NCERT Solutions Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words

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 9 · ENGLISH

NCERT Solutions

Chapter 7: Carrier of Words

NCERT Textbook — Kaveri

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

203 – 230 17 96 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 94 pages

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 9 · ENGLISH · KAVERI

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 7: Carrier of Words
Chapter 7 of Kaveri pairs two pieces about what words are worth and what it costs to carry them. Carrier of
Words is a reportage-style prose account of Khetaram, the lone Gramin Dak Sewak of Somarad Branch Post
Office, who walks 20 km at a stretch across the Thar to deliver mail 2.5 km short of the Indo-Pakistan border.
Words, a six-stanza lyric by the English poet Charles Swain, argues the opposite case — that words
themselves are cheap, and that “A little said, and truly said, / Can deeper joy impart / Than hosts of words.”

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Kaveri (Class 9) 203 – 230

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

17 96

MEDIUM

English

Reflect and Respond — Pages 203–204
Carrier of Words (prose)

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. Look at the pictures given below of persons engaged in the same profession.
[Four pictures: a 2004 ₹5 stamp marked ‘150 YEARS OF INDIA POST / भारतीय डाक के 150
वष’ showing a dak runner with a spear-and-bells staff, a mail train on a viaduct, an
‘AIR MAIL’ label and an early biplane; a 25-paise INDIPEX-77 stamp captioned ‘EARLY
POSTMAN’ showing a turbaned postman in a red tunic with a leather satchel; an old
sepia photograph of a turbaned postman in uniform clearing a pillar letter box; a
colour drawing of a modern postman in khaki uniform and cap with a mailbag,
walking in a desert.] Discuss in pairs and share your answers with your classmates
and teacher. 1. Which profession do they belong to?

All four pictures show postmen — people who carry and deliver the post. The pictures are
arranged as a small history of the same profession in India, and reading them in order is the
point of the exercise.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

PICTURE WHAT IT SHOWS WHAT IT TELLS YOU
ABOUT THE JOB

1. ₹5 stamp, ‘150 A dak runner jogging with a spear hung Mail has been carried by foot, by
YEARS OF INDIA with bells, a steam mail train crossing a rail and by air — but the runner
POST’ (2004) viaduct, an ‘AIR MAIL’ label and an early is still in the picture
biplane

2. 25-paise INDIPEX-77 A postman in a red tunic and turban, The uniform and the bag are old;
stamp, ‘EARLY barefoot, with a leather satchel the walking is older still
POSTMAN’

3. Sepia photograph A turbaned postman in uniform clearing a Collection as well as delivery —
pillar letter box under a tree the postman is the link at both
ends

4. Colour drawing A modern postman in khaki uniform and This is Khetaram’s world — the
cap, mailbag on his shoulder, standing in desert, the khaki, the bag
sand dunes

Why the book opens here: the four pictures stretch across roughly a hundred and
fifty years, yet the bag on the shoulder does not change. That is exactly the chapter’s
claim — the technology around the post has changed completely, but at the last
stretch of road a human being still walks. Look at picture 4 again after you finish
reading: it is a portrait of the man you are about to meet.

Q2 I. 2. Do they face any difficulties while doing their duty?

Yes — and the pictures themselves hint at most of them.

Distance covered on foot. The runner in picture 1 and the barefoot postman in picture 2
have no vehicle at all; the man in picture 4 is standing in soft sand where, as the chapter will
say, “even bicycles can’t ply”.
Weather. Khaki cloth and a turban are the only shelter in a desert; a postman works in the
sun, the rain and the cold because the mail does not wait.
Weight. Every one of the four is carrying a bag, and the bag gets heavier the further he
goes.
Loneliness and risk. The runner carried bells on his spear to warn animals away — the
empty stretch between two settlements was his to cross alone.
Emotional weight. A postman does not only deliver paper. He is the one who hands over
news of a birth, a marriage, a failure or a death.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: keep this list beside you while you read. Almost every item on it comes back as a
hard fact in the chapter — the 28-kilo limit, the 20 km walk, the 50-degree heat, the
sandstorms, the letter with the torn corner.

Q3 I. 3. How does their profession affect the people they meet?

A postman changes the day of everyone he reaches, because he is the carrier of news —
and in remote places, of money.

He ends waiting. In places with no phone, the postman is the only channel to a son working
far away. People watch the path for him.
He brings the means to live. A money order in his bag may be the month’s food for a
family.
He is trusted with private matters. Where many cannot read, the postman reads the letter
aloud and writes the reply — so he knows the family’s joys and troubles.
He carries grief too. The same man who brings news of a wedding brings news of a death,
and people learn to read his face before he speaks.

Why this matters for the chapter: the piece you are about to read is not really
about the post office. It is about what one dependable person means to people
whom no other service reaches — “the sole link between the oases of humanity in
India’s extremes and their faraway families.”

Q4 II. Discuss in groups. 1. How can ‘words’ be ‘carried’?

Words are carried whenever they are moved from the person who said them to the person
meant to hear them. The phrase in the chapter’s title is doing two jobs at once, and it is worth
separating them.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
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co m
m.
SENSE HOW WORDS TRAVEL EXAMPLE

m as e
Literal
.copaper is physically carried
Words are written on paper, and the
across the dunes a
g l
A letter in Khetaram’s mailbag, walked 20 km

se m
g l a
aTechnological Words are turned into signals and sent A telegram, a phone call, an email, a message
along wires or through the air on a phone

co m
Human
e m .
Words are held in memory and passed on A messenger’s spoken message; a ag
by a person
g l as grandmother’s story told to a grandchild

a
The title’s second meaning: a carrier of words is not only a man with a bag.
co m
Khetaram reads the letters out and writes the replies — so he carries the words in
em.
m l as
.co g
his voice and in his hand as well as on his shoulder. That is why the chapter can end
m a
se
with a poem that asks what words are worth once they arrive.

g l a
a
m a s
Q5 II. 2. Who could be a carrier of words?
m .co agl
l a se
ANSWER a g
m
Anyone who moves a message from one mind to another. The obvious answer is ‘a postman’,

. co
m
but the exercise wants you to widen the list before you read.

m as e
.co a g l
The postal chain — the Gramin Dak Sewak, the postman, the mail train, the mail van, the

a s em courier.

agl The older messengers — the harkara or dak runner with his bells, the pigeon-post, the
m
drummer who announced a proclamation in the village square.

a se
com l
People who speak for others — a translator, an interpreter, a newsreader, a journalist, a
. a g
teacher.
e m
g l asa letter-writer, a folk singer carrying a story across
Writers and singers — a poet,
generations. a
m
Machines — the telegraph, the telephone, the internet; and now the cell phone that may
make Khetaram a Gramin Sanchar Sewak.
. co
se m
o m l a
ag — a chain of runners
.cDid you know? The word dak once meant the relay itself
m posted a few kilometres apart, each handing the bag to the next. The staff with bells
l a se
ag warned wild animals off the track and told the next runner he was coming.
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 II. 3. What are the means for people to stay connected?

Two families of means — those that carry a physical object, and those that carry a signal.

MEANS HOW IT WORKS WHAT IT IS GOOD FOR

Post — postcard, inland letter, A physical object is carried Reaches places no other service reaches;
envelope, parcel, money order, by rail, road, air and finally can carry money and documents; can be
speed post on foot kept and re-read

Telegram (now discontinued in A short message sent by Speed, when speed was scarce — greetings
India) wire, charged by the word and condolences

Telephone, mobile phone Voice carried as a signal Instant, two-way, works for people who
cannot read or write

Internet — email, messaging, Text, voice and picture Cheap, instant, many-to-many
video call carried as data

Radio, television, newspapers One voice carried to many News and warnings, including to people
listeners with no phone

Meeting in person Words, face and gesture The one means that carries tone and body
together language whole

The chapter’s point: a means is only as good as its reach. In Somarad the phone
lines are still 50 km away and “the area was devoid of any other network service” —
so the postal service, the oldest means on this list, is the only one that actually
arrives.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 III. Read the words given in the box below and place them in their appropriate
context in the following passage. [Box: slumped | dunes | defying | hamlets |
signals | devoid] We stepped out of the vehicle at the end of the road. Immediately,
our body sent 1. _________ that our decision to visit the sand 2. _________ in the
afternoon was insane. We had passed a few 3. _________ on our way to the desert. We
could not find even a single soul outdoors, 4. _________ the blazing sun. Even the
camels were 5. _________ in the little shade offered by the khejri trees. In this remote
place people relied on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to connect to the
world as the area was 6. _________ of any other network service.

The completed passage reads:

Immediately, our body sent 1. signals that our decision to visit the sand 2. dunes in the

afternoon was insane.

We had passed a few 3. hamlets on our way to the desert.

We could not find even a single soul outdoors, 4. defying the blazing sun.

Even the camels were 5. slumped in the little shade offered by the khejri trees.

… the area was 6. devoid of any other network service.

How each blank is fixed — use grammar first, meaning second:

1. signals — “our body sent” needs an object, a plural noun. Only signals and
dunes and hamlets are nouns, and a body sends signals (heat, thirst, a pounding
head).
2. dunes — “the sand ______” must be the noun that goes with sand. Sand dunes is
fixed.
3. hamlets — “a few ______ on our way” needs a countable noun for places; the
book glosses hamlets as ‘settlements’.
4. defying — this blank needs an -ing form that governs “the blazing sun”. Defying
means openly going against; nobody was outdoors braving that sun.
5. slumped — “the camels were ______” needs a past participle after were. Slumped
= sunk down heavily, all shape gone out of the body.
6. devoid — the fixed pattern is devoid of, and the sentence supplies the ‘of’.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Tip: every one of these six words returns in the chapter — Khetaram’s shoulder is
“slumped”, his footprints run “along sand beds and dunes”, he reaches “far-flung
hamlets”, his body “sends blazing signals”, he works “defying all elements of the
harshest desert”, and villages were once “devoid of schools and primary healthcare
centres”. The box is a preview of the vocabulary, not a random word list.

Check Your Understanding — Page 207
Carrier of Words (prose) — Part I

COMPREHENSION

Q1 I. Khetaram needs to submit information about himself for getting an identity card.
While reading the text, fill up the following information sheet for Khetaram. Name
— Khetaram Position — ______ Employer — ______ Official address — ______ Mode of
transport used — ______ Key responsibilities — four blanks

Every entry can be taken straight from Part I of the text.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

NAME Khetaram

POSITION Gramin Dak Sewak (GDS) — “the sole postman of Somarad Branch Post Office”

EMPLOYER India Post — the Department of Posts, Government of India (Rajasthan Western
Region, whose Postmaster-General is quoted in the text)

OFFICIAL ADDRESS Somarad Branch Post Office, on the Barmer–Chohtan side of the Thar desert,
Barmer district, Rajasthan — about 120 km beyond the last railhead at Barmer
and just 2.5 km short of the Indo-Pakistan border

MODE OF On foot — his own mojri-clad feet, “along sand beds and dunes”, over sand “so soft
TRANSPORT USED that even bicycles can’t ply”. (The mail itself reaches him by mail train and then by
bus; on the last stretch it is “hefted onto his shoulders”. Occasionally the BSF gives
him a lift.)

KEY
Carrying and delivering the mail to the far-flung dhaanis — a load of up
RESPONSIBILITIES
to 28 kilos, and up to 20 km on foot for a single delivery, within 24
hours of dispatch from Jodhpur, 330 km away
Delivering the money orders on which the families of this arid land
partly depend for survival
Reading out letters to villagers and writing their replies “in his
slightly shaky hand”
Serving as the post office’s link with rural depositors, who “entrust their
monthly savings to the post office in their area”

Why the exercise is set this way: an identity card asks for post, employer, address
and duties — the dry official categories. Filling them in for Khetaram shows how
much of his real work has no official box: reading a letter aloud to a family and
writing the reply is nowhere in the job title, yet it is the part the villagers value most.

