NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Chapter 2 – A Dog Named Duke
Page No 13:
Question 1:
Duke is a Doberman. What are the other known breeds of dogs?
Answer:
A model answer has been provided for students’ reference.
It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.
- Terrier
- Bulldog
- Alsatian
- Spaniel
- German shepherd
- Poodle
- Border collie
- Boxer
- Pug
- Labrador
- Elo
- Pekingese
Question 2:
Match the words in the boxes with their explanations given below:
rampageous
|
subdural haemorrhage
|
bellow
|
blonde
|
taut
|
rambunctiousness
|
grin
|
critical
|
confinement
|
quivering
|
shimmied
|
a. This is the other word for trembling:
b. This is used for smile:
c. You call a person this if he/she has pale gold coloured hair:
d. This is a quality which relates to high energy and noise:
e. This is related to dancing or moving in a way that involves shaking your hips and shoulders:
f. This is to express a tendency to show violent and wild behaviour often causing damage:
g. We use it for a condition which is serious, uncertain and dangerous:
h. This is a state in which one is forced to stay in a closed space:
i. This is a medical condition involving bleeding in the brain:
j. It is a loud, deep shout to show anger:
k. This is a condition when the rope or leash is stretched tightly:
Answer:
a. This is the other word for trembling: Quivering.
b. This is used for smile: Grin.
c. You call a person this if he/she has pale gold coloured hair: Blonde.
d. This is a quality which relates to high energy and noise: Rambunctiousness.
e. This is related to dancing or moving in a way that involves shaking your hips and shoulders: Shimmied.
f. This is to express a tendency to show violent and wild behaviour often causing damage: Rampageous.
g. We use it for a condition which is serious, uncertain and dangerous: Critical.
h. This is a state in which one is forced to stay in a closed space: Confinement.
i. This is a medical condition involving bleeding in the brain: Subdural haemorrhage.
j. It is a loud, deep shout to show anger: Bellow.
k. This is a condition when the rope or leash is stretched tightly: Taut.
Page No 18:
Question 4(a):
With reference to Hooper, the author says, “Every thing was going for him”, What does it imply?
(i) He had everything that a man aspires for.
(ii) People admired him.
(iii) He did what he wanted.
(iv) He was capable of playing games.
Answer:
(i) He had everything that a man aspires for.
Question 4(b):
Duke never jumped on Chuck again because _____________.
(i) Duke was paralysed and unable to jump
(ii) Chuck was angry with Duke for jumping at him
(iii) Duke realized that Chuck was not well and could not balance himself
(iv) Marcy did not allow Duke to come near Chuck
Answer:
(iii) Duke realised that Chuck was not well and could not balance himself.
Question 4(c):
The author says that Duke ‘knew his job’. The job was _____________.
(i) to look after Chuck
(ii) to get Chuck on his feet
(iii) to humour Chuck
(iv) to guard the house
Answer:
(ii) to get Chuck on his feet
Question 4(d):
“_______ even Duke’s presence didn’t reach Chuck “. Why?
(i) Duke was locked in his kennel and Chuck couldn’t see him.
(ii) Duke hid himself behind the bed post.
(iii) Duke had come to know that Hooper was not well.
(iv) Hooper was lost in his own grief and pain.
Answer:
(iv) Hooper was lost in his own grief and pain.
Page No 19:
Question 5(a):
In 1953, Hooper was a favoured young man. Explain.
Answer:
In 1953, Charles (Chuck) Hooper was a favoured young man. He had all that a man could aspire for. He was “a hard−charging zone sales manager for a chemical company”. A six-feet-one, who had played on the university football team, was now all settled with his little blonde wife, Marcy. His “big genuine grin” flashed his competitive nature and “everything was going for him”.
Question 5(b):
They said that they would create a desk job for Hooper at headquarters.
(i) Who are ‘they’?
(ii) Why did they decide to do this?
Answer:
(i) The above sentence has been extracted from the story and “they” is referred to the personnel from Hooper’s office that visited him in the hospital.
(ii) Hooper was hospitalised after he had subdural haemorrhage as he met with an accident. After the first critical month had passed, in the fifth week, few men from his company came to visit and told him to take a year off, after seeing his condition. They said they would create a desk job for Hooper at the company’s headquarters.
They told Charles to take a year off and decided to assign him a desk job as his body’s left portion was paralysed.
Question 5(c):
Duke was an extraordinary dog. What special qualities did he exhibit to justify this? Discuss.
Answer:
A model answer has been provided for students’ reference. However, any other point of view supported by an argument or an explanation would also solve the purpose.
It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.
Duke was a rough playing Doberman Pinscher. When Chuck met with the accident and was brought back home Duke also was brought back from the kennel. When the dog saw his master “he was a 23-killo missile of joy”. He jumped on Chuck above the belt in excitement. Chuck couldn’t balance, so fought to maintain it. That was it, Duke knew what had happened. From then on he never did the same. He took a post beside his master’s bed and never jumped on him again. He sensed the delicate condition of his master and later he was the main agent in the improvement of Chuck’s condition.
