1. The Drama Club of your school has decided to conduct a drama festival in your school. The play ‘Listen to the Mountain’ will be staged at the inaugural function. Prepare a notice inviting the students and parents to the programme.
2. The people of the village in the play ‘Listen to the Mountain’, are worried about the construction of the five-star hotel which could destroy the Dharmagiri mountain, the river, the trees and the animals there. A local newspaper wants you to report the environmental hazards, the construction could cause. Prepare the likely news report.
FIVE - STAR HOTEL ON DHARMAGIRI;
VILLAGERS ARE WORRIED
Dharmagiri, August 8: The famous industrialist Mr. Dixit’s new project has been launched on Dharmagiri Mountain. It is a five-star hotel with all the modern facilities. It mainly focuses on tourists. It is estimated that about 300 rooms will be there and they expect a lot of tourists since it is in a beautiful place.
The villagers of Dharmagiri are so worried about the new construction. They argue that there is only one building in Dharmagiri. It is a 300-year-old temple. There is no need of a huge building like a five-star hotel in that place, they say. It is also said that the earth there could not hold a structure taller than thirty feet. The villagers are about to protest against the construction.
3. Prepare a profile of Khalil Gibran using the hints given below. Use appropriate linkers wherever necessary.
Born - January 6, 1883, Lebanon
Famous as - Lebanese American philosophical essayist, novelist, poet, artist
Early life - Immigrated with his parents to Boston, 1895.
Influences - Friedrich Nietzsche, William Blake
Themes - Love, death, nature, longing for the homeland
Principal works - The Madman (1918), The Forerunner (1920), The Prophet (1923), Sand and Foam (1926)
Death - April 10, 1931, New York, U.S.
Answer: Khalil Gibran was born on January 6, 1883 in Lebanon. He was a Labanese-American philosophical essayist, novelist, poet and artist. The young Gibran immigrated with his parents to Boston in 1895. He was influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche and William Blake. The themes of his works were, love, death, nature, longing for the homeland etc. His principal works are ‘The Madman’ (1918), ‘The Forerunner’ (1920), ‘The Prophet’ (1923) and ‘Sand and Foam’ (1926). He passed away on April 10, 1931 in New York, U.S.
4. Read the excerpt from the play ‘Listen to the Mountain’ and answer the questions that follow. Each question carries one score.
Suddenly there is a terrific rumble and roar, like rocks falling. It lasts for thirty seconds. Tremendous noise of horns blaring, voices screaming and shrieking.
Voices offstage : Landslide! Landslide! (Dixit and Sagar look around in panic, they stagger about, then run offstage.)
Narayan : (shouts) Let us get help! We must help the injured. Hurry! Hurry!
(The injured are carried away on makeshift stretchers by children. Some hobble and limp. Slowly, the commotion dies and noise fades.)
Grandmother : (In a sad, slow voice to audience) Finally the mountain spoke loud enough for everyone to hear (pauses) For our village, it was a tragedy. Ten houses buried beneath the landslide. Eleven people killed, including two children... (wipes her eyes) I knew it all along. Nature always speaks if we care to listen...
a. How did the mountain respond, for everyone to hear?
b. ‘We must help the injured.’ What attitude of Narayan is revealed in this statement?
c. ‘Dixit and Sagar look around in panic, they stagger about, then run offstage.’ Choose the function of the word underlined from the options given.
(noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial phrase)
d. ‘The injured are carried away on makeshift stretchers by children’. Write any other help the children might have given to the injured. (Write any one.)
e. Pick out the words that indicate the terrific sound of the landslide.
Answer:
a. The mountain responded with a terrible landslide.
b. His helping mentality and concern towards his fellow-beings are revealed here.
c. verb phrase
d. They might have given water to the injured.
e. rumble, roar
5. The Grandmother in the play ‘Listen to the Mountain’ is desperate when she comes to know that Sagar is not ready to give up his decision to construct a hotel on the Dharmagiri. Many disturbing thoughts regarding the effects of this on the inhabitants of the village worries her. What would be her thoughts? Write in a paragraph.
