NCERT Solutions for Class 7 English Chapter 2 Wit and Humour (PDF) – 2027

1. Duck – anger; 2. Cat – fear or shock; 3. Dog – happiness; 4. Cockatoo – tiredness or boredom.

The correct option is 4. knows more about animals than the local veterinarians.

The Cat’s-food-Man says it in so many words: “you know all about animals—much more than what these vets here do. That book you wrote—about cats, why, it’s wonderful! … You might have been a cat yourself. You know the way they think.”

The completed passage reads:

Yes, he would become famous. He could talk to animals, so they could tell him where the pain was, and he could cure them quickly — like the plough horse that only needed spectacles. The cured animals told their friends about him, and migrating birds carried his name to other countries, so “he became famous among the animals—all over the world.”

The correct option is 2. Farm animals wearing glasses.

After the plough horse got its fine, big pair of green spectacles and stopped going blind, the text says: “soon it became a common sight to see farm animals wearing glasses in the countryside, round Puddleby; and a blind horse was a thing unknown.”

He might face these challenges:

1. Crowding — his garden was already “nearly always crowded with animals trying to get in to see him”.
2. Too little time — one man cannot examine so many patients in a day.
3. Keeping animals apart — a cat and a mouse cannot wait in the same room.
4. Money and medicines — animals cannot pay, and he had given up his human patients.
5. New languages — every new kind of animal means learning its language first.

He can solve each problem with a simple, practical arrangement — and the story shows him already beginning to do so.

The correct order is 3 → 6 → 4 → 1 → 10 → 5 → 8 → 2 → 7 → 9. (The book has already filled in 3 as (i) and 6 as (ii).)

The correct option is B. gosh.

‘Good Gracious!’ and ‘Gosh!’ are both mild exclamations of surprise — they say “I did not expect that at all.”

Because it would have been of no use — the Doctor did not know bird language, so he would not have understood a single word.

Polynesia says it herself, quite bluntly: “What would have been the good? … You wouldn’t have understood me if I had.” She had always used people’s language with him because that was the only language they shared.

True.

The proof is in the stage-like detail the writer slips into the middle of her speech: she spoke “dusting some cracker crumbs off her left wing”. Crumbs on a wing mean she had been eating a cracker — a thin, dry biscuit — while she talked.

The correct option is B. surprised.

Two of his lines carry the feeling: “Good Gracious!” cried the Doctor, and “My! You don’t say so!” Both are exclamations of amazement, and the verb ‘cried’ shows he blurted them out.

The word is ploughing.

The correct option is C. understanding.

The horse asks for something unusual — spectacles, and green ones at that — and gives a reason of its own. Dolittle neither laughs nor argues. He simply answers, “Certainly … Green ones you shall have,” because he has grasped what the animal actually needs.

A suitable completion:

Yes, I agree. An animal cannot tell the doctor what is wrong, so an animal doctor must find the problem only by careful observation, and that needs more skill. The story proves it: the vet over the hill treated the horse for six weeks and never looked at its eyes, while Dolittle solved the problem by listening to the horse.

Polynesia was a good trainer because she taught step by step, patiently and with examples.

• She began with the basics — “the Birds’ A.B.C.” — and went slowly so that the Doctor could write the words down.
• She sat with him the whole afternoon, “giving him bird words to put down in the book”.
• She taught body language too, such as Jip’s twitching nose, which means a question.
• The result proves it: he learnt “so well that he could talk to them himself”.

Dolittle treated every animal as a separate patient with its own needs.

• He listened to each one — they “told him where the pain was and how they felt”.
• He respected each one’s wish — the horse got the green spectacles it asked for.
• He cared for small creatures like harvest mice, badgers and bats as well as horses and cows.
• He made a separate door for each kind of animal, and even a tunnel for the mice.

