NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 1 Wit and Wisdom (PDF) – 2027

Seven of the thirteen words describe a witty person: wise, clever, humorous, observant, charming, creative and confident.

Because they let a person say a difficult thing without starting a fight. Humour lowers the temperature of a situation; wit finds the shortest way to the truth inside it. Together they make criticism bearable, so the listener can change his mind without losing face.

Kings and queens valued witty courtiers because:

• They could tell the ruler the truth. A courtier who contradicts a king risks his position. A witty courtier can wrap the same truth in a joke, so the king corrects himself and nobody has been defied.
• They solved problems others called impossible. The text says Rama’s “clever solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems made him a beloved figure”. A quick mind is useful in negotiation, in disputes and in emergencies, not only at a feast.
• They kept the court alive. A ruler surrounded only by flatterers hears nothing new. Wit brings surprise, and surprise brings fresh thinking.

I would first hear both sides separately, because people speak more honestly when the other person is not in the room. Then I would try to find the single fact both of them agree on, and start from there rather than from the accusation.

Corrected: The queen did not insult the king’s poem. She yawned while he recited it only because she was exhausted after a tiring day, but the king thought she was disrespecting his poem.

Corrected: Tenali Rama did not go to the king immediately. He took time to plan a strategy and the next morning, in open court, made the king realise his mistake through the story of the paddy seeds.

Corrected: The courtiers did not admire the king’s poem. When he tried reciting it to his ministers, they all avoided him, making excuses.

Corrected: The ministers were not eager to hear Rama’s idea. They mocked his “revolutionary” paddy seeds with sarcasm and snickers, and even the king called the idea absurd.

Corrected: The king realised his mistake in court when he himself yawned. That same evening he apologised to the queen, and the quarrel ended.

Because Rama is the one person who can correct the king without hurting his pride. The queen has tried and failed, and the ministers only avoided the king. Rama is famous for his “clever solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems” and is “both a poet and a witty advisor”, so he can make the king understand through wit and humour instead of argument.

B. She regrets the unintended misunderstanding.

She blames her own timing, not the king; she is sad (“distraught”), not angry.

Rama’s reply shows his wisdom because he does not rush. He promises only to “try my best”, he sees that the matter “needs a well-planned approach”, and he asks for time “to find the right strategy”. He understands that the king’s pride cannot be argued with directly, so he plans carefully before he acts.

The king’s reaction shows that he is sensitive and takes great pride in his poetry.

When the king said, “I let my pride blind me”, he means that his concern for his own dignity stopped him from seeing the plain, ordinary explanation in front of him — that a tired person yawns, and that his queen’s yawn had nothing to do with his poem at all.

Because she wants the quarrel to end, not to win it. By saying “If you like”, she leaves the choice to the king, so making peace does not hurt his pride. She does not blame him or defend herself. By asking to hear his poem, she shows that she values it and that all is well between them again.

… which shows maturity and self-awareness.

He looks back at his own behaviour, names its cause (pride) and apologises openly, without excuses.

She is gracious and forgiving. After weeks of silence she does not reproach him even once — no “you should have asked me”, no reminder of how long she waited. She smiles, sets the quarrel aside, and asks for the poem.

Krishnadeva Raya’s reign (1509–29 CE) is called the Golden Era because art, literature and architecture flourished along with the empire’s glory and wealth. He was a great patron of learning, and his court was home to eight celebrated poets, the Ashtadiggajas. He was himself an eminent warrior and a gifted poet who wrote the epic Amuktamalyada and the Sanskrit drama Jambavati Parinayam.

Tenali Ramakrishna was one of the eight Ashtadiggajas, but he gained a special place through his quick wit and humour. He served the king “as both a poet and a witty advisor”, and his “clever solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems” made him a beloved figure.

It changed the atmosphere of the whole palace, not merely the mood of two people.

The king “did not utter a single word to her” for weeks and “stopped visiting her altogether”. The result is given in one sentence: “His absence cast a shadow over the palace, and the once cheerful corridors seemed quiet and forlorn.” The queen herself was “distraught and upset”.

