Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 1 – My Watch Important Question Answers from Woven Words Book
Class 11 English (Elective) My Watch Important Question Answers – Looking for questions and answers for CBSE Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 1 – My Watch ? Look no further! Our comprehensive compilation of important questions will help you brush up on your subject knowledge. Practising Class 11 English question answers can significantly improve your performance in the exam. Improve your chances of scoring high marks by exploring Essay Chapter 1 – My Watch now. The questions listed below are based on the latest CBSE exam pattern, wherein we have given NCERT solutions to the chapter’s extract-based questions, multiple choice questions and Extra Question Answers
Also, practising with different kinds of questions can help students learn new ways to solve problems that they may not have seen before. This can ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of the subject matter and better performance on exams.
- My Watch NCERT Solutions
- My Watch Extract Based Questions
- My Watch Multiple Choice Questions
- My Watch Extra Question Answers
Related:
My Watch Textbook Questions (NCERT Solutions)
Look for these expressions and words in the text and guess the meaning from the context.
bodings
human cabbage
vicious happiness
prised
brained him
Ans.
bodings: Told his feelings of foreboding (a sense of future bad events) and irrational beliefs to leave his mind.
human cabbage: A disrespectful term used by the narrator to describe the jeweler, suggesting he is dull-witted or unresponsive.
vicious happiness: A mean or cruel kind of joy, suggesting delight in someone else’s misfortune or a chance to mess with something.
prised: use force in order to move, move apart, or open (something).
brained him: This is an exaggerated, humorous way of saying the narrator hit him on the head and killed him immediately. It’s not meant to be taken literally.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
1. What was the importance of the watch to the author?
Ans. At first, the watch was very important to the author because it was perfectly reliable. It had run for eighteen months without any problems, and he believed it was completely accurate and would never break. He had full trust in its ability to tell the exact time, seeing it as something truly perfect and lasting.
2. What were the attempts made by the author to get his watch repaired?
Ans. The author made many attempts to get his watch repaired, but each one unfortunately made it worse. First, he took it to the chief jeweler who claimed the watch was four minutes slow and adjusted its regulator. After this, the watch started gaining time very rapidly. Then, when it became too fast, he took it to another watchmaker who cleaned and oiled it, which caused it to slow down immensely, sending him backward in time. Later, when it was too slow, he visited another watchmaker who said its “barrel was swelled” and fixed it, but this repair resulted in the watch sometimes running wildly fast and noisy, and at other times being very slow. He then consulted another watchmaker who declared the “king-bolt” broken, which caused the watch to stop and start randomly and even “kick back” like a gun. Following that, he went to yet another person who stated there was a “fresh start” problem, leading to the hands sticking together at ten minutes to ten. The next repair involved fixing a bent crystal and a crooked mainspring, but this made the watch occasionally buzz wildly and spin its hands incredibly fast before stopping suddenly. Finally, he went to one more watchmaker, an old acquaintance who was a known bad steamboat engineer, whose absurd diagnosis pushed the narrator to a final, desperate act.
3. Why did the author finally give up on his watch?
Ans. The author finally gave up on his watch because the cycle of expensive and ineffective repairs became unbearable and absurd. He had spent thousands of dollars, far more than the watch’s original cost, only for each repair to introduce a new, bizarre malfunction. The watch had become completely useless for telling time and a source of extreme frustration, leading him to a humorous, exaggerated act of “braining” the last watchmaker.
4. What was Uncle Williams’ comment on the ‘tinkerers’ of the world?
Ans. Uncle William used to say that a good horse remained good until it ran away once, and similarly, a good watch remained good until the repairers got a chance to work on it. He also wondered what happened to all the unsuccessful repairmen of different trades like tinkers, gunsmiths, shoemakers, engineers, and blacksmiths, suggesting they disappear after failing.
