NCERT Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 is a collection of a story and a poem. The prose “Quality” is a simplified and abridged version of a story by John Galsworthy. As the story has several words in a German accent, we have listed the meanings of such phrases in our notes. Also, our subject experts have answered writing questions following the story. Further, the notes include a summary of the poem “Trees” by Shirley Bauer and solutions to questions following this poetry. Let’s start learning!!
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NCERT Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5: Quality
The first part of NCERT Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 is a story by John Galsworthy. To help you understand the prose, we have included important words and phrases and their meanings in our notes. Thereafter, you will come across NCERT solutions to writing questions in the Working with the Text, Working with Language, Speaking, and Writing sections following the prose. Let’s proceed!!
Important Words and Phrases and Their Meanings
To begin with, we will walk you through the words and phrases and their meanings in the prose “Quality” by John Galsworthy.
- “Id is an ardt”: It is an art in German
- Lasted terribly: Lasted for a long time
- Guttural: Low or growling
- Incense: Fragrance
- “What a beaudiful biece!”: What a elegant piece!
- “When do you wand dem?”: When do you want them?
- “Tomorrow fordnighd?”: Fortnight
- “Brudder”: Brother
- “ld shouldn’d ’ave greaked’: It should not have creaked
- “You god dem wed before dey found demselves”: You got them wet before they found themselves.
- “Zend dem back”: Send them back.
- “I will look at dem”: I will look at them
- “Zome boods “are bad from birdt. If I can do noding wid dem I take dem off your bill.”: The same boots are bad from birth. If I can do nothing with them, I take them off your bill.
- “Dose are nod my boods”: Those are not my boots.
- “Id ’urds’ you dere”: It hurts you there.
- “Dose big virms ’ave no self-respect”: Those big firms have no self-respect.
- “Dey get id all”: They get it all. “dey get id by advertisement, nod by work. Dey take id away from us, who lofe our boods. Id gomes to dis —bresently I haf no work. Every year id gets less. You will see.”: They get it by advertisement, not by work. They take it away from us, who love our boots. It comes to this-presently I have no work. Every year it gets less.”
- “I am breddy well”: I am pretty well.
- “Do you wand any boods?”: Do you want any boots?
- “ld’s a beaudiful biece.”: It is a beautiful piece.
- “I can make dem quickly; id is a zlack dime.”: I can make them quickly: it is a slack time.
- Given….up: They thought they would never come
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Download NCERT Solutions Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 Important Questions and Answers PDF
Download NCERT Solutions of all Chapters of Class 7 English ‘Honeycomb’ here:
NCERT Solutions Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 Prose: Quality
Now, let us look at answers to writing questions following the Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 story. You can use these answers to complete your homework and ace your tests and term examinations. Let’s start!!
Working with the Text
Answer the following questions:
Ques 1. What was the author’s opinion about Mr Gessler as a bootmaker?
Ans: The author liked Mr. Gessler’s work as a bootmaker. Mr. Gessler made boots that fit perfectly, and he only made them when people asked for them. He used the finest materials, and the boots lasted a long time.
Ques 2. Why did the author visit the shop so infrequently?
Ans: The author did not go to the shop very often because the boots made by Mr. Gessler lasted a long time.
Ques 3. What was the effect on Mr Gessler of the author’s remark about a certain pair of boots?
Ans: When the author commented about a specific pair of boots, Mr. Gessler stared at the author for a moment, almost like he expected the author to change what he said. Then, Mr. Gessler suggested that maybe the author had gotten those boots wet. He also told the author to return the boots to him, so he could either fix them or make an adjustment to the price on the bill.
Ques 4. What was Mr Gessler’s complaint against “big firms”?
Ans: Mr. Gessler was upset about the big companies. He said they were making money by using advertisements to get customers, not because their work was good. They were successful because of their marketing tricks. This made it hard for small shops like his to keep their customers, and they lost business because of it.
Ques 5. Why did the author order so many pairs of boots? Did he really need them?
Ans: The author didn’t need a lot of boots. They ordered many pairs to support the bootmaker financially.
Working with Language
Ques 1. Study the following phrases and their meanings. Use them appropriately to complete the sentences that follow.
Phrases | Meanings |
Look after | Take care of |
Look down on | Disapprove or regard as inferior |
Look in | Make a short visit |
Look into | Investigate |
Look out | Be careful |
Look up | Improve |
Look up to | Admire |
(i) After a very long spell of heat, the weather is______________ at last.
(ii) We have no right to______________ people who do small jobs.
(iii) Nitin has always______________ his uncle, who is a self-made man.
(iv) The police are______________ the matter thoroughly.
(v) If you want to go out, I will______________ the children for you.
(vi) I promise to______________ on your brother when I visit Lucknow next.
(vii)______________ when you are crossing the main road.
Ans:
(i) looking up
(ii) look down on
(iii) looked up to
(iv) looking into
(v) look after
(vi) look in
(vii) Look out
Ques 3. Each of the following words contains the sound ‘sh’ (as in shine) in the beginning, in the middle or at the end. First speak out all the words clearly. Then arrange the words in three groups in the table following the words.
Sheep | Trash | Marsh | Fashion |
Anxious | Shriek | Shore | Fish |
Portion | Ashes | Sure | Nation |
Shoe | Pushing | Polish | Moustache |
Initial | Medial | Final |
Ans:
Initial | Medial | Final |
Sheep | Fashion | Fish |
Shriek | Anxious | Trash |
Shore | Pushing | Polish |
Shore | Ashes | Marsh |
Shoe | Nation | |
Moustache |
Ques 4. In each of the following words ‘ch’ represents the same consonant sound as in ‘chair’. The words on the left have this sound initially. Those on the right have it finally. Speak each word clearly.
