NCERT Solutions for Class 6 English Chapter 1 Fables and Folk Tales (PDF) – 2027

1. worried — picture (a), the girl with the sad, worried face. 2. plantation — (a), the large field of crops and banana plants. 3. sage — (a), the old man with a white beard in saffron robes. 4. surprise — (b), the boy with wide eyes and an open mouth.

Rama Natha believed that there was a magic potion that could turn any object into gold. Because of this belief he spent all his time and money trying to learn about the potion, and did not look after his land even for one day.

The sage told Rama Natha how to make the “magic potion”: plant banana plants, water them regularly with his own hands, collect the morning dew from their leaves in winter, and bring him five litres of it. This was really a plan to make Rama Natha work hard on his own land.

Yes, he will collect it — but it will take him many years. Winter lasts only a few months and dew forms only in small drops, but the sage lets him plant as many banana plants as he wants. Rama Natha is also a man who never gives up.

Rama Natha was angry because the “magic potion” did not work. He sprinkled a few drops of the dew on a copper vessel, but it did not turn into gold. He felt cheated and said, “This is cheating. I have wasted six precious years of my life.”

They created wealth by working hard on their own land. Rama Natha cleaned his empty fields, planted rows and rows of banana plants and looked after them. Madhumati took the bananas to the market, sold them at a good price and saved the money. After six years the savings filled a big box with gold coins.

Rama Natha did not ‘give up’ because he firmly believed that a magic potion really existed, and he was sure that one day he would find the person who knew its secret.

A. True    B. False    C. True

B is false because at this point Rama Natha “did not spend even one day looking after his land”.

Answer: (b) B, A, D, C, E

This is the order of the sentences in the passage: he took the bottle to the sage (B), the sage smiled (A) and muttered over the water (D), Rama Natha sprinkled a few drops on the copper vessel (C) and waited for it to turn to gold (E).

sprinkled

Seeing that the plant had dried up, the gardener sprinkled some water on it.

He must have felt shocked, bitterly disappointed and cheated.

He had waited six long years for that one moment. When the copper vessel stayed a copper vessel, his first thought was that the sage had fooled him, and his anger came out at once: “This is cheating. I have wasted six precious years of my life.”

The sage told Rama Natha to:

1. plant banana plants — as many as he wished;
2. water them regularly with his own hands;
3. in winter, collect the morning dew from the leaves with his own hands and store it in a bottle;
4. bring him five litres of dew, over which he would chant magic words to turn it into the potion.

Because the sage wanted Rama Natha to work with his own hands on his own land. If servants had done the work, he would have learnt nothing. By working himself, he cleaned his empty fields, looked after the plants for six years and finally saw that the wealth came from his own hard work.

To collect five litres of dew he needed a great many leaves, so he kept planting more and more banana plants. He cleaned his empty fields, planted rows and rows of banana plants and tended them carefully. In six years his empty land became a huge banana plantation.

The sage proved it in front of him:

1. The “potion” was tried on a copper vessel, and nothing happened.
2. Madhumati brought a big box full of gold coins.
3. The sage explained that the gold came from their hard work — Rama Natha grew the bananas and Madhumati sold them: “It was your hard work that created this wealth, not magic.”

1. huge    2. luck    3. difficult    4. promised    5. cheated    6. remember

The two extra words are spending and market.

The four empty meanings are filled in below (the other three were already printed in the book).

(choose any four pairs):

The four new sentences:

1. The children submitted their work before the deadline.
2. He did not want to try rock climbing because of his fear of heights.
3. The children ran towards the gate as soon as the bell rang.
4. Nitin was late to school today as there was a traffic jam.

Numbers in the boxes: 1 → 6, 2 → 3, 3 → 1, 4 → 5, 5 → 7, 6 → 4, 7 → 2

So the story in order is: mother → market → meets Kalawati → gives Kalawati a dozen → decides to go home → gives two bananas to the hungry boy → gifts the neighbour a bunch.

Some varieties of banana grown and eaten in different parts of India:

Yes. A raven does not sing a sweet song like a koel or a bulbul. It makes a deep, rough, scratchy sound — a croak, very like the sound a frog makes at night. Its cousin the crow makes the familiar harsh “caw”.

Answer: 2. fox

In many fables the fox is the clever, cunning animal who wins by tricks rather than by strength.

1. Mr Raven is a bird. — “Sir Raven, you are a handsome bird.”
2. The name of the fox is Reynard. — “And Reynard the Fox looked up at him.”
3. Mr Raven had a piece of food in his beak. — “For the Raven held in his great big beak, / A morsel the Fox would go far to seek.” A morsel means a small piece of food.

