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Find Solutions to NCERT Class 7 English An Alien Hand- Chapter 2 “Bringing up Kari” here.
Bringing Up Kari
Answer the following questions (Page 14)
1. The enclosure in which Kari lived had a thatched roof that lay on thick tree stumps. Examine the illustration of Kari’s pavilion on page 8 and say why it was built that way.
Answer:
The pavilion in which Kari lived had a thatched roof that rested on thick tree stumps so that it would not cave in when Kari bumped against the poles as he moved about. It allowed the elephant to move around freely.
2. Did Kari enjoy his morning bath in the river? Give a reason for your answer.
Answer:
Yes, Kari enjoyed his morning bath in the river immensely. He would lie on the sand bank and enjoy the luxury of having his back rubbed clean with sand for a whole hour. Then he relaxed in the cool water for a long time. When his keeper rubbed water down his back he squealed with delight.
3. Finding good twigs for Kari took a long time. Why?
Answer:
The author had to climb high up on all varieties of trees to find the most succulent twigs for Kari. The little elephant was fussy and would reject even slightly damaged twigs, so they had to be precisely cut off with a sharp hatchet. This is why choosing suitable twigs for Kari took a long time.
4. Why did Kari push his friend into the stream?
Answer:
Kari pushed his friend into the stream to save a boy who was drowning in the river. The intelligent little elephant knew that he alone could not save the drowning boy, so he sought his friend’s help. Together they saved the boy’s life.
5. Kari was like a baby. What are the main points of comparison?
Answer:
- Kari was like a baby because he had to be taught to sit, and walk at the right pace by his keeper.
- He had to be taught to be good and chided when he was mischievous, or else he would be up to more trouble.
- After being scolded for stealing bananas, like an obedient child he never erred again.
6. Kari helped himself to all the bananas in the house without anyone noticing it. How did he do it?
Answer:
Kari quietly helped himself to the bananas in the house by stealthily stretching out his long trunk through the window to grab the bananas kept on the dining table. No one was the wiser because he went back immediately to his pavilion where he consumed his loot quietly.
7. Kari learnt the commands to sit and walk. What were the instructions for each command?
Answer:
Kari learnt the commands to sit and walk. The word “Dhat” was the instruction to make him sit, while the word “Mali” instructed him to walk.
8. What is “the master call”? Why is it the most important signal for an elephant to learn?
Answer:
The “master call” is a peculiar fusion of a hissing and howling sound as if a snake and a tiger were fighting. This call has to be made in the elephant’s ear.
It is the most important signal for an elephant to learn because it is a distress signal sent out by the master seeking the elephant’s help to rescue him from danger. When an elephant hears the “master call”, he uproots one tree after another until he creates a path through the jungle straight to the house.
Extra Questions on NCERT Class 7 English An Alien Hand Chapter 2 “Bringing up Kari”
A. Multiple Choice type Questions
1. How old were Kari and his keeper when they met?
(i) Kari was 9 months old and his keeper was 5 years old.
(ii) Kari was 5 years old and his keeper was 9 years old.
(iii) Kari was 5 months old and his keeper was 9 months old.
(iv) Kari was 5 months old and his keeper was 9 years old.
2. Which of the following statements is true?
(i) Kari needed forty pounds of twigs a day to chew and play with.
(ii) Kari liked the most luscious twigs.
(iii) Kari did not touch a twig if it was mutilated.
(iv)All the above statements are true
3. Kari was fond of young branches of the ______tree.
(i) peepul tree
(ii) banana tree
(iii) banyan tree
(iv) None of the above
4. Why did Kari call his keeper?
(i) because someone was hurting him
(ii) because he was hungry
(iii) because he had lost his way
(iv) because he saw another boy drowning
5. Where did Kari live in his keeper’s house?
(i) in the stable
(ii) In the garage
(iii) in a pavilion which had a thatched roof
(iv) In the garden
6. Who was stealing the fruit?
(i) the servants
(ii) the author or Kari’s young keeper
(iii) a snake
(iv) Kari
7.What effect did the scolding have on Kari?
(i) He sulked for a week
(ii) He continued to steal fruits.
