The Little Girl Class 9 Worksheet English Chapter 1

Multiple Choice Questions

Q1: Why do you think Katherine Mansfield titled her story like The Little Girl?
(a) Because the story talks about the little girl and her feelings
(b) Because the story has a little girl in it
(c) Because The Little Girl seems to be an attractive and interesting title for a story
(d) Because Katherine Mansfield liked the little girl in the story

Q2: Kezia was beaten up with a ruler by her father because
(a) she went to an ice cream parlour
(b) she failed in her exam
(c) she disagreed to sleep alone
(d) she has torn down the papers of her father’s speech

Q3: Kezia saw these children playing
(a) football
(b) badminton
(c) hide and seek
(d) tag

Q4: How many children did the Macdonalds have in the text titled The Little Girl?
(a) Five
(b) Six
(c) Four
(d) Three

Q5: Why did Kezia tear the papers?
(a) To clean her room
(b) To play
(c) All of these
(d) To fill the cushion

Q6: In the text The Little Girl,  whom did Kezia find standing at her bedside with a candle when she woke up in the dark due to her nightmare?
(a) The cook, Alice
(b) Her Grannie
(c) Her Father
(d) Her Mother

Q7: The father who lived next door to Kezia’s would
(a) make barbeque
(b) play and laugh
(c) water his plants
(d) speak angrily

Q8: Why was Kezia afraid of her father?
(a) Once he beat her for tearing his papers
(b) She thought that he was a hard-hearted man
(c) He used to speak rudely to her and always found faults in her
(d) All of these

Q9: Which family lived in the neighbourhood of Katherine?
(a) The Smiths
(b) The Wilson Family
(c) The Johnsons
(d) The Macdonald Family

Q10: What would Kezia find her mother doing on Sunday afternoons in the drawing-room?
(a) Nothing
(b) Reading
(c) Busy in her work
(d) Talking to her father

Short Answer Questions

Q1: Why was Kezia scared of her father?
Q2: What was Kezia’s father’s routine before going to office and after coming back in the evening?
Q3: Why did Kezia go slowly towards the drawing-room when mother asked her to come downstairs?
Q4: Why did Kezia stutter while speaking to Father?
Q5: Why was Father often irritated with Kezia?

Long Answer Questions

Q1: Do you think the Kezia deserved the beating she got for her mistake? What light does this incident throw on her father’s character?
Q2: Briefly comment on Kezia’s relationship with her grandmother?
Q3: What impression do you form of Kezia’s mother?
Q4: Kezia decides that there are “different kinds of fathers.” Comment on Kezia’s remark in the light of her relationship with her father and that of the Macdonald children with their father?
Q5: How does Kezia begin to see her father as a human being who needs her sympathy?

Reference Based Questions

Q1: To the little girl he was a figure to be feared and avoided. Every morning before going to work he came into her room and gave her a casual kiss, to which she responded with “Goodbye, Father And oh, there was a glad sense of relief when she heard the noise of the carriage growing fainter and fainter down the long road!
(a) Who does ‘he’ refer to in this extract?
(b) What kind of a person was Kezia’s father?
(c) What were the feelings of the little girl towards him?
(d) How did she feel when her father left for office?

Q2: To the little girl he was a figure to be feared and avoided. Every morning before going to work he came into her room and gave her a casual kiss, to which she responded with “Goodbye, Father”. And oh, there was a glad sense of relief when she heard the noise of the carriage growing fainter and fainter down the long road!
(a) Who is the little girl?
(b) Who were the people in Kezia’s family?
(c) What did ‘he’ do before going to work every morning?
(d) What does this gesture show about him?

Q3: She never stuttered with other people – had quite given it up – but only with Father, because then she was trying so hard to say the words properly.
(a) Who is ‘she’ in this extract?
(b) What had she “quite given up”?
(c) How did ‘she’ speak in the presence of her father?
(d) Why did ‘she’ stutter in her father’s presence?

Q4: ‘‘What’s the matter? What are you looking so wretched about? Mother, I wish you taught this child not to appear on the brink of suicide … Here, Kezia, carry my teacup back to the table carefully. ” He was so big – his hands and his neck, especially his mouth when he yawned. Thinking about him alone was like thinking about a giant.
(a) Who is the speaker in these lines?
(b) Where are they at the moment? What time is it?
(c) How does Kezia look in her father’s presence? Why?
(d) Why was she scared of her father?

Q5: Slowly the girl would slip down the stairs, more slowly still across the hall, and push open the drawing – room door.
(a) What time of the day is it?
(b) Where is the little girl going?
(c) Why is she going there?
(d) Why does she go slowly?

Q6: He was so big – his hands and his neck, especially his mouth when he yawned. Thinking about him alone was like thinking about a giant.
(a) Who is ‘he’ in the above extract?
(b) Why does the speaker find him so big?
(c) Why does the speaker think of him as a giant?
(d) When did his mouth especially appear big?

