Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in Current Affairs.

Answer :
(a) X would most likely be in the same group of the Periodic Table as magnesium (Mg).

Chair, air, smell, almonds, cold drink, smell of perfume are matter.

Mendeleev arranged the elements in their increasing order of atomic masses. But some elements with higher atomic masses are placed before those having lower atomic masses, e.g. cobalt (CO) with atomic mass 58.93 is placed before nickel (Ni) having atomic mass 58.71. Moderm periodic table was prepared on the basis of the atomic number of elements. The atomic number of CO is 27 and that of Ni is 28. So nickel is placed after cobalt.

Isotopes were discovered long time after Mendeleev put forth the periodic table. A challenge was posed in placing isotopes in Mendeleev’s periodic table, as isotopes have the same chemical properties but different atomic masses. Isotopes do not find separate places in this table.

Moseley found out that atomic number is a fundamental property of an element rather than its atomic mass. The atomic number of any element is increased by one unit (number) from the atomic number or subsequent element. In the modern periodic table, the elements are arranged in the order of their increasing atomic numbers, that time the problem or discrepancy in the pairs or isotopes of elements observed in Mendeleev’s periodic table was solved. The isotopes or ₁₇Cl³⁵ and ₁₇CI³⁷ were placed in the same group as both have the same atomic number.

When elements were arranged in the increasing order of atomic number. The anomalies of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table were removed.

(a) Decreases in a period and increases along the group

Answer :
(c) The atoms lose their electrons more easily.
(On moving from left to right across the periods of the periodic table, the non-metallic character increases. Hence, the tendency to lose electrons decreases.)

1. Mendeleev's Periodic table:

(i) Elements are arranged in the increasing order of their atomic mass.

(ii) This table has 8 groups and 6 periods. And each group is subdivided as a A and B.

(iii) In this table Hydrogen has no position.

(iv) No position for isotopes, because in Mendeleev period these are not discovered.

2. Modern Periodic table:

(i) Elements are arranged in the increasing order of their atomic number.

(ii) It has 18 groups and 7 periods.

(iii) Inert gases are placed in separate group.

(iv) In this table a zigzag line separates Metals from Non-metals.

Answer:

(a) The vertical columns in a periodic table are called groups.

(i) The greatest metallic character is found in the elements in the lowest part of the group.

(ii) The largest atomic size is found in the lowest part of the group.

(b) Group 1 elements have 1 valence electron and are ionic in chemical reactions. Their chemical reactivity increases down the group. They are electropositive in nature and it increases down the group.

Whereas, the elements of group 17 have 7 valence electrons. They all are non-metals. Their chemical reactivity decreases down the group. They are electronegative in nature and it decreases down the group.

(c) The no. of valence electrons in the atoms of elements decides which element will be the 1st element in a period and which will be the last in a period.

(d) The properties of elements are repeated after 2, 8, 18 and 32 elements in the periodic table because the electronic configurations of the elements are repeated in this manner.

(e) Advantages of the periodic table:

(i) It has made the study of chemistry systematic and easy.

(ii) It is easier to remember the properties of an element if its position in the periodic table is known.

(iii) The type of compounds formed by an element can be predicted by knowing its position in the periodic table.

(iv) It is used as a teaching aid in chemistry in schools and colleges.

(c) F>N>C>B> Si

In a period, the non-metallic character increases from left to right. Thus, among B, C, N and F, non-metallic character decreases in the order: F > N > C> B. However, within a group, non-metallic character decreases from top to bottom. Thus, C is more nonmetallic than Si. Therefore, the correct sequence of decreasing non-metallic character is: F> N > C > B > Si, 

Berylium has maximum metallic characteristic.

Calcium and strontium are the two elements we would expect to show chemical reactions similar to magnesium. Because these resemble magnesium in chemical properties, All three elements have two valence electrons.

On a stormy day, the elephant approached the man to let him put his trunk inside the hut so as f to prevent it from getting wet in the rain. The man, being kind and sympathetic, told the elephant that there was only room enough for himself and its trunk. He told the elephant to put its trunk in gently.

The elephant, seeing the man’s naivety, took his tolerance as ‘weakness’ and, pushing its head inside, flung the man out in the rain. Then it lay down comfortably inside his hut. The man protested and started to grumble. A heated argument ensued between the man and the elephant. In this turmoil, the lion came along roaring and warned the animals not to disturb the peace of his kingdom. The elephant told the king that he was only having a little discussion with his friend about taking possession of the f hut which he was occupying. The lion ordered his ministers to appoint a Commission of Enquiry to examine their claims and to report accordingly.

