VBQs Class 12 English An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum (Stephen Spender)

Please refer to VBQs for Class 12 English An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum. All value based questions for English Class 12 have been provided with solutions. We have provided below important values questions and answers. Students should learn these solved VBQs for Class 12 English as these will help them to gain more marks and help improve understanding of important topics.

An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum VBQs Class 12 English with Answers

Question. Who spell hope for the slum children ?
(A) school
(B) Shakespeare
(C) governor, inspector
(D) none

Question. His eyes live in a dream, A squirrel’s game, in the tree room, other than this means the boy is
(A) full of hope
(B) mentally ill
(C) distracted from the lesson
(D) None

Question. The night is endless as there is no ……………………….. for them.
(A) support
(B) future
(C) education
(D) wealth

Question. Why is the boy called ‘the stunted unlucky heir’ ?
(A) He has not inherited the property
(B) He has not received education
(C) He has received disability from his father
(D) None of the above

Question. What are the classrooms like ?
(A) temples of learning
(B) dim and pathetic
(C) means of escape
(D) a happy place

Question. What are children like in the slums ?
(A) underfed and sickly
(B) poor but happy
(C) underfed but energetic
(D) happy and playful

Question. The paper seeming boy with rat’s eyes means :
(A) secretive
(B) thin, hungry, weak
(C) Unpleasant looking
(D) uncomfortable

EXTRACT BASED QUESTIONS :

Far far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
Like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:
The tall girl with her weighed- down head. The paper-
seeming boy, with rat’s eyes……

Question. How are the children ?
(A) Happy
(B) Sad and disappointed
(C) smart and active
(D) miserable and depressed

Question. Who are they like ?
(A) rootless weeds
(B) flying birds
(C) floating boats
(D) budding flowers

Question. Which children are referred to in the above lines ?
(A) Street children
(B) Children of an orphanage
(C) Slum children
(D) Children of an asylum

Question. What are they away from ?
(A) nature/gusty waves
(B) towns and cities
(C) oceans
(D) hills and mountains

Question. Who is speaking the above lines ?
(A) The poet
(B) the administrator
(C) the governor
(D) the masters

Question. How is the boy described above ?
(A) as thin as a paper.
(B) rat’s eyes.
(C) stunted
(D) All the above

Question. Who is the poet ?
(A) Pablo Neruda
(B) Stephen Spender
(C) Kamala Das
(D) Adrienne Rich

Question. How is the girl ?
(A) Her head is down
(B) Her eyes are watchful
(C) Her dress is beautiful

The stunted, unlucky heir
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lesson, from his desk. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.

Question. Who is sitting ‘ unnoted’ ?
(A) A young boy
(B) A soldier
(C) A master
(D) A shepherd

Question. What is a tree room here ?
(A) the branch of a tree
(B) The squirrel’s hole
(C) nest of a pigeon
(C) tree leaves

Question. Who is the ‘unlucky heir’ above ?
(A) A young boy
(B) A young girl
(C) A rabbit
(D) An old master

On sour cream walls,donations,Shakespeare’s head,
Cloudless at dawn,civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled,flowery,Tyrolese valley.Open handed map
Awarding the world its world.

Question. What are ‘donations’ above ?
(A) Pictures on the walls of the classroom
(B) colour of the walls
(C) Roof of the school 
(D) Black board in the classroom

Question. What is not described above ?
(A) Shakespeare’s head
(B) cloudless dawn
(C) Hawaiian islands
(D) Tyrolese valley

Question. Name the poem and the poet.
(A) An Elementary School Classroom in A Slum by Stephen Spender
(B) My Mother At Sixty six by Kamala Das
(C) Keeping quiet by Pablo Neruda
(D) A thing of Beauty by John Keats

And yet, for these
Children,these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers,capes, and stars of words.

Question. The lives of the children are confined in
(A) elementary school
(B) Narrow streets of the slum
(C) Shakespeare’s world
(D) Tyrolese valley

Question. Which of the following words imply a bleak future ?
(A) sour cream walls
(B) awarding the world its world
(C) future’s painted with fog
(D) Shakespeare’s head

Question. What do the words ‘future’s painted with fog’ imply ?
(A) No love and care
(B) no warmth
(C) no hardwork
(D) no scope for improvement

Question. What is the future of the children ?
(A) happy and secure
(B) poor and satisfied
(C) uncertain and bleak 
(D) unhappy but secure

Surely, Shakespeare is wicked,the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal-
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night ?

