A Treasur Trove Television Questions
• EXTRACT-1
(a) Who are we referred to in the first line here?
Ans. In the first line ‘we’ referred to are the persons like the poet who are worried about the children’s habit of watching the television.
(b) Who are being addressed to by the poet?
Ans. The poet here refers to Roald Dahl. He is addressing these lines to the parents and advises them to never let their children watch television, or not to install it at all.
(c) What is the ‘idiotic thing’? Why is it called idiotic?
Ans. The poet describes the television set as the ‘idiotic thing’ because it clogs and freezes the mind of young children. The poet advises the parents, never to install “the idiotic thing” so as to save their children’s thinking and imagination from decaying.
(d) What is the advice of the point?
Ans. The point advises the parents never to install “the idiotic thing” that is television so as to save their children’s thinking and imagination from decaying.
• EXTRACT-2
(a) Why does the poet use ‘we’ in line 1.
Ans. The poet uses the word ‘we’ to refer to all the parents and the poet himself who are unaware of the bad effects of television which is affecting their children’s future and killing their precious time.
(b) How has the poet described the television?
Ans. The poet has described the television as “the idiotic thing”.Not only an idiot but television for the poet is also a monster that hypnotises children and fills them with junk.
(c) What has been observed in every house?
Ans. In almost every house, it has been observed that the children are laying about and staring at the television screens without doing any productive work.
(d) When do ‘eyes’ pop out?
Ans. When the children go on staring at television screens for hours, then their eyes out of exhaustion, pop out ( come out).
(e) Which figure of speech has been used in the last two lines and how?
Ans. In the last two lines, the figure of speech which has been used is hyperbole. Hyperbole is a device that uses exaggeration for emphasis or effect. The poet uses hyperbole by saying that sometimes the children stare so hard that their eyeballs fall off and he has seen a dozen eyeballs rolling about on the floor in one house.
• EXTRACT-3
(a) Who are being addressed to in the poem?
Ans. The parents are being addressed in the poem so that they would come to know the negative impact of television on their children and save their children’s thinking and imagination from decaying.
(b) What is the poet’s main concern?
Ans. The poet’s main concern is for the children who stare at the television for long hours and as a result, their ability to think of new ideas diminishes.
(C) Explain the phrase ‘that shocking ghastly junk.
Ans. Through the phrase “that shocking ghastly junk” the poet wants to emphasize the negative impact of television on children. He means to say that children’s mind gets filled with useless stuff that is being telecast on it.
(d) Why do the parents let their children watch television uninterrupted?
Ans. The parents let their children watch television uninterrupted because it keeps the children occupied. They do not fight and let their parents complete their household chores peacefully.
(e) How does television watching make the children dull?
Ans. Television watching makes the children dull as they no longer possess original thinking. They do not go beyond what they see on the screen. Moreover, they do not engage themselves actively in any productive work as they do while reading.
EXTRACT-4
(a) Why do parents let their children watch television for so long?
Ans. The parents let their children watch television uninterrupted because it keeps the children occupied. They do not fight and let their parents complete their household chores peacefully.
(b) What harm does television watching do to the mental powers of the children?
Ans. The poet says that television watching is a passive activity. It receives everything as it is. It blocks fresh thinking. So it makes the child-viewer dull. He cannot distinguish between the real and the fantasy. His brain becomes as soft as cheese and he loses the power to think and imagine things.
(c) How does television watching make children unimaginative?
Ans. The poet says that television watching is a passive activity. It receives everything as it is. It blocks fresh thinking. So it makes the child-viewer dull. He cannot distinguish between the real and the fantasy. His brain becomes as soft as cheese and he loses the power to think and imagine things.
(d) What is the activity referred to later in the poem, that sharpens the brain?
Ans. Later in the poem, the poet says that reading books is a very useful activity for children as it sharpens their brain. He also says that it must be encouraged by the parents by replacing the television with lots of books.
(e) Do you agree with the poet that television kills our imagination? Why or why not?
Ans. I agree with the poet that television kills our imagination as when we watch television, we are not actively engaged with the stuff we watch. We receive the material passively. We do not think or imagine and slowly television kills our imagination and we accept only what we see.
• EXTRACT-5
(a) what is the parents’ response to the poet’s advice to them about their children watching television?
Ans. The poet advises the parents not to let their children watch television and he is even aware of the parent’s objection. He knows that the parents will ask him if the television set is removed there will be no means left with them to entertain their children. They will like to know as to how to entertain them.
(b) what does the poet remind them of?
Ans. The poet reminds the parents to recall how children had kept themselves entertained before television was invented.
(c) Why has the poet used the exclamations “Great Scott” and “ Gadzooks”?
Ans. When the poet asks the parents if they have forgotten what children used to do earlier when the television was not invented and himself replied that they played in the open. Many games were played and invented and more and more new ideas too developed on how to keep one enjoying. Along with this, they just read and read. In this reading habit of children, the poet shows his wonder and amazement with the term “Great Scott” and “ Gadzooks”.
(d) Why does the poet use all capital letters in the line THEY…USED…TO…READ!”
Ans. In this line, the poet uses all capital letters in order to emphasize that before the invention of television, children would read and only read. Books could be found everywhere –be it on the nursery shelves, nursery floor, in the bedroom or by the children’s bed.
(e) why does the poet recommend reading of books to the children?
Ans. The poet recommends reading of books to the children as only reading can fill children with the true joy and happiness. Whereas watching television for hours make them dull and passive.
• EXTRACT-6
(a) What anxiety has the poet shown regarding the watching of television by the children?
