RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 7 The Adventure

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 7 The Adventure

Text Book Questions and Answers

Understanding the text

I. Tick the statements that are true.
Answer:
The true statements are:

• The story’ hinges on a particular historical event.
• The story’ tries to relate history to science.

II. Briefly explain the following statements from the text.

Question 1.
“You neither travelled to the past nor the future. You were in the present experiencing a different world. ”
Answer:
This statement is made by Rajendra Deshpande to Professor Gangadharpant Gaitonde. Here he tries to give a possible explanation to Prof Gaitonde’s unique experience in the two days following his collision with a truck. According to the speaker, Professor Gaitonde did not travel in time. In fact, he was in the present but was experiencing a different world. This statement emphasises on the idea that reality is not unique. There are many worlds and many realities. A person’s reality is based on his/her experience at a particular time at a particular place.

Question 2.
“You have passed through a fantastic experience: or more correctly, a catastrophic experience. ”
Answer:
In this statement Rajendra Deshpande tries to rationalise Professor Gaitonde’s experience of making a transition to another world. According to him, Professor Gaitonde has had a fantastic experience. Here, the word fantastic means both extraordinary and fanciful. However, he immediately finds a better word for the experience and calls it catastrophic. Now, this word is a reference to Catastrophe Theory which is a branch of mathematics and is concerned with abrupt changes. Professor Gaitonde’s experience of travelling to a parallel world without moving back or forth in time seems to be an apt example of a catastrophic experience to Rajendra Deshpande.

Question 3.
Gangadharpant could not help comparing the country he knew with what he was witnessing around him.
Answer:
This statement is made by the third person narrator of the story. Professor Gaitonde, who travels to another world in the present, witnesses a different India which is completely different from the India he has known from this childhood. The country he witnesses in the alternative world refused to surrender to the colonising powers and stood up against them.

The people of this country are more honest, more efficient, well organised and quite modem. Everything that he sees in this country poses a stark contrast to the country he lives in. This compels him to compare the country he knows so well with the country he witnesses around him.

Question 4.
“The lack of determinism in quantum theory! ”
Answer:
This statement is made by Prof Gaitonde in response to Rajendra Deshpane’s explanation of how indeterminable the behaviour of electrons is. Here he maintains that even a person like him, who is not an expert of science, knows about the lack of determinism in quantum theory. Quantum theory believes in the randomness or uncertainty of the universe. This is quite succinctly explained by Rajendra Deshpande with the example of electrons orbitting the nucleus of an atom. The electrons could move in any of the large number of specified states and could even jump from one state to another. There is no certainty of an electron’s presence in a particular state.

Question 5.
“You need some interaction to cause a transition. ”
Answer:
This statement is made by Rajendra Deshpande in response to Professor Gaintonde’s question of why he made the transition to the other world. Rajendra Deshpande says that in order to make a transition like this, one must have an interaction. By interaction, he means something that gives the transition a particular direction. In this case, the focused thought of Professor Gaitonde about the probable course of history in case the third battle of Panipat had had a different result functioned as the interaction and determined the transition for him.

Talking about the text

Question 1.
Discuss the following statements in groups of two pairs, each pair in a group taking opposite points of view.

(i) A single event may change the course of the history of a nation.
For:

• Events like the defeat of important leaders like Napoleon, Hitler and so on have helped construct today’s version of historic events for different nations.
• Had one of these events not happened, chances are that history may have been entirely different.
  Similarly, this text tries to present what would have happened if the Marathas had not been defeated by the British in India.
• The India that is constructed in the text, is heavily influenced by the Marathi kingdom, unlike the British India that we’ve known through historic events. Therefore, altering historic events can change the history of a nation.

Against:

• It is impossible to predict if altering a single event can in reality change the course of history.
• While this text attempts to show that, had the Marathas won the war, the British could have still taken over and created the British India that we know of.
• All that is portrayed here is speculation, as it is impossible to go back and change historic events.

(ii) Reality is what is directly experienced through the senses.
For:

• Gaitonde’s construction of the alternate version of history is so real that he believes he actually witnessed a different version of reality than the one we are familiar with.
• Similarly, he is able to convince Rajendra of this reality because he has a piece of paper which contains notes of all these alternate events.
• Both these characters believe that what they experience through the senses is real.
• They show us that the senses construct reality for us.
• The school of thought that believes reality is constructed through our experiences is called empiricism.

Against:

• The lack of clarity or established proof that any of the events Gaitonde believed actually happened indicates that all of this could have just been his imagination.
• Similarly, the piece of paper he presents as proof may have just been a work of fiction constructed by him.
• This may also be the impact of the accident where Gaitonde’s memory may have been affected or damaged, leading him to believe in alternate realities.
• All of the events in this story can be explained through rational thought as well.

(iii) The methods of inquiry of history, science and philosophy are similar.
For:

• In the story we see Gaitonde, a history academic experiencing an alternate version of historical events closely connected to time, which Rajendra compares to the quantum theory in physics.
• The method that Rajendra uses to explain the science behind this to Gaitonde is very close to how philosophers explained things, attempting to simplify complicated concepts using examples.
• Thus we see all three disciplines closely connected in the text through their understanding of time and reality.

Against:

• If all three disciplines were so closely connected in their methods and fields of inquiry, they wouldn’t be studied separately.
• But because the concepts they deal with are radically different, they are studied separately.
• Further, while the inquiry may be similar in the text, this does not imply that-all methods of inquiry used by these disciplines are similar, as the text only picks up one particular incident.
• And this may broadly differ in these fields on other instances.

