Treasure Trove Textbook Solutions: A Horse And Two Goats | English Class 10 ICSE PDF Download

 Page 1


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Comprehension Passages
 
Passage
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred
million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by
a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the
guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the
highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its
size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or
crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one
of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The
other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the
fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every
morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
Name the village in which Muni lived.
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village in which Muni lived was Kritam. It was “probably the tiniest” of India’s
700,000 villages. Of the thirty houses in the village, only one, the Big House, is made of brick.
Question 2.
 
What did the Big House look like?
 
Answer:
 
The Big House, as it was known, was built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and
blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade.
Question 3.
 
How many houses were there in the village?
 
Answer:
 
There were thirty houses in the village.
Question 4.
 
Describe the other houses.
 
Answer:
 
The other houses were poor in appearance and were built of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material.
Question 5.
 
Where was Muni’s house located?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields.
Question 6.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous days.
 
Answer:
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Comprehension Passages
 
Passage
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred
million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by
a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the
guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the
highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its
size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or
crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one
of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The
other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the
fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every
morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
Name the village in which Muni lived.
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village in which Muni lived was Kritam. It was “probably the tiniest” of India’s
700,000 villages. Of the thirty houses in the village, only one, the Big House, is made of brick.
Question 2.
 
What did the Big House look like?
 
Answer:
 
The Big House, as it was known, was built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and
blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade.
Question 3.
 
How many houses were there in the village?
 
Answer:
 
There were thirty houses in the village.
Question 4.
 
Describe the other houses.
 
Answer:
 
The other houses were poor in appearance and were built of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material.
Question 5.
 
Where was Muni’s house located?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields.
Question 6.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous days.
 
Answer:
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Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
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In his prosperous days Muni owned a flock of sheep and goats but was now left with only two
scraggly goats which could neither be sold nor eaten.
Passage 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
He flungs himself down in a corner to recoup from the fatigue of his visit to the shop. His wife said,
“You are getting no sauce today, nor anything else. I can’t find anything to give you to eat. Fast till
the evening, it’ll do you good. Take the goats and be gone now,” she cried and added, “Don’t come
back before the sun is down.”
Question 1.
 
Where had Muni gone and why?
 
Answer:
 
Muni had gone to the shop to get the other things like dal, chilli, curry leaves, mustard, coriander,
oil and a potato.
Question 2.
 
Did The shopkeeper give Muni what he needed? Why/ Why not?
 
Answer:
 
The shopkeeper refused to give Muni any more items on credit until he paid off his previous debt.
He also humiliated Muni.
Question 3.
 
How much money did Muni owe to the shopkeeper?
 
Answer:
 
Muni owed the shopkeeper five rupees and a quarter.
Question 4.
 
What lie did Muni tell the shopkeeper?  
 
Answer:
 
Muni told the shopkeeper that he had a daughter in another town who had promised to send him
some money.
Passage 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Unleashing the goats from the drumstick tree, Muni started out, driving them ahead and uttering
weird cries from time to time in order to urge them on. Me passed through the village with his head
bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies lounging
in the temple corridor hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of
affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable grawky goats that he had
today.
Question 1.
 
What did Muni do to urge the goats to move on?
 
Answer:
 
Muni uttered weird cries from time to time to urge the goats to move on.
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Comprehension Passages
 
Passage
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred
million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by
a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the
guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the
highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its
size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or
crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one
of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The
other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the
fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every
morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
Name the village in which Muni lived.
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village in which Muni lived was Kritam. It was “probably the tiniest” of India’s
700,000 villages. Of the thirty houses in the village, only one, the Big House, is made of brick.
Question 2.
 
What did the Big House look like?
 
Answer:
 
The Big House, as it was known, was built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and
blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade.
Question 3.
 
How many houses were there in the village?
 
Answer:
 
There were thirty houses in the village.
Question 4.
 
Describe the other houses.
 
