Glimpses of India · Class 10 English · First Flight: 135 MCQs with answers

A pader

Kabai is his old dress, bol a sweet bread and bolinhas the Christmas cakes; the man himself is a pader.

Twice a day — once on his morning round and again after emptying his basket

Coming twice daily is what made him part of the household's routine rather than a shop to be visited.

For the bread-bangles, which they chose carefully

The writer raises and answers the question himself: not for the love of the loaf, since the loaves were bought by the maid-servant.

The 'jhang, jhang' of his specially made bamboo staff

The writer calls it a musical entry, and the same sound is offered earlier as proof that paders still exist.

The sweet bread called bol

Without bol, the writer says, marriage gifts are meaningless — which is the strongest statement of bread's ceremonial place.

Sandwiches

The lady of the house makes them herself, which is why the household still depends on the baker's loaves.

Cakes and bolinhas

Each occasion has its own bread, and together they make the baker's furnace indispensable to the village.

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Halfway along the road from Mysore down to the coast at Mangalore

Two cities fix the location, and the piece adds that Coorg is the smallest district of Karnataka.

Thirty per cent

It is the one hard statistic in a section otherwise full of description, which is why it is so often asked.

The rain is heavy enough to drive most visitors away

Being honest about the rain is what makes the promise of the pleasant season believable.

From September till March

The weather is then perfect, with some showers thrown in for good measure.

It is as heavily decorated as any in the Indian Army

'Most decorated' means it has received the maximum number of awards for bravery in war.

They may carry firearms without a licence

It is the clearest consequence of the martial tradition, and a rare case of custom recognised in law.

From the hills and forests of Coorg

The detail links a small district to a river on which much of south India depends.

Large freshwater fish that abound in the Kaveri

Kingfishers dive for their catch in the same waters, and elephants are bathed there by their mahouts.

A panoramic view of the entire misty landscape of Coorg

The word 'panoramic' means a view of a wide area of land, which is exactly what the climb provides.

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Pranjol has invited him home for the summer vacation

Pranjol's father manages a tea-garden in Upper Assam, and the two boys are classmates at school in Delhi.

Over eighty crore

Pranjol's reply is a single word — 'Whew!' — which is the section's way of registering the scale.

Reading his detective book

Rajvir was an ardent fan of detective stories too, but at that moment he was keener on the view.

A sea stretching as far as the eye could see

The image of a sea is set against densely wooded hills, with shade-trees rising above the bushes.

Because he felt sleepy during meditation

Ten tea plants grew from the eyelids, and their leaves in hot water banished sleep — which is the point of the story.

Ten

The number is given exactly in the legend, and examiners ask for it.

Mariani junction

Dhekiabari is the tea estate, not the station, and Barua is Pranjol's family name.

The tea garden managed by Pranjol's father

The car crosses a cattle-bridge and enters Dhekiabari Tea Estate an hour after leaving the junction.

With surprise, saying he seems to have done his homework before coming

Rajvir replies that he hopes to learn much more while he is there, which closes the section on the right note.

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The Portuguese have gone, but Goan bakers continue their trade

The sentence sets the whole portrait going: rulers depart, but a craft they brought is now Goan and continues without them.

Bakeries have opened in every town of the district

The writer's proofs are people, furnaces, fire, the sound of the bamboo and the passing of the trade from father to son.

The maid-servant

The writer names her as 'some Paskine or Bastine', and the detail is what proves the children were after something else.

One hand supported it on his head, and he later placed it on the vertical bamboo

The bamboo does double duty — it announces him by banging on the ground and then becomes a stand for the basket.

1 and 2 only

Loaves went to the servant for the elders; the children got bangles, and only after climbing the parapet to look.

Because no wedding, engagement, feast or festival is possible without the breads he alone bakes

Bread here is ceremony rather than food, so the furnace is as necessary to village life as any public institution.

A single-piece long frock reaching down to the knees

It was the peculiar dress of the baker in the Portuguese days, quite different from what bakers wore in the writer's childhood.

A shirt and trousers shorter than full-length and longer than half pants

That in-between length is exactly what produced the comment still made today about anyone dressed like a pader.

Anyone wearing half pants that reach just below the knees

The costume outlived the trade's old dress and became a standing joke about trouser length.

Recorded on some wall in pencil and settled at the end of the month

A wall and a pencil belong to a trade run on memory and trust in a village where nobody moved away.

