Important Questions for CBSE Class 11 English Woven Chapter 3 - Patterns of Creativity

A. Very Short Answer Questions  (1 Mark) 

1. Word-Meaning 

(i) Assortment 

Ans: Mixture

(ii) Precision 

Ans: Accuracy

(iii) Picaresque

Ans: Referring to an episodic style of fiction that accompanies the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero.

(iv) Askance 

Ans: Suspiciously

(v) Discernment 

Ans: Judgement

(vi) Endowment 

Ans: Financing

2. What Question Does the Author have? 

Ans: The author had a question about why the patterns of creativity among practitioners in the arts and practitioners in the sciences are contrasting.

3. How Does He Plan to Answer This Question? 

Ans: The author does not plan to answer the question immediately but to make an assortment of remarks that could give him an answer.

4. What Does He Consider About Getting an Answer? 

Ans: The author considers knowing the perspective of a scientist and a poet about one another.

5. What Does One Think of When He Thinks of the Attitude of Poets to Science? 

Ans: The author mentioned that if someone thinks of the attitude of poets to science, they think of Wordsworth and Keats and their off-quoted lines.

B. Short Answer Questions  (2 Marks) 

1. What Do the Off-Quoted Lines by Wordsworth That the Author Has Mentioned in the Chapter “Patterns of Creativity” Depict?

Ans: According to the author, the off-quoted lines by Wordsworth in the chapter “Patterns of creativity” depict the echo in the statement by Lowes Dickinson, "When Science arrives, it expels Literature."

2. How has Peter Medawar Countered Lowes Dickinson? 

Ans: Peter Medawar, a scientist, has countered Lowes Dickinson, a poet, by saying that he is waiting for a case where it is proved that literature has expelled science. He mentions that "in the current world, it is no good pretending that science and literature represent complementary and mutually sustaining endeavours to achieve a common goal. On the contrary, when they are expected to compile, they compete".

3. Who is Shelley? Why Does the Author Mention Him in His Lesson? Who Criticised Him? 

Ans: Shelley was a scientist and a poet. The author mentioned him in the story because he wants scientists to consider his attitude toward Shelley. He was criticised by a distinguished scientist, Desmond King-Hele.

4. How Has Desmond King-Hele Criticised Shelley? 

Ans: Desmond King-Hele has criticised Shelley by mentioning that Shelley's attitude to science emphasises the surprising modern climate of thought in which he chose to live, as he has demonstrated the mechanisms of nature with an accuracy and a wealth of detail unparalleled in English poetry.

5. What Did A.N. Whitehead Had to Say About Shelley’s Attitude to Science? 

Ans: A.N. Whitehead says that the attitude of Shelley to science was contrasting to that of Wordsworth. Shelley loves science and he is never tired of writing poetry about the thoughts which it suggests. Poetry about science symbolises his joy, peace and illumination.

C. Short Answer Questions  (3 Marks) 

1. What Does Shelley has to Say About His Sensitivity to the Role of Technology?

Ans: After Shelley spoke of the Defence of Poetry, he also quoted in favour that he was sensitive to science as well. He writes that the promoters of utility, in the limited sense, have their appointed offices in society. They follow in the footsteps of poets. They copy sketches of their creations into the books of ordinary life. They provide space and give time.

2. Did Charles Darwin Ever Enjoy Poetry? 

Ans: Charles Darwin admits that poetry by Milton, Gray, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley brought him tremendous pleasure up to the age of thirty or beyond. Even as a schoolboy, he was fascinated by Shakespeare's plays, particularly the historical ones.

3. Why has the Author Mentioned Faraday? 

Ans: The author mentioned Faraday to show the relationship between his discovery and the process of thought. He mentions that Faraday had discovered the laws of electromagnetic induction that led him to formulate concepts such as "lines of force" and "fields of force". These concepts were foreign to the then prevailing modes of thought. The thoughts were suspicious of his generation.

4. Who Interrupted Faraday in the Description of His Work on Electricity? How Did Faraday React to It? 

Ans: Faraday was interrupted in the description of his work on electricity by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gladstone, who impatiently inquired about the use of electricity. Faraday took it positively and told him that there was every probability that he would soon be able to tax it.

5. What has Shelley Spoken About Darwin’s Confession and Faraday’s Response? 

Ans: Shelley has spoken about Darwin’s confession and Faraday’s response in his Defence of Poetry, that "the cultivation of those sciences which have enlarged the limits of man's empire over the external world has proportionately circumscribed those of the internal world". A man who has enslaved the elements remains a slave.

D. Long Answer Questions  (5 Marks) 

1. What was the Confession of Charles Darwin? 

Ans: Charles Darwin confesses that he was delighted by the poetry of many great poets, such as Milton, Gray, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, which brought him tremendous pleasure up to the age of thirty or beyond. Even as a schoolboy, he was fascinated by Shakespeare's plays, particularly the historical ones. But after a few more years, he was unable to read poetry. He tried reading Shakespeare, but it made him feel nauseated. His mind has evolved into a kind of machine for extracting general laws from large collections of facts, but he cannot comprehend why this should have occurred in atrophy of the part of the brain entirely responsible for higher tastes. He no longer enjoys watching movies or listening to music.

2. What Did Maxwell Write About Faraday’s Ideas? 

Ans: The scientist Maxwell writes about Faraday’s ideas that "the way Faraday used his idea of the lines of force in coordinating the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction shows him to be a world-class mathematician." He is so brilliant that future mathematicians may be able to learn valuable and productive approaches from him. People are ignoring the facts. In fact, the name of the science that would be developed out of the materials collected in the current world would be after any great philosopher who made his appearance after Faraday.

3. What Two Examples Does the Author Use from Shelley’s Poetry? 

Ans: The author uses two examples from Shelley’s poetry because he wanted to support what has been said about him. 
(i) The first example he uses was Shelley’s poem "Cloud" that "combines together a scientific monograph, a creative myth, and a gay picaresque tale of cloud adventure". 
(ii) The second example he used was "Prometheus Unbound". Herbert Read described this part as the "utmost appearance ever given to humanity's desire for logical light and sacred liberty."

4. What Does W.B Yeats has to Say About “a Defence of Poetry”? 

Ans: A Defence of Poetry by Shelley has been quoted as one of the most moving documents in all of English literature. It has been described as "the most profound essay on the foundation of poetry in the English language" by poet W.B. Yeats. The author has written a significant portion of the essay in the lesson that depicts poetry as a record of the best and happiest moments of the best and happiest minds. It is poetry that makes all the best and most beautiful things immortal. It captures the vanishing apparitions that haunt the interlunations of life.

5. “Poets are the Hierophants of an Unapprehended Inspiration; the Mirrors or the Gigantic Shadows Which Futurity Casts Upon the Present; the Words Which Express What They Understand Not; the Trumpets Which Sing to Battle, and Feel Not What They Inspire; the Influence Which is Moved Not, but Moves. Poets are the Unacknowledged Legislators of the World.” from Which Essay Were These Lines Taken for the Lesson? Who Wrote it and What Do These Lines Mean? 

Ans: The author has taken these lines from the essay written by Shelley entitled "A Defence of Poetry". Shelley writes about the qualities of a poet. It describes that poets are the boosters of inspiration. They are reflections of the gigantic shadows cast by the future on the present. The words written by poets are not understood by all. Those are the words that the trumpets sing to battle and feel an inspiration running throughout them. One does not feel easy what a poet inspires and the influence which has not moved yet. He calls poets the unappreciated lawmakers of the world.