Important Questions for CBSE Class 8 English It So Happened Chapter 5 - Princess September

Very Short Answer Questions - 1 Mark

1. Word – Meaning from the given chapter

i. Peculiar 

ii. Maid of Honour 

iii. Startled 

iv. Gracious 

Ans: The meanings are: 

i. Strange

ii. An unmarried woman who attends a queen or princess

iii. Showing sudden shock or alarm 

iv. Polite 

2. Who are the children of the King and Queen of Siam?

Ans: The King and the Queen of Siam have nine daughters. 

3. The King and the queen are of which province (place) in the story? 

Ans: The king and queen are both Siamese.

4. What language is spoken in Siam? 

Ans: The language spoken in Siam is Siamese. 

5. After what does the king name his daughters? 

Ans: The king named his daughters after the names of the months. 

Short Answer Questions - 2 Marks 

1. What does the king decide to call his daughters? 

Ans: The king decided to call his daughters in January, February, and March, and so on till September. 

2. What was the peculiar habit of the king? 

Ans: The peculiar habit of the king was that on his birthday, instead of receiving gifts, he would give them to others. He gave each daughter a parrot in a golden cage. 

3. What did the daughters do with the parrot? 

Ans: The parrots were trained to talk by the daughters. They all said either "God save the king" or "Pretty Polly."

4. What does Princess September see when she went to say good morning to her parrot? 

Ans: Princess September went to say good morning to her parrot one lovely morning, only to find it dead on the floor of its gilded cage.

5. What did the maid of honor do when they saw Princess September crying? 

Ans: The maid of honor tried to calm down Princess September but as it did not help, they informed the Queen about her condition. 

Short Answer Questions - 3 Marks 

1. Why and in what state did the Maid of Honour leave the princess? 

Ans: The Maid of Honour left the princess because they wanted to go to a party. They tucked Princess September in bed as quickly as possible and left her alone crying. 

2. What does Princess September see while lying in bed? What did the thing do?

Ans: While lying in bed Princess September is crying and hungry; she sees that a little bird hopped into her room. She immediately wiped her tears and sat up. The bird started singing beautiful songs. 

3. What was the bird’s song about? How did the princess react to it? 

Ans: The bird sang songs about the lake in the garden of the king and goldfish that glided in and out of the branches that were reflected in it. The princess stopped crying and even forgot that she is an empty stomach and tells the bird he sang a nice song. 

4. What does the bird do after the princess complimented her? What does he ask for?

Ans: The bird gave the princess a bow and asks her if he could replace the parrot. He added that he knows he is not pretty to look at but he definitely has a much better voice. Princess September clapped her hands and let the bird stay that sang her to sleep. 

5. What do the Maids of Honour see the next day? 

Ans:When the Princess' Maids of Honour served her breakfast, they noticed a little bird chirping. They were taken aback since they had never heard something so lovely before. 

Long Answer Questions - 5 Marks 

1. What did the eight princesses tell Princess September about the new bird? How did Princess September feel? 

Ans: The eight princesses got distressed as the King and the Queen said the new bird song was better than anyone’s parrot. So they asked Princess September that they would get her green and yellow bird and she should let the bird free. When she did not agree, they said that you haven’t caged the bird and it might leave you at any moment. Princess September at first ignored whatever her sisters told her but then she paid attention to what they had said and thought if she should cage the bird. 

2. What does Princess September think of when the little bird did not return the next day? 

Ans: Princes September was worried as her sisters tried to warn her that the bird might not return. So when the next day the bird was late, Princess got paranoid that the bird had been away a long time and something might have happened to him. Hawks or the snares might have attacked him or maybe the bird forgot Princess and now might like someone else. 

3. How did the bird react when Princess September was being paranoid? 

Ans: The bird returned after a night to princess September,  sat on her shoulder, and said “tweettweet”. Princess told him that she was worried about him to which the little bird replied that he did not come at night as his father-in-law threw a party and everyone wanted him to stay so he stayed with them. He further added that he knew he would be anxious. Unfortunately, the little bird did not know that was not the right time to put forward any such remarks and the princess was already paranoid and was thinking to cage him. 

4. How does the bird feel after he was caged? 

Ans: Princess September listened to her sisters and caged the little bird which was not liked by the bird. The bird ate a good supper and began to sing but then stopped as he needed freedom to sing. The bird shouted and cried at September to free him but September said it is for his own good. The bird felt miserable and fell ill to the extent that he was about to lose his life. 

5. What did September do when she saw that the bird was losing his life? 

Ans: As the bird was not able to sing in the cage, which made it miserable, and also falls sick. Princess saw that her bird was lying on the floor in a corner and did not wake her up in the morning so she began crying but the bird woke up from her tears and spoke to her that he cannot sing unless he is set free and if he cannot sing, he would die. The princess decided to free the bird as she loved him then putting him in a cage. The bird flew but kept visiting the Princess.