THE FUN THEY HAD
Question 1.
How old are Margie and Tommy?
Answer:
Margie is eleven and Tommy is thirteen-year old.
Question 2.
What did Margie write in her diary?
Answer:
Margie wrote, “Today Tommy found a real book!”
Question 3.
Had Margie ever seen a book before?
Answer:
No, Margie had never seen a book before.
Question 4.
What things about the book did she find strange?
Answer:
Margie found it strange that the words printed on a book stood still instead of moving the
way they did on a screen. She also found it odd that the words on a page always remained
the same as the first time they were read.
Question 5.
What do you think a telebook is?
Answer:
A book that can be displayed on a screen is called a telebook.
Question 6.
Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?
Answer:
Margie’s school was in her home itself. It was right next to her bedroom. No, she did not have
any classmates.
Question 7.
What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?
Answer:
Margie and Tommy learnt geography, history and arithmetic.
II. Answer the following with reference to the story.
Question 1.
“I wouldn’t throw it away.”
(a) Who says these words?
Answer:
Tommy said these words.
(b) What does ‘it’ refer to?
Answer:
‘It’ refers to the television screen.
(c) What is it being compared with by the speaker?
Answer:
Tommy is comparing the television screen to the real books. He thought that after reading
such books, one would have to throw them away but he would never throw away his
telebooks.
Question 2.
“Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
(a) Who does ‘they’ refer to?
Answer:
They refers to the students who studied in the old kind of schools.
(b) What does ‘regular’ mean here?
Answer:
Here, ‘regular’ refers to the mechanical teachers.
(c) What is it contrasted with?
Answer:
The mechanical teacher is contrasted with the human teachers of the earlier times.
III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
Question 1.
What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?
Answer:
The teachers of Margie and Tommy were different from the teachers of today. They were
robotic teachers. They were confined to study rooms and taught mechanically.
Question 2.
Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?
Answer:
Margie was working hard in geography under the guidance of the mechanical teacher, but
there was no improvement in her performance. It only kept getting worse. So Margie’s
mother sent . for the County Inspector to find out the fault and settle it.
Question 3.
What did he do?
Answer:
The County Inspector gave Margie an apple and started working on the mechanical teacher.
He took it apart and then checked it. Margie wished that the Inspector would not know how
to put the mechanical teacher together again. But he managed to reassemble it. He slowed
down the geography sector of the teacher which was geared a little faster for an average ten-
year-old.
Question 4.
Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
Answer:
Margie was doing badly in geography because the geography sector of the mechanical
teacher had been geared a little faster. The County Inspector rightly told her that she could
not be blamed for her poor performance. The County Inspector slowed down the geography
sector of the mechanical teacher to an average ten-year level.
Question 5.
What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
Answer:
Once the history sector of Tommy’s teacher had blanked out completely.
Question 6.
Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Answer:
Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school. This was because her mother believed
that learning at regular hours helped little girls learn better. Her mechanical teacher was
also on at the same time every day except Saturday and Sunday.
Question 7.
How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?
Answer:
Tommy describes the old kind of school as a special building where all kids studied together.
There were hundreds of students studying and playing together. They used to shout and
laugh together in an open yard.
Question 8.
How does he describe the old kind of teachers?
Answer:
According to Tommy, the old kind of teachers were human beings who taught the students
inside a special building. The teachers taught the children in groups and gave them
homework and asked them questions.
IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100-150 words).
Question 1.
What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and
Tommy have in the story?
Answer:
Margie and Tommy have mechanical teachers in their schools. They do not have separate
buildings for their schools. The next room to their bedroom is the schoolroom for them.
Their teachers are, in fact, robotic teachers. They have sectors of different subjects having set
text, speed and level.
The mechanical teachers have a big screen showing lessons and test papers. There is a slot
where each child has to put in his homework and test assignments for evaluation. These
teachers could evaluate the assignment in no time. They could tell how a child was
performing but could never tell why the child was performing badly.
Question 2.
Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?
Answer:
Margie did not like her school. The room next to her bedroom was her schoolroom where a
robotic teacher used to teach her every day at a fixed time. She did not like taking tests every
day. Her robotic teacher was giving her test after test in geography.
Her performance was worsening day by day. She learnt about the old schools from the book
found by Tommy. She learnt that the old schools were located in spacious buildings. All the
children from the neighbourhood used to go there together. They laughed, shouted and
played together. They learnt the same thing and could help one another in their homework.
She thought that these schools must have been fun.
Question 3.
Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the schools in the story. Give
reasons for your answer.
Answer:
Yes, I agree with Margie. In the story, there are no schools as such. The room next to their
bedroom is their school. They are taught by a mechanical teacher. There are no human
feelings. Everything is monotonous. The child has to complete its homework and put it in the
slot meant for it in the machine.
But, in the schools today, there are spacious buildings where all the kids from the
neighbourhood go together. They are taught by the human teachers. They study and play
together. They learn the same things so that they can help one another in their homework.
Question 2.
Now use these adverbs to fill in the blanks in the sentences below.
• The report must be read carefully so that performance can be improved.
• At the interview, Sameer answered our questions loftily, shrugging his shoulders.
• We all behave differently when we are tired or hungry.
• The teacher shook her head sorrowfully when Ravi lied to her.
• I completely forgot about it.
• When I complimented Revathi on her success, she just smiled nonchalantly and
turned away.
• The President of the Company is awfully busy and will not be able to meet you.
• I finished my work quickly so that I could go out to play.
Question 3.
Make adverbs from these adjectives.
(i) angry
(ii) happy
(iii) merry
(iv) sleepy
(v) easy
(vi) noisy
(vii) tidy
(viii) gloomy
Answer:
(i) angrily
(ii) happily
(iii) merrily
(iv) sleepily
(v) easily
(vi) noisily
(vii) tidily
(viii) gloomily
