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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 3 Spectacular Wonders — Let us do these activities before we read

Book page 137 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Look at the pictures given below and sort them into natural and man-made wonders. [Eight pictures: 1. a bridge of living tree roots over a stream 2. a large ornate palace 3. a green valley with pine forests and mountains 4. a tall white cone of ice with a doorway at its base 5. a modern steel-and-glass footbridge hung with coloured flags 6. a carved marble fountain in a garden pool 7. moonlit rocky peaks above the sea 8. waterfalls tumbling over rocks] Natural: ______, ______, ______, and ______ Man-made: ______, ______, ______, and ______
Answer
No.What the picture showsNatural / Man-madeReason
1A bridge of living tree roots across a streamNaturalIt is a living tree. People guide the roots, but the bridge grows; this very chapter lists the living root bridges among India's natural phenomena.
2A large ornate palace with domes and archesMan-madeDesigned, built and decorated by people
3A green valley with pine forests and mountainsNaturalLandform, forest and river, none of them built
4A tall white cone of ice with a doorway at its baseMan-madeAn ice stupa — an artificial glacier built in Ladakh by piping winter water into the air so that it freezes into a cone and melts slowly in spring
5A modern steel-and-glass footbridge with coloured flagsMan-madeEngineering: girders, cables and a walkway
6A carved marble fountain in a garden poolMan-madeCut stone, a pump and a planned garden
7Moonlit rocky peaks above the seaNaturalRock, sea and moonlight
8Waterfalls tumbling over rocksNaturalA river cutting through rock over long ages

Natural: 1, 3, 7 and 8.   Man-made: 2, 4, 5 and 6.

The two interesting cases are 1 and 4, and they are interesting in opposite ways. The root bridge is made of living material shaped by people; the ice stupa is made of natural material assembled by people. Wherever a wonder sits on that line, be ready to defend your choice — the reasoning is worth more than the label. The chapter itself calls the root bridges “incredible feats of engineering built by the indigenous people” and, in the same breath, “a naturally built ecosystem of local flora”.
Q2.
Which of these wonders—man-made or natural—are more appealing and why? Share your answers with your classmates and teacher.
Answer

Take a side and defend it; a fence-sitting answer scores least. Here is the case each way.

Natural wonders are more appealing because…Man-made wonders are more appealing because…
Nobody designed them, so the pattern feels like a gift rather than a plan — a perfectly circular crater, a sea that walks away twice a dayThey show what people can do against difficulty — a dam still working after eighteen centuries, pillars that give out musical notes
They are older than any human record, so standing before one puts your own life in scaleThey carry a story you can follow — who built it, when, why, and what it cost
Many are still not fully explained, which keeps the wonder aliveThey can be repeated and improved; a good idea in one place can rescue another
They cannot be rebuilt if lost, so they demand protectionThey belong to a community and carry its skill, faith and taste
Sample answer: I find natural wonders more appealing, because nobody made them for me. A palace was built to be admired — it is already an argument for its builder. The Lonar crater was not built at all; a meteorite struck basalt thousands of years ago and left a circle of water that no one planned and no one can copy. Standing at its rim, you are looking at an accident older than every language on earth. Man-made wonders show me what people can do; natural wonders show me how much happened without us.
Notice the honest answer in the middle: the living root bridges are appealing precisely because they are both. Human patience working with a tree instead of against it produces something no engineer could build and no forest could grow alone.
Q3.
Work in pairs. Write down two wonders of nature that have amazed you. Discuss what makes them impressive. Share your answers with your classmates and teacher.
Answer

For each wonder give three things: what it is, where it is, and what exactly amazes you — the third is the part most students leave out.

WonderWhereWhat makes it impressive
A total solar eclipseAnywhere in the path of totalityDay becomes dusk in ninety seconds; birds go to roost; the corona appears. A thing predicted to the second by mathematics still feels impossible when it happens.
The monsoon breakingKerala coast, around 1 JuneHalf a continent's farming, food prices and river levels turn on a wind that changes direction. Scale is what impresses — one weather system, a billion people.
Fireflies over a paddy fieldRural India, after the first rainsCold light made inside a living body, flashing in rhythm. There is no fire and no heat.
The Himalayan snow line in summerUttarakhand, Himachal, SikkimA clean line where snow stops and flowers begin. The Valley of Flowers in this chapter lies just below it.
Sample answer: The two that have amazed me are the disappearing sea at Chandipur and a firefly field near my uncle's village. The Chandipur beach amazes me because the sea retreats two to five kilometres and comes back, every single day, and people simply walk out on to the seabed and return before the tide does. The fireflies amaze me for the opposite reason: they are tiny, and nothing about them is dangerous or grand. But a whole field of them switching on and off together, on a dark night with no moon, is a kind of light I have never seen come out of a machine.
Q4.
Work in groups of four. Complete the web chart given below with words that you associate with the phrase, ‘Nature’s Power’. Share your answers with your classmates and teacher.
Answer

A web chart works best when your branches are categories, not a random scatter of words. Put ‘Nature's Power' in the centre and grow four or five branches, each with its own words.

BranchWords to write on it
Force that destroysearthquake, cyclone, flood, landslide, volcano, lightning, tsunami, erosion
Force that createscrater, delta, canyon, cave, coral reef, mangrove, glacier, monsoon
Force that is slowtides, weathering, growing roots, layers of minerals, sediment, seasons
What it makes us feelawe, wonder, fear, respect, smallness, curiosity, humility
Words from this chaptermystifying, colossal, spectacle, whopping, rugged, enigmatic, breath-taking, awe-inspiring
One idea worth adding to the discussion: nature's power is not only sudden. The chapter's own examples divide neatly into the fast and the slow — a colossal meteorite that struck in a moment and left the Lonar crater, and roots that take decades to grow into a bridge strong enough to walk on. Both are power; only one is violent.
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