NCERT Class 10 English — Madam Rides the Bus Exercise Question Answers
First Flight chapter “Madam Rides the Bus” is written by Vallikkannan.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 34)
Q1. What was Valli’s favourite pastime?
Answer:
Valli’s favourite pastime was standing at the front doorway of her house and watching the activities on the street.
Q2. What was a source of unending joy for Valli? What was her strongest desire?
Answer:
Watching the bus that travelled between her village and the nearest town was a source of unending joy for Valli. Her strongest desire was to ride on that bus at least once.
Q3. What did Valli find out about the bus journey? How did she find out these details?
Answer:
Valli found out that:
The town was six miles away.
The journey took forty-five minutes.
The one-way fare was thirty paise.
She found out these details by carefully listening to the conversations of passengers and neighbours.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 36)
Q1. What do you think Valli was planning to do?
Answer:
Valli was planning to travel alone by bus to the town and return on the same bus.
Q2. Why does the conductor call Valli ‘madam’?
Answer:
The conductor called Valli ‘madam’ jokingly because she behaved like a grown-up and spoke seriously and confidently.
Q3. Why does Valli stand up on the seat? What does she see now?
Answer:
Valli stood up on the seat because she was too short to see outside clearly through the window. She saw green fields, trees, canals, and other beautiful sights outside.
Q4. What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?
Answer:
Valli told him that she was not a child and that she had paid her full fare like others.
Oral Comprehension Check (Page 40)
Q1. Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?
Answer:
Valli did not want to make friends with the elderly woman because she found her very talkative and unpleasant.
Q2. Why didn’t Valli get off the bus at the bus station?
Answer:
Valli did not get off the bus because she only wanted to enjoy the ride. Also, she had only enough money for the return fare.
Q3. Why didn’t Valli want to go to the stall and have a drink?
Answer:
Valli did not want to spend money on a drink because she had carefully saved only enough money for the bus fare.
Q4. What was the happiest part of Valli’s journey?
Answer:
The happiest part of Valli’s journey was seeing a young cow running playfully in front of the bus.
Q5. What saddened Valli on her return journey?
Answer:
On her return journey, Valli saw the same cow lying dead on the roadside. This sight made her very sad.
Q6. What did Valli see standing at her doorway?
Answer:
Valli saw her mother talking to one of her aunts while standing at the doorway.
Thinking About the Text
Q1. What was Valli’s deepest desire? Find the words and phrases in the story that tell you this.
Answer:
Valli’s deepest desire was to ride on the bus at least once. The story says that the sight of the bus filled her with “unending joy” and that “over many days and months, she watched the bus carefully and listened to people’s conversations.”
Q2. How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she find out about the bus, and how did she save up the fare?
Answer:
Valli carefully planned her journey by collecting information about the bus timings, distance, fare, and travel duration. She learned these details by listening to passengers and neighbours.
She saved money by not buying candies, toys, and other small things. In this way, she collected sixty paise for the round trip.
Q3. What kind of a person is Valli?
Answer:
Valli was curious, confident, intelligent, and determined. She was also careful, independent, and mature for her age.
Q4. Why does the conductor refer to Valli as ‘madam’?
Answer:
The conductor referred to Valli as ‘madam’ humorously because she behaved in a serious and self-important manner like an adult passenger.
Q5. Find the lines in the text which tell you that Valli was enjoying her ride on the bus.
Answer:
The following lines show that Valli enjoyed the ride:
Q6. Why does Valli refuse to look out of the window on her way back?
Answer:
Valli refused to look out of the window because she felt sad after seeing the dead cow on the roadside.
Q7. What does Valli mean when she says, “I was just agreeing with what you said about things happening without our knowledge”?
Answer:
Valli meant that her mother did not know about her secret bus journey. She had experienced something important without her mother’s knowledge.
Thinking About Language
Q1. What is meant by the following expressions?
(i) “The child is trying to be a grown-up.”
Answer:
It means that Valli was behaving like an adult by talking seriously and acting independently.
(ii) “Proud! You don’t have to say a word about that.”
Answer:
It means that Valli was clearly very proud of traveling alone.
(iii) “Neither accepted nor rejected.”
Answer:
It means that Valli was unsure whether to agree or disagree.
(iv) “Too eager to be sociable.”
Answer:
It means that the elderly woman was trying too hard to talk and make friends.
Short Answer Type Questions
Q1. Who was Valli?
Answer:
Valli was an eight-year-old village girl and the main character of the story.
Q2. Why did Valli save money?
Answer:
Valli saved money to travel by bus to the town.
Q3. What was the fare of the bus journey?
Answer:
The one-way fare was thirty paise.
Q4. What lesson did Valli learn from the journey?
Answer:
Valli learned that life is a mixture of happiness and sadness.
Long Answer Question
Q. Describe Valli’s first bus journey.
Answer:
Valli’s first bus journey was an exciting and memorable experience. She had planned it carefully by saving money and collecting information about the route and fare. One afternoon, she quietly boarded the bus while her mother was asleep.
During the journey, she enjoyed the beautiful scenery outside and felt proud to travel alone. The conductor jokingly called her “madam” because of her mature behaviour. She laughed happily on seeing a young cow running on the road.
However, on her return journey, she saw the same cow lying dead on the roadside, which made her sad. After returning home safely, Valli felt more experienced and mature.
Comments
Post a Comment