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Question
Years later Mrs. Packletide writes her autobiography. As Mrs. Packletide, write
about the tiger episode with the help of the clues given below.
| jealous of the applause Loona was getting-thought of tiger hunt--all arranged-- Louisa Mebbin accompanied; turned out to be a blackmailer-huge price to pay to outdo a rival |
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Solution
My friend Loona procured a tiger skin and so she got all the honour at the press. I was jealous of her and thought of getting a tiger skin myself. I asked the villagers to make all the arrangements for killing a tiger and agreed to pay them one thousand rupees. I forced my friend Mebbin to accompany me for the hunt. We both sat on a platform placed in a tree. I pointed my gun at the goat tied under the opposite tree. As soon as the tiger approached clumsily, I shot at him. It sprang on one side and fell down dead. The villagers shouted with joy. But Mebbin told me that instead of eating the goat, the tiger had died due to the loud sound of the bullet. I had missed the aim, Mebbin was cunning to blackmail me in buying her a summer cottage that she so much desired for not letting out the secret of the hunt. I was able to get the tiger skin but had to pay a huge price to outdo a rival.
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Answer the following question in your own words :
In what way did the villagers help Mrs. Packletide shoot the tiger?
Answer the following question in your own words:
Who was Miss Mebbin? Was she really devoted to Mrs. Packletide? How did she behave during the tiger shooting?
Answer the following question in your own words :
Mrs. Packletide was a good shot. Discuss.
Answer the following question in your own words :
Did Mrs. Packletide achieve her heart's desire? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer the following question in your own words :
How did Miss Mebbin manage to get her week-end cottage? Why did she plant so
many tiger lilies in her garden?
Discuss the following question in detail and write the answer in your notebook:
Do you think the writer is trying to make fun of the main characters in the story i.e. Mrs. Packletide, Miss Mebbin and Loona Bimberton? Pick out instances from the story that point to this fact.
Discuss the following question in detail and write the answer in your notebook:
Sometimes writers highlight certain negative aspects in society or human beings by making fun of them. This is called a Satire. In your groups, discuss whether you would classify this story as a satire. Give reasons to support your answer
Discuss the following question in detail and write the answer in your notebook:
How does the writer create humour in this story?
Choose extracts from the story that illustrate the character of the people listed in
the table given below. There are some words given to help you. You may add
words of your own. One has been done as an example:
vain jealous competitive shrewd manipulative stingy materialistic spiteful
| Character | Extract from the story | What this tells us about the character |
|
Mrs. Packletide |
(i) The compelling motive for her sudden deviation towards the footsteps of Nimrod was the fact that Loona Bimberton had recently been carried eleven miles in an aeroplane by an Algerian aviator, and talked of nothing else; only a personally procured tiger-skin and a heavy harvest of Press photographs could successfully counter that sort of thing | Competitive |
| (ii) Mrs. Packletide had offered a thousand rupees for the opportunity of shooting a tiger without over-much risk or exertion, |
||
| (iii) Mrs. Packletide faced the cameras with a light heart, and her pictured fame reached from the pages of the Texas Weekly Snapshot to the illustrated Monday supplement of the Novoe Vremya. |
||
| Louisa Mebbin | (i) "If it's an old tiger I think you ought to get it cheaper. A thousand rupees is a lot of money." | |
| (ii) Louisa Mebbin adopted a protective elder-sister attitude towards money in general, irrespective of nationality or denomination |
||
| (iii) "How amused every one would be if they knew what really happened," said Louisa Mebbin a few days after the ball. |
||
| (iv) Louisa Mebbin's pretty week-end cottage, christened by her "Les Fauves," and gay in summer-time with its garden borders of tiger-lilies, is the wonder and admiration of her friends |
||
| Loona Bimberton | (i) As for Loona Bimberton, she refused to look at an illustrated paper for weeks, and her letter of thanks for the gift of a tiger-claw brooch was a model of repressed emotions |
|
| (ii) There are limits beyond which repressed emotions become dangerous. |
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
It was Mrs. Packletide's pleasure and intention that she should shoot a tiger.
....................................................................................
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
It was Mrs. Packletide's pleasure and intention that she should shoot a tiger.
Mrs. Packletide had already arranged in her mind the lunch she would give at her
house on Curzon Street, ostensibly in Loona Bimberton's honour, with a tiger-skin
rug occupying most of the foreground and all of the conversation.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
Mothers carrying their babies home through the jungle after the day's work in the
fields hushed their singing lest they might curtail the restful sleep of the venerable
herd-robber.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
Evidently the wrong animal had been hit, and the beast of prey had succumbed to
heart-failure, caused by the sudden report of the rifle, accelerated by senile decay.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
Rewrite the one in ordinary prose so that the meaning is retained.
As for Loona Bimberton, she refused to look at an illustrated paper for weeks, and
her letter of thanks for the gift of a tiger-claw brooch was a model of repressed
emotions.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………
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The hunting of lionesses is discouraged because
Answer the question given below:
The tail is given to
