NCERT Solutions Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment

F R E E S T U D Y M AT E R I A L F O R E V E R Y S T U D E N T

CLASS 8 · ENGLISH

NCERT Solutions

Unit 4: Environment

NCERT Textbook — Poorvi

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

155 – 200 29 126 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 114 pages

Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 8 · ENGLISH · POORVI

NCERT Solutions — Unit 4: Environment
Unit 4 of Poorvi asks what people owe the living world around them. It holds three pieces — Ruskin Bond's
story The Cherry Tree, Sarojini Naidu's Harvest Hymn, and Kamakshi Balasubramanian's story Waiting for
the Rain — and moves from one boy and one seed, to a whole village singing to sun, rain and earth, to a
farmer who must learn that the land itself grows tired.

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Poorvi (Class 8) 155 – 200

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

29 126

MEDIUM

English

Let us do these activities before we read — Page 155
The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

WORK IN PAIRS

Q1 Have you ever used a seed or a sapling to grow a plant?

This is about your own experience, so your answer will be your own. Say what you planted,
where you planted it, and whether you began from a seed or from a sapling — those three
details turn a one-word answer into a real one.

Sample answer: Yes. Last monsoon I pushed four coriander seeds into an old paint
bucket of soil on our balcony. My cousin, who lives in a village near Nashik, started
differently — he brought home a guava sapling from a nursery, because a sapling
already has roots and gives fruit years sooner than a seed does.

Why it matters here: Rakesh does not set out to grow a tree at all. He is simply told,
'Nothing is lucky if you put it away.' The whole story grows out of that one careless
push of a thumb — which is exactly why the book asks you to remember your own
first seed before you read it.

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Q2 What kind of care did the plant need? Who helped you with it?

Name the actual care the plant needed and the actual person who helped. A plant needs four
things regularly, and one thing occasionally:

Water — enough, but not too much. Rakesh comes running with a whole bucket and
Grandfather warns, 'Don't drown it!'
Sunlight — the right amount for that plant. Grandfather chooses a shady corner for the
cherry seed.
Good soil — soft and yielding, so the roots can push through.
Protection — from goats, from caterpillars, from being trampled. Rakesh circles his tree with
pebbles 'for privacy'.
And occasionally, patience — a plant will not grow faster because you are watching it.

Sample answer: My coriander needed watering every evening and about three
hours of morning sun. My grandmother helped — she showed me that the soil
should feel damp, not wet, and that the pot needed a hole at the bottom so the
extra water could run out.

Q3 How did you feel when you saw the plant grow?

Give the feeling and the reason for it — that is what makes this a Class 8 answer rather than a
one-word one.

Sample answer: I felt proud, and a little surprised. Proud, because those green
shoots existed only because I had bothered to water them; surprised, because I had
done so little and the plant had done so much. After that I checked the bucket every
single morning before school.

Link to the story: Ruskin Bond gives Rakesh the same mixture. Rakesh 'stopped
looking at it except quickly, out of the corner of his eye' — because watching made
the waiting harder. And when the first pink blossom appears, he and Grandfather
gaze at the tree 'as though it had performed a miracle'.

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Q4 What kind of trees do people plant in their homes? Why is it important to plant
trees?

People usually plant trees in their homes for one of three reasons — food, shade, or custom
and beauty.

REASON TREES COMMONLY PLANTED IN INDIAN HOMES

Fruit mango, guava, papaya, lemon, curry leaf, drumstick, jamun, coconut

Shade and air neem, peepal, gulmohar, ashoka, banyan (in larger compounds)

Custom, scent, beauty tulsi, parijat, champa, mogra, bel

Why planting trees matters:

Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, so they clean the air we breathe and slow
down the warming of the planet.
Their roots hold the soil together and stop it from being washed away — the story itself
notes that on the Himalayan foothills 'the soil was stony, and the dry cold winds stunted the
growth of most plants'.
They cool the ground around them. Grandfather chooses his cane chair under the cherry
tree because 'there's just the right amount of shade here'.
They feed and shelter other living things. The cherry tree draws bees, a praying-mantis, a
caterpillar, bulbuls and scarlet minivets — a whole small world grew out of one seed.

Q5 Name some fruit trees that grow in your region. What type of conditions help these
fruit trees to grow?

Answer for your region — the point of the question is that fruit trees are picky about climate,
and a tree that thrives in Himachal will die in Chennai.

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REGION FRUIT TREES CONDITIONS THEY NEED

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story's setting).c
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Himalayan foothills (the cherry, apple, plum, apricot,
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cool winters, deep loose soil, sheltered slopes

a s em peach, walnut away from the dry cold wind

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aNorthern mango, guava, litchi, ber, hot summers, alluvial soil, plenty of water in
papaya the growing season

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Coastal and southern
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coconut, banana, jackfruit,. ag
India chikoo, cashew
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Dry western India
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date palm, pomegranate, ber, little water, sandy soil, tolerance of long dry
custard apple spells
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Why it happens: A cherry tree in Mussoorie is not an accident of luck. Cherries need g
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Valley', and why Grandfather is astonished that a seed spat out on a Mussoorie
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hillside actually took root.

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Let us discuss — Pages 159–160
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The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond) — after Part I

LET US DISCUSS

Q1 Arrange the events in order of occurrence in the story. Two have been done for you.
1. Rakesh discovered that the small, well-rooted twig, had grown into a cherry tree.
2. Rakesh was sent to live with his grandfather in Mussoorie. 3. Rakesh pressed the
cherry seed into the soft soil with his thumb. (5) 4. The cherry tree grew quickly
after the rains arrived early. 5. Rakesh bought a bunch of cherries and ate most of
them. 6. A goat entered the garden and ate all the leaves of the young cherry tree.
7. Rakesh's parents grew maize, rice, and barley in a village. (1) 8. Rakesh sprinkled
water on the cherry tree and surrounded it with pebbles. 9. Grandfather told
Rakesh that cherry trees were tough. 10. Rakesh kept rolling the last cherry seed in
his mouth.

ORDER EVENT (NUMBER AS PRINTED IN THE BOOK)

1 Rakesh's parents grew maize, rice, and barley in a village. (7) — given

2 Rakesh was sent to live with his grandfather in Mussoorie. (2)

3 Rakesh bought a bunch of cherries and ate most of them. (5)

4 Rakesh kept rolling the last cherry seed in his mouth. (10)

5 Rakesh pressed the cherry seed into the soft soil with his thumb. (3) — given

6 Rakesh discovered that the small, well-rooted twig had grown into a cherry tree. (1)

7 Rakesh sprinkled water on the cherry tree and surrounded it with pebbles. (8)

8 The cherry tree grew quickly after the rains arrived early. (4)

9 A goat entered the garden and ate all the leaves of the young cherry tree. (6)

10 Grandfather told Rakesh that cherry trees were tough. (9)

So the answers to be filled in are: 1 → 6, 2 → 2, 4 → 8, 5 → 3, 6 → 9, 8 → 7, 9 → 10, 10 → 4.

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How to get the order right: Bond marks time with the seasons, not with dates.
Track them and the sequence falls into place — winter by the charcoal fire, then
spring when the wild duck fly north to Siberia (that is when the twig is found), then
the early monsoon when the tree shoots up, and only after that the goat. The two
events the book gives you fix the two ends of the seed's journey: buying the cherries
is before planting, and planting is event 5.

Check it yourself: Events 1–4 all happen on a single afternoon — the walk home,
the two cherries, the seed on the tongue. It is worth noticing how much of the
story's beginning fits into half an hour, and how many years the rest of it takes.

Q2 Do you think the cherry tree would survive? Why do you think so?

Yes — it would survive, and the story has already told us so twice before the goat arrives.

The seed itself proved tough. It was forgotten for a whole winter, buried by a thumb in a
corner nobody visited, and it still came up as 'a small twig… well rooted'.
Its worst season was also its best: the early monsoon that soaked Rakesh on the way to
school made the tree 'grow quickly' to two feet.
Grandfather, who has watched the hillside all his life, says it plainly: 'It will grow again, cherry
trees are tough.' He is not comforting Rakesh; he is telling him a fact about cherry trees.
The goat ate only the leaves. 'Only the main stem and two thin branches remained' — the
roots and the stem, the parts a plant actually regrows from, were untouched.

Why the writer sets it up this way: Bond wants the reader to worry and then be
proved wrong, again and again — goat, scythe, snow. Each near-death makes the
tree's survival feel earned rather than lucky, and it teaches Rakesh (and us) the same
lesson the old woman teaches Velu later in this unit: nature has more patience and
more strength than we credit it with.

Let us discuss — Page 164

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The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond) — after Part II

LET US DISCUSS

Q1 Complete the table given below based on your understanding of Part II of the story.
One example has been done for you. Share your answers with your classmates and
teacher.

CAUSE EFFECT

1. A woman cut the cherry tree while (i) Grandfather scolded the woman.
cutting grass.

2. (ii) Rakesh was thinner but stronger when
he came back.

3. A hairy caterpillar started eating (iii)
the leaves of the cherry tree.

4. (iv) Rakesh and Grandfather gazed at the
tree as though it was a miracle.

5. Rakesh tasted one of the small (v)
cherries during summer.

The table printed on page 164, with its blanks.

CAUSE EFFECT

1. A woman cut the cherry tree while cutting grass. (i) Grandfather scolded the woman. (given)

2. That monsoon Rakesh went home to his village to help (ii) Rakesh was thinner but stronger when he
his father and mother with the planting, ploughing and came back. (given)
sowing.

3. A hairy caterpillar started eating the leaves of the cherry (iii) Rakesh removed it quickly, dropped it on a heap
tree. of dry leaves and told it, 'Come back when you're a
butterfly.'

4. On a sunny winter morning Grandfather found a pale (iv) Rakesh and Grandfather gazed at the tree
pink blossom at the end of a branch and called Rakesh to as though it was a miracle. (given)
come and look.

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5. Rakesh tasted one of the small cherries during summer. (v) He spat it out, saying 'It's too sour' — and
Grandfather promised, 'They'll be better next year.'

How to fill a cause–effect table: Work backwards from the effect and ask 'what had
to happen first?' Row 2 is the clearest example. Being thinner but stronger is what a
whole monsoon of ploughing and sowing does to a boy — so the missing cause is
the visit to his parents' village, not anything to do with the tree at all.

Tip: Notice that Rakesh's answer to the caterpillar is not to kill it. He moves it. That
single line tells you more about how the boy has changed than a paragraph of
description would.

Let us think and reflect (Extracts) — Pages 164–166
The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

LET US THINK AND REFLECT

Q1 Extract 1 — (i) Substitute the underlined phrase with a correct word from the
extract. 'The Kho-kho captain changed her strategy quickly and without delay when
a new player came in from the opposing team.'

The word is promptly.
The rewritten sentence: 'The Kho-kho captain promptly changed her strategy when a new player
came in from the opposing team.'

Why this word: In the extract, 'Rakesh promptly ate the other two' — promptly
means at once, without any delay. It carries the whole of 'quickly and without delay' in
one word, and it is an adverb, so it can sit in exactly the place the underlined phrase
occupied.