Answer:
 
The other houses were poor in appearance and were built of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material.
Question 5.
 
Where was Muni’s house located?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields.
Question 6.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous days.
 
Answer:
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Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
In his prosperous days Muni owned a flock of sheep and goats but was now left with only two
scraggly goats which could neither be sold nor eaten.
Passage 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
He flungs himself down in a corner to recoup from the fatigue of his visit to the shop. His wife said,
“You are getting no sauce today, nor anything else. I can’t find anything to give you to eat. Fast till
the evening, it’ll do you good. Take the goats and be gone now,” she cried and added, “Don’t come
back before the sun is down.”
Question 1.
 
Where had Muni gone and why?
 
Answer:
 
Muni had gone to the shop to get the other things like dal, chilli, curry leaves, mustard, coriander,
oil and a potato.
Question 2.
 
Did The shopkeeper give Muni what he needed? Why/ Why not?
 
Answer:
 
The shopkeeper refused to give Muni any more items on credit until he paid off his previous debt.
He also humiliated Muni.
Question 3.
 
How much money did Muni owe to the shopkeeper?
 
Answer:
 
Muni owed the shopkeeper five rupees and a quarter.
Question 4.
 
What lie did Muni tell the shopkeeper?  
 
Answer:
 
Muni told the shopkeeper that he had a daughter in another town who had promised to send him
some money.
Passage 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Unleashing the goats from the drumstick tree, Muni started out, driving them ahead and uttering
weird cries from time to time in order to urge them on. Me passed through the village with his head
bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies lounging
in the temple corridor hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of
affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable grawky goats that he had
today.
Question 1.
 
What did Muni do to urge the goats to move on?
 
Answer:
 
Muni uttered weird cries from time to time to urge the goats to move on.
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
Question 2.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous times.
 
Answer:
 
In his prosperous days Muni had a flock of 40 sheep and some goats which were healthy.
Question 3.
 
Why did people prefer sheep?
 
Answer:
 
People preferred sheep because they bred fast and people came and bought the fleece in the
shearing season.
Question 4.
 
How had Muni lost the animals?
 
Answer:
 
Some pestilence had struck and then Muni could not sell his animals at even half the price to his
friendly butcher.
Question 5.
 
Did Muni know his age?
 
Answer:
 
No, Muni did not know his age. It was the shopkeeper who told him that he was seventy.
Passage 4
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
The horse was nearly life-size, moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured, and reared
its head proudly, prancing its forelegs in the air and flourishing its tail in a loop; beside the horse
stood a warrior with scythelike mustachios, bulging eyes, and aquiline nose. The old image-makers
believed in indicating a man of strength by bulging out his eyes and sharpening his moustache tips,
and also decorated the man’s chest with beads which looked today like blobs of mud through the
ravages of sun and wind and rain (when it came), but Muni would insist that he had known the
beads to sparkle like the nine gems at one time in his life.
Question 1.
 
Describe the horse.
 
Answer:
 
It was a big life-size horse made from clay which had been baked, burnt and then coloured brightly.
The horse was posed standing proudly with his head reared high, its legs prancing in the air,
flourishing its tail in a loop in the air. Next to the horse stood a warrior with sharp, scythe- like
moustache, eyes that protruded and a aquiline shaped nose. The image makers had made him
have such eyes and nose to depict his strength.
Question 2.
 
Why had the image makers given the warrior bulging eyes and aquiline nose?
 
Answer:
 
The image makers believed that by giving a man bulging eyes and an aquiline nose in a statue
they depicted his strength.
Question 3.
 
What destruction did the village boys do to the things near the statue?
 
Answer:
 
The village boys carved and gashed tree trunks with their knives, they tried to topple milestones
and made lewd designs on all the walls.
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Comprehension Passages
 
Passage
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred
million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by
a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the
guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the
highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its
size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or
crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one
of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The
other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the
fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every
morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
Name the village in which Muni lived.
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village in which Muni lived was Kritam. It was “probably the tiniest” of India’s
700,000 villages. Of the thirty houses in the village, only one, the Big House, is made of brick.
Question 2.
 
