Class 7 English Chapter 10: The Tunnel
- 3 topics
- 75 MCQs
- 21 short answers
- 9 long answers
- 51 flashcards
- 15 games
- ~96 min read
- English
Three Passes Through One Tunnel
A boy cycles out of town to watch a steam engine come out of a tunnel, walks through the tunnel himself, and meets the watchman who calls it his own. This topic follows the three times the same train passes, and where Suraj is standing each time.
What you will be able to do
- Retell the three occasions on which Suraj meets the night mail or the midday train.
- Explain the watchman’s signalling system, by day and by night.
- Give the reasons Sunder Singh is sure the leopard will not attack them.
- Account for Suraj’s father taking him to Delhi, in the father’s own terms.
- Explain why the last page calls Sunder Singh a firefly.
Key points
Suraj is not catching a train. He cycles out of town and walks over a hill to watch one come out of a tunnel.
He walks into the tunnel for one reason only: he wants to know what the inside of a tunnel is really like.
Sunder Singh calls the tunnel his own, lent to the Government, and the leopard his own, which he does not lend.
The watchman inspects the tunnel before every train, with a red flag by day and an oil lamp by night.
A porcupine on the line is not danger. Anything that is danger sends him back up the line, waving.
The leopard is driven out because a train would kill it, not because it threatens the two of them.
Two voices in a tunnel sound like more, and that uncertainty is what turns the leopard away.
A week later Suraj passes the cutting inside the train, and sees the lamp without seeing his friend.
The firefly image is the point of the ending: one small light, kept going for engines and leopards alike.
Full explanation
One tunnel, three times
The story gives us the same piece of railway line three times over. Suraj is outside it at noon, inside it at night, and aboard a train passing through it a week later. Everything else hangs off that.
The first pass: not a passenger
He is not catching a train and the cutting is not a station. He has cycled out of town, left the cycle at a village, and walked over a low hill covered in scrub. He has come to watch.
What comes out of the hole in the hill
A steam engine, snorting and puffing, showering sparks on both sides. Bond calls it a dragon out of the boy’s dreams. Suraj steps back without deciding to, and hot steam hits him in the face.
And then the quiet
The train goes, leaving smoke to drift over the tall trees. Nobody moves. For several hours no other train will come, and Bond says the cutting belongs to the jungle again until one does.
Why he walks into the tunnel
For no reason at all, which is the point. There is nothing to do in there and nothing to see. He wants to know what the inside of a tunnel is actually like, and the only way to know is to walk through it.
What is in there
Damp, sticky walls. A bat. A lizard running between the rails. Twenty yards in it is pitch dark, and he has to look back at the opening to be sure the daylight is still there.
A flash of orange and gold
He comes out dazzled and shades his eyes. Something moves between the trees on the hillside: colour, and a tail that swished, for a second or two. He is not sure what he has seen.
The hut, and its owner
Fifteen metres from the entrance, with marigolds in front and a vegetable patch behind. The watchman has been waiting on his cot. He asks the boy why he has been inspecting his tunnel.
Whose tunnel it is
Sunder Singh says it is truly his, since nobody else cares for the place, with it, and that he has only lent it to the Government. The leopard is his too, and that one he does not lend.
What the watchman actually does
He walks the length of the tunnel before every train. If all is well he goes back and naps, or hangs the lamp at his door. If something is wrong he walks back up the line and waves.
Where the line is drawn
Not at any animal. A porcupine on the rails is not danger, and he would not stop a train for it. Anything that IS danger to the train sends him up the line with the flag or the lamp.
The second pass: tea, and a sawing sound
The next evening Suraj comes back at dusk. There is tea on an oil stove, and birds. Then a rhythmic noise, like somebody cutting a branch, and Sunder Singh knows at once that the leopard is in the tunnel.
Why they go in
The night mail is ten minutes away. A leopard on the line will be run over, and he says he cannot let that happen. So he takes the lamp and the axe, and Suraj comes because waiting alone in the dark is worse.
What actually drives it out
Two people shouting at once. The leopard is crouched between the tracks five metres off, snarling, and cannot tell how many humans are in the dark with it. That uncertainty turns it round.
Suraj’s dry throat
He meant to shout and found that he could not. Bond gives him that one line and then lets him shout the second time, beside the watchman. It is a braver thing than never being frightened.
The third pass, from inside
A week later Suraj is a passenger. His father is doing accounts and has brought him along to learn something about the business. Suraj is at the window, staring out at the dark.
What he sees, and what he knows
He cannot see the hut, and he cannot see Sunder Singh. Just as the whistle blows, he sees the lamp. That is enough: he knows his friend is out there in the dark, where he always is.
Why a firefly
Because that is all the thousands who travel will ever see of him. One small light, lit for steam engines and leopards alike. The word turns a lonely job into the thing a reader takes away.
Concepts and terms
Suraj meets the same stretch of line three times and stands somewhere different each time. Outside at noon, watching. Inside at night, with the lamp and the leopard. Then aboard the train itself, looking out. The story is that structure, and the ending only works because of it.
Sunder Singh says the tunnel is truly his, since nobody else cares for it at all, and that he has only lent it to the Government. It is a joke with something serious in it: the care is his, and the ownership is nobody’s.
Walk the length of the tunnel before each train. If all is well, hang the lamp at the hut door, or go and take a nap. If there is danger, walk back up the line and wave the red flag, or the lamp at night, and the driver slows.
Not because it is dangerous. Sunder Singh says it minds its own business and knows him well. It has to go because the night mail is ten minutes away and would run it over, and he will not let that happen.
From inside the train Suraj cannot see the man, only the lamp. To the hundreds of passengers he will always be a small light in the dark, which is what a firefly is. The word turns a job into something a reader remembers.
Watch out!