5. Explain these lines
a. ‘I seemd to detect in myself a sort of sneaking fellow-feeling for the mummy in the museum, and a desire to swap news with him.’
b. ‘Within a week it sickened to a raging fever and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade.’
c. ‘She makes too much steam—you want to hang the monkey wrench on the safety valve!’
Ans.
a. This line means that the narrator felt a strange connection or sympathy with a mummy in a museum. His watch had become so incredibly slow that it was making him live “in week before last,” essentially stuck in the past, far removed from the present world. The mummy, being ancient and motionless, is also completely out of sync with modern time, making the narrator feel like they share a similar, timeless isolation. He wants to “swap news” (exchange stories) because they both exist in a state disconnected from the current world.
b. This line humorously describes how quickly and severely the watch started malfunctioning after the first repair. Before, it was perfect; now, it suddenly became wildly erratic. By saying it “sickened to a raging fever” and its “pulse went up,” the author uses human terms to show the watch’s extreme, out-of-control speed. A “pulse of a hundred and fifty in the shade” (even in cool conditions) vividly paints a picture of something moving far too fast and dangerously.
c. This is a funny and absurd diagnosis given by the last watchmaker, who used to be a steamboat engineer. It means he’s treating the watch as if it were a steam engine. “Too much steam” in an engine means too much pressure. A “safety-valve” is a part of a steam engine that lets out excess pressure. A “monkey-wrench” is a tool. So, the engineer’s “solution” is nonsensical for a watch, implying he thinks it’s over-pressured and needs a crude, dangerous way to release it, highlighting his incompetence.
TALKING ABOUT THE TEXT
Discuss in pairs or groups of four
1. Replacing old machines with new is better than getting them repaired.
Ans. The story strongly supports the idea that sometimes, replacing old or broken machines might be better than trying to repair them endlessly. The narrator’s experience shows how repairing a complex item can become a never-ending cycle of new problems and high costs, especially if the repairers aren’t fully competent. His watch became a burden and a source of constant frustration, far outweighing the value of keeping the old item. It suggests that at some point, the effort and expense of repair become illogical compared to simply buying something new that works reliably.
2. It is difficult to part with personal items like a watch which have a sentimental value attached to them.
Ans. While the story focuses on frustration and humor, the initial perfection and reliability of the watch might hint at a sentimental attachment. The narrator “grieved” when it first ran down. However, the overwhelming comedic focus is on the watch’s malfunctions rather than its sentimental value. The author seems more intent on highlighting the absurdity of the repair process. The story suggests that even if there was some initial attachment, the extreme frustration caused by the repeated failed repairs quickly destroyed any sentimental value the watch might have had, turning it into a hated object.
APPRECIATION
1. How is humour employed to comment on the pains that the author took to get his watch set right?
Ans. Humor is used in several ways to highlight the author’s suffering in getting his watch fixed. Mark Twain uses exaggeration (hyperbole) to make the problems ridiculous: the watch sickens with a “raging fever,” gains thirteen days, talks like a monster with “barking and wheezing,” and its hands spin like a “spider’s web.” He also uses sarcasm (calling the first jeweler “human cabbage”) and understatement (“a correct average is only a mild virtue”). The sheer absurdity of the watch’s ever-changing problems and the equally absurd “solutions” offered by the watchmakers make the narrator’s pain seem laughably extreme, turning his personal torment into public entertainment.
2. ‘The author’s treatment of the subject matter makes the readers identify themselves with the experience.’ Comment on this statement.
Ans. This statement is very true. Readers can easily identify with the author’s experience because almost everyone has dealt with a malfunctioning device or incompetent service at some point. While Twain exaggerates the problems to a comedic extreme, the core feelings of frustration, helplessness, and annoyance with faulty repairs and unhelpful “experts” are universal. The reader understands the feeling of something simple becoming incredibly complicated and expensive, creating a bond of shared irritation and amusement with the narrator’s plight.
3. Identify some of the improbable images the author has used to effect greater humour.
Ans.
