You can Download 1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 11 An Old Woman Questions and Answers Pdf, Notes, Summary helps you to revise the complete syllabus.
Karnataka 1st PUC English Textbook Answers Reflections Chapter 11 An Old Woman
An Old Woman Comprehension I :
Question 1.
‘You’ in the poem refers to
(a) The speaker.
(b) The passerby
(c) The reader
(d) Anyone
Answer:
(c) The reader
Question 2.
What does the old woman offer to do?
Answer:
The old woman offers if we give fifty paise coin she would take to the horseshoe shrine.
Question 3.
What does she expect for her services?
Answer:
She expected a fifty paise coin.
Question 4.
The lines, ‘You turn around and face her with an air of finality’ suggest that he decided to
(a) Give her a fifty paisa coin and get rid of her.
(b) Allow’her to take him to the shrine.
(c) End the farce.
Answer:
(c) End the farce.
Question 5.
The old woman’s eyes are compared to ………………………..
Answer:
bullet holes.
Question 6.
‘You are reduced to so much small change in her hand. Here the speaker is suggesting that
(a) One is reduced to an insignificant position.
(b) One feels that one is being cheated.
(c) One feels a change in one’s personality.
Answer:
(a) One is reduced to an insignificant position.
An Old Woman Comprehension II:
Question 1.
How is the plight of the old woman depicted in the poem?
Answer:
The old woman is not a beggar; she wants to live by doing work. Therefore she does the job of taking the visitors to the horseshoe shrine. Though the visitor has seen it already, she hobbles along anyway and tightens her grip on his shirt. She is very adamant; she did not let him go away. She has no other ideas except to guide the visitors to see them.
Question 2.
The old woman in the poem is a self appointed tourist guide, not a begger. Do you agree? Give reasons.
Answer:
The old woman is not a begger, she is a hard working. Though she is old still she wants to earn money by working. She is a self appointed tourist guide. She is well appreciated. She did not beg anyone. She is a model for others. Her character is highly respectful.
Question 3.
How does the speaker’s attitude undergo a change?
Answer:
In the beginning of the poem the speaker did not like the old woman. Because the speaker had not understood the woman properly. She did not allow him to go to the horse shoe shrine. The speaker started observing the character of the woman selfs such a bold person. Therefore .
An Old Woman Comprehension III :
Question 1.
‘The old woman reduces the self esteem of the speaker and makes him feel that he is nothing more than “so much small change”. Comment.
Answer:
The old woman is continuous to ask him to go with her. So that she would get the money to survive. The speaker does not change himself initially but slowly he turns towards the words of the woman. In spite of his dignity, he came down to hear the story of the old woman.
Question 2.
What is the speaker trying to convey through the lines ‘and the hills crack, and the temples crack, and the sky falls’?
Answer:
The speaker is shocked, looking at her face. The are two deep sunken eyes that look like bullet hobs. Her skin is wrinkled and cracks begin to appear around her eyes and spread beyond her skin. He feels that everything is falling apart.
Everything is cracked and in ruins. The cracks spread beyond her skin to the hills and the sky. There is a catastrophe. The hills crack, the temples crack and the sky falls and shatters like a sheet of glass.
But the old woman stands there as a symbol of all round degradation. The narrator feels ashamed. He is reduced to the small change in her hand. In a moment of realization the narrator/tourist finds himself reduced in his self-esteem. His awakening to the ‘real’ world makes him feel ‘small’.
Question 3.
How do you relate the ‘cracks around, her eyes’ to the crocking of hills and temples?
Answer:
The old woman’s eyes are just two gaping holes filled with empty air, with the hills and the sky. Then the cracks begin around her eyes, spreading beyond her skin and then the hills crack, the temples crack and the sky cracks and the sky finally shatters and falls like plate-glass.
The old woman herself is shatter-proof and nothing happens to her .Only you get instantly reduced to small change in her hand.It is you who shatter because her eyes are already bullet-holes which are formed with cracks around the holes.
An Old Woman Additional Question and Answer
I. Answer the following questions :
Question 1.
Where did the woman take the visitor to?
Answer:
The woman took the visitors to the horseshoe shrine.
Question 2.
Describe the appearance of the old woman?
Answer:
Her eyes are like bullet holes. There are cracks that begin around her eyes spread beyond her skin.
Question 3.
Did the visitor give the paise finally?
Answer:
Yes, the visitor finally gave the paise she offered.
Fill in the blanks :
1. Horseshoe here means good look.
2. They stick to you like a burr.
3. The cracks that begin around her eyes.
An Old Woman Summary in English
The poem begins with a commonplace experience, but ends in a revelation. The old woman is not an ordinary woman. She is the representative of the degradation of humanity. She has bullet holes for her eyes.
When the narrator looks at her, he is shocked by her pitiable condition. It appears as if she is going to fall apart. The main theme is about keeping what is important in perspective in this case, an old woman and her heritage the land from which she comes.
A tourist visits a hill. There he comes across an old woman. She grabs his sleeve and wants fifty paisa. She promises to take him to the horseshoe shrine. But the tourist has already been there. He tells her to let him alone. She is persistent and keeps pestering him. For a price, she will take what seems to be a sightseer to the nearby shrine. The man is not interested: he has seen the shrine before.
However, the woman is insistent; the man wants to dismiss her because she is an old woman. The poet uses a very simple common image a beggar, in this case, an old woman, who is found begging outside the horseshoe shrine.
In India this is a common sight as common as our reaction to a beggar besieging us pleading for alms. This sight is particularly common around holy places and pilgrim spots. They can be extremely persistent driving one to the point of irritation if not annoyance like a burr’. Such is the plight of the poet.
The poet turns to face her, about to end their association; ‘with an air of finality’ to ‘end the farce’. He conjures up an air of firmness to do so but her question stops him in his track. ’’What else can an old woman do on hills as wretched as?
An Old Woman Summary in Kannada
Glossary:
Jejuri (n) : a temple town in Maharashta
Horseshoe : The legend goes that Khandoba shrine (n) carried banai from her father’s house on a blue hors; the horse leapt across the hill and hit the ground so hard that the horseshoe dug into the side of the hill; also a shrine at Jejuri.
Burr (n) : a person who forces his or her company on others.
Air of finality (n) : as if put an end to the matter.
Crone (n) : ugly old woman.