What did the Big House look like?
 
Answer:
 
The Big House, as it was known, was built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and
blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade.
Question 3.
 
How many houses were there in the village?
 
Answer:
 
There were thirty houses in the village.
Question 4.
 
Describe the other houses.
 
Answer:
 
The other houses were poor in appearance and were built of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material.
Question 5.
 
Where was Muni’s house located?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields.
Question 6.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous days.
 
Answer:
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
In his prosperous days Muni owned a flock of sheep and goats but was now left with only two
scraggly goats which could neither be sold nor eaten.
Passage 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
He flungs himself down in a corner to recoup from the fatigue of his visit to the shop. His wife said,
“You are getting no sauce today, nor anything else. I can’t find anything to give you to eat. Fast till
the evening, it’ll do you good. Take the goats and be gone now,” she cried and added, “Don’t come
back before the sun is down.”
Question 1.
 
Where had Muni gone and why?
 
Answer:
 
Muni had gone to the shop to get the other things like dal, chilli, curry leaves, mustard, coriander,
oil and a potato.
Question 2.
 
Did The shopkeeper give Muni what he needed? Why/ Why not?
 
Answer:
 
The shopkeeper refused to give Muni any more items on credit until he paid off his previous debt.
He also humiliated Muni.
Question 3.
 
How much money did Muni owe to the shopkeeper?
 
Answer:
 
Muni owed the shopkeeper five rupees and a quarter.
Question 4.
 
What lie did Muni tell the shopkeeper?  
 
Answer:
 
Muni told the shopkeeper that he had a daughter in another town who had promised to send him
some money.
Passage 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Unleashing the goats from the drumstick tree, Muni started out, driving them ahead and uttering
weird cries from time to time in order to urge them on. Me passed through the village with his head
bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies lounging
in the temple corridor hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of
affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable grawky goats that he had
today.
Question 1.
 
What did Muni do to urge the goats to move on?
 
Answer:
 
Muni uttered weird cries from time to time to urge the goats to move on.
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
Question 2.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous times.
 
Answer:
 
In his prosperous days Muni had a flock of 40 sheep and some goats which were healthy.
Question 3.
 
Why did people prefer sheep?
 
Answer:
 
People preferred sheep because they bred fast and people came and bought the fleece in the
shearing season.
Question 4.
 
How had Muni lost the animals?
 
Answer:
 
Some pestilence had struck and then Muni could not sell his animals at even half the price to his
friendly butcher.
Question 5.
 
Did Muni know his age?
 
Answer:
 
No, Muni did not know his age. It was the shopkeeper who told him that he was seventy.
Passage 4
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
The horse was nearly life-size, moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured, and reared
its head proudly, prancing its forelegs in the air and flourishing its tail in a loop; beside the horse
stood a warrior with scythelike mustachios, bulging eyes, and aquiline nose. The old image-makers
believed in indicating a man of strength by bulging out his eyes and sharpening his moustache tips,
and also decorated the man’s chest with beads which looked today like blobs of mud through the
ravages of sun and wind and rain (when it came), but Muni would insist that he had known the
beads to sparkle like the nine gems at one time in his life.
Question 1.
 
Describe the horse.
 
Answer:
 
It was a big life-size horse made from clay which had been baked, burnt and then coloured brightly.
The horse was posed standing proudly with his head reared high, its legs prancing in the air,
flourishing its tail in a loop in the air. Next to the horse stood a warrior with sharp, scythe- like
moustache, eyes that protruded and a aquiline shaped nose. The image makers had made him
have such eyes and nose to depict his strength.
Question 2.
 
Why had the image makers given the warrior bulging eyes and aquiline nose?
 
Answer:
 
The image makers believed that by giving a man bulging eyes and an aquiline nose in a statue
they depicted his strength.
Question 3.
 
