This sense of loss is quite painful to bear.

Question 6: What does ‘this circumstance’ refer to?

Answer: This circumstance refers to the death of the poet’s mother.

The Laburnum poem-2 Introduction/ Summary

The poem ‘The Laburnum Top’ is written by Ted Hughes. It is about a repaying relationship between the Laburnum tree and the Goldfinch bird. The tree is yellow, silent and death-like and is made alive by the bird and her young ones. The yellow bird has her shelter on the tree where she feeds her young ones. But as soon as the bird leaves to fly in the sky, the tree becomes silent and death-like again.

लैबर्नम  परिचय/ सारांश

'द लैबर्नम टॉप' कविता टेड ह्यूजेस द्वारा लिखी गई है। यह लैबर्नम पेड़ और गोल्डफिंच पक्षी के बीच एक बदले हुए रिश्ते के बारे में है। पेड़ पीला, खामोश और मौत जैसा है और इसे पक्षी और उसके बच्चों ने जीवंत बना दिया है। पीली चिड़िया का आश्रय पेड़ पर है जहाँ वह अपने बच्चों को खाना खिलाती है। लेकिन जैसे ही पक्षी आकाश में उड़ने के लिए निकलता है, पेड़ फिर से शांत और मृत्यु जैसा हो जाता है।

 Class 11 th Summary of Discovering Tut: the Saga Continues

A.R. Williams is the writer of this chapter. In this chapter is regarding the last heir of the great Pharaoh Dynasty, Tutankhamun. He died in his teenage after ruling for 9 years. His death gave birth to a mystery. In the year 1922, his tomb was exposed by Howard Carter, an Archaeologist. After 80 years, he was taken for the CT scan to solve the mystery of his life and death through a forensic reconstruction. This chapter talks about all the possible mysteries: the curse, where his tomb is lying, his whole life and finally his death.  Summary will give you all the facts and information about the death of Tut.

ए.आर. विलियम्स इस अध्याय के लेखक हैं। इस अध्याय में महान फिरौन राजवंश के अंतिम उत्तराधिकारी तूतनखामुन के बारे में है। 9 वर्ष तक शासन करने के बाद किशोरावस्था में ही उनकी मृत्यु हो गई। उनकी मौत ने एक रहस्य को जन्म दे दिया. वर्ष 1922 में उनकी कब्र का अनावरण एक पुरातत्वविद् हॉवर्ड कार्टर ने किया था। 80 वर्षों के बाद, फोरेंसिक पुनर्निर्माण के माध्यम से उनके जीवन और मृत्यु के रहस्य को सुलझाने के लिए उन्हें सीटी स्कैन के लिए ले जाया गया। यह अध्याय सभी संभावित रहस्यों के बारे में बात करता है: अभिशाप, जहां उनकी कब्र पड़ी है, उनका पूरा जीवन और अंततः उनकी मृत्यु . टुट की खोज: गाथा जारी है सारांश आपको टुट की मृत्यु के बारे में सभी तथ्य और जानकारी देगा।