NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
The Hundred Dresses
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?
Answer: Once upon a time, Wanda Petronski occupied the seat adjacent to the final chair in the final row in Room Thirteen. She took her seat in the room’s corner next to the tough lads who didn’t have high grades. Because her feet were regularly covered in dried dirt, the impoverished and bashful girl chose to sit there. She wanted to sit by herself in the corner so that no one would make fun of her appearance.
Question 2: Where does Wanda live? What kind of a place do you think it is?
Answer: Boggins Heights was Wanda’s former residence. That location was quite far from her school and covered in muck, which suggested that there were no decent roads there and that the area was typically inhabited by the impoverished.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Question 3: When and why do Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence?
Answer: Wanda had no acquaintances in the class, so no one noticed that she was missing on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, when they were waiting to tease Wanda after school, Peggy and Maddie realized that she wasn’t there. They waited for a long while, but she never showed up.
Question 4: What do you think “to have fun with her” means?
Answer: To tease Wanda about her flaws or make fun of her is to “have fun with her.” Her peers would frequently make fun of her name and appearance since she was a quiet, reserved kid. They enjoyed her company since, according to her, she had sixty pairs of shoes and a hundred clothes in her closet.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: In what way was Wanda different from the other children?
Answer:
Polish girl Wanda Petronski’s parents had immigrated to the United States from Poland. Her moniker, which her peers had never heard of before, made her a source of entertainment. Since Americans did not have names like that, they found it difficult to pronounce. She was therefore viewed differently by her peers.
She usually had dirt on her feet when she arrived at school by herself. In the class, she had no pals. She was afraid of being made fun of by others, so she liked to sit by herself. She had only one old blue outfit, but when Peggy and Maddie enquired, she said she had sixty pairs of shoes and a hundred clothes. Among the things that make her unique from other kids are some of these.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Question 2: Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why do you think she said she did?
Answer:
After school, Wanda’s classmates mocked her every single day. Her old faded blue outfit that she would often wear to school. They used to tease her about her name, her appearance, and her clothes. She grew tired of the daily teasing and taunting and pretended to have sixty pairs of shoes and a hundred gowns in her wardrobe, but no one would believe her.
Most of the time, Wanda was a strong, independent girl who cared more about her inner talent than the quantity of outfits she had.
Question 3: Why is Maddie embarrassed by the questions Peggy asks Wanda? Is she also like Wanda, or is she different?
Answer: Being impoverished herself, Maddie understood Wanda’s emotional state and felt ashamed of the questions Peggy asked her. She also donned garments that had been passed down to her. Given her own humble beginnings, she was able to relate to Wanda’s mental state. She sympathized with Wanda, but she didn’t feel bad for her because of the hundred clothes she said she had. In the meanwhile, she hoped Peggy would quit making fun of Wanda’s appearance and name.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: Why didn’t Maddie ask Peggie to stop teasing Wanda? What was she afraid of?
Answer: Because Peggy was the most popular girl in the school and Maddie’s best friend, she didn’t urge Peggy to stop making fun of Wanda. Peggy viewed Wanda differently, even though Maddie believed she was a good girl. She was helpful, though, in other ways. Even though she wanted Peggy to stop making fun of Wanda, she refrained from asking because she was afraid that if she protested, Peggy would make fun of her again.
Question 2: Who did Maddie think would win the drawing contest? Why?
Answer: With Peggy’s talent for drawing and her popularity among the students, Maddie always felt certain that Peggy would win the drawing competition. Her professors and students had all taken a positive notice of her and she was well-known. She could sketch the face of any celebrity with ease and replicate an image from a magazine. All of this convinced Maddie that Peggy would be a strong contender for the girls’ sketching and coloring competition.
Question 3: Who won the drawing contest? What had the winner drawn?
Answer: Jack Beggles, one of the lads, won the competition with his outboard motor design, which was shown in Room Twelve. Wanda Petronski, one of the girls, drew one hundred colorful and exquisite designs of outfits to win the drawing competition. Miss Mason said that any one of the paintings may take home the prize on its own. When her students questioned Wanda about how many outfits she owned, she had sketched every one of them. Her brilliance left everyone in amazement, and they all praised her.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Thinking about the Text
Question 1: How is Wanda seen as different by the other girls? How do they treat her?
Answer:
Polish child Wanda Petronski moved to the United States with her parents. There were no good roads in Boggins Heights, where she resided. Her feet were usually smeared in dirt, and she traveled a great distance to attend school every day. She also wore the same worn blue clothing. Her name was difficult to say and unusual compared to other American names, so her classmates would often make fun of it. Her peers ridiculed and taunted her after school because of her unprofessional look. She claimed to have a hundred gowns and sixty pairs of shoes in her wardrobe, and that the constant taunting she received for her outfits had worn her out.
Question 2: How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she say that she has a hundred dresses?
Answer: Despite her modest and quiet demeanor, Wanda never spoke in class and used to feel self-conscious about the way she looked. She sat with rowdy lads in the room’s corner, never talking to anybody, so no one would see her. Although other females would constantly make fun of her, she never voiced complaints. Wanda pretended to have a hundred gowns and sixty pairs of shoes in her wardrobe in order to fend off their continual mockery and humiliation. Later, she entered the drawing competition and earned first place for females because of her talent by sketching every one of the hundred costumes on paper.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Question 3: Why does Maddie stand by and not do anything? How is she different from Peggy? (Was Peggy’s friendship important to Maddie? Why? Which lines in the text tell you this?)