- The watch sickened to a raging fever and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade. (giving a machine human illness).
- It was thirteen days ahead of the almanac, enjoying snow while October leaves were still turning (the watch living in its own future).
- The watch hurried up house rent, bills payable (the watch controlling his finances).
- The watch ticked all appointments I go to, missing my dinner, I gradually drifted back into yesterday (the watch dictating his past).
- The narrator developed a “sneaking fellow-feeling for the mummy in the museum, and a desire to swap news with him” (comparing himself to a dead, ancient object).
- The watch making barking and wheezing and whooping and sneezing and snorting noises (making a machine sound like an animal).
- The watch hands shutting together like a pair of scissors (a strange, violent image for watch hands).
- The hands spinning so fast they looked like a delicate spider’s web (an absurd, delicate chaos).
- “She makes too much steam— you want to hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!” (applying steam engine logic to a watch).
- The narrator humorously claiming, ‘I brained him on the spot and had him buried at my own expense’ (an extreme, violent, and highly improbable reaction).
LANGUAGE WORK _______________________
Make a list of the expressions that imbue the watch with human attributes.
Ans. The author gives the watch many human-like qualities (personification) to make the story funnier and more relatable:
- “it ran eighteen months without losing or gaining” (implies conscious effort)
- “I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments” (has a mind, can judge)
- “its constitution and its anatomy imperishable” (has a body, internal makeup)
- “I grieved about it as if it were a recognised messenger and forerunner of calamity” (a living being, capable of sending messages)
- “she is four minutes slow” (given a gender)
- “My watch began to gain” (implies intentional action)
- “it sickened to a raging fever” (gets sick like a person)
- “its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade” (has a pulse, gets excited)
- “It was away into November enjoying the snow” (has feelings, enjoys things)
- “It hurried up house rent, bills payable” (takes action, causes things to happen)
- “using its own discretion about the intervals” (has judgment, makes choices)
- “it kicked back like a musket” (has a physical, forceful reaction)
- “there appeared to be fresh start” (has beginnings)
- “the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors” (perform an action)
- “my timepiece performed unexceptionably” (behaves well)
- “everything inside would let go all of a sudden and begin to buzz like a bee” (loses control, makes sounds)
- “their individuality was lost completely” (has a unique identity)
- “She would reel off the next twenty-four hours” (performs quickly)
- “then stop with a bang” (acts with a finality)
- “She makes too much steam” (has physical states like a person/machine)
CBSE Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 1 My Watch Extract-Based Questions and Answers
Answer the following extract-based questions.
A.
My beautiful new watch had run eighteen months without losing or gaining, and without breaking any part of its machinery or stopping. I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider its constitution and its anatomy imperishable. But, at last, one night, I let it run down. I grieved about it as if it were a recognised messenger and forerunner of calamity. But by and by I cheered up, set the watch by guess, and commanded my bodings and superstitions to depart.
Q1. For how long did the narrator’s watch run perfectly?
Ans. It ran perfectly for eighteen months.
Q2. What did the narrator believe about his watch?
Ans. He believed it was infallible (never wrong) and imperishable (could not be destroyed).
Q3. What happened one night that caused the watch to stop?
Ans. He let it run down.
Q4. How did the narrator feel at first when his watch stopped?
Ans. He grieved about it, as if it were a sign of a disaster.
Q5. How did the narrator set his watch after it stopped?
Ans. He set the watch by guess.
B.
Next day I stepped into the chief jeweller’s to set it by the exact time… Then he said, ‘she is four minutes slow— regulator wants pushing up’. I tried to stop him… but no; all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes slow and the regulator must be pushed up a little… My watch began to gain. It gained faster and faster day by day. Within a week it sickened to a raging fever and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade.
Q1. Why did the narrator go to the chief jeweller’s shop?
Ans. He went to get his watch set by the exact time.
Q2. What did the jeweller say was wrong with the watch?
