NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 6 What a Tank!
Updated on 2026-09-19
About this chapter
What the piece is about. It is about storing water. Saving water and using it carefully is called water conservation . The chapter says this is not a new idea at all — people have done it for hundreds of years. The old water structures. Long ago there were huge water storage structures. They did four things at once: they stored water, they protected cities from floods, they gave people drinking water, and they brought people together. So a tank was never only a tank. It was a meeting place for the whole village. Three traditional ways still in use. In Tamil Nadu, Ooranis store rainwater for drinking and farming. In Kerala, Panam Keni wells do not dry up even in the hottest months. In the Thar region of Rajasthan, Tankas are common — underground tanks that hold enough water for six to seven
- What a Tank! (prose)
- A. Answer the following questions
- B. Think and answer
- A. Write the contractions for the following words
- B. Rewrite the underlined words using contracted forms
- C. Read the following · exclamatory sentences
- D. Five exclamatory sentences and the feelings they show
- E. Animal families
- F. Add to the picture
- A. Group discussion · B. Three examples · C. Say it aloud
Quick revision
| Word | What it means | Where it appears | A sentence of your own |
|---|---|---|---|
| conservation | Saving something and using it carefully so that it is not wasted. | “Water conservation is a practice that has existed for centuries.” | Our school held a water conservation week. |
| overhead | Above your head; kept or built up high, on a roof. | “Such water tanks are called overhead water tanks.” | The overhead tank on our roof holds a thousand litres. |
| culture | The way of life of a group of people — their food, dress, songs, dances and festivals. | “Rich in culture and heritage, Punjab is also known for…” | The culture of Punjab is full of music and colour. |
| heritage | The things handed down to us by people who lived long ago — old buildings, old skills, old customs. | “Rich in culture and heritage…” | The stepwells of Gujarat are part of our heritage. |
| containers | Things we keep other things in — a box, a pot, a drum or a tank. | New Words, page 67 | Amma keeps the rice in three steel containers. |
| unique | One of its kind. Not like any other. | “The final product is a unique tank…” | Every child’s handwriting is unique. |
| concrete | A hard building material made by mixing cement, sand, small stones and water. | “Later, concrete is used to give it final shape.” | The floor of our classroom is made of concrete. |
| Tanka | An underground tank in the Thar region of Rajasthan that stores rainwater. | “Tankas as shown below are quite common in Rajasthan’s Thar region.” | A tanka can hold water for six to seven months. |
| Oorani | A pond in Tamil Nadu that stores rainwater for drinking and for farming. | “In Tamil Nadu, Ooranis store rainwater for drinking and farming.” | The village Oorani fills up after the first rain. |
| Panam Keni | A kind of well in Kerala that does not dry up even in the hottest months. | “In Kerala, Panam Keni wells are known for not drying up…” | We read about Panam Keni wells in our English book. |
| contraction (short form) | Two words joined into one, with some letters left out. | Let us Learn, page 68 | Isn’t is the contraction of is not. |
| apostrophe (’) | The small raised mark that takes the place of the missing letters in a short form. | Let us Learn, page 68 | Do not forget the apostrophe in don’t. |
| exclamatory sentence | A sentence that shows a strong feeling and ends with an exclamation mark (!). | Let us Learn, page 70 | What a tank! is an exclamatory sentence. |
| rainwater harvesting | Collecting rain and storing it, instead of letting it run away. | Let us Listen, page 75 | We fixed a rainwater harvesting pipe on our roof. |
Exercises
- What a Tank! (prose) — Let us Read Page 65–67
- A. Answer the following questions — Let us Think Page 68
- B. Think and answer — Let us Think Page 68
- A. Write the contractions for the following words — Let us Learn Page 68–69
- B. Rewrite the underlined words using contracted forms — Let us Learn Page 69
- C. Read the following · exclamatory sentences — Let us Learn Page 69–70
- D. Five exclamatory sentences and the feelings they show — Let us Learn Page 70
- E. Animal families — Let us Learn Page 71–72
- F. Add to the picture — Let us Learn Page 72
- A. Group discussion · B. Three examples · C. Say it aloud — Let us Speak Page 73
- A Day without Water — Let us Listen Page 74–76
- A. Poster · B. Words ending in ‘er’, ‘or’ and ‘at’ — Let us Write Page 76–77
- A. How water tanks are cleaned · B. The Thirsty Crow — Let us Explore Page 77–78