CBSE Class 8 English Chapter 4- The Treasure Within Important Question Answers from It so Happened Book

 

Class 8 The Treasure Within Question Answers – Looking for The Treasure Within Important questions and answers for CBSE Class 8 English It so Happened Book Chapter 4? Look no further! Our comprehensive compilation of important questions will help you brush up on your subject knowledge. Practicing Class 8 English question answers can significantly improve your performance in the exam. Improve your chances of scoring high marks by exploring Chapter 4: The Treasure Within now. The questions listed below are based on the latest CBSE exam pattern, wherein we have given Text book Questions (NCERT Solutions) to the chapter’s Extract-based 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. 

 

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Class 8 English The Treasure Within Text Book Questions – NCERT Solutions

 

Comprehension Check 

1. What did Hafeez Contractor have nightmares about?
Ans. Hafeez Contractor used to have continuous nightmares about appearing for a maths examination where he did not know anything.

2. What did the Principal say to him, which influenced him deeply?
Ans. It was when he got promoted to eleventh standard, that his Principal summoned him and told him how he had been keeping an eye on Hafeez since beginning. The Principal said that he could no longer look after him and he will have to do it for himself from that moment onwards.
The Principal spoke to Hafeez for about five minutes. He told Hafeez that he had been unfortunate to not have his father with him but his mother had worked really hard to raise him and pay for his fees. And all Hafeez did was play games. The Principal advised him to “rise to the occasion” and concentrate on his studies. This influenced Hafeez deeply and he began concentrating on his studies.

3. “… that year I did not step out onto the field.” What was he busy doing that year?
Ans. The year when the Principal spoke to Hafeez, his words influenced him so much that he did not even step onto the field despite being a senior champion for consecutive years and the captain of his team. That year, all he did was pray, eat and study. So, when he said, “… that year I did not step out onto the field.”, that particular year, he concentrated only on his studies.

4. (i) What “distraction” did Hafeez Contractor create one day?
Ans. One day, Hafeez was not in the mood to study, so he created a distraction in his class and they ended up playing ‘chor police’, a children’s game in which one child (thief) hides and others (policemen) try to find him/her for one complete hour.

(ii) Would you have liked to participate in the “distraction” had you been with him?
Ans. Yes, I would have loved to be a part of the “distraction” Hafeez created in his class. Playing chor police for an entire hour with my classmates would have been one of the most memorable memories of my school life. We need to understand that playing and making memories with our friends is as important as our education. So, it is good to have “distractions” like these once in a while because as the Nobel laureate Dr APJ Abdul Kalam said,
“Sometimes it is better to bunk a class and enjoy with friends because today when I look back, marks never make me laugh, but memories do…” 

5. Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force. Why didn’t he?
Ans. Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force but he did not because his mother suggested him to do graduation instead. Thus, he took admission in Jaihind College in Bombay.

6. In the architect’s office, Hafeez Contractor was advised to drop everything and join architecture. Why?
Ans. Hafeez used to go to the architect’s office to learn French from his cousin 9who was the architect’s wife).  Once, he saw someone drawing a window detail in the office. Although window detail is a very advanced drawing and Hafeez was not an architect, Hafeez told him that his drawing was wrong — that the window he had drawn would not open. The guy then had a bet with Hafeez and later he found that indeed, his drawing was wrong. Hafeez’s cousin’s husband, the architect, was surprised. He asked Hafeez to draw a few specific things, which he immediately did. The architect asked him to design a house and he designed a house. After that, the architect told him to drop everything and join architecture

7. (i) What was Mrs Gupta’s advice to Hafeez Contractor?
Ans. Mrs Gupta, Hafeez’s teacher in the second or third standard, advised Hafeez Contractor to become an architect when he grew up.

(ii) What made her advise him so?
Ans. Upon seeing some of the sketches made by Hafeez in school, Mrs Gupta told him that although he was useless at almost everything else, his sketches were good. Thus, she advised him to become an architect.

8. How did he help fellow students who had lost a button?
Ans. To help fellow students when they lost a button, Hafeez Contractor would make a button by cutting a piece of chalk using a blade.

