NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 1 Try Again (Eliza Cook) — Let us do these activities before we read
Book page 16 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Who inspires you to do your best?
Answer
A good answer names one person, gives one incident and says what you learnt from it. Do not simply list names.
Sample answer: “My grandmother inspires me. She never went to school, but at the age of sixty she joined the adult literacy class in our village and learnt to sign her name. For a whole month she practised on the back of old calendars. When I complain that a chapter is hard, I remember her sitting under the tulsi plant with a pencil, and I go back to my book.”
Why it happens: The poem you are about to read makes the same point — the person who inspires King Bruce is not a great warrior but a small spider. Inspiration comes from anyone who refuses to give up in front of us.
Q2.
Work in pairs, identify what you see in the pictures given below. What can we learn from them? Share your answers with your classmates and the teacher. (Six pictures are given, numbered 1 to 6.)
Answer
The six pictures on page 16 all show creatures or plants that build, travel or grow through steady, repeated effort.
No.
What you see
What we can learn
1
A honeycomb hanging from a branch, with honey bees on it
Team work and patience — thousands of tiny trips build one hive.
2
A spider at the centre of its finished web
Persistence and skill — the very lesson King Bruce learns in the poem.
3
Wild geese flying together in formation
Cooperation and endurance — birds travel enormous distances by sharing the lead.
4
A weaver bird beside the hanging nest it has woven
Craft and hard work — the nest is knotted strand by strand.
5
A line of ants carrying and marching together
Discipline and strength in numbers — small creatures move large loads together.
6
A full-grown apple tree loaded with fruit
Patience — years of slow growth before the first harvest.
Tip: Notice that not one of these six is large or powerful. That is the point of putting them just before a poem about a spider that defeats a king's despair.