Extracts of Mijbil the Otter Class 10

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Extracts of Mijbil the Otter Class 10

Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow.

1. Two days later, Mijbil escaped from my bedroom as I entered it, and I turned to see his tail disappearing round the bend of the corridor that led to the bathroom. By the time I got there he was up on the end of the bathtub and fumbling at the chromium taps with his paws. 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.

(a) Who was Mijbil?

(b) What was the cause of the narrator’s surprise?

(d) Where did Mijbil go?

Ans. (a) The otter.

(b) The narrator was surprised to find the otter turning the tap on to play with water.

(d) Mijbil went to the author’s bathroom.

2. With the opening of that sack began a phase of my life that has not yet ended, and may, for all I know, not end before I do. It is, in effect, a thralldom to otters, an otter fixation, that I have since found to be shared by most other people, who have ever owned one.

(a) Which creature emerged from the sack?

(b) With what was the otter coated?

(d) Why does the otter named ‘Maxwell’s otter’?

Ans. (a) An otter.

(b) Symmetrical pointed scales of mud armour.

(d) The otter was of a race previously unknown to science and was at length christened by zoologists as Maxwell’s otter.

3. But the real play of an otter is when he lies on his back and juggles with small objects between his paws. Marbles were Mij’sfavourites toys for his pastime. He would lie on his back rolling two or more of them up and down his wide, flat belly without ever dropping one to the floor.

(a) What is the real play of an otter?

(b) What are the Mij’s favourite toys?

(d) What do you know about Mij?

Ans. (a) He lies on his back and juggles with small toys between his paws.

(b) Marbles.

(c) He would lie on his back rolling two or more of them up and down his wide, flat belly without ever dropping one to the floor.

(d) Mij is an otter that the author had kept as a pet.

4. Early in the New Year of 1956, I travelled to Southern Iraq. By then it had crossed my mind that I should like to keep an otter instead of a dog and that Camusfearna, ringed by water a stone’s throw from its door, would be an eminently suitable spot for this experiment. When I casually mentioned this to a friend, he as casually replied that I had better get one in the Tigris marshes, for there they were as common as mosquitoes and were often by the Arabs.

(a) Where did the writer go?

(b) That did he want as a pet?

(d) Why did the author think of keeping an otter in place of a dog as a pet?

Ans. (a) Southern Iraq.

(b) An otter.

(c) Maxwell thought of buying an otter instead of a dog and thought Camusfearin ringed with water would be suitable for keeping an otter.

(d) The author’s pet dog had died, he was too sad to think of keeping a dog again.

5. I cabled to England, and when, three days later, nothing had happened, I tried to telephone. The call had to be booked twenty-four hours in advance. On the first day, the line was out of order. On the second day, the exchange was closed for a religious holiday. On the third day, there was another breakdown. My friend left, and I arranged to meet him in a week’s time. Five days later, my mail arrived. I carried it to my bedroom to read, and there, squatting on the floor, were two Arabs; besides them lay a sack that squirmed from time to time. They handed me a note from my friend; “Here is your otter”.

(a) What was the main problem in getting the mail?

(b) What did the writer get in the package?

(d) Why did the sack squirm from time-to-time?

Ans. (a) On the first day the line was out of order, then exchange was closed for a religious holiday and then another breakdown.

(b) A pet — an otter.

(d) This was because there was an otter in it.

6. Mijbil, as I called the otter, was, in fact, of a race previously unknown to science, was at length christened by zoologists Lutrogale perspicillataMaxwell, or Maxwell’s o For the first twenty-four hours Mijbil was neither hostile nor friendly; he was simply al and indifferent, choosing to sleep on the floor as far from my bed as possible. The s night Mijbil came on to my bed in the small hours and remained asleep in the crook of knees until the servant brought tea in the morning and during the day he began to lose apathy and take a keen, much too keen, interest in his surroundings.

(a) ‘Maxwell’s otter’. Why was the otter given this name?

(b) What was his behaviour during the first twenty-four hours?

(d) When did Mijbil come to the writer’s bed?

Ans. (a) The zoologists had christened it as Lutrogale perspicillata Maxwell, or M otter after the author as it was of a race previously unknown to science.

(b) Neither friendly nor hostile.

(d) Mijbil came to the writer’s bed in the early hours of the morning.

7. The creature that emerged from this sack on the spacious tiled floor of the bedroom resembled most of all a very small, medieval conceived, dragon. From the tip of the tail, he was coated with fur like pointed scales of mud armour’ whose tips were visible a soft velvet e that of a chocolate-brown mole.