Answer: Dharmagiri, the place where I was born and brought up is going to get destroyed. I can hear the silent cries of nature, animals and birds. They are realising the fact that their land is about to be destroyed. Why can’t those people understand what the villagers said. Why don’t they think that native people can understand more about their land than others like architects and contractors do. It hurts me a lot. The destruction of Dharmagiri will not affect me since I am so old. But what about my children, grandchildren, great - grandchildren and the poor villagers? How will it affect them? I don’t have any idea. I hope nature herself will do something to save her.
6. The play, ‘Listen to the Mountain‘ highlights the need for preserving nature. Prepare a speech on the topic, ‘Care for Nature’ in the light of your reading of the play.
Dear friends,
Today I am here to talk to you a few words about the subject ‘Care for Nature’. There is a famous quote of the Father of our Nation that ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.’ Nowadays our deeds are so selfish that we are not at all aware of the problems that we are causing to our nature. It includes construction of huge buildings, filling of rivers and fields, deforestation, pollution etc. We are ignoring the fact that we are existing only because of the resources that our nature provides us. If we are destroying nature like this, our future generations will be in severe scarcity of the very essential things like pure air and water. So it is our responsibility to care for our nature and to save the resources that nature provides us. As children, we should be very careful about each and every activity of us, so that our deeds will not affect nature.
Let me hope that our deeds will not affect our nature negatively any more.
Thank you
7. The construction of the five-star hotel in the play ‘Listen to the Mountain’ led to a massive landslide and a lot of other environmental issues. A meeting was held at the Dharmagiri village to protest against the man-made threats to nature. Prepare the text of the speech to be delivered at the meeting.
Dear friends,
I am so much worried while I am standing before you. As we all know, the efforts to construct a five-star hotel on Dharmagiri hills caused a landslide which took away the life of eleven people, including two children and the destruction of several houses. It was the first time that there occurred a landslide. And it is sure that it was nature’s reaction to the man-made threats to nature.
So, from today onwards we must be very careful about our actions which affect nature. We should not allow anybody to do harm to nature. We can’t protect the whole earth, but every village can protect their own space. It will result in the protection of the whole earth. Our protest and actions should be there against deforestation, land levelling, filling of rivers and fields, pollution etc. Severe actions should be taken against those who are causing problems that affect nature.
Let me hope our decisions will be carried out earnestly and our nature will not get affected by our actions any more.
Thank you
8. Read the following lines from ‘Song of the Rain’ and prepare a note of appreciation.
I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven
By the Gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn
Her fields and valleys.
I am beautiful pearls, plucked from the
Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn
To embellish the gardens.
When I cry, the hills laugh;
When I humble myself, the flowers rejoice;
When I bow, all things are elated.
Answer:
‘Song of the Rain’ is a poem by Khalil Gibran describing the heavenly beauty of the rain. The poem is written in the first person
(I, me, my) and the rain itself is the speaker. The rain looks like dotted silver threads dropped from heaven. It describes its birth, it comes down to the earth and its departure much like the cycle of birth and death of living beings. The rain says, it rises from the heart of the sea and rises in the sky to form clouds. The clouds are overloaded with water. So it becomes painful to the clouds. Furthermore, the cloud wants to meet its lover, the field, lower down. So it rains from the clouds. The rainwater meets the field and makes it happy. At the same time, the cloud gets relief when it becomes light by releasing the water as rain. The rain gives happiness to everything on the earth - the trees, flowers and all. Thunder announces its arrival and rainbow announces its departure. Thus the rain is a messenger of love, mercy and blessing.
The poem is so realistic that the reader can see the rain as a person. He can visualise its birth and its meeting with the field as the messenger of the cloud.
The poet has made the poem attractive by the use of figures of speech - similes, metaphors and instances of personification
9. The children of Dharmagiri, led by the headmaster Mr. Narayan decide to stage a protest against the proposed construction in the village. One of the children addresses the villagers to explain the dangers of such ecologically insensitive development. Write the likely speech.
Answer:
Respected Headmaster, my dear friends,
We came to know that a five-star hotel is going to be constructed on the top of Dharmagiri. Do you think it will lead our village to development? Obviously it may bring development in many fields. But there are several things to be considered along with developments. The most important among them is this. It is nature that provides us with what we need. So when we are engaged in developmental activities, we have to be careful about not disturbing the balance in nature. The earth is not meant for the pleasures of humans only. It belongs to all the living beings on it like plants and animals.