Tip: In this kind of question the answer must come from the extract. Do not reach for
a synonym of your own like 'immediately' or 'instantly' — correct in meaning, but
wrong for the task.

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Extract 1 — (ii) What does Rakesh's action of rolling the cherry seed in his mouth
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B. He is enjoying the taste and the moment.

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Why: Bond tells us Rakesh kept
on his tongue until all the tang had gone'. He is deliberately making the last of the

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taste last — that is the behaviour of someone savouring something, not of someone

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restless or bored. Only three cherries survived the walk home, so the last of the last
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Rakesh is drawing it out. D is tempting, because he does become thoughtful
afterwards ('he placed the seed on the.cpalm of his hand and studied it'); but the
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rolling itself happens before the thinking,

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Extract 1 — (iii) Complete the following sentence suitably with emreference to Rakesh
o his grandfather. 'Rakesh's decision to plant the seed glshows that ______________.'
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Rakesh's decision to plant the seed shows that he respects and values his grandfather's

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advice — he had already decided to keep the seed, and he changes his mind the moment
Grandfather says, 'If you want luck, you must put it to some use.'

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grandfather and a willingness to learn from him. Either completionmis correct, provided you
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Q4 Extract 1 — (iv) How does the grandfather's advice reflect his view about luck and
effort?

Grandfather's advice — 'Nothing is lucky if you put it away. If you want luck, you must put it to
some use.' — turns luck from something you have into something you do.

He does not deny that the seed is lucky. His first answer is 'Of course.' He simply refuses to
let luck sit in a pocket.
For him, luck is not a charm but a possibility — and a possibility only becomes real when
someone acts on it. A seed kept in a box is a dead thing; a seed pushed into soft earth is a
tree.
So effort is not the opposite of luck in his view; it is the condition for it. Good fortune has to
be used before it can come true.

Why the story proves him right: The whole plot is the proof of this one sentence.
Rakesh puts the seed to use, and six years later there is a tree taller than
Grandfather, with blossom, bees, birds and shade under it. Nothing 'lucky' happened
along the way — a goat, a scythe and a winter of snow all happened. What
happened was that a seed had been planted.

Q5 Extract 2 — (i) Complete the following sentence suitably. 'The phrase field-mice
sought shelter in the roof of the cottage suggests that _____________.'

The phrase 'field-mice sought shelter in the roof of the cottage' suggests that the winter had
come unusually early and was severe enough to drive even wild creatures out of the fields
and into a human home in search of warmth.

Why it works as a detail: Bond never writes 'it was very cold'. He shows you the
cold through what it does — mice in the roof, the road from the valley blocked, the
tree bent double under snow, and no newspaper for days. This is a writer letting
small facts carry the weather, which is far more convincing than a direct statement
would be.

Tip: Field-mice normally live in the fields — that is where the name comes from. The
fact that they abandon them is the whole point of the sentence.

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Q6 Extract 2 — (ii) What can be inferred about the cherry tree's toughness from the
line, 'The cherry tree bent low with the weight of snow'? A. The weight of the tree
was more than the snow. B. The tree could withstand harsh weather. C. The tree
was growing close to the ground. D. The snow gave support to the tree.

B. The tree could withstand harsh weather.

Why: The key word is 'bent' — not broke, not died. A tree that bends under a load
and is still standing in February, when Rakesh turns nine and finds it 'almost as tall
as Rakesh', has survived the worst the winter could do. Bending is how a young tree
survives snow: it gives way, lets the load slide off, and springs back.

Why the others fail: A misreads the sentence — the snow is what weighs, the tree is
what bends. C confuses the effect with the cause; the tree was already about
Rakesh's height, so it was not a low-growing plant. D reverses the meaning: snow is
a burden here, not a support.

Q7 Extract 2 — (iii) How did the early winter affect Grandfather's mood and
storytelling?

The early winter blocked the road from the valley, so no newspaper reached the cottage for
several days — and 'this made Grandfather quite grumpy'. His mood then leaked straight into
his stories: 'His stories began to have unhappy endings.'

Why the detail matters: Earlier in the story we are told what Grandfather's stories
are normally like — 'people who turned into animals, and ghosts who lived in trees,
and beans that jumped and stones that wept'. They are fantastic and cheerful. So a
shift to unhappy endings is a real change, and Bond uses it as a quiet joke: the old
man cannot help himself. It also shows how completely the weather ruled life in the
hills — one blocked road, and even the bedtime stories turned gloomy.

Did you know? Grandfather's eyesight was 'rather weak', which is why Rakesh had
to read the newspaper aloud to him. So the missing newspaper cost him not only
the news but the evening's company.

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Q8 Extract 2 — (iv) Complete the sentence by choosing the correct option. 'The
comparison of Rakesh's age to the cherry tree's age symbolises _______________.' (the
tree's growth paralleling Rakesh's own development / the tree standing as a dear
one on Rakesh's birthday)

The comparison of Rakesh's age to the cherry tree's age symbolises the tree's growth
paralleling Rakesh's own development.

Why: Bond keeps measuring the two against each other, over and over — the tree is
four and Rakesh is nine, 'but almost as tall as Rakesh'; then 'suddenly the tree was
taller than Rakesh, even though it was less than half his age'; and in the same
paragraph we are told that Rakesh too could now 'run and jump and climb trees' and
'read a lot of books'. Boy and tree are being grown side by side, on purpose, so that
the reader measures one by the other.

Tip: The second option is not wrong as a feeling — the tree is dear to Rakesh — but
it is not what the age comparison does. Ask yourself what the writer gains by
repeating the ages, and the answer is the parallel, not the affection.

Let us think and reflect — Page 166
The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

LET US THINK AND REFLECT

Q1 Why did Rakesh's parents send him to Mussoorie?

They sent him so that he could go to school. Rakesh's parents lived in a small village fifty miles
away, where they grew maize, rice and barley on narrow terraced fields — 'but there were no
schools in the village, and Rakesh's parents were keen that he should go to school'. Grandfather
had a cottage on the outskirts of Mussoorie, so 'as soon as he was of school-going age, they
sent him to stay with his grandfather'.

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Why it is worth noticing: This is not a story about a child being sent away. It is
about parents who farm terraced hillsides giving up their son's daily company so
that he can be educated — a real and common choice in hill villages. Bond states it
in two flat sentences and moves on, which makes it feel ordinary rather than tragic.

Q2 Why did Rakesh let the praying-mantis remain on the branch of the cherry tree?

Because it did the tree no harm — and because Rakesh was pleased that his tree had at last
become worth visiting. Bond writes that Rakesh 'let it remain there; it was the cherry tree's first
visitor.'

Why the distinction matters: Compare what he does next. When 'a hairy caterpillar,
who started making a meal of the leaves' arrives, Rakesh 'removed it quickly'. The
mantis was only perching; the caterpillar was eating. Rakesh is not sentimental
about every insect — he protects his tree, but he takes no more action than the
situation needs, and even the caterpillar is set down gently on a heap of dry leaves
with 'Come back when you're a butterfly.'

Did you know? A praying-mantis is a predator. Leaving it on the branch was, in fact,
good for the tree — it eats exactly the sort of insects that eat leaves.

Q3 How is life in the Himalayan foothills described in the story?

Bond describes it as beautiful but hard, and completely ruled by the seasons.

The land is difficult. 'The soil was stony, and the dry cold winds stunted the growth of most
plants' — there were 'not many fruit trees', only forests of oak and deodar on the sheltered
slopes.
Farming is small-scale and laborious. Rakesh's parents grow maize, rice and barley 'in
narrow terraced fields on the lower slopes of the mountain'.
Winter shuts everything down. A cold wind goes 'whoo-whoo-whoo in the deodar trees',
the garden is 'dry and bare', the road from the valley is blocked, and the newspaper stops
coming.
The monsoon transforms it. 'Ferns sprang from the trunks of trees, strange-looking lilies
came up in the long grass… the trees dripped and mist came curling up the valley.'

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Life is close to wild things. Wild duck fly north to Siberia in a V-formation to announce
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spring; field-mice come into the roof in winter; bulbuls and scarlet minivets feast on the

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cherries; nightjars, crickets and cicadas fill the evenings.

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How Bond achieves it: He never sums the place up. He builds it out of sounds

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He means the astonishment of realising that a living thing exists because of him. He is
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running his hand along the trunk of a tree that is now taller than his grandfather, and

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remembering that all of it came from 'just

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thumb.

It is a moment of wonder, not of pride. He whispers it; he does not announce it.

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The thought grows straight out of Grandfather's answer.
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To have taken part in creating life — and then to have watched it survive a goat, a scythe and
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Why Bond ends here: The story could have ended with the first blossom, or the first
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cherry. Instead it ends with a boy's hand on bark and an unanswered question.
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Ending on a question leaves the reader with Rakesh's feeling rather than with a

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moral — and it quietly makes the point that creating is not power over nature but
partnership with it. Rakesh planted; the rain, the sun and the tree's own toughness
did the rest.
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How does the writer describe the relationship between Rakesh and his
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g actions rather than through statements.
Bond shows it as an easy, affectionate companionship between equals — and he shows it
almost entirely througha
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They share. The very first thing Rakesh does on reaching home is offer a cherry: 'Have a
cherry, Grandfather.'
They trade skills. Grandfather tells stories of ghosts and jumping beans; Rakesh reads him
the newspaper, 'Grandfather's eyesight being rather weak'. Each supplies what the other
lacks.
Grandfather teaches without lecturing. 'Nothing is lucky if you put it away.' 'Don't drown
it!' 'Never mind… cherry trees are tough.' Short, practical, never preachy.
He is affectionate in his own dry way. He calls Rakesh's eyes 'blackberry eyes'; he goes
after the grass-cutter and scolds her; he calls out, 'Come quickly before it falls!' when he sees
the first blossom.
They are comfortable in silence. At the end, 'Grandfather came back and sat down beside
Rakesh, and they waited in silence until the stars came out'. Sitting together saying nothing
is the story's final picture of them.

Why it is written this way: Bond never once tells us that Rakesh loves his
grandfather. He gives us a shared cherry, a shared fire, a shared tree and a shared
silence — and lets the reader do the arithmetic. That restraint is why the ending
lands as it does.

Q6 What can you infer about the connection between humans and nature based on the
story?

The story suggests that humans and nature are partners, and that the partnership is
unequal in nature's favour — we can begin something, but we cannot make it grow.

Small human acts have large natural consequences. One thumb-press produced a tree
that fed bees, bulbuls, minivets and two people's afternoons.
But nature does the real work. Rakesh watered it 'now and then' and put pebbles round it.
The monsoon, the mountain soil and the tree's own toughness did everything else — 'the
cherry tree had no intention of dying.'
Watching does not hurry anything. Rakesh learns to stop staring at the sapling. Growth
happens on nature's clock, not on ours.
Caring changes the carer. The boy who grows up beside the tree becomes someone who
moves a caterpillar instead of crushing it, and who lies in the grass looking at the sky
through leaves.
What we make ourselves, we value. 'There are so many trees in the forest. What's so
special about this tree?' — 'We planted it ourselves.'

