The Hundred Dresses Part 1 Extra Questions and Answers Class 10 English

The Hundred Dresses Part 1 Class 10 Extra Questions & Answers are available here. Class 10 English The Hundred Dresses Part 1 extra questions and answers are prepared by our expert teachers. All these questions are divided into two or three sections. They are short type questions answers, long type question answers and extract based questions. Learning these questions will help you to score excellent marks in the board exams.

The Hundred Dresses Part 1 Extra Questions and Answers

Very Short Answer Questions

1. Where did Wanda Petronski live?
Answer: She lived at Boggins Heights.

2. Where did Wanda use to sit in the class?
Answer: She used to sit in the seat next to the last.

3. Who was Peggy’s best friend?
Answer: Maddie was Peggy’s best friend.

4. Who was Miss Mason?
Answer: She was Peggy’s class teacher.

5. Why were Wanda’s shoes always mud caked?
Answer: Wanda’s shoes were always mud caked because she had to go on foot all the way from Boggins Height to the school.

6. What was strange about Wanda’s name?
Answer: She had a long name which was a funny one.

7. What was the attitude of the other children toward Wanda?
Answer: They often made fun of her.

8. What was Wanda’s response to Peggy’s question about dresses?
Answer: She said that she had one hundred dresses, all lined up in her closet.

9. How did Peggy react when she saw an animal mistreated?
Answer: When Peggy saw an animal mistreated, she would cry for hours.

10. What kind of dress did Wanda wear?
Answer: She always wore a faded blue dress.

Short Answer Type Questions

1. How did Peggy and Maddie try to amend their behaviour towards Wanda?

Answer: Both Peggy and Maddie felt guilty for their behaviour towards Wanda. Maddie felt very sad to know that Wanda and her family were leaving the town. Both of them wrote a friendly letter to Wanda telling her that she had won the contest. They asked her if she liked the place where she was living. They wanted to say sorry to her.

2Why was Maddie sure Peggy would win the dress designing contest? 

Answer: Maddie was sure that Peggy would win the dress designing contest because according to her, and everyone in the class, Peggy was the best artist in class.

3How did Peggy make fun of Wanda Petronski?   

Answer: Peggy would wait to make fun of Wanda at school. She would most courteously ask her, how many dresses she had hanging in her closet. Wanda would reply that there were a hundred. Peggy would then ask about the dress material, and when Wanda walked away, would burst into laughter, sarcastically making fun of her.

4What kind of girl was Wanda? Where did she usually sit in the class?

Answer: Wanda was a quiet girl who rarely laughed out loud. She didn’t have any friends and always come to school, and went home alone. She usually sat in the corner of the room, where those who didn’t get good marks sat, and which was the noisiest and dirtiest area in the room.

5. How was Wanda treated at school?
Or
Why did children make fun of Wanda?

Answer: Children made fun of Wanda because she had a funny name. And also because she came to school wearing the same faded blue dress although she claimed she had a hundred dresses—all of the different designs, colours and a variety of clothes—silk and velvet.

6Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why did she say so and how did she prove that?

Answer: No, she did not have the actual dresses. She had only the drawings of a hundred dresses on papers. All had different designs and colours. She had lined them up in her closet. She proved herself right by submitting a hundred drawings of dresses in the drawing and painting competition of her school.

7Why did Maddie write a note to Peggy and then tore it?

Answer: Maddie wanted Peggy to stop teasing Wanda. She thought it was cruel. She could not dare to say all this verbally so she wrote a note to Peggy. But then she pictured herself as a new target for Peggy and other girls, making fun of her for wearing hand-me-down clothes. She shuddered and tore the note.

8. Who was Maddie?

Answer: Maddie belonged to a poor family. She wore old clothes which were given by others, her parents were not rich. They lived in a simple house.            

9. What was the opinion of the judges about Wanda?

Answer: Wanda had drawn one hundred designs of dresses, which were all different and all beautiful. In the Opinion of the judges, any one of the drawings was worthy of winning the prize. So she was declared the winner of the girl medal.

