Rohit Yadav
Q1. The city folk who drove through the countryside hardly paid any heed to the roadside stand or to the people who ran it. If at all they did, it was to complain. Which lines bring this out? What was their complaint about?
Answer
“The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead,
Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts
At having the landscape marred with the artless paint
Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong”
According to the city folk, these stalls with inartistic signboards blemish the scenic beauty of the landscape.
Q2. What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
Answer
The rural folks pleaded pathetically for some customers to stop by and buy some of their
goods. City folks used to pass by on this road and hence the rural folk set up the roadside
stand to attract their attention and sell their goods.
Q3. The government and other social service agencies appear to help the poor rural people, but actually do them no good. Pick out the words and phrases that the poet uses to show their double standards.
Answer
The poet criticizes the double standards of the government and other social service agencies who promise to improve the standard of living of the poor farmers and show them the rosy side of life. Yet, when the time comes to deliver their promise, they either forget them or fulfill them keeping in view their own benefits. The poet calls them “greedy good-doers” and “beneficent beasts of prey”, who “swarm over their lives”. The poet says that these greedy people make calculated and well thought-out shrewd moves, to which the innocent, unaware farmers fall prey. These humble and simple farmers are robbed of their peace of mind by these clever people. The poet says,
“…..enforcing benefits
That are calculated to soothe them out of their wits,
And by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day,
Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way.”
Q4. What is the ‘childish longing’ that the poet refers to? Why is it ‘vain’?
Answer
The poet thinks that the persons who are running the roadside stand, suffer from a childish longing. They are always expecting customers and waiting for their prospective customers. They keep their windows open to attract them. They become sad when no one turns up. They are always waiting to hear the squeal of brakes, the sound of a stopping car. But all their efforts go in vain.
Q5. Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?
Answer
Filled with empathy, the poet is unable to bear the plight of the unassuming and innocent rural people. The lines below show his insufferable pain:
“Sometimes I feel myself I can hardly bear
The thought of so much childish longing in vain,
The sadness that lurks near the open window there,
That waits all day in almost open prayer”
MCQs
Question 1.
What does the speaker or narrator call the thought of the owner of the stand?
(a) A chid like longing
(b) a very good thought
(c) a wise thought
(d) A childish longing in vain
Answer
(d) A childish longing in vain
Question 2.
What would be the state of poor rural folk at new location ?
(a) tension free as their needs will be looked after
(b) they will be able to visit city malls
(c) they will enjoy travelling malls and cinema halls
(d) they will be happy
Answer
(a) tension free as their needs will be looked after
Question 3.
What was the news?
(a) City people will give money
(b) city people will help the poor
(c) Relocation and resettlement of the rural folk to make them tension free by the government
(d) None
Answer
(c) Relocation and resettlement of the rural folk to make them tension free by the government
Question 4.
Who wanted to feel the money at hand and from whom?
(a) The rural folk from the government
(b) The rural folk from the social agencies
(c) The rural folk from the government officials
(d) The rural folk from the city people
Answer
(d) The rural folk from the city people
Question 5.
Why is the word pathetic used for road side stand?
(a) for city people’s attitude
(b) for government’s declaration
(c) for city people’s behavior
(d) for poor condition of the owner of the stand
Answer
(d) for poor condition of the owner of the stand
Question 6.
What is the poet’s call to the polished traffic passing ahead?
(a) he admires this
(b) he is indifferent to this
(c) he condemns this indifferent attitude of the city folk and feels the pain of the rural folk
(d) all these
Answer
(c) he condemns this indifferent attitude of the city folk and feels the pain of the rural folk
Question 7.
Why did a stopping car react?
(a) to point out at the wrongly marked N and S directions
(b) to buy some items
(c) to appreciate their hard work
(d) to soothe the villagers
Answer
(a) to point out at the wrongly marked N and S directions
Question 8.
What does support the flow of cities?
