The Portrait of a Lady class 11 questions with answers, Class 11 SCERT Solutions are aligned with the latest CBSE curriculum and cover all questions from the Assam Board SCERT textbooks. Access the detailed solutions provided here to gain a strong understanding of the subject. You can find the Class 11 English Snapshots Solutions in page format. Utilize these resources during your practice to score well in your exams.
The Portrait of a Lady Class 11 Questions with Answers
The Portrait of a Lady class 11 Q1: The three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before lie left else country to study abroad.
Answer: The Three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother are:
Childhood:
They were very close. She took care of him, helped with school, and spent all day with him.
City life:
They grew apart. He went to a new school, and she stopped helping with studies. She spent more time praying.
Before going abroad:
They were not very close, but still cared for each other. She blessed him without showing much feeling.
The Portrait of a Lady class 11 Q2: Three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school.
Answer: The three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school are:
I)She hated Western science and learning.
ii)She was pained to know that there was no teaching of God and the scriptures there.
iii)She was allergic to music. She thought it was not meant for decent people and gentlefolk. It was the monopoly of prostitutes and beggars.
The Portrait of a Lady class 11 Q3: Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.
Answer: The author’s grandmother spent her days in three ways after he grew up:
Praying: She spent a lot of time praying and telling the beads of her rosary.
Feeding birds: Every afternoon, she fed the sparrows in the courtyard.
Spinning: She sat quietly and spun wool on her spinning wheel.
The Portrait of a Lady class 11 Q4: The odd ways in which the author’s grandmother behaved just before she died.
Answer: The grandmother stopped talking to anyone and only prayed. She didn’t eat or drink and kept praying with her beads. She said her end was near and died while praying.
The Portrait of a Lady class 11 Q5: The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when the author’s grandmother died.
Answer: Thousands of sparrows came and sat quietly around her body. They didn’t chirp or make any sound. They didn’t eat the food given to them. After some time, they flew away silently.
The Portrait of a Lady Talking About the Text
Talk to your partner about the following:
The Portrait of a Lady class 11 Q6: The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which we come to know this?
Answers: The grandmother prayed every day with her beads. She sang prayers in the morning. She always carried her prayer beads and spent most of her time praying. Before dying, she kept praying and did not talk to anyone.
The Portrait of a Lady class 11
Question 2: Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
Answers: In the beginning, the author and his grandmother were very close. She took care of him, got him ready for school, and they spent a lot of time together. But after they moved to the city, things started to change. He got busy with school, and she couldn’t help him anymore. They didn’t spend as much time together.
When he went abroad, they grew even more distant. Still, their love and respect for each other stayed the same. That never changed.
Question 3: Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? If yes, give instances that show this.
Answers: Yes, the author’s grandmother was strong in character. She was calm, wise, and full of faith. She never showed her sadness, even when the author went abroad. She lived a simple life, prayed every day, and stayed strong till the end. Even before her death, she stayed peaceful and chose to spend her last moments in prayer.
Question 4: Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same sense of loss with regard to someone whom you have loved and lost?
Answers: Yes, I have known someone like the author’s grandmother – a person who was calm, kind, and always there for me. Losing them felt very hard, just like the author felt after losing his grandmother. The feeling of missing someone you love stays with you for a long time, and it’s difficult to forget their presence.
The Portrait of a Lady Thinking About Language
Question 1: Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used while talking to each other?
Answer: The author’s grandmother was not educated. So, I think the author and his grandmother used to talk in their mother tongue.
Question 2: Which language do you use to talk to elderly relatives in your family?
Answer: My elderly relatives are well-versed in Assamese and Hindi. I feel at home greeting
them in Assamese but like to converse with them freely in Hindi.
Question 3: What is the expression used in your language for a ‘dilapidated drum’?
Answer: The expression used in our language for a ‘dilapidated drum’ is ‘phata-purana dhol.’
Question 4: Can you think of a song or poem in your language that talks of homecoming?
Answer: There are many folk songs and poems singing of the exploits of brave warriors. All these talk of their homecoming after winning a battle.
The Portrait of a Lady Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1: How long had the narrator known his grandmother—old and wrinkled? What did people say? How did the narrator react?