Ans. The poet is anxious for the children who watch television because he knows that watching television continuously would make them dull and unimaginative.
(b) What does he want children to do?
Ans. The poet wants children to inculcate in them the habit of reading. According to the poet, it is only reading that can fill children with the true joy and happiness.
(c) In what ways is reading of books better than watching television?
Ans. According to the poet, reading of books is better than watching television. Watching television for hours make them dull and passive. It kills their imagination; on the other hand, reading books will help them to travel to new and exciting worlds of dragons, gipsies, queens and whales. It is only reading that can fill children with the true joy and happiness.
(d) What kind of stories captivated the young minds in the past?
Ans. The stories of huge monsters, dinosaurs gipsies, queens, treasure islands, voyages, smugglers, pirates, elephants and the cannibals captivated the young minds in the past.
(e) Do you agree with the point that reading is better than the television watching? Why or why not?
Ans. According to the poet, reading of books is better than watching television. Watching television for hours make them dull and passive. It kills their imagination; on the other hand, reading books will help them to travel to new and exciting worlds of dragons, gipsies, queens and whales. It is only reading that can fill children with the true joy and happiness.
• EXTRACT-7
(a) Why has the poet recommended reading books to children?
Ans. The poet wants children to inculcate in them the habit of reading. According to the poet, it is only reading that can fill children with the true joy and happiness.
(b) What kind of stories interested the children in the past?
Ans. The stories of huge monsters, dinosaurs gipsies, queens, treasure islands, voyages, smugglers, pirates, elephants and cannibals captivated the young minds in the past.
(c) What is the significance of ‘ Penelope’ here?
Ans. Penelope is the name of the wife of a great Greek hero Odysseus. Here Penelope is the name of a dish which cannibals were making to eat.
(d) Who was Beatrix Potter? Why was he popular with children?
Ans. Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist. He was popular with children because he wrote many books for them. The children read his books which were filled with tales of treasure islands, voyages, smugglers, pirates, ships, elephants and cannibals.
(e) The poet refers to some of the animals characters in the stories of Beatrix Potter. Name a few of them.
Ans. The animals characters in the stories of Beatrix Potter are squirrel Nutkin, Mr Tod, Mr Rat, Mr mole etc.
EXTRACT-8
(a) What has the poet reminded the parents earlier in the context?
Ans. Earlier in the context, the poet has reminded the parents of the time before the television when children use to read books on adventure and fairy tales and various other topics and we’re extremely happy.
(b) What advice is repeated here and why?
Ans. The poet repeats his advice by using the words such as please, beg and pray and sincerely appeals to the parents to throw away their television sets and replace them with bookshelves so that children would avoid watching television and start reading a book.
(C) Whose ‘dirty looks’ are referred to?
Ans. Dirty looks of children are referred to here in this poem. The poet says that when the parents would replace the television sets with bookshelves, children would throw tantrum in protest but the poet says that parents should ignore their dirty looks and protest and replace TV sets with bookshelves.
(d) What impression do you form of the children mentioned here?
Ans. The passage shows that the children would be very annoyed with their parents when they will come to know that they have uninstalled the television set. They may scream and yell and can even go to the extent of biting and kicking or even hitting with the sticks but the poet advises the parents to ignore everything.
(e) Would you react violently if you are forced not to watch television? How would you react?
Ans. I would not react violently if I am forced not to watch television rather I would request my parents twice or thrice to allow me to watch television for a limited time where I would watch news channels for the latest happening and channels based on travel, history, geography and science. If they again won’t agree then I would obey them and would not see television.
EXTRACT-9
(a) who are being addressed to here and in what context?
Ans. The parents are being addressed here as they would have uninstalled the television set and now in this extract, the poet advises them not to react to their protest as in one or two weeks the children will have nothing to do but to start reading.
(b)What action of the parents would evoke protest by their youngsters?
Ans. When the parents would uninstall television sets, their children would be very in annoyed with them. This action of parents would evoke protest by their youngsters.
(c) What should the parents ignore?
Ans. According to the poet, the parents should ignore the initial reactions of their children when they would uninstall the television sets as he promised them that in one or two weeks the children will have nothing to do but to start reading.
(d) Why does the poet use the exclamation ‘Oh boy! Oh boy?
Ans. The poet uses the exclamation ‘Oh boy! Oh, boy’ to show the great surprise and joy that children would feel while reading.
(e) How will the youngsters gain from reading books?
Ans. When the youngsters will stop watching television and would start reading, then it would fill their hearts with joy. They would gain knowledge. It would increase their ability to think, imagine and even sharpen their brain.
EXTRACT-10
(a) How would children react in the absence of a television set?
Ans. In the absence of a television set, the children would initially be very angry with their parents but once they start reading then they would be so much enamoured of the books that they would begin to wonder why they used to watch the stupid machine.
(b) How would they come to entertain themselves?
Ans. The children would entertain themselves by reading books. As they would have nothing to do when the television set would be uninstalled, they would take to reading voraciously.
(c)What would fill their minds with joy?
Ans. The poem stresses the importance of inculcating reading as a habit as it is only reading that can fill children with true joy and happiness.
(d) What change would occur in their minds?
Ans. The children who were hypnotized due to watching more television and now as the television sets were uninstalled by the parents, they would start taking interest in reading and would wonder why they used to watch the stupid ‘machine’.They would find the television set nauseating, foul and repulsive.
(e) Why is the poet so much against watching television? Give two reasons.
Ans. The point is so much against watching television because it produces dullness in the mind of those who watch it. The ability to think of new ideas diminishes when a child passively engages in watching television. The poet also says that children while watching television do not engage themselves with the productive work as they do while reading.
