CBSE Class 10 English The Trees Worksheet

The Trees

GIST
The poet talks about trees symbolically. They refer to women who have been healed and are ready to move out of their houses to fulfil their primary purpose - to renew the forest of mankind. As women have remained indoors, the forest has become empty, the birds and insects rendered shelter less. The Sun’s rays do not have the tree trucks and leaves to fall upon and thus, reach the earth. She says that the forest will be full of trees the next morning. The roots of the trees are working hard to separate from the floor of the veranda where they have remained fixed. The leaves and branches are moving towards the glass windows. They are desperate to move out just like a newly discharged patient who has not recovered completely, moves to the exit door of the hospital in a hurry. The poet is sitting in her house with the doors of the veranda open. She is writing letters but does not mention this movement of the trees. It is night time, the sky is clear and a bright moon is visible. She can smell the leaves and lichen which seem to be calling out desperately. She hears the glass of the window pane breaking. The trees are moving out and the fast blowing wind embraces them. As the trees have reached the forest, the tall and strong oak tree overshadows the moon and it seems that the moon has been broken into several pieces. The trees inside are moving out into the forest, the forest that was empty all these days where no bird could sit, no insect hide, no sun bury its feet in shadow, the forest that was empty all these nights will be full of trees by morning.

Read the lines given below and answer the questions that follow :

1. The trees inside are moving out into the forest.
the forest that was empty all these days
Where no bird could sit
no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow.

Question. Who cannot sit on the trees ?
(i) monkeys
(ii) birds
(iii) children
(iv) fishes
Answer.(ii) birds

Question. Where are the trees inside moving to ?
(i) on road
(ii) in plains
(iii) on mountains
(iv) into the forest
Answer.(iv) into the forest

Question. Who cannot hide in the trees ?
(i) birds
(ii) animals
(iii) insects
(iv) children
Answer.(iii) insects

Question. Which word here means ‘hide from view’ ?
(i) bury
(ii) disengage
(iii) shuffling
(iv) boughs
Answer.(i) bury

2. I sit inside, doors open to the verandah
Writing long letters
In which I scarcely mention the departure
of the forest from the house.
The night is fresh, the whole moon shines
in a sky still open
the smell of leaves and lichen
still reaches like a voice into the rooms.

Question. Where does the doors open ?
(i) verandah
(ii) balcony
(iii) garden
(iv) backyard
Answer.(i) verandah

Question. What is the name of the poem ?
(i) The Animals
(ii) The Trees
(iii) The Ball Poem
(iv) How to Tell Wild animals
Answer.(ii) The trees

Question. The figure of speech used in the last line “still reaches like a voice into the rooms”.
(i) imagery
(ii) simile
(iii) alliteration
(iv) metaphor
Answer.(ii) simile

Question. Which word in the passage means the same as ‘fragrance’ ?
(i) perfume
(ii) deodorant
(iii) air-freshner
(iv) smell
Answer.(iv) smell

3. Winds rush to meet them,
The moon is broken like a mirror;
Its pieces flash now in the crown
Of the tallest oak. 

Question. The moon is broken like a ..................... .
(i) crystal
(ii) glass
(iii) mirror
(iv) toy
Answer.(iii) mirror

Question. Its piece flash now in the .................... of the tallest oak.
(i) crown
(ii) branches
(iii) leaves
(iv) fruits
Answer.(i) crown

Question. Who rushes to meet trees ?
(i) sun
(ii) winds
(iii) rain
(iv) moon
Answer.(ii) winds

Question. Whose pieces flash now in the crown of the oak ?
(i) sun
(ii) earth
(iii) moon
(iv) planets
Answer.(iii) moon

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

1. All night the roots work
to disengage themselves from the cracks
on the veranda floor.
The leaves strain toward the glass
small twigs stiff with exertion
long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof
like newly discharged patients
half-dazed, moving
to the clinic doors.

Question. How are the small twigs?
Answer.The small twigs are stiff.

Question. Name the poem and the poetess.
Answer.
Poem: The Trees,
Poetess: Adrienne Rich.

Question. What are the boughs compared to?
Answer.The boughs are compared to newly discharged patients.

Question. What do the leaves do?
Answer.The leaves strain towards the glass.

Question. What do the roots do all night?
Answer.All night the roots work to free themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. 

2. The trees inside are moving out into the forest,the forest that was empty all these days
where no bird could sit
no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow
the forest that was empty all these nights
will be full of trees by morning.

Question. What type of trees are these?
Answer.These are decorative or picture trees.

Question. Why can’t birds sit in them or insects hide in them?
Answer.These are not real trees. These are the trees in a picture or decorative trees in a house.So, birds can’t sit in them and insects cannot hide there.

Question. How was the forest ‘all these nights’?
Answer.All these nights, the forest was empty.

Question. From where are the trees moving out into the forest?
Answer.The trees are moving out of the mind of the painter and coining on the canvas.

Question. Are these trees useful for birds and insects?
Answer.No, these trees are not useful for birds and insects.

