NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Words and Expressions -1 Chapter 8
NCERT solutions for Class 9 English Words and Expressions 1 Unit 8 Reading Comprehension – complete answers & explanations
Class 9 English Words and Expressions 1 Unit 8 is built around the theme of travel and exploration. This unit brings together rich reading passages, an engaging listening exercise, vocabulary work, grammar practice, and creative writing tasks — all woven around the world of tourism, travelogues, and the joy of journeys. From a factual passage on tourism to an excerpt from Mark Twain's classic travelogue The Innocents Abroad, and a vivid listening passage set in the mangroves of Odisha, this unit offers students a well-rounded English learning experience. Finding clear, reliable answers to every section can sometimes be challenging, and that is exactly what this blog is here to help with. Whether you are a student preparing for exams or a parent helping your child revise, these NCERT-aligned solutions will make the process easier and more confident. Download the worksheet and practice alongside solutions for better clarity. If your child needs more personalised support, Book a free trial now to get expert guidance.
What this NCERT chapter covers?
1. The unit is based on the broad theme of travel and tourism, helping students understand the concept of tourism through a factual prose passage adapted from Tourism: Principles, Practices, Philosophies.
2. Students read an excerpt from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, a well-known travelogue, which builds their exposure to literary prose and descriptive writing.
3. Reading comprehension skills are sharpened through multiple-choice questions as well as short-answer and descriptive questions based on both texts.
4. A picture-matching activity introduces students to travel-related vocabulary such as pier, deck, carriage, valise, and mast.
5. The vocabulary section focuses on phrasal verbs with 'look' (look for, look up, look up to, look forward to) and their meanings.
6. Students practise identifying and removing the suffix 'age' and adding the suffix 'ful' to given words, building their word-formation skills.
7. The grammar section covers tenses — students read a passage and identify and name the tenses used in each sentence, covering Simple Present, Simple Past, Present Perfect, Present Continuous, and Passive constructions.
8. The editing task requires students to punctuate an unpunctuated passage taken from Vikram Seth's Kathmandu, building awareness of punctuation rules in context.
9. The listening section is based on a passage about a visit to Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha, testing students' comprehension through descriptive questions.
10. The speaking and writing tasks encourage students to deliver speeches on travel and sustainable tourism, write tourism advertisements, and compose descriptive journey paragraphs using travel idioms and expressions.
11. The project section connects music, culture, and geography through creative group activities like a class magazine on music and a road trip map of North-East India.
12. Overall, the unit develops all four language skills — reading, writing, listening, and speaking — alongside grammar and vocabulary in an integrated and meaningful way.
How to use these NCERT solutions?
1. Always read the passage or question in the worksheet first before looking at the answers. Attempting each question on your own builds understanding and retention.
2. Use the solutions provided here to check your answers after you have written them yourself. This helps you identify where you went right and where you need more practice.
3. For multiple-choice questions, first eliminate the options you are sure are wrong. Then check your chosen answer against the solution to understand why that option is correct.
4. For descriptive questions such as those in Text II and the Listening section, compare the key points in your answer with those given in the solutions. Your answer does not need to be word-for-word identical, but it should include the main ideas.
5. For vocabulary tasks like suffix addition or removal, go through the word-formation rules and verify each answer carefully.
6. For the grammar tense identification task, re-read each sentence and check both the verb form and the tense name given in the solutions.
7. For the editing task, attempt the punctuation yourself first, then compare with the punctuated passage in the solutions to learn from the differences.
8. Parents and teachers can use these solutions to guide students through sections they find difficult, especially grammar and editing, by discussing why each answer is correct.
9. All sections follow the exact order of the worksheet — from Let's Begin to Project — making it easy to follow along page by page.
10. Practising consistently with these solutions will help students feel more prepared and confident for exams and class assessments.
Important tips & tricks for students
1. For reading comprehension multiple-choice questions, always go back to the passage and locate the relevant line before choosing your answer. Never guess without reading the text again.
2. In descriptive answers, use words and phrases from the passage itself. This shows that you have read carefully and helps you write more precise answers.
3. For vocabulary tasks involving suffixes, remember that when adding 'ful' to words ending in 'y' (like beauty or mercy), the 'y' changes to 'i' before the suffix is added.
4. In the tense identification grammar task, focus on the verb or verb phrase in the sentence. Identify whether it is active or passive, and then name the tense correctly — examiners look for the complete tense name such as Simple Present Tense (Passive) or Present Perfect Tense (Passive).
5. In the editing task, pay close attention to where sentences end and new ones begin. Also look for proper nouns that need capitalisation, and lists that need commas to separate items.
6. For the listening section answers, keep your answers factual and specific. Answers like naming the exact location (Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary, Odisha) are always better than vague responses.
7. For speaking tasks, prepare a short outline of key points before writing or delivering your speech. Use the quotes provided in the worksheet as your starting point and build your own ideas around them.