Q2 II. Discuss with your teacher. 1. Why do you think Khetaram has taken up this
challenging job?

Because it is the only assured income his family has — he says so himself. “Akaal or famine
is a way of life here. In a good year, I get one crop of bajra. That cannot feed my family of five.
We would starve without this job.”
Three things in the text explain the choice:

Farming cannot feed five people. One crop of bajra in a good year is the ceiling, and good
years are not the rule.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
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The GDS post is designed for exactly this situation. The essential criterion for selection is
co m
se
that the applicant has another means of livelihood; the duty is five hours a day; and the
m.
o m g l a
precisely..c
salary gives “an assured income”. A man with a little land and no certainty of rain fits the post

m a
Itla se him standing as well as pay. The text says his appointment “gave him a new lease
ag
gave
of life”, and he is “a warmly received man” at every threshold. He also gets to keep working

m
past 60, till 65.

. co ag
se m
l a
Careful: the honest answer is necessity first, pride second. The chapter never
g out of romance — it lets him say “We would
pretends Khetaram chose theadesert
starve without this job” in his own words, and only later shows him saying “I am

co m
m.
grateful.”

m as e
.co a g l
a s em
a glQ3 II. 2. How do you think Khetaram would feel about taking up this challenging task
every day?

m a s
em
.co agl
s
a
l mind — and quietly proud. The text gives evidence for
Tired in the body, but settled ingthe
a
both halves, and a good answer holds them together instead of choosing one.

co m
m .
e
WHAT HE EVIDENCE IN THE TEXT

m l as
.co g
WOULD FEEL

m exhaustion
ePhysical a
a s
gl
“Even a single delivery is tiring, as I have to cover 20 km for it.” His left shoulder is

a “slumped from years of carrying a mailbag.”

se m
cohem“postpones deliveries till after sundown”.
He delivers even when the heat has crossed 50°C; when it is impossible he does
l a
Endurance rather than

. a g
em
complaint not skip the delivery,

“Water is l a s
Acceptance of
hardship as normal
gtoo precious to waste on washing, so I can only wipe my body. When I
finish,athere is a sand dune at my feet every evening.” He says this without self-

om
pity.

. c
s e mI get a cup of tea.” A piece
m a
Being wanted “People are kind to me; the BSF always gives me a lift…

. co agl
of jaggery greets him when he brings good news.
m
e Pride and gratitude
g l as
a
“I am grateful that as a Gramin Dak Sewak, I can serve the people even after 60.”
And to the coming phone lines: “Main tayyar hoon” — I’m ready.
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How the writer produces this impression: we are never told that Khetaram is
patient or proud. We are shown a fact (the 20 km), then given his own sentence
about it, and the adjective is left for us to supply. That is why the portrait convinces
— the praise is in the facts, not in the adjectives.

Check Your Understanding — Page 210
Carrier of Words (prose) — Part II

COMPREHENSION

Q1 I. Complete the table given below with the situations given in Column 1 and the
reasons in Column 2. Column 1 (situation) | Column 2 (reason) ______ | When the
temperature is recorded as 50 degrees celsius and above, a state holiday has to be
declared. Khetaram can dwell on any threshold. | ______ BSF always gave Khetaram a
lift. | ______

Read the table the right way round: Column 1 holds the situation, Column 2 the reason for it.
Row 1 gives you the reason and asks for the situation; rows 2 and 3 give the situation and ask
for the reason.

COLUMN 1 — SITUATION COLUMN 2 — REASON

On the hottest days the temperature is When the temperature is recorded as 50 degrees celsius and above, a
officially recorded as 49.9 degrees celsius, state holiday has to be declared. (given)
and Khetaram is sent out to deliver even
though his body tells him it has crossed 50.

Khetaram can dwell on any threshold. (given) Because the villagers trust him completely — “Such aspects of
trust make Khetaram a warmly received man.” He reads out
their letters and drafts their replies, so “Everyone feels
comfortable asking him to read the letters and draft the replies,”
and no door is closed to him.

BSF always gave Khetaram a lift. (given) Because he delivers the jawans’ dak at their camp and they know
how far he must walk in that heat — “People are kind to me; the
BSF always gives me a lift. Since their camp came here last year,
when I distribute their dak, I get a cup of tea.”

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Look hard at row 1. The rule is a protection: 50°C means a state holiday. The
response is not to protect the worker but to record the number just below the line —
49.9. In one decimal point the writer shows you who actually pays for a public
service, without stating an opinion at all. That is the sharpest sentence in the
chapter.

Q2 II. Why was a piece of jaggery offered in the village when he brought news of a
birth or weddings?

Because sweets are shared on happy news, and in that arid land a piece of jaggery is the
sweet a family can afford. The text is precise about this: “In the village, a piece of jaggery is
all that can be offered when he brings news of a birth or weddings.”

Custom: across India, good news is marked by muh meetha karna — sweetening the mouth.
The messenger is the first person to be given the sweet.
Poverty: “all that can be offered” is the key phrase. This is a region of akaal, where one bajra
crop in a good year is the harvest. Gur is what the household has.
Gratitude: it is a thank-you to the man who walked 20 km to bring the news — a payment of
affection, since there is no other payment to give.

Why the detail is placed there: it comes just before the paragraph about the letter
with the torn corner. The jaggery and the torn envelope are the two halves of the
same job — the sweetness he is offered for good news, and the grief he must hand
over outside the door. Putting them side by side is how the writer shows the whole
weight of the work.

Q3 III. How would phone lines help Khetaram in his job?

They would turn him into a Gramin Sanchar Sewak — a carrier of voices as well as of letters.
The text says the phone lines are “now only 50 km away, for then he might become Gramin
Sanchar Sewak, when his duty will entail carrying a cell phone and the post, from home to
home.”

News would stop depending on a 20 km walk. A villager could speak to a son in Jodhpur
the same day instead of waiting for a letter to travel by train, bus and shoulder.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

It would help those who cannot read or write. At present a message must pass through
Khetaram’s eyes and his “slightly shaky hand”; on a phone the family speaks for itself, in its
own voice.
Urgent news — a death, an illness, a delayed money order — would arrive at once, and
would not have to be broken outside a doorway from a torn envelope.
It would extend his own working life and status, giving him a second, lighter set of duties
to carry alongside the mailbag.

Notice his reaction. A man whose job could be made smaller by the telephone
answers “Main tayyar hoon” — I’m ready. He sees the change as more service, not
less work, which tells you how he understands the job.

Critical Reflection — Pages 210–212
Carrier of Words (prose)

EXTRACT-BASED ANALYSIS

Q1 I. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions. 1. “Akaal or famine is a
way of life here. In a good year, I get one crop of bajra. That cannot feed my family
of five. We would starve without this job,” he says. And for each family which
resides in this arid land, survival is partly dependent on money orders remitted by a
relative. (i) Complete the sentence given below with an appropriate reason. One
crop of bajra makes a little difference for people like Khetaram because
__________________.

Completed sentence: One crop of bajra makes a little difference for people like Khetaram
because that single crop comes only in a good year and “cannot feed my family of five”, so
the household still needs the assured income of his job to survive.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Read the extract, not your memory of the chapter. Three facts inside these four
lines give the reason, and nothing outside them is needed:

“In a good year, I get one crop” — so one crop is the best case, not the normal
case; in a year of akaal there may be none.
“That cannot feed my family of five” — the crop is measured against five mouths
and falls short.
“We would starve without this job” — the gap between the crop and the family’s
needs is filled by the salary, not by the field.

So the crop is not useless — it makes a little difference — but it cannot decide
whether the family eats.

Q2 (ii) Why did Khetaram term famine as ‘a way of life’?

Because in his part of the Thar famine is not an emergency that comes and goes — it is
the normal condition around which life is organised.
The phrase “a way of life” is usually kept for customs — food, dress, festivals. Khetaram uses it
for hunger, and that is what makes the sentence land. Notice what follows it: a good year is
defined not as a year of plenty but as a year with one crop of bajra. When the best year is
measured in a single crop, scarcity is the baseline. The families around him have already built
their lives to fit it — “for each family which resides in this arid land, survival is partly
dependent on money orders remitted by a relative.” Sending a man away to earn, and waiting
for his money order, is not an emergency measure there; it is the household’s ordinary
arrangement.

How the writer gets the effect: by letting Khetaram supply the phrase himself. Had
the writer said ‘famine is frequent in Barmer’, it would be a statistic. Akaal as “a way
of life”, in the speaker’s own mouth, turns a statistic into a way of thinking — and
prepares us to accept, a moment later, that he walks 20 km in 50-degree heat
without calling it heroism.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
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co m
m.
(iii) Give one reason why Khetaram had to take up a job to help his family to
e
Q3

m l as
.co
survive.

a g
se m
g l a
a

Because his land cannot feed his family: even in a good year it yields only one crop of

m
bajra, and “That cannot feed my family of five.”
. co ag
se m
The job supplies what the field cannot — a salary that arrives whether or not the rains do.

l a
would starve without this job.” Inaagland where akaal is “a way of life”, an assured monthly
Khetaram states the consequence of not having it in the plainest words in the extract: “We

income is not extra earning; it is the difference between eating and not eating.

co m
se m.
m l a
Tip for one-reason questions: give one reason and prove it with the line that
o g properly evidenced.
.c it. Listing four half-reasons scores less than one reason
a
m
contains

l a se
ag
a s
com agl
(iv) Complete the analogy given below with a word from the extract. Other families:
.
Q4

s em
Money orders:: Khetaram: __________________
a
agl
Other families : Money orders :: Khetaram : job (his job as a Gramin Dak Sewak — the words
co m
m .
e
the extract gives you are “this job”).
m l as
.co a
m an analogy is solved: first name the relationship in the pair you are given,
g
s eHow

agla then carry exactly that relationship across.
se m
com g l a
. a
Other families → money orders : the thing they depend on to survive
m
ase
agl
(“survival is partly dependent on money orders remitted by a relative”)

Khetaram → ? : the thing he depends on to survive

co m
.
(“We would starve without this job.”)

se m
o m l a
g is why the answer is not
.cThe relationship is ‘means of survival’, not ‘money’ —awhich
m ‘salary’ or ‘bajra’. The instruction also says a word from the extract, and job is the word
l a se
ag the extract uses.
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Check it yourself: read the completed analogy aloud as a sentence — “Other
families survive on money orders, as Khetaram survives on his job.” If it makes sense
both ways, the analogy holds.

Q5 (v) What would ‘a good year’ signify?

A year in which the rains come — enough of them, and at the right time — so that one
crop of bajra actually comes up. That is all: “In a good year, I get one crop of bajra.”
Two things follow from that definition, and a full answer should say both:

It is defined by rain, not by profit. In the Thar the harvest depends entirely on the
monsoon; there is no canal and no second season. So ‘good’ means ‘not akaal’.
The bar is startlingly low. Elsewhere a good year might mean two or three harvests and a
surplus to sell. Here it means one crop of the hardiest millet — and even that “cannot feed
my family of five.”

Why the phrase is doing work: ‘a good year’ is an ordinary, comfortable expression.
Khetaram fills it with a meaning that is not comfortable at all. The gap between what
the phrase usually promises and what it delivers here is the point — the same
technique as calling famine “a way of life”.

Q6 2. There is one letter delivery he dreads. The envelope with the right corner torn off,
which signifies that the missive bears news of death. “Ashubh Samachar cannot be
carried into the house,” says Khetaram. So, he stands outside, reads out the letter
twice, then tears it to bits. “Bad news must be destroyed,” he mutters
philosophically. (i) Choose the correct option for the following question. Who could
have torn the right corner of the envelope? A. Khetaram B. Sender of the letter C.
Receiver of the letter D. The postmaster

Answer: B. Sender of the letter.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The reasoning is inside the extract:

The extract says the torn corner “signifies that the missive bears news of
death”. A mark that signifies the contents can only be made by someone who
knows the contents at the time of posting — and that is the sender. It is an old
convention so that the news is announced before the envelope is opened.
A is wrong: Khetaram only reads the sign. The whole sentence describes his
reaction to a mark that is already there — “There is one letter delivery he dreads.”
If he tore it himself there would be nothing to dread and nothing to recognise.
C is wrong: the receiver has not been given the letter yet — Khetaram is still
standing outside the house with it.
D is wrong: the postmaster handles the letter in transit and does not know what
is inside a sealed envelope.

