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NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 2 A. A chart of games · B. A mini biography · C. A famous hockey player — Let us Explore

Book page 25–26 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Prepare a chart with the following categories. S. No. | Name of the game | Outdoor/indoor | Players needed | Equipment needed 1. Kabaddi | outdoor | team | nil (rows 2 to 10 are blank)
Answer

The book fills the first row for you — Kabaddi, outdoor, team, nil — and leaves nine rows blank. Fill them with games you and your friends really play.

What the four columns mean:
Outdoor/indoor — is it played in the open or inside a room?
Players needed — a team, a pair, or any number?
Equipment needed — what things must you have? Write nil if you need nothing at all.

Sample answer — a completed chart:

S. No.Name of the gameOutdoor/indoorPlayers neededEquipment needed
1.Kabaddioutdoorteamnil
2.Hockeyoutdoorteam (11 a side)sticks, ball, goalposts
3.Kho-khooutdoorteam (9 a side)two poles
4.Cricketoutdoorteambat, ball, stumps
5.Hopscotch (stapu)outdoor2 or morechalk, a flat stone
6.Gilli dandaoutdoor2 or morea gilli and a danda (two sticks)
7.Lattoo (spinning top)outdoor1 or morea top and a string
8.Tigers and Goatsindoor2a board and 16 pebbles
9.Carromindoor2 or 4carrom board, coins, striker, powder
10.Chessindoor2chessboard and 32 pieces
What the chart shows once it is full: Look down the last column. Several of our oldest and best games — kabaddi, kho-kho, hopscotch — need almost nothing. A flat piece of ground and some friends are enough. A game does not have to be costly to be good.
How to make your own chart: Take a full sheet of chart paper. Draw the five columns with a ruler. Write the headings in one colour and the games in another. If you like, draw a small picture beside each game. Then put your chart up on the class board.
Q2.
Write a mini biography about a famous sports person of your choice. You may use the following hints: • Name of the sportsperson. • Name of the sport the person is famous for. • When and where the person was born? • List one or two achievements. • Why the person is famous/inspiring?
Answer

A biography is the story of a real person’s life, written by somebody else. A mini biography is a short one — one paragraph is enough.

How to write it:

  1. Choose a sportsperson you truly admire. It is easier to write about someone you have read about or watched.
  2. Take the five hints in the book in order. Each hint gives you one or two sentences.
  3. Check your facts — the year of birth, the place, the medal. Ask your teacher or look in a library book. Never guess a fact in a biography.
  4. Write in the past tense for what has already happened, and the present tense for what is still true.
  5. End with the last hint — why the person inspires you. That line is yours, and it is the best part.

Sample answer:

Major Dhyan Chand

Major Dhyan Chand is one of the greatest hockey players the world has ever seen. He was born on 29 August 1905 in Allahabad, which is now called Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh. He joined the Indian Army as a young man, and he practised his hockey at night by the light of the moon — which is why his friends called him “Chand”, the moon.

He won three Olympic gold medals for India in hockey, at Amsterdam in 1928, at Los Angeles in 1932 and at Berlin in 1936. He was the captain of the team in 1936. He controlled the ball so closely with his stick that people used to joke that there was a magnet inside it.

Dhyan Chand is inspiring because he became the best in the world with very simple things — an ordinary stick, a hard field and hours and hours of practice. India remembers him every year on 29 August, which is our National Sports Day.
Other sportspersons you could write about: P. T. Usha and Neeraj Chopra (athletics), Mary Kom (boxing), P. V. Sindhu and Saina Nehwal (badminton), Mithali Raj and Sachin Tendulkar (cricket), Rani Rampal (hockey), Vishwanathan Anand (chess), Sunil Chhetri (football).
What makes a biography different from a story: A story may be imagined. A biography must be true. Every date, place and medal you write must be a real one. If you are not sure of a fact, leave it out rather than invent it.
Q3.
Find out about a famous hockey player and talk about them.
Answer

How to do it:

  1. Choose one hockey player. It could be a player from long ago, like Dhyan Chand or Balbir Singh Sr., or a player of today, like Rani Rampal, Savita Punia, P. R. Sreejesh, Harmanpreet Singh or Vandana Katariya.
  2. Find out five things about the player: full name, where they come from, the position they play, one big match or medal, and one thing about their early life.
  3. Look in the school library, in an old newspaper, or ask a teacher or an elder at home.
  4. Write the five points on a card. Do not write out full sentences to read aloud — the points are only to remind you.
  5. Stand up, look at the class, and speak for about one minute. Speak slowly and clearly.
What a good talk contains: who the player is; where they come from; what they play; one achievement told with a detail; and one line saying why you chose them.

Sample answer — a one-minute talk:

Today I want to tell you about Rani Rampal.

Rani was born in 1994 in Shahabad Markanda, a small town in Haryana. Her father pulled a cart for a living, and the family had very little money. She did not even have a proper hockey stick at first — she began with a broken one she found near the ground.

She played her first match for India when she was only fifteen. She was the captain of the Indian women’s hockey team at the Tokyo Olympics, where India reached the semi-finals — the best the team has ever done. She plays as a forward, which means she is one of the players who score the goals.

I chose Rani Rampal because she shows that where you start does not decide where you finish. She had no money and no proper stick, but she had practice and patience. That is why I admire her.
A tip for speaking in class: Say the player’s name clearly at the start and again at the end. That is the one thing your listeners should remember when you sit down.
Q4.
(Speech bubble, page 26) “I can name all the players of the Indian women’s hockey team! Can you?”
Answer

This is the girl in the picture on page 26 challenging you. She is sitting on the grass with her hockey stick beside her.

How to answer her: A hockey team has eleven players on the field — one goalkeeper, then defenders, midfielders and forwards — with a few more waiting as substitutes. So to answer her you need to find and learn eleven names.

  1. Look up the Indian women’s hockey team in the sports page of a newspaper, or ask your teacher to help you find the team list.
  2. Write the eleven names in your notebook, and write beside each one the position that player plays.
  3. Learn them the way you learn a poem — say them aloud in the same order every day for a week.
  4. Now go back to your friend and answer her challenge.
Sample answer: “Not yet — but I know some of them! I know Savita Punia, who is our goalkeeper, Rani Rampal, who was our captain, Vandana Katariya, Deep Grace Ekka, Sushila Chanu and Salima Tete. Give me one week and I will name the whole team.”
A better challenge back: Learn the names of your own school team as well, and the position each one plays. It is a fine thing to know the famous players — and a finer thing to know the players standing next to you.
Why the book puts this here: Boys’ teams are talked about far more often than girls’ teams. This little speech bubble is a gentle nudge — the girls who play for India deserve to be known by name too.
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