A Commission of Enquiry comprising some of the animals as members was soon constituted. On seeing the members, the man protested and demanded that a member from his side also be included. But his plea was rejected on the ground that no one on his side was educated enough to understand the intricacy of jungle law.

During the trial, Mr Elephant stated that he has always regarded it as his duty to protect the interests of his friends and that seemed to have caused the misunderstanding between himself and his friend. Then he submitted before the Commission that his friend had requested him (the elephant) to save his hut from being blown away by a hurricane.

Next, he stated that as the hurricane had entered the hut because of the unoccupied space in the hut, he considered it necessary to turn the undeveloped space to a more economic use by sitting in it himself. After hearing the elephant’s statement, the Commission listened to the statements given by the other animals of the forest. Then they called the man to state his account of the dispute. However, the Commission restrained him from narrating the whole story and asked him to only tell them whether the undeveloped space in his hut had been occupied by anyone else before Mr Elephant occupied it. But even before the man began his reply the Commission declared that they had heard sufficient evidence from both sides and retired to consider their decision.

After enjoying a delicious meal at the expense of the elephant, they declared their verdict. They stated that Mr Elephant has fulfilled his sacred duty of protecting the man’s interests. Further, they said that as it was clear that the man was not able to put the space in his hut to economic use, it was necessary to arrange a compromise to suit both parties. Therefore, they decreed that the elephant should continue its occupation of his hut and they would give him permission to look for a site where he could build another hut suited to his needs.

The members of the Commission of Enquiry were well-versed in jungle law which advocated the maxims ‘might is right’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. On the contrary, the man believed in resolving conflicts through open discussion and mutual respect and co-operation. This being the case, the Enquiry Commission members being animals of the forest, clearly understood that the man can only grumble and protest but cannot do anything physically to evict the elephant from his hut. Therefore, the members considered his tolerance as weakness and approved the elephant’s action as correct and decreed in its favour.

(c) the man and the elephant had a trouble

The Commission of Enquiry was appointed because the man and the elephant had a dispute.

जाँच आयोग का गठन किया गया क्योंकि आदमी तथा हाथी में विवाद था।

On a stormy day, the elephant approached the man to let him put his trunk inside the hut so as f to prevent it from getting wet in the rain. The man, being kind and sympathetic, told the elephant that there was only room enough for himself and its trunk. He told the elephant to put its trunk in gently.

The elephant, seeing the man’s naivety, took his tolerance as ‘weakness’ and, pushing its head inside, flung the man out in the rain. Then it lay down comfortably inside his hut. The man

protested and started to grumble. A heated argument ensued between the man and the elephant. In this turmoil, the lion came along roaring and warned the animals not to disturb the peace of his kingdom. The elephant told the king that he was only having a little discussion with his friend about taking possession of the f hut which he was occupying. The lion ordered his ministers to appoint a Commission of Enquiry to examine their claims and to report accordingly.

A Commission of Enquiry comprising some of the animals as members was soon constituted. On seeing the members, the man protested and demanded that a member from his side also be included. But his plea was rejected on the ground that no one on his side was educated enough to understand the intricacy of jungle law.

During the trial, Mr Elephant stated that he has always regarded it as his duty to protect the interests of his friends and that seemed to have caused the misunderstanding between himself and his friend. Then he submitted before the Commission that his friend had requested him (the elephant) to save his hut from being blown away by a hurricane.

Next, he stated that as the hurricane had entered the hut because of the unoccupied space in the hut, he considered it necessary to turn the undeveloped space to a more economic use by sitting in it himself. After hearing the elephant’s statement, the Commission listened to the statements given by the other animals of the forest. Then they called the man to state his account of the dispute. However, the Commission restrained him from narrating the whole story and asked him to only tell them whether the undeveloped space in his hut had been occupied by anyone else before Mr Elephant occupied it. But even before the man began his reply the Commission declared that they had heard sufficient evidence from both sides and retired to consider their decision.

After enjoying a delicious meal at the expense of the elephant, they declared their verdict. They stated that Mr Elephant has fulfilled his sacred duty of protecting the man’s interests. Further, they said that as it was clear that the man was not able to put the space in his hut to economic use, it was necessary to arrange a compromise to suit both parties. Therefore, they decreed that the elephant should continue its occupation of his hut and they would give him permission to look for a site where he could build another hut suited to his needs.

