NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Chapter 2 The Mark on the Wall

This worksheet provides complete and accurate NCERT Solutions for Class 12 English Chapter The Mark on the Wall from the Kaleidoscope textbook. The chapter explores how a simple observation can lead to deep reflections about life, knowledge, imagination, and human thinking. Through the narrator’s wandering thoughts, students learn how the human mind moves from one idea to another and how reflections shape our understanding of reality. This worksheet helps students understand the themes, literary style, and language elements of the chapter while providing clear NCERT-aligned answers for practice and revision.

Chapter summary: stories, poems & themes

This chapter presents a reflective essay that focuses on the narrator’s thoughts after noticing a small mark on the wall. Instead of immediately identifying the mark, the narrator’s mind begins to wander through different ideas about history, knowledge, imagination, and everyday life. The essay highlights how the human mind freely moves between memories, reflections, and philosophical ideas. Students also explore how modern writing can represent thoughts and feelings rather than only describing external events. The worksheet includes comprehension questions, discussion-based tasks, literary appreciation activities, grammar practice, and pronunciation exercises that help students understand both the content and the language used in the essay.

What this NCERT chapter covers?

• Understanding how a simple observation can lead to deeper reflections and ideas 
• Learning about the stream-of-consciousness style used in modern writing 
• Exploring how thoughts move freely from one idea to another 
• Analysing literary themes such as memory, imagination, and perception 
• Developing reading comprehension and interpretation skills 
• Identifying grammar concepts such as content words and function words 
• Practising pronunciation through strong and weak word forms in spoken English 

How to use these NCERT solutions?

Students should first read the chapter carefully to understand the narrator’s thoughts and reflections. After reading, they should attempt to answer the questions in the worksheet on their own. Once they finish, they can compare their responses with the NCERT Solutions provided here to check their understanding and correct mistakes.

Parents and teachers can guide students by discussing the ideas presented in the chapter and helping them understand how the narrator’s thoughts develop throughout the essay. Since the solutions follow the exact NCERT order and structure used in the worksheet, they make it easy for students to revise concepts and verify answers step by step.

Student tips & learning tricks

Students should read the essay slowly and carefully to follow the narrator’s chain of thoughts. It is helpful to focus on how one idea leads to another rather than trying to find a strict storyline.

While answering comprehension questions, students should connect their answers directly to the narrator’s reflections and ideas. Paying attention to examples and comparisons used in the essay can also help in writing clearer answers.

For grammar exercises, students should carefully identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs when selecting content words. When practising pronunciation activities, students should remember that many common words change their pronunciation in natural speech.

Why NCERT solutions are important?

NCERT Solutions play an important role in helping students understand chapters in a clear and structured way. When solutions follow the NCERT pattern exactly, students learn how to write answers that match exam expectations. This strengthens their conceptual understanding and improves their ability to analyse literary texts.

Practising with accurate NCERT Solutions also helps students build confidence before tests and assessments. By reviewing answers and explanations carefully, students develop stronger comprehension skills and a deeper appreciation of English literature.

Complete answer key – NCERT solutions

Stop and Think

Explanation: These questions help students pause and reflect on the narrator’s thoughts and the ideas presented in the essay.

1. The mark on the wall triggers a long chain of wandering thoughts in the author’s mind. She first wonders if the mark was made by a nail that once held a picture. This leads her to imagine the previous occupants of the house and their tastes. Her thoughts move to the uncertainty and mystery of life, the way possessions disappear over time, and the rapid flow of life itself. She reflects on history, human knowledge, and the limitations of certainty. The mark becomes a starting point for reflections on imagination, memory, reality, and philosophical ideas about existence.

2. The author predicts that future novelists will move away from traditional storytelling that focuses on external events. Instead, they will explore the inner workings of the human mind — the continuous stream of thoughts, feelings, and reflections. Reality will be represented through psychological experiences and mental impressions rather than through straightforward descriptions of external events.

Stop and Think

Explanation: These questions encourage students to observe how the narrator’s mind moves freely from one idea to another.

1. The author believes that knowledge and learning have limitations because much of what humans claim to know is uncertain and based on speculation. Even scholars and experts often build their understanding on incomplete or doubtful evidence. True certainty is rare, and many accepted ideas may only be assumptions or traditions passed down over time.

2. The author describes how one thought leads to another without any clear structure. For example, while thinking about burial mounds on the South Downs, she imagines an antiquary (a retired colonel) investigating them. Her imagination follows the colonel’s activities — writing letters, collecting evidence, and preparing to present his findings. This chain of imagination demonstrates how the human mind drifts freely from one idea to another in an uninterrupted flow.

Understanding the Text

Explanation: These questions check your understanding of the themes, ideas, and literary techniques used in the essay.

1. According to the author, reflections are more important than the description of reality because human experience is largely shaped by thoughts, memories, and inner impressions. Reality itself may be uncertain or incomplete, but the reflections and associations formed in the mind reveal deeper insights into human consciousness and perception.

