Chapter 6 I want Something in a Cage Important Questions Class 7 An Alien Hand English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Did Mr Purcell hear the sounds birds and animals?
Answer
He heard it no more than he would have heard the monotonous licking of a familiar clock.
Question 2. What did Mr Purcell do when any customers centre him shop?
Answer
He himself would smile and briskly rub his hands and emphatically shake his head.
Question 3. Who was the author of this story?
Answer
L.E. Greeve.
Question 4. What did the customers say when they visit Mr Purcell’s shop?
Answer
The customers look at the birds and animals and said, “Aren’t they cute? Look that little cage! They’re sweet”.
Question 5. Who did not believe in ghosts?
Answer
Mr Purcell did not believe in ghosts.
Question 6. What type of constant noise is there in the shop?
Answer
There is a constant noise of screeching and twittering in the shop.
Question 7. Describe Mr Purcell’s appearance.
Answer
He was a small, fussy man with red cheeks and a light, melon stomach.
Question 8. What did he read in the morning paper?
Answer
He reads everything, even advice to the lovelorn and the detailed columns of advertisements.
Question 9. Who entered his shop for the first time without the bell rang?
Answer
There was a stranger, standing just inside the door, as if he had materialised out of thin air.
Question 10. Whom did the customer pointed to?
Answer
The customers pointed suddenly to a suspended cage which contained two snowy birds, i.e. doves.
Question 11. What shop does Mr Purcell own?
Answer
Mr Purcell owns a pet shop.
Question 12. Who do Mr Purcell consider himself?
Answer
He considered himself something of a professional man.
Question 13. What did Mr Purcell read every morning?
Answer
He reads his morning paper.
Question 14. Why there was a bull over the door?
Answer
There was a bell over the door that jingles whenever any customers entered.
Question 15. What did the man want from Mr Purcell?
Answer
The man wanted something that had wings.
Question 16. Why was Mr Purcell looked surprised when the man said the noise of constant chittering?
Answer
Because Mr Purcell could hear nothing unusual with the constant chittering, the rushing scurry of the shop.
Question 17. In what Mr Purcell did not believe?
Answer
Mr Purcell did not believe in ghosts.
Question 18. What is canary?
Answer
Canary is a small, bright yellow bird noted for its signing.
Question 19. From the first instant what did Mr Purcell know about the strange man?
Answer
From the first instant he knew instinctively, unreasonably that the man hated him.
Question 20. What did the man do after leaving the shop?
Answer
The man opened the cage and drew the doves out and flew them in the sky.
Question 21. Why did the man pay five dollars for the two doves?
Answer
Even through the snowy birds cost five fifty, the man was unable to pay that price because it took ten years for the man to earn five dollars at hard labour. So, he paid that five dollar have with him.
Question 22. What do Mr Purcell own?
Answer
He owned a pet shop. He sold cats and dogs and monkeys and he dealt in fish food and bird seed, prescribed remedies for ailing canaries and displayed on his shelves long sows of ornate and gilded cages.
Question 23. Why was not the customer interested in listening to advice?
Answer
The customer did not listen to the advice of Mr Purcell as he was going to free the doves from cage.
Question 24. What did the customers wear?
Answer
The customer wore squeaky shoes, ill-fitted shoes with close cropped hair.
Question 25. Explain ‘endless flicker of life’.
Answer
Mr Purcell caged various small animals and birds that kept on making strange noises all the time. They whisper, rustle, squeaks, scampers.
Question 26. What has amused the shopkeeper?
Answer
The unusual behaviour of the customer has shocked him.
Question 27. What type of weather it was?
Answer
It was a rough day, a strong wind blew against the high, plate glass windows. The smoked filmed the wintry city and the air was grey with a thick frost.
Question 28. Why did it make Mr Purcell feel ‘Vaguely insulted”?
Answer
Mr Purcell felt insulted because he had reduced the price of the doves and still made profit. He felt small to see the customer’s love for freedom and his great sacrifice.
Question 29. Why was he ‘crestfallen’?
Answer
Mr Purcell told him the price of two doves but he had five-dollar bill only.
Question 30. What was his routine in the shop?
Answer
Mr Purcell usually perdh on a high stool behind the counter and read newspaper.
Question 31. Describe the appearance of the shop owner?
Answer
Mr Purcell was a small, fussy man having red cheeks and big bellied with large eyes.
Question 32. How has the smell of the departed customer different?
Answer
The smell of the departed customer was different as it was ‘musty smell of an abandoned and haunted house’.
