FEATHERED FRIEND- NOTES

COMPREHENSION
A1. Answer these questions.
1. Claribel was a small yellow canary and the astronaut Sven Olsen’s pet.
One day when the narrator was sitting in his cubbyhole, he heard a musical whistle beside his ear. At first, he
thought it was the sound of the intercom before an announcement but a long pattern of melody made him look up with a
start and there he saw the bird for the first time.
2. Sven Olsen brought Claribel onboard the spaceship out of sheer scientific curiosity. He wanted to see just how a bird would
operate when it had no weight, but could still use its wings.
3. When the narrator heard the ‘ musical whistle’ he thought it was from the station intercom and so waited for an
announcement to follow.
4. The canary had learnt to operate in the absence of gravity by keeping her wings folded along her sides and hanging in the
air without an effort.
5. The crew hid the bird behind the shafts and storage space whenever VIPs from Earth came visiting and sometimes had to
manage the curious peeps and whistles that came from within.
6. In the past, when science had not developed as of now, the miners used to carry canaries down into the mines to warn
them of gas. Hence, a canary is called our ‘ feathered friend’.
7. That particular morning, when he woke up, he had a nagging headache and vague memories of fitful, disturbed dreams. He
was still unable to cast off the burden of sleep. He felt like he needed some oxygen. And when he saw Claribel passing out and
reviving with the help of oxygen, he realized that there was something wrong with the air.
8. There was a problem with the air because there was a gas leakage somewhere in the space station.
Since the second independent alarm circuit had not been connected, the single alarm in the circuit had failed to
go off.
A2. Answer these questions with reference to the context.
1 a. ‘She’ refers to Claribel, the canary.
b. The canary had passed out due to lack of oxygen in the air which the others were yet to feel but soon discovered.
c. She revived as soon as she was given a shot of oxygen.
2 a. The author means that hearing the whistling music of a canary in a space station is an unusual incident and hence rather
impossible to explain.
b. One should not be alarmed as one is doubly safeguarded. A canary is able to detect the loss of oxygen in the air before
others, and hence is able to warn others.
c. The narrator says that we will be safeguarded at practically no extra expense because a canary weighs practically nothing
and its food requirements is infinitesimal.
WORD WISE
B1. Write down the full forms for these abbreviations.
1. intercom – intercommunication 2. VIP – Very Important Person
3. a.m. – ante meridiem ( Latin word- before noon) 4. vs. - versus
B2. Change these adjectives into adverbs and make sentences with the adverbs that you have formed.
a. usual – usually
Tom usually goes to the gym everyday.
b. apologetic – apologetically
The waiter apologetically asked if we could move to a different table.
c. pathetic – pathetically
The child threw her arms around her mother and sobbed pathetically.
d. independent – independently
She is proud of the fact that at the age of 90, she still lives independently.
e. urgent – urgently
Help is urgently needed for the fire victims.
B3. Add a noun to each of these adjectives to make appropriate adjective- noun collocations.
1. motionless- boat 6. quiet- room
2. Scientific- calculator 7. duplicate- card
3. Convenient- store 8. inexplicable- reason
4. Curious- student 9. fitful- sleep
5. Excellent- cook 10. permanent- house