Extract Based Questions: The Sound of Music - Class 9 PDF Download

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Q1: It was her first day at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London and daunting enough for any teenager fresh from a Scottish farm. But this aspiring musician faced a bigger challenge than most.

(a) Who is referred to as the ‘aspiring musician’?
Ans: Evelyn Glennie is referred to as the aspiring musician.

(b) How old was this ‘aspiring musician’ when she went to the Royal Academy of Music?
Ans: She was seventeen years old when she went to the Royal Academy of Music in London.

(c) What was likely to ‘daunt any teenager’?
Ans: The first day in a great and renowned institute like The Royal Academy of Music, London was likely to daunt any teenager.

(d) Why did she “a bigger challenge than most”?
Ans: She faced a ‘bigger challenge’ than most as she was profoundly deaf and was yet joining a music academy.

Q2: Evelyn Glennie’s loss of hearing had been gradual. Her mother remembers noticing something was wrong when the eight-year-old Evelyn was waiting to play the piano.
“They called her name and she didn ’t move. I suddenly realised she hadn ’t heard, ” says Isabel Glennie.

(a) Who is Isabel Glennie?
Ans: Isabel Glennie is Evelyn Glennie’s mother.

(b) Why did Evelyn Glennie not move to play the piano?
Ans: Evelyn did not move because she had not heard her name being called.

(c) When was her deafness first noticed?
Ans: Evelyn’s deafness was first noticed when she was eight years old.

(d) How did Evelyn lose her hearing?
Ans: Evelyn’s hearing impairment happened as a result of gradual nerve damage.

Q3: They were advised that she should be fitted with hearing aids and sent to a school for the deaf.
(a) Who are ‘they’? By whom were they advised?
Ans: ‘They’ are the parents of Evelyn Glennie. They were advised by the specialist to whom Evelyn’s  parents had taken her for a check-up.

(b) Who is ‘she’?
Ans: ‘She’ is Evelyn Glennie.

(c) What was the course of action recommended for her?
Ans: It was recommended that she should be provided with hearing aids in order to be able to hear and that she be sent to a school for the deaf.

(d) How had her mother realised that Evelyn was having problems with her hearing?
Ans: Evelyn’s mother realised she was having problems with her hearing when Evelyn did not go for her piano recital when her name was called.

Q4: But Evelyn was not going to give up. She was determined to lead a normal life and pursue her interest in music. One day, she noticed a girl playing a xylophone and decided that she wanted to play it too. Most of the teachers discouraged her but percussionist Ron Forbes spotted her potential.
(a) Evelyn was not going to give up. Why was she not going to give up?
Ans: She was not going to give up because of her interest in music. Music was her passion.

(b) What did she want to do?
Ans: She wanted to learn to play the xylophone.

(c) Why did her teachers not encourage her?
Ans: They did not encourage her because they felt it was impossible for a deaf girl to pursue her career in music.

(d) Who encouraged her? What did he say?
Ans: Ron Forbes, who saw her potential and capabilities, encouraged her. He suggested she ‘hear’ with the whole of her body.

Q5: She never looked back from that point onwards. She toured the United Kingdom with a youth orchestra and by the time she was sixteen, she had decided to make music her life.
(a) Who is ‘she’?
Ans: She refers to Evelyn Glennie.

(b) What does ‘that point’ refer to?
Ans: ‘That point’ refers to the time when Evelyn learnt to listen to music by feeling the vibrations through her body.

(c) Where did she go with a youth orchestra?
Ans: She toured United Kingdom with a youth orchestra.

(d) What was her age when she decided to make music her life?
Ans: She was just sixteen when she decided to make music her life.

Q6: She gradually moved from orchestral work to solo performances. At the end of her three-year course, she had captured most of the top awards.

(a) How did Evelyn advance in her career?
Ans: Initially Evelyn performed in a group of orchestra. Gradually, she started giving solo performances.

(b) Where did she pursue her three-year course?
Ans: She pursued her three-year course in the most prestigious institute of music in England, The Royal Academy for Music, London.

(c) What were her achievements at the end of her course?
Ans: At the end of her course, she had bagged the biggest awards in her field.

(d) What made her achievements so great?
Ans: The fact that she had won the awards despite her hearing disability made her achievements so great.

Q7: And for all this, Evelyn won’t accept any hint of heroic achievement. “If you work hard and know where you are going, you ’ll get there. ”

(a) What does ‘all this’ refer to?
Ans: “All this” refers to the fact that by the end of her three-year course at the Royal Academy she had captured most of the top awards

(b) Why is it a heroic achievement?
Ans: It is a heroic achievement as she has achieved success in music despite being profoundly deaf.

(c) To what does Evelyn give credit for her achievement?
Ans: Evelyn gives credit for her achievements to her focus on her aims and her hard work.

(d) What quality of Evelyn’s character is reflected in this?
Ans: This shows Evelyn is a humble and down-to-earth person.

Q8: In our two-hour discussion she never missed a word. “Men with bushy beards give me trouble, ” she laughed. “It is not just watching the lips, it’s the whole face, especially the eyes. ”

(a) Who is ‘she’? Why is it strange that she never missed a word?
Ans: She refers to Evelyn Glennie. She is profoundly deaf yet she heard each word.

(b) How does she hear the words?
Ans: She hears the words by reading lips and by studying the whole face and eyes of the speaker.

(c) Why do men with bushy beards give her trouble?
Ans: She is unable to read their lips and their face.

(d) Which are the languages that she speaks?
Ans: She has managed to leam French and master basic Japanese.

Q9: As for music, she explains, “It pours in through every part of my body. It tingles in the skin, my cheekbones and even in my hair. ’’ When she plays the xylophone, she can sense the sound passing up the stick into her fingertips. By leaning against the drums, she can feel the resonances flowing into her body.

(a) Who is the speaker in the first line?
Ans: In the first line, the speaker is Evelyn Glennie, the famous multi-percussionist.

(b) What is it that pours in through every part of her body?
Ans: Music and its vibrations pour in through every part of her body.

(c) How was she able to hear sounds and vibrations?
Ans: She was able to hear sounds and vibrations by sensing them through her body and her mind. Being deaf, she could not hear with her ears so she had trained and sensitized her body and mind.

(d) How did Ron Forbes help her to continue with music?
Ans: Percussionist Ron Forbes tuned two large drums to different notes. He asked her not to listen to them through her ears but to try and sense the sound in some other manner.

Q10: “I’ve just got to work… Often harder than classical musicians. But the rewards are enormous. ’’Apart from the regular concerts, Evelyn also gives free concerts in prisons and hospitals. She also gives high priority to classes for young musicians. Ann Richlin of the Beethoven Fund for Deaf Children says, “She is a shining inspiration for deaf children. They see that there is nowhere that they cannot go. ”

(a) Evelyn works harder than classical musicians. What does it imply?
Ans: Classical music needs a lot of practice. However, Evelyn works even harder than the others.

(b) For whom does Evelyn perform for free?
Ans: Evelyn gives free concerts in prisons and hospitals.

(c) “ … there is nowhere that they cannot go.” Who are they here?
Ans: They are deaf children.

(d) What quality of Evelyn’s character is shown by her actions?
Ans: Evelyn is committed to music. She is also compassionate and generous towards those in need.