Class 8 English Honeydew Chapter 1 Extract Based Question Answers - The Best Christmas Present in the World

Q1: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
The old lady was sitting in a wheelchair, her hands folded in her lap. She had silver white hair pinned into a wispy bun. She was gazing out at the garden. “Hello,” I said. She turned and looked up at me vacantly. “Happy Christmas, Connie,” I went on. “I found this. I think it’s yours.” As I was speaking her eyes never left my face. I opened the tin box and gave it to her. That was the moment her eyes lit up with recognition and her face became suffused with a sudden glow of happiness. I explained about the desk, about how I had found it, but I don’t think she was listening. For a while she said nothing, but stroked the letter tenderly with her fingertips.

(i) Who was the old lady sitting in a wheel chair?
Ans: The old lady, sitting in a wheelchair was Mrs. Macpherson.

(ii) What made her eyes lit up?
Ans: Connie could not recognize. Her eyes were lit up with recognition. Her face became suffused with a sudden glow of happiness.

(iii) What wasn’t she listening to?
Ans: Mrs. Macpherson was not listening to what he was telling her.

(iv) Explain ‘suffused with’.
Ans: ‘Suffused with’ is a glow of happiness that spread over the face of Connie who was too old and weak. She mistook him to be her husband and smiled.

(v) Change adjective tender into an adverb.
Ans: Tenderly.

Q2: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
I should like to be able to tell you that we began it. But the truth, I’m ashamed to say, is that Fritz began it. First someone saw a white flag waving from the trenches opposite. Then they were calling out to us from across no man’s land, “Happy Christmas, Tommy! Happy Christmas!” When we had got over the surprise, some of us shouted back, “Same to you, Fritz! Same to you!” I thought that would be that. We all did. But then suddenly one of them was up there in his grey greatcoat and waving a white flag. “Don’t shoot, lads!” Someone shouted. And no one did. Then there was another Fritz up on the parapet, and another. “Keep your heads down,” I told the men, “it’s a trick.” But it wasn’t.

(i) What did the writer mean by ‘we began it’?
Ans: German soldiers and wished them initiated treaty on Christmas. The writer was feeling ashamed because he wished that he must have started it.

(ii) What was the symbolic meaning of ‘a white flag?
Ans: The white flag is a symbol of peace.

(iii) Where were the soldiers sitting?
Ans: The soldiers were sitting in the trenches.

(iv) What did the German soldiers wish them?
Ans: The German soldiers wished them ‘Happy Christmas’.

(v) Why did they call each other ‘Fritz’ and ‘Tommy’?
Ans: ‘Fritz’ means a name for a German soldier while ‘Tommy’ means a common name for British soldiers.

Q3: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
“Captain Jim Macpherson,” I replied. “And a Happy Christmas to you too. I’m a school teacher from Dorset, in the west of England.” “Ah, Dorset,” he smiled. “I know this place. I know it very well.” We shared my rum ration and his excellent sausage. And we talked, Connie, how we talked. He spoke almost perfect English. But it turned out that he had never set foot in Dorset, never even been to England. He had learned all he knew of England from school, and from reading books in English. His favourite writer was Thomas Hardy, his favourite book Far from the Madding Crowd. So out there in no man’s land we talked of Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak and Sergeant Troy and Dorset. He had a wife and one son, born just six months ago.

(i) What did captain tell about himself?
Ans: Captain introduced himself by revealing that he was a school teacher from Dorset in the west of England.

(ii) What did they share with the enemy soldiers?
Ans: They shared mm ration and excellent sausage with the enemy soldiers.

(iii) What was unusual about Connie?
Ans: Captain Jim realized that Connie could speak good English although he never went to England. He learnt all from reading books in English.

(iv) What did Hans Wolf tell about his family?
Ans: Hans Wolf told that he had a wife and six-month-old son.

(v) Give the meaning of the following :
(a) Turned out
(b) excellent
Ans: 
(a) Turned out means ‘to develop or end in a particular way’.
(b) very good.

Q4: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
I removed the roll-top completely and pulled out the drawers. The veneer had lifted almost everywhere it looked like water damage to me. Both fire and water had clearly taken their toll on this desk. The last drawer was stuck fast. I tried all I could to ease it out gently. In the end I used brute force. I struck it sharply with the side of my fist and the drawer flew open to reveal a shallow space underneath, a secret drawer.

(i) Who is T in the above passage?
Ans: I is the narrator in the above passage.

(ii) What does ‘It’ denote in the above lines?
Ans: ‘It’ denotes a roll-top desk.

(iii) What was the condition of the desk?
Ans: The desk was damaged with water and fire.

(iv) Where did he find a secret drawer?
Ans: He found the secret drawer underneath the last drawer which was stuck up badly.

(v) Find out the word/ phrase that means the same for the given word.
Ans:

• freedom from pain – ease out.
• of little depth – shallow.