The narrator had known his grandmother for the past twenty years, during which she was very old and wrinkled. She seemed as old as anyone could be. People mentioned that she had once been young and beautiful and even had a husband, but the narrator found it hard to believe.
Question 2: How did the narrator’s grandfather appear in the portrait?
Answers: His grandfather looked very old. He had a long white beard. His clothes were loose fitting. He wore a big turban. He looked too old to have a wife or children. He looked at least a hundred years old. He could have only lots and lots of grandchildren.
Question 3: Which thought about the grandmother was often revolting and for whom?
Answer: The narrator’s grandmother was very old and wrinkled. She had stayed at this stage for the last twenty years. People said that once she was young and pretty. The narrator couldn’t even imagine her being young. So the thought was revolting to him.
Question 4: Explain: “As for my grandmother being young and pretty, the thought was almost revolting”.
Answer: The narrator’s grandmother was terribly old. She could not appear young and beautiful. Her face was a criss-cross of wrinkles. She was short, fat and slightly bent. The very idea of her being young and pretty did not appeal to the mind.
Question 5: The narrator’s grandmother ‘could never have been pretty, but she was always beautiful’. Explain the importance of the statement.
Answer: She was terribly old to appear pretty. Her face was a criss-cross of wrinkles. She was short, fat and slightly bent. She didn’t create any physical appeal or attraction. However, in her spotless white dress and grey hair, she was a picture of serenity, peace, sobriety, and beauty.
Question 6: Why was it hard for the author to believe that his grandmother was once young and pretty?
Answer: She was quite an old lady. She had been old and wrinkled for more than two decades. It is said that once she had been young and pretty. But it is hard to believe so.
Question 7:
The narrator’s grandmother looked like the ‘winter landscape in the mountains’. Comment.
Answers: The grandmother was always dressed in clean white and had silvery hair that fell messily over her pale, wrinkled face. She looked as serene and pure as a snowy mountain landscape. Her white clothes and silver hair made her resemble the peaceful, snowy expanse of a winter scene.
Question 6:
Why was it hard for the author to believe that his grandmother was once young and pretty?
Answer:
She was quite an old lady. She had been old and wrinkled for more than two decades. It is said that once she had been young and pretty. But it is hard to believe so.
Question 8:
How did the narrator and his grandmother become good friends?
Answer:
During his childhood, the narrator stayed with his grandmother in the village. She was his constant companion. She looked after him. She used to wake him up. She got him ready for school in the morning. She would give him breakfast. She went to school with him.
Question 9:
Why could the grandmother not walk straight? How would she move about the house?
Answer:
The grandmother was short and fat. She was also slightly bent. She put one hand on her waist to support the stoop. She could not walk straight. She walked like a lame person. She limped or hobbled about while moving.
Question 10:
Describe how the grandmother spent her time while the narrator sat inside the village school.
Answer:
The grandmother went to the school with the narrator. The school was attached to the temple. The narrator would learn alphabet and morning prayer at school. The grandmother would sit inside the temple. There she would read holy books. Thus she spent her time before they came back together.
Question 11:
Grandmother has been portrayed as a very religious lady. What details in the story create this impression?
Answer:
She visited the temple every morning and read scriptures. At home she always mumbled inaudible prayer and kept telling the beads of rosary. She would repeat prayers in a sing-song manner while getting the narrator ready for school. All these details create the impression that she was a religious lady.
All Chapters Question Answers are Given Below
Sl. No CONTENTS
PART – I HORNBILL(PROSE)
Chapter 1 The Portrait of A Lady
Chapter 2 “We’re Not Afraid ToDie
Chapter 3 Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues
Chapter 4 Landscape of the Soul
Chapter 5 The Ailing Planet: The Green Movement’s Role
Chapter 6 The Browning Version
Chapter 7 My Impression of Assam
PART – II HORNBILL (POETRY)
Chapter 1 A Photograph
Chapter 2 The Laburnum Top
Chapter 3 The voice of the rain
Chapter 4 Childhood
Chapter 5 Father to Son
PART – III SNAPSHOTS
Chapter 1 The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
Chapter 2 The Address
Chapter 3 Ranga’s Marriage
Chapter 4 Albert Einstein at school
Chapter 5 Mother’s Day
Chapter 6 The Ghat of the Only World
Chapter 7 Birth
Chapter 8 The Tale of Melon City
