NCERT Solutions Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream

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 8: Follow That Dream

NCERT Textbook — Kaveri

BOOK PAGES SECTIONS QUESTIONS MEDIUM

231 – 258 16 123 English

Solutions, notes, sample papers & more at 112 pages

Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

CLASS 9 · ENGLISH · KAVERI

NCERT Solutions — Chapter 8: Follow That Dream
The last chapter of Kaveri pairs two pieces about the distance between wanting something and doing it.
Follow That Dream is a letter dated 19 June 1995 from Irene Chua to her daughter Ming, taken from the
collection My Daughter, My Friend; it says yes to the dream and then, in the same breath, hands over the bill.
Believe in Yourself, a four-stanza lyric by Robert Langley, narrows the same argument to a single moment
— the foot of a staircase, the step nobody else can take for you: “The first step is the hardest / There is no
turning back.”

TEXTBOOK BOOK PAGES

Kaveri (Class 9) 231 – 258

SECTIONS QUESTIONS

16 123

MEDIUM

English

Reflect and Respond — Page 231
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. Read the questions given below and share your answers with your classmates and
teacher. 1. What is your dream?

This is a personal question, so nobody can answer it for you — but a good answer to it has a
shape, and the letter you are about to read tells you exactly what that shape is.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What a good answer needs. Irene Chua’s letter argues that a dream is not a wish.
Test yours against her three stages:

Name the field, not the feeling. “I want to be successful” is a mood. “I want to
design low-cost prosthetic limbs” is a dream — it names a subject you can start
studying tomorrow.
Say what draws you to it. The letter calls this “a passion for a particular interest”.
Where did it come from — a person, a book, an incident, a problem you saw in
your own town?
Admit one cost you already know about. Fees, years, distance from home, a
subject you find hard. Naming a cost is what separates a dream from wishful
thinking.

Sample answer: My dream is to become a wildlife veterinarian and work at a rescue centre in
the Western Ghats. It began when a hurt kite fell into our terrace and the nearest vet said he
treated only cattle — I realised there are almost no doctors for wild animals near us. I know
what it will cost: five years of veterinary study, a seat that needs a very high score in Biology,
and probably living far from Coimbatore for most of my twenties. I have started by keeping a
notebook of every bird I can identify and by volunteering at the animal shelter on Sundays.

Tip: write your dream in one sentence that contains a verb — something you will do,
not something you will be. It makes the next step obvious.

Q2 I. 2. Who inspires you to dream?

Answer with a named person and a specific thing they did — “my mother” is an answer only
when you can finish the sentence “…because I watched her…”.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

What a good answer needs. The chapter itself gives you three kinds of inspiration
to choose from, and it is worth knowing which kind yours is:

Someone close. The letter is itself an example — a mother pushing her daughter
forward. Page 244 adds Jijabai and Queen Madālasa, mothers who shaped what
their children believed was possible.
Someone distant whose story you know. Page 231 quotes Dr APJ Abdul Kalam;
pages 256–257 tell how Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Kalam turned
hardship into work.
Someone whose situation resembles yours. Often the strongest kind — a senior
from your own school, a person from your street who got where you want to go.

Then say what the inspiration actually changed in you: a habit, a choice, a subject
you stopped avoiding.

Sample answer: My grandmother inspires me. She was married at sixteen and never finished
school, and at fifty-two she enrolled in an open-school programme and passed Class 10 with my
uncle’s help. I remember her sitting with a torch during a power cut, copying out answers. What
it changed in me is small but real: I stopped saying “it’s too late to start” about anything. If she
could begin at fifty-two, my excuse about starting Sanskrit “too late” in Class 8 was never an
excuse at all.

Q3 I. 3. What qualities should you have in order to fulfil your dream?

Answer this one from the letter — Irene Chua lists the qualities almost in order, and reading
them off her text makes a far stronger answer than a general list of virtues.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream
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QUALITY WHERE THE LETTER SHOWS IT
. c
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE om
m a s em
IN PRACTICE

. co l
agreturn
s
Passion
a em “It starts with a passion for a particular interest” You to the subject

agl
without being told to

Conviction “then comes the conviction that it is imperative to You stop treating it as one

m
.co ag
realise it” option among many

emeffort, financial
“Count the cost in yearssof
a
gl
Honesty about the You work out the fees, the
cost investments andasacrifice.” years and the distance before
you start

co m
e m.
Commitment “you are ready to commit yourself to the task, You give it your main hours,

m l as
.co
plunge”
g
not your leftover ones

em a
a s
glfocused effort
Sustained, “singularly and intensively pursuing the subject for Ten years of one thing, not one

a at least ten years” year of ten things

omknowledge that you a s
agl
Stamina and self- “The road may be uphill most of the way and often You keep going on days when

. c
mbest”
motivation you are buoyed up only by the nobody claps

s e
la
are doing what you love

Flexibility a g
“life itself may change a person’s dreams … no less You can accept a new shape

m
than the original dream” for the dream without calling

. co
it failure

se m
o m l a
g the cost between
m .c the order matters. The letter is careful to put counting
a
aseconviction and commitment — not before passion, and not after you have already
Why

agl plunged. Passion first, because nothing survives ten years without it; arithmetic
se m
com
second, because passion alone is what the letter calls “wishful thinking”;
g l a
m
commitment last, because only then. is it informed. Reverse any two of these and a
l a se starts or one that collapses in year three.
ag
you get either a dream nobody

c o m
.
m is something that
s e
I. 4. Abdul Kalam said, “Dream is not that you see in sleep, dream

comdoes not let you sleep.” Discuss. gla
Q4

. a
a sem
agl ANSWER
c
m .
Kalam is redefining the word by contrast. The sentence takes one word, dream, and forces
m a s e
. co agl
two opposite meanings against each other in a single line — a pun that turns into an argument.

e m
g l as
a

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

“THAT YOU SEE IN SLEEP” “SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT LET YOU
SLEEP”

Who is in charge Nobody — it happens to you You — you choose it and hold on to it

What it costs Nothing Rest, comfort, time, ease

What it leaves A memory that fades by Work — something you get up and do
behind breakfast

Its state Passive; asleep Restless; awake

How the line works as language. Kalam keeps the same word and the same sentence pattern
on both sides of the comma, so the only thing that changes is sleep — first the place a dream
lives, then the thing a dream destroys. That reversal is what makes the quotation memorable; it
is an antithesis, the same device the chapter teaches on page 249.

Why it belongs at the head of this chapter. Irene Chua says the same thing in
slower prose. Her test for a real dream is whether it is “still burning in your blood”,
and her warning is about people who “never got beyond just wishful thinking”.
Kalam’s sleepless dream and Chua’s burning blood are the same test: does the
dream cost you something while you are awake? A dream that never disturbs your
routine is the sleeping kind.

For the discussion, take a position. A good counter-point to raise: sleeplessness is
not by itself a virtue — anxiety also keeps people awake, and burnout ends more
dreams than laziness does. Kalam is praising restlessness of purpose, not exhaustion.
The letter agrees; it tells Ming to count the cost precisely so that the years do not
break her.

Q5 II. What role can parents and community play to help children achieve their
dreams?

Their role is to lower the cost of the dream — not to choose it. The chapter gives evidence
for both halves of that sentence.
What parents can do

Give permission early. The letter’s first line is “By all means follow that dream.” Ming had
clearly written asking; the mother says yes before she says anything else. A child who has to
fight for permission spends years of energy on the fight instead of the work.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Supply the honest arithmetic. “Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments and
sacrifice.” A fifteen-year-old cannot know what a training costs or how long a qualification
takes. That information is the parent’s contribution, and it is a form of respect, not
discouragement.
Tell the truth about failure without predicting it. Chua describes the Raffles College
dream broken by the war and the students who left school to support siblings — and then
refuses to draw the obvious moral: “No, I am not going to put a wet blanket on your
dreams.”
Shape what the child thinks is possible. Page 244 gives the classical Indian version: Jijabai
told Shivaji tales from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, “which shaped his leadership ideals
and bravery”; Queen Madālasa raised her sons on ideas of the soul and detachment. Stories
set the ceiling of a child’s ambition.

What the community can do

Be the support network the letter names. “the winner always thanks a host of people that
formed his/her support network. So, you see that for one winner, there is a group of people
who stood by him/her.” A coach who opens the ground at 5 a.m., a neighbour who lends a
laptop, a teacher who stays back — these are the group behind the one name.
Remove practical blocks. Scholarships, a village library, a free coaching centre, safe
transport for girls, a functioning science lab. Most dreams in India die of logistics, not of
talent.
Show a nearby example. One person from the same street who became an engineer or an
athlete does more for a child’s belief than a hundred famous names, because the distance
looks crossable.

The line parents should not cross. The letter never tells Ming what to dream — it
says “It could be in any field—sports, science, arts, business, or design.” The adult’s
job is to widen the road, not to pick the destination. Where a family chooses the
dream for the child, what follows is the situation the chapter’s Speaking Activity
dramatises on pages 241–242: the Dreamer arguing with the Parent, both of them
right about something and neither listening.

Q6 III. Complete the given web chart. Give as many reasons as you can. [Web chart on
page 231: a dashed oval in the centre reading ‘Why is it important to follow a
dream?’, with arrows pointing outwards to four blank boxes — two above the oval
and two below. The boxes are empty in the book, to be filled in by the student.]

The four boxes are blank in the book; you fill them. Below are more than four reasons, so you
can pick the ones you can defend — a web chart is judged on the quality of each reason, not
on filling every box with a slogan.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

It gives daily effort a It is what makes ten years
direction and a reason of hard work bearable

Why is it important
to follow
a dream?

It builds a support network It spares you the regret of
— you are never the only one “I wish I could have…”

The web chart as it appears on page 231, with four sample reasons filled in.

More reasons you can use, each tied to the letter:

It converts wanting into doing. Without a dream that is actually followed, everyone stops
at “I wish I could be this or the other” — and, as the letter says, “they have never got beyond
just wishful thinking.”
It is the only thing that survives an uphill road. “often you are buoyed up only by the
knowledge that you are doing what you love best and are doing the right thing.” On a bad
day the dream is the sole reason left.
It makes sacrifice a choice instead of a loss. Once you have counted the cost and still gone
ahead, the money and the years feel spent, not stolen.
It grows with you. “life itself may change a person’s dreams” — following one dream
teaches you the habits that let you follow the next.
It benefits more than one person. Chua notes that the participants in a mature
dreamscape “would be many more”; a doctor, a teacher or an engineer who followed a
dream carries a whole neighbourhood with them.

Tip for the chart: write each box as a clause with a verb (“It gives effort a
direction”), not as a single noun (“Direction”). A noun in a box is a label; a clause is a
reason, and only reasons can be discussed in class.

Check Your Understanding — Page 234

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

TRUE OR FALSE

Q1 I. State whether the following sentences are true or false. Share your answers with
your classmates and teacher. 1. Reaching the peak of skill in a field typically
demands a focused and intense dedication for about a decade.

True.
The letter states it as a question, which makes it easy to miss as a fact: “Do you know that to
reach world-class standard in any field, one has to be singularly and intensively pursuing the
subject for at least ten years?”

Match the words. Peak of skill = “world-class standard”; focused = “singularly” (the
book glosses it as ‘exclusively’); intense = “intensively”; about a decade = “at least ten
years”. Every phrase in the statement has a partner in the sentence, which is what
makes it true rather than merely reasonable.

Q2 I. 2. The mother believes that significant effort and personal sacrifices are essential
for turning aspirations into reality.

True.
This is the letter’s central claim, made in its second sentence: “What differentiates greatness
from the ordinary is how much effort and sacrifice people invest to realise their dream.”
She repeats it as an instruction a paragraph later — “Count the cost in years of effort, financial
investments and sacrifice” — so the idea appears both as a general law and as advice to Ming
personally.

Q3 I. 3. The path to achieving the deepest desires has very little difficulty or a few
obstacles.

