NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Chapter 1 - Short Stories

Stop And Think

1. How did the author recognise the lady who was extricated from the car encrusted in the wall of Havana Riviera Hotel after the storm?

Ans: The lady had worn a gold ring which was serpent-like in shape and also had emerald eyes. These were the exact similarities with a lady which he had known from Vienna. Because of this, the author was able to recognise the lady who was extricated from the car encrusted in the wall of Havana Riviera Hotel.

2. Why did the author leave Vienna never to return again?

Ans: The author left Vienna to never return because the lady who used to dream told him to leave Vienna and not return for the next five years.

3. How did Pablo Neruda know that somebody behind him was looking at him?

Ans: When Pablo Neruda was dining, he spotted a lady three chairs away from him staring at him and told this to the author. When the author noticed it, he found a lady staring at him and identified her as Frau Frieda, who wore a  snake ring on her index finger.

4. How did Pablo Neruda counter Frau Frieda’s claims to clairvoyance?

Ans: Pablo Neruda objected to Frau Frieda’s claims to clairvoyance by saying “Only poetry is clairvoyant,” according to him. When she approached them at their table, Pablo Neruda was uninterested in her and had stated that he did not believe in prophetic dreams.

Understand the Text

1. Did the author believe in the prophetic ability of Frau Frieda?

Ans: In Viennese, Frau Frieda secures a job in a very religious family. She has to comprehend her dreams and predict the fate of the family members. The family members plan their daily activities based on her predicted fate. She met with the author in Viennese while she was doing this job. When the narrator asks her what she pursues as a job, she replies, "I sell my dreams." She advises the author to leave Viennese and to not come back for five years. The author left the Viennese the very next day, and he never came back. This shows that the author believes in her prophetic ability. But later on, he reveals that he had to leave Viennese for other reasons, not because of her dream. He thinks that her dream was nothing but just a scheme or stratagem to continue her job and to survive.

2. Why do you think that Frau Frieda's dreams were a stratagem for surviving?

Ans: The author thought that her dreams were nothing but a stratagem for surviving because she reveals that she had a dream about her brother, and she interpreted a young girl who had the power to foretell others' fate and events through her dreams. By this conversation, she made everything clear. Then she got a job in Viennese in a very religious family who gave her money, room, and three meals to eat each day to predict their family's fate based on which they plan their activities. So, it was not surprising for the author, and he thinks that her dreams were no more than a stratagem.

3. Why did the author compare Neruda to the Renaissance pope?

Ans:  Pabola Neruda was the author's friend who came to Spain for the first time. Neruda was a man with a childish mind who made weird assumptions and wanted everything according to his satisfaction. Not only were his assumptions weird, but his way of walking was also odd. He used to walk like a patient animal in a crowd. Whenever he sees something, his mind has a child's curiosity of its inner workings. The narrator contrasted him and a renaissance pope since he was unquenchable and refined. Neruda considers it to be a massive breeze-up toy. The narrator imagines that he can all the more likely contrast Neruda and something simply a renaissance pope.

Talking about the text

1. Despite all the nationality that human beings are capable of, most of us are suggestible and yield to archaic superstitions?

Ans: Instead of believing in their capabilities, most human beings believe and yield to archaic superstitions rather. Similarly, in the story, in Viennese, Frau Frieda secures a job in a very religious family. She has to comprehend her dreams and predict the fate of the family members. The family members plan their daily activities based on her predicted fate. The family is so superstitious that they even bequeath part of their estate to her. For instance, the property that our ancestors gave us is superstition. Now it has become a part of human life. Every myth or notion contains a superstitious belief. Everyone faces a situation in which they agree to believe in superstition instead of their capabilities.

2. Dreams and Clairvoyance are as much as the element of poetic vision as religious superstitions?

Ans: Dreams and Clairvoyance are just like that of religious superstition. As in dreams, we make our assumptions and formulate events according to ourselves. Most of the dreams are the reason to create a poem. Moreover, Clairvoyance is just the prediction of the future and destiny. Both of them have a poetic vision that provides readers with the art and creativity of the poet through his poems. All of this is due to this religious belief, making it easier for priests who claim to be able to tell a person's destiny or destiny to believe that they know their own destiny.