Dolittle took advice from two unlikely sources — the Cat’s-food-Man, who could not read or write, and a parrot. He did not ignore them because of who they were. By listening, he learnt that animals can talk and found his true calling as an animal doctor. This shows that we should judge an idea by its worth, not by the person who gives it, because other viewpoints can teach us what we do not know.

His open-mindedness, eagerness to learn, patient listening, respect for each patient, fairness and real skill made him famous.

Together these qualities made the animals themselves his messengers: “Now all these animals went back and told their brothers and friends that there was a doctor in the little house with the big garden who really was a doctor.”

No, they are not. All three are compound words, but each is written in a different style.

The completed paragraph:

Each animal hides across a word boundary. Read the letters straight through, ignoring the spaces.

Palindromes: 1. the whole sentence; 2. Naman, race car; 3. Nitin, Malayalam; 4. rotator, level; 5. radar; 6. the whole sentence.

Sample palindromes:

• Never odd or even.
• Was it a rat I saw?
• No lemon, no melon.
• Top spot.

The present perfect is formed as has / have + V3 (past participle).

False.

The announcement gives the clinic’s town, address, timings, special timings for birds, the kinds of animals welcome and the promise of “the best care possible” — but it says nothing at all about medicines being free. No offer, no discount, no price is mentioned anywhere.

The completed draft:

Some organisations that work for the welfare of animals in India:

The true statements are 1, 3, 4 and 6.

Both come straight from the poem: “taking out a currant bun” and “I staggered back against the wall.”

In every stanza only the second and fourth lines rhyme:

The correct choice is humorous and nonsensical.

The correct choice is dialogue.

Two speakers actually talk to each other, and both sets of words are in quotation marks:

The correct choice is alliteration.

Alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words placed close together. A simile would need a comparison using like or as — there is none here.

In normal (prose) word order the lines become:

The poet mixes up the senses on purpose. A sight is seen, not heard, and a sound is heard, not felt. Just as the man wears his shoe on his head and hats on his feet, these words are put in the “wrong” places. So the language becomes as funny and topsy-turvy as the man himself, and adds to the humour of the poem.

Yes — plenty. Wherever people break the ordinary rules on purpose, in order to make others laugh:

He uses ‘Your Highness’ as an exaggerated, mock-royal courtesy — the way a courtier would speak to a king or queen.

It is part of the joke: such a grand title does not suit a meeting in an ordinary street — especially when the “rose” he presents turns out to be a currant bun.

The phrase is “Allow me to present”.

It is a formal, courteous way of asking permission before giving something — far more polite than “Take this” or “Here you are”.

The correct option is B. Image 2.

A currant bun is a small sweet bun with currants (small dried grapes) baked into it. Only Image 2 shows the little dark currants inside the bun; it is also topped with white icing and a cherry.

The line is “You never heard in all your life” (completed by “Such a funny feeling sound.”).

‘Never … in all your life’ means that no one has ever heard such a sound before — it was one of a kind.

He does not answer at all — he simply turns round and hops home on his head. This shows that he feels no need to explain himself. He is carefree and unselfconscious, unpredictable to the very end, and good-humoured, since he takes no offence at a personal question.

The correct option is D. cheerful.

The last line — “And hopped home on his head” — is the funniest picture in the whole poem. It is light, absurd and completely harmless, so the reader closes the poem smiling.

The trait I found most appealing is his unfailing politeness.

Everything else about him is upside down, but his manners never slip. He raises his shoe in greeting instead of a hat; he smiles at a stranger; he says, “Allow me to present Your Highness with a rose”; and when asked an awkward question he does not snap back — he simply goes away. The poem says it plainly: “His manners were polite.”

His unusual actions keep the mood light, playful and cheerful from the first line to the last, and they build it up steadily.

Because nothing he does is unkind or dangerous, the reader is never uneasy. The mood stays nonsensical and warm — we are laughing with the situation, not at a victim.

My suggestion: “The Upside-Down Gentleman”.

