Extract Based Questions: Snake - Class 10 PDF Download

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
But suddenly that part of him that was left behind convulsed in undignified haste

(a) Who does ‘him’ refer to?
Ans: ‘Him’ refers to the snake.

(b) Why did it convulse in undignified haste?
Ans:
The snake reacted because it sensed danger after being attacked by a stick thrown by the narrator.

(c) How is the movement different from his earlier behaviour?
Ans: Earlier, the snake was relaxed and moving slowly and lazily without any fear.

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
I came down the steps with my pitcher
And must wait, must stand and wait, For there was at the tough before me

(a) Why did the narrator come down the steps?
Ans: The narrator wanted to fill the pitcher with water to drink.

(b) Why did he have to wait before filling water?
Ans: He had to wait as there was a snake at the water trough drinking water.

(c) How did the narrator react to the snake?
Ans: At first he admired it, but when it turned its back, he hit it with a stick.

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
He sipped with his straight mouth
Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack, long body,

(a) What is being described in these lines?
Ans: The manner in which the snake was drinking water is being described here.

(b) What is the attitude of the narrator?
Ans:
The narrator is respectful, admiring the snake and waiting for his turn at the water trough.

(c) How does his attitude change in the end?
Ans: In the end he hits the snake with a stick.

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
A snake came to my water-trough
On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat,
To drink there.
In the deep, strange-scented shade of a great dark Carob tree.

(a) Who was the visitor the narrator is referring to?
Ans: The visitor was the snake.
(b) Why is the narrator in pyjamas?
Ans: The narrator was in pyjamas because it was quite hot.

(c) What is a Carob tree?
Ans: It is a tree found in the Mediterranean region.

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And as he put his head into that dreadful hole
And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered further,
A sort of horror, a sort of protest against his withdrawing into that horrid black hole
Deliberately going into the blackness, and slowly drawing himself after
Overcame me now his back was turned.

(a) Where is the snake going?
Ans: The snake was going into the hole.

(b) What are the conflicting views that the narrator has as he watches the snake?
Ans: The narrator at first felt honoured, then wondered whether he should kill it because it was poisonous and finally he hit the snake’s retreating back.

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

He lifted his head from his drinking as cattle do,

And looked at me vaguely as drinking cattle do,

And flickered his two formed tongue from his lips and mused a moment

(a) Pick out the poetic device in the first line.
Ans: A simile is used in the first line.

(b) Why has the narrator compared the snake to cattle?
Ans: The narrator does so because at that time, the snake appeared as harmless as cattle.

(c) Pick put the word which tells us that the snake was not aware of the narrator’s presence.
Ans: The word ‘vaguely’ indicates that the snake was not aware of the narrator’s presence.

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
And looked around like a god, unseeing into the air.

(a) What is the poetic device used in this line?
Ans: The poetic device used is a simile.

(b) Who is being compared to a god?
Ans: The snake is being compared to a God.

(c) What does the phrase ‘unseeing into the air’ tell us about it?
Ans: The snake is relaxed and not focussing on anything in particular.

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
But must I confess how I liked him
How glad I was that he had come here like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water trough

(a) What is the narrator referring to in these lines?
Ans: The narrator is referring to a snake which had come to his trough to drink water.

(b) What was the paradox as expressed in these lines?
Ans: Though the narrator felt that the snake which had come to drink water at his trough was poisonous and should be killed, he felt he was like a guest and should not tTd killed.

(c) How did the narrator resolve the problem? 
Ans: The narrator threw a stick at the retreating back of the snake.

Q9: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.

(a) Where does the narrator see the snake?
Ans: The narrator sees it in the water trough.

(b) Why does he want to kill it?
Ans: The narrator wants to kill it because it was a golden-brown snake and hence poisonous.

(c) What had the ‘voice of education’ taught him?
Ans: It had taught him that snakes were poisonous creatures and had to be killed.

Q10: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
He reached down from the fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom
And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough

(a) Who does ‘he’ refer to?
Ans: ‘He’ refers to the snake.

(b) Where had it come from?
Ans: The snake had come from a hole in the earth wall.

(c) Describe the creature as depicted in these lines.
Ans: It was yellow-brown in colour, with a soft, slack body.