01. The Fun They Had
SUMMARY
Thinking About The Text
Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.
Q1. How old are Margie and Tommy?
Ans – Margie is 11 years old and Tommy is 13 years old.
Q2. What did Margie write in her diary?
Ans – Margie wrote that Today Tommy found a real book in her diary.
Q3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?
Ans – NO, Margie had never seen a book before.
Q4. What things about the book did she find strange?
Ans – Margie found that the text of the book were stood instead of moving and the pages of the book were yellow and crinkly.
Q5. What do you think a telebook is?
Ans – A telebook is a book which one can read on a television screen.
Q6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Ans – Margie’s school was next to her bedroom. NO, she had not any classmates.
Q7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Ans – Margie and Tommy learnt History and Geography.
II. Answer the following with reference to the story.
Q1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
(i) Who says these words?
(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?
(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
Ans –
(i) – Tommy says these words.
(ii) – It refers to a real book.
(iii) – It ( a real book ) is compared with a telebook.
Q2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
(iii) What is it contrasted with?
Ans –
(i) – In this story they refers to the past generation students
(ii) – In this story regular mean the machanical teacher
(iii) – It is contrasted with a human teacher and a machanical teacher.
III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
Q1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
Ans – In this story Margie and Tommy had a machanical teacher instead of a human teacher. They had a machanical teacher because this story is set in the future.
Q2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
Ans – Margie’s mother sent for the country inspector because the machanical teacher had been giving her test after and Margie had been doing worse and worse in it.
Q3. What did he do?
Ans –The machanical teacher smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then he took the teacher apart. He found that Margie’s machanical teacher’s Geography sector was geared a little quick, so he slowed it up to an average ten years old.
Q4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
Ans –Margie was doing bad in Geography because her Geography sector was geared a little quick. The country inspector slowed it to an average 10 years old student.
Q5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
Ans – They had once taken Tommy’s machanical teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector of Tommy’s machanincal teacher had blanked out completely.
Q6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Ans – Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for study because her mother said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.
Q7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
Ans – Tommy describe the old kinds of school as following.
• He said they had a teacher, but it was not a regular teacher mean machanical teacher.
• They had a special building and all the children went there to study.
• All the children learnt the same things if they were at the same age.
Q8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
Ans – Tommy describe the old kind of teacher as the followings.
• He said, old kind of teachers were human being not a machine mean a regular teachers.
• They gave home to the students and ask questions to them.
IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 –150 words).
Q1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?
Q2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
After reading that old (real)book Margie thought that old kind of school must have been fun. She thought when her grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another with the homework and talk about it. And the teachers were people.
Q3. Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.
Ans –Yes, I am completely agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story. Because we all the kids from the whole neighborhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the school day. We learn the same things, so we could help one another with the homework and talk about it. And most important the teachers are people.
Thinking About Language
I. Adverbs
Read this sentence taken from the story:
They had once taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a month because the
history sector had blanked out completely.
The word complete is an adjective. When you add –ly to it, it becomes an adverb.
1. Find the sentences in the lesson which have the adverbs given in the box
below.
awfully sorrowfully completely loftily
carefully differently quickly nonchalantly
Ans –
Awfully : – They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to — on a screen, you know.
Sorrowfully : – The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector.
Completely : – They had once taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.
Loftily : – He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, “Centuries ago.”
Carefully : – He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, “Centuries ago.”
Differently : – But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
Quickly : – “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.
Nonchalantly : – "May be,” he said nonchalantly.
2. Now use these adverbs to fill in the blanks in the sentences below.
(i) The report must be read _____________ so that performance can be improved.
(ii) At the interview, Sameer answered our questions _____________, shrugging his shoulders.
(iii) We all behave _____________ when we are tired or hungry.
(iv) The teacher shook her head _____________ when Ravi lied to her.
(v) I _____________ forgot about it.
(vi) When I complimented Revathi on her success, she just smiled _____________ and turned away.
(vii) The President of the Company is _____________ busy and will not be able to meet you.
(viii) I finished my work _____________ so that I could go out to play
Ans –
(i) – Carefully
(ii) – Loftily
(iii) – Differently
(iv) – Sorrowfully
(v) – Completely
(vi) – Nonchalantly
(vii) – Awfully
(viii) – Quickly
3. Make adverbs from these adjectives.
(i) angry
(ii) happy
(iii) merry
(iv) sleepy
(v) easy
(vi) noisy
(vii) tidy
(viii) gloomy
Ans –
(i) – Angrily
(ii) – Happily
(iii) – Merrily
(iv) – Sleepily
(v) – Easily
(vi) – Noisily
(vii) – Tidily
(viii) – Gloomily
II. If Not and Unless
• Imagine that Margie’s mother told her, “You’ll feel awful if you don’t finish your history lesson.”
• She could also say: “You’ll feel awful unless you finish your history lesson.”
Unless means if not. Sentences with unless or if not are negative conditional sentences.
Notice that these sentences have two parts. The part that begins with if not or unless tells us the condition. This part has a verb in the present tense (look at the verbs don’t finish, finish in the sentences above).
The other part of the sentence tells us about a possible result. It tells us what will happen (if something else doesn’t happen). The verb in this part of the sentence is in the future tense (you’ll feel/you will feel).
Notice these two tenses again in the following examples.
Future Tense Present Tense
• There won’t be any books left unless we preserve them.
• You won’t learn your lessons if you don’t study regularly.
• Tommy will have an accident unless he drives more slowly
Complete the following conditional sentences. Use the correct form of the verb.
1. If I don’t go to Anu’s party tonight, __________________
2. If you don’t telephone the hotel to order food, __________________
3. Unless you promise to write back, I __________________
4. If she doesn’t play any games, __________________
5. Unless that little bird flies away quickly, the cat __________________
Ans –
(1) – she will not speak to me
(2) – you will miss your ood
(3) – will not write to you
(4) – she will become lazy
(5) – will pounce on it
Writing
A new revised volume of Issac Asimov’s short stories has just been released. Order one set. Write a letter to the publisher, Mindfame Private Limited, 1632 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi, requesting that a set be sent to you by Value Payable Post (VPP), and giving your address. Your letter will have the following parts.
• Addresses of the sender and receiver
• The salutation
• The body of the letter
• The closing phrases and signature
Your letter might look like this:
Your address
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Date —————————— (DD/MM/YY)
The addressee’s address
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Dear Sir/Madam,
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Yours sincerely,
Your signature
Ans –
Rajendra Nagar
Gopalganj 841428
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