NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 2 A. Add a sentence to the story · B. The long ‘oo’ sound — Let us Speak

Book page 20 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
The teacher starts a story with one sentence. Each student adds a sentence to continue the story. For example: Teacher: “Once upon a time, a boy found a magic key.” Student 1: “The key opened a door to a secret garden.” Student 2: “In the garden, he saw a talking rabbit.”
Answer

How to play this game:

  1. Sit in a circle so that everyone can hear everyone else.
  2. The teacher says the first sentence. Listen to it carefully.
  3. Each child adds one sentence — not two, not half a sentence.
  4. Your sentence must join on to the sentence just before yours. Never start a brand-new story of your own.
  5. Speak loudly and slowly, so the next child knows exactly what to build on.
  6. Keep going round the circle until everyone has had a turn.
What makes a good sentence in this game: it is short; it adds one new thing (a person, a place, a problem or a surprise); and it leaves the door open for the next child. A sentence like “Then everybody went home and slept” closes the story and spoils the next turn.

Sample answer — one full round in a classroom:

Teacher: “Once upon a time, a boy found a magic key.”
Student 1: “The key opened a door to a secret garden.”
Student 2: “In the garden, he saw a talking rabbit.”
Student 3: “The rabbit said that the garden had not seen rain for ten years.”
Student 4: “It asked the boy to find the old well behind the neem tree.”
Student 5: “The boy walked to the well, but it was covered with a heavy stone.”
Student 6: “He pushed the stone with all his strength, and it rolled away.”
Student 7: “A cloud came out of the well and floated up into the sky.”
Student 8: “Very soon, big drops of rain began to fall on the dry garden.”
Student 9: “The flowers opened one by one, and the rabbit began to dance.”
Student 10: “The boy put the key back in his pocket and promised to come again.”
Why this game is good practice: You cannot plan your sentence in advance, because you do not know what the child before you will say. So you must listen first and speak second — which is exactly what good speaking is.
Q2.
The title of this textbook is ‘Santoor’. Say the word ‘book’. Next, say the word ‘Santoor’. Do you notice the difference? Although, both the words have ‘oo’ in them, the sound of ‘oo’ in ‘book’ is short; the sound of ‘oo’ in ‘Santoor’ is long. Say aloud the following words. Encircle the words which have a long ‘oo’ sound. 1. Hood 2. School 3. Foot 4. Maroon 5. Scooter 6. Shook 7. Bloom 8. Food 9. Look 10. Moon 11. Book 12. Took
Answer

Encircle these six words — they have the long ‘oo’ sound:

2. School · 4. Maroon · 5. Scooter · 7. Bloom · 8. Food · 10. Moon

Leave the other six alone. In Hood, Foot, Shook, Look, Book and Took the ‘oo’ is short.

No.WordShort or long ‘oo’?It rhymes with
1HoodShortgood, wood, stood
2SchoolLong — encircle itcool, tool, pool
3FootShortput, soot
4MaroonLong — encircle itspoon, noon, soon
5ScooterLong — encircle ithooter, shooter
6ShookShortbook, cook, hook
7BloomLong — encircle itroom, broom, zoom
8FoodLong — encircle itmood, brood
9LookShortbook, took, cook
10MoonLong — encircle itspoon, soon, noon
11BookShortlook, cook, shook
12TookShortbook, look, hook
How to hear the difference: Say book. The sound is quick and it stops at once. Now say Santoor. The sound is stretched — you could hold it for two seconds if you wanted: San–toooor. That stretch is the long ‘oo’.
Watch your mouth in a mirror: For the long ‘oo’ your lips push forward into a small round shape, as if you were going to whistle. For the short ‘oo’ your lips stay flatter and relaxed. Try food and then foot, one after the other.
Notice something useful: Look at the short words — hood, foot, shook, look, book, took. Almost every one of them ends in -ook or -oot. When ‘oo’ is followed by k, it is nearly always short.
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