(a) Which creature is being talked about here?

(b) What did it resemble?

(d) What does ‘mud armour’ imply here?

Ans. (a) Otter.

(b) It looked like a small medieval-conceived dragon.

(d) This implies fur that formed pointed scales as the mud had dried over them.

8. 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 around 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. But the real play of an otter is when he lies on his back and juggles with small objects between his paws. Marbles were Mij’sfavourite toys for this pastime: he would lie on his back rolling two or more of them up and down his wide, flat belly without ever dropping one to the floor.

(a) How did Mij play with the rubber ball?

(b) What is the real play of the otter?

(d) What did he look like while playing?

Ans. (a) By shuffling a rubber ball around the room.

(b) To lie on his back and juggle with small objects between his paws.

(d) It looked like a four-footed soccer player.

9. When I returned, there was an appalling spectacle. There was complete silence from the box, but from its air holes 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 at 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. I put the miserable Mij back into the box, holding down the lid with my hand.

(a) Why did the writer call it an appalling spectacle?

(b) Why was the writer nervous?

(d) Why did the writer put Mij back into the box?

Ans. (a) Because he saw that blood had trickled and dried all over the box.

(b) Because only ten minutes were left to take the flight.

(d) There was no cutting edge left, just ten minutes for flight. The airline had specified that the animal is kept in a box.

IMPORTANT PASSAGES FOR COMPREHENSION

Read the following passages and answer the questions that follow :

PASSAGE 1

EARLY in the New Year of 1956 travelled to Southern Iraq. By then it had crossed my mind that I should like to keep an otter instead of a dog and that Camusfearna, ringed by water a stone’s throw from its door would be an eminently suitable spot for his experiment.

When I casually mentioned this to a friend, he as casually replied that I had better get one in the Tigris marshes, for there they were as common as mosquitoes, and were often tamed by the Arabs. We were going to Basra to the Consulate-General to collect and answer our mail from Europe. At the Consulate-General we found that my friend’s mail had arrived but that mine had not.

Word-meanings: Otter = a kind of animal (ऊदबिलाव); ringed by = surrounded by (से घिरा हुआ); Casually = non-seriously (गैर-गंभीरता); marshes = wetlands (गीला,दलदली इलाका); tamed = pet (पालतू); I

Questions :

(a) What crossed the author’s mind?

(b) Why did he think that his home would be suitable for an otter?

(c) What did the author mention to his friend?

(d) From where could he get the otter?

(e) Find a phrase from the passage which means ‘surrounded by’.

Answers :

(a) The idea crossed the author’s mind that instead of a dog, he would keep an otter as a pet.

(b) He thought that his house would be suitable for an otter because it was surrounded by water.

(d) He could get one from Tigris.

(e) ‘ringed by’.

PASSAGE 2

With the opening of that sack began a phase of my life that has not yet ended, and may, for all I know, not end before I do. It is, in effect, a thraldom to otters, an otter fixation, that I have since found to be shared by most other people, who have ever owned one.

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 were visible a soft velvet fur like that of a chocolate-brown mole. He shook himself, and I half expected a cloud of dust, but in fact, it was not for another month that I managed to remove the last of the mud and see the otter, as it were, in his true colours.

Word-meanings : Sack = a large bag (बोरी); fixation = strong attachment (तीव्र लगाव); emerged = came out (बाहर आना); spacious = big (बड़ा); resembled = looked like (शक्ल का मिलना); conceived = thought (सोचा): dragon = monster (दानव): armour = shield (ढाल,बचाव); velvet = soft cloth (मखमल) I

Questions :

(a) What was there in the sack? [(H.B.S.E. March 2017 (Set-D)]

(b) What started for the author with the opening of the sack?

(c) How did the otter look like?

(d) How long did it take the author to remove the mud from the other’s body?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘came out’.

Answers :

(a) There was an otter in the sack.

(b) With the opening of the sack, a phase of life started for the author.

(d) It took him a month to remove the mud from the other’s body.

(e) ’emerged’.

PASSAGE 3

The second-night Mijbil came on to my bed in the small hours and remained asleep in the crook of my knees until the servant brought tea in the morning, and during the day he began to lose his apathy and take a keen, much too keen, interest in his surroundings. I made a body-belt for him and took him on a lead to the bathroom, where 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. This, I was to learn, is a characteristic of otters; every drop of water must be, so to speak, extended and spread about the place; a bowl must at once be overturned, or, if it will not be overturned, be sat in and sploshed in until it overflows. Water must be kept on the move and made to do things; when static it is wasted and provoking.

