Question 1. How did Margie and Tommy react to the book Tommy found in his attic?

Why?
Answer:
Margie and Tommy were neighbours and friends. They lived in 2157, in an age of
technology when going to school meant sitting in a room by oneself, being taught by a
mechanical teacher that was adjusted to fit the learner’s mind and reading from a
telebook with moving words.
Then one day 7 May 2157, Tommy found an old paper book with yellow and crinkled
pages in the attic of his house. He shared the exciting news with his friend Margie and
together they are wonderstruck, for they had before that never seen or heard about a
book that had no screen but only fixed text on pages.
The book was quite different from the tele-books they were used to. As Margie and
Tommy read the book, they were amazed by its contents. They discovered that
hundreds of years ago schools were huge buildings where hundreds of children went to
study and where children of the same age studied together and carried out the same
activities and tasks. They were taught by real human teachers with the help of real
books.

Question 2. Describe the old school as described in the book? How did it influence
Margie?
Answer:
The book which Tommy found was about school. However, it was not the kind of
school Margie and Tommy were used to, but the old kind of schools that were hundreds
and hundreds of years ago. School was a special building and all the kids went there.
Children went to these schools to study and were taught by a ‘regular’ teacher, a man
who told the boys and girls things and gave them homework and asked them questions.
At school, all children of the same age studied together and carried out the same
activities and tasks. Margie thought about the old kind of school. She was thinking
about all the kids from the whole neighbourhood came, laughing and shouting in the
schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the
day. They learned the same things, so they could help one another with the homework
and talk about it. Margie thought about the old school system and how much fun the
children must have had, learning and spending time together.

Question 3. Write a short note on the school system in “The Fun They Had”.
Answer:
Margie and Tommy are young school going children in the year 2157. Schools and
teachers in the twenty- second century are entirely different from the ones in present
day. Margie and Tommy’s school is not in a separate special building but a room in their
respective houses where the television or the mechanical teacher is placed. Each student
has to sit and study alone with the help of mechanical teacher, a large and black and ugly
machine, with a big screen on which all the lessons are shown and the questions are
asked.

The ‘teacher’ assigns tests to the students and assesses their progress. The speed of the
different subject sectors is fixed according to the age level of each student. There is a
special slot in the tele-teacher where students have to insert their homework or tests. If
the mechanical teacher develops any fault, there are engineers to repair it.
Sometimes the fault may be a major one and it takes long to repair it, as was the case
when Tommy’s history teacher developed a snag and it took a month to repair it. Thus,
the mechanical teachers and schoolrooms of Margie and Tommy are fully computerised
and are completely different from the present-day schools.

Question 1. “Today Tommy found a real book! ”

It was a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a little boy his
grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on paper.

(a) Who are Margie and Tommy?

Answer:
Tommy is a thirteen-year-old boy and Margie an eleven-year-old girl who live in the
twenty second century.

(b) Where had Tommy found the book?

Answer:
Tommy had found the book in the attic of his house.

(c) What is meant by “real book”?

Answer:
The book is “real” as it is printed on paper rather than a telebook.

(d) How had Margie heard of such a book?

Answer:
Margie’s grandfather had told her that he had heard from his grandfather about a time
when all stories were printed on paper.

Question 2. It was a very old book. Margie’s grandfather once said that when he was a
little boy his grandfather told him that there was a time when all stories were printed on
paper. 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.

(a) Why were the pages of the book yellow?

Answer:
The pages of the book were yellow because the book was quite old.

(b) What kind of books did Margie and Tommy read?

Answer:
Margie and Tommy read telebooks

(c) What do you think a telebook is?

Answer:
A book that is not printed on paper, but one that can be read on a screen. Words move
on the screen for the students to read.

(d) Why did Tommy find the book a “waste”?

Answer:
Unlike their telebooks, the words on the page stayed the same and did not change. He
felt when one was through with the book, one would just throw it away.

Question 3. 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.

(a) Who are ‘they’ in this extract?

Answer:
‘They’ are Margie and Tommy, the young children who are reading the book.

(b) Which book had yellow and crinkly pages?

Answer:
The book that Tommy found in the attic of his house had yellow and crinkly pages.