Tip for extract-based MCQs: answer from the four lines printed above the question,
and say which word decided it. Here the deciding word is signifies — a signal has to
be sent by someone who has something to signal.

Q7 (ii) Complete the sentence with an appropriate reason. The most likely reason for
Khetaram reading the letter twice is because ___________________________.

Completed sentence: The most likely reason for Khetaram reading the letter twice is because
the family cannot read it themselves and he is about to tear it up — so a second reading is
their only chance to take in news this shocking and be sure of every word before the letter
is destroyed.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why two readings, and not one or three — the logic is all in the extract:

He “reads out the letter” — aloud, because in these villages the letter must be
read to people, not by them. Elsewhere the chapter confirms it: “Everyone feels
comfortable asking him to read the letters and draft the replies.”
He then “tears it to bits”. There will be no paper left to check. The words must be
complete in their memory before the paper goes.
The news is a death. At the first hearing a family is stunned and hears almost
nothing; the second reading is when the details — who, when, what is asked of
them — actually register.

So the repetition is an act of care disguised as a routine.

Q8 (iii) What was Khetaram’s philosophy regarding bad news, and how did he act upon
it?

His philosophy is that inauspicious news must not be allowed to settle — it should be
delivered outside the home and then destroyed. He states it twice, in two languages of
thought: “Ashubh Samachar cannot be carried into the house,” and “Bad news must be
destroyed.”
He acts on it exactly, in three deliberate steps:

1. He stops outside. He does not cross the threshold, though he is a man who “can dwell on
any threshold” and is welcome everywhere. For this one delivery he keeps the grief at the
door.
2. He reads the letter out twice, so the family hears it whole and does not have to touch the
paper.
3. He tears it to bits, so nothing carrying the ill omen remains in the household.

How the writer builds the moment: notice the word “philosophically” in “he
mutters philosophically”. It tells us this is not superstition performed nervously but a
settled belief, worked out over years and carried out calmly. And notice that
Khetaram, who is not of the family, takes on the family’s belief as his own working
rule — his job is not only to deliver the words but to deliver them in the way the
household can bear.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q9 (iv) State whether the following sentence is true or false. Khetaram’s action of
tearing the letter differed from his beliefs.

False.
His action and his belief match exactly. He believes “Bad news must be destroyed” — and he
destroys it: he “tears it to bits”. He believes “Ashubh Samachar cannot be carried into the house”
— and he does not carry it in: he “stands outside”. Every step of what he does is the belief put
into practice.

Tip for true/false items: do not stop at the verdict. Add the one line that proves it —
here, “Bad news must be destroyed,” he mutters philosophically — because a bare
‘False’ shows nothing about whether you read the extract.

Q10 (v) Mention any one aspect of Khetaram’s temperament which is revealed through
this extract.

He is deeply considerate — sensitive to what other people believe and to what they can
bear.
The evidence is in what he chooses to do when nothing compels him. No postal regulation tells
him to stop at the door, to read a letter twice, or to tear it up afterwards; he is not even a
member of the family. He does it because he has understood that in these homes death-news
must not be carried inside, and he shapes his own conduct around somebody else’s grief. That
is consideration, not duty.

Other defensible answers, if you can prove them from the same four lines:

Emotionally sensitive — “There is one letter delivery he dreads”; the job has not
hardened him.
Calm and philosophical — “he mutters philosophically”; he has made peace
with the hardest part of his work.
Responsible — he sees the delivery through to the end, including the part no one
would check.

Pick one, name it, and quote the word that proves it.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
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co m
m.
II. Answer the following questions. 1. Justify the statement made by Postmaster-
e
Q11

m l as
.co
General, Rajasthan Western Region stating that the role of GDS is ‘invaluable’.

a g
se m
g l a
a

The word is justified because the GDS delivers where no other arm of the state arrives at

m
all — “they deliver in interior areas that are often inaccessible by any means besides foot.”
. co ag
m
Something is invaluable when there is no substitute for it, and the chapter proves there is none.

as e
a g l
Reach. Khetaram works 120 km beyond the last railhead, 50 km beyond the last phone and
10 km beyond where the road “crumbles into sand so soft that even bicycles can’t ply”. The

m
chapter widens this from one man to a map: “The frozen desert of Ladakh, the isles of
co
m.
Lakshadweep, and the riverine communities of the northeast are all GDS territories.”

o m l a se
Reliability. Despite that terrain, mail from Jodhpur, 330 km away, is delivered at the border

m .c24 hours of dispatch”. It is “his bodily effort that ensures”ait.g
se is being delivered. Not conveniences — money orders on which “survival is partly
“within

g l aWhat
a dependent”, and the savings of rural depositors “who entrust their monthly savings to the

s
post office”.
m a
.co agl
Scale. “India’s three lakh plus delivery agents” became GDS, and they “constitute more than

a s em
50 per cent of the total workforce.” Half the postal service is these men and women.

a gl He reads letters out and drafts replies; he knows how to
Services no machine performs.
hand over a death.

. c om
The strongest single proof is the one the villagers gave: when it m
s e was proposed to
scrapom
. la
c the GDS and hand the work to patwaris, the plan wasag“summarily rejected”.
m Singh’s reason is one line long — “We knew they would not be able to do the
ase
Budh

agl job.” A service you cannot replace is exactly what ‘invaluable’ means.

se m
com g l a
m . a
ase
agl
Q12 II. 2. How was the purpose of India Post different from that of the British postal
system?

co m
m .
o m l a se
The British system existed to serve the administration; India Post was created to serve the
.c a g “Unlike the British postal
m
se system set up in India to relay company dak between administrative centres, after
population. The chapter states the contrast in a single sentence:

a
agl c
.
independence, the mandate of India Post was to bring the entire population within the
mailing ambit.”
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

BRITISH POSTAL SYSTEM INDIA POST AFTER 1947

Purpose To relay the Company’s own dak — To bring every person in the country within
official correspondence reach of the post

Who it A few administrative centres to one Villages, hamlets, islands and border
connected another settlements to the rest of India

Shape of the A line between important points A net that has to reach the last dhaani
network

Measure of Speed and security of official mail Coverage — 25,000 post offices in 1947 to
success more than a lakh and a half today

Why the change forced the GDS into being. If your aim is to link a handful of cities,
you need trains and offices. If your aim is “the entire population”, you need
somebody willing to walk the last 20 km — and that person cannot be a full-time
officer posted from outside. Hence a post designed around local people with
another livelihood, five working hours and service till 65. The mandate created the
man.

Q13 II. 3. People trusted Gramin Dak Sewaks. Support this statement with any two
instances from the text.

Two instances, each with the line that proves it:

1. They trust the GDS with their money. Through the GDS, “India Post has also been able to
reach rural depositors, who entrust their monthly savings to the post office in their area.
Every post office in the country has many operational accounts of the people which reflects
their trust in the postal system.” People who have very little hand over what they have
saved — and they hand it to the man who walks to their door.
2. They refused to let anyone else do the job. “A few years ago, a scheme to scrap the GDS
and transfer the job to patwaris (village record keepers) was proposed and summarily
rejected. ‘We knew they would not be able to do the job,’ says Budh Singh, a village elder.”
The villagers preferred the postman they knew to an official with a bigger designation.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Two more instances if you want to strengthen the answer: Khetaram “can dwell on
any threshold… Everyone feels comfortable asking him to read the letters and draft
the replies” — he is trusted with the family’s private news; and the BSF “always gives
me a lift”, which is trust from the other direction. Each is introduced by the writer’s
own summarising phrase: “Such aspects of trust make Khetaram a warmly received
man.”

Q14 II. 4. Infer the most likely reason that Khetaram was grateful to continue as GDS,
even after the age of 60.

Most likely because the job is still the only thing standing between his family and hunger
— and because, unlike a farmer’s field or an ordinary government post, it does not stop at
sixty. He says it himself: “I am grateful that as a Gramin Dak Sewak, I can serve the people even
after 60.”
The inference has three supports in the text:

The need has not changed. His land still gives one crop of bajra in a good year, and “We
would starve without this job” was never a temporary condition. At 60 he has no pension
from the fields.
The rule was written for exactly this. GDS “are also allowed to serve after the age of 60, till
the age of 65… so that they can be paid a salary to enable them to have an assured income.”
Khetaram is grateful for a rule that keeps that income coming.
He can still do it, and he wants to. “Khetaram says his spine is strong” — the sentence is
placed immediately before his statement of gratitude. And notice his verb: he is grateful that
he can “serve the people”, not that he can earn. After sixteen years of being “a warmly
received man”, the work is also his standing in the world.

Reading the sentence as writing: the paragraph puts “more than a decade and a
half of bearing words across this desolate geography” and “his spine is strong” on
either side of the word grateful. Necessity and pride are held in one sentence, and
the writer refuses to separate them — which is the honest thing to do.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q15 II. 5. Explain why the author pays tribute to people like Khetaram.

Because they hold together the part of the country that every other service has given up
on — and they do it on foot, for an ordinary wage, without being noticed. The tribute is
stated outright at the end: “People like Khetaram are a part and parcel of our social fabric,
and are a great support! Our salute to all the people like Khetaram!”
Four reasons the chapter has already earned by the time it says this:

They are the state where the state ends. Khetaram is “the lone face of the state who
reaches the far-flung hamlets, or dhaanis” — beyond the railhead, the road and the
telephone.
The cost is physical and permanent. A shoulder “slumped from years of carrying a
mailbag”; 20 km for a single delivery; a 28-kilo load; sands that “sizzle” under his mojri-clad
feet; sandstorms that “turn him into a walking sandman”; and delivery on days recorded as
49.9°C.
What they carry is survival, not convenience. Money orders, savings, and — in a place
where many cannot read — the words themselves, read out and answered in his own hand.
They are the reason the system is trusted at all. Half the postal workforce is GDS; villagers
refused to trade them for patwaris; depositors hand them their savings.

How the tribute is made to feel earned rather than sentimental: the writer
withholds all praise for nine pages and gives only measurements, quotations and
small physical details. When the two exclamation marks finally arrive in the last two
lines, they land on a reader who has already done the arithmetic — 330 km in 24
hours, the last 20 of them on one man’s shoulder. The emotion is placed after the
evidence, not instead of it.

Vocabulary and Structures in Context — Pages 212–215

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Carrier of Words (prose)

WORD WORK GRAMMAR

Q1 I. Study the phrases given in Column 1 and match them with their meanings in
Column 2. Column 1: 1. crumbles into sand 2. give a new lease of life 3. turn into a
trickle before drying out 4. bearing words across this desolate geography Column 2:
(i) get a chance to continue living (ii) carrying letters to less populated areas (iii)
disappears in the desert (iv) lessen gradually and then finally stop Now, use the
phrases from Column 1 in sentences of your own.