8. For writing tasks such as the tourism advertisement and the journey paragraph, creativity matters. Use descriptive language and the travel expressions listed in the worksheet (such as jetlag, stopover, hit the road, travel light) to make your writing more vivid and original.
9. Never skip the activity-based or speaking tasks in your preparation. In exams, questions sometimes test whether you understood the purpose of these tasks.
10. Revise the word meanings of difficult vocabulary in the worksheet such as woebegone, plumage, brooding silence, horticulture, and detox — they may appear in comprehension or vocabulary questions.
NCERT solutions – complete answer key
Let's begin
Activity 1:
Collect information on judgments related to river Ganga being given legal/living entity status (similar to New Zealand's Whanganui River judgement). Discuss the findings in class about why such legal protection matters for rivers.
Activity 2:
Discuss how Vikram Seth describes the Bagmati river in Kathmandu as a polluted and dirty river, flowing through the heart of the city, yet considered sacred by the local people.
Reading comprehension
Text I
1. (d) All of the above
2. (a) taking a long distance walk in abandoned areas
3. (a) a large ship that carries people on voyages of pleasure.
4. Tourists engage in various activities such as sightseeing, visiting friends and relatives, taking vacations, engaging in sports, sunbathing, talking, singing, taking rides, touring, and reading. They also participate in conventions, business conferences, professional activities, study tours, and scientific research.
5. Tourists use all forms of transportation including hiking on foot, flying in jets, taking chairlifts, travelling on cruise ships, cars, motor coaches, campers, trains, motorbikes, and bicycles.
Text II
1. (a) because the much awaited Saturday has come when the voyage has to start.
2. (d) They are tourists on a leisure trip.
3. The mood of the people on the ship was gloomy, droopy, and disheartened. The passengers looked miserable and sad, like molting chickens, moping about in drizzling rain. Even the flag hung limp and dispirited, reflecting the low spirits of everyone on board.
4. The author was looking forward to a pleasure excursion — a voyage that the program had announced as a leisure trip. Despite the dull and confusing atmosphere at the pier, he was eager for the journey to begin and was hopeful of the adventure and enjoyment that the trip promised.
5. Match the words/phrases in Column A with pictures in Column B:
Pier — picture of the pier (long structure built in the sea)
deck — picture of the ship's deck
carriage — picture of the carriage (horse-drawn vehicle)
valise — picture of the valise (travel suitcase/bag)
mast — picture of the mast (tall pole on the ship with sails)
Vocabulary
1. Match the phrasal verbs (Column A) with meanings (Column B):
Look for — search
Look up to — having a great deal of respect for a person
Look forward to — await eagerly
Look up — to try to find a piece of information
2. Rewrite the following words by removing the suffix 'age':
(a) carriage — carry
(b) coverage — cover
(c) hermitage — hermit
(d) marriage — marry
3. Rewrite the following words by adding the suffix 'ful':
(a) beauty — beautiful
(b) colour — colourful
(c) duty — dutiful
(d) revenge — revengeful
(e) help — helpful
(f) mouth — mouthful
(g) mercy — merciful
Grammar
Tenses identified and named in the passage:
Sentence: "This is a good place to enrich ourselves about plant species which are environment friendly."
Tense: Simple Present Tense
Sentence: "The residents could gather a lot of information about horticulture at the event."
Tense: Past Tense (Modal — could + base verb, referring to past possibility/ability)
Sentence: "Several states from north India are represented at this event."
Tense: Simple Present Tense (Passive)
Sentence: "The florists showcase the best of their horticulture at the show."
Tense: Simple Present Tense
Sentence: "The organisers said that several events are lined up for Sunday."
Tense: Simple Past Tense (said) + Simple Present Tense (are lined up)
Sentence: "As many as 85 stalls have been put up by florists, gardening equipment wholesalers and seed retailers."
Tense: Present Perfect Tense (Passive)
Sentence: "Entry to the show has been made free for all."
Tense: Present Perfect Tense (Passive)
Sentence: "It was established in a study conducted by NASA back in 1989 that some indoor plants could be extremely useful in controlling the air pollution."
Tense: Simple Past Tense (Passive)
Sentence: "Detox plants, which act as 'vacuum cleaners' inside the house, are a hit in the ongoing event."
Tense: Simple Present Tense
Sentence: "Nature enthusiasts are preferring them for pollution control as well as interior decoration."
Tense: Present Continuous Tense
Editing
1. Punctuated passage:
Kathmandu is vivid, mercenary, religious, with small shrines to flower-adorned deities along the narrowest and busiest streets, with fruit sellers, flute sellers, hawkers of postcards, shops selling western cosmetics, film rolls and chocolate or copper utensils and Nepalese antiques. Film songs blare out from the radios, car horns sound, bicycle bells ring, stray cows low questioningly at motorcycles, vendors shout out their wares.
