Class 8 English - First Showers - Questions & Answers


Questions and Answers for Class 8 English - Unit 4 Flowers and Showers | Std 8 English - First Showers - Questions & Answers | Textual Activities
First Showers - Questions And Answers

1. How does the rain soothe the poet’s nerves?
Answer: The rain soothes the poet by getting rid of heat and fatigue.

2. Why do the trees look magnificent?
Answer: The rain washes the leaves of the trees and the trees look magnificent and shining.

3. What do the travelers feel when it rains?
Answer: They feel relieved.

4. Comment on the expression 'drenched me on the sly'.
Answer: The poet is .completely drenched by the mischievous raindrops.

Additional questions
1. ‘As I returned from my workplace’ Who is the ‘I’ referred to here?
Answer: The ‘I’ is the poet or a woman.

2. Where did she retune from?
Answer: She returned from her workplace.

3. Who kissed her?
Answer: Cool raindrops kissed her.

4. Which line shows that the first shower was unexpected?
Answer: Soon the first showers caught me unawares.

5. How did the lady feel when the rain-soaked her?
Answer: When the rain soaked her, the lady felt that it soothed her frayed nerves.

6. What change does the first shower make to her?
Answer: It makes her relaxed, cool and calm. It gives her a soothing effect which makes her comfortable.

7. What did the rain erase from her face?
Answer: The rain promptly wiped the weary lines of daylong heat and fatigue from her face.

8. How did she walk through the rain?
Answer: She walked unsteadily through the rain.

9. Why do the trees look magnificent?
Answer: The rain washes the leaves of the trees and the trees look magnificent and shining.

10. What change comes over nature in the first shower?
Answer: The first shower makes the whole nature fresh and beautiful.

11. What do the travellers feel when it rains?
Answer: The weary travellers fell relief from the dust and heat.

12. ‘Drenched me on the sly’ What does this expression mean?
Answer: The raindrops made her body wet mischievously

Activity 1
Complete the table below.
Answer:
 Explanations   Expressions/lines from the text 
  The poet’s face was dry.  parched face
  She got soaked in the rain.  soaked in rain
  She was tired. Weary lines... daylong heat and fatigue
  The heat and fatigue made her weary. Weary lines... daylong heat and fatigue
  The trees were wet and beautiful.  dressed in washed green looked magnificent
  The poet stood in wonder.  Marvelling at this wonderful gift of nature
  The poet returned home.  I hurried home through the gurgling water

Activity 2 
1. Read the given lines from the poem.
Wet clothes clung to my body like an infant
To its mother's bosom; unsteady my gait.
What is the Figure of Speech used here?
It is ‘Simile’
What is a ‘Simile’?
Simile is a comparison between two different thing using the words 'as,' or like

Here, the clinging of the wet clothes is compared to an infant clinging to its mother’s bosom....
This is an example for a simile.
Now, develop similes from the following hints.
1. The tree stands like ________________________________________.
Answer: The tree stands like a giant
2. The moon looked at me ________________________________________.
Answer: The moon looked at me like a queen.
3. The flower smiles ________________________________________.
Answer: The flower smiles like an infant.
4. The thunder roared like ________________________________________.
Answer: The thunder roared like a lion.

Go through the following sentences that contain similes and metaphors. Classify them.
1. Manu is as hungry as a horse.
2. The car was a jet when it passed by us.
3. The cat’s fur was a blanket of warmth.
4. There were fireworks lantern in the sky.
5. You are as brave as a lion.
6. Ian Thorpe is a fish when he swims.
7. She is as pretty as a picture.
8. The moon was a misty shadow.
 Simile Metaphor
  1. Manu is as hungry as a horse.  2. The car was a jet when it passed by us.
  4. There were fireworks lantern in the sky. 3. The cat’s fur was a blanket of warmth.
  7. She is as pretty as a picture.  4. There were fireworks lantern in the sky.
   6. Ian Thorpe is a fish when he swims.
  8. The moon was a misty shadow.

2. Read the following lines.
Cool drops kissed my parched face.
Here the cool rain drops is attributed with the human quality of kissing. This is an example of personification.
What is personification?
Personification is giving human characteristics to something human.

APPRECIATION OF THE POEM ‘The First Showers.
The Indian poet Nalini Sharma goes eloquent on her experience of the first shower. On a hot summer day, fatigued well beyond words, the poet really longed for a first shower to enliven her otherwise dampened spirits. The day-long heat has long robbed her energies. Weary lines have started to play first fiddle on her face. What she really most wished for was something that could make her body mind and soul cool up. Returning back from her workplace after an exhausting day’s committed work, she was enthralled to embrace the first showers to every inch of her. Each of her cells throbbed with vibrant energy. The marks of fatigue on her visage were easily cleaned up. Her parched face
shone brightly with cool drops dancing on her face. The poet gaily recounts how the first rain has soothed her frayed nerves. Rain always carries along with it nostalgia, incites dead passions, brings back the old dusted memories to life, freshens up dull spirits and spreads mirth. Nature always is a perennial source of comfort and solace for those who seek it. Not only has the rain, energized the fatigued body and mind of the poet, but it also made the flora look afresh. The poet has relied on an abundance of images and symbols, rendering the poem a unique charm of its own travellers who were fed up with the long and tiring journey, feel relieved of the dust and heat and welcome wholeheartedly the tantalizing fragrance of the earth just after the first rain. Their anxieties
are put to rest and they feel mostly charged up. The poet is in all praise of the rain god. She wanted to be grateful to him who has bestowed on us this bountiful blessing. The trees on the roadside with leaves covered with dust remain famished all through the summer and wish for a drop of water to quench their thirst. They look polished in their newly washed green attire and sway their leaves in mirth, once they are blessed with the bounteous rain.
Rain is welcomed everywhere. The poet has also used expressions and poetic devices such as simile and metaphor, alliteration, and visual images to give us a vivid picture of nature glorified through the rain. A fretted mind could turn to nature to find a panacea for all his troubles. Nature is a storehouse of great
wonders. The poem is no doubt a eulogy sung to rain. Wading through the muddy water, she hurriedly goes back home marvelling upon the bounteous rain getting all the more drenched in rain.

Explain the following expressions.
• Weary lines: lines that are visible on the face because of extreme tiredness and excessive fatigue which makes one seem exhausted ..
• Parched face: Parched face refers to the dry face that was exposed to the rough summer weather.
• Frayed nerves: It means the poet has become completely messed up or totally ended up in chaos and confusing thoughts due to the excess work and extreme heat she suffered day long.

• Pick out an example of a simile from the poem.
Wet clothes clung to my body like an infant.

• How does the rain ease out the travellers?
The travellers are weary since they travel in uncomfortable weather. The summer heat is unbearable and they run out of energy soon. They black out easily. The rain soothes weary travellers from the dust and heat and energises them with the fresh smell of the first shower.

• How does nature enjoy the first shower?
The trees and the leaves stand in new glory and shine when they are showered with the first rain. They become fresh and enjoy each bit of the raindrops. They get back their lost glory.


ഈ ബ്ലോഗിലെ എല്ലാ പോസ്റ്റുകളും ഒരുമിച്ച് കാണാനും ആവശ്യമുള്ളവ എളുപ്പത്തിൽ തിരഞ്ഞെടുക്കാനും ഇവിടെ ക്ലിക്കുക.

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