NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Chapter 5 Science and Curiosity (PDF) – 2027

A ‘feathered’ friend is a bird that a person keeps, feeds or befriends — a pet parrot or canary, or the sparrows, mynas and pigeons that visit a windowsill for grain. In this story the feathered friend is Claribel, a small yellow canary on a space station.

Yes. A small bird such as a canary could go with astronauts more easily than a furry animal:

• Mass: every kilogram sent into orbit costs a fortune in fuel. A canary “weighed practically nothing”; a dog does not.
• Supplies: her “food requirements were tiny”. A furry animal would need far more food, water and waste handling on a station where every gram is counted.
• Weightlessness: the canary “was not worried, as most animals would have been, by the absence of gravity” — she already knew how to move through air, so free fall was a small adjustment, not a terror.

REGULATION

The story opens with it: “there’s never been a regulation that forbids one to keep pets in a space station.”

FORBID

“…a regulation that forbids one to keep pets in a space station.”

FUSE

Sven’s job was “fusing the pieces together when they were precisely dovetailed into the intended pattern” — welding the girders so that the join becomes one solid piece of metal.

ABRUPTLY

The space workers could admire their work “without being abruptly parted from it by gravity” — nothing they let go of fell away suddenly.

CONFESS

“Sven didn’t confess to her ownership for several days.”

DIETITIAN

Jock Duncan is called “our cook-doctor-dietitian” — one man doing three jobs, which itself tells you how small the station’s crew was.

The narrator does not really know why Sven wanted a pet (“Don’t ask me why Sven wanted a pet … I’m not a psychologist”), but he thinks the choice of a canary was very sensible: she “weighed practically nothing”, her food needs were tiny, and she was not worried by the absence of gravity. Sven’s own scientific reason was curiosity — “He wanted to see just how a bird would operate when it had no weight but could still use its wings.”

Claribel adjusted very quickly and easily. She hung in the air “as motionless as a hummingbird” with her wings folded, did “a curious kind of backward loop” that no earthbound canary could manage, and moved about with “a few leisurely flicks”. She had learnt to live without gravity and “did not believe in doing unnecessary work”. She even “thrived and grew fat”.

The narrator was working in his small office when he heard a musical whistle right beside his ear. No one would expect a bird on a space station, so he assumed that it had come over the station intercom and waited for an announcement to follow.

Yes, she could have led them into trouble. Sven had smuggled her aboard, so she was never allowed officially. She “got rather noisy when she was upset”, and the crew had to hide her from visiting VIPs and explain the “curious peeps and whistles”; there were “a couple of narrow escapes”. If she had been found, Sven and the crew who hid her would have been in trouble.

But in the end she saved them: her fainting warned them that the air was bad.

False. Only the second alarm circuit was not connected. The one alarm that was connected “had failed to go off” when part of the air purifier froze during the eclipse.

False.

There was nothing official about it. Sven “had smuggled her up on the last ferry from Earth, when he came back from leave”, and he “didn’t confess to her ownership for several days”. The curiosity he mentions was his own private curiosity, not a sanctioned experiment.

True.

Claribel collapsed, revived on oxygen and “promptly keeled over again”. That second collapse jogged the narrator’s memory — “miners used to carry canaries down to warn them of gas” — and sent Jim to check. He returned to report that “part of the air purifier had frozen up”.

True.

“It was one of those accidents that couldn’t possibly happen; we’d had one of our rare eclipses by Earth’s shadow that night; part of the air purifier had frozen up.”

True.

She hung “as motionless as a hummingbird”, and then “she did a curious kind of backward loop I’m sure no earthbound canary had ever managed, and departed with a few leisurely flicks.”

False.

The opposite is true. “By that time it no longer mattered, because Claribel was a general pet.” The whole crew helped conceal her from visiting VIPs, she woke both Sven and the narrator each ‘morning’, and when she was found lifeless the crew were “all equally distressed”.

True.

Someone suggested “a shot of oxygen”, and “Claribel was tucked snugly into a face mask that was large enough to serve as a complete oxygen tent for her. To our delighted surprise, she revived at once.”

B. He possesses a strong understanding of working in space.

He “excelled at the tricky and specialised work” of handling girders “in free fall” and placing them “precisely”.

We can conclude it because the girders were “floating around in free fall” and had to be moved in a “slow-motion, three-dimensional ballet”. On Earth a steel girder would fall and would have to be lifted by a crane; here it floats in any direction. The next line confirms it: the team could admire their work “without being abruptly parted from it by gravity”.