False. The letter says the opposite, twice over.

“The road may be uphill most of the way” (page 232) — not a few obstacles, but a slope that
does not end.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream
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“To fulfill them you will need to negotiate a path through a maze of hurdles” (page 233) — a
co m
maze is worse than a hurdle, because you can lose your way as well as trip.
e m.
m l as
.co a g
s em
Watch the metaphors. Chua never uses a soft word for the journey. Uphill, maze,
a
gl stamina running out — the vocabulary is athletic and hard throughout, and
ahurdles,
that is deliberate. A statement that makes the road easy cannot be true of this letter.

com
m . ag
l a se
Q4 ag that a person’s life goals and hopes can evolve
I. 4. The mother is of the opinion
over time.

co m
se m.
m a

o
.c she offers herself as the proof. a g l
m
True — and

l a se claim: “From my own experience, life itself may change a person’s dreams.” (page 233)
ag
The
The evidence: “publishing this book is a dream I have chased in the last ten years. This was

m a s
.co agl
not the dream I had in my youth but my original dream has changed over the years.” (page

m
234)

l a se
a g
Why she insists on it. A changed dream is easily mistaken for a failed one, so she

m
rules that reading out in advance: “These hopes and aspirations are no less than the
original dream of younger days.” The later dream is slower and more crowded, not
. co
e m
m l as
.co
smaller.
a g
se m
g l a
a
Q5 I. 5. Having a strong network of individuals can be a hurdle in pursuing one’s
se m
ambition.
com g l a
m . a
gl ase
a

False. The letter treats a support network as one of the conditions of success, not as an obstacle.

. c om
“When you watch the Academy Awards for best actors and actresses and films, the winner
always thanks a host of people that formed his/her support network. m
a s e So, you see that for one

. comthere is a group of people who stood by him/her.” (page
winner,
a gl233)
a sem
agl 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 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why the book plants this trap. The statement inverts a true idea into a false one,
and only a reader who remembers the Academy Awards paragraph can catch it.
Notice what Chua does with that paragraph: she picks the one moment in public life
when a winner is forced to list the people behind the win — the acceptance
speech. It is a shrewd choice of evidence, because the award ceremony looks like the
ultimate celebration of a single person, and turns out to be the opposite.

Q6 I. 6. The mother feels that pursuing a major life goal will not involve any financial
expense or sacrifice.

False, and the word financial is the giveaway — Chua names money explicitly.
“Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments and sacrifice.” (page 232)
She also shows what a shortage of money does to a dream: “I know too, of people who had
wished to finish secondary school but they had to go out to work so that they could support
their siblings through school.” (page 233) In that sentence money does not merely add a cost —
it ends the dream.

Q7 I. 7. For many individuals, their aspirations remain just wishes because they don’t
move beyond mere daydreaming.

True.
“It is good to be able to fulfil your dreams but for a lot of people, dreams remain dreams.
Although everyone at one time or other has wistfully said to oneself, ‘I wish I could be this or the
other,’ they have never got beyond just wishful thinking.” (page 233)

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Read the whole paragraph before you agree too quickly. Chua gives three
different reasons why dreams stay dreams, and only the first is the person’s own
doing:

Wishful thinking — never acting at all;
Choice — “They could have preferred to trade their dream for security”;
Circumstance — “Perhaps circumstances changed their lives”: the Japanese
invasion during World War II, or the need to earn for younger siblings.

The statement is true because it says “for many individuals”, not “for all”. Chua is
careful never to blame everyone whose dream did not survive — a distinction worth
noticing, because it is what keeps the letter kind.

Critical Reflection — Pages 235–237
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

EXTRACT-BASED

Q1 I. Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow. 1. It starts
with a passion for a particular interest, then comes the conviction that it is
imperative to realise it. Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments and
sacrifice. Then if it is still burning in your blood and you are ready to commit
yourself to the task, plunge. It could be in any field—sports, science, arts, business,
or design. The road may be uphill most of the way and often you are buoyed up only
by the knowledge that you are doing what you love best and are doing the right
thing. When stamina is running out, the prospect of success will keep you on track.
(i) Complete the analogy with a suitable word from the extract. enthusiasm :
passion :: belief : _____________

conviction

enthusiasm : passion :: belief : conviction

(everyday word : the extract’s stronger word)

How the analogy is built. Enthusiasm and passion mean roughly the same thing, but passion is
the deeper, more committed word — and it is the word the extract uses. Apply the same relation
to the second pair: belief is the everyday word; the extract’s deeper word for it is conviction, in
“then comes the conviction that it is imperative to realise it.”

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Why conviction is stronger than belief. You can hold a belief and do nothing about
it. A conviction has already decided your behaviour — which is exactly why Chua
uses it at this point in the sequence. In her order, passion comes first (you love the
thing), then conviction (you must have it), and only then does she allow you to
count the cost and plunge. Both words in the answer pair are chosen from the
extract itself, as the instruction requires.

Q2 (ii) Choose the correct option to complete the following sentence appropriately. The
author says that a realistic assessment of effort, investment and sacrifice is crucial
for preventing _____________. A. the need for external support network B. an early
abandonment of the dream C. initial excitement from fading over time D. others
from questioning one’s commitment

B. an early abandonment of the dream
The line the question is built on: “Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments and
sacrifice. Then if it is still burning in your blood and you are ready to commit yourself to the
task, plunge.”
Notice the order of the sentence. The counting comes before the plunge, and the plunge is
allowed only if the desire survives the counting. The whole purpose of that arithmetic is
therefore to make sure that when you do begin, you begin knowing what it will take — so you
do not quit the moment the real cost appears.

OPTION VERDICT WHY

A. the need for external Wrong The letter wants a support network — “for one winner, there is a
support network group of people who stood by him/her”. Counting the cost does
not remove that need.

B. an early Correct A cost known in advance cannot ambush you later. This is why the
abandonment of the “if” clause guards the word plunge.
dream

C. initial excitement Wrong Chua expects the excitement to be tested, not preserved —
from fading over time “When stamina is running out…”. She never promises the thrill will
last; she asks whether the conviction is “still burning”.

D. others from Wrong The letter is not concerned with what onlookers think. Its entire
questioning one’s address is inward — to Ming’s own judgement.
commitment

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Exam technique: in an extract-based MCQ, the correct option is usually the one you
can put back into the passage as a paraphrase. Slot B into the text — “count the cost,
so that you do not give up early” — and it fits the sentence exactly. Slot C in and you
get a promise the passage never makes.

Q3 (iii) Complete the following with the correct option from those given in the
brackets. The word ‘plunge’ as used in the extract indicates a _____________
(complete/gradual) involvement in a task.

complete
The book’s own gloss for the word is “throw oneself into the activity”. To plunge is to go in all at
once and all the way — a diver plunges into water; nobody plunges slowly.

Read the sentence it sits in. “Then if it is still burning in your blood and you are
ready to commit yourself to the task, plunge.” The clause immediately before the
word is about total commitment, so plunge is its one-word summary. Chua could
have written begin or take it up; she chose a verb that leaves no room for a half-
hearted start — which is why gradual is the wrong half of the bracket.

Notice the sentence design. Plunge is placed at the very end of a long conditional
sentence, standing alone after the comma. The build-up is slow and careful —
passion, conviction, cost, readiness — and then one short word for the leap. The
form of the sentence acts out the meaning.

Q4 (iv) Complete the sentence with an appropriate reason. The author’s emphasis on
‘when you are doing what you love best and are doing the right thing’ works as a
form of intrinsic motivation because _____________.

… because the reward is inside the work itself — the satisfaction of loving what you do
and knowing it is right — so it keeps paying you on the days when there is no prize, no
praise and no visible progress.
Where the extract shows this. Look at the word only: “often you are buoyed up only by the
knowledge that you are doing what you love best and are doing the right thing.” Only tells you
that at that point everything external has failed — no results yet, no applause, no money. What

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream
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is left is the work and your reason for doing it, and Chua says that is enough to keep you afloat
co m
(the book glosses buoyed up as “kept afloat”).
e m.
m l as
.co INTRINSIC MOTIVATION a g
a s em EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION

aWhere l
g the reward In doing the thing Outside it — marks, medals, money,
sits praise

co m
e m . “the prospect of success” ag
as
In the extract “doing what you love best … doing the right

g l
thing”

When it fails
a
Only if you stop caring about the work The moment the reward is delayed or
denied
co m
em.
m l as
.co
Why Chua needs both. She does not pretend the inner reward is sufficient at every
a g
a s em In the very next sentence she brings the outer one back for the hardest
gl moment: “When stamina is running out, the prospect of success will keep you on
stage.
a
s
track.” Love of the work carries you through the long middle; the hope of success
m a
.co agl
carries you through the last stretch. The uphill road needs two engines, and she

se m
a
gives you one for each kind of exhaustion.

a g l

co m
m
(v) Mention one motivating factor besides ‘prospect of success’, that might keep a .
e
Q5

m l as
.co
person on track, despite running out of stamina.
a g
a s em
agl

m
The knowledge that you are doing what you love best and what is right — the extract’s own

a se
com l
alternative, and the strongest one, because it does not depend on any outcome. Chua puts it
plainly: you are “buoyed up only by the.knowledge a g
m
that you are doing what you love best and
are doing the right thing.”
l a se
g
Other defensible answers,aeach grounded in the letter:

The support network. “for one winner, there is a group of people who stood by him/her”
co m
m .
se
(page 233). When your own stamina fails, other people’s belief carries you for a while.

o m l a
g that the thing must be
.cahead and do something about it” (page 233) — the sheerasense
The conviction itself. “if the burning conviction is still coursing through your veins, then go

se m
g l a
a
done.
The investment already made. Having counted the cost and paid several years of it, a
.c
s e m
m a
agl
person is unwilling to waste what has been spent.

. co
m
Visible progress in the skill. Chua’s ten-year rule implies steady improvement; noticing that

ase
l
you play, run or write better than last year is fuel that costs nothing.
a g

co m
m .
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.co


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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

How to answer this type in an exam: the question says “Mention one”. Give one,
name it in the first four words, and add a single sentence of justification —
preferably in the writer’s own vocabulary. Listing five motivations without explaining
any of them scores less than one explained well.

Q6 I. 2. From my own experience, life itself may change a person’s dreams. These hopes
and aspirations are no less than the original dream of younger days. To fulfil them
you will need to negotiate a path through a maze of hurdles. The dream will take a
much longer time to realise, and the people who are participants in your
dreamscape would be many more. (i) Complete the sentence appropriately. The
phrase ‘life itself may change a person’s dreams’ suggests that dreams are not
static but rather__________. (evolving/dynamic)

evolving

Why not ‘dynamic’ — the two are not interchangeable here.

Dynamic means full of energy, lively, constantly in motion. It describes the
character of a thing at any moment.
Evolving means changing gradually into something different over a stretch of
time, usually in response to what happens around it.

The subject of Chua’s sentence is life, and its verb is change — “life itself may
change a person’s dreams.” That is slow, external, cumulative alteration, which is
exactly what evolving names. Her own example proves it: the book she is publishing
“was not the dream I had in my youth but my original dream has changed over the
years.”

Also note the pairing with ‘static’. The sentence is built as not static but rather ___,
so the blank must be the true opposite of static (= unchanging over time). The
opposite of unchanging-over-time is evolving; the opposite of still-and-lifeless
would be dynamic. The word before the blank decides the word in it.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q7 (ii) What does the author mean by, ‘hopes and aspirations are no less than the
original dream of younger days’?

She means that a dream you arrive at later in life is worth just as much as the one you
began with — a changed dream is a different dream, not a lesser one.
The phrase no less than is a defence, and it tells you what she is defending against. There is a
common assumption that the ambitions of youth are the pure, real ones, and that whatever
replaces them is a compromise — settling. Chua rejects that. The later hope deserves the same
seriousness, the same effort and the same name.
Her evidence is her own life. “publishing this book is a dream I have chased in the last ten
years. This was not the dream I had in my youth but my original dream has changed over the
years. I am really quite excited about it.” The excitement is the proof — she is not making do;
she is genuinely eager, at an age when she is old enough to have a teenage daughter.

