Paper Boats
Class 7 · English · 23 Questions
What comes to mind when you think about 'paper boats'?
What do you think someone might hope for when they send a paper boat down a stream?
Read the title of the poem 'Paper Boats' and predict what the poem might be about.
Read the given paragraph and match the highlighted words with their meanings given in the box below.
loading speedily flowing swelling putting bouncing
I love to play beside a 1. running stream at a short distance from my grandparent's house. I love to see it 2. skipping along to join a river. On the river, I can see boats with 3. bulging sails moving swiftly. Some of them take the people from one shore to the other while in some of them people can be seen 4. lading things too. I can spend hours watching the busy river and dreaming about them, 5. burying my head in my pillow at night.
Choose the correct words from the brackets to complete the summary of the poem given below.
The poet sends paper boats down a 1. ____ (stream/river) each day, writing his name and the name of his 2. ____ (school/village) on them. He hopes that someone in a 3. ____ (strange/familiar) land will find them and know who he is. The poet fills his boats with 4. ____ (rose/shiuli) flowers from his garden, hoping they will be safely carried to another land at 5. ____ (night/morning). As he launches his boats, he imagines that the 6. ____ (clouds/birds) in the sky are like friends, racing with his boats. At night, he dreams that his paper boats continue to 7. ____ (swim/float) under the midnight stars, with the fairies of sleep sailing in them, their baskets full of 8. ____ (dreams/fruits).
Choose the correct option for the following.
The theme of the poem is ____.
- innocence
- imagination
- ignorance
- playfulness
- travel
Identify whether the following statement is true or false.
The setting of the poem is a natural, outdoor environment.
Complete the following sentence by choosing the correct word given within the brackets.
The tone is ____ (sad and serious/gentle and wishful) and the mood is ____ (thoughtful/boring).
Identify the examples of alliteration from the poem.
Fill in the blanks with suitable words from the poem.
- The repetition of words ____ and ____ emphasises the passage of time.
- The poet uses imagery like ____ and ____ to create a clear picture in the minds of the readers.
Match the descriptions in Column 1 with what they symbolise in Column 2. Column 1:
- the child's innocence, dreams, hopes, and messages sent out into the world
- purity, beauty, and the start of a new day
- the vast universe and the child's dreams continuing through the night
Column 2: (i) midnight stars (ii) paper boats (iii) shiuli flowers
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.
'When night comes I bury my face in my arms and dream that my paper boats float on and on under the midnight stars. The fairies of sleep are sailing in them, and the lading is their baskets full of dreams.'
Why do you think the poet writes his personal details on the paper boats?
The poet talks about the imagination of a child. Support this view with examples from the poem.
How does the poet bring together imagination and reality to make the poem more interesting?
The poet has used phrases like 'blooms of the dawn' and 'fairies of sleep' in the poem. In the same way we can create phrases. Now, select words from Column 1 and Column 2 and combine them with 'of'. Write as many phrases as possible in Column 3. Column 1: wings, waves, dreams, songs, glimmers, cries, tears, roars, shadows Column 2: the birds, the wind, the evening, the children, the rain, the stars, the thunder, the ocean, the clouds
The poet uses words like 'dawn', 'night' and 'midnight' to show different parts of the day. The box given below has some more words. Write the words in the appropriate columns.
twilight dawn dusk sunrise noon daybreak nightfall sunset midnight sunup forenoon sundown noontime night-time noonday midday
Morning | Afternoon | Evening | Night
Match the words from the text given in Column 1 with their opposites in Column 2. Column 1: 1. strange, 2. dawn, 3. launch, 4. bulging, 5. float, 6. lading
Column 2: (i) halt, (ii) emptying, (iii) sink, (iv) dusk, (v) ordinary, (vi) shrinking
A diary entry is a personal document. It records an individual's account of a day of her or his life expressing the thoughts, feelings and opinions in the individual's mind.
Write a diary entry expressing your joy experiencing a rainy day. You may begin as given below:
Friday, 15 July 20XX 6:30 p.m. Dear Diary, It was quite humid today. On my journey back from school, I wished that it would rain. And it did! ...
Solve the riddle:
I have water that you cannot drink, People come to see how in me the Sun sinks. I can be rough, I can be calm, I hold within myself plenty of charm. My depths tell a never-ending tale. Who am I with dolphins and the whale?