Kindness
Unit:4 Kindness
1. Answer these questions to check your understanding:
(a) When do the Kashmiri vendors travel to cities to sell their goods?
Ans:- The Kashmiri vendors travel to the cities every year when the rainy season comes to an end and winter is about to begin.
(b) Why is it a hard life for the Kashmiri vendors?
Ans:- It’s a hard life because their hardship begins with the long journey from Kashmir to the city. They stay at cheap hotels and roam around the city streets all day, bent with the load on their backs while shouting their ware and looking for buyers. They also spend most of the day hungry and thirsty.
(c) Why was the author surprised when his brother-in-law called the vendors?
Ans:- The author was surprised because he was sure that his brother-in-law needed nothing from them.
(d) “I felt sad and guilty at being a party to such behaviour.” – What does the word ‘party’ mean here? And what kind of behaviour did he refer to?
Ans:- The word ‘party’ here means being a participant or a sharer in an action or situation.
The behaviour the author referred to was the act of making the vendors show their goods and talk about their lives, even though the brother-in-law (and the author) did not intend to buy anything.
(e) Who was kind? What was his deed of kindness?
Ans:- The person who was kind was the author’s brother-in-law.
His deed of kindness was pretending to be interested in buying their wares so that he could offer them a hearty meal without hurting their pride.
2. Information about the Kashmiri vendors and the author’s brother-in-law:
Here is the information rewritten in the correct columns:
The Kashmiri vendors The brother-in-law
1. Travel from Kashmir to different cities. 1. Asked the vendors to show their goods
2. Stay at hotels with minimum facilities 2. Did not intend to buy anything
3. Walk around the city on foot to sell their goods 3. Asked wife to serve food to the vendors
4. Promised to bring better things next year 4. Made the offer of food look unplanned
3. Rearrange the sentences according to the order in which events happened in the story
The correct order of events is:
(b) Two Kashmiri vendors came in to sell their goods.
(g) The vendors came in. (This is an overlapping event, but in the context of the list, it seems intended to start the sequence of their interaction).
(d) The brother-in-law enquired about their goods.
(f) The vendors hesitated to take the food.
(e) The brother-in-law asked his wife to bring some food for the vendors.
(c) The vendors had food and left.
(a) The brother-in-law made the offer of food look incidental. (This is the explanation given after the vendors left).
5. Look at the pictures below carefully. Then listen to your teacher read a travel guide for Assam. As you listen, fill in the boxes under the pictures with the correct words.
Since I cannot listen to the teacher’s reading, I will fill in the blanks with the likely famous attractions of Assam based on the images, which are often taught in this context.
Picture. Famous for:
Old Building (Left Top) Rang Ghar
Old Building (Right Top) Kamakha Temple (or Kamakha)
Forest/Park Tea Gardens (or Tea Gardens)
Rhinoceros. Rhinoceros (One-horned Rhino)
Temple/Religious Place Kamakha Temple (or Kamakhya)
Elephant Asian elephant (or elephants)
6. Let’s practise some grammar (Possessive Determiners)
Fill in the blanks with the correct words.
(b) The wares were carried on the back of the younger vendor. He carried the wares on his back.
(c) The author’s brother-in-law called out to the vendors. He called them in to his house.
(d) The author was unhappy when the brother-in-law called in the Kashmiri vendors. He thought, “I do not want to buy anything and waste my money”.
7. Find out the nouns that have been qualified by possessive determiners and complete the table given below.
Possessive Determiner Nouns qualified
their shawls
my brother-in-law’s sister, self
his wife, families, house
her. husband
their. wares
Practise using some more determiners:
(ii) The wares were carried by you. You carried the wares on your back.
(iii) I am writing a book. It is my book.
(iv) The Coorgis are a proud people. They are known for their pride.
(v) We are from Assam. Assam is our state.
8. (a) Rohit’s description
Fill in the blanks in Rohit’s description with appropriate determiners from the brackets.
Rohit: Our locality is called Boragaon. It is beside the National Highway bypass. You can see my house right from the road. It is the one with a green roof. My roof is also green, but it has a red border. Next to our house is my uncle’s bungalow. Every house in our lane has a beautiful garden, with lots of flowers and big trees. My mother loves spending time tending to her favourite plants. She and our neighbours sometimes have garden competitions. My friends and I love these competitions because everyone decorates their houses and we all come together to clean the neighbourhood.
8. (b) More sentences for practice (Determiners)
Fill in the blanks in the sentences with the appropriate determiner:
(i) There is some water in the jug.
(ii) The teachers gave him a lot of advice.
(iii) Each of the boys was given a prize.
(iv) He relies on the few friends he has. (Meaning, he relies on the small number of friends he possesses)
(v) There are a few books on the shelf, you can choose one.
(vi) Do you have any relatives in the city?
(vii) He is an electrical engineer.
(viii) He left the house.
9. Main and Subordinate Clauses
Main Clauses in Sentences (b) and (c)
A Main Clause is a part of the sentence that can make complete sense on its own.
(b) His wife, who was in the kitchen, got busy making tea.
* Main Clause: His wife got busy making tea.
(c) When my brother-in-law asked me to buy something, I politely declined.
* Main Clause: I politely declined.
Underline the main clause and circle the subordinate clause
In the following sentences:
(i) I was surprised, when my brother-in-law called the vendor
(ii) I was sure, he needed nothing from them
(iii) He knew, that they were hungry and tired
(iv) When I saw them, I wanted to offer them food
(v) I pretended, that I was interested in their wares
10. Listen to the description of dresses
Since the description of dresses for Activity 10 is a listening activity and the passage is not provided in the text (it is likely found in a separate ‘Passages for Listening’ section mentioned in the Teacher’s Notes), I cannot complete the matching exercise.