Read the passage carefully and then answer the questions that follow: At the time of my visit, before the Chinese walked into Tibet, the Mansarovar area was known to be dangerously bandit-ridden. Helpless pilgrims from India were frequently waylaid by gangs and robbed and beaten up, and sometimes even killed. I had been warned by Gelong repeatedly of the risk of moving around unarmed and alone, but had thought it was only his way of making the trip a little more exciting for us. However, one morning, attended by Gelong while hunting for nests among a patch of furze bushes, I fancied I noticed a slight movement some distance ahead but paid no heed to it. When we got closer to the spot there suddenly popped up from his ambush a grimy ferocious-looking ruffian with an ugly dagger in his belt and matchlock slung over his shoulder. He promptly started shouting and gesticulating with alarming truculence which it was perhaps just as well I didn’t understand. I have never seen a living human turn so pale as Gelong did upon the bandit’s challenge; the expression ‘white as a sheet’ seems no wild exaggeration. He was visibly shivering with fright and begged me again and again in terrified undertones to flee from this ‘kharab admi’. I realized that it was now too late to think of any such action, and in any case it would have been futile as we had an endless open plain before us and no help within thirty miles. Luckily at that moment I suddenly remembered my shooting-stick (a seat, as used by cricket umpires) which Gelong was carrying. In a loud voice I ordered him to hand it to me quickly. I pretended it was a gun and mimicked loading it with a cartridge drawn from my pocket with deliberate ostentation. I take it that the bandit was unfamiliar with a contraption of this kind with its shining metal parts. He looked visibly concerned when I opened and closed the seat with a noisy klickklacking, loaded the ‘gun’ and sloped it over my shoulder like the real thing. It was now my turn to shout back sentiments which I am glad (for his own sake) the ruffian did not understand! Fortunately the bluff worked: the man’s truculence subsided at once; he turned away sullenly and made off. I marched back to the camp with mock bravado, apprehensive all the time of a bullet following us behind, and thankful for a happy ending to a most uncomfortable situation.
Was the writer a traveler in the Mansarover area or a permanent resident there? Pick out the sentence which indicates your answer.
The writer used to move about alone, unarmed and often hunting for bird nests. This indicates that he was: (Tick one )
(a) a hunter
(b) a pilgrim
(c) a birdwatcher
1c Who do you think is Gelong? Give evidence in support of your answer.
1d What actions of Gelong suggest that he was terribly frightened of the bandit?
1e Why did the writer decide not to run away?
1f What did the writer do to make the bandit believe that he (the writer) had a gun?
1g The expression ‘grimy and ferocious looking’ means: (Tick one)
a) very strange and ugly looking
b) dirty and dangerous looking
c) cruel and brave looking
1h ‘Gesticulating with alarming truculence’ means: (Tick one)
a) moving hands and shouting
b) moving arms and hands aggressively
c) moving arms and hands to draw attention
1i ‘Marched back to the camp with mock bravado’ means: (Tick one)
(a) returned to the camp with a sense of achievement
(b) returned to the camp posing as a brave man
(c) returned to the camp to find people laughing at his bravery
1j Give a title to the passage
- The writer was a traveler in the Mansarover area, as indicated by the sentence: "At the time of my visit, before the Chinese walked into Tibet, the Mansarovar area was known to be dangerously bandit-ridden."
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