CBSE Class 10 English Mijbil the Otter Worksheet

MIJBIL THE OTTER
Gavin Maxwell lives in a cottage in Camusfearna, in the West Highlands in Scotland. When his dog Jonnie died, Maxwell was too sad to think of keeping a dog again. But life without a pet was lonely...

Introduction
In this lesson, the author tells us how his life changed after he decided to domesticate an otter after he lost his pet dog. He takes us through his journey of adjusting, playing and travelling with Mijbil (or Mij) the otter, from Iraq to London and how during this journey, he developed an inseparable bond with him.

GIST
The story begins with the author travelling to Basra along with his friend. During their journey, the author expresses his desire to domesticate an otter because after he had lost his pet dog, life had become lonely for him. His friend suggested that he should get one from the Marshes along river Tigris in Iraq. When they reached the destination, they found that only the friend’s mail had arrived. After a few days, the friend left while the narrator was still waiting to receive his mail. Upon receiving it, he went to his room only to find an otter (brought to him in a sack), accompanied by two Arabs with a note. It was a gift from his friend. He named the otter Mijbil or shortly, Mij. It took some time for Mij to open up and get acquainted with his surroundings. He was covered in mud to an extent that it took almost a month of cleaning and washing to reveal his actual colour. Mij loved playing with water so much so that he even learned to open the tap on his own. He believed that each drop of water should be squished and splashed till the bowl had been emptied. Everything was going smoothly in Basra, but now it was time to fly back to London. British airlines did not allow animals, so he had to book another flight that allowed Mij with a condition that he had to be carried in a box. The narrator put him in a box an hour before the flight so that Mij could get accustomed to it and then left for a quick meal. When he returned, he found that the box was still and Mij had created a mess by destroying the inner lining. As a result, blood was dripping out of the holes. Scared as he was, he hurried. They were far away from the airport and there were only ten minutes left for the flight to take off. He cleaned it all, hurried in a cab and managed to reach just in time. He explained the series of events to a very kind and generous air hostess who advised him to keep the box on his lap. Gavin developed extreme admiration for the air hostess for she was very kind to him. As soon as he opened the box, the otter leaped out and disappeared thereby creating a chaos. Passengers were frightened. A lady climbed up her chair and in an attempt to get a hold of Mij, the author got himself covered in curry. The air hostess offered help and brought him back to Gavin and finally, they reached London. Mij was fond of playing with ping-pong balls and marbles. He even developed a game with the author’s damaged suitcase. It could keep him engrossed for a long period of time. Narrator took him for walks while taking the lead and played with him. People of London, being unfamiliar with otters, had wild guesses about what Mij was. Some thought it to be a baby seal, squirrel or even a hippo. The most shocking reaction came when a labourer digging the hole asked the author, “What is that supposed to be?”

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow :

1. The creature that emerged from this sack on to the spacious tiled floor of the consulate bedroom resembled most of all a very small, medievally–conceived, dragon. From the head to the tip of the tail he was coated with symmetrical pointed scales of mud armour, between whose tips was visible a soft velvet fur like that of a chocolate-brown mole. 
Question. What was the name of author’s pet ?
(i) Molly
(ii) Mijbil
(iii) Micky
(iv) Mini
Answer.(ii) Mijbil

Question. What was the colour of otter’s velvet fur ?
(i) Dark brown
(ii) Brown
(iii) Chocolate-brown
(iv) Light brown
Answer.(iii) Chocolate-brown

Question. Otter resembled a small, medievally conceived ___________ .
(i) cat
(ii) tiger
(iii) dragon
(iv) elephant
Answer.(iii) dragon

Question. Find a word from the passage that means the same as ‘came out of’.
(i) emerged
(ii) creature
(iii) consulate
(iv) resembled
Answer.(i) emerged

2. There was complete silence from the box, but from its airholes and chinks around the lid, blood had trickled and dried. I whipped off the lock and tore open the lid, and Mij, exhausted and blood-spattered, whimpered and caught my leg. He had torn the lining of the box to shreds when I removed the last of it so that there were no cutting edges left, it was just ten minutes until the time of the flight, and the airport was five miles distant.

Question. Whose blood had trickled and dried ?
(i) Author’s
(ii) Mijbil’s
(iii) Author friend’s
(iv) None of them
Answer.(ii) Mijbil’s

Question. How many minutes were left in the flight ?
(i) Five
(ii) Fifteen
(iii) Ten
(iv) Twenty
Answer.(iii) Ten

Question. The airport was at the distance of how much ?
(i) Ten miles
(ii) Five miles
(iii) Fifteen miles
(iv) Forty miles
Answer.(ii) Five miles

Question. Find a word from the passage which means ‘to flow in drops’.
(i) airholes
(ii) chinks
(iii) trickled
(iv) whipped
Answer.(iii) trickled

3. Very soon Mij would follow me without a lead and come to me when I called his name. He spent most of his time in play. He spent hours shuffling a rubber ball round the room like a four-footed soccer player using all four feet to dribble the ball, and he could also throw it, with a powerful flick of the neck, to a surprising height and distance. 
 

