Karnataka Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 3 Jamaican Fragment
Karnataka Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 3 Jamaican Fragment
Jamaican Fragment Questions and Answers, Notes, Summary
C1. Answer the following questions and share your responses with your partner:
Question 1.
Why was the morning walk pleasant to Mr A.L.Hendricks?
Answer:
A.L. Hendricks considers his morning walk from his home to the tramcar lines pleasant and beneficial for three reasons. First of all, the setting was good with red and green-roofed bungalows, green lawns, and gardens on either side. Secondly, the walk was as beneficial as exercise. Thirdly, some of the incidents that took place during this period enlightened him in one way or another adding to his wisdom.
Question 2.
“The exercise is good for me.” says the narrator. What was that exercise?
Answer:
Walking is good exercise to him. He walks a half-mile from the home to the railway track and a half-mile from the railway track to his home. Totally one-mile walk is the type of exercise.
Question 3.
What did the narrator notice one morning?
Answer:
One morning the narrator noticed that two boys were playing in the garden in front of a modest cottage.
Question 4.
How did the smaller boy behave while playing with the bigger boy?
Answer:
The smaller boy behaved like a master. He ordered the bigger boy to pick up a stick, to jump into the flowers and to get him some water.
C2. Answer the following questions and share your responses with your partner:
Question 1.
What sight surprised the narrator the next day?
Answer:
The next morning, the narrator saw the two boys playing the same game. But, there was a reversal of the roles. The dark boy was behaving like a master and the white boy was doing whatever the dark boy asked him to do. This surprised the narrator.
Question 2.
What were the two commands given by the black boy to the white boy.?
Answer:
The black boy ordered the white boy to get him a banana. When the white boy ran into the house and brought him a banana, he asked him to peel it for him.
Question 3.
Why was the white man surprised at the narrator’s outburst?
Answer:
The white man is surprised at the narrator’s outburst because he is not worried at the idea of a white boy playing the role of a servant in the presence of a black. Both are his children ‘ and he does not impute motives to their actions. He knows that it is just a game. That is why he is surprised at the outburst of the narrator about the mistakes the adults make.
Question 4.
Why do you think the narrator smiled at the end?
Answer:
The narrator who had earlier worried over the possible supremacy of the whites over the Jamaicans is now proud that Jamaica has the spirit of accepting the whites without losing its pride. This relieved him of his anxiety and doubt. Therefore, he . smiled in the end.
C3. Some statements are given below. Some are true and some are false. Write ‘T’ or ‘F’ in the box provided against each sentence accordingly.
- The bigger boy was black. [T]
- The black boy ordered the white boy.to pick up that stick. [F]
- The white boy sat down on the lawn.[T]
- The two boys were not dressed alike.[F]
- The little boys were playing when the narrator passed by in the afternoon. [F]
- The next day, a man was playing with the boys. [F]
- The game that the two boys played was the same game the author had played during his childhood. [T]
- “I know what you are thinking,” said the man standing at the gate to the narrator. [F]
- The father of the boys was white and the mother brown. [T]
- 92% of Jamaica is inhabited by blacks.
C4. For each of the statements, four alternatives are given as the answers. Choose the best alternative,
Question 1.
The two boys in the story are
a. good friends
b. brothers
c. neighbors
d. classmates
Answer:
b. brothers
Question 2.
The commands that the white boy gave to the black boy were
a. five in number
b. four in number
c. three in number
d. two in number
Answer:
c. three in number
Question 3.
The black boy had a mat of coarse hair on his head. Coarse means
a. rough
b. beautiful
c. nice
d. long
Answer:
a. rough
Question 4.
“Only we grown-ups are silly”, The question tag to this statement is
a. aren’t we?
b. isn’t it?
c. are we?
d. Is it?
Answer:
a. aren’t we?
Question 5.
The white boy had hazel eyes. “hazel means
a. reddish-brown
b. pale brown
C. yellowish-brown
d. bluish brown
Answers :
a. reddish-brown
Read and Write:
C5. Read and discuss your responses with your partner. Then write:
Read and Write :
Question 1.
What similarities and differences can you make out between the two boys?
The similarities and differences between the two boys:
| Black boy | White boy |
| 1. Little boy | 1. Little boy |
| 2. Sturdy | 2. Sturdy |
| 3. Dressed in blue shirt and khaki pants | 3. Dressed in blue shirt and khaki pants |
| 4. No shoes | 4. No shoes |
| 5. Feet were muddy | 5. Feet were muddy |
Differences
| 1. 5 years old | 1. 4 years old |
| 2. Very dark | 2. white in colour |
| 3. Cool-black eyes | 3. reddish brown eyes |
| 4. Mat of coarse hair | 4. light brown hair |
Question 2.
