What ‘experiment’ did Maxwel | Class 10 English - First Flight Chapter Mijbil the Otter, Mijbil the Otter NCERT Solutions

Tick the right answer. In the beginning, the otter was

• aloof and indifferent
• friendly
• hostile

Given below are some nouns, and a set of modifiers (in the box). Combine the nouns and modifiers to make as many appropriate phrases as you can. (Hint: The nouns and modifiers are all from the texts in this book.)

temple          girls                   triangle             dresses
person          thoughts            boys                 roar
gifts              scream              farewell             expression
time              subject              landscape         handkerchief
crossing       flight                  chatterbox         profession
physique      coffee                view                  celebration
college         rough                 hundred            stone                       ordinary
love             uncomfortable    white                 slang                       slack
bare             railroad              termendous       family                      marriage
plump          invigorating        panoramic         heartbreaking         birthday
incorrigible  ridiculous            loud                   first                         three

What guesses did the Londoners make about what Mij was?

How does he get the otter? Does he like it? Pick out the words that tell you this.

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

What game had Mij invented?

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.

(i) My teacher gave me some
(ii) Can you give me some clay, please.
(iii) The information you gave was very useful.
(iv) Because of these factories, smoke hangs over the city.
(v) Two stones rubbed together can produce sparks of fire.
(vi) He gave me some flowers on my birthday.

Why is Mij’s species now known to the world as Maxwell’s otter?

What happened when Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom? What did it do two days after that?

What are some of the things we come to know about otters from this text?

What made Mr Keesing allow Anne to talk in class?

Are there people like Lencho in the real world? What kind of a person would you say he is? You may select appropriate words from the box to answer the question.

   greedy            naive                   stupid                ungrateful 
   selfish            comical               unquestioning

Chubukov says of Natalya: “... as if she won’t consent! She’s in love; egad, she’s like a lovesick cat...” Would you agree? Find reasons for your answer.

Why didn’t Valli want to make friends with the elderly woman?

Did Lencho try to find out who had sent the money to him? Why/Why not?

What ideals does Nelson Mandela set for the future of South Africa?

Anne says teachers are most unpredictable. Is Mr Keesing unpredictable? How?

How does Mandela describe the systems of government in his country

(i) in the first decade, and
(ii) in the final decade of the twentieth century?

What does courage mean to Mandela?

Do you think Mr Keesing was a strict teacher?

Was Lencho surprised to find a letter for him with money in it?

1. This is the bus (what kind of bus?). It goes to Agra. (use which or that)

2. I would like to buy (a) shirt (which shirt?). (The) shirt is in the shop window. (use which or that)

3. You must break your fast at a particular time (when?). You see the moon in the sky. (use when)

4. Find a word (what kind of word?). It begins with the letter Z. (use which or that)

5. Now find a person (what kind of person). His or her name begins with the letter Z. (use whose)

6. Then go to a place (what place?). There are no people whose name begins with Z in that place. (use where)

What do these statements tell you about Anne Frank as a person?
(i) We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, and that’s the problem. Maybe it’s my fault that we don’t confide in each other.
(ii) I don’t want to jot down the facts in this diary the way most people would, but I want the diary to be my friend.
(iii) Margot went to Holland in December, and I followed in February, when I was plunked down on the table as a birthday present for Margot.
(iv) If you ask me, there are so many dummies that about a quarter of the class should be kept back, but teachers are the most unpredictable creatures on earth.
(v) Anyone could ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking.

What “twin obligations” does Mandela mention?

Why does Anne need to give a brief sketch about her family? Does she treat ‘Kitty’ as an insider or an outsider?

There are some examples of diary or journal entries in the ‘Before You Read’ section. Compare these with what Anne writes in her diary. What language was the diary originally written in? In what way is Anne’s diary different?

How did Anne justify her being a chatterbox in her essay?

Why did Anne think she could confide more in her diary than in people?

What makes writing in a diary a strange experience for Anne Frank?

What does Kisa Gotami understand the second time that she failed to understand the first time? Was this what the Buddha wanted her to understand?