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New Mulberry Coursebook

New Mulberry Coursebook

Ashima Bath, Saswati Dasgupta, OXFORD

ICSEClass 7
English

Geography Lesson

Brian Patten

About Brian Patten

Brian Patten(born 1946) is from Liverpool, England. He is a popular poey and performer, and a children's author. His poem are about the richness of life and imagination. His collections of poetry include Storm Damage and Armada.

Our teacher told us one day he would leave
And sail across  a warm blue sea
To places he had only known from maps,
And all his life he longed to be.

 

The house he lived in was narrow and gray
But in his mind's eye he could see
Sweet-scented jasmine cling to the walls,
And green leaves burning on an orange tree.

 

He spoke of the lands he lomged to visit,
Where it was never drab or cold.
I couldn't understand why he never left,
And shook off the school`s stranglehold.

 

Then halfway through his final term
He took ill and never returned.
He never got to that place on the map
Where the green leaves of the orange trees burned.

 

The maps were redrawn on the classroom wall;
His name forgotten,he faded away.
But a lesson he never knew he taught
Is with me this day.

 

I travel to where the green leaves burn,
To where the ocean's glass-clear and blue,
To places our teacher taught me love---
And which he never knew.

Summary
The speaker is a person who travels and has an appreciation for travel When he was a student he had a teacher whose dream it was to sail to places he saw on the maps He shared this dream with his students The teacher could not afford to travel and he died rather suddenly without ever going to the places he had dreamt of He is soon forgotten at the school but the speaker later travels to the places and thinks of his teacher who inspired his love for travel Line by Line Explanation Our teacher told us one day he would leave And sail across a warm blue sea To places he had only known from maps ...

Available Answers

  1. 1.

    Complete the following:

    1. The teacher talks about _________________________________________________.
    2. The teacher's house was ________________________________________________.
    3. The speaker couldn't understand why __________________________________________.
    4. Halfway through the final term ___________________________________________________.
  2. 2.

    Read the lines given below and answer the questions that follow:

    But in his mind's eye he could see
    Sweet-scented jasmine clinging to the walls,

    1. Who is he in the above lines?
    2. What do you understand by the 'mind's eye'?
    3. How was what he saw different from this routine life?
  3. 3.

    I couldn't understand why he never left,
    And shook off the school's stranglehold.

    1. Where did he want to go?
    2. Why do you think he never left?
    3. What does stranglehold mean?
  4. 4.

    But a lesson he never knew he taught
    Is with me to this day.

    1. What was the lesson that he taught?
    2. Why does he not know what he taught?
    3. How is the lesson still with the speaker?
  5. 5.

    When the maps were redrawn, do you think the speaker really forgot his teacher?

  6. 6.

    Do you think the speaker's teacher taught him a valuable lesson? Justify your answer.

Comments
You Are Not Showing All Question Answers How Can I See All Question Answers
26 Nov 2020yashika s.
question 4th seems to be wrong
07 Nov 2023RUPEN M.
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