Packing Explanation, Line by Line, Meaning of Difficult Words, CBSE Class 9 English Chapter 7 NCERT Beehive

PACKING

(Explanation, Meaning of Difficult Words)

Author – Jerome K Jerome

Word	Meaning
Pride myself on	I am proud of

I told them I would do packing. I am proud of my ability to do packing. I feel my knowledge about packing is more than  that of any other person who is alive. It is a surprise for me to know there are so many other similar thing as well. Author wants to say that he is better than anybody else in many things.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Impressed upon	Explained, Made others understand
The had better leave the whole matter	They should leave the whole matter
Fell into the suggestion	Accepted the suggestion
Uncanny	Strange
Cocked	Raised

I explained my ability to George and Harris. I suggested that they should leave the task of packing fully to me. They immediately accepted my suggestion. This was quite strange. George sat on the easy chair – spread himself. Harris raised his legs to put his legs on the table. Author wants to say that now he was left alone to do the packing.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Hardly	Barely
Intended	Desired, Wanted
Of course	Certainly
Boss the job	Supervise the work
Potter about	Doing physical work
Directions	Instructions

But this was not my desire. Certainly I wanted that I should supervise the job giving instructions. George and Harris should obey my instructions and do the work accordingly. From time to time I wanted to show them how to do a particular activity. I wanted to motivate them by appreciating their work. I wanted to encourage them and teach them.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Taking it in	Understanding
Irritated	Annoyed

But the way they understood me, annoyed me. It irritates me a lot when I am doing work and others around me are doing nothing.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Loll	Relax
By the hours together	Continuously for many hours
Messing about	Working

Those days I used to share my accommodation with another person. I used to get annoyed by his actions. He used to relax on sofa continuously for many hours. He would watch me while I would be doing work. He accepted that he liked to watch me work. But I am not that kind of a person.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Sit still	Sit idle, Not doing any work
Slaving and working	Working very hard
Superintend	Supervise
Energetic	Full of energy
I can’t help it	I cannot avoid it

I cannot sit idle. I cannot merely watch a person who is working hard. I would like to get up and supervise his work. I would walk around the work area with my hands in my pocket. I will advise him what to do so that work is done nicely. I cannot avoid it. This is my nature. I think I am full of energy.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Got the bag finished	Completed packing of bag
Strapped it	Closed the bag

But this time I did not say anything to George and Harris. I had not anticipated that the work would take so much time. It took more time than I had guessed. Finally I completed packing of bag. I sat on the bag and closed it.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Boots	Shoes
Make me so wild	Make me very angry

Harris asked me if I would not be putting the boots in the bag. I realised that I had forgotten to pack these in the bag. This is the nature of Harris. He did not say anything earlier. He reminded me only after I had closed the bag. George laughed. His laughter irritated me. I thought he had gone mad. Such acts make me very angry indeed.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Horrible	Fearful

I opened the bag. I packed the boots into the bag. When I was about to close the bag a fearful idea came to me. I asked myself if I had packed my toothbrush. I am never able to recall if I had packed my toothbrush.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Haunts	Repeatedly give troubles
Misery	Full of trouble
Cold perspiration	State of extreme worry
Hunt	Search

Whenever I am travelling, toothbrush gives me repeated troubles. My travelling is full of trouble because of it. In my dreams I see that I have not packed my toothbrush. I get extremely worried and wake up from my sleep. I get out of bed and start searching for the toothbrush.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Wrapped	Covered

In the morning I would pack my toothbrush before I had brushed my teeth. So I would have to unpack my luggage again to get it back. I could always find it after removing everything from the bag. Then I would repack my bag but would forget to pack my toothbrush. Just before my departure, I would remember about it. I will run towards upper floor to pick my toothbrush. Now there would not be enough time to pack the toothbrush in the bag. So I would cover it in my pocket handkerchief. Then I would move for the railway station.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Every mortal thing	Everything that exists
Turn out	Discover, Find out
Rummaged	Search hurriedly
Chaos reigned	Unsystematic ways prevailed

Please believe me that I had to find out almost everything that exist in this world. Author wants to say that he had misplaced almost everything sometime or the other. I searched for those things in a way people used to search in ancient times. During those days unsystematic ways prevailed. Author wants to say that he is very haphazard in searching things.

 

 

I found toothbrushes of Harris and of George. I found them eighteen time. But I could not find my own toothbrush. I started putting things once again into the bad – one by one.  Before putting back I was shaking each item. Through this method I found my tooth brush in a boot. I repacked everything once again.

