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NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 6 A Friend Found in Music (poem by Bryanna T. Perkins) — Vocabulary in Context

Book page 197–198 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.
I. Read the following phrases from the poem denoting happiness and sadness. Classify the words given in the box below as positive emotions and negative emotions. [Box: feel blue | lifts my spirits | most cheerful] • Positive emotions (happiness): _____________________ • Negative emotions (sadness): _____________________
Answer
CategoryPhrasesThe line each comes from
Positive emotions (happiness)lifts my spirits, most cheerful“Music lifts my spirits / To make sure I pull through.”  ·  “The times when I’m most cheerful, / It’s clear, music was there.”
Negative emotions (sadness)feel blue“Music is the therapy / I need when I feel blue.”
How each was sorted:
  • lifts my spirits — ‘spirits’ means mood, and to lift it is to raise it. The direction of the verb decides the category.
  • most cheerful — cheerful means openly happy, and ‘most’ intensifies it. The poem places it at the top of her emotional range.
  • feel blue — the idiom for low, gloomy sadness. The poem itself confirms it by calling music a therapy for that state.
Notice that the poem needs both categories to make its argument. If music only appeared in the low moments it would be a remedy; because it appears in the cheerful ones as well, it can be called a friend.
Q2.
I. Now, fill in the blanks by choosing the correct word from those given in the brackets. 1. The familiar tune stimulated a rush of _________, transporting listeners back to cherished moments from their past. (nostalgia/elation)
Answer

nostalgia.

The familiar tune stimulated a rush of nostalgia, transporting listeners back to cherished moments from their past.
Why nostalgia and not elation: the sentence itself defines the word it needs — “transporting listeners back to cherished moments from their past.” Nostalgia is exactly that: a fond, slightly wistful longing for a time that is gone. Elation means great joy and triumph, and it has nothing to do with the past — you feel elation when you win, not when you remember. The adjective ‘familiar’ is the second clue: a tune can only be familiar if you have heard it before, which is what makes the memory possible.
Use it yourself: “The smell of wet earth in June fills my grandmother with nostalgia for her village.”
Q3.
I. 2. The soulful ballad expressed the singer’s _________, leaving the audience moved by the intensity of their emotions. (despondence/anguish)
Answer

anguish.

The soulful ballad expressed the singer’s anguish, leaving the audience moved by the intensity of their emotions.
Why anguish and not despondence: the deciding word in the sentence is ‘intensity’.
  • Anguish is severe, active mental pain — grief that burns. It is loud in feeling even when it is quiet in sound, so it can be poured into a ballad and can move an audience.
  • Despondence is the loss of hope — a flat, low, exhausted state. It is the absence of energy, so it cannot supply the ‘intensity’ the sentence requires.
The word ‘expressed’ points the same way: you express anguish; despondence is more often something you sink into.
Use it yourself: “There was real anguish in his voice when he described the flooded fields.”
Q4.
I. 3. The pianist played a soulful melody on the stage, creating an ambience of ____________. (melancholy/despair)
Answer

melancholy.

The pianist played a soulful melody on the stage, creating an ambience of melancholy.
Why melancholy and not despair: the key word is ‘ambience’ — an atmosphere, something a room can be filled with and an audience can enjoy sitting in.
  • Melancholy is a gentle, thoughtful sadness. It is the sadness people are willing to listen to; a great deal of music is built on it.
  • Despair is the complete loss of hope — an extreme, private and desolate state. No concert hall has an ‘ambience of despair’, and no audience would stay in one.
The adjective ‘soulful’ confirms the choice: soulful means full of deep feeling, and it is a word of admiration. It fits a beautiful sadness, not a hopeless one.
Use it yourself: “There is a pleasant melancholy about the last evening of the holidays.”
Q5.
I. 4. The festive symphony filled the air with _________ tones, lifting the spirits of everyone present on the joyous occasion. (jubilant/euphoric)
Answer

jubilant.

The festive symphony filled the air with jubilant tones, lifting the spirits of everyone present on the joyous occasion.
Why jubilant and not euphoric — the difference is what each word can describe:
  • Jubilant means triumphantly joyful, and it is regularly used of sounds and celebrations — a jubilant cheer, jubilant tones, a jubilant crowd. It also matches ‘festive’ and ‘joyous occasion’, which are public, shared words.
  • Euphoric describes an intense feeling of happiness inside a person. You can be euphoric; a tone cannot easily be. Euphoria is also short-lived and slightly excessive, which does not suit a celebration everyone is sharing calmly.
Note the echo of the poem: the sentence ends with “lifting the spirits of everyone present” — the very phrase Perkins uses, “Music lifts my spirits.” The exercise is quietly showing you that the poem’s expression is ordinary English, not a private invention.
Q6.
II. Read the highlighted word in the line given below. To make sure I pull through The meaning of the verb ‘pull’ is ‘move or remove something’. The preposition ‘through’ means ‘from one end or side to the other’. However, when they come together they convey a completely different meaning. Here, ‘pull through’ means ‘to succeed in doing something very difficult’. [Box: When a verb consists of two parts, the first part is a verb; the second part is a preposition or an adverb. When they come in such combinations the verbs convey a totally different meaning. Such multi-verbs are called phrasal verbs.] Now, read the following lines from the poem. Music is the rhythm / That moves me to the core. The phrase ‘moves me’ means ‘to make somebody do something’. ‘Move’ also has different meanings. For example, to change position, to make progress, to take action, cause strong feelings.
Answer

Two separate lessons are being taught here, and it is worth keeping them apart.