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Link across the unit: This is the same idea the old woman gives Velu in Waiting for
the Rain, from the other direction. Rakesh learns that nature will grow if you let it;
Velu learns that nature must rest if you let it. Both lessons are about human
patience.

Q7 Imagine Rakesh reflects on his wonderful experience of watching a seed being
transformed into a full-grown cherry tree. Write how he must have felt.

Write this in the first person, as Rakesh, and take it through the same stages the story does:
forgetting, discovering, fearing, and finally wondering. A good answer names at least three
particular moments from the text rather than talking about 'the tree' in general.

Sample answer:
I had forgotten the seed completely. I pushed it into the soft earth that afternoon,
ate my lunch, and ran off to play cricket, and the whole winter went by with
Grandfather's stories and the wind in the deodars, and I never once thought of it.

Then one morning in spring I bent to pick up a twig, and it would not come. It was
rooted. I remember shouting for Grandfather — 'Dada, come and look, the cherry
tree has come up!' — and how he had to bend almost double to see it. Four inches.
That was all it was.

After that I was afraid for it constantly. I watered it too much and Grandfather told
me not to drown it. I put pebbles round it for privacy. Then the goat came and
stripped every leaf, and then a woman's scythe cut it clean in two, and I was sure it
was finished. Grandfather only said, 'Maybe.' But it wasn't finished. It sent out new
shoots as though nothing had happened, and I began to understand that the tree
was tougher than my worrying.

Now I lie under it and look up through the leaves at the sky, and I can put my hand
flat on bark that is taller than Grandfather. Six years ago it was a seed I rolled on my
tongue. I did almost nothing — I pressed it in with my thumb and I remembered to
water it. And still, all of this is here because of that. I do not know what to call the
feeling. It is bigger than being proud.

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What a good answer needs: a clear sequence of feelings (indifference → surprise
→ anxiety → awe); real details from the story, not invented ones; and Rakesh's own
plain, boyish voice — Bond's Rakesh does not use grand words, and neither should
you.

Let us learn — Pages 166–169
The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond) — vocabulary, tenses and punctuation

LET US LEARN

Q1 I. Each word list has one word that does not match with the other words. Identify
the odd word. — 1. chop, trim, slice, mince (example)

The odd word is trim.
The book's reason: 'chop', 'slice' and 'mince' are words used for cutting with a knife; whereas
'trim' is to cut a part with a pair of scissors.

Read the example carefully — it tells you the rule of the whole exercise. You are
not looking for the word with a different meaning. You are looking for the word that
does not belong to the same group as the other three. Here all four mean 'cut', but
three of them share a tool and a purpose (a knife, in the kitchen) and one does not.

Q2 I. 2. plodded, galloped, scrambled, trudged

The odd word is galloped.

Why: 'Plodded', 'trudged' and 'scrambled' all describe movement that takes effort —
heavy, slow or awkward going. Rakesh 'plodded to and from school in raincoat and
chappals' through the monsoon, and the grass-cutter 'scrambled down the hillside'.
'Galloped' is the opposite: it is fast, free and easy running, used chiefly of a horse.

Tip: Do not be tricked by speed. 'Scrambled' is quick too — but it is quick with
difficulty, which is why it keeps company with 'plodded' and 'trudged'.

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Q3 I. 3. tender, delicate, soft, smooth

The odd word is smooth.

Why: 'Tender', 'delicate' and 'soft' all suggest something easily damaged — the tree's
'tender green leaves', a delicate blossom, soft yielding earth. 'Smooth' describes only
the surface of a thing: it means having no roughness or bumps. Rakesh touches 'the
smooth bark of the tree', and that bark is not fragile at all.

Q4 I. 4. stared, peered, pecked, gazed

The odd word is pecked.

Why: 'Stared', 'peered' and 'gazed' are all ways of looking — looking fixedly, looking
with difficulty, looking with admiration. 'Pecked' is not a way of looking at all: it is
what a bird does with its beak. In the story, 'tiny birds pecked at the blossoms and
broke them off'.

Q5 I. 5. growing, blossoming, progressing, planting

The odd word is planting.

Why: 'Growing', 'blossoming' and 'progressing' all name a process of development
that continues by itself once it has begun. 'Planting' is a single deliberate act
performed by a person — and it is the act that starts the others off. That is exactly
the shape of this story: Rakesh plants once, and the tree does the growing.

Page 18 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
II. Choose the most suitable taste words given in the box below and write against
se
Q6

o m l a
the food items that follow. [sweet, sour, tangy, bitter, spicy, salty, bland (tasteless)]
g 5. lemon 6.
m .c
— 1. tamarind a
2. jaggery 3. neem leaves 4. paneer (cottage cheese)

l a se 7. a dish of vegetables. Now, use any five taste words and make sentences of
pickle
a g your own.

co m
m . ag

as e
l
There are seven food items and seven taste words, so each word is used once:
a g
FOOD ITEM TASTE WHY

co m
m.
WORD

m l a se
.co ag all the tang had gone'
1. tamarind tangy sharp and mouth-puckering, but with a fruity edge — the word Bond

em
uses for the cherry is the same family: 'until

a s
a gl2. jaggery sweet unrefined cane sugar

m a s
.co agl
3. neem leaves bitter the standard example of bitterness in Indian kitchens

a s em
l so well
4. paneer (cottage bland plain paneer has almost no taste of its own — that is why it takes on
cheese) (tasteless)
a gmasala
m
5. lemon sour pure acidity, no sweetness behind it

. co
e m
m as
6. pickle spicy achaar is loaded with chilli and mustard

. c o a g l
7.m
a s e a dish of salty a cooked sabzi is seasoned with salt as its base taste

agl
vegetables

se m
com
Check it yourself: Several of these could swap — tamarind is also called sour, pickle
g l a
m . a
ase
is also salty and tangy. If your teacher allows more than one word per item, say

a gl
which and why. But if each word may be used only once, the table above is the
arrangement that leaves no word unused and no item badly matched.

co m
m .
e
Now, five sentences of my own:
m l as
.co a g
1. Sweet: Amma stirred a lump of jaggery into the payasam until it turned sweet and golden.

a s em2. Sour: The raw mango was so sour that my eyes watered at the first bite.
agl
c
3. Bitter: My grandmother says the bitter taste of karela is exactly what makes it good for you.

m .
4. Spicy: The bhel at the corner stall is far too spicy for my little brother.
m a s e
. co agl
5. Bland: Hospital food is deliberately bland so that it is easy to digest.

e m
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 III. Choose the correct antonyms for the textual words given below from the box.
There are two extra words that you will not need. [growing, ordinary, unprotected,
cheerful, hard, wide, fasting, shaky, fussing, coldness] — 1. tender 2. sturdy 3.
narrow 4. warmth 5. feasting 6. grumpy 7. sheltered 8. special

WORD FROM THE ANTONYM WHERE THE WORD APPEARS IN THE STORY
TEXT

1. tender hard 'several new shoots with tender green leaves'

2. sturdy shaky 'a sturdy boy with curly black hair'

3. narrow wide 'narrow terraced fields on the lower slopes'

4. warmth coldness Grandfather came out 'to let some warmth get into my
bones'

5. feasting fasting the bulbuls and minivets 'feasting on the cherries'

6. grumpy cheerful 'this made Grandfather quite grumpy'

7. sheltered unprotected 'on the more sheltered slopes there were forests of oak and
deodar'

8. special ordinary 'What's so special about this tree?'

The two extra words not needed are growing and fussing.

Why 'hard' and not 'sturdy' for tender: Both look possible at first. But 'sturdy' is
already the answer-word for line 2, and an antonym must match the word's sense in
the text. There, 'tender' describes new leaves that are soft to the touch — so its
opposite belongs to the same scale of touch, which is 'hard'.

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Q8 IV. Read the following lines from the text and underline all the verbs and identify
the form of tense. 1. Rakesh was on his way home from school when he bought the
cherries. 2. Rakesh was looking for Grandfather without finding him in any of his
favourite places around the house. 3. Rakesh and Grandfather gazed at the tree as
though it had performed a miracle.

SENTENCE VERBS TENSE
(UNDERLINED)

1. Rakesh was on his way home from school when was, bought Simple Past Tense
he bought the cherries.

2. Rakesh was looking for Grandfather without was looking Past Progressive Tense
finding him in any of his favourite places around
the house.

3. Rakesh and Grandfather gazed at the tree as gazed / had performed Simple Past Tense (gazed) +
though it had performed a miracle. Past Perfect Tense (had
performed)

The book states it this way: the forms of tenses in the given statements are Simple Past Tense
(1 and 3), Past Progressive Tense (2), and Past Perfect Tense (3).

Why sentence 3 needs two tenses: The gazing and the 'miracle' did not happen at
the same moment. The blossom appeared first; the gazing came after. Past perfect
(had + past participle) is what English uses to push one past event further back than
another past event. Without it, the sentence would lose its order.

Tip: 'Finding' in sentence 2 is a gerund after the preposition 'without', not a finite
verb — so it carries no tense of its own.

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Q9 IV. Now, fill in the blanks with the correct form of Simple Past, Past Progressive, or
Past Perfect Tenses of the verbs given in brackets. One example has been done for
you. — (i) I was sitting (sit) with my grandparents in the garden, sharing the
wonderful memories from my childhood. As we (ii) ______ (talk), I (iii) ______ (realise)
how much wisdom they (iv) ______ (impart) to me over the years. While I (v) ______
(listen) to their stories for hours together, I (vi) ______ (remember) the times we (vii)
______ (spend) together planting flowers and learning about life. By the time I left,
the sun (viii) ______ (set), and I (ix) ______ (feel) a deep sense of gratitude for the bond
we (x) ______ (nurture) through love, care, and countless memories.

BLANK ANSWER TENSE AND REASON

(i) was sitting Past Progressive — given as the example; an action in progress

(ii) talked Simple Past — 'As we talked' sets the moment during which the next thing
happened

(iii) realised Simple Past — a single completed moment of understanding

(iv) had Past Perfect — 'over the years', i.e. before the realising
imparted

(v) was listening Past Progressive — 'While I…' signals an action stretching over time

(vi) remembered Simple Past — what happened during that stretch

(vii) had spent Past Perfect — those times were earlier still

(viii) had set Past Perfect — 'By the time I left' explicitly puts the sunset before the
leaving

(ix) felt Simple Past — the feeling at the moment of leaving

(x) had nurtured Past Perfect — the bond was built up before that day

The rule behind every choice: Fix one moment as 'now-in-the-past' — here, the
afternoon in the garden. Anything happening at that moment takes simple past;
anything in progress across it takes past progressive; anything that was already over
before it takes past perfect. Every blank in this paragraph is decided by that single
test.

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Also acceptable: (ii) were talking. 'As we were talking, I realised…' is perfectly good
English; 'talked' is simply the tidier fit beside the past progressive already used in (i)
and (v).

Q10 V. Now, punctuate the following paragraph appropriately. — every sunday roshni
would visit her grandparents house on their farm / come sit grandpa would say
patting the bench on their porch / roshni loved these moments where the world
slowed down and stories flowed like magic grandma would bring tea her eyes
twinkling with joy / im excited to hear about your younger days the adventures
the lessons and the memories roshni said eagerly / grandpa smiled softly his
wrinkled hands resting on the cane ah the old days… when everything was simple
and happiness was all we had / roshni could feel the warmth of those memories he
sat in silence bound not by words but by a timeless bond

The punctuated paragraph:

Every Sunday, Roshni would visit her grandparents' house on their farm.

