May 15, 2010

The River-A Review Exercise


Let us have a test exercise on Valerie Bloom’s lively and lovely poem, ‘The River’.
Here goes-
1.       How many stanzas are there in ‘The River’?
a)      5
b)      6
c)       7
d)      8
2.       Pastoral people who move from place to place in search of food and water are called
a)      Campers
b)      Nomads
c)       Caravan people
d)      Vagrants

3.       To be ‘vexed’ means to be
a)      worried
b)      angry
c)       irritated
d)      haunted

4.       What is the most likely reason a river ‘twists and turns’?
a)      river waters move in torrents
b)      river water moves in currents
c)       water moves from left to right
d)      it cannot cut through hard rocks

5.       To ‘gobbled’ means to
a)      eat in slow motion
b)      eat noisily and quickly
c)       eat slowly  in small mouthfuls
d)      eat in an easy relaxed manner

6.       When water goes down our throats, it may  
a)      gurgle
b)      gargle
c)       gobble
d)      garble

7.       ‘The River’ uses plenty of metaphors. Which is the following is not a metaphor?
a)      baby
b)      winder
c)       singer
d)      treasures

8.       ‘The River’ is personified with a
a)      female gender
b)      male gender
c)       neutral gender
d)      no gender

9.       The poet describes ‘The River’ as if it is a
a)      monster
b)      person
c)       baby
d)      wanderer

10.   An angry river becomes a monster and
a)      swallows
b)      destroys
c)       gobbles
d)      crushed

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

answer?

Family of Four said...

1.(b)six stanzas
2.(b) nomads
3.(c) irritated
4.(d) cannot cut through hard rocks
5((b) eat noisily and quickly
6.(a) gurgle
7.(d) treasures
8.(b) male
9.(b) person
10.(b) destroys

Do contact me if your have other queries.

Anonymous said...

If there a question ''What dangers can there be and what can possibly happen to one who swims in the river?'' . What might the answer be?

Family of Four said...

No. Such a question will never come out in the exams.

The river in the poem is personified; as a good person mostly and as a bad person. It tells about the positive and negative effects of the behaviour of the river.

Let me give a fictional and speculative answer to your question.

The river can only be a danger to human lives when it floods its banks and unfortunate human beings get drowned in its raging currents.

Swimming in the river at its normal level in a calm situation should not pose any problem to a skillful swimmer.