Class 7 English · Original EZT practice
Three Questions (Class 7): summary and reading practice
The king goes looking for advice, but his own actions become the material for an answer. Follow what he knows at each point, and notice how the ending changes the meaning of the earlier events.
6 original reading questions, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with model answers and reasons. 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 17 October 2026:
A short summary for context
A king seeks advice about when to act, whom to attend to and what work matters most. Conflicting replies from visitors leave him dissatisfied, so he visits a hermit in ordinary clothes and goes on alone after leaving his horse with his bodyguard. Finding the hermit struggling with digging, the king takes over the work. The hermit does not immediately give the requested answers. A wounded man then arrives, and the king cares for him. In the morning, the man reveals that he had planned to kill the king in revenge for his brother's death and the seizure of his property. After the king failed to return along the expected route, the man left his hiding place and was wounded by the bodyguard. The king's care changes the enemy's intention. The king forgives him and promises help and the return of his property. The hermit then interprets the events: the chance to act is in the present, the person needing attention is the person with you, and the important work is to help that person.
Original EZT paraphrase of the linked NCERT selection. Read the full account for its voice and detail.
Read, make a claim, support it, then revise.
Read the passage, then write your own answer. Choose an accurate detail and explain what it supports. Open the model only after attempting the question. Check whether you have confused an observation, a character's view and your interpretation.
Compare advice with action
Reading approach: Track how the story moves from competing general answers to particular needs in front of the king.
EZT practice question
Contrast the opening visitors' answers with the scene of the tired hermit. What changes in the kind of knowledge the king can use?
Show a model answer
- The visitors offer different general ways of deciding what matters.
- At the hut the king can see a specific need: an old man is struggling with work.
Answer: The king moves from comparing rival advice to responding to a visible situation. The story later makes that action part of the answer he had been requesting.
Check: The answer compares two scenes rather than claiming that all advice or planning is useless.
Watch for this: The ending does not prove that every timetable or adviser is worthless.
Now try a fresh reading question
How does the wounded man's arrival sharpen that contrast?
Read a model response
His immediate need for care gives the king a concrete task that cannot be met by merely collecting more abstract answers.
This describes the story's movement from discussion to action, not an instruction to provide medical care without training.
Separate what the reader knows now from what is revealed later
Reading approach: A later confession can change the meaning of an earlier scene without changing what the king knew during it.
EZT practice question
While tending the wounded man, does the king know he is helping a would-be attacker? Explain why the timing of the revelation matters.
Show a model answer
- The man reveals his hostile plan only the next morning.
- The king has already helped him before learning that history.
Answer: No. The delayed revelation makes the earlier help appear as a response to need rather than a calculated attempt to win over a known enemy.
Check: The answer follows the order of narration: help comes before confession.
Watch for this: Do not give the king knowledge that the story supplies only later.
Now try a fresh reading question
Would revealing the revenge plan before the care scene change the reader's experience? Suggest one effect.
Read a model response
It could create suspense about whether the king will recognise or help an enemy.
That is a supported comparison of possible storytelling effects, not a claim that this is the sequence in the actual story.
Read a repeated activity as a structural detail
Reading approach: Compare what happens at the garden beds on two different days.
EZT practice question
The king first meets the hermit digging; the next morning he finds him sowing in the prepared beds. What can this pairing add to a reading of the story?
Show a model answer
- Digging prepares the beds; sowing uses what was prepared.
- The two moments frame the king's experience of work, care and the later explanation.
Answer: The garden work gives continuity to the story while its meaning changes for the king. A routine task becomes connected to his search for what matters.
Check: The detail supports a reading of action and later understanding without inventing a secret plan by the hermit.
Watch for this: The text does not prove the hermit arranged the attack or knew all future events.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why would "the hermit does nothing throughout" be an inaccurate summary?
Read a model response
He is first digging, later helps carry the wounded man, and is sowing the next morning.
The claim erases reported actions simply because he postpones the answers.
Distinguish a changed intention from erased history
Reading approach: Explain reconciliation through the actions and words reported, not by pretending the original grievance never existed.