Look at what she says the later dream demands. In the very next lines it needs a
path “through a maze of hurdles”, “a much longer time to realise”, and “many more”
participants. A dream that costs more cannot be the smaller dream. That is the quiet
logic underneath ‘no less than’ — she proves the claim by showing the price, not by
insisting on the sentiment.

Why this matters for a fifteen-year-old reader. Ming is at the age when a first
dream feels final. The mother is telling her, in advance, that changing course later
will not be a defeat — which is a far more useful thing to hear at fifteen than at forty.

Q8 (iii) Identify the phrase from the extract that indicates a complex and challenging
journey.

“negotiate a path through a maze of hurdles” — or, if a shorter phrase is asked for, “a maze
of hurdles”.
Why this phrase and no other. The question asks for complex and challenging, and the phrase
supplies one word for each:

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maze the complexity — a maze has many turnings, dead ends and wrong choices; you can be defeated by
confusion alone, without ever meeting an obstacle

hurdles the challenge — barriers that must each be cleared by effort

negotiate the skill — you do not smash through a maze, you work your way through it, choosing at every turn

Two metaphors welded together. A maze and a hurdles race are separate images
from separate worlds — one from a garden or a puzzle, one from athletics — and
Chua fuses them. The effect is a journey that is simultaneously confusing and
exhausting: you must find the way and clear the barriers on it. Compare it with the
simpler metaphor she used for the young person’s dream on page 232 — “The road
may be uphill most of the way”. An uphill road is hard but at least it is one road
going one way. The later dream has no such clarity, and the change of metaphor is
how she shows that.

Q9 (iv) Complete the sentence with an appropriate reason. The author says, ‘people
who are participants in your dreamscape would be many more’
because_________________.

… because a dream taken up in adult life is larger, slower and more entangled with other
people — it needs collaborators, institutions and a family’s consent, and by then your own
life is already tied to theirs, so its success or failure is shared by many more people than a
schoolchild’s private ambition ever is.
Read it against her own example. The dream she is describing is “publishing this book”. Count
who has to be in that dreamscape: an editor, a publisher, a designer, a printer, the people whose
stories fill the letters — and Ming herself, whose childhood the book is made of. Compare that
with a fifteen-year-old’s dream of becoming a doctor, which at the start requires exactly one
person to study.

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The three reasons the extract itself supplies.

Time. “The dream will take a much longer time to realise” — the longer a project
runs, the more people pass through it.
Complexity. “a maze of hurdles” — each hurdle usually needs a different person’s
help to clear.
Position in life. An adult already has dependants, colleagues and obligations, so
the cost of the dream is paid partly by other people — which is precisely why the
word she chooses is participants, not supporters. A supporter cheers from
outside. A participant is in it with you, and shares the outcome.

Link it back: this is the same idea as the Academy Awards paragraph on page 233
— “for one winner, there is a group of people who stood by him/her” — but
sharpened. There the group stood by; here they are in the dream.

Q10 (v) What is the tone of the author in this extract? A. appreciative and celebratory B.
excited and cheerful C. optimistic and encouraging D. eager and inquisitive

C. optimistic and encouraging
How the extract earns both words. The passage does two things at once, and option C is the
only one that names both:

Optimistic — it insists on a positive reading of a hard fact. Dreams change; she calls the
changed ones “no less than the original”, and admits the maze and the longer time without
once suggesting the dream will fail.
Encouraging — it is addressed to “you”, and it is written to make Ming go on: “To fulfil them
you will need to negotiate a path…” That is the grammar of encouragement, not of
description.

OPTION WHY IT FAILS

A. appreciative and Nothing is being praised or celebrated. No achievement is complete in this extract — the
celebratory dream is still being chased.

B. excited and The excitement comes later, in “I am really quite excited about it.” This extract speaks of
cheerful hurdles and long years — the mood is steady and serious, not cheerful.

D. eager and Inquisitive means questioning or curious. The extract asks nothing; it states and advises.
inquisitive

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co m
m.
Method for a tone question: test each adjective separately against the passage. An

m l a se
option is wrong if either of its two words fails. Here B collapses on “cheerful” and D
o g weigh A.
c “inquisitive”, which leaves the field to C before you aeven
collapses.on
se m
l a
ag

co m
ag
II. Answer the following questions. 1. The letter begins thus, ‘By all means follow
.
Q11

e m
as
that dream’. What do you think Ming must have written to her mother about?

a g l

Ming must have written to her mother describing a dream or ambition she wanted to
co m
pursue — one she was unsure of, and for which she was quietly seeking her mother’s
e m.
m l as
.co g
approval.
m a
a se
The evidence is in the sentence itself. Three details give the earlier letter away:
l
a g “By all means” is a phrase of permission granted. Nobody uses it unless permission has been

s
asked for. Ming had put a question, not merely shared news.

om a
. c agl
“that dream” — not a dream. The definite word shows the mother is answering something

a s
specific that Ming has already namedemand described.
a l any argument. A mother who begins with “yes” is
The permission comes first,gbefore
answering someone she believes is anxious about the answer. Ming must have expected

om
doubt or refusal.
. c
m a s
What the rest of the letter tells you about the dream’s nature. The mother em immediately
.
raises ten
a gl and an uphill road; she
co years of exclusive practice, “financial investments”, sacrifice
a s emthat “It could be in any field—sports, science, arts, business, or design.” That list is her way
adds

agl of saying whatever your field is, the rule holds — which suggests Ming named something
se m
demanding and probably unconventional, the kind of ambition where a parent might

com
reasonably ask “and how will you live?” The obvious candidates are one of the arts, sport, or
g l a
m . a
ase
design.

agl
What the letter never does — and why that is the strongest clue of all. Chua

m
never corrects Ming’s choice, never proposes an alternative career and never
. co
m
mentions a “safe option” for her daughter. Her only worry is the cost, never the

as e
om to a considered letter, not to a whim. l
choice. That tells you Ming had made a serious, thought-out case; the mother is
.creplying a g
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Q12 II. 2. How can one attain an international level of skill in any field? Mention any
two ways.

Two ways, both stated in the letter:

1. By pursuing one subject exclusively and intensively for at least ten years. “to reach
world-class standard in any field, one has to be singularly and intensively pursuing the
subject for at least ten years” (page 232). Two conditions are packed in there — singularly
(the book glosses it as ‘exclusively’, so no scattering across many interests) and intensively
(depth of practice, not merely hours logged).
2. By investing heavy effort and sacrifice, after honestly counting what it will cost. “What
differentiates greatness from the ordinary is how much effort and sacrifice people invest to
realise their dream” (page 232), and “Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments
and sacrifice. Then … plunge.” The counting is part of the method, not a preliminary to it: it is
what makes the commitment survivable.

A third way the letter implies, if you are asked for more. Build a support network.
The Academy Awards paragraph exists precisely to make this point — “for one
winner, there is a group of people who stood by him/her.” World-class skill is reached
inside a system of coaches, teachers, families and institutions, never alone.

Answer discipline: the question says “any two”. Name the two in the first line, then
quote for each. Do not give four half-answers — the marks are for the quotation that
proves the point, not for the number of points.

Q13 II. 3. What differentiates the mere dreamers from actual achievers?

Effort and sacrifice — what a person is willing to spend. Chua answers this in her own words:
“What differentiates greatness from the ordinary is how much effort and sacrifice people invest
to realise their dream.”

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THE MERE DREAMER THE ACHIEVER

Where the At the wish — “I wish I could be this or the At the plunge — “ready to commit
dream stops other” yourself to the task”

Relation to Never counts it, or counts it and retreats: “They Counts it “in years of effort, financial
cost could have preferred to trade their dream for investments and sacrifice” and pays it
security.” anyway

Behaviour “never got beyond just wishful thinking” “singularly and intensively pursuing the
over time subject for at least ten years”

On the uphill Stops when it stops being pleasant Is “buoyed up only by the knowledge
stretch that you are doing what you love best”

Notice the word invest. Chua does not write how much they want it — wanting is
equal on both sides of the table; the dreamer wants it just as badly. She writes how
much they invest, which is a word from finance: something measurable, paid out in
advance, at risk. The difference between the two groups is not the size of the
desire but the size of the payment.

Be fair to the dreamers, as the letter is. Chua immediately adds that for some,
“circumstances changed their lives” — the Japanese invasion, or the need to earn for
younger siblings. Those are not people who failed to invest; they are people who
were never given the chance to. A complete answer says so.

Q14 II. 4. How does Ming’s mother use critical questions and personal anecdotes to
persuade Ming and convey her message effectively?

She avoids instructing her daughter. Instead she asks a question that makes Ming work
out the hard fact herself, and then tells four stories that let the warning arrive as
evidence rather than as a lecture.
1. The question that does the work of a lecture. “Do you know that to reach world-class
standard in any field, one has to be singularly and intensively pursuing the subject for at least
ten years?”
Written as a statement — You will have to work for ten years — this is a discouragement, and a
teenager would resist it. Written as a question beginning “Do you know…?”, it becomes
information offered, and Ming has to do the sum for herself: ten years from fifteen means
twenty-five. The reader arrives at the discouraging part unaided, which is the only way she will
believe it.

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2. The four anecdotes, and what each is for.

ANECDOTE ITS JOB IN THE ARGUMENT

The Academy Awards winner who “thanks a host of people Proves you cannot succeed alone — using the one
that formed his/her support network” public occasion when winners are made to list their
helpers

People whose Raffles College dream ended with “the Shows that history can cancel a dream through no
Japanese invasion during World War II” fault of the dreamer

Those who “had wished to finish secondary school but they Shows that poverty and duty can do the same — and
had to go out to work so that they could support their does it without a word of pity
siblings”

Her own book, “a dream I have chased in the last ten years” Turns the whole letter from advice into testimony

3. Why the order of the anecdotes matters. The two dark ones are placed in the middle,
between “By all means follow that dream” at the start and “I wish at least one of your dreams
comes true too” at the end. The bad news is surrounded by permission and blessing, so it can
never be mistaken for refusal — and she says so outright: “No, I am not going to put a wet
blanket on your dreams.”

The single most effective choice in the letter. The last anecdote is about herself,
and it is an anecdote of a dream that changed — “This was not the dream I had in my
youth.” By ending with her own unfinished, altered, ten-year project rather than with
a success story, she gives up the authority of the parent who has already arrived.
She is not standing at the finish line telling Ming how to run; she is on the road
herself. That is what makes “I wish at least one of your dreams comes true too” land
as solidarity rather than as instruction.

Q15 II. 5. How does Ming’s mother balance encouragement with caution in her advice?

She structures the letter so that every caution is enclosed by encouragement, and she
makes each piece of encouragement conditional on the caution being faced. The balance is
built into the shape of the letter, not just into its content.

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ENCOURAGEMENT CAUTION

“By all means follow that dream.” — the opening line “Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments and
sacrifice.”

“It could be in any field—sports, science, arts, “The road may be uphill most of the way”
business, or design.”

“you are buoyed up … by the knowledge that you are “When stamina is running out…”
doing what you love best”

“No, I am not going to put a wet blanket on your “… but you will also have to consider the years you need to
dreams,” chase your dream.”

“then go ahead and do something about it.” “After all the obstacles are considered, if the burning
conviction is still coursing through your veins…”

“I wish at least one of your dreams comes true too.” “a path through a maze of hurdles”; “a much longer time to
— the closing line realise”

The device that holds the balance: the word if. Chua never gives an unconditional green light
after the first line. “Then if it is still burning in your blood and you are ready to commit yourself
to the task, plunge.” “After all the obstacles are considered, if the burning conviction is still
coursing through your veins, then go ahead.” Every permission is a first conditional — and it is
no accident that the grammar section on page 239 asks you to study exactly this structure in
exactly this sentence.