Here, Dharmagiri which is the backbone of our village is selected by them for constructing a five-star hotel. If it happens so, the whole village will suffer and the plants and animals who live there will lose their shelters. It may cause imbalance in nature and pollution of our river.
So, it is our responsibility as well as our need to protect Dharmagiri from this problem. Let’s move together for that.
Thank you.
10. Read the given lines from ‘Song of the Rain’ and answer the questions that follow: The voice of thunder declares my arrival;
The rainbow announces my departure.
I am like earthly life, which begins at
The feet of the mad elements and ends
Under the upraised wings of death.
I emerge from the heart of the sea
Soar with the breeze. When I see a field in
Need, I descend and embrace the flowers and
The trees in a million little ways,
I touch gently at the windows with my
Soft fingers, and my announcement is a
Welcome song. All can hear, but only
The sensitive can understand.
a) ‘When I see a field in need...’ What is the ‘need’ referred to here?
b) Pick out an instance of personification from the above stanza?
c) How does the rain respond to the needs of the flowers and trees?
d) The announcement of the rain is compared to a welcome song. What does welcome song mean here?
(Choose from the options given.)
a) song of the nature
b) song which brings new life to earth.
c) song sung by a singer
d) song of the birds.
Answer:
a) ‘The need’ that is referred to here is this-Whenever plants and animals on it suffer greatly for want of water in dry weather. It is their need for water that is referred to here.
b) ‘I touch gently at the windows with my soft fingers’. In this line, rain is treated as a person.
c) Whenever the flowers and trees need water, the rain will come down from the clouds and help them.
d) Song which brings new life to earth.
11. Read the following conversation between Grandmother and Narayan.
Grandmother : What did the children have to say?
Narayan : They don’t want a hotel on Dharmagiri.
Now complete the following sentences.
Grandmother asked Narayan .....................
Narayan replied that ...............................
Answer:
Grandmother asked Narayan what the children had to say.
Narayan replied that they didn’t want a hotel on Dharmagiri.
12. Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech focuses on the increasing amount of carbon emissions and how they become a threat to the environment. Analyse the table given below that shows the rate of carbon dioxide emission in different countries and answer the questions that follow:
Suddenly there is a terrific rumble and roar, like rocks falling. It lasts for thirty seconds. Tremendous noise of horns blaring, voices screaming and shrieking.
Voices offstage : Landslide! Landslide! (Dixit and Sagar look around in panic, they stagger about, then run offstage.)
Narayan : (shouts) Let us get help! We must help the injured. Hurry! Hurry!
(The injured are carried away on makeshift stretchers by children. Some hobble and limp. Slowly, the commotion dies and noise fades.)
Grandmother : (In a sad, slow voice to audience) Finally the mountain spoke loud enough for everyone to hear (pauses) For our village, it was a tragedy. Ten houses buried beneath the landslide. Eleven people killed, including two children... (wipes her eyes) I knew it all along. Nature always speaks if we care to listen...
a. How did the mountain respond, for everyone to hear?
b. ‘We must help the injured.’ What attitude of Narayan is revealed in this statement?
c. ‘Dixit and Sagar look around in panic, they stagger about, then run offstage.’ Choose the function of the word underlined from the options given.
(noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial phrase)
d. ‘The injured are carried away on makeshift stretchers by children’. Write any other help the children might have given to the injured. (Write any one.)
e. Pick out the words that indicate the terrific sound of the landslide.
Answer:
a. The mountain responded with a terrible landslide.
b. His helping mentality and concern towards his fellow-beings are revealed here.
c. verb phrase
d. They might have given water to the injured.
e. rumble, roar
5. The Grandmother in the play ‘Listen to the Mountain’ is desperate when she comes to know that Sagar is not ready to give up his decision to construct a hotel on the Dharmagiri. Many disturbing thoughts regarding the effects of this on the inhabitants of the village worries her. What would be her thoughts? Write in a paragraph.
