The Fun They Had Short Answer Type Question

This page offers The Fun They Had Short answer type question for Class 9 from the book Beehive. We’ve put together a bunch of Short answer type question based on assumption, creativity, extrapolation and critical thinking. These types of questions are introduced after 2024 in CBSE Board. So, practice to understand The Fun They Had Short answer type question

1. Why do you think Margie was fascinated by the old book Tommy found?

Answers : Margie was fascinated because she had never seen a real book before. The old book’s physical pages and printed words were a novelty to her, unlike the telebooks she was used to.

2. What might be the advantages of learning from a mechanical teacher compared to a human teacher? Ref. “The Fun They Had”

Answers : A mechanical teacher can match how fast or slow you learn and give you lessons just for you. It’s ready to help anytime and can teach lots of different things.

3. How do you think Margie felt about her mechanical teacher before and after reading the old book?

Answers : Before reading the book, Margie might have accepted the mechanical teacher as normal, but after reading the book, she likely felt a sense of loss for the interactive learning experiences of the past.

4. Why do you think the story “The Fun They Had” is set in the future?

Answers : The story is set in the future so that the writer can show us how using too much technology in schools might make us miss out on learning from real people. It helps to understand how human teachers are important.

5. What could be the disadvantages of the education system shown in Margie’s world?

Answers : In Margie’s world, learning alone without friends, not talking to real people, and everyone learning the same things might make it hard to make friends, think in new ways, and work well with others.

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6. What would a normal school day from old time school look like compared to Margie’s school day?

Answers : In an old-time school, kids would learn together in a group, talk and work directly with teachers and classmates, and do lots of different and fun activities. Margie’s day is mostly just her alone, learning from a screen.

7. What do you think Margie and Tommy learned about human teachers and schools from the old book?

Answers : They found out that old schools were about learning together, having real teachers to help them learn, and making friends, which they don’t get much of now.

8. How do you think technology has changed the way children like Margie and Tommy view education?

Answers : Technology has made learning more personal and quick, but it has also made us forget how important it is to learn together and talk to each other in regular schools.

9. Why do you think the author chose children as the main characters to explore the theme of education? Ref. “The Fun They Had”

Answers : Kids are naturally curious and like to ask “why” many times. This habit of children makes them great for showing us how technology in schools can be good and bad. They help us think more about these changes.

10. If you could design a mechanical teacher, what features would you include to improve upon the one in the story? Ref. “The Fun They Had”

Answers : I would include features that allow for more interaction, such as virtual group discussions, feedback sessions, and gamified learning modules to make education more engaging and social.

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11. How do you think Margie’s perception of ‘fun’ in school might change after reading the old book? Ref. “The Fun They Had”

Answers : Margie might start to think ‘fun’ in learning isn’t just the lessons. It’s also about chatting and doing things with other kids and teachers. Her robot teacher can’t offer this.

12. How do you think the concept of homework might differ in Margie’s world compared to traditional schools?

Answers : Homework might focus more on using the robot teacher to go over lessons again. There might be less group work and learning with friends.

13. If all schools were like Margie’s, what could happen to people in the long run?

Answers : People might not get as good at talking to each other or understanding how others feel. Everyone might end up feeling more alone and separate from one another.

14. If Margie could visit a traditional school for a day, what do you think she would find most surprising?

Answers : Margie might be really surprised to see how kids and teachers talk and work together in class, how a real teacher can help and inspire students, and how fun it is to learn with friends.

15. Why do you think Margie was surprised in the beginning to see a real book?

Answers : Margie was surprised because in herschool , all books were on screens. She wasn’t used to a book you could hold, with pages you could turn. It was strange for her because she always read from screens where the words could change.

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16. How might Margie and Tommy’s education be different if they had human teachers instead of mechanical ones?

Answers : With human teachers, Margie and Tommy might have experienced more emotional support. Human teachers could teach lessons based on students’ emotions and interests, making learning more engaging and less isolating than with mechanical teachers.

17. Why do you think the County Inspector gave Margie an apple?

Answers : The County Inspector might have given Margie an apple as a friendly gesture to make her feel comfortable and less anxious about the inspection and repairs of her mechanical teacher. It’s a traditional symbol of goodwill between students and teachers.

18. Why was Margie not doing well in geography before the mechanical teacher was fixed?

Answers : Margie had been struggling because the robot teacher was going too fast. It was hard for her to keep up and really understand the lessons which were not age appropriate for her.