10. How can you say that Peggy was a soft girl?

Answer: Peggy was not really cruel. She protected smaller children from bullies. If she saw an animal mistreated, she would cry for hours.

11. Maddie wrote a note for Peggy but she tore it away. Why?

Answer: Maddie wanted that Peggy should stop teasing and making fun of Wanda. So she wrote a note to Peggy. But she lacked the courage to give that note to Peggy fearing lest she should lose Peggy’s friendship. So she tore the note.

12. What kind of girl Peggy was? 

Answer: Peggy was not really a cruel girl. In fact. she protected small children from bullies. She was a sensitive girl. She cried for hours if she saw an animal mistreated. She asked Wanda questions about her dresses and shoes. But her intentions were not bad. She simply wanted to have some fun. She was the most popular girl in the class. She was a pretty girl.

13. Did Wanda Petronski sit in that corner near the last row because she was rough and noisy? 
Answer: No, Wanda Petronski did not sit in that corner because she was rough and noisy like the boys who sat there. She was always quiet and rarely uttered a word. Only sometimes she twisted her mouth into a crooked sort of smile. She sat there because she didn’t feel comfortable with other girls in the front row. They made fun of her. She had no friends and didn’t feel comfortable in the company of other girls.

14. What did they think about Wanda and why? Wanda’s classmates

Answer: Generally, particularly girls usually didn’t notice Wanda’s presence or absence in the class. Only outside the school when they came to school or went home they would talk to her. They would be talking and laughing on their way to the schoolyard. Girls like Peggy would ask mockingly how many dresses Wanda had lined up in her closet. They spoke politely but only to make fun of her.

15. What did her classmates and Maddie think about Peggy? 

Answer: Peggy was decided by the most popular girl in the class. She was pretty. She had many pretty clothes. Her hair was curly they thought that she could draw better than other girls. She handed down her old clothes to her closest friend Maddie. Maddie wished that Peggy would not embarrass Wanda by asking uncomfortable questions about her dresses and shoes.

16. Was Peggy really cruel? Why did she make fun of Wanda Petronski by asking questions about her dresses and shoes?

Answer: No, Peggy was not really cruel. She protected small children from bullies she cried for hours if she saw an animal mistreated. But in Wanda’s case, she thought differently. She thought that Wanda was telling a lie about her hundred dresses and sixty pairs of shoes. She had always seen Wanda wearing a faded blue dress. Moreover, she didn’t like the place, Boggins Heights where Wanda lived. She also found the Polish name Wanda Petronski rather difficult and funny.

17. Why didn’t Maddie like Peggy asking Wanda how many dresses, hats and shoes she had? How did she feel at such times? 

Answer: Maddie was quite poor. She depended on Peggy’s generosity who handed down her old clothes to her. However, she didn’t like Peggy embarrassing Wanda by asking uncomfortable questions related to her dresses and shoes. She couldn’t stand up against her closest friend and benefactor Peggy. She wished Peggy would not ask such embarrassing questions.

18. Why did Maddie feel that she could be the next target of Peggy and all other girls? What did she wish?

Answer: No doubt, Peggy was her closest friend and benefactor. However, Maddie knew that she herself was a poor girl. She wore old clothes given up by Peggy. Peggy and all others could ask her where she had got the dress from which she was wearing. She would have to answer that it was Peggy’s old ones. She could be the next target of Peggy and the other girls. She wished Peggy would stop teasing Wanda Petronski.

19. Why did Maddie think of writing a letter to Peggy? Why did she tear it into bits?

Answer: Maddie didn’t like Peggy teasing Wanda Petronski. But she could not muster up the courage to say it to Peggy. Peggy was her closest friend. She gave her old clothes to Maddie. So, she thought of writing a letter asking Peggy not to tease Wanda again. But Maddie tore into bits the letter she had started. She thought that Peggy could not possibly do anything that was really wrong.

