The Accidental Tourist Important Questions Class 9 Moments English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. What happened when the zip of the bag gave way?
Answer
Everything within the hag-newspaper cuttings, other loose papers, tin pipe tobacco, magazines, passport. English money-ejected on the road.
Question 2. What happened when Bill’s pen leaked?
Answer
His mouth, Chin, tongue, teeth and gums were now a striking scrub-resistant navy blue.
Question 3. Why do Bryson's teeth and gums look 'Navy Blue'?
Answer
Bryson was a confused person and always seemed to be lost in a thought. While during his flight he was writing important thoughts, sucking thoughtfully on the end of his pen and started talking to a young lady. Later he found that the pen was leaking making his teeth and gums look 'Navy Blue'.
Question 4. Bill Bryson says “I am, in short, easily confused.” What examples has he given to justify this?
Answer
He gives the example of returning to his hotel desk two or three times a day, asking what his room number was. He also talks about looking for a lavatory and ending up standing in an alley on the wrong side of a self¬locking door.
Question 5. What does Bill Bryson tell us about his habit of getting confused?
Answer
Bill Bryson says that he gets easily confused at the things which the other people enjoy performing them. He says that he can’t remember the things for long. He forgets them again and again. He gives an example that when he is staying at some hotel he has to come to the reception counter two or three times to ask the number of his room.
Question 6. Bill Bryson ‘ached to be suave’. Is he successful in his mission?
Answer
No, he is not suave in spite of his best efforts, because he always looks as though he has been through an earthquake when he rises from a dinner table. He can never get inside a car without having at least 14 inches of his coat hanging outside the door. He can never wear light coloured trousers without having chewing gum, ice cream, cough syrup, or motor oil stains on them.
Question 7. Why is the author's finger bleeding? What is his wife's reaction?
Answer
The author cuts his finger while pulling a zip, and his finger started bleeding. His wife got angry and said that it was for a living that he was doing that work, so if his finger was cut how would he do that.
Question 8. Narrate briefly the incident of spilling a soft drink on to a co-passenger in a plane by the author?
Answer
During one of his air flights, the author spilt the soft drink on to the lap of a sweet lady sitting beside him. The flight attendant came and cleaned her up. The attendant brought him a replacement drink and he knocked it into the woman again. The lady looked at him with the stupefied expression.
Question 9. How does Bill Bryson end up in a 'Crash Position' in the Air Craft?
Answer
Bryson leaned over to tie a shoe lace and just at that moment some one ahead of him reclined his seat and Bryson found himself pinned helplessly in a crash position and had to catch his leg to get himself free.
Question 10. How did the writer affect the lady sitting next to him during one of his flights?
Answer
He kept knocking soft drinks into the lady’s lap, even though he tried to be careful after the flight attendant had cleaned her up the first time he had done so.
Question 11. Which two things did Bryson remember at the Logan Airport in Boston?
Answer
At the Logan Airport in Boston, Bryson remembered that he had recently joined the British Airways’ frequent flyer programme. He also remembered that he had put the card in the carry-on bag that was hanging around his neck.
Question 12. Why do you think Bill Bryson’s wife says to the children, ‘Take the lids off the food for Daddy’?
Answer
She says this because her husband is so accident-prone that she expects the food to go all over the place or some such accident to happen if he is allowed to open the lid himself. This is because of his earlier accidental incidents that always happen whenever he tries to perform simple actions, especially during flights.
Question 13. What happened at London Airport when the author was going to England on a long journey with family?
Answer
When the author was going to England on a long journey, he got in a troublesome situation at the London Airport. He had put his visiting card in the carry-on bag. When he tried to open it, it would not open because its zip got jammed. When he pulled it hard, it broke and all the contents of the bag disgorged on the ground.
Question 14. Why could the writer not get his frequent flyer miles?
Answer
The writer could not get his frequent flyer miles because he could not find and produce his card, forgot to ask for the air miles and wrong spelling of his name on the ticket was also a problem.
Question 15. “My tobacco!” I cried in honour. Why does Bryson say so?
Answer
Bryson says so because tobacco was many times costlier in England, especially after the recently passed budget. He was horrified at his monetary loss when he saw the tobacco getting ejected from the lidless tin.
Question 16. What steps did the author's wife and the author take to not cause any embarrassing situation in the story 'The Accidental Tourist'?
Answer
The author's wife asks their children to take the lids off the food for their father. When the author was travelling alone, he didn't eat, drink or lean over to tie his shoelaces, and never put a pen anywhere near his mouth. He just sat quietly, sometimes on his hands to keep them from flying out unexpectedly and causing mischief.
Question 17. Why did Bill's hair go into panic mode'?
Answer
The zip of Bill's bag had got struck. So he kept pulling on it and suddenly the zip gave way littering all the contents of the bag on the floor. And later on he discovered that he had gashed his finger on the zip and the blood was flowing down. Looking at his own blood, his hair went into panic mode as he was confused and scared.
