ICE BREAKERS on The Call of the Soil
Discuss the following with your partner and complete the following sentences. One is done for you.
(a) Before eating apples brought from the market, I wash and peel them off
(b) In a farmers’ market, we find grains, vegetables and fruits .
(c) Food adulteration means addition of something in food to increase the weight .
(d) Organic food is grown by using organic fertilizer.
(e) Organic fertilizer means fertilizer made of animal matter , animal excreta, human excreta and dried and green leaves .
- Complete the following web diagram :
(i) Find out from your grandparents or parents the names of vegetables
and fruits they had eaten in their childhood and mention how the
vegetables and fruits are different from the ones today.
Name of the vegetable or fruit Shape Colour Taste
1.
2.
3.
(ii) You might have learnt about organic farming. Make groups and
discuss the difference between conventional farming and organic
farming and write it down.
Glossary and Notes
Sr.No. Con
Word Definition
adjacent – nearby
advent – coming
alluring – enticing
appetite- hunger
awful -extremely
biodiversity -biological diversity
curse -a prayer for harm
damp -slightly wet
disappeared- vanished
ditch- a long narrow excavation
drifted- carried along
exhilarated very happy
fading disappearing
fences barriers made by posts and wires
fertile productive
harvest process of gathering harvest
hustle and bustle energetic activity
indication hint
insatiable impossible to satisfy
insipid tasteless
lamented regretted
pleasantries humourous act
ramshackle in a state of disrepair
recede move back
reminiscing remembering a story about a past event
resist exert force in opposition
rue regret
scowl a facial expressions of displeasure
tempted attracted
yield product
Test on Vocabulary from The Call of the Soil: A scent Of Rice
Brainstorming
(A1) (i) Read the extract from The Call of the Soil: A scent Of Rice and state whether the following statements are true
or false. Correct the false statements.
(a) Growing in abundance is more important than the quality of the
crop. False
Correct : Growing in abundance is not as important as the quality of the crop
(b) The author wanted to grow the desi variety of rice. True
(c) The author did not succeed in finding Kasbai. False
Correct : The author found Kasbai rice at adivasi old woman’s house in Boripada.
(d) The aroma of the ‘desi’ rice would spread around the village. True
(e) Newer hybrid crops have a great appetite for chemical. True
(f) The author is an example of ‘reverse migration’. True
(ii) Complete the flow chart.
(iii) Read the text The Call of the Soil: A scent Of Rice and fill in the blanks. One is done for you.
(a) The author wanted to grow organic moong.
(b) Moru Dada wanted to spray ……….. on the moong crop.
(c) Baban’s father and some elders mentioned the name of ………
(d) “Hybrids need more…………. ”, said Devu Handa.
(e) The author bought ……….of rice from an Adivasi woman who lived in remote hills.
b) pesticide c) Kasbai d) chemicals e) a basketful
(A2) (i) List the reactions of the agricultural officer to the author’s inquiry
about Kasbai rice seeds. One is done for you.
(a) He had not heard of Kasbai.
(b) He said that there was no rice by that name.
(c) He offered to give the author latest hybrid seeds of rice free of cost .
(ii) Go through the text The Call of the Soil: A scent Of Rice once again and note down Devu Handa’s fond
memories of Kasbai in your exercise book. One is done for you.
Devu Handa has fond memories of Kasbai. They are as follows !
(a) It needs rain.
(b) People passing through the village would stop due to aroma of rice and ask for meal.
(c) The entire village would grow Kasbai.
(A3) (i) The writer says he grew ‘an awful lot of moong’. Explain the word ‘awful’ in this sentence.
(ii) The word scent is different from its synonyms aroma, fragrance or perfume. Explain how the word ‘scent’ in the subtitle ‘Scent of the Rice’, has a deeper meaning than ‘perfume’ or ‘fragrance’. Tick phrases having a similar meaning from the following:
(a) In pursuit of
(b) To smell a rat
(c) To be keen
(d) On the tail of
(e) To feel under the weather
(A5) (i) Planting and growing more crops a year seems to be progress by normal standards; but the chapter makes a case against it. Giver reasons.
Ans: Chemical fertilizer , pesticides and insecticide are used to yield more crop. Food grown in this process is unsafe . Consumption of such food leads to illness . Even the fertility of the land gets damaged . So the author prefers less crop grown out of organic fertilizer.
(ii) Describe in about 150 words your experience similar to the writer’s when you pursued something and reached your goal.
(iii) The writer goes in search of an invaluable indigenous variety of seeds. List three reasons for the importance of keeping records of our indigenous agricultural practices.
Ans: 1. Keeping records of our indigenous agricultural PRACTICES is necessary for the research on them.
2. It helps the locals to understand the importance of indigenous agricultural practices.
3. The indigenous agricultural practices are based on ecological knowledge such as agroforestry , water conservation.
Nice .