KSEEB Solutions for Class 9 English Prose Chapter 8 The Story-Teller

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Karnataka State Syllabus Class 9 English Prose Chapter 8 The Story-Teller

The Story-Teller Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes

Comprehension:

C1. Answer the following questions:

Question 1.
Who were the occupants of the carriage?
Answer:
The occupants of the carriage were an aunt, her two nieces, a nephew and a bachelor at the other corner.

Question 2.
What questions haunted Cyril when he saw sheep in the field?
Answer:
Cyril wanted to know why the sheep were being driven out of the field. When the aunt answered that perhaps the grass on the other field is better, he asked her why it was so.

Question 3.
What made the aunt decide that the bachelor was a hard and unsympathetic man?
Answer:
While the children were behaving in a restless manner, the bachelor who sat with a frown began to scowl. This made the aunt decide that the bachelor was a hard and unsympathetic man.

Question 4.
Who saved the little girl in the aunt’s story?
Answer:
A number of rescuers who admired the girl’s moral character saved the little girl in the aunt’s story.

Question 5.
Name the little girl in the bachelor’s story.
Answer:
The little girl in the bachelor’s story was Bertha.

Question 6.
What remark of the bachelor’s story created a wave of reaction in favour of the story?
Answer:
The bachelor said that the girl was “horribly good”. The connection of horrible with goodness created a favourable reaction amongst the children.

Question 7.
How did the Prince of the country come to know about Bertha?
Answer:
Since everybody in the country talked about her goodness, the Prince of the country came to know about Bertha.

Question 8.
How did the Prince of the country honour Bertha?
Answer:
The Prince of the country said that since Bertha was so good, she might be allowed once a week to walk in his park which was outside the town. It was an honour because no children were ever allowed in it.

Question 9.
Why was it a great honour for Bertha being allowed into the Prince’s Park?
Answer:
It was a great honour for Bertha being allowed into Prince’s Park because no children were ever allowed into it.

Question 10.
When did Bertha begin to wish that she had never been allowed into the Park?
Answer:
Bertha began to wish that she had never been allowed into the Park when the wolf started chasing her.

Question 11.
The wolf located Bertha while she was hiding in the bushes by
a. sniffing around
b. the clinking sound of the medals
c. her spotlessly white and clean pinafore.
Answer:
b. the clinking sound of the medals.

Question 12.
What was the aunt’s reaction to the Bachelor’s story?
Answer:
The aunt felt that the Bachelor told a most improper story to young children. He had undermined the effect of years of careful teaching.

C2. Answer the following questions:

Question 1.
How did the Bachelor describe
a. the pigs in the park.
Answer:
The bachelor said that there were lots of little pigs running all over the place. They were various kinds of them some black with white faces, some white with black spots, some black all over, some grey with white pattern and some white all over.

b. the fish in the pond.
Answer:
The ponds in the park were filled with, fish of gold, blue and green colors.

c. the wolf in the park.
Answer:
The wolf which came prowling into the park was enormous. It was ‘fund- color all over, with a black tongue and pale grey eyes that gleamed with unspeakable ferocity.

Question 2.
What qualities of Bertha earned her the three medals?
Answer:
Bertha earned several medals for goodness. She earned a medal for obedience, another medal for punctuality and a third for good behaviour.

Question 3.
Give reasons for
a. the absence of sheep in the Prince’s Park.
Answer:
There were no sheep in the Prince’s Park because his mother once had a dream that the Prince would either be killed by a sheep or else by a clock falling on him. So, they banned all sheep in the park.

b. the absence of flowers in the Prince’s Park.
Answer:
There were absolutely no flowers in the Park because the pigs had eaten them all.

c. Bertha feeling sorry for the absence of flowers in the prince’s park.
Answer:
Bertha had tearfully promised her aunts that she would not pick any of the kind Prince’s flowers and she had meant to keep her promise. Therefore it made her feel silly to find that there were no flowers to pick and she felt sorry.

Question 4.
What are the two different thoughts of Bertha on her being extraordinarily good, when she was in the prince’s park?
Answer:
Bertha was happy about being extraordinarily good because she was the only girl who was permitted to get into the Prince’s park and take a walk once a week. But later when she saw a wolf stealing towards her, she was nervous and felt she shouldn’t have entered the Prince’s park. She felt that if she had not been extraordinarily good, she would have been safe in the town.

C3. Answer the following questions. Discuss in groups:

Question 1.
How did the medals earn respect for Bertha as well as cause her death?
Answer:
Bertha was an extremely well-behaved girl and won medals for obedience, punctuality and good behaviour which are pinned on her dress always. Everyday talked about her goodness and the Prince of the country got to hear about it and he said that as she was so good she could walk in his park once a week. Every time she walked, the medals used to chink against one another.

