KSEEB Solutions for Class 9 English Poem Chapter 8 Ethics
KSEEB Solutions for Class 9 English Poem Chapter 8 Ethics
Karnataka State Board Class 9 English Poem Chapter 8 Ethics
The topics covered in Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board Class 9 Solutions for English Chapter 8 Ethics. The KSEEB Solutions Class 9 English Solutions Chapter 8 Ethics Question and Answers are prepared according to the latest edition.The Chapterwise page will help the students to revise the syllabus during the exams.
Ethics Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes
Comprehension:
C1. Answer the following questions in a sentence each:
Question 1.
What question did the teacher ask every time?
Answer:
The teacher used to ask a hypothetical question every time. She would ask the students – if there were a fire in a museum, and if they, had a choice, what would they save: a Rembrandt painting or an old woman who didn’t have many years to live?
Question 2.
Were the children able to answer the question correctly?
Answer:
The children could not answer the question correctly as they chose the old woman some times and the painting at other times.
Question 3.
The children responded to the question __________
a) by debating on the question enthusiastically
b) half-heartedly
c) by giving different answers at different times.
Answer:
(b) half-heartedly.
Question 4.
Where is the speaker standing when the speaker narrates this incident?
Answer:
The speaker is standing in a museum when she narrates the incident.
Question 5.
What had the speaker realized after many years?
Answer:
The speaker had realized after many years the truth that women and painting and season are almost one. Ethics and moral values can be only learned from experience and maturity.
C2. Answer the following questions:
Question 1.
Pick out the expression in the poem that indicates that the question did not interest the children.
Answer:
- The expression “ half-heartedly” indicates that the question did not interest the children.
- Restless son hard chairs caring little for pictures on old age – also shows disinterest.
Question 2.
The children were ‘restless on hard chairs’ because
a) they were eager to answer the question immediately
b) they were unable to understand the ethics dilemma
c) the hardness of the chair affected their calmness.
Answer:
(b) They were unable to understand the ethics dilemma.
Question 3.
The images ‘half-heartedly’ and ‘half-imagined’ could mean
a) the children perceived the idea of ethical responsibility very faintly
b) the ethical dilemma was beyond their understanding and experience
c) children could not understand the gravity of the question.
Answer:
(b) the ethical dilemma was beyond their understanding of arid experience.
C3. Discuss with your friends if the poem is only about a lesson of ethics learned in school or if it offers something higher than this.
The poem begins in a classroom and ends in a museum. This movement shows clearly that lessons in ethics cannot be taught in classrooms. They should be taught through experience. The poem beginning in the classroom symbolically represents the beginning of instruction in ethics and the result of such an attempt. But, there is progression.
As the children go through a process of maturation and aging they acquire wisdom and maturity by the time they grow old. Old age is the time when they need to be protected and taken care of like we do to old objects of value in a museum.
That is why children are sent to the classroom to be nurtured and tutored in principles of ethics. Similarly, the museum suggests that old people, like paintings in a museum, need to be taken care of by the society. It can also be inferred that what they fail to learn as children in a classroom they acquire such lessons through experience when they grow up.
C4. List a few ‘ethics’ you have to follow in the situations given below:
- Place of work
- Place of learning (a school/class)
- Place of worship
- Place of living.
Answer:
1. Place of work: At the place of work we have practical, behavioural, and moral ethics to follow. If being punctual is practical value, being friendly and cooperative with our colleagues in the behavioural ethics that we should follow. But more importantly, we should follow the moral ethics of integrity in our workplace.
2. Place of learning (a school/class): In the place of learning it is important that we honour the ethical values of punctuality, discipline, and obedience. We should respect the ideals of cleanliness and eco-consciousness. We should uphold the norm of treating others with respect and helping one another.
3. Place of worship: We should maintain the serenity of the place by remaining silent and prayerful.
4. Place of living: We should keep our surroundings clean and not merely our own homes. We should advocate the strength of human relationships, bonding, and love.
Additional Questions:
Question 1.
What was the question asked by the teacher every fall?
Answer:
The teacher wanted to know, whom a child would save in case of a fire in a museum being visited by the child – an old woman, who did not have many years to live or a painting by Rembrandt, the famous artist.
Question 2.
How did the students reply?
Answer:
Each year the students opted for a different choice. One year they said they would save the painting and the next year it was the old woman.
Question 3.
Why were the students ‘half-hearted’ in their answer?
Answer:
The students did not understand the gravity of the question and it was also beyond their understanding; they were also bored with the same repeated question. Therefore, they answered ‘half-heartedly’.
Question 4.
What was the speaker’s reply one particular year?
Answer:
The speaker asked the teacher, why the woman shouldn’t be left to decide for herself.
Question 5.
Did the teacher accept the answer of the speaker?
Answer:
No, the teacher instead told Linda that she was avoiding the burden of responsibility.
Question 6.
Where is the speaker now?
Answer:
She is visiting a museum and standing in front of a painting by Rembrandt.
Question 7.
What similarity do you find between the question of the teacher and the experience of the poet?
Answer:
The teacher had asked students to choose between saving an old woman and a famous painting. Now the speaker herself was standing in a museum in front of a famous painting. To that extent, the question had come true. Now it is her own situation and no more a simple reaction.
