CLASS 11 · HORNBILL · CHAPTER 6
Original, student-friendly answers for Silk Road, Father to Son, and the related research activities.
26 worked answers · short steps first, explanations when you need them
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Question Understanding the Text I
Connect the author’s route with the historic trade routes.
Mention the cultural and geographical journey.
The route lies in a region linked with the historic Silk Road, where trade and cultures once met.
Question Understanding the Text I
Recall their size, strength, and guarding ability.
Connect these qualities with their value to rulers.
They were strong, imposing guard dogs, valued for protecting and impressing the imperial court.
Question Understanding the Text I
Recall the earlier accounts of Hor as a beautiful and welcoming place.
Compare them with the author’s immediate surroundings and experience.
Earlier accounts made Hor sound attractive, while the author found it dusty, bleak, and uncomfortable.
Question Understanding the Text I
Consider the town’s facilities and atmosphere.
Include the author’s health and difficulty finding help.
Darchen was uncomfortable and poorly equipped; the author felt ill, isolated, and unable to get information.
Question Understanding the Text I
Recall his worry about finding a companion for the kora.
Explain how meeting Norbu changed the situation.
Meeting Norbu gave him a companion for the pilgrimage, so he felt more hopeful.
Question Understanding the Text II
Identify the pilgrimage route called the kora.
Mention the author’s personal and travel-writing purpose.
He intended to complete the kora around sacred Mount Kailash and describe the journey.
Question Understanding the Text II
Recall his cold, breathing difficulties, and poor sleep.
Explain how these affected his plans.
He was unwell, tired, and sleeping badly at high altitude, which made the trek feel difficult.
Question Understanding the Text II
State what they shared and what differed between them.
Explain how the meeting changed the author’s mood and plans.
Norbu became a possible companion for the kora and helped the author feel less alone.
Question Understanding the Text II
Recall his driving and practical help.
Include the medical help and communication he provided.
Tsetan drove through difficult roads, arranged medical help, and supported communication.
Question Understanding the Text II
Notice the contrast between the serious situation and the practical remark.
Explain the humour without ignoring Tsetan’s care.
His dry joke lightens a serious moment; his practical help shows that he does care.
Question Talking about the Text
Use a specific example from the journey.
Explain how practical kindness can show sensitivity.
Tsetan responds to the author’s illness with practical help; sensitivity is shown through attention and hospitality.
Question Talking about the Text
Consider religious, personal, and learning goals.
Explain why effort may be meaningful to the traveller.
People accept difficulty for faith, adventure, personal goals, or learning, and value what they gain from the effort.
Question Talking about the Text
Compare imaginative or romantic descriptions with practical conditions.
Use Hor or Darchen as an example.
Legends may romanticise a place; the traveller also encounters its ordinary hardships and conditions.
Question Thinking about Language
Notice that his English is simple and functional.
Suggest realistic ways a guide might learn a language.
He uses practical English, likely learned by speaking with visitors and using it at work.
Question Thinking about Language
Identify Daniel’s role in the conversation.
Explain why an intermediary was needed.
Daniel translated the author’s words because they could not communicate directly.
Question Thinking about Language
Notice that Tsetan relays the doctor’s words.
Explain how the conversation took place.
Tsetan translated the doctor’s diagnosis for the author.
Question Thinking about Language
Use the travel context for kora and drokba.
Use the animal description for kyang.
Kora: pilgrimage circuit; drokba: Tibetan nomad/herder; kyang: wild ass. They are Tibetan words.
Question Working with Words I
Look for phrases that appeal to sight or atmosphere.
Give a few examples in your own words.
Use vivid visual phrases, such as “snow-bright peaks above a wide, brown valley.”
Question Working with Words II
Explain each adjective in its phrase.
Connect the adjective to the image or condition described.
Shaggy: rough-haired; brackish: slightly salty; rickety: shaky; hairpin: very sharp; rudimentary: simple and basic.
Question Noticing Form I
Notice who performs the actions.
Explain the effect on pace and immediacy.
Active voice makes the travel story direct, lively, and easy to follow from the narrator’s point of view.
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Question Noticing Form II
Keep the person as the one arranging the action.
Use “have + object + past participle.”
I was glad to have my bicycle repaired; she was eager to have her photo taken; we were relieved to have the room cleaned; he was happy to have his shoes polished; they were ready to have the windows replaced.
Question Understanding the Poem
Identify the conflict between the speaker and his son.
Consider whether similar gaps can happen in other families.
Its particular family story reflects a common experience: parents and children may feel distant despite living together.
Question Understanding the Poem
Notice his repeated admission that he does not understand his child.
Explain his wish for reconciliation and inability to reach it.
He cannot understand his son or rebuild the relationship, though he longs for forgiveness and closeness.
Question Understanding the Poem
Look for images of silence, separation, and lack of understanding.
Explain how they create emotional distance.
“We speak like strangers,” “Silence surrounds us,” and “I do not understand this child” show their distance.
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Question Understanding the Poem
Listen to the end sounds in each stanza.
Notice the pattern and any variation.
It has some recurring rhymes, but no fully consistent rhyme scheme throughout.
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Question Things to Do
State what the fossils tell us.
Explain the collision and uplift.
Marine fossils show the rocks were once under the Tethys Ocean; the collision of India with Asia later lifted them to form the Himalayas.