Madam Rides the Bus: CBSE Class 10 English practice questions
Practise 50 questions on Madam Rides the Bus, free, with an explanation for each answer.
Sample questions
What made the young cow run even faster in front of the bus?
- The conductor shouted at it
- It was racing the train
- The driver's honking frightened it
- Valli threw coins at it
Show the answer
C. The driver's honking frightened it
The driver "sounded his horn loudly again and again", but the more he honked, the more frightened the animal became and the faster it galloped. The honking is what drove the cow.
Valli saved a total of sixty paise for her trip. How does this fit the plan she made?
- It would pay for one ticket and a cold drink
- It was exactly two single fares of thirty paise: to town and back
- It was enough for three single tickets
- It paid for one ticket and left thirty paise for the merry-go-round
Show the answer
B. It was exactly two single fares of thirty paise: to town and back
Thirty paise each way means sixty paise for the round trip. A common slip is to count only one fare and think thirty paise would be left over. That is why she had to refuse the cold drink and the sweets: there was no spare money at all.
Her mother says that often we cannot understand things fully, even when we know them. Valli softly says, "Oh, yes!" What is she thinking about?
- The thirty paise fare
- The aunt's long chatter
- The young cow, and what death really means
- How to hide the trip from her mother
Show the answer
C. The young cow, and what death really means
Valli had just met death in the form of the cow she had laughed at. She now sees that knowing about something is different from understanding it. Her private feeling is why she smiles to herself at the end.
Topics covered
- Reading: the hourly bus
- Reading: the new bus inside
- Reading: the canvas blind
- Reading: the road beside the canal
- Reading: the cow on the road
- Reading: the railroad crossing
- Reading: the cold-drink stall
- Reading: the village fair
- Reading: Valli plans her ride
- Reading: staying on at the town
- Reading: what Valli is afraid of
- Reading: the smile at the end
- Reading: boarding the bus
- Reading: sights on the way to town
- Reading: people in the story
- Reading: Valli's feelings
- Reading: Valli wants to be grown up
- Reading: refusing the cold drink
- Reading: the sixty paise
- Reading: why "madam"?
- Reading: the elderly woman
- Reading: the frightened cow
- Reading: the bus Valli rode
- Reading: after the cow
- Reading: "things happening without our knowledge"
- Vocabulary: wistfully
- Vocabulary: haughtily
- Vocabulary: kindle
- Vocabulary: mimicking
- Vocabulary: repulsive
- Vocabulary: words from the story
- Vocabulary: careful and brave words
- Grammar: adverbs of manner
- Grammar: forming adverbs
- Grammar: modal verbs
- Literary device: simile
- Literary device: trees that run
- Writing: planning a three-paragraph page
- Poem: the characters
- Poem: who is who
- Poem: why the teasing?
- Poem: the pirate
- Poem: the story of the poem
- Poem: bears and exaggeration
- Poem: rhyme scheme
- Poem: a humorous ballad
- Poem: the pets in danger
- Poem: gyrate
- Poem: ballad features
- Poem: the funny ending