A. Both (A) and (R) are true, and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

(A) restates the extract, and (R) explains it: because the girders float freely, placing them needs slow, careful, all-round movements — a ‘ballet’.

During the festival, people wore colourful garbs that represented their culture.

The extract uses it in “a space suit is not the most convenient of garbs in which to work.” The glossary defines garbs as “clothing of a special kind”.

The narrator references canaries and miners in order to highlight the historical use of canaries as warning systems.

He has already said why Claribel fainted (“There’s something wrong with the air!”); the miners and canaries are his evidence from the past.

Jim initially dismisses the warning about the air because he believes the alarms would have gone off if anything were wrong, since the station has “duplicate circuits, operating independently”.

B. startled by unexpected information

His assistant’s words — “the second alarm circuit isn’t connected up yet” — suddenly upset his confidence; that is why “he left without a word”.

It suggests that the argument was over and the crew had calmed down and come together. A ‘pipe of peace’ is passed from person to person to end a quarrel. In the same way, the crew stood together sharing the oxygen bottle, taking turns calmly instead of panicking, while Jim went to check the air. The comparison also adds a touch of humour.

Purpose: the alarm was meant to warn the crew at once if anything went wrong with the air — for example, if the air purifier stopped working.

Cause of failure: that night the station passed through one of its rare eclipses by Earth’s shadow. Part of the air purifier froze, and “the single alarm in the circuit had failed to go off”. The second, duplicate alarm circuit could not help because it “isn’t connected up yet”.

The crew’s reaction changes from surprise (when she first appears) to affection (she becomes “a general pet”, hidden from VIPs), then to worry and distress (when she is found lifeless) and finally to gratitude and respect, because her fainting saved their lives.

The ending shows that an unusual, simple solution can succeed where costly, modern ones fail. The station’s expensive alarms did not work, but an old method from coal mines — using a canary to warn of bad air — saved the crew. It tells us to keep an open mind, remember old knowledge and not trust machines blindly.

The title ‘Feathered Friend’ is appropriate because the whole story is about Claribel, a canary, and her friendship with the crew.

• ‘Feathered’ names Claribel by the one feature that makes her different from every other thing on the station — everything else there is metal, plastic and glass. It also sets up the story’s central contrast: feathers against “half a million dollars’ worth of chemical and electronic engineering”.
• ‘Friend’ is true in the ordinary sense — she was “a general pet”, she usually woke the men up, and they grieved over her. But by the end it is true in a far stronger sense: a friend is someone who saves you. “Without Claribel, we should soon have been slightly dead.”

The line suggests that life in space is always uncertain and can be lost without warning. A rare eclipse, a frozen air purifier and an unconnected alarm were enough to put the whole crew in danger while they slept. Only a small bird noticed. The phrase “slightly dead” is a joke — no one can be slightly dead — but it shows how close they came to dying.

Clarke keeps the science exact but tells the story in a light, humorous tone. He uses understatement (“we should soon have been slightly dead”), funny comparisons (girders doing a “ballet”, an oxygen bottle passed “like a pipe of peace”), self-mockery (“the little cubbyhole laughingly called my office”) and comic details such as Jock Duncan, the “cook-doctor-dietitian”.

Each adjective goes with the noun whose meaning it already carries inside it:

Here are the sentences from the story, in the order in which the adjectives appear in the box:

In the given sentence, ‘will’ denotes future time.

The narrator is talking about what the birdsong will mean when you visit a space station at some time after now.

Our flight leaves at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow.

They will finish the project by the end of this week.

The weather forecast says it will rain later today.

We are moving into our new house next month.

I am starting my new hobby class next Monday.

She is going to the mall this afternoon.

The team is having a meeting at 3.00 p.m. tomorrow.

I will help you with your homework after dinner.

By 2040, artificial intelligence will have revolutionised medical treatments. Researchers are developing AI-powered diagnostic tools that will have transformed healthcare by the end of this decade. Next week, the International Science Congress opens to showcase advancements in AI and robotics. In the coming years, robots will be assisting surgeons in performing complex operations. Years ago, experts had predicted that AI would reshape our world, and now, as we approach the future, this is going to be our new reality.

✗ (cross)

Asked whether he misses his planet, Toby says: “Very much, Monika! I miss my people and home.” School is never mentioned.

