| Board | UP Board |
| Text book | NCERT |
| Class | 11th |
| Subject | English |
| Chapter | Chapter 2 |
| Chapter name | Forgetting |
| Chapter Number | Number 4 Comprehension Questions on Paras |
| Category | English PROSE Class 11th |
UP Board chapter 2 Class 11
Q. Read the following passages and answer the questions given below :
(1) The commonest form of forgetfulness, I suppose, occurs in the matter of posting letters. So common is it that I am always reluctant to trust a departing visitortopostan importantletter. So little dolrelyon his memory that I put him on his oath before handing the letter to him. As for myself, anyone who asks me to postaletter is a poor judge of character. Even ifl carry the letter in my hand, Tam always past the first pillar-box before I remember that lought to have posted it.
Questions:
- When does the commonest form offorgetfulness occur?
- Does the writer believe a departing visitor to post an important letter?
- Does the writer posta letter at the first letter box?
- What is the weakness of the writerabout posting a letter?
Answers:
- The commonest form offorgetfulness occurs in the matter of posting let- ters.
- The writer does not believeadeparting visitor topost an important letter.
- Thewriter does not postaletterat the first letterbox.
- The weakness of the writerabout postinga letter is that he forgets it topost _in the firstletter box.
(2) As for leaving articles in trains and taxies, I am no great delinquent in such matters. I can remember almost anything except books and walking-sticks and I can often remember even books.Walking-sticks I find it quite impossible to keep. I have an old-fashioned taste for them, and I buy them frequently but no sooner dolpayavisit toa friend’s house orgoajourney ina train, than another stick is on its way into the world of the lost.I dare not carry an umbrella for fear of losing it. To go through life without ever having lost an umbrella-has even the grimmest-jawed umbrella-carrier everachieved this?
Questions:
- What is the author most forgetfulof?
- What does he often prefer of to buy?
- What is he mostafraid of carrying?
- What is the most common weakness described in the passage?
Answers:
- The author is most forgetful of books and walking-sticks.
- He often prefers of to buy walking-sticks.
- He is most afraid of carrying an umbrella.
- The most commonest weakness described in the passage is leaving | articles in trains and in taxis,
(3) Memoriesprevent them from remembering todosuchsmall prosaicthings as take the ball or the bat with them when they leave the train. For the rest of the day, they are citizens of dreamland. The same may be said, no doubt, of anglers who forget their fishing-rods. Anglers are generally said-I do not know with what justification-to be the most imaginative of men, and the man who is inventing magnificent lies on the journey to home afteraday’s fishing is bound to bealittle ahsent-minded in his behaviour. The fishing-rod of reality is forgotten by him as he daydreams over the feats of the fishing-rod of Utopia.
Questions:
- Who does the word ‘them in the passage refer to? |
- What to the citizens of dreamland get busy with an forget about things around?
- What does the author thinkof the anglers?
- What does the expression-the feats of the fishing-rod of Utopia’ mean?
Answers:
- The word ‘them in thepassage refers to the boys returning from thegames.
- The citizens of dreamland get busy in daydreaming and useless talks.
- The author thinksoftheanglers that they always forget their fishing-rods.
- The feats of the fishing-rod of Utopia means marvellous achievements in angling of which they are dreaming..
(4) His loss of memory is really a tribute to the intensity of his enjoyment in – thinking about his day’s sport. He may forget his fishing-rod, as the poet may forget topostaletter, because his mind is filled with mattermoreglorious.Absent- mindedness of this kind seems to me all but a virtue. The absent-minded man is oftena man who is making the best of life and therefore has no time to remember the mediocre.Who would have trusted Socrates orColeridge topostaletter?They had souls above such things.
Questions:
- Why is his loss of memory reallya tribute?
- How does the writer justify fisherman’s forgetting the fishing-rod and the poet’s topost a letter?
- What do you mean by the sentence ‘who would have trusted Socrates or Coleridge topostaletter?
- What does the word mediocre’ stand for?
Answers:
- His loss of memory is really a tribute because it is an enjoyment in think- ing about his day’s sport.
- Because his mind is filled with matter more glorious.
- It means nobody can trust a poet or philosopher that their memory is quitecorrect.
- Heremediocre stands for the second-rate insignificant things.
(5) The question whether the possession of a good memory is altogether de- sirable has often been discussed, and men with fallible memories have some- times tried to make outa case for their superiority.Aman, they say, who isaperfect
remembering machine is seldom a man of the first intelligence, and they quote various cases of children or men who had marvellous memories and who vet had not intellect to speakof.l imagine, however, that on the whole the great writers and the great composers of music have been men with exceptionalpowers ofmemory. The poets I have known have had better memories than the stock-brokersIhave known. Memory, indeed, is half the substance of their art. |
Questions:
- What question has often been discussed according to the author? |
- Who claim that they are superior to others?
memory? - Who, according to the author, possessed extra-ordinary powers of brokers?
- What is the experience of the writer in respect of the poets and the stock- brokers?
Answers:
- The question whether the possession of a good memory is altogether desirable has often been discussed.
- Men with fallible memories claim that they are superior to others.
- The great writers and the great composersofmusicpossessed extra-ordi.
nary powers of memory. - According to the author the poets had better memories than the stock. brokers.
(6) BAman, they say, who isa perfectremembering machine is seldoma manof the first intelligence, and they quote various cases of children or men who had marvellous memories and who yet had not intellect to speakof. I imagine, how. ever. that on the whole the great writers and the great composers of music have been men with exceptional powers of memory. The poets I have known have had better memories than the stock-brokers I have known.Memory, indeed, is half the substance of their art.On the other hand, statesmen seem to have extgraordinarily bad memories. Let two statesmen attempt to recall the same event-what hap- pened, forexample,at someCabinet meeting and each of them will tell you that the other’s story is so inaccurate that either he has a memory like a sieve or is an
audacious perverter of the truth.
Questions:
- Which do you thinkis better perfect memoryor intelligence and why?
- Why is memory very important for the composers ofmusic? |
- Why has the memory of statesmen been compared witha sieve?
- How will you define an ideal statesman?
Answers:
- The poets and composers of music have better perfect memoryor intelli- gence.
- Without memorya composer of music cannot compose music. |
- Both the statesmen and sieve have very poor memory.
- An ideal statesman seem to have extra-ordinarily bad memories.
(7) At the same time, ordinarily good memory is so common that we regarda man who does not possess it as eccentric. I have heard of a father who having offered to take the baby out inaperambulator, was tempted by the sunny morning topause on hisjourney and slip intoapublic-house foraglass of beer. Leaving the
perambulator outside, he disappeared through the door of the saloon bar.A little later, his wife had to do some shopping which took her past the public-house, where, to her horror, she discovered her sleeping baby.
Questions:
- Describe the story of the father, the baby and the perambulator in brief. |
- Where did the father go leaving the babyalone in the perambulator?
- When did the wifesee her baby?
- Why vvas the wife full of horror?
Answers:-
- Afatheer took his baby in a perambulator out of the house. He entereda beershop.After sometime he forgot the babyand came backtohis house.|
His wifis found the baby sleeping in the perambulator.. - The father went into a public house foraglass of beer.
- A little later, his wife had to do some shopping and sawher baby there.
- When shesawher babyoutside thepublic house without her husband she was full of horror.