Common Misconceptions
Two reports of one night shift
Scenario:
Two level-crossing keepers on the same branch line write up a night in the register. Harpreet writes: 21.10, inspected, line clear, lamp hung. Nothing to report. Govind writes half a page. A sawing sound at 20.50, which he took for a woodcutter. A second inspection with the lamp. A civet cat between the rails at 21.02, which moved off on its own. The lamp hung at 21.14. And a note that the third sleeper from the mouth is working loose. The inspector reads both the next morning. He thanks Harpreet, and acts on Govind.
Analysis:
Both keepers did their duty and only one of them left anything a reader could use. Harpreet recorded the outcome: line clear. Govind recorded what he noticed on the way to the outcome, including a sound he could not place and an animal that turned out to be nothing. Neither of those was danger, so neither changed what he did that night. But a loose sleeper is work for somebody else, and a sound nobody can place is worth having on paper the next time it happens. That is Sunder Singh exactly. He would not stop a train for a porcupine, and he goes in with a lamp for a sawing sound, because knowing which is which is the whole of the job. The register is the place where a quiet night becomes useful to a person who was not there.
Activity:
Keep a register of your own for one evening at home. Write the outcome in one line, then write three things you noticed on the way to it. Ask somebody else which of the four lines is useful to them.
Three positions, in three columns
Title:
Three positions, in three columns
Safety:
None needed.
What You Notice:
The train gets less visible and the man gets less visible as the story goes on, until all that is left is a lamp. The columns make the ending look inevitable rather than sudden.
Did you know
Ruskin Bond has lived in the hills of northern India for most of his life, and the jungle railway lines of that country run through many of his stories.
A railway cutting is a narrow valley dug through a hill so that a line can pass at a gentle gradient, which is why the sides above Suraj are so steep.
The Atal Tunnel under the Rohtang Pass is 9.02 kilometres long and was certified as the world’s longest highway tunnel above ten thousand feet.
Memory tricks
The three passes — Outside, inside, aboard — Suraj watches from the cutting at noon, stands in the tunnel at night with the watchman, and passes through it a week later as a passenger. Three positions, in that order.
The watchman’s rule — Walk, then wave or sleep — He walks the length of the tunnel before every train. If there is danger he goes back up the line and waves; if all is well he hangs up the lamp and rests.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A that he has come for the engine itself
- B that the station is further up the line
- C that he lives nearby
- D that he has missed the one he wanted
Show answer
Why:
He cycles out of town and walks over a hill to watch, which nobody does by accident.
- A because the watchman has already inspected it that day
- B because wanting to know is reason enough for Suraj
- C because the smoke has not cleared
- D because the tunnel turns out to be dangerous later on
Show answer
Why:
The emptiness is the point: he walks through to find out what it is like, not to find something.
- A he looks back towards the opening
- B he turns and walks away
- C he steps back without deciding to
- D he shades his eyes with one hand
Show answer
Why:
Instinctively, says Bond, which means the feet moved before the boy did.
- A that he built the tunnel himself, years ago
- B that the care of it is his and nobody else’s
- C that the Government pays him rent for it
- D that he can close the tunnel if he likes
Show answer
Why:
It is truly his, he says, since nobody else cares for it at all.
- A the leopard would not stay where it was put
- B the leopard only visits the range a few days a month
- C the Government would hardly want a leopard of its own in any case
- D nobody can own a wild animal, and nobody else cares for it either
Show answer
Why:
The same joke twice, and both times it means that the caring is his alone.
- A to make sure that it cannot attack the two of them
- B to drive it off the hillside and back into the forest
- C to see whether it is the leopard he knows
- D to get it out before the night mail kills it
Show answer
Why:
He says he cannot let that happen, and the train is ten minutes away.
- A the lamp, held up high at about the height of a man’s head
- B two voices, and no way of counting them in the dark
- C the rails beginning to hum under its feet
- D the axe, which it can see quite clearly in the lamplight
Show answer
Why:
Uncertain how many terrifying humans were in there with it, says Bond.
- A because going in frightened is braver than not being frightened
- B because the watchman was shouting loudly enough for the two of them
- C because it explains why the leopard stayed where it was for a moment
- D because it shows that he should have stayed at the hut as he was told
Show answer
Why:
His throat was quite dry, and he walked in anyway, and shouted the second time.
- A he has used it on the line before now, for branches
- B goats and stray dogs are more its line than people
- C he says in the same breath that the leopard will not harm them
- D he never actually takes the axe out of the hut with him that night
Show answer
Why:
Taking a tool you expect not to need is being careful, which is a different thing.
- A his father has promised him a look at the tunnel from inside
- B Sunder Singh has arranged it with the guard
- C the family is moving from the town to Delhi
- D his father wants him to learn something about the business
Show answer
Why:
And because his father says he does not know where the boy gets to most of the time.
- A scribbling his accounts in a notebook
- B talking to the other passengers
- C sleeping, as he does after lunch at home
- D reading a newspaper by the carriage light
Show answer
Why:
The two of them are in the same carriage and in different worlds, which is the quiet joke.
- A it leaves the reader wondering whether he is safe
- B it shows how fast the night mail is travelling
- C the lamp is enough to tell him his friend is there
- D the hut is too far from the line to be seen
Show answer
Why:
And the lamp is all the hundreds of passengers will ever see of him.
- A it tells a reader that the lamp is not very bright
- B it fits the insects of the jungle around the hut
- C it makes one small light in the dark the whole of him
- D it suggests that he moves about the cutting at night
Show answer
Why:
A job becomes an image, and the image is what a reader keeps.
- A both of them would rather be out here than in the town
- B both of them work on the railway in their own way
- C both of them are frightened of the leopard in the tunnel
- D neither of them has anybody else to talk to
Show answer
Why:
And Sunder Singh says the jungle is safer than the town, with a bus for evidence.
- A a night inspection from one made in daylight
- B an animal on the line from a danger to the train
- C his own tunnel from the rest of the line
- D a small animal from one large enough to be seen
Show answer
Why:
Knowing which is which is the whole of the job.
- A because steam engines of that class carried no numbers at all
- B because a number would date the story far too exactly for Bond
- C because a twelve-year-old sees a dragon, not a locomotive
- D because the engine passes too fast to be read
Show answer
Why:
Green, black and gold, snorting and showering sparks, out of the boy’s dreams.
