The Pot Maker — Class 9 MCQs with Answers

The Pot Maker — important questions & MCQs with answers (Class 9 English)

6 solved questions from this chapter's difficulty levels, each with its answer and explanation. Tap an option to check yourself.

0 of 6 answered

1. Q1 of 6Easy

   What craft did Sentila dream of practising, like her mother and grandmother?

   ACarpentryBWeavingCFarmingDPot making
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   Answer: Pot making

   Explanation: 'Sentila... began to dream of becoming a pot maker like her mother and grandmother.'

2. Q2 of 6Easy

   Why did Sentila secretly visit expert potters?

   ATo sell potsBTo buy clayCTo learn the skill of pot makingDTo gossip
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   Answer: To learn the skill of pot making

   Explanation: She approached expert potters to learn the skill while her parents were away in the fields.

3. Q3 of 6Medium

   'Sentila hung her head in shame and frustration' — this shows she felt:

   ABoredBProud of her workCAngry at OnulaDDiscouraged by her repeated failure
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   Answer: Discouraged by her repeated failure

   Explanation: Hanging her head in shame/frustration shows discouragement after failing to shape the pot.

4. Q4 of 6Medium

   Why did Mr Gessler in 'Quality' lose most of his customers?

   AHe was rudeBHe took a long time and never advertised, while rivals were quickerCHe raised his pricesDHe made poor boots
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   Answer: He took a long time and never advertised, while rivals were quicker

   Explanation: He insisted on making each boot himself with the best leather and never advertised, so impatient customers left.

5. Q5 of 6Hard

   In 'Gifts of Grace', listing many different workers one after another is a technique of:

   AFlashbackBRhyme schemeCCataloguing / enumeration to celebrate collective labourDForeshadowing
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   Answer: Cataloguing / enumeration to celebrate collective labour

   Explanation: The poem catalogues vocations (carpenters, electricians, boatmen, shoemakers) to celebrate the whole working community — as Whitman does.

6. Q6 of 6Hard

   Which statement about 'The Pot Maker' is FALSE?

   ASentila was determined to become a pot makerBArenla never wanted Sentila to learn any craft at allCOnula helped Sentila overcome her tensionDPottery is shown as hard, poorly paid labour
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   Answer: Arenla never wanted Sentila to learn any craft at all

   Explanation: Arenla did want Sentila to have a craft — weaving; she was not against all craft, only worried about pottery's hardship.

The Pot Maker notes: key concepts (Class 9 English)

Sentila, a Naga girl, dreams of becoming a pot maker like her mother and grandmother, but her mother pushes her towards weaving. Read with Galsworthy's 'Quality' and the poem 'Gifts of Grace', the unit weighs the dignity of honest craftsmanship against the hard material cost of practising it.

Sentila

A Naga girl determined to become a pot maker like her mother and grandmother. She secretly visits expert potters to learn while her parents are away in the fields.

Arenla

Sentila's mother, a skilled potter who wants her daughter to weave instead. She finds pottery laborious and poorly paid, and thinks weaving earns a handsomer return.

Mesoba

Sentila's father, summoned by the village council to explain why Arenla refuses to pass on the craft. He loyally defends his wife before the elders.

Onula

A kind middle-aged widow who supervises the girls' dormitory. She is the one who finally helps Sentila, by telling her to relax and to watch her mother shape the mouth of the pot.

Why Arenla resists

The clay riverbank is sixteen kilometres away, the pounding is tedious, and the whole labour brings 'only a pittance — a few rupees'. Her reluctance is protection, not cruelty.

Why Sentila fails at first

She is too tense, so the clay will not yield. Skill here is not only technique but confidence — with Onula's encouragement she works 'with a confidence she had never felt before'.

The village council's argument

A craft is not private property: such skills symbolise the tradition and history of the whole people, so they must be taught to anyone willing to learn.

The ending and its irony

Left alone, Sentila makes pot after pot — just one short of her mother's tally — then goes in for lunch and finds Arenla dead at the threshold. She achieves her dream at the moment she loses her mother.

'Quality' — Mr Gessler

A bootmaker who made the finest boots, refused to let anyone else touch them and never advertised. Rivals who worked faster took his customers, and he died of slow starvation.

What Gessler represents

Uncompromising devotion to quality colliding with a modern commerce that rewards speed and marketing. The closing line 'he made good boots' is a quiet tribute.

Poem: 'Gifts of Grace'

Catalogues carpenters, electricians, boatmen and shoemakers all 'celebrating' their work, affirming that every vocation carries dignity. It is modelled on Walt Whitman's 'I Hear America Singing'.

Key vocabulary

A pittance is a very small income; tedious means tiring; deftly means skilfully; malleable clay can be shaped without cracking; dexterity means skill; to follow suit is to do the same as someone just did.