CBSE Class 10 English The Hundred Dresses Worksheet

1. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

The first period was a study period. Maddie tried to prepare her lessons, but she could not put her mind on her work. She had a very sick feeling in the bottom of her stomach. True, she had not enjoyed listening to Peggy ask Wanda how many dresses she had in her closet, but she had said nothing. She had stood by silently, and that was just as bad as what Peggy had done.

Question. How did she behave when Peggy made fun of Wanda?
(i) she sided with Peggy
(ii) she said nothing
(iii) she stood silently
(iv) she walked away
Answer. C

Question. What was wrong in Peggy’s behaviour according to Maddie?
(i) mocking others
(ii) arrogance
(iii) pessimism
(iv) bad mouthing
Answer. A

Question. What did Maddie want to do on finding Wanda?
(i) show her pleasure
(ii) show her anger
(iii) show her displeasure
(iv) show her regret
Answer. D

Question. Which of the following words expresses the exact meaning of the phrase ‘Sick feeling’?
(i) option 1
(ii) option 2
(iii) option 3
(iv) option 4
Answer. B

2. At last Maddie sat up in bed and pressed her forehead tight in her hands and really thought. This was the hardest thinking she had ever done. After a long, long time, she reached an important conclusion. She was never going to stand by and say nothing again. If she ever heard anybody picking on someone because they were funny looking or because they had strange names, she’d speak up. Even if it meant losing Peggy’s friendship. She had no way of making things right with Wanda, but from now on she would never make anybody else that unhappy again.

Question. Why did Maddie feel guilty of herself?
(i) because she never stopped Peggy from making fun of Wanda.
(ii) because she always made fun of others
(iii) both (i) and (ii)
(iv) none of these
Answer. A

Question. How can you say that Maddie was different from Peggy?
(i) Maddie belonged to a poor family
(ii) Maddie belonged to a rich family
(iii) Maddie was arrogant
(iv) Maddie was pretty
Answer. A

Question. ‘This was the hardest thinking she had ever done.’What was Maddie thinking?
(i) that she’ll never support Peggy in making fun of others.
(ii) that she’ll join Peggy in all mischiefs
(iii) that she’ll ask others to join them in doing so
(iv) none of these
Answer. A

Question. What do you mean by the phrase ‘picking on someone’?
(i) criticize someone
(ii) respect someone
(iii) pick someone
(iv) none of these
Answer. A

Question.  ______________ is a synonym of conclusion.
(i) start
(ii) twist
(iii) end
(iv) all of these
Answer. C

3. Wanda did not sit there because she was rough and noisy. On the contrary, she was very quiet and rarely said anything at all. And nobody had ever heard her laugh out loud. Sometimes she twisted her mouth into a crooked sort of smile, but that was all.

Question. Who was Wanda? Where did she sit?
Answer. Wanda Petronski was a little Polish girl who studied in the school with other American children. She sat in the corner where all the noisy kids sat. She sat there because she did not have any friends in the class.

Question. What kind of personality did she have?
Answer.  Wanda was a quiet and shy girl who did not speak a lot. She was not as bold and confrontational as the other students in her class.

4. The time when they thought about Wanda was outside of school hours — at noon-time when they were coming back to school or in the morning early before school began, when groups of two or three, or even more, would be talking and laughing on their way to the schoolyard. Then, sometimes, they waited for Wanda — to have fun with her.

Question. Who waited for Wanda outside the school? What kind of fun did they have with Wanda?
Answer. Some girls including Peggy and Maddie would wait for Wanda outside the school. They waited for her to make fun of her. They knew that she was poor but they would ask her how many dresses she had.

Question. What would Wanda’s answer be to their question?
Answer. Wanda would reply that she had a hundred dresses and sixty pairs of shoes. She would go on to elaborate on how the dresses would be beautiful and colourful.

5. As for Maddie, this business of asking Wanda every day how many dresses and how many hats, and how many this and that she had was bothering her.

Question. Why was Maddie anxious about the questions Peggy asked Wanda?
Answer. Maddie was afraid that one day, the girls in the class may turn on her and tease her with the same questions as she too was poor.

Question. Was she truly sympathetic toward Wanda? What does she decide?
Answer. No. She was not sympathetic toward Wanda.She was worried about herself. She decides to write a note to Peggy to ask her to stop picking on Wanda.

6. There were drawings all over the room, on every ledge and windowsill, dazzling colours and brilliant, lavish designs, all drawn on great sheets of wrapping paper. There must have been a hundred of them, all lined up. These must be the drawings for the contest. They were! Everybody stopped and whistled or murmured admiringly.

