NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 11 Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth are part of NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English. Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 11 Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth.

Board CBSE
Textbook NCERT
Class Class 9
Subject English Literature
Chapter Chapter 11
Chapter Name Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth
Number of Questions Solved 8
Category NCERT Solutions

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 11 Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth

TEXTUAL EXERCISES
(Page 84)

Question 1.
Parents alone are responsible for inculcating a good sense of dental hygiene amongst children. Do you agree/disagree ? Discuss with your partner.
Answer
For discussion with partners at school level.
Yes, I agree with this. It is the parents who are responsible for inculcating a good sense of dental hygiene amongst their children. Children are children. They can’t be expected to live like the adults who know what is good or bad for them. Actually, children have a limited knowledge. They don’t know what is or will be good or bad for them. Since sweets are tasty they go on eating them and in greater quantities.

But they know it little how harmful they’ll be for their teeth. It is like eating fried food with cold drinks which makes them obese. If it is continued, obesity becomes the mother of many diseases. So parents must teach their children, in fact, must caution them against the results of eating more sweets. These will surely damage their teeth. They will undergo the pain of fillings and the whining drills of the dentist in their mouths. Quite possibly one day they might wear false teeth.

Question 2.
Listen to the poem.
Answer
Class level activity. No questions have been asked in it.

Question 3.
On the basis of your reading of the poem, complete the following table.

Stages in the life of the poet Activities Consequences
(a) Youth eating toffees,

________
________
________
________

 _________
_________
_________
_________
(b) Adulthood ________
________
________		 gazing at the dentist in despair.

Answer

Stages in the life of the poet Activities Consequences
(a) Youth eating toffees,

eating sweet sticky food,
gobstoppers,
liquorice, sherbet dabs,
peanut brittle

 cavities, decay, caps,
possibility of false teeth in the end.
(b) Adulthood eating gobstoppers,
liquorice, hard peanut
brittle		 gazing at the dentist in despair.

Question 4.
On the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice.
(a) The title ‘Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth’ expresses _____.

  1. regret
  2. humour
  3. longing
  4. pleasure

(b) The conscience of the speaker pricks her as she has ____.

  1. been careless
  2. been ignorant
  3. been fun-loving
  4. been rude

(c) The speaker says that she has paved the way for cavities and decay by _____

  1. eating the wrong food and not brushing
  2. not listening to her mother
  3. laughing at her mother’s false teeth
  4. not listening to the dentist

(d) The tone of the narrator is one of ____.

  1. joy
  2. nostalgia
  3. regret
  4. sorrow

Answer
(a) 1
(b) 1
(c) 1
(d) 3

Question 5.
Answer the following questions

  1. “… But up-and-down brushin’
    And pokin’ and fussin’
    Didn’t seem worth the time-I could bite !”
    What do these lines convey ?
  2. Why did the poet go to the dentist ? How could she have avoided it ?
  3. “If you got a tooth, you got a friend”, what do you understand from the line ?
  4. With reference to the poem, how can you look after your teeth ? (V. Imp.)
  5. Give an appropriate proverb that conveys the message that this poem carries.

Answer

  1. These lines convey that the narrator continued brushing her teeth up-and-down and checking them. But she never stopped eating various kinds of sweets. She didn’t think it was worth to check all this as she could bite still. She thought her teeth were alright but they had decayed and were in the process of decaying.
  2. The poet went to the dentist to get her teeth repaired and to have fillings of her cavities in them. She could have avoided if she had cared for them and stopped eating sweets at right time.
  3. It means when a new tooth came it became like a friend. Earlier, the mouth was ‘friendless’ without the teeth. Now it was not so. Also it means the tooth was like a ‘friend’ because it had not been affected by the decay.
  4. We can look after our teeth by avoiding all kinds of sweets. Then we can take care of them by regularly brushing them appropriately.
  5. Healthy and sparkling teeth
    Add lustre to your health.

Question 6.
Listen to, the conversation between Doki and his sister, Moki. As you listen complete the idioms and expressions listed below.
Answer

  1. a wink
  2. giving
  3. whip
  4. horse
  5. turn
  6. never cease
  7. past
  8. had sown

Question 7.
Read the following statement where ‘I’ refers to ‘you’
“I can’t afford to, after what Jack’s done to his teeth.”
What is it, you think you can’t afford and why ? Write a diary entry of not less than 125 words.
(in-class activity; not to be set up as homework).
Answer
15 September 20…                                                               9.30 pm
I feel horrified to see Jack with diseased and decaying teeth. How beautiful and sparkling teeth he had earlier ! But now when he opens his mouth it is a scene of decayed and coloured teeth. I simply can’t afford to treat my teeth like Jack. I know sparkling teeth add to our personality. Then with healthy teeth we are almost disease- free. I feel that decaying teeth cause bad breath. They invite a horde of germs of other allied diseases. By keeping good teeth, I can laugh at those people who sit in a dentist’s chair listening to their terror.

This horror is caused by the whining sound of their drill. I am very conscious to eat good and healthy food and avoid junk food. Then brushing the teeth daily and flushing it with liquids like Listerene, has become my hobby. There is no doubt that bright and sparkling teeth are God’s gift. They add to the person’s personality. We must keep them healthy and in a good condition. It is never difficult to afford keeping them fine and bright.

JUST THINK
Question 8.
In line 35, the poet has misspelt the word ‘amalgam’. Why do you think she has done that ? Discuss.
(Teacher would point out the use of ‘me’ instead of ‘my’ and other linguistic variations that make the poem enjoyable.)
Answer
For discussion at class level. Some points are given below to facilitate this.

  • ‘amulgum’ distortion of amalgamation.
  • by saying or adding ‘amulgum’ the poet’s intention is to suggest mispronunciation due to decayed teeth or causing humour.
  • to suggest horror by striking some sort of suspense in the patient’s mind.
  • to alert the patient to be conscious of the fact that ‘mercury’, a part in the filling material, is something to be avoided.
  • to suggest caution in the readers’ minds to be wary of the necessity of keeping one’s teeth healthy.
  • to teach the narrator and readers as well, to avoid eating sweets for the sake of maintaining healthy teeth

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