NCERT Books for Class 11 English Hornbill

Class 11 NCERT Books for English Hornbill Book PDF Solutions

Students in Class 11 and looking for a great textbook for English can check the Class 11 NCERT Books for English Hornbill Free PDF Download. This book allows students to read a collection of prose that has been compiled by authors all over the world. The pieces of prose included in the PDF textbook for English Class 11 have been selected in such a way that they connect to the pupils’ brains. Additionally, the pieces that have been chosen do not come from a single literary genre; rather, they have been specifically chosen from travelogues, biographies, science fiction, and other such genres so that students can get a broad idea about all of the different types of genres that are involved. Students can now obtain the Class 11 NCERT Books for English Hornbill Free PDF Download at no cost through Extramarks, and they can access these resources whenever they see fit.

CBSE Class 11 English Hornbill Book – Download Chapter Wise PDF

Students can read works of prose that have been compiled from authors in various countries thanks to the Class 11 NCERT Books for English Hornbill Free PDF Download. The pieces of prose included in the PDF textbook for English Class 11 have been selected in such a way that they connect to the students’ thoughts. Additionally, the pieces that have been chosen do not come from a single literary genre; rather, they have been specifically chosen from travelogues, biographies, science fiction, and other such genres so that students can get a broad idea about all of the different types of genres that are involved. Students can now obtain the Class 11 NCERT Books for English Hornbill Free PDF Download for free with Extramarks, and they may access them whenever they want.

NCERT Books for CBSE Class 11 English Hornbill Free Download

The Hornbill textbook PDF that NCERT issued is the primary English text students must study for class 11 of the CBSE syllabus. The works of prose included in the class 11 Hornbill book have been selected with great care from various sources, such as biographies, travelogues, science fiction, essays, and so on. The section on writing skills instructs students on various writing styles, including letter writing, creative writing, note keeping, and summarising, all of which may be useful to them once they graduate from high school or college. The chapter overviews from the Hornbill class 11 book are broken up into brief paragraphs and presented below.

Unit 1: The Portrait of a Lady

Khushwant Singh has authored a piece called The Portrait of a Lady, in which he discusses the various stages of his connection with his grandmother at various points in time. As the narrative progresses, we learn that the author grew up in the village with just his grandmother for the company when his parents relocated to the city in search of better job opportunities. The author and his grandmother were close friends before he and his grandmother travelled to town, but that trip was the turning point in their relationship. Because his grandma could not keep up with him after he started attending an English school, they became less close to one another and spent less time together. At this point, the only thing that connected them other than their friendship was the fact that they shared a room.

However, this shared connection was severed when the author moved into his dorm room while at the institution. His grandmother became reclusive and had few interactions with other people. The narrative found in the PDF version of the NCERT Hornbill textbook comes to a close with the protagonist’s grandmother performing songs of homecoming warriors in celebration of her grandson’s return after travelling abroad. She has an illness the following day, after which she passes away quietly.

Unit 1: A Photograph

The first section of this poem describes a picture the poet’s mother took of her and her two cousins when they were at sea. In the second section, the poet’s mother chuckles while looking at the photo, but she is also filled with regret over the loss of the pleasures and joys she experienced as a child. The poet’s mother has passed away at this point, and the poet is working with the grief she feels at the loss of her mother. The poem, which is taken from the Hornbill textbook PDF, draws a contrast between the fleeting character of human life and the eternal essence of nature. In addition to this, it throws light upon the three distinct stages that make up the life of a human being: childhood, adulthood, and death.

Unit 2: ‘We’re Not Afraid to Die… If We Can All Be Together.’

The narrator and his significant other plan a tour across the world in the style of the famous explorer Captain James Cook. Over the course of the previous 16 years, they have been formulating strategies and honing their navigating skills. They acquire a vessel known as the Wave Walker, which has a wooden hull and is 23 metres in length and weighs 30 tonnes. They subject it to rigorous testing in a harsh environment for an extended period of time.