- A it explains why the watchman can take a nap
- B it warns a reader that another train is due
- C it tells us how long the smoke takes to clear from the tunnel
- D it makes the railway the visitor and the jungle the owner
Show answer
Why:
Two trains a day, and the rest of the hours are the forest’s.
- A marigolds in front of the hut, and vegetables behind it
- B a cot that he keeps outside the hut, beside the railway line
- C a kettle that is kept boiling on a small oil stove outside
- D an oil lamp left hanging at the door of the hut at night
Show answer
Why:
Flowers are nobody’s duty, and he waters them before the train.
- A aboard the train, and one lamp in the dark
- B inside the tunnel, and a leopard five metres off
- C outside the cutting, and an engine close enough to feel
- D at the hut, and the watchman asleep
Show answer
Why:
The train and the man both get less visible, until all that is left is a light.
- A with the danger, so the train must be stopped
- B with the harmless, so the train goes on
- C in both groups, depending on the time of day
- D in neither group, since it is never mentioned
Show answer
Why:
It is an animal on the rails and it is not danger to the train.
- A about five metres
- B about twenty yards
- C about fifty yards
- D rather more than half way
Show answer
Why:
Far enough to have to check that the daylight is still behind him.
- A a grey shape moving between the trunks
- B two eyes, low down in the scrub
- C a flash of white under the bushes
- D orange and gold, and a tail that swished
Show answer
Why:
There for a second or two, and then gone, and he is not sure.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
I and II are true. The third fails: he goes back up the line waving, to stop the train before it enters.
- A midnight, or near it
- B nine o’clock, if it is not late
- C noon, every day
- D eight o’clock, towards dusk
Show answer
Why:
Which is why the watchman offers to take him home afterwards.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
The assertion is true and the reason is false: it is driven out because a train would kill it, not because it threatens either of them.
Important short questions (7)
Because he wants to know what the inside of a tunnel is really like. There is nothing in there to do and nothing to see, and he does not stop.
A bat flies past him, and a lizard runs between the rails. The walls are damp and sticky, and twenty yards in it is pitch dark.
That the tunnel is his because nobody else cares for it at all. The Government owns it on paper, and the care of it is his alone.
Because the night mail is ten minutes away and would run it over and kill it. Sunder Singh says he cannot let that happen. The danger runs the other way from what a reader expects.
That he was frightened and went in anyway. He meant to shout and could not, and he shouted beside the watchman the second time. Being frightened and going in is braver than not minding.
He says he does not know where the boy gets to most of the time, and that it is time he learnt something about the business. It is not a treat.
Sunder Singh is a firefly to the thousands who pass. They never see the man, only one small light kept going in the dark, for steam engines and leopards alike.
Long answer questions (3)
Suraj is somewhere different each time. At noon he is outside the cutting, close enough to feel the steam on his face, and the engine is a dragon. The next night he is inside the tunnel with the watchman and a leopard five metres off, and the train arrives as a hum in the rails he can feel with his hand. A week later he is aboard it, at a carriage window, and the cutting goes past in the dark. The train gets less visible each time and so does Sunder Singh. First the man welcomes him at the hut. Then he is a voice shouting beside him. Then he is a lamp with nobody attached to it. The ending needs all three positions. The firefly means something only to a reader who has stood beside the man.
Careful, first. He walks the length of the tunnel before every train, and he knows the difference between a porcupine on the line and a danger to the train. He takes the axe to the leopard although he has just said it will not harm them, which is caution rather than fear. Second, attached to the place. He waters a garden nobody asked him to plant, and he calls the tunnel and the leopard his own. Third, at home in the jungle and not in the town. He says it is safer out here, and his evidence is a bus that nearly ran him over. And then there is the leopard itself. He goes in with a lamp to save the animal from the train, which tells a reader what he thinks the job is for.
Yes, although not in the way the word usually means. He cycles out of town, leaves the cycle at a village and walks over a hill, all to watch a train he is not catching. He walks twenty yards into a pitch-dark tunnel for no reason except to know what it is like inside. He comes back the next evening, and when the watchman tells him to stay at the hut he goes into the tunnel instead, with a leopard somewhere in it. But he is not fearless. He steps back from the engine without deciding to, and his throat is too dry to shout the first time. What he loves is finding out, and the courage is what it costs him. His father has noticed none of it.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- Who or what, and the detail
- Danger, or not danger?
- Fact or myth?
- The night of the leopard
- The three passes
A Jungle You Can Hear
Almost everything in this story reaches a reader as a sound: thunder in a hillside, a sawing in the dark, a hum in the rails. This topic names the sounds, works out what each one is doing, and turns the method into a paragraph of your own.
What you will be able to do
- Give the meaning of creaking, chatter, hissing, rustle and puffing, and use each in a sentence.
- Explain what an -ing word adds to the noun in phrases such as drifting smoke.
- Identify the sound that announces each arrival in the story.
- Explain why Bond describes the engine as a creature rather than a machine.
- Plan a descriptive paragraph on a journey, using sights, sounds and feelings.
Key points
Suraj knows the train is coming before he can see it, from a whistle and then a sound like distant thunder.
The leopard announces itself as a rhythmic sawing, as if somebody were cutting through a branch.
The last arrival is felt rather than heard: the rails begin to hum, and he puts his hand on one.
Creaking is wood moving, chatter is birds or monkeys, hissing is a long s, rustle is dry leaves, puffing is short blasts.
An -ing word in front of a noun names the thing by what it is doing: a sawing sound, flickering lights.
The engine is given a colour, a breath and a challenge, so a reader meets a creature and not a machine.
At dusk the trees seem to come to life, stretching and flexing, because Suraj cannot see what is making the noise.
A description works by order: how it began, then the sounds, then the sights, then how it felt.
The strongest details in the story are small and exact. A banana leaf, a dry throat, one lamp.
