Class 7 English · Original EZT practice
My Brother's Great Invention (Class 7 English Chapter 7): Anand and the time machine
Fourteen-year-old Anita has a problem: a younger brother who thinks he is a scientist. Anand's inventions never quite work - his burglar alarm soaks their father, and his time machine is strictly forbidden. But one night, when a thief breaks in while their parents are away, the time machine may have done something extraordinary. Anita Rau Badami's story is funny, a little spooky, and told with perfect sisterly sarcasm. This page gives a summary, word meanings and practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 23 October 2026:
1. Story summary - the burglar alarm and the time machine
Anand, thirteen, loves tinkering with gadgets and keeps building 'inventions' that backfire. After a rush of thefts in the colony, he rigs a burglar alarm that clangs and drops a water bag when the door is opened gently - and the first person it catches is Papa, who always opens the door softly. After watching the film 'Back to the Future', Anand builds a time machine, which Papa firmly forbids anyone to try.
2. Story summary - the night Boppa broke in
With their parents away overnight, Anita hears scratching at the door around eleven thirty. The intruder is Boppa, the man who sweeps the compounds - he knew exactly when the houses were empty. He locks the children in a room, but Anand cleverly sends him to 'father's room' - actually his own room, where the time machine stands. A crash, a scream, muffled thumps, an eerie whine and humming follow; the neighbours rescue the children, but Boppa is never seen again. Anand insists his time machine worked.
3. Word meanings
The story's margin words - rigged up, tinkering, elaborate, clanging, smugly, stealthily, sceptical, groggily, brandishing, cudgel, eerie, clattering, in unison, hastily.
4. Language in the story - sounds and verb forms
The chapter highlights onomatopoeia - words that imitate sounds (crash, thump, whine, clatter) - and verb forms like the past perfect ('Anand had vanished by this time') for the earlier of two past actions, plus phrasal verbs from the text.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Fix the narrator and brother
Choose the method: Anita tells it.
EZT practice question
Who narrates the story, and how old are the narrator and Anand?
Show the worked solution
- Anita narrates the story.
- She is fourteen years old.
- Her brother Anand is one year younger - and he caused all the hoo-ha with his burglar alarm.
Answer: Anita narrates; she is fourteen and Anand is one year younger (thirteen).
Check: Her sisterly sarcasm colours the whole telling.
Watch for this: Do not mix up who is older - Anita is the elder by one year.
Now try it yourself
What does 'tinkering' tell us about Anand's hobby?
Check your answer
He loves experimenting or fiddling with electrical gadgets, tools, dynamos and planks of wood.
His 'inventions' come from this tinkering.
Explain the alarm backfire
Choose the method: Gentle door, wrong man.
EZT practice question
Why did the burglar alarm soak Papa instead of a thief?
Show the worked solution
- After a rush of thefts in the colony, Anand rigged up a burglar alarm.
- It was set to clang and drop a water bag when the door was opened gently - the way a thief would open it.
- Papa also always opens the door softly - so the alarm clanged and the water bag fell on him.
Answer: Anand rigged it to trigger only when the door was opened gently, as a thief would - but Papa also always opens the door softly, so the alarm clanged and the water bag fell on him.
Check: Anand 'had vanished by this time' and reappeared only after Papa's anger cooled.
Watch for this: Do not say the alarm failed - it worked exactly as rigged, on the wrong person.
Now try it yourself
Why did a week pass quietly after the alarm incident?
Check your answer
Anand did not dare to try anything new while Papa's anger cooled down.
Even inventors lie low sometimes.
Trace the time machine's origin
Choose the method: A film starts it.
EZT practice question
What gave Anand the idea for the time machine, and what rule did Papa make about it?
Show the worked solution
- The family saw the film 'Back to the Future'.
- Anand built his own time machine at home.
- Papa firmly forbade anyone to try it.
Answer: After watching the film 'Back to the Future', Anand built a time machine; Papa firmly forbade anyone to try it.
Check: The ban is why the machine stands unused in Anand's room - until the night Boppa breaks in.
Watch for this: Do not credit the burglar alarm as the 'great invention' of the title - the title points at the time machine.
Now try it yourself
What is Anand's next planned project?
Check your answer
A telephone to contact creatures in outer space.
The story ends with this new scheme.
Explain Anand's quick thinking
Choose the method: Send Boppa to the wrong room.