“Come, sit,” Grandpa would say, patting the bench on their porch.

Roshni loved these moments, where the world slowed down and stories flowed like magic.

Grandma would bring tea, her eyes twinkling with joy.

“I'm excited to hear about your younger days—the adventures, the lessons and the

memories,” Roshni said eagerly.

Grandpa smiled softly, his wrinkled hands resting on the cane. “Ah, the old days… when

everything was simple and happiness was all we had.”

Roshni could feel the warmth of those memories. He sat in silence, bound not by words but

by a timeless bond.

Page 23 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Every change, and the rule behind it:
co m
e m.
c o m IT WAS NEEDED g l as
.
MARK WHERE RULE

m Every, Roshni, Grandpa, Grandma, Sunday, a
l a se
g
Capital sentence beginnings; names of
aletters Come, I'm, Ah people; days of the week; the first-
person pronoun 'I'

co m
Apostrophe grandparents' house; I'm
em . possession (the house of the ag
g l as grandparents — plural noun already

a ending in -s, so apostrophe only) and
contraction (I am → I'm)

co m
m.
Quotation “Come, sit,” “I'm excited…” “Ah, the old days…” they enclose direct speech

m as e
.co l
marks

a g
se m
a
Comma Every Sunday, / Come, sit / would say, patting / separates an introductory phrase, an

a g l these moments, where / bring tea, her eyes / address or exclamation, items in a
smiled softly, his wrinkled hands / Ah, the old list, and a following participle phrase

om
days / in silence, bound not by words
a s
em
. c agl
s
younger days—the adventures introduces an elaboration with
a
Dash

agl
emphasis

Full stop at the end of every statement ends a declarative sentence

co m
m .
o m l a se
g the dash gives the
.cadventures, the lessons and the memories' as a plainalist;
Why the dash and not a colon: Either would be defensible. A colon would present

m
asepause a little excitement, which suits a speaker who has just said 'I'm excited'.
'the

agl Punctuation is not only about correctness — it is about pace.
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
Check it yourself: The last line reads 'he sat in silence' in the book, although 'bound

a gl
not by words but by a timeless bond' clearly describes two people. If your teacher
allows it, 'They sat in silence' is the more natural reading. Punctuate what is printed,
but it is worth noticing the slip.
co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
a s em us listen — Page 170 (Transcript on page 201)
agl Let
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

LET US LISTEN

Q1 You will listen to a conversation between a son and his mother. As you listen, select
four true statements from 1–7 given below. 1. The mother encouraged her son to
deliver a presentation on the Chipko Movement. 2. The son was surprised to know
about the Appiko Movement. 3. The son agreed that the Chipko Movement was
about people uniting to make an impact. 4. The mother expressed a desire to share
more details about Saalumarada Thimakka. 5. The mother was curious to hear
about Saalumarada Thimakka. 6. The mother and son were in disagreement about
the work of Jadav Payeng. 7. The son found the information on Jadav Payeng
wonderful.

The four true statements are 2, 3, 5 and 7.

NO. TRUE / EVIDENCE FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
FALSE

1 False The project was already given to him — he says, 'I have to make a PowerPoint
presentation and talk about it in class,' and asks his mother for help. She did not
encourage him to do it.

2 True 'Really? Doesn't appiko mean ‘hugging’ in Kannada? So, did they also hug trees to
protect them?' — the 'Really?' is the surprise.

3 True 'Yes, it was the first time that common people came together for the noble cause
of saving trees. It showed how people can also make a difference.'

4 False The reverse is true. She says, 'I'm interested to know what your teacher has shared
with you' — she wants to receive details, not give them.

5 True 'What an amazing personality! I've heard about her and I'm interested to know
what your teacher has shared with you.'

6 False They agree completely: 'Yes, you're absolutely right.'

7 True 'Fascinating, isn't it? I've read a book and watched a documentary in school about
him which has really inspired me.'

How to catch statements 4 and 5: They look almost identical, and that is the trap.
One says the mother wants to share; the other says she wants to hear. When two
options in a listening task differ by one verb, that verb is what you must listen for —
here, 'I'm interested to know'.

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Did you know? The three people named in the transcript are real. Saalumarada
Thimmakka of Karnataka planted over 8,000 trees, beginning in 1948, and received
the Padma Shri. Jadav Payeng of Assam, the 'Forest Man of India', spent thirty years
turning about a thousand acres of barren sandbar into forest. The Appiko
Movement (1983, Western Ghats) took both its method and its name from the
Chipko Movement — appiko is Kannada for 'hugging', as chipko is Hindi for 'to stick
to'.

Let us speak — Pages 170–171

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

LET US SPEAK

Q1 I. Work in pairs. Read aloud the following words from the text. Write the number of
syllables in each word. Now, read the words aloud again with the beats. Check if the
number of syllables matches with the number of beats. — mountains, grandfather,
tender, disturbed, caterpillar, Himalayan, performed, intention, slope, newspaper,
favourite

WORD SPLIT INTO SYLLABLES (BEATS) NUMBER OF SYLLABLES

mountains moun-tains 2

grandfather grand-fa-ther 3

tender ten-der 2

disturbed dis-turbed 2

caterpillar cat-er-pil-lar 4

Himalayan Hi-ma-la-yan 4

performed per-formed 2

intention in-ten-tion 3

slope slope 1

newspaper news-pa-per 3

favourite fa-vou-rite 3

Why counting letters does not work: A syllable is one unbroken vowel sound, not
one vowel letter. 'Slope' has three vowel letters (o, e — and the 'o' sound) but only
one vowel sound, so it is one beat. 'Disturbed' and 'performed' each end in -ed, but
that -ed is pronounced /d/ and adds no beat at all; compare 'planted' or 'wanted',
where the -ed is pronounced /ɪd/ and does add one.

Page 27 of 114

Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Check it yourself: Put the back of your hand under your chin and say the word. Your
jaw drops once for each syllable. 'Favourite' is worth testing — carefully it is fa-vou-
rite (3), but in quick everyday speech many speakers say fav-rite (2). Both are heard;
count what you actually say.

Q2 II. Speak about Van Mahotsav Diwas and its significance. Before you speak in the
class or assembly, prepare yourself on the following points: When is it celebrated?
Who celebrates it? Why is it celebrated? How is it celebrated? What is the message it
conveys?

Answer the five prompts in order — that is already the structure of a good two-minute talk. Here
is the material for each.

PROMPT WHAT TO SAY

When? The first week of July every year, timed to the arrival of the monsoon, when young saplings
have the best chance of surviving.

Who? It is a nationwide festival. Schools, colleges, panchayats, the Forest Department, the
armed forces, offices, resident associations and ordinary families all take part. It was
begun in 1950 by Dr K. M. Munshi, then Union Minister for Agriculture and Food.

Why? To replace the trees India loses to felling, fire and construction; to raise forest cover; and —
just as importantly — to make ordinary people, especially students, feel personally
responsible for a tree.

How? Saplings are planted in school grounds, along roads and on public land; there are rallies,
poster and slogan competitions, talks and pledges; and in many places each student is
given one sapling to look after for the year.

Message? Its name means ‘the festival of forests’. The message is that planting a tree is not charity to
nature but an investment in our own air, water and soil — and that a tree needs care after
the ceremony, not only on the day.

Page 28 of 114

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Sample opening and closing:

m l a se
Opening: “Good morning, everyone. Every July, in the first week of the monsoon,
o
.c Van Mahotsav — the Festival of Trees. This morning
a g I want to tell
m
India celebrates
youas e one week in the calendar was set aside for planting.”
ag l why

Closing: “Rakesh, in the story we have just read, planted one seed with his thumb
co m
.
and forgot about it. Six years later it was taller than his grandfather. Van Mahotsav
e m ag
l as
asks each of us for exactly that much — one sapling, and the patience to water it.
g
Thank you.” a

co m
Speaking tip: Do not read the table aloud. Choose one fact per prompt, say it in
em.
c o m
your own words, and finish with the story link — an audience remembers the last
g l as
.
m best. a
s e
sentence

a gla
m a s
Let us write — Pages 171–172
m .co agl
l a se
a g

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


a g l Page 29 of 114

Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

LET US WRITE

Q1 Now, complete the article for a magazine on 'Trees–Our Lifeline'. Use the words and
phrases given in the box below. [absorb carbon dioxide, Moreover, our planet,
reduces pollution, Additionally, would stop existing, ensures a better future,
climate control, Trees–Our Lifeline, To conclude, If trees were not there]

BLANK ANSWER WHY IT FITS

(i) Trees–Our Lifeline the heading, followed by the byline '-by (your name and class)'

(ii) would stop existing completes 'Without them, life as we know it…' — the verb phrase the
sentence is missing

(iii) absorb carbon pairs with 'and release oxygen'
dioxide

(iv) reduces pollution singular verb to match 'This process also…'

(v) Additionally a linker adding one more benefit

(vi) climate control a noun phrase after 'help in', paired with 'prevention of soil erosion'

(vii) If trees were not opens the consequences paragraph, matching 'the air would be
there polluted'

(viii) Moreover, our supplies the subject of 'would be barren'
planet

(ix) To conclude signals the final paragraph

(x) ensures a better singular verb agreeing with the gerund subject 'Protecting and
future planting trees'

The completed article:

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Trees–Our Lifeline

-by (write your name and class)

Trees are essential for life on Earth. Without them, life as we know would stop existing.

This is the reason why trees are our lifeline.

Trees provide us with food, shelter, and even medicine. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and

release oxygen, helping us breathe. This process also reduces pollution and keeps the

environment clean. Additionally, trees give us fruits, nuts, and other foods. Trees also help

in climate control and prevention of soil erosion.

If trees were not there, the air would be polluted, and we would struggle to breathe.
Moreover, our planet would be barren, lacking food, shelter, and life-giving greenery.

To conclude, trees are true friends. Protecting and planting trees ensures a better future for

everyone on Earth. Therefore, we must act now to protect and plant more trees, preserving

Earth's green lifeline for future generations.

How to solve a gap-fill like this without guessing: Do not start at (i). Start with the
blanks whose grammar is fixed. '(iv) ______ and keeps the environment clean' must
be a singular present verb, so 'reduces pollution' is the only candidate. 'help in (vi)
______ and prevention of…' must be a noun phrase, so 'climate control'. Once the
grammatically forced blanks are filled, the four linkers (Additionally, Moreover, To
conclude, If trees were not there) fall into place by paragraph function: add, add,
contrast, conclude.

Tip for writing your own article: The four-paragraph plan the book gives you is
worth memorising — introduce the issue, elaborate with facts and advantages,
give the consequences and disadvantages, then suggest and end with a call for
action. Always put the title at the top and your name below it as a byline.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Let us explore — Page 172
The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond)

LET US EXPLORE

Q1 I. Did you know that the banyan tree is the National Tree of India? Our country has
age-old banyan trees. Some of them are: 1. The Great Banyan, located in Shibpur,
Howrah, near Kolkata. 2. Dodda Aalada Mara, located in Kethohalli village, near
Bengaluru. 3. Thimmamma Marrimanu, in Anantapur District in Andhra Pradesh. It
was recorded as the largest tree specimen in the world in the Guinness Book of
World Records in 1989.