(iii) His pride was so injured that he never stole anything from the dining-room
(iv) None of the above
8. How long did it take Kari to learn to sit on a call of ‘Dhat’?
(i) Three lessons
(ii) Five years
(iii) Three weeks
(iv) None of the above
9. What was the master call?
(i) A Strange hissing calling sound
(ii) A distress call
(iii) Signal for the elephant to uproot trees and frighten away all the animals
(iv) All of the above
10. Kari was treated like a _____ .
(i) son
(ii) cherished pet
(iii) baby
(iv) All of the above
Answer:
1. (iv) Kari was 5 months old and his keeper was 9 years old.
2. (iv)All the above statements are true.
3. (iii) banyan tree
4. (iv) because he saw another boy drowning
5. (iii) in a pavilion which had a thatched roof
6. (iv) Kari
7. (iii) His pride was so injured that he never stole anything from the dining-room
8. (iii) three weeks
9. (iv) All of the above10 .(iii) baby
B. Fill in the blanks with suitable words from the box to complete the following sentences:
| master | tree | saplings | ponderous | hawk |
| delicate | elephant | darted | stretch | trunk |
1. It was not an easy job to get twigs and ________ for Kari. I had to climb all kinds of trees to get the most ______ and tender twigs.
2. Seeing us drift by in the current, Kari, who was usually slow and _______, suddenly _______down like a __________and came halfway into the water when I saw him ______
out his trunk again.
3. The only thing to do then is to give the ________ call and at once the ________ pulls down the _______ in front of him with his ________.
Answer:
1. It was not an easy job to get twigs and saplings for Kari. I had to climb all kinds of trees to get the most delicate and tender twigs.
2. Seeing us drift by in the current, Kari, who was usually slow and ponderous, suddenly darted
down like a hawk and came halfway into the water when I saw him stretch
out his trunk again.
3.The only thing to do then is to give the master call and at once the elephant pulls down the tree in front of him with his trunk.
C. Match the words in column A with those in column
| A | B |
| Dhat | Strange hissing, howling sound |
| Mali | Slow and clumsy |
| Master call | succulent |
| ponderous | Pull elephant’s trunk forward to walk |
| luscious | Pull elephant by the ear to sit down |
Answer:
| A | B |
| Dhat | Pull elephant by the ear to sit down |
| Mali | Pull elephant’s trunk forward to walk |
| Master call | Strange hissing, howling sound |
| ponderous | Slow and clumsy |
| luscious | succulent |
D. State whether the following statements are TRUE or FALSE:
1. Kari enjoyed the morning bathing ritual in the river .
2. Kari did not mend his ways after he was scolded for stealing bananas.
3. The master call is used by the master if he is lost in the dark in the jungle and needs to be rescued.
4. The narrator mistook the elephant’s trunk for a snake.
5. The narrator was rescued from the river by a lasso thrown around his neck.
Answers:
1. True
2. False – After Kari’s keeper threatened to whip him if he stole bananas again, the little elephant’s pride was injured and he never stole anything from the dining-room again.
3. True – the master call is an SOS for help.
4. True
5. False – The narrator and the drowning boy were rescued from the river by Kari who wrapped his trunk round his neck like a lasso.
E. Very Short Answer type Questions:
1. How could the narrator reach Kari’s back when they met at first?
Answer:
The narrator could reach Kari’s back only when he stood on tiptoe.
2. For how long did Kari ‘s growth keep pace with that of his nine year old keeper?
Answer:
Kari’s growth kept pace with the narrator for two years that is why the narrator felt that Kari seemed to remain the same height for two years.
3. What was one of the first things that Kari did?
Answer:
One of the first things that Kari did was to save the life of a drowning boy.
4. How much twigs did the narrator have to gather to keep Kari happy?
Answer:
The narrator had to gather forty pounds of twigs each day to feed Kari.
5. What did Kari’s skin look like after the hour long sand scrub he received from his keeper every morning?
Answer:
Kari’s skin shone like ebony when he came out of the water after his bath.
6. What is the easiest way to lead an elephant?
Answer:
The easiest way to lead an elephant is by the ear.