The members of the Commission of Enquiry were well-versed in jungle law which advocated the maxims ‘might is right’ and ‘survival of the fittest’. On the contrary, the man believed in resolving conflicts through open discussion and mutual respect and co-operation. This being the case, the Enquiry Commission members being animals of the forest, clearly understood that the man can only grumble and protest but cannot do anything physically to evict the elephant from his hut. Therefore, the members considered his tolerance as weakness and approved the elephant’s action as correct and decreed in its favour.

The animals decided not to have anyone from the man’s side on the Commission of Enquiry based on the argument that there was no one well-educated from the man’s side to know the intricacies of the jungle law. However, the unstated truth is the fact that right from the beginning, the Commission had no intention of doing any justice to the man and hence had representatives only from the elephant’s side. Ironically, the elephant himself, against whom the case was registered, constituted the Commission along with the other ministers of the king.

The curse on the plant by a sage is that when someone needs the plant, he will not find it. It was this curse which led to the practice of tying the creeper to a nearby tree so that people would find it when they needed it.

(b) didn’t show him the plant.

Mara showed the white man all the blood on his clothes and body and cringed before him saying that he was not lying. Looking at all this, the white man was convinced that Mara was telling the truth.

(a) rickshaw driver.

(1) To resolve the Kangaroo’s objection, the Duck would buy four pairs of worsted socks to fit his web-feet neatly and would buy a cloak and smoke a cigar every day to keep out the cold.

(2) The Figure of Speech in these lines :

“And to keep out the cold I’ve bought a cloak,
And every day a cigar I’ll smoke’ is Anaphora. Here we find Repetition of the word ‘And’ in successive lines.

(3) The Duck would follow certain restraints for himself for two reasons :

(i) Otherwise the Kangaroo would not give him a ride on his back and
(ii) The Duck did not want to cause any harm, i.e., rheumatism to the Kangaroo for he loved him truly.

Metal X is gold and Metal Y is silver; The colour of metal X (gold) is yellow.

1.  expression

2. disturbance

3. pronunciation

4. judgement

5. amazement.

Once the author was putting up a shade over a coffee seedbed. They needed something to tie the cane pieces placed across the frame. So, he sent Sanna to get some creepers from the forest. He brought a whole bundle. Mara opened the bundle and while sifting he suddenly looked at one of the creepers and scolded Sanna for plucking it. On knowing from Sanna that there were many of these creepers in the forest, the writer along with Mara and Sanna went to the forest out of curiosity. When Mara found the medicinal creeper, he tied its tendrils to a nearby tree. Mara explained his actions by saying that the creeper was cursed by a sage that it wouldn’t be found by people when they needed it and searched for it. That is why it had to be tied to a nearby plant as soon as it was found.

Mara had once accidentally cut the artery of his hand in the forest where he went to get bamboo shoots. As he started bleeding profusely, everyone was alarmed and took him to the white man at Hulihindalu for dressing his wounded hand. However, before going to him, people around him had pressed some leaf against the wound and bandaged it using a piece of cloth torn from their lungi. But when the white man opened the bandage, there was not even the sign of the wound. The white man initially thought that Mara was trying to fool him. But when Mara showed him the blood on his clothes and body, the white man believed him. The white man was surprised at the magical power of the leaf and offered his entire plantation if Mara could show him the plant.

(1) Here the words ‘Good gracious’ convey the surprise watching the Kangaroo hop over fields and water non-stop.

(2) The Duck felt that in that dirty pond, his life was a bore and he wanted to go out in the world beyond the pond.

(3) The Duck wished he could hop like the Kangaroo.

Krishna approached a Malayali sadhu for help to cure his boils which had started developing all over his body. The godman gave Krishna the bark of some tree. He had to crush the bark, mix it with duck’s eggs and eat. He had to take this course of treatment for ten days. Krishna was completely cured, and after the treatment, he never got a boil again.

Later, when Krishna changed his job and became a rickshaw driver, he developed piles and started passing blood with his stools. The only allopathic treatment for piles was surgery, and if he opted for it he would be forced to be in the hospital for several days and he would lose his income. Therefore, Krishna went to the Malayali sadhu again for the help. But, the sadhu had grown old and did not have the strength to search for the plant which was needed to cure bis piles.