The baker's family never starved and their plump physique was open testimony to their prosperity

The proof is visible rather than statistical, and the writer makes a joke of it by extending the comparison to the present day.

The excuse that the tiger never brushed his teeth and hot tea cleans everything

The mango-leaf toothbrush and the tiger are the one clearly mischievous moment in a section otherwise warm and remembering.

Because he was part of the children's daily life rather than merely a tradesman

Coming twice a day, waking them with his bamboo and bringing bangles made him a figure of childhood rather than of commerce.

1 and 2 only

The third is exactly the belief the opening sentences are written to correct.

Because the occasions that hold the village together cannot be celebrated without it

Marriage gifts need bol, an engagement needs sandwiches, Christmas needs cakes and bolinhas, so the baker's furnace becomes a village institution.

Kabai — the baker's old single-piece long frock

Bol is the marriage bread, bolinhas the festival cakes, and the pader is the baker himself.

They survived, and the writer gives several proofs that the trade continues

Makers, furnaces, fire, the sound of the bamboo and the son at his father's trade are all offered in the present tense.

His bamboo woke the children from sleep each morning

A tradesman who functions as an alarm clock has become part of the house's timetable.

The children did not bother to brush their teeth, trusting hot tea to clean everything

The mango-leaf toothbrush is precisely what they avoided plucking, and the tiger is offered as their authority.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: the twice-daily round; the bamboo and the musical entry; the greeting and the basket on the vertical bamboo; the children and the bread-bangles; being pushed aside and peeping in; the kabai and the later shirt and trousers; the phrase 'dress…

Part of Alexander's army travelled south down the coast and stayed when going home stopped being practical

The soldiers married among the locals, and their culture is said to survive in the martial traditions and rites of the district.

The kuppia, a long black coat with an embroidered waist-belt, resembles the Arab kuffia

A garment is the whole of the evidence offered, which is why the writer presents the theory as a possibility rather than a fact.

In its martial traditions and its marriage and religious rites

These are the features offered as traces of the settlers who are said to have married into the local population.

1 and 2 only

Coorgi families need little encouragement to tell you what their sons and fathers have done, so the third statement reverses what the text says.

The first Chief of the Indian Army, and a Coorgi — proof of the district's martial reputation

One name turns a claim about a martial tradition into a verifiable fact about the Indian Army.

Rappelling, which means going down a cliff by sliding down a rope

The list is rafting, canoeing, rappelling, rock climbing and biking in the hills, besides walking trails favoured by trekkers.

They make the forest feel inhabited, with macaques, squirrels, langurs and loris looking back

Birds, bees and butterflies give company while the canopy watches back, and the writer steps aside only for wild elephants.

Sixty-four acres, reached by a walk across a rope bridge

The exact size and the rope bridge are both specified in the text, and both are examinable.

Buddhist monks from India's largest Tibetan settlement at Bylakuppe

The monks appear in red, ochre and yellow robes, and the writer calls the encounter a bonus.

1 and 2 only

The nearest railheads are outside the district, at Mysore, Mangalore and Hassan.

About 250 to 260 kilometres

There are two routes of about the same length, and the one via Mysore is the most frequented.

Kuppia — the Kodavu coat; kuffia — the Arab garment it resembles

Reversing the two destroys the evidence on which the theory of Arab descent rests.

The monsoon pours enough to keep many visitors away; the pleasant season is September to March

The writer is explicit about the rain, which is why the recommended season is defined against it.

Fiercely independent, possibly of Greek or Arab descent, hospitable, martial, and uniquely allowed to bear arms

A full answer on the people has four parts — descent, hospitality, martial tradition and the firearms privilege.

Smallest district of Karnataka, midway between Mysore and Mangalore, thirty per cent rainforest, source of the Kaveri's water

Status, location, forest cover and the Kaveri are the four geographical facts the section actually supplies.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include at least six of: location and status as the smallest district of Karnataka; the thirty per cent rainforest cover, spices and coffee; the monsoon and the September-to-March season; the two theories of descent with their evidence; hospitality and tales of valo…

It is a story with characters, dialogue and a journey rather than a description

The information about tea reaches the reader through two schoolboys talking, which is why the section reads so lightly.

Almost everyone there was drinking tea

The writer makes his point about tea's popularity by showing it rather than stating it.

