Extract Based Questions: A Truly Beautiful Mind - Class 9 PDF Download

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

Q1: At the age of two-and-a-half, Einstein still wasn ’t talking. When he finally did learn to speak, he uttered everything twice. Einstein did not know what to do with other children, and his playmates called him “Brother Boring
(a) What did Einstein’s mother think of him when he was a baby? Why?
Ans: Einstein’s mother thought of him as a freak because to her, his head seemed much too large.

(b) Why does the writer point out that Einstein wasn’t talking till the age of two-and-a-half?
Ans: The writer points out that Einstein wasn’t talking till the age of two-and-a-half to clarify that his growth parameters were slower as compared to other children of his age.

(c) How did Einstein speak when he finally started talking?
Ans: When Einstein finally started talking, he used to utter everything twice.

(d) Why was Einstein called “Brother Boring” by his playmates?
Ans: Einstein’s playmates called him “Brother Boring” because he was an introvert and did not interact with other children.

Q2: A headmaster once told his father that what Einstein chose as a profession would not matter, because “he will never make a success at anything ” Einstein began learning to play the violin at the age of six, because his mother wanted him to. He later became a gifted amateur violinist, maintaining this skill throughout his life.
(a) What was the headmaster’s opinion about Einstein?
Ans: The headmaster’s opinion about Einstein was that he would never be successful in his life.

(b) Why did Einstein leave the school in Munich?
Ans: Einstein left the school in Munich for good because he hated the school’s regimentation.

(c) Why did Einstein learn to play violin?
Ans: Einstein learnt to play the violin to fulfil the desire of his mother.

(d) What kind of a violin player was Einstein?
Ans: He was a gifted violin player.

Q3: But Albert Einstein was not a bad pupil. He went to high school in Munich, where Einstein’s family had moved when he was 15 months old, and scored good marks in almost every subject.

(a) What had Einstein’s Headmaster said about him?
Ans: The headmaster had told his father that Einstein would never make a success at anything.

(b) What were Einstein’s achievements at school?
Ans: Albert Einstein was not a bad pupil and he scored good marks in almost every subject.

(c) Where did Einstein attend high school?
Ans: Einstein attended High School in Munich.

(d) What kind of a school did Einstein wish to join?
Ans: Einstein wanted to join a school which was more liberal and flexible.

Q4. Einstein hated the school’s regimentation and often clashed with his teachers. At the age of 15, Einstein felt so stifled there that he left the school for good.

(a) Why did Einstein clash with his teachers?
Ans: The strict regimentation in the school demanded unquestioning acceptance of the teachers’ words. Hence he often clashed with his teachers

(b) When did Einstein leave his school in Munich and why?
Ans: Einstein left his school in Munich when he was fifteen years of age because he felt completely suffocated by the rigid atmosphere there.

(c) Where did Einstein go after leaving his school in Munich?
Ans: Einstein went to the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in a more liberal city than Munich.

(d) What does this tell you about Einstein?
Ans: Einstein had an independent and inquisitive mind and he did not like unquestioning obedience.

Q5: Einstein was highly gifted in mathematics and interested in physics, and after finishing school, he decided to study at a university in Zurich. But science wasn ’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man with the walrus moustache.
(a) Where did Einstein want to continue his education? Why?
Ans: Einstein wanted to continue his education in German-speaking Switzerland because he felt this would be more liberal than Munich.

(b) What were his favourite subjects?
Ans: His favourite subjects were Mathematics and Physics.

(c) Explain: But science wasn’t the only thing that appealed to the dashing young man.
Ans: Einstein also felt a special interest in a fellow student, Mileva Marie, whom he found to be a “clever. creature” and whom he married later.

(d) Why did he see Mileva as an ally?
Ans: Einstein found in Mileva an ally because she disapproved of the “philistines” or the people who did not like art, literature or music.

Q6. He worked as a teaching assistant, gave private lessons and finally secured a job in 1902 as a technical expert in the patent office in Bern. While he was supposed to be assessing other people’s inventions, Einstein was actually developing his own ideas in secret.

(a) How did Einstein earn a living before securing a job?
Ans: Before securing a job. Einstein gave private lessons and worked as a teaching assistant.

(b) When did Einstein secure a job? What was the nature of this job?
Ans: Einstein secured a job in 1902. This job was in a patent office and Einstein worked here as a technical assistant. In this job he was supposed to assess the inventions of other people.

(c) Why did Einstein develop his ideas in secret?
Ans: Einstein’s job required him to assess the inventions of other people. Therefore, he had to develop his ideas in secret.

(d) Where did he store his inventions? What did he call it?
Ans: He stored his inventions in his desk drawer at work which he called the “bureau of theoretical physics.”

Q7. One of the famous papers of 1905 was Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, according to which time and distance are not absolute.

(a) Explain the term “absolute”
Ans: The term “absolute” refers to something that is true, right, or the same in all situations and not depending on anything else.

(b) What according to Einstein are not absolute?
Ans: According to Einstein time and distance are not absolute.

(c) What is described by the formula E=mc2?
Ans: The relationship between mass and energy is described by this formula. In this formula, ‘E’ stands for energy, ‘m’ for mass and ‘c’ for speed of light in a vacuum.

(d) How did this formula establish Einstein as a scientific genius?
Ans: This formula, having been proved to be accurate, had become the most famous formula of the world and therefore, Einstein’s reputation as a scientific genius was established.

Q8. While Einstein was solving the most difficult problems in physics, his private life was unravelling. Albert had wanted to marry Mileva right after finishing his studies, but his mother was against it. She thought Mileva, who was three years older than her son, was too old for him. She was also bothered by Mileva’s intelligence. “She is a book like you, ” his mother said. Einstein put the wedding off.

(a) Where was Mileva from? Why did she join Zurich University?
Ans: Mileva was a Serb who had joined Zurich University because it was one of the few places in Europe where women could get degrees.

(b) Why did Einstein’s mother oppose his marriage with Mileva?
Ans: Mileva was three years older than him and very intelligent.

(c) Why did Einstein put the wedding off?
Ans: Einstein put his wedding off because his mother was against the marriage.

(d) When did Einstein get married to Mileva?
Ans: He got married to Mileva in 1903.

Q9. The pair finally got married in January 1903, and had two sons. But a few years later, the marriage faltered.

(a) Name the couple being talked about?
Ans: The couple being talked about is Albert Einstein and Mileva Marie.

(b) What happened to their marriage?
Ans: With the passage of time, their marriage became weak and failed.

(c) Why did their marriage falter?
Ans: Their marriage faltered because Mileva, who was losing her intellectual ambition, was becoming an unhappy housewife and the couple were constantly fighting.

(d) Whom did Einstein marry later?
Ans: Einstein later married his cousin, Elsa.

Q10. Many of them had fled from Fascism, just as Einstein had, and now they were afraid the Nazis could build and use an atomic bomb.

(a) What does the word ‘fascism’ mean?
Ans: Fascism refers to a political system based on a very powerful leader, state control, and being extremely proud of country and race, and in which political opposition is not allowed.

(b) Who does ‘they’ refer to in the above lines?
Ans: In the above lines ‘they’ refers to the American Physicists who had escaped from dictatorship in their parent countries.

(c) When and where had many of them fled from? Why?
Ans: Many of them had fled to America when the Nazis came to power in Germany. They had to flee their country, because they feared suppression of their liberal ideas by the dictatorial Nazis.

(d) What were they afraid of and why?
Ans: They were afraid that the discovery of nuclear fission could be developed by Germany to build and use an atomic bomb which could be misused to cause massive destruction.