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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 5 Magnifying Glass — Let us speak

Book page 228 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
When pronouncing /v/ and /f/, the lower lip lightly touches the edge of the upper teeth. Air flows through the small gap, creating a soft friction sound. Note the difference between /v/ and /f/. When we pronounce words with /v/ sound, there is a vibration, whereas /f/ sound has no vibration. Both the sounds can occur in the beginning, middle, or at the end of words. Read these words aloud with the help of your teacher. (beginning sound /f/: forest, flowers, from; middle sound /f/: deft, afternoon; end sound /f/: of, itself; beginning sound /v/: vase, valour, victory; middle sound /v/: woven, even, marvellous; end sound /v/: hive)
Answer

Both sounds are made in exactly the same place — lower lip against the upper teeth, air hissing through the gap. Only one thing separates them:

SoundVoiceTestWords
/f/Voiceless — the vocal cords do not vibratePlace two fingers on your throat: no buzzforest, flowers, from, deft, afternoon, of*, itself
/v/Voiced — the vocal cords vibrateSame test: a clear buzz under the fingersvase, valour, victory, woven, even, marvellous, hive
*Careful with ‘of': although it is listed with the /f/ words in your book, the ordinary pronunciation of of is /əv/ — with a /v/ at the end. Compare it with off, which really does end in /f/. Say them one after another: a cup of tea / switch it off.
Why this pair is worth practising in India: many Indian languages have no /v/–/f/ contrast and no /w/–/v/ contrast, so fan and van, or vet and wet, can collapse into one sound. Two drills: (1) hold your fingers to your throat and say fan – van, few – view, leaf – leave, safe – save, proof – prove, checking the buzz each time; (2) for /v/ versus /w/, remember that /v/ needs your teeth on your lip, while /w/ needs only rounded lips and no teeth at all — vine / wine, vest / west, verse / worse.
Q2.
If you could travel to space, which planet would you like to visit? Why? What preparations would you like to make? Speak about any five things that you would like to take along.
Answer

Structure your talk in three parts — which planet, why, what you would take — and make the five objects specific, with a reason for each. That is what turns a wish-list into a talk.

Sample answer: If I could travel to space I would go to Mars. I choose Mars and not Jupiter or Venus for a practical reason: it is the only other planet in the solar system with a solid surface a person could actually stand on, a day almost the same length as ours, and ice water locked in its soil. Venus would melt the spacecraft at 460°C and Jupiter has no surface to land on at all. I would also like to see Olympus Mons, a volcano nearly three times the height of Everest, and to look for the fossils that would settle the biggest question there is — whether life began more than once.

Preparations: the journey takes six to nine months each way, so I would need at least two years of training — in a centrifuge for launch forces, in a neutral-buoyancy pool for working in a suit, in a pressure chamber, and in first aid and repair work, because there is no help within 200 million kilometres. I would also learn to grow food in low light, and I would train my mind for the isolation, which astronauts say is the hardest part.

Five things I would take: (1) a pressure suit with a good helmet visor — Mars's air is 95% carbon dioxide at less than one per cent of our pressure, so it is not optional; (2) a radiation dosimeter, because Mars has no magnetic field or ozone layer to shield me; (3) a supply of seeds — wheat, tomato and methi — since food cannot be carried for two years and must be grown; (4) a solar-charged water electrolysis kit, which splits water into oxygen to breathe and hydrogen for fuel; and (5) one thing of no scientific use at all — my grandmother's brass diya, so that there is one object on that whole planet that came from a house.
What makes this a strong spoken answer: it rejects the alternatives with reasons, gives numbers, and ends with one human, unexpected item. The last point is worth copying — in a speaking task, one memorable detail is worth ten correct ones.
Q3.
If you could invent something, what would you like to invent and how? Give reasons for the choice of your invention. Speak about your wonder invention.
Answer

A good answer names a problem first, then the invention, then roughly how it would work, then who it helps. An invention with no problem behind it is only a gadget.

Sample answer: I would invent a solar cold-box for vegetable carts.

The problem: India loses a very large share of its fruit and vegetables between the field and the plate, mostly because there is no cooling anywhere along the way. A vendor who cannot sell his tomatoes by evening loses them, and he has no fridge and no electricity connection on a cart.

The invention: an insulated box, about the size of a large trunk, that sits under the cart. A flexible solar panel on the cart's awning charges a small battery during the day; the battery runs a thermoelectric cooler that holds the box at about 10°C. Inside, a lining of wet terracotta adds evaporative cooling for free, the way a matka does, so the electric cooler has far less work to do. It would need no plumbing, no gas and no wiring — only sunlight, which a street vendor already has more of than he wants.

Why this and not something grander: because it uses only technology that already exists and costs little, so it could actually be built. And it helps the person at the very bottom of the chain — the vendor who currently absorbs the whole loss.
Tip for this kind of talk: the most persuasive inventions are usually recombinations of existing things, not miracles. Notice how the sample borrows the earthen pot, the solar panel and the thermoelectric chip — all ordinary — and puts them together for a use nobody had bothered with.
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