TOPIC 15 OF 19
Going Places – Part 1
🎓 Class 12
English
CBSE
Theory
Ch 8 — Going Places
⏱ ~35 min
🌐 Language: [gtranslate]
📖 English Passage Assessment
▲
This CBSE English Passage Assessment will be based on: Going Places – Part 1
Assessment Format:
• 2 Short Answer Questions (2 marks each) = 4 marks
• 2 Fill in the Blanks Questions (1 mark each) = 2 marks
• 2 Short Answer Questions (1 mark each) = 2 marks
• 2 Multiple Choice Questions (1 mark each) = 2 marks
Total: 8 Questions, 10 Marks
📖 English Grammar Assessment
▲
This CBSE English Grammar Assessment will be based on: Going Places – Part 1
Assessment Format:
• 10 Randomized Grammar Questions (1 mark each)
• Question Types: Fill in the Blanks, MCQs, Error Identification, Reported Speech, Sentence Completion
Total: 10 Questions, 10 Marks
📖 English Vocabulary Assessment
▲
This English Vocabulary assessment will be based on: Going Places – Part 1
Targeting Vocabulary & Usage with Intermediate difficulty.
Before You Read — Going Places
A.R. Barton's story explores adolescent fantasy and hero worship — the gap between the world we inhabit and the world we imagine for ourselves.
1
Notice these expressions — infer their meaning from context:
incongruity A jarring mismatch between two things that don't belong together
arcade A covered passageway lined with shops
prodigy A person, especially a child or young person, with exceptional ability
amber glow A warm, golden-orange light — like the inside of a lamp
chuffed (British slang) Very pleased or delighted
wharf A structure built along a river or harbour for loading and unloading boats
solitary elm A single elm tree standing alone — often associated with solitude
pangs of doubt Sharp, sudden feelings of uncertainty or worry
2
Think about this: Have you ever daydreamed about meeting a celebrity you admire? What did you imagine happening? What does such a fantasy reveal about your own desires and the life you wish you had?
Sophie's fantasy about Danny Casey is not merely about a footballer — it is a projection of her own longing to escape her limited, working-class circumstances. Hero worship at its deepest is always partly about the self: we worship in others the qualities or freedoms we believe we ourselves lack. This story asks us to examine that impulse with sympathy but also with clarity.
3
Predict: Sophie dreams of owning a boutique, becoming an actress, or working as a fashion designer. Her friend Jansie is practical and knows they are both headed for the biscuit factory. What do you think happens when dreams collide with reality? Who do you think is right — Sophie or Jansie?
Neither character is simply right or wrong. Jansie's practicality protects her from disappointment, but risks foreclosing possibility. Sophie's dreaming gives her interior richness — but without grounding, fantasy becomes self-deception. The story explores this tension without dismissing either character. By the end, Sophie's sadness is not a failure of dreaming; it is the necessary cost of inhabiting a world smaller than one's imagination.
Going Places — Part I: Dreams & Family
P1
On her way home from school, Sophie announced to Jansie that once she left school, she intended to open a boutique. Jansie, walking beside her, looked doubtful. Sophie insisted she would find the money somehow — she always believed she would. When Jansie pointed out that a boutique required capital that neither of them had, Sophie shifted easily to the next dream: she would become a manager first, save up, and then open the shop. She knew precisely how it would all look.
Irony
P2
Jansie, who was fully aware that both of them were destined for the local biscuit factory, grew melancholy. She wished Sophie would stop speaking like this. When they reached Sophie's street, Jansie reminded her gently: there were only a few months left before they left school — she really ought to be sensible. Factory work didn't pay well; her father would never approve of shop work. Sophie was unmoved, and simply pivoted to a new possibility — acting. And then fashion design. Something sophisticated, she said, before disappearing through the open front door, leaving Jansie standing in the rain.
P3
Inside the house, Sophie's father ate his shepherd's pie hungrily, his face still creased with grime and sweat from the workday. Her younger brother Derek made a quip about money growing on trees; their mother sighed. Sophie noticed how her mother's back was bent over the sink, and felt the strange incongruity of the delicate little bow that fastened her mother's apron — that precise, elegant knot against the stooped, exhausted back. Symbolism The small room was steamy, the windows already darkened by evening, the heavy-breathing father in his vest dominating the table, dirty laundry piled in the corner. Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. Imagery
P4
She went to find her brother Geoff, who was kneeling in the next room, working on a motorcycle part spread over newspaper on the carpet. Geoff was three years out of school now, an apprentice mechanic who travelled across the city each day to work. He had grown almost fully into adulthood, and Sophie was aware that there were parts of his life she would never know — places he went, things he experienced, which he never spoke about. Words had to be prized out of him like stones from the ground. Simile His silences seemed to Sophie to contain whole other worlds — distant places, exotic people — that remained just out of her reach. She was jealous of his quiet.