What three commands did the big boy give the small boy?
Answer:
The big black boy gaves only two commands to small white boy. The commands were
- Give me a banana?
- peel it for me.
Question 3.
The author could not find any answer to some questions. Which are those questions?
Answer:
The author could find no answer to some questions, those questions were,
- Was it that even as a boy he sensed that in his own country he would be at the white man’s beck and call?
- Could he make a difference between himself and the white boy? and
- Could he think that he was going to boss over the black man?
Question 4.
Why was the narrator surprised the next morning?
Answer:
The game next morning astonished the author because it went against the conclusions he had arrived at the previous morning. The next morning too, the game was the same game of master and servant. But, the boys had changed roles and it was the turn of the dark boy to play the role of a master with the younger, white boy taking on himself the role of the servant.
Question 5.
How did the two boys behave while playing ??
Answer:
The white boy, while playing the role of the master, walked majestically up and down and shouted at the big boy in a commanding tone. The dark boy followed him quietly and did what he was told. The big boy, while playing the role of the master, was imperiously walking up and down ordering the white boy to do certain things. The white boy oestion 6.
What made the narrator think that the black boy could be the son of a servant or a classmate of the white boy?
Answer:
The little black boy dragged on quietly behind the white boy and did what he was told. And the little black boy submitted. This made him think that the black boy must be the son of a servant. But both were wearing the same dress, so he thought that either they were neighbors or playmates or classmates of a white boy.
Question 7.
What were the two points that the narrator wanted to clarify to the white man?
Answer:
The narrator thought that the white man, like himself, would be wondering if the black race was superior to the whites and if the blacks were going to rule the whites in the end. He wanted to clarify to the white man that it was not the case. The children were only playing a game and they, the adults, were misinterpreting their actions.
Question 8.
The two boys, though brothers, differed in their colour. What might be the reason?
Answer:
The two boys, though brothers, differed in their colour because their parents are Jamie can mother and English man father.
Question 9.
If you were the white man, how would you react to the narrator’s comment?
Answer:
Self-assessment. The model answer is, if I were the white man, I would also react like that white man. Because the narrator said the truth.
Vocabulary :
V1. Column A’ has the names of the Countries. Choose the correct nationality from the list given below
and write in Column ‘B’.
e.g. America American
| A | B |
| 1. Portugal | 1. Portuguese |
| 2. Britain | 2. British |
| 3. France | 3. French |
| 4. Thailand | 4. Thai |
| 5. Sweden | 5. Swedish |
| 6. Holland | 6. Dutch |
| 7. Switzerland | 7. Swiss |
| 8. Greece | 8. Greek |
| 9. Israel | 9. Israelite |
| 10. Nepal | 10. Nepalese |
Dutch, Swiss, Greek, Israelite, British, French, Thai, Portuguese, Swedish, Nepalese
V2. Guess and give the meaning of the es words underlined in the table given below.
- The stipulated period of twelve years was coming to a close.
- How can I perform the fire Sacrifice?
- Pandavas wanted to quench their thirst. They went in search of water.
- After seeing all his brothers lying dead, Yudhisthira was drowned in sorrow.
- Yaksha was pleased with the answers given by Yudhisthira.
| ‘A’ | ‘B’ |
| stipulated | agreement |
| perform | execute / operate |
| quench | satisfy |
| drowned | sink |
| pleased | satisfied |
Now verify the meaning you have written with the help of a dictionary.
V13. Read the following conversation and use the appropriate word from the ones given in brackets.
Patient: Doctor, the wound in my heel pains me a lot [heel, heal]
Doctor: Don’t worry, it will heal up after treatment [heel, heal]
You are diabetic and u, so it may take one week (weak, week]
Patient: Excuse me, a word with you doctor. I don’t know whether it is fair to ask you this question. [fair, fare]
Doctor: Oh! Don’t worry. Tell me what it is.
Patient: I have no money to pay the bus fare [fair, fare]
I’m sorry doctor. I forgot to tell you that last week I lost your prescription [last, lost]
Doctor: OK, No problem. I’ll give you both.
V4. Fill in the blanks with words that have similar pronunciation as the words underlined.
- Papanna and Somanna are good friends. The former is a u and the latter is a businessman.
- The thief wanted to steal. But the doors were locked. He broke open the lock with a steel rod.
- “Come here”, said the teacher. But the student did not hear.
- “Mandanna, your answer is quite right. But, for a moment will you keep quite?”
- Rashmi gave birth to a male child in Bangalore. Her husband who was in Mysore came to Bangalore by the mail train.
V5. We can form the opposites by adding prefixes to words: e.g. Important and unimportant
Similarly, add the given prefixes so that, they become Opposites of the words underlined.