9. Which rules did he break as a school boy?
Ans. Hafeez broke a lot of rules that stopped him from doing what he needed to do. He would play all the time and play pranks on others. He would create a distraction if he did not want to study. He would copy during all his tests and teachers would think that he did his work. He was more interested in other things which made him street smart. 

10. (i) what is Hafeez Contractor’s definition of mathematics?
Ans. According to Hafeez Contractor, the definition of mathematics is “Putting design, construction, psychology and sociology together and making a sketch from all that is ‘mathematics’”. 

(ii) How would you want to define mathematics? Do you like the subject?
Ans. Mathematics is a very important subject that builds the foundation of our intelligence. Basic mathematics teaches us to do calculations and helps us in making budgets. Advanced mathematics, however, teaches us in finding the solutions behind complex issues and is used in advancing technology. While basic mathematics is important and necessary, not everyone likes studying advanced mathematics as it can be a little complicated. 

Yes, I like the subject as it has added to my set of skills and made me smart.

 

Class 8 English The Treasure Within Chapter 4 Extract Based Questions

 

Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow-

A. HC: I used to get continuous nightmares about appearing for a maths examination where I did not know anything! Now the psyche must have gotten over it, I don’t have to think about education and there is absolutely no time to get nightmares.
BR: Tell us something about your earliest memories in school.
HC: In the first and second year I was a good student. After I reached the third standard, I simply lost interest and I never studied. I used to be interested in games, running around, playing jokes and pranks on others. I would copy in class during exam times. I would try to get hold of the examination paper that had been prepared and study it, as I could not remember things that had been taught to me in class.
However, later, one sentence spoken to me by my Principal changed my life.

Q1. What were the nightmares that Hafeez saw?
Ans. He would have nightmares of appearing for a Maths exam where he wouldn’t know anything.

Q2. When did Hafeez lose interest in studies?
Ans. When he went to the third standard.

Q3. What would he do instead of studies?
Ans. He would play games, run around, play jokes and pranks on others.

Q4. What would Hafeez do in exams?
Ans. He would copy from other students. He would take the question paper and study it because he failed to remember things that had been taught in the class.

Q5. Whose words changed his life?
Ans. The Principal’s words changed his life.

B. HC: In the first and second year I was a good student. After I reached the third standard, I simply lost interest and I never studied. I used to be interested in games, running around, playing jokes and pranks on others. I would copy in class during exam times. I would try to get hold of the examination paper that had been prepared and study it, as I could not remember things that had been taught to me in class.
However, later, one sentence spoken to me by my Principal changed my life.
When I approached my eleventh standard, the Principal called me and said, “Look here, Son, I have been seeing you from day one. You are a good student, but you never studied. I have taken care of you till today. Now, I can no longer take care of you so you do it yourself.”
He talked to me for five minutes, “You don’t have your father, your mother has worked so hard to bring you up and paid all your fees all these years but you have only played games. Now you should rise to the occasion and study.” I used to be a very good sportsman. I had been the senior champion for so many years and I also was the cricket captain.
I used to play every game, but that year I did not step out onto the field.
I would go for prayers and all I would do was eat and study. I normally used to copy and pass, but I realised that once I was in SSC, I could not do that.
When I got a second class, 50 per cent, in my SSC my Principal said, “Son, consider yourself as having got a distinction!” This is my memory of my school days.
I did lots of other things. See, as far as my things are concerned, I can’t remember. I forget things very easily. To remember, I have to see things as a photograph. I read a book and I can remember the matter as a photograph but not through my mind. That is how it works.

Q1. In which grade was Hafeez when the Principal spoke to him?
Ans. Grade 11

Q2. What does the extract tell us about Hafeez’s parents?
Ans. He did not have his father. His mother worked hard to bring him up and pay his fee.

Q3. What did the principal advise Hafeez?
Ans. He told him to take care of himself and study.

Q4. Hafeez was the captain of the _______ team. (cricket / football / basketball)
Ans. cricket

Q5. How does Hafeez’s mind work?
Ans. His mind remembers matter as a photograph.