What destruction did the village boys do to the things near the statue?
 
Answer:
 
The village boys carved and gashed tree trunks with their knives, they tried to topple milestones
and made lewd designs on all the walls.
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
Question 4.
 
What was the effect of the construction of the highway?
 
Answer:
 
Before the highway was made the statue had been closer to the village as the spot had bordered
the village but once the highway was laide the village had shifted more inland.
Question 5.
 
Had anyone seen the splendour of the horse?
 
Answer:
 
No one could remember seeing the horse in its pure- white condition with a cover of pure brocade
and red and black lace.
Passage 5
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
The village consisted of less than thirty houses, only one of them built with brick and cement.
Painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its
balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The other houses, distributed in four streets, were
generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud, and other unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house
in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a
flock of forty sheep and goats and sallied forth every morning driving the flock to the highway a
couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
What is the name of the village referred to here? Where is it situated?
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village referred to here is Kritam. It is a tiny village, situated far away from the
highway at the end of a rough track. ‘Kritam’ in Tamil mean ‘crown’.
Question 2.
 
Describe the Big House.
 
Answer:
 
The Big House was built with brick and cement. It was painted in a brilliant yellow and blue colour.
There were carvings of gods and gargoyles on several posts.
Question 3.
 
What had Muni owned in his days of prosperity? What did he do every morning?
 
Answer:
 
Muni had owned a flock of forty sheep and goats in his days of prosperity. Every morning he went
out with his cattle to graze them.
Question 4.
 
What did Muni feed his flock with? When did he come back home? What did he carry home?
 
Answer:
 
Muni fed his flock with foliage. He cam back home at sunset. He gathered faggots and dry sticks
and carried them home for fuel.
Question 5.
 
What did Muni’s wife cook for him in the morning? How did she cook it?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s wife cooked balls of millet flour for him in the morning. She boiled water in a mud pot. then
she threw a handful of millet flour into it, and added salt in it. then she made balls of millet flour.
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Comprehension Passages
 
Passage
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred
million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by
a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the
guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the
highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its
size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or
crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one
of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The
other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the
fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every
morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
Name the village in which Muni lived.
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village in which Muni lived was Kritam. It was “probably the tiniest” of India’s
700,000 villages. Of the thirty houses in the village, only one, the Big House, is made of brick.
Question 2.
 
What did the Big House look like?
 
Answer:
 
The Big House, as it was known, was built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and
blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade.
Question 3.
 
How many houses were there in the village?
 
Answer:
 
There were thirty houses in the village.
Question 4.
 
Describe the other houses.
 
Answer:
 
The other houses were poor in appearance and were built of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other
unspecified material.
Question 5.
 
Where was Muni’s house located?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields.
Question 6.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous days.
 
Answer:
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
In his prosperous days Muni owned a flock of sheep and goats but was now left with only two
scraggly goats which could neither be sold nor eaten.
Passage 2
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
He flungs himself down in a corner to recoup from the fatigue of his visit to the shop. His wife said,
“You are getting no sauce today, nor anything else. I can’t find anything to give you to eat. Fast till
the evening, it’ll do you good. Take the goats and be gone now,” she cried and added, “Don’t come
back before the sun is down.”
Question 1.
 
Where had Muni gone and why?
 
Answer:
 
Muni had gone to the shop to get the other things like dal, chilli, curry leaves, mustard, coriander,
oil and a potato.
Question 2.
 
Did The shopkeeper give Muni what he needed? Why/ Why not?
 
Answer:
 
The shopkeeper refused to give Muni any more items on credit until he paid off his previous debt.
He also humiliated Muni.
Question 3.
 
How much money did Muni owe to the shopkeeper?
 
Answer:
 
Muni owed the shopkeeper five rupees and a quarter.
Question 4.
 
What lie did Muni tell the shopkeeper?  
 