Ans. He said it was four minutes slow and the regulator needed pushing up.
Q3. Did the narrator want the jeweller to fix the watch?
Ans. No, he tried to stop him and make him understand the watch kept perfect time.
Q4. What happened to the watch after the jeweller “fixed” it?
Ans. The watch began to gain time, getting faster and faster.
Q5. What did the narrator compare the fast-ticking watch to?
Ans. He compared it to having a “raging fever” and a high “pulse.”
C.
It did well now, except that always at ten minutes to ten the hands would shut together like a pair of scissors and from that time forth they would travel together. The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the time of day by such a watch, and so I went again to have the thing repaired. This person said that the crystal had got bent and the mainspring was not straight.
Q1. What new problem did the watch have after being repaired again?
Ans. At ten minutes to ten (9:50), the hands would shut together like scissors and move as one.
Q2. Could anyone tell the time from the watch when this happened?
Ans. No, the narrator says “The oldest man in the world could not make head or tail of the time.”
Q3. What did the next watchmaker say was wrong with the watch?
Ans. He said that the crystal (glass cover) was bent and the mainspring was not straight.
Q4. At what specific time would the hands of the watch shut together?
Ans. They would shut together at “ten minutes to ten.”
Q5. What did the narrator compare the watch hands to when they shut together?
Ans. He compared them to “a pair of scissors.”
D.
I presently recognised in this watchmaker an old acquaintance—a steam-boat engineer of other days and not a good engineer, either… He said: ‘She makes too much steam— you want to hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!’ I brained him on the spot and had him buried at my own expense. My uncle William… used to say that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a chance at it.
Q1. Who did the narrator recognize the final watchmaker to be?
Ans. He recognized him as an old acquaintance who used to be a steamboat engineer.
Q2. What was the steamboat engineer’s strange advice for fixing the watch?
Ans. He said it “makes too much steam” and that he should “hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve.”
Q3. What did the narrator humorously claim he did to the engineer?
Ans. He humorously claimed that he “brained him on the spot” (killed him) and had him buried.
Q4. What did the narrator’s Uncle William say about a good watch?
Ans. He said a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a chance at it.
Q5. What did Uncle William wonder about unsuccessful workers?
Ans. He wondered what became of all the unsuccessful tinkers, gunsmiths, shoemakers, and engineers.
Class 11 My Watch Multiple-Choice Questions
Q1. How long did the narrator’s new watch run perfectly without any issues?
A. Six months
B. Twelve months
C. Eighteen months
D. Two years
Ans. C. Eighteen months
Q2. What did the narrator initially believe about his watch’s accuracy?
A. It was usually right
B. It was always a little slow
C. It was infallible (never wrong)
D. It needed daily adjustment
Ans. C. It was infallible (never wrong)
Q3. What simple thing caused the narrator’s perfect watch to stop for the first time?
A. He dropped it
B. He let it run down
C. It got wet
D. A part broke
Ans. B. He let it run down
Q4. What rude name did the narrator call the first jeweler who “fixed” his watch?
A. Human machine
B. Human cabbage
C. Human error
D. Human puppet
Ans. B. Human cabbage
Q5. What was the first problem the jeweler “fixed” on the watch?
A. It was too fast
B. It was four minutes slow
C. The hands were bent
D. It kept stopping
Ans. B. It was four minutes slow
Q6. What happened to the watch’s speed immediately after the first repair?
A. It ran perfectly
B. It stopped completely
C. It began to gain time rapidly
D. It started to run very slowly
Ans. C. It began to gain time rapidly
Q7. How far ahead of the almanac was the watch after two months of gaining time?
A. A few hours
B. Three days
C. One month
D. Thirteen days
Ans. D. Thirteen days
Q8. Why did the narrator “cannot abide” the watch gaining so much time?
A. It made him miss appointments
B. It confused him about the dates
C. It hurried up bills payable and house rent
D. It used too much power
Ans. C. It hurried up bills payable and house rent
Q9. What did the second watchmaker say the watch needed besides regulating?