One day while she was walking in the park, a hungry, ferocious wolf which came prowling into the park saw her brightly dressed and chased her to eat. Bertha ran and hid behind a myrtle bush. The wolf could not locate her and as it turned to go, Bertha moved and her medals clinked against one another and the wolf turned back and located her and devoured her. Thus the medals brought Bertha both glory and death.

Question 2.
The aunt terms the bachelor s story a most improper one. Do you agree with her? Give reasons.
Answer:
The story is indeed a most improper one because it goes against all morals and ethics. One is always taught that good behaviour begets good life and all good things happen to those who lead a moral and ethical life.

But in the story, the girl who behaved in an extraordinarily good manner was killed. Her rewards for medals became the reason for her death. So this story would give the children an idea that good things do not happen just because one is good. Adults have the capacity to differentiate between make-believe and reality whereas young children of impressionable age take everything into the heart and believe what they hear.

Question 3.
What elements in the bachelor’s story appealed to the children?
Answer:
Initially, the bachelor called Bertha as horribly good and the connection of horrible and good was a novelty which the children liked.

Then the bachelor said that there were no sheep or clocks in the park because the Prince’s mother have dreamt that the Prince would be killed by either of them.

This brought a reaction of admiration. The bachelor said that a big, bad wolf came into the park and it chased, searched and ate Bertha until all remained were her shoes, bits of clothing and the three medals for goodness. The children loved this gory ending.

Question 4.
How would the story end if Bertha had not pinned the medals on her pinafore?
Answer:
If Bertha had not pinned her medals on her pinafore, people would not have come to know about her goodness. They would not have discussed her character and the prince would not have come to know of it.

He then would not have permitted her to walk in his garden. Then Bertha would not have come across the wolf and the wolf would not have heard the clinking sound of the medals and it wouldn’t have killed her. So if Bertha had not pinned the medals on her pinafore, she would have been alive.

Language Activities:

Vocabulary:

V1. Match the words in column ‘A’ with their meaning in column ‘B’: (Answered)

V2. Which of the following expressions is correct?

a flock of birds / a flight of birds
a swarm of insects / a colony of insects
a herd of goats / a flock of goats
a troupe of actors / a company of actors
a wad of banknotes / a roll of banknotes
a pack of cards / a deck of cards
a team of experts / a panel of experts
a bunch of grapes / a cluster of grapes

V3. Write the synonyms and antonyms for the following words:

Grammar and Usage:

G1. Read the table and match the details: (Matched and written)

G2. a. Fill in the blanks with suitable forms of the verb given in the brackets:

I am Shankar. I am an English teacher. I work (work) in Sarvodaya High School in Jayanagar. Every day, I go (go) to Bengaluru by train. The train in at 6 o’clock. So I get up (get) up at 4.30 and leave home around 5.30. My friend, Suresh joins (join) me on the way to the railway station. He is also a teacher. He teaches (teach) Biology. The train reaches (reach) Bengaluru around 8.30. We take (take) a BMTC bus from the Railway Station to Jayanagar.

b. Using the details given in the table below, construct sentences using the appropriate tense form of the verbs underlined in each. One is done for you.

Eg. 1. Lakshmi goes to school every day but yesterday she went to Bijapur to attend her friend’s marriage.
2. Lakshmi practices music every evening but last evening she visited Gol Gumbaz.
3. Lakshmi helps her brother in his homework every day but yesterday she went to a movie.
4. Lakshmi visits her grandmother every week but last week she spent time with relatives.
5. Every week on Thursdays Lakshmi goes swimming but last Thursday she attended a music concert.

G3. Complete the following conversation using the correct form of the verbs given in brackets:

Dhaman: Good morning Mr. Salunke. I am from the Suvarna Karnataka newspaper. I am writing (write) an article on the lifestyle of wrestlers. Can I trouble you tomorrow for an interview?
Salunke: I am (be) afraid, I will not be free tomorrow. I am going (go) to Hyderabad to attend a conference. I will be back (back) the day after tomorrow.
Dhaman: Oh ! 1 have to submit my article the day after tomorrow. Do you think (think) you can spare a few minutes now?
Salunke: Umm! Well, I think 1 can spare (spare) five minutes for you now.
Dhaman: Thank you very much. Tell me, how you prepare (prepare) yourself for the wrestling competition.
Salunke: every day, I get (get) up very early in the morning. I spend (spend) nearly six hours in the gymnasium. But my friend Raghu spends (spend) only two hours in the gym. Our trainer trains (train) us rigorously.
Dhaman: What diet do you follow (follow)?
Salunke: I prefer (prefer) lots of cereals and greens. But Raghu prefers (prefer) a non – vegetarian diet?