EZT practice question
The man becomes friendly after receiving care. Why should a careful answer still mention the earlier grievance when describing the change?
Show a model answer
- His account links the revenge plan to his brother's death and the loss of his property.
- The later change is meaningful because it occurs across that hostility; the king also promises to return the property.
Answer: The grievance gives the reconciliation its contrast and stakes. The story shows a relationship changing, not a past harm becoming unreal.
Check: The answer includes both the confession and the king's promised response.
Watch for this: Do not invent a trial, compensation amount or judgement about facts the story does not investigate.
Now try a fresh reading question
What is lost if a summary says only, "A stranger thanked the king"?
Read a model response
It leaves out the hostile intention and therefore weakens the reversal created by the care scene.
A useful summary preserves the change that makes the encounter matter to the plot.
Connect the final explanation to earlier scenes
Reading approach: Use the hermit's interpretation as a character's stated lesson, supported by the events he selects.
EZT practice question
A reader says, "The king learns only by doing, so the hermit never explains anything." Correct the statement.
Show a model answer
- The king acts before receiving the final explanation.
- The hermit then explicitly connects the digging and the care scene to the questions.
Answer: The story combines experience with explanation. The king has acted, but the hermit's final speech helps him recognise those actions as answers.
Check: The correction retains both the practical scenes and the closing speech.
Watch for this: Do not remove the final explanation to fit a simple slogan about learning.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why does the explanation refer to both the hermit and the wounded man rather than name one permanently most important person?
Read a model response
The person needing attention changes with the situation.
The paired scenes support a lesson about attending to the present person, not a fixed ranking of people by status.
State a story's lesson without making an absolute rule for life
Reading approach: A literary moral can invite reflection without proving that one action guarantees every later outcome.
EZT practice question
Rewrite "Helping someone always removes all danger and conflict" as a claim this story can support.
Show a model answer
- In this plot, the king's help contributes to reconciliation and the hermit connects it with avoiding an attack.
- One narrated outcome does not establish a universal promise about all dangers.
Answer: In this story, attending to immediate needs changes the king's relationship with an enemy and gives him a new way to understand his questions.
Check: The revised sentence is limited to the narrative and names the change it shows.
Watch for this: Do not turn the story into a guarantee of safety, success or an obligation to ignore your own safety.
Now try a fresh reading question
Can two readers discuss different implications of the ending? What makes either answer defensible?
Read a model response
Yes. A defensible reading connects its claim to accurate details and does not contradict the events.
The model answer is an example of evidence-based interpretation, not the only acceptable wording.
Try a mixed set
Write your own explanation before opening each model response.
1. Does the king promise a stated number of coins as the reward in the linked retelling?
Show answer and reason
The opening promises a large sum but gives no amount.
Do not invent a number to make the summary sound more exact.
2. What makes the ordinary clothes relevant to the visit?
Show answer and reason
The hermit receives simple people, so the king changes how he presents himself before approaching.
That detail explains access in the narrative; it does not prove the king permanently gives up his position.
3. Is the bodyguard the same person as the wounded man?
Show answer and reason
No.
The wounded man reports meeting the bodyguard, who recognised and wounded him. Confusing the two breaks the plot.
4. Does a classroom discussion of the care scene replace first-aid training?
Show answer and reason
No.
The scene is literary context, not a modern medical procedure or a guide to handling wounds.
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Questions about this practice page
- Is Three Questions the current Poorvi opening story?
- No. It is a legacy Honeycomb selection. The linked Poorvi Grade 7 contents open with Learning Together.
- Who is the story attributed to?
- The linked NCERT retelling credits Leo Tolstoy. This page provides an original short paraphrase and original reading questions.
- Do model answers have fixed required wording?
- No. Use an accurate detail and explain what it supports. Another reading can work when it respects the events and the wording of the task.
- Is the hermit's lesson a guarantee of success?
- No. It is a lesson expressed within this story. It should not be treated as proof that helping always prevents danger or solves every problem.
- Are these the NCERT exercises?
- No. These are original prompts about structure, knowledge and interpretation, not a copied exercise key or an examination prediction.