The Treasure Within Summary Class 8 English Questions Answers NCERT

The Treasure Within Summary Class 8 English Questions Answers NCERT

The Treasure Within Summary

The Treasure Within Summary : The Treasure Within is an extract from a discussion between Ms. Raja and Mr. Contractor who are talking about their old school days. Ms. Raja says that she liked going to school, but Mr. Contractor did not like it as much because he was not good at math and other subjects in school, and he had a lot of nightmares about tests in those subjects. However, he was more interested in sports and playing jokes on other people. He was a great sportsman and had been the senior champion and cricket captain for many years at school.

Further, he confessed that he would usually do well on his exams by cheating and copying from others. But in the eleventh grade, the Principal told him to focus on his studies because he was a good student. The Principal also told him that all this time, the principal had been helping Hafeez. So now Hafeez should take care of himself and study harder. When Hafeez heard the words of the principal, his attitude changed and started studying more. After that, he would go pray, eat and study all the time. He scored 50% on his SSC exams. He participated in a lot of other stuff too.

Later, Ms. Bela asked him if his teachers ever punished him in school. He said that he mostly liked to play therefore often beaten. Besides, he added that he was the leader of a gang and got into fights with others. One time, he was not interested in studying in class and made a distraction to get everyone playing for one hour.

Mr Hafeez wanted to join the army, but his family did not want him to. His parents both told him to first finish school before joining the military or police force. He had studied French for a few years, but he was not very good at it. So he decided to learn German instead of French, but then his teacher died. So he went to college by influence and started learning French with help from his cousin (who was married to an architect). In time, he started going to the architect’s office so that he could brush up on his French-speaking skills.

One day, the architect looked at a drawing of a window and he saw an error in it. It might not open. But when his cousin’s husband, who was there too, saw that the window in the drawing couldn’t open, he was surprised that Mr. Hafeez knew something about it and asked him to draw other things to see if he could do them too. So Mr. Hafeez did and his cousin’s husband was very impressed with him and suggested that he study architecture as well as learn more about drawings like these ones.

Hafeez wanted to go to the college for architecture. The principal said that he would let him take the exam, but only if he did good on it. He got an ‘A+’ grade and then always did well in his exams after that. One of Hafeez’s friends was named Behram Divecha, and they liked to design things together- or compete with each other. They designed forts, guns and ammunition a lot of the time.

Later, Mr. Hafeez became an architect. He went to visit his teacher, Mrs. Gupta. She always told him that he should become an architect when he grew up. When he went to visit her after becoming an architect, she was very happy and said that it is because of him that she always wanted this for him. Mr. Hafeez said that school wasn’t really great for him because he got average grades but he learned more from his experiences than from academic knowledge. Now as an architect, every time someone comes to the office with a plan or sketch, Mr. Hafeez can design something based on what they want in their home right then and there! Mr. Hafeez says that his sketches are like math problems for him. He used to not like dealing with them, but now he loves it.

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NCERT Solutions of The Treasure Within

Comprehension Check (Page 28)

Question 1: What did Hafeez Contractor have nightmares about?

Answer: Hafeez would often have nightmares about when he had to take a math test and didn’t know anything.

Question 2: What did the Principal say to him, which influenced him deeply?

Answer: The Principal told Hafeez that latter’s mom helped him a lot. It was hard for her to do it all. She paid for his school fees even though his father wasn’t there. The Principal said that Hafeez is a good student and if he studied hard he would be able to get high grades. He told Hafeez to focus on studying and stop playing sports for a while so he could study better.

Question 3: “… that year I did not step out onto the field.” What was he busy doing that year?

Answer: Hafeez was a very good sportsman. He was often the champion at school. But when his principal told him to study for his exams, he gave up playing and didn’t step on the field that year. That year, all he did was go to prayers and eat and study for the exams.

Question 4: (i) What “distraction” did Hafeez Contractor create one day?

(ii) Would you have liked to participate in the “distraction” had you been with him?

Answer: (i) Hafeez liked to play jokes. One day, he played a prank on his school by pretending to be a police officer for an hour.

(ii) Yes, I would have loved to do something different for a while. That’s kind of a break from what I usually do.

Comprehension Check (Page 32)

Question 1: Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force. Why didn’t he?

Answer: Hafeez Contractor wanted to join the police force, but his mother didn’t want him to. So she told him to finish college first. Hafeez then went to a college in Bombay.

Question 2: In the architect’s office, Hafeez Contractor was advised to drop everything and join architecture. Why?

Answer: Hafeez saw somebody drawing a window. They were doing it wrong. Hafeez told the person they did not know what they were doing and that the window would not open like they drew it. The person disagreed at first, but then realized that Hafeez was right when his cousin’s husband saw this. The person asked him to design some things which he did willingly because he was impressed by Hafeez’ talent in architecture.

Question 3: (i) What was Mrs Gupta’s advise to Hafeez Contractor?

(ii) What made her advise him so?

Answer: (i) Mrs. Gupta was one of Hafeez’s teachers in elementary school, who saw his drawings and told him that he should grow up to become an architect someday.

(ii) She often told him that he was not very good in anything except the beautiful drawings. So she wanted him to take care of his talent and grow up to be an architect.

Question 4: How did he help fellow students who had lost a button?

Answer: When the other students lost a button from their clothes, they would often come running to him and he would help them by cutting a new button from chalk with an old blade.

Question 5: Which rules did he break as a school boy?

Answer: Hafeez broke many rules when he studied at school. He would copy during exams, loiter around aimlessly, play funny pranks and jokes on others, get into gang fights, and plan strategies. He would also create distractions by playing chor police games at school during study hours.

Question 6: (i) What is Hafeez Contractor’s definition of mathematics?

(ii) How would you want to define mathematics? Do you like the subject?

Answer: (i) Mr. Contractor says that mathematics is a mix of design, construction, psychology and sociology. According to him, he puts them all together to make a sketch.

(ii) In my opinion, I would define Mathematics as a subject that many people enjoy. They like to solve math problems and calculations. But if someone does not like math, they might find it hard.

Exercise (Page 32)

Answer the following questions.

Question 1: It is likely that someone who is original and intelligent does not do very well at school? Should such a learner be called a failure? If not, why not?

Answer: An original and intelligent student who does not do well in school is not a failure. This is because all students have their own strengths and weaknesses. From this conversation between Ms. Bela Raja and Mr. Hafeez Contractor, we learn that academics are not the only thing that matters in life; you should also make sure to develop your natural talent so it can stand out in a crowd. We saw that Hafeez wasn’t so good academically. But he had a hidden talent – drawing beautiful pictures of different things like forts and houses. Sometimes, though, it is hard to see someone’s talent in their grades. So encourage people with hidden talents to draw more!

Question 2: Who, in your view, is an ‘unusual’ learner?

Answer: A person who is intelligent and talented in a different way than most other people is unusual. If someone is smart, talented, or has an unusual skill that others should know about then they need to work on it.

Question 3: What can schools do to draw out the best in unusual learners? Suggest whatever seems reasonable to you.

Answer: When it comes to schools, one of the best ways to help children learn is not to measure them on their performance. Schools should stop making judgments about each child based only on their grades. They should appreciate the hidden talents that they have and encourage them to do better in all areas.

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