NCERT Solutions
Class 9 English Beehive
Chapter 7 - Packing
Page No. 89
Thinking about the Text
I. Discuss in pairs
and answer each question below in a short paragraph (30-40 words).
1. How many characters
are there in the narrative? Name them. (Don’t forget the dog!).
2. Why did the narrator
(Jerome) volunteer to do the packing?
3. How did George and
Harris react to this? Did Jerome like their reaction?
4. What was Jerome’s
real intention when he offered to pack?
5. What did Harris say
after the bag was shut and strapped? Why do you think he waited till then to
ask?
6. What “horrible idea”
occurred to Jerome a little later?
7. Where did Jerome
finally find the toothbrush?
8. Why did Jerome have
to reopen the packed bag?
9. What did George and
Harris offer to pack and why?
10. While packing the
hamper, George and Harris do a number of foolish and funny things. Tick the
statements that are true.
(i) They started with breaking a cup.
(ii) They also broke a plate.
(iii) They squashed a tomato.
(iv) They trod on the butter.
(v) They stepped on a banana.
(vi) They put things behind them, and couldn’t find them.
(vii) They stepped on things.
(viii) They packed the pictures at the bottom and put heavy things on top.
(ix) They upset almost everything.
(x) They were very good at packing.
RELATED
STORIES
Answer:
1. There are four
characters in the narrative. They are Jerome (the narrator), George, Harris and
the dog named Montmorency.
2. The narrator
volunteered to do packing because he thought he was the best at packing.
3. George and Harris
readily accepted Jerome’s suggestion. George spread himself over the easy-chair
and Harris put his legs on the table.
No, Jerome did not like
their reaction.
4. Jerome's real
intention was to supervise the work. He wanted Harris and George to work under
his guidance and instructions.
5. After the bag was
shut and strapped, Harris asked the narrator to put the boots in the bag. He
had waited till then to ask with an intention to irritate the narrator and
ridicule his packing skills.
6. The "horrible
idea" that occurred to Jerome a little later was whether he had packed his
toothbrush or not. Whenever he travelled he could never remember if he had
packed his toothbrush or not. He said that toothbrush was a thing that haunted
him when he was travelling and made his life a misery.
7. Jerome unpacked the
bag to find his brush. But he could not find it. Then, he started putting the
things back one by one, and held everything up and shook it. Finally he found
the tooth brush inside a boot.
8. Jerome had to reopen
the bag because he found that he had packed his spectacles in it.
9. George and Harris
offered to pack the hampers because it was getting late and they thought that
they should do the rest of the packing. They also wanted to show off their
packing skills to Jerome.
10. Statements (i),
(iii), (iv), (vi), (vii) and (ix) are true.
II. What does Jerome
say was Montmorency’s ambition in life? What do you think of Montmorency and
why?
Answer:
According to Jerome,
Montmorency’s ambition in life is to interfere with others and be abused. He is
a mischievous little dog who loves creating troubles for others. If people
shout at him or throw things at his head, he feels his day has not been wasted.
His highest aim and object was to get somebody to stumble over him and curse
him steadily for an hour.
Montmorency, a dog, is
born with such silly characteristics or say the sins that makes him do things
like that.
III. Discuss in
groups and answer the following questions in two or three paragraphs (100 −150
words)
1. Of the three,
Jerome, George and Harris, who do you think is the best or worst packer?
Support your answer with details from the text.
Answer:
Of the three, Jerome is
the best packer because he knew how to arrange things in order. Though, he
often forgets to pack certain things or gets confused, he knows what to keep
first and what to keep last. On the other hand, Harris and George create a mess
all around. Harris packs the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and smashes it.
George treads on the butter. He gets it off from his slipper and puts it in the
kettle. He puts it down on a chair and Harris sits on it. It sticks to him and
then they look for it all over the room. In this way they make everything such
a mess.
2. How did Montmorency
‘contribute’ to the packing?
Answer:
Montmorency's
contributed his best to make the packing task even more tiresome and messy.
Montmorency wanted to be a perfect nuisance and make others mad.