P5
She longed to be let further into his world — to be taken along with him someday. She knew their father forbade it, and she sensed Geoff thought her too young. She imagined herself riding behind him on the motorcycle, wearing a yellow cape that billowed out behind them both, the world rising to applaud their arrival. Imagery Symbolism Geoff was, for Sophie, not just a brother — he was a figure who embodied access to everywhere she had never been.
P6
It was then that Sophie told him: she had met Danny Casey. Geoff looked up sharply. Where? In the arcade, she said. He was disbelieving — "It's never true." Sophie insisted. She told him the story: she had been looking at clothes in Royce's window when someone came to stand beside her and, when she turned, it was him. Geoff demanded a description. Sophie complied: green eyes, gentle eyes, not as tall as you'd think. She decided against mentioning his teeth.
Read and Find Out — Section 1
1. Where was it most likely that both girls would find work after school?
Both Sophie and Jansie were, as the narrator notes, "earmarked for the biscuit factory." This was the expected destination for young women of their class and background — the local factory offering unskilled or semi-skilled labour. Jansie accepts this reality; Sophie refuses to.
2. What were Sophie's options for the future and why does Jansie discourage her?
Sophie envisions owning a boutique, becoming a manager, working as an actress, or becoming a fashion designer. Jansie discourages her because she knows their social and financial circumstances make such aspirations impractical — neither has money, neither comes from a family that could support these ambitions, and their fathers are conservative. Jansie's discouragement is not malicious; it is protective — she does not want Sophie to be hurt by unrealistic expectations.
Going Places — Part II: The Fantasy Deepens
P7
When the father came home, washed clean, he was told by Geoff that Sophie had met Danny Casey. Sophie squirmed at the table. Her father turned his thick neck to look at her with an expression of disdain. Geoff confirmed it. The father responded by recalling that he had once known a man who had known Tom Finney — as if to say that real footballers belonged to a different, distant world. The family debated Casey's future — his youth, his talent, the distractions of fame — while Sophie sat quietly and then announced that Casey had said he was going to buy a shop. Her father reacted with scepticism and irritation: "This another of your wild stories?"
P8
Later, in the amber glow of Geoff's bedroom — the large team poster on the wall, three photographs of the young Irish prodigy Casey — Sophie made Geoff promise to tell no one, especially not their father. Geoff was sceptical. He said Casey would have strings of girls; Sophie protested. She told him the full story: she had approached Casey herself, asked for an autograph, but neither had a pen or paper. They had talked a little — about the clothes in the window. He had seemed lonely. He was a long way from the west of Ireland. And as he left, he had invited her to meet him the following week for the autograph. "As if he'd ever show up," said Geoff.
Irony
P9
On Saturday they went to the match. United won two–nil. Casey scored the second goal with a combination of innocence and genius — ghosting around two large defenders, hovering over the ball for a breathless moment, then striking it cleanly past the goalkeeper from twelve yards. Sophie glowed with pride. Afterwards Geoff was ecstatic. On the bus home someone said he wished Casey were English. Little Derek told his mother Ireland would win the World Cup.
P10
The following week Jansie confronted Sophie about the Danny Casey story — Geoff had told Frank, who had told Jansie. Sophie was startled and then furious, inwardly: this was a Geoff thing, not a Jansie thing. Something private, something sacred between siblings. Telling gawky Jansie would mean the whole neighbourhood would know. She managed the information carefully — confirming only that she had asked for an autograph with no pen or paper available. Jansie relaxed, not having heard the part about the arranged meeting. Sophie breathed more easily: Geoff had kept that secret. Some things were still sacred.