20. Why did Maddie and other girls think that Peggy would win the drawing and colouring competition?

Answer: Not only Maddie but others also believed that Peggy would win the drawing and colouring competition. Peggy drew better than anyone else in the class. She could copy a picture of some film star’s head in a magazine. Moreover, Wanda’s skills in drawing and designing had not been revealed yet.

21. Why did Peggy and Maddie stop short and gasp when they entered the classroom? 

Answer: The moment they entered the classroom, Peggy and Maddie stopped short and gasped as there were drawings all over the room. Even every ledge and windowsill had them. There were designs with dazzling colours. They were drawn on wrapping paper. More than a hundred of them were there all lined up all over the room.

22. How did Miss Mason announce Wanda Petronski’s name as the winner of the girls’ medal in the drawing and colouring contest? 

Answer: As soon as the class assembled, the teacher, Miss Mason announced the winners. Jack Beagles won for the boys. As for the girls, most of the girls submitted one or two sketches. One girl submitted one hundred designs. All of them were different and beautiful. Anyone of the drawings was worthy of winning the prize. She announced that Wanda Petronski was the winner of the girls’ medal.

23. How did Peggy, Maddie and other girls react to Wanda’s drawing winning the girls’ medal in the drawing and colouring contest? Did the boys react differently? 

Answer: All applauded when Wanda was announced as the winner of the girls’ medal. All of them filed around the room to look at the paintings. Maddie showed Peggy one beautiful blue dress that Wanda told them about. Peggy was surprised to see the green one she used to talk about. The boys were not interested in dresses but found time for enjoying and whistling.

24. Why did Wanda Petronski sit in the last row? 

Answer: Wanda Petronski had no friends. She came to school and went home alone. She had a Polish name which looked funny to her classmates. She lived at Boggins Heights, a place that was not particularly liked by the people and her classmates. Her shoes were covered with dry mud and she always wore a faded blue dress. So, she didn’t feel comfortable with other girls and preferred to sit in the last row with ‘rough boys’.

Long Answer Type Questions

1. Wanda had no friends and nobody liked to talk to her. Do you think such an attitude of children towards Wanda is justified? Is it right to judge people on the basis of their social status? If no, then what values should such people imbibe?

Answer: Wanda was a quiet girl who rarely laughed out loud. She didn’t have any friends and always come to school and went home alone. Children made fun of her because she had a funny name. And also because she came to school wearing the same faded blue dress. Although, she claimed she had a hundred dresses.
(i) This type of attitude is not justified.
(ii) It is not at all right to judge people on the basis of their social status. Although Wanda did not have the actual dresses she had the drawings of the dresses on papers. All of different colours and designs.
(iii) She proved herself by submitting a hundred drawings of dresses in the drawing and painting competition of her school. People who judge others with their socio-economic background, need to learn that such things are not the parameters to judge a person’s capabilities. They should respect others

2. Maddie loathed the business of asking Wanda about her dresses but she found it difficult to stop Peggy to do so. Why could she not stop Peggy? Was she afraid of losing the friendship of Peggy? Write about the values one must possess in a true friendship in about 100-120 words. 

Answer: Meddle did not approve of Peggy’s teasing of Wanda because she was as poor as Wanda was. But she could not stop Peggy as she did not have the courage to do so because Peggy was her best friend and thought that if she asked her to do so she might lose her friendship. Secondly, she thought that once the students stop teasing Wanda. they might ask her similar questions. I think a true friend should stop his/her friend from doing wrong things. She should guide him/her in the right direction.

3. Though Peggy and Maddie were good friends, they differed greatly in their thinking. Substantiate giving references from the story The Hundred Dresses’.

Answer: Peggy and Maddie were classmates and close friends. Peggy was rich, pretty and the most popular girl in her class. Maddie was poor and wore hand-me-down clothes mostly of Peggy with a little innovation. Other students knew her because she was always with Peggy. Peggy used to enjoy teasing Wanda a Polish girl by asking her about her hundred dresses. Maddie would become a part of the fun unwillingly. She used to feel uncomfortable, perhaps it reminded her of her own poverty. She remained silent as she feared that Peggy might pick on her if she opposed. Thus, Peggy and Maddie’s inseparable friends had different personalities.

