Maharashtra Board Class 10 English Solution Chapter 3.1 – Night of the Scorpion
Balbharati Maharashtra Board Class 10 English Solution Chapter 3.1: Night of the Scorpion. Marathi or English Medium Students of Class 10 get here Night of the Scorpion full Exercise Solution.
Std |
Maharashtra Class 10 |
Subject |
English Solution |
Chapter |
Night of the Scorpion |
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
Q.) What forced the scorpion to take shelter in the poet’s house?
Ans: To save itself from the incessant rain the scorpion came inside the poet’s house.
Q.) What does the phrase ‘to paralyze the evil’ mean in the stanza three?
Ans: The phrase means ‘to lie still’ the peasants believed that if the scorpion moved, the poison in the mother’s body spread. So they wished the scorpion to lie still.
Q.) Who are ‘they’ in the stanza four?
Ans: ‘They’ in the stanza four is referring to peasants.
Q.) Who does the word ‘him’ refer to in the line three?
Ans: In line three the ‘him’ refers to the scorpion.
Q.) Why does the poem begin with the poet’s remembering the night?
Ans: The poet recalls the unforgettable rainy night of his childhood. A hidden scorpion came out under a sack of rice and stung the mother of the poet. The mother writing in pain on a mat. The poet never forgets the ordeal.
Q.) When did the mother find relief?
Ans: The mother found relief after twenty hours.
ENGLISH WORKSHOP:
After reading the poem, complete the following:
Q.) What happens? There are three main parts of the poem. Do you know what they are about?
Ans:
Lines | What is happening? |
1-7 | The scorpion comes into the home to escape the rain and sting the poet’s mother |
8-33 | The peasants sat around the mother and prayed for the scorpion to sit still |
34-48 | Allsorts of cure were tried. Being a rationalist but he also becomea victim of superstition. The pain subsided after twenty houses. The mother thanked God. |
Q A.) Complete the following tables:
Ans.
Scorpion | |
Timid | Dangerous |
(1) Hides beneath a sack of rice | (1) Diabolic tail |
(2) Is afraid of the people and goes back | (2) The Evil One |
(3) His poison moved in Mother’s blood |
B.) Look at the description of the village peasants. What does the imagery suggest about them?
Ans.
Imagery | |
The images | What the images suggest |
1) They came like swarms of flies. | (1) They came in a huge crowd, large number of people from the whole village went towards the house, like swarm of flies. |
(2) They buzzed the name of God. | (2) They kept on chanting and repeating name of God softly and continuously and it felt like the sound of the buzzing of bees. |
(3) They threw giant scorpion shadows on the mud-baked walls. | (3) The villagers carried lanterns which threw shadows on the walls and looked like huge scorpion shadows to the frightened family. |
(4) They clicked their tongues. | (4) They were making mournful and frightening sounds with their tongues, kind of a superstitious act. |
Q.) Choose the correct alternative:-
a.) The child is afraid but admires _____________
i) The initiative of the Peasants
ii) His father trying every way to cure
iii) The bravery of his mother
Ans.The bravery of his mother
b.) His father and villagers panic and hastily suggest _______________
i) To take her to the hospital
ii) Ayurvedic treatment
iii)Religious remedies to help
Ans. Religious remedies to help
c.) The poet seems to see the villagers as impractical and almost irritating which suggest that _______
i) The poet is critical of caste
ii) The poet is critical of religion
iii) The poet is critical of tradition
Ans.The poet is critical of religion
d.) This is a poem ______________ as it tells a story
i) Reflective
ii) Imaginative
iii) Narrative
Ans. Narrative
e.) Using the first person gives the feeling that it is told form ____________
i) Personal experience
ii) Public experience
iii) Private experience
Ans. Personal experience
f.) The scorpion picked on me and spared my children depicts ___________
i) Mother’s bravery
ii) Mother’s endurance
iii) Selfless and unconditional love of the mother
Ans.Selfless and unconditional love of the mother
g.) The poem does not have a rhyme scheme, which means the poem is a perfect example of a _______
i) Ballad
ii) Sonnet
iii) Free verse
Ans. Free verse
h.) The poem is titled ‘Night of the scorpion’ for the major part of the poem_____________
i) The mother remains triumphant on the end
ii) The scorpion is the victor
iii) The father succeed to curing the mother
Ans.The mother remains triumphant on the end
i.) The peasants chant the name of God to __________
i) Nullify the stinging experience
ii) Praise God
iii) Appease God
Ans. Nullify the stinging experience
j.) The click of tongue reflects their____________ to the predicament
i) Individual response
ii) Collective response
iii) Group response
Ans. Collective response.
Q.) From the poem provide evidence for the following:
Ans.
Stages | Evidence (lines from the extract) |
(a) The attempts by the peasants to help alleviate the mother’s pain. | (1) The peasants came like swarms of flies’
(2) ‘and buzzed the name of God a hundred times to paralyze the Evil One.’ |
(b) the action of these same peasants to kill the scorpion. | (1) ‘they searched for him’ (2) ‘they clicked their tongues’ |
(c) evil versus good | ‘and buzzed the name of God a hundred times to paralyze the Evil One. |
Q.) Match the figures of speech with the correct definition:
Ans: i) Metaphor–
An implied comparison
ii) Alliteration–
The use of the same sound at the beginning of words
iii) Onomatopoeia–
A word which resembles the sound it represents
iv) Simile–
A comparison between two different things, especial a phrase, containing the words ‘like’ or ‘as’
Q.) Find examples from the poem that contains:
Ans: a. Smile– ‘The peasants came like swarms of flies’
b.) Metaphor– ‘On the sun-baked walls’
c.) Onomatopoeia-‘and buzzed the name of God a hundred times’
Q.) Write an appreciation of the poem in a paragraph format:
Ans: The poet satirizes age-old beliefs in Might of the scorpion. The simple peasant attitude towards the mother’s suffering. The pain of the scorpion bite decreases by itself, after twenty hours of ordeal. His mother thanked God for sparing his children, which implies the mother’s sacrificing nature.The theme of the poem focuses on the superstitious beliefs still persistant in our country and sense of sacrifice as seen by a devoted mother. Even as she suffers from the intense poisonous pain of the scorpion’s bite, she ultimately thanked God for sparing her children from such an ordeal.