Irony
P11
That evening Sophie walked by the canal in the dark, along a sheltered path lit only by the glow of the wharf lamps across the water, the city's noise muffled and distant. She had played here as a child. There was a wooden bench beneath a solitary elm where lovers sometimes came — she had always thought it the perfect place for a meeting like this, for people who wished not to be seen. She sat and waited. Symbolism Imagery
P12
She imagined his arrival — saw him come out of the shadows along the canal path, felt the excitement that would follow. But as time passed, she began to weigh the possibility that he would not come. She reasoned with herself — in the stream of her own consciousness, the narrative voice shifts to second person, as though Sophie is both the dreamer and the observer of the dream: she knew he would not come; she knew Geoff had been right; she knew her father and Jansie had never believed her. But she also knew how it had been — Danny and her, the arcade, those gentle green eyes. Symbolism
P13
Resignation arrived slowly. As she climbed the crumbling steps back to the street and passed her father's bicycle propped against the pub wall — glad he was not yet home — she recalled the encounter once more, this time in the second person, as though reliving a dream. She pictured the exact moment: his shy smile exposing gaps between teeth, the shimmer of green eyes that seemed almost afraid — like a gazelle's — the soft melodious Irish voice, the moment she had stood alone in the arcade afterwards, waiting. Simile And she saw it again, last Saturday — his ghost-like movement past the lumbering defenders, the collective intake of breath from fifty thousand spectators, the explosion of sound as the ball struck the net. The great Danny Casey.
Read and Find Out — Section 2
1. Why did Sophie not want Jansie to know about her story with Danny?
Sophie had shared the story with Geoff as a secret between siblings — something intimate and special, not for public consumption. Jansie, whom Sophie describes as "gawky" and nosey, is the kind of person who would tell everyone in the neighbourhood. If word reached Sophie's father, there would be serious consequences. But more fundamentally, Sophie resented the intimacy being diluted — some things, she felt, should remain sacred between those who truly understand each other.
2. Did Sophie really meet Danny Casey?
This is one of the story's central ambiguities, and the author deliberately leaves it unresolved. The weight of narrative evidence suggests the meeting was Sophie's fantasy: Casey, a famous young footballer, would be unlikely to approach a schoolgirl in an arcade and arrange a rendezvous. When Sophie waits at the canal and he does not come, she rehearses the memory of the encounter in the second person — a dreamlike mode that suggests it was imagined. Yet Barton never explicitly states this, preserving Sophie's dignity and the reader's uncertainty.
3. Which was the only occasion when Sophie got to see Danny Casey in person?
The only confirmed, verifiable occasion when Sophie saw Danny Casey was at the football match on Saturday, when he scored the second goal. She watched him ghost past the defenders and strike the ball cleanly into the net — watched along with fifty thousand other spectators. This was not a personal encounter; it was the same public experience available to everyone at the stadium.
Character Relationship Map — Going Places
Solid lines = close emotional bonds · Dashed lines = tension or distance · Gold line = fantasy relationship
Vocabulary — Going Places
incongruity
noun
A striking mismatch or incompatibility between two things placed together.
"Sophie wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which fastened her apron strings" — the bow's delicacy against the mother's bent, exhausted back.
prodigy
noun
A young person with exceptional gifts or abilities that far exceed those typical for their age.
"Three photographs of the young Irish prodigy, Casey" — the word itself carries Sophie's awe.
earmarked
verb (past participle)
Designated or set aside for a specific purpose, often without the person's choice in the matter.
"Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the biscuit factory…"
chuffed
adjective (informal/British)
Very pleased, delighted, proud.
"I'd have thought he'd be chuffed as anything." — Jansie, imagining Sophie's father's reaction to the Danny Casey meeting.
melancholy
noun / adjective
A deep, persistent sadness or pensive sorrow, often without a specific cause.
"Jansie became melancholy. She wished Sophie wouldn't say these things."
disdain
noun
Contemptuous disregard; the feeling that someone or something is unworthy of respect.
"His expression was one of disdain" — the father's dismissive look when told Sophie had met Danny Casey.
approbation
noun
Formal or official approval; enthusiastic praise.
"The sudden thunderous eruption of exultant approbation" — the crowd's roaring response to Casey's goal.
despondent
adjective
In low spirits from loss of hope or courage; deeply dejected.
"It makes me despondent, this knowing I'll never be able to show them they're wrong."
Extract-Based Questions (CBQ) — CBSE Class 12
Extract 1 — Sophie on Geoff
"Words had to be prized out of him like stones out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When he wasn't speaking it was as though he was away somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had never been."
