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SCERT/NCERT
Class 10 SEBA
ENGLISH FIRST FLIGHT
LESSON-5
Madam Rides the Bus by Vallikkannan
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| CLASS 10: MADAM RIDES THE BUS |
Very sort type questions
1. Did you know who wrote the story “Madam Rides the bus”?
Answer: Vallikkannan wrote the story “Madam Rides the bus”.
2. Can you please say who translated the story “Madam Rides the bus” from Tamil?
Answer: K. S. Sundaram translated the story “Madam Rides the bus” from Tamil.
3. We would like to know who was Valliammai?
Answer: Valliammai was an eight year old girl. She was known as Valli for short.
4. What sight gave Valli many unusual experiences?
Answer: The sight of the bus carrying new set of passengers every time gave Valli many unusual experiences.
5. Have you memorized what was Valli’s tiny wish?
Answer: Valli’s tiny wish was to ride on the bus that used to run between her village and the nearby town so that she could experience a delightful bus journey to the town.
6. What did Valli listen to carefully over many days and months?
Answer: Valli listened carefully to the conversations of her neighbourhood people who had taken a bus ride. Valli collected many details of the bus journey.
7. How did Valli pick up various small details about the bus journey?
Answer: Valli picked up various small details about the bus journey by carefully listening to the conversations of her neighbourhood people who had taken a bus ride.
8. How far was the town form Valli’s village?
Or, What was the distance from Valli’s village to the nearest town? [HSLC 2019]
Answer: The town was six miles from Valli’s village.
Or, The distance from Valli’s village to the nearest town was six miles apart.
9. How much time would the trip to the town take?
Answer: The trip to the town would take forty five minutes from Valli’s village.
10. What was the fare of the Valli’s bus ride?
Or, What was the bus fare for a trip from Valli’s village to the town? [HSLC 2019]
Answer: The fare of Valli’s bus ride was thirty paise around.
Or, The bus fare for a trip from Valli’s village to the town was thirty paise around.
11. How did the conductor address, Valli?
Answer: The conductor addressed Valli as a madam.
12. Why does Valli stand up on the seat?
Answer: Valli stood up on the seat because her view was cut off by the canvas blind.
13. When did the bus trip lose its charm for Valli?
Answer: On her return journey when Valli saw a dead cow, the bus trip lost its charm for Valli.
14. What was Valli’s favorite pastime? [H.S.L.C. 2016]
Answer: Valli’s favorite pastime was standing before the front doorway of her house watching what was happening in the street outside.
15. What do you think Valli was planning?
Answer: Valli was planning to have a bus journey secretly.
16. Why did Valli find the old man repulsive?
Answer: Valli found the old man repulsive because she was disturbed by his attention.
Long type questions
17. Give a short account of Valli?
Answer: Valliammai was an eight years old girl. She was known as Valli for short. Valli’s favorite pastime was standing before the front doorway of her house watching what was happening in the street outside. She was a lonely girl in her colony. So, she lived in her own dream world. She was very brave, confident, and intelligent as she was able to take a bus ride all alone very secretly.
18. What is Valli’s tiny wish? How did it become an overwhelming desire?
Answer: Valli’s tiny wish was to ride on the bus that used to run between her village and the nearby town so that she could experience a delightful bus journey to the town.
Gradually after Valli watched the bus for several days the tiny wish became an overwhelming desire.
19. Describe the bus in which Valli was traveling? [HSLC 2019]
Answer: The bus on which Valli was traveling was a new bus. The outside was white with some green stripes. Inside, the overhead bars shone like silvers. Above the windshield, there was a clock. The seats were soft and luxurious.
20. What was a source of unending joy for Valli? What was her strongest desire?
Answer: There was a street in front of Valli’s house through which a bus used to run. The sight of the bus filled with a new set of passengers was a source of unending joy for Valli.
Valli’s strongest desire was to ride on the bus taking a journey to the town.
