Important Questions for CBSE Class 7 English An Alien Hand Chapter 10 - An Alien Hand

A. Very Short Answer Questions: (1 Mark)

1. Word – Meaning from the given chapter:

i. Forbidden

Ans: Banned

ii. Evading

Ans: Escaping

iii. Sustenance

Ans: Nourishment

iv. Vantage

Ans: Viewpoint

2. What is the full form of NASA?

Ans: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

3. Viking Mission was to which planet?

Ans: The Viking Mission was considered for Mars.

4. Viking Mission composed of how many spacecraft?

Ans: Viking 1 and Viking 2 were the two spacecraft that made up the Viking Mission.

5. What were the two components in each spacecraft?

Ans: The two components in each spacecraft were an orbiter and a lander.

B. Short Answer Questions: (2 Marks)

1. What was the primary objective of the Viking Mission?

Ans: The primary objective of the Viking Mission was to capture images and samples of the surface and soil of Mars and look for any possible signs of life.

2. Where was Tilloo curious to go? 

Ans: Tilloo was interested in going to an underground passage through which his father went each day to work and came back from the same passage.

3. Who all wanted to know about what lay at the end of the route?

Ans: Tilloo along with other individuals from the community or the colony needed to find out what lay at the end of the forbidden route.

4. What was Tilloo’s father doing when he stole his father’s card?

Ans: It was a holiday for Tilloo’s father and he was enjoying a siesta at home.

5. How Tilloo convinced his mother to go to the passage? 

Ans: Tilloo did not try to persuade his mother to go to the passage. He evaded his mother’s attentive eyes.

C. Short Answer Questions: (3 Marks)

1. “He did the same... and the door opened noiselessly. A well-lit passage seemed to beckon him.” What do these lines refer to? 

Ans: These lines imply the situation where Tilloo stole his father’s security card to the forbidden passage. Tilloo snuck past his father's nose and his mother's careful gaze to the metal door, slid the magic card into a slot, and the door slid open.

2. How did Tilloo return home? 

Ans: After Tilloo stepped into the other side of the door; he marched his way to the upward slope that was moving to the surface of the planet. Tilloo thought of looking at the sun and stars but it couldn’t occur as he was detected and photographed as a small intruder and he was escorted back to his house by the security staff.

3. How did Tilloo’s father react when he found out about Tilloo evading?

Ans: Tilloo’s father behaves calmly. He informed his wife that he would speak to Tilloo. He thought that if he knows things about Tilloo briefly then he will not repeat anything like this. And then he started to explain.

4. What did his father tell him? 

Ans: Tilloo’s father informed him that he is working on a surface and an ordinary person cannot live there, only those who carry an extraordinary suit and are trained can survive in such thin mid-air and low temperature. He told Tilloo that he has been trained to endure and work in such an atmosphere.

5. What does Tilloo’s father tell him about their forefathers?

Ans: Tilloo’s father told him that there was a time when their forefather survived in such an atmosphere naturally, without wearing any special suits or carrying equipment. They lived on the surface for millions of years. But over time, situations changed and the sun turned hostile and the balance of nature on the planet was disturbed.

D. Long Answer Questions: (5 Marks)

1. What did Tilloo’s father see when he went to work the next day?

Ans: When the next day Tilloo’s father went to work, he saw that the Control Room was filled with excited people. They all were looking at the big TV screen which showed a dot in an otherwise clear background. The Supervisor of the last shift explained to them that it is not a star as the thing is changing its position. The thing is heading towards their planet. They thought it could be a spacecraft. However, they thought about how it could be possible as their planet was only known to have lived in the solar system.

2. How did Tilloo’s father know that it was a spacecraft?

Ans: Tilloo’s father recalled the ancient days documented in the archives at the Central Bureau when their ancestors had a well-developed space program and had explored the solar system with manned and unmanned spacecraft. He concluded that they were indeed alone. But who could be these strangers approaching them in an era of energy shortage and underground life, where there was no space program. They could only be looked over from their vantage point.

3. What was everybody’s reaction to knowing the truth about the “thing”?

Ans: Everybody in the conference room of the Central Bureau went quiet as if no one was there. Everybody knew that the President was going to make some announcement. And as they thought, it happened. The President tells them that he will give them a report as soon as he has it about the two spacecraft approaching them. One was nearly orbiting their planet and the other was far away, they are from neighbouring planets. So, how should the committee react?.

4. Why was the press conference at NASA told that the Mechanical hand had developed a malfunction?

Ans: When the lander of the Viking 1 reached the surface of the mars, all of the people on mars hid as they did not want to tell others that life exists there. They were all watching the spaceship from the control room, where Tilloo was also transported, to see what it was up to. The mechanical hand that Viking 1 had stopped functioning after Tilloo pressed the red button of the control room ceased all the technical activities happening on the planet.

5. “... The mechanical hand is working again, thanks to the efforts of our technicians. Soil samples are being collected and examined… Soon we will know the answer to the question of whether there is life on Mars.” Why was this announcement made by NASA? Did the technician really sort out the problem? Did the Viking Mission find signs of life on Mars?

Ans: This announcement was made as soon as the mechanical hand of the Viking 1 started working and it started digging the surface of the mars to get some soil. No, the technicians of NASA didn’t solve the problem. The problem was solved automatically when Tilloo’s father observed that Tilloo had pushed the red button that stopped the running of the mars and he restored the red button to its neutral position. No, the Viking mission did not find the signs of life on Mars as the soil of mass doesn’t provide any evidence of so.

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