Appreciation

1. The story hinges on a gold ring shaped like a Serpent with Emerald eyes. Comment on the responses that this image evokes in the reader.

Ans:  Without a proper description, the readers can speculate the image of a lady with different conclusions. The depiction of the brilliant ring having a shape like a snake alongside emerald eyes gives perusers that either a woman is a cleric or a fortune teller. The author successfully created a portrayal of the lady as she works for a religious family that interprets her dreams and predicts the fate of the family members. This way, the author succeeds in narrating the story effectively to achieve the approval of the readers.

2. The craft of the master storyteller lies in the ability to interweave imagination and reality. Do you think this story illustrates this?

Ans: The craft of a master-storyteller lies in the ability to interweave imagination and reality because the narrator needs to narrate his creation in such an effective way that it intertwines and entangles imagination in the readers. The storytelling should be productive enough and significant that the reader or listener is forced to move into the actual world of the story. The author in this story narrates the story so effectively that it took readers to a virtual world. The masterpiece work of the author is illustrated by the author's crafts, which makes the plot of the story more engaging and interesting for the listeners.

3. Bring out the contradiction is the last exchange between the author and the Portuguese ambassador. 'In concentrate terms,' 'I asked at last, what did she do? 'Nothing,' he said, with a certain disenhancement. 'She dreamed'

Ans:  The story's last paragraph contains a highlighted conversation between the author and the Portuguese ambassador where the lady used to work. The conversation took place after a few months of the incident, which contains the contradiction. Even though the author knows about what happened with the lady and is her job, he also puts a question before the Portuguese ambassador about his dead housekeeper and what she does. As a reply to the ambassador without giving the actual description of her work, talk about her with great enthusiasm and admiration that she just dreamed and does nothing.

4. Comment on the ironic element in the story.

Ans: Throughout the story, the author tries to create irony elements by using all the methods to create an ironic story. In the story, the ironic element is seen by the superstitious beliefs that became part of human life. The ironic element is hidden in the superstitious belief of the religious family who decide their daily activities based on predictions of their fate that their housekeeper used to assume it to interpret through her dream. The irony also implies in the last part of the story that a contradictory conversation that took place between the author and Portuguese ambassador about his dead housekeeper that what she does, even if the author knew it very well the answer then also he arose a question which was also an ironical situation.

Language Work

A. Vocabulary

Look up the meanings of the following phrases under ‘dream’ and ‘sell’ in the dictionary.

Ans:

dream on: something is unlikely to happen

dream something away: to spend time thinking about something pleasant

(not) dream of doing something: (not)to have a fantasy of doing something

dream something up: to think of a plan

look like a dream: very successful

sell-by-date: last date of selling food products

selling-point: something which makes people buy a product

Sell-out: to sell the whole supply of something

selling price: the price at which something is sold

seller’s market: a market condition in which there is a shortage of goods to sell

B. Grammar: Emphasis

Read this sentence carefully

One morning at nine o’clock, while we were having

breakfast on the terrace of the Havana Riviera Hotel

under a bright sun, a huge wave picked up several

cars that were driving down the avenue along the

seawall or parked on the pavement, and embedded

one of them on the side of the hotel.

The position of a word, phrase or idea within a sentence usually indicates the emphasis it receives. Generally, the most emphatic place in the sentence is its end; the next most emphatic is its beginning; and the least emphatic, its middle. In the sentence above the most important fact is that the huge wave embedded one of the cars on one side of the hotel. The other details of time and place are given at the beginning. The general statement of the ‘huge wave picking up several cars’ precedes the particular car which is pertinent to the theme of the story.

Let us rewrite the sentence, beginning with ‘a huge wave’ and

the first part following ‘hotel’ and notice the difference in the

effect.