Reasons:

• Upside-down catches the one idea that runs through every stanza — shoe on head, hats on feet, a bun for a rose, a smell you can look at, and a man who walks on his head.
• Gentleman keeps the other half of the joke: his manners are perfect throughout.
• It is short, it is curious, and it does not give the ending away.

The poet includes dialogues to make the poem lively, like a little play. We hear the funny man’s own polite words — “Allow me to present Your Highness with a rose” — and the poet’s witty reply about the rose’s “funny looking smell”. The dialogues show what the characters are like, deliver the jokes directly, and turn a description into the story of a meeting.

1 – (iii), 2 – (v), 3 – (i), 4 – (ii), 5 – (iv)

Each verb below joins several of the words in Column 2. Two or three per verb are enough for the exercise; the extras are for your own notes.

Sample sentences:

The three missing words are 1. trot, 2. jog, 3. sprint.

The complete staircase, from the slowest at the bottom to the fastest at the top:

The correct picture is 3 — the girl sitting at the table eating from a bowl.

She says, “I served myself dal-chawal and ate it” — and the plate from this meal is at the centre of her funny mix-up.

The correct order is 6 → 2 → 1 → 5 → 4 → 3 → 7.

How to tell it: Take turns with your partner to tell the whole joke, changing your voice for each speaker — your own matter-of-fact voice for the narrator, a louder, respectful voice for the man, and a deep, pleasant voice for God. Pause before the last line, say “Wait a minute” calmly, and do not explain the joke.

Why it is funny: for God, a minute is a million years — so the man will wait a million years for his rupee.

The rhyme scheme of both limericks is AABBA.

Match each act of the funny man to the modern activity it resembles:

This poem is printed for enjoyment, not for questions — but here is what to notice while you read it aloud.

‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ (अतिथि देवो भव) is a Sanskrit phrase from the Taittiriya Upanishad. It means “May the guest be as God to you” — that is, treat every guest with the same respect you would show to God.

It is important to be polite to guests because a guest is in an unfamiliar place and should feel welcome and comfortable. Politeness shows respect, builds friendships and is part of our culture — ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ teaches us to treat a guest like God. A guest who is treated kindly leaves happy and wants to come again.

The polite behaviours are 1, 2 and 5.

Three ways to deal with it:

1. Separate the idea from the person — say “I don’t agree with that idea,” not “You are stupid.”
2. Take turns — each person speaks for a minute without being interrupted.
3. Use polite phrases — “I see your point, but…”, “May I explain why I disagree?”

If voices still rise, suggest continuing later, or ask the class teacher to help.

No, I do not think she will succeed. Mary is over-confident — “Anyone can talk.” She memorises words like “Must you go? Can’t you stay?” without understanding when and why to say them, and her mother says she always talks too much. Mrs. Shaw herself warns, “If you stay with me, you may not say the right thing.”

Rectification: Mrs. Harding was not pleased, because she has no children. She told Mary, “I have no children; believe me.”

Rectification: Mrs. Shaw said she liked Mrs. Best because she was a nice woman. It was Mr. Best, the banker, whom Mary described as reading two newspapers in the train.

Rectification: Mrs. Harding and Mrs. Shaw did not call it unfashionable. Mrs. Harding said she often wore her red coat with her blue dress, and Mrs. Shaw said, “I like blue dresses and red coats.” It was Mary who laughed at it.

Rectification: Mary said that the dog always looked very dirty and that she did not like dogs. She did not find it cute — and it turned out to be Mrs. Harding’s own dog, Towzer.

The correct option is C. She wants Mary to develop social skills for the future.

The key words are “One day” and “yourself”. Mrs. Shaw is looking ahead to a time when Mary will have to manage such visits alone, and she wants her to be ready for it.

The whole extract is about the manner of talking, not about making acquaintances. Mrs. Shaw’s objection is precisely that Mary talks without judging what is worth saying: “You always talk too much. But does anyone want to hear the things that you say?”

