Section A: One-Liner & Objective Questions (Q1 – Q25)
Q1 Who wrote the text "Once Upon a Time"?
Answer: Toni Morrison (टोनी मॉरिसन).
Q2 In which year did Toni Morrison receive the Nobel Prize in Literature?
Answer: 1993.
Q3 Toni Morrison was the _____ woman and the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Answer: Eighth (आठवीं).
Q4 Name the prestigious prize for fiction won by Toni Morrison.
Answer: The Pulitzer Prize.
Q5 Name Toni Morrison's seventh novel published early in 1998.
Answer: Paradise.
Q6 From what occasion is the text "Once Upon a Time" adapted?
Answer: It is adapted from her Nobel Prize acceptance lecture (delivered in 1993).
Q7 How was the old woman in the lore described in terms of sight and intellect?
Answer: "Blind but wise."
Q8 In the version the speaker knows, whose daughter is the old woman?
Answer: The daughter of slaves.
Q9 Where does the old woman live?
Answer: Alone in a small house outside of town.
Q10 What is the old woman's position among her people?
Answer: She is both the law and its transgression.
Q11 Who visited the old woman one day?
Answer: Some young people.
Q12 What did the visitors want to disprove?
Answer: Her clairvoyance (and show her up as a fraud).
Q13 What physical difference did the visitors treat as a profound disability?
Answer: Her blindness.
Q14 What question did the young visitor ask the old woman?
Answer: "Old woman, I hold in my hand a bird. Tell me whether it is living or dead."
Q15 What did the old woman know about the visitors even though she was blind?
Answer: She knew their motive.
Q16 What was the old woman's final answer to the question?
Answer: "I don't know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands."
Q17 What does the "bird" signify to the speaker (Toni Morrison)?
Answer: Language (भाषा).
Q18 What does the "woman" signify to the speaker?
Answer: A practiced writer (एक अनुभवी लेखक).
Q19 According to the young people's speech, what alone protects us from the scariness of things with no names?
Answer: Language.
Q20 What will the boy in the wagon have in three years?
Answer: A gun.
Q21 What does the boy carry right now?
Answer: A lamp and a jug of warm cider.
Q22 Complete the textbook blank [B.2 (1)]: "A _______ that gestures towards possibility."
Answer: "sentence"
Q23 Complete the textbook blank [B.2 (2)]: "The future of _______ is yours."
Answer: "language"
Q24 Complete the textbook blank [B.2 (3)]: "Language alone _______ scariness of things with no names."
Answer: "protects us from the"
Q25 Complete the textbook blank [B.2 (5)]: "I trust you with the _______ that is not in your hands because you have _______."
Answer: "bird", "truly caught it"
Section B: Short Answer Questions (Q26 – Q42)
Q26 [Textbook B.1 (1)] How was the old woman?
Answer: The old woman was blind, wise, black, an American, and the daughter of slaves who lived alone in a small house outside of town.
Q27 [Textbook B.1 (2)] Is this folklore present in one culture or many?
Answer: It is present in many cultures; variations of this tale exist across different cultural lore featuring an old woman, an old man, or a guru.
Q28 [Textbook B.1 (3)] Who is the father of that old woman?
Answer: Her father was an enslaved person (she is described as "the daughter of slaves").
Q29 [Textbook B.1 (4)] Where does the old woman live?
Answer: She lives alone in a small house situated outside of town.
Q30 [Textbook B.1 (5)] How is her reputation for wisdom?
Answer: Her reputation for wisdom is without peer and without question among her people.
Q31 [Textbook B.1 (6)] What is her position in the neighbourhood?
Answer: She is held in high honor and awe; among her people, she is regarded as both the law and its transgression.
Q32 [Textbook B.1 (7)] Why did some young people visit her?
Answer: They visited her to test and disprove her clairvoyance, hoping to expose her as a fraud by playing a trick with a bird.
Q33 [Textbook B.1 (8)] What does the old woman know about those people?
Answer: She cannot see their color, gender, or homeland, but she clearly senses and understands their deceitful motive.
Q34 [Textbook B.1 (9)] For what are the young visitors reprimanded?
Answer: They are reprimanded for parading their power over her helplessness and for risking or sacrificing a living creature simply to mock an elder.
Q35 [Textbook B.1 (10)] What does ‘bird’ and ‘woman’ signify to the speaker?
Answer: The bird signifies "language" (fragile, vulnerable, and living), and the old woman signifies a "practiced writer" who cares for it.
Q36 Explain the dilemma posed by the question about the bird.
Answer: If she answered "it is dead," the boy would open his hands and let it fly; if she answered "it is alive," he would crush it dead. Her answer shifts the moral responsibility entirely onto him.
Q37 What does the old woman mean by "It is in your hands"?
Answer: She means the life, death, and ethical responsibility of the creature depend entirely on the choices and actions of the person holding it.
Q38 Why do the young visitors have trouble holding their laughter during the woman's silence?
Answer: They mistakenly assume her prolonged silence means she is baffled and defeated by their clever trick.
Q39 How does language function as "meditation" according to the narrative?
Answer: Language allows humans to perceive beyond physical vision ("how to see without pictures"), name the unknown, and reflect deeply on moral and shared truths.
Q40 What historical trauma is evoked by the image of the "wagonload of slaves"?
Answer: It evokes the history of chattel slavery in America, capturing enslaved humans transported in harsh winter weather, singing softly while facing an unknown fate.
Q41 How does the girl in the wagon display human compassion?
Answer: She offers bread, meat, and warm cider, accompanying the food with a meaningful, humane glance that restores dignity to the suffering people.
