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

A. Very Short Answer Question:                                                                   1 Mark

1. Word – Meaning from the given chapter.

1. Ferocious 

Ans: Wild

2. Treacherous 

Ans: Disloyal

3. Devour 

Ans: Eat quickly

4. Grunt

Ans: A low throaty sound made by an animal or a person

2. Which city is mentioned in the story? 

Ans: Almora is the city mentioned in the story ‘Chandni’.

3. What is the name of the person in the story? 

Ans: Abbu khan is the name of the person in the story.

4. What animal did he pet? 

Ans: Abbu Khan petted many goats.

5. What were the names of the goats?

Ans: The names of the petted goats were Kalua, Moongia, Gujri.

B. Short Answer Questions:                                                                        2 Marks

1. How did Abbu Khan keep his goats? 

Ans: Abbu Khan, an old man, used to pet a lot of goats and kept them in the following manner—

1. He took his goats out for grazing in fields during the day and would chat with them as his own children.  

2. At night he used to bring them back to his residence and put strings around their necks.

2. What would Abbu Khan do to his goats at night? 

Ans: Abbu Khan used to talk to his pet goats at night. What he would do with them after that can be elaborated as follows—

1. Firstly, Abbu Khan would put the goats back in his little hut.

2. Then he would tie the strings around their neck so that they could not run away and stay safe during the night. 

3. Why was Abbu Khan unlucky in the matter of his goats?

Ans: Abbu Khan was unlucky in the matter of his pet goats because at night any one of his goats would run away into the hills frequently and then get killed by a wolf.

4. How did the goats try to run away?

Ans: Abbu Khan’s goats had strings tied up around their necks. So, to run away they would apply the following tactics—

1. They would exert pressure on those strings by pulling them. 

2. Lastly, the strings would break or get loosened enough for the goats to run away.

5. What thing did goats hate the most? 

Ans: The goats, especially those staying in hills, hated being tied to trees or poles because they loved freedom more than anything.

C. Short Answer Questions:                                                                         3 Marks

1. What goats hated being tied to the trees and why? 

Ans: Goats that live in mountains or hilly regions hate being tied to trees or poles.

The goats hasted so because of the following reasons—

1. They loved their freedom more than anything. 

2. Rather than being tied up in a small room, they would prefer to roam or graze around the hills. 

That is why whenever they got a chance, they ran away from their owners.

2. How would Abbu Khan react when his goats ran away?

Ans: Abbu Khan had many goats as his pet and he loved them very dearly. So, when he would see the goats being disappeared, he would react in the following manner—

1. Firstly, he would become sad. 

2. He would also try to figure out why the tasty grass and grains and the love that he used to give the goats did not stop them from running away.

3. What did he wonder about the goats? 

Ans: Abbu Khan thought of goats as his children but when these ran away he would keep wondering the following things about them—

1. Abbu Khan would think of them as unfortunate goats ruining their own lives by running straight into the jaws of death. 

2. He thought that the goats were mad.

3. But then he would also wonder whether this running away indicated their quest for freedom that meant struggle and death.

4. What did Abbu Khan decide one day? 

Ans: After all his goats ran away one by one, Abbu Khan was very sad and took the following decision— 

1. He decided that he would not domesticate any more goats in his hut.

2. He also decided to live alone for the rest of his life.

However, his decision soon proved to be wrong as he felt very lonely in absence of his pets.

5. Did Abbu Khan live alone after he had decided so? 

Ans: Abbu Khan decided to live alone after all his goats fled one by one. But he failed to do so. After a gap of a few days, he bought a young goat and kept it in his house.

D. Long Answer Questions:                                                                        5 Marks

1. Why did Abbu Khan buy a new young goat? 

Ans: Abbu Khan had many domestic goats but all of those ran away to the hills one by one. So, firstly, he decided to live alone for the rest of his life but after few days bought a new young goat because of the following reasons —

1. Abbu Khan was tired of living alone.

2. He felt very lonely in the absence of any pet. 

3. He thought that a young goat would stay with him much longer than the old ones. He was confident that it would never leave him and run away to the hills.

4. Moreover, he hoped that the new goat would shower its love upon him as well as on the food that he would feed her. 

Thus, he celebrated joyously and purchased a new goat. 

2. What did the new goat look like? What name does Abbu Khan give her? 

Ans: Abbu Khan bought a new young goat to get rid of his loneliness. The goat’s appearance can be elaborated as follows—

1. Pretty would be the perfect word to describe the new goat. 

2. She had a white complexion just like snow. 

3. The goat had two small horns on its head.

4. A pair of shining red eyes perfectly matched her beauty. 

Abbu Khan named the young goat Chandni which meant “moonlight”. Chandni possessed a friendly nature and listened to tales about the other goats narrated by Abbu Khan with full interest and affection. 

3. Alas! He was mistaken again.” What does this line mean? 

Ans: This line by the narrator is about the mistake that Abbu Khan committed. It can be elaborated in two parts—

1. Abbu Khan’s perception:  After all the pet goats fled to the hills, Abbu Khan bought a new young goat and named it Chandni. He thought that Chandni would never leave him and run to the hills as she was there with him for several years and was very affectionate towards him. 

2. Reality: One day when Chandni thought about the hilltops she saw from the compound, she wanted to feel the refreshing breeze that blows through the hills and wanted to run through the green fields. She decided to run away but was stopped by the rope tied around her neck. 

Thus, what Abbu Khan perceived about Chandni was wrong and he was mistaken once again as just like the other goats, it also wished to run away from him. 

4. How did Chandni reach the hills? 

Ans: Abbu Khan’s new goat Chandni wanted freedom from his capture and wished to run away to the hills. His journey to the hills is elaborated in the following points—

1. Firstly, one day Chandni decided to talk to Abbu Khan about her freedom thinking that he would understand and set her free.

2. But when she exclaimed that the little compound would kill her and she wished to live in the hills, he scolded her by narrating the tragic story of one of his goats named Kalua who ran away and was killed by a wolf in the hills. 

3. Hen Chandni was put in a little house away from the compound. 

4. However, at night, its window was open. Thus, Chandni leaped out of the window of the little hut where Abbu Khan kept her and started running away to the hills till she finally reached there. 

It was concluded that Abbu Khan forgot to shut the window that became her passage to freedom.

5. “I must put up a good fight,” Chandni thought; “success or failure is a matter of luck or chance.” Why does Chandni have these thoughts? 

Ans: After running away from Abbu Khan’s house and reaching the hilltop, late at night when the sun was down and birds stopped chirping, Chandni heard a grunt from the bush. The grunt was made by the old wolf Abbu Khan had warned her about. The determined goat, Chandni, didn’t want to go back to Abbu Khan as she loved freedom more than the tasty meals, and hence she decided to fight the wolf. As she prepared to fight, she thought success or failure is a matter of luck or chance and she should fight the wolf bravely. In simple words, these thoughts crossed her mind in a reflex as she wanted to fight with the wolf to save her life.