Chapter 5 The Hundred Dresses Part 1 Important Questions Class 10 First Flight English

Very Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. What was strange about Wanda’s name?

Answer

She had a long name which was a funny one.

Question 2. How did Peggy treat Wanda?

Answer

Peggy made fun of Wanda by asking her how many dresses she had.

Question 3. Who was Peggy’s best friend?

Answer

Maddie was Peggy’s best friend.

Question 4. How did Peggy react when she saw an animal mistreated?

Answer

When Peggy saw an animal mistreated, she would cry for hours.

Question 5. Why did Maddie feel embarrassed?

Answer

Maddie did not like Peggy to make fun of Wanda.

Question 6. What kind of dress did Wanda wear?

Answer

She always wore a faded blue dress.

Question 7. What was the attitude of the other children toward Wanda?

Answer

They often made fun of her.

Question 8. What fun did Peggy start?

Answer

Peggy used to ask Wanda mockingly how many dresses she had.

Question 9. Who was Miss Mason?

Answer

She was Peggy’s class teacher.

Question 10. How many designs were made by Wanda?

Answer

There were a hundred designs made by Wanda.

Question 11. Where did Wanda Petronski live?

Answer

She lived at Boggins Heights.

Question 12. What was Maddie afraid of?

Answer

Maddie was afraid that she could be the next target of Peggy.

Question 13. What type of the students used to sit near Wanda?

Answer

Rough boys and girls who did not make good marks.

Question 14. Where did Wanda use to sit in the class?

Answer

She used to sit in the seat next to the last.

Question 15. Where did she usually sit?

Answer

She usually sat in the comer next to the last seat in the last row.

Question 16. Why were Wanda’s shoes always mud caked?

Answer

Wanda’s shoes were always mud caked because she had to go on foot all the way from Boggins Height to the school.

Question 17. Why did they use to wait for Wanda?

Answer

They used to wait for her to have some fun.

Question 18. What was Wanda’s response to Peggy’s question about dresses?

Answer

She said that she had one hundred dresses, all lined up in her closet.

Question 19. Who asked Wanda about her dresses?

Answer

Peggy asked Wanda about her dresses.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. What kind of a girl was Peggy?

Answer

Peggy was the most attractive and intelligent girl. She was very sentimental. She couldn’t bear an animal to be hurt and protected small children from bullies, but towards Wanda, she had a different attitude.

Question 2. How does everyone in the class react to Wanda’s drawing?

Answer

Everyone clapped after having a look of Wanda’s drawing. Even the boys who were not interested in drawing applauded and whistled at the taw-dropping sketches that Wanda had made of the hundred dresses she claimed to have.

Question 3. How would Wanda react to being made fun of her by Peggy and Maddie?

Answer

Wanda knew that Peggy and Maddie would make fun of her. Wanda would move up the street. Her eyes were dull and her mouth was closed. It was because of insults. She hitched her left shoulder every now and then in a funny way. She would finish the walk to school alone. She remained serious. Perhaps she had no American friend.

Question 4. Why did Maddie tear her note to Peggy which she had started to write to stop teasing Wanda?

Answer

Maddie felt it bad that Peggy was making fun of Wanda. She wished Peggy would secede of her own will to stop teasing Wanda. It was because Peggy was the best-liked girl in the whole room. She hoped that Peggy could not possibly do anything that was really wrong. But she didn’t send her note to Peggy.

Question 5. Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?

Answer

Wanda used to sit in the penultimate row of benches. She was from an immigrant colony and was from a poor family. Moreover, she seems to be a quiet person engrossed in her own world. She doesn’t like to mess with anybody. That is why she sits isolated from the main group of girls.

Question 6. Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why do you think she said she did?

Answer

Wanda seems to be a determined girl. She is having a great amount of self-confidence. She has guts to dream that is why she tells of having a hundred dresses. For her number of dresses is not important. It is the inner talent which is of real value.

Question 7. How is Wanda seen as different by the other girls? How do they treat her?

Answer

Wanda is seen as someone with a funny name and accent. In totality, other girls see Wanda as a strange creature which is entirely different and inferior from them. They treat Wanda as someone who should be made fun of.

Question 8. How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she say that she has a hundred dresses?

Answer

It is difficult to guess because of stoic face which Wanda maintains during the dresses game. But it can be assumed that like all normal people, Wanda may not be feeling good at being humiliated. Her reply is a way to tell other girls that she is made of tough nerves and can withstand such stupidity.

Long Answer Type Questions

Question 1. Pen down the character sketch of Wanda Petronski.

Answer

Wanda Petronski is a polish girl who has shifted in America from Poland with her parents. She is very poor and lives up on Boggins Heights. She is very shy and quiet. She does not talk to anyone. She has no friends and sits in the last row of the class with some naughty boys so that nobody notices her. She wears the same faded blue dress everyday which is not ironed but clean. Everybody teases her in her class. In anger, she claims of having a hundred dresses and sixty pair of shoes at home. She- is very determined and shows her determination in the drawing competition by displaying the hundred sketches of dresses she claims to own. Each of them was so beautiful, that she wins the competition and surpasses Peggy.

Question 2. “The Hundred Dresses-I” is about teasing Wanda. It also borders on ragging and racism indirectly. Describe how does it affect you and how do you evaluate it?

Answer

The story ‘The Hundred Dresses-I’ is really all about teasing of Wanda being polish and having a strange name. They made fun of Wanda and made her feel inferior by asking her about her dresses. Their behaviour towards Wanda was completely undesirable as it shows racism and ragging. These are totally condemnable issues in the society which cannot be accepted.
Peggy and Maddie never thought of Wanda’s feelings and continued teasing her but her selection as a winner shows that colour, prejudice or racism are not the parameter of talent as everybody clapped for her drawings.

Question 3. It disturbs you that Peggy and Maddie make fun of Wanda. You don’t like it. You decide to speak about this as weak, ugly or poor. Write a speech to express your thoughts.

Answer

Dear friends, Today I would like to express my thoughts about the issue of making fun of the students who are weak, ugly or poor by those who are bit superior to them in these aspects. But I would like to fetch your attention that being ugly or poor is not a personal choice or fault. God creates us with different qualities and we should see those qualities in others too. One may be poor or physically unattractive but he/she may have better qualities or skill than us. As in the story, Wanda Petronski is better than Peggy and Maddie in her creativity or drawing.
I hope we all give respect to one another and do not judge anyone on the basis of their monetary status or physical colour. Let us all be encouraging human beings helping and uplifting other human beings.

Question 4. Who did Maddie think would win the drawing contest? Why?

Answer

Maddie always believed that Peggy would win the drawing contest as she was good in drawing and everybody in the school loved her. She had a good image and impression on her teachers and classmates. No other girl in the class could draw as well as her. So, Peggy definitely had very good chances of winning the drawing contest according to Maddie.

Question 5. How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she say that she has a hundred dresses?

Answer

Wanda feels very embarrassed but remains silent in the class. She doesn’t talk to anyone and sits on the back bench with rough boys so that nobody can give attention to her. She is deeply hurt but never complains about it. To avoid their taunts and humiliation, Wanda says that she has a hundred dresses and sixty pairs of matching shoes in her closet. Later on, she draws all of them on paper for the drawing competition.