NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English (First Flight) The Hundred Dresses - II [Old Book]

NCERT
SOLUTIONS
CLASS - 10th

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Class : 10th
Subject : English-1
Chapter : 6
Chapter Name : The Hundred Dresses–II

Q1 What did Mr Petronski’s letter say?

Answer. Mr Pertronski's letter said that Wanda would not come to school anymore. They were
moving away to a big city. He also said that there, nobody would ask them why they had funny
names because there were plenty of funny names in the city.

Page : 74 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q2 Is Miss Mason angry with the class, or is she unhappy and upset?

Answer. Miss Mason was unhappy and upset. She said that she was sure that none of the boys
and girls of Room Thirteen would purposely and deliberately hurt anyone's feelings. She
preferred to think that what was said was said in thoughtlessness. She thought of it as a very
unfortunate thing to have happened and wanted everybody in the class to think about it.

Page : 74 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q3 How does Maddie feel after listening to the note from Wanda’s father?

Answer. After listening to the note from Wanda's father, Maddie had a very sick feeling in the
bottom of her stomach. She could not concentrate when she tried to prepare her lessons. She
had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet.
However, she had always stood by silently and that was as bad as what Peggy had done. She
had thought that they were being mean. She could put herself in Wanda's shoes. Later, she
even called herself a coward.

Page : 74 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q4 What does Maddie want to do?

Answer. Maddie wanted to tell Wanda that she had not meant to hurt her feelings. She felt
that she had to do something, whether Peggy felt badly or not. She had to nd Wanda. She had
the feeling that Wanda might not have moved away as yet. She thought that Peggy would
climb the Boggins Heights with her, and together, they would tell Wanda that she had won the
contest; that they thought she was smart; and that the hundred dresses were beautiful.

Page : 74 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q1 What excuses does Peggy think up for her behaviour? Why?

Answer. Peggy had told Maddie with pretended casualness that both of them should go and
see if Wanda had left the town or not. The excuse that Peggy thought up for her behaviour was
that she never called Wanda a foreigner or made fun of her name. She also said that she never
thought Wanda had even the sense to know that they were making fun of her. She thought
Wanda was too dumb. However, she appreciated the fact that Wanda could draw so well. She
was making such excuses because she was feeling bad about what had happened, thinking that
it probably was her teasing because of which Wanda left the school.

Page : 76 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q2 What are Maddie’s thoughts as they go to Boggins Heights?

Answer. Maddie hoped that they would nd Wanda. She wanted to tell her that they were sorry
that they had picked on her; and that how wonderful the whole school thought she was. She
also thought of requesting her not to leave the school. She even thought that she and Peggy
would ght anybody who was not nice to her.

Page : 76 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q3 Why does Wanda’s house remind Maddie of Wanda’s blue dress?

Answer. Wanda's house looked shabby but clean. It reminded Maddie of Wanda's blue dress
because it was also very shabby and faded, but clean.

Page : 76 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q4 What does Maddie think hard about? What important decision does she come to?

Answer. Maddie was not happy as she could not nd Wanda at her home. She could not sleep
that night. She thought about Wanda, her faded blue dress, and the little house she lived in.
She also thought about the hundred glowing pictures, which were all lined up in the
classroom. At last, Maddie thought really hard and after a long time, she reached an important
decision. She decided that she would never stand by and say nothing again. If she ever heard
anybody picking on someone because they were funny looking or because they had strange
names, then she would speak up. She did not even mind losing Peggy's friendship over it. She
knew she could not make things right with Wanda. However, she had decided that in the
future, she would never make anybody else unhappy again.

Page : 77 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q1 What did the girls write to Wanda?

Answer. The girls wrote a friendly letter to Wanda telling her that she had won the contest.
They also wrote how pretty her drawings were. They asked her if she liked the place where she
was living and if she liked her new teacher. They wanted to say that they were sorry. However,
they ended up with just writing a friendly letter. They signed it with lots of X's for love.

Page : 79 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q2 Did they get a reply? Who was more anxious for a reply, Peggy or Maddie? How do you
know?

Answer. No, they did not get a reply. Maddie was more anxious for a reply as she thought a lot
about it. She would put herself to sleep making speeches about Wanda and defending her from
great crowds of girls who were trying to tease her. Before Wanda could press her lips together
in a tight line, which she did before answering, Maddie would cry out and ask everybody to
stop and then, everybody would feel ashamed the way she felt. Peggy, on the other hand, had
begun to forget about the whole affair. This shows that Maddie was more anxious for a reply
than Peggy.