Q1. Identify the figure of speech in "Words had to be prized out of him like stones out of the ground."L4 Analyse
This is a simile — a direct comparison using "like." Geoff's reluctance to speak is compared to the effort of prying stones from hard, resistant ground. The image conveys not merely quietness, but active resistance — as though Geoff's words are buried, unwilling, requiring physical effort to extract. It perfectly characterises his introverted, inward nature.
Q2. Why is Sophie "jealous" of Geoff's silence? What does this reveal about her character?L4 Analyse
Sophie envies Geoff's silence because she interprets it as evidence of a rich interior life — one connected to the wider world she herself longs to access. His silence seems to her to contain destinations, people, experiences. Sophie, by contrast, is intensely verbal — she expresses her desires through speech and storytelling. Her jealousy of Geoff's quiet reveals her deep longing to have mysterious, unexplored dimensions to her own life, rather than the transparent, circumscribed existence she inhabits.
Q3. What does Geoff symbolise for Sophie in the story?L5 Evaluate
Geoff symbolises freedom, the wider world, and the life that lies just beyond Sophie's reach. He travels daily to the far side of the city — distances that are mundane in reality but feel vast and romantic to Sophie. She imagines riding behind him on his motorcycle into unknown territories. He is her window onto the possible — the person who, if he would only take her along, could transport her out of the narrow, steamy, grimy world she is trapped in. His silence amplifies this: the world he inhabits is unknowable, and therefore unlimited in Sophie's imagination.
Q4. "She was jealous of his silence." Write 80 words on how silence can sometimes communicate more powerfully than words.L6 Create
Silence, in literature and in life, is never truly empty — it is filled with what the speaker chooses not to say. A character who speaks little forces those around them to project meaning, to imagine, to speculate. Geoff's silence is a blank canvas on which Sophie paints her own desires. In this sense, his quietness is more powerful than any words he could offer — it keeps possibility alive. Silence is the canvas on which the imagination works most freely. Words, once spoken, define and limit; silence leaves everything open.
Extract 2 — Sophie at the Canal
"There was a wooden bench beneath a solitary elm where lovers sometimes came. She sat down to wait. It was the perfect place, she had always thought so, for a meeting of this kind. For those who wished not to be observed. She knew he would approve."
Q1. What does the "solitary elm" symbolise in this context?L4 Analyse
The solitary elm is a rich symbol of Sophie herself — isolated, standing apart, in a place removed from the ordinary world. "Solitary" suggests loneliness but also a kind of dignity; an elm is a stately tree, not insignificant. By choosing to wait beneath it, Sophie unconsciously identifies with its condition: alone, rooted, but reaching. The setting by the canal at night, away from the city's noise, also suggests the marginal space where fantasy and reality meet — and where reality will ultimately prevail.
Q2. "She knew he would approve." What does this line reveal about the nature of Sophie's fantasy?L5 Evaluate
This line subtly exposes the self-referential quality of Sophie's fantasy. She does not actually know anything about Casey — she has invented him. "She knew he would approve" reveals that the Casey in her imagination is a creation designed to validate her choices, appreciate her taste, and confirm her worth. She has constructed a version of him whose preferences perfectly mirror her own romantic sense of what a secret meeting should look like. The fantasy serves not to know Casey but to know a version of herself loved by someone worthy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Going Places – 1 about in NCERT English?
Going Places – 1 is a lesson from the NCERT English textbook that covers important literary and language concepts. The lesson includes vocabulary, literary devices, comprehension exercises, and writing tasks aligned to the CBSE curriculum.
What vocabulary is important in Going Places – 1?
Key vocabulary words from Going Places – 1 are highlighted throughout with contextual meanings, usage examples, and interesting facts. Click any highlighted word to see its full definition and example sentence.
What literary devices are used in Going Places – 1?
Going Places – 1 uses various literary devices including imagery, symbolism, and figurative language. These are identified with coloured tags throughout the text for easy recognition and understanding by students.
What exercises are included for Going Places – 1?
Exercises include extract-based comprehension questions in CBSE board exam format, grammar workshops connected to the passage, vocabulary activities, and creative writing tasks with model answers provided.
How does Going Places – 1 help in board exam preparation?
Going Places – 1 includes CBSE-format extract-based questions, long answer practice with model responses, and grammar exercises that mirror board exam patterns. All questions follow Bloom's Taxonomy levels L1-L6.
AI Tutor
Class 12 English — Flamingo
Ready