4. What made Maddie feel uncomfortable and uneasy when Peggy and other girls made fun of Wanda Petronski?                                                                

Answer: Peggy and other girls used to make fun of Wanda by asking her about her hundred dresses. In fact, Wanda said that she had a hundred dresses but wore the same faded blue dress every day. Maddie who was herself poor and wore hand-me-down clothes mostly of Peggy with a little alteration, felt uncomfortable when others teased Wanda. Perhaps it reminded her of her own poverty. She could not see Wanda in that miserable condition. She thought it was cruel to make fun of anyone’s poverty. She used to feel uneasy but remained a silent spectator. She feared that if she opposed she could be the next target.

5. What does this story tell us about Wanda Petronski?

Answer: Wanda Petronski was a Polish girl. Her family had immigrated to America. She studied in a school with other American students. She belonged to a very poor family. Daily she came to school in a faded blue dress. It was clean but not properly ironed. She used to sit in the corner of room number thirteen in the last row. This was a corner where the rough boys, who did not make good marks, sat. Wanda did not sit there because she was rough and noisy. On the contrary, she was very quiet. But she came on foot from Boggins Heights area and brought a lot of dirt with her shoes. She was a reserved girl and did not speak much in the class. No one had ever heard her laugh.

6. Who were Peggy and Maddie? How did they and other girls make fun of Wanda?

Answer: Peggy and Maddie were the two classmates of Wanda. Peggy was the most popular girl in the school. She was pretty and had curly hair. She belonged to a rich family. She had many pretty clothes. Maddie was her closest friend. Peggy and Maddie were not bad girls but they used to have some fun with Wanda
Petronski. The students in Wanda’s class found her name funny.

Wanda was always alone in her class. Peggy made fun of Wanda and asked her how many dresses she had in her closet. Wanda replied that she had one hundred dresses. Then Peggy would ask her whether the dresses were of silk or velvet. Wanda would reply that she dresses of velvet as well as silk. The girls would ask her how many pairs of shoes she had. At this Wanda would tell them that she had sixty pairs of shoes. The girls would suppress their laugh while talking to her. But as soon as Wanda’s back was turned, they would burst into peals of laughter.

7. What do you know about Maddie?

Answer: Maddie was one of the classmates of Wanda. She was Peggy’s best friend. Maddie herself was a poor girl. She used to wear clothes given by other persons. So she was sympathetic to Wanda. She and Peggy were fast friends. That is why she never said anything when Peggy made fun of Wanda. But she herself never laughed at Wanda. She did not like Peggy’s asking Wanda about the dresses. Whenever Peggy mocked at Wanda, Maddie felt bad. She wished that Peggy would stop teasing Wanda Petronski. Maddie decided to write a note for Peggy asking her to stop making fun of Wanda but she could not muster the courage to give the note to her.

8. When did Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence from school?

Answer: Wanda did not come to school on Monday. But nobody noticed her. She did not come on Tuesday also. But when she missed the school on Wednesday also. Peggy and Middie noted her absence. They wondered why she had not come to school. Maddie remembered Wanda talking about one of her dresses which was pale blue with coloured trimmings. Then Maddie thought about the drawing and colour contest in the school. The girls were to design dresses and the boys were to design motorboats. Muddle thought that Peggy would win the contest as she was very good at design.

9. Describe the scene where Wanda’s dress drawings are displayed? Who won the drawing contest for the girls? 

Answer: The next day it was drizzling. Peggy and Maddie hurried to their school as Miss Mason would announce the results of the drawing contest. They did not wait for Wanda. When the girls reached their school they were surprised. There were hundreds of designs of dresses displayed in the room. Then Miss Mason announced the names of the winners. Jack Beagles had won for the boys. She said that all the hundred designs of dresses had been made by one girl and she had won the Medal. Her name was Wanda Petronski. But Wanda was absent. The children clapped their hands in joy. Maddie asked Peggy to look at the blue dress about which Wanda had told them earlier. They appreciated the drawings made by Wanda.

