NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1 The Fun They Had

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 1 The Fun They Had are given below. This chapter contains many questions that are essential for exams. Our expert teachers answered all the questions with a detailed explanation that help students to complete their assignments and homework. We have also provided NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Chapter 1 The Fun They Had in PDF format so that you can download them for offline use.

The Fun They Had NCERT Questions and Answers

Thinking About Text

I.  Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each. 

Question 1. How old are Margie and Tommy?

Answer: Margie is eleven and Tommy is thirteen years old.

Question 2. What did Margie write in her diary?

Answer: Margie wrote in her diary “Today Tommy found a real book!”

Question 3. Had Margie ever seen a book before?

Answer: No, Margie had never seen a book before.

Question 4. What things about the book did she find strange?

Answer: Margie found it strange that the words printed on a book stood still instead of moving the way they did on a screen. She also found it odd that the words on a page always remained the same as the first time they were read. Besides, the idea that someone would write a book about schools was itself strange for Margie. 

Question 5. What do you think a telebook is?

Answer: I think the telebook must be a book that gets displayed on the screen of the television.

Question 6. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates?

Answer: Margie’s school was next to her bedroom. No, she did not have any classmates.

Question 7. What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn?

Answer: Margie and Tommy learnt Geography, History and Arithmetic.

 II. Answer the following with reference to the story.

Question 1. “I wouldn’t throw it away.”

(i) Who says these words?

(ii) What does ‘it’ refer to?

(iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker?

Answer: (i) Tommy says these words.

(ii) “It” refers to the books.

(iii) The paperback book is being compared with the telebooks by the speaker.

Question 2. “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”

(i) Who does ‘they’ refer to?

(ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here?

(iii) What is it contrasted with?

Answer: (i) “They” refers to the students centuries ago.

(ii) “Regular” means the usual for the people in 2157. Here, regular teacher means the mechanical teacher.

(iii) The mechanical teacher is contrasted with humans as teachers of earlier times.

III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).

Question 1. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have?

Answer: Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers with large black screens on which all the lessons were shown and questions were asked. These mechanical teachers had a slot in which the students had to put their homework and test papers. They didn’t have a living human being as a teacher who would teach the students in a classroom.

Question 2. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector?

Answer: Margie’s mother sent for the County Inspector because the mechanical teacher was not functioning efficiently. Margie had been given many tests in geography by the teacher, but there was no improvement in her performance. So, Margie’s mother wanted to find out the reason behind it.

Question 3. What did he do?

Answer: The County Inspector smiled at Margie and gave her an apple. He took the mechanical teacher apart from her. Then he fixed the mechanical teacher. He told Margie’s mother that the geography sector of the mechanical teacher was geared a little too quick and that he has slowed it up to an average ten-year level.

Question 4. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?

Answer: Margie was doing badly in geography because the geography sector of the mechanical teacher had been adjusted at a higher level. In order to help her, the County Inspector slowed down the geography sector of the mechanical teacher to an average ten-year level.

Question 5. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?

Answer: Tommy’s teacher had to be taken away altogether for a month as the history sector had blanked out completely.

Question 6. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?

Answer: Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school because Margie’s mother believed that little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.

Question 7. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school?

Answer: Tommy says that the old kind of school had special buildings. All the kids went to that building for studying.

Question 8. How does he describe the old kind of teachers?

Answer: Tommy describes the old kind of teachers as living human beings who did not live in the house. Instead, they taught the students in a special building. They taught the children in groups and gave them homework.

IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100 –150 words).

Question 1: What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story?

Answer: Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers. They had large black screens on which all the lessons were shown and questions were asked. These teachers were adjusted according to the age and potential of the student concerned. They had a slot in which students had to put their homework and test papers. They had to write their answers in a punch code and the mechanical teacher calculated the marks immediately. Their schools were in their homes itself. They did not have any classmates. They had regular days and hours for school. The mechanical teacher always turned on at the same time every day except Saturdays and Sundays. They learned geography, history and arithmetic.

Question 2: Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun?

Answer: Margie hated school because she felt it boring. The mechanical teacher started the class at the same time regularly. Margie’s mechanical teacher was giving her test after test on Geography and she was performing badly. Margie also did not like inserting homework and test papers in the slot on the mechanical teacher.

She thought that the old kind of school must have been fun because it would have had kids from various places of the neighbourhood. It would have been so interesting to sit together in the classroom and leave the school together at the end of the day. All the kids learned the same things so they could help each other in studies and homework.

Question 3: Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer: There is no doubt that today’s schools are more funny than the future school discussed in the story. This school has nothing but a mechanical teacher with no emotions and sentiments. It does not have the ability to understand the psychology of a child. Moreover, it guides a pupil according to its adjusted modes. But today’s schools work for the overall development of a child. They learn the same thing. The teaches are real human beings. They leam how to adapt themselves to the new surroundings and cope with the strangers. The students sit and leam together. These activities don’t give vent to the feelings of depression, alienation and segregation.