Full explanation
A story you mostly hear
Almost nothing important in this story is seen before it is heard. That is true of the train, of the leopard, and of the jungle at night. Working out what each sound is doing is the way into the writing.
The train, in three stages
First a shrill whistle in the distance, with nothing to see because the hill is in the way. Then a sound like distant thunder out of the tunnel. Only then the engine itself.
Why that order matters
Because Suraj is guessing, and so is the reader. In a jungle a sound tells you something is coming, and the sight tells you what. Bond lets us do the guessing in the right order.
The engine as a creature
It snorts and puffs. It roars a challenge to the jungle. It is green, black and gold, and it showers sparks on both sides. Nothing in that list is a measurement, and all of it is alive.
What a boy sees, not what a railway sees
A reader is never told the class of engine or the name of the train by day. A twelve-year-old at the mouth of a tunnel sees a dragon out of his own dreams, so that is what the page gives us.
The leopard, announced
A rhythmic sawing sound, as though somebody were cutting through the branch of a tree. Nobody sees anything. Sunder Singh says at once that it is the leopard and that it is in the tunnel.
Why a sawing sound is the right choice
It is regular, which is why it sounds like work rather than an animal. That is what makes it frightening in the dark: it is a noise with intention behind it, and it is coming from inside a hill.
The last arrival is not heard at all
The rails begin to hum. Suraj puts his hand on one and feels the tremor, and then hears the rumble. A train announces itself through the iron before it reaches the ear.
The jungle at dusk
A barking deer, a fox, the tonk-tonk of a nightjar. Then sounds he cannot place, from the trees: creakings and whisperings, as if the trees were stretching and flexing their fingers in the dark.
The same sounds, to the other man
Sunder Singh does not give them a thought. He has heard them for years. What stops him still is a padded footfall and a rustle of dry leaves, which is the one sound in the list that is not usual.
Five words worth owning
Creaking, chatter, hissing, rustle, puffing. Each names a kind of noise, and each tells you what sort of thing made it. That is why they cannot be swapped about: wood does not chatter and a snake does not creak.
What each one is made of
Creaking is long and low, from something wooden. Chatter is short and high, from birds or monkeys. Hissing is a long s. Rustle is dry and soft. Puffing comes in short, quick blasts.
The -ing word in front
A sawing sound. Flickering lights. Drifting smoke. An approaching engine. Four phrases, and each names a thing by what it is doing at that moment rather than by what it is like.
Why that is stronger than an adjective
Slow smoke is a judgement. Drifting smoke is a thing a reader can watch. Distant lights tell you where they are; flickering lights tell you they are small and that something is between you and them.
Where the strength actually lies
In small exact things. A banana leaf laid over a face. A dry throat. A lizard between the rails. One lamp. None of those is a beautiful phrase, and all of them are specific.
Writing one yourself
The task is a paragraph about a train journey, and it has a plan inside it. Begin with how the journey began: the platform, the seat, the first impressions. Then the sounds, then the sights, then the feelings.
The order is the whole of the trick
Sounds first, because they reach you first and because they are easy to collect. Sights next. Feelings last, when there is something on the page for them to be about.
And one rule from Bond
Prefer the particular to the impressive. The chatter of one family across the aisle will do more for your paragraph than a sentence about the beauty of the countryside outside. Beautiful tells a reader what to think. A rattling tin box in the rack above a head gives them something to hear, and the feeling arrives on its own once it has that to sit on.
Concepts and terms
Every important thing in the story is heard first. A whistle, then thunder in the hillside, then the engine. A sawing noise, then the leopard. A hum in the rails, then the night mail. The order is deliberate, because a sound in a jungle is a guess and a sight is a fact.
A sawing sound, flickering lights, drifting smoke, an approaching engine. Each one names a thing by what it is doing at that moment. Smoke that drifts is slower than smoke; lights that flicker are further off than lights. The word does the work an adjective cannot.
Creaking is a long low sound from something wooden. Chatter is short high sounds, from birds or monkeys. Hissing is a long s. Rustle is dry and soft, as leaves move. Puffing is short quick blasts. Each one tells you what KIND of thing made it.
The engine snorts, puffs, roars a challenge and showers sparks, and is green, black and gold. Bond never calls it fast or powerful. He gives it breath and colour, and lets a twelve-year-old call it a dragon, which is exactly what it would look like from the cutting.
An order, and small exact details. Begin with how the journey began, then what you heard, then what you saw, then what you felt about it. One banana leaf over a face is worth a paragraph of saying how hot the afternoon was.
Watch out!
Common Misconceptions
Three paragraphs about the same bus
Scenario:
Three pupils write a paragraph about the same bus ride to a hill town. Imran writes that the journey was beautiful and the scenery breathtaking. Nasreen writes that the engine whined on every bend. She adds a tin box rattling in the rack for two hours, and somebody peeling an orange at the back. Ojas writes six sentences of feelings. He begins with how excited he was and ends with how tired he was, with nothing in between. Their teacher reads the three aloud without saying whose is whose. The class can picture only one of the journeys.
Analysis:
Nasreen wrote the bus the other two were on. Imran used words that praise the journey instead of giving it: beautiful, breathtaking and enjoyable are judgements, and a reader cannot hear or see a judgement. Ojas had the feelings in the right place and nothing for them to be about, which leaves a paragraph of weather with no landscape under it. Nasreen chose three small exact things, and two of them are sounds, which is what Bond does on every page of this story. A whine on a bend tells you the road is steep. A tin box rattling for two hours tells you how long the journey was and how little anybody could do about it. The orange is a smell and a person at once. Feelings are not the problem; feelings arrive on their own once there is something for them to sit on.
Activity:
Take a journey you know well and list ten things you could hear on it. Cross out every word that is a judgement. Build four sentences from what is left.
A sound map of one page
Title:
A sound map of one page
Safety:
None needed.
What You Notice:
Without the sounds the page becomes a short report of two people walking into a tunnel. Almost everything that makes it frightening is a noise arriving before an explanation.
