11th std A Photograph

11th std A Photograph 

Extract based Questions(MCQs)

I. Read the extract given below and answer any two of the questions that follow.
“The cardboard shows me how it was When the two girl cousins went paddling, Each one holding one of my mother’s hands,
And she the big girl – some twelve years or so.”
Question 1.
What does the cardboard here refer to?
(a) A thick paper on which the poet’s photograph was pasted
(b) A thick envelope
(c) A thick paper on which the poet’s mother’s photograph was pasted
(d) A paper boat
Answer:
(c) A thick paper on which the poet’s mother’s photograph was pasted

Question 2.
What does the cardboard depict?
(a) It depicts a scenery
(b) It depicts the picture of a house
(c) It depicts the picture of a school
(d) It depicts the picture of three girls
Answer:
(d) It depicts the picture of three girls

Question 3.
Who is the ‘big girl’ mentioned here?
(a) The big girl is the poet herself
(b) The big girl is the poet’s mother
(c) The big girl is the poet’s relative
(d) The big girl is the poet’s friend
Answer:
(b) The big girl is the poet’s mother

II. Read the extract given below and answer any two of the questions that follow.
“All three stood still to smile through their hair At the uncle with the camera. A sweet face,
My mother’s, that was before I was born.
And the sea, which appears to have changed less,
Washed their terribly transient feet.”
Question 1.
What does the poet mean by ‘smile through their hair’?
(a) It means that a smile was painted on the hair of the photographed girls
(b) It means that the photographed girls were wearing a mask
(c) It means that the hair of the photographed girls were covering their face when they were smiling
(d) It means that the hair of the girls in the photograph was smiling too
Answer:
(c) It means that the hair of the photographed girls were covering their face when they were smiling

Question 2.
What has not changed over a period of time?
(a) The photo
(b) The cardboard
(c) The girls
(d) The sea
Answer:
(d) The sea

Question 3.
Find a word from the extract which means “lasting only for a short time”?
(a) Still
(b) Transient
(c) Changed
(d) Less
Answer:
(b) Transient

III. Read the extract given below and answer any two of the questions that follow.
“Some twenty-thirty – years later She’d laugh at the snapshot. “See Betty And Dolly,” she’d say, “and look how they Dressed us for the beach.” The sea holiday Was her past, mine is her laughter. Both wry With the laboured ease of loss.”
Question 1.
Why did ‘she’ laugh?
(a) Because of the funny dresses that they were wearing at the sea holiday
(b) Because one of them cracked a joke
(c) Because of the funny dresses they were wearing at the party
(d) Because of the funny man they saw at the sea holiday
Answer:
(a) Because of the funny dresses that they were wearing at the sea holiday

Question 2.
Who are Betty and Dolly?
(a) They are poet’s cousins
(b) They are poet’s friends
(c) They are poet’s mother’s friends
(d) They are poet’s mother’s cousins
Answer:
(d) They are poet’s mother’s cousins

Question 3.
_________ in the extract is the synonym of ‘photograph’.
(a) Snapshot
(b) Picture
(c) Mine
(d) Laboured
Answer:
(a) Snapshot

IV. Read the extract given below and answer any two of the questions that follow.
“Now she’s been dead nearly as many years As that girl lived. And of this circumstance There is nothing to say at all.
Its silence silences.”
Question 1.
Who does ‘she’ refer to?
(a) The poet’s dead aunt
(b) The poet’s dead mother
(c) The poet’s dead cousin
(d) The poet’s sister
Answer:
(b) The poet’s dead mother

Question 2.
Why is there nothing to say about the death of the poet’s mother?
(a) Because the poet is confused
(b) Because the poet was not in her senses when her mother expired
(c) Because the death of the poet’s mother has left a deep void in the poet’s heart
(d) Because the poet did not have a good relationship with her mother
Answer:
(c) Because the death of the poet’s mother has left

Question 3.
Which word in the extract means the same as “events that change your life, over which you have no control”?
(a) Silences
(b) Circumstances
(c) Situation
(d) Circumstance
Answer:
(d) Circumstance

Short answer type Questions

1. The three stanzas depict three different phases. What are they?

Shirley Toulson’s ‘A Photograph’ describes three different phases in time.

In the first phase, the poet’s mother is described as a twelve year old girl with a sweet and innocent smile. She is standing on the beach enjoying a holiday with her two cousins — Betty and Dolly . This was the phase before the poet’s birth.In the second phase, the poet’s mother’s middle age is described, where she is laughing at her own snapshot. Perhaps the girls were looking quite funny in the beach costumes. The third phase describes the poet’s feelings for her mother, who has died many years ago. This is the current phase. The photograph revives nostalgic feelings in her and it leads to a deeper silence.

2. What does the word ‘cardboard’ denote in the poem? Why has this word been used?

The word cardboard denotes the photograph pasted on a hard thick paper. This word has been used to refer to a practice in the past when photographs were pasted on cardboard and framed with glass front to preserve them.

3. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to you?

Time has moved on, but what has not changed over the years is the sea. It is immortal. It appears to be the same today as it looked in the old photograph. It suggests the eternity of the sea. It also brings out the transient nature of man when compared to nature and its objects. The pretty faces and the feet of the three girls are ‘terribly transient’ or mortal when compared to the unchangeable and immortal sea.

4. The poet’s mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh indicate?

Answer:
The poet’s mother was a girl of twelve when the photograph was taken. The photograph had captured the smiling face of the poet’s mother. She laughed in nostalgia at the snapshot that was taken years ago and also at the way all of them were dressed for the beach. She pointed it out to others. Perhaps they looked funny. This laugh indicated that the poet’s mother enjoyed remembering her childhood days, when she was young and free from the tensions and worries of adult life.

5.What is the meaning of the line ‘Both wry with the laboured ease of loss.’
The context of the above lines is the mother’s recollection of her childhood days and the poet’s recollection of her mother’s laughing face. The mother had fond memories of her past but there was a sense of loss of the carefree childhood days. The poet’s loss referred to here is the loss of her mother through death and her smile. The memories in each case were beautiful, but painful to recall as time slipped away so easily from their hands..

6. What does ‘this circumstance of the photograph’ refer to?
‘This circumstance’ refers to the death of the poet’s mother. Whenever she saw the photograph of her mother, she reminisced the past and becomes sad as the photograph brings sad nostalgic feelings. She gets lost in the old sweet memories of the past. But she can’t do anything about it, now. She has nothing to say at all about it. She maintains silence and this silence leads to a deeper pool of silence.

7. How does the poet react to her past? Why has she not mentioned anything about her mother’s death?
The poet remembers with sadness her mother’s laughter which she cannot hear any more. The poet is full of a sense of loss and does not mention about her mother’s death, as it may bring more gloom or agony to her and make her speechless.

8. Does the poet appear to be grieving?
The poet is certainly filled with a sense of loss. Her mother is long dead and though the poet has adjusted to her absence, she is not able to completely overcome her loss. She remembers how it used to be when her mother was still with her. The last line is an apt depiction of her state of mind. The loss has filled her life with emptiness and silence.

9. Comment on the tone of the poem.
The tone of the poem is that of sadness. Shirley Toulson looks at an old photograph of her mother and is sadly reminded of her mother who is no more. She mentions about death of her mother indirectly only but this photograph has made her speechless and silent.

Q10. Explain the contrast given in the last two lines of the first stanza.

The contrast is between the sea and the humans. The sea had remained the constant for all these years, but the humans have undergone changes. Her mother grew up and now she had been dead for the past twelve years but the sea remained as it is welcoming other visitors at the shore to cherish memories for life.

11. What has the camera captured?
The camera has captured some happy childhood moments of the poet’s mother when she has gone for a sea holiday with her two cousins Dolly and Betty. The girls were paddling in the water and enjoying the moment. The photograph clicked by the mother’s uncle shows the girls’ excitement, innocent smiling faces while their hair was flying over their faces.

Long answer type Questions

1. The poet has paid a tribute to her mother. Similar instances can be seen in ‘The Portrait of a Lady’. This made you think that writing about a loved one is much better than building their statues or drawing their portraits. Comment.

Many writers have paid tributes to their loved ones through beautiful writing. Khushwant Singh gave an adorable description about his grandmother through his story. Shirley Toulson remembered her mother through her heart-touching poem.

In my opinion, writing about a loved one is much better than building their statues or drawing their portraits. One can never tell the true personality of a person just by looking at their sculptures or portraits. One can never know about the amazing time someone has spent with them. That magic can only be created by words and their expressions.

Words stand the passage of time, whereas sculptures or portraits may get damaged by it. Hence, words are the best way to emote out ones feelings by which anyone can pay a tribute to one’s loved ones.

2. “Its silence silences,” writes Shirley Toulson. The loss of her mother has silenced her. Do you think that this attitude of the poet is the right attitude to live life? Why/ why not?

There is no doubt that Shirley Toulson has given a very touching tribute to her mother by remembering her through her verses. It is apparent that she is very much nostalgic and is grieving at the loss of her mother. Though she says that over the years she has adjusted to her mother’s absence, but circumstances have surely filled her with silence and a deep void.

We cannot deny the fact that it hurts very much to lose someone, but the attitude shown by the poet at the end is not the absolute way to live ones life. Life will keep going on even if we stop to lament our loss.

Loss is universal and inevitable. learning the epistemology of loss and accepting it is the most crucial but needed thing. It is the law of nature. We cannot let ourselves get depressed just because of this. It is also understandable that we will grieve. However, grieving to the point of hampering the normal functioning of our lives is not acceptable.