Rama used a joke in open court instead of speaking to the king directly. He brought “revolutionary” paddy seeds and said the real problem lay with the person who sows them. Then he asked what would happen if the sower yawned while sowing. The court laughed and the king himself yawned. Rama added, “Is there anyone in this world who does not yawn? It is as natural as breathing.” The king remembered scolding the queen for yawning and realised his mistake.

Open disbelief, and then mockery. “A murmur swept through the room.” One courtier “known for his sarcasm” whispered loudly enough to be heard, “I wonder if these are magic seeds! Next, he’ll claim they grow without water.” Another muttered, “Perhaps he found them on the moon!” and “Snickers rippled through the court.”

Conclusion: That evening the king apologised to the queen: “I have been foolish… I let my pride blind me. I’m so sorry.” She forgave him and asked to hear his poem. The royal couple gave Rama valuable gifts, and the palace was full of joy and laughter again.

Lesson: A small misunderstanding should be cleared up by talking, not by pride and silence. Wit and patience can solve a problem where anger and argument fail.

Your teacher will be unhappy if you keep leaving your homework unfinished.

They would have caught the train if they had left the house ten minutes earlier.

You will find it hard to concentrate in class if you continue to stay up late every night.

If she knew the answer, she would raise her hand at once.

She would have topped the class if she had studied harder.

If I had a million rupees, I would build a library for my village.

If I were the Head Teacher of my school, I would set aside the last period every Friday for reading, and let students choose their own books.

If I were a bird, I would follow the monsoon clouds northward and watch the dry fields turn green under me.

If I were a magician, I would turn every empty plot in my town into a garden — and leave one stone in each, for Mrs. Jones.

If I had studied harder, I would have solved the last question of the test instead of leaving it blank.

(ii) thick

The transcript says: “Rama smiled and removed the silk cloth. There was a huge bundle of sticks tied with a thick rope!”

(iii) arrogant

The last line of the transcript is: “In this way, Rama had taught the arrogant scholar a lesson.” The word finally in the question is the clue — the answer is at the very end.

A model pair-conversation. Read A’s lines with a falling tone — they are all Wh- questions.

Question: Who is the witty character in the story you have read?

Sample answer: Tenali Rama, the poet and advisor in the court of King Krishnadeva Raya of Vijayanagara.

Question: Why is his wit important in the story?

Sample answer: Because nothing else could have worked. The king was too proud to be argued with and the ministers were too frightened to try. Only a joke could carry the truth to him without insulting him.

Question: What was the cleverest idea he used?

Sample answer: He brought “revolutionary” paddy seeds to court and claimed the fault in farming lay with the sower — a man who yawns while sowing. The whole court laughed, the king yawned himself, and the point was made without a word about the queen.

Question: When is the story set?

Sample answer: In the reign of Krishnadeva Raya, from 1509 to 1529 CE — the period the text calls the Golden Era of the Vijayanagara Empire.

Question: How did he use his intelligence to solve the problem?

Sample answer: Indirectly. He never mentioned the quarrel; he arranged a public joke so that the king would draw the conclusion himself and could change his mind without ever admitting in public that he had been wrong.

Question: Where does the story take place?

Sample answer: In the Vijayanagara Empire — chiefly in the king’s court, “its intricately carved pillars towering towards the high ceiling”, and in the palace where the king and queen live.

Method. Make the chart a table rather than a list, so that a classmate can choose a story from it. Four columns work best.

The pictures run in two columns down the page. Taking them row by row (left picture, then right picture):

Yes — the word carries two quite different meanings, and the poem uses both.

D. (ii), (iv), and (v) — humorous, amusing and light-hearted.

Nothing in the poem is sad, so it is not mournful; and the speaker teases Mrs. Jones gently instead of mocking her — in the end the joke is on him.