Page : 79 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q3 How did the girls know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased her?

Answer. The girls came to know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased her as she
had asked Miss Mason to give the green dress with red trimming to Peggy and the blue one to
Maddie. Later when Maddie looked at the drawing very carefully, she realized that the dress
had a face and a head, which looked like her own self. The head and face in the drawing given
to Peggy looked just like Peggy. That is why the girls knew that Wanda liked them even though
they had teased her.

Page : 79 , Block Name : Oral Comprehension Check

Q1 Why do you think Wanda’s family moved to a different city? Do you think life there was
going to be different for their family?

Answer. It is likely that like Wanda, other members of her family also faced ridicule and
mockery because of their long and different names. Wanda's family moved to a big city as in
the city everybody had funny names, so they would not face as much trouble in this regard.
However, life could still be dif cult for them as they could be teased about various other
things.

Page : 79 , Block Name : Thinking About The Text

Q2 Maddie thought her silence was as bad as Peggy’s teasing. Was she right?

Answer. Yes, Maddie was right when she thought that her silence was as bad as Peggy's
teasing. She was right because even though she felt bad about it and never teased Wanda
herself, she did not say anything to stop it. A person who sees something wrong happening in
front of him/her is as much an offender as the person committing the offence. Maddie was too
afraid to say anything because she did not want to lose Peggy's friendship. Also, she was poor
herself, so she feared that everybody would make fun of her too.

Page : 79 , Block Name : Thinking About The Text

Q3 Peggy says, “I never thought she had the sense to know we were making fun of her anyway.
I thought she was too dumb. And gee, look how she can draw!” What led Peggy to believe that
Wanda was dumb? Did she change her opinion later?

Answer. Peggy believed that Wanda was dumb as she could not understand why Wanda said
she had a hundred dresses, even when everybody knew that she was poor. She knew everybody
was laughing at her. Even then, she kept giving the same answer. She even described the
dresses she said she had. That is why Peggy thought Wanda was dumb. She changed her
opinion later when she saw the hundred dresses Wanda had talked about. She saw the
drawings and was highly impressed by their beauty. She realized that Wanda was a very good
artist.

Page : 79 , Block Name : Thinking About The Text

Q4 What important decision did Maddie make? Why did she have to think hard to do so?

Answer. The important decision that Maddie made was that she would never stand by and say
nothing again. If she ever heard anybody picking on someone because they were funny-
looking or because they had strange names, she would speak up. She did not even mind losing
Peggy's friendship over it. She knew she could not make things right with Wanda. However,
she had decided that in the future, she would never make anybody else unhappy again. She
was unhappy that she could not nd Wanda at her home. She could not sleep that night. She
thought about Wanda, her faded blue dress, and the little house she lived in. She also thought
about the hundred glowing pictures, which were all lined up in the classroom. She was feeling
guilty of not having said anything when everybody else was teasing Wanda. It was her guilt
that made her think very hard and arrive at the important decision.

Page : 80 , Block Name : Thinking About The Text

Q5 Why do you think Wanda gave Maddie and Peggy the drawings of the dresses? Why are
they surprised?

Answer. Maddie and Peggy had written a letter to Wanda. Though it was a friendly letter,
Wanda must have understood the emotions behind the writing of that letter. Therefore,
Wanda's request that two of her drawings be given to Maddie and Peggy could be her way of
telling them that she had forgiven and forgotten. When Maddie and Peggy did not receive a

reply to their letter for a long time, they felt that perhaps Wanda was still hurt and angry.
Therefore, they were surprised when they came to know that Wanda had asked Miss Mason to
give them two of her drawings.

Page : 80 , Block Name : Thinking About The Text

Q6 Do you think Wanda really thought the girls were teasing her? Why or Why not?

Answer. Wanda would have been aware that the other children were teasing her. She would
have known that the children intended to make fun of her poverty, and would have laughed at
her whatever she might have said. This could have been the reason for her exaggerating
everything whenever she answered their questions.

Page : 80 , Block Name : Thinking About The Text

Q1 Here are thirty adjectives describing human qualities. Discuss them with your partner and
put them in the two word webs (given below) according to whether you think they show
positive or negative qualities. You can consult a dictionary if you are not sure of the meanings
of some of the words. You may also add to the list the positive or negative ‘pair’ of a given
word.
kind, sarcastic, courteous, arrogant, insipid, timid, placid, cruel, haughty, proud, zealous,
intrepid, sensitive, compassionate, introverted, stolid, cheerful, contented, thoughtless, vain,
friendly, unforgiving, fashionable, generous, talented, lonely, determined, creative, miserable,
complacent

Answer.