From the story, it seems that Duke knew what had happened to Hooper, he would come up and poke Chuck’s left arm and try to lift it up. One evening while the dog was cajoling his master Hooper casually hooked leash in Duke’s collar with his good hand and that charged the dog. The first time, it was just couple of steps till the wheel chair. However, Duke was dogged to make Chuck walk. They were a team now. Hooper’s neighbourhood people say that the Dog knew what his responsibility was. They had a tremendous coordination. The dog would “pull his leash taut then stand and wait. The man would drag himself abreast of the dog and then the dog would surge out to the end of the leash and wait again”.
Gradually Hooper became totally dependent on Duke and didn’t need physiotherapy further. It was Duke alone who could do what he did. The only thing that the narrator says he was unsure of was whether Duke knew what he was doing, but then the narrator says that he believed that Duke knew.
Question 5(d):
What problems did Chuck present when he returned to the company headquarters?
Answer:
On January 4, Chuck visited the local branch. This had been one of the district offices under his jurisdiction as zone manager. The staff was amazed to see him return, Charles Hooper told Gordon Doule, the manager, to bring him all the updates of the time Hooper had stayed away. He started working one hour every day; he chose the empty desk in the ware house. Hooper’s move presented problems in the company’s headquarters. Chuck was fighting hard to come back, so nobody could tell him that he couldn’t handle the job. Beside it was a job of sales, what good can a salesperson do, “who cannot move around, and can work only one hour a day?” However, Hooper had the target set in his mind, March 1, a full day’s work. It was Duke who would pull Chuck all the way till the office and then bring him back home as well. All said that the dog knew his responsibility “to get Chuck back on his feet”. After thirteen months of meditation, Charles Hooper was promoted to Regional Manager covering more than four states.
Question 5(e):
Why do you think Charles Hooper’s appointment as Assistant National Sales Manager is considered to be a tribute to Duke?
Answer:
A model answer has been provided for students’ reference. However, any other point of view supported by an argument or an explanation would also solve the purpose.
It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.
Duke was not an ordinary pet; he was a Doberman with exceptional intelligence. The finesse with which he understood the delicate condition of Chuck is commendable. It was not physiotherapy and not any other drug or exercise that made Chuck walk, but Duke and Duke alone!
After the accident when Duke was brought back on Chuck’s return to home, the dog took just one incident to realise the ailment of his master. The dog just needed to be hooked once causally and Duke with his leash and the dog became resolute to make his master stand on his feet. It was Duke who made Charles Hooper reach the office despite all odds and took the responsibility to take Charles Hooper to the office and also bring him back home.
It was not just Chuck’s meditation but Duke’s too that after thirteen months Hooper was promoted to Regional Manager covering more than four states. People of their new neighbourhood, they moved into, didn’t know the story of Chuck and Duke. “All they knew was that their new neighbour walked like a struggling mechanical giant and that he was always pulled by a rampageous dog that acted as if he owned the man.”
After some time when Chuck was promoted to Assistant National Sales Manager, the words drafted by the headquarters of the chemical company said, “… therefore, to advance our objectives step by step, Charles Hooper is appointed Assistant National Sales Manager”, as all knew that without Duke it would not have been possible for Chuck to make such quick improvement and tribute Hooper’s promotion to Duke.
Question 6:
Following dates were important in Charles Hooper’s life in some way. Complete the table by relating the description with the correct dates.
January 4, March 1, June 1, October 12
|
| Date | Description |
| News spread that Hooper and Duke had made it to an intersection | |
| Hooper walked independently from the clinic to the branch office | |
| Hooper planned to start a full day’s work at office | |
| Duke met with a fatal accident |
Answer:
| Date | Description |
| June 1 | News spread that Hooper and Duke had made it to an intersection |
| January 4 | Hooper walked independently from the clinic to the branch office |
| March 1 | Hooper planned to start a full day’s work at office |
| October 12 | Duke met with a fatal accident |
Page No 21:
Question 9:
When a person loses something, he is shocked and gets into a state of denial leading to anger. In such a situation coping well leads to acceptance and a changed way of living in view of the loss. Taking cues from what happened or might have happened with Hooper, write your views in the form of an article about ‘Coping with Loss’ in 150-175 words.
Answer:
Pointers have been provided for students’ reference.
It is strongly recommended that students prepare the answer on their own.
– However easy it might sound to cope up with a loss, only the person undergoing the mental trauma can feel the pain; – Affects personal, social and mental stability; – When you love someone or something that is very precious to you, the grief is intense; – It can be quite unsettling and frightening to cope up with a loss or a crisis or a life-changing event; – Talking to a very close friend or a spouse might help to a great deal; – Counselling and healthy advice on coping with a mishap might help; – Isolation is never a solution to heal grief. Face the loss; – Let your pain come out in all the possible forms; – Distract yourself with things you like to do and people you like to talk to; – Allow time to heal.