This is a reading-and-finding-out task. Here is what each of the three trees is, so that you can
add to it from your own research.

TREE WHERE WHAT MAKES IT REMARKABLE

The Great Banyan Acharya Jagadish Chandra Over 250 years old. Its main trunk decayed and was
Bose Indian Botanic removed, yet the tree lives on through thousands of
Garden, Shibpur, Howrah, aerial roots — it now covers several acres and looks
near Kolkata like a small forest, though it is one tree.

Dodda Aalada Kethohalli village, near Estimated at about 400 years old, spreading over
Mara ('big banyan Bengaluru, Karnataka roughly three hectares. Here too the original trunk is
tree') gone and the prop roots hold the canopy up.

Thimmamma Anantapur District, Andhra Entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 1989 as
Marrimanu Pradesh the largest tree specimen in the world by canopy
spread.

Why the banyan is the National Tree: A banyan drops aerial roots that reach the
ground and thicken into new trunks, so a single tree spreads outward almost
indefinitely and can outlive its own original trunk. That image — one root system
supporting an ever-widening whole — is why it was chosen as a symbol of the
country. It is also why a banyan is the traditional village meeting place; there is
shade for everybody. The old woman in Waiting for the Rain is sheltering under
exactly such a tree when Velu meets her.

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Try this: Find the oldest tree in your own town or village. Ask an elder or the local
municipal office how old it is, measure the distance around its trunk with a piece of
string, and photograph it. A class set of these makes an excellent notice-board
display.

Q2 II. Kailash Sankhala, 'The Tiger Man of India', was an Indian biologist and
conservationist. He carried out a census of the tigers in India in 1971. Later, because
of his studies, he was appointed the first director of Project Tiger—an initiative to
prevent the extinction of the Indian Tiger. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1992.
Now, find more information about such Indian environmentalists and share with
your classmates.

Method: For each environmentalist, find four things and no more — that keeps the
presentation short and comparable: (1) who they are and where they worked, (2) the single
problem they took on, (3) what they actually did, (4) what changed because of it. Use the school
library, government websites such as those of the Ministry of Environment or the Padma
Awards portal, and reliable news archives; note your source beside each fact.
Some Indians you could research:

NAME KNOWN FOR

Sunderlal Bahuguna and Leaders of the Chipko Movement in Uttarakhand — villagers, mostly women,
Gaura Devi hugged trees to stop them from being felled.

Pandurang Hegde Led the Appiko Movement in the Western Ghats of Karnataka, which grew
directly out of Chipko.

Saalumarada Thimmakka Planted and reared more than 8,000 trees along Karnataka's roads, beginning
in 1948; Padma Shri.

Jadav Payeng The Forest Man of India — turned about a thousand acres of barren sandbar
in Assam into forest over thirty years; Padma Shri.

Salim Ali The Birdman of India; his surveys and writing built Indian ornithology and
saved wetlands such as Bharatpur.

Medha Patkar Led the Narmada Bachao Andolan for people displaced by large dams.

Rajendra Singh The Waterman of India — revived dried rivers in Rajasthan by building
traditional johads (check dams).

Vandana Shiva Work on seed conservation, biodiversity and farmers' rights.

Page 33 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Sample answer (one entry, in the form your classmates can copy):

m l a se
Rajendra Singh, the ‘Waterman of India’. He works in the Alwar district of
o g had stopped
.cThe problem: wells had run dry and rivers such as theaArvari
m
Rajasthan.

l a se so villages were emptying. What he did: instead of importing new
g
flowing,
atechnology, he revived the old johad — a simple earthen check dam that traps
monsoon runoff and lets it soak into the ground. Villagers built thousands of them
co m
.
with their own hands. What changed: the groundwater rose, several seasonal rivers
m ag
l a se
began flowing through the year again, and farming returned to the region. He
g in 2015.
received the Stockholm WateraPrize

co m
se
What ties them together: Not one of these people began with money or authority.
m.
o m l a
g circled his four-inch
.c is the same small, stubborn instinct with which Rakesh
They began with a place they knew well and a refusal to accept that it had to be lost
m a
se with pebbles.
— which
asapling
agl
m a s
.co agl
semwe read — Page 173
Let us do these activities before
a
Harvest Hymn (Sarojini Naidu) agl

com
WORK IN PAIRS

m .
m as e
.co a g l
I. 1. India celebrates many harvest festivals. When is the harvest festival celebrated
m in your region and how is it celebrated?
Q1

s e
agla
se m
com g l a
. a
Answer for your own region, but notice first that almost every Indian harvest festival falls in one
m
ase
of two windows — mid-January, when the winter crop is cut in the south and the sun turns

agl
north, and spring or autumn, when the region's own main crop ripens.

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

FESTIVAL REGION WHEN HOW IT IS CELEBRATED

Pongal Tamil Nadu mid-January New rice, jaggery and milk are boiled in a clay
(four days) pot until they spill over — the spilling is the
blessing. Cattle are bathed, painted and
garlanded on Mattu Pongal.

Makar Sankranti much of 14 or 15 Til-gud sweets, kite-flying, bathing in rivers.
north and January
west India

Lohri Punjab, 13 January A bonfire at night; groundnuts, popcorn and
Haryana rewri are thrown into it; bhangra and gidda are
danced round it.

Bihu Assam mid-April Bihu dance and dhol; new clothes; cattle
(Bohag/Rongali) honoured on the first day.

Baisakhi Punjab 13 or 14 April The rabi harvest is cut; fairs, processions and
dancing in the fields.

Onam Kerala August– Pookalam flower carpets, the Onasadya feast on
September a banana leaf, snake-boat races.

Nuakhai western August– The first grain of the new rice is offered to the
Odisha September deity before anyone eats it.

The common thread — and why it matters for this poem: In every one of these
festivals, the first share of the harvest is offered before it is eaten. That is precisely
what Harvest Hymn does in words: 'We bring thee our songs and our garlands for
tribute, / The gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit.' Sarojini Naidu is not
inventing a ritual; she is writing one down.

Q2 I. 2. A hymn refers to a song of praise. (i) To whom do we offer a hymn? (ii) When
and where do we sing a hymn? (iii) Why do we offer it?

(i) To whom? A hymn is offered to a god, a goddess or some power greater than ourselves. In
this poem four are addressed in turn — Surya (the sun), Varuna (rain and waters), Prithvi (the
earth) and finally Brahma, the 'Lord of the Universe'. A hymn may also be offered to a nation or
an ideal, as a national anthem is.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

(ii) When and where? At times set aside for worship and thanksgiving — at prayer in a temple,
church, gurdwara or mosque; at a festival; at morning and evening prayer; at school assembly.
Hymns are usually sung together, aloud, often with instruments. The poem names its
instruments: 'with cymbal and flute… with cymbal and pipe… with cymbal and drum… with
cymbal and prayer.'
(iii) Why? For three reasons, and this poem shows all three:

Gratitude — to thank the giver: 'We bring thee our thanks and our garlands for tribute.'
Reverence — to acknowledge a power we depend on and cannot control: 'Thine is the
bounty that prospered our sowing.'
Request — to ask for continued care: 'Grant us thy succour, thy counsel, thy care.'

Did you know? The oldest hymns in India are the suktas of the Rigveda, and several
of them are addressed to exactly the deities in this poem — Surya, Varuna and
Prithvi. Sarojini Naidu is writing an English poem in a very old Indian form.

Q3 II. Some poets and authors use words that are no longer a part of common usage.
Such words are called archaic words. Work in pairs. Read the sentences given below.
Match the underlined archaic words in Column 1 with their meanings in Column 2.
— 'Thou art my friend, and I trust thee. Thy kindness is great, and everything that is
mine is thine.' Column 1: 1. thou 2. art 3. thee 4. thy 5. thine. Column 2: (i) yours (ii)
you (object) (iii) you (subject) (iv) are (v) your

COLUMN 1 COLUMN 2 MODERN EQUIVALENT LINE IN THE SENTENCE

1. thou (iii) you (subject) you 'Thou art my friend'

2. art (iv) are are 'Thou art my friend'

3. thee (ii) you (object) you 'I trust thee'

4. thy (v) your your 'Thy kindness is great'

5. thine (i) yours yours 'everything that is mine is thine'

How to work these out without memorising: Old English had two forms of 'you'
where we now have one. Line them up against 'I' and the pattern is obvious:

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I → me → my → mine

thou → thee → thy → thine

Thou does the action; thee receives it; thy comes before a noun; thine stands alone.

Tip: 'Art' is simply the old verb form that went with 'thou', just as 'am' goes with 'I'.
Every 'Thine is the bounty…' in the poem could be rewritten 'Yours is the bounty…' —
try it, and you will hear at once how much the archaic form adds.

Q4 III. Work in pairs. Read the paragraph and select the correct meaning for each
underlined word from the options given below. — 'Under the golden 1. radiance of
the evening sun, the villagers gathered to pay 2. tribute to their 3. cherished elder,
who had dedicated his life to their well-being. His wise 4. counsel had guided
generations, steering them through challenges. Known for his 5. munificent spirit,
he never hesitated to share his resources generously.' 1. radiance : (i) glow (ii)
brilliance 2. tribute : (i) respect (ii) gratitude 3. cherished : (i) preserved (ii) loved 4.
counsel : (i) advice (ii) decision 5. munificent : (i) rich (ii) generous

WORD ANSWER THE CLUE IN THE PARAGRAPH

1. radiance (i) glow 'the golden radiance of the evening sun' — evening light is soft and warm,
a glow. 'Brilliance' means dazzling, harsh light, which suits noon, not
evening.

2. tribute (i) respect the villagers 'gathered to pay tribute' — to pay tribute is to show honour
and respect publicly.

3. (ii) loved 'their cherished elder' — a person is cherished because he is dear.
cherished 'Preserved' is used of objects, not of people.

4. counsel (i) advice 'His wise counsel had guided generations, steering them through
challenges' — guiding and steering is what advice does; a decision does not
guide over generations.

5. (ii) 'he never hesitated to share his resources generously' — the sentence
munificent generous practically defines the word for you.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The method: In every one of these, the answer is decided by a word standing next
to the underlined word — evening, pay, elder, guided, generously. When two options
both look plausible, do not choose the one you like better; find the neighbouring
word that rules one of them out. This is called reading from context, and it is the
single most useful vocabulary skill you can build.

Why this exercise comes before the poem: Four of these five words appear in
Harvest Hymn — 'O giver of mellowing radiance', 'our garlands for tribute', 'the
mercy that cherished our furrows', 'thy counsel', and 'Bright and munificent lord of
the morn'. You are being handed the poem's vocabulary a page early.

