NCERT Class 9 English Chapter 11 Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth
NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Reader Chapter 11 Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth
Textbook Questions Solved
Question 1.
Parents alone are responsible for inculcating a good sense of dental hygiene amongst children. Do you agree/disagree ? Discuss with your partner.
Answer
For discussion with partners at school level.
Yes, I agree with this. It is the parents who are responsible for inculcating a good sense of dental hygiene amongst their children. Children are children. They can’t be expected to live like the adults who know what is good or bad for them. Actually, children have a limited knowledge. They don’t know what is or will be good or bad for them. Since sweets are tasty they go on eating them and in greater quantities.
But they know it little how harmful they’ll be for their teeth. It is like eating fried food with cold drinks which makes them obese. If it is continued, obesity becomes the mother of many diseases. So parents must teach their children, in fact, must caution them against the results of eating more sweets. These will surely damage their teeth. They will undergo the pain of fillings and the whining drills of the dentist in their mouths. Quite possibly one day they might wear false teeth.
Question 2.
On the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice.
(a) The title ‘Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth’ expresses _____.
- regret
- humour
- longing
- pleasure
(b) The conscience of the speaker pricks her as she has ____.
- been careless
- been ignorant
- been fun-loving
- been rude
(c) The speaker says that she has paved the way for cavities and decay by _____
- eating the wrong food and not brushing
- not listening to her mother
- laughing at her mother’s false teeth
- not listening to the dentist
(d) The tone of the narrator is one of ____.
- joy
- nostalgia
- regret
- sorrow
Answer
(a) 1
(b) 1
(c) 1
(d) 3
Question 3.
Answer the following questions
- “… But up-and-down brushin’
And pokin’ and fussin’
Didn’t seem worth the time-I could bite !”
What do these lines convey ? - Why did the poet go to the dentist ? How could she have avoided it ?
- “If you got a tooth, you got a friend”, what do you understand from the line ?
- With reference to the poem, how can you look after your teeth ? (V. Imp.)
- Give an appropriate proverb that conveys the message that this poem carries.
Answer
- These lines convey that the narrator continued brushing her teeth up-and-down and checking them. But she never stopped eating various kinds of sweets. She didn’t think it was worth to check all this as she could bite still. She thought her teeth were alright but they had decayed and were in the process of decaying.
- The poet went to the dentist to get her teeth repaired and to have fillings of her cavities in them. She could have avoided if she had cared for them and stopped eating sweets at right time.
- It means when a new tooth came it became like a friend. Earlier, the mouth was ‘friendless’ without the teeth. Now it was not so. Also it means the tooth was like a ‘friend’ because it had not been affected by the decay.
- We can look after our teeth by avoiding all kinds of sweets. Then we can take care of them by regularly brushing them appropriately.
- Healthy and sparkling teeth
Add lustre to your health.
Question 4.
Listen to, the conversation between Doki and his sister, Moki. As you listen complete the idioms and expressions listed below.
Answer
- a wink
- giving
- whip
- horse
- turn
- never cease
- past
- had sown
Question 5.
Read the following statement where ‘I’ refers to ‘you’
“I can’t afford to, after what Jack’s done to his teeth.”
What is it, you think you can’t afford and why ? Write a diary entry of not less than 125 words.
(in-class activity; not to be set up as homework).
Answer
15 September 20… 9.30 pm
I feel horrified to see Jack with diseased and decaying teeth. How beautiful and sparkling teeth he had earlier ! But now when he opens his mouth it is a scene of decayed and coloured teeth. I simply can’t afford to treat my teeth like Jack. I know sparkling teeth add to our personality. Then with healthy teeth we are almost disease- free. I feel that decaying teeth cause bad breath. They invite a horde of germs of other allied diseases. By keeping good teeth, I can laugh at those people who sit in a dentist’s chair listening to their terror.