A. A new crystal
B. A new mainspring
C. A new king-bolt
D. Cleaning and oiling
Ans. D. Cleaning and oiling
Q10. After being cleaned, oiled, and regulated, what new problem did the watch have?
A. It gained time again
B. It stopped completely
C. It buzzed loudly
D. It slowed down so much it went back in time
Ans. D. It slowed down so much it went back in time
Q11. What strange “fellow-feeling” did the narrator develop because of his extremely slow watch?
A. For a fast runner
B. For a clock tower
C. For a mummy in a museum
D. For a sleeping person
Ans. C. For a mummy in a museum
Q12. What did the third watchmaker say was “swelled” in the watch?
A. The mainspring
B. The crystal
C. The regulator
D. The barrel
Ans. D. The barrel
Q13. After the barrel was reduced, what new, noisy problem did the watch develop for half a day?
A. It would stop suddenly
B. It would tick very softly
C. It would make barking, wheezing, and snorting noises
D. It would buzz like a bee
Ans. C. It would make barking, wheezing, and snorting noises
Q14. What was the “mild virtue” the watch achieved after one repair?
A. It looked good
B. It had a correct average time
C. It was quiet
D. It was cheap to fix
Ans. B. It had a correct average time
Q15. What was broken, according to the next watchmaker (the one who said it was “nothing more serious”)?
A. The mainspring
B. The crystal
C. The regulator
D. The king-bolt
Ans. D. The king-bolt
Q16. What odd behavior did the watch hands show at ten minutes to ten after a certain repair?
A. They would spin backward
B. They would stick straight up
C. They would shut together like scissors
D. They would disappear
Ans. C. They would shut together like scissors
Q17. What new sound did the watch make after working quietly for nearly eight hours, later in the story?
A. A ticking sound
B. A buzzing like a bee
C. A soft hum
D. A chime
Ans. B. A buzzing like a bee
Q18. How fast would the watch “reel off the next twenty-four hours” during its wild buzzing fits?
A. In an hour
B. In six or seven minutes
C. In thirty minutes
D. In half a day
Ans. B. In six or seven minutes
Q19. How much money did the narrator estimate he had paid for repairs, compared to the original cost?
A. About the same
B. Ten times less
C. Two or three thousand, compared to two hundred originally
D. Only a few dollars
Ans. C. Two or three thousand, compared to two hundred originally
Q20. What was Uncle William’s saying about a good watch?
A. A good watch always keeps perfect time.
B. A good watch is a good watch until it falls down.
C. A good watch is a good watch until the repairers get a chance at it.
D. A good watch is a good watch if it is expensive.
Ans. C. A good watch is a good watch until the repairers get a chance at it.
CBSE Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 1 My Watch Extra Question Answers
Answer the following questions.
Q1. What was special about the narrator’s watch when he first bought it?
Ans. It ran perfectly for eighteen months without losing or gaining any time, and without breaking or stopping.
Q2. What did the first jeweler do to the watch, and how did it change the watch’s behavior?
Ans. The jeweler adjusted the “regulator” because he thought the watch was four minutes slow. After this, the watch started gaining time very rapidly, becoming much faster than all other clocks.
Q3. Describe one of the strange problems the watch developed after a repair, besides gaining or losing time.
Ans. After one repair, exactly at ten minutes to ten, the watch’s hands would snap together like scissors and then travel together, making it impossible to tell the correct time.
Q4. What was the narrator’s Uncle William’s saying about good watches?
Ans. He used to say that a good watch was good until repairers got a chance to work on it.
Q5. How does Mark Twain make the story of the broken watch funny?
Ans. He uses a lot of exaggeration, like the watch gaining thirteen days or the narrator hitting the watchmaker on the head. He also describes the watch’s bizarre behaviors in a very humorous way, making the whole situation seem absurd.