NCERT Solutions: The Invention of Vita Wonk

NCERT Textbook Page No. 102

Q1 : Choose the right answer.
(i) Mr Willy Wonka is (a) a cook, (b) an inventor, (c) a manager.
(ii) Wonka-Vite makes people (a) older, (b) younger.
(iii) Mr Wonka wants to invent a new thing which will make people (a) younger, (b) older.
Ans:
(i) Mr Willy Wonka is an inventor.
(ii) Wonka-Vite makes people younger.
(iii) Mr Wonka wants to invent something new that will make people older.

Q2: Can anyone’s age be a minus number? What does “minus 87” mean?
Ans: No, no one’s age can be a minus number. Here, “minus 87” means that the person had to wait eighty-seven years before he could come back. He had taken a strong dose of Wonka-Vite and had, therefore, disappeared.

Q3: Mr Wonka begins by asking himself two questions. What are they?
 (i) What is_______?
(ii) What lives ______?
Ans:
(i) What is the oldest living thing in the world?
(ii) What lives longer than anything else?

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NCERT Textbook Page No. 103

Q1 :  (i) What trees does Mr Wonka mention? Which tree does he say lives the longest?
 (ii) How long does this tree live? Where can you find it?
Ans:
(i) The trees that Mr Wonka mentioned are the Douglas fir, the oak, and the cedar. He said that a tree called Bristlecone pine lives the longest.
(ii) This tree lives for over 4000 years and is found on the slopes of Wheeler Peak in Nevada, U.S.A.

Q2: How many of the oldest living things can you remember from Mr Wonka’s list? (Don’t look back at the story!) Do you think all these things really exist, or are some of them purely imaginary?
Ans: Except the 4000-year-old Bristlecone pine, the things mentioned in Mr Wonka’s list (e.g., the toe-nail clipping from a 168-year-old Russian farmer, the tail of a 51-year-old horse) are purely imaginary.

Q3: Why does Mr Wonka collect items from the oldest things? Do you think this is the right way to begin his invention?
Ans: Mr Wonka collects items from the oldest things because he aims to invent something that makes people older. This approach is likely appropriate for his invention, as using ancient items aligns with his goal of creating age.

Q4: What happens to the volunteer who swallows four drops of the new invention? What is the name of the invention?
Ans: The twenty-year-old volunteer who swallowed four drops of the new invention, Vita-Wonk, experienced a dramatic transformation. Immediately after ingestion, he began to wrinkle and shrivel all over. His hair fell out, and his teeth started to drop. In a matter of moments, he aged into an old man of seventy-five.

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NCERT Textbook Page No. 104

Q1: Fill in the blanks in the recipe given below with words from the box.

Easy Palak-Dal

INGREDIENTS

1. One ____
2. Two thin green chilies
3. _____a teaspoon red chili powder
4. Eight small bunches of palak
5. Two _______
6. Salt to taste

Wash and cut the vegetables;  ___the palak. Put everything in a pressure  ____. Let the cooker whistle three _____, then switch it off. Fry a few cumin seeds in  _____ and add to the palak-dal.

Ans:EasyPalak-Dal

INGREDIENTS

1. One onion
2. One cup dal
3. Two thin green chilies
4. Half a teaspoon of red chilli powder
5. Eight small bunches of palak
6. Two tomatoes
7. Salt to taste

Wash and cut the vegetables; shred the palak. Put everything in a pressure cooker. Let the cooker whistle three times, then switch it off. Fry a few cumin seeds in oil and add to the palak-dal.

NCERT Textbook Page No. 107

Q1:  (i) Make a list of the trees Mr Wonka mentions. Where do these trees grow? Try to find out from an encyclopedia. Write a short paragraph about two or three of these trees.

(ii) Name some large trees commonly found in your area. Find out something about them (How old are they? Who planted them? Do birds eat their fruit?), and write two or three sentences about each one of them.

Ans: (i) Mr Wonka mentions the following trees:

• Douglas fir
• Oak
• Cedar
• Bristlecone pine

Douglas fir is found in coastal regions from west-central British Columbia southward to central California.

Oak is found in cool temperate to tropical latitudes in Asia and America.

We can find Cedar in the mountains of the western Himalayas and the Mediterranean region.

Bristlecone Pines are found in the higher mountains of the southwest United States. There are such bristlecone pine trees which are over 4000 years old.

(ii) Some large trees found around my area are:

Eucalyptus trees, Neem trees, Peepal trees and Banyan trees.

Eucalyptus trees are largely found in my area. They are used to prepare eucalyptus oil that has medicinal uses.

Peepal and Banyan are worshipped. Some of them have existed for more than 150 years.

The Neem tree in front of my house was planted by my grandmother 50 years back. It is a huge tree now.

Q2: Find out something interesting about age, or growing old, and write a paragraph about it. Following are a few topics, suggested as examples.

• The age profile of a country’s population — does it have more young people than old people or vice versa? What are the consequences of this?

• How can we tell how old a tree, a horse, or a rock is?

• What is the ‘life expectancy’ of various living things and various populations (how long can they reasonably expect to live)?

Ans: The age of any living thing is calculated from the day it is born. It determines how much it has lived till date. There are some countries where more people are of old age rather than young.

For instance, in countries like Italy where there are more old people rather than young people, whereas India is a country where the number of youth is higher.

The age of a tree can be calculated by counting the number of rings in its trunk. The carbon dating process can be used to find the age of a horse, a rock, etc.