This horror is caused by the whining sound of their drill. I am very conscious to eat good and healthy food and avoid junk food. Then brushing the teeth daily and flushing it with liquids like Listerene, has become my hobby. There is no doubt that bright and sparkling teeth are God’s gift. They add to the person’s personality. We must keep them healthy and in a good condition. It is never difficult to afford keeping them fine and bright.
Just Think
Question 1.
In line 35, the poet has misspelt the word ‘amalgam’. Why do you think she has done that ? Discuss.
(Teacher would point out the use of ‘me’ instead of ‘my’ and other linguistic variations that make the poem enjoyable.)
Answer
For discussion at class level. Some points are given below to facilitate this.
- ‘amulgum’ distortion of amalgamation.
- by saying or adding ‘amulgum’ the poet’s intention is to suggest mispronunciation due to decayed teeth or causing humour.
- to suggest horror by striking some sort of suspense in the patient’s mind.
- to alert the patient to be conscious of the fact that ‘mercury’, a part in the filling material, is something to be avoided.
- to suggest caution in the readers’ minds to be wary of the necessity of keeping one’s teeth healthy.
- to teach the narrator and readers as well, to avoid eating sweets for the sake of maintaining healthy teeth
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS (SOLVED)
Answer each of the following questions in 30-40 words.
Question 1:
What are the different kinds of sweets that the poet ate which led to the cavities ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The poet, as a child, used to eat all sweets things such as lollipops, caramels, chocolates and chewing gums. She enjoyed candies and the other sticky stuff.
Question 2:
Why has the line, “Oh ! I wish I’d looked after me teeth’ been repeated in the poem by Pam ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The line has been repeated for emphasis. The poet realizes and regrets that she has not been taking proper care of her teeth. That is why, her teeth were now in a bad state.
Question 3:
What should the poet have known ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The poet should have known the consequences of eating many sweets and neglecting the teeth. She should have known that if she continued to neglect the care of her teeth they would be causing her a lot of trouble.
Question 4:
What were the consequences of the poet’s actions in her childhood according to the poem ‘Oh!I wish I’d looked After Me Teeth’ ?(CBSE 2014)
Answer:
In her childhood the poet ate a number of sweets of all kinds. She did not brush her teeth carefully. The result was that cavities developed beneath her teeth, and she had to go to the dentist and underwent a lot of pain.
Question 5:
“Two amalgum”. What does this expression mean ? (CBSE 2014)
Or
Why has the word ‘amalgum’ been misspelt in the poem ‘Oh ! I wish I’d looked After Me Teeth’ ?
(CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The poet deliberately misspells the word ‘amalgam’ as ‘amalgum’. She wants to emphasise in an amusing way that there were two cavities beneath her teeth which the dentist was to fill with amalgam—a mixture of mercury and another metal used for such purposes.
Question 6:
Why does the child find brushing a useless activity ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The child found brushing a useless activity because she was ignorant about dental hygiene at that time. She casually brushed her teeth and thus harmed them greatly.
Question 7:
What perils did the poet spot ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The poet spotted perils, that is, cavities beneath her teeth. These cavities were caused by her eating sweets and sticky stuff and by her neglect of her teeth.
Question 8:
How does the poem successfully ‘awaken the reader to his dental hygiene and care’ ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The poem repeats the line ‘Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth’ to emphasise the necessity of dental hygiene. She repeatedly expresses her regret and tells the reader how she had harmed her teeth by eating many sweets and by the neglect of her teeth. Thus, the poem succeeds in its explicit aim of making the reader aware of the significance of dental care.
Question 9:
Who is whining a ‘drill’ in the poem, ‘Oh, I wished……………….. ’, and why ? (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The dentist is using his drill- which gives the sound of whining-in filling the holes in the teeth of the poet. It is so because there are cavities beneath the poet’s teeth, caused by her neglect of her teeth.
Question 10:
“But up-and-down brushing and pokin’ and fussin”. What do you understand by the line. (CBSE 2014)
Answer:
The line tells us that the poet did not brush her teeth properly and carefully. She did not move the brush up and down as recommended. She took the activity of brushing as useless.