Q7: On Sunday afternoons Grandmother sent her down to the drawing-room to have a “nice talk with Father and Mother”. But the little girl always found Mother reading and Father stretched out on the sofa, his handkerchief on his face, his feet on one of the best cushions, sleeping soundly and snoring.
(a) Where did Grandmother send ‘her’? Why?
(b) What would ‘her’ parents be doing?
(c) What do you learn about Mother from this passage?
(d) What would Father say to the little girl when he got up?

Q8: One day, when she was kept indoors with a cold, her grandmother told her that father’s birthday was next week, and suggested she should make him a pin-cushion for a gift out of a beautiful piece of yellow silk.
(a) Who had a cold? What was the result of the cold?
(b) What was the occasion next week?
(c) What did her grandmother want her to do?
(d) What did Kezia use for stuffing the pin-cushion?

Q9: “Mother, go up to her room and fetch down the damned thing – see that the child’s put to bed this instant. ”
(a) Who speaks these lines and to whom?
(b) What is the mood of the speaker in these lines?
(c) What does the speaker refer to as the ‘damned thing’?
(d) Who is the ‘child’ here? Why does the speaker wish the child to be put to bed immediately?

Q10: “Sit up, ” he ordered, “and hold out your hands. You must be taught once and for all not to touch what does not belong to you. ”
(a) Who is the speaker? Who is he talking to?
(b) Where are they at the moment?
(c) Why does the speaker want the listener to hold out her hands?
(d) What do you learn about the speaker from these lines?

Q11: “But it was for your b-b-birthday. ”
Down came the ruler on her little, pink palms.
(a) Who speaks these words? To whom?
(b) Where are they at the moment?
(c) Why does she speak these words?
(d) Who brought down ‘the ruler on her little, pink palms’? Why?

Q12: “Here’s a clean hanky, darling. Blow your nose. Go to sleep, pet; you ’ll forget all about it in the morning. I tried to explain to Father but he was too upset to listen tonight. ”
(a) Why does the speaker offer the listener a clean hanky?
(b) What did the speaker want the listener to forget?
(c) Why did she want the listener to forget it?
(d) What do you think had the speaker tried to explain to Father?

Q13: But the child never forgot. Next time she saw him, she quickly put both hands behind her back and a red colour flew into her cheeks.
(a) What did the child never forget?
(b) Why did she put her hands behind her back?
(c) What had she done to get punished by her father?
(d) What did she wish her father to be?

Q14: Looking through a gap in the fence the little girl saw them playing ‘tag ’ in the evening. The father with the baby, Mao, on his shoulders, two little girls hanging on to his coat pockets ran round and round the flower¬beds, shaking with laughter. Once she saw the boys turn the hose on him-and he tried to catch them laughing all the time.
(a) Who is ‘them’?
(b) What is the little girl doing at the moment?
(c) How is the relationship of the children with their father different from the little girl’s with hers?
(d) What did she wish as she saw the family?

Q15: “What’ll 1 do if I have a nightmare? ” she asked. “I often have nightmares and then Grannie takes me into her bed—I can’t stay in the dark- gets ‘whispery ’…”.
(a) Who is the speaker in these lines? Who is being addressed?
(b) What happens when the speaker has nightmares?
(c) Where was Grannie right now?
(d) Who was beside her bed when she woke shivering that night?

Q16: Oh, a butcher – a knife – I want Grannie. ” He blew out the candle, bent down and caught up the child in his arms, carrying her along the passage to the big bedroom. A newspaper was on the bed – a half-smoked cigar was near his reading-lamp. He put away the paper, threw the cigar into the fireplace, then carefully tucked up the child. He lay down beside her.
(a) Who wanted Granny? Why?
(b) Who blew out the candle? Why?
(c) Where was the butcher?
(d) What does her father’s behaviour in the passage show?

Q17: Then the dark did not matter; she lay still.
(a) When did the dark not matter? Why?
(b) Why had she been afraid in the dark?
(c) What nightmare did she have?
(d) What did her father do? What does her father’s behaviour show?

Q18: He was harder than Grandmother, but it was a nice hardness. And every day he had to work and was too tired to be a Mr Macdonald… She had torn up all his beautiful writing … She stirred suddenly and sighed.
(a) Who was harder than Grandmother?
(b) Explain “harder than Grandmother”.
(c) Who was Mr Macdonald? Why could “he” not be like him?
(d) Why did she sigh?

Q19: “Oh, ” said the little girl, “my head’s on your heart. I can hear it going. What a big heart you’ve got, Father dear. ”
(a) Where is the little girl at this time? Why?
(b) Where has she put her head? Why?
(c) What can the little girl hear?
(d) How does the little girl feel at this time?

You can find Worksheets Solutions here: Worksheet Solutions: The Little Girl