NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 4 –166The Cherry Tree (Ruskin Bond) — Let us think and reflect (Extracts)
Book page 164 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Extract 1 — (i) Substitute the underlined phrase with a correct word from the extract. 'The Kho-kho captain changed her strategy quickly and without delay when a new player came in from the opposing team.'
Answer
The word is promptly.
The rewritten sentence: 'The Kho-kho captain promptly changed her strategy when a new player came in from the opposing team.'
Why this word: In the extract, 'Rakesh promptly ate the other two' — promptly means at once, without any delay. It carries the whole of 'quickly and without delay' in one word, and it is an adverb, so it can sit in exactly the place the underlined phrase occupied.
Tip: In this kind of question the answer must come from the extract. Do not reach for a synonym of your own like 'immediately' or 'instantly' — correct in meaning, but wrong for the task.
Q2.
Extract 1 — (ii) What does Rakesh's action of rolling the cherry seed in his mouth most likely suggest about his mood at that moment? A. He is feeling impatient and restless. B. He is enjoying the taste and the moment. C. He is bored and has nothing better to do. D. He is thoughtful and feeling playful.
Answer
B. He is enjoying the taste and the moment.
Why: Bond tells us Rakesh kept the seed 'for some time, rolling it round and round on his tongue until all the tang had gone'. He is deliberately making the last of the taste last — that is the behaviour of someone savouring something, not of someone restless or bored. Only three cherries survived the walk home, so the last of the last is worth stretching out.
Why the others fail: A and C describe a boy who wants the moment to end — but Rakesh is drawing it out. D is tempting, because he does become thoughtful afterwards ('he placed the seed on the palm of his hand and studied it'); but the rolling itself happens before the thinking, and there is nothing playful about it.
Q3.
Extract 1 — (iii) Complete the following sentence suitably with reference to Rakesh and his grandfather. 'Rakesh's decision to plant the seed shows that ______________.' (he respects and values his grandfather's advice / he has a close bond with his grandfather and a willingness to learn from him)
Answer
Rakesh's decision to plant the seed shows that he respects and values his grandfather's advice — he had already decided to keep the seed, and he changes his mind the moment Grandfather says, 'If you want luck, you must put it to some use.'
The second option in the brackets is equally acceptable: he has a close bond with his grandfather and a willingness to learn from him. Either completion is correct, provided you can point to the line that supports it.
Why either works: The conversation is only eight short lines long, and in that space Rakesh reverses himself twice. He asks whether cherry seeds are lucky; he decides to keep it; and then, on one sentence from Grandfather, he goes off to dig. A boy who is only being obedient does not then water the tree for six years. What we are watching is trust.
Q4.
Extract 1 — (iv) How does the grandfather's advice reflect his view about luck and effort?
Answer
Grandfather's advice — 'Nothing is lucky if you put it away. If you want luck, you must put it to some use.' — turns luck from something you have into something you do.
He does not deny that the seed is lucky. His first answer is 'Of course.' He simply refuses to let luck sit in a pocket.
For him, luck is not a charm but a possibility — and a possibility only becomes real when someone acts on it. A seed kept in a box is a dead thing; a seed pushed into soft earth is a tree.
So effort is not the opposite of luck in his view; it is the condition for it. Good fortune has to be used before it can come true.
Why the story proves him right: The whole plot is the proof of this one sentence. Rakesh puts the seed to use, and six years later there is a tree taller than Grandfather, with blossom, bees, birds and shade under it. Nothing 'lucky' happened along the way — a goat, a scythe and a winter of snow all happened. What happened was that a seed had been planted.
Q5.
Extract 2 — (i) Complete the following sentence suitably. 'The phrase field-mice sought shelter in the roof of the cottage suggests that _____________.'
Answer
The phrase 'field-mice sought shelter in the roof of the cottage' suggests that the winter had come unusually early and was severe enough to drive even wild creatures out of the fields and into a human home in search of warmth.
Why it works as a detail: Bond never writes 'it was very cold'. He shows you the cold through what it does — mice in the roof, the road from the valley blocked, the tree bent double under snow, and no newspaper for days. This is a writer letting small facts carry the weather, which is far more convincing than a direct statement would be.
Tip: Field-mice normally live in the fields — that is where the name comes from. The fact that they abandon them is the whole point of the sentence.
Q6.
Extract 2 — (ii) What can be inferred about the cherry tree's toughness from the line, 'The cherry tree bent low with the weight of snow'? A. The weight of the tree was more than the snow. B. The tree could withstand harsh weather. C. The tree was growing close to the ground. D. The snow gave support to the tree.
Answer
B. The tree could withstand harsh weather.
Why: The key word is 'bent' — not broke, not died. A tree that bends under a load and is still standing in February, when Rakesh turns nine and finds it 'almost as tall as Rakesh', has survived the worst the winter could do. Bending is how a young tree survives snow: it gives way, lets the load slide off, and springs back.
Why the others fail: A misreads the sentence — the snow is what weighs, the tree is what bends. C confuses the effect with the cause; the tree was already about Rakesh's height, so it was not a low-growing plant. D reverses the meaning: snow is a burden here, not a support.
Q7.
Extract 2 — (iii) How did the early winter affect Grandfather's mood and storytelling?
Answer
The early winter blocked the road from the valley, so no newspaper reached the cottage for several days — and 'this made Grandfather quite grumpy'. His mood then leaked straight into his stories: 'His stories began to have unhappy endings.'
Why the detail matters: Earlier in the story we are told what Grandfather's stories are normally like — 'people who turned into animals, and ghosts who lived in trees, and beans that jumped and stones that wept'. They are fantastic and cheerful. So a shift to unhappy endings is a real change, and Bond uses it as a quiet joke: the old man cannot help himself. It also shows how completely the weather ruled life in the hills — one blocked road, and even the bedtime stories turned gloomy.
Did you know? Grandfather's eyesight was 'rather weak', which is why Rakesh had to read the newspaper aloud to him. So the missing newspaper cost him not only the news but the evening's company.
Q8.
Extract 2 — (iv) Complete the sentence by choosing the correct option. 'The comparison of Rakesh's age to the cherry tree's age symbolises _______________.' (the tree's growth paralleling Rakesh's own development / the tree standing as a dear one on Rakesh's birthday)
Answer
The comparison of Rakesh's age to the cherry tree's age symbolises the tree's growth paralleling Rakesh's own development.
Why: Bond keeps measuring the two against each other, over and over — the tree is four and Rakesh is nine, 'but almost as tall as Rakesh'; then 'suddenly the tree was taller than Rakesh, even though it was less than half his age'; and in the same paragraph we are told that Rakesh too could now 'run and jump and climb trees' and 'read a lot of books'. Boy and tree are being grown side by side, on purpose, so that the reader measures one by the other.
Tip: The second option is not wrong as a feeling — the tree is dear to Rakesh — but it is not what the age comparison does. Ask yourself what the writer gains by repeating the ages, and the answer is the parallel, not the affection.