NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
The Hundred Dresses – II
Oral Comprehension Check
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Question 1: What did Mr Petronski’s letter say?
Answer: Wanda would no longer be attending school, according to Mr. Petronski’s letter to the administrators, as they were relocating to a larger city. In the new city, there were a lot of other amusing names, so no one would call her by any funny names, it was also noted.
Question 2: Is Miss Mason angry with the class, or is she unhappy and upset?
Answer: Miss Mason was more upset than furious, since she was aware that Wanda had been mistreated by the pupils due of her unusual name. She was against the young girl being made fun of because of her name, appearance, or appearance. She urged everyone to consider it and begged them to avoid making fun of anyone in the class.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Question 3: How does Maddie feel after listening to the note from Wanda’s father?
Answer: Though she never made fun of Wanda, Maddie felt guilty and remorseful for how she had treated her. She was ashamed that she had never attempted to stop Peggy from doing so, and she watched in silence as she teased Wanda about her wardrobe full of clothes on several occasions.
Question 4: What does Maddie want to do?
Answer: Maddie desired to make amends for her actions with Wanda and offer her an apology for everything. Therefore, upon learning that Wanda was relocating to a large metropolis, she made the decision to visit Wanda at her Boggins Heights home. She also wanted to let others know how much they respected her skills and that they shouldn’t treat her badly.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: What excuses does Peggy think up for her behaviour? Why?
Answer: Behaving defensively, Peggy said that she had unintentionally encouraged Wanda to try her hand at drawing by having her sketch a hundred outfits for the drawing competition, which led to her being declared the winner.
Question 2: What are Maddie’s thoughts as they go to Boggins Heights?
Answer: while Maddie felt sorry for watching in silence while Peggy used to degrade Wanda, she was overcome with sorrow and embarrassment. She was quite worried and disturbed for both Wanda and herself. She was sorry that she had allowed Peggy to misbehave with Wanda so many times.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Question 3: Why does Wanda’s house remind Maddie of Wanda’s blue dress?
Answer: Every day, Wanda would go to school dressed in an old, worn blue frock that was still clean. Maddie saw that the house reminded her of Wanda’s residence; Wanda’s modest small yard and run-down appearance matched her blue outfit.
Question 4: What does Maddie think hard about? What important decision does she come to?
Answer: Maddie pondered deeply that she would no longer stand by while Peggy mistreated Wanda. She made a self-promise to herself that she would not allow injustice to occur to anybody, even if it meant losing her close connection with Peggy.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Oral Comprehension Check
Question 1: What did the girls write to Wanda?
Answer: Maddie and Peggy wanted to apologize to Wanda for their actions, so they sent her a kind letter. She was also questioned about how she felt about her new professors, classmates, and school. She was also told, in the meantime, that her drawings of a hundred garments had won her the sketching competition. They said that everyone in the school liked her drawings and complimented her artistic abilities. The purpose of the letter the girls sent to Wanda was to let her know how much they missed her while also subtly offering her their friendship.
Question 2: Did they get a reply? Who was more anxious for a reply, Peggy or Maddie? How do you know?
Answer: Unfortunately, Wanda never replied to the girls’ letter. More than Peggy, Maddie was impatiently awaiting a response since she was so sad and worried about Wanda. She didn’t respond to their message since she thought Wanda was really wounded and took full responsibility for everything. Maddie used to have nightmares and restless nights because of Wanda.
Question 3: How did the girls know that Wanda liked them even though they had teased her?
Answer: Despite their frequent taunting of Wanda, Maddie and Peggy came to realize that she genuinely liked them. Wanda reported giving her two lovely dress drawings to the girls in a letter to her instructor. Peggy received the green dress with red embellishments, and Maddie received the blue dress. She had sketched the gowns and included their individual faces as well.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Thinking about the Text
Question 1: Why do you think Wanda’s family moved to a different city? Do you think life there was going to be different for their family?
Answer: The discriminatory and ridiculing behavior of the pupils at Wanda’s school against her and her brother, Jake, caused Wanda’s family to relocate. Other pupils were making fun of their odd names and features. Wanda’s father, Jan Petronski, believed that living in the new city would be different since people in larger cities are less prejudiced and do not make fun of others based on their social standing or name.
Question 2: Maddie thought her silence was as bad as Peggy’s teasing. Was she right?