Question. What are the images of ships and sun signify in the above lines ?
(A) nature
(B) travel
(C) adventure
(D) development

Question. What does ‘cramped holes’ mean ?
(A) They mean small uncomfortable dwellings of slum children
(B) dark shelters
(C) congested dwellings
(D) All the above

Question. Which map is a bad example ?
(A) The map of the world hung on the wall of the classroom.
(B) the map in the Geography book
(C) the map of world war
(D) the map of transportation and communication

Question. What tempts the children in the classroom to steal ?
(A) dream to work   
(B) desire to travel
(C) The dream of achieving a better life for themselves
(D) dream to visit places 

Question. What does the poem describe ?
(A) an elementary school classroom in a slum
(B) a social set up
(C) a cinema hall
(D) beautiful scenery

Question. What is the figure of speech used in ‘Far far from rivers….’
(A) Assonance
(B) Alliteration
(C) Simile
(D) Metaphor

Question. Who is wicked above ?What is the figure of speech used in
(A) Shakespeare
(B) the poet
(C) the administrators
(D) The teachers

Question. What kind of future does the slum children have ?
(A) very hopeful
(B) bright
(C) clear like water
(D) hopeless and uncertain

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS : 

Question. What is the theme of the poem ?
Ans: The poem focuses on the theme of social injustice and inequalities. The poet presents it by talking of the two different worlds – the rich and the civilized and the world of the poor and the deprived.

Question. What has been said about their future ?
Ans: Their future is painted with fog. Their future is not clear.There is no one to guide them.

Question. Do these children have dreams ?
Ans: Yes, some of them do have dreams. A sweet young boy is sitting at the back of the dim classroom dreaming of a squirrel’s game.

Question. ‘At the back of the dim class …’ Why is the classroom dim ?
Ans: It is dim as it is poorly lit and in a miserable condition.

Question. Why is the map a bad example ?
Ans: The children have never gone out of the slum. Their life is in the slum. Therefore, the map on the wall of the classroom is a bad example since they cannot understand it.

Question. What does the poet tries to depict in the poem?
Ans: The poet tries to depict the pathetic and miserable picture of the elementary classroom in a slum. It is poorly lit and needs repair. The children attending it are in a pitiable and miserable condition.

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS :

Question. Write in brief the summary of the poem.
Ans: The poet describes some children sitting in an elementary school in a slum. The children sitting here present a very miserable view. Their hair are like weeds and scattered on their pale face. A tall girl is sitting with her head bent. There is a small and thin looking boy. His eyes are like that of a rat’s eyes. Then there is an another boy who has disease of swollen and twisted bones and joints. He has got his disease from his father.
The poet notices a young and sweet boy sitting at the back of the class. He is perhaps dreaming about the squirrel’s game in a tree-room for him¬self also. The poet says that the walls of the classroom are cream. They smell like sour cream. There is a bust of Shakespeare in the classroom. There are pictures of big church and the Tyrolese valley having bell-shaped flowers. There is an open-handed map, which shows all the places of the world. But ironically for the children living in the slum their world is not that map but only the scene that can be seen outside the window of their classroom.
He says that Shakespeare is wicked for the children. The big map with all its places, ships and so on tempts the children to steal. These children have to spend their lives in small homes. Their lives are nothing but an endless night. The children have grown so weak that their bones could be seen from their skin. Many of these wear spectacles, and these spectacles have mended glass.
The poet appeals to the governor, inspector and the visitors to do something for the poor children.The children should be shown green fields; they should be allowed to live a free and carefree life. Without any worry they can concentrate well on their studies. The poet says only those people create history who are carefree.

Question.What is the message that Stephen Spender wants to give through the poem. An Elementary School Classroom In a Slum’?
Ans: In ‘An Elementary School Classroom In a Slum’ the poet Stephen Spender deals with the themes of social injustice and class inequalities. There are two different worlds. The world of so called ‘civilized’ men has nothing to do with the children living in slums. Nor have the art, culture and literature any relevance to them. They live in dark, narrow cramped, holes and lanes. Unless the wide gap between the two worlds is abridged there can’t be any real progress or development. The barriers that bind them will have to be made mentally and physically free to lead happy lives.