Chapter 1 The Best Christmas Present in the World
Comprehension check (page no 10)
Question 1. What did the author find in a junk shop?
Answer:- The author found a roll top desk a junk shop.
Question 2. What did he find in a secret drawer? Who do you think had put it in there?
Answer:- He found a small black tin box in the secret drawer with a letter in it. I think Mrs Jim Macpherson had put it in there .
Comprehension check (page -14)
Question 1.Who had written the letter to whom and when?
Answer:- Mr. Jim Macpherson had written the letter to his wife Mrs. Connie on 26th December 1914.
Question 2. Why was the letter written — what was the wonderful things that had happened?
Answer:- The letter was written by Mr. Jim Macpherson to his wife for telling her about the incident that took place a day before. The British and the Germans were engaged in a war and yet they both celebrated Christmas together happily.
Question 3.What jobs did Hans Wolf and Jim Macpherson have when they were not soldiers?
Answer:- Hans Wolf was a musician and used to play cello in an orchestra, and Mr. Jim Macpherson was a school teacher in Dorset.
Question 4. Had Hans Wolf ever been to Dorset? Why did he say he knew it?
Answer:- No, because he read about it in school and in books a lot.
Question 5. Do you think Jim Macpherson came back from the war? How do you know this?
Answer:- No, I don’t think he had ever came back from war, because Mrs. Connie had written on the envelope that it was his last letter.
Comprehension check ( page 15 honeydew) .
Question 1. Why did the author go to Bridport?
Answer:- The author went to the Bridport to visit Mrs. Jim Macpherson as he wanted to give her, her husband’s letter.
Question 2. How old was Mrs. Macpherson now? Where was she?
Answer:- She approximately was one hundred & one years old. She is now in Burlington house nursing home on Dorset road.
Comprehension check (page 16 )
Question 1. Who did Connie Macpherson think her visitor was?
Answer:- Mrs. Jim Macpherson thought her visitor was her husband Mr. Jim Macpherson.
Question 2. Which sentence in the text shows that the visitor did not try to hide his identity?
Answer:- While Mrs. Connie was sharing her emotion, He sat down beside her, and let her kissed his cheek, shows that the visitor did not try to hide his identity.
Working with the Text (page 16)
Question 1. For how long do you think Connie had kept Jim’s letter give reason for your answer.
Answer:- At least for 50 plus years as at the time of war they were young and now she is too old to remember anything.
Question 2. Why do you think desk had been sold, and when.
Answer:- The desk must have been sold when Connie’s house had burnt. The table had been damaged by fire as well as water.
Question 3. Why do Jim and Hans think that games or sports are good ways of resolving conflicts? Do you agree?
Answer:- Because no soldier will die, No children will become orphan No wives will become widow . Yes, I agree this way of resolving conflicts.
Question 4. Do you think the soldiers of the two armies are like each other, or different from each other? Find evidence from the story to support your answer.
Answer:- The soldiers of the two armies are similar to each other as because both celebrated christmas together, they played a friendly football match, both the armies longed for peace and shared all eatables.
Question 5. Mention the various ways in which the British and the German soldiers become friends and find things in common at Christmas.
Answer:- The British and the German soldiers belonged to different camps. They were enemies in war time. But after all they were human beings and therefore they had similar feelings. They put their differences aside and played games, feasted and drank like good friends. Both hated war. Both were eager to go back to their families at the end of war.
Question 6. What is Connie’s Christmas present? Why is it “the best Christmas present in the world”?
Answer:- Connie’s Christmas present is her husband’s last letter which she received approx 50 years back, and her husband never came back from war. She thought that Jim, her husband had come back home from war. She mistook the author as Jim. She had been waiting for her husband Jim since then. So the coming home of Jim was the best Christmas present in the world for her.
Question 7. Do you think the title of this story is suitable for it? Can you think of any other title(s)?
Answer:- The story’s title is unquestionably appropriate. No other present could have brought Connie as much delight as Jim’s return home. Her assumption may have been incorrect, but she has experienced the greatest happiness of her life.