Extract Based Questions: The Mirror - Class 10 PDF Download

Q1: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.” 

(a) What is the woman bending over?
Ans: The woman is bending over the lake.

(b) Why does the woman bend over?
Ans: The woman bends over because the lake is spread out before her feet and to look closely at her reflection.

(c) Why have the candles and the moon been called ‘liars’?
Ans: The candles and the moon have been called ‘liars’ because they create a flattering image of the person by hiding their blemishes.

Q2: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I am silver and exact.
I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.”

(a) How does the mirror swallow?
Ans: The mirror absorbs all the images that are reflected on it. The images seem to disappear into the mirror.

(b) What is the poetic device used in the second line?
Ans: The poetic device used is personification.

(c) List the qualities of the mirror mentioned in the above extract.
Ans: The qualities of the mirror are silver, exact and unmisted.

Q3: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day like a terrible fish.”

(a) How has the poet changed over the years?
Ans: The woman has aged. She has changed from a young girl to an old woman.

(b) Why does the poet refer to the fish in the last line? Why does she describe it as being ‘terrible’?
Ans: The thought and the fact that she is growing old is the terrible fish that comes to haunt the woman. She sees herself as a sad, angered and emotionless woman.

(c) What does the mention of the ‘fish’ symbolise?
Ans: The fish reminds the woman that she is no longer beautiful and that tells her that she is cold and incapable of love.

Q4: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I am not cruel, only truthful—
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time
I meditate on the opposite wall.”

(a) Why does the mirror say ‘I am not cruel’?
Ans: The mirror does not reflect the truth to hurt the viewer. It only reflects what it sees.
(b) Why has the mirror been called ‘a four-cornered god’?
Ans: Like god, the mirror watches a person in an unbiased and fair manner and from all angles.

(c) How does the mirror spend its time?
Ans: It meditates on the opposite wall and on the people who come to check their appearance in the mirror.

Q5: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches foi; what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.”

(a) In the second stanza, the mirror is compared to another object. What is it? Why do you think this comparison has been made?
Ans: The mirror is compared to a lake. The lake is not as exact as the mirror, the image is distorted by the ripples in the water and hence the person who looks into it will get a flattering view of herself or himself.

(b) What is the woman searching for in the depths of the lake?
Ans: The woman is upset with the signs of ageing reflected by the mirror and she is trying to find her lost looks in the water of the lake.

(c) Is she satisfied with what she observes? Give reasons for your answer.
Ans: No, because the woman starts crying at the signs of growing old that are reflected back.

Q6: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.”

(a) Who does ‘I’ refer to in these lines?
Ans: I refers to the mirror.

(b) When the poet says that the mirror has no preconceptions what does he mean?
(i) it reflects back your image objectively.
(ii) it gives a biased view of the person. ,
(iii) it is emotionally involved with the person whose image it reflects.
Ans:
(i) it reflects back your image objectively.

(c) Why has the mirror been described as being ‘unmisted’?*What is the image it is trying to convey about the nature of the mirror?
Ans: It shows that the mirror is unbiased and lacks sensitivity.

Q7: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.”

(a) What does the mirror reflect on when it is not looking at the woman?
Ans: The mirror then reflects on the opposite wall.

(b) What disturbs its contemplation of the opposite wall?
Ans: People who come to check their appearance in the mirror disturbs its contemplation.

(c) What does the phrase ‘pink speckles’ refer to?
Ans: It refers to the opposite wall that is pink with speckles.

Q8: Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
“I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.”

(a) What does the phrase ‘agitation of the hands’ mean?
Ans: It means that the woman is very upset.

(b) Why does the woman start crying?
Ans: The woman starts crying as she is upset at the signs of her ageing as reflected by the mirror. The woman rewards the mirror with tears for she does not like the truth.

(c) What does this reveal of her character?
Ans: The woman is unable to face the truth about herself.