Why this is more than politeness. A caution given without encouragement is
discouragement; encouragement given without caution is flattery. By making the go-
ahead depend on the warning, Chua ensures Ming cannot take the “yes” without
also taking the arithmetic. And by putting “I am not going to put a wet blanket on
your dreams” in the middle — naming the very accusation a teenager would throw
at her — she disarms the objection before it can be made. The single word “but” that
follows is where the whole letter turns.

Q16 II. 6. In the letter, Ming’s mother specifically addresses the challenges people face
in pursuing their dreams. Do you think this advice is still relevant in contemporary
society? If yes, why? If no, why not?

Yes — the advice is still relevant, because every obstacle Chua names in 1995 still exists;
but its emphasis needs updating, because the route to a dream has changed even where
the cost has not. A strong answer takes a position and then concedes the honest exception,

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which is what is done below.
co m
Why it holds (four of her claims, tested against today)
se m.
o m l a
g a decade from
m
The ten-year.c rule. Nothing has shortened it. A doctor still needs roughly
a
l a
Classse12 to independent practice; a classical musician, a chess grandmaster and a fast bowler
agall still count their preparation in years, not months. If anything, competition has made the
standard higher.

. c om
“Financial investments”. Still decisive, and arguably more so — coaching fees, entrance-
ag
s e m Chua’s single word financial covers most of
test attempts, equipment, a laptop, city rent.

a gla
what stops an Indian student today.
“Circumstances changed their lives”. Her examples were a war and a family’s poverty.

co m
Ours are a parent’s illness, a lost job, a flood, a pandemic that shut schools for two years. The
category has not emptied.
se m.
o m l a
.c interview and you get Chua’s Academy Awards paragraphagalmost word for word.
The support network. Truer than ever, and more visible: read any Olympic medallist’s or IAS

se m
topper’s

g l a
a Where the advice needs revising

s
“Singularly” is now a riskier instruction. Chua tells you to pursue one subject exclusively
m a
.co agl
for ten years. In an economy where whole occupations appear and disappear inside a

a s em
decade, betting everything on one narrow skill is more dangerous than it was in 1995; many

a glplus a second one.
careers now reward a main skill
The trade between dream and security has softened. She writes of people who “preferred

com
to trade their dream for security”, as though it were one or the other. Today a person can

m .
se
hold a job and build the dream in parallel — evening classes, online degrees, a channel,

o m g l a
.c
freelance work, a start-up on weekends. The choice is less often all-or-nothing.

m is no longer scarce. In 1995 a teenager neededaa well-read mother to learn
se
Information
a
agl
that world-class skill takes ten years. Today that fact is a search away. What is scarce now is
not information but attention — the ability to stay with one thing while the phone offers a

se m
com a
new one every minute. Chua could not have anticipated that obstacle, and it may now be the

. a g l
m
largest.

ase
agl
The part of the letter that has not aged at all. Its deepest claim is not about ten
years or money — it is “life itself may change a person’s dreams” and those later

. com
dreams “are no less than the original dream of younger days.” In a world of career
mmore useful in 2026
changes, second degrees and mid-life restarts, that sentenceeis
s
m a
gl not.
o it was in 1995. The specifics date; the psychologyadoes
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Q17 II. 7. What ‘costs’ in terms of effort, sacrifice, and time are you willing or unwilling
to invest to pursue your goals?

This is a personal question, so no answer can be marked right or wrong — but a weak answer
here is easy to spot, and it is worth knowing why.

What a good answer must contain.

Both columns. The question says willing or unwilling. An answer that lists only
sacrifices you are prepared to make is not honest — Chua’s own point is that
some people rightly “preferred to trade their dream for security”. Naming a limit
is a sign of thought, not of weakness.
Specific costs, with figures where you can. “I will work hard” is not a cost. “Two
hours of practice before school, six days a week, for the next three years” is a
cost, because you can fail to pay it.
Use Chua’s three headings — effort, financial investment, sacrifice — and add
her fourth, time, which the question adds. Sorting your answer under them
keeps it from becoming a general resolution.
A reason for each limit. Why are you unwilling? “Because my mother is alone at
home” or “because I want to keep playing football” are real reasons; “because it is
too hard” is not.

Sample answer: My goal is to qualify as a physiotherapist and work with school sports teams.

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WILLING TO INVEST UNWILLING TO INVEST

Effort Ninety minutes of Biology and I will not give up the two hours of kabaddi practice on
Physics every evening, and giving Saturdays — the sport is half the reason I chose this
up my phone from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. field.

Time Four and a half years of college, I am not willing to spend three years repeating an
plus a year of internship — about entrance exam. If I do not get through in two
six years from now. attempts, I will take a related course and continue
from there.

Financial Coaching fees, if I take a I will not ask my parents to take a loan against the
scholarship test and tutor two house. That cost would be paid by my sister as much
juniors in Maths to earn part of it as by me.
myself.

Sacrifice Studying away from home for four I will not stop visiting my grandmother in the holidays;
years, and missing most family she is eighty-one, and those weeks will not come
functions during exam months. again.

Notice what the last row is doing. Chua ends her letter on the same idea — the
dream that is worth having is the one that still lets you be a person. Writing down
what you will not trade is how you make sure the dream serves your life instead of
eating it.

Vocabulary and Structures in Context — Pages 237–240
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

WORD WORK GRAMMAR

Q1 I. Read the following sentence from the text. The dream will take a much longer
time to realise, and the people who are participants in your dreamscape would be
many more. The word ‘dreamscape’ is a compound word where ‘-scape’ means ‘a
view or scene of’. Now, refer to a dictionary and find out the meaning of the
following words. [Word box on page 237: mindscape | seascape | landscape |
cityscape]

All four are formed the same way: a noun naming a place or a thing, plus the suffix -scape
meaning ‘a view or scene of’.

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WORD MEANING USED IN A SENTENCE

mindscape the inner ‘landscape’ of a person’s mind — the whole Two weeks in the hills cleared her
scene of one’s thoughts, memories, feelings and mindscape better than any advice
imagination could.

seascape a view of the sea, or a picture or photograph of it From the Kanyakumari rock the
seascape stretched unbroken to the
horizon.

landscape a stretch of countryside seen in one view; also a The train crossed a flat landscape of
painting of such a scene paddy fields and coconut palms.

cityscape a view of a city, especially its skyline of buildings At night the Mumbai cityscape is a
wall of lights above the sea.

Why mindscape is the odd one out — and why it matters for the letter. Seascape,
landscape and cityscape all name views you could photograph. Mindscape and
dreamscape name views that exist only inside a person, and they work by borrowing
the language of real geography for something invisible: a mind is spoken of as if it
had horizons, weather and open country. That is exactly the trick Chua plays with
dreamscape. By calling a person’s ambitions a ‘scape’, she turns a private hope into
a place — somewhere large enough for other people to walk into, which is why she
can then say “the people who are participants in your dreamscape would be many
more.”

Build the pattern further: moonscape (a bare, cratered view like the moon’s),
soundscape (everything you can hear in a place), streetscape, skyscape. Once you
know a suffix, you can read words you have never met before — that is the real point
of this exercise.

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Q2 I. 1. Fill in the blanks in the following dialogue between two friends with the words
given in the box. [Box: mindscape | seascape | landscape | cityscape] Sneha: Your
Goa pictures were beautiful! That (i) ___________ was dreamy. Kiran: Thanks! It was
way better than our usual (ii) ___________, so peaceful. Sneha: I get that. But
sometimes the city lights have their own charm. Kiran: True, but I’m craving a quiet
(iii) ___________. Forests, hills—something real. Sneha: Yes, nature clears the
(iv)___________, doesn’t it? Kiran: Exactly. Let’s plan a trip that soothes—inside and out.

BLANK ANSWER THE CLUE IN THE LINE

(i) seascape “Your Goa pictures” — Goa means beaches, so the view photographed was of
the sea.

(ii) cityscape “our usual” — the friends live in a city, and Sneha’s next line confirms it:
“sometimes the city lights have their own charm.”

(iii) landscape “Forests, hills—something real” — countryside seen in one view.

(iv) mindscape “nature clears the ___” and the closing line “soothes—inside and out”. Only
the inner one can be cleared.

How to solve a word-box cloze without guessing. Do not read the blanks in order
— read the words next to each blank first, and match them to the meanings you
established in the previous question. Goa → sea; usual + city lights → city; forests
and hills → land; clears + inside → mind. Every blank in a well-set cloze has one word
within a line of it that decides the answer. Then check that you have used each box
word exactly once, which is the last safeguard.

Notice the joke in the last line. Kiran says the trip should soothe “inside and out”
— the outside is the landscape, the inside is the mindscape. The dialogue ends by
pointing at the very pattern the exercise is teaching.

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co m
m.
II. Read each sentence carefully and choose the best meaning for the underlined
se
Q3

o m l a
expression. Then, use that expression in a sentence of your own. 1. She had a dream
gup on it easily. (i)
m .c
that seemed a
to burn in her blood, and she wasn’t going to give

l a se her angry (ii) have a passionate desire (iii) cause physical pain (iv) become
make
a g violent

co m
m . ag

(ii) have a passionate desire
l a se
ag half — “and she wasn’t going to give up on it easily” —
The clue in the sentence: the second
tells you the feeling is persistent and positive, not painful or angry. A desire that will not let you

com
m.
quit is passion, not rage.

o m l a se
Where it comes from in the letter: “Then if it is still burning in your blood and you are ready to
g phrase “if the
.c to the task, plunge.” (page 232) Chua also uses the arelated
m
commit yourself

l a se conviction is still coursing through your veins” (page 233).
burning
ag
s
Why blood, of all things? Blood reaches every part of the body and never stops
m a
.co
moving. To say a desire burns in your blood is to say it is not confined to your
em agl
a s
thoughts — it is in you everywhere, all the time, and you cannot set it down. That is
agal wish lives in the head, a dream lives in the blood.
exactly what makes it a test:
Options (i), (iii) and (iv) all take burn literally or angrily and miss the idiom entirely.

. c om
s e m to run the 800
Own sentence: Ever since she watched the district athletics meet, the ambition
metres o
. cformher state has burned in her blood. a gla
a s em
a gl
II. 2. Preparing for the final exam without proper notes felt like an uphill task. (i) a
se m
com a
Q4

.
tough challenge (ii) a slow progress (iii) a hard routine (iv) a difficult choice
a g l
m
ase
agl
(i) a tough challenge

. com
the way, and gravity is against you the whole time — so an uphill taskem
The image behind the idiom: walking up a slope. It is harder than level ground, it stays hard all

m a s
gl
is one that demands

. co a
em
continuous effort against resistance.

a s Where it comes from in the letter: “The road may be uphill most of the way and often you are
agl c
.
buoyed up only by the knowledge that you are doing what you love best.” (page 232)

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OPTION WHY IT FAILS

(ii) a slow Slowness may be a result of climbing, but the idiom names the difficulty, not the pace. A task
progress can be uphill and still be finished quickly by someone strong.

(iii) a hard A routine is repeated daily. An uphill task may be a single climb.
routine

(iv) a difficult No choosing is involved. The student in the sentence has already decided to prepare — the
choice difficulty is in the doing.

Own sentence: Getting the whole colony to segregate its waste was an uphill task, but by the
third month half the households were doing it.

Q5 II. 3. The team was buoyed up by their recent victory and felt confident about the
next game. (i) energised by success (ii) encouraged by the result (iii) motivated to
improve (iv) lifted in spirit

(iv) lifted in spirit
Why this option and not the other three. The question asks for the meaning of the
expression itself, not for a summary of what happened in the sentence. A buoy is a float; to be
buoyed up is literally to be kept afloat, held up, prevented from sinking — the book glosses it
exactly so on page 232: “kept afloat”. Transferred to feelings, that is lifted in spirit: the word
describes an upward movement of the heart, and nothing else.

