WORKSHEET

DEPT. OF ACADEMICS

Details

Campus GIIS Ahmedabad Session 2024-25

The Lost Spring Extracts and QA with Work Sheet

Topic
Answer Key No.

Class 12 A, B, C Subject English Core

Name Date

1. Explain the sentence “an army of barefoot boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at
noon.”
Ans. - group of young boys or rag pickers, appear early morning and disappear in the Afternoon

2. Why is Mukesh’s dream compared to a mirage?

Ans. - dream- a farfetched possibility
- his current and immediate circumstances made it unachievable
- poverty stricken/ impoverished circumstances
- vicious circle of middlemen

3. In spite of the conditions prevailing in Seemapuri, children like Saheb and Mukesh are not devoid of hope.
How far do you agree?
Ans. - Saheb and Mukesh dare to dream / aspire
- Mukesh wishes to break free / ambition to be a mechanic / willing to walk to the garage
- Saheb treats garbage as wonder, excited to explore, willing to go to school

4. When I sense a flash of it in Mukesh, I am cheered. How is Mukesh’s attitude of life different from that of
his family and friends?
Ans. - family and friends- fatalists, hopeless, took bangle making for a god given lineage.
- Mukesh – dares to dream, determined and hopeful, dreams to become a motor mechanic

7. Why can the bangle-makers not organise themselves into a cooperative?

Ans. - because of the vicious circle of exploitation
- no leader among them
- threat / fear of being hauled up by the police
- mind numbing toil killed all initiatives

Document No: ACA-07

Effective Date: 1 January 2018 | Version 1
 WORKSHEET
DEPT. OF ACADEMICS

8. Firozabad presents a strange paradox - the beauty of the glass bangles and the misery of the people who
make bangles. Discuss.
Ans. - miserable, impoverished, sub-human living conditions
- work in glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells, without air and light
- eyes more adjusted to darkness, lose eyesight
- spirals of bangles in different hues kept in unkempt yards, their own life lacks colour
- bangles – symbolic of auspiciousness yet their lives are drained of joy, reference to Savita
- social stigma suppresses their life

9. The description of Seemapuri creates a very dismal picture. Explain.

Ans.- structures of mud with roofs of tin and tarpaulin
- devoid of sewage, drainage or running water
- only rag pickers living there in utter poverty

10. What does Anees Jung mean by the expression ‘children becoming partners in survival?’
Ans.- work / earn their livelihood as rag pickers
- supplement/ contribute to family income/ support their parents

11. Saheb and Mukesh are victims of the apathy of the Government and society. Support your answer with a
rationale.
A.- both Saheb and Mukesh worked as child labour/ partners in survival
- both caught in endless spiral that moves from poverty to apathy to greed to injustice
- lack of – awareness and implementation of child labour laws/ schemes for basic amenities/ political will
- education inaccessible to both
- Saheb employed by tea stall owner despite labour laws/ lost his freedom
- bangle making imposed upon Mukesh/ burdened by stigma of caste/ caught in vicious circle of Sahukars,
policemen etc.

12. What vicious circle are the bangle-makers trapped in?

Ans. - vicious circle of sahukars, middlemen, policemen, keepers of law, bureaucrats, politicians
- powerful and influential people

1. “I sometimes find a rupee, even a ten-rupee note,” Saheb says, his eyes lighting up. When you can find a
silver coin in a heap of garbage, you don’t stop scrounging, for there is hope for finding more. It seems that
for children, garbage has a meaning different from what it means to their parents. For the children it is
wrapped in wonder, for the elders it is a means of survival. One winter morning I see Saheb standing by the
fenced gate of the neighborhood club, watching two young men dressed in white, playing tennis. “I like the
game,” he hums, content to watch it standing behind the fence. “I go inside when no one is around,” he
admits. “The gatekeeper lets me use the swing. ”Saheb too is wearing tennis shoes that look strange over his
discoloured shirt and shorts. “Someone gave them to me,” he says in the manner of an explanation.
i) What reasons does Saheb give for children like him indulging in scrounging?
(ii) “When you can find a silver coin in a heap of garbage, you don’t stop scrounging.” The expression ‘don’t
stop scrounging’ in the context, denotes
Document No: ACA-07
Effective Date: 1 January 2018 | Version 1
 WORKSHEET
DEPT. OF ACADEMICS

(A) hope (B) experimentation (C) impossibility (D) illusion

(iii) Explain the expression : ‘For the children it is wrapped in wonder.’
(iv) Why does Saheb stand and watch the two men playing tennis?
(v) The gatekeeper, in allowing Saheb to use the swing shows :
(A) empathy (B) greed (C) cynicism (D) indifference
(vi) Saheb explained that someone had given the shoes to him because ________________.

