English- A Fishy Story

 A FISHY STORY

Date- 2/9/21

Topics taught- Reading and explanation of the chapter.

New words

1.minnows

2.gumption

3.bleakly

4.marvelled

5.clutched

6.shattered

Date- 3/9/21

Topics taught- Discussion of textual exercise

Textual Answers:
1.	Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.
a)	i.    According to the people, all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily. ii.    The twenty-five percent formula wouldn’t work well for the young man because the greatest number of fish he ever caught in one day was three, and one can’t add twenty-five per cent to three in fish. iii.      When the twenty-five percent formula didn’t work, the young man would just double the quantity. iv.    falsify
b)	i.   ‘It’ refers to the trout in the glass case. ii.    George climbed up on the back of the chair to get a better view of the trout in the glass case. iii.     When the chair slipped, George clutched wildly at the trout-case to save himself, and down it came with a crash, George and the chair on top of it. iv.    marvelled
2.	Answer the following questions in 30-40 words.
a)	The neighbourhood of Streatley and Goring is a great fishing centre. The river abounds in pike, roach, dace, gudgeon, and eels and one can sit and fish for them all day. Some people do but they never catch them.
b)	The author was an extremely neat thrower, had plenty of gumption and quite enough constitutional laziness. However, to become a great angler, he would require more imagination, more power of invention and the ability to tell lies easily.
c)	The young man began counting each fish that he caught as ten, and to assume ten to begin with. Then, if he really caught one fish, he called it twenty, while two fish would count thirty and so on.
d)	The old fellow told the author that he had caught the trout just below the bridge with a minnow and it weighed eighteen pounds six ounces. He further added that one didn’t see many fish that size about there then.
3.	Answer the following questions in 100-120 words.

a)	One day when the author and his friend George were in a parlour, they began chatting with an old fellow there. Then, the old fellow said that the trout weighed eighteen pounds six ounces and he had caught him just below the bridge with a minnow. The local carrier, who had just stopped at the inn, said that it was nearly five years ago that he had caught that trout below the lock and it weighed twenty-six pounds. Five minutes later, a third man came in and described how he had caught it early one morning, bleakly. After he left, a middle-aged individual came in. He told the author and his friend how it had taken him half an hour to land it, broke his rod and weighed thirty-four pounds. Finally, the landlord came and told the real history how he had caught it when he was quite a lad.
b)	The author and his friend George has heard all the false stories and shared them with the landowner. The landowner in turn told them the real history behind the trout. After the landowner left the room, they again turned their gaze upon the fish. The more they looked at it, the more they marvelled at it. It excited George so much that he climbed up on the back of a chair to get a better view of it. And then the chair slipped, and George clutched wildly at the trout-case to save himself, and down it came with a crash, George and the chair on top of it. That trout lay shattered into a thousand fragments. They thought it strange and unaccountable, if it had been a stuffed trout, but it was not. That trout was plaster-of- Paris. Thus, the truth behind the huge trout was finally discovered.
	Language
4.	Fill in the blanks with the correct articles.
	1.     The neighbourhood of Streatley and Goring is a great fishing centre. 2.     They said that I was an extremely neat thrower. 3.     I knew a young man who had determined never to exaggerate his hauls by more than twenty-five per cent. 4.     One day, George and I went to a parlour and began chatting with an old fellow there. 5.     We were still looking at the trout when the local carrier, who had just stopped at the inn, also looked at the fish.
5.	Give the antonym of the following words.
	i.    never x always           ii.    dissatisfied x            iii.      unaccountable x satisfied                                    accountable iv.    gain x lose                v.    simplify x                 vi.                             ability x inability complicate vii.    abound x scarce       viii.   neat x untidy             ix.        caught x released