Question. Who does ‘I’ stand for ?
(i) Otter
(ii) Author
(iii) Author’s friend
(iv) None of them
Answer.(ii) Author

Question. How did the otter spend most of his time ?
(i) hiding
(ii) running
(iii) eating
(iv) playing
Answer.(iv) playing

Question. Find a word from the passage that means the same as ‘trickle’ ?
(i) shuffling
(ii) soccer
(iii) dribble
(iv) flick
Answer. (iii) Dribble

Question. How many feet did the otter use to dribble the ball ?
(i) one
(ii) four
(iii) three
(iv) two
Answer.(ii) four

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

1. Mijbil, as I called the otter, was, in fact, of a race previously unknown to science, and was at length christened by zoologists Lutrogale Perspicillata Maxwelli, or Maxwell’s otter. For the twenty-four hours Mijbil was either hostile or friendly; he was simply aloof and indifferent, choosing to sleep on the floor as far from my bed as possible.

Question. Who was Mijbil?
Answer.Mijbil was the name of the otter brought by the narrator

Question. How did the otter behave for the first twenty-four hours?
Answer.The otter was indifferent and stayed as far as possible from the narrator for the first 24 hours.

Question.Find exact word from the extract which means ‘having no particular interest’.
Answer. ‘Indifferent’ from the extract means ‘having no particular interest’.

Question.Why is the otter called ‘Maxwell’s otter’?
Answer.The otter was christened by zoologist Maxwell. So, in his honour, it was called Maxwell’s otter. 

2. Mij was out of the box in a flash. He disappeared at high speed down the aircraft. There was squawks and shrieks, and a woman stood up on her seat screaming out, “A rat! A rat!”

Question. Why did the woman scream?
Answer. the woman screamed as she thought that there was a rat inside the plane.

Question.What did Mij do?
Answer.Mij came out of the box and disappeared. 

Question.What had Mij been compared with a rat.
Answer. In the extract, Mij had been compared with a rat.

Question.Find the exact word from the extract which means’ makes a loud noise’.
Answer.‘Squawk ‘from the extract means’ make a loud noise’

Short Answer Questions : 

Question.Why did Maxwell put the otter back in the box? How do you think he felt when he did this?
Answer. Maxwell removed every bit of the shredded inner lining so that Mij won’t hurt himself. He then kept the otter back in the box as they had to reach the flight on time. He must have felt pity and be worried about Mij.

Question.Why does Maxwell say the airhostess was “the very queen of her kind”?
Answer. When Maxwell boarded the flight, he took the air hostess into confidence about the latest incidents.Being understanding, friendly and kind, she advised him to keep the box on his lap. Thus, the way she listened and helped him, led to an admiration that made the narrator say that she was “the very queen of her kind”.

Question.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, for half an hour he went wild with joy in the water,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 later, it escaped into the bathroom and Maxwell saw it opening the tap, all by itself.

Question.Describe the physical appearance of Mijbil, the otter.
Answer. The creature that emerged from the sack was a unique one. He resembled like a very small imaginary dragon of the middle Ages. Its body was coated with pointed scales. Between them a soft velvet fur was visible. It was like a chocolate brown mole.

Question. What game had Mijbil invented ? 
Answer. Mijbil enjoyed playing with marbles while lying on its back. He would lie and roll two or more of them up and down his wide, flat belly.

Question. What special characteristic of Mijbil did Maxwell learn after he took him to the bathroom ?
Answer. After taking Mijbil to the bathroom, Maxwell witnessed Mijbil being almost mad with excitement, plunging and rolling in water, splashing water all around. It shows his love for water as marshes and wetlands are their natural habitat.

Question. Why did Maxwell put the otter back in the box ? What do you think how he felt when he did this?
Answer. Maxwell put the otter in the box because he was shifting from Basra to England and he wanted the otter to get used to it. He felt sad on putting it back because the otter did not like it and so, he was trying to get out of it. He had torn the lining of the box to shreds.

Question. What is the most common characteristic of an otter ? 
Answer. The otter, which looked more like a dragon, loved to plunge and roll in water. He played in water like a hippo.Aloof at first, he started taking an interest in its surroundings, started responding to his name and loved playing games for hours with toys like ping-pong balls, marbles, rubber fruit etc.