 

 

Word	Meaning
I did not care a hang	I did not bother at all
Slammed	Shut with loud voice

When I had completed packing, George asked me if I had put the soap  in the bag. I replied that I did not care at all about the soap. I shut the bag with a loud voice and locked it. After that I recollected that I had packed my spectacles in the bag. I had to open the bag once again.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Hamper	Small basket
Rest	Remaining
Had better do the rest	Should do the remaining work
Had a go	Enjoyed it, Liked it

The bag was finally closed at 10:05 PM. But three baskets were yet to be packed. Harris suggested that we should leave after about 12 hours. Harris thought that he and George should do the balance packing. I agreed for this. I sat down. They started their work.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Light hearted spirit	Casually, Not serious
Intending	Desiring

George and Harris started doing packing of those three baskets. They were doing it casually. They wanted to demonstrate to me how to do packing. I did not say anything. I merely waited.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Pile	Stack, Heap
Exciting	Interesting

Author feels that Harris is the worst packer in this world. George is even worse than Harris. There were stacks of crockery and eatable to be packed. I felt very soon the situation would be very interesting. Author anticipated that they could soon get into trouble.

 

 

They did get into trouble. Frist they broke a cup. They broke it to show that they were capable to break crockery. This was their method of drawing attention towards them.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Squashed	Became flat, Squeezed

After that incident, Harris put the strawberry jam on top of a tomato. The tomato became flat. They had to remove the flat tomato using a spoon.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Trod on	Stepped on

This time George got into the trouble. He stepped on butter. I did not speak anything. I came closer to them and sat on the edge on the table. I continued to observe their work. They became annoyed. If I had said anything, they would have been less annoyed. I could feel that.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Pies	Pastry
Smashed	Flattened, Broke

Because I was sitting at the table, they became nervous and irritated. Many times they stepped on things. Sometimes they put some items behind them. They could not find those when they needed. They put pastries at the bottom and put heavy things on it. So pastries were spoilt.

 

 

They spread salt all over the place. What happened to butter is a story. I do not think they had ever handled butter in their life. Probably they had handled only small quantity of butter.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Got it off	Removed it
Scrape	Remove layer by layer

George had removed butter from his slippers. The tired to put it into a kettle. All the butter did not go in. And what had gone in did not come out. They tried to remove it layer by layer. They were putting these layers on a chair. Harris sat on the chair. Butter stuck on him. They were searching for butter everywhere in the room.

 

 

George said that he was sure he had put butter on the chair. He was looking at the chair which did not have anything now. Harris agreed with George. They started moving around the room. They were searching for butter. They met at the centre of the room. They looked at each other.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Extraordinary	Strange, Unusual
Mysterious	Curious, Puzzling

George said that it was the most unusual thing to happen. Harris agreed. He was puzzled. Then George went around and saw back of Harris.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Indignantly	Angrily
Stand still	Do not move
Roared	Shouted
Got it off	Removed it

George noticed butter at the back of Harris. Now he knew where the butter had been. Harris turned around and asked where the butter was. George shouted and ordered Harris not to move. He removed the butter. They placed it in the teapot.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Montmorency	Name of the pet dog they had
Be sworn at	Get the curse

Then Montmorency entered the room. It was his habit to obstruct any work that was being done. He would be cursed for his poor habit.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Squirm in	Intrude, Move in when not wanted
Nuisance	Problem, Reason of annoyance

Montmorency would usually come to places where he was not required. He was a perfect reason for getting annoyed. People will get angry. They used to throw things at him to hit him. When such things happened, Montmorency thought he has utilized his days.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Stumble	Fall, Trip
Accomplishing	Achieving
Conceit	Pride

If somebody tripped over him and cursed him, Montmorency thought he had achieved his aim. Whenever he succeeds in doing so, he becomes proud of himself. His pride increases.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Laboured	Worked
Damp	Wet

Montmorency came to the room. He sat on things that were to be packed. He sat on things just when these were required for packing. Somehow Montmorency developed a belief. When George or Harris wanted to pick up anything for packing, he thought they wanted to touch his nose.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Worried	Bothered
Pretended	Acted
Hamper	A basket for carrying food
Land him with the frying-pan	Hit him with a frying pan

Montmorency put his legs into jam. Then he disturbed all the teaspoons. He thought lemons were rats. So he put his mouth into the lemon basket, bit into three lemons. Harris hit him with a frying pan.

 

 

Harris said that I was encouraging Montmorency to do such nuisance. I did not encourage him. Actually a dog like Montmorency does need any encouragement. He had a natural tendency within him to create problems.