- Sunitha is regular to the class, but Sushma is irregular
- Rama Murthy’s answer is correct, but Narayan’s is u.
- Sita’s way of expressing facts is proper, but Lakshmi’s is improper.
- All should respect the National Flag. No one should disrespect it.
- The competition was very tough. It was Rahul’s fortune that he won, but it was Sanjay’s misfortune that he lost.
C. Reading
Question : Now match the topics with the texts. Two examples are given.
| Topics | Texts |
| 1. an entry in a diary | C |
| 2. a poem | A |
| 3. a paragraph from a story | D |
| 4. a piece of conversation | G |
| 5. a news report | H |
| 6. railway timetable | E |
| 7. a paragraph from an essay | F |
| 8. scoreboard | B |
D. Grammar
The Past Tense
Sheela narrates a scene of action to her mother after reaching home.
Sheela: Mom, you see it all happened very quickly. The car came straight on the wrong side in front of the school. It rammed into the back of the school van. The van driver didn’t have any chance to avoid it. It was the car driver’s fault.
Task 1:
Study the words underlined above. They are in the past form. They can be changed from past to present.One example is given. write the others
| eg. | past form | present form |
| 1. | happened | happen |
| 2. | came | come |
| 3. | rammed | ram |
| 4. | didn’t | doesn’t |
| 5. | was | is |
Task 2 :
Fill in the blanks with the Past Tense form of the verbs choosing from the ones given in brackets.
(think, take, be, return, inspire)
Gandhiji returned to India in 1914. The great World War II had just begun. There were widespread agitations for freedom all over the country. Most of the leaders thought it is the right time to strike. Gandhiji’s presence inspired them a lot. So the freedom struggle took a definite shape that year.
Use of the Perfect form of the verb:
Task 1 :
Read the following sentences. Compare the sentence in the box with the sentences | in the bubbles. Find out the difference. Underline the different parts.
- She has brought a geometry box.
- You have bought a geometry box
- He has bought a geometry box
- I have bought a geometry box.
The Past Perfect :
Task, Fill in the blanks with the appropriate forms of the verbs given in brackets. Follow the example.
Eg:
I reached the bus station after the bus.. (leave)
I reached the bus station after the bus had left.
Note: One action, that is a bus leaving occurred before another action, that is my reaching the bus station.
Follow the example to complete the exercise given below.
- The doctor arrived after the patient had died (die)
- When the guest came to the school, the programme had already begun (already begin)
- After he had walked 5 Kms, he complained of a sore foot.
- My friend came to meet me yesterday but I had been (be) to Shivamogga, so we could not meet.
- When the officials came out of the office, the rain had not yet stopped. (not stop yet).
E. Writing
Task 1.
Match the traffic signs in Column B with the rules in Column A
Task 2.
Look at the following advertisement carefully and answer the questions below
| Get a T. Shirt worth Rs.200.00 Free on a purchase worth Rs. 1000 The offer is From 1 st to 15th October 2016 Choose from a wide variety of shirts, trousers, jackets, jeans We have everything you want Hurry ! MEGA GARMENTS Opp. Cake Cafe, M.GRoad, Raichur. |
Question 1.
Write the name of the dealing company
Answer:
The name of the dealing company is Mega garments
Question 2.
What is the free offer?
Answer:
The free offer is a T-shirt worth Rs.200.
Question 3.
Write the names of dresses in the sale.
Answer:
The names of the dresses on Sale are Shirts, trousers, Jackets, Jeans pant
Question 4.
How does the dealer try to attract Customer name with this (advertisement)? Garments. Mention one point.
Answer:
The dealer tries to attract customers by giving Free offers and assures of a wide variety.
Model Advertisement of your choice Self-assessment
Jamaican Fragment Additional Questions and Answers
Question 1.
Why did the game in the morning amaze the narrator?
OR
‘I puzzled within myself says the narrator. What conclusion did he come to after this puzzling thought?
OR
What conclusions did the narrator reach, looking at the two boys playing the game?
Answer:
The game in the morning both amazed and upset the narrator. Although it seemed to be a simple game of master and servant, the narrator was surprised that the dark boy, in spite of being older and stronger, was playing the servant. This was in spite of their evidently equal social status. This makes the narrator wonder whether the Jamaicans considered themselves inferior and accepted the superiority of the whites even as children.
Question 2.
What, according to the author A.L. Hendricks, did the little boy sense in the game?
Answer:
The author A.L. Hendricks watches the game of a black boy and a white boy and notices that the black boy is taking orders from the white boy. The author then wonders whether the black boy, even before growing up, has accepted the superiority of the whites and is prepared to follow their orders even when he is in his own country.
