Here’s a summary of “The Fun They Had” and answers to all the questions, presented for ease of understanding with emojis! 📚🤖
Summary of “The Fun They Had” 📖🤖#
The story, set in the year 2157 🗓️, introduces us to eleven-year-old Margie 👧 and thirteen-year-old Tommy 🧑. Their world of education is entirely digital, featuring mechanical teachers 🤖 that teach lessons on a large screen and require homework to be submitted in a slot. Learning happens individually in their own homes, often in a room right next to their bedroom.
One day, Tommy discovers a “real book” 📚 in his attic, a relic from centuries past, printed on paper. Margie is fascinated yet finds it strange that the words stand still instead of moving like on a screen, and that it’s just discarded after reading, unlike their telebooks that hold millions of books.
Margie despises her current school, particularly when her mechanical teacher gives her test after test in geography, leading to poor results. This prompts her mother to call the County Inspector 👨🔧, a kindly man who diagnoses the problem as the geography sector being “geared a little too quick” and slows it down to an average ten-year level. Margie is disappointed that her teacher isn’t taken away entirely, like Tommy’s history teacher once was for a month.
The old book sparks a discussion about “old schools” from “hundreds and hundreds of years ago”. Tommy explains that these schools had human teachers 🧑🏫 and were housed in special buildings where all children of the same age learned together. Margie finds the idea of a human teacher, or all kids learning the same thing, hard to grasp, contrasting it with her own personalised, isolated learning.
As Margie returns to her solitary virtual classroom, she can’t help but think about how much fun the kids in the old days must have had 🥳 – laughing, shouting, sitting together, and helping each other with homework. She yearns for that communal experience, concluding that “the teachers were people” and imagining “the fun they had”.
Answers to Questions from “Thinking about the Text” 🧠💬#
I. Answer these questions in a few words or a couple of sentences each.
- How old are Margie and Tommy? Margie is eleven years old, and Tommy is thirteen years old.
- What did Margie write in her diary? Margie wrote in her diary on 17 May 2157: “Today Tommy found a real book!”.
- Had Margie ever seen a book before? No, Margie had not seen as many physical books as Tommy had, and the story implies that a printed book was a completely new and strange object to her.
- What things about the book did she find strange? She found it strange that the pages were yellow and crinkly, and that the words stood still instead of moving on a screen. She also found it odd that the book had the same words on a page each time they turned back to it.
- What do you think a telebook is? A telebook is likely a digital book displayed on a television or computer screen, capable of holding a vast number of texts, perhaps millions of books.
- Where was Margie’s school? Did she have any classmates? Margie’s schoolroom was located right next to her bedroom 🏡. She did not have any classmates in her personal, mechanical classroom setting.
- What subjects did Margie and Tommy learn? Margie learned geography and arithmetic, while Tommy’s teacher also had a history sector.
II. Answer the following with reference to the story.
- “I wouldn’t throw it away.”
- (i) Who says these words? Tommy says these words.
- (ii) What does ‘it’ refer to? ‘It’ refers to his television screen (or telebooks), which he says must have had a million books on it and is good for plenty more.
- (iii) What is it being compared with by the speaker? It is being compared with the old paper book that Tommy found, which he saw as a “waste” to just throw away once read.
- “Sure they had a teacher, but it wasn’t a regular teacher. It was a man.”
- (i) Who does ‘they’ refer to? ‘They’ refers to the people of the “old kind of school” that existed hundreds of years ago.
- (ii) What does ‘regular’ mean here? Here, ‘regular’ means normal or of the usual kind, implying that in their time, mechanical teachers were the norm.
- (iii) What is it contrasted with? It is contrasted with the mechanical teacher that Margie and Tommy have.
III. Answer each of these questions in a short paragraph (about 30 words).
- What kind of teachers did Margie and Tommy have? Margie and Tommy had mechanical teachers 🤖. These were large, black screens that displayed lessons, asked questions, and had a slot for submitting homework and test papers, instantly calculating marks.
- Why did Margie’s mother send for the County Inspector? Margie’s mother sent for the County Inspector because Margie had been performing worse and worse in her geography tests given by the mechanical teacher, causing concern.
- What did he do? The County Inspector took the mechanical teacher apart 🔧. He found that the geography sector was geared too quickly and adjusted it to an average ten-year-old’s level.
- Why was Margie doing badly in geography? What did the County Inspector do to help her? Margie was doing badly in geography because the sector of her mechanical teacher was set “a little too quick” for her age. The County Inspector helped her by slowing it down to an average ten-year level.
- What had once happened to Tommy’s teacher? Tommy’s mechanical teacher had once been taken away for nearly a month because its history sector had completely blanked out 👻.
- Did Margie have regular days and hours for school? If so, why? Yes, Margie had regular days and hours for school, every day except Saturday and Sunday. Her mother believed that little girls learned better if they learned at regular hours ⏰.
- How does Tommy describe the old kind of school? Tommy describes the old kind of school as a special building 🏫 where all the kids from the entire neighbourhood went. They sat together, learned the same things, and would go home together.
- How does he describe the old kind of teachers? He describes the old kind of teachers as people 🧑🏫, specifically “a man,” who would simply tell the boys and girls things, give them homework, and ask questions, unlike their mechanical teachers.
IV. Answer each of these questions in two or three paragraphs (100–150 words).
What are the main features of the mechanical teachers and the schoolrooms that Margie and Tommy have in the story? Margie and Tommy’s schooling takes place in a futuristic setting 🚀, primarily within their own homes. Their “schoolroom” is a dedicated space, typically located right next to their bedroom, and their learning hours are fixed and regular, as Margie’s mother believes this aids better learning for little girls.