He came and sat down on
things, just when they were about to be packed. He put his leg into the jam and
worried the teaspoons. He also pretended that the lemons were rats. So he got
into the hamper and killed three of them.
Harris blamed Jerome for
encouraging the dog. However, Jerome said that a dog like Montmorency did not
require any encouragement. It was a natural and original sin that was born in
him, which made him do things like that.
3. Do you find this
story funny? What are the humorous elements in it?
(Pick out at least
three, think about what happens, as well as how it is described.)
Answer:
Yes, this story is
really funny. The whole episode of packing, Jerome’s incidents of forgetting to
pack few things, unpacking the bag for several times, then the way Harris and
George make a mess with the packing task and finally how Montmorency comes to
make the situation even more chaotic, all these things make the story funny and
interesting.
The Narrator's proposal
of packing the bags brings the first element of humour when George and Harris
readily accept his suggestion and leaves the whole matter to him. Consequently,
he has to do all the packing alone though his real intention was to boss the
job.
Then, there comes the episode of butter. George treads on the butter and it
sticks to his slipper. Later he puts it on the chair. Harris sits on the chair
and it sticks to his bottom. When they search it for packing it is missing.
They walk and walk around the room. At last, George finds it at Harris’s back.
Then they squash the tomatoes by putting the strawberry jam on them.
The third humorous
element is that Montmorency pretends that lemons were rats and gets into the
hamper and kills three of them.
NCERT Class 9 Beehive
Page No. 90
Thinking about Language
I. Match the
words/phrases in Column A with their meanings in Column B.
|
A |
B |
|
1. slaving |
(i) a quarrel or an argument |
|
2. chaos |
(ii) remove something from inside
another thing using a sharp tool |
|
3. rummage |
(iii) strange, mysterious,
difficult to explain |
|
4. scrape out |
(iv) finish successfully, achieve |
|
5. stumble over, tumble into |
(v) search for something by moving
things around hurriedly or carelessly |
|
6. accomplish |
(vi) complete confusion and
disorder |
|
7. uncanny |
(vii) fall, or step awkwardly
while walking |
|
8. (to have or get into) a row |
(viii) working hard |
Answer:
|
A |
B |
|
1. slaving |
(viii) working hard |
|
2. chaos |
(vi) complete confusion and
disorder |
|
3. rummage |
(v) search for something by moving
things around hurriedly or carelessly |
|
4. scrape out |
(ii) remove something from inside
another thing using a sharp tool |
|
5. stumble over, tumble into |
(vii) fall, or step awkwardly
while walking |
|
6. accomplish |
(iv) finish successfully, achieve |
|
7. uncanny |
(iii) strange, mysterious,
difficult to explain |
|
8. (to have or get into) a row |
(i) a quarrel or an argument |
II. Use suitable words
or phrases from Column A above to complete the paragraph given below.
A Traffic Jam
During power cuts, when
traffic lights go off, there is utter __________ at crossroads. Drivers add to
the confusion by __________ over their right of way, and nearly come to blows.
Sometimes passers-by, seeing a few policemen __________ at regulating traffic,
step in to help. This gives them a feeling of having __________ something.
Answer:
During power cuts, when
traffic lights go off, there is utter chaos at crossroads.
Drivers add to the confusion by getting into a row over their
right of way, and nearly come to blows. Sometimes passers-by, seeing a few
policemen slaving at regulating traffic, step in to help. This
gives them a feeling of having accomplished something.
III. 2. The table
below has some proverbs telling you what to do and what not to do. Fill in the
blanks and add a few more such proverbs to the table.
|
Positive |
Negative |
|
(i) Save for a rainy day. |
(i) Don’t cry over spilt
milk. |
|
(ii) Make hay while the sun
shines. |
(ii) Don’t put the cart
before the horse. |
|
(iii) __________before you leap. |
(iii) __________a mountain out of
a mole hill. |
|
(iv) __________and let live. |
(iv) __________all your eggs in
one basket. |
Answer:
(iii) Look Before
you leap.
Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill.
(iv) Live and let Live.
Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
(v) Try try till you succeed.
Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
(vi) Be first at the
feast and last at the fight.
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