(ii) the poet

The poem is in the first person — “I can’t think how she gets them in”, “‘Where is this lovely thing?’ I cried” — and the speaker calls Mrs. Jones “My next-door neighbour”. So the voice belongs to the adult neighbour who lives beside her, that is, the poet himself.

(i) AABBCC

The other two stanzas follow the same plan: Jones/stones — small/all — in/pin, and Jones/stones — flower/hour — cried/replied.

… in order to emphasise her obsession with a stony garden.

The word ‘stones’ ends the second line of every stanza, so the reader never forgets what her garden is full of.

… that help readers visualise the garden’s peculiar nature.

The refrain is the opening line of every stanza:

“My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones,”

and it is followed each time by a second line ending in the same word, stones:

• “has got a garden full of stones:”
• “puts little plants between the stones”
• “once asked me round to see her stones.”

The closing couplet:

“Where is this lovely thing?” I cried.
“You’re standing on it,” she replied.

After talking about the flower for a quarter of an hour, the speaker expects to see something splendid — but he has been standing on it all along. What happens is the opposite of what he expected.

The word ‘concrete’ can refer to the hard, stony materials that fill it — the crazy paving of the path, the rockery, the stone sundial and the stones between which she plants her tiny plants — rather than to earth and greenery.

… a clear or ‘concrete’ example of Mrs. Jones’ peculiar (eccentric, unusual) gardening habits.

How the pun in the title works. One phrase, read two ways, and both readings are true of the poem:

Two puns of your own, on the pattern of the examples given:

• I asked the gardener why his plants were so short. He said he had no grounds for complaint. (grounds = garden land / reasons)
• A good gardener always gets to the root of the problem. (root = the part of a plant under the soil / the real cause)

That her taste runs to hard ornament rather than growing things — and that it is entirely her own.

“A garden full of stones” is close to a contradiction: a garden is the one place we expect to be full of plants. By choosing stone for the path, stone for the rockery and stone for the sundial, Mrs. Jones has made arrangement and design more important than greenery. What pleases her is the interesting object, not the healthy plant.

True.

The poem never describes Mrs. Jones directly — we are told nothing about her age, face or manner. Everything we know about her, we learn from her garden:

• the crazy path and rockery tell us she likes the unusual;
• the sundial with a strange device tells us she collects curiosities;
• the tiny plants set between stones tell us she is patient and attentive to what is small;
• the quarter of an hour spent on one flower tells us she is unhurried and warmly attached to what she owns.

Literally: a path of “crazy paving” — flat stones of irregular shapes and sizes fitted together with no regular pattern, so that the joints run in every direction. It is a real and well-known style of paving, and “crazy” is its ordinary English name.

The word ‘crazy’ also hints at the speaker’s private opinion that the whole garden is a little odd.

A. She has a fascination with unusual items.

The device is “strange”, yet she thinks it “rather nice” — she likes what others find odd.

Mrs. Jones is proud of her garden and very fond of it. She thinks her sundial with its strange device “rather nice”; she patiently puts “little plants between the stones”; she invites the speaker “round to see her stones”; and she talks about one flower “for quite a quarter of an hour”. All this shows how much she loves her garden.

It is a humorous exaggeration. The plants are so tiny, and the gaps between the stones so narrow, that the speaker jokes that she must plant them with a pin. It shows that he thinks the plants are almost worthless (“they don’t mean anything at all”). It also prepares us for the ending, where a flower is so small that he stands on it without seeing it.

From her gardening style, we learn that Mrs. Jones is unusual (eccentric), patient and confident in her own taste: she fills her garden with stones and odd ornaments and grows tiny plants between them.

From her interaction with the speaker, we learn that she is friendly and hospitable (she invites him round), enthusiastic (she talks about one flower for a quarter of an hour), and calm and good-humoured — when he stands on her flower, she simply says, “You’re standing on it.”

Mrs. Jones is shown in a positive light. She has created an original garden of her own and patiently grows delicate plants between the stones. She is friendly and generous, inviting her neighbour to share what she loves. When he stands on her treasured flower, she does not get angry but calmly replies, “You’re standing on it.” The joke in the last line falls on the speaker, not on her — she is the one who sees clearly.

