Chapter 4.3 – The Bees
Warming up!
1. Match the professions with the field of work.
| Profession | Field of work |
|---|---|
(1) Chief Minister | (a) Business |
(2) Magistrate | (b) Transport |
(3) Soldier | (c) Construction |
(4) Trader | (d) Administration |
(5) Builder | (e) Education |
(6) Driver | (f) Defence |
(7) Teacher | (g) Law |
Ans:
| Profession | Field of work |
|---|---|
(1) Chief Minister | (d) Administration |
(2) Magistrate | (g) Law |
(3) Soldier | (f) Defence |
(4) Trader | (a) Business |
(5) Builder | (c) Construction |
(6) Driver | (b) Transport |
(7) Teacher | (e) Education |
2. Living creatures, birds, animals, insects, etc. are often used in ‘as – as’ comparisons, because of some special characteristics they hold.
Fill in the gaps, choosing words from the brackets to make appropriate comparisons.
(tall / quiet / humble / merry / busy / slippery / fast / sly / slow / big)
(1) as _____ as a lark
Ans: as merry as a lark
(2) as _____ as a snail
Ans: as slow as a snail
(3) as _____ as a giraffe
Ans: as tall as a giraffe
(4) as _____ as a bee
Ans: as busy as a bee
(5) as _____ as an elephant
Ans: as big as an elephant
(6) as _____ as a mouse
Ans: as quiet as a mouse
(7) as _____ as an eel
Ans: as slippery as an eel
(8) as _____ as a fox
Ans: as sly as a fox
(9) as _____ as a worm
Ans: as fast as a deer
(10) as _____ as a deer
Ans: as humble as a worm
In Between the Poetry!
Q1. What do honey bees teach us?
Ans: The honey bees teach us the art of being in order and getting organized.
Q2. Where does the emperor – bee sit and what does he do?
Ans: The emperor bees sits in a royal tent and supervises his workers making beehives regularly.
Q3. What do roofs of gold refer to?
Ans: The roofs of gold refer to honey in the hive. The bees suck the nectar from flowers and bring it to the hive. They appear to be a shining yellow colour, resembling gold. So it is referred to as roofs of gold.
ENGLISH WORKSHOP
1. Honey-bees live an organised life like human beings. Discuss what work the following honey-bees do, as per the poem. Write it down in your own words in your notebook.
(a) King / Emperor bee
Ans: supervises the building of the beehive
(b) Magistrate bees
Ans: do corrective work
(c) Merchant bees
Ans: go out to trade for nectar
(d) Soldier bees
Ans: loot nectar from flowers and protect the hive
(e) Mason bees
Ans: build the hive
(f) Civilian bees
Ans: make honey from nectar
(g) Porter bees
Ans: carry the nectar brought by the other bees
(h) Judge bee
Ans: delivers his sentence
2. Complete the following choosing the appropriate option.
(a) Human beings can learn from honey bees ………
(i) how too make food
(ii) how to live joyfully
(iii) how to lead an organised nation
Ans: (iii) how to lead an organised nation
(b) The soldier-bees carry home ………….
(i) the velvet buds
(ii) nectar looted from flowers
(iii) their weapons
Ans: (ii) nectar looted from flowers
(c) The emperor-bee supervises the building of …………
(i) the bee hive
(ii) bridges
(iii) a tower
Ans: (i) the bee hive
(d) The ……………. bees make honey from nectar.
(i) officer
(ii) civilian citizen
(iii) magistrate
Ans: (ii) civilian citizen
(e) The drone is given a death sentence because he ……..
(i) attacked the emperor
(ii) killed other bees
(iii) does not do any work
Ans: (iii) does not do any work
3. (A) Complete the phrases using words from the poem.
(i) ……… march
Ans: merry march
(ii) ……… tent
Ans: royal tent
(iii) ….. masons
Ans: singing masons
(iv) ……… porters
Ans: poor porters
(v) ……. burdens
Ans: heavy burdens
(vi) ………. executors
Ans: pale executors
(B) (i) Find any two Alliterative lines.
Ans:
(i) Which pillage they with merry march bring home
– Here, the letter ‘m’ is repeated.
(ii) The civil citizens kneading up the honey
– Here, the letter ‘c’ is repeated.
(ii) Pick out the line that contains an Onomatopoeic word.
Ans:
The singing masons building roofs of gold.
– The word ‘singing’ indicates sound.
(C) Pick out three lines that create an image in your mind of bees busy at work.
Ans:
(i) Make boot upon the summer’s velvet buds.
(ii) The singing masons building roofs of gold.
(iii) The civil citizens kneading up the honey.
4. (A) Refer to a good dictionary that carries phonetic transcriptions printed next to words. The words below are familiar to you. Copy their phonetic transcriptions from the dictionary and say them aloud as you write. (You may take your teacher’s help, if needed.)
(1) work ……..
Ans: wəːk
(2) bees ……..
Ans: biː
(3) boot ………
Ans: buːt
(4) home ……..
Ans: həʊm
(5) mason …….
Ans: ˈmeɪsn
(6) citizen ………..
Ans: ˈsɪtɪz(ə)n
(7) porters ……..
Ans: ˈpɔːtə
Stress – Stress is the extra force we use when pronouncing a syllable in a word.
For example : In the word ‘king-dom’ the syllable ‘king’ is stressed.
In the word ‘re-li-gion’ the second syllable is stressed.
The stress upon a syllable can be shown with a short vertical line above the syllable that is stressed.
For example : com-pu-ter / fa-ther / en-cou-rage
(B) Say the following words aloud and put the stress mark on the stressed syllables.
crea-tures
Ans: crea-tures
bur-den
Ans: bur-den
me-cha-nic
Ans: me-cha-nic
e-xe-cu-tor
Ans: e-xe-cu-tor
de-li-ve-ring
Ans: de-li–ve-ring
ma-gis-trate
Ans: ma-gis-trate
5. Project
Gather information about the following insects. Draw their images or get pictures. On one sheet each, fix the image / picture and below it write the information. Compile these pages and make a file of ‘Insects – our friends’.
Insects : Bee / Praying mantis / Butterfly / Beetle / Wasp / Dragon-fly
Ans: Students must do this on their own.