SEBA Class 9 English Supplementary Reader Chapter 8: A House Is Not a Home--- Zan +Gaudioso All Questions & Answers
A House Is Not a Home
TEXTUAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. What does the author notice one Sunday afternoon? What is her mother’s reaction? What does she do?
Ans. On a particular Sunday afternoon, the author smelled something strange and then she saw smoke pouring in through the seams of the ceiling which soon filled the whole room. The author’s mother ran out of the house carrying a small metal box which contained important documents. After dropping the case on the lawn, she ran in again to try and save the few memories she had left of her dead husband, which included his pictures and letters.
2. Why does she (the author) break down in tears after the fire?
Ans. After watching the flames engulf her house, the author was suddenly overcome with emotion as she realized that she was suffering one loss after the other. First going to a new school away from her old teachers and friends had made her feel awkward; now her home had burnt down and to top it all her favourite pet cat was nowhere to be found. Overwhelmed by self pity, she broke down in tears and cried hard.
3. Why is the author deeply embarrassed the next day in school? Which words show her fear and insecurity?
Ans. The author was deeply embarrassed in school the day after the fire because being a new arrival she was already feeling pressurized to blend in the atmosphere I; and to make matters worse, the fire had destroyed all her belongings causing her to come to school dressed in Sunday clothes and her aunt’s tennis shoes. She had no uniform and carried no backpack, books or homework. The author thought all these together made her feel like an outcast. The words that display her fear and insecurity are. “The more I tried to fit in, the worse it got. Was I destined to be an outcast and a geek all my life?…….. I just wanted to curl up and die.”
4. The cat and the author are very fond of each other. How has this been shown in the story? Where was the cat after the fire? Who brings it back and how?
Ans. The cat and the author’s fondness for each other is displayed by the overwhelming loss that the author feels when she realizes after the fire that she had lost her cat and cries hard. her sorrow she recalls how as a kitten the cat would follow her and curl up to sleep inside the pocket of her robe. When the author and cat are finally reunited after a month they are both obviously very happy and the cat purrs to prove it.
When fire broke out at the author’s home, the cat was so terrified that it ran away. In her fear, she ran nearly a mile and by then was probably lost.
A kind lady noticed the lost cat and took her in. Unable to contact the owners due to the damaged phone lines, she took great pain to track down the cat’s owners and finally returned her to the author. The woman too had surmised that the cat was very loved.
5. What actions of the schoolmates change the author’s understanding of life and people, and comfort her emotionally? How does her loneliness vanish and how does she start participating in life?
Ans. The author was already feeling out of place in a new high school with no known teachers and friends when her home was burnt down and her position was made all the more awkward by having to attend school in Sunday clothes and in her aunt’s tennis shoes with no books or backpack. She felt peculiar and embarrassed. However after a few days she gets a pleasant surprise when her schoolmates present her with a collection of clothes and school supplies. Many who were unknown to her even invited her home. She was overwhelmed by this expression of concern and began to look at life more positively. She had been feeling embarrassed by the awareness in everyone at school about the fire, as if she herself were responsible for it. But when she saw how everyone had rallied to help her, her understanding of people took a turn. Even later when her house is being rebuilt, she no longer feels desolate and grievous because now she has the comfort of the company of her new friends. Her faith in people strengthens further when a kind. woman returns her cat to her after having looked after it for a month and taking the pain to find the real owner. Her loneliness now vanishes and she feels ready to take part in life once again.
6. What is the meaning of “My cat was back and so was I”? Had the author gone anywhere? Why does she say that she is also back?
Ans. The author’s cat had been lost after a fire ravaged their house. After a long gap of a month a kind lady had painstakingly found the owner and returned the cat, so it was back with the author. The author herself had been going through a desolate patch by feeling like an outsider since her transfer to a new school and facing the embarrassment following the loss of all her things in the fire. However with the unexpected support of her new classmates her understanding of life and people changes and her loneliness vanishes. She again feels happy and a part of active life. This is what she means when she says that she too is back.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
Answer the following questions :
1. “My first year of school felt awkward.”
(I) Who is the speaker?
Ans. The speaker is the protagonist of the story ‘A house is not a home’.
(ii) Why does the speaker say that her first year at school felt awkward?
Ans. The speaker says that her first year at school felt awkward because she was starting over as a freshman in a new school and her new school was twice the size of her former one. To make matters worse she had none of her earlier friends with her.
(iii) Does she manage to overcome her feeling? How?
Ans. Yes, she manages to overcome her feeling of awkwardness. The friendliness and genuine feeling of compassion that her new schoolmates show her after her house burns down, helps her realize that they were friendly and welcoming people and in time she makes new friends.
2. What did the teachers from the author’s old school advice her to do?
Ans. Not being able to adjust to the atmosphere of her new school and greatly missing her old teachers, the author would go back to her old school and visit them. They would encourage her to participate in the activities of her new school by which she would meet new people and make new friends. They told her that with time she would adjust into her new environment and probably begin to love her new school more than her old one.
3. The teachers from the author’s old school had
- Made her promise that she would continue visiting them every now and then even after she had adjusted to her new school and friends.
- Made her swear that she would come visit them every day so that she would not end up loving her new school.
- Asked her not to take part in too many school activities.
- Asked her to shift back to her old school when the year ended.
Ans. (a) Made her promise that she would continue visiting them every now and then even after she had adjusted to her new school and friends.
4. “She knew that I was the one responsible for giving her ‘the good life’.”
(i) Who is the speaker?
Ans. The speaker is the protagonist of the story ‘A house is not a home’.
(ii) Who is the ‘she’ referred to here?
Ans. ‘she’ in the above quoted sentence refers to the author’s pet, a tabby cat.
(iii) How was the speaker responsible for giving her the good life’?
Ans. The speaker had rescued the cat when she was a kitten and had looked after her since. So, she was the one responsible for showering her with all comforts and giving her a good life’.
5. “They were the only things that she had to remember him by.”
(i) Who are the ‘she’ and ‘him’ mentioned here?
Ans. ‘Her’ in the above given sentence refers to the author’s mother whereas, ‘him’ refers to her dead father.
(ii) What things are being referred to here? Why were they ‘the only things she had to remember him by”?
Ans. The photos and letters of the author’s now deceased father are the things being referred to here. They were the only things the author’s mother had to remember her father by because he was dead. His photos and letters were the only things that remained.
6. After the fire, the author and her mother spent the night at
- Her grandparents’ house
- Her aunt’s house
- Her father’s house
- A neighbor’s place
Ans. (1) Her grandparents’ house
7. Why did the author and her mother have to borrow cash? From whom did they borrow the money?
Ans. The author’s house had been destroyed by a fire and with it they also lost all their valuables and money. Moreover they had no credit cards or any form of identification to be able to withdraw cash from the bank. So the author and her mother had to borrow cash. The author and her mother borrowed cash from her grandparents.
