Balbharti Maharashtra State Board Class 8 English Solutions Chapter 1.2 Dick Whittington and his Cat Notes, Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers.
Maharashtra State Board Class 8 English Solutions Chapter 1.2 Dick Whittington and his Cat
Class 8 English Chapter 1.2 Dick Whittington and his Cat Textbook Questions and Answers
Warming Up:
1. Discuss the follow in groups and write the answers:
Question a.
Name the world famous personalities, who reached great heights despite of humble circumstances.
Answer:
- Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Abraham
- Lincoln Kalam
- Charlie Chaplin
- Kalpana Chawla
Question b.
Guess the types of hardships they must have faced in their childhood and youth.
Answer:
- poverty
- lack of support
- social disapproval
- lack of opportunities
Question c.
What strong qualities possessed by them, could have helped them achieve success and fame, all over?
Answer:
- strong will power
- optimism
- sincerity
- hard work
Question d.
How do stories / biographies of such famous people help youngsters?
Answer:
- They help youngsters to look at life positively.
- They inspire the youth.
- They help them find answers to questions.
- They prove that we can do many seemingly impossible things if we really wish to.
2. Syllable: A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that has one ‘owe1 sound and may or may not have consonant sounds before I after it.
Examples of words having:
One syllable: a, I, see, at, on, man, with, thread
Two syllables: mother, seated, giraffe, parrot, active, happy
Three syllables: happiness, wonderful, animal, surprising, adventure, ignorance.
More than three syllables: consequently, encouragement, responsibility, identifying, encyclopedia
Write the numcs of any 5 of your classmates and list how many syllables each name has.
Answer:
- Jal: 1 syllable
- Remo: 2 syllables
- Saira: 2 syllables
- Shailaja : 3 syllables
- Mandakini: 4 syllables
- Ali: 2 syllables
1. A. Arrange the following set of words in alphabetical order in your notebook.
ship, small, successful, scoldings, stone, saving, someone, stood, streets, still, screamed, sot, seemed, saint, share.
Answer:
saint, sat, saving, scoldings, screamed, seemed, share, ship, small, someone, still, stone, stood, streets, successful.
1. B. Remove the Affixes (Prefix and Suffix) and write the Root-word.
- successful
- immediately
- retrace
- mouser
- unfriendly
- fallen
- unkind
- wooden
- luckily
- belonging
Answer:
- success
- immediate
- trace
- mouse
- friendly
- fall
- kind
- wood
- luck
- belong
2. A. Find from the story’ one word for the following.
Question a.
a small room just below a sloping roof
Answer:
attic
Question b.
a very narrow passage between buildings
Answer:
alley
Question c.
the highest – ranking officer in the Municipality of a city/town.
Answer:
Mayor
Question d.
the highest ranking official who commands a ship.
Answer:
Captain
Question e.
any animal that catches mice
Answer:
mouser
Question f.
a low constant sound made by cats
Answer:
Purr
2. B. Make sentences of your own using the following expressions.
Question 1.
overcome:
Answer:
We must learn to overcome any difilcultics we come across.
Question 2.
put up with:
Answer:
We had to put up wilhi the noisy behaviour of our neighbours son.
Question 3.
bargain:
Answer:
People In India love to bargain with hawkers.
3. Rearrange the following events us they occur in the story. Put the correct number in the boxes.
Answer:
4. Think and answer:
Question 1.
What decision taken by Dick changed his fortune?
Answer:
On hearing the church bells send out a message to him, Dick decided to retrace his steps and go back to Mr. Fitzwarren’s house instead of running away. This decision changed Dick’s fortune.
Question 2.
What message does this story bring j out for youngsters?
Answer:
The message that this story brings out for youngsters is that we must S not run away from difficulties but face > them bravely.
5. A. Break the words below into syllables us shown in the first one.
- belonging
- morning
- unfriendly
- citizen
- anything
- message
- difficulty
- mayor
- captain
- elected
Answer:
- be – long – ing
- mor – ning
- un – friend – ly
- ci – ti – zen
- an – y – thing
- mess – age
- di – ffi – cul- ty
- ma – yor
- cap – tain
- e – lec – ted
5. B. Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives.
Read the sentences.
(i) Yatin is strong.
(ii) Amit is stronger than Yatin.
(iii) Pruvin is the strongest of all.
In sentence (i) the Adjective ‘strong’ is in its simple form. It is called Positive Degree.
In sentence (ii) the Adjective stronger’ refers to a higher degree, when there is a comparison of two nouns. It is called Comparative Degree. (-er is
added to the basic Adjective)
In sentence (iii) the adjective ‘strongest’ refers to the highest degree of comparison of one with more than two nouns. It is called Superlative
Degree. (-est is added to the basic Adjective)
Complete the table of degrees of comparison.