✓ (tick)

“Oh! I wish I could do something about it! But I am happy to have you as my friend.” Toby answers, “Thank you, Monika!”

✓ (tick)

“Okay, tell me one thing. How are you able to see with only one eye? I see only one big eye in the centre of your face.”

✗ (cross)

He says: “And yes! That apple you just had for breakfast is going round-and-round in your stomach right now!”

✗ (cross)

What Toby actually says is: “we Martians need only one eye to see clearly. In fact, I can see even with my eye closed.” He claims he can still see when the eye is shut — he never says he sees better or much clearer that way.

Toby: I miss my people and home.

Toby: Well, we Martians don’t need to eat anything. We get our energy from the Sun.

Monika: Oh! Don’t you ever feel like having ice creams and chocolates! I can’t think of life without them!

Monika: Okay, tell me one thing. How are you able to see only with one eye?

Toby: I can see beyond mountains and clouds, woods and even metals.

Right after this, Toby proves his boast: he names the blue toy aeroplane in Monika’s pocket and the apple in her stomach.

The four words from the text first — the book’s own pronunciation guide tells you which letters have vanished:

And the ten practice words:

Situation 1 — the solar system model

Situation 2 — the Chandrayaan-3 quiz

‘A canary in the coal mine’ means an early warning of a danger that others cannot yet see. Carbon monoxide has no colour or smell, so miners could not sense it. A canary breathes fast and is very sensitive to the gas, so it showed distress — swaying, then falling off its perch — long before the miners felt ill. That gave them time to get out. Claribel does exactly this for the crew in the story.

Web: fill the two empty spokes with online learning and shopping and payments. The icons stand for these uses:

Read the four passages together and you will see that every one of them solves the same problem in a different way. Without gravity, nothing stays where you put it, nothing flows downwards, and nothing presses on anything else. Here is the pattern:

Yes, it is largely true that animals can sense some natural calamities before people do. Many animals feel changes we cannot — a fall in air pressure before a storm, very low sounds from a distant tsunami, or the first faint shaking of an earthquake. Reacting to these, they flee, as the elephants, flamingos, sharks and dolphins did. But scientists cannot yet use animal behaviour to predict earthquakes reliably.

Sálim Ali (1896–1987), the ‘Birdman of India’, spent about sixty years studying Indian birds and persuading people that birds are worth protecting. Key facts about him:

The four pictures in your book show four workable designs. Read them as four different solutions to the same three problems: hold the grain, keep out the rain, give the bird somewhere to stand.

How to make design 4 (the easiest):

1. Cut a square of thick cardboard, cover it with chart paper and hang it as a diamond.
2. Cut a round hole in the centre and push a pencil or stick across it as a perch.
3. Tie a small mesh cup (an old tea strainer works) inside the hole and fill it with grain.
4. Hang it from a branch with strong string, out of reach of cats.
5. Keep a shallow dish of water nearby and clean the feeder every week.

In every picture somebody is looking at something small through a magnifying glass.

The four people are a palm reader, a man studying footprints, a man studying an insect on a leaf, and a girl looking at mushrooms and flowers — very different people doing very different things, but all using a lens to see fine detail.

They need a magnifying glass because the things they are looking at are too small to see clearly with the naked eye:

Microscopes, telescopes, binoculars, reading lenses and spectacles (for long sight) also magnify objects.

The poem describes the magic of seeing the world through a 1. (round) glass. It reveals how tiny things like 2. shells and 3. moss can appear vast and complex. Even a 4. drop of water can seem like a hive of 5. bees. The poet is impressed at how the spider spins its 6. web-silk from its 7. spinnerets. The poem ends with the idea that, through lenses, the 8. moon could seem within reach.

The main idea of the poem is the transformative power of close observation through the magnifying glass.

The wonders were always there in the chalk, the moss and the spider; what changes is the looking.

The tone of the poem is wonder and curiosity.

The speaker is amazed by each new discovery — the poem is full of exclamations such as “The tigerish claws he has!” and “And oh!”.

The poem has six stanzas with four lines in each stanza. Hence, it is a quatrain.

The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABCB.

The pattern repeats: trees / bees in stanza 2, jets / spinnerets in stanza 3, flies / eyes in stanza 4, glass / surpass in stanza 5, moon / afternoon in stanza 6 — always lines 2 and 4.