1. The Fox calls the Raven a good-looking bird. — “Sir Raven, you are a handsome bird.” Handsome means good-looking.
2. The Fox asks the Raven to sing. — “Such feathers! If you would only sing …”
3. The Raven and the Fox live in the woods. — “The birds of these woods would call you King.”

1. The Raven forgot that he croaked. — “Forgot that his voice was just a croak.”
2. The Raven opened its beak to sing. — “He opened his beak, in his foolish pride.”
3. The food fell down. — “And down fell the morsel the Fox had eyed.”

1. The Fox laughed at the Raven. — “‘Ha-ha!’ laughed the Fox.”
2. It is not wise to be too proud of oneself. — “Pride, my friend, is rather unwise”, which is the same as saying it is not wise.
3. The Raven learnt a lesson. — He lost his food, and with it he gained the knowledge to “Ignore sweet words that make you glow.”

In short: 1–(iv), 2–(i), 3–(v), 4–(iii), 5–(ii), 6–(vii), 7–(vi).

C – 1,  D – 2,  A – 3,  B – 4

1 (C): the raven picks up a piece of food. 2 (D): the fox looks up at the raven sitting on a branch with the food. 3 (A): the fox praises the raven. 4 (B): the fox runs away with the food.

Answer: A. shiny and beautiful

The Fox is flattering the Raven, so “Such feathers!” is praise — the feathers are shiny and beautiful.

According to the Fox, the birds would make the Raven their King because he would then have everything a king of birds should have — the finest feathers and the finest voice. He already looks handsome; if he could also sing beautifully, no other bird in the woods could match him.

‘Sir’ is a title of respect, used for someone important. The Fox uses it deliberately, as part of his flattery, to make the Raven feel grand and superior — a bird so noble that even a fox must address him politely.

He opened his beak to sing. The Fox’s praise had filled him with pride, and he wanted to prove that his voice was as fine as his feathers.

In his excitement he forgot two things — that his voice “was just a croak”, and that his beak was holding the morsel. The moment it opened, “down fell the morsel the Fox had eyed.”

Fox : clever : : Raven : foolish

The word comes straight from the lines quoted: “He opened his beak, in his foolish pride.”

Because the Fox’s flattery goes straight to his head. Being called handsome, having his feathers admired and being promised the crown of the woods makes him so pleased with himself that he stops thinking clearly.

Reynard makes the Raven sing by flattering him. He calls him “Sir Raven” and “a handsome bird”, praises his feathers, and says that if he would only sing, the birds of the woods would call him King. Full of pride, the Raven opens his beak to sing — and the food falls.

Because he has just proved it. Pride is what made the Raven lose his food. A proud bird who believes he is handsome, kingly and a fine singer will swallow any compliment — and while he is busy showing off, he loses what he actually had.

The teaching is a surprise because it comes from the cheat himself. The Fox has just tricked the Raven out of his food, and now, instead of running away quietly, he turns into a teacher and gives him a lesson on pride. The thief lectures his victim!

Answer: “woods would” — “The birds of these woods would call you King.” The two words come together and both begin with the same /w/ sound.

The two extra words are happy and silly. (Silly is a synonym of foolish, not its opposite — a common trap.)

Four sentences of my own:

1. The parrot flew off the moment my little brother clapped his hands.
2. I remembered to switch off the fan before leaving the classroom.
3. Our grandmother is a wise woman who settles every quarrel in the street.
4. The captain accepted the trophy with great humility and thanked the whole team.

1. True    2. False    3. True

2 is false because the crow says, “Even if I don’t have beautiful feathers, I’m smart.”

Fox puppet: fold a square of orange paper into a triangle, fold the top corners up to make ears, stick on eyes and a nose, and tape an ice-cream stick at the back.

Raven puppet: cut a body, head, beak, wings and tail from black paper, glue them together, add an eye and tape a stick behind it.

Tuck a paper “morsel” into the raven’s beak and enact the poem with a partner.

1. Police officer — keeps us safe, catches thieves and helps us when we are in danger (dial 112 or 100).
2. Doctor — treats us when we are ill or hurt and saves lives.
3. Firefighter — puts out fires and rescues people trapped in fires and accidents (dial 112 or 101).

Answer: 2. save someone

To rescue means to save a person or an animal from danger.

Tick 1 and 3 — the man stuck in a burning building and the dog that has hurt its leg are in danger and need help. Do not tick 2. Some pairs also tick 4, because a tree is a living thing that needs saving.

In Hindi a policeman is called a sipahi or havaldar, and the officer in charge of a police station is the thanedar or daroga. Words in some other Indian languages:

My answer: I would first try to solve it myself, and at the same time call for help if the problem is a serious one.