Page : 80 , Block Name : Thinking About Language

Q2 What adjectives can we use to describe Peggy, Wanda and Maddie? You can choose
adjectives from the list above. You can also add some of your own.
1. Peggy ________________________________
2. Wanda _______________________________

3. Maddie _______________________________

Answer. 1. Peggy: sarcastic, cheerful, contented
2. Wanda: kind, timid, introverted, generous, talented, lonely, creative
3. Maddie: kind, timid, sensitive, miserable

Page : 81 , Block Name : Thinking About Language

Q3 1. Find the sentences in the story with the following phrasal verbs.
lined up
thought up
took off
stood by

2. Look up these phrasal verbs in a dictionary to nd out if they can be used in some other
way. (Look at the entries for line, think, take and stand in the dictionary.) Find out what other
prepositions can go with these verbs. What does each of these phrasal verbs mean?

3. Use at least ve such phrasal verbs in sentences of your own.

Answer. 1. (i) lined up
And she thought of the glowing picture those hundred dresses made — all lined up in the
classroom.
(ii) thought up
Peggy, who had thought up this game, and Maddie, her inseparable friend, were always the
last to leave.
(iii) took off - Miss Mason took off her glasses, blew on them and wiped them on her soft white
handkerchief.
(ivi) stood by — She had stood by silently, and that was just as bad as what Peggy had done.
2. DIY
3. DIY

Page : 81 , Block Name : Thinking About Language

Q4 Colours are used to describe feelings, moods and emotions. Match the following ‘colour
expressions’ with a suggested paraphrase.
(i) the Monday morning – feel embarrassed/angry/ashamed blues
(ii) go red in the face – feel very sick, as if about to vomit
(iii) look green – sadness or depression after a weekend of fun
(iv) the red carpet – the sign or permission to begin an action
(v) blue-blooded – a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat; a wish to stop ghting
(vi) a green belt – in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong
(vii) a blackguard – a photographic print of building plans; a detailed plan or scheme
(viii) a grey area – land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law
(ix) a white ag – an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear

(x) a blueprint – a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong
(xi) red-handed – a special welcome
(xii) the green light – of noble birth or from a royal family

Answer. (i) the Monday morning blues — sadness or depression after a weekend of fun
(ii) go red in the face — feel embarrassed/angry/ashamed
(iii) look green — feel very sick, as if about to vomit
(iv) the red carpet — a special welcome
(v) blue-blooded — of noble birth or from a royal family
(vi) a green belt — land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law
(vii) a blackguard — a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong
(viii) a grey area — an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear
(ix) a white ag — a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat; a wish to stop ghting
(x) a blueprint— a photographic print of building plans; a detailed plan or scheme
(xi) red-handed — in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong
(xii) the green light — the sign or permission to begin an action

Page : 81 , Block Name : Thinking About Language

Q1 Notice the use of the word ‘turn’ in the rst line, “I think I could turn and live with
animals…”. What is the poet turning from?

Answer. In this line here, the poet wants to turn from human into an animal. This turning is
symbolic of the poet’s detachment from human beings and their nature and his appreciation
of the animal kind.

Page : 84 , Block Name : Thinking About The Poem

Q2 Mention three things that humans do and animals don’t.

Answer. Animals do not cry and complain over their conditions. They do not. commit sins and
therefore do not weep for them. They are also very satis ed creatures and have no desire to
possess material things. Humans, on the contrary, complain all the time, commit all sorts of
sins and are affected with the madness of owning things.

Page : 84 , Block Name : Thinking About The Poem

Q3 Do humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago? Discuss this in
groups.

Answer. Yes, humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago as it is a
cultural tradition to do so. (Students can discuss their own culture with their classmates and
share the rituals and traditions of their culture and also get to know about other cultural
practices.)

Page : 84 , Block Name : Thinking About The Poem

Q4 What are the ‘tokens’ that the poet says he may have dropped long ago, and which the
animals have kept for him? Discuss this in class. (Hint: Whitman belongs to the Romantic
tradition that includes Rousseau and Wordsworth, which holds that civilisation has made
humans false to their own true nature. What could be the basic aspects of our nature as living
beings that humans choose to ignore or deny?)

Answer. The tokens mentioned in the poem mean the symbols of the true nature of human
beings. These tokens are actually tokens of virtue such as containment, honesty, innocence
and the likes of it.

Page : 84 , Block Name : Thinking About The Poem