Answer:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| (1) great | greater | greatest |
| (2) famous | more famous | most famous |
| (3) easy | easier | easiest |
| (4) bad | worse | worst |
| (5) poor | poorer | poorest |
| (6) lazy | lazier | laziest |
| (7) little | less | least |
| (8) worthy | worthier | worthiest |
| (9) popular | more popular | most popular |
6. Select any one of the famous personalities mentioned in ‘Warming up 1′ on page no. 5. From the library or internet find out their success story. Write ¡tin your own words in about 20 to 30 lines of your notebook. Give your write-up a suitable title.
Class 8 English Chapter 1.2 Dick Whittington and his Cat Additional Important Questions and Answers
Simple Factual Activities :
Complete the following :
Question 1.
Dick lived in a ______.
Answer:
small village in the south of England
Question 2.
_____ treated Dick unkindly.
Answer:
Many of the villagers
Question 3.
The innocent belief ________.
Answer:
that the streets of London were paved with gold made Dick decide to go to London
Question 4.
The carter asked Dick _______.
Answer:
if he was running away from home
Complex Factual Activity:
Question 1.
Describe the hardships that Dick I faced on arriving in London.
Answer:
Dick arrived in London just before ; nightfall. He had no place to sleep, and he finally slept in the corner of a narrow lane. The following morning, Dick woke ( up feeling cold, miserable and hungry. He j begged for food, but people shouted at him | and hit him angrily on his head. He finally collapsed and lay there, too weak to look further for food.
Activities based on Contextual Grammar:
Question 1.
He thought people might treat him more kindly if he were rich. (Identify the modal auxiliary and state its function.)
Answer:
might-indicates possibility
Question 2.
All he could see were dirty streets and lots of unfriendly people.
(Rewrite using ‘nothing’.)
Answer:
He could see nothing but dirty streets and lots of unfriendly people.
Personal Response:
When Dick begged for food, people shouted at him and beat him. Do you think this is right?
Answer:
of course it is not right. We ; should have sympathy when people beg for something, not get angry with them. They must be having a strong reason for begging, of course, if they are lazy, do not work and then beg, it is wrong. Even then, we must not beat them or shout at them.
Complete the following:
Question 1.
Mr. Fitzwarren favoured Dick by ______.
Answer:
ordering the cook to take him into the kitchen, feed him and then find some work for him
Question 2.
Dick had to face two difficulties in Mr. Fitzwarren’s house. They were:
Answer:
(i) the attic where he slept was overrun by rats and mice, preventing him from sleeping.
(ii) the cook was bad-tempered and shouted and screamed at Dick, scolding him and hitting him with a wooden spoon even when he was working as hard as he could.
Question 3.
The cat proved to be very useful because _____.
Answer:
it chased away all the rats and mice, allowing Dick to sleep peacefully
Activities based on Contextual Grammar:
Question 1.
Dick had fallen in front of a house belonging to a rich merchant. (Rewrite using the simple past tense of the underlined verb.)
Answer:
Dick fell in front of a house belonging to a rich merchant.
Question 2.
Dick was able to sleep peacefully.
(Rewrite using the verb ‘slept’.)
Answer:
Dick slept peacefully.
Personal Response:
Question 1.
What do Mr. Fitzwarren’s actions tell us about him?
Answer:
Mr. Fitzwarren’s actions tell us that he was a kind-hearted and just man.
He did not abuse Dick or hit him as the others had done. He offered Dick a home and a living in return for helping the cook with all the pots and pans in the kitchen.
Simple Factual Activities:
Who said the following words:
Question 1.
I can put up with a few scoldings from the cook.
Answer:
Dick
Question 2.
No, it must be his.
Answer:
Mr. Fitzwarren
Question 3.
Only my cat.
Answer:
Dick
Question 4.
Let me put something in for him.
Answer:
Alice
Fill in the blanks:
Question 1.
Dick walked as far as ________.
Answer:
Holloway
Question 2.
The first of November is _______.
Answer:
All Saints’ Day
Question 3.
Dick went back to _____.
Answer:
Mr. Fitzwarren’s house
Question 4.
Mr. Fitzwarren was sending a ship to the _____ to trade.
Answer:
African coast
Complex Factual Activity:
Question 1.
’“Explain in your own words what inspired Dick to return to Mr. Fitzwarren’s home.
Answer:
When Dick sat down on a stone to rest, he heard the church bells ringing. As he listened, it seemed that they were ringing a message for him, telling him that he should go back home, and calling him the Mayor of London.
