Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
I rested for a moment at the door of Anand Bhavan, on Market Road, where coffee drinkers and tiffin eaters at their tables sat transfixed uttering low moans on seeing me. I wanted to assure them, ‘Don’t fear, I am not out to trouble you. Eat your tiffin in peace, don’t mind me…. You, nearest to me, hugging the cash box, you are craven with fear, afraid even to breathe. Go on, count the cash, if that’s your pleasure. I just want to watch, that’s all…. If my tail trails down to the street, if I am blocking your threshold : it is because, I’m told, I’m eleven feet tip to tail. I can’t help it. I’m not out to kill…. I’m too full—found a green pasture teeming with food on the way. Won’t need any for several days to come, won’t stir, not until I feel hungry again. Tigers attack only when they feel hungry, unlike human beings who slaughter one another without purpose or hunger….
’ To the great delight of children, schools were being hurriedly closed. Children of all ages and sizes were running helter-skelter screaming joyously, ‘No school, no school. Tiger, tiger!’ They were shouting and laughing and even enjoyed being scared. They seemed to welcome me. I felt like joining them, and bounded away from the restaurant door and trotted along with them, at which they gleefully cried, ‘The tiger is coming to eat us; let us get back to the school!’
I followed them through their school gate while they ran up and shut themselves in the school hall securely. I ascended the steps of the school, saw an open door at the far end of a veranda, and walked in. It happened to be the headmaster’s room, I believe, as I noticed a very dignified man jumping on his table and heaving himself up into an attic. I walked in and flung myself on the cool floor, having a partiality for cool stone floors, with my head under the large desk—which gave me the feeling of being back in the Mempi cave….
As I drowsed, I was aware of cautious steps and hushed voices all around. I was in no mood to bother about anything. All I wanted was a little moment of sleep; the daylight was dazzling. In half sleep I heard the doors of the room being shut and blotted and locked. I didn’t care. I slept.
While I slept a great deal of consultation was going on. I learnt about it later through my master, who was in the crowd—the crowd which had gathered after making sure that I had been properly locked up—and was watching. The headmaster seems to have remarked some days later, ‘Never dreamt in my wildest mood that I’d have to yield my place to a tiger…. ’ A wag had retorted, ‘Might be one way of maintaining better discipline among the boys.
‘Now that this brute is safely locked up, we must decide,’ began a teacher. At this moment my master pushed his way through the crowds and admonished, ‘Never use the words “beast” or “brute”. They’re ugly words coined by humans in their arrogance. The human being thinks all other creatures are “beasts”. Awful word!’
(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words or phrases as used in the passage. One word answers or short phrases will be accepted.
1. transfixed (line 2)
2. helter-skelter (line 12)
3. admonished (line 35)
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
1. What reassurance did the tiger give the coffee drinkers?
2. In what way are tigers different from human beings?
3. Why were the children delighted?
4. What did the headmaster say some days later?
5. What was the wag’s response?
6. Which sentences tell us that the tiger’s owner had great respect for the tiger?
(c)
(i) In not more than 60 words describe the tiger’s activities from the time it followed the school children till it slept.
(ii) Give a title to your summary in 3 (c) (i). Give a reason to justify your choice.