EXTRA QUESTIONS :
1.Give the character sketch of Tom, the cat, in about 100 words.
Ans. Tom, the big cat, is characterised not as an animal but like a human being. This is so as to create fun and laughter. George, Harris and Jerome come across Tom when they return from a dip halfway up the high street. Montmorency gives out a cry of joy like that of a victorious warrior over a weak enemy, when he sees Tom. But the physical impact of Tom has a subduing effect on Montmorency. Thus Tom is described as a fierce cat. He is a larger cat and seems more disreputable. He has lost half of his tail, one of his ears and good part of the nose. He looks long and muscled animal. He has a calm and contented air about him. Thus Tom is a fearless and daring animal. When Montmorency looks at Tom, he sits down in the middle of the road. He then looks at him with inquiring eyes. The dialogue that seems to go between Tom and Montmorency shows Tom as a fierce-looking animal. Montmorency admits his mistake in 'misunderstanding', Tom and withdraws. Shows thus Tom is not an ordinary- looking cat but a fearful animal.
2.Describe the humour involved in the incident when Jerome and others hired a double selling skiff named 'The Pride of the Thames' up the river.
Ans. The sheer humour lies in the double sculling skiff named 'The Pride of the Thames. 'If we see the name, it means the skiff should be of a high class. Everything is to be superb and majestic in it. But when it comes before them Jerome. says it is the fossil of a whale.it must belong to the pre-glacial period. It should also be the fossil of a pre-Adamite whale or an early Roman coffin. They call it so but the owner's boy doesn't see anything wrong in it. The captain of Jerome's party tells the boys that it is his mother's washing-tub. It could replace, 'The Proide of the Thames'. The boat-builder himself came up and assured them that it was a boat. He didn't see any fault in the boat. They also fastened the boat together with strings and a bit of wall-paper over dirty places.
3.Describe the episode related to trout kept in a glass-case in a riverside inn at Streatley. Who had caught it ?
.During their stay at Streatley, one evening George and the writer went to a little riverside inn. In its parlour they saw a dusty old glass- case fixed very high above the chimney piece. It has in it a trout- a monstrous fish. An old man sitting in the parlour told them that the trout weighed about eighteen pounds and six ounces. He also said that he had caught it sixteen years ago. According to him it weighed twenty six pounds. And when the landlord came there, he had also said the same thing. He told that he had caught it when he was quite a lad. George wanted to get a better view of the trout. So, he climbed up on the back of a chair. But the chair slipped. George clutched at the trout-case to save himself but it came down with a crash, George and the chair on the top of it. It was something very strange. That trout lay shattered into a thousand fragments. In fact, it was made of plaster of Paris.