C. BR: When you knew that you had incurred the wrath of your teacher by not doing your homework or by behaving badly, when you knew you would get a caning, what was the state of your mind?
HC: State of mind? Just lift up the hand and they would cane you. It would hurt badly and then I would have to forget about it, because I would want to go and play.
BR: You never felt insecure or threatened?
HC: I was just interested in playing and nothing else. I was most interested in funny pranks. One day, I did not want to study, so I created a distraction. For one whole hour we played ‘chor police’.
Every Saturday we were allowed to go into town to see a movie. So what I would do was have no lunch and collect money from 40 – 50 students, and run and buy the tickets. On my way back, I would eat to my heart’s content.
I used to be the leader of a gang. We would have gang fights and plan strategies. These things used to interest me more than any academics.
Students used to book my textbooks for the following year, because they were almost brand new. I probably opened them one day before exams.

Q1. What does wrath mean?
Ans. Anger

Q2. What would the teacher do as a punishment?
Ans. The teacher would hit Hafeez with a cane.

Q3. Every Saturday, they went ____________ (to the church / to their home / to watch movies)
Ans. to watch movies.

Q4. In school, Hafeez was __________(leader of a gang / shy)
Ans. leader of a gang

Q5. What was the condition of his books? Why?
Ans. They were brand new because he only opened them one day before the exams.

D. HC: In the college for architecture, nobody who had got below 80 – 85 per cent was allowed to enter. I had only 50 per cent. I wanted to join the Army. I got my admission letter but my aunt tore it up. Then I decided that I wanted to join the police force.
My mother said, “Don’t join the police force, just do your graduation!” So I went to Jaihind College in Bombay.
There, I was to either take French or German. Though I had studied French for seven years, I did not know seven words of French. So I took German. Then my German teacher died. The college told me that I could change the college or take French. Now, who would give me admission in another college? I had got admission to Jaihind by influence.
So I thought, ‘Okay, I will take French’ and I started learning French again. I learnt it from my cousin. She was an architect’s wife.
I was going to an architect’s office to learn French!
BR: Was it then that you decided you wanted to do architecture?
HC: Actually, it all happened quite by chance.
In the architect’s office, I saw somebody drawing a window detail. A window detail is a very advanced drawing.
I told him that his drawing was wrong — that the window he had drawn would not open.
He then had a bet with me and later he found that indeed, his drawing was wrong! My cousin’s husband was surprised. He asked me to draw a few specific things, which I immediately did.
He asked me to design a house and I designed a house. After that, he told me to drop everything and join architecture.
We went to meet the Principal of the college.

Q1. What did Hafeez want as a career?
Ans. He wanted to join the Army.

Q2. Which college did Hafeez join?
Ans. He joined Jai Hind college.

Q3. Why did Hafeez go to the architect’s office?
Ans. To learn French

Q4. They went to meet the principal of ______ college. (Architecture / Jai Hind)
Ans. Architecture

Q5. Which detail was tough to draw?
Ans. The detail of a window.

 

Class 8 The Treasure Within Extra Question Answers

 

Answer the following questions-

Q1. Who is Hafeez Contractor?
Ans. Hafeez is one of India’s leading architects.

Q2. How does Hafeez decide the type of structure suitable for a client?
Ans. He looks at the client’s face, his clothes, the way he talks and pronounces, the way he eats and decides what his taste would be like. He sketches very spontaneously on a paper on the spot. He uses a mix of Psychology, Sociology, Architecture and Design to create the sketch.

Q3. How did Hafeez reach the architect’s office?
Ans. When he joined Jai Hind college to do his graduation, he had to choose a language out of French and German. As he had studied French at school, he opted for German. However, when the teacher left, he had no choice but to opt for French. Although he had studied French in school, he knew none of it. So, he learnt French from a cousin who was an architect’s wife. Thus, destiny took him to the architect’s office to study French which led him to join the Architecture college.

Q4. How did the school time plays and pranks help Hafeez?
Ans. As an architect, he never made a plan. However, he knew how a thing looked from the top. This was because he had played and had got involved in exploring things when at school. He developed a deep sense of imagination and understanding from things that he did in school.

Q5. Why did Hafeez forget what they taught at school?
Ans. There was no application of mind. It was rote learning and so, he forgot all that was taught.

 

 

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