Class 10 English Chapter 1 A Triumph of Surgery Questions and answers
Page No 1:
Question 1:
Why is Mrs Pumphrey worried about
Tricki?
Answer:
Mrs
Pumphrey was worried and distraught because
Tricki would not eat anything. It even refused its favourite dishes.
It had bouts of vomiting. It spent all its time lying on the rug and
panting. It did not want to go for walks or do anything.
Page No 1:
Question 2:
What does she do to
help him? Is she wise in this?
Answer:
She
called the doctor to help Tricki. Yes, her decision was wise. The
doctor suggested that Tricki should be
hospitalised. She swooned and wailed, but let the dog go with the
doctor. Ultimately, the doctor was successful in curing Tricki.
Page No 1:
Question 3:
Who does ‘I’ refer to in
this story?
Answer:
In
this story, ‘I’ refers to the
veterinary surgeon, Mr Herriot.
Page No 3:
Question 1:
Is the narrator as rich as Tricki’s
mistress?
Answer:
Though
not clearly stated, there are instances in
the story which suggest that the narrator is not as rich as Tricki’s
mistress, Mrs Pumphrey.
While
the narrator is able to provide Tricki with a warm loose box as a
bed, at Mrs Pumphrey’s house, Tricki
has a day bed, a night bed, cushions, toys, rubber rings, a breakfast
bowl, a lunch bowl, a supper bowl, a whole wardrobe of tweed coats
and perhaps many more things.
When
he arrives to take the dog with him, Mrs Pumphrey has
her entire staff at her disposal to transfer all of Tricki’s
belongings to the doctor’s car.
On
hearing from the doctor about Tricki’s gradual recovery, Mrs
Pumphrey sends along two dozen eggs at a time, along with bottles of
wine and brandy—all in order to help in Tricki’s speedy
recovery.
Finally,
when she calls upon the narrator to take her recovered dog back home,
she comes in a chauffer-driven “thirty
feet of gleaming black metal” (an obvious reference to a
limousine).
All
these instances point to the fact that Mrs Pumphrey lived a luxurious
life.
Page No 3:
Question 2:
How does he treat the dog?
Answer:
The doctor gave
Tricki no food, but plenty of water for two
days. Slowly, the dog started showing interest in his surroundings
and began mixing with the other dogs at the surgery. On the third
day, the doctor saw Tricki licking the empty supper bowls of the
other dogs. Next day, a separate bowl was kept for it and the doctor
was pleased to note that Tricki had run to eat its food with
enthusiasm. From that day onwards, its progress was rapid. It did not
require medicinal treatment of any kind and recovered quite well at
the end.
Page No 3:
Question 3:
Why is he tempted to keep Tricki on as
a permanent guest?
Answer:
Mrs
Pumphrey had started bringing around eggs to build Tricki’s
strength. Later, even bottles of wine and
brandy began to arrive. The narrator and his partners started
enjoying the eggs, wine and brandy meant for Tricki. According to the
narrator, they were days of deep content for them—starting with
the extra egg in the morning, then the midday wine, and finally
finishing the day with brandy. This was the reason why the narrator
was tempted to keep Tricki on as a permanent guest.
Page No 3:
Question 4:
Why does Mrs Pumphrey think the dog’s
recovery is “a triumph of surgery”?
Answer:
Mrs
Pumphrey thought that the dog’s recovery was “a triumph
of surgery” because in two weeks, Tricki had recovered
completely and had been transformed into a hard-muscled animal. When
Tricki saw her, it leaped into her lap and
licked her face. She was so excited that tears started rolling out of
her eyes. She declared Tricki’s recovery as a triumph of
surgery to express her happiness and gratitude towards the doctor.
Page No 6:
Question 1:
What kind of a person do you think the
narrator, a veterinary surgeon, is? Would you say he is tactful as
well as full of common sense?
Answer:
The
narrator is full of common sense. He was very concerned for Tricki
when he saw its appearance. He immediately told Mrs Pumphrey to stop
giving it food and sweets, and to take it
out for daily walks. When she called him to describe Tricki’s
deteriorating condition, he immediately took the dog with him to the
surgery. He took good care of it all the while and helped it recover
completely.
He
could be called tactful as he enjoyed the eggs, wine and brandy that
Mrs Pumphrey had brought for the dog. He
was even tempted to keep Tricki as a permanent guest in order to
continue enjoying these luxuries. However, he was a good man. Thus,
he called Mrs Pumphrey and told her to take the dog home when it had
fully recovered.
Page No 6:
Question 2:
Do you think Tricki was happy to go
home? What do you think will happen now?
Answer:
Yes,
Tricki was very happy to go home. It jumped
out of the narrator’s arms and leaped into Mrs Pumphrey’s
lap as soon as it saw her. It licked her and barked. After this, if
Mrs Pumphrey takes good care of the dog and does not feed it a lot,
it will be as healthy as it is at the end of the story.
Page No 6:
Question 3:
Do you think this is a real-life
episode, or mere fiction? Or is it a mixture of both?
Answer:
This story could
be a mixture of both: real life episode and a mere fiction. The
spoiling of the dog’s health by a rich mistress is believable
and could also be a real life incident. The doctor’s advises
also depict real life situation. However, the extremely speedy
recovery of the dog could be fictitious. Also, the enjoyment of the
luxuries (eggs, wine and brandy) by the narrator could be termed as a
real life episode as there are people who would do so. The giving up
of these luxuries because the owner of the dog would be getting
worried is another episode that could be both real life and fiction.
At the end, the happiness of Mrs. Pumphrey on seeing her dog healthy
seems to be a real life happening. Therefore, the story is a mixture
of both real life and fiction.
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