Students can Download English Lesson 1 The Goat and the Stars Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes Pdf, Activity, KSEEB Solutions for Class 9 English helps you to revise the complete Karnataka State Board Syllabus and to clear all their doubts, score well in final exams.
Karnataka State Syllabus Class 9 English Supplementary Chapter 1 The Goat and the Stars
The Goat and the Stars Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes
Comprehension:
Answer the following questions:
Question 1.
What makes the boy look funny?
Answer:
The boy is dressed in large brown trousers giving him a curious look of being shorn off with sheep shears. There is always mud on his boots and most of the time he has a foul odour on him. All these make him look funny.
Question 2.
Where are the goats kept?
Answer:
The dozen goats that the boy’s family own are kept in the pigsty.
Question 3.
What did the boy do while grazing the goats?
Answer:
The boy grazed the goats every morning and brought them back to the pigsty again before darkness fell. While grazing the goats, he treated them as friends.
Question 4.
What first made the man and his wife become aware of the smell of the goat kid and the boy?
Answer:
The clergyman was talking about the grace of giving. He spoke of frankincense and myrrh and said that the devotees had brought a sweeter smell the smell of sacrifice for others. At that point in time the man sitting in front of the boy and his wife became aware of the smell of the goat kid and the boy.
Question 5.
Why was the boy troubled by the absence of snow on the ground?
Answer:
He was brought up with the belief that Christmastime meant snow on the ground, bells ringing, and a moving star. But when the boy came out of the church, he did not see any snow. His belief in the Christmas spirit was shaken. Hence he was troubled by the lack of snow.
Question 6.
Explain the message written on the notice board.
Answer:
The message meant that anyone could gift anything. Nothing was expensive or cheap. All gifts were welcome with the message. ‘It means you’, it means that everybody should donate.
The Goat and the Stars Additional Questions and Answers
Question 1.
What was written on the notice Board of the church?
Answer:
A notice was put up on the Board of the church which said – “Help us to Help others. No gift too large. None too small. Give generously.” And then in bold letters “This means you.”
Question 2.
What was the reason for the foul smell on the body?
Answer:
The boy grazed a dozen goats they had every day in the little pasture. It was because of the goats, he had a foul smell on him.
Question 3.
What was the effect of the phrase ‘This means you’ on the boy?
Answer:
This sentence made him wonder if there was anything he could do and he felt that the notice was watching him and in addition to it, God was also watching him.
Question 4.
What did he decide, a day before Christmas Eve?
Answer:
On the day before Christmas Eve, the boy decided to gift the goat kid to the church. He was very much fond of the kid and so gifting it was the greatest thing to sacrifice.
Question 5.
What was special about the boy’s gift?
Answer:
The gift that he was giving was something no one else would give. It was small, beautiful and living and moreover, his friend.
Question 6.
Where would he go every Christmas Eve?
Answer:
Every Christmas Eve he would go and visit an aunt who kept a small comer grocery store in the town. She would give a box of dates to his father, a box of chocolates for his mother, and some sort of present for him.
Question 7.
How did he decide to take the ‘gift’ to the church?
Answer:
On the pretext of visiting his aunt, he decided to take the goat-kid under cover of darkness. He could carry it as it was very light.
Question 8.
What sight met him at the church?
Answer:
At the church, he saw many people carrying parcels going inside. The windows of the church were full of light.
Question 9.
What happened when he went inside the church?
Answer:
When he went inside the church, he saw it filled with people and service was in progress. On one end of the church was a reconstruction of the Manger and Child and the Wise men who had followed the moving star.
Question 10.
What was the reaction to his ‘gift’?
Answer:
The reaction to his ‘gift’ was that the goat was of no use to anybody therefore the gift was unwelcome.
The Goat and the Stars Summary in English
A farmer’s son sees a notice on a board outside the church which requests all the people to donate gifts to the church on Christmas. The notice says that the gifts could be of any kind, any value, and in the larger letters says, “This means you.” The young boy takes it personally and wonders what he could gift. The family is not a well-to-do one and the boy is most often very shabby and dirty.
The family owns a number of goats, a mare, a couple of cows, hens etc. There is an addition to the goat stock as a new kid is born. The boy loves the kid very much but after deliberating for a few days, decides to donate the kid to the church. The next early morning, he brushes and neatens the kid, ties a neat piece of string around its neck and takes it to the Church.
He hesitates initially as he is very nervous and finally he goes in and sits in the last pew. The odour on his body and that of the goat makes the people turn and look at him. He blurts out that he had come to gift the kid to the church, but then people refuse to say that it’s of no use to anybody. The boy goes out carrying the kid totally confused. He starts doubting the Christmas spirit.
Glossary:
- shorn off: cut-off
- shears: a large pair of scissors
- strewed: covered
- frankincense: a substance that is burnt to give a pleasant smell
- myrrh: a sticky substance with a sweet smell which comes from trees, used to make perfumes
- sniffing: smelling, breathing in the air in a way that makes a sound.