Comprehension – I
Question –:
1. What ‘experiment t’ did Maxwell think Camusfearna would be
suitable for? 2. Why does he go to Basra? How long does he wait there, and why?
3. How does he get the otter? Does he like
it? Pick out the words that tell you this.
4. Why was the otter named ‘Maxwell’s
otter’?
5. Tick the right Answer. I n the
beginning, the otter was
• Aloof and
indifferent
• Friendly
• Hostile
6. What happened when
Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom? What did i t do two days after that?
Answer:
1. Maxwell thought it was better to keep an
otter instead of a dog. Camusfearna, ringed by water a very short distance from
its door, would be an eminently suitable spot for the experiment.
2. Maxwell went to Basra, to the
Consulate-General to collect and Answer his mail from Europe. He had to wait
for three days before anything could happen. It took him a waiting period of
five days. His mail didn’t reach on time. The call had to be booked 24 hours in
advance in those times. Then he tried to make a telephone call but telephone
line was not working properly on the first day. Next day it was some public
holiday so it was not operational. Finally after a tortuous wait of five days
his mail arrived.
3. When he finally received his mail after
waiting for five long days, he carried it to his bedroom to read. There, he saw
two Arabs squatting on the floor and beside them was a sack that squirmed from
time to time. They handed him a note from his friend saying that he had sent
him an otter. Yes liked otter. We know this because he uses the term ‘otter
fixation’ to refer to his feeling towards the otter. He felt that this otter
fixation or this strong attachment towards otters was something that was shared
by most other people who had ever owned one.
4. The otter was of a race previously
unknown to science and was at length named by zoologists Lutrogale
perspicillata Maxwell or Maxwell’s otter.
5. In the beginning, the otter was aloof
and indifferent.
6. Maxwell made a body-belt for Mijbil and
took him on a lead to bathroom. It went wild with joy in the water for half an
hour, 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 from his bedroom to
the bathroom. By the time Maxwell got there, Mijbil was up on the end of the
bathtub and fumbling at the chromium taps with its paws. Maxwell was left
amazed. In less than a minute, it had turned the tap far enough to produce some
water and after a moment, achieved the full flow.
Comprehension –II
Question:
1. How was Mij to be transported to England?
2. What did Mij do to the box?
3. Why did Maxwell put the otter back in
the box? How do you think he felt when he did this?
4. Why does Maxwell say the airhostess was
“the very queen of her kind”?
5. What happened when the box was opened?
Answer:
1. Maxwell was in great fear by the though
t of transporting Mij to England and to Camusfearna. He booked a flight to
Paris and from there he would go on to London. The airlines insisted that Mij
should be packed in a box not more than eighteen inches square, so that it
could be carried on the floor near his feet.
2. When Maxwell came after having his
hurried meal he observed complete silence from the box. Blooded had trickled
and dried. 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 to shreds. As a
result it hurt itself and started bleeding.
3. As there was no other way to carry Mij
to London so the author had put it back into the box. He must have felt pity on
the way the otter had hurt itself. Moreover, he must be worried as well.
4. Luckily Maxwell got a seat in front. He
covered the floor with newspa per. He rang for the air hostess and gave her a
parcel of fish to keep in cool place. 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. This is because he calls
the airhostess “the very queen of her kind”.
5. When the box was opened, Mij went out of
the box. He disappeared at a high speed down the aircraft. There were squawks
and shrieks. 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 a portly white turbaned Indian passenger. He dived for it, but missed. The
airhostess suggested him to be seated and that she would find the animal and
bring it back to him. After a while, Mij had returned to him. It climbed on his
knee and began to rub its nose on his face an d neck.
Comprehension – III
Question:
1. What game had Mij invented?
2. What are ‘compulsive habits’? What does
Maxwell say are the compulsive habits of?
(I) school children
(ii) Mij?
3. What group of animals do otters belong
to?
4. What guesses did the Londoners make
about what Mij was?
Answer:
1. 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. Compulsive habits are usually strange
act or behavior which a person does without clear reason. These habits are
almost impossible to control.
On their way to and from school, children make
it a habit to place their feet exactly on the center 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.
3. Otters belong to a comparatively small
group of animals called Mousselines, shared by the badger, mongoose, weasel,
stoat, mink and others.
4. According to Maxwell, he faced a
continuous barrage of conjectural question that sprayed all the Mousselines but
the otter. He said that the average Londoner does not recognize an otter. The
Londoners who saw Mij made different guesses about who Mij was. Some same that
it was a baby seal, a squirrel, a walrus, a hippo, a beaver, a bear cub, a
leopard and a brontosaur.