COLUMN 1 MATCH COLUMN 2 WHY

1. crumbles into (iii) disappears in the “where the Barmer–Chohtan road
sand desert directionlessly crumbles into sand” — the road
does not end at a point; it breaks up and is
swallowed

2. give a new lease (i) get a chance to “Khetaram’s appointment more than a decade
of life continue living ago gave him a new lease of life” — the job
renewed a life that famine had made impossible

3. turn into a trickle (iv) lessen gradually The image is of a stream thinning to a trickle
before drying out and then finally and then vanishing — reduction first, then a
stop complete stop

4. bearing words (ii) carrying letters to “after more than a decade and a half of bearing
across this desolate less populated words across this desolate geography” — words
geography areas = the letters, desolate geography = the near-
empty desert

Used in sentences of my own:

crumbles into sand — Two kilometres past the last shop the tar crumbles into sand, and
from there the schoolteacher walks.
give a new lease of life — The new tube well gave a new lease of life to a village that had
been buying every pot of water.
turn into a trickle before drying out — After the mill closed, the crowd at the tea stall
turned into a trickle before drying out altogether.
bearing words across this desolate geography — For sixteen summers he has been
bearing words across this desolate geography, and the dunes still show his footprints by
evening.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Worth knowing: phrase 3, “turn into a trickle before drying out”, does not appear

m l a se
anywhere in the passage as printed in your book — the exercise has taken it from
o
c
the fuller.original g line to hunt for.
article. Match it by meaning, as above; there isano
Theas
m
e three are all in the text (pages 205, 208 and 209).
ag l other

o m
II. Identify examples of alliterationm
e
. c ag
s
and metaphor in the extract given below.
a
Q2
Khetaram’s khaki turban andluniform
a g are his only protection against the desert’s
furies, the scorching summer winds and swirling sandstorms which turn him into a

m
walking sandman.
co
em.
m l as
.co g

m a
se
Alliteration — the repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of words that are close

g l a
a
together.

“Khetaram’s khaki” — the hard /k/ twice over. It also ties the man to the cloth: the uniform

om a s
. c agl
sounds like a part of his name.

s e m sandstorms” — four /s/ sounds in a row. Read it
“the scorching summer winds and swirling
a sand; the sound of the line does the work the picture
aloud and you hear the hiss of lblown
g
cannot. a
Metaphor — one thing spoken of as though it were another, with no like or as.
com
m .
m l a se
“turn him into a walking sandman” — he is not like a sandman, he is called one. He is
o g
.c so thickly that the man and the desert are no longer separable;
a
m
coated the chapter’s next

a se quotation completes the picture — “there is a sand dune at my feet every evening.”
agl “the desert’s furies” — the desert is given rage, as if it had a will and were attacking him.
(This is a metaphor with personification inside it; ‘furies’ were also avenging spirits in old
se m
com g l a
. a
mythology, which sharpens the sense of a punishment being carried out.)
m
gl ase
a
Why both devices are in the same sentence. Look at the balance: on one side
“khaki turban and uniform”, a couple of pieces of cloth; on the other “the desert’s

c o m
furies”. The alliteration hisses; the metaphor turns the enemy into something alive
.
m makes an
s e
and the man into something inanimate. In one sentence the writer

. cunequal gla
om contest audible as well as visible — “his only aprotection” is the phrase the

as em two devices are built to support.
agl c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 III. Match the words in Column 1 to what they suggest in Column 2 in the context of
the chapter. Column 1: 1. arid 2. concessional 3. gaunt 4. remote 5. desolate Column
2: (i) interest rate for the farmers (ii) corner of the world (iii) farmland without
much yield (iv) desert stretching far and wide (v) farmer waiting for the rains Now,
use the words from Column 1 in sentences of your own.

COLUMN MATCH COLUMN 2 WHAT THE WORD MEANS, AND WHY IT FITS
1

1. arid (iii) farmland Arid = so dry that little will grow. “each family which
without much resides in this arid land” — the land that gives one
yield crop of bajra in a good year

2. (i) interest rate for Concessional = offered at a reduced rate as a
concessional the farmers concession. The only thing in the list that can be
offered at a lower rate is an interest rate

3. gaunt (v) farmer waiting Gaunt = thin and hollow-cheeked from hunger or
for the rains strain. Only a person can be gaunt, so it must be the
farmer, not the land

4. remote (ii) corner of the Remote = far from everything else. “In this remote
world place people relied on BSNL”; “the far-flung hamlets…
of this remote area”

5. desolate (iv) desert stretching Desolate = empty, bleak, with no sign of life. “bearing
far and wide words across this desolate geography”

Solve it by grammar of meaning, not by guesswork. Sort the five words first: arid
and desolate describe land, remote describes distance, gaunt describes a body, and
concessional describes a rate or price. That single sort fixes 2, 3 and 4 immediately,
and leaves arid and desolate to be separated by scale — arid is about yield
(farmland), desolate about emptiness stretching far and wide (desert).

Used in sentences of my own:

arid — Nothing but ber bushes will grow on that arid patch behind the school.
concessional — The bank offered the sugarcane growers a concessional rate of interest
after the floods.
gaunt — By the third rainless month the herdsmen looked as gaunt as their cattle.
remote — The doctor visits this remote hamlet once a fortnight, and only in the dry season.
desolate — At noon the salt flat is desolate — no bird, no shade, no sound.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Note: concessional and gaunt do not occur in the passage as it is printed in your
book; like phrase 3 in exercise I, they come from the longer original article. Match
them by meaning.

Q4 IV. Read the underlined verbs in the sentences given in Column 1 and their
functions in Column 2. 1. She has found her book. — (i) finished actions (past event
— present result) 2. I have just eaten a mango. — (ii) recently completed action 3.
Have you ever seen a play before? — (iii) life experiences 4. I have finished my
project. — (iv) accomplishment 5. Ajay has become a good bowler in five years. — (v)
changes over time 6. I have seen this book in the library many times. — (vi) multiple
actions at different times 7. I have studied in this school for six years. — (vii) action
completed in the past but has its impact in present All the verbs in the sentences in
Column 1 are in present perfect tense. The structure is: has/have + past participle
(third form of the verb).

The seven pairs are already matched in the book, in order — 1–(i), 2–(ii), 3–(iii), 4–(iv), 5–(v), 6–(vi),
7–(vii). Your task is to see why one tense can do seven different jobs.

SENTENCE HAS/HAVE + FUNCTION THE CLUE WORD THAT
3RD FORM SIGNALS IT

She has found her book. has + found finished action, none needed — the result (she
present result has it now) is the whole point

I have just eaten a have + eaten recently completed just
mango.

Have you ever seen a play have + seen life experience ever, before
before?

I have finished my have + finished accomplishment finish itself carries completion
project.

Ajay has become a good has + become change over time in five years + become
bowler in five years.

I have seen this book … have + seen repeated actions, many times
many times. different times

I have studied in this have + studied began in the past, still for six years
school for six years. true now

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

The one idea underneath all seven: the present perfect never fixes a finished point
in the past — it links the past to now. That is why you can say “I have studied here for
six years” (and still study here) but not “I have studied here in 2019”. The moment
you name a finished past time, you must switch to the simple past: She found her
book yesterday.

Check it yourself: take any sentence from the chapter and test the rule. “For the last
15 years, he has been a trusted link…” — the phrase for the last 15 years reaches up
to today, so the present perfect is right. Change it to in 2009 and the sentence must
become he was.

Q5 IV. Now, fill in the blanks by using the present perfect form of the verbs given in the
brackets to complete the following paragraph. 1. I _________ (has/have) just ________
(get) a collection of postage stamps from my grandfather. He 2. ___________ (collect)
these stamps over a period of 20 years. I 3. ___________ (study) most of the stamps in
his collection and loved all of them. I 4. _______ (begin) my own collection of postage
stamps. Grandfather 5. _________ truly ________ (inspire) me.

The completed paragraph:

1. I have just got a collection of postage stamps from my grandfather.

He 2. has collected these stamps over a period of 20 years.

I 3. have studied most of the stamps in his collection and loved all of them.

I 4. have begun my own collection of postage stamps.

Grandfather 5. has truly inspired me.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Two decisions in every blank — which auxiliary, and which participle:

has or have? He and Grandfather are third person singular, so has (blanks 2 and
5). I takes have (blanks 1, 3, 4).
The third form: get → got (British usage; gotten is American), collect → collected,
study → studied (the -y after a consonant becomes -ied), begin → begun (begin–
began–begun: begun is the participle, began is the simple past), inspire →
inspired.
Where the adverb sits: just and truly go between the auxiliary and the participle
— “have just got”, “has truly inspired” — which is why blanks 1 and 5 are printed
as two separate gaps.

Watch blank 4. “I have begun” is right; “I have began” is the commonest mistake in
this exercise. Say the three forms aloud when you are unsure — begin, began,
begun — and take the third.

Q6 V. Study the sentences given below. 1. GDS delivers the mail at the border. When the
subject does the action, the sentence is in active voice. 2. The mail is delivered by
the GDS at the border. This implies that the ‘mail’ receives the action ‘deliver’. This
sentence is in passive voice because the subject is receiving the action.

The difference is not in the meaning but in what the sentence chooses to put first.

ACTIVE PASSIVE

Sentence GDS delivers the mail at the border. The mail is delivered by the GDS at the border.

Subject GDS — the doer the mail — the receiver of the action

Verb form delivers is delivered (be + past participle)

The doer is the subject moves into a by-phrase — and can be dropped altogether

Active → Passive, in three steps:

1. The object becomes the subject: the mail →front

2. The verb becomes be + past participle, in the same tense: delivers → is delivered

3. The old subject goes into a by-phrase: GDS → by the GDS

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
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co m
m.
When is the passive the better choice? When the action or its receiver matters

m l a se
more than the doer, or when the doer is obvious, unknown or deliberately left out.
o g
.c rules, notices and instructions are written in it — “Regulations
a
m
That is why stipulate
a e load cannot exceed 28 kilos” becomes “A load of more than 28 kilos is not
shis
g l
that
apermitted.” Notice also that the passive lets a writer hide the doer: “the
temperature is recorded as 49.9 degrees celsius” — recorded by whom? The chapter
co m
.
never says, and the passive is what allows the sentence to leave it out.
em ag
g l as
a
Q7 V. 3. Khetaram’s nephew wants to join the GDS. He asks Khetaram how to prepare
co m
se m.
for it. Khetaram gives him the following advice. (i) You will need a lot of stamina for

o m l a
g ask you to draft
.cthe letters. (iii) Write words neatly as some villagers will
this job. (ii) Practise reading clearly as some of the villagers will expect you to read

m a
se replies. (iv) Wear full-sleeved shirts and trousers to protect yourself from the heat.
out
a
agl Now, complete the following paragraph about the advice given by Khetaram. One

s
example has been done for you. To begin with, a lot of stamina will be needed for
m a
.co agl
this job. Next, reading clearly A. ________________________, as you B. ________________________

a s em
to read out the letters by some of the villagers. Words C. ________________________ neatly

a gl to draft replies by some villagers. Full sleeved-shirts
as you D. ________________________
and trousers E. ________________________ to protect yourself from the heat.

com
m .

m as e
.co
The completed paragraph:
a g l
se m
g l a
a To begin with, a lot of stamina will be needed for this job.

se m
com
Next, reading clearly A. should be practised, as you B. will be expected to read out the
g l a
m . a
ase
letters by some of the villagers.

agl
Words C. should be written neatly as you D. will be asked to draft replies by some

om
villagers.
. c
s e mfrom the heat.
Full sleeved-shirts and trousers E. should be worn to protect yourself
m a
m .co agl
l a se
ag
.c
s e m
m a
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How each blank was worked out. The example sets the pattern: “You will need a lot
of stamina” → “a lot of stamina will be needed”. Every blank is the same conversion
— object to the front, be + past participle in place of the verb.

KHETARAM’S BLANK PASSIVE WHY THAT AUXILIARY
ADVICE (ACTIVE) FORM

Practise reading clearly A should be An imperative (an order or piece of
practised advice) becomes should be / must be +
participle

some of the villagers will B will be Future will expect → will be expected; ‘you’
expect you expected is already the subject of the clause

Write words neatly C should be Imperative again; write–wrote–written
written

some villagers will ask D will be asked Future passive, matching B
you

Wear full-sleeved shirts E should be Imperative; wear–wore–worn
and trousers worn

Also acceptable: must be practised / must be written / must be worn, or needs to be
practised. What is not acceptable is “should be practise” or “will be expect” — the
passive always needs the third form of the verb. And keep the by-phrases where the
paragraph has already placed them (“by some of the villagers”, “by some villagers”);
they are the giveaway that B and D must be passive.

