Beehive My Childhood - CBSE Test Papers

CBSE Class 9 English Language and Literature
Beehive Chapter-6 My Childhood
Test Paper-01

Answer the questions 1 & 2 after reading the passages:
  1. I was born into a middle-class Tamil family in the island town of Rameswaram in the erstwhile Madras State. My father, Jainulabdeen, had neither much formal education nor much wealth; despite these disadvantages, he possessed great innate wisdom and a true generosity of spirit. He had an ideal helpmate in my mother, Ashiamma.
    1. Who is ‘I’ in the passage?
    2. Name the book from where this excerpt is taken.
    3. What kind of prose writing is this?
    4. What do you understand by words ‘innate wisdom' and ‘generosity of spirit'?
  2. Every child is born, with some inherited characteristics, into a specific socio-economic and emotional environment, and trained in certain ways by figures of authority. I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness and deep kindness and so did my three brothers and sister.
    1. ‘Every child is born with some inherited characteristics’, elucidate.
    2. From whom did the writer inherit honesty and self-discipline?
    3. Explain ‘figures of authority’.
    4. How many brothers and sisters writer had?
Answer the following questions in about 30 words:
  1. How much money did the writer get for his first job? What was the job?
  2. How many friends did the writer have? Who were they?
  3. Who was Sivasubramania Iyer?
  4. Who said, “Abdul, I know you have to go away to grow”? Why did he say so?
  5. What were the professions did the writer’s friends follow during their adulthood?
  6. Why was writer happy when he earned his first wage? Did he recall it later?
Answer the following questions in about 100 words:
  1. What was the ritual of the writer’s family during annual ceremony of the ram temple and at bed time?
  2. What was the incident in the life of the writer when he was in fifth class that left a lasting impression on the writer ?
CBSE Class 9 English Language and Literature
Beehive Chapter-6 My Childhood
Test Paper-01

Answer
    1. ‘I’ in the passage is the writer, our ex-President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
    2. The book from where this excerpt is taken, is ‘Wings of Fire’ autobiography of Dr. Kalam.
    3. This prose writing is an Autobiography, i.e. a book written by an individual about himself.
    4. ‘Innate wisdom’, innate means natural and innate wisdom means ‘natural wisdom’. And ‘generosity of spirit’ means a magnanimous or a large-hearted person.
    1. ‘Every child is born with some inherited characteristics’ means that God has gifted every child with some inborn qualities and wisdom.
    2. The writer inherited honesty and self-discipline from his father.
    3. ‘Figures of authority’ are the people whom we owe obedience or who inspire or demand obedience.
    4. The writer had three brothers and sisters.
  1. The writer got one Anna (the money that was in use in India at that time) for his first job. The job was to collect tamarind seeds and give them to a shopkeeper. He got the money for the entire days collection.
  2. The writer had three friends. They were the children of orthodox Hindu Brahmin families, whereas the writer was a Muslim.
  3. Sivasubramania Iyer was the Science teacher. He was an orthodox Brahmin with a very conservative wife, was something of a rebel, who could not tolerate a Muslim student sitting in the front row with a Brahmin boy.
  4. Abdul’s father said, “Abdul, I know you have to go away to grow”. He knew when the children grow, they need to go out for higher studies. They need freedom to grow and flourish.
  5. One of the writer’s friends was the son of the high priest and took over the priesthood from his father, the other was went into the business of arranging transport for visiting pilgrims; and the third became a catering contractor for the Southern Railways.
  6. The writer was very happy when he earned his first wage. He used to recall it even after 50 years. It was by helping his brother in collecting newspapers thrown out of the running train.
  7. During the annual Shri Sita Rama Kalyanam ceremony, the family of the writer arranged boats with a special platform for carrying idols of the Lord from the temple to the marriage site, situated in the middle of the pond called Rama Tirtha. Also, events from the Ramayana and from the life of the Prophet were the bedtime stories that the mother and the grandmother narrated to the children.
  8. When the writer was in fifth standard, a new teacher joined the school. The writer used to wear a cap, that depicted his identity as a Muslim. His friend used to wear a sacred thread, since he was a Brahmin. The new teacher couldn’t tolerate a Muslim boy sitting in the front row with a Brahmin boy. He rearranged the seating and made the writer sit on the back bench. This made the writer very sad. Seeing that the writer was moving to the back bench, his friend, who used to sit with him in the front row, started crying. This left a lasting impression on writer’s mind.