Did you know
The seven sisters in this story are birds, also called jungle babblers, and they are called that because they move about in noisy groups of six to eight.
A nightjar is a night bird with a short bill, and the tonk-tonk sound Bond gives it is close to what people in the hills describe.
Words that imitate the sound they name, such as hiss and puff, are called onomatopoeia, and a jungle at night is where a writer needs most of them.
Memory tricks
The five sound words — Wood, birds, snake, leaves, wind — Creaking is wood, chatter is birds, hissing is the snake sound, rustle is leaves, puffing is the wind in short blasts. Learn what makes each noise and the meaning follows.
A description, in four moves — Began, heard, saw, felt — How the journey began, then the sounds, then the sights, then how it all made you feel. The order is the plan of the paragraph.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A because in a jungle a sound is a guess and a sight is a fact
- B because the engine is travelling faster than its own noise
- C because the boy has been waiting there since the morning
- D because the hill is in the way of everything Suraj can see
Show answer
Why:
A reader guesses in the same order Suraj does, which is the whole effect.
- A a shape between the rails
- B a snarl in the dark
- C a smell on the breeze
- D a sawing sound
Show answer
Why:
As though somebody were cutting through the branch of a tree.
- A it is regular, so it sounds like something being done on purpose
- B nobody in the story has heard a leopard growl before
- C it cannot be heard from inside the hut
- D it is louder than a growl and carries much further inside a tunnel
Show answer
Why:
A noise with intention behind it, coming from inside a hill.
- A a light round the bend
- B the rails begin to hum
- C a whistle beyond the hill
- D smoke out of the tunnel
Show answer
Why:
Suraj puts his hand to one of them and feels the tremor.
- A see the sparks before the engine arrives
- B feel the train through a boy’s hand
- C know how far away the engine is in metres
- D hear the train and the leopard at the same moment
Show answer
Why:
Iron carries the train to him before the air does.
- A rustle
- B chatter
- C creaking
- D hissing
Show answer
Why:
As a door or a wooden roof moves, or seems to.
- A puffing
- B rustle
- C chatter
- D creaking
Show answer
Why:
Repeated short high sounds, which is why the seven sisters get it.
- A rustle
- B hissing
- C puffing
- D chatter
Show answer
Why:
And the same word does for a steam engine, which is the joke in it.
- A rustling
- B hissing
- C chattering
- D creaking
Show answer
Why:
A noise like a long s, which is what the word itself is.
- A creak
- B chatter
- C rustle
- D puff
Show answer
Why:
Soft, low and dry, which is how the word is defined in the book.
- A each one already names the kind of thing that made it
- B three of them are used only of animals in the jungle
- C each one has a different number of syllables
- D they belong to five different parts of the story
Show answer
Why:
Wood does not chatter, and a snake does not creak.
- A each one comes from the first section of the story
- B each describes something Suraj is frightened of
- C each names a thing by what it is doing at that moment
- D each is a phrase of exactly two words
Show answer
Why:
An -ing word in front of a noun, doing work an adjective cannot.
- A that the lights are small, and something keeps passing in front of them
- B that the night is darker than it was before
- C that the train is travelling along the outermost edge of the jungle itself
- D that the lights belong to small villages rather than to any town nearby
Show answer
Why:
Distant places them; flickering shows them behaving.
- A sawing sound
- B drifting smoke
- C flickering lights
- D approaching engine
Show answer
Why:
The same phrase the story uses of a leopard in a tunnel.
- A flickering lights
- B drifting smoke
- C approaching engine
- D sawing sound
Show answer
Why:
Drifting is slower than moving, and that is the whole of the difference.
- A so that a reader can tell which engine it is later on
- B because the boy has read about dragons in books
- C because steam engines were painted in those colours then
- D so that a reader meets a creature rather than a machine
Show answer
Why:
Green, black and gold, snorting and puffing, roaring a challenge.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
II and III are true. The first fails: it is given a colour, and the name is not part of the picture.
- A they come from inside the tunnel, where the leopard is
- B Suraj cannot see what is making them
- C they are much louder than the other jungle sounds
- D Sunder Singh has warned him about them
Show answer
Why:
So he imagines the trees stretching and flexing their fingers.
- A he is too busy trimming the wick of his lamp
- B he cannot hear as well as the boy can
- C he has heard them for years and knows what they are
- D he is inside the tunnel while Suraj is out on the cot
Show answer
Why:
What stops him is the one sound that is not usual, a padded footfall.
- A how the journey began
- B the scenery outside the window
- C how the journey made you feel
- D the sounds inside the carriage
Show answer
Why:
Feelings need something on the page to be about.
- A they are harder to describe, so they need the most room
- B the scenery changes while the sounds stay the same
- C a reader expects a paragraph to begin with noise
- D they reach you first, and they are easier to collect
Show answer
Why:
The order of the plan follows the order of the experience.
- A scenery of remarkable natural beauty
- B a view that was really quite breathtaking
- C an experience nobody in the family will forget
- D a tin box rattling in the rack for two hours
Show answer
Why:
Particular beats impressive, and the other three are judgements.
- A a hum in the rails, and the night mail a minute off
- B a whistle, and a train still out of sight
- C a sawing noise, and the leopard inside the tunnel
- D distant thunder, and the engine a second away
Show answer
Why:
And that one is felt through the iron rather than heard at all.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
Both statements are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion. They are what he thinks he sees because he cannot see what makes the noise.
- A a lamp, a red flag, an axe
- B a whistle, a hum, a snarl
- C a dragon, a firefly and a tunnel in a hillside
- D a banana leaf, a dry throat, a lizard
Show answer
Why:
None of the three is a beautiful phrase, and all of them are specific.
Important short questions (7)
He hears a shrill whistle in the distance, with nothing to see because the hill is in the way. Then a sound like distant thunder comes out of the tunnel, and he knows it is coming through.
Because it is dark and nobody can see into the tunnel. A rhythmic sawing noise is regular, so it sounds like work being done, and a noise with intention behind it is worse than a growl.