Question 3.
will save him this puzzle’. What did the narrator think the man would puzzle all day? Was the narrator right?
Answer:
The narrator thinks that the white man watching the two boys play would make the same mistake that he himself had made the previous day. On the second day, since the white boy was playing the role of a servant, the author thinks that the white man would puzzle over the possible superiority of the blacks over the whites. He is wrong in his assumption because the white man is the father of the two boys and knows fully well that the boys are only playing a game.
Question 4.
With what thoughts did the author go to the white man?
Answer:
The author went to the white man with the thought of setting his wrong ideas right. He knows that he was wrong in jumping to conclusions about the game of the little children. He doesn’t want another adult to make the same mistake. If he was worried over the black boy’s acceptance of his inferiority so young in life, the previous day, the author thinks, the white man would be worried over the white boy’s inferior role the next day. The author wants to clear this misconception because by now he knows that only adults are guilty of such thoughts and not children.
Multiple Choice Questions
Four alternatives are given for each of the following questions/ incomplete statements. Choose the most appropriate one.
Question 1.
The storyteller/narrator is a native of
A) Britain
B) Jamaica
C) Australia
D) Africa.
Answer:
B) Jamaica
Question 2.
The road the author of ‘Jamaican Fragment’ took every morning was flanked on either side by
A) tall buildings, offices, and lawns.
B) lawns, bungalows, and gardens.
C) gardens, playgrounds, and offices.
D) bungalows, lawns, and playgrounds.
Answer:
B) lawns, bungalows, and gardens.
Question 3.
The next morning, the author was astonished when he saw the boys playing because
A) a white man was watching them.
B) a brown woman was playing with them.
C) the white boy was again ordering the black boy to do some tasks.
D) the black boy was ordering the white boy to get him a banana.
Answer:
D) the black boy was ordering the white boy to get him a banana.
Question 4.
At the end of the lesson, the author of ‘Jamaican. Fragment’ feels proud of being a
A) human being.
B) black.
C) Jamaican.
D) world citizen.
Answer:
C) Jamaican.
Question 5.
The morning walk was pleasant to the author as
A) he could learn something from little incidents
B) the road on either side was full of greeneries
C) he could spend some time outside
D) he was a lover of nature.
Answer:
D) he was a lover of nature.
Question 6.
My spirit laughed at me. Here ‘me’ refers to
A) the Jamaican
B) the father of the boys
C) the brown woman
D) the author.
Answer:
D) the author.
Question 7.
The author of the lesson “Jamaican Fragment” is
A) Leo Tolstoy
B) C.E.M. Joad
C) A.L. Hendricks
D) Butler Leacock.
Answer:
C) A.L. Hendricks
Question 8.
The author A.L. Hendricks describes the two boys as
A) weak
B) bright
C) strong
D) sturdy
Answer:
D) sturdy
Jamaican Fragment Summary in English
In the prose ‘Jamaican fragment’ the author A L Hendricks says how prejudice misleads the person’s opinion. This incident happened in the author’s life. He depicted it very nicely.
Every day the narrator used to walk a half-mile from his home to the railway track in the morning and evening. The walk is pleasant to him because of the red and green-roofed bungalows, green lawns, and garden on either side and it gives good exercise.
One morning the narrator noticed that two little boys were playing in the garden. One is black and another is white. The narrator observed the children. The black boy might be 5 years and the white boy is a little lesser maybe 4 years old. The white boy is shouting and commanding the black boy. Whatever the white boy orders, the black boy did the same. The narrator was also a Jamaican black man. He was puzzled within himself. Hundreds of questions came into his. mind.
The children were very small, really they were infants. At a very small age how could they discriminate? Who were they? Was the black boy a servant’s son? Who was he? They wore the same type of dress. Were they neighbors or playmates. Whoever might be? Were we, as a race really inferior that even in our infancy we realized our deficiencies and accepted a position as the white man’s servant?
The author went on asking these questions to himself for a whole day. His faith in his people was shaken. He didn’t find the boys in the afternoon. Again he thought deeply.
The next morning he found the boys and observed them. To his surprise, the dark boy was commanding and white boy did everything.
Then the narrator understood that was a game and he remembered what he played in his childhood. He smiled within himself. A white man was standing by the gate. The narrator recalled what he thought the previous day and night. The thought came to his mind that the black race is superior to white. How silly the grown-ups are to misinterpret a child’s action. Then he would try to clarify and drive away all the doubts from his mind. The narrator said these to these white men. He was surprised to hear the outburst of the narrator and said that the two boys were brothers and his children and introduced a brown woman as his wife.
The narrator smiled and his soul laughed within him. He said to his heart about his country and his people’s greatness and he was left proud of both. The white man smiled at the narrator and went away to catch the train.
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