NCERT Textbook - Going Places | English Class 12 PDF Download

 Page 1


Going Places/77
Going Places
About the Author
A. R. Barton is a modern writer, who lives in Zurich
and writes in English. In the story Going Places, Barton
explores the theme of adolescent fantasising and hero
worship.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— incongruity — arcade
— prodigy — amber glow
— chuffed — wharf
— solitary elm — pangs of doubt
“When I leave,” Sophie said, coming home from school,
“I’m going to have a boutique.”
Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked
doubtful.
“Takes money, Soaf, something like that.”
“I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.
“Take you a long time to save that much.”
“Well I’ll be a manager then — yes, of course — to begin
with. Till I’ve got enough. But anyway, I know just how it’s
all going to look.”
“They wouldn’t make you manager straight off, Soaf.”
“I’ll be like Mary Quant,” Sophie said. “I’ll be a natural.
They’ll see it from the start. I’ll have the most amazing
shop this city’s ever seen.’”
Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the
biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie
wouldn’t say these things.
When they reached Sophie’s street Jansie said, “It’s
only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be
8
Reprint 2024-25
Page 2


Going Places/77
Going Places
About the Author
A. R. Barton is a modern writer, who lives in Zurich
and writes in English. In the story Going Places, Barton
explores the theme of adolescent fantasising and hero
worship.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— incongruity — arcade
— prodigy — amber glow
— chuffed — wharf
— solitary elm — pangs of doubt
“When I leave,” Sophie said, coming home from school,
“I’m going to have a boutique.”
Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked
doubtful.
“Takes money, Soaf, something like that.”
“I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.
“Take you a long time to save that much.”
“Well I’ll be a manager then — yes, of course — to begin
with. Till I’ve got enough. But anyway, I know just how it’s
all going to look.”
“They wouldn’t make you manager straight off, Soaf.”
“I’ll be like Mary Quant,” Sophie said. “I’ll be a natural.
They’ll see it from the start. I’ll have the most amazing
shop this city’s ever seen.’”
Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the
biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie
wouldn’t say these things.
When they reached Sophie’s street Jansie said, “It’s
only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be
8
Reprint 2024-25
78/Flamingo
sensible. They don’t pay well for shop work, you know that,
your dad would never allow it.”
“Or an actress. Now there’s real money in that. Yes,
and I could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses
don’t work full time, do they? Anyway, that or a fashion
designer, you know — something a bit sophisticated”.
And she turned in through the open street door leaving
Jansie standing in the rain.
“If ever I come into money I’ll buy a boutique.”
“Huh - if you ever come into money... if you ever come
into money you’ll buy us a blessed decent house to live in,
thank you very much.”
Sophie’s father was scooping shepherd’s pie into his
mouth as hard as he could go, his plump face still grimy
and sweat — marked from the day.
“She thinks money grows on trees, don’t she, Dad?’
said little Derek, hanging on the back of his father’s chair.
Their mother sighed.
Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and
wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which
fastened her apron strings. The delicate-seeming bow and
the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the
windows and the small room was steamy from the stove
and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at
the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner.
Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for
her brother Geoff.
He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering
with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread
on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an
apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the
far side of the city. He was almost grown up now, and she
suspected areas of his life about which she knew nothing,
about which he never spoke. He said little at all, ever,
voluntarily. Words had to be prized out of him like stones
out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When
he wasn’t speaking it was as though he was away
somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had
never been. Whether they were only the outlying districts
Reprint 2024-25
Page 3


Going Places/77
Going Places
About the Author
A. R. Barton is a modern writer, who lives in Zurich
and writes in English. In the story Going Places, Barton
explores the theme of adolescent fantasising and hero
worship.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— incongruity — arcade
— prodigy — amber glow
— chuffed — wharf
— solitary elm — pangs of doubt
“When I leave,” Sophie said, coming home from school,
“I’m going to have a boutique.”
Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked
doubtful.
“Takes money, Soaf, something like that.”
“I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.
“Take you a long time to save that much.”