The poem shows that people value different things. To Mrs. Jones her stony garden is full of interest and beauty; to the speaker it is only stones and tiny plants that “don’t mean anything at all”. The ending shows that what one person treasures, another may not even notice. So we should not dismiss something just because we cannot see its value.

unusual — “A sundial with an unusual device”.

Strange here means “not like other sundials”, which is exactly what unusual means. (Peculiar is also acceptable.)

pleasant — “which Mrs. Jones thinks rather pleasant”.

Nice here simply means pleasing to look at.

fragile — “They are so fragile and small”.

Delicate here means easily damaged, which is what fragile means. (Dainty — small and pretty — is also acceptable.)

exclaimed — “‘Where is this lovely thing?’ I exclaimed.”

Here cried means “called out suddenly”, not “wept”.

The sundial is called a device, so a device is an instrument or piece of equipment made for a particular purpose. A sundial is an instrument that tells the time by the shadow it casts in sunlight. A “strange device” is therefore an unusual, odd-looking instrument.

Indian postage stamp

The transcript: “The garden was featured on an Indian postage stamp in 1983 and Nek Chand was awarded the Padma Shri a year later.”

Colourful sculptures.

The transcript: “it has several colourful sculptures and mosaic of art pieces.”

Into three distinct phases.

The transcript: “What is unique about the Rock Garden is that it is divided into three distinct phases.”

Terracotta pots — or, equally correct, light fixtures or broken toilet pots.

The transcript: “Each area reveals a unique collection of installations including terracotta pots, light fixtures, and even broken toilet pots, that have been transformed into extraordinary masterpieces.”

Around 5,000 statues.

The transcript: “the borders of the Rock Garden are lined with around 5,000 statues.”

What the poem says. A dense mass of trees rings the poet’s garden like a sea — but not a dull, single green. Light-green tamarinds stand among deep-green mango clumps; grey palm trunks rise between them like pillars; and over the still pools lean the red flowers of the semal (silk-cotton) tree. Lovelier than any of it, though, are the bamboo groves to the east, when moonlight comes through the gaps and turns a white lotus into a silver cup. At such a moment one could faint with beauty, or simply go on looking at what seems like the first garden in the world.

We seek the advice of elders because they have more experience of life. They have seen how similar situations turned out, so they can guide us. They stay calm when we panic and can see what really matters. They also remember useful knowledge that is not written down, and they tell us the truth even when it is unwelcome.

What I see: a monkey sitting on the thatched roof, a cat on a branch of the tree, broken pots on the ground, cracked walls and a broken window. Four villagers stand outside, talking anxiously.

What might have happened. The likeliest reading is that the monkey came down from the tree onto the roof, knocked over the pots kept outside and broke a window in the process. The neighbours have gathered, and from their gestures they are arguing about who is responsible — perhaps blaming one another, or blaming the family whose house it is, while the actual culprit sits above them, watching.

… because he knew that four friends looking for work together would only manage the journey if they kept believing the same thing; the moment one of them gave up hope, the group would break apart and turn back.

… because he had noticed fresh camel tracks on the dusty road and wanted his friends to look at them too, since the tracks might tell them something useful.

… because he saw a man hurrying towards them in great haste, looking worried, as though something had gone badly wrong for him.

… because Dev Datt had described the camel’s stomach pain, an illness that cannot be seen from outside. The merchant could not imagine how a stranger could know this unless he was a healer.

… because he and his friends had nothing to hide; knowing they were innocent, he was willing to let the merchant take the matter to the King, and by offering to wait openly under a banyan tree instead of hurrying away he showed that they had no intention of escaping.

Statement A is false.

Rectified: Dev Datt believes that finding employment will take a long time and a good deal of patience. He says, “Ten days are but a short span in the grand scheme of things. We may still have many more roads to wander before we find employment befitting all four of us.”

Statement B is true — Ram Datt says, “I am confident he would recognise our talents and appoint us to his service.”

