Hi Everyone!! This article will share You Can’t Be That Questions & Answers.
This poem is written by Brian Patten. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of Nat, Maggie and Milly and Molly and May and The Land of Storybooks so, you can check these posts as well.
You Can’t Be That Questions & Answers
Question 1: Choose the correct option:
1. ‘A million birds will fly through me.’ What does the speaker want to be when he says this?
(a) flower
(b) tree
(c) bird
(d) star
2. According to the poem, what will swim in the ocean?
(a) starfish
(b) dolphins
(c) whales
(d) sharks
3. What is full of nooks, crannies, valleys and fountains?
(a) field
(b) ocean
(c) mountains
(d) meadow
4. Who is the speaker in the poem?
(a) teacher
(b) adult
(c) child
(d) parent
5. Who doesn’t understand the speaker?
(a) children
(b) adults
(c) friends
(d) neighbours
Question 2: Who are the ‘I’ and the ‘they’ in the poem?
Answer: In the poem, ‘I’ is the poet or the child and ‘they’ are the parents or the adults in his life.
Question 3: Why does the speaker want to be a tree?
Answer: The speaker wants to be a tree where he can enjoy with the birds by giving them a place to rest and build their nest. He wants a million birds to fly through him.
Question 4: What thrills the speaker about being an ocean?
Answer: The poet is thrilled about whales swimming in him if he were an ocean.
Question 5: According to the speaker, what are the joys of being a mountain range?
Answer: It is a joy to be a mountain because he would be full of nooks, crannies, valleys and fountains.
Question 6: Why did the child wish to be an ocean?
Answer: The child wants to be an ocean, where he can play and enjoy with the whales and be one with them.
Question 7: What message does the poet convey through this poem?
Answer: The message from this poem is that people in order to become something like doctor or engineer, are forgetting basic qualities and responsibilities required to upkeep good human relationships.
Question 8: List any three things ‘they’ want the speaker to become.
Answer: ‘They’ want the speaker to become a scientist, a lawyer or a pilot.
Question 9: What does the speaker want to be? List any three things.
Answer: The speaker wants to become a tree, an ocean or a range of mountains.
Question 10: Read the lines and answer the questions:
They said,
You can’t be that. No, you can’t be that.
(a) Who are ‘they’ in these lines?
Answer: ‘They’ are the poet’s or child’s parents or adults in his life.
(b) Why do they tell the speaker that he or she can’t be that?
Answer: They tell the speaker that he or she can’t be that because they think that it is impractical.
2. I asked them
Just what do you think I am?
(a) Who did the speaker ask?
Answer: The speaker asked the people who told him he could not be the things he wished to be.
(b) What did they say he or she was?
Answer: They said that he was a child.
3. They do not realise among them
Walks a magician.
(a) Who is the speaker referring to as a magician?
Answer: The speaker is referring to himself as a magician.
(b) Why is he/she saying this? What magic can he/she do?
Answer: He says this because he feels that he can be exactly what he wants to be and can fulfil any ambition. The magic that he can do is that he can change into anything he wants whenever he likes.
Question 11: What differences do you notice between the child in the poem and the adult he or she refers to?
Answer: In the poem, the child is free, creative, unconcerned about society, ambitious and free-spirited.
On the other hand, the adult is old-fashioned, rigid and set in his conventional ways.
So, these were You Can’t Be That Questions & Answers.