“A drop of water / Like hive of bees.”

A single drop of water is compared to a beehive using the word like.

“The woven web-silk” — the w sound repeated in woven and web.

Other clear examples:

• “A myriad shells show” — the sh sound in shells and show;
• “I can make Magic” — make, Magic;
• “A forest—flowers and trees”.

“Of but an inch of moss / A forest—flowers and trees” — the moss is not said to be like a forest; through the lens it simply is a forest, with its own flowers and trees.

…the magnifying glass reveals countless tiny shells packed into a small piece of chalk, which looks plain and white to the naked eye.

…the poet uses the imagery of nature to emphasise how rich and complex even a tiny patch of moss is — under the glass, an inch of moss looks like a whole forest full of flowers and trees.

…because it lets us hear the speaker’s astonishment at the moment it strikes him, instead of telling us about it afterwards. Each mark comes at the end of a discovery he did not expect: that a spider is armed like a tiger, that a fly is covered in eyes, that the moon could be a walk away.

…because it treats the magic worked by the glass as a living being with a voice — the lens does not merely show the speaker things, it tells him the secrets that ordinary objects have been keeping.

This is because it supports the theme of the transforming power of close observation — the idea that wonder is hidden inside ordinary things as the speaker reveals the extraordinary detail packed into a scrap of chalk, an inch of moss, a drop of water, a spider’s spinnerets and a fly’s eyes.

…because he wants to show that there is no limit to what patient looking can bring close. The same curved piece of glass that turns a scrap of chalk into a shore of shells becomes, in a telescope, the thing that brings the moon near enough to seem a walk away — “’Twould seem you’d walk there / In an afternoon!”

False.

The poet has no magical powers. The power lies in the glass and in close looking: “With this round glass / I can make Magic talk”. ‘Magic’ is his name for the wonders the lens reveals.

“A myriad shells show / In a scrap of chalk;”

‘Chalk’ is as ordinary as an object can be, and ‘a scrap’ is the least of it — yet the lens finds myriad (countless) shells inside, each one a shaped, patterned thing.

It suggests that the speaker sees the world through the glass as full of hidden wonders — even the smallest thing is rich and complete. A tiny patch of moss that looks like green fuzz becomes, under the lens, a whole forest with its own “flowers and trees”. Nothing is too small to be marvellous.

B. Fascinated

He keeps looking, keeps finding more and breaks into exclamations — he is held by wonder.

The spider shows that the glass can reveal living things at work, not just still objects. Through the lens the speaker watches “the deft spider” jet its “woven web-silk” from its spinnerets — a skilful craftsman. He also sees its “tigerish claws” and the “silly flies” that stumble into its net, so the spider shows both the beauty and the fierceness of nature that close observation brings out.

Without a magnifying glass the speaker would see only the surface of things. Chalk would be just a white stick, moss a green patch, a drop of water just wetness, and the spider a small dark shape. He would still find nature pleasant, but he would miss its hidden, intricate details and the sense of wonder and astonishment that fills the poem.

The poem ends with the moon to show that lenses can defeat distance as well as smallness. The first five stanzas make tiny things look huge; the last stanza makes something vast and far away feel close — through a telescope, “’Twould seem you’d walk there / In an afternoon!” It ends the poem on excitement and suggests that human curiosity has no limits.

The speaker’s attitude is one of wonder, curiosity and patient attention. He actively watches (“I lie in wait and watch”), he believes no thing is too tiny to be marvellous (“Not even the tiniest thing / But this my glass / Will make more marvellous”), he honestly records both the flowers and the spider’s “tigerish claws”, and his curiosity never ends — it moves on to the moon.

With his deft description, the author has written the story beautifully woven with fascinating details. When you read the story, you will surely enjoy the marvellous storytelling technique that attracts all kinds of readers. What makes the story interesting is the superb way of describing the myriad emotions and feelings of the characters. The reader will stumble upon the unexpected twists and turns that surpass all our understanding and make us wonder at the narrative power of the author.

The suffix -ish can be added to girl, boy and book: girlish, boyish, bookish.

True.

On radio broadcasting the father says, “Wow, I didn’t know that! That’s incredible.” On fibre optics he says he “just had an idea that the origins were in India” — he knew only vaguely, so this too is news to him.

False.

She is anything but indifferent: “That’s amazing. USB is such a basic part of life now. It’s hard to imagine a time without it.”

False.

