Important Questions for CBSE Class 7 English Honeycomb Chapter 3 - Gopal And The Hilsa Fish

A. Very Short Answer Questions: (1 Mark)

1. Word – Meaning from the given chapter:

i. Temper

Ans: State of mind.

ii. Downcast

Ans: Discouraged.

iii. Disgraceful

Ans: Shameful.

iv. Mystic

Ans: Imaginary.

2. Fill in the blanks:

i. The fishermen lured the customers by telling them the prices have been ____ that day.

Ans: low

ii. Gopal was the ______ courtier of all.

Ans: wisest

iii. The courtier fell silent with______.

Ans: downcast eyes

iv. The child thought that Gopal looked ______

Ans: comical

3. True – False:

i. Everyone hated the Hilsa fish in the village.

Ans: False

ii. Fishermen couldn’t catch the Hilsa fish that season.

Ans: False

iii. Gopal went to buy the Hilsa fish in his original look.

Ans: False

iv. The king got angry when he lost the challenge with Gopal.

Ans: False

4. What did fishermen always think of?

Ans: The fishermen always thought of the Hilsa fish.

5. What fish did fishermen always sell?

Ans: The fishermen always sold the Hilsa fish.

B. Short Answer Questions: (2 Marks)

1. How the fishermen tricked customers to buy the Hilsa fish?

Ans: The fishermen tricked the customers to buy Hilsa by telling them that the price was low for a particular day.

2. Who is Gopal in the story? 

Ans: Gopal is a courtier in the king’s court. He is widely known for his wisdom and presence of mind.

3. Why did the king lose his temper?

Ans: The monarch became enraged because everyone in his court, including the courtiers, was only talking about Hilsa fish.

4. What challenges did the king give to Gopal?

Ans: The king requested Gopal to buy a gigantic Hilsa fish and bring it to the court without anyone seeing him.

5. Did Gopal accept the challenge? What does his wife think about him? 

Ans: Yes, Gopal accepted the challenge. His wife thought of him as a mad man.

C. Short Answer Questions: (3 Marks)

1. How did the king handle his courtiers that were talking about the Hilsa fish? 

Ans: The king was angry at his courtiers. He asked his courtiers to avoid talking about the fish because they were not fishermen. Though, he realised that the courtiers got nervous so he changed his tone and said to them it is the season of the Hilsa, and nothing could be done about it.

2. How did Gopal dress himself to buy the Hilsa fish? 

Ans: Gopal dressed weirdly to buy the Hilsa fish. He half-shaved his moustache and rubbed ash on his body and his face. He also wore ragged clothes and walked barefoot to the market.

3. What did the people in the market think of Gopal?

Ans: The folks in the market think of Gopal in a different way. A child was thinking of him as a comic character. One of the two men was thinking of him as a madman and the other man was thinking of Gopal as a mystical character. Everyone looked at him weirdly.

4. Did people talk to Gopal in the market? Give a reason.

Ans: No, none of the people talked to Gopal in the market when he went to buy the Hilsa Fish. No one approached him but everyone was talking about him because of the appearance he had adapted to do the task.

5. What is the poem “The Shed” about?

Ans: The poet talks about the shed at the bottom of a garden in the poem. The poet says that there is a shed with a spider’s web on its door and the hinges are rusty and creak in the wind. He wishes to visit it someday, open the door and see if there is really a ghost his brother told him about.

D. Long Answer Questions: (5 Marks)

1. Why was Gopal stopped by the guards to enter the court?

Ans: The guards stopped Gopal from entering the court to meet the king. The guards didn’t allow him to enter the palace as he was dressed curiously, more like a madman. He wore shredded clothes, had his beard half shaved, and was covered in ash. So, he started dancing and singing very loudly so that the king could hear him. The king requested his guards to produce the man that was singing and dancing before him.

2. What happened when Gopal reached the court?

Ans: When Gopal was asked to come inside the court, everyone was shocked to see him in such a situation. The king asked him the reason for his weird attire. Then Gopal reminded the king of the challenge that he had offered him about getting the Hilsa fish from the market to the palace without anybody demanding him a single thing. To the king’s surprise, no one asked Gopal about anything about the fish.

3. How did the king react to his losing the challenge?

Ans: The king was glad that Gopal had won the challenge. As Gopal was his cleverest courtier and he had absolutely an expectation from him. The king guffawed with delight and laughed harder than he'd ever laughed before, accepting that Gopal had once again accomplished the impossible.

4. What is the moral of the story “Gopal and the Hilsa- fish?”

Ans: The moral of the story "Gopal and the Hilsa-fish" is that we must never surrender. The story reveals the never-giving-up attitude of Gopal who manages challenges very sensibly. He was given an impossible task and despite that, he overcame the challenge very smoothly. The story tells us that there are always many ways to solve a problem. We should just think and choose the best one. Rather than panicking or denying, we should be willing to do the task.

5. Describe the house the poet has mentioned in the poem “The Shed”.

Ans: The Shed by the poet Frank Flynn is about the shed that he has in his garden. The shed has a spider’s web on its door, and the hinges are junked and creaky. He wishes to open the door one day. The shed has a dusty old window around the side that has three cracked panes of glass. The poet feels that someone is staring at him and he too would peep through the window one day. Poet’s brother told him that there is a ghost that is hidden under the rotten floorboards. And if the poet dared to set foot inside, then the ghost would jump out and chop off his head. But he will visit the shed one day.