The Portrait of a Lady
1. The three phases of the author’s relationship with his grandmother before he left the country to study abroad.
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2. Three reasons why the author’s grandmother was disturbed when he started going to the city school.
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3. Three ways in which the author’s grandmother spent her days after he grew up.
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4. The odd way in which the author’s grandmother behaved just before she died.
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5. The way in which the sparrows expressed their sorrow when the author’s grandmother died.
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Talking about the text
Talk to your partner about the following.
1. The author’s grandmother was a religious person. What are the different ways in which we come to know this?
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2. Describe the changing relationship between the author and his grandmother. Did their feelings for each other change?
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3. Would you agree that the author’s grandmother was a person strong in character? If yes, give instances that show this.
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4. Have you known someone like the author’s grandmother? Do you feel the same sense of loss with regard to someone whom you have loved and lost?
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Thinking about language
1. Which language do you think the author and his grandmother used
while talking to each other?
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2. Which language do you use to talk to elderly relatives in your family?
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3. How would you say ‘a dilapidated drum’ in your language?
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4. Can you think of a song or a poem in your language that talks of
homecoming?
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Working with words
I. Notice the following uses of the word ‘tell’ in the text.
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1. Her fingers were busy telling the beads of her rosary.
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2. I would tell her English words and little things of Western science
and learning.
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3. At her age one could never tell.
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4. She told us that her end was near.
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Given below are four different senses of the word ‘tell’. Match
the meanings to the uses listed above.
1. make something known to someone in spoken or written words
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2. count while reciting
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3. be sure
4. give information to somebody
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II. Notice the different senses of the word ‘take’.
1. to take to something: to begin to do something as a habit
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2. to take ill: to suddenly become ill
Locate these phrases in the text and notice the way they are
used.
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III. The word ‘hobble’ means to walk with difficulty because the legs
and feet are in bad condition.
Tick the words in the box below that also refer to a manner of walking.
haggle shuffle stride ride waddle
wriggle paddle swagger trudge slog
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Noticing form
Notice the form of the verbs italicised in these sentences.
1. My grandmother was an old woman. She had been old and wrinkled
for the twenty years that I had known her. People said that she had
once been young and pretty and had even had a husband, but that
was hard to believe.
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2. When we both had finished we would walk back together.
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3. When I came back she would ask me what the teacher had
taught me.
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4. It was the first time since I had known her that she did not pray.
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5. The sun was setting and had lit her room and verandah with a
golden light.
These are examples of the past perfect forms of verbs. When we recount
things in the distant past we use this form.
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