NCERT Solutions Class 9th

NCERT Solutions 09th English Chapter 7 Packing

I. Discuss in pairs and answer each question below in a short paragraph (30-40 words).
1. How many characters are there in the narrative? Name them. (Don’t forget the dog!).
2. Why did the narrator (Jerome) volunteer to do the packing?
3. How did George and Harris react to this? Did Jerome like their reaction?
4. What was Jerome’s real intention when he offered to pack?
5. What did Harris say after the bag was shut and strapped? Why do you think he waited till then to ask?
6. What “horrible idea” occurred to Jerome a little later?
7. Where did Jerome finally find the toothbrush?
8. Why did Jerome have to reopen the packed bag?
9. What did George and Harris offer to pack and why?
10. While packing the hamper, George and Harris do a number of foolish and funny things. Tick the statements that are true.
(i) They started with breaking a cup.
(ii) They also broke a plate.
(iii) They squashed a tomato.
(iv) They trod on the butter.
(v) They stepped on a banana.
(vi) They put things behind them, and couldn’t find them.
(vii) They stepped on things.
(viii) They packed the pictures at the bottom and put heavy things on top.
(ix) They upset almost everything.
(x) They were very good at packing.
Answer:
1. There are four characters in the narrative. They are Jerome (the narrator), George, Harris and the dog named Montmorency.
2. The narrator volunteered to do packing because he thought he was the best at packing.
3. George and Harris readily accepted Jerome’s suggestion. George spread himself over the easy-chair and Harris put his legs on the table.
No, Jerome did not like their reaction.
4. Jerome's real intention was to supervise the work. He wanted Harris and George to work under his guidance and instructions.
5. After the bag was shut and strapped, Harris asked the narrator to put the boots in the bag. He had waited till then to ask with an intention to irritate the narrator and ridicule his packing skills.
6. The "horrible idea" that occurred to Jerome a little later was whether he had packed his toothbrush or not. Whenever he travelled he could never remember if he had packed his toothbrush or not. He said that toothbrush was a thing that haunted him when he was travelling and made his life a misery.
7. Jerome unpacked the bag to find his brush. But he could not find it. Then, he started putting the things back one by one, and held everything up and shook it. Finally he found the tooth brush inside a boot.
8. Jerome had to reopen the bag because he found that he had packed his spectacles in it.
9. George and Harris offered to pack the hampers because it was getting late and they thought that they should do the rest of the packing. They also wanted to show off their packing skills to Jerome.
10. Statements (i), (iii), (iv), (vi), (vii) and (ix) are true.
II. What does Jerome say was Montmorency’s ambition in life? What do you think of Montmorency and why?
Answer:
According to Jerome, Montmorency’s ambition in life is to interfere with others and be abused. He is a mischievous little dog who loves creating troubles for others. If people shout at him or throw things at his head, he feels his day has not been wasted. His highest aim and object was to get somebody to stumble over him and curse him steadily for an hour.
Montmorency, a dog, is born with such silly characteristics or say the sins that makes him do things like that.
III. Discuss in groups and answer the following questions in two or three paragraphs (100 −150 words)
1. Of the three, Jerome, George and Harris, who do you think is the best or worst packer? Support your answer with details from the text.
Answer:
Of the three, Jerome is the best packer because he knew how to arrange things in order. Though, he often forgets to pack certain things or gets confused, he knows what to keep first and what to keep last. On the other hand, Harris and George create a mess all around. Harris packs the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and smashes it. George treads on the butter. He gets it off from his slipper and puts it in the kettle. He puts it down on a chair and Harris sits on it. It sticks to him and then they look for it all over the room. In this way they make everything such a mess.
2. How did Montmorency ‘contribute’ to the packing?
Answer:
Montmorency's contributed his best to make the packing task even more tiresome and messy. Montmorency wanted to be a perfect nuisance and make others mad.
He came and sat down on things, just when they were about to be packed. He put his leg into the jam and worried the teaspoons. He also pretended that the lemons were rats. So he got into the hamper and killed three of them.
Harris blamed Jerome for encouraging the dog. However, Jerome said that a dog like Montmorency did not require any encouragement. It was a natural and original sin that was born in him, which made him do things like that.
3. Do you find this story funny? What are the humorous elements in it?
(Pick out at least three, think about what happens, as well as how it is described.)
Answer:
Yes, this story is really funny. The whole episode of packing, Jerome’s incidents of forgetting to pack few things, unpacking the bag for several times, then the way Harris and George make a mess with the packing task and finally how Montmorency comes to make the situation even more chaotic, all these things make the story funny and interesting.
The Narrator's proposal of packing the bags brings the first element of humour when George and Harris readily accept his suggestion and leaves the whole matter to him. Consequently, he has to do all the packing alone though his real intention was to boss the job. Then, there comes the episode of butter. George treads on the butter and it sticks to his slipper. Later he puts it on the chair. Harris sits on the chair and it sticks to his bottom. When they search it for packing it is missing. They walk and walk around the room. At last, George finds it at Harris’s back. Then they squash the tomatoes by putting the strawberry jam on them.
The third humorous element is that Montmorency pretends that lemons were rats and gets into the hamper and kills three of them.

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good service
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GOOD
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Excellent study material app
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