However, the sadhu gave Krishna a good description of the plant and advised him to dig out the tuberous root, mix it with milk and drink the medicine for five days. The next day, when Krishna was looking for the medicinal creeper, the narrator inferred that Krishna was also looking for the same creeper which Mara and Appanna had tied to the nearest tree. The narrator took him to the plant and both of them dug up its tuber. Krishna ground the root and drank it with milk. Within a day his piles improved and were completely cured in five days.

The narrator learnt from Appanna that if the juice of the leaves of the creeper was put into milk, it would become hard. The narrator decided to test it. The narrator plucked some leaves from the creeper and told his friend Chandru, who was a plant pathologist, about it. They put the milk and leaves into a mixer and switched it on. After mixing the juice of the leaves and the milk thoroughly, they poured it out into a vessel. After a while, the milk had become firm and rubbery. When they inverted the vessel, the whole thing fell out like a moulded cast.

Once Mara and his friend laid a trap and caught a barking deer. As they had to divide it equally between them, they took it near the stream, skinned it, cleaned it and divided the meat. They wrapped their portions in some leaves and brought them home. In Mara’s house, they prepared the masala with spices, put the water to boil and opened the packet to take out the meat. Instead of the meat, there was a live wild buck. The meat of the barking deer had been changed into a wild duck by the leaf in which it had been wrapped.

While Krishna and the narrator were digging up the root, the narrator happened to eat just a small piece of it to see how it tastes. It tasted slightly bitter. The narrator’s right heel had been paining for quite some time. Then, there appeared a swelling next to the bone of his right heel. When he consulted a surgeon, the surgeon advised the removal of the swelling through surgery. But a few days after the narrator had eaten the piece of root, the swelling had disappeared.

(1) No, the Kangaroo did not agree to the Duck’s proposal instantly. He asked for a little more time to give it a mature thought.

(2) The polite expression in the stanza is ‘…if you’ll let me speak so bold.

(3) The Kangaroo objected to the Duck’s proposal to give him a ride that if he rode with his cold and wet feet, it would cause him rheumatism.

Once, Mara laid a trap in the forest to catch rabbits. He went into the forest before daybreak to take his catch. The trap was empty and so he had to trek back home empty-handed. Since there was a stream flowing nearby Mara decided to brush his teeth and wash his face before trekking back home. He broke a stick from a nearby plant and brushed his teeth a couple of times. When he brushed the teeth a fourth time, he felt a sour taste in the mouth. Then he rinsed his mouth taking some water from the stream. When he spat it out, all the teeth which had been touched by the stick tumbled out of his mouth. Then Mara realized that he had brushed only the teeth in the right side of the mouth and hence they had fallen out, whereas the teeth in the left side were intact, as he had not brushed them with that stick. Thus by brushing only the teeth in the right side of his mouth, Mara had escaped losing all his teeth.

D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’

(1) The Duck requested the Kangaroo to give him a ride on his back to see the world beyond the pond.

(2) If the Kangaroo gave a ride on his back to the Duck, the Duck would sit quite still on his back throughout the day without speaking a single word except ‘Quack’.

(3) The Figure of Speech in the line ‘Said the Duck to the Kangaroo’ is inversion. Here the words in the sentence structure are inverted, i.e., instead of ‘The Duck said to the Kangaroo’, it is ‘Said the Duck to the Kangaroo’.

A school-going boy.

The child with the free spirit.

The huntsman winds his horn.

Correct option is (d) fear

B. the skylark.

The package contained a beautiful set of combs. Della had seen them in a shop window. She had liked them but had never hoped she could get them.

D.Both ‘A’ and ‘B’

D.Both ‘A’ and ‘B’

(a)  monotonous ways of teaching.

1. When the author reached the school, he saw a girl of about twelve years of age whose eyes were covered with bandage. She was being led carefully between the flower beds by a little boy about four years younger.

2. The little girl stopped and asked the boy to describe to her who had come.

3. Miss Beam was middle-aged, full of authority; yet kindly and understanding. Her hair had turned grey and she had a comforting plump figure.

4. The author asked Miss Beam questions about her teaching methods, which he had heard were simple.

5. Understanding: I have a very kind and an understanding sister.
Authority: My father is a man of authority in his office.

In  a  cage.

(c)  tender plant and bird.

(ii) Nor can I learn anything at school though teachers go on lecturing and explaining.