A rustle is a soft, low, dry sound, made by leaves or paper moving. Creaking is a long low sound made when something wooden moves or is moved.
It names the thing by what it is doing at that moment. An approaching engine is on its way towards you, which is a fact about the moment rather than a description of the engine.
He gives it breath and colour and intention. It snorts and puffs, it is green, black and gold, it showers sparks and it roars a challenge to the jungle. Nothing in that list is a measurement.
Suraj cannot see what is making the creaking and whispering, so he imagines the trees coming to life. Sunder Singh has heard those sounds for years and does not give them a thought.
How the journey began, with the boarding and the first impressions. Then the sounds. Then the sights outside the window and inside the carriage. Then how the whole thing made you feel.
Long answer questions (3)
The train comes in three stages. A shrill whistle with nothing to see, then a noise like distant thunder in the hillside, and only then an engine. The leopard is never seen before it is heard: a rhythmic sawing in the dark, which Sunder Singh names at once. And the night mail at the end arrives through the iron. The rails begin to hum, Suraj puts his hand on one and feels the tremor, and the rumble follows afterwards. In each case the sound is a guess and the sight is the answer to it, and a reader does the guessing in the boy’s own order. Cross the sounds out of those pages and what is left is two people walking into a tunnel.
Three things. First, the order: sounds before sights, and feelings last, because feelings need something on the page to be about. Second, small exact details rather than impressive ones. A banana leaf laid over a face does more than a sentence about the heat of the afternoon, and a lizard between the rails does more than saying the tunnel was unpleasant. Third, the -ing word in front of the noun. Drifting smoke and flickering lights name things by what they are doing, so they behave instead of being labelled. What I would leave out is every word that praises the thing I am describing. Beautiful and breathtaking tell a reader what to think and give them nothing to picture.
The engine arrives in daylight and the leopard arrives in the dark, and Bond uses the difference. The engine is given everything: a colour, a breath, sparks, a challenge roared at the jungle, and hot steam in the boy’s face. A reader is allowed to see it fully, so it becomes a creature out of a dream. The leopard is given one noise. A sawing sound, regular enough to be mistaken for a woodcutter, with no shape attached to it at all. When the lamp finally finds the animal it is smaller than expected, not very big and crouched between the tracks. Both passages work by what they withhold. The engine withholds every measurement, and the leopard withholds itself.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- The word and its maker
- Judgement, or something to picture?
- Fact or myth?
- How the first train arrives
- Phrase and what it buys
Would, Used To, and Two Marks
The watchman’s whole routine is written with one word: would. This topic separates that use from the two commoner ones, sets it against used to, and then takes up the colon and the semicolon, which tell a reader how far a sentence has got.
What you will be able to do
- Identify would used for a habit in the past, and distinguish it from a request or a wish.
- Choose between would and used to according to whether the action still happens.
- Rewrite a paragraph of past routine using would correctly throughout.
- Use a colon to introduce a list or an explanation.
- Use a semicolon to join two closely related clauses without a conjunction.
Key points
Would has three common uses: a polite request, a wish, and a habit in the past. This chapter needs the third.
The watchman’s routine is all would: he would walk the tunnel, would wave the flag, would return to his hut.
Used to also marks a regular past action, and adds that it does not happen any more.
So I used to paint says I have stopped. I would paint on Sundays says only that it was a routine.
Would needs a past that a reader can already see. Nobody opens a story with the word.
A colon introduces: a list, or an explanation of whatever came before it.
A semicolon joins two clauses that belong together, where a conjunction would have done the same work.
A semicolon is not a comma. Each side of it has to be able to stand as a sentence on its own.
Brackets hold an aside, which a reader could skip without losing the sentence.
Full explanation
One paragraph, one word
The watchman’s entire job is written with would. He would walk the whole length of the tunnel. He would return to his hut. He would wave the red flag. Nothing in that paragraph happens once.
What would is doing there
It marks a habit in the past: something repeated over a period, until it was the usual thing. A reader is not told how many times, and does not need to be.
And the two uses you met first
Would you pass me the salt is a polite request. I would love to see the Himalayas is a wish. Both are far commoner in speech than the one this chapter needs, which is why the third use gets missed.
Why that matters here
A pupil who reads the watchman’s paragraph as a wish or a request reads his whole routine as something he would LIKE to do. The job disappears, and with it the reason a boy trusts him.
Used to, and what it adds
It marks the same repeated past, and one fact more: that the thing has stopped. I used to paint tells you I do not paint now. The information is in the phrase rather than in the sentence around it.
The two are not interchangeable
I would paint on Sundays says nothing whatever about this Sunday. If you mean that something has ended, used to is the only one of the pair that says so.
Which to choose
If the habit has stopped, used to. If it continued, or if you do not know, or if you are describing a routine from inside a story, would. And if it is still going on now, neither of them. A club that met on Fridays last year and meets on Fridays still simply meets on Fridays.
One thing would cannot do
It cannot open a description. A reader needs a past already in view before would can attach a routine to it. Bond gives us a noon, a boy and a tunnel first, and the woulds come afterwards.
Now the punctuation
Three marks, and all three are about the reader rather than the facts. They say how far a sentence has got and how its parts are related, which is information a full stop cannot carry.
The colon introduces
Two jobs. A list: ghee, coconut, jaggery and rice flour. Or an explanation of what has just been said: he had one goal, which was to win. In both cases the mark promises a reader something, and the words after it have to be that thing. A colon that promises nothing is just a full stop with ambition.
The test for a colon
Whatever follows it has to answer the part before it. If the second half could have come first without changing anything, the colon is doing no work and a full stop will do.
The semicolon joins
The lamp was lit; the tunnel ahead was empty. Two clauses that belong together, held side by side with no conjunction between them. The mark does the work that and or but would have done.
The test for a semicolon
Cover one side and read the other. If each half can stand as a sentence on its own, the semicolon is correct. If one half cannot, you want a comma or a full stop instead.