7. How did Kari develop a great love for bananas?
Answer:
He developed a great love for bananas after somebody gave him bananas to eat.
8. What happened after Kari developed a taste for bananas?
Answer:
Kari started helping himself to the bananas kept on the dining-table.
9. Who was blamed for the theft of the bananas?
Answer:
The servants and the narrator were blamed for the mysteriously disappearing bananas.
10. Why did the narrator follow Kari back to his pavilion after he saw the supposed snake stealing the bananas?
Answer:
The narrator followed Kari because he was frightened and he wanted Kari’s company to cheer him up.
11. How did Kari react to the scolding he received for stealing bananas?
Answer:
Kari ‘s pride was wounded and he never again stole anything from the dining-room. From then if anybody gave him any fruit, he expressed his gratitude by squealing.
12. What are the things an elephant has to be taught?
Answer:
An elephant has to be taught when to sit down,when to walk, when to go fast and when to go slow just like a child.
13. How long did Kari take to learn to follow the commands ‘Dhat’ and ‘Mali’?
Answer:
Kari learnt to obey the command ‘Mali’ in just three lessons. But he took three weeks to learn to sit on hearing the command ‘Dhat’.
14. How long does it take an elephant to learn the master call?
Answer:
An elephant generally takes five years to learn the master call properly.
15. When should the master call be used by the keeper?
Answer:
The master call should only be used when the master is in danger or distress and needs to be rescued.
F. Short Answer Type Questions:
1. What did the narrator find in Kari’s pavilion after the bananas started disappearing from the dining-table? Why was he surprised?
Answer:
The narrator was surprised to find a banana which was all smashed up in Kari’s pavilion some days after the bananas started disappearing from the dining -table. He was surprised because he knew that Kari lived only on twigs. It did not occur to him then that Kari might be the banana thief.
2. When did the narrator realise that Kari was the banana thief?
Answer:
When the narrator followed Kari into the pavilion, he was puzzled to see the little elephant eating bananas. There were bananas lying stewn all around him. As Kari stretched out his trunk to reach for a banana, the narrator realised that the outstretched trunk looked like a black snake and that the banana thief was none other than Kari.
3. What insight into an elephant’s nature does the narrator give us ?
Answer:
The narrator tells us that elephants will readily accept punishment for any wrong doing on their part, but if they are accused and punished unfairly, they will remember the indignity and pay the accuser back in his own coin.
4. Why should an elephant be taught to sit down?
Answer:
The elephant grows taller and taller and soon outstrips his keeper so that by the time he is two or three years old, the keeper can only reach its back with a ladder. It is therefore wiser to teach him to sit on the command of ‘Dhat’ and climb on to his back, than to carry around a ladder all the time.
5. What does an elephant do when he hears the master call?
Answer:
On hearing the master call the elephant creates havoc in the forest. At once the elephant begins to uproot the tree in front of him with his trunk. This act frightens all the animals away. As the tree comes crashing down, the monkeys are jolted awake and run from branch to branch, the stags start running helter skelter, even the tiger is frightened. Then the elephant pulls down the next tree, and then the tree after that, and so on till he has made a straight path through the forest to the house.
G. Long answer Type Questions
1. How did Kari attract his keeper’s attention to the drowning boy?
Answer:
One spring day in March, when the narrator was gathering tender twigs from the banyan tree in the forest for Kari, he heard the little elephant calling him. Alarmed, because he thought that someone was hurting Kari, the narrator rushed to the edge of the forest where he had left his elephant.
After looking for him frantically, he went to the edge of the river and spied the trunk of his elephant rising from the water. The narrator thought that Kari was drowning and felt helpless because he alone could not rescue the four-hundred-pound elephant. But to his relief he saw Kari’s back rise above the water and the moment the elephant saw his keeper, he began to trumpet and struggled towards the river bank.
Then he pushed his keeper into the water. As he fell into the stream, the narrator saw a boy lying flat near the bottom of the river. He realised then that Kari was trying to tell him to save the drowning boy.
