Important Questions for CBSE Class 7 English An Alien Hand Chapter 6 - I want Something In A Cage

A. Very Short Answer Questions:                                              1 Mark

1. Word – Meaning from the given chapter.

1. Scampered 

Ans: Run

2. Bewildered 

Ans: Puzzled

3. Emphatically 

Ans: In a forceful manner

4. Monotonous 

Ans: Boring

2. Fill in the blanks:

1. Nevertheless, the man who bought the two doves, and his strange act immediately thereafter, left him with a _______. 

Ans:  Distinct sense of the uncanny

2. Mr. Purcell was _______; red cheeks and a tight, melon stomach. 

Ans: A small, fussy man

3. Large glasses magnified his eyes so as to give him the _________.

Ans: Appearance of a wise and genial owl.

4. He owned ________.

Ans: A pet shop.

3. Who was Mr. Purcell? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell was a small, fussy man who owned a pet shop.

4. What did Mr. Purcell look like? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell was a man with a short height and red cheeks. His belly looked tight and melon-like.

5. Mr. Purcell did not believe in what? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell did not believe in ghosts.

B. Short Answer Questions:                                                             2 Marks

1. Why was Mr. Purcell left with a distinct sense of the uncanny? 

Ans: The customer who purchased two doves from the pet shop, left Mr. Purcell with the distinct sense of the uncanny because of his strange behavior.

2. What changes did the large glasses make in Mr. Purcell?

Ans: Mr. Purcell used to wear a pair of large glasses which brought the following changes in him:

• The glasses magnified his eyes.

• Also, they made him look like a wise and a genial owl.

3. What shop did he own? What things did he sell? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell owned a pet shop. 

He sold the following things in this shop:

• Animals such as cats, dogs, and monkeys, that are generally kept as pets.

• Birdseed and fish food

• Medicine for the sick canaries 

• Ornate and gilded cages.

4. How did he keep birds? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell kept birds in cages. The birds would squeak, squeal, cheap and keep running in those small cages, frightened and baffled as if blindly wanting to come out.

5. What do the customers say seeing the birds in the cage? 

Ans: The customers visiting Mr. Purcell’s shop would look at the birds in the cages and usually said the following things:

• They would appreciate the birds in the cages.

• They would exclaim that the birds and the little cages look cute and sweet

Mr. Purcell would admire their appreciation and shake hands with them.

C. Short Answer Questions:                                                              3 Marks

1. What did Mr. Purcell do each morning? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell would open his shop every morning and follow the same routine: 

• Firstly, Mr. Purcell would sit on a stool behind the counter

• Then he would unfold his morning newspaper and go through the current affairs and read each column. 

• While reading, he would smirk, glare, purse his lips, raise his eyebrows, and nod in argument.

2. What was so unusual about that one morning? 

Ans:  The particular morning was different from any other morning. Things unusual about it are as follows: 

• That morning was rough as winds were blowing against the high, plate-glass windows. 

• The city was filled with smoke.

• The air turned into thick frost. 

• At the front door of the shop owned by Mr. Purcell, a bell was placed in such a way that it would ring as someone entered through it into the shop. But that morning as the stranger entered his shop, surprisingly the bell did not ring.

3. How did Mr. Purcell welcome the stranger? 

Ans: On that one unusual morning, a stranger visited Mr. Purcell’s shop. He saw the weird look on the man and understood that the man hated him. But out of habit, Mr. Purcell welcome the stranger in the following manner:

• Firstly, he rubbed his hands together energetically.

• Then he smiled and nodded

• Finally, he greeted the stranger.

4. How did the stranger look? 

Ans: The man or the stranger’s appearance can be elaborated as follows:

• He wore shiny squeaky shoes. 

• His outfit included a suit that looked new but cheap and was ill-fitted on him. 

• His hairs were in a close-cropped manner and had a shuttling glance.

5. What conversation did both the men have until the stranger told Mr. Purcell about what he wanted?

Ans: The stranger arrived at Mr. Purcell’s shop on an unusual morning and behaved in a very strange way. Before telling what he wanted, he had the following conversation:

• The man was ignoring Mr.  Purcell as if he wasn’t present there. 

• Mr. Purcell spoke to him about the morning with a smile on his face but the man didn’t seem to care. 

• Finally, Mr. Purcell again asked him what he wanted. That is when the stranger looked at him from close and exclaimed that he wanted something in a cage.

D. Long Answer Questions:                                                             5 Marks

1. How did Mr. Purcell react when the stranger told him that he wanted something in a cage? 

Ans: The man arrived at  Mr. Purcell’s shop on an unusual morning, behaved strangely for some time, and then said that he wanted something in a cage. To it, Mr. Purcell reacted in the following manner:

• Firstly, Mr. Purcell got a bit confused.

• Then he asked the man if he wanted a pet. 

But the man who himself was confused about the name, snapped at Mr. Purcell and said he knew what he wanted and that he needed a small and a caged creature. To it, Mr. Purcell asked if a white rat would do fine.  

2. What does the man want? What animal Mr. Purcell showed him? 

Ans: The strange man wanted to buy a pet but was confused and didn’t know the name of the thing he wanted. He indicated to Mr. Purcell that he wanted something which is small in size, stays in a cage, and possess wings. Mr. Purcell understood that he wanted a bird.

Mr. Purcell showed him the cage with two doves, with the color of snow, which the stranger agreed to buy.

3. For how much money does Mr. Purcell want to sell the doves? How much money did the man give him? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell knew that the doves cost five fifty and hence wanted to sell them at that price. So, he told the man to hand over that amount and take that bird. But the poor man had only five dollars. Mr. Purcell made some calculations and thought that a loss of fifty cents would not account for much and he would still make a good profit. Therefore, he said to the man that he could take them in those five dollars and wanted that amount of money. 

To this, the man agreed and gave Mr. Purcell five dollars. Mr. Pruxell, then, unhooked the cage and handed it over to the stranger.

4. “Ten years—hard labor. Ten years to earn five dollars. Fifty cents a year.” Who spoke these lines? Describe the previous event. 

Ans: The above-mentioned lines were spoken by the strange man who arrived at Mr. Purcell’s shop on one unusual morning. 

The previous event before the stranger made the above statement is elaborated below in the following points:

• After the stranger bought the cage and the two doves, he queried Mr. Purcell how he handled the noise of the cage’s rattling and the constant chirping of the birds. 

• To it, Mr. Purcell replied to the man that he couldn’t hear any voice.

• Then the stranger asked Mr. Purcell his thoughts regarding how long he took to earn five dollars. 

• The helpless Mr. Purcell didn’t know what to do. He just listened to the man until he told that it took him ten years of hard work to make five dollars which means he earned only fifty cents a year.

5. Purcell sighed with sudden relief. What was stressing Mr. Purcell? 

Ans: Mr. Purcell owned his pet shop for a long time but never had a customer like the stranger who arrived on a particularly unusual morning. The following things about the stranger stressed him out:

• The man was acting very weird till the time he was there. 

• At first, Mr. Purcell handled things calmly but then the man unknowingly started scaring him with his strange statements and looks. 

• At one point, Mr. Purcell thought that the man was either drunk or insane when he asked whether the caged birds drove him crazy. 

• He had such weird questions and a strange attitude which made Mr. Purcell very uncomfortable.

So, when the man finally left, Mr. Purcell sighed with sudden relief.

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