Q42 Why does the old woman say "I trust you now" at the end?
Answer: Because the young people move beyond their cruel trick, engaging in authentic storytelling and deep dialogue that proves they value language and life.
Section C: Long Subjective & Analytical Questions (Q43 – Q50)
Q43 Give a detailed character sketch of the old woman in "Once Upon a Time".
Answer:
The old woman is depicted as an emblem of ancestral wisdom, moral poise, and quiet authority:
- Background & Position: Born as the daughter of enslaved parents, she resides in an isolated cabin outside of town. Despite her physical blindness and social marginalization, her reputation for insight is unmatched among her people.
- Moral Poise: When confronted by cynical youth attempting to humiliate her, she does not react with anger, defensiveness, or panic. She remains silent until she can cut straight to the core of their moral failing.
- Symbolic Role: Instead of participating in their frivolous game, she speaks in a voice that is soft yet stern, placing the burden of responsibility back into their hands. She represents the experienced elder and practiced writer who understands that life and language are delicate gifts requiring ethical care.
Q44 Discuss the central theme of Toni Morrison's "Once Upon a Time".
Answer:
The primary theme of the text is the vital nature of language and the moral responsibility of those who wield it.
Morrison presents language not as an inert set of grammatical rules, but as a living, breathing entity capable of creating understanding or inflicting destruction. Through the parable of the bird, Morrison demonstrates that language is vulnerable to misuse—it can be manipulated to deceive, mock, and oppress, or nurtured to reveal truth, heal historical trauma, and build empathy. The text also underscores the dialogue between generations: elders must pass down wisdom without dogma, and the youth must embrace the responsibility of keeping language vibrant, truthful, and humane.
Q45 Explain the symbolic relationship between the bird, the old woman, and the young visitors.
Answer:
Morrison explicitly maps the folktale's elements onto the literary and linguistic landscape:
- The Bird represents Language: It is delicate, living, and easily crushed by careless or violent hands. Its survival depends entirely on how speakers choose to treat it.
- The Old Woman represents the Practiced Writer/Elder: Blind to superficial differences, she guards the integrity of expression and understands the profound power of words.
- The Young Visitors represent New Generations / Speakers: They possess the vitality and physical power to decide the fate of language. They can either turn language into a cynical weapon of mockery or use it collaboratively to articulate marginal voices and build community.
Q46 How does Morrison explore the theme of power versus responsibility in the text?
Answer:
The confrontation between the youth and the woman exposes a common misuse of power:
- Abuse of Strength: The young visitors use their sight, youth, and agility to exert intellectual dominance over an old, blind woman. They treat her vulnerability as entertainment and the bird's life as a dispensable prop.
- Shift to Responsibility: The old woman reframes the entire dynamic. By responding, "It is in your hands," she shifts attention from an empty display of dominance to the heavy weight of ethical accountability.
She reminds them that power detached from moral responsibility is destructive, and that holding life or language gives one the obligation to protect, rather than destroy, what is fragile.
Q47 Analyze the young people's speech about marginality and the wagonload of slaves.
Answer:
In the second half of the speech, the youth move beyond their prank and ask deep questions about human suffering:
- Voices from the Margins: They urge the elder to explain "what moves at the margin" and what it feels like to live in places where one is rejected.
- Historical Memory: They recall ships turned away at Easter and slaves packed into frozen wagons singing softly into falling snow, recognizing the tragedy of human commodification.
- The Gesture of Humanity: They describe a boy and girl entering the wagon to share warm cider and bread, accompanied by direct eye contact. This imagery shows the youth moving from callousness to empathy, using narrative to honor forgotten lives.
Q48 What does Morrison mean by the assertion that "language should be living and vibrant"?
Answer:
Morrison believes that language must remain active, supple, and connected to genuine human emotion and shared experience:
When language is used merely to enforce dogmas, hide state violence, or bully the weak, it becomes calcified and dead. Living language, by contrast, gives a name to fears, captures complex historical realities, and connects disparate individuals across cultural barriers. A living language is open to change, questioning, and storytelling, serving as an instrument of liberation rather than control.
Q49 Explain the significance of the closing lines: "Look. How lovely it is, this thing we have done - together."
Answer:
The final line marks the reconciliation and artistic triumph between the old woman and the young visitors:
- Mutual Creation: Storytelling and linguistic vitality cannot be achieved in isolation. The elder provided wisdom and restraint, while the youth provided fresh energy and vulnerability.
- Catching the Bird: By speaking with genuine feeling and confronting painful histories, the youth have "truly caught" the bird without killing it—they have kept language alive.
- Generational Harmony: The concluding phrase celebrates the beauty of shared dialogue, showing that when different generations listen and create together, they transform potential hostility into enduring art.
Q50 Summarize the text "Once Upon a Time" in your own words.
Answer:
Summary:
"Once Upon a Time" is an allegorical text based on Toni Morrison's 1993 Nobel lecture. It begins with a traditional folktale about a wise, blind, black woman living on the outskirts of town. A group of young visitors arrives determined to expose her as a fraud. One asks whether the bird held in his hands is living or dead, intending to prove her wrong regardless of her answer.
Instead of guessing, the woman tells them that the bird's fate rests entirely in their hands, reprimanding them for abusing power. Morrison explains that the bird represents language and the woman a seasoned writer. The youth subsequently abandon their mockery, engaging in profound reflections on slavery, marginalization, and human connection. The story ends in mutual trust, celebrating language as a shared creative space that bridges divides across generations.
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