But Tilly Smith sensed that something was wrong. Her mind kept going back to a geography lesson she had taken in England just two weeks before she flew out to Thailand with her family. Tilly saw the sea slowly rise, and start to foam, bubble and form whirlpools. She remembered that she had seen this in class in a video of a tsunami that had hit the Hawaiian islands in 1946. Her geography teacher had shown her class the video, and told them that tsunamis can be caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides. Tilly started to scream at her family to get off the beach. "She talked about an earthquake under the sea. She got more and more hysterical," said her mother Penny. "I didn't know what a tsunami was. But seeing my daughter so frightened, I thought something serious must be going on." Questions: (1) What did Tilly recall? (2) What are tsunamis caused by? (3) How did Tilly react sensing earthquake under the sea? (4) What seriously? made Tilly's mother think

Tilly recalled that she had seen this in class in a video of a tsunami that had the Hawaiian islands in 1946. Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes. volcanoes and landslides. Sensing earthquake under the sea, Tilly started to scream at her family to get off the beach. She got more and more hysterical. Seeing Tilly frightened. her mother thought something serious must be going on.

But Tilly Smith sensed that something was wrong. Her mind kept go…

Jody allowed his thoughts to drift back to the fawn. He could not keep it out of his mind. He had held it, in his dreams. in his arms. He slipped from the table and went to his father's bedside. Penny lay at rest. His eyes were open and clear, but the pupils were still dark and dilated.
Jody said, "How are you feeling. Pa?" "Just fine, son. Old Death has gone thieving elsewhere. But wasn't it a close shave !" "I agree."
Penny said. "I'm proud of you, boy, the way you kept your head and did what was needed."
"Pa-"
"Yes, son."
"Pa, do you recollect the doe and the fawn ?"
"I can never forget them. The poor doe saved me, that's certain."
"Pa, the fawn may be out there yet. It might be hungry and very scared."
Questions:
$(1)$ Which thoughts had a strong hold on Jody's mind?
$(2)$ What did Pa want to express with the words 'wasn't it a close shave !'?
$(3)$ How did Jody behave when his father was not in good health?
$(4)$ Why could Pa not forget the doe?

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Consider a typical climb, towards the summit on the last heights. You are sharing a rope with another climber. You firm in. He cuts the steps in the hard ice. Then he belays and you inch your way up. The climb is grim. You strain every nerve as you take every step. Famous climbers have left records of the help given by others. They have also recorded how they needed just that help. Else they might have given up. Breathing is difficult. You curse yourself for having let yourself in for this. You wonder why you ever undertook the ascent. There are moments when you feel like going back. It would be sheer relief to go down, instead of up. But almost at once you snap out of that mood. There is something in you that does not let you give up the struggle, And you go on. Your companion keeps up with you. Just another fifty feet. Or a hundred, maybe. You ask yourself: Is there no end? You look at your companion and he looks at you. You draw inspiration from each other. And then, without first being aware of it, you are at the summit.
Questions:
$(1)$ How does a climber expedite a typical climb towards the summit heights $?$
$(2)$ Why does a typical climb towards the summit on the last heights become discouraging$?$
$(3)$ When does a climber regain power not to give up$?$
$(4)$ What keeps climbers up in tough time$?$

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I should like to be able to tell you that we began it. But the truth. I'm ashamed to say, is that Fritz began it. First someone saw a white flag waving from the trenches opposite. Then they were calling out to us from across no man's land. "Happy Christmas. Tommy! Happy Christmas!" When we had got over the surprise, some of us shouted back, "Same to you. Fritz! Same to you!" I thought that would be that. We all did. But then suddenly one of them was up there in his grey greatcoat and waving a white flag, "Don't shoot, lads!" someone shouted. And no one did. Then there was another Fritz up on the parapet, and another. "Keep your heads down." I told the men, "it's a trick." But it wasn't.
Questions:
$(1)$ What was Jim ashamed of$?$
$(2)$ What does the expression 'When we had got over the surprise' mean$?$
$(3)$ What did the waving of a white flag indicate$?$
$(4)$ What thought came into the mind of Jim$?$

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The rains have heralded the arrival of some seasonal visitors several thousand leeches. a leopard, and Yesterday afternoon the leopard lifted a dog from near the servants' quarter below the school. In the evening it attacked one of Bijju's cows but fled at the approach of Bijju's mother, who came screaming imprecations.
As for the leeches, I shall soon get used to a little bloodletting everyday.
Other new arrivals are the scarlet minivets (the females are yellow), flitting silently among the leaves like brilliant jewels. No matter how leafy the trees, these brightly coloured birds cannot conceal themselves, although, by remaining absolutely silent, they sometimes contrive to go unnoticed. Along come a pair of drongos, unnecessarily aggressive, chasing the minivets away.
Questions:
$(1)$ Who were the seasonal visitors$?$ Why are they called so$?$
$(2)$ How were Bijju's cows saved$ ?$
$(3)$ What will the writer get soon used to$?$
$(4)$ Why do minivets sometimes contrive to go unnoticed$?$

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"What do you think is the best thing about being disabled?" I had asked him earlier. "I don't think there is anything good about being disabled."
"I think." I said, "you do discover how much kindness there is in the world."
"Yes," he said: it was a disadvantage of his voice synthesiser that it could convey no inflection, no shades or tone. And I could not tell how enthusiastically he agreed with me.
Every time I shifted in my chair or turned my wrist to watch the time - I wanted to make every one of our thirty minutes count-I felt a huge relief and exhilaration in the possibilities of my body. How little it mattered then that I would never walk, or even stand.
Questions:
$(1)$ What was the reply from Stephen Hawking for the best thing about being disabled'?
$(2)$ Why could the writer not tell the intensity of Stephen Hawking's enthusiasm in replying his question ?
$(3)$ Why did the writer look at his watch every now and then?
$(4)$ What was the writer's feeling in the end ?

