Gujarat Board GSEB Class 9 English Textbook Solutions Moments Chapter 10 The Beggar Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers, Notes Pdf.
Gujarat Board Textbook Solutions Class 9 English Moments Chapter 10 The Beggar
GSEB Class 9 English The Beggar Text Book Questions and Answers
Think about It
Question 1.
Has Lushkoff become a beggar by circumstance or by choice?
Answer:
Lushkoff becomes a beggar by circumstances. He was a singer who used to sing in the choir. Choir is sung in the church. He lost his job because of alcohol abuse. After he was out of rehabilitation centre the social stigma of being a drunkard prevented him from getting a job. To make ends meet he had to resort to begging.
Question 2.
What reasons does he give to Sergei for his telling lies?
Answer:
He says that if he would tell the truth people would not give alms. We can correlate it with the way beggars dress and crib about being hungry for days. In some bigger cities, there are criminal gangs keeping an army of b beggars. They do the required cosmetic make? up and drop off beggars at strategic traffic points. They train those beggars to cry properly so that people would show mercy on them. At the end of the day, the gang lord gets a hefty commission out of day’s booty.
Question 3.
Is Lushkoff a willing worker? Why, then, does he agree to chop wood for Sergei?
Answer:
Lushkoff is weak out of malnourishment and alcoholism. He knows he is not strong enough to work. But once Sergei detects his lies then he is feeling ashamed. His conscience pushes him to agree for chopping wood.
Question 4.
Sergei says, “I am happy that my ? words have taken effect.” Why does he say so? Is he right in saying this?
Answer:
Sergei thinks that because of his timely advice Lushkoff could get rid of begging and is financially independent. He is right from his perspective because he doesn’t know that it was Olga who chopped woods for Lushkoff. Anyway, the end result is Lushkoff’s life is back on the S right track. And there is a saying, “All is well l that ends well.”
Question 5.
Lushkoff is earning thirty-five roubles a month. How is he obliged to Sergei for this?
Answer:
Had there been no encounter with Sergei, Lushkoff would have continued begging. It was because of Sergei that he could get an opportunity to be helped by Olga. The whole incident changes the way Lushkoff thinks about his future. Earlier he had no confidence of getting a job. His stint with Sergei and Olga gives him a new confidence which helps him land a decent job.
Question 6.
During their conversation, Lushkoff reveals that Sergei’s cook, Olga, is responsible for the positive change in him. How has Olga saved Lushkoff?
Answer:
Olga takes pity on Lushkoff. She knows that such a weak man can’t chop wood. She helped him by chopping wood in his place. No matter how much abusive Olga was in her words, deep inside she had a helping attitude. The very act of Olga changes Lushkoff’s heart. Had Olga not helped Lushkoff in chopping wood he would not have got the money he needed. He would not have got the chance to listen to Olga’s moral lessons. That it was Olga who saved him-she chopped the wood, and the compassion she showed led to a change in his heart.
The Beggar Summary in English
The Beggar Summary:
Sergei was a well-to-do advocate. One day a beggar came to his door. His name was Lushkoff. He was wearing a fawn-coloured tattered overcoat. He had dull, drunken eyes. He had red spot on either cheek. The beggar said that he had been a village school teacher but he had lost his job. He had no money and so he was forced to beg.
Sergei recalled that he had seen the beggar the other day in another street. There he had said that he had been a student who had been expelled. He was angry with the beggar for telling a shameless lie. He threatened to call the police and have him arrested for trying to cheat people.
For a while, the beggar stuck to what he had said. But soon he broke down. He admitted that he had been telling lies to make people take pity on him. In fact, he had been a singer in a Russian choir. He was a drunkard and had been dismissed. Now he had no work to do and no way to support himself. He lived by begging.
Sergei told him that he must work to earn a living. Lushkoff pleaded that he was willing to work but no one offered him any work to do. Skvortsov asked him if he would chop wood for him. Lushkoff had to say that he would. Sergei called his cook Olga. He told her to lead Lushkoff to the woodshed and let him chop wood. Lushkoff followed Olga unwillingly. In fact he had never meant to chop wood but he had been trapped by his own words.
Sergei hurried into the dining room. From there he watched the cook leading the beggar to the woodshed. She opened the door of the woodshed. She flung an axe down at his feet. He lifted the axe and hit a piece of wood irresolutely. It was a feeble effort. Sergei was sorry to have set that menial work to that drunkard beggar who was not fit for thai work. He came back to his study.
After an hour Olga came in. She told Sergei that Lushkoff had chopped the wood. Sergei was pleased. He gave her half a rouble for Lushkoff. He said that if Lushkoff desired he could come to chop wood on the first of every month. Lushkoff came to chop wood regularly on the first of every month. He was always given work and he earned a little money every time.
When Sergei moved into another house, he asked Lushkoff to help in packing and hauling the furniture. He hardly did anything. He walked behind the wagons hanging his head. But Sergei believed that he had done his job well. He gave Lushkoff a rouble. Lushkoff knew how to read and write. Sergei gave him a letter and asked Lushkoff to go to a friend who would give him some copying work to do. Lushkoff went away. He never came back again.
Two years passed. One evening Sergei saw Lushkoff at the ticket window of a theatre. He was well dressed. He was buying a ticket. He told Sergei that he was a notary and got thirty-five roubles a month. Sergei was delighted because he had been able to push a depraved beggar on the right path. Lushkoff thanked him for his kindness because he had pulled him out of a sinking pit. But he said that the true credit for changing him went tc Olga.
Naturally, this surprised Sergei. Lushkoff explained that he had never chopped a single piece of wood. Olga chopped the wood for him and gave him the money. She would chide him. She would tell him that he would go to hell. There was no hope for him. She wept for him. She suffered for him. Her words, her sacrifice and her suffering for him had an inexplicable influence on him. He began to change. He stopped drinking. He was grateful to her. He could never forget her.