(c) What do the yellow and crinkly pages reveal about the book?
Answer:
The yellow and crinkly pages reveal that it was a very old book and had not been lying
in the attic for a long time.

(d) What did ‘they’ find funny? Why?

Answer:
The children found the fixed and still words in the book funny because they were used
to reading electronic books on the television screen in which the words kept moving.

Question 4. “I wouldn’t throw it away.

(a) Who says these words?

Answer:
Tommy, a thirteen-year-old boy says these words.

(b) What does ‘it’ refer to?

Answer:
‘It’ refers to the television screen of the computer on which Tommy reads books. It has a
million books . and space for a lot more.

(c) What is it being compared with, by the speaker?

Answer:
‘It’ is being compared with the paper book that Tommy had found in the attic of his
house.

(d) Why would the speaker not throw it away?

Answer:
The speaker, Tommy, wouldn’t throw the television screen on which he read books
away because it had a million books on it and it could be used many times.

Question 5.
“What’s it about? ”
“School. ”
Margie was scornful. “School? What’s there to write about school? I hate school. ”

(a) What does ‘it’ refer to?

Answer:
‘It’ refers to the book Tommy found in his attic.

(b) Why was Margie scornful about the book?

Answer:
Margie was scornful about the book as it was about school. She hated her school and
felt school would not be an interesting enough topic to read about.

(c) Why did Margie not like school?

Answer:
Margie had never liked her school, but now she hated her mechanical teacher so she
disliked school even more.

(d) Why did Margie hate her mechanical teacher?

Answer:
The mechanical teacher had been giving her test after test in geography and she had been
doing worse and worse.

Question 6. He was a round little man with a red face and a whole box of tools with
dials and wires. He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple, then took the teacher apart.

(a) Who is ‘he’?

Answer:
He is the County Inspector.

(b) Why had he been called?

Answer:
Margie’s mother, Mrs Jones, had called him because Margie’s mechanical teacher had
been giving her test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse. She
wanted the County Inspector to fix the teacher.

(c) Why did he give Margie an apple?

Answer:
He smiled at Margie and gave her an apple to reassure her.

(d) How did he fix the teacher?

Answer:
The County Inspector found that the teacher’s the geography sector was geared a little
too quick. He slowed it up to an average ten-year level.

Question 7. He said to her mother, “It’s not the little girl’s fault, Mrs Jones. I think the
geography sector was geared a little too quick. Those things happen sometimes. ”

(a) Who is ‘he’ and which ‘little girl’ is he talking about?

Answer:
He is the County Inspector. He is talking about Margie.
(b) What, according to him, is not the girl’s fault?
Answer:
According to him, the girl’s continuous poor performances in Geography tests was not
her fault.

(c) What was wrong with the geography sector of the mechanical teacher?
Answer:
He finds that the pace of the geography sector has been a bit too fast for the girl’s level.

(d) What does the County Inspector do to correct the fault?

Answer:
The County Inspector took apart the mechanical teacher and slowed it up to an average
ten-year level.

Question 8. “Actually, the overall pattern of her progress is quite satisfactory. And he
patted Margie’s head again. Margie was disappointed. She had been hoping they would
take the teacher away altogether.

(a) Who is the speaker? Whose progress is being talked about?

Answer:
The speaker is the County Inspector. He is talking about Margie’s progress.

(b) Why was Margie disappointed?

Answer:
Margie was disappointed as her teacher was not taken away as she wished for.

(c) Whose teacher had been taken away? Why?

Answer:
Tommy’s teacher had been taken away for nearly a month because the history sector had
blanked out completely.

(d) What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?

Answer:
Margie and Tommy learnt geography, history and arithmetic.

Question 9. Tommy looked at her with very superior eyes. “Because it’s not our kind of
school, stupid. This is the old kind of school that they had hundreds and hundreds of
years ago. He added loftily.
(a) What does Tommy mean by “our kind of school”?
Answer:
They study in classrooms in their own homes with mechanical teachers.

(b) Why did Tommy call Margie stupid?

Answer:
Tommy called Margie stupid because she was ignorant about schools of the past.

(c) Whom does ‘they’ refer to?