Question 18. Why were the miles not credited to the writer?
Answer
They were not credited to him because the ticket was in the name of B. Bryson, while the card was in the name of W. Bryson. Even though the writer tried to tell her that ‘Bill’ was the short form of ‘William’, she refused to oblige him.
Question 19. What, according to the writer, was his worst experience on a plane?
Answer
The worst experience according to him was the time his mouth and teeth turned navy blue. He had been sucking on the end of his pen while writing down his thoughts. He then spoke to an attractive lady sitting next to him, before he realised that his teeth, chin and gums had turned a striking shade of blue.
Question 20. What measures did the writer adopt when he travelled alone?
Answer
Whenever Bill travelled alone he never ate, drank or lean over to tie shoe laces and never put a pen anywhere near his mouth. He just sat quietly and kept his hands steady so that unexpectedly he doesn't cause the mischief.
Question 21. How was the writer planning to fly to Bali?
Answer
He was planning to do so by using the air miles that he would collect for flying so frequently. They are the bonus that one is given for flying by a particular airline, where a person is awarded a free ticked to any destination after one collects a certain number of points.
Question 22. How did Bill Bryson offend his lady co-passenger in the aeroplane?
Answer
During one of his visits, the author knocked a soft drink onto the lap of a lady sitting beside him. When the hostess cleaned her up and brought another drink for the author, he again knocked it on her and drenched her completely. The lady looked at the author unbelievingly as to how a person can make the same mistake twice that was too much within a short period of time. The lady felt offended and was very angry with the author and spoke bad words to him.
Question 23. How did Bryson drench his lady co-passenger twice?
Answer
Once, Bryson accidentally knocked off a soft drink onto the lap of a sweet little lady, a nun, sitting beside him. The flight attendant cleaned her up and brought a replacement drink for Bryson. The accidental tourist as Bryson was, he knocked it off again thus drenching his co-passenger twice.
Question 24. What is the significance of the title, “The Accidental Tourist”?
Answer
The title is quite significant. After going through the whole story, it becomes quite vivid that Bill Bryson is the accidental tourist. There are various such examples which prove the appropriateness of the title. The title itself suggests the various strange and accidental experiences of the author while travelling.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. What was Bryson’s worst experience while flying? Why?
Answer
Once on a flight, Bryson had been writing something when he began to suck on the end of his pen. Without realising that his pen was leaking and smearing his mouth, teeth, gums, tongue and chin, he entered into a conversation with an attractive lady in the next seat. He tried to amuse her for almost twenty minutes by telling jokes and felt that he had perhaps impressed her. However, when he retired to the lavatory, he discovered that the ink over his face was a striking navy blue and scrub-resistant. It was going to remain like that for several days. This experience not only wrecked his image in the eyes of that attractive woman but he also had to live with his funny face for some days. Certainly, no other experience could have been worse than this.
Question 2. In the story, The Accidental Tourist, the narrator says that he does not do a number of things when he flies alone. What are they and why doesn't he do them? Which values, do you think, guide him?
Answer
The narrator is prone to accidents while travelling. Hence, he avoids many things when he flies alone. He does not eat, drink, lean over to tie his shoelaces or put a pen near his mouth when travelling alone to avoid mischiefs. Sometimes he sits on his hands to keep them from flying out unexpectedly. He sits quietly. He does not do these things because he does not wish to cause any inconvenience or embarrassment to his co-passengers. His attitude makes him lovable and thus, he is guided by concern respect and a sense of responsibility.
Question 3. What ordeal did Bryson have to face at Logan Airport in Boston?
Answer
Bryson always wanted to travel in a smart and seamless way as many others did but simply could not, thanks mainly to his clumsy, furtive and fumbling behaviour.
For example, he got into a very awkward and embarrassing situation at Logan Airport in Boston. It all began when he expressed his desire to redeem his frequent flyer points at the British Airways ticket counter, for which he needed his card.
The thought of redeeming the points was matched in its suddenness by the thought that he had packed the card in his carry-on bag. That is when the real drama, real trouble and real embarrassment began for him.
To his ill-luck, the zip on the bag was jammed. No amount of pulling and yanking at it with grunts and frown would budge it. Harder pulls with more grunts caused the zip to give way and the side of the bag flew open and out came newspaper cuttings, loose papers, magazines, passport, a 14-ounce tin of pipe tobacco, English money and film. All these things were strewn over an area the size of a tennis court, even as Bryson watched helpless and dumbstruck.
The lidless tobacco tin rolled crazily across the concourse spilling its contents as it went. Even as Bryson was regretting and assessing his loss, he was shocked to discover that the zip fiasco had caused one of his fingers to bleed. The lavish flow of blood from the wound proved to be the last straw in Bryson’s ordeal at the Logan Airport, Boston. He became hysterical, confused and panicky.