Answer: Dharmagiri, the place where I was born and brought up is going to get destroyed. I can hear the silent cries of nature, animals and birds. They are realising the fact that their land is about to be destroyed. Why can’t those people understand what the villagers said. Why don’t they think that native people can understand more about their land than others like architects and contractors do. It hurts me a lot. The destruction of Dharmagiri will not affect me since I am so old. But what about my children, grandchildren, great - grandchildren and the poor villagers? How will it affect them? I don’t have any idea. I hope nature herself will do something to save her.
6. The play, ‘Listen to the Mountain‘ highlights the need for preserving nature. Prepare a speech on the topic, ‘Care for Nature’ in the light of your reading of the play.
Dear friends,
Today I am here to talk to you a few words about the subject ‘Care for Nature’. There is a famous quote of the Father of our Nation that ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.’ Nowadays our deeds are so selfish that we are not at all aware of the problems that we are causing to our nature. It includes construction of huge buildings, filling of rivers and fields, deforestation, pollution etc. We are ignoring the fact that we are existing only because of the resources that our nature provides us. If we are destroying nature like this, our future generations will be in severe scarcity of the very essential things like pure air and water. So it is our responsibility to care for our nature and to save the resources that nature provides us. As children, we should be very careful about each and every activity of us, so that our deeds will not affect nature.
Let me hope that our deeds will not affect our nature negatively any more.
Thank you
7. The construction of the five-star hotel in the play ‘Listen to the Mountain’ led to a massive landslide and a lot of other environmental issues. A meeting was held at the Dharmagiri village to protest against the man-made threats to nature. Prepare the text of the speech to be delivered at the meeting.
Dear friends,
I am so much worried while I am standing before you. As we all know, the efforts to construct a five-star hotel on Dharmagiri hills caused a landslide which took away the life of eleven people, including two children and the destruction of several houses. It was the first time that there occurred a landslide. And it is sure that it was nature’s reaction to the man-made threats to nature.
So, from today onwards we must be very careful about our actions which affect nature. We should not allow anybody to do harm to nature. We can’t protect the whole earth, but every village can protect their own space. It will result in the protection of the whole earth. Our protest and actions should be there against deforestation, land levelling, filling of rivers and fields, pollution etc. Severe actions should be taken against those who are causing problems that affect nature.
Let me hope our decisions will be carried out earnestly and our nature will not get affected by our actions any more.
Thank you
8. Read the following lines from ‘Song of the Rain’ and prepare a note of appreciation.
I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven
By the Gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn
Her fields and valleys.
I am beautiful pearls, plucked from the
Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn
To embellish the gardens.
When I cry, the hills laugh;
When I humble myself, the flowers rejoice;
When I bow, all things are elated.
Answer:
‘Song of the Rain’ is a poem by Khalil Gibran describing the heavenly beauty of the rain. The poem is written in the first person
(I, me, my) and the rain itself is the speaker. The rain looks like dotted silver threads dropped from heaven. It describes its birth, it comes down to the earth and its departure much like the cycle of birth and death of living beings. The rain says, it rises from the heart of the sea and rises in the sky to form clouds. The clouds are overloaded with water. So it becomes painful to the clouds. Furthermore, the cloud wants to meet its lover, the field, lower down. So it rains from the clouds. The rainwater meets the field and makes it happy. At the same time, the cloud gets relief when it becomes light by releasing the water as rain. The rain gives happiness to everything on the earth - the trees, flowers and all. Thunder announces its arrival and rainbow announces its departure. Thus the rain is a messenger of love, mercy and blessing.
The poem is so realistic that the reader can see the rain as a person. He can visualise its birth and its meeting with the field as the messenger of the cloud.
The poet has made the poem attractive by the use of figures of speech - similes, metaphors and instances of personification
9. The children of Dharmagiri, led by the headmaster Mr. Narayan decide to stage a protest against the proposed construction in the village. One of the children addresses the villagers to explain the dangers of such ecologically insensitive development. Write the likely speech.
Answer:
Respected Headmaster, my dear friends,
We came to know that a five-star hotel is going to be constructed on the top of Dharmagiri. Do you think it will lead our village to development? Obviously it may bring development in many fields. But there are several things to be considered along with developments. The most important among them is this. It is nature that provides us with what we need. So when we are engaged in developmental activities, we have to be careful about not disturbing the balance in nature. The earth is not meant for the pleasures of humans only. It belongs to all the living beings on it like plants and animals.