Pick out the subject and predicate in the following sentences and put them in the correct columns in the table given below :
- You can then share in the profits.
- Everyone produced something except for Dick.
- The two of them walked as far as Holloway.
- Dick and his cat retraced their steps to Mr. Fitzwarren’s house.
Answer:
| Subject | Predicate |
| (1) You | can then share in the profits |
| (2) Everyone | produced something except for Dick |
| (3) The two of them | walked as far as Holloway |
| (4) Dick and his cat | retraced their steps to Mr. Fitzwarren’s house. |
Personal Response:
Question 1.
According to you, did Dick do the right thing by running away from Mr. Fitzwarren’s house because of the cook?
Answer:
No, I don’t think that Dick did the right thing. Mr. Fitzwarren was a good man, and Dick was making a decent living. He should have tried to win the cook over and solve his difficulties. If he had run away, he may not have got another job and may have had to beg. Nothing is gained by running away from problems; we must face them and solve them.
Write whether the following statements are True or False:
Question 1.
Dick was happy to send his cat on the ship.
Answer:
False
Question 2.
The cat caught plenty of mice and rats.
Answer:
True
Question 3.
The king was rude to the captain.
Answer:
False
Question 4.
The queen knew all about cats.
Answer:
False
Pick out two adverbs ending in ‘-ly’ from the passage, and write the adjectives in them.
Answer:
Adverbs-immediately, normally, Adjectives in them-immediate, normal
Personal Response:
Do you think that all the animals are 1 important to the environment?
Answer:
Yes, all the animals are certainly j important to the environment. They all have their own place and own duties. ; For example, hawks and eagles control the population of mice, rats and snakes. Lions and tigers keep the number of deer, buffaloes and other such animals in check, j Every animal is important in its own way.
Write the following sentences in the correct order of occurrence in the passage:
- Dick was knighted by the king and became Sir Richard Whittington.
- Dick was elected the Mayor of London.
- The king paid ten times the sum for the cat.
- “I would give great wealth to own this animal,” said the queen.
Answer:
- “I would give great wealth to own this animal,” said the queen.
- The king paid ten times the sum for the cat.
- Dick was elected the Mayor of London.
- Dick was knighted by the king and became Sir Richard Whittington.
Give reasons:
Question 1.
The queen was afraid of the cat.
Answer:
The queen was afraid of the cat because she had seen how fiercely it had attacked the rats and the mice.
Question 2.
How much did the king pay for the cat?
Answer:
The king paid ten times the sum for the cat that he had paid for the whole cargo from Mr. Fitzwarren’s ship.
Activities based on Contextual Grammar :
Pick out the verbs from the following sentences and state their tense :
Question 1.
The captain showed Mr. Fitzwarren the gold and jewels he had brought from Barbary.
Mr. Fitzwarren then paid him all: the money he had received for the cat.
Answer:
showed – simple past tense; had brought – past perfect tense
paid – simple past tense; had received – past perfect tense
Personal Response:
Question 1.
What message does this story bring j out for youngsters?
Answer:
The message that this story brings out for youngsters is that we must S not run away from difficulties but face > them bravely.
Do as directed:
Question 1.
Pick out two compound words from the lesson.
Answer:
Two compound words : household, nightfall
Question 2.
Use the adverb ’immediately’ in your own sentence :
Answer:
The teacher immediately asked the tired girl to sit down.
Question 3.
Find out four hidden words from : the given word : (Each word should have at least 3 letters.)
successful
Answer:
successful : success, self, fuel, fuse
Question 4.
Use the following word and its homophone in two separate sentences :ate
Answer:
- The little boy ate the cake very quickly,
- He was eight years old when he got a new cycle.
Question 5.
Underline the adjectives from the following sentence :
He was not only famous, but he was popular too, for he always helped the poor ; with his money.
Answer:
He was not only famous, but he was popular too, for he always helped the poor with his money.
Question 6.
Pick out the conjunction in the following sentence :
Dick work up cold, miserable and very hungry.
Answer:
and
Question 7.
Punctuate :
alas yes came the reply the country is suffering from a plague of rats and mice
Answer:
“Alas, yes!” came the reply. “The country is suffering from a plague of rats and mice.”
Question 8.
Pick out the direct and indirect objects:
He gave me a hundred rupee note.
Answer:
Direct object – a hundred-rupee note
Indirect object – me
Question 9.
Use the following word as a noun and a verb in two separate sentences :
sleep
Answer:
- We should get at least 8 hours of sleep daily, (noun)
- I sleep at 10 pm daily, (verb)