Geography Lesson Solutions Summary Meanings Class 7 English Wind Chimes

Geography Lesson is a lesson from Class 7 Wind Chimes English book. Here are given answers to book exercise questions along with meanings and summary. Workbook answers are also given.

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Summary

The poem ‘The Geography Lesson’ by ‘Brian Patten’ is about the poet’s geography teacher who always dreamt of visiting different places but could never make it. He would often tell his class that he would leave and sail across a warm blue sea, to places he had known about in the maps. He longed to visit place that were in the map. He lived in a dull house, but imagined living in a house that had sweet-scented jasmine clinging to the walls, with orange trees. He wanted to travel to warm places unlike the cold, drab place he lived. The pupil on the other hand could never understand what made him stop and not travel to these places. What was it about that school that mattered to his teacher? One day he got ill and never returned to the school. The teacher could never sail to his dream places, he probably died unexpectedly. After the teacher’s death, the poet went to those places that the teacher longed to visit. He had learnt an important lesson from his teacher. He realised that it was not just important to wish to go to these places but travel to these places that made all the difference.

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Textbook Solutions

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Comprehension

Answers:

1. longed 2. clinging onto 3. sweet-scented 4. faded away 5. narrow and grey 6. in his mind’s eye

Answers:

1. a. ‘He’ is the speaker’s geography teacher.
   b. ‘Only’ has been used for place which the geography teacher longed to visit and had known
   about them from the maps.
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   c. The geography teacher lived in a house that was narrow and grey.
   d. The teacher wanted to sail across a warm blue sea where sweet-scented jasmine clinged to the
   walls and orange tree had yellowing leaves.
2. a. The teacher lived in narrow and grey house.
   b. It signifies old, decay and dullness.
   c. He could imagine a place where sweet-scented jasmine clinging to the walls and the orange
   trees had yellowing leaves on them.
   d. He had lived in this house for a long time.
3. a. He taught geography at the school.
   b. ‘I’ refers to the speaker.
   c. It suggests that the school mentioned by the speaker was a very oppressive and compelling
   school. It never gave a chance to the teacher to explore places.
   d. He could have shaken off the ‘stranglehold’ by either resigning from the job or he could have
   dared enough to go on an exploration of lands that he had found on the map.

Answers:

1. The teacher wanted to sail across a warm blue sea. He wanted to visit a place that had sweet-scented
   jasmine clinging to the walls with orange tree with green leaves.
2. He saw the sweet-scented jasmine in his imagination.
3. He lived in a narrow and grey house.
4. The teacher died half way through the final term.
5. The teacher’s name faded away as he was no longer present in the classroom. He stopped coming to the school as he had died.
6. The speaker travels to a place that had green leaves, ocean’s glass-clear and blue water. He visited all the places that his teacher had taught him to love but himself never knew.
7. The speaker remembers his teacher because he was very creative and imaginative. He created a fondness for exploration among his students. He created love for places which he knew but had never visited.
8. It refers to the yellowing leaves on an orange tree.

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Poetry Appreciation

Answers:

A. Rhyme used in the poem is the second and fourth line rhymes. (sea, be; see, tree; returned, burned, blue, knew)

B. The lines that show that the teacher wished to go to a warm place are: And sail across a warm blue sea;
And green leaves burning on an orange tree; Where it was never drab or cold.

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Workbook Solutions

Vocabulary

1. take a look, take a nap

2. the future, the time

3. have a problem, have sympathy

4. catch your fire, catch your breath

Grammar

1. Whatever you need – noun clause
2. The dog that Jaya owns –noun clause
3. What Shishir was saying – noun clause
4. a fiery speech – noun clause
5. What Kunal enjoys most – noun clause
6. many of whom were found abandoned – adjective clause
7. who is my best friend – adjective clause
8. that has the best fried prawns – relative clause
9. who paints beautifully – adjective clause
10. we used to live in – adjective clause

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