Here, Dharmagiri which is the backbone of our village is selected by them for constructing a five-star hotel. If it happens so, the whole village will suffer and the plants and animals who live there will lose their shelters. It may cause imbalance in nature and pollution of our river.
So, it is our responsibility as well as our need to protect Dharmagiri from this problem. Let’s move together for that.
Thank you.
10. Read the given lines from ‘Song of the Rain’ and answer the questions that follow: The voice of thunder declares my arrival;
The rainbow announces my departure.
I am like earthly life, which begins at
The feet of the mad elements and ends
Under the upraised wings of death.
I emerge from the heart of the sea
Soar with the breeze. When I see a field in
Need, I descend and embrace the flowers and
The trees in a million little ways,
I touch gently at the windows with my
Soft fingers, and my announcement is a
Welcome song. All can hear, but only
The sensitive can understand.
a) ‘When I see a field in need...’ What is the ‘need’ referred to here?
b) Pick out an instance of personification from the above stanza?
c) How does the rain respond to the needs of the flowers and trees?
d) The announcement of the rain is compared to a welcome song. What does welcome song mean here?
(Choose from the options given.)
a) song of the nature
b) song which brings new life to earth.
c) song sung by a singer
d) song of the birds.
Answer:
a) ‘The need’ that is referred to here is this-Whenever plants and animals on it suffer greatly for want of water in dry weather. It is their need for water that is referred to here.
b) ‘I touch gently at the windows with my soft fingers’. In this line, rain is treated as a person.
c) Whenever the flowers and trees need water, the rain will come down from the clouds and help them.
d) Song which brings new life to earth.
11. Read the following conversation between Grandmother and Narayan.
Grandmother : What did the children have to say?
Narayan : They don’t want a hotel on Dharmagiri.
Now complete the following sentences.
Grandmother asked Narayan .....................
Narayan replied that ...............................
Answer:
Grandmother asked Narayan what the children had to say.
Narayan replied that they didn’t want a hotel on Dharmagiri.
12. Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech focuses on the increasing amount of carbon emissions and how they become a threat to the environment. Analyse the table given below that shows the rate of carbon dioxide emission in different countries and answer the questions that follow:
| Sl. No. | Country | 2011 Total Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emission (Million metric Tons) |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Japan | 1180.2 |
| 2. | Russia | 1788.14 |
| 3. | United States of America | 5490.63 |
| 4. | India | 1725.76 |
| 5. | China | 8715.31 |
| 6. | Germany | 748.49 |
b. Which country has the second highest carbon dioxide emission?
c. CO2 emission of ................ is less than 1000 Metric tonnes.
d. Which, according to you, are the two countries that pose the greatest threat to the environment?
e. Which country is just below Russia in the rate of carbon dioxide emissions?
Answers:
a. Japan
b. United States of America
c. Germany
d. China and United States of America
e. India
13. Leonardo DiCaprio, the famous Hollywood actor, delivered a speech on climate change at the UN Climate Summit. He spoke on the measures we must adopt to prevent the collapse of our ecosystems. The actor’s speech was widely reported in the newspapers. Write the likely news report.
Answer:
‘Climate change is not hysteria- it’s a fact’- Leonardo DiCaprio
October 4, 2017: The famous American actor and film producer Leonardo DiCaprio delivered a speech about ‘development and its effects on environment’ at the UN Climate Summit. He gave focus on the idea that climate crisis is not an imaginary issue, but it is a reality. He pointed out several climatic issues such as droughts, the acidity of the oceans, emission of methane gas from the ocean floor, rise of temperature, melting of the ice-sheets etc. which would lead the earth to its destruction. All these were predicted by scientists, but they too had not expected them to happen so early, he said.
In order to have solutions for these climatic changes, which form the greatest threat to our security, he suggested some methods. They include control over the use of fossil fuels, stoppage of giving subsidy for coal, gas and oil companies etc. At the end, he requested everyone to take up the challenge to save the world.
It was a thought-provoking speech, which made everyone realise the importance of saving the earth from destruction.
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