Answer:
 
Muni told the shopkeeper that he had a daughter in another town who had promised to send him
some money.
Passage 3
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
Unleashing the goats from the drumstick tree, Muni started out, driving them ahead and uttering
weird cries from time to time in order to urge them on. Me passed through the village with his head
bowed in thought. He did not want to look at anyone or be accosted. A couple of cronies lounging
in the temple corridor hailed him, but he ignored their call. They had known him in the days of
affluence when he lorded over a flock of fleecy sheep, not the miserable grawky goats that he had
today.
Question 1.
 
What did Muni do to urge the goats to move on?
 
Answer:
 
Muni uttered weird cries from time to time to urge the goats to move on.
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
Downloaded from https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com/
https://www.ncertbooksolutions.com
Question 2.
 
Describe Muni’s prosperous times.
 
Answer:
 
In his prosperous days Muni had a flock of 40 sheep and some goats which were healthy.
Question 3.
 
Why did people prefer sheep?
 
Answer:
 
People preferred sheep because they bred fast and people came and bought the fleece in the
shearing season.
Question 4.
 
How had Muni lost the animals?
 
Answer:
 
Some pestilence had struck and then Muni could not sell his animals at even half the price to his
friendly butcher.
Question 5.
 
Did Muni know his age?
 
Answer:
 
No, Muni did not know his age. It was the shopkeeper who told him that he was seventy.
Passage 4
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
The horse was nearly life-size, moulded out of clay, baked, burnt, and brightly coloured, and reared
its head proudly, prancing its forelegs in the air and flourishing its tail in a loop; beside the horse
stood a warrior with scythelike mustachios, bulging eyes, and aquiline nose. The old image-makers
believed in indicating a man of strength by bulging out his eyes and sharpening his moustache tips,
and also decorated the man’s chest with beads which looked today like blobs of mud through the
ravages of sun and wind and rain (when it came), but Muni would insist that he had known the
beads to sparkle like the nine gems at one time in his life.
Question 1.
 
Describe the horse.
 
Answer:
 
It was a big life-size horse made from clay which had been baked, burnt and then coloured brightly.
The horse was posed standing proudly with his head reared high, its legs prancing in the air,
flourishing its tail in a loop in the air. Next to the horse stood a warrior with sharp, scythe- like
moustache, eyes that protruded and a aquiline shaped nose. The image makers had made him
have such eyes and nose to depict his strength.
Question 2.
 
Why had the image makers given the warrior bulging eyes and aquiline nose?
 
Answer:
 
The image makers believed that by giving a man bulging eyes and an aquiline nose in a statue
they depicted his strength.
Question 3.
 
What destruction did the village boys do to the things near the statue?
 
Answer:
 
The village boys carved and gashed tree trunks with their knives, they tried to topple milestones
and made lewd designs on all the walls.
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Question 4.
 
What was the effect of the construction of the highway?
 
Answer:
 
Before the highway was made the statue had been closer to the village as the spot had bordered
the village but once the highway was laide the village had shifted more inland.
Question 5.
 
Had anyone seen the splendour of the horse?
 
Answer:
 
No one could remember seeing the horse in its pure- white condition with a cover of pure brocade
and red and black lace.
Passage 5
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
The village consisted of less than thirty houses, only one of them built with brick and cement.
Painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its
balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The other houses, distributed in four streets, were
generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud, and other unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house
in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a
flock of forty sheep and goats and sallied forth every morning driving the flock to the highway a
couple of miles away.
Question 1.
 
What is the name of the village referred to here? Where is it situated?
 
Answer:
 
The name of the village referred to here is Kritam. It is a tiny village, situated far away from the
highway at the end of a rough track. ‘Kritam’ in Tamil mean ‘crown’.
Question 2.
 
Describe the Big House.
 
Answer:
 
The Big House was built with brick and cement. It was painted in a brilliant yellow and blue colour.
There were carvings of gods and gargoyles on several posts.
Question 3.
 