OPTION WHAT IT ACTUALLY DESCRIBES

(i) energised by success The cause (the victory) plus a physical result. ‘Buoyed up’ can happen without any
success at all.

(ii) encouraged by the Again the cause. Also, you can be buoyed up by a friend’s words, by music, by hope —
result no ‘result’ needed.

(iii) motivated to A possible consequence. Being lifted in spirit does not by itself aim at improvement.
improve

(iv) lifted in spirit The expression itself — the float image carried straight into feeling.

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Test it against the letter, where there is no victory at all. “often you are buoyed
up only by the knowledge that you are doing what you love best.” At that moment in
Chua’s picture, nothing has succeeded, there is no result, and the road is still uphill
— yet the person is buoyed up. Only ‘lifted in spirit’ still fits that sentence, which
proves it is the meaning of the phrase rather than of the situation.

Own sentence: The whole ward was buoyed up when the doctor said her fever had finally
broken.

Q6 II. 4. He thought he could ace the exam without studying, but that was just wishful
thinking. (i) a clever shortcut but no real effort behind it (ii) a confident guess but
lacking proper knowledge (iii) a hopeful belief but unlikely to be true (iv) a strong
desire but based on facts and planning

(iii) a hopeful belief but unlikely to be true
The two halves of the idiom. Wishful supplies the hope; thinking is ironic — it is not real
thinking at all, because the belief is produced by the wish rather than by evidence. So the phrase
always means believing something because you want it, not because there is reason to.

OPTION WHY IT FAILS

(i) a clever shortcut… There is nothing clever in it, and no shortcut is being taken — nothing at all is being
done.

(ii) a confident guess… A guess is an attempt at an answer; wishful thinking is an attempt at a reality. Close,
but it misses the element of desire.

(iv) …based on facts and The exact opposite. If it were based on facts it would not be wishful.
planning

Its weight in the letter. This is the phrase on which Chua’s whole warning turns:
“everyone at one time or other has wistfully said to oneself, ‘I wish I could be this or
the other,’ they have never got beyond just wishful thinking.” (page 233) Wishful
thinking is what a dream becomes when nobody counts its cost. Note the near-
rhyme with wistfully two lines earlier — the paragraph is held together by the sound
of wishing.

Own sentence: Expecting the monsoon to fill the tank without repairing the leak was wishful
thinking, and by May the village was buying water again.

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Q7 II. 5. Don’t be a wet blanket—we’re trying to have fun! (i) spoil-sport (ii) latecomer
(iii) rule-breaker (iv) daydreamer

(i) spoil-sport
Where the image comes from. A wet blanket is what you throw on a fire to put it out. Thrown
over other people’s excitement, it does the same thing — hence a person who dampens
everyone’s enthusiasm.
Where it appears in the letter: “No, I am not going to put a wet blanket on your dreams, … but
you will also have to consider the years you need to chase your dream.” (page 233)

Look at what Chua is doing with the idiom — this is the most skilful sentence in
the letter. She has just told Ming two discouraging stories (the war, the siblings).
She knows exactly how a teenager will read them. So she names the accusation
before it is made and denies it — and only then, protected by that denial, delivers
the caution in the second half of the same sentence. The word ‘but’ after the ellipsis
is where the whole letter turns. Notice also the honesty of the construction: she does
not claim the caution is not a caution; she claims only that it is not a refusal.

Own sentence: I did not want to be a wet blanket, but somebody had to remind them that the
last bus left at eight.

Q8 II. 6. Excitement was coursing through her veins as she stepped onto the stage for
the first time. (i) hiding deep inside (ii) flowing through her body (iii) lingering in her
thoughts (iv) causing numbness

(ii) flowing through her body
The verb is the clue. To course is to run or flow swiftly — a river courses through a valley, blood
courses through veins. So the idiom describes a feeling that moves through the whole body the
way blood does: fast, everywhere at once, impossible to ignore.

OPTION WHY IT FAILS

(i) hiding deep inside The exact opposite — a coursing feeling is anything but hidden.

(iii) lingering in her Puts the feeling in the head. Veins puts it in the body, which is the whole point of the
thoughts phrase.

(iv) causing numbness Numbness is the absence of feeling; this is feeling at its most intense.

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Why Chua reaches for the body twice. “if the burning conviction is still coursing
through your veins, then go ahead and do something about it.” (page 233) She had
already used ‘burning in your blood’ on the previous page. Both idioms move the
dream out of the mind and into the bloodstream, and that is her test for it: a real
dream is something you feel physically; a wish is something you only think. A
student who notices that the two idioms are doing the same job in two different
paragraphs has understood the letter.

Own sentence: As the last over began, nervousness came coursing through his veins, and he
could hear his own heartbeat above the crowd.

Q9 III. Read the following sentence from the text. After all the obstacles are
considered, if the burning conviction is still coursing through your veins, then go
ahead and do something about it. Here, the first conditional is used to talk about
real or possible situations in the future. Sometimes, instead of saying ‘will + verb’ in
the main clause, we use an imperative (a command or advice). Complete the
sentences using your own words (imperatives): 1. If the idea excites you,
____________________________.

If the idea excites you, write it down before you sleep and show it to your teacher
tomorrow.

The rule you are practising. A first conditional has two parts:

If + present simple , + will + verb

If the idea excites you, you will want to note it down.

If + present simple , + imperative
If the idea excites you, write it down.

Both talk about a real, possible future. The difference is the speaker’s role: will
predicts, the imperative advises or instructs. Chua chooses the imperative — “then
go ahead and do something about it” — because she is not forecasting Ming’s
future; she is telling her what to do with it. Note that the if-clause never takes will: “If
the idea excites you”, not “if the idea will excite you”.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Two other acceptable answers: “If the idea excites you, don’t wait for permission —

m l a se
start with the smallest version of it.” / “If the idea excites you, give yourself a week to
o
.c the excitement lasts.” Check your own answer forathree g things: the
m
test whether

l a seclause must begin with a bare verb (write, start, don’t wait), it must be advice
g than a prediction, and it must follow logically from the if-clause.
main
arather

co m
em . ag
g l as
a
Q10 III. 2. If you hear strange noises,_________________________.

. com

If you hear strange noises, switch off the fan and listen carefully beforeem
m a s you wake anyone

. co a gl
em clause is a chain of imperatives — switch off, listen — which is perfectly correct in a first
up.
Thesmain
l a
agconditional and often more natural than a single command.

m a s
.co agl
Other good answers: “If you hear strange noises, stay where you are and call me.” /

a s em
“If you hear strange noises, do not open the door until you have looked out of the

agl (do not open, never go) is just as valid as a positive
window.” A negative imperative
one — a warning is advice too.

com
m .
m as e
c o
. III. 3. If this seems too hard, ______________________________.a g l
e m
las
Q11

ag ANSWER
se m
com g l a
. a
If this seems too hard, break it into three smaller steps and finish only the first one today.
m
gl ase
a
Why this is a better answer than “ask for help”. Both are grammatically correct,
but the exercise sits inside a chapter about persisting on an uphill road. An

c o m
imperative that keeps the person working — break it up, slow down, start with the
.
m hands the problem
s e
easiest part — matches the letter’s advice far better than one that
somebody else. Content counts as well as grammar in laa‘use your own words’
. ctoom a g
s e m
a
task.

agl c
m .
m
Other good answers: “If this seems too hard, leave it for an hour and come back to
a s e
m . co
it with a clear head.” / “If this seems too hard, look at the solved example again
e agl
before you try the sum.”
g l as
a

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Q12 III. 4. If you care about the issue, _________________________.

If you care about the issue, speak about it in tomorrow’s assembly instead of complaining
in the corridor.

Other good answers: “If you care about the issue, write to the municipal office and
keep a copy of the letter.” / “If you care about the issue, join the clean-up drive on
Sunday morning.” Each turns a feeling into an action, which is what an imperative is
for — and, incidentally, what Chua’s whole letter argues: caring is not doing.

Q13 III. 5. If you finish early, ______________________________.

If you finish early, check every answer once again before you hand the paper in.

Other good answers: “If you finish early, help Riya with the last two questions.” / “If
you finish early, wait quietly at your desk and do not disturb the others.”
Common mistake to avoid: writing “If you will finish early, …”. English never puts
will in the if-clause of a first conditional — the present simple already carries the
future meaning.

Q14 IV. Read the following sentences from the text. Analyse the usage of ‘could’ and
match the sentences with their functions given in the box below. [Box on page 239:
Past ability or purpose | Possibility | Past possibility or speculation | Unreal or
hypothetical situation] 1. It could be in any field—sports, science, arts, business or
design.

Possibility
Test it by rewriting. “It may / might be in any field” — the sentence still means the same thing.
That substitution is the reliable test for the possibility use of could.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Read it in context. Ming has already told her mother what her dream is. Here Chua
steps back to a general statement: whatever your field turns out to be — “sports,
science, arts, business, or design” — the ten-year rule applies. ‘Could’ here opens the
door rather than closing it; there is no past time, no wish and no speculation about
what someone did. The reference is to the present and the future, which rules out
the other three functions at once.

Q15 IV. 2. “I wish I could be this or the other,” they have never got beyond just wishful
thinking.

Unreal or hypothetical situation
The giveaway is the two words before it: “I wish”. After I wish, English uses could for
something that is not true and is not happening — an imagined life, not a real possibility being
weighed.

I wish I could be a pilot. → I am not a pilot, and I am doing nothing about it.

I could be a pilot. → It is genuinely open to me.

Why the grammar carries the letter’s argument. Chua’s whole point in that
paragraph is that these people “have never got beyond just wishful thinking.” The
unreal could is the grammar of wishful thinking — it belongs to a sentence in which
nothing will be attempted. Compare it with the could of question 1, which is a live
possibility. The same word, two entirely different worlds; and Chua uses each in the
paragraph where it belongs.

Q16 IV. 3. They could have preferred to trade their dream for security.

Past possibility or speculation
The structural signal: could + have + past participle (could have preferred). That form always
looks back at the past and says this may be what happened, though I do not know for certain.

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Why Chua speculates instead of asserting. She is writing about real people whose
dreams did not come true, and she cannot see inside their choices. To write “They
preferred to trade their dream for security” would be a judgement — it would accuse
them of giving up. “They could have preferred…” offers the explanation and leaves it
open. The modal is a piece of good manners, and it is consistent with the sentence
that follows: “Perhaps circumstances changed their lives.” Could have and perhaps
are doing the same careful work.

Do not confuse the two ‘could have’ meanings. Could have can also express a
missed opportunity — “They could have taken the shorter route, but they didn’t
know about it” (which is exactly question V.2 on page 240). Here there is no regret
and no missed chance, only a guess about a past state of mind — so the function is
speculation.

Q17 IV. 4. I know too, of people who had wished to finish secondary school but they had
to go out to work so that they could support their siblings through school.

Past ability or purpose — and in this sentence it is specifically purpose.
The structural signal: the phrase “so that … could”. So that introduces a purpose clause, and
in a past-tense sentence the verb inside it takes could.

They had to go out to work so that they could support their siblings.

= They went out to work in order to be able to support their siblings.

The sentence with the heaviest moral weight in the letter. Look at what the
grammar quietly records. The main clause is “they had to go out to work” —
obligation, no choice. The purpose clause is “so that they could support their
siblings” — someone else’s schooling, not their own. One person’s dream was spent
to pay for another person’s education. Chua reports it without a word of comment,
and the restraint is what makes it land. It is also her strongest evidence for the point
she makes elsewhere: some dreams end for reasons that have nothing to do with
the dreamer’s effort.

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Q18 V. Complete the following sentences using ‘could’ with the functions mentioned
within brackets. 1. I wish ____________ without worrying about money. (unreal or
hypothetical)

I wish I could travel the whole country without worrying about money.

