I. Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.
Q1. How old are Margie and Tommy?
Answer: Margie is eleven years old and Tommy is thirteen .
Q2. What did Margie write in her diary?
Answer: On the page headed 17 May 2157,Margie wrote ,"Today Tommy found a real book!"
Q3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?
Answer: No, Margie had never seen a real book before.
Q4. What things about the book did she find strange?
Answer:Margie found out that the words on the book weren't moving the way they are supposed to on a screen instead they stood still. And when she turned back to the page before, it had the same words on it that it had had when she read it the first time.
Q5. What do you think a telebook is?
Answer: A telebook is an e-book or electronic book which we can read in computers.
Q6. Where was Margie's school? Did she have any classmates?
Answer: Margie's school was right next to her bedroom. No, she did not have any classmates.
Q7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Answer: Margie and Tommy learned geography, history and arithmetic.
II. Answer the following with reference to the story.
Q1. "I wouldn't throw it away."
(i) Who says these words?
Answer: Tommy says these words.
(ii) What does 'it' refer to?
Answer: 'it' refers to the books in the television.
(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
Answer: 'it', refering to the ebooks is being compared to the old book by Tommy.
Q2. Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn't a regular teacher. It was a man.
(i) Who does 'they' refer to?
Answer: 'they' refers to the students of old time.
(ii) What does 'regular' mean here?
Answer: According to Margie and Tommy a regular teacher was a mechanical teacher.
(iii) What is 'it' contrasted with?
Answer: 'it' is being contrasted with the techer who is a man.
III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
Q1. What kind of teacher did Margie and Tommy have?
Answer: Margie and Tommy had a mechanical teacher at their home which taught them subjects like geography, history and arithmetic. The mechanical teacher was big and black and had slots for inserting homework and test papers which Margie had to write in a punch code.
Q2. Why did Margie's mother send for the County Inspector?
Answer: Margie always hated school, but now she hated it even more because it had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worst and worst. That's why Margie's mother sent for the County Inspector .
Q3. What did he do?
Answer: The Inspector was a round man with a little red face. He informed Margie's mother that the geography sector had geared a little too quick and that he had slowed it up to an average ten-year level.
Q4. Why was Margie donig badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
Answer: Margie was doing badly in geography because the geography sector had geared up a little too quick and it had been giving her test after test. The County Inspector slowed it up to an average ten-year level.
Q5. What had once happened to Tommy's teacher?
Answer: Once Tommy's teacher had been taken away for a month because it's history sector had blanked out completely.
Q6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Answer: Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school except for Saturday and Sunday because her mother said that little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.
Q7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of schools?
Answer: Tommy describes the school as a special building where all the kids went and they had a teacher who was a man. The teacher gave the kids homework and asked them questions.
Q8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
Answer: The old kind of teachers were human beings and not computers. They taught the kids in a special building and asked them questions.
(IV). Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100-150 words).
Q1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?
Answer: The mechanical teacher is large and black with a big screen and is kept in the schoolroom right next to her bedroom.
It asks them questions of different subjects and has a special slot for submitting the tests and homework .Eveyday the mechanical teacher was on at the same time except for Saturday and Sunday.
Q2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
Answer: Margie hated school because she did not like the mechanical teacher. Everyday she had to sit in the same schoolroom on the same time. She also did not have any classmates to discuss her homework with. She was thinking how in the old time children went to school, studied the same thing and after school discussed their homework.
Q3. Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story?
Answer: Yes, I agree that schools today are more fun because students get to study with friends and classmates. Also the interaction between the student and teacher is important so that the student can understand things better. The students not only learn their syllabus but also learn moral values like sharing, helping, descipline, etc.
Thinking about Language
Adverbs
Read this sentence taken from the story :
They had once taken Tommy's teacher
away for nearly a month because history
sector had blanked out completely.
The word complete is an adjective. When you add -ly to it, it becomes an adverb.
1. Find the sentences in the lesson which have the adverbs given in the box below.
awfully sorrowfully completely
loftily Carefully differently quickly
nonchalantly
Answer:-
(i) Awfully: 'Thet turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to - on a screen you know.'
(ii) Sorrowfully: 'The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector.'
(iii) Completely: 'They had once taken Tommy's teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.'
(iv) loftily: 'He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully,''centuries ago."
(v) Carefully: 'He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully,"centuries ago."
(vi) Differently: " But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.
(vii) Quickly: " I didn't say I didn't like it," Margie said quickly.
(viii) Nonchalantly: "May be," he said nonchalantly.
2. Now use these adverbs to fill in the blanks in the sentences below.
(i) The report must be read ______ so that performance can be improved.
Answer: Carefully
(ii) At the interview, Sameer answered our questions _______ shrugging his shoulders.
Answer: Loftily
(iii) We all behave ______ when we are tired or hungry.
Answer: Differently
(iv) The teacher shook her head _____ when Ravi lied to her.
Answer: Sorrowfully
(v) I _____ forgot about it.
Answer: Completely
(vi) When I complemented Rethavi on her success, she just smiled ______ and turned away.
Answer: Nonchalantly
(vii) The president of the company is _____ busy and will not be able to meet you.
Answer: Awfully
(viii) I finished my work _____ so that I could go out to play.
Answer: Quickly
An adverb describes action. You can form adverbs by adding-ly to adjectives.
Spelling Note: When an adjective ends in -y, the y changes to i when you add-ly to form an adverb.
For example: angr-y angr-i-ly
3. Make adverbs from these adjectives.
(i) angry: angrily
(ii) happy: happily
(iii) merry: merrily
(iv) sleepy: sleepily
(v) easy: easily
(vi) noisy: noisily
(vii) tidy: tidily
(viii) gloomy: gloomily
Imagine that Margie's mother told her, "You'll feel awful if you don't finish
11. If Not and Unless
• Imagine that Margie's mother told her, "You'll feel awful if you don't finish your history lesson."
• She could also say: "You'll feel awful unless you finish your history lesson."
Unless means if not. Sentences with unless or if not are negative conditional sentences.
Notice that these sentences have two parts. The part that begins with if not or unless tells us the condition. This part has a verb in the present tense (look at the verbs don't finish, finish in the sentences above).
The other part of the sentence tells us about a possible result. It tells us what will happen (if something else doesn't happen). The verb in this part of the sentence is in the future tense (you'll feel/you will feel).
Complete the following conditional sentences. Use the correct form of the verb.
1. If I don't go to Anu's party tonight, I will regret it later.
2. If you don't telephone the hotel to order food, then I will order it myself.
3. Unless you promise to write back, I will not write to you.
4. If she doesn't play any games, she will become dull.
5. Unless that little bird flies away quickly, the cat will eat it.
Writing
A new revised volume of Issac Asimov's short stories has just been released Order one set. Write a letter to the publisher, Mindfame Private Limited, 1632 Asaf All Road, New Delhi, requesting that a set be sent to you by Value Payable Post (VPP), and giving your address. Your letter will have the following parts.