Green everywhere, then paddy fields giving way to tea bushes, then a factory with tall chimneys

The order matters: the ordinary crop gives way to the special one, and the industry appears last.

Tea-pluckers at work among the rows of bushes

Later, inside the estate, the same workers are seen close up with bamboo baskets and plastic aprons.

He was born and brought up on a plantation, so the sight is ordinary to him

Familiarity explains everything: he goes back to his detective book and tells Rajvir he will see enough gardens to last a lifetime.

It has the largest concentration of plantations in the world

A world record delivered casually by a bored local is the section's way of conveying scale without lecturing.

Leaves from the twigs burning under the pot fell into the emperor's boiling water

The emperor always boiled water before drinking it, so the accident could only happen to a man with that habit.

1 and 2 only

Rajvir says plainly that nobody really knows who discovered tea, and calls these stories legends.

In China, as far back as 2700 BC

The date is set deliberately beside the legends, to separate what can be dated from what cannot.

In the sixteenth century, more as medicine than as a beverage

Its arrival as medicine explains why tea spread first among the wealthy and the ill rather than as a daily drink.

Tea, 'chai' and 'chini'

The shared origin of the words is offered as further evidence of how the drink and its vocabulary travelled together.

Acre upon acre, all neatly pruned to the same height

The uniformity is what distinguishes a plantation from the 'sea' seen at a distance from the train.

With bamboo baskets on their backs and plastic aprons

This is the close view of the workers who appeared earlier as doll-like figures from the train.

The sprouting period from May to July, which yields the best tea

Rajvir names it and dates it correctly, which is what surprises Mr Barua.

He is curious and thorough — he had read as much as he could about tea before coming

The reading supplies the legends and the dates, and it is also what makes Mr Barua notice him at the end.

Mariani is the junction where the boys leave the train; Dhekiabari is the estate they drive to

The train clatters into Mariani junction, and the car enters Dhekiabari Tea Estate an hour after leaving it.

He cut off his eyelids, and ten tea plants grew out of them

Eyelids and ten plants are both examinable details of the Indian legend.

From China, where it was first drunk in 2700 BC, to Europe in the sixteenth century as medicine

The dates and the Chinese origin of the words tea, chai and chini both point the same way.

First drunk in China in 2700 BC; reached Europe in the sixteenth century as medicine; tea, chai and chini are Chinese words

Legends must be labelled as legends; the datable history is the Chinese origin, the European arrival and the vocabulary.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should follow the journey and include at least six of: the vendor's cry and the two cups; everyone in the compartment drinking tea; the eighty crore cups; Pranjol's detective book; the change from paddy to tea and the description of the garden; Pranjol's indifference and t…

Smell is what a child standing outside the basket could actually take in

He was pushed aside and peeping over a parapet, so the sense available to him was smell, which is exactly the detail a pen-portrait is built from.

Everybody's circumstances were visible to everybody else, so prosperity could be read off a body

The writer proves a profitable trade by pointing at its shape, which only works in a place where everyone can see everyone.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

The piece is a pen-portrait built from memory, which is why tone questions on it are almost always answered with 'nostalgic'.

It keeps the memory affectionate and honest: they were in the way, and persisted anyway

Being pushed aside with a mild rebuke and peeping in regardless is the kind of detail that stops a fond memory becoming sentimental.

That the methods are old and have proved themselves over generations

'Time-tested' is approval rather than complaint: the antiquity is presented as a guarantee of quality.

They insist that this is a living trade, not only a memory

The portrait is nostalgic about childhood but factual about survival, and the tense is how he keeps the two apart.

It was personal and long-standing, based on daily contact and monthly trust

Twice-daily visits, a greeting to the lady of the house and accounts pencilled on a wall describe a relationship rather than a transaction.

It sets up the more interesting answer about bread-bangles

Asking and then denying the obvious reason is a small piece of craft that makes the real memory land harder.

It draws a single figure from memory, through sound, smell, dress and habit

Its evidence is sensory and personal, and it aims at a character rather than at information about an industry.

