Textual Questions and Answers:
Oral Comprehension Check:
Q1. Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?
A. Wanda used to sit in a corner of room number thirteen.
She used to sit with the rough boys, who got the lowest marks. No one ever knew
why she sat there. The reason might be that she didn’t want to spoil the remaining
with the dirt and mud she carried to the class with her feet.
Q2. Where does Wanda
live? What kind of a place do you think it is?
A. Wanda lived in Boggins Heights. It was a part of the city
where poor people lived. The place was not paved properly and it was filled
with mud and dirt. This was why Wanda’s feet were covered with caked mud.
Q3. When and why do Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence?
A. Though Wanda was absent to the school since Monday, Peggy and Maddie noticed her absence on Wednesday. They were late to the class waiting for Wanda on that day as they wanted to have to some fun with her. They came to know about Wanda’s absence then.
Q4. What do you think “to have fun with her” means?
A. “To have fun with her” means to tease her and to belittle her. Wanda was from a poor immigrant Polish family attending a school in an American city. The other children wanted to tease Wanda led by two close friends, Peggy and Maddie.
Q5. In what way was Wanda
different from the other children?
A. Wanda was an immigrant Polish
girl who was quiet and shy. She was poor and friendless. Her name was unique. It
was funny to her classmates. She always wore the same dress.
Q6. Did Wanda have a hundred
dresses? Why do you think she said she did?
A. No, Wanda could not have one
hundred dresses as she was a poor girl. She knew that her classmates were
making fun of her. She wanted to let them have the fun and said that she was
having one hundred dresses in her closet all lined up.
Q7. Why is Maddie embarrassed by
the questions Peggy asks Wanda? Is she also like Wanda, or is she different?
A. Maddie is embarrassed by the
questions Peggy asks Wanda. It doesn’t mean that she cares about Wanda. It is
because she is afraid that one day she may be treated just like Wanda is
being treated now. Maddie is also a poor girl but not as poor as Wanda.
Q8. Why didn’t Maddie
ask Peggie to stop teasing Wanda? What was she afraid of?
A. Though Maddie didn’t like teasing Wanda, she never asked
Peggie to stop teasing Wanda. Maddie was afraid that Peggy might start teasing her.
Because Maddie was also poor and she was wearing clothes previously used by
Peggy. So, she was an unwilling partner to the children who teased Wanda.
Q9. Who did Maddie
think would win the drawing contest? Why?
A. Maddie thought that her friend Peggy would win the drawing
contest as ‘she drew better than anyone else in the room’. Peggy could draw a
film star’s head or images from magazines that were easy to recognize.
Q10. Who won the drawing contest? What had the
winner drawn?
A. The poor immigrant girl from Poland, Wanda Pentronski had
won the drawing contest. She had drawn and submitted a hundred different
dresses including a blue dress with colorful trimmings and a forest green dress
with a red sash. All her drawings were neatly lined up in the room.
Thinking about the text:
Q1. How is Wanda seen as different by the other girls? How
do they treat her?
A. Other girls saw Wanda as a different kind of girl. This
is because she had a strange name. She was an immigrant girl. She was poor and
lived in a poor locality called Boggins Heights. She had no friends and she
rarely talked with others. She sat on the corner seat of the last bench along
with noisy boys who didn’t get good marks. She came to school wearing the same
dress and muddy feet.
Other girls used to tease Wanda led by Peggy and Maddie. They
usually had fun with Wanda.
Q2. How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she
say that she has a hundred dresses?
A. Wanda felt bad and embarrassed about the dresses game. She
felt insulted when other girls mockingly enquired about her dresses. To shield
herself from those insults and jokes, she said that she had a hundred dresses
all lined up in her closet. What she said was truth as she had a hundred
dresses with her. Those dresses were drawn on wrapping paper to be submitted as
her entries for the drawing and coloring competition.