2. The author suggests that many objects and habits from the past feel unreal or ghost-like when viewed from the present. She gives examples such as Sunday lunches, Sunday walks, country houses, and strict rules about furniture or tablecloths. These customs once seemed permanent and unquestionable, but later they appear artificial and outdated, almost like phantoms.

3. 
(i) Fish 
The author compares thought to a fish moving smoothly through water. Just as a fish glides effortlessly through the stream, the mind moves freely through ideas without interruption.

(ii) Tree 
The imagery of the tree represents calmness, stability, and continuity. The tree grows slowly and quietly, symbolising the steady and peaceful nature of deep thought and contemplation.

4. The mark on the wall acts as a central point that anchors the author’s wandering thoughts. Each new reflection begins with or returns to the mark. This shows that the human mind often moves freely from one association to another, using a small observation as the starting point for complex ideas and philosophical reflections.

5. Because the author does not immediately examine the mark closely, she allows her imagination to explore many philosophical possibilities. Only at the end does she discover that the mark is actually a snail. This shows that when the obvious explanation is not seen, the mind often turns to deeper reflection about life, knowledge, and reality.

Talking about the Text

Explanation: These questions help students connect the ideas of the essay with their own experiences and opinions.

1. Once I remembered a particular date because of the unusual details around that moment. I recalled that it was raining heavily, my friend was carrying a bright yellow umbrella, and the electricity had gone out in the evening. These small and unrelated details helped me remember that the event happened on the day of a major storm in July.

2. Yes, the sentence reflects blind adherence to tradition. The belief that only a certain type of tablecloth could be considered “real” shows how social rules often become rigid and unquestioned. Similar to the ideas discussed in “Understanding Freedom and Discipline,” people sometimes follow traditions without questioning their meaning or usefulness, simply because society expects them to do so.

3. The author suggests that nature often pushes humans toward action to stop excessive thinking. Society sometimes assumes that people who act quickly do not think deeply. However, this assumption may not always be true, because thoughtful action can also result from careful reflection.

Appreciation

Explanation: These questions help students analyse the style, narration technique, and literary features used in the essay.

1. The essay represents the second type of narration. It presents the continuous flow of the narrator’s thoughts without a controlling outside narrator. The essay follows the stream-of-consciousness technique, where the reader directly experiences the narrator’s shifting thoughts, memories, and reflections.

2. Examples of loose or non-periodic sentences include passages where the author links many ideas together in a flowing structure. These long sentences move from one thought to another without strict grammatical closure. This structure reflects the natural rhythm of thinking and creates a relaxed, conversational tone that mirrors the wandering movement of the narrator’s mind.

Language Work

A. Grammar: Content Words and Function Words

Explanation: These activities help students understand grammar concepts and identify different types of words used in sentences.

Sentence 1 
Ants carry a blade of straw so feverishly, and then leave it.

Content Words 
ants (noun), carry (verb), blade (noun), straw (noun), feverishly (adverb), leave (verb)

Function Words 
a (article), of (preposition), so (intensifier), and (conjunction), then (adverb/function connector), it (pronoun)

Sentence 2 
They wanted to leave this house because they wanted to change their style of furniture.

Content Words 
wanted (verb), leave (verb), house (noun), change (verb), style (noun), furniture (noun)

Function Words 
they (pronoun), to (infinitive marker), this (determiner), because (conjunction), their (determiner), of (preposition)

Sentence 3 
I don’t believe it was made by a nail after all; it’s too big, too round, for that.

Content Words 
believe (verb), made (verb), nail (noun), big (adjective), round (adjective)

Function Words 
I (pronoun), don’t (auxiliary), it (pronoun), was (auxiliary), by (preposition), a (article), after (preposition), all (function word), it’s (auxiliary/pronoun), too (intensifier), for (preposition), that (demonstrative)

Sentence 4 
There was a rule for everything.

Content Words 
rule (noun), everything (pronoun functioning as content concept)

Function Words 
there (dummy subject), was (verb/auxiliary), a (article), for (preposition)

Sentence 5 
The tree outside the window taps very gently on the pane.

Content Words 
tree (noun), window (noun), taps (verb), gently (adverb), pane (noun)

Function Words 
the (article), outside (preposition), the (article), very (intensifier), on (preposition), the (article)

C. Pronunciation

Explanation: These tasks help students understand how words change their pronunciation in normal spoken English.

Task

(i) Look at the following words

Words showing strong and weak forms in conversation

and 
had 
is 
not

(ii) Find out five more words which have both strong and weak forms.

Examples of words with strong and weak forms

1. to 
2. of 
3. for 
4. can 
5. have

Suggested Reading

The Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf 
The Moment by Virginia Woolf

Build stronger English comprehension and analytical thinking skills with expert-guided NCERT-based learning support.

Book a free trial!