They can survive political change when they remain useful to daily and ceremonial life

The Portuguese left; the pader remained, because weddings, engagements and Christmas still required what he alone made.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should trace at least four roles: bread as a Portuguese inheritance that outlived its rulers; bread as childhood memory, with the bangles and the fragrance; bread as ceremony, with bol, sandwiches, cakes and bolinhas; the furnace as essential to the village; bread as evide…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should give evidence for both: affection — the bamboo's sound, the fragrance, the carefully chosen bangles, 'friend, companion and guide'; humour — the mild rebuke and the parapet, the mango-leaf and the tiger, the jackfruit comparison, the joke about half pants; and a con…

It is a travel article written to persuade a stranger to visit

Praise before information is the signature of travel writing, and the fact file at the end confirms it.

A is false, but R is true

The regiment, General Cariappa and the firearms exemption are all real, so the assertion is false. The reason lists them correctly.

It is a moment of pure delight, included for pleasure rather than for information

They do it for the pleasure of watching it splash and send rings across the water, which is one of the few purely playful sentences in the section.

Even visitors who are not adventurous are drawn into the sports on offer

The sentence is aimed at a reader who would not describe himself as sporting, which is a standard move in travel writing.

It confirms that the piece is written to be acted on, like a travel feature

Practical information at the end turns admiration into a plan, which is exactly what such an article is for.

Because neither theory can be proved, and both are inferred from present-day culture

One theory rests on a story about Alexander's soldiers, the other on a coat resembling the Arab kuffia; neither is more than a possibility.

The estates under tree canopies give Coorg both its greenness and its characteristic air

The air that 'breathes of invigorating coffee' and the bungalows under canopies are among the section's strongest images.

Each paragraph offers a different pleasure, so nearly every reader is caught by one

Setting, season, people, river, sport, view and an unexpected meeting: the shape of the piece is itself the argument for visiting.

Elephants are bathed and scrubbed in the river by their mahouts

A working animal being washed by its keeper belongs to the district's routine, not to its scenery.

A touch of humour and a reminder that this is real wilderness

It is the one joke in the section, and it quietly distinguishes wild animals from the ones being bathed in the river.

He is presenting a small district as containing everything a traveller looks for in the country

The closing claim is the strongest piece of persuasion in the section, and it gathers up everything listed before it.

It is a travel article about a place, while the baker piece is a memory of a person

Recognising the difference in kind is what makes comparison questions across the three parts of this chapter answerable.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should identify the techniques: opening praise; honesty about the monsoon buying credibility; the variety of attractions offered paragraph by paragraph; the direct appeal to unadventurous readers; the closing promise of surprises and the 'heart and soul of India'; the prac…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should include: the two theories of descent and their evidence; the point that both are inferred from present-day culture; the kuppia as a surviving garment; rites distinct from the Hindu mainstream; the martial tradition with the regiment and General Cariappa; the firearm…

Because a tea estate is an industry as well as a landscape, and he does not pretend otherwise

Beauty and factory appear in the same paragraph, and the honesty of that is one of the section's quiet strengths.

It lets the two stories stand as legends rather than as history to be believed

The admission is what allows the section to give two charming stories and, separately, three datable facts.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

The outsider supplies the reading and the questions; the insider supplies the scale and the shrug, and between them the facts arrive naturally.

It gives the facts about Assam a natural speaker and keeps the tone light

A bored insider can state a world record in one line without it sounding like a textbook.

It closes a piece about a first visit on curiosity rather than on conclusions

The line keeps the tone of discovery that the whole section is built on, and is the right ending for a boy's first sight of a tea country.

All three show a distinct region of India — Goa, Karnataka and Assam — through a different kind of writing

A memory, a travel article and a short story: the chapter's title, Glimpses of India, describes the method as well as the subject.

Beautiful and industrial at once — a sea of bushes and an ugly chimneyed building

The writer sets the sea of bushes and the shade-trees beside the smoke and the distant workers without reconciling them.

It begins a piece about tea with tea being sold, in the most ordinary setting possible

A railway platform cry is the most familiar sound in India, and starting there roots a whole section about an industry in something every reader knows.

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should contrast the two boys with evidence: Rajvir's first visit, his reading, his excitement, his description of the view, the legends and dates he supplies; Pranjol's plantation upbringing, his detective book, his scoffing, his line about enough gardens, and the fact abo…

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Content 3 · Expression 2 · Accuracy 1. Content should give evidence for both sides: the greenery, the sea of bushes, the wooded hills and shade-trees; the ugly building with smoke from tall chimneys; the doll-like figures becoming pluckers with baskets and plastic aprons; the bushes pruned to a uniform height; and a cl…