What had Muni owned in his days of prosperity? What did he do every morning?
 
Answer:
 
Muni had owned a flock of forty sheep and goats in his days of prosperity. Every morning he went
out with his cattle to graze them.
Question 4.
 
What did Muni feed his flock with? When did he come back home? What did he carry home?
 
Answer:
 
Muni fed his flock with foliage. He cam back home at sunset. He gathered faggots and dry sticks
and carried them home for fuel.
Question 5.
 
What did Muni’s wife cook for him in the morning? How did she cook it?
 
Answer:
 
Muni’s wife cooked balls of millet flour for him in the morning. She boiled water in a mud pot. then
she threw a handful of millet flour into it, and added salt in it. then she made balls of millet flour.
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Assignments
Question 1.
 
Show liow Narayan depicts women in the story and their role in a man’s life.
 
Answer:
 
When Muni the Indian peasant and the red-faced American meet and converse in “A Horse and
Two Goats,” the differences between them are immediately apparent, and these differences inform
the main idea of the story, the clash of cultures. One of the few things the two men have in
common is kept in the background of the story, but resurfaces frequently—each has a devoted wife
on the sidelines, making it possible for them to keep going.
To begin to understand Narayan’s sense of women, it would be useful to look briefly at how Indian
and Hindu culture has perceived and shaped women’s lives. It is believed that the ancient Tamil
societies may have been matriarchal, that is, ruled and guided by woman. The great Indian epics,
composed approximately two thousand years ago, contain stories of several important female
characters.
In practical terms, however, the life of a woman in India as recently as one hundred or two hundred
years ago was almost unimaginable today, even in comparison to the restrictions placed upon
American women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Hindu law and tradition dictated that
women were under the protection of their fathers, and then of their husbands. In fact, although
Muni has never kept track of his age, “He was told on their day of wedding that he was ten years
old and she was eight. During the wedding ceremony they had had to recite their respective ages
and names.” This is the tradition under which Muni had grown up. Women were honored on the
one hand, and subordinate on the other—no more simple or straightforward than gender roles in
any society.
Muni and his wife were married in a traditional ceremony at a young age and have lived together
nearly all their lives. His expectations for their roles in relation to each other, based on tradition,
have not been met. He remembers that “he had thrashed her only a few times in their career.” The
tone here is casual, without regret; thrashing is what husbands do when wives get out of line. But
the balance of power did not hold, at least not in Muni’s eyes: “later she had the upper hand.” In
the opening, the narrator shows the town and a typical day. “His wife lit the domestic fire at dawn,
boiled water in a mud pot, threw into it a handful of millet flour, added salt, and gave him his first
nourishment of the day. When he started out, she would put in his hand a packed lunch, once
again the same millet cooked into a little ball, which he could swallow with a raw onion at midday.”
It is a spartan meal, the most nutrition for the least money, but there is no mention of her preparing
anything for herself. Is the narrator simply not interested in her diet, or does she skip the morning
meal to leave more for Muni? “She was old, but he was older and needed all the attention she
could give him in order to be kept alive.”
The American’s wife is even more on the periphery of the main action than Muni’s wife; in fact the
action could go along just as smoothy without her even being mentioned. But Narayan has a
reason for introducing her. The American’s wife’s name is Ruth, the name of an Old Testament
figure who stands in Judeo-Christian tradition as a model for wifely loyalty. The Biblical Ruth is
loyal to her dead husband’s family; the Ruth in “A
Horse and Two Goats” is loyal to her husband and stands by to prop him up when he is about to do
something off-balance. She seems to be a good sport, to support her husband’s whims: “Next day
she called the travel agent first thing and told him to fix it, and so here 1 am.”
Having a loyal, grounded wife gives each of the husbands the freedom to move out into the world.
Muni goes to the highway each day so he can “watch the highway and see the lorries and buses
pass through to the hills, and it gave him a sense of belonging to a larger world.” Ruth has come to
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