NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 5 The Hundred Dresses – I
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 65)
1. Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?
Answer: Wanda Petronski used to sit on the corner most benches where rough boys usually sat. She was a very poor, shy and quiet girl and she sat at that place because her feet were usually caked with dry mud. She did not want to be laughed at for her appearance by others. So she preferred to sit in isolation.
2. Where does Wanda live? What kind of a place do you think it is?
Answer: Wanda lives in Heights. It is not a developed area and is covered with mud. There are no proper roads or streets and poor people usually live here.
3. When and Why do Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence?
Answer: Wanda didn’t come to school on Monday and Tuesday but nobody noticed her absence as she did not have friends in the class. When Peggy and Maddie waited for Wanda to make fun of her after the school was off, they noticed that she was absent.
4. What do you think “to have fun with her” means?
Answer: “To have fun with her ” means to ridicule or laugh at her as it is human tendency to make fun of others’ imperfections which are mostly about the appearance. Here in the story, Wanda is a source of amusement or pleasure because she had claimed that she had a hundred dresses and sixty pairs of shoes in her closet.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 67)
1. In what way was Wanda different from the other children?
Answer:Wanda Petronski was different from other children. She was a polish girl whose parents settled in America.
She came to school alone and her feet were covered with dry mud. She preferred to sit alone in the last in the class. No one accompanied her to school or back home, she was alone. Unlike other children, she did not talk to other children and they didn’t talk to her. She had only one blue dress which was faded but claimed of having a hundred dresses. These qualities make her different from other children.
2. Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why do you think she said she did?
Answer: No. Wanda did not a hundred dresses as she used to wear the faded blue coloured dress to school everyday. Wanda was teased everyday by her classmates after school hours because of her dress and her name. She had developed an inferiority complex. One day tired of all the teasing and taunting, she claimed of having a hundred dresses but nobody believed her.
3. Why is Maddie embarrassed by the questions Peggy asks Wanda? Is she also like Wanda, or is she different?
Answer: Maddie was embarrassed by the questions Peggy asked Wanda because she was also poor. She also wore dresses handed down by rich family. She did not feel sorry for Wanda. But she was worried that everyone might tease her if they came to know.
She thought that she was different from Wanda because she would never claim that she had a hundred dresses. She was not as poor as Wanda but she was afraid that the others might mock her too.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 70)
1. Why didn’t Maddie ask Peggy to stop teasing Wanda? What was she afraid of?
Answer: Maddie didn’t ask Peggy to stop teasing Wanda because Peggy was the most popular girl in the school. Besides she was also her best friend. She thought that Peggy could not possibly do anything wrong. Though, she wanted Peggy to stop teasing Wanda, she didn’t ask her to do so as she was afraid of being the next target of such taunts and teasings.
2. Who did Maddie think would win the drawing contest? Why?
Answer: Maddie always believed that Peggy would win the drawing contest as she was good in drawing. She had a good image and impression on her teachers and classmates. No other girl in the class could draw as well as her. So, Maddie thought that Peggy definitely had very good chances of winning the drawing contest.
3. Who won the drawing contest? What had the winner drawn?
Answer: Among the boys, Jack Beggles and among the girls, Wanda Petronski won the drawing contest. Wanda had drawn a hundred sketches of designs of different colours. Each of them was capable to win the contest individually.
Thinking about the Text (Page 70)
1. How is Wanda seen as different by the other girls? How do they treat her?
Answer: Wanda was a Polish girl who had settled in America with her parents. She lived in Boggin’s Height. She came to school in same faded blue dress everyday with her feet always covered with mud. The students made fun of her and teased her after the school hours.
2. How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she say that she has a hundred dresses?
Answer: Wanda felt embarrassed and insulted when other girls played the dresses game on her. She was a poor and shy girl. She wore same faded blue dress to school everyday. The girls made fun of her dress after the school hours. She claimed to have a hundred dresses in order to put those insults and jokes away.
3. Why does Maddie stand by and does not do anything? How is she different from Peggy? or (was Peggy’s friendship important to Maddie? Why? Which lines in the text tell you this?)
Answer: Peggy was the most popular girl in the class and Maddie was her closest friend. Though, Maddie was poor, Peggy never teased her as she did with Wanda. So Maddie was afraid of losing her friendship. That’s why, she did not risk to annoy Peggy and preferred to be silent. The line, “Peggy was the best-liked girl in the whole room. Peggy could not possibly do anything that was really wrong” illustrates this.
4. What does Miss Mason think of Wanda’s drawings? What do the children think of them? How do you know?
Answer: Miss Mason was very impressed with Wanda’s drawings. She considered each of them really beautiful and worthy of winning individually. The children were also impressed by the drawing skills of Wanda. They all applauded and whistled when she won the drawing contest among the girls.
Thinking about Language(Page 71)
I. Combine the following to make sentences.
1. This is the bus (what kind of bus?). It goes to Agra, (use which or that).
Answer: This is the bus which goes to Agra.
2. I would like to buy, (a) shirt (which shirt?) (The) shirt is in the shop window, (use which or that)
Answer: I would like to buy a shirt that is in the shop window
3. You must break your fast at a particular time (when?). You see the moon in the sky. (use when)
Answer: You must break your fast at a particular time when you see the moon in the sky.
4. Find a word (what kind of word?). It begins with the letter Z, (use which or that)
Answer: Find a word that begins with the letter Z.
5. Now find a person (what kind of person ?) His or her name begins with the letter Z. (use whose)
Answer: Now find a person whose name begins with letter Z.
6. Then go to a place (what place?). There are no people whose name begins with Z in that place, (use where)
Answers: Then go to a place where there are no people whose name begins with letter Z.
II. The Narrative Voice
Here are two other sentences from the story. Can you say whose point of view the italicised words express?
(i) But on Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie, who sat down in front with other children who got good marks and who didn’t track in a whole lot of mud, did notice that Wanda wasn’t there.
Answer: (i) The italicised words express the point of view of Peggy and Maddie.
2. Wanda Petronski. Most of the children in room thirteen didn’t have names like that. They had names easy to say, like Thomas, Smith or Allen.
Answer: These italicised words express the point of view of the narrator.
III. Look at this sentence. The italicized adverb expresses an opinion or point of view.
Obviously, the only dress Wanda had was the blue one she wore everyday. (This was obvious to the speaker)
Other such adverbs are apparently, evidently, surprisingly, possibly, hopefully, incredibly, luckily. Use these words appropriately in the blanks in the sentences below. (You may use a word more than once and more than one word may be appropriate for a given blank.)
1. ____, he finished his work on time.
2. ____, it will not rain on the day of the match.
3. ____, he had been stealing money from his employer.
4. Television is ____ to blame for the increase in violence in society,
5. The children will ____ learn from their mistakes.
6. I can’t ____ lend you that much money.
7. The thief had ____ been watching the house for many days.
8. The thief ____ escaped by bribing the jailor.
9. ____no one had suggested this before.
10. The water was ____hot.
Answers:
1. Surprisingly, he finished his work on time.
2. Hopefully, it will not rain on the day of the match.
3. Evidently, he had been stealing money from his employer.
4. Television is possibly to blame for the increase in violence in society.
5. The children will hopefully, learn from their mistakes.
6. I can’t possibly lend you that much money.
7. The thief apparently had been watching the house for many days.
8. The thief possibly escaped by bribing the jailor.
9. Surprisingly, no one had suggested this before.
10. The water was incredibly hot.