“Well I’ll be a manager then — yes, of course — to begin
with. Till I’ve got enough. But anyway, I know just how it’s
all going to look.”
“They wouldn’t make you manager straight off, Soaf.”
“I’ll be like Mary Quant,” Sophie said. “I’ll be a natural.
They’ll see it from the start. I’ll have the most amazing
shop this city’s ever seen.’”
Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the
biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie
wouldn’t say these things.
When they reached Sophie’s street Jansie said, “It’s
only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be
8
Reprint 2024-25
78/Flamingo
sensible. They don’t pay well for shop work, you know that,
your dad would never allow it.”
“Or an actress. Now there’s real money in that. Yes,
and I could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses
don’t work full time, do they? Anyway, that or a fashion
designer, you know — something a bit sophisticated”.
And she turned in through the open street door leaving
Jansie standing in the rain.
“If ever I come into money I’ll buy a boutique.”
“Huh - if you ever come into money... if you ever come
into money you’ll buy us a blessed decent house to live in,
thank you very much.”
Sophie’s father was scooping shepherd’s pie into his
mouth as hard as he could go, his plump face still grimy
and sweat — marked from the day.
“She thinks money grows on trees, don’t she, Dad?’
said little Derek, hanging on the back of his father’s chair.
Their mother sighed.
Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and
wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which
fastened her apron strings. The delicate-seeming bow and
the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the
windows and the small room was steamy from the stove
and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at
the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner.
Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for
her brother Geoff.
He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering
with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread
on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an
apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the
far side of the city. He was almost grown up now, and she
suspected areas of his life about which she knew nothing,
about which he never spoke. He said little at all, ever,
voluntarily. Words had to be prized out of him like stones
out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When
he wasn’t speaking it was as though he was away
somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had
never been. Whether they were only the outlying districts
Reprint 2024-25
Going Places/79
of the city, or places beyond in the surrounding country —
who knew?  — they attained a special fascination simply
because they were unknown to her and remained out of
her reach.
Perhaps there were also people, exotic, interesting
people of whom he never spoke — it was possible, though
he was quiet and didn’t make new friends easily. She
longed to know them. She wished she could be admitted
more deeply into her brother’s
affections and that someday he
might take her with him. Though
their father forbade it and Geoff
had never expressed an opinion,
she knew he thought her too
young. And she was impatient.
She was conscious of a vast world
out there waiting for her and she
knew instinctively that she would
feel as at home there as in the
city which had always been her home. It expectantly awaited
her arrival. She saw herself riding there behind Geoff. He
wore new, shining black leathers and she a yellow dress
with a kind of cape that flew out behind. There was the
sound of applause as the world rose to greet them.
He sat frowning at the oily component he cradled in
his hands, as though it were a small dumb animal and he
was willing it to speak.
“I met Danny Casey,” Sophie said.
He looked around abruptly. “Where?”
“In the arcade — funnily enough.”
“It’s never true.”
“I did too.”
“You told Dad?”
She shook her head, chastened at his unawareness
that he was always the first to share her secrets.
“I don’t believe it.”
“There I was looking at the clothes in Royce’s window
when someone came and stood beside me, and I looked
around and who should it be but Danny Casey.”
1. Where was it most likely that
the two girls would find work
after school?
2. What were the options that
Sophie was dreaming of? Why
does Jansie discourage her
from having such dreams?
Reprint 2024-25
Page 4


Going Places/77
Going Places
About the Author
A. R. Barton is a modern writer, who lives in Zurich
and writes in English. In the story Going Places, Barton
explores the theme of adolescent fantasising and hero
worship.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— incongruity — arcade
— prodigy — amber glow
— chuffed — wharf
— solitary elm — pangs of doubt
“When I leave,” Sophie said, coming home from school,
“I’m going to have a boutique.”
Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked
doubtful.
“Takes money, Soaf, something like that.”
“I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.
“Take you a long time to save that much.”
“Well I’ll be a manager then — yes, of course — to begin
with. Till I’ve got enough. But anyway, I know just how it’s
all going to look.”
