First Flight ch11 The Proposal - CBSE Test Papers

CBSE Test Paper 01
The Proposal TP
  1. What does Chubukov say to Lomov about his being a hunter?
  2. What is the play “The Proposal” about?
  3. Who is Lomov and why does he visit Chubukov?
  4. Lomov was a quarrelsome person. Justify.
  5. What do you learn about Natalya from the play, 'The Proposal'?
  6. What other controversial argument arose between Lomov and Natalya? Discuss.
  7. Neighbours must have a cordial relationship which Lomov and Natalya did not have. Describe the first fight between them.
  8. Give a character sketch of Lomov.
  9. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (1 × 4 = 4)
    There’s some demon of contradiction in you today, Ivan Vessilevitch. First, you pretend that the Meadows are yours; now, that Guess is better than Squeezer. I don’t like people who don’t say what they mean, because you know perfectly well that Squeezer is a hundred times better than your silly Guess. Why do you want to say he isn’t?
    1. Who is the speaker of the above lines?
    2. Who are Guess and Squeezer?
    3. What does the speaker say about them?
    4. Which word in the passage means ‘opposing idea’?
  10. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
    But you can see from the documents, honoured Natalya Stepanovna. Oxen Meadows. It’s true, were once the subject of dispute, but now everybody knows that they are mine. There’s nothing to argue about. You see my aunt’s grandmother gave the free use of these Meadows in perpetuity to the peasants of your father’s grandfather, in return for which they were to make bricks for her. The peasants belonging to your father’s grandfather had the free use of the Meadows for forty years and had got into the habit of regarding them as their own when it happened that...
    1. Who's the speaker of the above lines?
    2. The subject of dispute has been the.......
    3. The speaker’s grandmother gave the Oxen Meadows to......
    4. What do the words 'in perpetuity’ mean?
CBSE Test Paper 01
The Proposal TP
Solution
  1. Chubukov says that Lomov is not a hunter. He says that Lomov should sit at home with his palpitations instead of tracking animals. He says that Lomov only goes to argue with people and interfere with their dogs.
  2. The play, “The Proposal” is about Lomov’s visit to his neighbour's house. Lomov visits Chubukov with the intention of making a marriage proposal to Chubukov’s daughter, Natalya. But they end up quarrelling with each other over petty issues.
  3. Lomov is a landowner in Russia. He is about thirty-five years old and desires to get married. He visits Chubukov in his best dress in order to propose to his daughter Natalya to marry him.
  4. Lomov was a quarrelsome person. He came to Chubukov’s house to propose Natalya for marriage. But he started arguing about the meadows and insisted that those meadows belonged to him. He said that he had the legal papers of the property and threatened Chubukov to drag him to the court. Complaining of his weak heart, he collapses. Later he kept on proving that his dog 'Squeezer', is better than ‘Guess’-the dog of Chubukov. He did not care for his health or his proposal but kept on fighting for one or the other reason. It proves that he was a quarrelsome person.
  5. Natalya is the only daughter of the landowner Chubukov. Though well educated, she does not use her education wisely and thoughtfully. She is a short-tempered lady who quarrels with everyone. She always pinpoints the amount of help she offers to her neighbours.  Also, she is very possessive about her land and is very determined not to part with it.
  6. Apart from the Oxen Meadows, the other argument was about the dogs namely Guess and Squeezer. Lomov said that his dog Guess had become lame since his leg had been bitten by some dog. He had purchased that first-rate dog for 125 roubles from Mironov, but Natalya pointed out that her Squeezer was better than Guess. Squeezer had been purchased for 85 roubles. Lomov could not contain himself. He immediately said that Squeezer was an overshot i.e. it was a bad hunter. He also said that his lower jaw was shorter than the upper one. To this, Natalya remarked that Guess was old, ugly and a worn-out cab-horse. Both of them had a serious argument over whose dog was more superior.
  7. Lomov and Natalya were next-door neighbours. Neighbours must have a cordial relationship which they did not have. One day, Lomov came to Natalya's house to propose to her to marry him. Natalya thought that he had come to claim Oxen Meadows as his own. She didn't know that he had come to propose to her. This initiated the first quarrel between them. When Chubukov, Natalya's father, interfered and also pleaded that the Oxen Meadows were their properties, the fight aggravated. Lomov's real purpose was overshadowed for a few moments and he continued the bias that meadows belonged to his aunt's grandmother who gave them to the peasants of Chubukov's grandfather on the condition that they would prepare bricks for her.
    Though both Lomov and Chubukov were very rich landlords, they quarrelled over a tiny piece of land. But that was not the end of the quarrel. Natalya didn't agree with Lomov's explanation. Instead, she offered to present it to Lomov who, in turn, rejected the suggestion. And the quarrel continued endlessly. Such first meeting of Lomov and Natalya had in itself seeds of things (quarrels over petty issues) to be expected in their married life.
  8. Lomov was a funny man. He was physically weak but financially secure. He was suffering from palpitation. He behaved as if he were eccentric. He was a pretentious, proud, self-serving, argumentative, impetuous and hysterical hypochondriac. He was socially awkward and prone to anxiety attacks. He was not particularly romantic, and his proposal had more to do with the economic advantages of combining the families' adjacent properties than with any particular degree of love for Natalya or with the desire to get married. He was regressive in his thoughts. It was evident from his attitude towards marrying Natalya. He wanted to marry her not because he was in love with her but because he thought that she was beautiful and a good-housekeeper. But when he went to propose to her, he got diverted. Actually, a quarrel took place between them as Natalya thought that he had come to claim Oxen Meadows as his own. They quarrelled over petty issues one more time. This reflected that he was short-tempered also. He fainted before finally proposing to her and shouted a lot after that. This reflected that he was confused and less confident. But he finally succeeded to get acceptance.
    1. Natalya is the speaker of the above lines. 
    2. Guess and Squeezer are the names of the dogs of Lomov and Natalya respectively.
    3. The speaker says that her dog, Squeezer is a hundred times better than Lomov’s dog, Guess.
    4. Contradiction means "opposing idea". 
    1. Lomov is the speaker of the above lines. 
    2. "Ownership of the Oxen Meadows".
    3. "The peasants of Natalya's father’s grandfather, in return for which they had to make bricks for her."
    4. The words 'in perpetuity’ mean 'the state or quality of lasting forever'.