He responds with real interest — “So even that simple game had such deep roots.” — and it prompts him to contribute a discovery of his own: “Let me tell you about one that I just remembered.”

False.

He does more than confirm. He supplies a fact she did not have — “the USB port… was invented by Ajay Bhatt” — and he ends by saying, “I definitely learned a lot from this conversation.” The word ‘simply’ in the statement is what makes it wrong: he is a participant, not an echo.

True.

Her opening line is proud: “everyone talks about how yoga and the concept of zero came from India, but I recently found out there are so many more inventions that people don’t really know about!” She goes on to press the case — “Can you imagine life without fibre optics?” — and to explain the spiritual meaning behind Snakes and Ladders.

True.

Her excitement is in the way she speaks: “Well, did you know that…”, “And guess what?”, “Yes indeed! You’ll love this one—Snakes and Ladders!” These are the phrases of somebody who cannot wait to tell you.

Both sounds are made in exactly the same place — lower lip against the upper teeth, air hissing through the gap. Only one thing separates them:

A child with low vision has some sight that ordinary spectacles cannot fully correct. The four aids help that sight go further:

Jai Singh II built five observatories — at Delhi (1724), Jaipur, Ujjain, Mathura and Varanasi. Their huge stone instruments measure time and the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets and stars without any lenses. Some main instruments:

Qualities of a scientist: curiosity, persistence, careful observation, honesty, courage and patience (tenacity).

The portraits are printed without names, so describe the picture and then share what you know about Indian women scientists.

Correct order: 3 → 5 → 2 → 6 → 1 → 4

The mention of Blackett is significant because it shows the high level at which Bibha worked. Blackett was a Nobel Prize winner for his work on cosmic rays, so being his research student meant her work was at the front line of world physics. It also sharpens the injustice: a physicist trained by a Nobel Laureate still “never received any awards during her lifetime”.

B. The world was still doubtful about the capabilities of women scientists.

Putting the word ‘Woman’ in the headline marks her as a surprising exception; the article adds that the world was “still sceptical of her capabilities”.

B. frequently seen in public

‘Celebrated’ means famous and admired for one’s achievements (A, C, D); being seen often in public is not part of its meaning.

The phrase ‘She has an eye for Cosmic Rays’ suggests that she had a special talent and sharp judgement for studying cosmic rays — she could notice and understand details in this field that others might miss.

B. The challenges remain, but progress has been made.

The extract says “how far we’ve come” (progress) “—and how much further we have to go” (challenges remain).

The phrase ‘Bibha Chowdhuri’s legacy lives on’ suggests that her influence did not end with her death — her work and example still inspire young women to take up science, and she is now honoured through a star and a chair professorship named after her.

She is called a ‘beacon’ and a ‘beam of light’ because she showed the way for women in Indian science. As India’s first woman physicist, she “defied the odds and lit a path for others to follow”, and like a beacon her example still guides and encourages young women. The image also matches her name: the star named after her, ‘Bibha’, means ‘beam of light’.

Opinion.

Calling her “the beacon, the ‘beam of light’” is the writer’s judgement (a metaphor), not something that can be checked like a date or an event.

Bibha Chowdhuri is considered a pioneer because she did things no Indian woman had done before. She was India’s first woman physicist and the first Indian woman to excel in high-energy particle physics. She studied cosmic rays at Manchester under Nobel Laureate Patrick Blackett, is credited with the discovery of pi-mesons, and in 1949 became the first woman faculty member at TIFR. She “carved a path” that other women could follow.

It tells us that her work was of the highest quality. A Nobel nomination is made only by leading scientists, and Erwin Schrödinger was himself a great physicist and Nobel Prize winner. His nominating her in 1950 shows that experts judged her work worthy of the world’s top science prize — even though the nomination was unsuccessful and she received no awards in her lifetime.

The text gives clear evidence:

• “Chowdhuri never received any awards during her lifetime, but continued her work tirelessly.”
• “Bibha’s work went on quietly, as she remained in the periphery of Indian scientific acclaim.”
• She worked for decades in many institutions and even the Kolar Gold Mines, wherever the research took her.
• She was honoured only after her death — the star in 2019 and the chair professorship in 2020.