19. Why do you think Margie wished that the mechanical teacher should be taken away altogether?

Answers : Margie wished to remove the mechanical teacher because it felt cold and made her stressed, especially with all the tests and homework. She probably wanted learning to be more fun and hands-on.

20. How would Margie and Tommy’s social skills differ if they attended a traditional school with other children?

Answers : If Margie and Tommy went to a regular school with other kids, they would get better at talking to people, working together, and making friends. These are things they don’t learn as much when they study alone with their robot teachers.

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21. Why do you think people started using robot teachers instead of human teachers in Margie and Tommy’s world?

Answers : People might have started using robot teachers because new technology was made and everyone thought it was a faster and better way to learn. This made schools change from normal classrooms with human teachers to learning with robots.

22. Why did Margie wish she could go to an old-time school after she found out about it?

Answers : Margie thought an old-time school was more fun and different because she could be with the other kids of her age and real teachers. This was exciting for her, unlike learning alone with her robot teacher.

Note- Following are the old stylish questions. These were asked before 2023-24. Actually these questions focus more on memory rather than creative thinking, imagination and extrapolation.

Q1. Who are Tommy and Margie? How old are they? (Textual)
Ans. Tommy and Margie are students from the year 2157. They are neighbors and spend time together like children of their age usually do. Tommy is a thirteen-year-old boy and Margie is an eleven-year-old girl.

Q2. What did Margie write in her diary? (Textual)
Ans. On 17 May 2157, Margie wrote in her diary about the discovery of a real book by her brother Tommy. It was a very old paper book with yellow and crinkly pages.

Q3. Where did Tommy find the book and in what condition?

Describe the book that Tommy found in the attic.
Ans. Tommy found that real book in the attic of his house. Its pages had turned yellow and crinkly because it was at least a century old. Moreover, it was all covered with dust as it had been lying in the attic for ages.

Q4. Had Margie ever seen a book before? (Textual)
Ans. No, Margie had never seen a book before till she saw the one that Tommy had found in the attic of his house. She had only heard about books from her grandfather who himself had not seen any. He too had heard about a printed book from his grandfather.

Q5. Did Margie like the printed book? Why/Why not?
Ans. Margie was so excited to know that Tommy had found a ‘real’ book which was unlike the on-screen books the two were used to reading, that she recorded the discovery in her diary. As she turned the yellow and crinkly pages of the book with Tommy, she found it funny to read it. While Tommy found it a waste, Margie was fascinated by it and liked it.

Q6. What things about the book did Margie find strange? (Textual)
Ans. Margie lived in an era of mechanical education with telebooks stored in a machine. So she found it strange that the words in the printed book remained fixed, unlike the moving ones on her television screen.

Q7. “What a waste!” What is Tommy referring to as a ‘waste’? Is it a waste?
Ans.Tommy thinks that the paper books with words printed and fixed on them are a waste. Once a book is read, it becomes useless and must be thrown away because it has the same content. Printed books are not a waste. They can be read by many people over and over again and should be preserved for the future generations.

Q8. What do you think a telebook is? (Textual)
Ans. A telebook is a compact book in electronic form. It is stored in a computer and can be read by scrolling its pages up, down, or sideways on a screen.

Q9. How does Tommy find the telebooks of his own time to be better?
Ans. Tommy felt that his telebooks were better than the printed books of ancient times because they could be stored on television and read again and again. They occupied very little space as compared to the printed books and need not be discarded once they had been read.

Q10. Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates? (Textual)
Ans. Margie’s school was inside the comfort of her house. It was just next to her bedroom. It was a customized school, set up exclusively for her according to her level and needs. No, she did not have any classmates.

Q11. Why had Margie started hating her school?
Ans. Margie never liked school. But recently her hatred had increased because of her poor performance in geography tests. Her mechanical teacher gave her one test after another and her performance went on becoming worse and worse.

Q12. Which part of her school did Margie hate the most?

What did Margie hate the most about her school?
Ans. The part that Margie hated most was the slot where she had to put homework and test papers. She always had to write them in a punch code that she was made to learn at the tender age of six. Besides, the mechanical teacher calculated her marks in no time which left no scope for Margie to relax after submitting the assigned tasks.

Q13. What subjects did Tommy and Margie learn? (Textual)
Ans. Tommy and Margie learned a lot of subjects like History, Geography, and Mathematics.