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When the walking tour was done, I rushed to a phone booth and, almost tearing the cord so it could reach me outside, phoned Stephen Hawking's house. There was his assistant on the line and I told him I had come in a wheelchair from India (perhaps he thought I had propelled myself all the way) to write about my travels in Britain. I had to see Professor Hawking-even ten minutes would do. "Half an hour," he said. "From three-thirty to four."
And suddenly I felt weak all over. Growing up disabled, you get fed up with people asking you to be brave, as if you have a courage account on which you are too lazy to draw a cheque. The only thing that makes you stronger is seeing somebody like you, achieving something huge. Then you know how much is possible and you reach out further than you ever thought you could.
Questions:
$(1)$ I rushed to a phone booth and, almost tearing the cord so it could reach me outside, phoned Stephen Hawking's house. What kind of the writer's feeling do these underlined words show$?$
$(2)$ Why had the writer come all the way from India$?$
$(3)$ Why did the writer feel weak all over$?$
$(4)$ What makes a disabled stronger, according to the writer$?$

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I folded the letter again and slipped it carefully back into its envelope. I kept awake all night. By morning I knew what I had to do. I drove into Bridport, just a few miles away. I asked a boy walking his dog where Copper Beeches was. House number 12 turned out to be nothing but a burned-out shell, the roof gaping, the windows boarded up. I knocked at the house next door and asked if anyone knew the whereabouts of a Mrs Macpherson. Oh yes, said the old man in his slippers, he knew her well. A lovely old lady, he told me, a bit muddle-headed, but at her age she was entitled to be, wasn't she? A hundred and one years old. She had been in the house when it caught fire. No one really knew how the fire had started, but it could well have been candles. She used candles rather than electricity, because she always thought electricity was too expensive. The fireman had got her out just in time. She was in a nursing home now, he told me, Burlington House, on the Dorchester road, on the other side of town.
Questions:
$(1)$ 'I knew what I had to do.' What had the narrator to do$?$
$(2)$ In what condition was the house found by the narrator$?$
$(3)$ What do you understand by the word 'muddle-headed' in reference to Connie Macpherson $?$
$(4)$ Why did Connie Macpherson use candles in place of electricity$?$

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Back home at two-thirty, Bepin Babu lay down in bed and tried to gather his wits together. He knew that it was possible to lose one's memory through an injury in the head. but he didn't know of a single instance of someone remembering everything except one particular incident- and a fairly recent and significant one at that. He had always wanted to go to Ranchi; to have gone there, done things, and not to remember was something utterly impossible.
At seven thirty, Bepin Babu's servant came and announced, "Chuni Babu, sir. Says it's very important."
Bepin Babu knew what Chuni had come for. Chunilal had been at school with him. He'd been having a rough time lately and had been coming to see him about a job. Bepin Babu knew it was not possible to do anything for him and, in fact, told him so. But Chuni kept turning up like a bad penny.
Questions:
$(1)$ What did Bepin Babu do lying in his bed? hobhah $60\%$
$(2)$ What possibility about losing memory did Bepin Babu think of $?$
$(3)$ Who was Chunilal? What favour did he want from Bepin Babu $?$
$(4)$ What does the phrase 'turn up like a bad penny' suggest $?$

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The years hurried on, and brought white hairs upon the head of Ernest, and made wrinkles across his forehead and furrows in his cheeks. He was an old man. But not in vain had he grown old; more numerous than the white hairs on his head were the wise thoughts in his mind. And Ernest had ceased to be obscure. Unsought for, undesired, had come the fame which so many seek. He had become famous beyond the limits of the valley. College professors, and even the active men of cities, came from far to see and converse with Ernest, and he received them with gentle sincerity, and spoke freely with them of whatever came uppermost, or lay deepest in his heart or their own. While they talked together, his face would brighten, unawares, and shine upon them, as with a mild evening light.
Questions:
$(1)$ What does the first line of the passage indicate $?$
$(2)$ What comparison is made in the passage $?$
$(3)$ Give another expression for And Ernest had ceased to be obscure'.
$(4)$ Give the meaning of the phrase 'hurried on'.

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The years went on, and Ernest grew to be a young man. He attracted little notice from the inhabitants of the valley. They saw nothing remarkable in his way of life, except that, when the labour of the day was over, he still loved to gaze upon the Great Stone Face. Their idea was that this was a folly, but pardonable, because Ernest was industrious, kind and neighbourly. They did not know that the Great Stone Face had become a teacher to him, and that the sentiment which was expressed in it would enlarge the young man's heart, and fill it with deeper sympathies than other hearts. They did not know that from this would come a better wisdom than could be learnt from books. Neither did Ernest know that the thoughts which came to him so naturally, in the fields and at the fireside, were of a higher tone than those which all men shared with him. A simple soul-simple as when his mother first told him the old story-he beheld the marvellous face looking down the valley, and still wondered, why its human likeness was so long in coming.
Questions :
$(1)$ What did Ernest use to do after the labour of the day was over?
$(2)$ How did the people of the valley take Ernest's gazing upon the Great Stone Face?
$(3)$ What did the people of the valley not know about the strange behaviour of Ernest?
$(4)$ What of the Great Stone Face always wondered Ernest ?

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Unit - 2 : The Tsunami — ENGLISH (NCERT) STD 8 — Question

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