Women in ISRO today “are no longer participants but leaders in missions that make global headlines”. Over 50 women worked on Chandrayaan-3, and Dr Ritu Karidhal Srivastava became known as the ‘Rocket Woman of India’. In Bibha’s time a woman scientist was a rare exception; today women develop “autonomous systems for spacecraft” and manage “mission-critical operations”. This shows that society now educates girls in science and trusts women with leadership — though, as the text says, there is still “further we have to go”.

The writer’s purpose is to bring a forgotten pioneer into the light and to inspire young women. Bibha Chowdhuri’s story was “untold, her name largely forgotten”, so the writer records it. By linking her to today’s ISRO scientists, the writer shows that their success “is built upon the shoulders of pioneers like Bibha Chowdhuri”. Finally, the writer wants girls to “pursue their passions, break barriers, and leave their mark on the world”.

The text shows that women can excel even in fields dominated by men, and that they were held back by lack of recognition, not lack of ability. Readers may then question similar unfairness in other male-dominated fields such as engineering, the armed forces, sport or business. Seeing a pioneer like Bibha, girls can imagine themselves in such roles, and society may learn to judge people by their work, not by whether they are men or women.

The completed grid:

Across: 4. PERIPHERY, 5. AUTONOMOUS, 7. IGNITE, 8. COSMIC
Down: 1. ARDUOUS, 2. TENACITY, 3. RECOGNITION, 6. PIVOTAL

They are considered to be the pioneers of the online markets.

A physicist.

Most of my friends are my peers.

We first welcomed all the luminaries in folk song for the award ceremony.

My brother finally succeeded in his business because of his persistence.

We should remove all the barriers in achieving success.

The five acronyms are NASA, AIIMS, AYUSH, NIPER and WHO. Four run left to right along a row; AYUSH runs downwards in the first column. The letters to circle are shaded:

Last year, significant advancements in medical science were published in leading medical journals when a new vaccine for malaria was discovered. The vaccine was tested through several clinical trials and results were recorded in those journals. During the trials, blood samples were taken regularly from participants to monitor their immune response. The amount of antibodies produced was measured carefully to assess the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Also accepted: 1. were recorded and 4. were published — both verbs fit either blank.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of light on plant growth. Various plants were placed under different light conditions and their growth was measured over several weeks. Data was recorded daily to track the height of each plant. At the end of the experiment, the results were analysed and it was found that plants exposed to natural light grew significantly taller than those under artificial light. It was concluded that sunlight plays a crucial role in plant development. The findings were presented to the class, highlighting the importance of light in enhancing photosynthesis and overall plant health.

(i) D. is launched   (ii) C. is positioned   (iii) C. is adjusted   (iv) C. is slowed down   (v) A. is released

Chandrayaan’s landing mission involves several key steps. First, the spacecraft is launched towards the Moon from the Earth. Then, it is positioned to enter the Moon’s orbit. After reaching the Moon’s orbit, the spacecraft’s path is adjusted for landing. Next, the spacecraft is slowed down as it nears the Moon’s surface. Finally, the rover is released to explore the surface and collect valuable data.

The passage is in the present tense (“involves”) and every subject is singular, so each blank takes is + past participle.

(ii) Provides personalised treatments and faster diagnoses.

Segment 1 of the podcast: “AI systems can analyse medical data much faster and more accurately than humans, leading to quicker diagnoses and personalised treatments.”

(ii) AI assisted in speeding up the discovery of new medicines.

“And during the global pandemic, AI played a crucial role in speeding up the discovery of new medicines.”

(iii) AI is improving the performance of wind turbines and solar panels.

Segment 2: “In renewable energy, AI is improving the performance of wind turbines and solar panels, pushing us toward a greener future.”

(iii) Helps teachers analyse student performance.

Segment 3: “Teachers also benefit from AI, which helps analyse student performance and manage administrative tasks, giving them more time to focus on teaching.”

(ii) Improves speech recognition and voice command technologies.

Segment 4: “Technologies like speech recognition, text-to-speech, and voice commands make communication easier and faster.”

Sample answer — points for each speaker

AR adds digital images to the real world you see (usually through a phone camera), while VR replaces the real world with a simulated one. Both let students see and handle things they cannot reach in real life — tiny cells, the solar system, dangerous experiments — so difficult ideas become easier to understand.

This page is for reading and discussion. It shows that Bibha Chowdhuri belongs to a long line of Indian women who were “firsts” in medicine, botany, chemistry, physics, space and mathematics. Choose one pioneer, find three facts and one obstacle she overcame, and write a short paragraph.