Listen and Respond — Pages 215–216 (Transcript for teacher, printed page
272)
Carrier of Words (prose)

LISTENING

Q1 I. You will listen to a girl talking about an event. As you listen, fill in the blank with
the suitable word from the brackets. (Transcript for teacher on page 272) The
speaker concluded her talk with a ___________. (suggestion/request/advice)

Answer: a request.

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The speaker — Bhavna of Grade 9 B — ends like this (Appendix, printed page 272):

“I request all the students to actively participate and make this event a grand success.

Thank you.”

Why not the other two?

A suggestion offers an idea for the listener to consider — ‘We could hold it in the
hall.’ Bhavna is not offering an option.
Advice tells the listener what would be good for them — ‘You should start collecting
stamps early.’ She is not counselling anyone.
A request asks the listener to do something for the speaker or for the cause,
politely. Her verb is literally “I request”, and what she asks for — participation —
benefits the event.

The giveaway is the verb she chooses about herself. In a listening task, the speaker
often names her own speech act; catch that word and the answer is settled.

Q2 II. You will listen to the girl talking about the event again. As you listen, choose the
correct option for the following questions. 1. What was the occasion that the
speaker was talking about? (i) Letter writing carnival (ii) Philately day (iii) Indian
Postal Day

Answer: (iii) Indian Postal Day.
From the transcript (printed page 272): “I… would like to share some information about the
celebration of Indian Postal Day in our school. It is celebrated on 10 October to commemorate
the service of India Post…”

The trap is option (i). The letter writing carnival — ‘Daakroom’ — is real and is
described at length, but it is how the school will celebrate, not what is being
celebrated: “We will be celebrating it by organising ‘Daakroom’.” The pronoun it
points back to Indian Postal Day. Option (ii), ‘Philately day’, is never mentioned at all;
stamp collecting is only one of the carnival’s many events.

Tip: when two options are both in the recording, ask which one the other one
belongs to. The occasion is the larger thing; the carnival sits inside it.

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Q3 II. 2. India Post is famous for having the most extensive network _________. (i) in India
(ii) in the world (iii) among design institutes

Answer: (ii) in the world.
The transcript says India Post is “the most widely functioning government postal service in
the world”. The superlative and the scale are both in that one phrase.

Why (i) is wrong even though it sounds safe: ‘the most extensive network in India’
would be a much weaker claim — India Post being the biggest postal service within
India is almost trivially true, and it is not what the speaker says. Listening questions
often offer a smaller, safer version of the true statement; take the one the speaker
actually made. Option (iii) belongs to a different topic altogether and is there only to
test whether you are listening or guessing.

Q4 II. 3. Letter writing is being revived as this art form has been _________. (i) celebrated
(ii) appreciated (iii) forgotten

Answer: (iii) forgotten.
The transcript is exact: “The objective behind this carnival is to get all of us excited about letter
writing, a forgotten art form.”

The logic also fixes it, even if you miss the word. You only revive something that
has died down. If letter writing were still being “celebrated” or “appreciated”, there
would be nothing to bring back and no reason for a carnival. The word ‘revived’ in
the question stem already rules out (i) and (ii). Use the stem as evidence — it is part
of the printed material too.

Q5 II. 4. Which of the following will be a part of the letter writing carnival? (i)
calligraphy and graphology (ii) origami and designing (iii) letter posting and
philately

Answer: (i) calligraphy and graphology.

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The transcript lists the carnival’s events: “competitions, events and workshops such as letter
writing, stamp collecting, calligraphy, origami, graphology—which means the study of
handwriting and postcard making.”

Why the other two fail — and this is the whole skill being tested. Each wrong
option is half right:

(ii) origami and designing — origami is in the list, but designing is not. ‘Postcard
making’ is close, but the speaker does not say ‘designing’.
(iii) letter posting and philately — stamp collecting is philately by another name,
but letter posting is nowhere in the talk; the carnival is about letter writing.

In a multiple-choice listening item, a pair is correct only if both halves were said.
Check each half separately.

Did you know? The talk defines graphology for you — “the study of handwriting”.
Compare it with philately, defined in this chapter’s Learning Beyond the Text as “the
study of postage stamps and postal history”, and calligraphy, the art of beautiful
writing.

Q6 II. 5. What will the postal department add to the event? (i) interactive
demonstrations (ii) theatre and dance (iii) workshop for letter writing

Answer: (i) interactive demonstrations.
Transcript: “This carnival will also feature music, theatre, and dance. It will also include
interactive demonstrations by the postal department.”

The question asks who contributes what, so track the agent. All three options
are things that will happen at the carnival — but only one is attached to the postal
department by the phrase “by the postal department”. Theatre and dance are listed
as features of the carnival generally, and the letter-writing workshop is one of the
school’s own events. When a question names a doer, hunt for the by-phrase in the
transcript.

Speaking Activity — Pages 216–217

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
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Carrier of Words (prose)
co m
e m.
m as
SPEAKING

.co a g l
s m postcard, inland letter, envelope, and money order form were engaged in a
eThe
gl aI.
a
Q1
discussion on who the most important one was. In groups of four, select one each
and reason with each other logically. You may use the points for discussion given in

. com
Column 1 and the cues given in Column 2 to express your opinion. Column 1 (Points
ag
a s em · privacy · space to write · possibility of
for discussion): utility · cost effective

a l to present opinion): It seems to me that… · Some
enclosures Column 2 (Verbalgcues
people say that… · I would like to point out that… · I totally agree that… · That’s one
way to look at it but…
co m
em.
m l as
.co a g

a s em
This is a group speaking task, so nobody can hand you the ‘answer’. What you can be handed is

a l material to argue with and the shape of a good turn in a discussion.
gthe
m a s
.co agl
Method:

a s em
gl
1. Take one role each: postcard, inland letter, envelope, money order form. Speak in
the first person — “As aapostcard, I…”.
2. Build your case on the five given points, not on general praise. Prepare one clear

co m
claim per point.
m .
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comto point out that… because…’ l
3. Open with a cue from Column 2, state the claim, then give the evidence: ‘I would
.like a g
a s em4. Listen and answer back. A discussion is not four speeches. Use “That’s one way
agl to look at it, but…” to answer the point the last speaker actually made.

se m
com a
5. Close by conceding one thing to a rival — it makes your own case sound honest.
. a g l
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agl

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m as e
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m a s e
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POINT POSTCARD INLAND ENVELOPE MONEY ORDER
LETTER FORM

Utility Short messages, A full personal Anything at all — Sends money, which no
quick news, letter in one letters, documents, other item here can do
notices, greetings folded sheet photographs, forms

Cost The cheapest item A little more Costs the most — A commission is
effective India Post sells than a postcard, you buy the cover charged on the
still very cheap and the stamps amount sent

Privacy None — anyone Good — it is Complete — sealed, Partial — a short
can read it on the folded and and the paper is message field, read
way gummed shut opaque by the postman as he
pays

Space to Least — half a A whole sheet, Unlimited — add as A few lines only
write small card both sides of many sheets as you
the fold like

Enclosures Impossible Not allowed — Yes — photographs, Not applicable
nothing may be certificates,
enclosed documents

Sample exchange (four turns, one per speaker — notice that each one answers the previous):
Postcard: It seems to me that I am the most important of the four, because I reach the largest
number of people. I cost the least of anything the post office sells, so a family that has to count
every rupee can still send news of a birth. Reaching everybody is what a postal service is for.
Inland letter: That’s one way to look at it, but reaching everybody is of little use if nothing
private can be said. You are read by every hand you pass through. I would like to point out that I
cost only a little more, and I fold and seal, so a daughter can write honestly to her mother about
her troubles. Cheapness that costs you your privacy is not cheap.
Envelope: I totally agree that privacy matters — and that is exactly why I win the point rather
than you. You seal one sheet and no more; nothing may be enclosed in you. I carry ten pages if
needed, a photograph of a newborn, a school certificate, a land document. Some people say I
am expensive, but I am the only one of us who can carry proof as well as words.
Money order form: That’s true, and yet none of you can carry the one thing this village actually
waits for. In the chapter we have just read, “survival is partly dependent on money orders
remitted by a relative”. A letter brings news; I bring the month’s food. I would like to point out
that words can wait a week — hunger cannot.

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What the teacher is listening for: not who ‘wins’, but whether you (a) used the five
given points, (b) supported each claim with a reason, and (c) responded to the
previous speaker instead of reading out a prepared speech. The best last line
concedes something — “I accept that the envelope is the most versatile; I only claim that
I am the most necessary.”

Writing Task — Pages 217–218
Carrier of Words (prose)

WRITING

Q1 A condolence message communicates your feelings to someone whose relative or a
person close to them has just passed away. It mentions how sorry you feel for the
loss and your prayers for strength to the family members. I. Khetaram saw a letter
with a torn corner. It had news about Bhawar Singh’s uncle passing away. Read the
condolence message that Sawant Singh sent to his cousin as a reply to the letter. 16
July 20XX Dear Bhawar Bhai, I am deeply saddened to hear about the loss of Kunwar
uncle. Please accept my condolences. I extend my deepest sympathy to you and
your family in this hour of grief. May God give eternal peace to the departed soul
and courage to the family to bear the loss. Yours sincerely, Sawant Singh
[Addressed to: Bhawar Singh, Village: Veer Nagar, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 342001] Now,
on behalf of your parents draft an imaginary condolence message for your aunt on
the recent passing away of her father.

First, read the model closely — every sentence in it is doing one job, and yours must do
the same jobs in the same order.

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SAWANT SINGH’S SENTENCE ITS JOB

16 July 20XX / Dear Bhawar Bhai, Date, then a warm but respectful salutation
using the relationship word

“I am deeply saddened to hear about the loss of Kunwar Name the loss and the person. Never write around it.
uncle.”

“Please accept my condolences.” The formal expression of sympathy

“I extend my deepest sympathy to you and your family in Widen it to the whole family
this hour of grief.”

“May God give eternal peace to the departed soul and The prayer — for the departed and for the living
courage to the family to bear the loss.”

Yours sincerely, / Sawant Singh Subscription and signature

What your message must contain (you are writing on behalf of your parents —
so use we, not I):

Date, and a salutation to your aunt (Dear Bua ji / Dear Mausi ji / Dear Aunty).
Direct mention of the loss — her father, your grandfather-in-relation, named if
you like.
An expression of sympathy, and one specific, honest memory of him. One
remembered detail is worth ten grand sentences.
A prayer for peace for the departed and strength for the family.
A concrete offer of help — this is what turns a formality into support.
Subscription and signature: Yours affectionately, then the names.
Tone: short sentences, plain words, no exclamation marks, no ‘hope you are well’,
no news of your own.

Sample answer:

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

12 August 20XX

Dear Bua ji,

We were deeply saddened to hear of the passing away of Nana ji. Please accept our heartfelt

condolences.

We still remember how he would sit on the veranda at Deoli every winter afternoon and read

out the whole newspaper to whoever would listen, and how he never once let us leave

without a handful of jaggery. His patience and his good humour are what we shall remember

longest.

We extend our deepest sympathy to you, to Phupha ji and to the children in this hour of grief.

May God grant eternal peace to the departed soul and give the family the courage to bear this

loss.

Papa will reach Jodhpur on Friday morning and will stay as long as you need him. Please do

not hesitate to ask us for anything at all.

Yours affectionately,

Ramesh and Sunita Meena

(written on their behalf by Anjali)

Why the memory paragraph matters. The model message is correct but general
— it could be sent to anyone about anyone. A condolence message becomes real
when it shows that the person who died was known to the writer: the veranda, the
newspaper, the jaggery. Notice too that the offer of help is specific — a day, a name,
a length of stay. “Let us know if you need anything” asks the grieving person to do
the work; “Papa will reach on Friday” does not.