Mary insisted on staying because she was sure she could talk as well as any grown-up and wanted to prove it to her mother: “Let me stay today. I can do it very well. I’ll show you. Anyone can talk.” She also did not want to be sent away like a child.

Mary – A. eager and B. inexperienced; Mrs. Shaw – C. cautious.

The correct option is B. She is unable to understand why people need medical help.

Mary’s own words show it: “I can’t understand women who stay in bed in the morning. And why must she always ask for the doctor? I’ve never been to a doctor in my life.” Because she has always been healthy, she assumes everyone else could be too, if only they tried.

Because she says so herself, in a single telling sentence: “I’ve never been to a doctor in my life.”

A girl who has never once needed a doctor has clearly never been seriously ill. That is also the source of her mistake — she measures everyone else by her own sturdy health and cannot imagine that another person may genuinely need rest or medical care.

True.

Mary criticised “women who stay in bed in the morning” — and Mrs. Harding immediately replied, “I stay in bed in the morning myself.” Mary had no idea she was describing her own guest; the offence was completely unintentional, and that is exactly what makes it funny and awkward at once.

Mary’s comment shows a narrow, dismissive and rude view of bankers. She mocks Mr. Best’s daily train journey — “He lives in trains! … They do not know how to live” — sneers that he reads newspapers but never a book, and says, “he’s only a banker, and bankers can’t think.” She judges a whole profession by one person and by her own idea of a good life.

Mary thinks polite conversation just means talking a lot and repeating set phrases. She fills every silence without thinking about her listeners, criticises people who turn out to be the guests’ own family, and even gets her memorised line backwards: “Oh, must you stay? Can’t you go?” She does not understand that polite talk means thinking about how your words will make others feel.

The repeated stage direction shows that the room becomes tense, awkward and embarrassed after Mary’s remarks. The guests are too polite to reply, so they say nothing, and Mrs. Shaw cannot repair the damage. Each silence marks another blunder, and the heavy silences finally make the guests leave.

Mary begins confident and eager, tries hard to please the guests, becomes careless and bold as she chats, and is embarrassed and flustered after every blunder. Her feelings change, but her behaviour does not — she blunders right up to the last line.

Both women are dignified, self-controlled and courteous — they correct Mary without ever attacking her.

The play shows the importance of polite conversation by showing what happens without it. Mary’s careless remarks hurt the guests, embarrass her mother and spoil Mrs. Shaw’s hope of making new friends. It teaches us to think before we speak, to listen to others and to be kind — as Mrs. Shaw says, “you’ll always be right if you’re kind to people.”

Yes. ‘Say’ focuses on the message and does not always need a listener; ‘tell’ focuses on the person who receives the message and always needs a listener — we tell someone something.

Verbs: lived; met, asked (simple past); has been staying (present perfect continuous).

The correct option is (ii) impatiently.

The conversation opens with the mother’s question: “Why were you getting impatient in the grocery store?”, and the son admits it: “Was I really? I just didn’t like waiting so long.”

The correct option is (i) polite young man.

Near the end of the conversation the mother says: “You’ve got it, Rohan. You’re becoming a really polite young man.”

The four true statements are 1, 2, 3 and 7.

How to say it

• Stress ‘Mrs. Cotter’ — say these words with more emphasis than the rest of the sentence.
• Fall on the last part of the sentence. Let your voice drop on ‘afternoon’, the way it drops at the end of every ordinary statement.
• Keep ‘I’, ‘saw’ and ‘this’ light and quick — they are the unstressed words that carry the sentence along.

With the voice rising at the end, the same words stop being a statement and turn into a question.

Roles to allot

Best part to choose: the dog scene in Scene II — Mary at the window complaining about the dirty dog, and Mrs. Harding’s flat reply, “That’s Towzer. It’s our dog.” It is short, self-contained, and gets the biggest laugh.

Some ways people welcome guests in different Indian languages:

It teaches us to treat all people with kindness, cooperation and respect, whatever their country, language or religion.