Chapter 2 The Tsunami Important Questions Class 8 Honeydew English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Who was Tilly Smith? Where she got awards?
Answer
Tilly Smith was a British school girl. She was 10 years old and was able to save many lives when the tsunami struck Phuket beach in Thailand. That’s why she was awarded a number of awards.
Question 2. What behaviour of animal shows that they already get to know about disaster?
Answer
Elephants screamed and ran for higher ground; dogs refused to go outdoors; flamingoes abandoned their low-flying breeding areas; and zoo animals rushed into their shelter. These behaviours tell us about their secret power.
Question 3. How do you think her geography teacher felt when he heard about what Tilly had done in Phuket?
Answer
Tilly’s geography teacher must have felt proud of her as she had made use of what she had learnt in class to help save so many lives.
Question 4. What did the dogs in Galle do?
Answer
The dogs at Galle refused to go out for their daily run on the beach.
Question 5. What is Tsunami? What happened on 26 Dec, 2004?
Answer
Tsunami is a very large and powerful wave caused by earthquakes under the sea. On 26 December 2004, a tsunami hit Thailand & parts of India such as Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and the Tamil ‘ Nadu Coast.
Question 6. Who was Almas?
Answer
Almas was a little girl who spent her days on wood floating and then she fainted. When she woke up, she was in a hospital in Kamorta from where she was brought to Port Blair. She didn’t talk with anyone about incident because she was still traumatised.
Question 7. What did Tilly do to save the life of people at beach?
Answer
Tilly screamed that it is Tsunami. Even though her mother did not know what it is still they went away from the beach. Tourists of the beach also went to the 3rd floor of the hotel and this is how they saved their life.
Question 8. Where did the Smith family and the others on the beach go to escape from the tsunami?
Answer
The Smith family and the others on the beach took refuge on the third floor of a hotel.
Question 9. What do people say about the elephants of Yala National Park?
Answer
The people at the Yala National Park had seen three elephants running away from the Patanangala beach about an hour before the tsunami hit.
Question 10. Who first felt an earthquake at Andaman & Nicobar?
Answer
Ignesious was the manager of a cooperative society in Katchall. His wife felt an earthquake at 6 a.m. in the morning. Ignesious carefully took his television set off its table and put it down on the ground so that it would not fall and break.
Question 11. What was the Smith family doing at Phuket beach in Thailand?
Answer
The Smith family from South East England was celebrating Christmas at a beach resort in Southern Thailand.
Question 12. What happens at Cuddaldre coast?
Answer
At Cuddalore coast, thousands of people perished, but buffaloes, goats and dogs were found unharmed.
Question 13. Where had Tilly seen the sea behaving in the same strange fashion?
Answer
Tilly had seen the sea behaving in the same strange fashion in a video of tsunami which was shown in her class by her geography teacher.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Introduce us with Almas Javed and her family.
Answer
Almas Javed was ten years old. She was a student of Carmel Convent in Port Blair where her father had a petrol pump. Her mother Rahila’s home was in Nancowry Island. The family had gone there to celebrate Christmas.
Question 2. Who is Tilly Smith? Tell us about her family. Where did they go to spend their holidays?
Answer
Tilly Smith was a ten-year-old schoolgirl from South-East England. . Tilly’s parents were Penny and Colin Smith. She had a sister of seven years old. The whole Smith family had been to Thailand .They were celebrating Christmas at a beach resort in southern Thailand.
Question 3. Give some examples to show that animals knew beforehand about the Tsunami.
Answer
The behaviours of the animals show that as if they realized about the impending Tsunami. Before the giant waves slammed into the coast in India and Sri Lanka, wild and domestic animals seemed to know what was about to happen. They fled to safety. According to eyewitness accounts, elephants screamed and ran for higher ground; dogs refused to go outdoors; flamingoes abandoned their low-lying breeding areas; and zoo animals rushed into their shelters and could not be enticed to come back out.
Question 4. What happened with Meghna?
Answer:
Meghna was a 13-years old girl who swept away along with her parents and 77 other people. She spent two days floating in the sea, holding on to a wooden door 11 times. She saw relief helicopter overhead,. but they didn’t see her. At last, she was found walking on the seashore in a daze.
Question 5. How did Tilly Smith know that it was Tsunami?