Question 4. It is mandatory for the flight crew to go out of their way to ensure the comfort of the passengers? Do you agree? Give reasons taking reference from the story The Accidental Tourist.
Answer
It is compulsory for the flight crew to go out of their way to ensure the comfort of the passengers. They have to look if the passengers are properly and comfortably seated, provide them with eatables and drinks give medication, if necessary and see to it that passengers are not disturbing others. On one occasion when Bill was travelling he knocked a soft drink on the lap of a sweet lady sitting beside her. The flight attendant had to come over to clean up the mess and provide with a replacement drink.
Question 5. Bill Bryson was a clumsy traveller. Write down his worst experiences on a plane flight.
Answer
The author had faced many bad experiences but he did not consider the worst. His worst experience was when he tried to write something in a notebook. He was sucking on the end of his pen. He got involved in talking with a lady and could not notice the leakage in the pen. He kept amusing her for perhaps 20 minutes. When he visited lavatory, he found his mouth, chin, tongue, teeth and gums navy blue. He became very much confused and wanted to mend his habits. The author considered it worst as he could not open his mouth even to talk for many days. One can easily imagine how critical the condition was. He wanted to do all jobs properly. He took precautions to avoid an accident.
Question 6. Why does the author call himself 'The Accidental Tourist'?
Answer
There can be two points of view to understand why the author called himself 'The Accidental Tourist'. One point of view interprets the word more metaphorically. The word `accident' is an undesirable and embarrassing incident which one doesn't expect to happen. From this point of view, the author is an accidental tourist because there was some accident that happened invariably whenever he flew. This embarrassed him to no end. So, he is a tourist who is always prone to accidents. The other point of view interprets the word 'accident' as something which none expected to happen but it did. The author, going by the accidents he causes to himself, is not born to be a tourist but has become one. Both points of view are complementary.
Question 7. “I always have catastrophes when I travel.” Mention two incidents to show why Bill Bryson feels so.
Answer
The author had faced many bad experiences while travelling. Once he tried to write something in a notebook. He was sucking on the end of his pen. He got involved in talking with a lady for about 20 minutes and could not notice the leakage in the pen. When he visited the lavatory, he found his mouth, chin, tongue, teeth and gums navy blue. Another incident was when Bryson got into trouble because of his absent-mindedness. At Logan Airport, he was trying to open the jammed zip of the bag to take out his card. But the zip gave way and all his things scattered on the floor. He became very much confused and wanted to mend his habits.
Question 8. What happened when the author and his family reached the Logan Airport in Boston?
Answer
When the author and his family reached the Logan Airport in Boston, he suddenly remembered to take out the flyer pass from his bag. The zip on his bag got jammed. The zip tore apart from the bag when the author yanked at it the hardest. The side of the bag flew open and everything within — newspaper cuttings and other loose papers, a 14-ounce tin of pipe tobacco, magazines, passport, English money, film was spilt over an area almost equal to a tennis court. The author was dumbstruck at the mess he had created around him. What disgusted him the most was that his lidless tin of tobacco went rolling down the concourse disgorging the entire content. The thought of buying tobacco in England horrified him. From Tobacco, his mind went to his finger which he had gashed on the zip and was shedding blood profusely. He was confused and his wife was looking at him with simple wonder.
Question 9. How could the writer make his journeys advantageous inspite of the accidents? Why is he not able to benefit from them ultimately?
Answer
The writer is a frequent flyer. Hence, he could benefit from collecting frequent flier miles that the airline offers to those who travel with their airline on a regular basis. These miles add up to a free ticket to any destination of the traveller’s choice. They writer is, however, not able to take advantage of this scheme, because he either can’t find his card on time, or forgets to ask for the miles. Sometimes, the airlines don’t record the miles and one time, the check-in clerk informed him that he was not entitled to the points. Moreover, he doesn’t stick to a single airline and mentions having travelled with 23 airlines, thereby losing out on points from any single airline.
Question 10. What kind of picture do you get of the writer’s character from the lesson ‘The Accidental Tourist’?
Answer
He appears to be a positive, funny, and self-deprecating man who does not mind highlighting his shortcomings. In fact, every instance that could have embarrassed other people has been shown in a humorous light. He has found humour in the most disastrous and frustrating situations. Even when he loses the chance to go to Bali when the airline refuses to give him air miles for a technical reason, he does not lose his temper.
He does not take himself too seriously and readily accepts his clumsiness. He doesn’t try to hide any of the embarrassing accidents he has had but honestly admits to them. His family also appears to have accepted him the way he is, and learnt to handle him along with his ‘accidents’. The writer’s most endearing quality is how comfortable he is with his own self. Even though he talks about wanting to be suave and gentlemanly like other travellers, he is not too worried when he is unable to do so, in spite of his best efforts. He thus comes across as a clumsy, accident-prone, but good-natured person.