They all started their journey from Plymouth, England, in July of 1976, when they were all there. They embarked on a journey that would take them all the way to Cape Town in South Africa, which was a journey that was both significant and amazing. Before setting sail for the East, the narrator recruited Larry Vigil and Herb Seigler, both crew members, to help them navigate the Southern Indian Ocean, considered one of the roughest oceans. The following day, they are subjected to very upsetting waves. By the 25th of December, they had all found out how to get to a location that was 35,000 kilometres to the east of Cape Town. The horrible weather does not prevent the family from celebrating Christmas in some fashion or another.

Big waves pounded them on January 2 in addition to the increasingly unfavourable weather conditions that had been occurring. They try to bring the boat under control by lowering a storm jib and hitting a heavy fastening rope in a circle around a hump; however, their efforts are not very successful. They demonstrate their life-pontoon drill to other people, connect the lifesavers, and wear life jackets and oilskins. After that, in the evening, a vertical and gigantic wave hits the boat, and the person telling the story is swept away from the boat. He then admits that he is “heading toward death” and begins to black out. At this point, the boat is smacked by another massive wave, which causes it to immediately reverse direction. He suffers injuries to the ribcage as well as the mouth. He grabs the guard rail and then sails towards the fundamental explosion that the boat is producing. He instructs his girlfriend Mary to keep an eye on the wheel because he knows water is in the boat’s lower portions. Someone on his crew starts the process of syphoning the water out. The narrator visits his children at their cabin and keeps a watch on them while he’s there. Sue, his young daughter, alerts him to a blow that she received to the head, but he brushes it off as unimportant because his primary concern is to rescue the boat.

The storyteller poured water over the wide openings, shutting them off. Because of this, water will flow improperly on the right side. Both the manual syphon and the electric syphon fail due to rubbish getting in the way, which causes the electric syphon to short circuit. Despite this, he eventually finds an additional electric syphon and realises that using it will cause the water supply to run out. Throughout the night, each of them keeps syphoning water from the container. Because they are located in the most inaccessible part of the earth, no one responds to their mayday calls. Sue’s second injury was a deep cut on her arm and a severely swollen and bruised eye. After obtaining some information regarding her wounds, she tells him that she does not require him to worry about her while he is striving to save them both. After a period of 15 hours, the situation will be resolved. The narrator of tales decides when to work and when to relax in between tellings. However, the holes below the waterline are still present despite managing water levels.

Unit 3: Discovering Tut: The Saga Continues

This chapter from the English Hornbill book for class 11 discusses the investigation into the death of King Tutankhamun in Egypt when he was only a teenager. Since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, there has been much conjecture on the circumstances surrounding the cause of his death. Zahi Hawass, the secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, oversaw removing his body from its final resting place and putting it through a CT scan to determine the cause of his death, which had been a mystery for the previous 80 years. On the evening of the scan, his body was removed from the tomb and placed into a box before being scanned. The scanner performed a full-body scan on the monarch, revealing a cross-section of his cranium and many images of his rib cages, hands, and other bodily parts. A group of forensics, radiology, and anatomy experts will investigate the circumstances surrounding his passing using these photos and others.

Unit 3: The Laburnum Top

The poem, which is taken from the PDF version of the Hornbill textbook, is about a laburnum tree in September, when the afternoon sun is shining, and the tree’s top is peaceful and quiet. Because of the lack of movement and sound, the tree appears to be an empty, hollow item. It is something that does not exhibit any signs of life. Then, a goldfinch materialises out of nowhere and perches on this tree; the tree seems to have sprung to life due to the chirping sound produced by the bird. It has been said that the action of the bird as it enters the tree is alert, sudden, and as sleek as a lizard.

She most likely has a nest with her young, who begin chirping, trilling, and flapping their wings simultaneously. This behaviour is analogous to the beginning of a machine starting, with the bird serving as the engine of her family. Because of this, when she flies away, her young stop singing, and the tree returns to its previous state, devoid of leaves and lifeless.

