NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1 The Fun They Had
NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1 The Fun They Had are given below. This chapter contains many questions that are essential for exams. Our expert teachers answered all the questions with a detailed explanation that help students to complete their assignments and homework. We have also provided NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Chapter 1 The Fun They Had in PDF format so that you can download them for offline use.
The Fun They Had NCERT Questions and Answers
Thinking About Text
I. Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.
Question 1. How old are Margie and Tommy?
Answer: Margie is eleven and Tommy is thirteen years old.
Question 2. What did Margie write in her diary?
Answer: Margie wrote in her diary “Today Tommy found a real book!”
Question 3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?
Answer: No, Margie had never seen a book before.
Question 4. What things about the book did she find strange?
Answer: Margie found it strange that the words printed on a book stood still instead of moving the way they did on a screen. She also found it odd that the words on a page always remained the same as the first time they were read. Besides, the idea that someone would write a book about schools was itself strange for Margie.
Question 5. What do you think a telebook is?
Answer: I think the telebook must be a book that gets displayed on the screen of the television.
Question 6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Answer: Margie’s school was next to her bedroom. No, she did not have any classmates.
Question 7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Answer: Margie and Tommy learnt Geography, History and Arithmetic.
II. Answer the following with reference to the story.
Question 1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
(i) Who says these words?
(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?
(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
Answer: (i) Tommy says these words.
(ii) “It” refers to the books.
(iii) The paperback book is being compared with the telebooks by the speaker.
Question 2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
(iii) What is it contrasted with?
Answer: (i) “They” refers to the students centuries ago.
(ii) “Regular” means the usual for the people in 2157. Here, regular teacher means the mechanical teacher.
(iii) The mechanical teacher is contrasted with humans as teachers of earlier times.
III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
Question 1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
Answer: Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers with large black screens on which all the lessons were shown and questions were asked. These mechanical teachers had a slot in which the students had to put their homework and test papers. They didn’t have a living human being as a teacher who would teach the students in a classroom.
Question 2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
Answer: Margie’s mother sent for the County Inspector because the mechanical teacher was not functioning efficiently. Margie had been given many tests in geography by the teacher, but there was no improvement in her performance. So, Margie’s mother wanted to find out the reason behind it.
Question 3. What did he do?
Answer: The County Inspector smiled at Margie and gave her an apple. He took the mechanical teacher apart from her. Then he fixed the mechanical teacher. He told Margie’s mother that the geography sector of the mechanical teacher was geared a little too quick and that he has slowed it up to an average ten-year level.
Question 4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
Answer: Margie was doing badly in geography because the geography sector of the mechanical teacher had been adjusted at a higher level. In order to help her, the County Inspector slowed down the geography sector of the mechanical teacher to an average ten-year level.
Question 5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
Answer: Tommy’s teacher had to be taken away altogether for a month as the history sector had blanked out completely.
Question 6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Answer: Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school because Margie’s mother believed that little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.
Question 7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
Answer: Tommy says that the old kind of school had special buildings. All the kids went to that building for studying.
Question 8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
Answer: Tommy describes the old kind of teachers as living human beings who did not live in the house. Instead, they taught the students in a special building. They taught the children in groups and gave them homework.
IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 –150 words).
Question 1: What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?
Answer: Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers. They had large black screens on which all the lessons were shown and questions were asked. These teachers were adjusted according to the age and potential of the student concerned. They had a slot in which students had to put their homework and test papers. They had to write their answers in a punch code and the mechanical teacher calculated the marks immediately. Their schools were in their homes itself. They did not have any classmates. They had regular days and hours for school. The mechanical teacher always turned on at the same time every day except Saturdays and Sundays. They learned geography, history and arithmetic.
Question 2: Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
Answer: Margie hated school because she felt it boring. The mechanical teacher started the class at the same time regularly. Margie’s mechanical teacher was giving her test after test on Geography and she was performing badly. Margie also did not like inserting homework and test papers in the slot on the mechanical teacher.
She thought that the old kind of school must have been fun because it would have had kids from various places of the neighbourhood. It would have been so interesting to sit together in the classroom and leave the school together at the end of the day. All the kids learned the same things so they could help each other in studies and homework.
Question 3: Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer: There is no doubt that today’s schools are more funny than the future school discussed in the story. This school has nothing but a mechanical teacher with no emotions and sentiments. It does not have the ability to understand the psychology of a child. Moreover, it guides a pupil according to its adjusted modes. But today’s schools work for the overall development of a child. They learn the same thing. The teaches are real human beings. They learn how to adapt themselves to the new surroundings and cope with the strangers. The students sit and learn together. These activities don’t give vent to the feelings of depression, alienation and segregation.
Thinking about Language
Question 1. Find the sentences in the lesson which have the adverbs given in the box below.
| awfully | sorrowfully | completely | loftily |
| carefully | differently | quickly | nonchalantly |
Answer: Awfully: 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.
Sorrowfully: The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector.
Completely: They had once taken Tommy’s teacher away for nearly a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.
