Rip Van Winkle (Class 5), Chapter & Exercises

 

             Rip Van Winkle 

This is a very beautiful story, which is written by Washington Irving.

CHAPTER EXPLANATION-

Many years ago, there was a little village near the mountains of the Kaatskill. In that village lived a good-natured man. He was simple and his name was Rip Van Winkle. The title of the story is taken from his name.

He was very kind by nature and always ready to help anyone and anywhere. He was very much liked by the villagers. Even children of that village felt elated whenever they saw Rip Van Winkle. As Rip used to play with them. He also taught them how to fly kites and shoot marbles. He also told them long and interesting stories. 

But the problem with Rip is that he was very lazy, he did not do any work on his farm and passed the time sitting idly. His fences( barrier) Started falling. Even his cow went astray. Weeds grew on his farm. Rip's has only one companion who always accompany him. His companion was his dog whose name was Wolf. In order to avoid work, being lazy he often walk into the forest along with his companion Wolf.

One day, by continously walking he reached at the top of the mountain. It was late afternoon.  He was so much tired after his long walk that he laid there and began daydreaming. Suddenly, he heard a voice calling out, "Rip Van Winkle, Rip Van Winkle!" He looked around and saw short height, old man with thick and grey hair. He was walking towards him with a barrel( big container ). By not uttering a single word he was just using sign language asking for Rip help. Rip helped him to carry the barrel and old strange man was holding his hand tightly.  They( Rip and old man) reached a place where there were some old looking men. They were playing ninepins game. They were all same dressed and even their beards were of different shapes and colors.

Even though while playing a game their faces were serious and there was complete silence. The only echoing sound was of the noise of the balls in the mountains. 

As Rip and their companion (old man) reached them, they stopped playing the game and gave him a fixed gaze. Rip was really frightened. They all were the strangers to him. One of the companion emptied the barrel into glasses and offered one glass to Rip also. He quietly drank as he was shivering with fear. He was thirsty also at the same time. So he drank few more glasses and fell into a deep sleep. 

When he woke up, he found himself at the place where he first met that old man. It was sunny morning.  He looked around for his companion Wolf, but he was nowhere. He even whistled for him. But he was not there. So he began his journey to the village. 

As he reached the village, he met a number of people but he was not able to recognize them. The villagers also stared at him quiet surprisingly. One man said, "Who is this man"? Another said, "look at his long white beard and his wrinkled face".

On hearing this, Rip gently rub his chin and to his excitement he found that his beard has grown a foot long and it was white in colour. 

An old woman approached him and looked at his face. Then she welcomed him, "It is Rip Van Winkle!" Welcome home agai, old neighbour. She asked him where you have been for these twenty long years. 

EXERCISES -

1- Write the correct meaning of the given words. You may need to use the dictionary. 

• Idled away - wasted , rested , admired

Ans- wasted

• Constant - coffee , construct , steady

Ans- steady

• Companion - dog , stranger , partner

Ans- partner

• Realise - to understand  , to set free , real

Ans- to understand 

• descend - to not send , to be descent , to move down 

Ans- to move down 

• Barrel - a wooden container  , a musical instrument , a bag

Ans- a wooden Container 

• Contents - to be happy , the ingredient, the index of a book

Ans- the index of a book.

2- Match the words in the box with their meanings. You may take the help of a dictionary. ( grizzled, foothills, stroked, familiar, astonished )

• near the lower part of a mountain - foothills.

• with grey hair - grizzled.

• to rub gently - stroked.

• to be very surprised  - astonished. 

• known to you - familiar. 

3- Say whether the following Sentences are TRUE or FALSE:

i- Rip was kind to children. TRUE

ii- Rip was a hardworking man. FALSE

iii- The short man on the mountain was his constant companion. FALSE

iv- Rip helped the old man on the mountains because he wanted to have a drink from the barrel. FALSE

v- Rip was away for twenty years because he was asleep on the mountains. TRUE

vi- The drink from the barrel made him fall asleep for twenty years. TRUE

vii- Nobody recognised Rip when he came back because he had reached the wrong village.  FALSE

4- Complete the following Sentences. 

i- Rip's village was situated at the foothills of kaatskill mountains. 

ii- The children of the village loved him because he taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles and told them long interesting stories. 

iii- A dog named Wolf was his constant companion. 

iv- The villagers stared at him because they could not recognise him.

v- The old woman who recognised Rip was his neighbour.

WORK IN GROUPS OF FOUR:

1- What were the strange things about the men on the mountains?

• Their faces were serious 

• They were silent 

• Their beard was of different shapes and colours 

• They were dressed the same way.

5- Pick out the names of the games mentioned in the story.

Flying Kites 

Chess

Ninepins

Shooting marbles

Mountain-climbing

Shooting

Skipping

Hopping.

Ans- Flying kites, ninepins, shooting marbles, mountain- climbing. 

6- Sometimes we join two words to make a describing word. For example, Rip was a good - natured man, everybody liked him. Here are some more describing words. Use them to complete the given paragraph. 

( long-sleeved, high-heeled, well-dressed, open-mouthed, sweet-looking, odd-looking, part-time )

Mrs. Das has a part - time job in a clothes shop. Yesterday, an odd-looking woman walked into the shop. She was wearing high-heeled shoes. A sweet-looking dog was with her. "I want a long-sleeved shirt for my dog. Please". She said, "For your dog"? asked Mrs. Das, open-mouthed in surprise.  "Yes", replied the woman. "I want him to be well-dressed for my next party".

7- Silent Letters

What is Common in the following groups of words?

• knee, knife, knot, know - The letter 'K' is silent. 

• neighbour, daughter, fight, straight - letter 'gh' is silent. 

• honest, honour, hour, heir - 'h' is silent.

Try and make more silent letter words:

A- gnat- sign, design, assign.

B- tongue- antique, boutique, vogue.

C- Chalk- folks, talk, calm.

D- whistle- bristle, watcher, wrestle.

8- Read the two paragraphs given below.

 My mother is always awake before anyone else in the family.  I usually wake up after 6o'clock. I loll around lazily for a few minutes.  Then I get up and get dressed for school.

At bedtime, I read a storybook. When I feel tired, I lie down  and go to sleep very quickly. I fall asleep in no time at all!

▪︎ Now find the opposites of the following words from the paragraph and complete the table.

• Awake - asleep

• wake up - go to sleep

• get up - lie down 

• lazily - quickly.

Note: Now you are provided with  the Detail Study of this chapter named Rip Van Winkle.  I hope this detailed article would be helpful to you. If any doubts, you can reach me through the comment box below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.