Poem 2
An Elementary School
- What does ‘gusty waves’ imply?
(a) slum children (b) energetic children
(c) deceased children (d) unhappy children
- What are children like in the slums?
(a) underfed and sickly (b) poor but happy
(c) underfed but energetic (d) happy and playful
- Identify the literary device in ‘like roofless weeds’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- why are children compared to rootless weeds?
(a) they have no home (b) they are unwanted like weeds
(c) they are thrown into schools (d) they are sturdy like weeds
- Identify the literary device in `rat’s eyes’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- One of the following phrases implies unhealthy children. It is
(a) one unnoted (b) eyes live in a dream
(c) a paper seeming boy (d) from gusty waves
- Identify the literary device in ‘father’s gnarled disease’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- ‘The tall girl with her head weighed down’ means
(a) the girl is ashamed of something (b) has untidy hair
(c) is ill and exhausted (d) is shy
- The paper-seeming boy with rat’s eyes’ means the boy is
(a) sly and secretive (b) short and lean
(c) hungry and thin (d) sad and depressed
- ‘The stunted unlucky heir of twisted bones’ means the boy
(a) is short and bony (b) is poor and unlucky
(c) is sad and unwell (d) has an inherited disability
- The colour of sour cream is
(a) white (b) yellow
(c) off-white (d) pale
- What are the classrooms like?
(a) dim and pathetic (b) temples of learning
(c) means of escape (d) a happy place
- Who sits at the back of the class?
(a) a sweet and young pupil (b) a paper seeming boy
(c) a tall girl (d) a girl with hair like rootless weeds
- His eyes live in a dream. What is the dream?
(a) to eat good food (b) to be a squirrel
(c) to go out into the world (d) to see Tyrolese Valley
- ‘On sour cream walls. Donations’ suggests
(a) schools are well equipped
(b) schools are small but they try to impart education
(c) schools have a poor and ill-equipped environment
(d) schools meet the education requirements of the children through donations
- Which of the following words imply a bleak future?
(a) sour cream walls (b) awarding the world its world
(c) future’s painted with a fog (d) Shakespeare’s head
- What is the stunted boy reciting?
(a) the lesson from his desk (b) Shakespeare’s poetry
(c) leaves of nature (d) his composition
- The classroom walls have
(a) pictures of Shakespeare, buildings with domes, world maps and beautiful valleys
(b) pictures of Shakespeare, rivers, valleys and world maps
(c) pictures of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, rivers buildings and world maps
(d) pictures of Shakespeare, buildings, rivers, mountains and valleys
- What does the map represent?
(a) world of the rich and powerful (b) world of the poor
(c) world of the slum school children (d) world the poet wants for the slum children
- What is the future of the children?
(a) happy and secure (b) poor but satisfied
(c) uncertain and bleak (d) unhappy but secure
- Shakespeare is wicked because he the children.
(a) educates (b) tempts
(c) loves (d) hates
- The night is endless as there is no for them.
(a) future (b) education
(c) wealth (d) support
- Identify the literary device in ‘future’s painted with a fog’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- The lives of slum children are confined in
(a) elementary school (b) Shakespeare’s world
(c) narrow streets of slums (d) Tyrolese Valley
- The map is a bad example as it makes one aware of
(a) the beautiful world (b) cleaner lanes
(c) the political structure (d) the civil design
- They are symbolic of the joy, and the brightness of life which these children are deprived of
(a) elementary school (b) visitors
(c) ships, sun and love (d) lead sky
- Where do their lives ‘slyly turn’?
(a) in their cramped holes (b) towards the sun
(c) towards the school (d) towards the windows
- Choose the phrase that talks of poverty
(a) ships and sun (b) on their slag heap
(c) so blot their map (d) Shakespeare is wicked
- The last stanza is unlike the rest of the poem.
(a) long (b) short
(c) optimistic (d) pessimistic
- Identify the literary device in ‘lead sky’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- Identify the literary device in ‘spectacles of steel’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- Who spells hope for the slum children?
(a) school (b) Shakespeare
(c) governor, inspector and visitor (d) no one
- The imprisoned minds and lives of the slum children can be released from their bondage if they are given an experience of the outer world.
(a) never (b) soon
(c) eventually (d) magically
34, Identify the literary device in ‘like catacombs’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- ‘Break O break’. What should they break?
(a) the donations (b) all bathers
(c) the slums (d) the schools
- Their world will extend to the golden sands as well as the green fields
(a) azure waves (b) cities
(c) civilized world (d) the rich people
- Identify the literary device in ‘whose language is the sun’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- The word catacombs imply of the slum children.
(a) diseased existence (b) secure
(c) near death existence (d) poverty ridden
- Identify the literary device in ‘slums as big as doom’.
(a) simile (b) metaphor
(c) alliteration (d) personification
- Through the description of the slum children, the poet wants to express the prevailing in society
(a) social injustice and class inequalities (b) poverty
(c) disease (d) slums
Answer key
1(b) energetic children
2. (a) underfed and sickly
3.(a) simile
4. (b) they are unwanted like weeds
5.(b) metaphor
6. (c) a paper seeming boy
7.(b) metaphor
8. (c) is ill and exhausted
9.(c) hungry and thin
10. (d) has an inherited disability
11.(c) off-white
12. (a) dim and pathetic
13.(a) a sweet and young pupil
14. (c) to go out into the world
15.(c) schools have a poor and ill-equipped environment
16.(c) future’s painted with a fog
17. (a) the lesson from his desk
18. (a) pictures of Shakespeare, buildings with domes, world maps and beautiful valleys
19.(a) World of the rich and powerful
20. (c) uncertain and bleak
21.(b) tempts
22. (a) future
23. (b) metaphor
24.(c) narrow streets of slums
25.(a) the beautiful world
26. (c) ships, sun and love
27.(a) in their cramped holes
28. (b) on their slag heap
29.(c) optimistic
30. (b) metaphor
31.(b) metaphor
32. (c) governor, inspector and visitor
33.(d) magically
34. (a) simile
35.(b) all barriers
36. (a) azure waves
37.(b) metaphor
38. (c) near death existence
39.(a) simile
40.(a) social injustice and class inequalities
