Textbook Questions And Answers of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8

You are going to go through Textbook Questions And Answers OF Karnataka Board Class 8 FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem. Understanding a text meticulously in its entirety is very important for a learner for scoring better in the exam. Efforts have been made to ensure a thorough and proper Textbook Questions And Answers OF Karnataka Board Class 8 FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem.

Textbook Questions and Answers:

C1. Answer the following questions and share your responses with your partner:

Question 1. Name the creature mentioned in the Poem.

Answer:

A snail

Question 2. Who do you think is the speaker?

Answer:

The speaker in the poem is a mother.

Question 3. Who is the speaker addressing?

Answer:

The speaker is addressing her child.

Question 4. What does the child want his mother to see?

Answer:

The child wants his mother to see a snail crawling up the windowsill.

Question 5. What does the mother tell the child?

Answer:

The Mother tells her child to carry the snail carefully, outside, and leave to feed on daffodils.

Textbook Questions And Answers of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8

Read and Write:

C2. Read and discuss your responses with your partner. Then write:

Question 1. Why does the mother say ‘a kind of faith prevails’?

Answer:

The mother feels happy that a child learns good manners and good behavior. And it develops a good character by words of advice and not by imitating others.

Question 2. How has the mother treated other animals?

Answer:

The mother has not treated other animals kindly. She has trapped mice, shot wild birds, and drowned kittens.

Question 3. Do you observe any difference between the mother’s treatment of the snail and her treatment of other animals and her relatives?

Answer:

Yes, there is a lot of difference between the treatment of snails and other animals. Other animals were treated cruelly. The mother treated the snail very kindly and she advised her child to be kind to the snail.

Question 4. How does the mother console herself? Read the last two lines and comment.

Answer:

Mother has behaved like others. A snail was harmless so it could be treated kindly but other animals are harmful, so it is not easy to treat them kindly. All people are like this only. Everyone preaches good but they do not follow it in action. So mother consoles herself like this and said that she and her child are kind to snails.

Textbook Questions And Answers of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8

Summary 

“Practise what you preach” is an old saying. The poet, in this poem, brings out the contradictions in our behaviour. A mother is a speaker in the poem. She narrates an incident and points out the big difference between what we preach and what we practise.

A child sees a snail climbing up the windowsill into his room. It calls its mother to see it. The mother tells the child that it is unsafe for the snail to be left like that.

It might crawl to the floor and might get crushed under one foot. The child understands. It picks up the snail gently, carries it outside carefully and leaves it near a daffodil plant so that it could feed on a daffodil flower.

The mother is happy that still, the belief that gentleness and good character are learnt by words of advice prevails. Children develop such good qualities by listening to what parent and other elders say.

Textbook Questions And Answers of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8

At the same time, she feels guilty. She has advised her child to be kind and compassionate towards the snail, but she had killed mice, wild birds, kittens and so on.

She had not treated her relatives properly. Also, she had conveyed the harshest kind of truth to many others, without bothering how it would affect them. She had not practised what she wanted her child to learn.

She consoles herself at the end. And, she is practical-minded and knows that is how things are happening around her. People say one thing and do exactly the opposite. It reminds us of another saying “Do as I say, but don’t do as I do”. The mother consoles herself saying that she and her child are kind to snails.