2. How did Kari help his keeper rescue the drowning boy?
Answer:
Kari had pushed his keeper into the water to save the drowning boy. When the narrator fell into the stream, he saw a boy lying flat near the bottom of the river. As he came up for air, the narrator saw Kari waiting for him with his trunk stretched out like a hand to reach him.
Reassured by the elephant’s presence, the narrator dived into the water again and pulled the drowning boy to the surface. But he could not swim to the river bank because the slow current was already dragging him down.
Kari saw the imminent danger that his keeper was in and darted down swiftly like a hawk halfway into the water and stretched out his trunk again. But the narrator’s hand slipped so he could not catch it.
This time the narrator found that the water was not very deep. So, he thrust his feet against the river bed and propelled himself up shooting out of the water like an arrow still holding the drowning boy with his hand. At that moment he felt as if a lasso went around his neck and heard Kari squealing while he pulled them both ashore. This is how Kari helped his keeper save the drowning boy.
3. What was Kari, the baby elephant like?
Answer:
Kari was only five months old when he was given to his nine-year-old keeper to look after. In many ways he was like a baby and had to be trained to obey rules.
He was fastidious about his food and would not touch twigs which showed the slightest imperfection. His keeper had to climb up various trees to gather forty pounds of tender and succulent twigs and saplings for him chew and play with every day.
Like a child, he enjoyed his daily bathing ritual and relaxed while his keeper rubbed his body with the clean sand of the river for an hour. After the sand scrub he lay in the cool river water for a long time. He squealed with pleasure when his keeper would rub water down his back.
He was intelligent and brave. One of the first things he did was to save a drowning boy. He had the presence of mind to call his keeper because he knew that he could not save the boy on his own. When his keeper reached the edge of the river in response to his call, Kari threw him into the water so that he would see the drowning boy and rescue him. Together they saved the boy, but had it not been for Kari’s quick reflexes, this feat would not have been possible.
Kari was mischievous like a child. When he developed a taste for ripe bananas, he quietly stretched out his trunk through the open window and lifted the bananas from the dining-table. He would happily gorge on the bananas while other people got blamed for theft and greed. But after his keeper caught him in the act and scolded him, he was so hurt that he never stole anything again from the dining-room. He did not mind being chastised for a wrong he had committed.
He had to be taught to sit down when needed, also when to walk fast or when to walk slowly. He had to learn the different commands used to train elephants. He was a fast learner and learnt to respond to the command “mali’ in just three lessons. It took him three weeks to learn to sit when he heard the command ‘dhat’. Like a child he was a good learner and adapted well to living with humans.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) NCERT Class 7 English An Alien Hand Chapter 2 “Bringing up Kari”
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The story titled ‘Bringing up Kari’ is about a five-month-old elephant named Kari who is placed in the care of a nine-year-old boy. The young keeper takes good care of the baby elephant bathing him daily in the river, carefully gathering the most luscious twigs for his meal and teaching him to obey commands. He is caring and protective of the elephant. A close bond develops between them as they spend a lot of time together and the baby elephant gradually adapts to living among human beings.
When the narrator followed Kari into the pavilion, he was puzzled to see the little elephant eating bananas. There were bananas lying stewn all around him. As Kari stretched out his trunk to reach for a banana, the narrator realised that the outstretched trunk looked like a black snake and that the banana thief was none other than Kari.
The elephant grows taller and taller and soon outstrips his keeper so that by the time he is two or three years old, the keeper can only reach its back with a ladder. It is therefore wiser to teach him to sit on the command of ‘Dhat’ and climb on to his back, than to carry around a ladder all the time.
On hearing the master call, the elephant uproots the tree in front of him with his trunk. As the tree comes crashing down, monkeys are jolted awake and run from branch to branch, stags start running helter skelter, even the tiger is frightened. Then the elephant pulls down the next tree, and then the tree after that, and so on till he has made a straight path through the forest to the house.
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Yes, certainly. Our team of competent English teachers have carefully anticipated all the queries you may have about the story and crafted these excellent solutions which draw your attention to every detail. We suggest that at first you read the story closely and look up the meanings of unfamiliar terms. Then read the solutions taking in all the details. Do not learn by heart because the key to learning lies in understanding the story.
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