NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 11 If I Were You are part of NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English. Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 11 If I Were You.

Board CBSE
Textbook NCERT
Class Class 9
Subject English Beehive
Chapter Chapter 11
Chapter Name If I Were You
Category NCERT Solutions

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Beehive Chapter 11 If I Were You

TEXTBOOK EXERCISES
(Pages 138, 144)

BEFORE YOU READ

  • Gerrard lives alone in a lonely cottage. An intruder, who is a criminal, enters his cottage. He intends to murder Gerrard and take on his identity. Does he succeed ?

Answer
He doesn’t succeed. Gerrard understands his intention. Through a trick he puts him in a cupboard and locks it. Then he calls the police to get him arrested. Thus he outsmarts him and saves himself in the end.

  • The following words and phrases occur in the play. Do you know their meanings ?
    Match them with the meanings given, to find out.
(i) cultured an informal expression for a fashionable vehicle
(ii) count on unnecessary and usually harmful
(iii) engaged exaggerated
(iv) melodramatic sophisticated; well-mannered
(v) to be smart here, a tone of voice
(vi) inflection avoid
(vii) wise guy an unexpected opportunity for success
(viii) a dandy bus trap
(ix) tradespeople a Christian religious teacher who teaches on Sundays in Church
(x) gratuitous (American English) a person who pretends to know a lot
(xi) dodge depend on ; rely on
(xii) lucky break (American English) an informal way of saying that one is being too clever
(xiii) Sunday-school teacher occupied; busy
(xiv)frame merchants

Answers

(i) cultured sophisticated; well-mannered
(ii) count on depend on ; rely on
(iii) engaged occupied; busy
(iv) melodramatic unnecessary and usually harmful
(v) to be smart (American English) a person who pretends to know a lot
(vi) inflection here, a tone of voice
(vii) wise guy (American English) an informal way of saying that one is being too clever
(viii) a dandy bus an informal expression for a fashionable vehicle
(ix) tradespeople merchants
(x) gratuitous exaggerated
(xi) dodge avoid
(xii) lucky break an unexpected opportunity for success
(xiii) Sunday-school teacher a Christian religious teacher who teaches on Sundays in Church
(xiv)frame trap

THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT
I. Answer these questions.
1. “At last a sympathetic audience.”

  1. Who says this ?
  2. Why does he say it ?
  3. Is he sarcastic or serious ?

2. Why does the intruder choose Gerrard as the man whose identity he wants to take on ?
3. “I said it with bullets.”

  1. Who says this ?
  2. What does it mean ?
  3. Is it the truth ? What is the speaker’s reason for saying this ?

4. What is Gerrard’s profession ? Quote the parts of the play that support your answer.
5. “You’ll soon stop being smart.”

  1. Who says this ?
  2. Why does the speaker say it ?
  3. What according to the speaker will stop Gerrard from being smart ?

6. “They can’t hang me twice.”

  1. Who says this ?
  2. Why does the speaker say it ?

7. “A mystery I propose to explain.” What is the mystery the speaker proposes to explain ?
8. “This is your big surprise.”

  1. Where has this been said in the play ?
  2. What is the surprise ?

Answers
1.

  1. Gerrard says this.
  2. He says it because the Intruder shows some sympathy towards him.
  3. He is sarcastic.

2. The Intruder chooses Gerrard. It is because he finds him closely similar to him. If he wears clothes like Gerrard does, no one will know that they are two persons.
3.

  1. Gerrard says this.
  2. It means that he is a very dangerous person.
  3. It is not the truth. He says so to make the Intruder change his mind.

4. Gerrard is a playwright by profession. The supporting words are : ‘Sorry I can’t let you have the props in time for rehearsal…
5.

  1. The Intruder says this.
  2. The speaker says it because Gerrard hasn’t felt any fear so far though he has a gun in his hand.
  3. According to the Intruder, Gerrard would stop being smart after being hit by one of his bullets.

6.

  1. The Intruder says this.
  2. He says it because he has already committed a murder. The penalty of death can’t be given to him twice.

7. Gerrard says this. The mystery is about Gerrard’s calling his orders. Then he would be suddenly disappearing, but again coming back. The Intruder wants to do very things like Gerrard does.
8.

  1. This has been said in the play when Gerrard tells the Intruder not to shoot him. If he shoots him he’d hang if not as himself, then as Vincent Charles Gerrard.
  2. The big surprise is that the Intruder won’t kill him. Gerrard is right in saying this.

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE
I. Consult your dictionary and choose the correct word from the pairs given in brackets.

  1. The (site, cite) of the accident was (ghastly/ghostly).
  2. Our college (principle/principal) is very strict.
  3. I studied (continuously/continually) for eight hours.
  4. The fog had an adverse (affect/effect) on the traffic.
  5. Cezanne, the famous French painter, was a brilliant (artist/artiste).
  6. The book that you gave me yesterday is an extraordinary (collage/college) of science fiction and mystery.
  7. Our school will (host/hoist) an exhibition on cruelty to animals and wildlife conservation.
  8. Screw the lid tightly onto the top of the bottle and (shake/shape) well before using the contents.

