Class 8 English It So Happened Chapter 1 Practice Question Answers - It So Happened (Supplementary Reader)

Q1: Who is Mr. Hafeez Contractor?
Ans: Mr. Hafeez Contractor is India’s one of the leading architects.

Q2: How did Hafeez make buttons for his school friends?
Ans: Hafeez used to cut chalk with the blade to make buttons for his school friend.

Q3: Word - Meaning from the given chapter
i. Contention
ii. Instinctively
iii. Ammunition
iv. Giftedness
Ans: The meanings are:
i. Disagreement
ii. Without conscious thought
iii. Bullets
iv. Ability

Q4: Which two languages did Hafeez study in academics?
Ans: Hafeez studied French and German in his academics.

Q5: Who is Ms. Bela Raja?
Ans: Ms. Bela Raja is an editor of Sparsh which is a newsletter from the Resource Centre, The Valley School, Bangalore.

Q6: What did Ms. Bela Raja ask Hafeez after knowing about his nightmares?
Ans: Ms. Bela Raja who was Hafeez’s interviewer asked him about his earliest school memories after knowing that he has been dreaming about failing the math exam.

Q7: What sorts of dreams did Hafeez Contractor have?
Ans: Hafeez Contractor used to suffer awful dreams, which he just stopped having in the last four or five years. He had a recurring nightmare about showing up for the arithmetic test and failing it.

Q8: What sort of student was Hafeez in his first and second year?
Ans: Hafeez was a very good student in the first and second year but when he reached the third standard, he lost his interest in studies and never studied.

Q9: Who and what changed Hafeez’s life?
Ans: Hafeez informed his interviewer that his principal altered his life because the principal's comments touched him while he was in 11th grade.

Q10: What did he do in the third standard?
Ans: Hafeez became one of the most notorious kids in the third standard. He dedicated most of his time playing sports, roaming or running around, playing jokes, and copying in exams.

Q11: Did Hafeez feel threatened or insecure?
Ans: Hafeez did not feel threatened or insecure as he was only interested in playing. Whenever he did not want to study, he created a distraction of playing “chor police‟ for an hour.

Q12: What was the one sentence that changed Hafeez’s life?
Ans: Ms. Bela Raja learned a lot about Hafeez's school life from him. But it was his principal's comments that struck him the most: he had been looking after Hafeez up until now, but now he would have to look after himself.

Q13: Why was Hafeez unable to join the Army and then the police force?
Ans: Hafeez wanted to join the army first, he even got an admission letter but his aunt tore up the letter. Later, he decided to join the police force, but his mother did not allow him so he took admission to Jaihind College in Bombay.

Q14: How did Hafeez react when his teacher would cane him?
Ans: Hafeez was involved in sports that he got habitual to receive a caning every week. He mentions it to his interviewer that they would only hit on the hand, it did hurt him but he used to forget it as he wanted to play badly.

Q15: What would Hafeez do every Saturday? Why did students take his books?
Ans: Every Saturday, Hafeez would skip lunch to collect money from 40 to 50 kids in order to purchase movie tickets since they were permitted to travel into town, and he would gorge himself on the food on his way back. Because Hafeez seldom ever opened his books, students constantly requested for them as if they were spanking new.

Q16: Who was Behram Divecha? What did Ms. Gupta tell Hafeez when he was in school?
Ans: Behram Divecha was a friend of Hafeez with whom he had competitions which were about designing forts, guns, and ammunition. Both of them would design something which made them different from each other and others as well.

Q17: What conclusion would you draw from his answer that how did he become an architect?
Ans: After realizing that his brother-in-law was correct, Hafeez spoke with the college principal, who informed him that if he did not perform well in the exams, his admission would be denied. He received an A+ on the admission exam. Hafeez was usually in first place in class and said that his athletic activities throughout his school days taught him a lot.

Q18: What does Hafeez answer to Ms. Bela Raja when asked him about has he ever wondered why did he not like studying, was it because he could not cope or could not deal with the curriculum?
Ans: Hafeez answered Ms. Bela Raja that he was very bad at languages. He could study science and geography but could not study math. It did not have his attention. He was studying because he had to study, but he would forget things that were taught to him two days later. He did not even bother remembering or studying as he believed that there is no application of mind, to begin with.

Q19: How does Hafeez answer Ms. Bela Raja’s question “How did you get into the field of architecture”?
Ans: Hafeez told Ms. Bela Raja the story about his being an architect. He told that he was unable to score 80-85 percent which was mandatory for joining architecture. But once he visited his cousin’s house whose husband was an architect, Hafeez corrected a man about a man and his cousin’s husband tested him by asking him to draw some house designs and as a result, asked him to be an architect.

Q20: How does he know what the client wants?
Ans: Hafeez often observed the client’s face, clothes, their eating habits, talking behavior, and pronunciation of words. He would then sketch on the spot and gave it to people in the office. He never knew how he did it but always said it could be an instinct or arithmetic or anything else, but he just knew what clients want by their lifestyle.