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co m
m.
Learning Beyond the Text — Pages 218–219
m as e
.co
Carrier of Words (prose)
a g l
se m
l a
PROJECT DID YOU KNOW?

ag
I. The unique ‘Daakroom’ carnival was conceptualised by the Ministry of Culture to

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Q1

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re-introduce children and larger audiences to letter writing in innovative, creative,

a
and engaging ways. It also hosted
s em
competitions and workshops around writing and

aglwriting event, supported by India Post, Ministry of
post. The one-of-a-kind letter
Culture, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti is aimed to give a digital detox with the
aim of reviving the art of letter writing in India. Source:
co m
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m l as
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a s em
This item is a piece of information to read and act on rather than a question with one answer.

a l is what it is saying, and what to do with it.
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TERM IN THE WHAT IT MEANS

em
PASSAGE

a s
‘Daakroom’
a glcarnival — the name is built from daak (post) + room. The same carnival
A letter-writing
appears in this chapter’s listening transcript, where Bhavna explains: “Its name comes
from the Hindi word ‘daak’ which means ‘post’.”
co m
.
a s em
om agl
conceptualised Thought up and planned — the idea stage, before the organising

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digital A deliberate break from screens and devices, so that attention returns to slower, physical
things — here, pen, paper and post

se m
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Gandhi Smriti and The autonomous body that maintains Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi (the house where
Darshan Samiti
.
Mahatma Gandhi spent his last days) and runs educational and cultural programmes
a g
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ase
agl
Why a government body would revive letter writing at all. A letter is slow, and

m
slowness is the point. You cannot delete a sentence after it is posted, so you choose
it with care; you must hold one person in mind for a whole page; and what you write
. co
se m
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survives — bundles of letters are how families keep their own history. The carnival is
g kinds of attention only
.cnot nostalgia for the post office. It is an argument thatasome
m appear when the message cannot be recalled or edited — which is exactly the
l a se
ag argument the poem in the second half of this chapter is making about words.
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m a
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g l as
a

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What to do with this item: hold a Daakroom of your own. Fix a day; ask every
student to write one real letter to a real person and to post it with a stamp bought at
the counter; run three short workshops — calligraphy, postcard design, and how to
address an envelope with a PIN code; and put up the replies, when they come, on a
class board. Note: the ‘Source:’ line is left blank in the printed book, so ask your
teacher for the reference before you quote the passage anywhere.

Q2 II. Did you know? The study of postage stamps and postal history is called philately.
It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps. The stamps that you
study may be rare ones and found only in museums.

Philately is the study of stamps and postal history — not merely the collecting of them.
That distinction is the whole point of the note, and it is why a philatelist need not own a single
stamp.

COLLECTING PHILATELY

Acquiring and arranging Studying stamps as evidence — their design, printing, watermarks, perforations,
stamps you own postmarks, routes and the history they record

Needs money and possession Needs a catalogue, a magnifying glass, a library and a museum

Question asked: ‘Do I have it?’ Question asked: ‘Why was it issued, and what does it tell us?’

Why a stamp is a historical document. A country puts on its stamps exactly what it
wants remembered — a poet, a dam, a festival, an endangered bird, a centenary.
Read a century of a nation’s stamps in order and you can see what it valued, and
when it changed its mind. The postmark adds a second layer: date, place and route,
which is postal history proper. A stamp in a museum can be studied by anyone; that
is why philately is open to a student with no money at all.

Try this: India Post runs Philately Deposit Accounts and a Dak Ghar Niryat
Kendra network, and most Head Post Offices have a philately counter and sell yearly
stamp packs cheaply. A school can open one account and build a class album for the
price of a few notebooks.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 II. 1. Study the postage stamps given below and discuss who or what they depict.
[Five stamps: a portrait stamp of a woman, dated 1879–1949; a ₹5.00 stamp with the
portrait of a man in a white hat; a ₹5.00 stamp captioned ‘तीज TEEJ’ showing women
in festival dress under a crescent moon; a ₹4.00 stamp captioned ‘PAINTED STORK’; a
₹15.00 stamp showing a stone temple.]

Read from left to right; each stamp belongs to one of the categories listed in the next exercise.

STAMP WHO OR WHAT IT DEPICTS CATEGORY

1. Portrait of a woman, with the Sarojini Naidu — poet and freedom fighter, known as the Personality
dates 1879–1949 below ‘Nightingale of India’, President of the Indian National
Congress in 1925 and the first woman Governor of an
Indian state (United Provinces). The dates on the stamp are
her birth and death years.

2. ₹5.00, a smiling man in a Kishore Kumar — the playback singer, actor, composer and Personality
white hat director. (The caption is printed vertically in very small
type; check the wording in your own copy.)

3. ₹5.00, captioned तीज TEEJ Teej — the monsoon festival kept especially in Rajasthan, Celebration /
— women in bright ghagra- Haryana and eastern Uttar Pradesh, marked by swings festival
choli under a crescent moon, hung from trees, mehndi, green and red clothes and songs
with green foliage and a swing welcoming the rains

4. ₹4.00, a long-billed wading The painted stork, a large wading bird of Indian wetlands Nature
bird, captioned PAINTED — a definitive (everyday) stamp from a nature series
STORK

5. ₹15.00, a great stone temple The Sun Temple at Konark, Odisha — the thirteenth- Our heritage
in warm evening light century temple built as the Sun God’s chariot, a UNESCO
World Heritage Site

What the five together are meant to teach. They are not a random handful. Two
people, one festival, one bird, one monument — the same five headings you are
asked to research in the next exercise. Held side by side they show what a national
stamp programme is: a country’s own list of what it thinks worth remembering — its
artists, its seasons, its wildlife and its stone.

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Q4 II. 2. Work in groups of five. Find information about stamps on the following
categories and note details as directed. · personalities: name and the field they
belong to · celebrations: festivals/national events—name and significance ·
centenaries: name of person/occasion and significance · nature: name and
significance · our heritage: monuments/music/dance—name and significance Now,
prepare a class board on ‘Philately–Upholding Our Heritage’ with your findings.

This is a group project, so the work is yours — but the shape of it can be given, and a filled-in
model helps you see what ‘note details as directed’ means.

Method:

1. One category per member of the group of five. Nobody researches two.
2. Find three stamps per category, and for each note exactly what the instruction
asks — a name and a field or a significance, in one line. Add the denomination
and year if the stamp shows them.
3. Sources: the philately counter of your Head Post Office, the India Post website, a
stamp catalogue in the library, or an album at home. Check the spelling of every
name against a second source.
4. For the board, use the same five headings across the top so the eye can compare.
Under each stamp put one line only — a board is read standing up.
5. End with a strip along the bottom answering the board’s own title: how does
philately uphold our heritage?

Sample entries (one per category — build the other two yourself):

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CATEGORY STAMP DETAILS AS DIRECTED

Personalities Sarojini Naidu Field: literature and the freedom movement — poet,
Congress President (1925), first woman Governor of an
Indian state

Celebrations Teej Significance: the monsoon festival of Rajasthan and
north India — swings, mehndi and songs that welcome
the rains to a dry land

Centenaries A stamp marking the 100th Significance: a centenary stamp fixes a date the
year of an institution or the country wants remembered; note the year of issue and
birth centenary of a person count back a hundred years to find the occasion

Nature Painted stork Significance: a wetland bird whose survival depends on
India’s lakes and marshes; nature stamps are often
issued to draw attention to a threatened habitat

Our heritage Sun Temple, Konark Significance: a thirteenth-century temple carved as the
Sun God’s chariot, with twenty-four wheels and seven
horses; a UNESCO World Heritage Site

How to answer the board’s title in one line. ‘Philately upholds our heritage’
because a stamp is the cheapest object a country can put into every household. A
monument stands in one place and a museum keeps its treasures behind glass, but
a stamp of Konark travels in a schoolbag to a village that will never see Odisha. That
is the sentence to put along the bottom of the board.

Q5 III. In the past, telegram was a mode of fast communication, commonly used to
quickly send short and specific messages, such as greetings and condolences. Its
pricing structure was based on the number of words to be transmitted, and
therefore, needed to be precise. The following form was used for sending such
telegrams. [An INLAND TELEGRAM form, with boxes marked: Prefix · Handed in ·
FOR POSTAGE STAMPS (‘For Conditions of acceptance, see over’) · SERVICE
INSTRUCTIONS · Charge · Chargeable Words · Actual Words · Counter Number · To …
· ADDRESS · ‘If you wish to pay for a reply insert R.P. here’, and ruled lines for the
message.]

Read the form as a machine for counting words. Almost every box on it exists because the
sender was charged by the word.

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co m
m.
BOX ON THE FORM WHAT IT WAS FOR

m as e
.co
Handed in / Counter Number
a g l
Where and when the telegram was accepted — the record of the transaction

se m
g l a
a
FOR POSTAGE STAMPS The space where stamps were stuck to pay the charge

Actual Words and Two separate counts. Some words (parts of the address, service words) were not

co m
. ag
Chargeable Words charged, so the clerk wrote both figures — the honest count and the billable one

e m
Charge
g l as
The money due, worked out from ‘chargeable words’

SERVICE INSTRUCTIONS /
a
Codes for the operators — ordinary, express, or a special class of message

com
Prefix

.
m a s em
co agl anything
“If you wish to pay for a reply R.P. = Reply Paid. The sender could pay in advance for the answer, so a poor

m .
insert R.P. here” family receiving the news could reply without spending

l a s…e / ADDRESS
ag
To The recipient — written in full, because a wrong address could not be corrected
once the wire had gone

om a s
e
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m When every word costs money you drop agl
s
How the pricing shaped the language.
afor himself — articles, pronouns, polite framing, even
agl
everything a reader can supply
punctuation (STOP was used for a full stop, and was itself a chargeable word only in
some services). “I am very sorry to tell you that our father passed away this morning;
co m
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please come at once” becomes FATHER EXPIRED COME SOON. Four words. The
m l as
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telegram is the only form of writing in which brevity was enforced by a price list —

em a
s
which makes it the perfect thing to meet just before a poem arguing that “A little
a
l said, and truly said, / Can deeper joy impart / Than hosts of words.”
ag
se m
o m l a
m .cfewer, then read the two side by side. Ask yourself ag
Try this: take the condolence message you wrote in the Writing Task and compress

a
it into a telegram of ten words
l se or
ag interestingly, what was not. India’s telegram service
what was lost — and, more
closed on 15 July 2013 after 162 years, so the form on page 219 is a museum piece;

co m
.
your grandparents will almost certainly remember receiving one.

e m
m l as
.co a g
a s em
agl Reflect and Respond — Pages 220–221
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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Words (poem by Charles Swain)

BEFORE YOU READ WORD GRID

Q1 I. Why are words important? Can we communicate without words? How? Share your
answers with your classmates and teacher.

Words are important because they let us carry exact meaning outside our own heads —
and yes, we can communicate without them, but not with the same precision. Give both
halves; the question is deliberately two-sided.
Why words matter

Precision. A frown says ‘something is wrong’. Only words can say what is wrong, when, and
what should be done.
Distance and time. A gesture dies where it is made; a word written down travels 330 km in a
mailbag, or two thousand years in a manuscript.
Thinking itself. We reason in language — we name a thing before we can compare it, argue
about it or teach it.
Record and promise. Agreements, laws, medicines, warnings: all need wording that cannot
be interpreted two ways.