3. The smell of leaves and lichen
still reaches like a voice into the rooms.
My head is full of whispers
which tomorrow will be silent.

Question. Which smell is reaching her?
Answer.The smell of leaves and lichen is reaching her.

Question. What is her head full of?
Answer.Her head is full of whispers.

Question. Name the poem and the poetess.
Answer.
Poem: The Trees,
Poetess: Adrienne Rich.

Question. Where is the poetess sitting at present?
Answer.At present, the poetess is sitting in her room.

Question. What will be silent tomorrow?
Answer.Tomorrow, the whispers will be silent. 

4. Listen. The glass is breaking.
The trees are stumbling forward
into the night Winds rush to meet them.
The moon is broken like a mirror,
its pieces flash now in the crown of the tallest oak.

Question. Why does the wind rush?
Answer.The wind rushes to meet the trees.

Question. What does the poetess say about the trees?
Answer.The poetess says that the trees are stumbling forward into the night.

Question. What rushes out to meet the trees?
Answer.The wind rushes out to meet the trees.

Question. What is happening to the glass?
Answer.The glass is breaking.

Question. How does the poetess describe the moon?
Answer.The poetess says that the moon is like a broken mirror.

5. I sit inside, doors open to the veranda
writing long letters
in which I scarcely mention the departure
of the forest from the house.
The night is fresh, the whole moon shines
in a sky still open. 

Question.What is the poetess doing?
Answer.The poetess is writing long letters.

Question. Where is the poetess sitting?
Answer. The poetess is sitting in her room.

Question.How is the sky?
Answer.The sky is still open.

Question.What does she not mention in her letters?
Answer.She does not mention the departure of the forest from the house.

Question.How does the poetess describe the night and the moon?
Answer.The night is pleasant and fresh. The full moon is shining.

Short Answer Questions :

Question.  What picture do these words create in your mind: “… sun bury its feet in shadow…”? What could the poet mean by the sun’s ‘feet?’
Answer. The sun’s feet are the rays of sun that reach the earth after falling on the leaves of the trees and finally, reach the earth’s surface.

Question.  Find, in the first stanza, three things that cannot happen in a treeless forest?
Answer. The three things mentioned in the first stanza that cannot happen in a treeless forest are:
1. Birds sitting on the tree branches.
2. The hiding of insects in the branches of trees
3. The sun burying its feet in the shadow of the trees in the forest. 

Question.  What does the poet compare their branches to?
Answer. The poet uses the word long cramped for the branches. She says that the branches are trying hard to come out of the roof. She then compares them with newly discharged patients who are trying to move out in their half consciousness.

Question. How does the poet describe the moon : (i) at the beginning of the third stanza, and (ii) at its end ? What causes this change ? 
Answer. As the poet watches the night sky from the window overlooking the verandah, the moon is full, shining brightly in the open sky. As she imagines the trees moving out of the house, she envisions the moon light rippling over the crown of the oak tree and she metaphorically compares it to moon, being broken into several pieces and each piece reflecting its light separately.

Question. Where are the trees in the poem? What do their roots, their leaves, and their twigs do?
Answer.The trees are in the poet’s house. The roots are working hard to remove themselves from the cracks of veranda. The leaves are making an effort to reach towards the glass in order to come out and the twigs are making attempts to set themselves free and reach the forest.

Question. (i) How does the poet describe the moon?
(a) At the beginning of the third stanza, and (b) at its end? What causes this change?
Answer.The poet describes the moon as a full moon in the beginning of the third stanza but at the end of the stanza, she describes it to be broken into pieces. The change in the moon is because of the trees.The trees that earlier were in the poet’s house have now reached the forest. Their long branches have cast a shadow on the full moon and now it appears to be broken into pieces like a mirror.

Question.  Why do you think the poet does not mention “the departure of the forest from the house” in her letters? (Could it be that we are often silent about important happenings that are so unexpected that they embarrass us? Think about this again when you answer the next set of questions.)?
Answer. The poet did not mention the departure of the forest from her house because it is a part of human nature to ignore the important matters of their life. We all know that trees are so important for our survival on earth. But still human beings are cutting them for making profits without even thinking of the aftermath.

Question. What happens to the house when the trees move out of it?
Answer. The house becomes silent as the fragrance of the leaves and lichens which was like a voice urging for a change can no longer be smelt.

Long Answer Questions :

Question. On the other hand, Adrienne Rich has been known to use trees as a metaphor for human beings;this is a recurrent image in her poetry. What new meanings emerge from the poem if you take its trees to be symbolic of this particular meaning?
Answer. If trees are to be taken as a symbol for human beings, then the poem will define the efforts of humans to free themselves from the clutches of the desire to achieve everything. All the human beings are under a constant pressure of being at the top in every field. Either they are forced by their own desire of doing so or there is a constant peer pressure on them. So, the human beings will set themselves free from this race and try to live a happy and peaceful life.

