Chapter 3: How the First Letter was Written
List the materials that man has used for the following purposes in the different ages.
SOLUTION
Write your name in Bold Capitals.
Now, within 3 minutes trying to make as many words as you can using the letters in your name. You cannot use the same letter twice in a word unless it is so in your name.
You may use the above idea to devise a game with your friends.
SOLUTION
Do it yourself.
List words from your mother tongue or from Hindi which do not have an exact English equivalent. Try to write their meaning in English.
SOLUTION
रहट – rat
तर्पण – transplantation
योग – sum
वात्सल्य – affection
उपनयन – adaptation.
Now, list at least twenty English words that do not have an exact equivalent in your mother tongue.
SOLUTION
railway, petrol, bulb, mobile, tablet, xerox, burger, email, google, youtube, WhatsApp, telephone, fax, telegram, tube light, wifi, train, bus, taxi, auto-rikshaw, etc.
Browse the internet to find names of people /places, etc. in any language that is not familiar to you. Can you pronounce the names correctly? How will you find the correct pronunciation?
SOLUTION
Do it yourself.
Read the remaining part of the original story.
SOLUTION
Do it yourself.
Make as many 5 to 8 letter words as you can within 5 minutes, from the name.
SOLUTION
How does the following character in the story live up to their name? Provide points from the story.
Tengumai Bopsulai
SOLUTION
Tengumai Bopsulai: Tegumai, the father, justifies the meaning of his name in the story. When his spear was broken, he didn't hurry at all, he started mending it with patience.
Taffimai Metallumai
SOLUTION
Taffimai Metallumai: Taffy, the daughter, matches the meaning of her name she is very outspoken and in the story, she boldly speaks to the stranger man and expects him to do her work as she wants.
Teshumai Tewindrow
SOLUTION
Teshumai Tewindrow: Teshumai, the wife, doesn't justify her name at all in the story. As soon as the stranger gave her the drawing she didn't even ask a single question and reacted wildly exactly opposite to the meaning of her name.
The story is written in an informal, colloquial style - the way it would be told orally. Find and write the expressions where the author addresses the audience directly in the story - for example, ‘but we, O Best Beloved, will...’, ‘Now attend and listen !’
SOLUTION
Following are the expressions where the author addresses the audience directly in the story:
He did this, Best Beloved, to show that his heart was as white as the birch-bark ...
The Stranger-man-did you know he was a Tewara?
Write a character-sketch of the ‘Stranger-man’ using examples from the story to support the following attributes.
ignorant, innocent, and polite
calm and cool
jumps to wrong conclusions
hasty and unwise at times
SOLUTION
In the story, the stranger man politely listens to Taffy's conversation and behaves very sweetly with her. Though he is ignorant about her language, he cooperates with her and concludes that she is a wonderful child. Throughout the story, the stranger man maintains his cool and stays calm. He misunderstands the drawing made by Taffy and the behavior of Taffy's father towards him. This shows that he jumps to wrong conclusions. The stranger man doesn't understand a word spoken by Taffy. But he still jumps to the wrong conclusions about every little situation of the story. This shows his inability to understand the actions and gestures of Taffy and her father. When he gets the picture, the stranger man hurries away to find Taffy's mother with a totally different understanding of the picture and the situation. This highlights his hasty and unwise nature.
Note the punctuation used in the story. Here, single inverted commas or quotation marks have been used to show conversation. Rewrite the following using double quotation marks:
‘Here’s a pretty kettle of fish !’ said Tengumai.
SOLUTION
"Here's a pretty kettle of fish!" said Tcngumai.
‘It will take me half the day to mend this.’
SOLUTION
"It will take me half the day to mend this."
Underline the main clause in the following sentence:
And she was Tegumai Bopsulai’s Best Beloved and her own Mummy’s Best Beloved, and she was not spanked half as much as was good for her, and they were all three very happy.
SOLUTION
In the above sentence, coordinating conjunctions are used. Hence, the clauses can be considered coordinate clauses.
One day Tegumai Bopsulai went down through the beaver-swamp to the Wagai river to spear carp-fish for dinner, and Taffy went too.
SOLUTION
In the above sentence, coordinating conjunctions are used. Hence, the clauses can be considered coordinate clauses.
They were miles and miles from home and Tegumai had forgotten to bring any extra spears.
SOLUTION
In the above sentence, coordinating conjunctions are used. Hence, the clauses can be considered coordinate clauses.
Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to a far tribe, the Tewaras, and he did not understand one word of Tegumai’s language.
SOLUTION
In the above sentence, coordinating conjunctions are used. Hence, the clauses can be considered coordinate clauses.
Imagine Taffy comes to you for help to write a letter of apology, in the modern script we use. She wants to express her regret to the stranger-man for her mother’s action. Write that letter of apology (informal) on her behalf.
SOLUTION
Imagine the Stranger-man narrates how the Neolithic ladies overpowered him. Write an account of the same making him the narrator.
SOLUTION
I, Stranger-Man, would like to share my experience with Taffy and her family. I met Taffy and her father at the river one fine day. She spoke to me in her language which I did not understand. According to my, she was in trouble and needed my help, so she made a picture and gave me to get help from her mother. For me, she was a wonderful child, so I decided to save them from this situation. I ran hurriedly with the drawing and found her mother Teshumai Tewindrow. She looked similar to Taffy, so I knew that she is the one. But as soon as she saw the picture she screamed like anything and flew at me the other powerful Neolithic ladies knocked me down and sat upon me in a line of six. Moreover, teshumai pulled my hair. She had misunderstood the picture and thought that I killed her family. This way, the Neolithic ladies overpowered me.
Making suitable groups, convert the entire episode into a short skit, and write it down. Each group leader must discuss at first with the others and add a different end to the skit.
Happy ending
Sad ending
Surprise ending
Humorous ending
SOLUTION
Do it yourself.
Write a short passage/essay on ‘Women Power’ in the Neolithic, Medieval, and Present Times.
SOLUTION
As humans have evolved over the years, so has mankind processed. Women in the olden days, like the Neolithic age, only did the household work of gathering food, cooking, taking care of the children, and cleaning work. In medieval times, women got a little more important and hence, were allowed to educate themselves, but nevertheless were not allowed to work and earn a penny for the house.
In present times, women are empowered and educated. They can work at home and also work outside to earn money for the house. They are allowed to go out with their friends. They educate themselves and acquire the highest degrees. Today, women can be entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, CAs and many more opportunities are open for them.
Read: ‘Just So Stories’ and ‘The Jungle Book’ by Rudyard Kipling.
SOLUTION
Do it yourself.
Balbharati Solutions for English Kumarbharati 9th Standard Maharashtra State Board
• Chapter 1.2: A Synopsis-The Swiss Family Robinson
• Chapter 1.3: Have you ever seen...?
• Chapter 1.4: Have you thought of the verb ‘have’
• Chapter 2.2: A True Story of Sea Turtles
• Chapter 2.3: Somebody’s Mother
• Chapter 2.4: The Fall of Troy
• Chapter 2.6: The Past in the Present
• Chapter 3.2: Reading Works of Art
• Chapter 3.3: The Road Not Taken
• Chapter 3.4: How the First Letter was Written
• Chapter 4.2: The Storyteller
• Chapter 4.3: Intellectual Rubbish
• Chapter 4.4: My Financial Career
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