The Man Who Planted Trees
Textual Questions & Answers
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Tick the correct alternative:
(a) of recent times
(b) about forty years ago
(c) forty years into the
future
Ans: (b) about forty
years ago
(ii) The land could produce only
(a) plants of all types
(b) wild lavender
(c) oak trees
Ans: (b) wild lavender.
(iii) The village where he was camped was inhabited by
(a) the villagers
(b) wild animals
(c) none
Ans: (c) none
(iv) The sound of the wind is compared to
(a) a flute
(b) drums
(c) a wild beast
Ans: (c) a wild beast
Activity - 2
Rearrange
the following sentences in the correct order and put the numbers in the given
boxes.
1. The narrator had been walking for three days. [ 1 ]
2. He came across a dry spring. [ 5 ]
3. No vegetation grew in the region except wild
lavender. [ 2 ]
4. The narrator’s camp was near an abandoned village. [ 3 ]
5. He was in search of water. [ 4 ]
6. He lost all hopes of water when his search produced no
results after five hours. [ 6 ]
Activity - 3
Answer
the following question:
1. Why do you think the
village was abandoned?
Ans: Once the
village had been inhabited by people but they gradually cut down
the trees. As a result of the deforestation the rainfall was decreasing day by
day. The spring that was the only source of water also dried up. So the
villagers migrated somewhere else and the village was abandoned.
Activity - 4
Complete the following sentences with information
from the text.
1. In the text, ‘I’ refers to Jean Giono, the writer himself.
2. The Shepherd’s cottage would be the narrator’s shelter for the night since the closest village was still more than a day and a half farther on.
3. With a great deal of attention ,the Shepherd began to examine acorns.
4. The impression provided by the Shepherd to the narrator was that nothing could disturb him.
Activity – 5
Answer the following questions:
1. Give two examples of the Shepherd’s hospitality towards the narrator .
Ans: The shepherd gave the
narrator a drink and later shared his soup. He also gave the narrator shelter in his cottage.
2. State the profession of the people who inhabited the four or five remote villages.
Ans: The people who inhabited
the four or five remote villages were woodcutters. They made charcoal.
3. ‘I was intrigued’ - Why was the narrator intrigued ?
Ans: The narrator was intrigued
as the shepherd gave him the impression that nothing could disturb him. Besides,
the loneliness of the shepherd made the narrator curious to know more about him.
Activity - 6
Write
‘T’ for true and ‘F’ for false statements in the given boxes. Give supporting
statements for each of your answers:
1. The next morning the shepherd left his house all by
himself.
Ans: False , Supporting
Statement: “He invited me to come along with him.”
2. Twenty thousand trees
had sprouted from among the trees planted by the shepherd.
Ans: True , Supporting Statement: “Of those one hundred
thousand, twenty thousand had come up.”
3. The narrator met Elzeard Bouffier after a time span
of five years.
Ans: False ,
Supporting Statement: “The oaks trees in 1910 were now ten
years old and were taller than me and than him.”
4. The forest had sprung
with the combined effort of the villagers and the shepherd.
Ans: False , Supporting Statement: “When I considered that
this had all sprung from the hands and from the soul of this one man without
technical aids – it struck me that men could be as effective as God in domains
other than destruction.”
Activity – 7
Answer the following questions:
1. How did Elzeard
Bouffier plant the acorns?
Ans: Elzéard Bouffier pounded
his iron rod into the ground to make a hole in which he placed an acorn and
covered over the hole again.
2. How many years later
did the narrator revisit the country?
Ans: The narrator
revisited the country more than five years later.
3. “I found that the war
had not disturbed him at all.”, Why do you think that the war had not been able
to disturb Elzeard Bouffier?
Ans: The war had not been able to
disturb Elzeard Bouffier as he lived in a desolate region that
was far away from the battlefield of France.
4. What was the
narrator’s reaction on seeing the massive oak trees?
Ans: Seeing the massive
oak trees the narrator became speechless. He spent the whole day walking
through the man-made forest. He thought that the shepherd was also a creator
like God.
Activity - 8 (a)
Combine the following pairs of sentences by using
infinitives:
1. My mother went to Agra. She wanted to visit the Taj
Mahal.
Ans: My mother went to Agra to visit
the Taj Mahal.
2. The man held a
meeting. He wanted to select a manager for the factory.
Ans: The man held a
meeting to select a manager for the factory.
3. She was too tired. She could not work.
Ans: She was too tired to work.
4. The school has appointed a new teacher. He would
teach Bengali to the students.
Ans: The school has appointed a new
teacher to teach Bengali to the students.
Activity 8 (b)
Fill in the blanks with the present perfect
continuous tense of the given verbs:
(i) The dog has
been barking (bark) since last night.
(ii) The man has
been reading (read) the newspaper for two hours.
(iii) The students have
been preparing (prepare) themselves for the quiz
competition for several months.
(iii) Mother has
been cooking (cook) dinner for all of us throughout
the evening.
Activity 8 (c)
Change the underlined verbs into the Past Continuous
Tense:
1. He said that he had tried to contact us
over phone since 8 o’clock that day.
Ans: He said that he had been trying to
contact us over phone since 8 o’clock that day.
2. For a long time they had planned to
visit the caves of Ajanta and Ellora.
Ans: For a long time, they had been planning to
visit the caves of Ajanta and Ellora.
3. The actor who had
played the part of Netaji became ill after the show.
Ans: The actor who had been playing the
part of Netaji became ill after the show.
4. My sister explained that she got up late because
she had
studied till midnight.
Ans: My sister explained that she got
up late because she had
been studying till midnight.
Activity 8 (d)
Change the following sentences into Indirect speech:
1. Mohan said, “My brother will leave tomorrow”.
Ans: Mohan said that his brother would
leave the next day.
2. My friend said to me, “I will be grateful if you
help me now.”
Ans: My friend told me that he would
be grateful if I helped him then.
3. The child said to his father,” Please give me a
toy.”
Ans: The child requested his father to
give him a toy.
4. “Oh! What a hot day it is today,” said Rita.
Ans: Rita exclaimed in irritation that
that day was very hot. / Rita exclaimed in irritation that it was a very hot
day.
5. “May we save our good earth!” said the teacher.
Ans: The teacher wished that we (must)
save our good earth.
Activity 9
Find words in the third section of the text which mean the following:
1. a way of improving an unpleasant or difficult situation → Remedy
2. to repeatedly hit at something → Pound
3. a place with no people in it → Abandoned /solitude
4. left with no words → Speechless