10. What did Peggy and other girls think about Wanda Petronski? How was she different from other girls?

Answer: Peggy and other girls hardly noticed Wanda Petronski’s presence or absence in the class. Wanda sat in the seat next to the last seat in the last row in the class. Only ‘rough boys’ who never got good marks and made a lot of noise sat in that corner. A lot of dirt and mud could be found on the floor there. Nobody knew why she sat there. Perhaps she lived at Boggins Heights and brought a lot of dry mud with her from there. Girls found her coming to school and going home alone. She had no friends.

Peggy, Maddie and others talked to Wanda only when she was outside the class. Peggy particularly enjoyed having fun with her. In mocking tone, she teased Wanda asking her uncomfortable questions about her hundred dresses and sixty pairs of shoes No one believed that a poor girl who. usually wore a faded blue dress could have a hundred dresses. Peggy thought that Wanda was telling a lie. So, she teased her by asking such embarrassing questions about her dresses. Maddie was different. She didn’t like Peggy making fun of Wanda. She wished Peggy would stop teasing Wanda in that manner.

11. Why did Peggy tease Wanda Petronski with uncomfortable and embarrassing questions about her one hundred dresses? Was she really cruel?

Answer: Peggy and Maddie didn’t notice Wanda’s presence in the class. Wanda rarely uttered even a word in the classroom. Only outside, they would wait for Wanda on the corner of Oliver Street to have some fun with her. They found her Polish name quite funny. Sometimes, they surrounded her in the schoolyard. Peggy would tease Wanda by asking. “How many dresses did you say you had hanging up in your closet?” Wanda would say: “A hundred. They were of all colours and all were of silk”. When Peggy asked: “How many shoes did you say you had?” Wanda would reply: “Sixty pairs.”

Peggy was not actually cruel. She protected small children from bullies. She cried hours if she saw an animal illtreated. But Wanda’s case was different. Peggy could never believe that a poor girl living at Boggins Heights could have a hundred dresses and 60 pairs of shoes. Wanda was always seen in a faded blue dress. So Peggy had her own reasons to believe that Wanda was telling a lie.

12. Compare and contrast two friends, Peggy and Maddie. Why couldn’t Maddie stop Peggy from teasing Wanda Petronski? 

Answer: Peggy and Maddie were two close friends. They came from two different financial and cultural backgrounds. Peggy was pretty. She had many pretty clothes. Her hair was curly. Madeline or Maddie, on the other hand, belonged to a poor family. Peggie used to hand down her old clothes to Maddie. Maddie’s mother tried to disguise those old clothes with new trimmings. She did it so that her classmates would not recognise them. Peggy was the most popular girl in the class. Both of them sat in the front row where only those who got good marks sat. Peggy was very good at drawing. Everybody thought that Peggy would win the girls’ medal in the drawing and colouring competition.

Maddie knew that Peggy was not really cruel. She protected small children from bullies. But in the case of Wanda, she was different. She teased and embarrassed her by asking uncomfortable questions about her hundred dresses. Maddie wished Peggy would stop teasing Wanda. She couldn’t muster the courage to stop her from doing so. Being a poor girl, she realised that one day she could become a target of Peggy and other girls. But Maddie became helpless before her closest friend and benefactor, Peggy.

13. What was the drawing and colouring contest? Who was the favourite and who won the girls’ medal in the contest? How did it affect boys and girls in the class? 

Answer: The class organised a drawing and colouring contest for boys and girls separately. For girls, the contest consisted of designing dresses. For boys, the contest consisted of designing motorboats. Everyone thought that Peggie would win the prize among girls. She drew better than anyone else in the class. She could copy a picture in a magazine. She could draw the head of some film star and anyone could tell who it was. Maddie was sure that Peggy would win.

