MY MOTHER AT SIXTY-SIX
H.S. EXAM. QUESTIONS
A. Short type questions: Marks: 2
1. Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’? [HS ’12, ’14,’17]
2. Why has the poet brought in the image of the merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’? [HS ’13, 16]
3. What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels? [HS ’14]
4. Explain the statement: “I saw my mother………. her face ashen like that of a corpse”. [H.S. ’14]
5. What do the young sprinting trees signify? [HIS ’17]
6. What are the ‘merry children spilling out of their homes’ symbolic of? [H.S ’18]
B. Importance extracts for comprehension : 4
1. Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow: [HS ’12]
“Driving from my parent’s
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
beside me,
doze, open mouthed, her face
ashen like that
of corpse…”
(i)Where was the poet driving to? 1
(ii) What did she notice when her mother sat beside her? 1
(iii) Find words from the passage that mean ‘sleep lightly’ and ‘dead body’. 1
(iv) Why was her mother’s face like that of a corpse? 1
2. Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow: [HS ’14]
(a) “but after the airport’s
security check, standing a few yards
away, I looked again at her, wan, pale
as a late winter’s moon and felt that old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and smile…”
Questions:
(i)What did the speaker do after the security check?
(ii) Why did the poet compare her mother’s face to a late winter’moon?
(iii) What was the poet’s childhood fear?
(b) “But soon [HS ’14]
put that thought away and looked out at Young
Trees sprinting, the merry children spilling Out of their homes”
Questions:
(i)Who looked out at the young trees?
(ii) Which thought did the speaker put away?
(iii) What do young sprinting trees signify?
(iv) What did the poet see the children doing?
3. Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow:
[HS ’15]
(a) …… and felt that old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,
all I did was smile and smile and smile….”
Questions:
(i)What was the childhood fear that now troubled the poet? 1
(ii) What do the poet’s parting words suggest? 2
(iii) Why did the poet smile and smile? 1
Type : Himashree Bora.