Achilles (Gerald Durrell) : Class 8th : English : Short Stories : Lesson (2)

Achilles

WORKING WITH TEXT

Q1. How was the Rose-Beetle Man dressed?

Ans. Rose-Beetle Man was dressed with a wide hat on head, shirt and a startling blue satin cravat around his neck. He had worn a coat with bulged pockets, patched trousers and a pair 

of leather shoes with upturned toes.

Q2. How do we know that the Rose-Beetle Man cared well for his pets?

Ans. He had kept his pets in a sack. When he undid his sack half a dozen tortoise came out tumbling. He had polished their shells with oil and decorated their front legs with little red bows. This shows that he cared well for his pets.

Q3. What made the narrator select one particular tortoise from among the other animals?

Ans. From among the other animals one was energetic than others. Its shell was of the size of a tea cup. Its eyes were bright and its walk was alert. This fascinated the narrator and he was convinced to select this particular tortoise as his pet.

Q4. How did Achilles enjoy eating strawberries?

Ans. Achilles liked the wild strawberries the most. He easily swallows the small sized strawberries but when he was given the big one, he would grab it to a quiet spot among the flower beds to eat it at the leisure time. He was very fond of wild strawberries.

Q5. How were Roger and Achilles rivals?

Ans. Both Roger and Achilles liked grapes. Before the arrival of Achilles, Roger enjoyed full part of grapes. Now the Achilles became his partner, therefore there was a great rivalry between them.

Q6. Why did Achilles find Roger irritating?

Ans. Achilles was very fond of grapes, when he ate grapes, the juice would run his chin, and Roger would lie watching him his mouth dropping saliva. Roger would creep upto Achilles and lick him vigorously to get the grape juice which irritated Achilles.

Q7. How did Roger feel at Achilles’ funeral?

Ans. Roger felt happy at Achilles’ death that is why he was waging his tail at his funeral.

Q8. The family wandered about the olive-groves, shouting, ‘Achilles… strawberries, Achilles. … .’ At length, we found him;

a. How had Achilles escaped?

Ans. Achilles was habitual to walk through the whole garden. One day, the garden gate was left opened and Achilles got an opportunity to escape from the garden.

b. Explain, why the family shouted ‘strawberries’ during their search?

Ans. Achilles was very fond of strawberries, so to find him any way they should make him greedy for his favourite fruit so that they could easily find him.

c. Where did the family finally find Achilles? What had happened to him?

Ans. Finally, the family found Achilles in the well, the wall of which had long since disintegrated. He had fallen into the well and was quite dead.

Q9. There are many instances of humour in the story. Pick out any two of them.

Ans. The story has many humourous instances. Eating of grapes by Achilles and running of juice from his mouth is humourous. Searching down the path of sunbathing person and sleeping on a belly is a humourous instance in the story.