Listening
(Passage: A Visit to Bhitarkanika)
1. The author was going to the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary in Odisha.
2. The forest rest-house (Dangmal forest rest-house) was located in the heart of the mangrove forest. Since the steamer could not negotiate the creeks at low tide, the group hired a motorboat to ferry them to the rest-house.
3. The first creature they saw was a large crocodile basking in the sun, spotted from the motorboat.
4. By 'the magnificence of nature', the author means the extraordinary beauty, diversity, and grandeur of the natural world — the colourful birds with remarkable plumage, the crocodiles, the chital deer, and the wild boar — all existing undisturbed in their natural habitat, filling the visitors with awe and wonder.
5. The kingfishers are described as the stars of the show among the birds. The open-billed storks are described as standing sentry-like, high above, following the group's progress through the forest as if guarding their kingdom.
6. The chital deer were delicately browsing on fresh outcrops of leaves when the motorboat went past. The wild boar were searching for succulent roots in the ground.
Speaking
1. Speech on Travelling:
Students are required to prepare and deliver a short speech in the school assembly based on the given quotes about travelling by Ibn Batuta and Mark Twain. The speech should reflect on how travel broadens the mind, removes prejudices, builds empathy, and transforms a person into a storyteller. Students may use personal experiences or examples from the lesson 'Kathmandu' to support their speech.
2. Speech on Tourism and Sustainable Development:
Students are required to prepare a short speech discussing how the tourism sector can be aligned with the policies of sustainable development — for example, by promoting eco-tourism, reducing carbon footprints of travel, preserving natural and cultural heritage, and ensuring that tourism benefits local communities without harming the environment.
Writing
1. Advertisement for Tourism:
Students should first read or watch tourism advertisements (e.g., the Kerala Tourism film 'A Reading Room With a View'). Then they must create their own advertisement for their city or state promoting tourism. The advertisement should highlight the unique cultural, natural, or historical features of the place and be creative, persuasive, and visually descriptive.
Sample Advertisement (for reference):
"Discover the Heart of India — Visit Rajasthan!
Where golden deserts meet royal palaces, and every sunset tells a story.
From the majestic forts of Jaipur to the serene lakes of Udaipur, Rajasthan welcomes you with colour, culture, and warmth.
Come, travel light, and carry back memories for a lifetime.
Rajasthan — The Land of Kings."
2. Paragraph describing a journey:
Students should prepare an itinerary first, then write a descriptive paragraph about an imaginary or real journey they have undertaken. They should use travel-related expressions from the box provided: jetlag, itchy feet, hit the road, time table, on the home stretch, call it a day, book in advance, travel over, travel through, travel light, any port in a storm, stopover, etc.
Sample Paragraph (for reference):
Last summer, my family and I decided to travel light and hit the road to Manali. We had booked our tickets in advance to avoid any last-minute rush. After a long overnight journey, we made a stopover at Chandigarh for breakfast. As we travelled through the winding mountain roads, the breathtaking views of snow-capped peaks left us speechless. By the time we were on the home stretch, tiredness gave way to excitement. We called it a day at a cosy guesthouse by the river — tired, happy, and already planning our next adventure.
Project
1. Class Magazine on Music and Artists:
Students should work in groups to create a class magazine on music and artists. They should:
- Collect information on commonly used musical instruments in Indian classical music, Ghazal singing, Bharatnatayam/Chau/Kathak dance, Folk music, and Jazz.
- Collect photographs of musical instruments.
- Prepare brief biographical sketches of musicians, dancers, costume designers, and artists from books, the Internet, magazines, and newspapers.
- Give a suitable creative name to the magazine (e.g., "Sur Sangam", "The Rhythm Times", etc.).
This project connects with the description of the flute music in the lesson 'Kathmandu' and the mention of the Ney (reed flute) used in Sufi music in Turkey, Iran, and North Africa.
2. Road Trip to North-East India:
Students should plan a road trip to the North-east region of India (covering states such as Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura). They should:
- Explore various route possibilities, distances, and modes of road travel.
- Note important tourist spots, wildlife sanctuaries, cultural festivals, and local cuisine.
- Create a hand-drawn or printed map showing the travel route with key destinations marked.
This project develops research skills and connects geography with the theme of travel in the unit.
Why NCERT solutions help students?
Having access to correct and well-structured NCERT solutions gives Class 9 students a clear edge in their preparation. Unit 8 of Words and Expressions 1 covers a wide range of skills — from reading comprehension and grammar to creative writing and listening — and knowing the right approach to each section builds genuine concept clarity. When students regularly practise with answers that follow the NCERT pattern, they become more confident in writing precise, well-expressed responses during exams. Parents too feel more assured when they can see their child working with reliable, accurate material. These solutions help students understand not just what the answer is, but how to frame it correctly — which is what truly matters in achieving full marks.
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