What the answer must contain. After I wish, use could + bare infinitive — never
can, and never could have. The sentence describes something that is not true now,
so:

I wish I could travel… ✓ (unreal, about now)

I wish I can travel… ✗

I wish I could have travelled… → a different meaning: regret about the past

Other acceptable answers: “I wish I could study music full time without worrying
about money.” / “I wish I could send my sister to the city for coaching without
worrying about money.”

Q19 V. 2. They ____________ the shorter route, but they didn’t know about it. (past
possibility or speculative)

They could have taken the shorter route, but they didn’t know about it.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream
a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
Why the form must be could have + past participle. The second clause — “but they

m l a se
didn’t know about it” — is in the past and tells you the thing never happened. That
o
.c (a past possibility + a reason it was missed) is exactly
a gwhat could have
m
combination

l a seexpresses.
ag
taken

om
could take → present possibility ✗ (contradicts “didn’t know”)

e
. c
mand was missed ✓ ag
s
could have taken → the chance existed
a
agl
Also acceptable: “could have used”, “could have chosen”, “could have followed”. Any

co m
m.
of these works, provided the have + past participle shape is kept.

m as e
.co a g l
a s em
a glQ20 V. 3. When I was younger, I ____________ without stopping. (past ability)
m a s
.co agl

se m
a
When I was younger, I could swim two kilometres without stopping.

a g l
The rule for past ability. Use could + bare infinitive for something you were

co m
.
generally able to do over a period in the past. The time frame is already fixed by

e m
as
“When I was younger”, so no have is needed.
m l
.co a g
a s emGeneral past ability → could + verb ✓ “I could swim two kilometres.”
agl
m
One specific past achievement → was able to / managed to “I was able to swim

a se
across the lake that day.”
. com a g l
m
ase
agl
That second line is a distinction worth knowing: for a single successful effort on one
occasion, English prefers was able to over could.

co m
m .
as e
om “could run five kilometres”.
.cpoem”, g l
Other acceptable answers: “could cycle to school and back”, “could recite the whole
a
se m
g l a
a c
m .
m a s e
e m . co agl
g l as
a

co m
m .
m ase
.co


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Q21 V. 4. She ____________ the library right now—she had mentioned it. (possibility)

She could be in the library right now—she had mentioned it.

Why could be and not could have been. The words “right now” fix the time as the
present, and the sentence is a guess about where she is at this moment. Could + be
is the ordinary way of making a present guess, interchangeable here with might be
or may be.

She could be in the library right now. ✓ (guess about the present)

She could have been in the library. ✗ (guess about the past — clashes with ‘right now’)

The dash and the clause after it — “she had mentioned it” — supply the evidence for
the guess, which is what makes it a reasonable possibility rather than a wild one.

Also acceptable: “could be at the library”, “could be sitting in the library”, “could be
studying in the library”.

Q22 V. 5. ____________ repeat the question? I didn’t hear it clearly. (formal/polite request)

Could you please repeat the question? I didn’t hear it clearly.

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How could makes a request polite. A request is really a command in disguise, and
English softens it by moving it a step away from reality. “Repeat the question” is an
order. “Can you repeat…?” asks about your ability — friendlier. “Could you repeat…?”
asks about a hypothetical ability — friendlier still, because it leaves you free to say
no. Adding please completes it.

Repeat the question. → command

Can you repeat the question? → informal request

Could you please repeat the question? → formal, polite request ✓

Would you mind repeating the question? → the most formal of all

The more distance a language puts between the words and a bare order, the more
polite the request sounds — which is why the past-tense form could is used for a
present request.

Also acceptable: “Could you kindly repeat the question?” Note that “Could I
repeat…?” would be wrong here — you are asking the other person to do it.

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Q23 VI. Fill in the blanks with suitable grammatical forms of the words given in
brackets. Experiential learning is an approach to education that focuses on
learning through experience, action and reflection. It 1. _______ (help) students gain
practical knowledge and develop real-world skills. Traditionally, students 2. _______
(learn) by listening to lectures and memorising facts, but experiential learning has
changed this process. In an experiential setting, students 3. _______ (work) on
projects, solve problems, and take part in activities that reflect real-life challenges.
They 4. _______ (apply) what they have learned in class to new and unfamiliar
situations. For example, a student studying science 5. _______ (conduct) experiments
to test a theory, while a business student 6. _______ (analyse) a case study to
understand market trends. Reflection is key to this process. After completing a
task, learners 7. _______ (must/reflect) on what went well and what could be
improved. This reflection 8. _______ (help) them build a deeper understanding of the
topic. Educators believe that experiential learning 9. _______ (be) more effective
than passive learning methods because it is engaging and meaningful. In the
future, more schools and universities 10. _______ (incorporate) experiential learning
into their curriculum to prepare students for the real world.

NO. ANSWER WHY THAT FORM

1 helps Present simple for a general truth. The subject is It (= experiential learning),
third person singular, so the verb takes -s.

2 learnt (also “Traditionally” + the contrast “but experiential learning has changed this
learned) process” places this in the past. Past simple. (used to learn is equally acceptable
and even more idiomatic.)

3 work Present simple, plural subject (students), so no -s. Check the parallel verbs in
the same sentence — “solve”, “take part” — they set the pattern.

4 apply Present simple, plural subject (They).

5 conducts Singular subject — “a student studying science” — so -s. Do not be misled by
studying; the head noun is a student.

6 analyses Singular subject, “a business student”, and it must match the tense of 5
because the two halves are joined by while.

7 must reflect The bracket gives the modal itself. A modal is always followed by the bare
infinitive — never must to reflect, never must reflects.

8 helps Singular subject, “This reflection”. Same form as 1, for the same reason.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

9 is Reported inside “Educators believe that…”. Because the belief is presented as
currently true, the present tense stays; the subject experiential learning is
singular.

10 will “In the future” demands the simple future. The plural subject makes no
incorporate difference — will never changes form.

The three questions to ask at every blank in a passage like this.

1. What time is it? Hunt for the time marker — Traditionally (past), In the future
(future), nothing at all (present general truth). Blanks 2 and 10 are decided
entirely by two words.
2. What is the real subject? Strip out the describing words: “a student studying
science” → a student, singular → conducts. This is where most marks are lost.
3. What are the neighbouring verbs doing? Verbs in a list or joined by and/while
must match. In blank 3, “solve” and “take part” hand you the answer before you
have thought about it.

Read the finished passage aloud once. A tense that has slipped is much easier to
hear than to see — and the passage as a whole should move cleanly from the past
(how students learnt), through the present (what they do now), to the future (what
universities will incorporate). That movement is the passage’s own argument, and
your verb forms are what carry it.

Listen and Respond — Page 241 (Transcript for teacher, printed page 275)
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

LISTENING

Q1 I. You will listen to an announcement regarding vocational courses starting in
school. As you listen, fill in the blanks with one to three exact words that you hear.
(Transcript for teacher on page 275) 1. Vocational courses will begin in the month of
_____.

April
From the transcript (Appendix, Unit 8, printed page 275): “Interested students from Grades 9
to 12 may collect the registration form from the school office starting Monday, 04 April. The last
date to submit completed forms is Friday, 08 April.”

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a g l AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

co m
m.
How to arrive at it while listening. The announcement never says the words “the

m l a se
courses will begin in April”. It gives you two dates, and both fall in the same month
o
.c opens on 4 April and closes on 8 April — so the courses
a g start in April.
m
— registration

l a sise also the only month named anywhere in the announcement, which is your
g
April
aconfirmation. In a gap-fill of this kind, the answer is sometimes the one word every
relevant sentence has in common, not a phrase lifted whole.
co m
e m . ag
g l as
a
Listening tip: dates and numbers are the easiest details to lose and the easiest to
note. Before the recording starts, read the six blanks and put a small symbol beside
each — a calendar for a date, a list for course names, a person for ‘who’. You will
co m
then be waiting for the right kind of word instead of trying to catch everything.
em.
m l as
m .co a g
l a se
a Q2g I. 2. The objective of the courses is to prepare you with ______ for future studies and

s
jobs.
m a
m .co agl
l a se
practical skills a g
From the transcript: “These courses aim to equip you with practical skills that will be useful in

co m
both higher education and future careers.”
m .
o m l a se
.c the paraphrases. The question rewrites the sentence, a g and every part of it
m
Match

asehas a partner in the recording: objective ← “aim”; prepare you with ← “equip you
agl with”; future studies and jobs ← “higher education and future careers”. Only the
words in the blank are left unchanged — the phrase that has NOT been paraphrased
se m
m standard design of this question type, and
cothe g l a
.
is almost always the answer. That is
a
a s emto listen for.
knowing it tells you exactly what
agl

co m
m .
e
I. 3. Offered courses include Graphic Design, ______,Web Application, and

as
Q3

m l
.co g
Entrepreneurship Skills, etc.

emANSWER a
a s
agl
.c
e m
Basic Coding

m a s
. co agl
From the transcript: “The available options include Graphic Design, Basic Coding, Web

e m
as
Application, Artificial Intelligence, Multimedia, Data Science, and Entrepreneurship Skills.”

a g l

com
m .
m ase
.co


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Use the position, not the meaning. The recording lists seven courses; the question
keeps only four of them and puts the blank between Graphic Design and Web
Application. So the answer is whatever the speaker said in that exact slot — Basic
Coding. You do not have to remember the whole list; you have to catch the two
names on either side of the gap and take what falls between them. The words “etc.”
at the end of the printed item confirms that other courses were named and are not
wanted.

Q4 I. 4. Classes will be conducted by ______ at school.

trained professionals
From the transcript: “Each course will be conducted by trained professionals.”

Two words, exactly as heard. The instruction says “one to three exact words that
you hear”, so write trained professionals — not teachers, not experts, not professional
trainers. A correct meaning in the wrong words scores nothing in this task, because it
is the listening that is being tested.

Q5 I. 5. The application forms will be available at the ______.

school office
From the transcript: “Interested students from Grades 9 to 12 may collect the registration form
from the school office starting Monday, 04 April.”

Notice the vocabulary swap. The printed question says application forms; the
speaker says registration form. The words differ, the thing is the same. A listener who
is waiting to hear the phrase “application form” may miss the sentence entirely —
listen for the idea and the place, not for the exact wording of the question.

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Class 9 English Chapter 8 Follow That Dream AglaSem · NCERT Solutions

Q6 I. 6. Choice of course will be given to ______ applicants.

early
From the transcript: “Note: Each student can choose only one course, and seats will be allotted
to early applicants.”

Why the announcement flags this with the word “Note”. It is the one condition
that changes what a listener should do — the seats go by order of application, not by
merit or by class. The speaker signals it (“Note:”) precisely because it is the sentence
students must not miss. In an announcement, listen hardest immediately after a
signposting word — note, please remember, importantly, the last date is. That is where
the examinable detail almost always sits.

Two other details in the announcement worth catching, though not asked: it is
open to Grades 9 to 12, and each student may choose only one course.

Speaking Activity — Pages 241–242
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

ROLE PLAY

Q1 I. Work in groups of four. Each member of the group takes up one of the roles given
below. Use the sentence prompts given under each role to present your role play. 1.
The Dreamer (for example: wants to be a trekking guide) • I know this might sound
challenging, but… • Ever since I was a child, I’ve dreamed of… • I understand it’s not
a usual path, but I believe… • It’s an uphill journey, but I’m ready for it because…

How to play the Dreamer well: do not simply insist. The strongest Dreamer is the one who has
already done the arithmetic Irene Chua demands — who can name the years, the cost and the
risk before the Parent does. Passion alone loses this argument; passion plus a plan wins it.
Sample lines, completing each prompt (dream: to become a certified high-altitude
trekking guide in Uttarakhand):

“I know this might sound challenging, but I have looked it up properly — the basic
mountaineering course at Uttarkashi is 26 days, and I would need the advanced one after
that. It is not a whim; I know what the next four years look like.”