Question. Who had put up the drawings all over the room?
What was the reason for putting up the drawings?
Answer. Wanda had put up the drawings all over the room. These were drawings of different kinds of dresses in various colours and designs. Wanda had entered these drawings in the drawing contest.

Question. What was the outcome of the drawings? What happened later?
Answer. Wanda won the contest but she was not in the class to receive the award. She had already left for another country with her father.

Question. Who usually sat in the corner where Wanda’s seat was?
Answer. Wanda’s seat was in the corner where rough students who did not make good marks sat. The corner of the room was where there was most scuffling of feet, most roars of laughter when anything funny was said and most mud and dirt from students’ feet on the floor.

Question. What was the drawing contest all about?
Answer. The drawing and colouring contest was for both boys and girls. For girls, this contest consisted of designing dresses and for boys, of designing motorboats.

Question. Why did Maddie think Peggy would win the contest?
Answer. Peggy drew better than anyone else in the room. She could copy any picture from a magazine or draw any film star so well that you could almost tell who it was. Everybody thought that Peggy would win and so Maddie thought the same.

Question. What kind of a girl was Wanda Petronski? Why?
Answer. Wanda was a quiet girl. She rarely said anything at all. Nobody had ever heard her laugh out loud. She smiled only with a twist in her face. She was reserved and introvert. She was the only Polish girl in the class. She felt alone and inferior in her class which had clear majority of American boys and girls.

Question. How would Wanda react to being made fun of her by Peggy and Maddie?
Answer. Wanda know that Peggy and Maddie would make fun of her. Wanda would move in the streets with dull eyes and closed mouth. It was because of insults. She hitched her left shoulder every now and then in a funny way. She would alone finish the walk to school and she always remained serious.

Question. What did Maddie do after solving her arithmetic problems?
Answer. Maddie felt bad that Peggy made fun of Wanda. She couldn’t say it directly to Peggy. She was angry. But she did not show it. So, she started writing a note to her about it. Suddenly she started picturing herself in place of Wanda. She started shaking and immediately came out of her trance

Question. What was the drawing and colouring contest? How was Peggy known to fare in it?
Answer. The drawing and colouring contest consisted of designing dresses. For boys, it was about designing motorboats. The most beautiful drawing was to be declared first. Peggy was known to draw better than anyone else in the room. She could copy a picture from a magazine or some film star quiet correctly. Maddie was sure Peggy would win.

Question. Why did Peggy and Maddie not notice Wanda’s absence?
Answer. Peggy and Maddie did not notice Wanda’s absence since Wanda was a quiet girl and usually did not communicate with the other children of the class. She sat in the corner of the class and her presence did not matter much to Peggy and Maddie. They considered her inconsequential.

Question. How did Wanda describe her hundred dresses?
Answer. Wanda said that her hundred dresses were silky and very colourful. She took great pride in describing them. All the dresses she described were different from each other. One was pale blue with coloured trimmings, another was brilliant jungle green with a red sash.

Question. How do you know that Peggy was a kind girl though she was a bit harsh to Wanda?
Answer. Peggy was a kind girl and she always protected small children from the bullies in the school. She was kind to the animals as she would shed tears whenever she noticed an animal in agony and misery.

Question. Who among girls was the winner of this contest? How?
Answer. Peggy’s drawings always won prizes in the past. But now Wanda Petronski was the winner of the girls’ medal. In fact, she had drawn one hundred designs. All designs were beautiful and unique. In the opinion of the judges, any single dress of the drawing was worthy of winning the prize. They had a magic about them.

Question. How did the children like Wanda’s drawings?
Answer. The children were very amazed looking at those beautiful drawings. They stopped short and gasped as soon as they entered the classroom and saw them. Everybody whistled and murmured admiringly because the drawings were so beautiful and they could not stop praising it. These drawings were present on every wall and windows sill and they had brilliant designs. Whoever looked at them could not help but praise them.

Question. Peggy teased Wanda in school. But she did not realise that she was being cruel. She justified it by saying that Wanda lied. Are these the traits of a bully? Give ways to stop bullying in school.
Answer. Yes, these are the traits of a bully. A bully usually identifies a soft target, some one who will not retaliate and will tolerate the bullying quietly. In this case, Peggy did not realise that she is being a bully. She believed that since Wanda lied about the number of dresses she had, it give her the right to tease and question her about them. She knew it very well that she was bullying or harassing poor Wanda, but she was also conscious of not being considered a bad person. So, she justified herself by saying that Wanda has been a liar so she deserved the treatment. She bullied her with the backing of the other girls. One way of stopping this phenomenon in schools is to sensitise all the students to the individuality and uniqueness of each student. The other way is to punish anyone found bullying severely so as to deter others from indulging in bullying.

