Class 10 English Chapter 1 Extract Based Question Answers - First Flight

1. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“ It’s cold… I’m trembling all over, just as if I’d got an examination before me. The great thing is, I must have my mind made up. If I give myself time to think, to hesitate, to talk a lot, to look for an ideal, or for real love, then I’ll never get married. Brr… It’s cold! Natalya Stepanovna is an excellent housekeeper, not bad-looking, well-educated. What more do I want? But I’m getting a noise in my ears from excitement. [Drinks] And it’s impossible for me not to marry. In the first place, I’m already 35 — a critical age, so to speak. In the second place, I ought to lead a quiet and regular life. I suffer from palpitations, I’m excitable and always getting awfully upset; at this very moment my lips are trembling, and there’s a twitch in my right eyebrow. But the very worst of all is the way I sleep. I no sooner get into bed and begin to go off, when suddenly something in my left side gives a pull, and I can feel it in my shoulder and head… I jump up like a lunatic, walk about a bit and lie down again, but as soon as I begin to get off to sleep there’s another pull! And this may happen twenty times…  “

Q1: Who is saying, “I’m trembling all over as if I had got an examination before me”?
Ans: Ivan Vassilevitch Lomov

Q2: What is the great thing that the speaker is talking about?
Ans: The speaker is talking about real love and marriage.

Q3: What state of Lomov’s mind does the passage reflect?
Ans: His mind reflects that way he would never get married because it is difficult to get an idea or real love.

Q4: Why did Lomov not want to wait for real love?
Ans: This was because he was anxious to get married.

2. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“Lomov ; He is old, but I wouldn’t take five Squeezers for him. Why, how can you? Guess is a dog, as for Squeezer; well it’s too funny to argue. Anybody you like has a dog as good as Squeezer…
You may find them under almost every bush. Twenty-five rubles would be a handsome price to pay for him.”

Q1: Who does ‘he’ refer to , “He is old”?
Ans: He refers to ‘Guess’ the dog.

Q2: Whom does Squeezer belong to?
Ans: Squeezer belongs to Chubukovs.

Q3: Who is the speaker of these lines?
Ans: Lomov

Q4: What would be a handsome price to pay for Squeezer?
Ans:  It would be twenty-five roubles.

3. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“CHUBUKOV : Who’s dead? [Looks at Lomov] So he is! My word! Water! A doctor! [Lifts a tumbler to Lomov’s mouth] Drink this! No, he doesn’t drink. It means he’s dead, and all that. I’m the most unhappy of men! Why don’t I put a bullet into my brain? Why haven’t I cut my throat yet? What am I waiting for? Give me a knife! Give me a pistol! [Lomov moves] He seems to be coming round. Drink some water! That’s right.
LOMOV : I see stars… mist… where am I?
CHUBUKOV : Hurry up and get married and — well, to the devil with you! She’s willing! [He puts Lomov’s hand into his daughter’s]
She’s willing… I give you my blessing and so on. Only leave me in peace !”

Q1: ‘Who is Chubukov giving his blessing to?
Ans: The speaker gives his blessing to Lomov and Natalya.

Q2: Why is Chubukov giving his blessing?
Ans: Because both are willing to marry each other and Chubukov agrees to it. So he is giving his blessings.

Q3:  Find the phrase from the given extract which matches the description.
“To be dazed or rendered unconscious by a blow to the head, sometimes perceiving actual flashing lights as a result”
Ans: To see stars.

Q4: What is she willing for?
Ans: She is willing for her marriage.

4. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“I can make you a present of them myself, because they’re mine! Your behaviour, Ivan Vassilevitch, is strange, to say the least! Up to this we have always thought of you as a good neighbour, a friend; Last year we lent you our threshing machine, although on that account we had to put off our own threshing till November. You behave to us as if we were gipsies. Giving me my own land indeed! No really, that’s not at all neighbourly! In my opinion, it’s even impudent if you want to know.
LOMOV : Then you make out that I’m a landgrabber? Madam, never in my life have I grabbed anybody else’s land and I shan’t allow anybody to accuse me of having done so. [Quickly steps to the carafe and drinks more water] Oxen Meadows are mine!”

Q1: What did the speaker do last year?
Ans: Last year the speaker lent their threshing machine.