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“Ever since I was a child, I’ve dreamed of the week we spent at Sankri. I still remember the
guide pointing out Swargarohini through the clouds, and I remember thinking that he was
being paid to stand there. That has never left me.”
“I understand it’s not a usual path, but I believe it is a real profession now, not an
adventure. Trekking tourism in Uttarakhand employs thousands of people, and a certified
guide with first-aid training earns more than most of us assume.”
“It’s an uphill journey, but I’m ready for it because I have already begun paying for it — I
have been training every morning since June, and I am saving for the course fee by coaching
two juniors in Maths.”

Why that last line is the strongest one in the role. Anyone can say ‘I am ready’.
Only a Dreamer who has already started can prove it. Evidence of effort already
spent is the one argument a worried parent cannot dismiss as daydreaming — and it
is exactly Chua’s test: “Then if it is still burning in your blood and you are ready to
commit yourself to the task, plunge.” Try to build one line of this kind into your
own performance.

For the performance: keep your voice steady and low rather than loud. A Dreamer
who shouts sounds like a child; a Dreamer who speaks calmly about a 26-day course
sounds like an adult. Tone is half of what persuades in this role play.

Q2 I. 2. A Parent (worried about financial stability) • I know you’re passionate, but… • I
only want what’s best for you, and… • You can always pursue your dream later… •
What if it doesn’t…?

How to play the Parent well: the Parent must be sympathetic and hard to answer. A parent
played as a villain makes the scene collapse — the audience simply sides with the Dreamer and
nothing is discussed. Give the Parent the best version of the worry, as Chua does in her own
letter when she speaks of “financial investments” and of people who “preferred to trade their
dream for security.”
Sample lines, completing each prompt:

“I know you’re passionate, but passion does not pay a hospital bill. When your grandfather
was ill last year, it was your uncle’s steady salary that saw us through. I am not arguing
against your dream; I am asking who pays if something goes wrong.”
“I only want what’s best for you, and I have watched what happens to families who bet
everything on one plan. I want you to have a life you chose, not a life you were rescued
from.”

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“You can always pursue your dream later — finish the degree first, and then take the
mountaineering course. It will still be there at twenty-three, and you will have something to
fall back on.”
“What if it doesn’t work out? What if you injure a knee at twenty-six and cannot climb again?
I am not saying it will happen. I am saying that I need to know you have thought about the
day it might.”

The Parent’s hidden weakness, which the other roles should find. The third
argument — “you can always pursue your dream later” — sounds reasonable and is
the easiest to attack, because Chua has already answered it: world-class standard
needs “at least ten years”, so a decade lost is not a decade postponed. A good
Dreamer or Mentor will say exactly that. Let the Parent be pushed here; a role play in
which nobody's position moves is not a discussion, it is two speeches.

Q3 I. 3. A Mentor or Teacher (offers balanced advice) • Remember dreams need
planning… • Let’s look at the long-term view… • There are ways to combine your
dream and… • Are you ready to…?

How to play the Mentor well: the Mentor’s job is not to take a side but to turn the quarrel
into a plan. Notice that three of the four prompts are about structure and one is a question —
the Mentor listens more than the others and speaks in specifics.
Sample lines, completing each prompt:

“Remember dreams need planning. Both of you are arguing about the destination and
neither of you has written down the route. Let us put the actual steps on paper: certification,
first aid, a season as an assistant, then independent trips.”
“Let’s look at the long-term view. A guide’s climbing years are limited, so the real question
is what comes after forty — running an agency, training new guides, or working with a
rescue service. Plan for the second half of the career now, and the first half stops looking so
risky.”
“There are ways to combine your dream and your father’s worry. Take a degree in tourism
or sports science alongside the mountaineering courses. It is one qualification that serves
both the dream and the fallback, so nobody has to lose the argument.”
“Are you ready to spend the next two winters carrying loads for somebody else’s expedition
for very little money? That is what the first years look like. If the answer is yes, I will write to
the institute myself.”

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co m
m.
The Mentor voices the letter’s own position. Chua does exactly this: she says yes,

m l a se
and then hands over the bill. “Count the cost in years of effort, financial investments
o
.c Then if it is still burning in your blood … plunge.” The
a g Mentor’s closing
m
and sacrifice.

l a se is the spoken form of that sentence — permission made conditional on
g
question
ahonesty. If your group is short of time, this is the role that must not be cut, because
it is the one that resolves the scene.
co m
e m . ag
g l as
Q4
a
I. 4. A Friend/Sibling (neutral or supportive voice) • You’ve always been good at …
don’t give up now. • I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but what’s your backup plan? •
co m
m.
If anyone can do this, it’s you, so… • If this dream makes you happy…

o m l a se
ANSWER .
c a g
m
seto play the Friend well: this role is the audience’s way into the scene. The Friend can say
l a
ag
How
the awkward thing that neither the Parent nor the Mentor can — and can also do what nobody

om a s
agl
else does: ask what the Dreamer actually wants, rather than what is sensible.
Sample lines, completing each prompt: .c
a s em
a l
“You’ve always been good atgreading a map and keeping a group calm — remember the
school trek, when the two juniors panicked at the stream and you were the one who got
them across? Don’t give up now because of one argument at dinner.”
com
m .
as e
“I don’t want to be a wet blanket, but what’s your backup plan? Not because I think you
m l
.co g
will fail. Because if you have an answer ready, uncle stops asking, and you can get on with it.”

em a
s
“If anyone can do this, it’s you, so stop defending yourself and start showing them. Bring
a
l the course brochure to the table tomorrow instead of arguing about it tonight.”
ag
m
“If this dream makes you happy, that is not a small thing, and I don’t think anyone here is

a se
com l
really against it. They are frightened, not opposed. There is a difference, and you keep
. a g
m
ase
hearing the wrong one.”

agl
The idiom in the second prompt is deliberate. “I don’t want to be a wet blanket,

m
but…” is the same move Irene Chua makes on page 233: name the accusation,
disown it, and then say the hard thing anyway. The chapter has taught you the idiom
. co
se m
o m l a
in the Vocabulary section (II.5, page 238) and now hands it to you as a speaking tool.
.cUse it in the role play and you will have shown that youagunderstand it — which is
m worth more than choosing option (i) in a multiple-choice question.
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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Running the whole activity: allow six to eight minutes. Sit in a square so all four
can see each other; the Dreamer opens, the Parent responds, the Friend interrupts,
the Mentor closes. Agree in advance that nobody wins — the scene should end with
a next step (a brochure, a phone call, a trial year), not with a surrender. That is what
makes it a discussion and not a debate.

Writing Task — Pages 242–243
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

COMPOSITION

Q1 I. You are passionate about pursuing a course in designing in future. You come
across a summer workshop being conducted by a reputed design institute. Write an
email to the Director of the institute enquiring the details of the workshop and
expressing your interest in joining it. Follow the guidelines given below to write the
email. • Use formal language • Avoid use of abbreviations • Include the following
components: - Header consisting of—sender, receiver, date, and subject - The
message—introduction, seeking permission, conclusion - Complementary close—
Yours sincerely, - Name, (designation), and contact details of the sender [Format of
an email, page 243 — a table with the rows: From: | To: | Cc: | Bcc: | Subject: |
Message:]

What the examiner is looking for: the format exactly as printed on page 243, a subject line
that names the workshop, a body in three short paragraphs (who you are → what you want
to know → what you want to happen next), a numbered list of specific enquiries, and formal
language with no contractions or abbreviations. Marks are lost far more often for a missing
subject line or a chatty tone than for weak content.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Cc: [email protected]

Bcc: —

Subject: Enquiry regarding the Summer Workshop in Design, 2026

Message:
Respected Sir/Madam,

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I am Ananya Rajan, a student of Class IX at Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Coimbatore. I
came across the announcement of the Summer Workshop in Design being conducted by your
institute in the month of May, and I am writing to seek further details, as I hope to pursue
design as a career after school.
I should be grateful if you would kindly provide information on the following points:

1. the exact dates and daily timings of the workshop, and its total duration;
2. the eligibility criteria, particularly whether students of Class IX may apply;
3. the areas covered — for example, product design, graphic design or textile design — and the
number of hours devoted to each;
4. the fee payable, and whether any concession or scholarship is available for school students;
5. the last date for applying, and the documents to be submitted with the application;
6. whether residential accommodation is provided for candidates from outside the city.

I have been keeping a sketchbook of everyday objects for the past two years and would be
happy to submit it if a portfolio is required. It would be a privilege to learn at your institute, and
I look forward to your response at your earliest convenience.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Ananya Rajan
Student, Class IX-B
Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Coimbatore
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 98xxxxxx21

Why the enquiries are set out as a numbered list. A busy director can answer a
list in two minutes and a paragraph in ten. Formal writing is judged partly on how
easy it is to reply to. Notice also that each item asks for one fact only — dates,
eligibility, content, fee, deadline, accommodation — so no question can be
accidentally skipped in the reply.

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The three rules students break most often in this task:

Contractions. Write I am, not I'm; would not, not wouldn't. The instruction on page
242 says so explicitly.
Abbreviations. Write Class IX, not Cl. 9; and, not &; for example, not e.g. in the
body of a formal letter.
The subject line. “Enquiry” alone is not a subject. Name the thing — “Enquiry
regarding the Summer Workshop in Design, 2026” — so the email can be filed
and forwarded.

One more: the complimentary close is Yours sincerely — capital Y, small s, comma
after. Use it when you are writing to a named or titled person, as here.

Learning Beyond the Text — Pages 243–244
Follow That Dream (letter by Irene Chua)

PROJECT

Q1 I. Create a Vision Board for yourself. A vision board is a visual representation of your
goals, dreams, and inspirations. It helps you focus on what you want to achieve and
stay motivated. Vision boards often include pictures, words, or symbols that reflect
your hopes and intentions for the future. [Illustration on page 243: a blue vision-
board template with a central label ‘My Vision Board’ and five headed areas — ‘My
dreams’ (a blank card and a blank speech-bubble), ‘I want to try’ (a blank banner),
‘Goals’ (a ruled note-sheet), ‘Places I will go’ (six blank photo frames) and
‘Inspiration’ (a blank sheet with a clip). All the spaces are empty in the book, to be
filled in by the student.]

How to make one that actually works. A vision board is not decoration; it is a plan you can see
from across the room. Three rules make the difference between a poster and a tool:

Put it where you will see it without choosing to. Above your study desk, inside the
cupboard door. A board in a drawer does nothing.
Prefer pictures to sentences. The eye reads an image in an instant and skips a paragraph.
Save words for the Goals section, where precision matters.
Date it, and keep the old one. Write the year in a corner. Next year’s board will show you
how much of this one you actually did — and, as Irene Chua says, “life itself may change a
person’s dreams”, so some entries should change.

What you need: a chart paper or the inside of a shoebox lid, old magazines and newspapers,
scissors, glue, sketch pens. Nothing has to be bought.

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Why the book places this activity at the end of this particular letter. Chua’s
complaint about most people is that they “never got beyond just wishful thinking”. A
vision board is the first small step out of wishful thinking, because it forces a vague
wish to become a specific picture — you cannot cut out a photograph of ‘being
successful’, but you can cut out a photograph of a hospital, a stage, a cricket ground
or a college gate. The act of choosing the image is the act of making the dream
definite.

Do it in one sitting of about forty minutes, not perfectly. A half-finished board on
the wall beats a perfect one you never got round to starting — which is, again, the
whole argument of the chapter.

Q2 I. 1. My Dreams—Think about what you wish for in the future. This could be
becoming an artist, serving the Nation, or learning a new skill. Write or draw it in
the ‘My dreams’ section.

What this section needs: the long-range ambitions — the ones that will take years, not
months. One or two, not ten. If everything is a dream, nothing is.
Sample answer:

To become a wildlife veterinarian — a photograph of a vet with a rescued kite, and beneath it
the single word 2033.
To keep drawing all my life — one of my own sketches pasted in the corner, so that the board
contains something I actually made.

