Have you known/heard of an episode where a good deed or an act of kindness has changed a person’s view of the world?

Have you known/heard of an episode where a good deed or an act of kindness has changed a person’s view of the world?

Answer: The writer has highlighted a universal theme in this story. It is that we can arouse the goodness in the life of a man by love, understanding, sympathy and respect. Once upon a time, there was a man who went around selling self-made small rattraps of wire. His condition was too miserable to beg and do petty thefts. He was in rags with sunken cheeks and hungry eyes. One day an idea flashed into his mind. He thought that the whole world around him was a big rattrap. It offered riches, joys, food, shelter, clothing like a bait offering cheese and pork in a rattrap for the rats. Those who were tempted to touch the bait, fell, it closed on them bringing an end to everything. One dark evening while staying at the crofter’s cottage, he was given food and lodging. But the next morning the tramp stole his thirty kronor. He kept on walking the same path in the forest. On hearing the sound of hammer strokes, he reached the iron mill and lay near the furnace. The ironmaster mistook him to be his old acquaintance and invited him for Christmas cheer but he refused. He sent his daughter Edla, who persuaded him to their house. After having him well dressed, the ironmaster found that he mistook him as Captain ‘Nils Olof.’ So he ordered him to get out at once. The young girl interceded for him and said that she wanted him to stay as they promised him Christmas cheer. He was treated like a real captain with food. In their absence, when they were at church, he left. In the church, they learnt that the rattrap seller had robbed the old crofter. So they became worried. When they returned, the valet told that he had taken nothing with him and had rather left behind a Christmas gift for Miss Williamson. She found a small rattrap, thirty kronor and a letter in it. The letter stated that she had taken him as if he were a captain, so he would be nice to her as a captain. It had given him the power to cleanse himself.

More Question-

1. How did Franz perform when his turn came to recite? How did M. Hamel react?
2. Who occupied the backbenches in the classroom on the day of the last lesson? Why? [CBSE Delhi 2015]
3. Why had M. Hamel put on his fine Sunday clothes? Why were the old men of the village sitting there in the back of the classroom?
4. What was unusual about M. Hamel’s dress and behaviour on the day of his last French lesson? [CBSE Delhi 2010C]
5. What was tempting Franz to keep away from school ‘that morning’? [CBSE Delhi 2010C]
6. Why had the bulletin board become a centre of attention during the last two years? [CBSE Delhi 2010]
7. How did M. Hamel say farewell to his students and the people of the town? [CBSE (AI) 2012]
8. How did Franz react to the declaration that it was their last French lesson? [CBSE Delhi 2013]
9. “This is your last French lesson.” How did Franz react to this declaration of M. Hamel? [CBSE Delhi 2010]
10. Who did M. Hamel blame for the neglect of learning on the part of boys like Franz? [CBSE Delhi 2011]
11. “What a thunderclap these words were to me!” Which were the words that shocked and surprised little Franz? [CBSE Delhi 2010; (AI) 2011]
12. One order from Berlin changed the scenario of the school. Comment
13. What did M. Hamel tell them about the French language? What did he ask them to do and why? [CBSE Delhi 2011, 2013C]
14. How does M. Hamel pay a tribute to the French language? [CBSE (AI) 2008]
15. How was M. Hamel’s class different the day Franz went late to school?
16. How was the scene in the school, on the morning of the last lesson, different from that on other days? [CBSE Delhi 2008] [CBSE (AI) 2015]
17. Which objects of nature does Keats mention as sources of joy in his poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty? [CBSE (AI) 2015]
18. What does a thing of beauty do for us? [CBSE Delhi 2015]
19. What does Keats consider an endless fountain of immortal drink and why does he call its drink immortal? [CBSE (AI) 2013]
20. According to Keats, what moves the pain and suffering away from human life? [CBSE Sample Paper 2016]
21. Describe any three things of beauty mentioned in the poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty'. [CBSE (AI) 2012, CBSE (AI) 2013]
22. How is a thing of beauty a joy forever? [CBSE Delhi 2012]
23. What is the message of the poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty? [CBSE (AI) 2011]
24. What spreads the pall of despondence over our dark spirits? How is it removed? [CBSE (F) 2010]