Q14. What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have? (Textual)
Ans. Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers. They were not real people but televisions which had different subject sectors. These teachers were customized to the level of a student. In case of malfunction, they were disbanded and repaired.

Q15. Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector? (Textual)

Why did Margie’s mother shake her head one day and send for the County Inspector?
Ans. Margie’s mother sent for the County Inspector because Margie had been performing poorly in Geography. The repeated fall in her daughter’s performance disappointed her. So, she decided to call a specialist, the County Inspector, who could locate the problem and correct it.

Q16. What views did Margie’s mother have about teachers and learning?
Ans. Margie’s mother was very particular about her child’s education and made sure that Margie attended her tele-school regularly and studied properly and punctually. She believed that a tele-teacher had to be adjusted to the mind of each student and that each student had to be taught differently. Whenever she noticed a snag in Margie’s tele-teacher, she sent for the County Inspector to get the snag removed so that Margie did not miss out on her school and learning.

Q17. What was the County Inspector trained to do?
Ans. The County Inspector worked as a technical expert. He was trained to identify and rectify errors in the functioning of the system installed in the mechanical teachers.

Q18. What idea do you form of the County Inspector as a person?
Ans. The County Inspector was certainly a kind-hearted man. Instead of finding fault with Margie, he gave her an apple and told her mother that if Margie was not performing well, it was not her fault, but the fault of the mechanical teacher. He aligned the speed of the geography sector keeping in mind the level of the girl. Before leaving, he patted Margie on the head and expressed satisfaction at her performance.

Q19. Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her? (Textual)
Ans. Margie was doing badly because the speed of the geography sector had been fixed too fast for her level. The County Inspector slowed down the speed to suit the level of an average ten-year-old. As Margie was of eleven years, she was comfortable with the new level set by the County Inspector.

Q20. “Margie was disappointed,” says the author. Why was she disappointed?

How did the County Inspector disappoint Margie?
Ans. Margie was disappointed because she hated her school and hoped that her mechanical teacher would be taken away for repairs as Tommy’s teacher was once taken away for a month. But when the County Inspector promptly repaired and reset it at her home itself, she was unhappy.

Q21. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher? (Textual)
Ans. Once, Tommy’s mechanical teacher had developed a fault and its history sector had blanked out absolutely. The teacher had to be taken away for repairs and it had taken a month to put it in order.

Q22. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why? (Textual)
Ans. Yes, Margie had a fixed schedule for her school. From Monday to Friday every week. It was installed in the room next to her bedroom so she had to attend to it daily. Her mother believed that her daughter will learn things faster if they study daily on a fixed schedule.

Q23. How does Tommy describe the old kind of school? (Textual)
Ans. Tommy describes the old school as a special building where all the children went to study together. The students of the same age group learned the same things which were taught by human teachers.

Q24. How does Tommy describe the old kind of teachers?
Ans. Tommy tells Margie that the teachers in olden times were not mechanical but real men. They taught various things to boys and girls, gave them homework, and also asked them questions. The teachers went to a special building called the school where they taught the children in the classrooms.

Q25. How did Margie react when Tommy told her that twentieth-century schools had human teachers?

Why did Margie remark, “How could a man be a teacher”?
Ans. Margie made this remark when she heard Tommy mention that children were taught by human teachers in times gone by. She could not believe the truth of Tommy’s comment because she had not seen any human teacher; she was used to studying with the help of her mechanical tele-teacher only. Moreover, she believed that a human teacher could not match a mechanical teacher in intelligence and knowledge.

Q26. Who interrupts Margie and Tommy’s conversation? Why?
Ans. Margie and Tommy were lost in unraveling the exciting mystery of the ‘real’ book that the latter had found in his attic, when Margie’s mother interrupted them saying “Margie! School!” and she even suggested to Tommy that it was time for him to attend school, too.

Q27. When Margie went to her school, what did the teacher on the screen teach?
Ans. When Margie went to her school, which was a room next to her bedroom, the mechanical teacher taught an arithmetic lesson on the addition of proper fractions. It taught her how to add the fractions 1/2 and ¼.

Q28. Why couldn’t Margie concentrate on the Arithmetic lesson?
Ans. Margie could not concentrate on the arithmetic lesson because her mind was preoccupied with the thoughts about the school that Tommy had just described to her. She was awestruck to learn that children studied together and were taught by real people in these old schools. She thought about how much fun those students must have had while studying together.

