Chapter 5 One Centimetre Class 12 Kaleidoscope English NCERT Summary
Chapter 5 One Centimetre Class 12 Kaleidoscope English NCERT Summary created by subject matter experts of Gkrankers.com to help students easily grasp the main points and essence of a chapter. By referring to Class 12 English NCERT Summary, students can save time and effort in studying and ensure they have a thorough understanding of the chapter.
One Centimetre Class 12 Kaleidoscope English NCERT Notes are written in a simple and easy-to-understand language, making it accessible for students.
Chapter 5 One Centimetre Class 12 Kaleidoscope NCERT Notes
About the Story
The story shows how important it is for a mother to have a good attitude towards her son’s character development. The woman works as a cook in a factory’s cafeteria. Since her family is poor, she makes sure that the petty income can cover all of their needs. She wouldn’t think twice about getting on the bus without a ticket if the conductor didn’t care, and she wouldn’t mind going to temples on tickets given to her by kind people on her list of liasons. But when her son is with her, she doesn’t use so-called tricks. Her child can’t get into the Buddha temple because the scale at the gate isn’t accurate enough to measure him at 1.11 mt. So, he wants a ticket, but the woman doesn’t have enough money to buy one for her son. She is sure that her son isn’t taller than 1.10 m to qualify for the exemption. She’s sad because her son might not get it, and if he does, he’ll go against civilized manners. She goes home, measures her son’s height again, and finds that everything was right. She sends a report to the newspapers. Two people, maybe from the temple, show up at her house a month later and apologise before her son. This makes a mother who teaches her son good manners satisfied.
About the Author
Bi Shumin is a Chinese novelist and psychiatrist. She also has a Master’s degree in literature from the Beijing Teacher’s College. Her works have been translated into many languages. She has won innumerable literary awards both in China and in Taiwan.
One Centimetre NCERT Summary Class 12 English
Tao Ying is the main character of the story, who is a cook in the canteen of a factory. She always looks for ways to save money. She would rather not buy a bus ticket whenever she has the chance. Once, she and her son got on a bus together. She used a scale to measure his height and then said he could get out of it. But the conductor didn’t agree with her and asked for another ticket. Even though she was fine, she didn’t like to be rude to the driver, so she paid for her ticket. She wants to teach her son everything she knows to make him a cultured person. She once saw her son Xiao Ye chewing on a watermelon. She objected immediately.
Once, Lao Chiang gave her a ticket to the temple as a surprise. He often ate lunch and dinner in the kitchen. Since her son is less than 110 cm tall and didn’t need a ticket, she took him with her. But at the door to the temple, her son Xiao Ye seems to be much taller than the mark on the wall that shows the minimum height. She tells her son to play outside the temple because the guard and people at the door are making her irritated.
At one of the shops, an old woman helps people figure out their weight and height. The woman measures the boy and finds that he is taller than 110 cm. Tao Ying is surprised and not sure what to do. The woman of the shop says that her equipment are set up to make people look thinner and taller than they really are, since that’s what most people want to hear.
Back at home, Tao Ying uses a tape measure to find out how tall her son is. From what the tape shows, Xiao Ye is shorter than 110 cm. Tao Ying chooses to write a letter to the editor of a newspaper about how she feels. She is doing this so that her son won’t think that his mother is wrong.
After she had to wait a long month, two people from the Buddha Temple came to her house. They found out how tall Xiao Ye was and agreed that the temple staff had made a mistake. They offered to pay her $5 for her trouble. They also made an alternate offer of two tickets for free so that Tao Ying could take her son for a visit to the Buddha Temple. But Tao Ying turns down both of them. Instead, she tells the people who work at the temple to forgive the guard who was working at the temple gate that day. All of her effort and pain was to give the appearance of a good mother who wishes to teach good behaviours in her kid.