Menagerie Manor
by Gerald Durrell
Comprehension
Read and answer
1. Tick the correct answer.
a. The call of which bird is described as rich, fruity and slightly hoarse?
i. robin. [ ]
ii. touraco. [✓]
iii. goose. [ ]
b. What did Gerald Durrell name the bird that was known to ornithologists as Psophia crepitans?
i. Sophia. [ ]
ii. Binty. [ ]
iii. Trumpy. [✓]
c. Which were the tiniest animals living at the zoo?
i. marmosets. [✓]
ii. binturongs. [ ]
iii. doves. [ ]
d. The call of which animal sounds astonishingly like the grunts of pigs?
i. Celebs ape. [ ]
ii. emperor tamarin. [ ]
iii. mongoose lemur. [✓]
Reference to context
2. "It is one thing to visit a zoo as an ordinary member of the public but quite another to own one and live in the middle of it …"
a. Who was the owner of the zoo?
= Mr. Gerald Durrell was the owner of the zoo.
b. State two examples that the author gives to explain this difference.
= Two examples that the author gives to explain this difference are -
i) It certainly enables you to rush out at any hour of the day or night to observe your changes, but it also means that you are on duty twenty-four hours a day.
ii) And you find that a cosy little dinner party falls apart because some animal has broken its leg, or because the heaters in the reptile house have failed, or for any of a dozen reason.
c. Why do you think winter is the 'slack period' for the owner of the zoo?
= I think winter is the 'slack period' for the owner of the zoo because on someday no visitor comes to visit the zoo. So there is not much work of activity on the season.
3. "The average zoo day begins just before dawn; the sky will be almost imperceptibly tinged with yellow when you are awakened by the birdsong."
a. Explain the meaning of the word 'tinged'. Use it in a sentence of your own.
= The meaning of the word 'tinged' is - having small amount of a colour. Here the little yellow colour of the sun at the time before dawn has been indicated by the word 'tinged'.
Use in a sentence :- The yellow tinge of Eli's skin suggested she may have jaundice.
b. Name any four birds that the author hears at dawn. Describe the call of each bird, as given in the story.
= Name of four birds that the author hears at dawn are - Robin, Touracos, a blackbird and white-headed jay thrush.
At first, the author can hear a robin chanting up the sun, and, accompanying it, the rich, fruity, slightly hoarse cries of the touracos. Then a blackbird flutes joyfully, and as the last of his song dies the white-headed jay thrush burst into an excited, liquid babble.
c. Which is the bird that wakes the author up in the most disruptive manner? How?
= The bird that wakes the author up in the most disruptive manner is Trumpy.
Trumpy is a grey-winged trumpeter. It creates same disruptive effect of an alarm clock. It sounds at at the window of someone. If the person does not shut the window immediately, it hops from the window-sill onto the dressing-table, then onto the bed and proceeds up and down until it gets someone's full attention.
Reflect and answer
4. The author doesn't simply tell us that the gorillas were energetic in the mornings - he shows us. How does the author do that?
= The gorillas have been let out of their cage while it is being cleaned, and they gallop about the floor with the exuberance of children just out of school, endeavouring to pull down the notices, wrench the electric heaters from their sockets, or break the fluorescent lights.
5. Quote two lines from the story in which the author uses sarcasm. Explain how sarcasm adds to the humour of the story.
= Two lines from the story in which the author uses sarcasm are -
i) "The pleasantness of this sensation is more than slightly marred by the alarm with which you view the mounting of your bills and compare them to the lack of gate-money."
Here there is no pleasantness at all. If there is no visitor at the zoo, there will be no money and there would be shortage of fund to pay the bills of the zoo. Its not slightly marred but its a matter of big worry.
ii) "Trumpy, for some reason best known to himself, is firmly convinced that his first duty of each day should be to fly into one's bedroom and acquaint one with what has been going on in the zoo during the night."
Here the author says that the bird is too irritating to hear at one's window at the dawn. It makes unnecessary nuisance which is undesirable to anyone while getting up from bed in the morning.
6. Durrell goes into great detail to describe the animals' behaviour. Imagine that you are walking by a tiger enclosure at the Jersey Zoo in the early hours of the morning. Use the tone and style of the author to describe the tiger's behaviour in detail - its movements, expressions, sounds and so on.
= It is early morning in the Jersey Zoo, I am walking and expecting to get a glance of him, the prince, the would be emperor. Now he is announcing his presence by the gruff roars. He is the one to draw everyone's attention. He gets up and trolling up and down in the royal gesture. The zoo attendants were waiting for his morning breakfast. Now they got the chance to execute their duty and be privileged. I am waiting to get the attention of the sovereign with yellow and black stripe on his body. He has done his breakfast and now speculating around and at last he gave his favourable look upon me. Me is grateful to get his glance and leaving this majestic place with gratitude.
7. Suggest a suitable title for the story. Explain why you chose this title.
= A suitable title for the story which I suggest is - 'Jamming In The Zoo'.
Here the author shows how it is different to be a visitor and an owner of the zoo. He is describing the all hazards and wired behaviours of the creatures of the zoo. The author is somehow stuck in the zoo mentally or emotionally. So, this title may go with the story in a good way.