Q29. Why did Margie think that children must have loved to go to school when her grandfather’s grandfather was a little boy?

Why did Margie feel that children in old times had fun while studying in school?

why does Margie feel that learning was fun in the schools of the past?
Ans. Margie attends a tele-school, which is just a machine in the room next to her bedroom and she studies alone. She feels that learning was more fun in those days because all the children in the past century had the opportunity of studying together with the help of human teachers and printed books. Schools were huge buildings where a lot of activities could be carried out by students in groups. Compared to that, her present school is much too mechanical, boring, monotonous, and demanding, and she hates it.

Q30. What was Tommy’s opinion about the ‘real book’?
Ans. Tommy found the ‘real book’ a waste as once read you, just throw it away. It did not seem interesting and useful. The words were fixed on it and not any other thing can be printed on it.

Q.31. How does Tommy describe the old kind of teachers?
Ans. He says that the old teachers did not live in the house. They had a special building and all the kids went there. They gave homework to students. They were not mechanical teachers, but human beings.

Q32. Who was the Country Inspector? What was his work?
Ans. The country Inspector was the man who repaired the mechanical teacher. He adjusted the level of the teacher as per the child’s requirements and intelligence.

Q33. Why was Margie doing worse in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her?
Ans. Margie had been doing worse in geography because the mechanical teacher was very fast in displaying the questionnaire. The County Inspector adjusted its speed up to an average ten-year level. Thus, the mechanical teacher’s speed was controlled appropriately. The County Inspector assured that the overall pattern of Margie’s progress was quite satisfactory.

Q.34. Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why?
Ans. Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school because her mother said little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours.

Q35. Why did Tommy pronounce the word ‘centuries ago’ carefully?
Ans. Tommy pronounced the word carefully because he wanted to lay stress the fact that the school was very old and it was quite different from theirs.

Q36. What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher?
Ans. Once Tommy’s teacher was taken away for about a month because the history sector had blanked out completely.

Q37. What is the ‘slot’? Why does Margie hate it?
Ans. ‘Slot’ was a space in the mechanical teacher where each student is to put his homework and test assignments for marking. Margie hates it the most because she has to work hard to punch code for answer homework.

Q38. Evaluate ‘The Fun They Had’ as a futuristic story.
Ans. The Fun They Had’ is a futuristic story. It tells us about the revolutionary changes that will come in the field of education in the 22nd century. Technology will replace the concept of old schools and printed books. Margie and Tommy are students in the year 2157. They are taught in their bedrooms serving as virtual classrooms. A mechanical teacher will replace a human teacher. Computers and e-books will replace old printed books.

Q.39. How will e-books be different from the old books that existed centuries ago?
Ans. The very concept of ‘the books’ will change in the 22nd century. The e-books will replace old books. The books will not be printed on paper. The words will move on a TV/computer screen. The television screen may have more than a million books on it.

40.What did Margie’s mother think about the teacher’ and ‘the school’?
Ans. Margie’s mother thought that every child had a different intelligence and capacity to understand things. The mechanical teacher should be adjusted to fit the mind of each boy and girl it taught. Each kid had to be taught differently. She thought that little girls and boys would learn better if they learned at regular hours at the ‘school’.

Q41. Describe the characteristics of the old school. How did it influence Margie?
Ans. The old school had several characteristics — the children went to a big building. The man worked as a teacher and taught the boys and girls. The teacher gave them homework. He also asked them questions. They sat together and studied the same subject. In the old school, children studied and played together. It was quite opposite to the school that has been talked about in the chapter. Margie was very much influenced by the old school. In her class, she was busy thinking about the fun the children had at that time.

Q42. Will future schools be completely devoid of humans and human values? Give a reasoned answer.
Ans. Certainly, a revolutionary change will come in the field of education in the future. The mechanical teachers and tele-books will dominate the scene. Every student will be taught by the mechanical teacher according to his or her ability. However, the institution of schools will remain in one form or the other. Human teachers will not disappear altogether. Education will never be completely devoid of humans and human values.

Q43. Why did Tommy and Margie think the old book was a waste of resources?
Ans. Because they found the words in the old book not moving. The pages had turned yellow and crinkly. Moreover, the old book could not last long.

Q44. What difference did Margie’s mother find in the old school?
Ans. Margie’s mother believed that children should be taught according to their individual needs. But in the old school, the children of the same age group studied the same things.

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