First Flight:8

 Lesson:8

Mijbil the Otter

Questions and Answers. 

Question 1.

What special characteristic of Mijbil did Maxwell learn after he took it to the bathroom?

Answer:

When Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom, he learnt that he went wild with joy in water, plunging and rolling in it and splashed water.

Question 2.

Why did the writer stay in Basra?

Answer:

The writer and his friend were going to Basra to the Consulate—General to collect and answer their mails. They found that the mail of his friend was available but the author had to stay in Basra for five days.

Question 3.

What did the otter look like?

Answer:

The otter looked like a very small dragon. Its appearance was very pretty. It was coated with pointed scales of mud on its back. It spread mud all round.

Question 4.

How did Maxwell get the otter?

Answer:

Maxwell wanted to keep an otter as a pet instead of dog. He expressed his wish before his friend who managed to get an otter and sent it to Maxwell through two Arabs. Thus Maxwell got his tamed otter.

Question 5.

Why was the otter called Maxwell’s otter?

Answer:

The otter was not a common wild creature. It belonged to an unknown race of otters that was later christened by zoologists as Lutrogale perspicillata Maxwelli; As it came into light as Maxwell’s pet, it was named as Maxwell’s otter.

Question 6.

Why did Maxwell call the airhostess “the very queen of her kind”?

Answer:

Maxwell was worried about Mijbil’s welfare. Mijbil was exhausted and wounded. His condition was very miserable in the box. Maxwell wanted Mijbil to be free. The airhostess allowed him to have Mijbil on his knee. Out of gratitude for her sympathy and kindness, the author said so.

Question 7.

What happened when Maxwell decided to transport Mijbil to England by air?

Answer:

When Maxwell decided to transport Mijbil to England, Mijbil was kept into a box. He tore off the box and wounded himself. Then Mijbil disappeared down the aircraft, terrorizing the other passengers. After that, he settled on Maxwell’s knee and gave no further inconvenience to others.

Question 8.

Write a short paragraph from the text to show that Mijbil was an intelligent animal.

Answer:

One day Mijbil escaped from Maxwell’s room and went to the bathroom. When the writer reached there he found that the otter had turned the tap in less than a minute and he had managed to get full flow of water for a bath.

Question 9.

What game did Mijbil invent?

Answer:

Mijbil discovered that if he placed the ball on the high end of the damaged suitcase, 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.

Question 10.

What guesses did the Londoners make about what Mijbil was?

Answer:

The writer was not surprised to know that the Londoners could not recognize an otter. They thought he was a baby seal, a squirrel, a walrus, a hippo, a beaver, a bear cub, a leopard.

Question 11.

What ‘experiment’ did Maxwell think Camusfearna would be suitable for?

Answer:

Maxwell was staying in a cottage in Camusfearna. There was a lot of water around the cottage. He thought to have an otter as a pet instead of a dog. An otter likes flowing water. So the author thought that Camusfearna would be suitable spot for that experiment.

Question 12.

Why does he go to Basra? How long does he wait there, and why?

Answer:

He goes the Basra to the Consulate—General to collect and answer his mail from Europe. His mail did not arrive in time. He cabled to England, and when, three days later, nothing had happened, he 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, exchange was closed for a religious holiday. On the third day there was another breakdown. His mail arrived five days later. He had to wait for five days.

BY:GR Dhaka