Choose | Bench |
Child | March |
Cheese | Peach |
Chair | Wretch |
Charming | Research |
Underline the letters representing this sound in each of the following words.
Feature | Reaching | Riches |
Archery | Nature | Batch |
Picture | Matches | Church |
Ans:
Feature | Reaching | Riches |
Archery | Nature | Batch |
Picture | Matches | Church |
Speaking
Ques 1. Do you think Mr Gessler was a failure as a bootmaker or as a competitive businessman?
Ans: Mr Gessler was a fantastic bootmaker, and his customers were extremely happy with the high-quality boots he created.
Ques 2. What is the significance of the title? To whom or to what does it refer?
Ans: The title “Quality” is all about the exceptional quality of boots crafted by Mr. Gessler. He was a master at it, and he wouldn’t allow anyone to handle the boots until they were perfectly ready. He was a true perfectionist who believed in maintaining top-notch quality. Even though he was losing business, he never cut corners or compromised on the quality of the boots he made.
On the other hand, the big companies do not focus much on quality. They depend on their advertisements to draw in customers.
Writing
Ques 1. Based on the following points write a story.
- Your aunt has gone to her mother’s house.
- Your uncle does his cooking.
- He is absent-minded.
- He puts vegetables on the stove.
- He begins to clean his bicycle outside.
- The neighbour calls out saying something is burning.
- Your uncle rushes to the kitchen.
- To save vegetables, he puts some oil on them.
- Unfortunately, it’s machine oil, not cooking oil.
- What do you think happens to the vegetables?
Begin like this:
Last month my aunt decided to visit her parents…
Ans:
Last month, my aunt went to visit her parents, leaving my uncle in charge of cooking. My uncle is a bit forgetful sometimes, and that day was no exception.
He had decided to make a yummy vegetable curry for dinner. He washed and chopped the vegetables, then put them in a pot on the stove. But just when things were getting started, he remembered that his bicycle was dirty and needed a good cleaning.
He rushed outside to clean his bicycle, leaving the vegetables on the stove all by themselves. He was so into scrubbing his bicycle that he completely forgot about the cooking vegetables.
That’s when our neighbour, Mrs. Johnson, came to the rescue. She noticed a strange smell coming from our kitchen and called out, “Something is burning!”
My uncle dropped his bicycle cleaning tools and dashed back to the kitchen, panicked. Smoke was pouring out of the pot, and the vegetables were in trouble. To save them, he grabbed a bottle from the counter and poured it over the smoky veggies.
But here is the twist – it wasn’t cooking oil; it was machine oil for his bicycle. The vegetables were now covered in yucky machine oil.
So, what happened to the vegetables? Well, they didn’t taste good at all with machine oil on them. We had to order some pizza for dinner instead, and we all had a good laugh about the crazy mix-up. My uncle’s cooking adventure was a funny story we would remember for a long time.
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Access Summary of all Poems of Class 7 English ‘Honeycomb’ here:
NCERT Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 Poem: Trees
Furthermore, in NCERT Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 poem we learn about the significance of trees in our daily lives. To help you realise the importance of trees, we have written a summary of the poem “Trees” by Shirley Bauer. Thereafter, we have NCERT solutions to writing questions following this piece of English Literature.
Summary of Poem: Trees
“Trees” by Shirley Bauer is about all the different things that trees are good for. It is like a list of many fun and useful things we can do with trees. The poet, Shirley Bauer, wants to show how trees are important in our lives. Trees provide homes for birds, shade on hot summer days, and places to play and have fun. They also give us delicious fruits like apples and pears. But they can also be cut down for wood. The poem shows how both parents and kids see trees in their own unique ways, either as a beautiful scene to paint or as a lot of leaves to clean up in the fall. So, the poem is all about celebrating the different roles that trees play in our lives.
Also Read: Precis vs Summary: How are the Different?
Download NCERT Solutions Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 Important Questions and Answers PDF
Download NCERT Solutions of all Poems of Class 7 English ‘Honeycomb’ here:
NCERT Solutions Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 Poem: Trees
Following the summary, we have answered writing questions under the Working with the Poem section in NCERT Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 5 poem.
Working with the Poem
Ques 1. What are the games or human activities which use trees, or in which trees also ‘participate’?
Ans: Human activities that include trees are:
- Trees are like nature’s secret hiding spots when kids play hide and seek.
- Kids build cool tree houses to have their own special play space up in the trees.
- Grown-ups enjoy having relaxing tea parties under the cool shade of trees.
- Trees can be great models for artists to paint beautiful pictures of nature.
Ques 2.
(i) “Trees are to make no shade in winter.” What does this mean? (Contrast this line with the line immediately before it.)
(ii) “Trees are for apples to grow on, or pears.” Do you agree that one purpose of a tree is to have fruit on it? Or do you think this line is humorous?
Ans:
(i) Trees are like big umbrellas in the summer, giving us shade when it’s super hot. But in the winter, they drop their leaves, so we can enjoy the sunshine because there’s no shade from the trees.
(ii) Yes. One purpose of a tree is to bear fruits and vegetables. In addition to fruits and vegetables, trees also provide other edible items to humans.
Read More: English Quiz: 15-minute Test to Check Your Language Proficiency
Get NCERT Solutions and Notes of Class 7 English ‘An Alien Hand’ textbook here:
Chapter 1: The Tiny Teacher |
Chapter 2: Bringing Up Kari |
Chapter 3: Golu Grows a Nose |
Chapter 4: Chandni |
Chapter 5: The Bear Story |
Chapter 6: A Tiger in the House |
Chapter 7: An Alien Hand |
FAQs
Ans: Quality is written by John Galsworthy.
Ans: “Trees’ is written by Shirley Bauer.
Ans: The Man of Property and Justice are some of the most famous books by John Galsworthy.
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