Let us discuss — Pages 176–177
Harvest Hymn (Sarojini Naidu)

LET US DISCUSS

Q1 I. Write the stanza number for the main idea of each stanza given below. 1. The
speakers recognise the lord's kindness and praise him for nourishing the field. 2.
The speakers praise the generosity of the creator of the universe who ensures a rich
harvest. 3. The speakers devote their lives and work as a mark of respect to the lord
and seek his support, wisdom, and care. 4. The speakers pay homage to the Earth
and appreciate her role in supporting life, by dedicating their harvest.

First fix what each stanza actually is:

STANZA VOICE ADDRESSED TO KEY WORDS

1 Men's Surya, the sun 'munificent', 'bounty', 'gold of our fields',
Voices 'mellowing radiance'

2 Men's Varuna, the rain 'mercy that cherished our furrows', 'mercy that
Voices fostered our grain'

3 Women's Prithvi, the Earth 'sweet and omnipotent mother', 'plentiful
Voices bosom that feeds us'

4 All Voices Brahma, Lord of the 'Seed and the Scythe', 'our lives and our labours',
Universe 'thy succour, thy counsel, thy care'

The answers:

Page 38 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
MAIN IDEA STANZA WHY

as e
. comhim for nourishing the a g l
'kindness' is the poem's word mercy, and
1. The speakers recognise the lord's Stanza 2

field.as
em
kindness and praise 'nourishing the field' is 'cherished our furrows…

agl
fostered our grain'. A furrow is the field itself.

2. The speakers praise the generosity of Stanza 1 'generosity' is the poem's word munificent and its

m
.cogold of our fields and the gold of our fruit'. ag
the creator of the universe who ensures a bounty repeated twice; the rich harvest is 'the

sem
rich harvest.

a 4
glStanza
3. The speakers devote their lives and
work as a mark of respect to the lord and
a Almost a translation of the lines: 'We bring thee
our lives and our labours for tribute, / Grant us
seek his support, wisdom, and care. thy succour, thy counsel, thy care.'
co m
em.
m l as
.co
4. The speakers pay homage to the Earth Stanza 3 The only stanza addressed to the Earth: 'Thine is

a g
m
and appreciate her role in supporting life, the plentiful bosom that feeds us, / Thine is the

l a se
by dedicating their harvest. womb where our riches have birth.'

ag
m
How to be sure of 1 and 2, which look alike: Match the exact word, not the general
a s
m.co
sense. 'Kindness' and 'generosity' are near-synonyms in ordinary speech, but the
agl
l a se
poem uses two different words in two different stanzas — mercy in stanza 2 and
a g
munificent / bounty in stanza 1 — and 'kindness' translates mercy while 'generosity'
translates munificence.

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
a s em
Q2 II. 1. The setting of the poem is a rural landscape, possibly during a __________

agl (harvest/religious) festival.

se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
The setting of the poem is a rural landscape, possibly during a harvest festival.

a gl
Why: Everything offered in the poem has just been reaped — 'the gold of our fields
and the gold of our fruit', 'the wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and ripe'.
co m
m .
e
Garnered means gathered into a granary, and new-garnered means only just
m l as
.co g
gathered in. The title says it too: this is a harvest hymn. It is of course religious as

em a
s
well — but the occasion that has brought everyone out with cymbal and drum is the
l a
ag harvest.
c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 II. 2. The tone of the poem is respectful and celebratory because it praises ______ (the
men and women/nature and the Lord) with deep respect and gratitude.

The tone of the poem is respectful and celebratory because it praises nature and the Lord with
deep respect and gratitude.

Why: The men and women are the singers, not the subject. Every stanza is addressed
outward — to Surya, to Varuna, to Prithvi, to Brahma — and the repeated 'we hail
thee, we praise thee' fixes the direction of the praise. The farmers say almost
nothing about their own labour except to offer it away.

Tip: When a question asks about tone, look at who is being addressed and at the
verbs. 'We bring… we hail… we praise… Grant us…' are the verbs of worship, not of
celebration of oneself.

Q4 II. 3. In the line 'Thou art our Hands and our Heart and our Home', the letter 'h' is
capitalised in 'Hands', 'Heart' and 'Home' because ______. (it represents the hard
work of farmers/God resides in them)

The letter 'h' is capitalised because God resides in them.

Why: A capital letter in the middle of a line is a signal. In this poem it marks the
divine — 'Lord', 'Father', 'Om', 'the Seed and the Scythe'. By capitalising Hands, Heart
and Home, Sarojini Naidu lifts three ordinary human things to the same level: the
line is not saying that God gave us hands, but that God is our hands, our heart and
our home. The verb is 'art' — 'Thou art' — a statement of identity, not of gift.

Notice the sound too: Hands, Heart, Home — three stressed words all beginning
with /h/, in one line. The capital letters and the alliteration work together to make
the line feel like the climax of the whole hymn, which is exactly where it stands.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q5 III. Identify the poetic device used in the following lines from the poem. • Bright and
munificent lord of the morn! • We bring thee our lives and our labours for tribute

Both lines use alliteration — the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of
words that are close together.

LINE REPEATED SOUND WORDS

Bright and munificent lord of the morn! /m/ munificent … morn

We bring thee our lives and our labours for tribute /l/ lives … labours

Why a poet uses it: A hymn is meant to be sung aloud by many people at once.
Repeated consonants bind words into a single sweep of breath and make a line easy
to chant and easy to remember — the same reason slogans and prayers alliterate.
Notice also that in the second line alliteration does a second job: it yokes 'lives' and
'labours' together, so that the farmer's work and the farmer's life are offered as one
gift, not two.

Tip: Alliteration is about sound, not spelling. Test by saying the line aloud. In 'Bright
and munificent lord of the morn', the /m/ of munificent and morn is what your ear
catches.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 IV. Match the lines from the poem in Column 1 with their expressions in Column 2.
Choose the appropriate poetic device from the box given below and write in Column
3. [imagery, alliteration, simile, metaphor, personification] — Column 1: 1. sweet
and omnipotent mother 2. The wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and ripe 3. Thou
art the Seed and the Scythe. Column 2: (i) creates a clear description of the scene
and appeals to the senses (ii) implied comparison of growth and reaping with
beginning and end of all life (iii) the earth is being given human-like qualities

COLUMN 1 (LINE) COLUMN 2 (EXPRESSION) COLUMN 3
(DEVICE)

1. sweet and omnipotent mother (iii) the earth is being given human-like qualities personification

2. The wealth of our valleys, new- (i) creates a clear description of the scene and imagery
garnered and ripe appeals to the senses

3. Thou art the Seed and the (ii) implied comparison of growth and reaping with metaphor
Scythe beginning and end of all life

How each device works in its line:

Personification — the Earth is not like a mother; she is addressed as one, with a
bosom that feeds and a womb where riches have birth. A non-human thing is
given a human body and a human role.
Imagery — 'new-garnered and ripe' makes you see and almost smell the heaped
grain of a particular moment: gathered in, still fresh. Imagery is language that
appeals to the senses.
Metaphor — God is called the Seed and the Scythe outright, with no 'like' or 'as'.
Seed is where a crop begins; the scythe is what ends it. So the line compresses
the whole span from creation to ending into two objects a farmer holds in his
own hands.

Tip: The two devices in the box you did not use are simile and alliteration — there is
no 'like' or 'as' comparison anywhere in this poem, and alliteration was the answer to
the previous question, not to this matching.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 V. Certain words or phrases are repeated in the same line of the poem. For example,
'The gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit;' Find more such repetitions from the
poem. What is the poet's purpose of using repetition in the poem?

More repetitions in the poem:

REPETITION WHERE

'Lord of the lotus, lord of the harvest' stanza 1, opening line

'Thine is the bounty… / Thine is the bounty…' stanza 1

'Lord of the rainbow, lord of the harvest' stanza 2, opening line

'Thine is the mercy… / Thine is the mercy…' stanza 2

'Queen of the gourd-flower, queen of the harvest' stanza 3, opening line

'Thine is the plentiful bosom… / Thine is the womb…' stanza 3

'Lord of the Universe, Lord of our being' stanza 4, opening line

'Thou art the Seed and the Scythe… / Thou art our Hands and our Heart and our stanza 4
Home'

'We bring thee our…' (songs / thanks / love / lives) and 'garlands for tribute' the fifth line of every stanza

'we hail thee, / We praise thee, O …, with cymbal and …' the last two lines of every
stanza

'thy succour, thy counsel, thy care' stanza 4

The poet's purpose:

To make it singable. A hymn is chanted by a crowd. Repeated openings and endings give
everyone a line they already know, so men, women and finally all voices can come in
together.
To build a rhythm like a chant or a drumbeat — which matches the cymbal, flute, pipe and
drum the poem itself names.
To emphasise. Saying 'Thine is…' twice insists that nothing in the harvest belongs to the
farmer. Everything is received, not earned.
To hold the four stanzas together. Each stanza has a different deity and a different
instrument, but the same skeleton — so four separate praises become one hymn.
To make it beautiful and easy to remember. 'The gold of our fields and the gold of our
fruit' stays in the ear long after the sense is understood.

Page 43 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Look at what changes inside the repetition: the frame stays fixed and one word

m l a se
moves — songs, thanks, love, lives; flute, pipe, drum, prayer. The gift grows more
o
.c time until the farmers are offering their own lives,aand g the instrument
m
precious each

l a sequieter until it is no instrument at all, only prayer. That is the poem's whole
g
grows
adesign, and it is built entirely out of repetition.

com
e m . ag
g l as
a
Q8 VI. The poem uses symbolism to convey deeper meanings. Match the symbols in
Column 1 with the meanings they convey in Column 2. Column 1: 1. Prithvi (the

m
Earth) 2. Surya (the Sun) 3. Varuna (Rain). Column 2: (i) light, energy, life—
co
m.
representing the giver of warmth and prosperity (ii) mercy and nourishment—

as e
comof all life l
crucial for agriculture and sustenance (iii) fertile land, motherhood, nurturing—the
. a g
sem
source

la
agANSWER
m a s
SYMBOL MEANING
m .co THE LINE THAT PROVES IT agl
l a se
1. Prithvi (the
Earth)
g
a of all
(iii) fertile land, motherhood,
nurturing — the source
'Sweet and omnipotent mother, O Earth! / Thine is the
plentiful bosom that feeds us, / Thine is the womb

m
life where our riches have birth.'

'Bright and munificent lord of m . c o
2. Surya (the
m
(i) light, energy, life — the giver
a s e the morn!… O giver of

.co agl
Sun) of warmth and prosperity mellowing radiance, we hail thee.'

a s e3.mVaruna
gl (Rain)
(ii) mercy and nourishment — 'Thine is the mercy that cherished our furrows… O
a crucial for agriculture and sender of rain and the dewfall, we hail thee.'
sustenance
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl
Why these three, in this order: Sarojini Naidu is not listing gods at random. She is
listing everything a crop needs — sunlight, water and soil — and giving each a name
and a face. Then the fourth stanza gathers all three into one 'Lord of the Universe'.

co m
The poem's structure is, quite literally, the science of growing food turned into
m .
m
worship.
as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a
Did you know? Surya and Varuna are among the oldest deities named in the
.c
m
Rigveda, and Prithvi is invoked there as mother earth. The instruments change with

m a s e
co agl
the singers too — flute and pipe for the men, drum for the women, and for all voices

m .
e
together, prayer.

g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Let us think and reflect (Extracts) — Pages 178–179
Harvest Hymn (Sarojini Naidu)

LET US THINK AND REFLECT

Q1 Extract 1 — (i) What does the act of bringing songs and garlands as tribute suggest
about the people's relationship with the divine? A. They fear the gods and wish to
calm them in any way possible. B. They have a deep sense of reverence and
gratitude towards the divine. C. They are forced to perform rituals without
understanding the divine. D. They depend on the gods for their daily needs and
activities.