Question. Write the character sketch of Maddie.
Answer. Maddie is a poor American girl who is the best friend of the most popular girl in school. Though she always partakes in teasing Wanda, she is uncomfortable doing so. She does not stop her friend from doing so in the fear of becoming the next target for teasing. She is well aware that Peggy is wrong and needs to be corrected, but she is helpless as she doesn’t want to get into the wrong books with Peggy. So though her heart is in the right place and she feels bad for Wanda, Maggie does not have the courage to stand up against the wrong that her friend is doing. She justifies herself by believing that since Peggy is the most popular girl in school, she will never do anything wrong.

Question. Read the extracts given below and comment on the difference in the nature of both the female characters in the story.
On the contrary, she was very quiet and rarely said anything at all. And nobody had ever heard her laugh out loud. Sometimes she twisted her mouth into a crooked sort of smile, but that was all.
Answer. In the second extract Wanda is portrayed as a very quiet girl who did not have any friends. She never used to talk to anyone in the class and sat in a corner. She did not even laugh and always twisted her lips to smile very lightly, that too very rarely. She went to school alone and came back alone and preferred to be alone. Wanda has been shown in the story as a quiet and submissive girl.

Question. How did Peggy make fun of Wanda? How did Wanda react to that?
Answer. Peggy always mocked at Wanda because Wanda wore the same dress to school every day. It was clean, but it looked as though it had never been ironed properly. Peggy would push Maddie gently and ask Wanda to tell them how many dresses she had. Wanda would reply ‘A hundred.’ The other girls would show amazement. They would stop playing. Peggy would then ask what those dresses were like. Wanda would reply “all silk, all colours, velvet.” All were lined up in her closet, she would say. She would also say that she had sixty pairs of shoes. Wanda did not show any emotion. All the girls would burst into laughter because they knew Wanda was lying.

Question. What was the drawing and colour contest? Who was expected to win it but who actually won it? How did Miss Mason announce it?
Answer. For girls, the drawing and colour contest consisted of designing dresses. For boys, it was designing motorboats. Everybody thought Peggy would win it as she drew better than anyone else in the class. On the day of the announcement of the winners, all entered the classroom. They saw the drawings. They stopped short and gasped. There were beautiful drawings covering the walls of the class. They were in dazzling colours. Everybody praised them. Miss Mason declared Wanda as the winner of the contest for girls. She also stated that Jack Beggles had won the prize for the boys. His design for an outboard motor was on display in Room twelve.

Question. Why did Wanda leave school? How did the attitude of her classmates hurt her? Should we have such attitude towards our classmates? How should we treat the students like Wanda?
Answer. Wanda was a Polish girl studying in a school with American girls. She was not treated well by her classmates. The girls made fun of her name and dresses. One day, her father wrote a letter to the school informing that they were moving to a big city where no one would make fun of her name and status. The attitude of her classmates had hurt her. One should not have such attitude towards their classmates. Every school and class has students like Wanda who do not come from affluent families. We should not make fun of their dresses or their status. We should judge them according to their talent and we should recognise their creativity.
Moreover, every individual possesses equal right to education and we must learn to give everybody an equal and unbiased treatment.

Question. Give a brief character sketch of Wanda?
Answer. Wanda was a simple and poor girl but she was goodhearted. She was quiet and introvert by nature and always sat in the corner of the classroom as she had to hide her legs and shoes which would get caked with dust and mud on her way to school. She was a timid girl who could not counter the taunting of Peggy and Maddie. She was lonely as she did not have any friends and was always alone while going to school and coming back from there. On the other side, she was a creative and artistic girl. She was able to transform her dreams of having a variety of dresses in the form of designs rather than feeling depressed for not possessing those beautiful dresses. Though Peggy and Maddie made fun of her in front of other students, she never retaliates. She won the prize for her hundred dresses along with a great applause from all the students. She had some positive values in her character. She was a creative, patient and determined girl. She had a dream too. She was an ambitious girl who wanted to do something good in her life.

Please click on below link to download CBSE Class 10 English The Hundred Dresses Worksheet