How we communicate without words

CHANNEL EXAMPLE WHAT IT CONVEYS WELL

Facial expression A smile, raised eyebrows, tears Feeling — instantly, and across every
language

Gesture and posture A namaste; folded arms; a hand Attitude, respect, willingness
raised in class

Sign language Indian Sign Language A complete grammar of its own — this is
language, only not spoken

Touch, distance, eye A hand on the shoulder; standing Comfort, closeness, discomfort
contact back

Symbols, art, music, A red light; a rangoli; a raga; a mudra Instruction, mood, story — often faster
dance in Bharatanatyam than speech

Silence Saying nothing when an answer is Refusal, grief, disapproval — sometimes
expected the loudest reply

Page 45 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Where this opener is taking you. The poem you are about to read agrees with the
second half of your answer more than the first. Charles Swain’s case is that words
“reach the head, / But never touch the heart”, and that the voice which really
comforts “Hath oft the fewest words to say”. Emily Dickinson, quoted later in this
chapter, puts the same idea in six words: “Saying nothing… sometimes says the
most.” Keep your own opinion ready to test against his.

Q2 II. Use the given sentences as clues to find words from the grid and fill the blanks.
One example has been done for you. My mother summoned me to introduce her
friends. Column 1 — Horizontal 1. We eat food to _______ our hunger.

Answer: SATISFY. It lies horizontally in row 1, columns 2–8.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 A S A T I S F Y T B

2 L U Y G B K C U L L

3 D M A N D G J F O O

4 B M H I W W E E D S

5 A O C M L O H A F S

6 U N Z L A R L S E O

7 D E P A R T G T A M

8 G D D R I H A K O R

9 E N P F D F S E T D

10 N B O E L S N I A T

The shaded letters above mark every word that is actually hidden in the grid: SATISFY (row 1), WEEDS
(row 4), DEPART (row 7) across; SUMMONED (column 2), FEAST (column 8), WORTH (column 6),
BLOSSOM (column 10) down.

Page 46 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Method for a word grid: answer the clue first, from the sentence alone, and only
then look for the word. “We eat food to ______ our hunger” — to end hunger is to
satisfy it. Now you know you need seven letters beginning with S, and the S in row 1
is easy to find. Searching the grid before you have a word in mind is the slow way to
do it.

Tip: every answer in this grid is a word from the poem you are about to read —
satisfy, depart, weeds, worth, blossom, feast, and the example summoned. The puzzle is
a vocabulary preview in disguise.

Q3 II. Column 1 — Horizontal. 2. The train will _______ from the station at 5.00 p.m.

Answer: DEPART. It runs horizontally in row 7, columns 1–6 — D E P A R T, reading straight
across from the left edge.

Why depart and not leave or start: the sentence is a timetable announcement, and
depart is the formal word railways and airlines use for it (‘Departures’ on the board,
‘the train will depart from platform 3’). The grid confirms it — leave and start are not
there.

In the poem: “But words, like summer birds, depart, / And leave but empty air.” The
word means the same thing in both places — to go away and not be here any more.
Swain chose it for birds precisely because it is also what trains and travellers do:
departure implies a scheduled, ordinary leaving, not a dramatic one. Words go the
way the 5 o’clock train goes.

Q4 II. Column 1 — Horizontal. 3. The gardener was removing the _______ to clean the
flower beds.

Answer: WEEDS. It lies horizontally in row 4, columns 6–10 — W E E D S, running to the right-
hand edge.

Page 47 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What a weed actually is: not a poisonous plant, but any plant growing where it was
not wanted. Nobody sows weeds; they arrive by themselves, in great numbers, and
they take the light and water meant for the flowers. That is why a gardener removes
them rather than picking them.

Hold on to that definition — the poem depends on it: “That words are of as little
worth / As just so many weeds.” Swain is not saying words are poisonous. He is
saying they come unasked and in crowds, they cost nothing to produce, and they
crowd out the thing you actually planted. Read Critical Reflection I.1(iii) with this in
mind.

Q5 II. Column 2 — Vertical. 4. The view from the top of the hill was _______ the difficult
climb.

Answer: WORTH. It reads downwards in column 6, rows 4–8 — W O R T H.

Read the sentence structure, not just the meaning. “The view was ______ the
climb” needs a word that can sit between a noun and another noun and weigh one
against the other. Worth does exactly that: X is worth Y means X repays what Y cost
you. ‘Better than’ or ‘good for’ will not fit that slot.

In the poem: “That words are of as little worth / As just so many weeds.” Here worth
is a noun, not a preposition — value. Notice how the same word does two
grammatical jobs; the grid clue quietly teaches you both before you meet the line.

Q6 II. Column 2 — Vertical. 5. The herbs and spices _______ flavour to food.

The word the clue is asking for is IMPART — “the herbs and spices impart flavour to food”,
that is, they give or pass on a quality to it. (Add and lend would also complete the sentence.)

Page 48 of 94

as e
Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
But be honest about the grid. Working carefully through the printed grid — every

m l a se
row, every column, and the diagonals in both directions — no word for this clue is
o g (row 1), WEEDS
.c there. The grid contains exactly seven words: SATISFY
a
m
actually hidden

l a s4)e and DEPART (row 7) across, and SUMMONED (column 2, the worked
g
(row
aexample), FEAST (column 8), WORTH (column 6) and BLOSSOM (column 10) down.
There is no IMPART, ADD or LEND anywhere in it, in any direction. So this appears to
co m
.
be a slip in the puzzle, not a failure of your searching. Write impart in the blank, and
e m ag
l
show your teacher where the other six words are.
g as
a
Why impart is almost certainly the intended word: every other answer in this grid
co m
se
is lifted straight from the poem — satisfy, depart, weeds, worth, blossom, feast,
m.
o m l a
g to food exactly as
.c truly said, / Can deeper joy impart.” Herbs impart flavour
summoned. The poem’s own word for ‘giving a quality to something’ is impart: “A little
m a
se true words impart joy to a listener — the clue and the line are built on the same
said, and

g l a
a
few
verb.

m a s
em
.co agl
a s
Q7 aglFlowers _______ in spring.
II. Column 2 — Vertical. 6.

com
m .
as e
comright-hand edge. l
Answer: BLOSSOM. It reads downwards in column 10, rows 1–7 — B L O S S O M, straight
down.the a g
a s em
agl Both a verb and a noun. Here it is a verb: to blossom is to come into flower. (As a

se m
co—ma useful check when two words mean nearly a
noun, the blossom is the flower itself, especially on a fruit tree.) The grid needed
. a g l
em
seven letters, which rules out bloom

a s
agl
the same thing.

In the poem it appears in the strangest line of the whole piece: “Like plants that
co m
m .
e
make a gaudy show, / All blossom to the root”. That means a plant which is flower
m l as
.co g
from top to bottom — nothing but display, no substance anywhere. See Check Your

em a
s
Understanding II.2(vi).
l a
ag 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 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q8 II. Column 2 — Vertical. 7. We enjoyed a delicious _______ after the ceremony.

Answer: FEAST. It reads downwards in column 8, rows 3–7 — F E A S T.

Not just a meal. A feast is a large, generous meal shared to mark an occasion —
which is why the clue supplies “after the ceremony”. The word carries celebration
inside it, not merely food.

In the poem: “If words could satisfy the chest, / The world might hold a feast.” The
whole world sitting down to eat together is the picture of complete, shared
contentment — and the very next line takes it away: “But words, when summoned to
the test, / Oft satisfy the least!” The book uses these two lines as its example of
hyperbole (Check Your Understanding III).

Check Your Understanding — Pages 222–224
Words (poem by Charles Swain)

COMPREHENSION LET US APPRECIATE THE POEM

Q1 I. Fill in the blanks with one word from the poem. One example has been done for
you. In this poem, the poet reflects that words fail to truly satisfy what the heart
wants to convey. Words are compared to summer birds who 1. __________, leaving
nothing behind. The heart, is equated to a 2. __________ who finds that words are as
worthless as 3. __________ when needed. He feels that a few sincere words can bring
more 4. __________ than many meaningless ones. He adds that a voice that brings
happiness to a 5. __________ place does not say much, but the few words it does, are
very precious. Moreover, if words could satisfy us, the 6. __________ would celebrate
but words often fail to do that. The poem ends on the note that empty words may
look impressive with lots of flowers, but they cannot produce anything valuable,
like a 7. __________.

The completed summary (the example given in the book is satisfy):

Page 50 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Words are compared to summer birds who 1. depart, leaving nothing behind.

The heart is equated to a 2. pilgrim who finds that words are as worthless as 3. weeds when

needed.

A few sincere words can bring more 4. joy than many meaningless ones.

A voice that brings happiness to a 5. lonely place does not say much, but the few words it

does are very precious.

If words could satisfy us, the 6. world would celebrate.

Empty words cannot produce anything valuable, like a 7. fruit.

Each blank has one line of the poem behind it — track them stanza by stanza:

BLANK WORD LINE IN THE POEM STANZA

1 depart “But words, like summer birds, depart, / And leave but empty 1
air.”

2 pilgrim “The heart, a pilgrim upon earth,” 2

3 weeds “That words are of as little worth / As just so many weeds.” 2

4 joy “A little said, and truly said, / Can deeper joy impart” 3

5 lonely “A lonely home to cheer,” 4

6 world “The world might hold a feast;” 5

7 fruit “But whose poor nature cannot grow, / One particle of fruit!” 6

Watch blank 5. The summary says “a lonely place”, but the poem says “a lonely
home”. The blank asks for one word from the poem that fits the summary’s own
sentence — and that word is lonely, the adjective, not home. Read the sentence you
are completing, not only the line you are quoting from.

Page 51 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q2 II. Let us appreciate the poem. 1. Read the poem again. Find any four sets of
rhyming words and also write the rhyme scheme of the poem.

Rhyme scheme: abab, repeated in every one of the six stanzas — so the poem as a whole is
abab cdcd efef ghgh ijij klkl. The first and third lines rhyme with each other, and the second and
fourth with each other.
Four sets of rhyming words (there are twelve to choose from):

STANZA A-RHYME (LINES 1 AND 3) B-RHYME (LINES 2 AND 4)

1 heart — depart care — air

2 earth — worth needs — weeds

3 said — head impart — heart

4 way — say cheer — dear

5 chest — test feast — least

6 show — grow root — fruit

What the rhyme scheme does — this is what ‘appreciate’ means. abab holds each
stanza open until the fourth line, because the first line’s rhyme is not answered until
line 3, and the second line’s not until line 4. So every stanza is a small suspense: a
hope is raised, then closed off. Look at stanza 1 — heart… care… depart… air. The
word heart is answered by depart, and the whole argument of the poem is in that
one pairing. Stanza 5 does it again with chest / test and feast / least: the promise
of a feast is rhymed with getting the least. Swain rhymes the hope with its own
disappointment.

Two more things to notice. First, the stanza is in common metre — 8, 6, 8, 6
syllables — the metre of ballads and hymns, which is why the poem sounds like
something to be said aloud or sung. Second, several rhymes are on heart or depart;
the poem keeps returning to the same sound as well as the same idea.

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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q3 II. 2. Read the following phrases and sentences taken from the poem. Identify the
poetic device in each of them and explain what the poet wants to communicate
through their usage. (i) But words, like summer birds, depart…

Device: simile — words are compared to summer birds using the word like.
Paraphrase first: words fly away just as the migratory birds of summer fly away, and where
they were there is now only empty air.

Why summer birds, and not just birds — this is where the comparison earns its
place.

They come and go by season. Summer birds are visitors. They belong to the
warm weather and leave when it ends. So do words spoken in a warm moment —
the promise made in good times, the compliment paid at a party.
They are beautiful and weightless. Nobody dislikes summer birds; that is
exactly the trouble. Pleasant words are pleasant, and just as impossible to keep.
They leave the place emptier than before. The next line finishes the picture —
“And leave but empty air.” Air was there before the birds came too, but now it is
empty, because you have learnt what it is like to have them in it.

The simile is doing something a plain statement could not: ‘words are temporary’ is a
claim you can agree with and forget, but a sky with the birds gone out of it is an
image you carry away.