“They wouldn’t make you manager straight off, Soaf.”
“I’ll be like Mary Quant,” Sophie said. “I’ll be a natural.
They’ll see it from the start. I’ll have the most amazing
shop this city’s ever seen.’”
Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the
biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie
wouldn’t say these things.
When they reached Sophie’s street Jansie said, “It’s
only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be
8
Reprint 2024-25
78/Flamingo
sensible. They don’t pay well for shop work, you know that,
your dad would never allow it.”
“Or an actress. Now there’s real money in that. Yes,
and I could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses
don’t work full time, do they? Anyway, that or a fashion
designer, you know — something a bit sophisticated”.
And she turned in through the open street door leaving
Jansie standing in the rain.
“If ever I come into money I’ll buy a boutique.”
“Huh - if you ever come into money... if you ever come
into money you’ll buy us a blessed decent house to live in,
thank you very much.”
Sophie’s father was scooping shepherd’s pie into his
mouth as hard as he could go, his plump face still grimy
and sweat — marked from the day.
“She thinks money grows on trees, don’t she, Dad?’
said little Derek, hanging on the back of his father’s chair.
Their mother sighed.
Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and
wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which
fastened her apron strings. The delicate-seeming bow and
the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the
windows and the small room was steamy from the stove
and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at
the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner.
Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for
her brother Geoff.
He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering
with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread
on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an
apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the
far side of the city. He was almost grown up now, and she
suspected areas of his life about which she knew nothing,
about which he never spoke. He said little at all, ever,
voluntarily. Words had to be prized out of him like stones
out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When
he wasn’t speaking it was as though he was away
somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had
never been. Whether they were only the outlying districts
Reprint 2024-25
Going Places/79
of the city, or places beyond in the surrounding country —
who knew?  — they attained a special fascination simply
because they were unknown to her and remained out of
her reach.
Perhaps there were also people, exotic, interesting
people of whom he never spoke — it was possible, though
he was quiet and didn’t make new friends easily. She
longed to know them. She wished she could be admitted
more deeply into her brother’s
affections and that someday he
might take her with him. Though
their father forbade it and Geoff
had never expressed an opinion,
she knew he thought her too
young. And she was impatient.
She was conscious of a vast world
out there waiting for her and she
knew instinctively that she would
feel as at home there as in the
city which had always been her home. It expectantly awaited
her arrival. She saw herself riding there behind Geoff. He
wore new, shining black leathers and she a yellow dress
with a kind of cape that flew out behind. There was the
sound of applause as the world rose to greet them.
He sat frowning at the oily component he cradled in
his hands, as though it were a small dumb animal and he
was willing it to speak.
“I met Danny Casey,” Sophie said.
He looked around abruptly. “Where?”
“In the arcade — funnily enough.”
“It’s never true.”
“I did too.”
“You told Dad?”
She shook her head, chastened at his unawareness
that he was always the first to share her secrets.
“I don’t believe it.”
“There I was looking at the clothes in Royce’s window
when someone came and stood beside me, and I looked
around and who should it be but Danny Casey.”
1. Where was it most likely that
the two girls would find work
after school?
2. What were the options that
Sophie was dreaming of? Why
does Jansie discourage her
from having such dreams?
Reprint 2024-25
80/Flamingo
“All right, what does he look like?”
“Oh come on, you know what he looks like.”
“Close to, I mean.”
“Well — he has green eyes. Gentle eyes. And he’s not
so tall as you’d think...” She wondered if she should say
about his teeth, but decided against it.
Their father had washed when he came in and his
face and arms were shiny and pink and he smelled of soap.
He switched on the television, tossed one of little Derek’s
shoes from his chair onto the sofa, and sat down with a
grunt.
“Sophie met Danny Casey,” Geoff said.
Sophie wriggled where she was sitting at the table.
Her father turned his head on his thick neck to look at
her. His expression was one of disdain.
“It’s true,” Geoff said.
“I once knew a man who had known Tom Finney,” his
father said reverently to the television. “But that was a
long time ago.”
