NCERT CLASS 8 ENG SUPPLYMENTRY CH 2

 

Question 1: Vela stood on the platform, but he felt “as if he was still on a moving train”. Why?

Answer: Vela had run away from his home to Chennai by catching the Kanyakumari Express. He travelled in a train for the first time, and as he got off the train and stood on the platform, he felt his legs were shaky and wobbly. Besides, he was very hungry and stressed and felt as though he was still on a moving train.

Question 2: What made him feel miserable?

Answer: Vela felt exhausted and miserable as he laid down his head on his knees because he had run away from his village two days ago due to the torture inflicted upon him by his drunkard father. He had not eaten anything in the past two days except for some peanuts and a piece of jaggery. He felt lost and hopeless when he arrived in the big city.

Question 3: (i) Vela travelled without a ticket. Why?

(ii) How did he escape the ticket collector’s attention?

Answer: ( i ) Vela left his village because he was annoyed with his drunkard father, who used to grab away all that he and his sisters earned and spend it on drinks. Hence, he travelled without a ticket because he had no money to buy a train ticket for himself.

(ii) Vela could escape the ticket collector’s attention because, luckily, the ticket collector didn’t come to the unreserved compartment. He tried to sleep on the floor near the door as he had no ticket.

Question 4: Why had Vela run away from home?

Answer : Vela was from a poor family, and he and his sisters worked hard for a living. But his drunkard father would snatch away all their earnings and spend it on drinking. The little boy ran away from his home as he was very annoyed with his father.

Question 5:Why did he decide to follow the ‘strange’ girl?

Answer: Vela decided to follow the ‘strange’ girl because he was new in the big city and didn’t know where to go or what to do. Meanwhile, he was also very hungry and stressed as he had not eaten any food for the past two days.

Comprehension Check (Page 13)

Question 1: Can Vela read Tamil and English? How do you know?

Answer: Vela could not read the huge signboards that were written in English as he didn’t know what they meant. However, when he walked past the Central Jail, he squinted and read it as it was written in Tamil.

Question 2: “If you are not careful, you will soon be counting bars there,” the girl said.

(i) What is she referring to?

(ii) What does she mean when she says, “If you are not careful…”?

(She says something a little later, which means the same. Find that sentence.)

Answer: (i) She was referring to the Central Jail.

(ii) When she said to Vela, “If you are not careful…”, she meant that he should never get caught to be put behind bars. Besides, she also meant that they should be extra cautious and not do anything stupid to avoid getting caught by the policemen.

The other sentence that the girl told him was – “You don’t have to do anything. Just don’t get caught, that’s all.”

Question 3: (i) Where did the girl lead Vela to?

(ii) What did they get to eat?

Answer: (i) The girl led Vela to a big wedding hall and rushed behind it, where there was a big garbage bin overflowing with rubbish. She picked up a squashy banana and held it out to him as she knew he was starving and quickly picked up a Vada and gave him to eat.

(ii) Vela got a squashy banana and a Vada, whereas the girl only got a banana to eat.

Question 4: What work did she do? Think of a one-word answer.

Answer: The girl worked as a rag-picker.

Comprehension Check (Page 15)

Question 1: (i) What material are the ‘strange’ huts made out of?

(ii) Why does Vela find them strange?

Answer: (i) The ‘strange’ huts were built from all sorts of things, such as metal sheets, tires, bricks, wood and plastic.

(ii) In Vela's village, the houses were made of mud and palm leaves. But he found the huts in the city to be strange because they were made up of different stuff such as metal sheets, tires, bricks, wood and plastic. They stood crookedly and looked as if they would fall any moment. He had actually visited a slum area for the first time, and he was quite surprised by looking at them and wondered how people lived in them and from where they got such stuff to build their huts.

Question 2: What sort of things did Jaya and children like her collect and what did they do with those things?

Answer: Jaya and other children like her collected paper, plastic, glass and other similar things. They sold all these things to Jam Bazaar Jaggy, who further sold them to a nearby factory.

Question 3: Is Vela happy or unhappy to find work? Give a reason for your answer.

Answer: Although Vela had run away from his home, he was unhappy to find the work of a rag-picker as he had to dig through garbage bins. He remembered that the only work he had ever done was on the landowner’s farm, weeding and taking cows out to graze. However, he decided to work as a rag-picker in the meantime until he found a better job for himself.