 

 

Word	Meaning
Reflection	Thought

Packing was completed at 12:50 in the night. Harris sat on the big basket. He said he hoped nothing was broken in the basket. George said that if anything was to be broken, it has broken now. The thought of something breaking gave him some pleasure.

 

 

George wanted to sleep. We all wanted to sleep. Harris was also going to sleep at our house. So we went upstairs for getting some sleep.

 

 

We had only two beds. So we tossed for beds. Harris and I would sleep on the same bed. Harris asked me if I used blankets or covers while sleeping. I said I do use covers. Harris found it strange.

 

 

George asked us what time he should wake us up. Harris wanted to get up at seven. I wanted to get up at six because I wanted to write some letters.

 

 

Harris and I had a small argument about time. Finally we agreed to take mean of two times. We asked George to wake us up at 06:30.

 

 

George did not give any answer. So we went closer to him. We found that he had already slept. So we place a pot full of water near his bed. When he gets up, he will trip because of it. Then we went to sleep.

JEROME K. JEROME

[an extract from Three Men in a Boat]

 

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THE DUCK AND THE KANGAROO

(Explanation)

Poet – Edward Lear

I

Word	Meaning
“Good gracious!	An expression to express surprise
Hop	Jump
Nasty	Unpleasant

Poetic Devices
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo	Repetition
“Good gracious! how you hop!	Alliteration
Over the fields and the water too,	Repetition

A duck was surprised to see how easily a kangaroo could jump. It narrates its surprise. How easily kangaroo could jump over the field as well as over water bodies. It seemed to duck that kangaroo never stops jumping. Duck says that it is bored to always be within the unpleasant pond. And I cannot go out of this pond. The duck has a wish to jump like a kangaroo.

 

 

II

Word	Meaning
Quite still	Without moving
Quack	Sound of duck
Dee	It is an island in Antarctica
Jelly Bo Lee	It is an imaginary place

Poetic Devices
Said the Duck to the Kangaroo	Repetition
I would sit quite still, and say nothing but ‘Quack’	Alliteration
The whole of the long day through!	Repetition
And we’d go to the Dee, and the Jelly Bo Lee	Repetition
Over the land, and over the sea	Repetition

The duck requested the kangaroo to give it a ride on his back. The duck promised to kangaroo that throughout the day it will not make any movement while sitting on its back. It will only quack to let kangaroo know that it is with him. The Duck requested kangaroo to take her to Dee islands. The duck also wants to go to an imaginary place Jelly Bo Lee. We will fly over the land and fly over the seas. Please give me a ride.

 

 

III

Word	Meaning
Reflection	Thought
On the whole	Over all
Let me speak so bold	Allow me to speak without hesitation
Unpleasantly	Ugly
Roo-Matiz	Rheumatism – a disease that causes pain

Poetic Devices
Said the Kangaroo to the Duck,	Repetition
This requires some little reflection	Alliteration
Perhaps on the whole it might bring me luck	Alliteration
And there seems but one objection,	Alliteration

Kangaroo replied to the duck that he would need to think about the request. If I accept your request, probably it will bring good luck to me.  But I do have objections or concerns. I will tell these to you if you allow me to be speak without any hesitation. First point is that your feet are ugly, cold and wet. If you sit on me with wet feet, my body may develop lot of pain.

 

 

IV

Word	Meaning
Worsted	A kind of woollen cloth
Web-feet	Feet having webs
Cloak	A kind of long coat

Poetic Devices
Said the Duck, “As I sat on the rocks,	Repetition
I have thought over that completely,	Alliteration

Duck informs the kangaroo that she has thought about his objections. She came out of the pond and sat on a rock to find a solution. I have purchased four pairs of socks. These are made of woollen cloths. These fit nicely to my feet. So my feet will not cause any harm to you. I have purchased a long coat. I will wear this while I sit on your back. Every day I will smoke a cigar. These two activities will keep me warm. I have decided to follow above plan because I respect you and I love my dear kangaroo.

 

 

V

Word	Meaning
Moonlight pale	Night that had yellow light of moon
Bound	Big leap, Big jump

Poetic Devices
dear Duck, sit steady!	Alliteration
So away they went with a hop and a bound	Alliteration
And who so happy — O who	Repetition

After knowing preparations made by the duck, kangaroo agreed to take duck on the world tour. They started their journey in the night. In the yellow light of the moon, everything looked yellow. Kangaroo advised the duck that she should not move while sitting on him. Duck should sit towards the end of the tail of kangaroo. These two thing will help him maintain the balance. So kangaroo jumped a little and then took a big leap. They moved around the world three times. And who became happy. The duck and kangaroo both became happy.

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