Extract Based Questions: Poem - The Ant and the Cricket | English Class 8 PDF Download

Q1: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
Thus ending, he hastily lifted the wicket,
And out of the door turned the poor little cricket.
Folks call this a fable. I’ll warrant it true:
Some crickets have four legs, and some have two.

(i) What did he ‘hastily’ lift the wicket’?
Ans: The cricket learnt the lesson and by then he knew that ants wouldn’t help him at all.

(ii) Why did the poet call him ‘the poor little cricket’?
Ans: The little cricket was busy dancing and merry making during the summertime. He wasted his time and saved nothing. Now, he was at mercy of the ant that refused to help him. So the poet sympathized with ‘the cricket’.

(iii) What is the moral teaching in the poem?
Ans: The poet gave a moral lesson that those who do not wish to help themselves cannot be saved by others.

Q2: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
Says the ant to the cricket, “I’m your servant and friend,
But we ants never borrow; we ants never lend.
But tell me, dear cricket, did you lay nothing by when the weather was warm?”
Quoth the cricket, “Not 1!

(i) What was the reaction of the ant?
Ans: Ant talked to him in a friendly manner. Yet it was sorry for the cricket.

(ii) What do ants usually do?
Ans: The ants neither borrow nor lend anything to others.

(iii) What was the question raised by the ant?
Ans: The ant asked the cricket what it was doing during happier times and nice weather.

(iv) Was the cricket happy or depressed?
Ans: The cricket was surely depressed because the ant did not offer any help to him.

Q3: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions. 
At last by starvation and famine made bold,
All dripping with wet, and all trembling with cold,
Away he set off to a miserly ant,
To see if, to keep him alive, he would grant.

(i) What made him bold?
Ans: Starvation and famine made him bold.

(ii) Where did he ‘set off do?
Ans: He set off to the ant.

(iii) What did he call ant?
Ans: He called ant to be a miser.

(iv) What was the reason ‘if is used in the lives?
Ans: Cricket was not sure that he would get any help of ant.

Q4: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
My heart was so light That I sang day and night,
For all nature looked gay.”
“Your Sang, Sir, you say?
Go then,” says the ant, “and dance the winter away.”

(i) What did the cricket reveal about his routine?
Ans: The cricket revehled that he was so happy during the warm season that he sang day and night.

(ii) What did the ant reply to him?
Ans: The ant was annoyed with his careless attitude and she replied to him to dance and be happy in winter season too.

(iii) What does the poet try to teach his readers?
Ans: The poet .wants his reader to value the time and work diligently. He also preaches the importance of saving for worst conditions.

(iv) Name the poem and the poet.
Ans: Poem is ‘The Ant and the Cricket’ and Poet is ‘Aesop’s Fables’.

Q5: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
Him shelter from rain,
And a mouthful of grain.
He wished only to borrow;
He’d repay it tomorrow;
If not, he must die of starvation and sorrow.

(i) What did he expect from ant?
Ans: Cricket expected to take shelter from rain.

(ii) What did he wish to borrow?
Ans: He wished to borrow a mouthful of grain.

(iii) When would he repay?
Ans: He would repay the next day.

(iv) What would happen if couldn’t repay?
Ans: He hopes that if couldn’t repay then he should die of starvation.

Q6: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
Not a crumb to be found
On the snow-covered ground;
Not a flower could he see
Not a leaf on a tree.
“Oh! what will become,” says the cricket, “of me?”

(i) What couldn’t he found?
Ans: He knew that he couldn’t get a crumb in winter.

(ii) What other things would go missing?
Ans: During winter season, he couldn’t find flower or leaf to feed on.

(iii) Explain ‘What will become’?
Ans: Cricket was now scared of his future and survival.

(iv) What is the rhyming scheme?
Ans: aabb.

Q7: Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.
A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing
Through the warm, sunny months of gay summer and spring
Began to complain when he found that, at home
His cupboard was empty, and winter was come.

(i) What did the ‘silly’ cricket do?
Ans: A young silly cricket usually sing.

(ii) When did he sing?
Ans: He sang in warm and sunny months of summer and spring.

(iii) What was his complaint?
Ans: His began to complain when he observed that he has no food.

(iv) What worried him the most?
Ans: The Cricket knew that he won’t be able to get food in winters.