Unit 4: The Landscape of the Soul

The story found in the PDF version of the Hornbill textbook is a fusion of two different types of artistic styles: eastern and western. The author uses two types of folktales, one from China and one from the author’s home country of Flanders, to illustrate the similarities and differences between these two types. In the traditional Chinese tale, the artist Wu Daozi was tasked with drawing a scene of nature on the palace wall. While the emperor admires this picture, Wu Daozi announced that the inside of this work of art is even more wonderful than its exterior. He then clapped his hands and disappeared inside the painting, never to be seen again.

The legend comes from Flanders and tells the story of a blacksmith who went to a painter’s workshop and sketched a fly on the wall to win the painter’s favour. Because the fly looked so genuine, the artist at first sought to kill it. However, once he realised it was just a sketch, he offered the blacksmith a position as his apprentice. These tales have taught us that European painters aimed to create lifelike paintings as close to the subject as possible. Alternatively, in eastern paintings, the artist intends for the viewers to find an inner and spiritual meaning in the work of art.

Unit 4: The Voice of the Rain

This composition by Walt Whitman, which can be found in the PDF version of the Hornbill textbook, is a celebration of rain, which is also known as the poem of earth. This masterwork describes the water cycle process, which involves water evaporating from the land and the sea and ascending into the atmosphere, condensing into droplets and forming clouds. After that, the clouds release their water in the form of rain, which washes away the dryness and dust on the ground, making it easier for any unborn seeds to germinate and produce new life. There will never be an end to this infinite cycle, in which rain clouds form over land and sea and then return to their points of origin. There has also been a comparison between rain and song. Both phenomena have been suggested to travel to far-off regions after departing their respective cradles to accomplish their goals. Then, filled with affection, they return to their beginning.

Unit 5: The Ailing Planet: The Green Movement’s Role

The author of this chapter of the Hornbill textbook PDF discusses the environmental movement’s role in reviving our sick planet in the essay. This movement has been very significant in raising people’s knowledge of the significance of protecting natural resources, which has been one of its primary goals. As a direct result of this, there has been a noticeable shift away from a mechanical view of the universe and toward an ecological and holistic one. In addition, the World Commission on Environment and Development was the organisation responsible for popularising the idea of sustainable development.

It showed numerous aspects that are having such an effect on development. These include the overexploitation of biological systems such as fisheries, forests, and water bodies, in addition to the exponential growth rate of the world’s population.

Unit 6: The Browning Version

An exchange between a student and a teacher, referred to as Taplow and Frank, is seen in the PDF version of the textbook Hornbill, which was taken from the play The Browning Version. Taplow is here today to complete some more work for Mr Crocker-Harris, who is also a teacher. They discuss Mr Crocker Harris, and Taplow reveals to Frank that he had hoped to pursue science if he had satisfactory findings and that he thinks Aeschylus is a piece of muck. They continue their conversation about Mr Crocker Harris. In this section, readers learn much about Mr Crocker-Harris from Taplow’s description. For example, they learn that he is unique among the other teachers at the school, that he is a stickler for regulations, and that, unlike other teachers, he is not a sadist. Taplow continues on to impersonate Mr Crocker-Harris as well. However, when Frank advises that he go off and play golf for Mr Crocker-Harris, Taplow refuses to do so since he has a certain amount of respect for the teacher and fear of him. At the very end, Millie Crocker-Harris gives him the assignment to complete.

Unit 6: Childhood

In this poem by Markus Natten, the poet ponders the time in his life when he stopped being the innocent youngster he used to be. In the poem’s first line, he wonders whether it was the day he turned eleven years old or the day he realised that heaven and hell could not be located on a map and, as a result, did not exist. In the second stanza, the poet muses over the possibility that the day he realised that grownups are hypocrites—they talk of love but do not act lovingly or kindly—was the day he may have lost the innocence he had enjoyed in his boyhood.

The poet muses that perhaps he is not as innocent as he once was because he finally came to the realisation that his mind is his own, that it is capable of original concepts, and that it can be utilised in any manner that he chooses. This poetry is taken from the PDF of the Hornbill textbook. In the poem’s final stanza, the poet questions where his youth went and then answers that all he knows is that it went to a forgotten location buried in an infant’s face.