The commonest mistake
Using a semicolon for a pause. It is not a long comma. A pause is a feeling about a sentence; a join is a fact about its two halves. Only one of those can be checked, which is why the test beats the ear every time.
Brackets
They hold an aside: something a reader could skip and still have the sentence. Bond uses a pair in this story to carry the father’s complaint about not knowing where his son gets to.
Three marks, three questions
Does what follows explain or list what came before? Use a colon. Do two whole clauses belong together? Use a semicolon. Could the reader skip it and still have the sentence? Use brackets. One question each, and all three can be answered in a second.
Why a writer bothers
Because a reader is making guesses all the way down a sentence. Each of these marks answers one of them before it is asked, and a sentence with the wrong mark sends the guess the wrong way.
And why the two halves of this topic belong together
Would and used to tell a reader whether something still happens. A colon and a semicolon tell a reader how far a sentence has got. Neither changes a fact, and both change what a reader does with it.
Concepts and terms
Would you pass me the salt is a request. I would love to see the Himalayas is a wish. And every day he would walk the tunnel is a habit in the past. Only the third one is what this chapter needs, and it is the one a pupil meets last.
It marks something that happened again and again over a period in the past. The watchman would inspect, would wave the flag, would hang up the lamp. A reader is not told how many times, only that it was the usual thing.
The same repeated past, and one extra fact: it has stopped. I used to paint tells a reader that I do not any more. I would paint on Sundays says nothing at all about now, which is why the two are not interchangeable.
It introduces. Either a list - you need ghee, coconut, jaggery and rice flour - or an explanation of what has just been said: he had one goal, to win. Whatever follows a colon has to answer the part before it.
It joins two clauses that belong together without a conjunction. The lamp was lit; the tunnel ahead was empty. Each side could stand alone as a sentence, which is the test. If one side cannot, the mark is wrong and a comma or a full stop is right.
Watch out!
Common Misconceptions
A notice board, and three corrections
Scenario:
A school notice board carries three sentences about the hobby clubs, and a teacher corrects each one. The first reads: last year the photography club would meet on Fridays, and it still does. The second reads: we need three things for the trip, a camera, a notebook and a water bottle. The third reads: Raghav will lead the walk; because he knows the path. All three sentences are true, and a reader is misled by two of them and stopped by the third.
Analysis:
The first sentence contradicts nothing and still misleads, because would on its own says nothing about now and the writer then has to add that it still does. Used to would have been worse, since that says it has stopped. The repair is simply the present: the photography club meets on Fridays. The second sentence has a list with no introduction, and a comma cannot do that job; a colon can, because what follows a colon answers what came before it. The third sentence is the common error the other way round. A semicolon joins two halves that could each stand alone, and because he knows the path cannot stand alone, so the mark stops a reader who then has to go back. A comma is right there. Two of the three are about what a reader expects next, which is the whole of punctuation.
Activity:
Find three sentences on a real notice board at school. Decide for each one whether its punctuation tells a reader what is coming, and rewrite the one that does not.
Rewrite a routine twice
Title:
Rewrite a routine twice
Safety:
None needed.
What You Notice:
The used to version answers a question the would version leaves open. A reader of the would version has to ask whether you still do it, and that is the whole difference between the two.
Did you know
The semicolon is about five hundred years old and was invented by printers who wanted a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop.
English once had no punctuation at all between words, and readers were expected to work out the pauses aloud as they went.
A colon can also introduce a quotation, which is why a play script puts one after the name of whoever is speaking.
Memory tricks
Would or used to — Used to has stopped — Both describe a regular past action. Used to adds that it does not happen any more, so if the habit continues or you do not know, would is the safer word.
The two marks — Colon introduces, semicolon joins — After a colon comes a list or an explanation of what went before. Either side of a semicolon could stand on its own as a sentence.
Practice MCQs with answers (25)
- A is going to
- B would have
- C would
- D will
Show answer
Why:
A routine in the past, repeated until it was the usual thing.
- A a condition
- B a polite request
- C a habit in the past
- D a wish about the future
Show answer
Why:
Nothing in that paragraph happens only once.
- A a wish
- B a polite request
- C a prediction
- D a habit in the past
Show answer
Why:
The commonest use in speech, and not the one this chapter needs.
- A the tunnel becomes a place he has never actually been
- B the leopard stops being a danger to the night mail
- C the red flag loses its meaning in the story
- D his routine becomes something he would merely like to do
Show answer
Why:
And with the job goes the reason a boy trusts him.
- A will
- B used to
- C am used to
- D would have
Show answer
Why:
The giving up is the extra fact that used to carries.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
I and III are true. The second fails: used to says the habit has stopped.
- A that I shall not paint
- B that I never paint now
- C nothing at all
- D that I shall paint
Show answer
Why:
Which is why the two words cannot be swapped about.
- A the club would have met on Fridays
- B the club would meet on Fridays
- C the club used to meet on Fridays
- D the club meets on Fridays
Show answer
Why:
If a habit continues, the present tense says so and neither of the other two does.
- A would
- B used to
- C would have
- D are used to
Show answer
Why:
We do not live there now, and used to is the word that says it.
- A both are wrong
- B I used to walked
- C I used to walk
- D both are right
Show answer
Why:
The verb after used to stays in its plain form.
- A it belongs only in the middle of a paragraph
- B it would give the ending away too early
- C it is far too polite a word to begin a description with
- D a reader needs a past already in view for it to attach to
Show answer
Why:
Bond gives us a noon, a boy and a tunnel first, and the woulds follow.
- A ;
- B ,
- C (
- D :
Show answer
Why:
A list has to be introduced, and a comma cannot do that work.
- A to introduce a list, or an explanation
- B to join two clauses, or to mark a pause
- C to mark speech, or to show surprise
- D to hold an aside, or to end a sentence
Show answer
Why:
Whatever follows it has to answer the part before it.