Ans.(i)- hope of finding more valuables / a rupee note or even a ten rupee note
- sense of wonder
- garbage is gold
Ans.(ii) (A) hope 1
Ans.(iii) - joy of finding valuable things – is a mystery
- sometimes they find a rupee note or even a ten rupee note
- find a silver coin in a heap of garbage.
Ans.(iv)- game was out of his reach
- liked the game but is too poor to afford
- content to watch from outside
Ans.(v) (A) empathy 1
Ans.(vi)- he wanted to justify himself
- made it clear that he had not stolen it
- his shoes looked strange over his discoloured shirt and shorts.

2. (i) Saheb found a rupee

(a) on the street (b) in the garbage dump(c) in Firozabad (d) on the tennis court
(ii) Which emotion of Saheb is revealed in the phrase ‘his eyes lighting up’?
(a) anxiety (b) envy (c) happiness (d) greed
(iii) For the elders garbage is __________ and for children it is ________ .
(iv) On the basis of the extract, choose the correct option with reference to I and II given below :
I. Saheb watches the game from outside.
II. Saheb had lost the previous match.
(a) I is true but II is not (b) II is true but I is not (c) Both I and II are true (d) Both I and II are untrue
(v) ‘Scrounging’ in the passage most nearly means.
(a) digging (b) searching (c) flinging (d) burying
(vi) ‘There is hope for finding more’. Explain with reference to the above extract.

Ans.(i) (b) in the garbage dump 1

Ans.(ii) (c) happiness 1
Ans.(iii) survival, wrapped in wonder. ½ + ½
Ans.(iv) ( a) I is true but II is not 1
Ans.(v) (b) searching 1
Ans.(vi) more money / more silver coins / something precious / something valuable

Document No: ACA-07

Effective Date: 1 January 2018 | Version 1
 WORKSHEET
DEPT. OF ACADEMICS

3. They have lived here for more than thirty years without an identity, without permits but with ration cards
that get their names on voters lists and enable them to buy grain. Food is more important for survival than
identity. “If at the end of the day we can feed our families and go to bed without an aching stomach, we
would rather live here than in the fields that gave us no grain,” say a group of women in tattered saris when I
asked them why they left their beautiful land of green fields and rivers. Wherever they find food, they pitch
their tents.
(i) The ragpickers have been living there for ____________ decades.
(A) three (B) four (C) two (D) five
(ii) Why do these people have ration cards ?
(iii) What do you infer about their lifestyle from the phrase, “pitch their tents” ?
(iv) In spite of the hardships, they are not willing to go back to their homeland because __________.
(v) The women had a/an __________ approach towards life. 1
(A) idealistic (B) passive (C) indifferent (D) practical
(vi) What does the term ‘go to bed without an aching stomach’ indicate?

(i)Ans. (A) three 1

(ii) Ans. - get their names on voters’ lists / enable them to buy grain. 1
(iii) Ans. wherever they find food / refugees from Dhaka / poverty stricken / nomads
(iv) Ans. food is more important for survival than identity / no food there
(V) Ans. (D) practical 1
(vi) Ans. not to go hungry / have food and go to sleep