Small problems, like a spilt glass of milk, I can fix myself. For anything dangerous, like a fire or a stranger at the door, I would keep the door locked and call my parents, a neighbour or 112.

Answer: (iii) Think quickly about ways to solve the problem.

Reason: Worrying (i) and getting angry (ii) change nothing — they only waste the little time you have and stop you from thinking straight. Quick, calm thinking is the only one of the three that actually gets you out of trouble.

Circle: children

Only the husband and the wife are in the house. There are no children in the story.

Circle: guest

The robber and the kotwal both enter the house. No guest comes.

True.

When his wife asks, “What should we do?”, the man says, “I’ll tell you. Listen…” and tells her his plan.

False.

The thief wonders where they keep their money, not their jewels.

• Softly — almost a whisper, as if the person were standing inside the same room. “Rama…”
• Loudly — a normal calling voice, as if he were in the yard outside. “Rama! Rama!”
• Very loudly — a full shout, as if he were far away in the street. “RAMA! RAMA!”

My prediction: Rama, the village kotwal, will hear his name being shouted, come running to the house, discover the hole in the wall and catch the thief.

In short: 1–(vi), 2–(iii), 3–(iv), 4–(i), 5–(ii), 6–(v).

The man says it because of what he sees his wife doing. It is late at night and both of them have lain down to sleep, but instead of sleeping his wife has sat up and is staring hard towards the door with a frightened face.

Answer: D. be silent

‘Ssssh’ is a sound we make to tell someone to keep quiet. The wife wants silence so that they can hear the noise.

She heard the noise before her husband did, and she hushed him — “Ssssh! Listen!” — so that she could hear better. She even noticed when the noise stopped and understood what that meant: “I … I think he has got in … the noise has stopped.”

kotwal

The villagers caught the thief and took him to the kotwal.

Answer: A. surprise

Rama did not expect to find a hole dug through the wall, so “Oh, Oh!” shows his surprise.

He was on his night round, so he heard the call and came running at once. One look at the hole told him that a thief had got in. He bravely crawled in through the hole and arrested the thief: “You’re under arrest.”

Because they had heard somebody digging into their house and knew that a thief was inside with them.

The thief wished that the couple would stop talking and fall asleep (or talk about where they kept their money), so that he could steal it. No, it did not happen. They never spoke about their money and did not fall asleep. Their “silly game” brought Rama the kotwal, who arrested him.

They used a clever trick. They pretended to talk about naming their child ‘Rama’ — the name of the village kotwal. The wife said she would call the boy softly in the house, louder in the yard and very loudly in the street, and then shouted, “RAMA! RAMA!” The kotwal heard his name, came running, found the hole and arrested the thief.

Yes — cleverness is often more useful than strength, especially when we are helpless in every other way.

The couple in the story could not fight the thief, but by thinking calmly and cleverly they brought the kotwal to their house. Cleverness helps most when it goes with a calm mind and is used honestly.

The full sentences:

1. I am feeling so sleepy.
2. It is a thief.
3. They are awake.

Answer: are going on at the time of speaking.

These actions are happening at the moment of speaking. The verbs are in the present progressive tense (am / is / are + verb + -ing).

1. I am studying in Grade 6.
2. My friend is reading a story book.
3. We are playing a board game.
4. I am learning a new language.
5. The teachers are sitting in the staff room.
6. My mother is cooking food in the kitchen.

1. Govind and Anu are playing football.
2. Pema is plucking flowers.
3. Anil is holding the score card.
4. The mother is reading a book.
5. The dog is running to catch the ball.
6. The birds are flying in the sky.

1. He solved the mathematics problem quickly.
2. The car moved smoothly along the highway.
3. The musician played the guitar beautifully.
4. Shobha danced gracefully.
5. Rohit left the house hurriedly.

The two extra words are warmly and funnily.

1. peacefully    2. slowly    3. tirelessly    4. honestly    5. sweetly

The two extra words are brightly and angrily.

(i) tiredness    (ii) relief    (iii) questions

Sentence 1 is a yawn at the end of a hard day; in sentence 2 the thief is glad the talking has stopped; sentences 3 and 4 end with a question mark.

1. robbery    2. adults    3. safety    4. 100

Say each one as a single word, not as two — that is the whole point of a contraction. Here is what each stands for and how to say it.

Tick (i), (ii), (iii) and (v). These are about keeping people, pets and the house safe from injury, accidents and robbery. (iv) and (vi) have nothing to do with safety.

Ask at home and at school, then make this chart and stick it near your telephone.

Path: from the opening below the kotwal go down, right, down, right, then up the long passage, right along the long passage to the far right side, down, left, down, left, down, right, down, and right out through the opening beside the thief.