Class 10 English

Chapter 8 Solutions — The Sermon at Benares

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Solutions

Overview

Step-by-step NCERT solutions for The Sermon at Benares (Chapter 8, CBSE Class 10 English) — the full working for every question, not just the final answer. You can also read the The Sermon at Benares textbook chapter.

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What these solutions cover

All 11 questions in The Sermon at Benares are solved in the PDF. Here's what's inside, exercise by exercise:

Thinking about the Text

When her son dies, Kisa Gotami goes from house to house. What does she ask for? Does she get it? Why not?
Kisa Gotami again goes from house to house after she speaks with the Buddha. What does she ask for, the second time around? Does she get it? Why not?
What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time? Was this what the Buddha wanted her to understand?
Why do you think Kisa Gotami understood this only the second time? In what way did the Buddha change her understanding?
How do you usually understand the idea of ‘selfishness’? Do you agree with Kisa Gotami that she was being ‘selfish in her grief’?

Thinking about Language

This text is written in an old-fashioned style, for it reports an incident more than two millennia old. Look for the following words and phrases in the text, and try to rephrase them in more current language, based on how you understand them: give thee medicine for thy child; Pray tell me; Kisa repaired to the Buddha; there was no house but someone had died in it; kinsmen; Mark!
Here is a sentence from the text that uses semicolons to combine clauses. Break up the sentence into three simple sentences. Can you then say which has a better rhythm when you read it, the single sentence using semicolons, or the three simple sentences? “For there is not any means by which those who have been born can avoid dying; after reaching old age there is death; of such a nature are…

Thinking about the Poem — For Anne Gregory

What does the young man mean by “great honey-coloured /Ramparts at your ear?” Why does he say that young men are “thrown into despair” by them?
What colour is the young woman's hair? What does she say she can change it to? Why would she want to do so?
Objects have qualities which make them desirable to others. Can you think of some objects (a car, a phone, a dress…) and say what qualities make one object more desirable than another? Imagine you were trying to sell an object: what qualities would you emphasise?
What about people? Do we love others because we like their qualities, whether physical or mental? Or is it possible to love someone “for themselves alone”? Are some people ‘more lovable’ than others?

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