Question. Now that you have read the poem in detail, we can begin to ask what the poem might mean. Here are two suggestions. Can you think of others?
Does the poem present a conflict between man and nature? Compare it with A Tiger in the zoo. Is the
poet suggesting that plants and trees, used for ‘interior decoration’ in cities while forests are cut down,
are ’imprisoned’ and need to ‘break out’?
Answer. Yes, the poem presents a conflict between man and nature. Man is causing deforestation by cutting down the trees for his own use. On the other hand, he decorates his house with the trees. We are damaging our environment without even thinking about the end results. By clearing up the forests, we are endangering ourselves. So is with the animals too. We are ruining their natural habitat and killing them for our fun or food but on the other hand, we are keeping them in the cages on the pretext of safeguarding them by making sanctuaries and zoos. So, it is true that we are in a direct conflict with nature and making the other living beings prisoners, be it the trees or animals.

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:

‘I hope the part calls for some dialogue?’
‘Certainly. It’s speaking part…’

a) Each of the above statements is made by a different speaker. Identify both of them.
Sitalakanto Ray (Patol Babu) and Naresh Dutt are the speakers of these lines respectively.

b) What part does the first speaker talk about? Why does he want to know if it is a speaking part?
Here the speaker is talking about a small film role he had been offered. Being a renowned and a versatile theatre artist he would not like to perform a role without any dialogues, hence he wishes to know if it is a speaking part.

c) What did the first speaker get to speak in his past? Is he happy with it? Why/Why not?
The first speaker (Patol Babu) gets to speak a monosyllabic exclamation ‘oh’ in his role. Initially he is not happy with the brevity of the dialogue but eventually he comes to see immense possibilities in it.

Question. Short answer questions:

a) Why had Patol Babu lost his first job in Calcutta?
b) How does Patol Babu reconcile to the dialogue given to him?
c) What were the special touches that Patol Babu gave to his role to make it more authentic?
d) Why does Patol Babu walk away before he could be paid for his role? What does this reveal about his character?
Answer. a) Patol Babu used to work as clerk with Hudson and Kimberley in Calcutta. The war forced the company to retrench some of its staff in the Calcutta office. Unfortunately, Patol Babu became a victim to this retrenchment and lost his nine years old job.

b) Truly dejected to learn that he had just one word ‘Oh’! to speak in his part, Patol Babu felt that the unit had taken him for a ride. However, he reconciled himself to the dialogue by recalling how his mentor Gogon Pakrashi used to advise him never to consider it beneath his dignity to accept however small a part. Moreover he woke up to the immense acting possibilities in the monosyllable exclamation and reconciled to it.

c) Being a meticulous actor who had penchant for detail, Patol Babu made his small little role a very special one by adding some special touches of his own to it. First, he decided to be lost in reading a newspaper to bring out the character’s absent-mindness. Then he carefully planned how he would walk to the point of collision and bring out the emotions of irritation, anguish and pain on impact.

d) Patol Babu came from a theatre tradition of the time. when film making was still very new in India and therefore had strong amateur incline. He lacked the professional and materialistic outlook that most people in the film industry had. He walked away without bothering to be paid for his role because for him performing his role to the best of his ability was more important than earning money. Money was nothing against the intense satisfaction of a small job done with perfection and dedication.

Question. Essay Question:
Patol Babu is a man of destiny. Justify.
Answer. It is destiny that prevents him from continuing his career in theatre. Who knows he might have forayed into films, had he continued with theatre. Then it is his destiny again that he left his job with a railway company and joined Hudson and Kimberley in the hope of earning more but got retrenched nine years later due to war just as he was considering starting a club in his neighbourhood. He had to struggle even after for a comfortable living. It is destiny that he is offered a role in a film but then it is too small and insignificant to make such impact as an actor.

Question. Extrapolative Question:
Do you agree with the statement that Patol Babu is a practical man who comes to terms with whatever life has to offer?
Answer. Yes, Patol Babu is really a practical man who comes to terms with whatever life has to offer. He has taken ups and downs of his life in his stride.In his heydays in his youth he used to be a theatre artist. What popularity he enjoyed! He was in great demand as an actor. In fact he would appear in advertising handbills of theatre clubs and people would buy tickets to his shows. He enjoyed so much popularity and fan following, yet he did not go overboard. He continued to be the man he was – simple, humble and respectable.

Then the demands of life took him away from theatre and he got busy in his railway company job. He switched his job for higher salary. He joined Hudson and Kimberley where he had a smooth sailing for nine years. But then the World War II broke out and he lost his job in retrenchment – then a long struggle began for him. He tried everything he could – opened up a variety store, did odd jobs in companies, sold insurance but success eluded him everywhere. He kept trying like every practical man ought to. When the film role was offered to him, he was trying to take up a job with scrap iron dealer.

In performing the film role too, he was out rightly practical. He demanded his dialogue well in time so that he could rehearse it and do full justice to it.Perhaps the only impractical thing he does is not accept his remuneration for his role. On the whole, Patol Babu was a practical man who comes to terms with whatever life has to offer.