“You told us,” Geoff said.
“Casey might be that good some day.”
“Better than that even. He’s the best.”
“If he keeps his head on his shoulders. If they look
after him properly. A lot of distractions for a youngster in
the game these days.”
“He’ll be all right. He’s with the best team in the
country.”
“He’s very young yet.”
“He’s older than I am.”
“Too young really for the first team.”
“You can’t argue with that sort of ability.”
“He’s going to buy a shop,” Sophie said from the table.
Her father grimaced. “Where’d you hear that?”
“He told me so.”
He muttered something inaudible and dragged himself
round in his chair. “This another of your wild stories?”
“She met him in the arcade,” Geoff said, and told him
how it had been.
Reprint 2024-25
Page 5


Going Places/77
Going Places
About the Author
A. R. Barton is a modern writer, who lives in Zurich
and writes in English. In the story Going Places, Barton
explores the theme of adolescent fantasising and hero
worship.
Notice these expressions in the text.
Infer their meaning from the context.
— incongruity — arcade
— prodigy — amber glow
— chuffed — wharf
— solitary elm — pangs of doubt
“When I leave,” Sophie said, coming home from school,
“I’m going to have a boutique.”
Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked
doubtful.
“Takes money, Soaf, something like that.”
“I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.
“Take you a long time to save that much.”
“Well I’ll be a manager then — yes, of course — to begin
with. Till I’ve got enough. But anyway, I know just how it’s
all going to look.”
“They wouldn’t make you manager straight off, Soaf.”
“I’ll be like Mary Quant,” Sophie said. “I’ll be a natural.
They’ll see it from the start. I’ll have the most amazing
shop this city’s ever seen.’”
Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the
biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie
wouldn’t say these things.
When they reached Sophie’s street Jansie said, “It’s
only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be
8
Reprint 2024-25
78/Flamingo
sensible. They don’t pay well for shop work, you know that,
your dad would never allow it.”
“Or an actress. Now there’s real money in that. Yes,
and I could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses
don’t work full time, do they? Anyway, that or a fashion
designer, you know — something a bit sophisticated”.
And she turned in through the open street door leaving
Jansie standing in the rain.
“If ever I come into money I’ll buy a boutique.”
“Huh - if you ever come into money... if you ever come
into money you’ll buy us a blessed decent house to live in,
thank you very much.”
Sophie’s father was scooping shepherd’s pie into his
mouth as hard as he could go, his plump face still grimy
and sweat — marked from the day.
“She thinks money grows on trees, don’t she, Dad?’
said little Derek, hanging on the back of his father’s chair.
Their mother sighed.
Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and
wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which
fastened her apron strings. The delicate-seeming bow and
the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the
windows and the small room was steamy from the stove
and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at
the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner.
Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for
her brother Geoff.
He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering
with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread
on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an
apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the
far side of the city. He was almost grown up now, and she
suspected areas of his life about which she knew nothing,
about which he never spoke. He said little at all, ever,
voluntarily. Words had to be prized out of him like stones
out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When
he wasn’t speaking it was as though he was away
somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had
never been. Whether they were only the outlying districts
Reprint 2024-25
Going Places/79
of the city, or places beyond in the surrounding country —
who knew?  — they attained a special fascination simply
because they were unknown to her and remained out of
her reach.
Perhaps there were also people, exotic, interesting
people of whom he never spoke — it was possible, though
he was quiet and didn’t make new friends easily. She
longed to know them. She wished she could be admitted
more deeply into her brother’s
affections and that someday he
might take her with him. Though
their father forbade it and Geoff
had never expressed an opinion,
she knew he thought her too
young. And she was impatient.
She was conscious of a vast world
out there waiting for her and she
knew instinctively that she would
feel as at home there as in the
city which had always been her home. It expectantly awaited
her arrival. She saw herself riding there behind Geoff. He
wore new, shining black leathers and she a yellow dress
with a kind of cape that flew out behind. There was the
sound of applause as the world rose to greet them.
