Extract Based Questions: Poem - The Last Bargain | English Class 8 PDF Download

Q1: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
The sun glistened on the sand, and the sea waves broke waywardly.
A child sat playing with shells.
He raised his head and seemed to know me and said,
“I hire you with nothing.”
From hence forward that bargain struck in child’s play made me a free man.

(i) Where was the child playing?
Ans: The child was playing near the sea – beach.

(ii) What was the child doing?
Ans: The child was playing with sea-shells.

(iii) What did he tell the speaker?
Ans: The child told the speaker that he would hire him for nothing.

(iv) How did the poet become a ‘free man’?
Ans: The poet become a free man in the bargain for nothing for serving the child.

Q2: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
In the heat of the mid-day the houses stood with shut doors.
I wandered along the crooked lane.
An old man came out with his nag of gold.
He pondered and said, “I will hire you with my money.”
He weighed his coins one by one, but I turned away.

(i) Where was the man heading to?
Ans: The man was wandering along the crooked lane on a hot day.

(ii) Who came to him and what did he offer?
Ans: An old man came to him with a bag of gold to offer.

(iii) Why did he ‘turned away’?
Ans: The poet turned away because he knew that money cannot buy everlasting happiness.

(iv) Explain – ‘weighed his coins one by one’?
Ans: The poet wanted to feel the worth of the memory. He decided not to gave his freedom and services for money.

Q3: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
It was evening. The garden hedge was all a flower.
The fair maid came out sand said, “I will hire you with a smile.”
Her smile paled and melted into tears, and she went back alone into the dark.

(i) Where did the poet go in the evening?
Ans: The poet went across a garden full of beautiful flowers.

(ii) Who said ‘I will hire you’?
Ans: A beautiful maid was standing there to hire for his service.

(iii) What did she offer to pay?
Ans: The old man offered to pay with smile in return of his services.

(iv) Why had her ‘smile pale’?
Ans: Her smile paled because the poet disagreed to bestow his services in exchange of smile.

Q4: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
“Come and hire me,” I cried, while in the morning
I was walking on the stone-paved road.
Sword in hand the king came in his chariot.
He held my hand and said, “I will hire you with my power,”
But his power counted for naught, and he went away in his chariot.

(i) Where was the poet walking?
Ans: The poet was walking on the stone paved road.

(ii) How did the king come to him?
Ans: The king chine in his chariot with Sword in his hand.

(iii) Why did he go away?
Ans: The king went away because his power counted for nothing.

(iv) How did the king will hire him?
Ans: The king wanted to hire him with his power.

(v) Explain ‘Caught for naught.
Ans: It means no value at all. The poet was ready to serve before a genuine owner, so he refused to serve the power of the king.