1st PUC English Question and Answer Karnataka State Board Syllabus
1st PUC English Chapter 11
An Old Woman
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An Old Woman Comprehension I :
Question 1.
‘You’ in the poem refers to
(a) The speaker.
(b) The passerby
(c) The reader
(d) Anyone
Answer:
(c) The reader
Question 2.
What does the old woman offer to do?
Answer:
The old woman offered that if we gave fifty paise coins she would take to the horseshoe shrine.
Question 3.
What does she expect from her services?
Answer:
She expected a fifty paise coin.
Question 4.
The lines, ‘You turn around and face her with an air of finality’ suggest that he decided to
(a) Give her a fifty paisa coin and get rid of her.
(b) Allow her to take him to the shrine.
(c) End the farce.
Answer:
(c) End the farce.
Question 5.
The old woman’s eyes are compared to ………………………..
Answer:
bullet holes.
Question 6.
‘You are reduced to so much small change in her hand. Here the speaker is suggesting that
(a) One is reduced to an insignificant position.
(b) One feels that one is being cheated.
(c) One feels a change in one’s personality.
Answer:
(a) One is reduced to an insignificant position.
An Old Woman Comprehension II:
Question 1.
How is the plight of the old woman depicted in the poem?
Answer:
The old woman is not a beggar; she wants to live by doing work. Therefore she does the job of taking the visitors to the horseshoe shrine. Though the visitor has seen it already, she hobbles along anyway and tightens her grip on his shirt. She is very adamant; she did not let him go away. She has no other ideas except to guide the visitors to see them.
Question 2.
The old woman in the poem is a self-appointed tourist guide, not a beggar. Do you agree? Give reasons.
Answer:
The old woman is not a beggar, she is hard-working. Though she is old still she wants to earn money by working. She is a self-appointed tourist guide. She is well appreciated. She did not beg anyone. She is a model for others. Her character is highly respectful.
Question 3.
How does the speaker’s attitude undergo a change?
Answer:
At the beginning of the poem, the speaker does not like the old woman. Because the speaker had not understood the woman properly. She did not allow him to go to the horseshoe shrine. The speaker started observing the character of the woman who is such a bold person. Therefore.
An Old Woman Comprehension III :
Question 1.
‘The old woman reduces the self-esteem of the speaker and makes him feel that he is nothing more than “so much small change”. Comment.
Answer:
The old woman continuously asks him to go with her. So that she would get the money to survive. The speaker does not change himself initially but slowly he turns towards the words of the woman. Despite his dignity, he came down to hear the story of the old woman.
Question 2.
What is the speaker trying to convey through the lines ‘and the hills crack, and the temples crack, and the sky falls’?
Answer:
The speaker is shocked, looking at her face. The are two deep sunken eyes that look like bullet hobs. Her skin is wrinkled and cracks begin to appear around her eyes and spread beyond her skin. He feels that everything is falling apart.
Everything is cracked and in ruins. The cracks spread beyond her skin to the hills and the sky. There is a catastrophe. The hills crack, the temples crack and the sky falls and shatters like a sheet of glass.
But the old woman stands there as a symbol of all-round degradation. The narrator feels ashamed. He is reduced to the small change in her hand. In a moment of realization, the narrator/tourist finds himself reduced in his self-esteem. His awakening to the ‘real’ world makes him feel ‘small’.
Question 3.
How do you relate the ‘cracks around, her eyes’ to the crocking of hills and temples?
Answer:
The old woman’s eyes are just two gaping holes filled with empty air, with the hills and the sky. Then the cracks begin around her eyes, spreading beyond her skin and then the hills crack, the temples crack and the sky cracks and the sky finally shatters and falls like plate-glass.
The old woman herself is shatter-proof and nothing happens to her. Only you get instantly reduced to a small change in her hand. It is you who shatters because her eyes are already bullet holes which are formed with cracks around the holes.
An Old Woman Summary.
The poem starts with a seemingly ordinary encounter but ends in a profound revelation. The old woman described in the poem is not just any woman; she symbolizes the degradation of humanity. Her eyes, likened to bullet holes, convey a haunting sense of emptiness and suffering.
The narrator is shocked by the old woman’s pitiable condition, feeling as if she might fall apart at any moment. The central theme revolves around keeping perspective on what truly matters—in this case, the old woman and her deep connection to the land from which she comes.
A tourist visiting a hill comes across the old woman, who grabs his sleeve and asks for fifty paise, promising to guide him to the horseshoe shrine. However, the tourist has already visited the shrine and tries to brush her off. Despite his lack of interest, the woman persists, pestering him to take her offer. The man dismisses her, seeing only an old beggar.
The poet uses the common image of a beggar—an old woman begging outside the horseshoe shrine—to make a larger point. In India, such sights are common, especially around holy places and pilgrim spots, where beggars are often persistent, to the point of being irritating or annoying.
As the poet prepares to end his interaction with the woman with a sense of finality, her question catches him off guard: “What else can an old woman do on hills as wretched as these?”
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