Answer:
‘They’ here refers to the students of centuries ago who were mentioned in the book.

(d) How was ‘their’ school different?

Answer:
Their school was a special building that they went to and they learned the same thing if
they were the same age. They had a person as a teacher who taught the whole class.

Question 10. “Sure they had a teacher, butit wasn ’t a regular teacher. It was a man.

(a) Who speaks these words and about what?

Answer:
Tommy speaks these words about the schools in the olden times.

(b) Who does ‘they’ refer to in these lines?

Answer:
‘They’ refers to the students from the schools of the olden times.

(c) What does ‘regular’ mean here?

Answer:
Here ‘regular’ means a mechanised teacher like the ones Margie and Tommy had.

(d) What is ‘regular’ contrasted with?

Answer:
‘Regular’ is contrasted with the teachers from the olden days who were real men and not
programmed machines.

Question 11.
“A man? How could a man be a teacher? ”
“Well, he just told the boys and girls things and gave them homework and asked them
questions. ”
(a) Who feels a man cannot be a teacher? Why?
Answer:
Margie feels a man cannot be a teacher as a man is not smart enough. Moreover, she was
used to being taught by a mechanical teacher.

(b) What does ‘he’ refer to here?

Answer:
‘He’ refers to a man, a human teacher of the twentieth century.

c) What job did ‘he’ do?

Answer:
His job was to teach boys and girls and give them work to do at home and ask them
questions.

d) Where had the speaker got this information?

Answer:
The speaker, Tommy, had found this information in the old book that he had found in
the attic of his house.

Question 12. Tommy screamed with laughter. “You don’t know much, Margie. The
teachers didn’t live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there.

(a) Why did Tommy scream with laughter?

Answer:
Tommy screamed with laughter at the ignorance of Margie who thought that in old
times the human teacher lived in the house of a student and taught him there.

(b) What did Margie not know? Why?

Answer:
Margie did not know about the functioning of the schools of olden times because she
lived in the year 2157 when education had been made fully computerized.

(c) What ‘special building’ does the speaker refer to?

Answer:
By ‘special building’ Tommy means the buildings that housed schools in olden times.

(d) How is the special building a unique place for Margie and Tommy?
Answer:
Margie and Tommy are the students of the year 2157. They are taught at home by
mechanical teachers. Their television screen is their school. Therefore, a special building
for teaching children is a unique thing for them.
Question 13. Margie went into the school room. It was right next to her bedroom and
the mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her. It was always on at the same time
every day except Saturday and Sunday because her mother said little girls learned better
if they learned at regular hours.

(a) What was ‘it’? Where was ‘it’?

Answer:
‘It’ in these lines is Margie’s schoolroom. It was next to her bedroom.

(b) Why was ‘it’ next to ‘her’ bedroom?

Answer:
It was next to her bedroom because in the twenty-second century students were taught
through a customized education system under where students were taught at home by
mechanical teachers.

(c) Why was the mechanical teacher on and waiting for her?
Answer:
The mechanical teacher was on and waiting for her because it was a programmed
machine that worked . as per a fixed time-plan and Margie’s mother wanted her to
follow a fixed time plan.

(d) Why did Margie not like the mechanical teacher?

Answer:
Margie did not like the mechanical teacher because it was very boring and demanding.
She had to sit in front of it regularly at fixed hours.

Question 14. Margie did so with a sigh. She was thinking about the old schools they
had when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy. All the kids from the whole
neighbourhoods came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the
school room going home together at the end of the day. They learned the same things,
so that they could help one another with the home work and talk about it.

(a) What did Margie do with a sigh?

Answer:
Margie put her homework into the slot of her mechanical teacher with a sigh.

(b) Which school is Margie thinking about in the above lines?

Answer:
Margie was thinking about the old schools of centuries ago as written about in the book
Tommy had found.
(c) Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Answer:
Margie’s school was in her home itself. It was right next to her bedroom. No, she did
not have any classmates.

(d) How is the school under reference different from the present ones?
Answer:
The present schools were located in the student’s house, where a mechanical teacher
taught the student as per the child’s individual capacity. The schools under reference had
a separate building where all children of a certain age were taught together by human
teachers.