Question 33. Was the customer interested in the care and feeding of the doves he had bought? If not, why not?
Answer
The stranger was not interested in the care and feeding of the doves because he wanted to set them free.
Question 34. What was the environment of his shop?
Answer
A constant stir of movement pervaded his shops whispered twitters, sly rustling; squeals, cheeps and sudden squeaks. Small feet scampered in frantic circle like frightened, bewildered, and blindly seeking.
Question 35. What did he sell in his pet shop?
Answer
He sold cats, dogs and monkeys. He dealt in fish food and bird seed. He displayed long rows of ornate and gilded cages.
Question 36. How did he come to know about a visitor’s entry?
Answer
Mr Purcell get to know through ringing of the bell hung at the entrance door.
Question 37. Describe how Mr Purcell looks like?
Answer
Mr Purcell was a small, fussy man with red cheeks and a light, melon stomach. Large glasses magnified his eyes so as to give him the appearance of wise and genial owl.
Question 38. How was the customer dressed?
Answer
The customers suit was cheap, ill-fitting but obviously new and wore a shiny shoes. He had a shutting glance and close cropped hair.
Question 39. Why had the merchant’s brow ‘puckered with perplexity’?
Answer
The merchant’s eye brows were raised because the behaviour of the customer was unusual. He bargained the price persuading Mr Purcell to sell the birds for five dollars only and then set them free.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. ‘Freedom is everyone’s right’. Comment.
Answer
Everyone is born free in nature under the sun. However, his freedom is compromised by his or her own weakness. Mr Purcell was constantly surrounded by the sound of movement and chirpings. Yet he could liberate himself from his weakness to earn his living. He made money out of compromising his freedom. He was shocked by the simplicity and grace of a freedom preacher. Like wise we humans too sacrifice big for small.
Question 2. Who said “That noise” and to whom? Why?
Answer
It was said by the customer to Mr Purcell because when he was about to leave Mr Purcell shop with the two snowy birds. He heard to the constant chittering, the rushing scurry of his shop. Then the man asked Mr Purcell don’t he get this noise or isn’t it drives him crazy. But Mr Purcell didn’t mind the crazy noise, rather he would have heard the monotonous licking of a familiar clock.
Question 3. Who was Mr Purcell?
Answer
Mr Purcell was a small, fussy man with red cheeks and light, melon stomach. Large glasses magnified his eyes so as to give him the appearance of a wise and genial owl. He owned a pet shop. He sold cats and dogs and also monkeys. He dealt in fish food and bird seed, prescribed remedies for ailing canaries, and gilded cages. He considered himself something of a professional man.
Question 4. Why, in your opinion, did the man set the doves free?
Answer
In my opinion, the man must had set the doves free because he himself had been in jail for ten years. He had sympathy for the birds and knew the pain of being imprisoned against the wishes. He wanted to see them flying and enjoying their freedom that is why he bought something with the wings. He wanted to smell the happiness of freedom from cages by setting the doves free.
Question 5. The visitor invested his ten years saving on releasing the birds. Why?
Answer
The visitor had scarified his ten years income so as to free birds. He entered the shop with an intention to purchase the birds, he could afford with a five dollar bill. He showed least interest in talking to the shop owner. As soon as he bought the doves, he opens the cage and set the birds free. He seemed to have satisfaction in making them free.
This showed his love for freedom of birds. His appearance clearly speaks about his poverty. Yet he sacrificed his possession displaying the beauty of his character, generosity and love.
Question 6. What happened when the strange man entered his shop?
Answer
Whenever any customer enter, there was a bell over the door that jingled. Whoever, for the first time Mr Purcell did not hear the ring of the bell when the strange customers entered, standing just inside the door, as if he had materialised out of thin air.
Question 7. What did Mr Purcell do everything in his shop?
Answer
Every morning, when the routine of opening his shop was completed, it was the proprietors custom to perch on a high stool, behind the country and unfold his morning paper and digest the days new. As he read he would smirk, frown, reflectively purse his lips and knowing life his eyebrows, nod in grave agreement. Also he reads everything, even advice to the lovelorn and the detailed columns of advertisement.
Question 8. What did the man do after leaving his shop?
Answer
The man swing around and stalked abruptly from the store. He was holding the cage shoulder high and was string at his purchase. Then he opened the cage, and reached his hand inside and drew out of the doves. He tasted is into the air. Later he drew out the second and tossed it after the first. The doves rose like windblown balls of fluffy and were lost in the smoky grey of the wintry city.