Q2: Find the word which matches  the description. “ members of a race of people who traditionally spend their lives travelling around from place to place”
Ans: Gipsies

Q3: How did Natalya try to prove that they were at least good neighbours?
Ans: harvesting to November.

Q4: Why Chubukovs had to delay their threshing till November.
Ans: This was because; they had lent it to Lomov, their neighbour.

5. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
 “I’ll show you the documents, Natalya Stepanovna!
No, you’re simply joking, or making fun of me. What a surprise! We’ve had the land for nearly three hundred years and then we’re suddenly told that it isn’t ours! Ivan Vassilevitch, I can hardly believe my own ears. These Meadows aren’t worth much to me. They only come to five dissipations and are worth perhaps 300 roubles, but I can’t stand unfairness”.

LOMOV: Hear me out, I implore you! The peasants of your father’s grandfather, as I have already had the honour of explaining to you, used to bake bricks for my aunt’s grandmother. Now my aunt’s grandmother, wishing to make them a pleasant…

Q1: Who is making fun of whom?
Ans: Lomov is making fun of Natalya.
Q2: For how long did they have the land?
Ans: They had the land for nearly three hundred years.

Q3: Who is the speaker of these lines “No, you’re simply joking, or making fun of me” ?
Ans: Natalya

Q4: What has been unfair with the speaker?
Ans: The land that the speaker has had for nearly 300 years has been taken away from them

6. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
 “Well, that’s a way to start your family bliss! Have some champagne!
LOMOV : He’s better!
NATALYA : Worse! Worse! Worse! CHUBUKOV : [trying to shout her down] Champagne! Champagne!”

Q1: Who speaks the above lines and on what occasion “Well, that’s a way to start your family bliss! Have some champagne!” ?
Ans: Chubukov speaks about these lives on the occasion of Natalya and Lomov’s marriage.

Q2: Name any conflict they’ve had before starting the ‘family bliss’.
Ans: Their conflict over the dogs i.e., Guess and Squeezer.

Q3: Who were ‘Guess’ and ‘Squeezer’?
Ans: Guess was Lomov’s dog and Squeezer was Natalya’s dog.

Q4: What were the positive and negative points of Squeezer?
Ans: Squeezer was young but was overshot and did not have a strong grip.

7. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“The peasants of your father’s grandfather, as I have already had the honour of explaining to you, used to bake bricks for my aunt’s grandmother. Now my aunt’s grandmother, wishing to make them pleasant…”

Q1: Who is the speaker?
Ans: Lomov

Q2: What did the peasants do?
Ans: The peasants baked bricks for Lomov’s aunt’s grandmother.

Q3: Who is the speaker talking to?
Ans: Natalya

Q4: Which land was under dispute?
Ans: Oxen Meadows

8. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“And are you a hunter? You only go hunting to get in with the Count and to intrigue Oh, my heart! You’re an intriguer!’’

Q1: Who is speaking and to whom?
Ans: Lomov is speaking to Chubukov

Q2: Which character trait of the listener is being emphasized?
Ans: The trait is that of being an intriguer.

Q3: Who is an intriguer?
Ans: Chubukov

Q4: Find the word which means the same as the given description. “One who forms plots, or pursues an object by secret means”
Ans: Intriguer

9. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“Then you make out that I’m a land grabber? Madam, never in my life have I grabbed anybody else’s land and I shan’t allow anybody to accuse me of having done so. Oxen Meadows are mine!”

Q1: Who is ‘Madam’ in the above lines?
Ans: Natalya

Q2: In which situation does Lomov call himself a ‘land grabber’?
Ans: Natalya accused Lomov of grabbing Oxen Meadows. So, Lomov says that he is not a land grabber.

Q3: What had happened to the speaker?
Ans: The speaker got infuriated with Natalya for having called him a land grabber.

Q4: What was Lomov accused of?
Ans:  He will not allow anybody to accuse him of having grabbed anyone’s land.

10. Direction: Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow:
“The peasants used the land for forty years and got accustomed to it as if it was their own…”

Q1: Who speaks this line?
Ans: Lomov is speaking this line.

Q2: Who is the speaker speaking to?
Ans: Chubukov

Q3: Which land is being referred to?
Ans: Oxen Meadows

Q4: Who gave the free use of this land to whom?
Ans: Lomov’s aunt was awarded by the grandmother of Chubukov’s grandfather as a result of donating their property to the peasants.