Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

“The voice of my education said to me

He must be killed,

For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent,

The gold are venomous.

And voices in me said, if you were a man 

You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.”

(a) His ‘education’ said to the poet that ……….

(b) The poisonous snakes in Sicily are …….. 

(c) ‘If you were a man’ here means ……..

(d) Black snakes are innocent means ……… .

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

“But I must confess how I liked him,

How glad I was he had come like a guest,

To drink at the water-trough

And depart peaceful, pacified and thankless,

Into the burning bowels of this earth ?”

(a) Who had come as a guest ? 

(b) How do we know that the guest’s thirst was quenched ?

(c) Where would it go ?

(d) Identify the figure of speech in line 2. 

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow :

A snake came to my water trough

On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there.

In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree.

(a) The poet came to the water trough to …………

(b) What made the snake come to the poet’s water trough?

(c) The poet had to wait for his turn because ………..

(d) ‘I’ refers to ……… .

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

“The voice of my education said to me

He must be killed,

For in Sicily, the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous. And voices in me said. If you were a man”

(a) Who speaks the above lines ?

(b) Who is ‘He’ in the above lines ?

(c) Why must ‘He’ be killed ?

(d) What does the word ‘Venomous’ mean ?

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow :

“And truly I was afraid, I was most afraid, But even so, honoured still more

That he should seek my hospitality

From out the dark door of the secret earth.

He drank enough…….”

(a) Who is the speaker ?

(b) Why did the speaker feel honoured ?

(c) Where did the visitor come from ?

(d) Name the poem. 

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water- trough

And depart peacefully, pacified, and thankless, 

Into the burning bowels of this earth ?

(a) Who is the guest here ?

(b) He would depart thanklessly because…. 

(c) Explain ‘burning bowels’.

(d) Give the antonym of ‘depart’

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

“But must I confess how I liked him

How glad I was that he had come here like a guest in quiet to drink at my water trough.”

(a) What is the narrator referring to in these lines ?

(b) What was the purpose of its visit’ ?

(c) What had the ‘voice of education’ taught the poet ?

(d) What does the world ‘confess’ mean ?

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow :

“In the deep, strange-scented shade of a great dark carob-tree.

I came down the steps with my pitche

And must wait, must stand and wait

For there he was at the trough before me.”

(a) Carob tree is a …………..

(b) What does ‘he’ refer to in the last line ? 

(c) What does the last line tell us about the poet ?

(d) Identify the figure of speech in line.

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow :

For he seemed to me again like a king,

Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,

Now due to be crowned again. And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords Of life.

And I have something to expiate:

A pettiness.

(a) Why is the snake called a king in exile ? 

(b) What is the pettiness referred to in these lines ?

(c) What does the word ‘underworld’ mean ? 

(d) The poet refers to …… as one of the lords of life

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:

“But must I confess how I liked him,

How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough

And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless, 

Into the burning bowels of this earth ?”

(a) The snake had come to the water trough like a ……….

(b) the image ‘burning bowels of the earth’ conveys that ………

 (c) The poet wanted the snake to ‘depart peaceful pacified’ means ……….

(d) Name the poet.

Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow :

Was it humility, to feel so honoured ?

I felt so honoured.

And yet those voices :

(a) Why did the poet feel honoured ?

(b) Which ‘voices’ are referred to in these lines ?

(c) What does ‘humility’ in the first line mean ?

(d) Identify the poem.