G4. Give reasons for the following. Use the verb given in the brackets. The first one is done for you:

Question 1.
The room is clean, (clean)
Answer:
Someone has cleaned the room.

Question 2.
I am not hungry. (have)
Answer:
I have just had my lunch.

Question 3.
The house is dirty. (clean)
Answer:
They have not cleaned it for months.

Question 4.
The road is closed. (be)
Answer:
There has been an accident.

Question 5.
The chocolate box is empty. (eat)
Answer:
Somebody has eaten all the chocolates.

Question 6.
The watch is not working. (break)
Answer:
You have broken the watch.

Past Tense:

G5. Rewrite the following by filling in the blanks with the past form of the verbs given in brackets. (You may have to use the past simple, past progressive and past perfect.)

1. Children were making (make) a lot of noise which disturbed (disturb) the bachelor. The little girl was singing (sing) the first line of a poem repeatedly. Cyril was smacking (smack) the cushions of the seat. When the aunt asked (ask) him to look out of the window, he started (start) asking questions about the sheep that were (be) in the field. The aunt tried (try) to calm down the children by telling them a story. But the children did not like her narration. The bachelor decided (decide) to tell them a story. His style of narration appealed (appeal) to the imagination of the children. They listened (listen) to the story with rapt attention and enjoyed (enjoy) the story.
2. When I came home, my sister was working (work) on the computer.
3. While Suresh was reading (read) the text, Sony noted down (note down) the main points.
4. The phone rang (ring) while I was having (have) my dinner.

Listening and Speaking:

a. Role Play: Take the roles of the prince and his mother and enact the incident of prince s mother s dream and deciding not to have either pigs or clocks around.

Prince: Mother, what a beautiful park it is!
Mother: Indeed my son!
Prince: I wish to have a lot of birds and fish in it.
Mother: Yes, you can have hummingbirds and colourful fish in your park.
Prince: How I wish we could have some snow-white sheep in my park!
Mother: No. absolutely not!
Prince: But why?
Mother: I dreamt that you will be killed by a sheep! Therefore absolutely, no sheep.
Prince: Hmm! Can 1 have pigs then?
Mother: Oh! Yes. You can have as many as you want.
Prince: I want a huge clock at the entrance of the park.
Mother: No dear I dreamt about a clock falling on you and killing you so, no clock either.
Prince: Is that so? Then there won’t be any sheep or clock in my park.

b. You have observed how the children interrupt the narration of a story. Ask one of your friends to tell a story. While listening to the story, keep interrupting the narration by asking questions related to the story. Ask at least ten interrupting questions.
Answer:
Individual activity – to be done in the classroom.

c. Say the following words aloud and note the ’ed’ ending is pronounced as / t/, /d/ or /id/.
asked, wanted, decided, moved, learned, labeled, looked, liked, knitted, baked, bagged, crowded, gathered, chanted, bombed – Segaegate the above words.

The Story-Teller Additional Questions and Answers

Extracts:

1. I expect they are being driven to another field.

Question a.
Who said this to whom?
Answer:
This was said by the aunt to Cyril.

Question b.
Who were the ’they’?
Answer:
‘They’ were single quetes the sheep.

Question c.
Why Mere they being driven to another field?
Answer:
They were being driven to another field because there was more grass there.

2. It is the stupidest story I’ve ever heard.

Question a.
Who said this?
Ans.
The elder girl said this.

Question b.
Who had narrated the story?
Answer:
The story was narrated by the children’s aunt.

Question c
What was the theme of the story?
Answer:
The theme was how a girl was saved by the villagers because of her moral character.

3. You don’t seem to be a success as a story-teller.

Question a.
Who said this to whom?
Answer:
The bachelor said this to the children’s aunt.

Question b.
Why did the speaker say this?
Answer:
The bachelor said this because the aunt was not able to sustain the interest of the children with her story.

4. Not as pretty as any of you, but she was horribly good.

Question a.
Who said this to whom?
Answer:
The bachelor said this to the children.

Question b.
Who is “she”?
Answer:
“She” is Bertha, the character in the story narrated by the bachelor.

Question c.
What attracted the children?
Answer:
The coinage of the phrase ‘horribly good’ made the children get interested in the story.

5. “Why weren’t there any sheep?”

Question a.
Who asked this question?
Answer:
Cyril asked the question to the bachelor.

Question b.
Where weren’t any sheep found?
Answer:
The sheep weren’t found in the beautiful park of the Prince.

Question c.
Why weren’t there any sheep?
Answer:
There weren’t any sheep in the Park because the Prince’s mother had a dream that her son would be killed by a sheep. So they banned sheep from the park.