Question 11:
On what should the poet have spent her money ?
Answer:
The poet should have spent her money on the right kind of food. She should have spent money on healthy and nutritious food that would have made her teeth strong and healthy. She should not have wasted money on buying toffees, lollies, candies and sweet, sticky food.
Question 12:
Why does the conscience of the poet prick her ?
Answer:
The conscience of the poet pricks her because she had been eating wrong kind of food. She had been eating toffees, lollies and candies and sweet, sticky food. This kind of food caused cavities in her teeth. She had to bear painful injections and the pain of the dentist’s drill. Thus, she feels guilty.
Question 13:
What did the poet do with her cavities in her teeth ?
Answer:
She went to the dentist for treatment. She wanted to get the cavities filled medically. She had to get the painful injections. She had to sit in the dentist’s chair and bear the pain of the dentist’s drill. She regretted that she had not looked after her teeth.
Question 14:
What signal did her mother’s false teeth give to the poet ?
Answer:
Her mother’s false teeth gave her the signal that if she did not take care of her teeth, she, too, would have to get the false teeth for herself. She had neglected the care of her teeth. She developed many cavities in her teeth. She was likely to lose some teeth. So she thought that her mother’s false teeth gave a sort of warning to her.
LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS (SOLVED)
Question 1:
“The body is a temple”. It is believed that the body given by God should be treated with care, as it is one’s temple. Comment on this thought with reference to the poem ‘Oh I wish I’d looked After Me Teeth’.
(CBSE 2014)
Answer:
A temple is a place which we respect and honour. The body given to us by God is nothing but a venerable temple. If we neglect it we are sure to suffer in one way or the other. If we do not take proper care of any of its organ we will have to bear the consequences.
In the poem ‘Oh ! I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth’ the poet paid no attention to her teeth in her childhood. She continued to eat sweets and sticky stuff. To make the matters worse, she did not brush her teeth carefully. She thought that brushing was a useless activity. The result was that many cavities developed beneath her teeth. She had to go to the dentist to fill those holes. She suffered from a lot of needless pain. Had she treated her teeth with respect she would not have to suffer at all.
Question 2:
What message does the poet want to convey to children in his poem ‘Oh, I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth’ ? Support your answer with reference to the following lines :
How I laughed at my mother’s false teeth,
As they foamed in the waters beneath.
But now comes the reckonin’
It’s me they are beckonin’
Oh, I wish I’d looked after me teeth.
Answer:
The poet regrets that she had not taken care of her teeth during her childhood. She conveys a message to the children that they should inculcate in themselves a good sense of dental hygiene. She regrets that she harmed her teeth by ; neglecting their care. Due to the neglect of her teeth, she developed many cavities beneath her teeth. It happened because she had been eating a lot of toffees and sweet, sticky food. Now, she realizes that she should not have eaten sweets and hard candies. She feels guilty that she had been eating
lollies, candies and tiny sweets. Her conscience pricks her because she had been eating wrong food. The poet regrets that she did not brush her teeth properly. She did not brush her teeth by moving brush up and down. She did not consider it worthwhile to spend some time in cleaning her teeth. Consequently, the poet had to go to the dentist for treatment.
Question 3:
What is the role of parents and teachers in teaching dental care to children ? Discuss it with reference to the poet’s experience in the poem ‘Oh ! I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth’.
Answer:
There is no denying the fact that parents and teachers can play an active role in teaching dental hygiene to children. Mothers at home must ensure that her children do not eat too many sweets. She should ensure that they brush their teeth at least twice a day. She should also tell them the proper use of toothbrush. If the children pay no or little attention to their teeth, they should be taken to the dentist and show the horrible scene of treating the teeth.
In the poem ‘Oh ! I Wish I’d Looked After Me Teeth’, it seems as if her parents were quite negligent. They did not persuade or force her to avoid sweets and brush her teeth carefully. Had they played their role well the poet would not have to suffer a lot of pain at the dentist in filling her cavities.