Lost Spring Class 12 English MCQs – Test Your Knowledge!

“I will learn to drive a car,” he answers, looking straight into my eyes. His dream looms like a mirage amidst the dust of streets that fill his town Firozabad, famous for its bangles. Every other family in Firozabad is engaged in making bangles. It is the center of India’s glass-blowing industry where families have spent generations working around furnaces, wielding glass, and making bangles for all the women in the land it seems. Mukesh’s family is among them. None of them know that it is illegal for children like him to work in the glass furnaces with high temperatures, in dingy cells without air and light; that the law, if enforced, could get him and all those 20,000 children out of the hot furnaces where they slog their daylight hours, often losing the brightness of their eyes. Mukesh’s eyes beam as he volunteers to take me home, which he proudly says is being rebuilt.

Which of the following statements is NOT TRUE with reference to the extract?

The simile ‘dream looms like a mirage amidst the dust of streets’ indicates that his dream was

“I have nothing else to do,” he mutters, looking away. “Go to school,” I say glibly, realizing immediately how hollow the advice must sound.
“There is no school in my neighborhood. When they build one, I will go.”
“If I start a school, will you come?” I ask, half-joking. “Yes,” he says, smiling broadly.
A few days later I see him running up to me. “Is your school ready?”
“It takes longer to build a school,” I say, embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant. But promises like mine abound in every corner of his bleak world.

Saheb’s muttering and ‘looking away’ suggests his

“I have nothing else to do,” he mutters, looking away. “Go to school,” I say glibly, realizing immediately how hollow the advice must sound.
“There is no school in my neighborhood. When they build one, I will go.”
“If I start a school, will you come?” I ask, half-joking. “Yes,” he says, smiling broadly.
A few days later I see him running up to me. “Is your school ready?”
“It takes longer to build a school,” I say, embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant. But promises like mine abound in every corner of his bleak world.

Select the option that lists reasons why Saheb’s world has been called ‘bleak’.

1. The absence of parental presence
2. The poor socioeconomic conditions
3. His inability to address problems
4. His lack of life-skills
5. They denied opportunities for schooling

Select the option that lists the feelings and attitudes corresponding to the following:

1. I ask half-joking
2. ...he says, smiling broadly

Identify the figure of speech used in the sentence “Garbage to them is gold”.

Saheb’s discarded and worn-out tennis shoes are _____.

Food is more important for survival than an identity. “If at the end of the day, we can feed our families and go to bed without an aching stomach, we would rather live here than in the fields that gave us no grain,” say a group of women in tattered saris when I ask them why they left their beautiful land of green fields and rivers. Wherever they find food, they pitch their tents that become transit homes. Children grow up in them, becoming partners in survival. And survival in Seemapuri means rag-picking. Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of a fine art. Garbage to them is gold. It is their daily bread, a roof over their heads, even if it is a leaking roof. But for a child, it is even more.

The phrase ‘transit homes’ refer to dwellings that are

Describing garbage as ‘gold’ metaphorically elevates its value to the children, helping the reader understand the _____ conditions under which these children live, where even garbage can represent crucial economic resources.

‘That’s why they left, looking for gold in the big city.’ Here ‘gold’ indicates

‘He has a roof over his head!’ The tone of the author is

Unaware of what his name represents, he roams the streets with his friends, an army of barefoot boys who appear like the morning birds and disappear at noon. Over the months, I have come to recognize each of them.

“Why aren’t you wearing chappals?” I ask one.

“My mother did not bring them down from the shelf,” he answers simply.

“Even if she did, he will throw them off,” adds another who is wearing shoes that do not match.

When I comment on it, he shuffles his feet and says nothing. “I want shoes,” says a third boy who has never owned a pair all his life. Traveling across the country I have seen children walking barefoot, in cities, on village roads. It is not lack of money but a tradition to stay barefoot is one explanation.

Based on the context provided in the extract, select the most likely comment that the writer would have made, based on the boy's reaction to the mismatched shoes.

‘Years of mind-numbing toil have killed all initiative and the ability to dream’. This shows that

Select the option that shows the correct relationship between (1) and (2) in 'Lost Spring'.

1. Bangle-makers are not able to escape the web of poverty.
2. Bangle makers lose their vision in their youth due to bad working conditions.

“I have nothing else to do,” he mutters, looking away. “Go to school,” I say glibly, realizing immediately how hollow the advice must sound.
“There is no school in my neighborhood. When they build one, I will go.”
“If I start a school, will you come?” I ask, half-joking. “Yes,” he says, smiling broadly.
A few days later I see him running up to me. “Is your school ready?”
“It takes longer to build a school,” I say, embarrassed at having made a promise that was not meant. But promises like mine abound in every corner of his bleak world.

Of the four meanings of ‘glibly’, select the option that matches in meaning with its usage in the extract.