Word-meanings: Crook = bend (मोड़); apathy = lack of interest (रूचि की कमी); plunging = diving (डुबकी लगाना); hippo = hippopotamus (दरियाई घोड़ा) I

Questions :

(a) Where did the otter sleep on the second night?

(b) What happened when the author took the otter to the bathroom?

(c) What is a characteristic of otters?

(d) What did the author make for Mijbil?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘absence of interest’.

Answers :

(a) On the second night, the otter slept on the author’s bed between his knees.

(b) The otter became very happy when he was put into a bathtub.

(d) The author made a body belt for the otter.

(e) ‘apathy’.

PASSAGE 4

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 around 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. But the real play of an otter is when he lies on his back and juggles with small objects between his paws. Marbles were Mij’s favourite toys for this pastime: he would lie on his back rolling two or more of them up and down his wide, flat belly without ever dropping one to the floor.

Word-meanings : Lead = string (डोरी); shuffling = dragging (खींचना); soccer = football (फुटबॉल ). dribble = take forwards (आगे ले जाना) I

Questions :

(a) When would Mijbil follow the author?

(b) What did the otter do to a rubber ball?

(c) How did he throw the ball?

(d) What is the real play of an otter?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means `football’.

Answers :

(a) Mijbil would follow the author when he called his name.

(b) The otter shuffled it around the room like a four-footed soccer player.

(d) It is to lie on its back and juggle with small objects between its paws.

(e) ‘soccer’.

PASSAGE 5

Two days later, Mijbil escaped from my bedroom as I entered it, and I turned to see his tail disappearing round the bend of the corridor that led to the bathroom. By the time I got there he was up on the end of the bathtub and fumbling at the chromium taps with his paws. 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. (He had been lucky to turn the tap the right way: on later occasions, he would sometimes screw it up still tighter, chittering with irritation and disappointment at the tap’s failure to cooperate.)

Word-meanings Disappearing = vanishing (गायब होना): corridor = verandah (बरामदा); fumbling = making awake an rd movement (टटोलना); tickle = thin stream (पतली धारा)

Questions :

(a) Name the chapter and the author.

(b) Who was Mijbil?

(c) Where did Mijbil go?

(d) What did he do with the tap?

(e) How had he been lucky?

Answers :

(a) Chapter: Mijbil the Otter.

Author: Gavin Maxwell.

(b) Mijbil was an otter.

(d) He opened the tap to a full flow of water.

(e) He had been lucky to turn the tap the right way.

PASSAGE 6

The days passed peacefully at Basra, but I dreaded the prospect of transporting Mij to England, and to Camusfearna. The British airline to London would not fly animals, so I booked a flight to Paris on another airline, and from there to London. The airline insisted that Mij should be packed into a box not more than eighteen inches square, to be carried on the floor at my feet. I had a box made, and an hour before we started, I put Mij into the box so that he would become accustomed to it, and left for a hurried meal.

Word-meanings : Dreaded = feared (डर लगा): prospect = possibility (संभावना); transporting = taking (ले जाना); insisted = stressed (जोर दिया); packed = put into (में डाल दिया) I

Questions :

(a) What did the author dread?

(b) Why did the author book a flight to Paris instead of going directly to London?

(c) What did the airline suggest?

(d) When did the author put Mij into the box?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘feared’.

Answers :

(a) The author dreaded the prospect of taking the otter to London and to his home.

(b) He did not book a flight to London as the British airline would not fly an animal.

(d) The author put the otter into the box an hour before the time of the flight.

(e) ‘dreaded.’

PASSAGE 7

I sat in the back of the car with the box beside me as the driver tore through the streets of Basra like a ricocheting bullet. The aircraft was waiting to take off; I was rushed through to it by infuriated officials. Luckily, the seat booked for me was at the extreme front. I covered the floor around my feet with newspapers, rang for the air hostess, and gave her a parcel of fish (for Mij) to keep in a cool place. I took her into my confidence about the events of the last half hour. I have retained the most profound admiration for that Mr hostess; she was the very queen of her kind. She suggested that I might prefer to have my pet on my knee, and I could have kissed her hand in the depth of my gratitude. But, not knowing otters, I was quite unprepared for what followed.

Word-meanings: Tore through = drove fast (तेजी से कार चलाई) ricochetting = Changing direction (दिशा बदलना); infuriated = angry (गुस्से में); profound = deep (गहरा) I

Questions :

(a) What was beside the author in the car?

