Class 9 English · Original EZT practice
The Fun They Had (Class 9): summary and reading practice
A familiar school can look strange from another time. Isaac Asimov lets two children examine an old printed book, then shifts our attention from the reading device to the people missing from a schoolroom.
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
In a diary entry dated 17 May 2157, eleven-year-old Margie records Tommy's discovery of a printed book in his house. The thirteen-year-old shows her a world unlike their screen-based lessons. Margie has been struggling with geography tests, but an inspector finds that her mechanical teacher has been set too fast and adjusts it. As Tommy describes earlier schools, Margie starts to imagine children studying in a shared building with human teachers. She returns to the schoolroom beside her bedroom, where an arithmetic lesson is waiting, but her thoughts remain with the company and shared learning she imagines in those earlier schools.
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.
Distinguish a framing detail from a prediction
Reading approach: A precise fictional date locates the story; it does not verify what future schools will become.
EZT practice question
A review calls the diary date proof that all schools will use mechanical teachers in that year. What correction should an evidence-based review make?
Show a model answer
- The diary entry places Margie in a fictional future on 17 May 2157.
- A story can explore a possibility without making a verified prediction about every school.
Answer: The date frames an imagined setting. It is not evidence that this schooling system will actually exist everywhere in 2157.
Check: The correction preserves the setting while changing the unsupported factual claim.
Watch for this: Do not turn a fictional detail into a forecast or replace 2157 with 2155.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why is a summary safer saying "the story imagines" than "the author proved" when describing this school system?
Read a model response
The first describes a fictional construction; the second claims proof the narrative does not supply.
A reader should distinguish the world of a story from evidence about the actual future.
Follow what stays in Margie's thoughts
Reading approach: The closing scene places a scheduled lesson beside a different train of thought.
EZT practice question
At the ending, arithmetic continues while Margie imagines earlier children together. How does this juxtaposition guide a reading of the final scene?
Show a model answer
- The mechanical teacher is ready with the assigned work.
- Margie's attention is elsewhere, on shared lessons and companionship.
Answer: The contrast puts an orderly lesson beside an unmet desire for company. The machine can present the task, but it does not hold all of Margie's attention.
Check: The answer connects two simultaneous elements rather than inventing a later escape from school.
Watch for this: The ending does not say Margie stops studying permanently or changes the whole education system.
Now try a fresh reading question
Would a final scene of Margie reading only a list of machine features have the same effect? Explain.
Read a model response
It would give less access to her imagined shared experience.
The existing ending foregrounds her thoughts, not merely the equipment's specifications.
Separate a poor score from an explanation
Reading approach: A result alone does not establish why a learner struggled. Read the diagnosis that follows.
EZT practice question
A character note says, "Margie's falling scores prove she is incapable of geography." Explain why the inspector scene makes that note unreliable.
Show a model answer
- The inspector identifies an overly fast geography setting.
- He adjusts the machine and describes her overall progress as satisfactory.
Answer: The scores occurred under unsuitable pacing. They do not establish a permanent lack of ability; the inspector supplies an explanation involving the teaching setup.
Check: The claim is about this scene, not a diagnosis of every student with low scores.
Watch for this: Do not infer that all of Margie's subjects were failing or that the machine remained irreparably broken.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why should a response preserve both the disappointing results and the inspector's explanation?
Read a model response
Together they show a difference between an observed problem and its cause.
Removing either makes the scene less precise and can misattribute the difficulty.
Keep Tommy's judgement attached to Tommy
Reading approach: A character's confident judgement is not automatically the narrator's conclusion.
EZT practice question
Tommy treats the printed book as wasteful because his screen can hold many books. Why should an essay attribute that judgement rather than report it as a settled fact?
Show a model answer
- The comparison reflects the reading technology familiar to Tommy.
- The story also allows the old book to open a new subject that interests Margie.
Answer: Call it Tommy's judgement. His confidence shows the assumptions of his world; it does not settle the value of printed books for every reader.
Check: The book has a narrative role beyond the amount of information it can store.
Watch for this: Avoid claiming that the narrator orders readers to throw away printed books.
Now try a fresh reading question
What changes if "Tommy thinks" is removed from a sentence about the book being wasteful?
Read a model response
A character's opinion can become an apparent unqualified claim by the essay writer.
Attribution preserves the distance between the character's view and the reader's analysis.
Separate imagined experience from witnessed experience
Reading approach: Margie pictures earlier schools through a book and Tommy's account; she does not visit them.
EZT practice question
A response says, "Margie personally discovers that every earlier child loved school." Revise it without losing the idea of her longing.
Show a model answer
- She has no direct experience of those earlier classrooms.
- The final scene presents the attractive shared life she imagines.
Answer: Margie imagines that children in earlier schools enjoyed learning together. That imagined company appeals to her, but it does not prove every earlier child's experience was happy.
Check: The revision keeps her perspective without turning it into a universal history.
Watch for this: Do not erase the difference between a character's hope and an observed event.
Now try a fresh reading question
Why can a reader value shared learning without claiming that older schools were perfect?
Read a model response
A feature can matter without making every part of an institution ideal.
The text supports discussion of companionship, not an exhaustive assessment of all earlier schools.
Make the theme fit both machine and human actions
Reading approach: A defensible interpretation should allow for details that complicate its main claim.
EZT practice question
An essay argues, "Every machine in the story is useless." Use the inspector and lesson scenes to offer a more defensible claim.
Show a model answer
- The mechanical teacher presents lessons and marks work, and its pacing can be adjusted.
- Margie nevertheless longs for human company beyond those functions.
Answer: The story questions whether individual mechanical instruction is enough for a satisfying school experience. It does not require the claim that the machine can do nothing useful.
Check: The claim accounts for both functional equipment and the social contrast at the ending.
Watch for this: Do not turn a reading about companionship into a universal rule that every use of educational technology is harmful.
Now try a fresh reading question
What evidence would a paragraph about human care add alongside the machine's adjustment?
Read a model response
The inspector's reassuring response to Margie can support discussion of human attention.
Explain the connection to your claim rather than simply listing a character.
Try a mixed set
Write your own explanation before opening each model response.
1. Can a summary identify Tommy as Margie's brother from this story alone?
Show answer and reason
No.
The selection identifies their names and ages but does not establish that relationship.
2. Who is the author credited at the end of the legacy selection?
Show answer and reason
Isaac Asimov.
That attribution does not by itself establish a first-publication year.
3. Does Margie actually enter an earlier classroom in the plot?
Show answer and reason
No.
The shared classroom belongs to her imagining of the past.
4. Does the book's discovery happen in Margie's attic according to Tommy?
Show answer and reason
No. Tommy says it was in his house, in the attic.
Do not combine the children's homes or invent a shared household.
Know the story but need help explaining a detail?
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Questions about this practice page
- Is this the current Kaveri Chapter 1?
- No. This is legacy Beehive revision. The linked current Grade 9 opening is How I Taught My Grandmother to Read.
- Which year is in Margie's diary?
- The entry is dated 17 May 2157. The story's fictional setting should not be mistaken for a verified prediction.
- Does the story identify Tommy as her brother?
- No. Avoid adding that relationship to a summary.
- Are these the only acceptable interpretations?
- No. The models demonstrate claims supported by accurate details. Other readings can work when they respect the task and the story.
- Are these copied from the NCERT The Fun They Had exercises?
- No. These are original prompts about attribution, inference, narrative framing and interpretation, not a textbook question index.