Answer: Absolutely, Maddie felt terrible for letting Peggy tease Wanda and for not speaking up against the unfair behavior since she believed that it was worse to ignore injustice than to break the law. She was embarrassed, therefore, for having subtly encouraged Peggy to frequently degrade Wanda.
Question 3: Peggy says, “I never thought she had the sense to know we were making fun of her anyway. I thought she was too dumb. And gee, look how she can draw!” What led Peggy to believe that Wanda was dumb? Did she change her opinion later?
Answer: Wanda was never the victim of Peggy’s mistreatment or practical jokes. Peggy thought she was stupid because of her unique and quiet behavior. Wanda would often tell Peggy that she had a closet filled with one hundred dresses and sixty pairs of shoes, but Peggy never understood why Wanda would wear the same old worn blue dress to school every day. Later on, though, after seeing Wanda’s sketches, Peggy had a change of heart and became extremely impressed. She was even more shocked when Wanda requested that Miss Mason give Peggy her sketch of a green garment with red accents from her collection.
Question 4: What important decision did Maddie make? Why did she have to think hard to do so?
Answer: Wanda had already left her home with her family when Maddie made the decision to accompany Peggy to her house in Boggins Heights to apologize and change her behavior for all of their mistreatment. Since Maddie never intervened to stop Peggy from making fun of Wanda, Maddie felt that she had behaved like a coward. Thus, even if it meant losing her close connection with Peggy in the process, she made a pledge to herself that she would not allow any injustice or bullying to happen to anyone.
Question 5: Why do you think Wanda gave Maddie and Peggy the drawings of the dresses? Why are they surprised?
Answer: She may have known Maddie and Peggy’s love for her and the clothes game they used to make fun of her when they penned a letter of friendship to Wanda. She so asked Miss Mason to send them two of her drawings to demonstrate to them her lack of animosity against them. When she gave them the drawings with their faces on them, Maddie and Peggy were caught off guard.
Question 6: Do you think Wanda really thought the girls were teasing her? Why or Why not?
Answer: Yes, Wanda was aware of the misbehavior displayed by the girls who tormented her at school every day. She was aware that they had mocked her name and appearance in the past, but she stayed mute. She claimed to have sixty pairs of matching shoes and a hundred gowns in her wardrobe, but she used to feel embarrassed by their misbehavior and fed up with everything. She later asked Miss Mason to present two of her sketches to Peggy and Maddie as a token of her acceptance of the girls who teased her a lot after winning the competition.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Thinking about Language
Question I: Here are thirty adjectives describing human qualities. Discuss them with your partner and put them in the two-word webs (given below) according to whether you think they show positive or negative qualities. You can consult a dictionary if you are not sure of the meanings of some of the words. You may also add to the list the positive or negative ‘pair’ of a given word.
kind, sarcastic, courteous, arrogant, insipid, timid, placid, cruel, haughty, proud, zealous, intrepid, sensitive, compassionate, introverted, stolid, cheerful, contented, thoughtless, vain, friendly, unforgiving, fashionable, generous, talented, lonely, determined, creative, miserable, complacent |
Answer:
Question II: What adjectives can we use to describe Peggy, Wanda and Maddie? You can choose adjectives from the list above. You can also add some of your own.
1. Peggy _______________________________________________________________
2. Wanda ______________________________________________________________
3. Maddie ______________________________________________________________
Answer:
1. Peggy: thoughtless, sarcastic, unforgiving, arrogant, cruel, haughty, proud and vain
2. Wanda: kind, courteous, introverted, talented, lonely, determined, generous, friendly, intrepid, sensitive, compassionate and creative
3. Maddie: insipid, miserable, timid, sensitive, placid and stolid
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Question III:
1. Find the sentences in the story with the following phrasal verbs.
lined up thought up took off stood by |
2. Look up these phrasal verbs in a dictionary to find out if they can be used in some other way. (Look at the entries for line, think, take and stand in the dictionary.) Find out what other prepositions can go with these verbs. What does each of these phrasal verbs mean?
3. Use at least five such phrasal verbs in sentences of your own.
Answer:
1. (i) Lined up: And she thought of the glowing picture of those hundred dresses made – all lined up in the classroom.
(ii) Thought up: Peggy, who had thought up this game, and Maddie, her inseparable friend, were always the last to leave.
(iii) Took off: Miss Mason took off her glasses, blew on them and wiped them on her soft white handkerchief.