B. They have a deep sense of reverence and gratitude towards the divine.

Why: Look at what is offered. Songs and garlands cost nothing and buy nothing —
they are not a payment or a bribe, they are a way of saying thank you. The words
around them confirm it: 'We bring thee our thanks', 'we hail thee, / We praise thee'.
The tone throughout is warm and celebratory, with cymbal and flute, not anxious.

Why the others fail: A requires fear, and there is none — nowhere does the poem
ask the gods to spare or forgive. C requires unwilling ritual, but these people are
singing and dancing. D is the most tempting, because farmers do depend on sun
and rain — but dependence alone would explain a request, not a gift of songs and
garlands after the harvest is already in.

Q2 Extract 1 — (ii) Complete the following sentence suitably. 'The word gold in the
phrases the gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit symbolises ________________.'

The word 'gold' symbolises the ripened harvest itself — its golden colour, and its value as
the farmers' greatest wealth, given to them by the sun.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How the image does two things at once:

Colour — ripe wheat, standing paddy and ripe fruit all turn golden, and it is the
sun that turns them so. Calling them gold is literally accurate.
Worth — gold is the standard measure of preciousness. By using it, the farmers
say that a full field is treasure. They own no gold, and they need none.

And the choice of word is not accidental: the stanza is addressed to Surya, and the
sun is itself golden. The gold in the fields is the sun's own light, returned as grain.

Tip: When a question asks what a word 'symbolises', give both halves — the plain
thing it stands for, and the quality it borrows. Half an answer ('it means the crop')
scores half the marks.

Q3 Extract 1 — (iii) How does the description 'O giver of mellowing radiance' help us
understand Surya's role in the harvest?

It tells us that the sun's role is not merely to shine but to ripen. Mellowing means making
something soft, sweet and mature; radiance is the light he gives. Put together, they name exactly
what the sun does between sowing and harvest — its steady warmth turns a hard green fruit
into a soft sweet one, and green stalks into gold grain.

Why 'mellowing' and not 'burning' or 'blazing': The sun can destroy a crop as
easily as ripen it. Sarojini Naidu picks the one adjective that keeps him gentle. It also
fits the rest of the stanza: he is 'lord of the morn' — the early, kind sun, not the noon
sun — and he is 'munificent', a generous giver rather than a power to be feared.
Every word in the stanza is chosen to make Surya a benefactor.

Check it yourself: The English word 'mellow' is used of fruit, of wine, of light and of
a person's temper — always meaning something that has grown softer and richer
with time. Say 'a mellow evening' and you can hear it.

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Q4 Extract 1 — (iv) Fill in the blank by selecting the correct option from those given in
the brackets. 'The use of cymbal and flute signifies ________________.' (joy and
celebration/meditation and worship)

The use of cymbal and flute signifies joy and celebration.

Why: A cymbal is loud, bright and rhythmic — it is a festival instrument, meant to be
heard across a field, not a quiet aid to meditation. The flute is the shepherd's and the
village fair's instrument. Together they belong to a crowd out of doors. Read the
stanza's other instruments in sequence and the pattern is unmistakable: cymbal and
flute, cymbal and pipe, cymbal and drum — that is a procession, not a prayer hall.

Notice the fourth stanza, though: when All Voices join, the instrument becomes
'cymbal and prayer'. The music grows steadily quieter and more inward until the last
offering is not an instrument at all. Worship is present in the poem — it simply is not
what cymbal and flute stand for.

Q5 Extract 2 — (i) In the phrase 'Lord of our being,' what does the word 'being' most
likely refer to? A. Our physical body B. Our entire existence C. Our spiritual practices
D. Our earthly possessions

B. Our entire existence.

Why: 'Being' as a noun means the whole fact of existing — everything a person is,
body and mind and life together. The lines that follow prove that the poet means the
whole and not a part: 'Thou art our Hands (body) and our Heart (feeling) and our
Home (life, family, belonging).' Three different aspects of a life are named, so 'being'
must cover all of them.

Why the others fail: A takes only the body, which the line itself separates out as
'Hands'. C narrows it to religious practice, which the poem never mentions. D is the
furthest off — possessions are what the farmers are giving away in this poem, not
what they are.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 Extract 2 — (ii) Identify whether the following statement is true or false. 'The
imagery of the Seed and the Scythe symbolises the divine's role as both the
beginning (creation) and the end (harvest) of the agricultural cycle.'

True.

Why: A seed is where a crop begins; a scythe is the curved blade that cuts it down at
the end. By saying 'Thou art the Seed and the Scythe of our harvests', the poet
makes God present at both ends of the cycle — the sowing and the reaping, the
making and the ending. It is the same idea as calling God 'Father eternal' two lines
earlier: a power that stands outside time and therefore contains the whole of it.

Notice the sound: Seed and Scythe both begin with /s/, so the two ends of the cycle
are locked together by alliteration as well as by meaning. And you have met the
scythe already in this unit — it is the tool the grass-cutting woman swings in The
Cherry Tree, cutting the young tree in two.

Q7 Extract 2 — (iii) Identify the phrases from the extract that mean the following: A.
The divine as a timeless, everlasting presence B. Beyond human comprehension or
description

MEANING PHRASE EXPLANATION
FROM THE
EXTRACT

A. The divine as a 'Father eternal' Eternal means without beginning or end — a presence that
timeless, everlasting time does not touch.
presence

B. Beyond human 'ineffable Om' Ineffable means too great to be put into words. Note the
comprehension or paradox: Om is a sound, yet it is called unspeakable — the
description poet is saying that even the holiest syllable falls short of
what it names.

Page 48 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why the two sit side by side in one line: 'Father eternal, ineffable Om!' places the

m l a se
most intimate word for God ('Father') beside the most abstract ('Om'), and calls the
o g moves from a
.c and the second indescribable. In half a line the poem
a
m
first everlasting

l a serelationship to something no language can hold — which is exactly the leap
g fourth stanza has to make when men's and women's voices join into all voices.
family
athe

co m
e m . ag
g l as
a
Q8 Extract 2 — (iv) How do we know that these lines from the extract are spoken as a
chorus?

co m
em.
m l as
.co a g
We know it in three ways, and the poet gives us all three.

a s emlabels it. The stanza is headed 'All Voices:' — set apart on its own line, just as 'Men's
gl Voices:' and 'Women's Voices:' were earlier. The poem is laid out like a script.
She
a
s
The pronouns are plural. 'Lord of our being… our harvests… our Hands and our Heart and

om a
. c agl
our Home… We bring thee our lives… Grant us.' There is no 'I' anywhere in the poem.
The form repeats. This stanza has e
s m same shape and the same closing formula as the
a
the

agl/ We praise thee, O …, with cymbal and …' — so the whole
three before it — 'we hail thee,
gathering can come in on lines they have already sung three times.

co m
m .
e
Why the poem is arranged this way: The men praise the sun and the rain, the
m l as
.co g
powers that come from the sky; the women praise the Earth, the mother; and only

e a
m both have sung do all the voices together address the Lord of the Universe.
s when
la The structure enacts its own meaning — the village is separate in its work and united
ag
m
in its worship.

a se
. com a g l
m
lase
ag— Page 179
Let us think and reflect

m
Harvest Hymn (Sarojini Naidu)

. co
em
as
LET US THINK AND REFLECT

m l
.co a g
a s emQ1
gl
Why do the farmers hail the God of rain?

a c
m .
m a s e
m . co agl
se
Because without rain there is no crop at all. Varuna is hailed as 'O sender of rain and the dewfall'

l a
and thanked for two things in particular: 'Thine is the mercy that cherished our furrows, /
ag
Thine is the mercy that fostered our grain.'

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Rain softens the furrows so that the plough can work and the seed can take root.
Rain feeds the standing crop through the growing season — it 'fostered', that is, raised and
nourished, the grain.
In return the farmers offer 'the wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and ripe' — the harvest
that rain made possible.

Why the poem calls it 'mercy' and not 'bounty': The sun comes up every morning
whether or not you pray. Rain does not. Indian farming depends on a monsoon that
may be early, late or absent altogether — so rain is felt as something granted, and
the word for something granted is mercy. Waiting for the Rain, later in this same unit,
is the whole story of what happens when that mercy does not come.

Q2 What is being referred to as 'wealth of our valleys'? Why?

'The wealth of our valleys' refers to the harvested crop — the grain gathered in from the
fields of the valley. The line completes itself: 'The wealth of our valleys, new-garnered and
ripe.' Garnered means gathered into a granary, so what is being offered is grain only just
brought in.
Why the poet calls it 'wealth':

For a farming family the harvest is the wealth — it is food, seed for the next season, and
whatever can be sold. There is no other bank.
It answers the previous stanza, where the sun's gift was called 'the gold of our fields'. Gold
and wealth belong to the same picture: nature's produce spoken of as treasure.
Calling it wealth makes the offering meaningful. Giving away 'the wealth of our valleys' costs
the giver something, which is what turns a gift into a tribute.

Q3 State one reason why the women refer to the Earth as a 'source of manifold
gladness'.

Because the Earth gives them not one kind of happiness but many — manifold means of many
kinds. She feeds her children ('the plentiful bosom that feeds us'), she brings forth all their
riches ('the womb where our riches have birth'), and she gives them the flowers, fruit and grain
they are now carrying back to her as garlands and tribute. Food, prosperity and beauty come
from the same source, so the gladness she causes is of many sorts at once.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the women sing this stanza: Sarojini Naidu gives the Earth to the women's
voices deliberately. The Earth is addressed as 'sweet and omnipotent mother' with a
bosom and a womb — a mother speaking to a mother. The stanza's instrument, the
drum, is the deepest and steadiest of the three, which suits the one power in the
poem you can stand on.

Tip: The question asks for one reason. Give one clearly and support it with the line,
rather than listing four reasons thinly.

Q4 Why does everyone in the poem offer their 'labours for tribute'?

Because by the last stanza they have nothing left that is worth more. Follow what is offered as
the poem goes on:

Stanza 1 → 'our songs and our garlands'

Stanza 2 → 'our thanks and our garlands'

Stanza 3 → 'our love and our garlands'

Stanza 4 → 'our lives and our labours'

The gift grows more costly at every step, from a song to a life. Offering their labour means:

Acknowledging where the harvest came from. They have just called God 'the Seed and the
Scythe of our harvests' — if the beginning and the end are His, then the work in between is
His too.
Giving the only thing that is truly theirs. A farmer's labour is his year: ploughing, sowing,
weeding, watering, reaping. Offering it is offering himself.
Asking for the next year. The very next line is 'Grant us thy succour, thy counsel, thy care.'
The offering and the request belong together — this is a hymn sung at the end of one
harvest and the beginning of another.

