Extract Based Questions: The Fun They Had - Class 9 PDF Download

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
Q1: “Today Tommy found a real book! ”
It was a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper.

(a) Who are Margie and Tommy?
Ans: Tommy is a thirteen-year-old boy and Margie an eleven-year-old girl who live in the twenty second century.

(b) Where had Tommy found the book?
Ans: Tommy had found the book in the attic of his house.

(c) What is meant by “real book”?
Ans: The book is “real” as it is printed on paper rather than a telebook.

(d) How had Margie heard of such a book?
Ans: Margie’s grandfather had told her that he had heard from his grandfather about a time when all stories were printed on paper.

Q2: It was a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper. They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to-on a screen, you know.

(a) Why were the pages of the book yellow?
Ans: The pages of the book were yellow because the book was quite old.

(b) What kind of books did Margie and Tommy read?
Ans: Margie and Tommy read telebooks

(c) What do you think a telebook is?
Ans: A book that is not printed on paper, but one that can be read on a screen. Words move on the screen for the students to read.

(d) Why did Tommy find the book a “waste”?
Ans: Unlike their telebooks, the words on the page stayed the same and did not change. He felt when one was through with the book, one would just throw it away.

Q3: They turned the pages, which were yellow and crinkly, and it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to-on a screen, you know.

(a) Who are ‘they’ in this extract?
Ans: ‘They’ are Margie and Tommy, the young children who are reading the book.

(b) Which book had yellow and crinkly pages?
Ans: The book that Tommy found in the attic of his house had yellow and crinkly pages.

(c) What do the yellow and crinkly pages reveal about the book?
Ans: The yellow and crinkly pages reveal that it was a very old book and had not been lying in the attic for a long time.

(d) What did ‘they’ find funny? Why?
Ans: The children found the fixed and still words in the book funny because they were used to reading electronic books on the television screen in which the words kept moving.

Q4: “I wouldn’t throw it away. ”
(a) Who says these words?
Ans: Tommy, a thirteen-year-old boy says these words.

(b) What does ‘it’ refer to?
Ans: ‘It’ refers to the television screen of the computer on which Tommy reads books. It has a million books . and space for a lot more.

(c) What is it being compared with, by the speaker?
Ans: ‘It’ is being compared with the paper book that Tommy had found in the attic of his house.

(d) Why would the speaker not throw it away?
Ans: The speaker, Tommy, wouldn’t throw the television screen on which he read books away because it had a million books on it and it could be used many times.

Q5: “What’s it about? ”
“School. ”
Margie was scornful. “School? What’s there to write about school? I hate school. ”

(a) What does ‘it’ refer to?
Ans: ‘It’ refers to the book Tommy found in his attic.

(b) Why was Margie scornful about the book?
Ans: Margie was scornful about the book as it was about school. She hated her school and felt school would not be an interesting enough topic to read about.

(c) Why did Margie not like school?
Ans: Margie had never liked her school, but now she hated her mechanical teacher so she disliked school even more.

(d) Why did Margie hate her mechanical teacher?
Ans: The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse.

Q6: He was a round little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with dials and wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart.

(a) Who is ‘he’?
Ans: He is the County Inspector.

(b) Why had he been called?
Ans: Margie’s mother, Mrs Jones, had called him because Margie’s mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse. She wanted the County Inspector to fix the teacher.

(c) Why did he give Margie an apple?
Ans: He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple to reassure her.

(d) How did he fix the teacher?
Ans: The County Inspector found that the teacher’s the geography sector was geared a little too quick. He slowed it up to an average ten-year level.

Q7: He said to her mother, “It’s not the little girl’s fault, Mrs Jones. I think the geography sector was geared a little too quick. Those things happen sometimes. ”

(a) Who is ‘he’ and which ‘little girl’ is he talking about?
Ans: He is the County Inspector. He is talking about Margie.

(b) What, according to him, is not the girl’s fault?
Ans: According to him, the girl’s continuous poor performances in Geography tests was not her fault.

(c) What was wrong with the geography sector of the mechanical teacher?
Ans: He finds that the pace of the geography sector has been a bit too fast for the girl’s level.

(d) What does the County Inspector do to correct the fault?
Ans: The County Inspector took apart the mechanical teacher and slowed it up to an average ten-year level.

Q 8: “Actually, the overall pattern of her progress is quite satisfactory. ” And he patted Margie’s head again. Margie was disappointed. She had been hoping they would take the teacher away altogether.

(a) Who is the speaker? Whose progress is being talked about?
Ans: The speaker is the County Inspector. He is talking about Margie’s progress.

(b) Why was Margie disappointed?
Ans: Margie was disappointed as her teacher was not taken away as she wished for.

(c) Whose teacher had been taken away? Why?
Ans: Tommy’s teacher had been taken away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

(d) What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Ans: Margie and Tommy learnt geography, history and arithmetic.

Q9: Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes. “Because it’s not our kind of school, stupid. This is the old kind of school that they had hundreds and hundreds of years ago. ” He added loftily.

(a) What does Tommy mean by “our kind of school”?
Ans: They study in classrooms in their own homes with mechanical teachers.

(b) Why did Tommy call Margie stupid?
Ans: Tommy called Malgie stupid because she was ignorant about schools of the past.

(c) Whom does ‘they’ here refer to?
Ans: ‘They’ here refers to the students of centuries ago who were mentioned in the book.

(d) How was ‘their’ school different?
Ans: Their school was a special building that they went to and they learned the same thing if they were the same age. They had a person as a teacher who taught the whole class.

Q10: “Sure they had a teacher, butit wasn ’t a regular teacher. It was a man. ”

(a) Who speaks these words and about what?
Ans: Tommy speaks these words about the schools in the olden times.

(b) Who does ‘they’ refer to in these lines?
Ans: ‘They’ refers to the students from the schools of the olden times.

(c) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
Ans: Here ‘regular’ means a mechanised teacher like the ones Margie and Tommy had.

(d) What is ‘regular’ contrasted with?
Ans: ‘Regular’ is contrasted with the teachers from the olden days who were real men and not programmed machines.