Answer:
Tilly Smith sensed that something was wrong. Her mind kept going back to a geography lesson she had taken in England. She remembered that she had learnt this in class in a video of a tsunami that had hit the Hawaii; an Island in 1946. She knew that tsunami can be caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and landslide.
Question 6. Why did dogs refuse to go outside at Galle?
Answer:
A Sri Lankan gentleman who lives on the coast near Galle said that his dogs refuse to go on the beach where they are usually excited to go on the outside. This is because dogs got some kind of alert from their super power that disaster is going to come. Thus, it saved the life of man also.
Question 7. Why did Ignesious give priority to taking his television set off the table?
Answer
When the wife of Ignesious felt an earthquake, she woke Ignesious up. Ignesious thought it just to be a common earthquake and he decided to protect his costly household appliances. He carefully took his television set off its table and put it down on the ground so that it would not fall and break.
Question 8. How was the Srilankan gentleman saved by his two dogs?
Answer
The story of the Srilankan gentleman shows that his dogs perhaps for their sixth sense saved his life. The Srilankan gentleman living on the coast near Galle said that his two dogs would not go for their daily run on the beach. They are usually excited to go on this outing. But on that day they refused to go, and most probably saved his life.
Question 9. What happened after Tilly and her family left the sea beach?
Answer
After the hysterical behavior of their daughter, Tilly’s parents took her and her sister away from the beach, to the swimming pool at the hotel. A number of other tourists also left the beach with them. Then it was as if the entire sea had come out after them. Then they ran for safer place. The family took refuge in the third floor of the hotel. The building withstood the surge of three tsunami waves. If they had stayed on the beach, they would not have been alive.
Question 10. How was Almas saved in the Tsunami?
Answer
When Almas’s other family members were washed away, Almas saw a log of wood floating. She climbed on to it. Then she fainted. When she woke up, she was in
a hospital in Kamorta. From there she was brought to Port Blair. The little girl does not want to talk about the incident with anyone. She is still traumatised.
Question 11. How was Meghna saved in the Tsunami?
Answer
Thirteen year old Meghna was swept away along with her parents and seventy-seven other people. She spent two days floating in the sea, holding on to a wooden door. Eleven times she saw relief helicopters overhead, but they did not see her. She was brought to the shore by a wave, and was found walking on the seashore in a daze.
Question 12. What is a Tsunami?
Answer
Tsunamis are giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea. Out in the depths of the ocean, tsunami waves do not dramatically increase in height. But as the waves travel inland, they build up to higher and higher heights as the depth of the ocean decreases. The speed of tsunami waves depends on ocean depth rather than the distance from the source of the wave. Tsunami waves may travel as fast as jet planes over deep waters, only slowing down when reaching shallow waters. While tsunamis are often referred to as tidal waves, this name is discouraged by oceanographers because tides have little to do with these giant waves.
Question 13. Who was Sanjeev and how did Sanjeev sacrifice his life?
Answer
Sanjeev was a policeman, serving in the Katchall Island of the Nicobar group of islands. He somehow managed to save himself, his wife and his baby daughter from the waves. But then he heard cries for help from the wife of John, the guesthouse cook. Sanjeev jumped into the water to rescue her, but they were both swept away.
Question 14. How was Almas’s family killed in the Tsunami?
Answer
When the earthquake woke Almas’s father , he tried to rush the family members to a safer place. As they ran, Almas’s grandfather was hit on the head by something and he fell down. Almas’s father rushed to help him. Then came the first giant wave that swept both of them away. Almas’s mother and aunts stood clinging to the leaves of a coconut tree, calling out to her. A wave uprooted the tree, and they too were washed away.
Question 15. How did Tilly react when she realized that a Tsunami was about to rush upon them? How was the reaction of her Mother?
Answer
When Tilly realized that the strange behaviour of the sea was because of an impending Tsunami, 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. Her mother Penny said that she didn’t know what a tsunami was. But seeing her daughter so frightened, she thought something serious must be going on. And they left the sea beach immediately.
Question 16. Give some examples that show that animals sensed about Tsunami and could save themselves.
Answer
The incidents show that animals sensed about Tsunami and could save themselves. Along India’s Cuddalore coast, where thousands of people perished, buffaloes, goats and dogs were found unharmed. The Yala National Park in Sri Lanka is home to a variety of animals including elephants, leopards, and 130 species of birds. Sixty visitors were washed away from the Patanangala beach inside the park; but no animal carcasses were found, except for two water buffaloes. About an hour before the tsunami hit, people at Yala National Park had observed three elephants running away from the Patanangala beach.