Question 8.
What does the speaker feel about the painting?
Answer:
Standing in front of the painting, she feels that the colours within the frame of the painting are darker than the colours of reality. They are even darker than the winter colours. The Earth has darker and more lively, sparkling shades than is seen in art. But it is a representation of life. The canvas does try to reflect the radiant colours of the earth.
Multiple Choice Questions:
Question 1.
The meaning of the phrase ‘every fall’ is
A) falling down every time
B) the fall of water in a falls
C) every autumn season
D) when the poet fell down.
Answer:
C) every autumn season
Question 2.
‘An old woman who hadn’t many years left’ means the old woman
A) had a number of years to live
B) was about to die
C) had left behind a number of years
D) did not have many years to live
Answer:
D) did not have many years to live
Question 3.
The students answered the question
A) without any care for the picture or old age
B) without understanding the question
C) very sincerely
D) after thinking a lot.
Answer:
A) without any care for the picture or old age
Question 4.
When the poet answered ‘let the woman decide herself, her teacher wrote in her report card
A) she did not answer the question
B) she answered it wrongly
C) she avoided taking responsibility
D) she should be punished for her arrogance.
Answer:
C) she avoided taking responsibility
Question 5.
Standing before a real Rembrandt the speaker realised that
A) woman and painting and season are almost one.
B) the teacher should not have asked that question
C) the teacher should not have given such a report
D) she should not have given different answers at different times.
Answer:
A) woman and painting and season are almost one.
Question 6.
The speaker most closely identifies with
A) the teacher
B) the woman in the Rembrandt painting
C) the old woman who hadn’t many years left anyhow
D) her grandmother.
Answer:
C) the old woman who hadn’t many years left anyhow
Question 7.
The seasons autumn and winter in the lines “The colours within this frame are darker than autumn, darker even than winter” suggest
A) the children and the old woman
B) aging and death
C) the old woman and the painting
D) the children and
Answer:
B) aging and death
Ethics by Linda Pastan About The Poet:
Linda Pastan, a Jewish poet, was born in Bronx (in New York), in the year 1932. She graduated from Radcliffe College and received her M.A. from Brandeis University. She has written a number of poems and has received a number of awards and honours. She also served as the Poet Laureate of Maryland.
Ethics Summary in English
The poem’s title points to its central concern – ethics. What is meant by ethics is a general system of moral principles, the study of which is the branch of philosophy concerned with right and wrong of certain actions and behaviour. A system of ethical or moral behaviour is essential to a civilised society, and we learn early through instruction many of its moral precepts. However, in the course of life people find themselves in situations in which they must decide for themselves what is the right way to act or the right choice to make. It is an individual’s responsibility to make the right choice and to be accountable for that choice. A part of growing up is learning how to make the right choices.
In the poem ‘Ethics’, Linda Pastan speaks about her experience and understanding of the true meaning of Ethics. She recollects her school days when her Ethics teacher would ask the same question to her students every fall (autumn). The teacher would ask her students whom would they save if there were a fire in the museum – a Rembrandt painting or an old woman who hadn’t many years to live?
The students would be restless on hard chairs and give answers half-heartedly, without understanding the significance of the question. As they cared very little for art or life, they would choose life one year and art the next year. Another year Linda tried to suggest letting the woman decide for herself, but the teacher warned her not to escape from her responsibility of making a choice.
Years later, in the autumn, Linda visited a museum and stood before a real Rembrandt painting. As she studied the painting, she noticed that the colours were darker than autumn, darker than even winter. The painter’s colours on the canvas were those deep colours seen at the end of a season. However, she saw that through these dark colours earth’s most radiant elements burned. By using such imagery she expresses what she saw in Rembrandt, which a child would not be able to see.
Pastan realised that a beautiful painting and an old woman are “all beyond saving by children”. Pastan understood that a child would choose to save an old woman rather than a painting because the child felt that it was, morally, the right thing to do. The unmatched beauty of the painting was truly worth saving. At the same time she was now standing in the place of the old woman. She understood the value of the painting which she could not as a young girl. She remembered how little meaning either pictures or old age had for her then.
She now realized the teacher’s true intention in posing the question – that woman, painting and seasons are all equally important and they are beyond saving by children. Pastan shows that at a young age children don’t fully understand what ethics means, they would just do what felt morally right. She understood that ethics comes with the experience that one has in one’s life.
In the concluding part of the poem which states, “I know now that woman and painting and season are almost one and all beyond the saving of children”, it is evident that this poem is not meant for the amusement of children, but rather for people who have attained the age of the speaker. In these lines, the poet finally realizes the real meaning of the question posed to them by their teacher several years ago because of the numerous years of experience she has gained. The narrator implies that the woman and the painting both represent old age and wisdom; things that the children are unable to comprehend and that is why they cannot assist or save them.
Glossary:
ethics: moral values of human conduct
fall(n): autumn
Rembrandt: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-69), Dutch painter, noted for his handling of shade and light, especially in his portraits
opt: choose
report: tell about
drafty(adj): characterized by or admitting currents of air, usually uncomfortable,
eschew: avoid
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