Class 11 English Snapshots Chapter 1 Important Questions The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse by William Saroyan revised and updated for CBSE 2023-24. Get here extra practice questions of Class 11 English Supplementary Reader Chapter 1 Extra Questions with complete explanations.

Why Aram does not believe his eyes when he saw Mourad in one summer morning?

Aram had never seen Mourad so early in the morning. Mourad was sitting on a white horse. Aram felt he is dreaming because horse ride had always been his dream but from the poor family he comes from, it was a dream comes true. It took a few moments for Aram to understand that he is not dreaming, instead Mourad is actually sitting in front of him.

Was it safe for Mourad to tell Aram about the white horse?
It was no big deal for him to tell Aram everything about the horse, the kind of man Mourad was. He was a lively person who lived a cool life. He was considered the natural descendant of a man from San Joaquin Valley who was famous for living life like a king. He was first tempted to ride Aram and then he subdued it as he wanted. Even if Aram would have refused to go with him, he was not afraid of his theft because even the Mourad had perfection in speaking lies.

What was famous about the Garoghlanian family?
The Garoghlanian family was an Armenian tribe. As narrated by William Saroyan, this tribe’s hallmarks were trust and honesty. They could think of deceiving anybody in the world. Some eleven centuries ago it was the wealthiest tribe in that part of the world but today they are famous for their poverty. The tribe descendants are carrying forward the centuries-old tradition of honesty.

With whom Mourad compared to and why?

Mourad started singing as soon as the speed of the horse increased, which shows that he was enjoying his ride very much. The story depicts that there is a crazy streak in every family and there was a Mourad in Aram’s family. He was the natural descendant of Uncle Khosrove who was huge and spoke loud. He never cared about any big event and lived a tension free life. Once there was fire broke out in his house, even after that he had said that do not take tension, there will be no damage. Something similar was the case with Mourad who’s almost all the habits come from that uncle. He always lived life in the present.

According to Aram, what was the definition of stealing a horse?
Aram had a passion for riding a horse, so despite knowing that the horse was stolen and no one in his family history had ever done it, still he agreed to do so. This is because he had assumed that if we are not selling the horse to someone then it will not be considered stolen. Therefore the definition of theft was to sell the goods to someone else.

How was Aram’s solo ride on a horse?
Aram was not like his brother Mourad. When he sees his brother taking a solo ride on white horse, he too decides to take a similar one but he didn’t have rich experience of handling animals. When he takes the seat, the white horse refused to move an inch. On this, Mourad tells him important piece of information and the horse catches the speed, instead of running across the field to the irrigation ditch the horse ran down the road to the vineyard where it began to leap over vines. The horse leaped over seven and then Aram falls down.

How does Aram come to know that this horse has been stolen since a month?

The day he comes riding a horse, in the same afternoon a farmer comes to his house whose name was John Byro. He sits and smokes a cigarette and sadly tells Uncle Khosrove that his white horse has been stolen since last one month and without him he is facing lot of troubles. There Aram learns that this white horse belongs to him and has been stolen for a month.

What request did the narrator make to his cousin Mourad about the horse? How did he react to it?
When Aram comes to know that this horse belongs to that farmer, he runs to Mourad and says that he should not return the horse until he learns horse riding. On this Mourad says that it will take him a year to learn now. The horse should go to its original owner on time, which is 6 months. To which Aram agrees which meant that he would try to learn horse riding within the said period.

How the farmer was convinced that this horse was not his?

Seeing the beauty of the horse and peeping into its mouth, the farmer could not believe that it was not his horse because it was very similar to his white horse. But because both the children were known to be farmers because he used to visit their house frequently and he knew from which community these children belonged. Kids belonged to Garoghlanian tribe of Armenia where till date no one had stolen anything and were famous for their honesty, so he was sure that this is not his horse.

Were Aram and Mourad happy to return the white horse?
Both Aram and Mourad had peace of mind that they returned the horse to the owner, at least to Aram. This is because he was a bit sneaky. That afternoon Mr. John Byro came to Aram’s house and he looked very cheerful because he got his beautiful white horse back. After which we saw Aram thanking God.

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Last Edited: September 4, 2023