Why put a year under the picture. Chua’s ten-year rule is uncomfortable but
useful: writing 2033 under the dream converts it from a mood into a duration. A
dream with a date attached starts asking what you will do this month.

Test for this section: could someone else recognise your dream from the picture
alone, without reading a word? If not, choose a more specific image.

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co m
m.
I. 2. I Want to Try—List new things you want to experience this year. These might
e
Q3

m l as
.co
include trying out for a play, starting a journal, learning to ride a bicycle, etc.

a g
se m
g l a
a

What this section needs: things you can start within this year, and each one small enough

m
that fear is the only real obstacle. This is the experimental part of the board — items here are
. co ag
m
allowed to fail.

as e
Sample answer:
a g l
Audition for the annual day play, even for a small part.
Learn to swim at the municipal pool during the summer holidays.
co m
Keep a nature journal — one sketch and two lines about anything living, every Sunday.
e m.
m l as
.co a g
Speak in the morning assembly at least once.

se m
Learn to cook three dishes properly from my grandmother.

g l a
a How this section differs from ‘Goals’. A goal is measured by whether you achieved
m a s
c o agl
it; a ‘try’ is measured by whether you turned up. The purpose of this box is to reduce
.
m to be bad at everything listed here. That
s e
the cost of failure — you are allowed
apage 246 says the same thing in four lines: “The first
agl
matters, because the poem on
step is the hardest.” This box is a list of first steps.

co m
m .
o m l a se
Q4 .c a g
m
I. 3. Goals—Think about specific things you want to achieve. Use this space to write
e goals like ‘Read 10 books this year’ or ‘Improve my writing’.
ag las
se m
o m g l a
m .c
What this section needs: goals with a number and a date in them. This is the one part of the
a
e
board where words beat pictures,sbecause
a
l
a goal you cannot measure is a wish in disguise.

ag
WEAK SAME GOAL, MADE MEASURABLE
GOAL
co m
m .
as e
com g l
Improve my Write one page of my journal every day, and submit an article to the school magazine by
.writing a
sem
December.

a
agl Do better in Finish every chapter’s exercise questions within a week of the chapter being taught, and raise
c
m .
e
Science my Science average from 72 to 85 by the annual exam.

m a s
Read more
m . co
Read ten books this year — four in English, four in Tamil, two non-fiction — and note one line
e agl
l as
from each.

Get fitter a g
Run three kilometres without stopping by 30 November.

co m
m .
m as e
.co


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Why the numbers matter. A measurable goal tells you on any given evening
whether you are ahead or behind, and gives you a chance to correct course. An
unmeasurable goal can only be judged at the very end, when it is too late to do
anything about it. This is the section of the board that will still be useful in March,
when the excitement of making it has worn off.

Q5 I. 4. Places I Will Go—These can be real or imaginary places you’d like to visit. Draw
or paste pictures of cities, nature spots, or even dream destinations like the space
or the ocean.

What this section needs: a mixture of scales — one place you could reach on a bus this year,
one that will take a decade, and one that may be impossible. The template on page 243 gives six
frames; do not fill them all with faraway countries.
Sample answer, six frames:

1. Valparai, Tamil Nadu — a two-day trip; I want to see a lion-tailed macaque in the wild.
2. The Anamalai Tiger Reserve field station — where I hope to volunteer once I am sixteen.
3. Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Chennai — the college gate itself,
pasted as a photograph.
4. Kaziranga, Assam — the far end of the country, for the rhinos.
5. The Andaman coast — for the turtles that nest there.
6. The deep ocean floor — the impossible one, from a magazine photograph of a submersible.

Why the near places matter more than the far ones. Anyone can paste a picture
of Switzerland. A board that contains one place you could reach next month is a
board that can be acted on. Notice too that in the sample every place except the last
is connected to the same dream — the board is not a holiday list but a map of one
ambition. That is the difference between a vision board and a scrapbook.

Q6 I. 5. Inspiration—Who or what inspires you? It could be a family member, teacher, a
famous personality, or a quote that gives you strength.

What this section needs: people or words you can actually turn to on a bad day. Include at
least one person you know personally — a distant hero inspires, but a near one can be
telephoned.
Sample answer:

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My grandmother, who passed Class 10 through open school at fifty-two — a photograph of
her with her certificate.
Dr Salim Ali, the ornithologist, whose The Book of Indian Birds is on my shelf — his portrait,
cut from a newspaper.
A quotation, in my own handwriting: “Dream is not that you see in sleep, dream is
something that does not let you sleep.” — Dr APJ Abdul Kalam
My biology teacher’s remark on last year’s project, kept and pasted: “You noticed
something nobody else in the class noticed.”

Why the fourth item is the most valuable one on the whole board. Kalam’s
sentence is inspiring, but it was not addressed to you. A single line of specific praise
from someone who actually watched you work is evidence, not encouragement —
and on the day the dream feels absurd, evidence is what you will need. Chua’s letter
is exactly this kind of object for Ming: not a slogan, but one person’s considered
attention, kept in writing.

Q7 II. Great personalities in history were inspired by their parents. [Illustration on page
244: a mother in a green sari seated on a cushion in a palace hall, one hand raised
as she speaks, and a small boy in a red angarkha and turban listening intently
beside her.] 1. Chhatrapati Shivaji’s mother, Jijabai, instilled in him a strong sense of
dharma, patriotism, and justice. She told him tales from the Ramayana and
Mahabharata, which shaped his leadership ideals and bravery.

What the example is teaching: that a parent shapes a child’s ambition less by instruction than
by the stories they choose to tell.
The three qualities the book names, and what each became in Shivaji’s life:

WHAT JIJABAI INSTILLED WHAT IT BECAME

Dharma — a sense of right conduct His well-known insistence on the protection of civilians, of places of worship
and duty of every faith, and of women during campaigns

Patriotism — devotion to one’s The idea of swarajya, self-rule, as a cause rather than a personal conquest
own land and people

Justice — fairness in ruling A system of administration with defined ministers, salaried soldiers and
written accounts, rather than rule by favour

Why the Ramayana and the Mahabharata? Because they are stories about rulers who must
choose — Rama accepting exile, Yudhishthira weighing duty against loss, Arjuna hesitating
before battle. A boy raised on these does not merely learn that kings are brave; he learns that a

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ruler is judged by what he does when the right choice is costly. That is a very different lesson
from a tale of simple heroism, and the book is careful to say the stories “shaped his leadership
ideals and bravery” — ideals first.

The link back to the letter. Irene Chua’s letter is itself a story told by a mother —
several stories, in fact: the Academy Award winner, the Raffles College students, her
own book. Jijabai and Chua use the same instrument, four centuries apart. Neither
says “you must be brave” or “you must work hard”; both hand over a narrative and
let the child draw the moral. That is why the book prints this note at the end of this
chapter rather than any other.

Q8 II. 2. Queen Madālasa, wife of King Ritudhwaja, a revered figure from Indian
scriptures, nurtured in her children a deep understanding of the soul and
detachment from material desires. Her wisdom led her sons to seek spiritual
liberation. Madalasa is a timeless example of a mother guiding her children on the
path of enlightenment.

What the example is teaching: that a parent shapes not only how a child pursues a goal but
what the child comes to believe is worth wanting.
Madālasa appears in the Markandeya Purana. She is remembered for the lullaby she is said to
have sung to her infant sons — a cradle song whose burden is that the child is pure, spotless
and without form, and that the body and its titles are borrowed things. The story is that her
sons, raised on it, turned away from kingship altogether and sought moksha, liberation.

JIJABAI MADĀLASA

What she taught Dharma, patriotism, justice Knowledge of the soul, detachment from material desire

Her instrument Epic tales of rulers A lullaby, sung from infancy

Where it led To rule — swarajya To renunciation — moksha

Why the book prints these two together, and why the pairing is not accidental.
The two mothers point their children in opposite directions — one towards a
kingdom, one away from every kingdom — and the chapter calls both admirable.
That is the real lesson of the pair: the book is not recommending a particular dream.
It is saying that what a parent gives a child is a measure of worth, and the dream
follows from it.

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Read it against the letter one last time. Irene Chua tells Ming “It could be in any
field—sports, science, arts, business, or design,” and never once says which. Jijabai,
Madālasa and Chua all shape the seriousness with which a dream is held, and leave
its content to the child. That is as good a summary of this chapter’s argument about
parents as you will find.

Reflect and Respond — Page 245
Believe in Yourself (poem by Robert Langley)

BEFORE YOU READ

Q1 I. Imagine that you are the person in the image. [The image on the opener page 245
is a circular collage of Indian achievers at the moment of success — a runner
holding up the national flag, a woman scientist in a white coat working on a lunar
lander with a rover and the moon behind her, and a masked researcher with a
vaccine vial beside models of virus particles. The figure ‘standing at the base of a
difficult task’ is the illustration that runs beside the poem on page 246: a schoolboy
in a yellow shirt at the foot of a long white staircase, pointing upward at a girl who
is already several steps above him.] 1. What emotions do you feel standing at the
base of a difficult task?

Two opposite feelings at the same time — that is what makes the moment hard. A useful
answer names both sides and does not pretend to be fearless.

PULLING YOU BACK PUSHING YOU FORWARD

Fear of failing in public — that people will see me start Excitement — the ordinary day suddenly has
and see me stop something in it

Self-doubt — “others here are better prepared than I am” Determination — the stubborn feeling that I have
waited long enough

Being overwhelmed — the whole staircase at once, Curiosity — wanting to know what I am actually
instead of one step capable of

Loneliness — nobody can climb it for me Hope — a clear picture of standing at the top

Sample answer: Standing at the bottom, the first thing I feel is that the task is far bigger than I
am — I look at the whole staircase instead of the first step, and my stomach tightens.
Underneath that there is a smaller, steadier feeling of wanting to know whether I can do it. I felt

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exactly this before my first inter-school elocution: my hands were cold, and yet I did not want
co m
anyone to take my name off the list.
e m.
m l as
.co a g
s em
Why this question opens the poem. The poem you are about to read describes
a
gl
aprecisely this doubleness in its second stanza — “Will it pull you forward / Or push
you back in fear?” Langley does not deny the fear; he puts it in the same sentence as

co m
ag
the pull forward and makes you choose. Answering honestly now will make that line

m .
mean something when you reach it.
as e
a g l
Look at the illustration on page 246 while you answer. The artist has drawn the

. c om
moment exactly: the boy is not climbing yet — he is standing on the floor, pointing

s
up at someone already on the stairs. The girl above him is looking further
m a em up, at
.
steps she
a gl of something.
co has still to climb. Everyone in the picture is at the base
a s em
a gl
m a s
.co agl
Q2 I. 2. What might make you take the first step?

se m
g l a
a

Usually one of five things — and it is worth knowing which one works on you.

co m
Making the step small enough. Not “learn to swim” but “get into the water today”. Most
m .
m
first steps are refused because they have been defined too large.
as e
.co a g l
em
A deadline that removes the choice. Once the form is submitted and the fee paid, the

l a s argument with yourself is over.
a g One person’s belief. A teacher who says “put your name down”, a friend who waits at the
gate. In the listening passage on page 253 this is exactly what Ananya does for Karan:
se m
com g l a
. a
“You’ve practised this more than anyone else!”
m
ase
Seeing someone like you do it. The girl on the staircase in the illustration is the same age

a gl
as the boy — that is the point of drawing her there.
Realising that not starting is also a cost. As the poem puts it, comfort is “not what we are

om
made for / This isn’t how we grow.”
. c
s e m it is too small to be
Sample answer: What actually gets me started is shrinking the step until

.
frightening.
a gla speech”, but I could face
com Before the elocution I could not face “deliver a five-minute
a sem“read the first paragraph aloud in my room tonight.” Once I had done that, the next step was
agl obvious, and by the time the competition came the first step was long behind me.
c
m .
m a s e
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