NCERT Solution for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1 The Fun They Had
I. Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.
1.How old are Margie and Tommy?
Answer:- Margie is eleven and Tommy is thirteen years old.
2. What did Margie write in her diary?
Answer:- Margie wrote in her diary that “Today Tommy found a real book!”
3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?
Answer:- No, Margie had never seen a book before.
4. What things about the book did she find strange?
Answer:- Margie found many things strange about the book like it had yellow and wrinkled pages. Its words were still and did not move the way they were supposed move to on a screen.
5. What do you think a telebook is?
Answer:- I think a book that can be displayed on a computer screen is called a telebook.
6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Answer:- Margie’s school was right next to her bedroom, in her home itself. No, she did not have any classmates.
7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Answer:- Margie and Tommy learnt subjects like- geography, history and arithmetic.
II. Answer the following with reference to the story.
- “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
- i) Who says these words?
- ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?
- iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
Answer:-
- i) Tommy says these words.
- ii) It refered to the “book”.
- iii) It is being compared with the “telebook” by the speaker.
2.“Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
- i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
- ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
- iii) What is it contrasted with?
Answer:-
- i) They refer to the students of this century
- ii) Regular teacher means the mechanical teacher the usual teacher for the people in 2157.
- iii) The mechanical teacher is contrasted with the human teacher of the earlier times.
III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
- What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
Answer:- 1. Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers with large black screens that flashed lessons and asked questions. Their teachers had slots where they had to put their homework and test papers to check.
- Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
Answer:- Margie’s mechanical teacher was not functioning properly. It had been giving her so many test in geography and she had been not doing well. In order to find the reason behind it Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector
- What did he do?
Answer:- He slowed down the speed of geography sector of Margie’s mechanical teacher to an average ten-year level.
- Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
Answer:- Margie was doing badly in geography because her geography’s sector was little quick . The county inspector has slowed it down to an average ten-year level.
- What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
Answer:- Answer: Tommy’s teacher had to be taken away altogether for a month as the history sector of it had blanked out completely. He had nothing to do during that period except enjoy.
- Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Answer:- Yes Margie had regular day and hours for school because her mother said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.
- How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
Answer:- Tommy described that the old kind of school had a special building all the kids went there for studying.
- How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
Answer:- He describes that the old teachers did not live in the house of students. They had a special building and all the kids went there to study. They gave homework to students. They were human beings instead of mechanical teachers.
IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 –150 words).
Question 1. What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?
Answer:- The main features of the mechanical teachers that Margie and Tommy have are:-
The mechanical teachers have large black screens on which they display lessons and ask questions. Students must place their homework and exam papers in a slot provided by the mechanical teacher. Students write their solutions in punch code, and the mechanical teacher immediately calculates the results.
The main features of the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have are:
The schools in the chapter are located in the houses of the people. Margie’s school, for example, was immediately across the door from her bedroom. There are no classmates for the students. They study mathematics, history, geography, and other disciplines. Except on weekends, the mechanical teacher would switch on at the same time every day.
Question 2. Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
Answer:- Margie hated school because she found it uninteresting. The mechanical teacher always started class at the same time. Margie’s mechanical teacher was giving her Geography tests after tests, and she was failing them all.Margie also disliked to put homework and test papers into the mechanical teacher’s slot.
She felt that the previous type of school must have been enjoyable because it would have included students from all over the neighbourhood. It would have been fascinating to sit in class together and leave the school together at the end of the day. All of the children learned the same topics so that they could help one another with their schoolwork and homework.
Question 3. Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer:- Yes, I agree with Margie that today’s schools are more enjoyable than the one depicted in the story. The schools in the storey are located in the houses of the students. As a result of this, there is no room for student interaction.
Students have a broader perspective of society when they learn in a regular class. Students also become familiar with one another and learn how to engage and socialise with them. Learning from a human teacher is far more engaging than learning from a machine. If a student has a question about a lesson or idea, he or she can ask the human teacher right away. Mechanical teachers, on the other hand, are pre-programmed with the a specific lesson and subject for each day.