(iv) Stood by: She had stood by silently, and that was just as bad as what Peggy had done.
2. (i) Lined up: To align in an orderly manner
(ii) Thought up: To use one’s mind to create or invent something
(iii) Took off: To remove
(iv) Stood by: To remain aloof
3. Given below are a set of other phrasal verbs:
(i) Asked (someone) out: Harry asked Sally out for a movie date.
(ii) Blow up: The speeding car blew up when it rammed against a bus in the highway.
(iii) Break down: Sierra broke down when she heard that her husband had passed away in a car accident.
(iv) Call around: We called around many colleges for admission of our child.
(v) Calm down: Yesterday someone rammed my father’s car from behind, then I asked him to calm down before he starts driving again.
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Question IV:
Colours are used to describe feelings, moods and emotions. Match the following ‘colour expressions’ with a suggested paraphrase.
(i) the Monday morning blues | – feel embarrassed/angry/ashamed |
(ii) go red in the face | – feel very sick, as if about to vomit |
(iii) look green | – sadness or depression after a weekend of fun |
(iv) the red carpet | – the sign or permission to begin an action |
(v) blue-blooded | – a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat; a wish to stop fighting |
(vi) a green belt | – in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong |
(vii) a blackguard | – a photographic print of building plans; a detailed plan or scheme |
(viii) a grey area | – land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law |
(ix) a white flag | – an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear |
(x) a blueprint | – a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong |
(xi) red-handed | – a special welcome |
(xii) the green light | – of noble birth or from a royal family |
Answer:
(i) the Monday morning blues | – sadness or depression after a weekend of fun |
(ii) go red in the face | – feel embarrassed/angry/ashamed |
(iii) look green | – feel very sick, as if about to vomit |
(iv) the red carpet | – a special welcome |
(v) blue-blooded | – of noble birth or from a royal family |
(vi) a green belt | – land around a town or city where construction is prohibited by law |
(vii) a blackguard | – a dishonest person with no sense of right or wrong |
(viii) a grey area | – an area of a subject or a situation where matters are not very clear |
(ix) a white flag | – a sign of surrender or acceptance of defeat; a wish to stop fighting |
(x) a blueprint | – a photographic print of building plans; a detailed plan or scheme |
(xi) red-handed | – in an unlawful act; while doing something wrong |
(xii) the green light | – the sign or permission to begin an action |
NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Chapter 6 – The Hundred Dresses – II
Speaking (Page 82)
Question 1:
Role Play
The story of Wanda Petronski presents many characters engaged in many kinds of behaviour (teasing, playing, sitting in class…). Form groups. Choose an episode or episodes from the story. Assign roles to each member of the group from that episode, and try to act it out like a play, using the words in the story.
Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.
Writing (Page 82)
Question 1:
Look again at the letter which Wanda’s father writes to Miss Mason, Wanda’s teacher. Mr Petronski is not quite aware how to write a formal letter in English. Can you rewrite it more appropriately? Discuss the following with your partner before you do so.
The format of a formal letter: How to begin the letter and how to end it; the language of the letter needs to be formal. (Avoid informal words like “holler” and fragments like “No more ask why funny name.”) Write complete sentences.
Answer:
Given below is a sample formal letter that Wanda’s father could have written while addressing it to the school authorities:
Dear Teacher,
My children, Wanda and Jake Petronski will not come to school going forward as we are shifting to a big city soon. They were exposed to derogatory remarks due to their long and unfamiliar name in school. I’m hoping no one would complain of our Polish descent in the new city or make fun of our last name, as there are plenty of funny names in the city.
Yours truly,
Jan Petronski
Question 2: Are you interested in drawing and painting? Ritu Kumar, one of India’s best-known dress designers, has no formal training in designing. She started by sketching ideas for her own dresses, and getting them stitched by a tailor. Ritu’s friends liked her dresses so much that they asked her to design clothes for them, and even paid her for it!
Imagine you are going to make a career out of your hobby. What sort of things will you need to learn? Write a paragraph or two on this topic after consulting an expert or doing reference work on your chosen area.
Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.
(Note: Students can write this answer as per their personal preferences.)
Question 3:
Rewrite a part of the story as if Wanda is telling us her own story.
Answer:
Activity to be done by yourself.
(Note: Students can choose a part of the story to write this answer as per their own understanding.)