Q4 II. 2. (ii) heart, a pilgrim upon earth…

Device: metaphor — the heart is not said to be like a pilgrim; it is called one outright. (The line
also uses apposition, setting the two nouns side by side with only a comma between them, so
the identification is instant.)
Paraphrase: the human heart is a traveller on a long, hard journey through this world, always
making for something it has not yet reached.

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as e
Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Everything the word pilgrim brings with it:

m as e
.co
A pilgrim is on a journey, not at home. The heart is restless by nature; it is
a g l
a s em
passing through, and “upon earth” makes the whole world only the road.

a gl A pilgrim is in need. He carries little and depends on what the road gives him —
food, water, shelter. That is precisely the situation of the next line: the heart “Finds

co m
ag
often, when it needs” — and finds words worthless. A pilgrim asking for water is
m .
handed a fistful of weeds.
as e
a g l
A pilgrim is looking for something sacred. This raises what the heart wants
above ordinary comfort: it wants truth, love, meaning — things words are

om
supposed to supply.
. c
m a s
Put the metaphor next to the simile in (i) and the poem’s structure appears:em words
.
are birds l
co that fly off; the heart is a pilgrim left standing on theagroad.
a s em
a gl
m a s
.co agl
Q5 II. 2. (iii) words are of as little worth / As just so many weeds

se m
g l a
a

Device: simile — the comparison is made with as … as (“of as little worth as … weeds”).

co m
.
Paraphrase: words are worth no more than a patch of weeds.

e m
m l as
m .co
Why weeds is the exact right choice, and not, say, dust or stones:
a g
l a se
ag Nobody plants a weed. It arrives on its own, unasked — like the words that pour
out of people who feel they must say something.
se m
com
Weeds are plentiful. “Just so many” insists on the quantity. The problem with
g l a
m . a
e
words is never scarcity.
They look like the realla s A weed is green and growing; from a distance the
g thing.
a words look like sympathy.
bed looks planted. Empty
They crowd out what was sown. This is the sharpest point. Weeds do not merely
co m
m .
e
fail to help — they take the water and light meant for the flowers. Too much talk

c o m
drives out the little that was worth saying.
g l as
. a
m Notice also the dismissive rhythm of “just so many” — three flat monosyllables that
l a se
ag treat words as something to be counted and swept up. And the simile chimes with
.c
the poem’s other plant image in stanza 6: weeds at the beginning, flowers without
s e m
m a
. co agl
fruit at the end. The poem is quietly a gardener’s argument.
e m
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 II. 2. (iv) If words could satisfy the chest … Oft satisfy the least!

Device: paradox, built on the repetition of one word. The same verb, satisfy, is used twice
within four lines and reverses its meaning: what is imagined as satisfying everything ends up
satisfying least of all. (You may also name the repetition antithesis — two opposed ideas
balanced against each other — and there is irony in the outcome, since the result defeats the
expectation.)
Paraphrase: if only words could fill the human breast, the whole world could sit down to a
banquet — but when words are actually put to the test, they turn out to give the least
satisfaction of anything.

How the contradiction is engineered:

If words could satisfy … → a condition, not a fact

the world might hold a feast → a possibility, not a promise

But words, when summoned to the test → the turn

Oft satisfy the least! → the verdict

Everything before the But is in the conditional — if, could, might. Swain never claims
the feast is happening; he only lets us imagine it for two lines before shutting it
down. And the shutting down uses the same verb as the opening up, so the
disappointment is measured in the exact terms of the hope. ‘Chest’ rather than
‘heart’ makes it physical — a hollow that food would fill, which is why the feast image
follows so naturally.

Also worth naming: chest for the seat of feeling is metonymy — a part of the body
standing for the emotions housed there, exactly as heart does in stanza 1. Swain
switches from heart to chest so that the fifth stanza can repeat the first without
simply repeating it.

Page 55 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 II. 2. (v) The world might hold a feast…

Device: hyperbole — a deliberate exaggeration, not meant to be believed. (The book itself
names these lines as its example of hyperbole in exercise III.) A metaphor sits inside it too:
contentment is pictured as a feast.
Paraphrase: if words really could fill the human heart, then everybody everywhere would have
cause to celebrate.

Why exaggerate here of all places? Because the poem needs the disappointment
of the next two lines to be as large as possible. Swain does not say ‘people would be
a little happier’; he throws the whole world into a feast — the biggest picture of
shared, bodily satisfaction there is. Then: “Oft satisfy the least!” The drop from the
world to the least, and from a feast to nothing, is the whole effect. Hyperbole is used
to build the height from which the idea is dropped.

Notice the word hold. One does not merely have a feast, one holds one — the word
implies hosts, guests and an occasion. So the image is not just eating; it is everybody
invited, together. That is what the poet says words can never manage: they cannot
gather people, only reach them.

Q8 II. 2. (vi) Like plants that make a gaudy show / All blossom to the root

Device: simile (“Like plants…”), extended over the whole final stanza, with personification
pressing on it — the plants ‘make a show’, as an actor or a boaster does.
Paraphrase: empty words are like plants that put on a flashy display, flowering all the way down
to the root.

Unpack “All blossom to the root”, the strangest phrase in the poem. A healthy
plant is flower on top and root below — the flower is the display, the root is what
feeds it and holds it in the ground. To be “all blossom to the root” is to be flower the
whole way down: show where the substance should be. There is nothing underneath
doing the work. That is why the next two lines can say the plant “cannot grow / One
particle of fruit”: a plant with no root cannot feed anything, so nothing can ripen.

Page 56 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

And gaudy is chosen with care. Gaudy does not mean beautiful — it means showy
in a cheap way, bright beyond good taste. The word passes judgement before the
argument is even made. Compare “hosts of words, which reach the head” in stanza
3: hosts and gaudy are both words about excess, and in this poem excess is always
the enemy of truth.

Q9 II. 2. (vii) But whose poor nature cannot grow / One particle of fruit!

Device: metaphor, completing the plant comparison begun in (vi), with personification in
“poor nature” (the plant is given a character, and pitied for it) and hyperbole in the negative —
“not one particle”, the smallest imaginable amount, and even that is beyond it.
Paraphrase: such a plant, by its very nature, cannot produce even the tiniest scrap of fruit —
and neither can empty talk produce anything of use.

Three things this ending does:

It moves the blame from the speaker to the words. “Whose poor nature” says
the failure is built in. The plant is not lazy; it is made this way. So too with words
— Swain’s complaint is not that people lie, but that words by nature reach “the
head” and not “the heart”.
It insists on results. Flowers are for looking at; fruit is what you can eat and what
carries the seed. The whole poem has been asking one question — what does
talk actually produce? — and the answer is given in its last word.
It ends on an exclamation. After five stanzas of steady argument, the poem
stops on a note of exasperation. See Check Your Understanding II.4: stanza 6’s
exclamation mark is the sound of disillusionment.

Finally, notice the poem’s own shape: it begins with summer birds that fly off
leaving empty air, and ends with a flowering plant that leaves no fruit. Both images
say the same thing — plenty of display, nothing left behind — but the second is
worse, because a plant cannot even fly away; it stands there, blossoming pointlessly.

Q10 II. 3. Which words are repeated in the poem? Why does the poet use repetition?

The repeated words are words, heart, satisfy, said, few / fewest and the connective But.

Page 57 of 94

Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

REPEATED WHERE WHAT THE REPETITION DOES

words (seven “If words could satisfy…”, “But words, like Keeps the subject in front of us in every
times) summer birds…”, “That words are of as little stanza — and, more cleverly, enacts the
worth…”, “hosts of words…”, “the fewest fault it is describing. The poem is crowded
words…”, “If words could satisfy the with the word ‘words’, just as empty talk
chest…”, “But words, when summoned…” is crowded with words.

heart (five “satisfy the heart”, “The heart might find Names the thing words keep failing to
times) less care”, “The heart, a pilgrim”, “never reach. Every stanza sets words against
touch the heart”, and by substitution heart, so the two nouns become the
“satisfy the chest” poem’s two sides.

satisfy (three “If words could satisfy the heart” (1), “If Frames the poem: stanza 5 repeats stanza
times) words could satisfy the chest” (5), “Oft 1’s opening line almost exactly, with chest
satisfy the least!” (5) for heart — and then breaks the promise
with the same verb.

said / say “A little said, and truly said”, “Hath oft the “A little said, and truly said” puts the two
fewest words to say” conditions of good speech into one line by
repeating the verb — it must be little, and
it must be true.

But (four times, “But words, like summer birds…”, “But Marks the reversal in stanza after stanza.
always at the never touch the heart”, “But, oh! those Each stanza raises a hope and then a But
turn) few…”, “But words, when summoned…”, takes it away, so the poem develops a
“But whose poor nature…” rhythm of expectation and let-down.

So why repetition, in one sentence? Because Swain is arguing that quantity is
worthless and only sincerity counts — and repetition lets him make that argument
twice over: once by saying it, and once by letting the reader feel the tedium of a
poem in which the same few words keep coming round. The most beautiful line in
the piece is the one that finally stops repeating and says almost nothing: “But, oh!
those few, how dear!”

Q11 II. 4. The stanzas 4, 5, and 6 end with exclamation marks. Choose the option that
displays the emotions being expressed through them. (i) 4. disillusionment 5.
admiration and 6. frustration (ii) 4. frustration 5. admiration and 6. disillusionment
(iii) 4. admiration 5. frustration and 6. disillusionment (iv) 4. frustration 5.
disillusionment and 6. admiration

Answer: (iii) — stanza 4 admiration, stanza 5 frustration, stanza 6 disillusionment.

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as e
Class 9 English Chapter 7 Carrier of Words
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
STANZA THE LINE EMOTION HOW YOU CAN TELL

m
THAT
as e
.co
ENDS IN ‘!’
a g l
se m
g l a
a
4 “But, oh! Admiration The whole stanza praises the voice that “wins its sunny
those few, way, / A lonely home to cheer”. “How dear!” is warm —
how dear!” the only affectionate exclamation in the poem, and it

com
. ag
comes with an “oh!” of pleasure.

m
e Hope is raised (a world holding a feast) and then
5 “Oft satisfy
g
Frustration
l as
the least!” a defeated. The exclamation lands on least — annoyance
at something that keeps failing when it is needed.

co m
“One
m.
se
The last stanza gives up on words altogether: they are a
6 Disillusionment

m l a
.co fruit!” not irritation but the loss of g
particle of showy plant that by nature can produce nothing. This is

m a an illusion — the settled
l a se conclusion the poem has been moving towards.

a g
m a s
agl
Frustration or disillusionment — how do you tell them apart? Frustration is

m.co
anger at being blocked; you still expect the thing to work. Disillusionment is quieter

l a se
g
and more final: you no longer expect it at all. Stanza 5 still says “if words could
a
satisfy” — the hope is alive enough to be disappointed. Stanza 6 has stopped
hoping: “whose poor nature cannot grow” — it is in the plant’s nature, so nothing
co m
will change. The three exclamation marks track the poem’s emotional descent:
m .
as e
com(iii) states. l
praise, then annoyance, then the end of expectation. That order is exactly what
. a g
m
option
ase
agl
se m
com
III. Identify examples of hyperbole from the given lines. If words could satisfy the
g l a
. a
Q12

m
ase
chest, The world might hold a feast.

agl

com
Both lines together form the hyperbole, and there are two exaggerations inside it:
.
m a s emdown to one celebration.
“The world might hold a feast” — the whole world, all of it, sitting
o feast has ever included everybody, and the poet does anotglexpect us to imagine that it
.cNo
se m could.
g l a
a “words could satisfy the chest” — words are not food; the idea that they might fill a person
c
m .
e
the way a meal does is an exaggeration in itself, and it is what makes the feast image
m a s
. co gl
possible in the next line.

What hyperbole is: deliberate e m a
a s
aglbecause nobody is deceived.
exaggeration used for effect, which neither speaker nor listener
takes literally. It is not a lie,

co m
m .
m as e
.co


a g l Page 59 of 94