Question 17. When the tremor stopped what did the family members of Ignesious do?
Answer
When the tremors stopped, they saw the sea rising. In the chaos and confusion, two of his children caught hold of the hands of their mother’s father and mother’s brother, and rushed in the opposite direction. He never saw them again. His wife was also swept away. Only the three other children who came with him were saved.
Question 18. When Almas’s father felt the earthquake what did he do?
Answer
When the tremors came early in the morning, the family was sleeping. Almas’s father saw the sea water recede. He understood that the water would come rushing back with great force. He woke everyone up and tried to rush them to a safer place.
Question 19. How did the Geography lesson of Tilly Smith help her to understand the impending Tsunami?
Answer
When Tilly saw the sea to slowly rise, and start to foam, bubble and form whirlpools, 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. 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.
Question 20. Do animals have sixth sense?
Answer
Whether animals are having sixth sense is a debated matter. However the incidents during Tsunami hints at that the animals have sixth sense. The giant tsunami waves that rolled through the Indian Ocean killed more than 150,000 people in a dozen countries; but not many animals have been reported dead. Many people believe that animals possess a sixth sense and know when the earth is going to shake. Some experts believe that animals’ more acute hearing helps them to hear or feel the earth’s vibration. They can sense an approaching disaster long before humans realise what’s going on.
Extract Based Questions
Extract 1
Thirteen year-old Meghna was swept away along with her parents and seventy-seven other people. She spent two days floating in the sea, holding on to a wooden door. Eleven times she saw relief helicopters overhead, but they did not see her. She was brought to the shore by a wave, and was found walking on the seashore in a daze.
Questions
(i) How was Meghna swept away?
(ii) How did she manage to save herself?
(iii) How many times did the helicopter miss her?
(iv) What was unusual about her survival?
(v) Give the meaning of overhead as (adverb) and (noun).
Answer
(i) Meghna was swept away by high sea waves due to Tsunami.
(ii) Meghna hold on to a wooden door floating in the sea for two days. Relief helicopters even ignored her. It pushed her towards the shore. Thus she was saved.
(iii) The relief helicopter hovered over the sea about eleven times. Every time it missed her because it couldn’t trace her.
(iv) She was swept away by higher waves. She survived two days floating in the sea by holding onto a wooden door. Rescue helicopters couldn’t save her. It was her destiny that pushed her towards the shore. She was found walking on the seashore in a daze.
(v) (a) Overhead (adverb) – above the level of the head.
(b) Overhead (noun) – an overhead cost or expense
Extract 2
Almas’s mother and aunts stood clinging to the leaves of a coconut tree, calling out to her. A wave uprooted the tree, and they too were washed away. Almas saw a log of wood floating. She climbed on to it. Then she fainted. When she woke up, she was in a hospital in Kamorta. From there she was brought to Port Blair.
Questions
(i) What did Almas’s mother and aunts do to save themselves?
(ii) Were they able to save themselves?
(iii) How did Almas reach Kamorta?
(iv) What stopped her from discussing the incident?
(v) Change verb into noun of the following word ‘traumatize’.
Answers
(i) Almas’s mother and aunt stood clinging to a coconut tree. However, a rave uprooted the tree and were washed away.
(ii) Almas’s mother and aunts tried to hold fast a coconut tree, which was uprooted leaving them in water.
(iii) Almas was making efforts to save herself. Then she climbed a log of wood and was fainted. She was taken to hospital in Kamorta through some unknown source.
(iv) Almas was traumatised by the incident. She had faced tough times in Tsunami. So she was traumatized that stopped her from talking about the incident.
(v) Trauma.
Extract 3
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
(i) What was unusual that Tilly observed?
(ii) What was the video about?
(iii) What were the reasons behind occurrence of a Tsunami?
(iv) Why did Tilly start screaming?
(v) Give the meaning of ‘hysterical’.
Answer
(i) Tilly observed that the waves in the sea slowly rise and whirlpools were formed.
(ii) The video was about a tsunami that had hit the Hawaiian Island in 1946.
(iii) Tsunamis can be caused by earthquakes, volcanoes and landslides.
(iv) Tilly was aware of the impending disaster in the form of Tsunami as she had already observed a video in her class room.
(v) Hysterical – crying or shouting loudly losing control over oneself.