21. What did Valli find out about the bus journey? How did she find out these details?
Answer: Valli found out every detail of the bus journey. The bus used to travel to a town which was six miles from the village and took thirty paise in one round. The trip took forty-five minutes to the town.
Valli found out the details by asking a few discrete questions here and there to those who had already traveled on the bus.
22. Why was the conductor call Valli ‘madam’?
Answer: Valli was a self-confident girl and when the conductor offered a helping hand to help her ride the bus, she refused and stepped up the bus all by herself. So the conductor called Valli as ‘madam’ to tease her.
23. Why does Valli stand up on the seat? What does she see now?
Answer: Valli stood up on her seat because her view was cut off by a canvas blind. Outside the window, Valli saw that the bus was going along the bank of a canal. On one side there was the canal and beyond it were palm trees, grassland, distant mountains, and the sky. On the other side, there was a ditch and acres of green fields.
24. What does Valli tell the elderly man when he calls her a child?
OR How did Valli react when a fellow passenger called her ‘child’?
Answer: When the elderly man told Valli a child she replied with all of her self-confidence that she was not a child as she was an eight years old girl.
25. Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?
Answer: The elderly lady was chewing betel nuts and it was producing bad odor for Valli. Moreover, the betel juice was threatening to spill over her lips. So Valli found the lady unsociable to make friends with.
26. How did Valli save up money for the first journey? Was it easy for her?
Answer: Valli saved up the bucks required for the bus journey by spending money carefully whatever stray coins came her way. She had to resist her temptation to buy peppermints, toys, balloons. She even had to overlook her strong desire to ride the merry go round in the village fair to save the sixty paise.
No, it was not indeed easy for Valli as she had to dominate all of her temptations.
27. What did Valli see on her way that made her laugh? [2017]
Answer: At some point in her journey, Valli saw a young cow running very fast right in the middle of the road, right in front of the bus. The bus slowed down and sounded the horn, but the cow got more frightened and started running faster and faster. This scene made Valli laugh.
28. Why didn’t she get off the bus at the bus station?
Answer: Valli just wanted to experience a bus journey and she already had it. Now she had to return home on the same bus. She didn’t want to see the town as she was afraid of losing herself in the crowd. It would be safer for her to sit back on the bus for a safe back home. So she didn’t get off the bus at the station.
29. Why didn’t Valli want to go to the stall and have a drink? What does this tell you about her?
Answer: Valli didn’t want to go to the stall and had a drink because she did not have money for it. Even though the conductor wanted to offer a free treat, she refused.
This suggests that Valli was a self-esteemed girl who liked to do everything by herself. She did not require any help to do her work, nor was she comfortable with other’s help.
30. What was Valli’s deepest desire?
Answer: Valli’s strongest desire was to ride on the bus that used to run between her village and the nearby town so that she could experience a delightful bus journey to the town.
31. How did Valli plan her bus ride? What did she found out about the bus, and how did she save up the fare?
Answer: Valli had to instigate careful, painstaking, and elaborate plans before she could actually conduct a bus ride. She chose the time frame from one o'clock in the afternoon as her mother used to take a nap after having lunch. So she took the ride without her mother’s knowledge.
Valli found out every detail of the bus journey. The bus used to travel to a town which was six miles from the village and took thirty paise in one round. The trip took forty-five minutes to the town.
Valli spends the bucks required for the bus journey by spending money carefully whatever stray coins came her way. She had to resist her temptation to buy peppermints, toys, balloons. She even had to overlook her strong desire to ride the merry go round in the village fair to save the sixty paise.
32. Why does Valli refuse to look out of the window on her way back?
OR When did the bus trip lose its charm for Valli?
Answer: On her return journey, Valli saw a dead cow lying on the street. This was the same cow that was running along the bus cheerfully on her way to the town. But some moving vehicle had hit the cow to death. The horrifying scene of the dead cow made Valli sit quietly all through her way back to home.
