Prose Section
On saying please
Extract No. 05
Activities with expected answers
Page no 16/17 [ Lines,” A few days……………sound investment”]
Read the extract and do all the activities that follow:
A1. True or false : (2)
i) The writer’s toe was crushed under the feet of a traveller in train. (F)
ii) The polite manner of the traveller made the writer feel comfortable. (T)
iii) The writer always used to follow him due to his courteous behaviour. (T)
iv) The writer believed that the journey with the person was a lesson of discourtesy. (F)
A few days after, my most sensitive toe was trampled on rather heavily as I sat reading on the top of a bus. I looked up with some anger and more agony, and saw my friend of the cheerful countenance. ‘Sorry, sir’, he said. ‘I know these are heavy boots. Got’em because my own feet get trod on so much, and now I’m treading on other people’s. Hope I didn’t hurt you, sir,’ He had hurt me but he was so nice about it that I assured him he hadn’t. After this I began to observe him whenever I boarded his bus, and found a curious pleasure in the constant good nature of his bearing. He seemed to have an inexhaustible fund of patience and a gift for making his passengers comfortable. I noticed that if it was raining he would run up the stairs to give someone the tip that there was ‘room inside’. With old people he was as considerate as a son, and with children as solicitous as a father. He had evidently a peculiarly warm place in his heart for young people, and always indulged in some merry jest with them. If he had a blind man on board it wasn’t enough to set him down safely on the pavement. He would call to Bill in front to wait while he took him across the road or round the corner or otherwise safely on his way. In short, I found that he irradiated such an atmosphere of good temper and kindliness that a journey with him was a lesson in natural courtesy and good manners.
What struck me particularly was the ease with which he got through his work. If bad manners are infectious, so also are good manners. If we encounter incivility most of us are apt to become uncivil, but it is an unusually uncouth person who can be disagreeable with sunny people. It is with manners as with the weather. ‘Nothing clears up my spirits like a fine day’, said Keats, and a cheerful person descends on even the gloomiest of us with something of the benediction of a fine day. And so it was always fine weather on the polite conductor’s bus, and his own civility, his conciliatory address and good humoured bearing infected his passengers. In lightening their spirits he lightened his own task. His gaiety was not a wasteful luxury, but a sound investment.
A2. Find out : (02)
Find out the expressions that create a sense of humour in the extract.
He said. ‘I know these are heavy boots. Got’em because my own feet get trod on so much, and now I’m treading on other people’s. Hope I didn’t hurt you, sir,’ He had hurt me but he was so nice about it that I assured him he hadn’t.
A3. Complete : (02)
Complete the table by writing down situations and behaviour of the person in various Situations.
No situations(S) behaviour( b)
1
Writers toe was crushed down under feet(s)
The traveller behaved very politely and apologised.(b)
2
On the staircases(s)
The man used to run on staircases and give them tip that there is Room inside (b)
3
With old people(s).
He was as considerate as a son(b)
4
With children(S).
He was as solicitous as a father (b)
5
With young people (S)
He used to behave warmly always indulged in some merry jest.(b)
6
With blind people (s)
Take care to help them cross the road safely.(b)
A4. Personal Response : (02)
“ Good manners are infectious,” share your views on the opinion expressed by the writer . Justify your answer with suitable examples
In Fifty words.
A5. Language study :. (02)
i) He had hurt me but he was so nice about it.
(Rewrite the sentence beginning with,” Though…”)
Though he had hurt me he was so nice about it.
ii) He would run up the stairs.
(Rewrite the sentence using “used to”)
He used to run up the stairs
A6. Vocabulary : ( 02)
Find out words from the extract which mean the following.
a) Expression = countenance
b) Put down = treading
c) Caring and loving = solicitous
d) Involved in = indulged in
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Note: Activities are prepared keeping in mind students from different mediums. Kindly choose the most appropriate one according to their understanding.
Activities prepared by
TUSHAR J BAGWE
K J SOMAIYA COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND COMMERCE VIDYAVIHAR EAST MUMBAI 77
E Mail IDs:
tushar@somaiya.edu
tushar8bagwe@gmail.com
jaisinghtushar 812@gmail.co
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