Class 4 | Crystal Curated Grade 4 | Semester 1 | English | Lesson 1. How I Taught My Grandmother To Read

New Words

concentration: to focus on something.

Kashi: another name for Varanasi, a holy city in India.

Protagonist: the main character of a story.

neighboring: in a nearby region.

immensely: in a great amount.

independent: not depending on others; to be free

determination: a sense of having a purpose

wrinkled: marked with lines; (here) suggesting old age

obstacle: a thing that blocks one's progress

published: to produce as a book for sale.

UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT

A. Tick (✔️) the best option to answer these questions.

1. Why did the grandmother never attend school?

Ans: c) Education was not considered important for girls in those days.

2. What usually happened when the narrator read out the story from the magazine to her grandmother?

Ans: b) The grandmother used to listen with utmost concentration.

B. Answer these questions.

1. What did the grandmother want to learn?

Ans: The grandmother wanted to learn the Kannada alphabet.

2. What did the narrator go on to become in life?

Ans: The narrator went on to become a teacher of Computer Science.

3. Name the story that the narrator read out to her grandmother.

Ans: The narrator read out the story of Kashi Yatra to her grandmother.

4. What did the narrator call her grandmother? What does it mean?

Ans: The narrator called her grandmother Avva.

5. Why did the grandmother make sure that her children and grandchildren attended school?

Ans: The grandmother, at times, used to regret not going to school. So, she made sure that her children and grand-children attended school.

6. How and why was the narrator surprised?

Ans: Once, when the author returned home from a wedding, he saw her grandmother in tears. He had never seen her cry in the most difficult situations. Thus, she was surprised to face such situation.

C. Who said these words? Identify what happened immediately before and after each of these statements.

1. "Can I help you in any way?"

Ans: The author said these words. Avva was crying before these statements as she did not know how to

read. The next day onwards, the author started her tuition.

2. "It is my duty to respect a teacher."

Ans: Here, Avva was touching the author's feet as she was her teacher. In return, the author did namaskar to her by touching her feet.

D. Think and Answer.

1. The grandmother says that there is no age bar for learning. Do you think so?

Ans: Yes, I agree with the grandmother's view on learning. Except for academic classes, there are many things out there, that can be learned at any age. Some of them are drawing, cooking, reading, writing, etc.

UNDERSTANDING WORDS

A. Name the people who do these jobs.

1. One who teaches students Teacher

2. One who treats patients Doctor

3. One who decides cases in court Judge

4. One who flies airplane Pilot

5. One who sells provisions Guide

6. One who catches thieves Police

7. One who mends taps and pipes Plumber

8. One who grows crops Farmer

B. Here are some interesting words related to story-telling used in the story. What do you think they mean? Match the columns.

Ans: Magazine - a fictional work of considerable length.

episode - an account of incidents, real or imaginary

story - a part of a larger sequence of events in story-telling 

novel - a periodical work, often on a particular topic

C. Using the above, fill in the blanks.

1. The ____ of Jesus Christ has been told in the Bible.

Ans: story

2. Every ____ of the Cat and Mouse cartoons is funny.

Ans: episode

3. Rahul has a monthly subscription of Reader's Digest ____ because he likes their travel stories.

Ans: Magazine

4. Chaturanga by Rabindranath Tagore is a very popular ____.

Ans: novel

UNDERSTANDING RULES

A. Underline the common nouns and circle the proper nouns.

Common nouns name people, animals, places and things in a general way.

Proper nouns have a specific place, person, group, day or month. A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.

  Delhi laptop chef        Christmas Cup

Sachin April Shoe Thursday France

B. Underline the countable nouns and circle the uncountable nouns.

shirt         tea     sugar

pencil notebook     noodles

girl     wire     diesel

river orange bicycle

C. Tick () the correct words from the brackets to complete the sentences.

1.  The teacher gave us (many/much) questions for the test.

Ans: many

2. Sakshi has improved her dancing skills (a lot/many).

Ans: a lot

3. How (many/much) balls do you need to practice?

Ans: many

4. Vijay wants (some/many) background data for his project.

Ans: some

5. (Little/Few) did Neha know that her aunt was going to send her a gift.

Ans: little

D. Complete the following sentences with suitable pronouns.

1. Rahul played badly. He has only ____ to blame for his defeat.

Ans: himself

2. Anmol is working hard. ____ should do well.

Ans: He

3. They painted their home ____.

Ans: Themselves

4. We divided the chocolates amongst _____.

Ans: ourselves

5. _____ have been away for a while, haven't you?

Ans: You

6. She has the habit of cross-checking information ____.

Ans: herself

7. Ravi's niece is drinking coffee. _____ is drinking _____ from a cup.

Ans: She, herself

E. Choose the right options from the brackets to complete these sentences.

1. I forgot my pen. May I borrow (you/yours/their)?

Ans: yours

2. I offered him my tiffin. He offered (his/mine).

Ans: his

3. I am used to playing with this bat. It's (mine/my)

Ans: mine

4. (That/Those) is a beautiful illustration.

Ans: That

5. (This/ These) are the picture books I was talking about.

Ans: These

6. The frock looks old. (Its/Theirs/Their) colour seems to be fading.

Ans: Its

7. Sumit has already submitted his work, but Tanya is going to submit (hers/her) later.

Ans: her