He sat frowning at the oily component he cradled in
his hands, as though it were a small dumb animal and he
was willing it to speak.
“I met Danny Casey,” Sophie said.
He looked around abruptly. “Where?”
“In the arcade — funnily enough.”
“It’s never true.”
“I did too.”
“You told Dad?”
She shook her head, chastened at his unawareness
that he was always the first to share her secrets.
“I don’t believe it.”
“There I was looking at the clothes in Royce’s window
when someone came and stood beside me, and I looked
around and who should it be but Danny Casey.”
1. Where was it most likely that
the two girls would find work
after school?
2. What were the options that
Sophie was dreaming of? Why
does Jansie discourage her
from having such dreams?
Reprint 2024-25
80/Flamingo
“All right, what does he look like?”
“Oh come on, you know what he looks like.”
“Close to, I mean.”
“Well — he has green eyes. Gentle eyes. And he’s not
so tall as you’d think...” She wondered if she should say
about his teeth, but decided against it.
Their father had washed when he came in and his
face and arms were shiny and pink and he smelled of soap.
He switched on the television, tossed one of little Derek’s
shoes from his chair onto the sofa, and sat down with a
grunt.
“Sophie met Danny Casey,” Geoff said.
Sophie wriggled where she was sitting at the table.
Her father turned his head on his thick neck to look at
her. His expression was one of disdain.
“It’s true,” Geoff said.
“I once knew a man who had known Tom Finney,” his
father said reverently to the television. “But that was a
long time ago.”
“You told us,” Geoff said.
“Casey might be that good some day.”
“Better than that even. He’s the best.”
“If he keeps his head on his shoulders. If they look
after him properly. A lot of distractions for a youngster in
the game these days.”
“He’ll be all right. He’s with the best team in the
country.”
“He’s very young yet.”
“He’s older than I am.”
“Too young really for the first team.”
“You can’t argue with that sort of ability.”
“He’s going to buy a shop,” Sophie said from the table.
Her father grimaced. “Where’d you hear that?”
“He told me so.”
He muttered something inaudible and dragged himself
round in his chair. “This another of your wild stories?”
“She met him in the arcade,” Geoff said, and told him
how it had been.
Reprint 2024-25
Going Places/81
“One of these days you’re going to talk yourself into a
load of trouble,” her father said aggressively.
“Geoff knows it’s true, don’t you Geoff?”
“He don’t believe you-though he’d like to.”
*                 *                  *
The table lamp cast an amber glow across her brother’s
bedroom wall, and across the large poster of United’s first
team squad and the row of coloured photographs beneath,
three of them of the young Irish prodigy, Casey.
“Promise you’ll tell no-one?” Sophie said.
“Nothing to tell is there?”
“Promise, Geoff — Dad’d murder me.”
“Only if he thought it was true.”
“Please, Geoff.”
“Christ, Sophie, you’re still at school. Casey must have
strings of girls.”
“No he doesn’t.”
“How could you know that?” he jeered.
“He told me, that’s how.”
“As if anyone would tell a girl something like that.”
“Yes he did. He isn’t like that. He’s... quiet.”
“Not as quiet as all that — apparently.”
“It was nothing like that, Geoff — it was me spoke
first. When I saw who it was, I said, “Excuse me, but aren’t
you Danny Casey?” And he looked
sort of surprised. And he said,
“Yes, that’s right.” And I knew it
must be him because he had the
accent, you know, like when they
interviewed him on the television.
So I asked him for an autograph
for little Derek, but neither of us
had any paper or a pen. So then
we just talked a bit. About the
clothes in Royce’s window. He
seemed lonely. After all, it’s a long
way from the west of Ireland. And
then, just as he was going, he
said, if I would care to meet him
1. Why did Sophie wriggle when
Geoff told her father that she
had met Danny Casey?
2. Does Geoff believe what
Sophie says about her meeting
with Danny Casey?
3. Does her father believe her
story?
4. How does Sophie include her
brother Geoff in her fantasy of
her future?
5. Which country did Danny
Casey play for?
Reprint 2024-25