NCERT Class 8 English Chapter 10 Children at work

NCERT Class 8 English Chapter 10 Children at work Solutions to each chapter is provided in the list so that you can easily browse through different chapters NCERT Class 8 English Chapter 10 Children at work and select need one. NCERT Class 8 English Chapter 10 Children at work and After Question Answers Download PDF. NCERT English Class 8 Solutions.

NCERT Class 8 English Chapter 10 Children at work

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Also, you can read the NCERT book online in these sections Solutions by Expert Teachers as per Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Book guidelines. CBSE Class 8 English Solutions are part of All Subject Solutions. Here we have given NCERT Class 8 English Chapter 10 Children at work and After, NCERT Class 8 English Textbook of Honeydew and It So Happen. for All Chapters, You can practice these here.

Children at work

Chapter: 10

IT SO HAPPENED

COMPREHENSION CHECK

Page No – 9

1. Velu stood on the platform but he felt “as if he was still on a moving train”. Why? 

Ans: Velu sat on the Kanyakumari Express and ran away from his home to Chennai. His legs were wobbly and shaky after he travelled to Chennai on a train and still felt shaky as if he was still on the train when he stood at the station. The effect of the train journey stayed on him for some time.

2. What made him feel miserable? 

Ans: Velu felt miserable and tired because he had not eaten anything except some peanuts and a piece of jaggery from the last two days. Velu was fed up with his drunkard father and hence chose to run away from home. He didn’t know anything about the new city which made him anxious.

3. (i) Velu travelled without a ticket. Why? 

Ans: Velu travelled without a ticket because he had run away from his house due to his father who used to snatch his money and as a result he had no money to buy it.

(ii) How did he escape the ticket collector’s attention?

Ans: He was sitting on the floor in the unreserved compartment. He was lucky because the ticket collector didn’t come to the unreserved compartment.

4. Why had Velu run away from home? 

Ans: Velu ran away from his home because his father, who wasn’t a good man. He used to beat him every day. Velu and his sisters had to work to fill their stomachs since they were poor. But their drunkard father snatched the money from them and spent it for drinking alcohol.

5. Why did he decide to follow the ‘strange’ girl?

Ans: He decided to follow the ‘strange’ girl because he was totally unaware about where to and what to do. Moreover, he was very hungry as he had not eaten anything from last two days.

Page No – 13

1. Can Velu read Tamil and English? How do you know? 

Ans: Velu can was able to read only Tamil. It was clear because he could not read the signboards which were in English. He could read the Tamil sign, Central Jail.

2. “If you are not careful, you will soon be counting bars there,” the girl said.

(i) What is she referring to?

Ans: She was referring to the central jail. 

(ii) What does she mean when she says “If you are not careful…”? (She says something a little later which means the same. Find that sentence.) 

Ans: The girl asked Velu not to indulge in something stupid or else he would get caught by the police officers and will be thrown into jail.

3. (i) Where did the girl lead Velu to? 

Ans: The Girl led Velu to the back of a wedding hall where there was lot of leftover food. She could make out that Velu was starving and would definitely get there something to eat.

(ii) What did they get to eat? 

Ans: Velu got a banana and a vada to eat, while the girl got only a banana to eat.

4. What work did she do? Think of a one-word answer.

Ans: Ragpickers.

Page No – 15

1. (i) What material are the ‘strange’ huts made out of? 

Ans: The ‘strange’ huts made out of metal sheets, tyres, bricks, wood and plastic.

(ii) Why does Velu find them strange? 

Ans: In Velu’s village, the houses were made of mud and palm leaves that is why he found the huts strange. The huts there were made up of different type of things like metal sheet, scrap, plastic etc. He had never seen such slum areas where huts were made out of anything people could arrange.

2. What sort of things did Jaya and children like her collect and what did they do with those things? 

Ans: Paper, glass, and plastic were some of the things that Jaya and children like her collected. These items were taken and sold to Jam Bazaar Jaggu, who would sell them to a factory.

3. Is Velu happy or unhappy to find work? Give a reason for your answer.

Ans: Velu was unhappy to find work as a ragpicker in Children at Work because it was not his first choice. In his village, Velu would weed out the farm and take the cows out for grazing as a job. He didn’t expect that he would have to dig garbage bins to feed himself in the city. But he decided to continue doing the work till the time he finds a better job.

Discuss the following questions in small groups. Write their answers afterwards.

1. Is Velu a smart boy? Which instances in the text show that he is or isn’t? 

Ans: Yes, Velu is a smart boy. At the age of twelve Velu decided to leave his village because he was irritated by his drunkard father. When he reached Chennai, the girl, who was a rag picker, helped him. In the beginning, he was reluctant to take her help but he was quite smart to understand that he was very hungry and had no idea where to go. So, he decided to take her help. He knew how to read Tamil. It was difficult for him to adjust to his present conditions at first and he refused to eat the banana from the bin but eventually submitted to his circumstances. He found the place strange and planned to stick to his present job till the time he finds a better one in the city to sustain himself.

2. Do you think Jaya is a brave and sensitive child with a sense of humour? Find instances of her courage, kind nature and humour in the text. 

Ans: Jaya was a brave and sensitive child with a good sense of humor. She was the same age as Velu and worked as a ragpicker. Having lived in Chennai, a big city, she was well aware of how to survive. She knew where to find food and how to stay out of trouble, especially avoiding the police.

Despite her tough life, Jaya was kind and helpful. She supported Velu in every possible way, even giving him a pair of shoes when his feet burned from walking on the scorching road.

Her humorous nature was evident in her interactions with Velu. When she saw him sitting at the platform, she teasingly asked if he had come to the city to become rich. Later, when Velu hesitated to cross the road, she quickly pulled him to the other side and remarked, “What do you think you are doing? Grazing cows? If you stand around in the middle of the road like that, you’ll become chutney.”

3. What one throws away as waste may be valuable to others. Do you find this sentence meaningful in the context of this story? How?

Ans: We often discard things that seem useless to us, but for some, these very items become a means of survival. The story vividly portrays life in a slum, highlighting this reality. The huts, though built from scraps, provided shelter to those who had nowhere else to go. Children would gather discarded items like plastic bottles and food leftovers, selling them to earn a livelihood. For them, what others consider waste turns into a source of sustenance and hope.

Parimol

Hi! my Name is Parimal Roy. I have completed my Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy (B.A.) from Silapathar General College. Currently, I am working as an HR Manager at Dev Library. It is a website that provides study materials for students from Class 3 to 12, including SCERT and NCERT notes. It also offers resources for BA, B.Com, B.Sc, and Computer Science, along with postgraduate notes. Besides study materials, the website has novels, eBooks, health and finance articles, biographies, quotes, and more.