EZT practice question
How does Anand's quick thinking save the children when Boppa breaks in?
Show the worked solution
- Boppa locks the children in a room and demands to be taken to father's room.
- Anand points him to his own room instead - where the time machine stands.
- 'He'll take a while to locate the light switch. Let's shout' - the delay lets the children call for help.
Answer: Instead of directing Boppa to the real father's room, Anand points him to his own room - buying time to shout for help - and the time machine in that room does the rest.
Check: The sounds that follow - a crash, a scream, muffled thumps, an eerie whine, a low humming - come from that room.
Watch for this: Do not say the neighbours caught Boppa - they rescued the children; Boppa was never seen again.
Now try it yourself
Who was Boppa, and how did he know when to break in?
Check your answer
The man who had recently begun sweeping the compounds in their row of houses - he knew when the occupants were out.
Sweeping gave him the houses' schedules.
Match story words to meanings
Choose the method: Fix each word to one plain meaning.
EZT practice question
Match: rigged up, sceptical, brandishing, in unison - with their meanings.
Show the worked solution
- rigged up - assembled something temporarily.
- sceptical - doubtful, not easily convinced.
- brandishing - waving (a weapon) threateningly; in unison - together, at the same time.
Answer: rigged up - assembled something temporarily; sceptical - doubtful, not easily convinced; brandishing - waving (a weapon) threateningly; in unison - together, at the same time.
Check: Anand rigged up the alarm, Anita is sceptical about his inventions, Boppa brandishes a cudgel, and the children shout in unison.
Watch for this: Do not confuse cudgel with the machine - a cudgel is the short, thick stick Boppa waves.
Now try it yourself
Use 'stealthily' and 'groggily' in sentences of your own.
Check your answer
Open response - sample: 'The thief moved stealthily past the window.' / 'Groggily, I answered the door at midnight.'
Both words describe how someone moves or acts.
Judge the ending
Choose the method: Playfully open.
EZT practice question
Did the time machine really work? What evidence does the story give, and how does it end?
Show the worked solution
- Boppa entered Anand's room - and was never seen again.
- Anand insists the time machine worked.
- Papa had the machine dismantled because he thought it was not safe - and perhaps because he had a niggling suspicion that it worked.
Answer: The story leaves it playfully open - Boppa is never seen again, Anand insists it worked, and even Papa has a 'niggling suspicion', yet he has the machine dismantled as unsafe.
Check: 'Needless to say, Boppa was never (seen again)' - the mystery is the joke.
Watch for this: Do not state as fact that a man time-travelled - the story keeps it teasing and uncertain.
Now try it yourself
Why does the story say 'Anand had vanished' and not 'vanished'?
Check your answer
Two past events are involved - Papa arrived angry, and Anand's disappearing happened earlier; the past perfect ('had vanished') marks the earlier action.
Past perfect = the earlier of two past actions.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. Who wrote the story?
Show answer and reason
Anita Rau Badami.
Told by sister Anita, fourteen.
2. The two inventions?
Show answer and reason
The burglar alarm and the time machine.
One soaked Papa; one maybe caught a thief.
3. Who broke in at night?
Show answer and reason
Boppa, the compound sweeper who knew when houses were empty.
He locked the children in a room.
4. The machine's fate?
Show answer and reason
Papa had it dismantled - unsafe, and perhaps a 'niggling suspicion' it worked.
Boppa was never seen again.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Pick three sound words from the story and say what made each sound.
- Complete with the past perfect: 'By the time we woke the neighbours, Boppa ______ (disappear).'
- Do you think Anand's outer-space telephone will work? Why?
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Questions about this practice page
- What is My Brother's Great Invention about?
- Anita's comic account of her younger brother Anand, whose inventions misfire - until his forbidden 'time machine' apparently makes a burglar disappear.
- Who wrote My Brother's Great Invention?
- Anita Rau Badami.
- Did the time machine really work?
- The story leaves it playfully open - Boppa is never seen again, Anand insists it worked, and even Papa has a 'niggling suspicion'.
- What is funny about the burglar alarm?
- It was designed to catch a thief opening the door gently - and its first victim was Papa, who also opens the door softly.
- Are these the NCERT exercise questions for Class 7 English Chapter 7?
- No. EZT pages are original practice following the chapter's section order - use them to prepare for the textbook exercises, not as a substitute for your book.