(a) travelling
(b) rural people
(c) government
(d) flow of money
Answer
(d) flow of money
Question 9.
Who will soothe the rural poor?
(a) Government and Social agencies
(b) Government officials
(c) Promises made by the Government
(d) City people will soothe ‘out of their wits’
Answer
(d) City people will soothe ‘out of their wits’
Question 10.
Why didn’t the polished traffic stop at the roadside stand?
(a) they didn’t like that place
(b) their focus was their interest of earning huge benefits
(c) they were greedy
(d) all these
Answer
(d) all these
Question 11.
What news in the poem ‘A Roadside Stand’ is making rounds in the village?
(a) City people are connive
(b) Villagers will be given homes near theatre and shopping malls
(c) Rural folk is earning money
(d) None
Answer
(b) Villagers will be given homes near theatre and shopping malls
Question 12.
Why are the city people called beasts of prey?
(a) because of their selfishness and tendency to dupe others for it
(b) because they are well dressed
(c) they know how to earn money
(d) all these
Answer
(a) because of their selfishness and tendency to dupe others for it
Question 13.
What is the special quality of the city people or folk?
(a) They are connive
(b) They are smart
(c) They are snobbish
(d) know how to get benefits in a calculative manner
Answer
(d) know how to get benefits in a calculative manner
Question 14.
Who are the greedy Doers?
(a) the government
(b) old people
(c) The Rural people
(d) The polished city folk
Answer
(d) The polished city folk
Question 15.
Why was the childish longing in vain ?
(a) because it was useless
(b) because they were shifting
(c) because their wish of earning from city folk couldn’t be realized or fulfilled
(d) none
Answer
(c) because their wish of earning from city folk couldn’t be realized or fulfilled
Question 16.
What is being sold on roadside stand?
(a) furniture
(b) cosmetics
(c) Diesel
(d) wild berries, golden squash and some other similar products
Answer
(d) wild berries, golden squash and some other similar products
Question 17.
Why was roadside stand built?
(a) so that people can wait there
(b) to make it a bus stop
(c) to earn money from polished city traffic
(d) none
Answer
(c) to earn money from polished city traffic
Question 18.
What does Frost describe in the poem?
(a) the feelings of the owners of a roadside shed
(b) the feelings of passengers
(c) the feelings of people on footpath
(d) none
Answer
(a) the feelings of the owners of a roadside shed
Question 19.
What does Frost’s poem deal with?
(a) human tragedies, fears and their solutions
(b) humans
(c) nature
(d) buildings
Answer
(a) human tragedies, fears and their solutions
Question 20.
Who is the poet of A Roadside Stand?
(a) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(b) Robert Frost
(c) Lord Byron
(d) Percy Shelley
Answer
(b) Robert Frost
Question 21.
What is the open prayer from near the open window?
(a) For money to fall from the sky
(b) for more number of people to stop
(c) for getting money from the government
(d) for the sound of coming cars to stop at the road stand to help the owner to earn money from them
Answer
(d) for the sound of coming cars to stop at the road stand to help the owner to earn money from them
Question 22.
What does I stand for in the poem?
(a) owner of the stand
(b) city flower who stopped on the stand
(c) Poet of the poem-Robert Frost
Answer
(d) None
Question 23.
Who are the ‘pitiful kin’ in the poem?
(a) social agencies
(b) government officials
(c) city people with cars
(d) The poor rural folk and farmers
Answer
(d) The poor rural folk and farmers
Question 24.
Who went and waited in the lines?
(a) The rural folk to hear the government’s declaration
(b) The rural folk to talk to the social agencies
(c) The rural folk to have a word with the government officials
(d) The rural folk went to hear the sound of stopping cars
Answer
(d) The rural folk went to hear the sound of stopping cars
Question 25.
Who made roadside stand and where?
(a) The sarpanch made in the village
(b) The government made in the village
(c) social agencies made in the village
(d) The poor rural people made in the village
Answer
(d) The poor rural people made in the village
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