A huge wave picked up several cars that were driving

down the avenue along the seawall or parked on the

pavement, and embedded one of them in the side of

the hotel, one morning at nine o’clock, while we were

having breakfast on the terrace of the Havana Riviera

Hotel under a bright sun.

TASK 

Study the following sentences and underline the part which receives emphasis

1) I never saw her again or even wondered about her until I heard about the snake ring on the woman who died in the Havana Riviera disaster.

Ans: I never saw her again or even wondered about her until I heard about the snake ring on the woman who died in the Havana Riviera disaster.

2) That did not surprise me, however, because I had always thought her dreams were no more than a stratagem for surviving.

Ans: That did not surprise me, however, because I had always thought her dreams were no more than a stratagem for surviving.

3) Although she did not say so, her conversation made it clear that, dream by dream, she had taken over the entire fortune of her ineffable patrons in Vienna.

Ans: Although she did not say so, her conversation made it clear that, dream by dream, she had taken over the entire fortune of her ineffable patrons in Vienna.

4) Three tables away sat an intrepid woman in an old-fashioned felt hat and a purple scarf, eating without haste and staring at him.

Ans: Three tables away sat an intrepid woman in an old-fashioned felt hat and a purple scarf, eating without haste and staring at him.

5) I stayed in Vienna for more than a month, sharing the straitened circumstances of the other students while I waited for money that never arrived.

Ans: I stayed in Vienna for more than a month, sharing the straitened circumstances of the other students while I waited for money that never arrived.

C. Pronunciation

The syllable is the basic unit of pronunciation. A word may have a single syllable, such as ‘will’, ‘pen’ etc. A word, sometimes, can have more than one syllable as for instance ‘willing’ (willing). Each syllable contains a vowel sound, and usually one or more consonants.

You can show the division of a word into syllables like this

foolish                                                 fool-ish(2) 

agreement                                         a-gree-ment(3) 

arithmetic                                          a-rith-me-tic(4)

TASK 

1) Say your name aloud and decide how many syllables there are in it. Do the same with the names of your classmates.

Ans: Alex: A-lex
Richie: Ri-chie
Sonu: So-nu
Ankita: An-ki-ta
Mamta: Ma-m-ta
Pankaj: Pan-kaj
Anushka: Anu-sh-ka
Kunal: Ku-nal
Nidhi: Ni-dhi
Kalpana: Kal-pa-na
Vaibhav: Vai-bhav
Kamal: Ka-mal
Laxmi: Lax-mi
Manish: Ma-nish
Isha: I-sha

2) Pick out five words each for two syllables, three syllables and four-syllable words from the lesson.

Ans: morning: mor-ning
under: un-der
woman: wo-man
before: be-fore
lunch: lun-ch
crucial: cru-ci-al
shopkeeper: shop-kee-per
furniture: fur-ni-ture
remember: re-mem-ber
installed: ins-tall-ed
imperial: im-pe-ri-al
loudspeaker: lou-d-spea-ker
information: in-for-ma-tion
circumstances: cir-cum-stan-ces
catastrophe: cat-a-stro-phe

Extra Questions For Chapter 1 - I Sell My Dreams 

Very Short Answer Type Questions

1. Who is Frau Frieda in the chapter - “I Sell My Dreams”?

2. What is the birthplace of Frau Frieda?

3. Name the narrator “I” in Sell My Dreams.

4. How did Frau Frieda's was countered by Pablo Neruda?

Short Answer Type Questions

1. Why did Frau Frieda dream about her brother?

2. What is the reason behind the author comparing Neruda to a Renaissance pope?

3. Why did the author leave Vienna and decide not to return?

Long Answer Type Questions

1. Describe Frau Frieda personality.

2. Write a short note on Pablo Neruda. 

3. What information about Frau Freida did the writer find from the Portuguese ambassador?

NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Kaliedoscope Short Stories Chapter 1 - Sell My Dreams

The class 12 English NCERT solutions Kaleidoscope CH 1 of the chapter are available and can be downloaded in a PDF format on the Vedantu website. The solutions are comprehensive and help to improve the confidence level of the students and let them excel in their examinations. These NCERT class 12 English chapter 1 sell my dreams can be downloaded for free and referred to on the go.