Unit 7: The Adventure

The PDF of the Hornbill textbook includes a short story that fits within the category of science fiction. The plot revolves around a history professor named Gangadharpant Gaitonde, who travels to an alternate version of India in which the Marathas were victorious in the battle of Panipat and the East India Company continued to hold power. He went to a library to gain more information regarding the events that took place in this alternative universe. The professor quickly tucked a book into his pocket before leaving the library just as it was about to close. He decided to spend the night in a guestroom and checked in. Following the meal, he was involved in an incident that caused him to lose consciousness.

When he opened his eyes, Rajendra Deshpande stood in front of him. When the professor finally informed him what had occurred, he was astounded by the information. The professor said that two theories could explain what had occurred to him: the catastrophe theory and the lack of determinism in quantum theory.

Unit 8: Silk Road

This chapter of the Hornbill textbook PDF was extracted from a travelogue written by the author, and it describes the author’s journey to Mount Kailash to do the Kora, also known as a pilgrimage. This travelogue takes its name from an old trading route that was commonly referred to as the silk road. His journey led him along this path. Along the trip, the author came across nomad shepherds who were taking care of their sheep as Tibetan mastiffs stood guard over their tents. The roads were slick, and there were a lot of tight twists. The atmospheric pressure decreased as well. The high altitude caused the author to have difficulty breathing and a stuffy nose when they reached Darchen, which was dusty and had a little population. In Darchen, he went to the town’s one and only café, where he met Norbu, who was also in town for the pilgrimage. He and Norbu concluded that they would tackle it together.

Unit 8: Father to Son

This poem, from the PDF version of the Hornbill textbook, sheds light on the problem of the generation gap as well as the lack of communication that parents and children experience worldwide. Even though they have been living in the same house for many years, the father bemoans the fact that he can no longer comprehend his child in the poem’s first verse. As a result, he endeavours to forge a connection with his son by drawing off the information he gleaned about the younger version of himself. However, the connection that once existed between them has been severed, and the father holds himself responsible for this development. He claims that they communicate with one another in a manner that is similar to that of strangers and that there is no sign of understanding between them. Even though his son has his looks, he is still unsure of what his son enjoys doing. This poetry is taken from the Hornbill textbook PDF, and the first time the son is heard speaking is in the final verse. He, too, is saddened by the significant gap in comprehension that exists between them. They both reach out a palm that is empty towards one another in an attempt to close the gap that has formed between them.

Why are NCERT books students’ favourite?

For several reasons, students like NCERT books, such as the Hornbill textbook in English for class 11. Some of them are the ones below.

When studying for tests, NCERT books are very helpful. Because they are made according to the rules set by NCERT and follow those rules to the letter, CBSE students can use NCERT books to clear up any questions they have about the syllabus before they start studying for their exams. Students from other boards can also use NCERT textbooks to prepare for entrance exams based on the CBSE syllabus.

These textbooks are written by professors and scholars who are experts in their fields. They also have a lot of experience teaching, so they know what students need and write these textbooks in clear, easy-to-understand language. Additionally, examples are used to explain the main ideas clearly. They also have charts, tables, and pictures to fully understand the text.

At the end of each chapter in an NCERT textbook, there are many exercises that students can do to see how well they understand the text. Different parts of the books are used to do these exercises. For example, the NCERT class 11 English Hornbill book has exercises on reading comprehension, questions about language, how to use words, and other things. The questions are also based on how the CBSE tests are set up. There are long questions, short questions and answers, questions with more than one answer, and so on.

Not only do books like Hornbill textbook PDFs have questions based on the text, but they also have questions based on activities like class discussions. It gives them a different way of looking at the text. These things are different for each subject. But they make it easier for students to put their theoretical knowledge to use in the real world.

Why is Extramarks the best platform for enhanced learning?

The online learning platform Extramarks offers customised solutions for the NCERT Hornbill textbook PDF to help students understand the text better. Students can also get answers to the questions in the Hornbill English book for class 11, which will help them study well for tests. Aside from that, they can also choose interactive online lessons taught by experts in the field who help students learn at their own pace.