It shows that Ram Datt is confident and optimistic. He believes in his own and his friends’ talents and trusts that a fair king will recognise merit. Even after ten days of fruitless searching, he still hopes for an audience with the King and a place in his service.

B. moving forward with determination

“That is why” shows that it is the result of their shared hope: they keep going forward without giving up.

C. He is cautious and thoughtful, preferring to plan ahead.

The stage direction “(Pausing thoughtfully)” and his wish to plan before trying to meet the King show this.

B. Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Both statements are true, but the merchant leaves the court before the offer is made. He is ashamed because the King rebukes him for his false accusation, not because of the appointment.

C. notice details that others might overlook

The King himself says, “Such detail is not easily noticed by a casual traveller.”

… because they were four unemployed young men who had wandered for ten days in search of work. Even an audience with the King had seemed “no simple task”, so becoming his advisers was far beyond anything they had hoped for.

The King’s offer shows that he values merit, fairness and wisdom above wealth or rank. He does not judge the four men hastily but asks each one how he reached his conclusion. When the evidence proves them innocent, he rejects the merchant’s accusation and warns him to be careful. He then makes four poor strangers his advisers only because of their intelligence, which shows that he wants wise counsel to guide his decisions.

The dusty road shows that the journey was long, tiring and uncertain. The four men had walked for ten days, in the hot midday sun, and looked “travel-worn”, yet they had still not found work — Ram Datt says “every day feels longer than the last”. Still, they were “resolute” and kept going towards Ujjain.

The merchant became suspicious because the four men described his camel exactly — lame, blind in the right eye, short-tailed and suffering from a stomach pain — and yet said they had never seen it. He thought they must have stolen it.

This shows that he was anxious and hasty. He jumped to conclusions and accused strangers without proof, because he could not imagine that they had simply reasoned from the tracks.

The observations are the turning point because they change the men’s fate. At first, knowing so much about a camel they had not seen makes them look like thieves, and they are brought before the King as accused men. But when they explain how they read the tracks, the same observations prove their intelligence. So they get the audience with the King they wanted and are made his advisers.

The King believed the four young men because they gave clear, logical reasons for everything they said — the faint footprint, the leaves eaten only on the left, the drops of blood, and the deep front prints and faint hind prints. The merchant gave no proof; he only asked, “How else could they know so much about it?” Their reasoning was “flawless”, so the King knew they were wise men, not thieves.

The four young men are suitable as advisers because they observe carefully and reason logically. They notice details that others miss and draw correct conclusions from them. Each noticed something different, so together they see a problem fully. They also stayed calm and honest when falsely accused. These are the qualities a king needs in the people who guide his decisions.

The merchant feels ashamed because he had accused innocent men without any proof. In front of the whole court, the four men explained that they had learnt everything from the camel’s tracks — something he could have noticed himself. The King called his accusations “baseless and misguided” and told him to be careful whom he accused in future. He realised he had been unjust to honest men, so he left “his face red with shame”.

Some word games need a lot of thought and deduction.

We need to make close observations of animals in order to understand their behaviour.

A detailed scrutiny of the documents shows a lot of errors.

You should not make any false accusations against anyone.

She was given an award in recognition of her contribution to literature.

1. with all our hearts — We thanked the villagers with all our hearts for sheltering us during the storm.
2. to be precise — The train was late by an hour — fifty-eight minutes, to be precise.
3. gain an audience with — The farmers waited three days to gain an audience with the district collector.
4. taken aback — I was taken aback when my quietest classmate volunteered to give the vote of thanks.
5. more than meets the eye — Her answer was short and polite, but there was more than met the eye behind it.

You need not worry about things beyond your control.

A person cannot gain experience without taking risks.

You must treat others with kindness, even when they disagree with you.

You must not interrupt when someone else is speaking.

Statements not needed: 2 and 5.

Method. The thirteen steps are a checklist; what follows is how they apply to this play in particular. Its great advantage is that it needs very little — two scenes, seven speaking parts and a bare stage.