6. “Because the pigs had eaten them all”.

Question a.
What had the pigs eaten?
Answer:
The pigs had eaten all the flowers in the park.

Question b.
What had the gardeners told the Prince?
Answer:
The gardeners had told the prince that he couldn’t have both pigs and flowers and so he decided to have only pigs.

7. The first thing that it saw was Bertha.

Question a.
Who saw Bertha and where?
Answer:
The enormous wolf saw Bertha in the Prince’s Park.

Question b.
How was it able to sec Bertha?
Answer:
Bertha was very much visible as her pinafore was so spotlessly white and clean that it couid be seen from a distance.

Question c.
What did it do when it saw her?
Answer:
The wolf came after her with huge leaps and bounds to eat her.

8. The story began badly but it had a beautiful ending.

Question a.
Who said this? Who narrated the story?
Answer:
This was said by the smaller of the two girls. The story was narrated by the bachelor.

Question b.
How did the story begin?
Answer:
The story began of a good girl Bertha who was loved by everyone because she was very good. She was given medals for her goodness.

Question c.
How did the story end?
Answer:
The story ended with Bertha being eaten by the wolf. The clinking sound made by the medals allowed to locate where she was hiding and the wolf ate her.

9. I kept them quiet for ten minutes.

Question a.
Who said this to whom?
Answer:
The bachelor said this to the aynt.

Question b.
Whom did he keep quiet?
Answer:
He kept her nieces and nephew quiet for some time.

Question c.
How did he keep them quiet?
Answer:
He kept them quiet by telling them a story in such a way that they were engrossed in it.

10. It is the most beautiful story that I have heard.

Question a.
Name the lesson and the author.
Answer:
The name of the lesson is ‘The storyteller’ and the author is Saki (H. H. Munro)

Question b.
Who said this to whom?
Answer:
The bigger of the two girls said this to the bachelor.

Question c.
Where did this take place?
Answer:
This took place on the train journey to Templecombe on a sultry day.

Ex.1. Working in pairs, complete the following sentences using appropriate articles:

Kathmandu is – capital of Nepal.
Kalpana – an LLB student at Bangalore University.
Punjab – an important state of North India, has five rivers flowing through it.
Nehruji was – freedom fighter of – highest order.
The Earth revolves round – sun.
an honest man will always speak – truth.
Is – tiger – cruel animal?

Answer:

the
is
the
a, the
the
An, the
the, a.

Ex. 2. Complete the following story. Put in a / an or the:

– man decided to rob – bank in – town where he lived. He walked into – bank and handed – note to one of – cashiers. – Cashier read – note, which told her to give – man some money. Afraid that he might have – gun, she did as she was told. – man then walked out of – building, leaving – note behind. However, he had no time to spend – money because he was arrested on – same day. He had made – mistake. He had written – note on – back of –
envelope. And on – other side of – envelope was his address. This clue was quite enough for – detectives working on – case.
Answer:

The Story Teller Summary in English

On a hot afternoon, the train was going to Templecombe and the occupants of the carriage were three children, their aunt, and a bachelor. The day was sultry and the journey was very slow. Therefore the children felt very restless and started to question each and every topic they could find. The aunt was flustered by their behavior and made them sit beside her and began narrating a story of a good girl who lived happily.

But the children got bored halfway through and their attention wandered. The bachelor was watching all this slightly impatiently and he called the children and began narrating a story.

There was a young girl Bertha who was extraordinarily good and so she was given three medals for obedience, punctuality and good behavior. She used to pin them always in her dress and when she moved, they used to clink against each other. The Prince of the land heard of her goodness and allowed her to walk in park once a week. It was a beautiful park and no children were allowed in it.

The park didn’t have any sheep or clock because the Prince’s mother had a dream that the prince would either be killed by a sheep or by a clock falling on him. Instead, the park was filled with pigs of all sizes and colours and these pigs had eaten all the flowers so there weren’t any flowers at all in the garden. One day, when the girl was walking in the park, a wolf came into the park to kill pigs, but it saw the girl and came after her in leaps and bounds.

She ran to escape from it and hid in a shrobbery of myrtle bushes. The wolf searched for her for some time but could not spot the girl. But as it was about to go, the wolf heard the medals clinking and it jumped into the bush and devoured her. The children who looked bored at the beginning of the lesson got very excited at this slightly bloodthirsty story which didn’t preach any morals.

When the aunt berated the bachelor for telling them an improper story, he said that he had managed to keep them quiet for some ten minutes which she could not do. When the train reached the Templecombe station, he got down and went away thinking that the children would from then on pester their aunt for an improper story only.