(b) Where did the author sit in the aircraft?

(c) What did the author give the air hostess?

(d) What did the air hostess suggest?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘deep’.

Answers :

(a) There was a box beside the author in the car.

(b) The author sat at the extreme front in the aircraft.

(d) She suggested that he should have his pet on his knees.

(e) ‘profound’.

PASSAGE 8

Mij was out of the box in a flash. He disappeared at high speed down the aircraft. There were squawks and shrieks, and a woman stood up on her seat screaming out, “A rat! A rat!” I caught sight of Mrs tail disappearing beneath the legs of a portly white-turbaned Indian. Diving for it, I missed, but found my face covered in curry. “Perhaps,” said the air hostess with the most charming smile, “it would be better if you resumed your seat, and I will find the animal and bring it to you.”

Word-meanings: In a flash = very quickly (बहुत जल्दी से); squawks and shrieks = cries (चीखें): screaming out = crying (चिल्लाना); portly = fat (मोटा); curry = a dish (एक सब्जी) I

Questions :

(a) How did the woman in the aircraft react on seeing the otter?

(b) What happened when the author dived for the otter?

(c) What did the air hostess say to the author?

(d) The Indian traveller in the aircraft was very thin. True/False.

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘fat’.

Answers :

(a) She stood up on her scat and screamed out ‘A rat A rat! “.

(b) His face was covered with curry.

(d) False.

(e) ‘portly’.

PASSAGE 9

Mij and I remained in London for nearly a month. He would play for hours with a selection of toys. ping-pong halls, marbles, rubber fruit, and a terrapin shell that I had brought back from his native marshes With the ping-pong ball he invented a game of his own which could keep him engrossed for up to half an hour at a time. 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.

Word-meanings: Native = one’s place of birth (जन्म-स्थान); engrossed = busy (व्यस्त); crouching = keeping low (दुबकना) I

Questions :

(a) How long did Mij and the author remain in London?

(b) What were Mij’s playthings in London?

(c) What game did the otter invent?

(d) What would Mij do after placing the hall on the high end of the suitcase cover?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘catch’.

Answers :

(a) Mij and the author remained in London for one month.

(b) His playthings were: toys, ping-pong balls, marbles, rubber fruit and a terrapin shell.

(c) He had invented the game of ball. He put it on the sloping suitcase cover and ran to the other side to catch the ball.

(d) He would dash around to the other end of the suitcase cover to ambush the ball.

(e) ‘grab’.

PASSAGES FOR PRACTICE (UNSOLVED)

PASSAGE 10

Outside the house, I exercised him on a lead, precisely as if he had been a dog. Mij quickly developed certain compulsive habits on these walks in the London streets, like the rituals of children who on their way to and from school must place their feet squarely on the centre of each paving block; must touch every seventh upright of the iron railings, or pass to the outside of every second lamp post. Opposite to my flat was a single-storied primary school, along whose frontage ran a low wall some two feet high. On his way home, but never on his way out, Mij would tug me to this wall, jump on to it, and gallop the full length of its thirty yards, to the hopeless distraction both of pupils and of staff within.

Word-meanings : Compulsive = instinctive (प्रवृत्ति वाला); railings = protecting fence (रेलिंग): gallop = run (भागना)

Questions :

(a) How did the author exercise Mij?

(b) Where did Mij develop certain compulsive habits?

(c) What was the size of the front wall? Where was it situated?

(d) What was the ‘play’ the otter indulged in?

(e) Find a word from the passage which means ‘diversion’.

PASSAGE 11

It is not, I suppose, in any way strange that the average Londoner should not recognise an otter, but the variety of guesses as to what kind of animal this might come as a surprise to me. Otters belong to a comparatively small group of animals called Mussel lines, shared by the badger, mongoose, weasel, stoat, mink and others. I faced a continuous barrage of conjectural questions that sprayed all the Mussel lines but the otter, more random guesses hit on ‘a baby seal’ and ‘a squirrel’. ‘Is that a walrus, mister ?’ reduced me to giggles, and outside a dog show I heard ‘a hippo’. A beaver, a bear cub, a leopard—one, apparently, that had changed its spots—and a ‘brontosaur’: Mij was anything but an otter.

Word-meanings: Badger = an animal (एक प्रकार का जानवर); mink = an animal (नेवला); conjectural = based on a guess (a अनुमान): walrus = an animal (एक जानवर); beaver = an animal (एक जानवर)