Answers

  1. site, ghastly
  2. principal
  3. continuously
  4. effect
  5. artist
  6. collage
  7. host
  8. shake

II. Irony is when we say one thing but mean another, usually the opposite of what we say. When someone makes a mistake and you say, “Oh ! that was clever !” that is irony. You’re saying ‘clever’ to mean ‘not clever’.
Expressions we often use in an ironic fashion are :

  • Oh, wasn’t that clever ! /Oh that was clever !
  • You have been a great help, I must say !
  • You’ve got yourself into a lovely mess, haven’t you ?
  • Oh, very funny ! /How funny !

We use a slightly different tone of voice when we use these words ironically.

Read the play carefully and find the words and expressions Gerrard uses in an ironic way. Then say what these expressions really mean. Two examples have been given below. Write down three more such expressions along with what they really mean.

What the author says What he means
Why, this is a surprise, Mr – er – He pretends that the intruder is a social visitor whom he is welcoming. In this way he hides his fear.
At last a sympathetic audience ! He pretends that the intruder wants to listen to him, whereas actually the intruder wants to find out information for his own use.

Answers

What the author says What he means
1. At last a sympathetic audience ! Gerrard means that his company is not a sympathetic audience. It is because the Intruder has got a gun in his hand.
2. You have been so modest Gerrard means that the Intruder has been immodest in not having told anything about himself.
3. With you figuring so largely in it, that is understandable Gerrard means that it is not understandable how anything about him is ‘surprising’.

DICTIONARY USE
A word can mean different things in different contexts. Look at these three sentences :

  1. The students are taught to respect different cultures.
  2. The school is organising a cultural show.
  3. His voice is cultured.

In the first sentence, ‘culture’ (noun) means way of life ; in the second, ‘cultural’ (adjective) means connected with art, literature and music ; and in the third, ‘cultured’ (verb) means sophisticated, well-mannered. Usually a dictionary helps you identify the right meaning by giving you signposts.

Look up the dictionary entries for the words sympathy, familiarity, comfort, care, and surprise. Use the information given in the dictionary and complete the table.

Noun Adjective Adverb Verb Meaning
sympathy
familiarity
comfort
care
surprise

 Answers

Noun Adjective Adverb Verb Meaning
sympathy sympathetic sympathetically sympathize feeling pity for others
familiarity familiar familiarly familiarize to know/to have knowledge about things
comfort comfortable comfortably comfort state being free from suffering etc
care caring carefully care concerned
surprise surprising surprisingly surprise amaze

WRITING
I. Which of the words below describe Gerrard and which describe the Intruder ?

  1. smart
  2. humorous
  3. clever
  4. beautiful
  5. cool
  6. confident
  7. flashy
  8. witty
  9. nonchalant

Write a paragraph each about Gerrard and the Intruder to show what qualities they have. (You can use some of the words given above.)

II. Convert the play into a story (150-200 words). Your story should be as exciting and as witty as the play. Provide a suitable title to it.

Answers
I. The words that describe Gerrard are : cool, confident, witty, clever, nonchalant, humorous.
The words that describe the Intruder are : smart, beautiful, flashy, clever, confident.

How Gerrard Outwits the Intruder

Gerrard resides in his cottage all alone. It is situated in a lonely place. He is a young man of cool and confident nature. He is a playwright. He doesn’t meet many people. By nature he is a witty and humorous person. He takes things humorously. But he handles them with a cool mind. He is not easy to be outwitted. He doesn’t get nervous easily. He remains confident till the end. That’s why, he outsmarts the Intruder with success.

The Intruder is a smart and handsome young man. He wears flashy clothes. In his dress he looks like a detective. He is very clever and confident. He has the ability to pretend what he is not. He is greatly intelligent to create fear in Gerrard by his gun. He understands things. He tries to put them to his advantage. But he is helpless before Gerrard. Gerrard outsmarts him in his false story of being himself a murderer. Gerrard at last puts him in a cupboard. Then he gets him arrested.

II. Gerrard is a cultured playwright. He lives in a small cottage. He does meet many people. He is to go out soon. But before he does so, an Intruder enters his cottage. He has a gun in his hand. He bumps accidentally against the table. Gerrard welcomes him with confidence.

The Intruder opens up. He asks Gerrard many questions. These are about his life, his cottage, how many people come there etc. Gerrard is cool and confident. He under-stands the Intruder’s design. He answers his questions with humour, wit and irony. He says that the Intruder didn’t ‘require a great brain’ to break into his little cottage. He . even asked him about his ‘speciality’.

At last Gerrard understood. The Intruder wanted to murder him and live as Gerrard because he looked like him. Gerrard at once understood everything. He told the Intruder that he was also a murderer. Therefore, the police were after him.

Gerrard explained that unfortunately one of his men had been caught. He was expecting trouble that night because of that. He was to be off that night. He then made [ the Intruder understand that it was good for him if he went with him. He also told him that if it was a frame, he could shoot him in the car.
The Intruder agreed. But when he was about to cross the door, Gerrard pushed him into the nearby cupboard in a split second. He then slammed it. Thereafter, he telephoned the police for his arrest.

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