Q5 Why has the poet presented the poem as voices of men, women, and all voices?

Because a harvest is brought in by a whole village, and Sarojini Naidu wants the poem to sound
like a whole village. Presenting it in three voices does four things at once:

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

It makes the poem performable. Laid out like a script, it can actually be sung in parts at a
festival — men, then women, then everyone.
It divides the praise sensibly. Men's Voices address the powers of the sky, Surya and
Varuna. Women's Voices address the Earth as 'mother', a woman speaking to a woman. Each
group praises what it is closest to.
It builds to a climax. Two solo groups, then everybody. The fourth stanza is louder and
larger simply because more people are singing it — and it is the stanza addressed to the
Lord of the Universe, so the swell of voices matches the swell of the subject.
It says something about community. Farming is shared work. No single 'I' appears
anywhere in the poem; every pronoun is 'we', 'our', 'us'. The form and the meaning agree:
the harvest belongs to everyone, so the thanksgiving must too.

Why it also matters historically: Sarojini Naidu wrote and spoke in the years of the
national movement, and much of her poetry gathers many Indian voices into one. A
hymn in which men and women praise separately and then together is, quietly, a
picture of a people acting as one.

Q6 How does the poet create the joyous atmosphere of rural India at harvesting time?

She builds it out of five ordinary materials, and never once uses the word 'happy'.

WHAT SHE EXAMPLES FROM THE POEM EFFECT
USES

Sound and music 'with cymbal and flute', 'with cymbal and pipe', 'with we hear a procession
cymbal and drum' before we see one

Colour and light 'the gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit', 'Bright a bright, golden,
and munificent lord of the morn', 'lord of the rainbow' morning scene

Plenty 'new-garnered and ripe', 'the plentiful bosom', 'thy abundance in almost
opulent giving', 'manifold gladness' every line

Ritual objects garlands, tribute, the lotus, the gourd-flower the familiar sight of an
Indian festival

Many voices and Men's, Women's and All Voices; 'We bring thee…', 'we the rhythm of a crowd
repetition hail thee, / We praise thee…' chanting together

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why it works: Joy in this poem is never stated — it is produced. Sarojini Naidu
appeals to the ear (cymbals, drums), the eye (gold, rainbow, flowers) and the sense
of plenty, and then repeats her phrases until the reader is carried along by the
rhythm. That is the difference between describing a celebration and putting the
reader inside one.

Q7 Why is the poem presented as a hymn?

Because a hymn is a song of praise offered to a divine power, and that is exactly what these
farmers are doing — so the form and the content are the same thing.

Its subject is thanksgiving. The poem's business from beginning to end is to praise Surya,
Varuna, Prithvi and Brahma and to thank them for the harvest.
Its language is the language of worship. 'Thou', 'thee', 'thy', 'thine' — the old reverent
forms — and the address 'O Surya', 'O Prithvi', 'O Bramha'. Modern 'you' would sound wrong
at once.
Its structure is a chant. Every stanza opens the same way, offers a tribute in the fifth line,
and closes with 'we hail thee, / We praise thee, O …, with cymbal and …'. Repetition of this
kind exists so that a crowd can join in.
It is written for many voices and for instruments — men's, women's and all voices, with
cymbal, flute, pipe, drum and finally prayer.
It ends with a petition, as hymns traditionally do: 'Grant us thy succour, thy counsel, thy
care.'

The deeper reason: By choosing the hymn, Sarojini Naidu makes an argument
without stating it. Farming is not treated as a job that produces goods, but as a
relationship with living powers who must be thanked. The harvest is a gift, not a
wage — and the whole unit's theme of respecting the natural world follows from
that one choice of form.

Let us learn — Pages 179–181

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as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Harvest Hymn (Sarojini Naidu) — farming implements, synonyms and archaic words
co m
e m.
m as
LET US LEARN

.co a g l
s m the pictures of the farming implements given in Column 1 with their use
eMatch
gl aI.
a
Q1
given in Column 2. Then, fill in the blanks in Column 3 to complete the name of the
implement.

co m
e m . ag
g l as
a

co m
em.
m l as
m .co a g
l a se
a g
m a s
m .co agl
l a se
a g

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a
se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl

co m
m .
m as e
.co a g l
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

COLUMN 1 COLUMN 2 COLUMN
3

1. (i) A tool with a long handle with metal S __ C K L
teeth for collecting hay or leaves. __

2. (ii) A small hand tool used for digging and S C __ T H
making shallow furrows. __

3. (iii) A hand-held tool with a curved blade P L __ __ G
attached to a short handle. It is used for H
harvesting crops.

4. (iv) A tool pulled by oxen. It is used for T R __ W __
turning over the soil in the field so that L
seeds can be sown or planted.

5. (v) A farm tool having a flat rectangular R __ K __
blade attached to a long wooden handle
used for digging the soil.

6. (vi) A hand-held tool with a long-curved S P __ D __
blade attached to a long handle used for
cutting tall grass.

Page 55 of 114

Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The table printed on page 180. The six pictures of Column 1 are redrawn here as simple
line drawings; the book prints them in colour.

The six pictures in Column 1, in the order they are printed, are a sickle, a scythe, a plough, a
trowel, a rake and a spade — and Column 3 already stands beside its own picture, so only
Column 2 has to be matched across.

ROW PICTURE (COLUMN 1) USE (COLUMN NAME (COLUMN
2) 3)

1 a short-handled tool with a strongly curved (iii) SICKLE
blade

2 a long pole with a long curved blade at the end (vi) SCYTHE

3 a wooden frame with a pointed share, meant to (iv) PLOUGH
be drawn

4 a small pointed hand blade with a short handle (ii) TROWEL

5 a long handle ending in a row of metal teeth (i) RAKE

6 a long handle with a flat rectangular blade (v) SPADE

How to tell a sickle from a scythe — the pair students most often confuse: Both
have curved blades and both cut. The difference is the handle. A sickle has a short
handle, so you must bend down and cut a handful at a time — that is why it is used
for harvesting a crop you want to gather as you cut. A scythe has a long handle and
a long blade, so you stand upright and sweep it in a wide arc — that is why it is used
for tall grass over a large area. In The Cherry Tree the grass-cutting woman uses a
scythe, and one sweep is enough to cut the young tree in two. Column 2 gives you
exactly this clue: 'short handle' in (iii), 'long handle' in (vi).

Tip for the rake and the spade: Both have long handles, so look at the business
end. Teeth mean a rake (it drags loose stuff together); a flat blade means a spade (it
cuts into the ground). And the trowel is the only tool in the set small enough to hold
in one hand.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. Choose the correct synonyms for the underlined words in the given sentences
from the box below. Circle the words or phrases in the sentences that helped you to
infer the meanings. [generous, help, brightness, indescribable, kind] — 1. The king
was beneficent to the poor because he took good care of them. synonym: kind
(example)

The synonym is kind, and the words that give it away are took good care of them.

Read the example as a method, not as an answer. Every sentence in this exercise
contains a phrase that defines the difficult word — 'took good care of', 'donated a
lot', 'supporting him with money', 'the whole room was full of', 'speechless with'.
Circle that phrase first; the synonym follows from it. This is how you meet an
unfamiliar word in an exam and still get it right.

Word note: beneficent comes from Latin bene (well) + facere (to do) — one who does
good. The same bene- gives us benefit, benefactor and benevolent.

Q3 II. 2. He was munificent towards the needy and donated a lot for their health care.
synonym: ____________________

synonym: generous
The clue to circle: donated a lot for their health care.

Why: Munificent means giving very generously, especially in large amounts.
Someone who 'donated a lot' is doing exactly that. In the poem Surya is 'Bright and
munificent lord of the morn' — a giver on a great scale, whose gift is the ripening
light of a whole harvest.

Q4 II. 3. When he lost his job, all his friends gave him succour by supporting him with
money. synonym: ____________________

synonym: help
The clue to circle: supporting him with money.

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Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why: Succour means help or relief given to someone in trouble or distress — not just
any help, but help at a bad moment. That is why the friends give it when he has lost
his job. In the poem, All Voices ask: 'Grant us thy succour, thy counsel, thy care' —
they are asking to be helped through the hard seasons ahead.

Tip: The three things asked for in that line rise in intimacy — succour (help in
trouble), counsel (advice), care (constant looking-after).

Q5 II. 4. When the sun's rays came into the dark room, the whole room was full of
radiance. synonym: ____________________

synonym: brightness
The clue to circle: the sun's rays came into the dark room.

Why: Radiance is light shining out from something — the sentence sets 'dark' against
it, and the source is the sun's rays. Notice the fine difference the poem makes use of:
in 'O giver of mellowing radiance' the brightness is warm and ripening, not
dazzling. The noun means brightness; the adjective beside it decides what kind.

Q6 II. 5. The little girl was speechless with ineffable joy when she got her birthday gift
from her aunt. synonym: ____________________

synonym: indescribable
The clue to circle: speechless.

Why: Ineffable means too great or too intense to be expressed in words — and
'speechless' says the same thing about the girl. The two words in the sentence agree
with each other, which is your proof. In the poem, God is addressed as 'Father
eternal, ineffable Om!' — a presence beyond anything language can hold.

Word note: ineffable = in- (not) + effable (able to be spoken), from Latin fari, to
speak. The same root gives 'infant' — literally, one who cannot yet speak.

Page 58 of 114

as e
Class 8 English Unit 4 Environment
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
III. You have learnt about some archaic words. Some more archaic words are given
e
Q7

o m1. morrow 2. hither 3. quoth 4. betwixt 5. yonder glas
below. Refer to a dictionary to find commonly used words which are similar in
c
m .
meaning. a
s e
a gla

co m
. ag
ARCHAIC WORD WE USE USED IN A SENTENCE

e m
as
WORD TODAY

a g l
1. morrow tomorrow; the next 'We shall meet on the morrow' = We shall meet tomorrow.

m
day

. c o
2. hither here; to this place
s e m thither = there,
'Come hither' = Come here. (Its partners are
m a
. co agl
and whither = where to.)

3. s e m
l a
ag
quoth said 'Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”' = Said the raven… (It is only
ever used before the speaker, and only in the past.)

m a s
.co agl
4. betwixt between 'The village lies betwixt the river and the hill' = between the

em
river and the hill.

a s
5. yonder
a glin 'Look at yonder field' = Look at that field over there.
over there; that one
the distance

. com
m
Why poets keep using words nobody says any more: An archaic
a s emword carries the
. gl the subject is itself
co of an older, more formal English, and that is usefulawhen
m
sound

aseold and formal — worship, ceremony, legend. 'Thine is the bounty' feels like a
agl prayer; 'Yours is the bounty' feels like a receipt. The word choice does not change
the meaning; it changes the register, and register is part of meaning.
se m
com g l a
m . a
e
as survive in fixed phrases even now — 'come hither',
Did you know? Several oflthese
'betwixt and between', a
g
'the hither side', and 'good morrow' in Shakespeare. And

m
'yonder' is still ordinary speech in parts of Britain, Ireland and the American South.
. co
em
m l as
.co a g
a s em us listen — Page 181 (Transcript on page 203)
gl
Let
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


a g l Page 59 of 114