NCERT Solutions Class 10 English Chapter 8 Mijbil the Otter

NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English for Chapter 8 Mijbil the Otter

Oral Comprehension Check

2. Why does he go to Basra? How long does he wait there, and why?
Answer
He went to Basra, to the Consultate-General, to collect and answer his mail from Europe. He had had to wait there for five days. To start with his mail didn’t reach on time. Then he tried to make a telephone call. This incident is of those days when one had to book an international call 24 hrs in advance. The telephone line was not working properly on the first day. Next day it was some public holiday so it was not working. Finally after a tortuous wait of five days his mail arrived.

4. Why was the otter named ‘Maxwell’s otter’?
Answer
The otter was of a race previously unknown to science and was at length named by zoologists Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli or Maxwell’s otter.

5. Tick the right answer. In the beginning, the otter was
aloof and indifferent
friendly
hostile
Answer
In the beginning, the otter was aloof and indifferent.

6. What happened when Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom? What did it do two days after that?
Answer
When Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom, it went wild with joy in the water for half an hour. It was plunging and rolling in it, shooting up and down the length of the bathtub underwater, and making enough slosh and splash for a hippo.
Two days after that, it escaped from his bedroom to the bathroom. By the time he got there, Mijbil was up on the end of the bathtub and fumbling at the chromium taps with its paws. In less than a minute, it had turned the tap far enough to produce some water and after a moment, achieved the full flow.

Oral Comprehension Check

1. How was Mij to be transported to England?
Answer
Maxwell booked a flight to Paris and from there he would go on to London. The airline insisted that Mij should be packed in a box (not more than eighteen inches square) that was to be placed on the floor, near his feet.

2. What did Mij do to the box?
Answer
The box was lined with metal sheet. Mij didn’t find it comfortable to be there so tried to escape. In its attempt to escape Mij tore into the metal lining of the box. As a result it hurt itself and started bleeding.

4. Why does Maxwell say the airhostess was “the very queen of her kind”?
Answer
Maxwell said that the airhostess was “the very queen of her kind” because she was extremely friendly and helpful. He took her into his confidence about the incident with the box. She suggested that he might prefer to have his pet on his knee. Hearing this, he developed a profound admiration for her, for she understood the pain of both the otter and its owner.

5. What happened when the box was opened?
Answer
When the box was opened, Mij went out of the box. He disappeared at a high speed down the aircraft. There were cries all around. A woman stood up on her seat screaming that there was a rat. He saw Mij’s tail disappearing beneath the legs of an Indian passenger. He dived for it, but missed. The airhostess suggested him to be seated and that she would find the otter. After a while, Mij had returned to him. It climbed on his knee and began to rub its nose on his face and neck.

Oral Comprehension Check

1. What game had Mij invented?
Answer
Mij had invented a game with ping-pong ball. He would put the ball at one end of a sloping lid and then grab it as it ran to the other end.

2. What are ‘compulsive habits’? What does Maxwell say are the compulsive habits of
(i) school children
(ii) Mij?
Answer
Compulsive habits are usually strange act or behaviour which a person does without clear reason.
On their way to and from school, children make it a habit to place their feet exactly on the centre of each paving block. Similarly, Mij had made it a habit to jump on to the school wall and go galloping all along its length of thirty yards.

4. Maxwell in the story speaks for the otter, Mij. He tells us what the otter feels and thinks on different occasions. Given below are some things the otter does. Complete the column on the right to say what Maxwell says about what Mij feels and thinks.

Answer

5. Read the story and find the sentences where Maxwell describes his pet otter. Then choose and arrange your sentences to illustrate those statements below that you think are true.
Maxwell’s description
(i) makes Mij seem almost human, like a small boy.
(ii) shows that he is often irritated with what Mij does.
(iii) shows that he is often surprised by what Mij does.
(iv) of Mij’s antics is comical.
(v) shows that he observes the antics of Mij very carefully.
(vi) shows that he thinks Mij is a very ordinary otter.
(vii) shows that he thinks the otter is very unusual.
Answer
(i) He spent most of his time in play.
(iii) I watched, amazed; in less than a minute he had turned the tap far enough to produce a trickle of water, and after a moment or two achieved the full flow.
(v) A suitcase that I had taken to Iraq had become damaged on the journey home, so that the lid, when closed, remained at a slope from one end to the other. Mij discovered that if he placed the ball on the high end it would run down the length of the suitcase. He would dash around to the other end to ambush its arrival, hide from it, crouching, to spring up and take it by surprise, grab it and trot off with it to the high end once more.
(vii) It is not, I suppose, in any way strange that the average Londoner should not recognize an otter, but the variety of guesses as to what kind of animal this might be came as a surprise to me. Mij was anything but an otter.

Thinking about the Language

I. From the table below, make as many correct sentences as you can using would and/or used to, as appropriate. (Hint: First decide whether the words in italics show an action, or a state or situation, in the past.) Then add two or three sentences of your own to it.

Answer
1.Emperor Akbar used to be fond of musical evenings.
2. Every evening we used to take long walks on the beach.
3. Fifty years ago, very few people used to own cars.
4. Till the 1980s, Shanghai used to have very dirty streets.
5. My uncle would spend his holidays by the sea.
6. My uncle used to take long walks on the beach.
7. My uncle used to be fond of musical evenings.

II. Noun Modifiers

Answer
Temple − white temple, stone temple, first temple
Person − incorrigible person, ridiculous person
Gifts − hundred gifts, ordinary gifts, birthday gifts
Time − college time, rough time, first time
Crossing − railroad crossing, first crossing
Physique − plump physique, ordinary physique
Three girls − first three girls, incorrigible three girls
Thoughts − incorrigible thoughts, uncomfortable thoughts, ridiculous thoughts, heartbreaking thoughts, first thoughts, ordinary thoughts
Scream − tremendous scream, loud scream
Subject − college subject, ordinary subject
Flight − rough flight, first flight
Coffee − invigorating coffee, ordinary coffee
Triangle − love triangle
Boys − college boys, incorrigible boys, rough boys, hundred boys
Farewell − college farewell, heartbreaking farewell
Landscape − bare landscape, rough landscape, white landscape
Chatterbox − incorrigible chatterbox
View − tremendous view, panoramic view, ordinary view
Dresses − hundred dresses, ordinary dresses, birthday dresses, marriage dresses
Roar − tremendous roar, loud roar
Expression − bare expression, slang expression, slack expression
Handkerchief − white handkerchief, ordinary handkerchief
Profession − family profession, first profession, ordinary profession
Celebration − tremendous celebration, family celebration, birthday celebration

III. 

1. Match the words on the left with a word on the right. Some words on the left can go with more than one word on the right.

(i)	a portion of	-	blood
(ii)	a pool of	-	cotton
(iii)	flakes of	-	stones
(iv)	a huge heap of	-	gold
(v)	a gust of	-	fried fish
(vi)	little drops of	-	snow
(vii)	a piece of	-	water
(viii)	a pot of	-	wind

Answer

2. Use a bit of/a piece of/a bunch of/a cloud of/a lump of with the italicised nouns in the following sentences. The first has been done for you as an example.