Loftily: He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, “Centuries ago.”
Differently: “But my mother says a teacher has to be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it teaches and that each kid has to be taught differently.”
Quickly: “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.
Nonchalantly: “May be,” he said nonchalantly.
Question 2. Now use these adverbs to fill in the blanks in the sentences below.
(i) The report must be read ________ so that performance can be improved.
(ii) At the interview, Sameer answered our questions _________, shrugging his shoulders.
(iii) We all behave _________ when we are tired or hungry.
(iv) The teacher shook her head ________ when Ravi lied to her.
(v) I ________ forgot about it.
(vi) When I complimented Revathi on her success, she just smiled ________ and turned away.
(vii) The President of the Company is ________ busy and will not be able to meet you.
(viii) I finished my work ________ so that I could go out to play.
Answer:
(i) The report must be read carefully so that performance can be improved.
(ii) At the interview, Sameer answered our questions loftily, shrugging his shoulders.
(iii) We all behave differently when we are tired or hungry.
(iv) The teacher shook her head sorrowfully when Ravi lied to her.
(v) I completely forgot about it.
(vi) When I complimented Revathi on her success, she just smiled nonchalantly and turned away.
(vii) The President of the Company is awfully busy and will not be able to meet you.
(viii) I finished my work quickly so that I could go out to play.
Question 3. Make adverbs from these adjectives.
(i) angry ___________
(ii) happy __________
(iii) merry___________
(iv) sleepy __________
(v) easy ____________
(vi) noisy ___________
(vii) tidy ___________
(viii) gloomy ________
Answer:
(i) Angrily
(ii) Happily
(iii) Merrily
(iv) Sleepily
(v) Easily
(vi) Noisily
(vii) Tidily
(viii) Gloomily
II. Complete the following conditional sentences. Use the correct form of the verb.
1. If I don’t go to Anu’s party tonight, _________.
2. If you don’t telephone the hotel to order food, __________.
3. Unless you promise to write back, I __________.
4. If she doesn’t play any games, ___________.
5. Unless that little bird flies away quickly, the cat _________.
Answer:
1. If I don’t go to Anu’s party tonight, she will get irritated.
2. If you don’t telephone the hotel to order food, you will miss your meal.
3. Unless you promise to write back, I will not write you another letter.
4. If she doesn’t play any games, she will become lazy.
5. Unless that little bird flies away quickly, the cat will pounce on it and kill it.
Writing
Question: A new revised volume of Isaac Asimov’s short stories has just been released. Order one set. Write a letter to the publisher, Mindfame Private Limited, 1632 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi, requesting that a set be sent to you by Value Payable Post (VPP), and giving your address. Your letter will have the following parts.
- Addresses of the sender and receiver
- The salutation
- The body of the letter
- The closing phrases and signature Your letter might look like this:
Answers
1212, Sector 14
Urban Estate
Gurgaon
Date: 15 April, 20xx
M/s. Mindfame Private Limited
1632, Asaf Ali Road
New Delhi
Dear Sir
I have come to know that you have just released a new revised volume of Isaac Asimov’s short stories. I hereby place an order for one set for the same. Kindly send it by Value Payable Post (VPP) at the address given above.
Yours sincerely,
Samir
SPEAKING
In groups of four discuss the following topic.
‘The Schools of the Future Will Have No Books and No Teachers !”
Your group can decide to speak for or against the motion. After this, each group will select a speaker to present its views to the entire class.
You may find the following phrases useful to present your argument in the debate.
- In my opinion …..
- I/we fail to understand why ……
- I wholeheartedly support/oppose the view that ….
- At the outset let me say …..
- I’d/we’d like to raise the issue of/argue against …..
- I should like to draw attention to …..
- My/our worthy opponent has submitted that …..
- On the contrary ……
- I firmly reject ……
Answers: Note: Students to do as desired. For a full speech they may expand the following points for and against the motion.
For the motion
- Future to be exclusively scientifically and technologically more and more advanced.
- Life to depend heavily on latest gadgetry.
- New experiments in all fields including education.
- Future schools to have no books, no teachers.
- Concentration of mind more and more.
- Knowledge widespread, more advanced.
- Human teachers to be replaced by mechanical ones.
- Each student’s mechanical teacher to be upgraded as per the mental calibre.
- Individual talents to be sharpened to make him or her utility oriented.
- An important step in scientific progress.
Against the motion
- Future to be governed and controlled by scientific, electronic or technological gadgetry.
- Human side of life totally absent.
- All human beings like machine tools.
- Interaction among them at human, social, emotional level to be negligible.
- Schools and human teachers absent but their absence to be felt greatly.
- Human beings’ growth at human level to be zero.
- They would exist as human beings. But won’t know emotions of fellow-feeling, sympathy, pity, mercy, love, likes/dislikes.
- These emotions very necessary for balanced growth of human personality.
- So future bleak and bad for humans in such an age of science and technology.
- ‘Old is Gold’ saying to be missed greatly.