- A and the
- B :
- C ;
- D (
Show answer
Why:
Two whole clauses that belong together, with no conjunction between them.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
Both statements are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion. What a comma cannot do says nothing about why a semicolon can. The semicolon carries the join itself.
- A the second half cannot stand on its own
- B the two halves are not related closely enough
- C a colon is needed to introduce the reason
- D the first half is too short for a semicolon
Show answer
Why:
The test fails, and a comma is the right mark there.
- A a semicolon can only be used once in a sentence
- B a comma cannot come between two clauses
- C a comma is used far more often than a semicolon is
- D a join is a fact and a pause is only a feeling
Show answer
Why:
Which is why the test is about the halves rather than about the rhythm.
- A that
- B (
- C :
- D ;
Show answer
Why:
The second half explains the first, which is the colon’s other job.
- A the main part of a sentence
- B a hard word explained
- C something the writer forgot
- D something a reader could skip
Show answer
Why:
An aside, and the sentence has to work without it.
- A the time at which the night mail runs
- B the father’s complaint about his son
- C the meaning of the word cutting
- D the watchman’s name and age
Show answer
Why:
He does not know where the boy gets to most of the time.
- A brackets
- B a full stop
- C a colon
- D a semicolon
Show answer
Why:
Which is the one question that separates the three marks.
- A it shows how carefully a writer has worked
- B it allows a writer to use far longer sentences
- C it answers a guess before the guess is made
- D it makes a sentence sound better when read aloud
Show answer
Why:
And the wrong mark sends the guess the wrong way.
- A the two other jobs of would
- B the verbs that follow used to
- C the sentences where used to is wrong
- D the habits that have not stopped
Show answer
Why:
A polite request and a wish, which are the uses that mislead a reader.
- A the semicolon
- B the colon
- C neither of them
- D both of them equally
Show answer
Why:
Cover one side and read the other, and each half must stand alone.
- A neither changes a fact, and both change the reading
- B both of them come from the watchman’s paragraph
- C both are tested in the same exercise in the book
- D both are about the past rather than the present
Show answer
Why:
One says whether a thing still happens; the other says how far a sentence has got.
Important short questions (7)
Because would marks a habit in the past: something repeated over a period until it was the usual thing. He would walk the tunnel, wave the flag and hang up the lamp, and none of those happened once.
A polite request: would you pass me the water. And a wish: I would love to see the Himalayas. Both are commoner in speech than the habitual use, which is why that one is missed.
Both describe something repeated in the past. Used to adds that it has stopped, and would says nothing about now. So I used to paint means I have given it up, and I would paint on Sundays does not.
In the present tense. The club meets on Fridays. Would describes a past routine and used to says the thing has stopped, so neither of them is honest about a habit that continues.
It introduces a list: a camera, a notebook and a water bottle. And it introduces an explanation: he had one goal, to win. Whatever follows has to answer the part before it.
Cover one side and read the other. If each half can stand alone as a sentence, the mark is right. If one half cannot, a comma or a full stop is wanted instead.
An aside a reader could skip and still have the sentence belongs there. Anything the sentence needs in order to make sense does not, however small it is.
Long answer questions (3)
First, a polite request: would you pass me the water. Second, a wish: I would love to see the Himalayas. Third, a habit in the past: every day he would walk the tunnel end to end. The first two are commoner in speech, so a pupil meets them long before the third, and that is where the trouble starts. The watchman’s whole job is written in the third. He would walk the tunnel, would wave the flag, would return to his hut, would hang up the lamp. Read as wishes, those sentences become things he would like to do, and the routine disappears. Read as requests, they make no sense at all. The job is what makes a boy trust him, so the use of one word carries the character.
Both of them describe a past action that was repeated. Used to carries one extra fact: the thing has stopped. I used to paint tells a reader I do not paint any more, and the information is in the phrase rather than in the sentence around it. Would makes no claim about now, so I would paint on Sundays says nothing whatever about this Sunday. That is why they cannot be swapped: the swap either loses the ending or invents one. And neither will do for a habit that still goes on. A club that met on Fridays last year and meets on Fridays still is simply a club that meets on Fridays. Writing would there forces the writer to add a clause to put it right, and writing used to is false.
The error is treating a mark of joining as a mark of pausing. A semicolon holds two clauses side by side because they belong together, doing the work a conjunction would have done. She loves reading; he prefers films. Each half of that could stand on its own as a sentence, which is the test. Raghav will lead the walk; because he knows the path fails the test, since the second half cannot stand alone, and a reader is stopped and has to go back. The cure is mechanical: cover one side and read the other. If either half collapses, the mark is wrong, and a comma is right. A pause is a feeling and a join is a fact, and only one of those can be checked.
Flashcards (17)
Play this topic
- The sentence and its use
- Which mark?
- Fact or myth?
- How to choose a mark
- Mark and test
Class 7 English Chapter 10 — frequently asked questions
Because he wants to know what the inside of a tunnel is really like. There is nothing in there to do and nothing to see, and he does not stop.
A bat flies past him, and a lizard runs between the rails. The walls are damp and sticky, and twenty yards in it is pitch dark.
That the tunnel is his because nobody else cares for it at all. The Government owns it on paper, and the care of it is his alone.
He hears a shrill whistle in the distance, with nothing to see because the hill is in the way. Then a sound like distant thunder comes out of the tunnel, and he knows it is coming through.
Because it is dark and nobody can see into the tunnel. A rhythmic sawing noise is regular, so it sounds like work being done, and a noise with intention behind it is worse than a growl.
A rustle is a soft, low, dry sound, made by leaves or paper moving. Creaking is a long low sound made when something wooden moves or is moved.
Because would marks a habit in the past: something repeated over a period until it was the usual thing. He would walk the tunnel, wave the flag and hang up the lamp, and none of those happened once.
A polite request: would you pass me the water. And a wish: I would love to see the Himalayas. Both are commoner in speech than the habitual use, which is why that one is missed.
Both describe something repeated in the past. Used to adds that it has stopped, and would says nothing about now. So I used to paint means I have given it up, and I would paint on Sundays does not.
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