The next day when Peggy and Maddie entered the room, they were highly surprised. There were drawings all over the room. As soon as the class assembled, the teacher, Miss Mason announced the winners. Jack Beagles had won for the boys. For the girls, most of them had sent one or two sketches. Only one girl submitted a hundred drawings. They were all of different designs and colours. In the opinion of the judges, any one of the drawings was worthy of winning the prize. Wanda Petronski was declared the winner of the girls’ medal. Miss Mason was sad that Wanda was not in the class to receive the honour. The students filed around the room to look at the drawings. The boys were not interested in dresses. They enjoyed the occasion by whistling. Peggy and Maddie could spot the blue and green dresses there which Wanda used to talk about.

Extract Based Questions

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow:

Question 1: Today, Monday, Wanda Petronski was not in her seat. But nobody, not even Peggy and Madeline, the girls who started all the fun, noticed her absence. Usually Wanda sat in the seat next to the last seat in the last row in Room Thirteen. She sat in the corner of the room where the rough boys who did not make good marks sat, the corner of the room where there was most scuffling of feet, most roars of laughter when anything funny was said, and most mud and dirt on the floor.

Wanda did not sit there because she was rough and noisy. On the contrary, she was very quiet and rarely said anything at all. And nobody had ever heard her laugh out loud. Sometimes she twisted her mouth into a crooked sort of smile, but that was all.

a) Where did Wanda Petronski usually sit?
b) Did Peggy and Madeline notice Wanda’s absence?
c) How did most of the boys create fun in the classroom?
d) What kind of a girl was Wanda?

Answer: (a) She usually sat in the corner next to the last seat in the last row.
(b) No, Peggy and Madeline did not notice Wanda’s absence.
(c) They created fun by scuffling their feet on the ground and laughing loudly.
(d) Wanda was a quiet and calm girl.

Question 2: Nobody knew exactly why Wanda sat in that seat, unless it was because she came all the way from Boggins Heights and her feet were usually caked with dry mud. But no one really thought much about Wanda Petronski, once she sat in the corner of the room.

The time when they thought about Wanda was outside of school hours — at noon-time when they were coming back to school or in the morning early before school began, when groups of two or three, or even more, would be talking and laughing on their way to the school yard. Then, sometimes, they waited for Wanda — to have fun with her.

(a) Where did Wanda come from?
(b) What happened after Wanda sat in the corner of the room?
(c) When did classmates think of Wanda?
(d) Why did they wait for Wanda?

Answer: (a) Wanda came from Boggins Heights.
(b) After she sat in the corner of the room, nobody thought much of her.
(c) They thought of her outside of school hours.
(d) They waited for her to have fun with her.

Question 3: The next day, Tuesday, Wanda was not in school, either. And nobody noticed her absence again. But on Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie, who sat down front with other children who got good marks and who didn’t track in a whole lot of mud, did notice that Wanda wasn’t there. Peggy was the most popular girl in school. She was pretty, she had many pretty clothes and her hair was curly. Maddie was her closest friend. The reason Peggy and Maddie noticed Wanda’s absence was because Wanda had made them late to school. They had waited and waited for Wanda, to have some fun with her, and she just hadn’t come. They often waited for Wanda Petronski — to have fun with her.

(a) Did Wanda come to school on Tuesday?
(b) Where did Peggy and Maddie sit?
(c) Who was the most popular girl in the school?
(d) Why did Peggy and Maddie think of Wanda?

Answer: (a) No, Wanda did not come to school on Tuesday.
(b) Peggy and Maddie sat in the front where other children, who got good marks, sat.
(c) Peggy was the most popular girl in the school.
(d) They thought of Wanda because she had made them late for school.

Question 4: Wanda didn’t have any friends. She came to school alone and went home alone. She always wore a faded blue dress that didn’t hang right. It was clean, but it looked as though it had never been ironed properly. She didn’t have any friends, but a lot of girls talked to her. Sometimes, they surrounded her in the school yard as she stood watching the little girls play hopscotch on the worn hard ground.