The central component of their education is the mechanical teacher 🤖. This is a large, black, and often imposing screen that displays all the lessons and asks questions. Students interact with it by writing out their homework and test papers in a punch code they learn at a young age, and then inserting these into a designated “slot” on the teacher. A significant feature is the mechanical teacher’s ability to calculate marks instantly. The curriculum and difficulty are individualised and can be adjusted; for instance, Margie’s geography sector was found to be geared “a little too quick” for her, and the County Inspector adjusted its speed. This system, while seemingly efficient and personalised, leads to a lack of social interaction and camaraderie among students, making learning a solitary and often frustrating experience.
Why did Margie hate school? Why did she think the old kind of school must have been fun? Margie hated her school 😠 primarily due to her mechanical teacher. Her dislike was intensified by the constant tests, especially in geography, where her performance consistently worsened, leading to her mother having to call the County Inspector. She found the process of having to write homework in a punch code and insert it into a slot very tedious. Moreover, the lack of human interaction and the solitary nature of her learning environment contributed to her disdain. She couldn’t understand why anyone would write about school.
Margie believed the old kind of school must have been fun 🥳 because it offered a vibrant, social learning experience. She imagined “all the kids from the whole neighbourhood came, laughing and shouting in the schoolyard, sitting together in the schoolroom, going home together at the end of the day”. The idea that they learned the same things meant they could help one another with homework and discuss their lessons. This communal aspect, coupled with the presence of human teachers, starkly contrasted with her isolated, machine-driven education, making the “fun they had” seem like an ideal and joyful alternative.
Do you agree with Margie that schools today are more fun than the school in the story? Give reasons for your answer. Based on the descriptions in the story, it’s clear that schools today (which the story refers to as “old schools”) are indeed depicted as being more fun 🎉 compared to Margie’s future school. The primary reason for this is the human element and social interaction inherent in traditional schooling.
In the “old schools,” children enjoyed a shared experience: they gathered in a “special building” 🏫, played and laughed together in the schoolyard, and sat side-by-side in classrooms. This collective learning environment fostered camaraderie and collaboration, allowing students to “help one another with the homework and talk about it”. The presence of human teachers 🧑🏫 also meant a more dynamic and engaging learning process, where teaching wasn’t just about delivering content but also about personal interaction and guidance. Margie’s longing for this type of school, her imagination of the “fun they had”, and her clear dislike for the isolating, impersonal nature of her mechanical teacher all strongly suggest that the social, collaborative, and human-led aspects of traditional schools make them inherently more enjoyable and fulfilling than the solitary, computer-based learning of her time.
Answers to Questions from “Thinking about Language” 🗣️✍️#
I. Adverbs
Find the sentences in the lesson which have the adverbs given in the box below.
awfully: “…it was awfully funny to read words that stood still instead of moving the way they were supposed to…”sorrowfully: “…until her mother had shaken her head sorrowfully and sent for the County Inspector.”completely: “…the history sector had blanked out completely.”loftily: “He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, “Centuries ago.””carefully: “He added loftily, pronouncing the word carefully, “Centuries ago.””differently: “…that each kid has to be taught differently.”quickly: “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” Margie said quickly.nonchalantly: “May be,” he said nonchalantly.
Now use these adverbs to fill in the blanks in the sentences below.
- (i) The report must be read carefully so that performance can be improved.
- (ii) At the interview, Sameer answered our questions nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.
- (iii) We all behave differently when we are tired or hungry.
- (iv) The teacher shook her head sorrowfully when Ravi lied to her.
- (v) I completely forgot about it.
- (vi) When I complimented Revathi on her success, she just smiled loftily and turned away.
- (vii) The President of the Company is awfully busy and will not be able to meet you.
- (viii) I finished my work quickly so that I could go out to play.
Make adverbs from these adjectives.
- (i) angry → angrily
- (ii) happy → happily
- (iii) merry → merrily
- (iv) sleepy → sleepily
- (v) easy → easily
- (vi) noisy → noisily
- (vii) tidy → tidily
- (viii) gloomy → gloomily
II. If Not and Unless
Complete the following conditional sentences. Use the correct form of the verb. Please note: The completions for these sentences are illustrative based on common grammatical patterns for conditional sentences. The sources provide the framework but not the exact answers.
- If I don’t go to Anu’s party tonight, I will miss out on the fun. 🤷♀️
- If you don’t telephone the hotel to order food, you won’t have dinner. 🍽️
- Unless you promise to write back, I will not send you a letter. 📝
- If she doesn’t play any games, she will not stay active. 🧘♀️
- Unless that little bird flies away quickly, the cat will catch it. 🐱🐦
Other Sections Mentioned in the Chapter Notes 📝🎤#
The chapter also includes sections designed to develop various skills:
- Activity: This section prompts learners to calculate the time difference in years and months from Margie’s diary entry date (17 May 2157) to the present day.
- Writing: This task guides students on how to write a formal letter to a publisher to order a book, outlining the necessary parts of a formal letter and distinguishing its style from informal communication.
- Speaking: This section suggests a group activity involving a debate on the topic ‘The Schools of the Future Will Have No Books and No Teachers!’, encouraging students to present arguments for or against the motion.
- Do a Project: This is a group project where students are to collect opinions on digital services in daily life, develop an opinionnaire, tabulate data, and write a report, which can then be presented to the class.