Question 2.
(i) The story is called‘The Adventure’. Compare it with the adventure described in ‘We’re Not Afraid to Die…’
Answer:
“We’re Not Afraid to Die…” narrates a family’s adventures on a boat at sea facing a terrible storm. It describes various efforts made by the parents to guide their boat to safety and presents the courage of their children while the parents panicked. “The Adventure” constructs an alternate version of reality, which is what would have happened had the Marathas defeated the British. How the Indian nation would have appeared under the influence of Indian rulers instead of the British. While the events of “We’re Not Afraid to Die.. .’’are realistic and depict encounters that may have happened around the world, the events in “The Adventure” are fictional and speculative.

(ii) Why do you think Professor Gaitonde decided never to preside over meetings again?
Answer:
In the alternate reality of India, Professor Gaitonde attempted to take the empty chair on stage that he was so accustomed to take, only to be met with hostility from the crowd, who threw eggs and tomatoes at him and ran him off stage. The impact of this incident on him is so traumatic, at what he considers his thousandth address as chair, that when he returns to his actual reality he refuses to preside over any more meetings again.

Thinking about language

Question 1.
In which language do you think Gangadharpant and Khan Sahib talked to each other? Which language did Gangadharpant use to talk to the English receptionist?
Answer:
Since Khan Sahib is from Peshawar, he may have spoken to Gangadharpant in Hindi or Urdu. However, since Gangadharpant was speaking to the English receptionist in territory controlled by the British, one can assume he spoke to her in the English language.

Question 2.
In which language do you think Bhausahebanchi Bakhar was written?
Answer:
Since the Bhausahebanchi Bakhar describes the victory of the Marathas over the British, and appears to be a seminal book in a library in Maharashtra, the language used may have been Marathi.

Question 3.
There is mention of three communities in the story: the Marathas, the Mughals, the Anglo-Indians. Which language do you think they used within their communities and while speaking to the other groups?
Answer:
Within the community, the Marathas would have used Marathi, the Mughals Urdu, and the Anglo-Indians would’ve used English. While speaking to other groups, considering that the British had little influence over India in the alternate version of history, Marathi may have been the common language because of the influence that Marathi rulers had on the outcome of India. Urdu could also have been the common language since the Mughal rule continued in Delhi or Hindi because of the historical association of the nation with the language.
(Answers will vary)

Question 4.
Do you think that the ruled always adopt the language of the ruler?
Answer:
While the ruled may be inclined to learn the language of the ruler, history has shown us through the diversity of languages that exists across the nation that not all people solely adopt a single language being promoted. While people across the nation use a common language to speak to one another, which is the ruler or administration’s language, they also retain association with local languages used in smaller spaces like the household.
(Answers will vary)

Working with words 

I. Tick the item that is closest in meaning to the following phrases.

1. to take issue with—iii) to disagree .
2. to give vent to—(i) to express
3. to stand on one’s feet—(ii) to be independent
4. to be wound up—(ii) to stop operating
5. to meet one’s match—(iii) to meet someone who is equally able as oneself

II. Distinguish between the following pairs of sentences.

Question 1.
(i) He was visibly moved.
Answer:
The features on his face showed how he was emotionally affected,

(ii) He was visually impaired.
Answer:
He had trouble seeing things because of loss of vision.

Question 2.
(i) Green and black stripes were used alternately.
Answer:
Green stripes and black stripes were both used, one after the other.

(ii) Green stripes could be used or alternatively black ones.
Answer:
Either green stripes could be used everywhere or black ones in its place.

Question 3.
(i) The team played the two matches successfully.
Answer:
The team performed well in two specific matches they played

(ii) The team played two matches successively.
Answer:
The team played two consecutive matches, one followed by the other.

Question 4.
(i) The librarian spoke respectfully to the learned scholar.
Answer:
The librarian showed a sense of respect for the scholar while speaking to him.

(ii) You will find the historian and the scientist in the archaeology and natural science sections of the museum respectively.
Answer:
You will find the historian in the archaeology section and the scientist in the science section of the museum.

Things to do

II. Look up the Internet or an encyclopedia for information on the following theories.

(i) Quantum theory
Quantum theory in physics is the study of the smallest particles in the universe found in atomic and subatomic particles. It observes the energy produced by particles like protons, neutrons and electrons where one unit is referred to as quanta, which led to the name Quantum theory. This theory was put together by the physicist Max Planck in 1900, who was later awarded the Nobel Prize.

(ii) Theory of relativity
This was established by the famous scientist Albert Einstein first in 1905. Einstein drew connections between space and time, arguing that these concepts were not fixed as previously understood by physics but fluid with possibilities of change. In the absence of a gravitational field, it was possible to convert matter into huge quantities of energy, and different bodies could experience time differently.

(iii) Big Bang theory
The Big Bang theory is a scientific explanation to the beginning of the world. According to this, the universe that we know began with a small singularity, a small and dense source of energy, which gradually expanded over time. This expanded into the stars and planets that we know of in the universe today.

(iv) Theory of evolution
The theory of evolution was given by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin believed that all life on earth was connected to each other, and that humans evolved through a process of natural selection. Natural selection states that through a process of evolution from previous animal forms in different centuries, the human form has evolved by learning to adapt to natural habitat on the planet.

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Chapter 7 The Adventure, Study Learner