4. “Children grow up in them, becoming partners in survival. And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking.
Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily
bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. But for a child it is even more.”
(i) Complete the sentence appropriately.
Children become partners in survival suggests that ________.
(ii) Rag-picking has acquired the proportion of a fine art means :
(A) artistic bend of mind is required. (B) it has proportionately displaced art.
(C) it has become a highly skilful activity. (D) it has discovered pieces of art.
(iii) State whether the given statement is True or False with reference to the extract.
The children and their parents have left Dhaka to live in Seemapuri.
(iv) Why does the author say ‘survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking’?
(v) What does the phrase “for a child it is even more” reveal about the children’s dreams?
(vi) Which of the following headlines suggests the central idea of the extract?
(A) Seemapuri, A Pot of Gold (B) Rag-picking - Different Perspectives
(C) Art in Delhi and in Seemapuri (D) Saheb-e-Alam in Seemapuri

(i) Ans. they help their parents in earning a livelihood / money 1

(ii) Ans. (C) it has become a highly skilful activity. 1
(iii) Ans. True / False 1
(iv) Ans. essential means of living / it is their daily bread / only option to live / roof over
Document No: ACA-07
Effective Date: 1 January 2018 | Version 1
 WORKSHEET
DEPT. OF ACADEMICS

their heads / means of survival

(v) Ans. aspiring to get something precious / full of mystery 1
(vi) Ans. (B) Rag-picking - Different Perspectives

4. “Why do you do this?” I ask Saheb whom I encounter every morning scrounging for gold in the garbage
dumps of my neighbourhood. Saheb left his home long ago. Set amidst the green fields of Dhaka, his home is
not even a distant memory. There were many storms that swept away their fields and homes, his mother
tells him. That’s why they left, looking for gold in the big city where he now lives. “I have nothing else to do,”
he mutters, looking away. “Go to school,” I say glibly, realizing immediately how hollow the advice must
sound. “There is no school in my neighborhood. When they build one, I will go.”
(i) Choose the correct option.
The expression ‘scrounging for gold’ refers to
(A) searching for gold items. (B) looking for something that can fetch money.
(C) rummaging the garbage. (D) digging to find food to eat.
(ii) The influence of nature in Saheb’s life was that it _______.
(A) brought prosperity (B) yielded food for them
(C) gave them home (D) brought disaster
(iii) Complete the sentence with an appropriate word.
Saheb’s conversation with the narrator draws _____ of readers towards Saheb.
(iv) Explain one inference that can be drawn from the line “…… realizing how hollow the advice must
sound”.
(v) The expression ‘when they build one, I will go’ indicates Saheb’s _______ to go to school.
(vi) State whether the following statement is TRUE or FALSE.
‘… his home is not even a distant dream’ states that Saheb sees his home often in his dream.

Ans. (B) looking for something that can fetch money.

Ans. (D) brought disaster
Ans. sympathy / concern/ admiration
Ans. realized how meaningless her advise was / she never meant to open a school
Ans. eagerness / willingness / desire
Ans. FALSE

5. And in dark hutments, next to lines of flames of flickering oil lamps, sit boys and girls with their fathers
and mothers, welding pieces of coloured glass into circles of bangles. Their eyes are more adjusted to the
dark than to the light outside. That is why they often end up losing their eyesight before they become adults.
(i) Complete the sentence with reference to the extract :
Their eyes are more adjusted to the dark than to the light outside because ___.
(ii) Which of the following would NOT be true?
(a) The hutments were shining and inviting. (b) The children’s lives were as bleak as their surrounding.
(c) There were no electricity connections. (d) The boys and girls had got used to the dark.
(iii) The bangle workers lose their eyesight before they became adults because
(a) they already have poor eyesight. (b) they work in dim light.
(c) they are married in childhood. (d) they are malnourished.
Document No: ACA-07
Effective Date: 1 January 2018 | Version 1
 WORKSHEET
DEPT. OF ACADEMICS

(iv) Which of the following most nearly means ‘adjusted’ in the context of the extract?
(a) conditioned (b) favoured
(c) accepted (d) reconciled
(v) ‘Flickering oil lamps’ suggests ________.
(vi) What is the antonym from the extract of the word ‘rarely’?

Ans. - most of the time is spent in dark hutments

- of the flickering oil lamps
- of dim light
Ans. (a) The hutments were shining and inviting. 1
Ans. (b) they work in dim light. 1
Ans. (a) conditioned 1
Ans. dim / blinking / fluctuating / varying
Ans. Often

Document No: ACA-07

Effective Date: 1 January 2018 | Version 1