“Wanda,” Peggy would say in a most courteous manner as though she were talking to Miss Mason. “Wanda”, she’d say, giving one of her friends a nudge, “tell us. How many dresses did you say you had hanging up in your closet ?”
“A hundred,” Wanda would say.
“A hundred!” exclaimed all the little girls incredulously, and the little ones would stop playing hopscotch and listen.

a) What kind of dress did Wanda wear?
b) How did Peggy make fun of Wanda?
c) Did Wanda have any friends?
d) What would Wanda say when Peggy questioned her about dresses?

Answer: (a) She wore a faded blue dress.
(b) Peggy made fun of Wanda by asking a question about how many dresses she had at home.
(c) No, Wanda did not have any friends.
(d) Wanda would say that she had a hundred dresses lined up in her closet.

Question 5: Peggy was not really cruel. She protected small children from bullies. And she cried for hours if she saw an animal mistreated. If anybody had said to her, “Don’t you think that is a cruel way to treat Wanda?” she would have been very surprised. Cruel? Why did the girl say she had a hundred dresses? Anybody could tell that that was a lie. Why did she want to lie? And she wasn’t just an ordinary person, else why did she have a name like that? Anyway, they never made her cry.

As for Maddie, this business of asking Wanda every day how many dresses and how many hats, and how many this and that she had was bothering her. Maddie was poor herself. She usually wore somebody’s hand-me-down clothes. Thank goodness, she didn’t live up on Boggins Heights or have a funny name.

a) How did Peggy react when she saw an animal mistreated?
b) How would Peggy react if someone said that she was cruel towards Wanda?
c) What did Peggy and Maddie think of Wanda?
d) How do you know that Maddie was also poor?

Answer: (a) When she saw an animal mistreated, she would cry for hours.
(b) She would be surprised.
(c) She thought that Wanda wasn’t just an ordinary person.
(d) Maddie wore somebody’s hand-me-down clothes. This shows that she was also poor.

Self- Assessment Test

Extract Based Questions

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Question 1: Sometimes, when Peggy was asking Wanda those questions in that mocking polite voice, Maddie felt embarrassed and studied the marbles in the palm of her hand, rolling them around and saying nothing herself. Not that she felt sorry for Wanda, exactly. She would never have paid any attention to Wanda if Peggy hadn’t invented the dresses game. But suppose Peggy and all the others started in on her next? She wasn’t as poor as Wanda, perhaps, but she was poor. Of course, she would have more sense than to say she had a hundred dresses. Still she would not like for them to begin on her. She wished Peggy would stop teasing Wanda Petronski.

a) When did Maddie feel embarrassed?
b) When would Maddie never have paid any attention to Wanda?
c) What additional benefit did Maddie think she had than Wanda?
d) What did Maddie wish?

Question 2: Today, even though they had been late to school, Maddie was glad she had not had to make fun of Wanda. She worked her arithmetic problems absent-mindedly. “Eight times eight—let’s see …” She wished she had the nerve to write Peggy a note, because she knew she never would have the courage to speak right out to Peggy, to say, “Hey, Peg, let’s stop asking Wanda how many dresses she has.” When she finished her arithmetic she did start a note to Peggy. Suddenly she paused and shuddered. She

pictured herself in the school yard, a new target for Peggy and the girls. Peggy might ask her where she got the dress that she had on, and Maddie would have to say it was one of Peggy’s old ones that Maddie’s mother had tried to disguise with new trimmings so no one in Room Thirteen would recognise it.

a) Why was Maddie glad?
b) How did Maddie want to ask Peggy not to make fun of Wanda?
c) What made Maddie feel ‘shuddered’?
d) How did Maddie think Peggy would humiliate her?

Short Answer Questions

1. How was Wanda treated at school?
2. Why was Wanda announced the winner?
3. Who was Wanda Petronski?
4. What does the story, ‘The Hundred Dresses’ teach us?
5. What was the drawing contest about?

Long Answer Questions

1. Though Peggy and Maddie were good friends, they differed greatly in their thinking. Substantiate giving references from the story, ‘The Hundred Dresses’.

2. Describe the scene where Wanda’s dress drawings are displayed. Who won the drawing contest for girls?

3. What made Maddie feel uncomfortable and uneasy when Peggy and other girls made fun of Wanda Petronski?