Q3. Why does Maddie stand by and not do anything? How is she
different from Peggy? (Was Peggy’s friendship important to Maddie? Why? Which
lines in the text tell you this?)
A. Maddie stands quietly and watches as Peggy humiliates
Wanda because Peggy is powerful and popular. Even being teased Wanda has never
resented the game. So, Peggy is not doing anything bad. Moreover, Peggy is not
a bad girl, and could never be wrong.
Unlike Peggy, Maddie is not rich. Maddie was not as poor as
Wanda. She was afraid that she could be the next target for the girls to mock
at. So, Maddie does not object to the game they are playing with Wanda.
Yes, Peggy’s friendship was important to Maddie. The lines
which indicate this are:
‘She was Peggy’s best friend, and Peggy was the best-liked
girl in the whole room. Peggy could not possibly do anything that was really
wrong.’
Q4. What does Miss Mason think of Wanda’s drawings? What do
the children think of them? How do you know?
A. Miss Mason thinks that Room number thirteen should be
proud of Wanda’s drawings as each of them is different and beautiful. She says
that the judges have felt that each of them is worthy of winning.
The children too are surprised by seeing the dazzling
paintings lined up in the room. Even the boys, who have no interest in dresses,
are whistling and stomping their feet. Peggy, who is supposed to win the
competition as she is the best artist, accepts that Wanda’s drawings are great.
Thinking about the language:
Combine the following to make sentences like those above.
1. This is the bus (what kind of bus?). It goes to Agra. (use
which or that)
2. I would like to buy (a) shirt (which shirt?). (The) shirt is
in the shop window. (use which or that)
3. You must break your fast at a particular time (when?). You
see the moon in the sky. (use when)
4. Find a word (what kind of word?). It begins with the letter
Z. (use which or that)
5. Now find a person (what kind of person). His or her name
begins with the letter Z. (use whose)
6. Then go to a place (what place?). There are no people whose
name begins with Z in that place. (use where)
Answers:
1. This is the bus which goes to Agra.
2. I would like to buy the shirt that is in the shop window.
3. You must break your fast at a particular time when you see
the moon in the sky.
4. Find a word that begins with the letter Z.
5. Now find a person whose name begins with the letter Z.
6. Then go to a place where there are no people whose name
begins with Z.
1. Here are two other sentences from the story. Can you say
whose point of view the italicized words express?
(i) But on Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie, who sat down front
with other children who got good marks and who didn’t track in a whole lot of
mud, did notice that Wanda wasn’t there.
(ii) Wanda Petronski. Most of the children in Room Thirteen
didn’t have names like that. They had names easy to say, like Thomas, Smith or
Allen.
Answers:
(i) The italicized words express the point of view of Peggy
and Maddie.
(ii) The italicized words express the point of view of the
narrator.
Other such adverbs are apparently, evidently, surprisingly,
possibly, hopefully, incredibly, luckily. Use these words appropriately in the
blanks in the sentences below. (You may use a word more than once, and more
than one word may be appropriate for a given blank.)
1. _____________ , he finished his work on time.
2. _____________, it
will not rain on the day of the match.
3. _____________, he
had been stealing money from his employer.
4. Television is _____________
to blame for the increase in violence in society.
5. The children will
_____________learn from their mistakes.
6. I can’t
_____________lend you that much money.
7. The thief
_____________ had been watching the house for many days.
8. The thief
_____________escaped by bribing the jailor.
9. _____________, no one had suggested this before.
10. The water was
_____________hot
Answers:
1. Surprisingly, he finished his work on time.
2. Hopefully, it will not rain on the day of the match.
3. Evidently, he had been stealing money from his employer.
4. Television is possibly to blame for the increase in
violence in society.
5. The children will hopefully, learn from their mistakes.
6. I can’t possibly lend you that much money.
7. The thief apparently had been watching the house for many
days.
8. The thief possibly escaped by bribing the jailor.
9. Surprisingly, no one had suggested this before.
10. The water was incredibly hot.