Answer: Maddie’s best friend, Peggy, was also the most popular girl in the class. Despite Maddie’s lack of wealth, Peggy never made fun of her as she did Wanda since Maddie thought Wanda was the target of jokes about her purported hundred outfits. Maddie feared that her friendship with Peggy might dissolve. Thus, she was usually in her corner. She usually preferred to keep quiet while Peggy taunted Wanda since she dared not irritate her. The statement, “Peggy was the room’s most popular girl.” The fact that Maddie was there for Peggy at all times shows that she could not have done anything truly wrong.
Question 4: What does Miss Mason think of Wanda’s drawings? What do the children think of them? How do you know?
Answer:
Wanda’s illustrations left a lasting impression on Miss Mason. She believed that every garment was exquisitely drawn and deserving of winning the competition on its own. When Wanda won the girls’ drawing competition, the kids were equally pleased by her artistic abilities and cheered her on. The guys, who had no knowledge of clothes, even whistled in admiration.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Thinking about Language
Question I: Look at these sentences
(a) She sat in the corner of the room where the rough boys who did not make good marks sat, the corner of the room where there was most scuffling of feet, …
(b) The time when they thought about Wanda was outside of school hours …
These italicised clauses help us to identify a set of boys, a place, and a time. They are answers to the questions ‘What kind of rough boys?’ ‘Which corner did she sit in?’ and ‘What particular time outside of school hours?’ They are ‘defining’ or ‘restrictive’ relative clauses. (Compare them with the ‘nondefining’ relative clauses discussed in Unit 1.)
Combine the following to make sentences like those above.
1. This is the bus (what kind of bus?). It goes to Agra. (use which or that)
2. I would like to buy (a) shirt (which shirt?). (The) shirt is in the shop window. (use which or that)
3. You must break your fast at a particular time (when?). You see the moon in the sky. (use when)
4. Find a word (what kind of word?). It begins with the letter Z. (use which or that)
5. Now find a person (what kind of person). His or her name begins with the letter Z. (use whose)
6. Then go to a place (what place?). There are no people whose name begins with Z in that place. (use where)
Answer:
1. This is the bus that goes to Agra.
2. I would like to buy a shirt that is in the shop window.
3. You must break your fast at a particular time when you see the moon in the sky.
4. Find a word that begins with letter Z.
5. Now find a person whose name begins with letter Z.
6. Then go to a place where there are no people whose name begins with letter Z.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Question II:
The Narrative Voice
This story is in the ‘third person’. That is, the narrator is not a participant in the story. But the narrator often seems to tell the story from the point of view of one of the characters in the story. For example, look at the italicized words in this sentence
Thank goodness, she did not live up on Boggins Heights or have a funny name.
Whose thoughts do the words ‘Thank goodness’ express? Maddie’s, who is grateful that although she is poor, she is yet not as poor as Wanda, or as ‘different’. (So she does not get teased; she is thankful about that.)
1. Here are two other sentences from the story. Can you say whose point of view the italicised words express?
(i) But on Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie, who sat down front with other children who got good marks and who didn’t track in a whole lot of mud, did notice that Wanda wasn’t there.
(ii) Wanda Petronski. Most of the children in Room Thirteen didn’t have names like that. They had names easy to say, like Thomas, Smith or Allen.
2. Can you find other such sentences in the story? You can do this after you read the second part of the story as well.
Answer:
1. (i) The italicised words in the given sentence express the point of view of Peggy and Maddie.
(ii) The italicised words in the given sentence express the point of view of the narrator about the names of other children in Wanda’s class.
2. Activity to be done by yourself.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 5– The Hundred Dresses
Question III:
Look at this sentence. The italicised adverb expresses an opinion or point of view.
Obviously, the only dress Wanda had was the blue one she wore every day. (This was obvious to the speaker.)
Other such adverbs are apparently, evidently, surprisingly, possibly, hopefully, incredibly, luckily. Use these words appropriately in the blanks in the sentences below. (You may use a word more than once, and more than one word may be appropriate for a given blank.)
1. _________________________________________________, he finished his work on time.
2. __________________________________________, it will not rain on the day of the match.
3. _____________________________________, he had been stealing money from his employer.
4. Television is ____________________________to blame for the increase in violence in society.
5. The children will ________________________________________learn from their mistakes.
6. I can’t _____________________________________________ lend you that much money.
7. The thief had ________________________________been watching the house for many days.
8. The thief __________________________________________ escaped by bribing the jailor.
9. _____________________________________________, no one had suggested this before.
10. The water was _______________________________________________________ hot.
Answer:
1. Surprisingly, he finished his work on time.
2. Hopefully, it will not rain on the day of the match.
3. Possibly, he had been stealing money from his employer.
4. Television is evidently to blame for the increase in violence in society.
5. The children will hopefully learn from their mistakes.
6. I can’t possibly lend you that much money.
7. The thief had apparently been watching the house for many days.
8. The thief luckily escaped by bribing the jailor.
9. Surprisingly, no one had suggested this before.
10. The water was incredibly hot.