Chapter 1 - I Sell My Dreams

I Sell My Dreams is a short story that is written by Gabriel Marquez, who highlights some of the superstitious beliefs that humans depend on. The start of the story is set in the Havana Riviera Hotel, where the narrator is having a delicious breakfast with his dear friends when he sees that cars are getting hauled by a wave. The car wreck flew in all directions, and a car even crashed on the walls of the hotel. This accident alarmed all and shook them in panic. Even the tourists staying in the hotel were thrown in the lobby. The fire department was summoned, and they sent someone to clean the wreckage and the debris.

When the car that had crashed on the hotel walls was lifted using a crane, then a woman’s body was retrieved. The woman was killed in the crash, and her dresses were all tattered. Someone recognized her as the housekeeper of a Portuguese ambassador. The narrator saw some accessories on the woman that he was familiar with. It was a gold ring that was shaped in the form of a snake. The reptile had emerald eyes. When the narrator saw this ring, it kept bothering him. He remembered seeing this ring around 35 years back on a woman whom he had met in Vienna.

They had met in a tavern, and the woman was having her meal there. The narrator was captivated by her, and he got to know that she was from Columbia. He also learned that she came to Austria after the beginning of the war. The woman liked music, and she spoke Spanish. The narrator and the woman spent time with each other and the woman had never revealed her name to the narrator. So the narrator called her Frau Frieda. When the narrator asked her about her profession, she said that she used to sell her dreams.

The woman was in her thirties, and she was the third of her eleven siblings and lived in old Caldas. Her family used to tell dreams before breakfast which was their customary habit. She felt that she could read the future. Like at the age of seven, she knew that her brother, who was 5 years of age, would drown. She believed that her brother would be saved if he did not eat any sweets. Unfortunately, he ate one caramel, and he drowned.

The woman has turned these skills to be a psychic and earns her livelihood. A woman in Vienna hired her and gave her a salary and a room to stay in. She was also given food. The host used to ask Frieda about their future daily. Frieda used to dictate the family and even earned a part of the estate that the father offered to her in his will.

Frieda met the narrator one day and asked him to leave Vienna because of a dream that she had. The narrator left for Rome and never returned to Vienna.

The narrator again met Frieda in Barcelona. He was with his wife and a poet friend when he noticed Frieda.

Frieda was plump and grey, but she still wore the ring. When the narrator told his friend about Frieda’s skills, his poet friend rejected Frieda and her skills completely.

Neruda, who was the narrator’s poet friend, woke up one daydreaming that Frieda was dreaming about him. His wife asked the narrator to reveal this to Frieda. Then Frieda said that she had dreamt about Neruda and this got the narrator by surprise.

The narrator and Frieda went their different ways and never met each other. It was only on this pivotal day that he saw Frieda again. He recognized her with the ring. He had to find out about her from the Portuguese ambassador. So he arranged to meet him. The narrator asked him what Frieda had done for him. He said that she dreamt.

The story shows how people get a sense of security in stress and when they have to deal with some unexplainable situations. They start to believe in something that is beyond science and beyond what is proved. It is in these circumstances that they start to believe in superstitious beliefs.

Exercise: 10 Long Questions, 1 Short Question 

Key Features of NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Chapter 1

The NCERT solutions class 12 English Kaleidoscope chapter 1 are helpful for the students to prepare well for their board as well as competitive examination. Through enough examples, the tutors have been able to create a well-explained practice material. Students are advised to go through these solutions that let them approach any question on the topic in the exam.

• The solution improves the students’ ability to solve any complex question in the chapter.

• The solution helps to improve the students’ doubts in a precise manner.

• The solutions are handy and can be referred to before the examination for easy reference.