1. A phrasal verb — ‘pull through’. Take the two words separately and you get nothing useful:

pull = move or remove something  +  through = from one end or side to the other
= dragging an object out of one end of something? No — that is not what the poem says at all.
pull through = to succeed in doing something very difficult

That is the definition of a phrasal verb: a verb plus a preposition or adverb whose combined meaning cannot be worked out from the parts. This is why option C in the Critical Reflection MCQ (“Music improves our ability to pull heavy loads”) is a trap — it reads the phrase literally, which is exactly what a phrasal verb forbids.

2. A verb with several meanings — ‘move’. Here nothing is added to the verb; the word itself carries more than one sense, and the sentence decides which one is active:

Meaning of ‘move’Example sentence
to change positionPlease move your cycle from the gate.
to make progressThe project is finally moving.
to take actionThe committee moved quickly after the complaint.
to cause strong feelings“Music is the rhythm / That moves me to the core.”
The difference in one line: in pull through the meaning changes because a second word has been added; in move the meaning changes because of the context. Both are ways in which English gets many meanings out of few words — and both are why a dictionary entry for a common verb runs to a full column.
Q7.
III. Choose the correct meaning from the box given below for the underlined phrasal verbs in the following sentences. 1. He’s planning to move out of his parents’ house next month. 2. Our new neighbours moved in yesterday. 3. I’ve been in this job long enough—it’s time I moved on. 4. Can you move over a bit so I can sit down? 5. The police officer told the crowd to move along. 6. The bus moved off as soon as all the passengers were seated. (i) to start doing or discussing something new (ii) to begin living in a new home or place (iii) to start moving; to leave (iv) to go to a new position, especially in order to make room for other people (v) to leave a place where one has been living (vi) to shift position to make space for someone or something
Answer
SentencePhrasal verbAnswerMeaningThe clue in the sentence
1move out(v)to leave a place where one has been living“out of his parents’ house” — he is going away from a home.
2moved in(ii)to begin living in a new home or place“Our new neighbours” — they have just arrived to live there.
3moved on(i)to start doing or discussing something new“I’ve been in this job long enough” — he wants a change, not a change of house.
4move over(vi)to shift position to make space for someone or something“a bit… so I can sit down” — a small shift on a shared bench.
5move along(iv)to go to a new position, especially in order to make room for other peopleA police officer and a crowd — the whole group must keep going so the place does not block up.
6moved off(iii)to start moving; to leave“as soon as all the passengers were seated” — this is the moment of departure.
How to separate the two pairs that are easily confused:
  • move over (4) against move along (5) — both make room, but over is a sideways shift by one person who stays put, while along is a whole group continuing forward. Ask: does anybody actually leave? In 4 nobody does; in 5 everybody does.
  • move out (1) against move off (6) — both are departures, but out is about a home you stop living in, while off is about a vehicle or a journey starting.
Notice the pattern behind all six: the second word — out, in, on, over, along, off — is doing almost all the work. The verb move stays the same throughout, and the little word decides the meaning entirely. That is the point the exercise is making.
Q8.
IV. Create phrasal verbs from the verbs ‘put’, ‘get’, ‘look’, ‘break’. Find the meanings of the phrasal verbs you create. Make sentences with the phrasal verbs. Discuss them with your classmates and teacher.
Answer

The method is simple: take the verb, add the common particles — up, down, in, out, on, off, over, through, away, after, into — and keep only the combinations that are real English with a new meaning. Then check each in a dictionary before you write your sentence.

Sample answer:

VerbPhrasal verbMeaningSentence
putput offto postponeThe sports day was put off because of the rain.
put up withto tolerate something unpleasantI cannot put up with that squeaking fan any longer.
put outto extinguishThe neighbours put out the fire before the engine arrived.
getget overto recover fromIt took her a week to get over the fever.
get along (with)to have a friendly relationshipShruti gets along with everyone in the fusion group.
get throughto finish, or to succeed in passingHe got through the whole syllabus in ten days.
looklook afterto take care ofMy cousin looks after her grandmother’s medicines.
look upto search for informationLook up ‘cacophony’ if you have forgotten what it means.
look forward toto await with pleasureWe are looking forward to the World Music Day concert.
breakbreak downto stop working; to lose control of one’s feelingsThe school bus broke down near the level crossing.
break outto begin suddenly (of something unwelcome)A quarrel broke out in the queue outside the hall.
break intoto enter by force; to begin suddenlyThe whole class broke into applause when the tabla solo ended.
The test for a genuine phrasal verb: ask whether the meaning could be guessed from the two words. Put out a fire has nothing to do with putting anything outside — so it is a phrasal verb. Put down the bag means exactly what it says, so it is only a verb with a preposition. Applying that test to your own list is where the real learning is.
Warning worth carrying into the exam: some of these change meaning completely with the particle. Break down (stop working), break out (begin suddenly), break in (enter by force), break up (end a relationship, or close for the holidays) share one verb and share no meaning at all.
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