Twin Melodies: CBSE Class 9 English practice questions
Practise 50 questions on Twin Melodies, free, with an explanation for each answer.
Sample questions
In the unit's opening activity, Anil and Sunny of the theatre club have had an argument. Choose the phrase that best fills the blank. Anil did not want to ______ and disturb Sunny further, but he finally decided to bite the bullet and speak to him.
- throw a party
- come around
- bring it up
- winding up
Show the answer
C. bring it up
To bring it up means to raise a subject. Anil hesitates to mention the quarrel because it might upset Sunny more. The other phrases fit other blanks in the same paragraph: the club was winding up (finishing) its practice, Anil hoped Sunny would come around (become friendly again), and everyone asked them to throw a party. The book asks you to discuss which of these phrases are literal and which are figurative: 'bring it up' here is figurative, since nothing is physically lifted.
At dinner, Nabin says 'No is the answer' and reminds Shruti of his rule: one performance in every six months. Which reason does he give for this rule?
- More performances would leave her no time for school work
- Performing too often makes people value an artist less: familiarity breeds contempt
- Concerts are too expensive for the family to attend
- A violin needs six months of rest between concerts
Show the answer
B. Performing too often makes people value an artist less: familiarity breeds contempt
Nabin says that more than one performance in six months means familiarity breeds contempt: when people see something too often, they stop respecting it. (Contempt is a strong feeling of dislike and disrespect.) He advises her to 'work on your art and everything will follow'. School work, cost and resting the violin are never mentioned.
Which of these best explains the title 'Twin Melodies'?
- Two kinds of music, and two generations, learn to exist together in harmony
- Shruti has a twin sister who also plays the violin
- The fusion group can play only two songs
- Nabin and Shruti always play exactly the same tune together
Show the answer
A. Two kinds of music, and two generations, learn to exist together in harmony
The 'twin melodies' are traditional classical music and modern fusion, which the play shows can coexist, as Shruti keeps the raga alive inside a fusion piece. The title also suggests two generations, father and daughter, whose journeys are alike: each broke away from a family tradition. Shruti has no twin, and the group's songs are never counted.
Topics covered
- Reflect and Respond: literal and figurative phrases
- Act I: the fusion group
- Act I: the setting
- Act I: why Shruti is distressed
- Act I: who said it?
- Critical Reflection: Shruti's situation
- Vocabulary: to bite the bullet
- Act I: getting Shruti's attention
- Act II: Nabin's rule
- Act II: drowning one's individual style
- Act II: 'phoo' music
- Act II: sequence of events
- Act II: summary words
- Act III: what really happens
- Act III: who opened Nabin's eyes?
- Act III: Nabin's own past
- Act III: Nabin's praise
- Act III: a grandfather's pain
- Vocabulary: worked his fingers to the bone
- Act III: Nabin's journey
- Critical Reflection: each bay, its own wind
- Critical Reflection: tradition and modernity
- Critical Reflection: the final hug
- Title of the play
- Characters and their traits
- Sequence of the play
- Dramatic device: the aside
- Writing a play script: the ellipsis
- Stage directions and colons
- Non-lexical fillers
- Vocabulary: music words
- Vocabulary: crescendo
- Phrases: go down the drain
- Reporting exclamatory sentences
- Reported speech: exclamations
- Reported speech: statements
- Reported speech: time words
- Speaking: stress and intonation
- Learning Beyond the Text
- Poem: rhyme scheme
- Poem: metaphor to simile
- Poem: feel blue
- Poem: mood
- Poem: metaphors for music
- Poem: order of ideas
- Poem: repetition
- Phrasal verbs: move and pull
- Writing: format of an invitation letter
- Writing: body of the letter