NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Chapter 5: The most thorough and trustworthy NCERT Solutions for English Class 9 Chapter 5 The Snake, the Mirror is here for your reference. We have provided the correct answers to every question in the Beehive textbook for Class 9 English NCERT Solutions. These solutions are also available for free download in PDF format.
Students need a dependable source for standard answers to every question in the textbook when they are doing their homework and when exams are coming up. To assist, we are providing detailed and accurate NCERT Solutions for Class 9, which will undoubtedly help students score well. The NCERT Solutions were created by our subject-matter experts by the standards set forth by CBSE.NCERT Solutions Class 9 English Chapter 5 PDF
Thinking about the Text
I. Discuss in pairs and answer each question below in a short paragraph (30–40 words).
Question 1. “The sound was a familiar one.” What sound did the doctor hear? What did he think it was? How many times did he hear it? (Find the places in the text.) When and why did the sounds stop?
Answer: When the doctor opened the door, he heard a disturbance upstairs. He assumed the noise to be that of rats. The sound, he heard as he opened the door, he heard it four times:
“Again, I heard that sound from above.” “Again, came that noise from above.” “Suddenly there came a dull thud as if a rubber tube had fallen to the ground…” The sounds stopped when the snake appeared in front of the doctor.Question 2 . What two “important” and “earth-shaking” decisions did the doctor take while he was looking into the mirror?
Answer:
The following are the two crucial and significant choices the doctor made when he observed himself in the mirror: To look more gorgeous, he would grow a thin moustache and shave every day. ii. He would never take his gorgeous smile off his face.Question 3 . “I looked into the mirror and smiled,” says the doctor. A little later he says, “I forgot my danger and smiled feebly at myself.”
What is the doctor’s opinion about himself when: (i) he first smiles, and (ii) he smiles again? In what way do his thoughts change in between, and why?Answer:
(i) The doctor thought his smile was really lovely when he first smiled. (ii) He was thinking that he was a poor, foolish doctor when he grinned once more. Between the two situations, his ideas shifted from being an attractive doctor to being an idiotic doctor. Now that his life was in danger, his viewpoint shifted.Question 1. (i) The kind of person the doctor is (money, possessions)
(ii) The kind of person he wants to be (appearance, ambition)Answer:
(i) The physician was a low-paid individual. His rental room was a little home. He had a black coat, a few shirts, and dhotis, but only sixty rupees. (ii) He thinks he can make himself appear attractive. He decides to grow a thin moustache and shave every day.Question 2 . (i) The person he wants to marry
(ii) The person he actually marriesAnswer:
(i) He desires to wed a wealthy, fat woman physician. (ii) He weds a thin, undesirable woman who can run quickly.Question 3. (i) His thoughts when he looks into the mirror
(ii) His thoughts when the snake is coiled around his arm Write short paragraphs on each of these to get your answer.Answer:
(i) He believes he has a really lovely smile when he looks in the mirror. He decides to always have a smile on his face and to shave every day. When he looks in the mirror, his expression seems satisfied. (ii) He sits there holding his breath while the snake coils around his arm. He views himself as a weak and foolish physician. The presence of the snake scares him.Related Links -
Thinking about Language
I. Here are some sentences from the text. Say which of them tells you that the author: (a) was afraid of the snake, (b) was proud of his appearance, (c) had a sense of humour, (d) was no longer afraid of the snake.
1. I was turned to stone. 2. I was no mere image cut in granite. 3. The arm was beginning to be drained of strength. 4. I tried in my imagination to write in bright letters outside my little heart the words, ‘O God’. 5. I didn’t tremble. I didn’t cry out. 6. I looked into the mirror and smiled. It was an attractive smile. 7. I was suddenly a man of flesh and blood. 8. I was after all a bachelor, and a doctor too on top of it! 9. The fellow had such a sense of cleanliness…! The rascal could have taken it and used it after washing it with soap and water. 10. Was it trying to make an important decision about growing a moustache or using eye shadow and mascara or wearing a vermilion spot on its forehead.Answer:
(a) Was afraid of the snake: Sentences 1, 3, 4, 5. (b) Was proud of his appearance: Sentences 6, 8. (c) Had a sense of humour: Sentences 9, 10. (d) Was no longer afraid of the snake: Sentence 2, 7.II. Expressions used to show fear
Can you find the expressions in the story that tell you that the author was frightened? Read the story and complete the following sentences. 1. I was turned ________________. 2. I sat there holding ________________. 3. In the light of the lamp I sat there like ________________.Answer:
1. I was turned to stone. 2. I sat there holding my breath. 3. In the light of the lamp I sat there like a stone image in the flesh.III. In the sentences given below some words and expressions are italicised. They variously mean that one
• is very frightened. • is too scared to move. • is frightened by something that happens suddenly. • makes another feel frightened.