NEEU 2025 | On Killing a Tree | Lecture 16

NEEU 2025 | On Killing a Tree | Lecture 16

• Topics covered include Games, On Killing A Tree, and NCERT Questions & Exercise.
• A recap of previous lecture topics: Games, Reach for the Top, NCERT Questions & Exercise.
• The professor's explanation was lucid, making complicated concepts easy to understand.
• The antonym of "timid" is brave.
• Quitting a job angrily may burn bridges with your employer, destroying relationships permanently.
• "He let the cat out of the bag" means to reveal a secret.
• "On Killing a Tree" is like an instruction manual for killing a tree; it highlights that trees are living beings.
• Killing a tree requires more than a simple jab; it involves uprooting the roots embedded deep in the soil.
• The act of killing involves the poem depicting tree courage and strength, urging the reader to possess similar qualities.

Word Meanings

• Jab: to hit forcefully or stab
• Consuming: using resources
• Feeding upon: deriving nutrition
• Crust: top layer of soil
• Leprous hide: discoloured bark of the tree
• Sprouting: giving rise/birth to
• Hack: cutting with heavy blows
• Chop: cut into pieces
• Bleeding bark: secretion of liquid from bark when cut
• Heal: recovering from a wound
• Curled: with twists and graceful moves
• Twigs: tenderly leaves
• Miniature: tiny and small
• Boughs: branches
• Unchecked: not being stopped
• Expand: to grow in an enormous way
• Former: belonging to the earlier
• Pull out: to take out by force
• Anchoring earth: trees securely held by roots in the earth
• Snapped out: chopped out
• Exposed: vulnerable, subjected to one's limitations
• Earth-cave: the inside of the earth
• Scorching and choking: drying up of tree after uprooted
• Browning: color gradually getting brown
• Hardening: process of becoming hard and dry
• Twisting: getting bent and moved
• Withering: process of decaying

Poetic Devices

• Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sounds
• Personification: giving human qualities to non-human things.
• Metaphor: symbolic comparison

Explanation

• The poem emphasizes the time it takes to kill a tree, highlighting the effort needed, not its ease.
• A simple jab is insufficient; the tree must be pulled out from its roots.
• The roots contain strength and nourishment.
• Uprooting exposes the roots, leading to death due to heat exposure.
• The poem argues against the callous act of cutting trees.

NCERT Questions

• A simple jab of a knife is not enough to kill a tree; it needs to be pulled from its roots.
• Trees grow to their full size by absorbing nutrients from the soil, sunlight, air, and water over many years.
• "Bleeding bark" refers to the liquid produced when the bark is cut or hurt.
• The use of “No” in the third stanza underscores the significance of completely removing the tree's roots to kill it.
• "Anchoring earth" refers to the soil where the tree's roots are deeply embedded; "earth cave" describes the space inside the earth where the hidden roots are.
• The strength of the tree lies its roots, which provide nourishment and anchor it; exposing the roots leads to the tree's death.
• The tree is finally killed when roots are exposed and they die due to the heat.

This quiz covers Lecture 16 on 'On Killing a Tree' alongside related topics such as Games and NCERT Questions. It delves into the themes of the poem, illustrating the deep connection between humanity and nature. Test your understanding of its key concepts and vocabulary.