Long Answer Questions :

Question.Describe the relationship between the otter and Maxwell in your own words.
Answer. Maxwell and the otter Mijbil shared a lovely relationship. Maxwell treated Mij like his own son.He took very good care of him. He gave him many toys including marbles, rubber bans, rubber fruits and a terrapin shell to play with. He took him to the bathtub to play in the water knowing the fascination of otters with water. He noticed his habits and traits. Mijbil hesitated on the first day but then became very friendly. Maxwell encouraged Mijbil to do whatever he liked to do. He took him out for exercise every day. When Maxwell saw blood on the box in which Mij was packed, he was horrified. When Mij came out of the box he jumped all over but then came and sat on Maxwell’s knees quietly.

Question.Why did Maxwell decide to have an otter as a pet? How did he get it?
Answer. Maxwell’s pet dog Jonnie died. He felt alone without a pet. This time he decided to change his pet. He decided to own an otter as his pet. His place, Camusfearna was ringed by water. It would be a suitable place for this new experiment. One of his friends suggested that he could get an otter in the Tigris marshes. Otters were as common in the Tigris marshes as were mosquitoes. They were often tamed by the Arabs as pets. Maxwell got his mail after five days. He carried it to his bedroom to read.
There he found two Arabs squatting on the floor. A sack lay beside them. There was something moving and twisting in it. The Arabs handed him a note from his friend. It read, “Here is your otter …”
The sack was opened. And there emerged a Unique creature from the sack. Later on, this otter was named Mijbil by Maxwell.

Question.Describe the relationship between the otter and Maxwell in your own words.
Answer. Maxwell and the otter Mijbil shared a lovely relationship. Maxwell treated Mij like his own son.He took very good care of him. He gave him many toys including marbles, rubber bans, rubber fruits and a terrapin shell to play with. He took him to the bathtub to play in the water knowing the fascination of otters with water. He noticed his habits and traits. Mijbil hesitated on the first day but then became very friendly. Maxwell encouraged Mijbil to do whatever he liked to do. He took him out for exercise every day. When Maxwell saw blood on the box in which Mij was packed, he was horrified. When Mij came out of the box he jumped all over but then came and sat on Maxwell’s knees quietly.

 
Question. The way Maxwell was worried about Mijbil when he had to take him to London shows that he was very
concerned about him. Do you think, owning a pet is a life-time commitment ? Elucidate.
Answer. Maxwell was very concerned about his pet. The British airline refused to fly the animal. So he booked a flight to Paris on another airline, and from there to London. The airline insisted that Mijbil should be packed into a box not more than eighteen inches square, to be carried on the floor at his feet. He got the box made. He put Mijbil into the box so that he would become accustomed to the box, in which it had to travel. When Mijbil was injured in his attempt to come out of the box, the author was really concerned about his well being. He carried a parcel of fish for Mijbil on the flight. He carried Mijbil on his knee. The lesson definitely conveys the fact that when we decide to keep a pet, it is a commitment of lifetime. This is so because we are responsible for the well-being of that life and infact, keeping a pet at home is like bringing up and nurturing a child.

SECTION- A

Q 1 Read the following passage carefully:

We are in a rush. We are making haste. A compression of time characterizes our lives. As timeuse researchers look around, they see a rushing and scurrying everywhere. Instant services rule, pollsters use electronic devices during political speeches to measure opinions before they have been fully formed; fast food restaurants add express lanes. Even reading to children is under pressure. The volume “One Minute Bedtime Stories” consists of traditional stories that can be read by a busy parent in only one minute.Time is a gentle deity, said Sophocles. Perhaps it was, for him. These days it cracks the whip. We humans have chosen speed and we thrive on it – more than we generally admit. Our ability to work fast and play fast gives us power. It thrills us. And if haste is the accelerator, multitasking is the overdrive.A sense of well-being comes with this saturation of parallel pathways in the brain. We choose mania over boredom every time. “Humans have never opted for slower,” points out the historian Stephen Kern. We catch the fever –and cramming our life feels good. There are definite ways to save time, but what does this concept really mean? Does time saving mean getting more done? If so, does talking on a cellular phone at the beach save time or waste it? Does it make sense to say that driving saves ten minutes from your travel budget while removing ten minutes from your reading budget?

These questions have no answer. They depend on a concept that is ill formed; the very idea of time saving. Some of us say we want to save time when we really want to do more and faster. It might be simpler to recognize that there is time and we make choices about how to spend it, how to spare it, how to use it and how to fill it.

Time is not a thing we have lost. It is not a thing we ever had. It is what we live in.

Answer the following questions by selecting the most appropriate options from the ones given below:

1) What Sophocles said is outdated. Why?

2) What do Electronic poll devices, instant services, fast food restaurants signify?

3) According to the author, why do we wish to save time?

4) A word that means the same as ‘filled to capacity’ is _____________

5) The passage: