Last Updated on April 12, 2023 by Admin
Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1 The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov.
Thinking about The Text
1. How old are Margie and Tommy?
Ans: Margie is eleven and Tommy is thirteen years old.
2. What did Margie write in her diary?
Ans: Margie wrote in her diary, “Today Tommy found a real book!”
3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?
Ans: No, Margie had never seen a book before.
4. What things about the book did she find strange?
Ans: Margie found that the pages were yellow and crinkly. The words printed on a book stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to be on a screen.
5. What do you think a telebook is?
Ans: A telebook is a book available in soft copy that can be read on screen.
6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Ans: Margie’s school was within her home. It was right next to her bedroom. No, she did not have any classmates.
7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Ans: Margie learnt Geography and Mathematics. Tommy learnt History and Mathematics.
Q:5 Answer the following with reference to the story.
1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
(i) Who says these words?
(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?
(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
Ans: 1.
(i) Tommy says these words.
(ii) ‘It’ refers to the television screen.
(iii) Is it being compared with the books available on television screen.
2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
(iii) What is it contrasted with?
Ans: 2.
(i) The word ‘they’ refers to the students who studied in the old kind of schools.
(ii) Here, the term ‘regular’ refers to the mechanical teachers that Tommy and Margie has.
(iii) The mechanical teacher is contrasted with the human teacher of the earlier times.
Q:6 Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
Ans: Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers. Lessons and questions were displayed on a screen. Students had to put their homework and test papers in the proper slot.
2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
Ans: The mechanical teacher had been giving Margie test after test in geography and she had been doing worse and worse. To find out the reason behind this, Margie’s mother sent for the County Inspector.
3. What did the mechanical teacher do?
Ans: The County Inspector took apart the mechanical teacher and after examining it, he assembled it again. He slowed up the geography sector of the teacher which was ‘geared up a little too quick’ up to the level of ten year old kid.
4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the Country Inspector do to help her?
Ans: Margie was doing badly in geography because the geography sector of the mechanical teacher had been ‘geared up a little too quick’. The County Inspector slowed it up to an average ten-year level.
5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
Ans: Once, Tommy’s teacher was taken away for nearly a month for repairs because its history sector had become completely blank.
6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Ans: Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school. The mechanical teacher always turned on at the same time every day except Saturdays and Sundays. This was because her mother believed that little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.
7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
Ans: Tommy says that the old kind of school was a special building where all kids learnt the same things together. They had a human teacher. The teacher used to explain things to students, give them homework and ask questions.
8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
Ans: Tommy says that the teacher of the old kind were men, who taught the students inside a special building. The teachers taught the children in groups and gave them homework and asked them questions.
Q:7 Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 − 150 words)
1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?
Ans: Margie and Tommy have mechanical teachers. They need not go to school for getting a formal education. The mechanical teacher is placed in one of the rooms of the house and they can get the knowledge of various subjects individually from the mechanical teacher. They don’t have such classrooms where students sit together. They study from the telebooks. So they don’t require books and exercise books. They had a slot in which the students had to put their homework and test papers. The mechanical teacher calculated the marks written in punch codes by the students in no time. They did not have classmates. They had regular days and hours for school. The mechanical teacher always turned on at the same time every day except Saturdays and Sundays.
2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
Ans: Margie hated her school because she had a mechanical teacher. It was in her house. She was supposed to sit in that room alone to complete her assignments. The part Margie hated most was the slot where she had to put homework and test papers. She thought that the old schools must have been fun because the students used to sit together in the classroom. They enjoyed, laughed and shouted in the schoolyard. Children needed company to enhance their skills. If they are isolated, they get depressed and dejected.
3. Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.
Ans: Yes, I agree that schools today are more fun than the school in the story. The school discussed in the story has nothing but a mechanical teacher with no emotions and sentiments. It does not have the ability to understand the psychology of a child. Moreover, it guides a pupil according to its adjusted modes. But today’s schools work for the overall development of a child. They sit and learn the same thing together. The teachers are real human beings. They learn how to adapt themselves to the new surroundings and cope with the strangers. These activities don’t give vent to the feelings of depression, alienation and segregation.
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