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Solutions

Overview

Step-by-step NCERT solutions for Mijbil the Otter (Chapter 6, CBSE Class 10 English) — every question and answer worked out in full, not just the final result. You can also read the Mijbil the Otter textbook chapter.

Solved

What these solutions cover

All 27 questions in Mijbil the Otter are solved in the PDF. Here's what's inside, exercise by exercise:

Oral Comprehension Check

  1. What 'experiment' 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. In the beginning, the otter was
    • (a) aloof and indifferent
    • (b) friendly
    • (c) hostile.
  6. What happened when Maxwell took Mijbil to the bathroom? What did it do two days after that?
  7. How was Mij to be transported to England?
  8. What did Mij do to the box?
  9. Why did Maxwell put the otter back in the box? How do you think he felt when he did this?
  10. Why does Maxwell say the airhostess was "the very queen of her kind"?
  11. What happened when the box was opened?
  12. What game had Mij invented?
  13. What are 'compulsive habits'? What does Maxwell say are the compulsive habits of
    • (i) school children
    • (ii) Mij?
  14. What group of animals do otters belong to?
  15. What guesses did the Londoners make about what Mij was?

Thinking about the Text

  1. What things does Mij do which tell you that he is an intelligent, friendly and fun-loving animal who needs love?
  2. What are some of the things we come to know about otters from this text?
  3. Why is Mij's species now known to the world as Maxwell's otter?
  4. Maxwell in the story speaks for the otter, Mij. He tells us what the otter feels and thinks on different occasions. Given below are some things the otter does. Complete the column on the right to say what Maxwell says about what Mij feels and thinks:
    • (a) plunges, rolls in the water and makes the water splosh and splash;
    • (b) screws the tap in the wrong way;
    • (c) nuzzles Maxwell's face and neck in…
  5. Read the story and find the sentences where Maxwell describes his pet otter. Then choose and arrange your sentences to illustrate those statements below that you think are true:
    • (i) makes Mij seem almost human, like a small boy;
    • (ii) shows that he is often irritated with what Mij does;
    • (iii) shows that he is often surprised by what Mij does;
    • (iv) of Mij's antics is comical;
    • (v) shows that he…

Thinking about Language

  1. Describing a Repeated Action in the Past. From the table, make as many correct sentences as you can using 'would' and/or 'used to', as appropriate: Emperor Akbar / Every evening we / Fifty years ago, very few people / Till the 1980s, Shanghai / My uncle — be fond of musical evenings / take long walks on the beach / own cars / have very dirty streets / spend his holidays by the sea.
  2. Noun Modifiers. Look at these examples from the text, and say whether the modifiers (in italics) are nouns, proper nouns, or adjective plus noun:
    • (i) an otter fixation
    • (ii) the iron railings
    • (iii) the Tigris marshes
    • (iv) the London streets
    • (v) soft velvet fur
    • (vi) a four-footed soccer player.
  3. Quantities. Match the words on the left with a word on the right (some may go with more than one):
    • (i) a portion of
    • (ii) a pool of
    • (iii) flakes of
    • (iv) a huge heap of
    • (v) a gust of
    • (vi) little drops of
    • (vii) a piece of
    • (viii) a pot of — blood, cotton, stones, gold, fried fish, snow, water, wind.
  4. 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 advice. → My teacher gave me a bit of advice.
    • (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…

Thinking about the Poem — Fog

  1. What does Sandburg think the fog is like? (ii) How does the fog come? (iii) What does 'it' in the third line refer to? (iv) Does the poet actually say that the fog is like a cat? Find three things that tell us that the fog is like a cat.
  2. You know that a metaphor compares two things by transferring a feature of one thing to the other.
    • (i) Find metaphors for the following words and complete the table, and say how they are alike (the first is done for you — Storm: tiger, pounces over the fields, growls): Train, Fire, School, Home.
    • (ii) Think about a storm... Write a poem about the storm comparing it with an animal.
  3. Does this poem have a rhyme scheme? Poetry that does not have an obvious rhythm or rhyme is called 'free verse'.
Sample

Worked examples

3 questions from Mijbil the Otter, solved step by step.

Oral Comprehension Check

What 'experiment' did Maxwell think Camusfearna would be suitable for?

Early in 1956, when Maxwell was travelling in Southern Iraq, it crossed his mind that he would like to keep an otter instead of a dog.

He felt that Camusfearna, which was "ringed by water a stone's throw from its door," would be "an eminently suitable spot for this experiment" — the experiment of keeping an otter as a pet.

Answer: Maxwell thought Camusfearna, ringed by water, would be a suitable spot for the experiment of keeping an otter instead of a dog.

Thinking about the Text

What things does Mij do which tell you that he is an intelligent, friendly and fun-loving animal who needs love?

Intelligent: Mij learned to turn on the bathroom tap himself; he invented his own game with the ping-pong ball on the sloping suitcase lid; and he developed his own compulsive habits like galloping along the low wall.

Friendly and needing love: he soon followed Maxwell without a lead and came when called; he slept in the crook of Maxwell's knees; and after escaping in the aeroplane he returned to nuzzle Maxwell's face and neck with a distressed chitter of recognition.

Fun-loving: he went wild with joy in the bathwater, spent most of his time in play, juggled marbles on his belly, and dribbled a rubber ball round the room like a four-footed soccer player.

Answer: He turns on taps and invents games (intelligent), follows and nuzzles Maxwell (friendly, needing love), and plays constantly with balls and marbles (fun-loving).

Thinking about Language

Noun Modifiers. Look at these examples from the text, and say whether the modifiers (in italics) are nouns, proper nouns, or adjective plus noun: (i) an otter fixation (ii) the iron railings (iii) the Tigris marshes (iv) the London streets (v) soft velvet fur (vi) a four-footed soccer player.

(i) an otter fixation — noun (otter modifies fixation).

(ii) the iron railings — noun (iron modifies railings).

(iii) the Tigris marshes — proper noun (Tigris is a proper noun).

(iv) the London streets — proper noun (London is a proper noun).

(v) soft velvet fur — adjective plus noun (soft is an adjective, velvet is a noun).

(vi) a four-footed soccer player — adjective plus noun (four-footed is an adjective, soccer is a noun).

Answer: (i) noun; (ii) noun; (iii) proper noun; (iv) proper noun; (v) adjective + noun; (vi) adjective + noun.

All 27 questions in Mijbil the Otter are solved step by step in the Solutions PDF above.

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More NCERT Solutions for Class 10

Read the Mijbil the Otter textbook chapter / PDF, or browse all CBSE Class 10 English solutions.

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