NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 3 B. Think and discuss — Let us Think

Book page 28 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.

What are the ways in which you can cross a river?

Answer

A river can be crossed in many ways — over it, through it, or under it.

Way of crossing	How it works
Over a bridge	On foot, by cycle, by bus or by train. This is the commonest way.
By boat	A rowing boat, a ferry or a motor boat carries people across.
By coracle	A round basket boat used on the Kaveri and the Tungabhadra rivers.
On a raft	Logs or bamboo poles tied together and pushed with a long pole.
By wading	Walking through the water where the river is shallow, in summer.
By swimming	Only if you can swim well, and only where the water is calm.
On a rope bridge	A hanging bridge of ropes and planks, common in the hills.
On a living root bridge	In Meghalaya, people train the roots of rubber trees to grow across a stream.
By ropeway or trolley	A basket or box hung from a wire and pulled across.
Through a tunnel	Some cities dig a tunnel under the river bed.

Sample answer: There are many ways to cross a river. The easiest way is to walk or drive over a bridge. Where there is no bridge, people go across in a boat or on a ferry. On some rivers in the south, people use a round basket boat called a coracle. In the hills, a rope bridge or a trolley on a wire is used. In summer, when the water is low, people simply wade across. In Meghalaya, there are even bridges made from the living roots of trees.

Safety first: Never try to wade or swim across a river during or after the rains. The water looks slow on top but pulls hard underneath, and the depth changes without warning.

Q2.

Have you ever seen a rainbow in real life or in pictures? How did you feel?

Answer

This is your own answer, so it will not be the same as anybody else’s. Say when you saw it, where you saw it, and how you felt.

What a good answer needs: the time and place, what you were doing, what the rainbow looked like, and two or three feeling words — happy, surprised, excited, calm, lucky.

Sample answer: Yes, I have seen a rainbow. It was in July last year, just after a heavy afternoon shower. I was standing on our terrace with my grandmother, and she was the one who pointed at it. A big coloured arch stood over the fields behind our house, with red on the outside and violet on the inside. I felt very happy and a little surprised, because a minute earlier the sky had been grey and dull. I ran down to call my brother, and by the time we came up the rainbow had already grown faint. I felt lucky to have seen it, and I understood why the poet says it is prettier than a bridge.

If you have not seen one yet: Say so honestly, and then write about the pictures you have seen. For example — “I have not seen a real rainbow, but I have seen many in pictures and in my science book. Even in a picture the seven colours look beautiful. I keep hoping to see a real one after the rain.”

Try this: Stand outside on a sunny morning with the sun behind you. Spray water from a hosepipe or a spray bottle in front of you. Look into the spray — a small rainbow will appear. That is exactly how the big one is made.

Q3.

If you could walk on a rainbow, where do you think it would take you?

Answer

This one is meant for your imagination. There is no wrong answer — but there is a weak answer and a strong answer. A strong answer says where you would go, what you would see on the way, and why you chose that place.

What a good answer needs: one clear destination, two or three things you would see or do there, and one line saying why it matters to you.

Sample answer: If I could walk on a rainbow, I would climb it slowly, one colour at a time. I would start at red, right where it touches the ground behind our school. As I walked up I would look down at the wet fields and the small houses, and I would wave at the children in my class. At the top I think the rainbow would take me straight to the clouds. I would sit there for a while and let the clouds sail past me like the ships in the poem. Then I would walk down the other side and come out in my grandmother’s village, four hundred kilometres away, in time for dinner. I chose that because it takes a whole day by train, and the rainbow would take me there in an afternoon.

Other ideas you could use:

To the top of the sky, to see the earth the way a bird sees it.
To a friend’s house in another state, without a ticket.
To the place where the rainbow ends, just to find out what is there.
To the sun, to ask it how it makes so many colours out of one white light.

Why the poet lets you think this way: She has already called the rainbow “a road from earth to sky”. Once you call something a road, the mind wants to walk on it. That is the poet’s little gift to the reader.

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