2nd Year English CH-12: Hitch Hiking Across the Sahara Questions Answers Notes
Q1: Give an idea of the size of the Sahara. How does it compare with England?
Ans: If a giant were to pick England up and put it down in the middle of the Sahara desert, we should have quite a task to find it. The full Sahara area, stretching almost the complete width of North Africa, is many times the size of Great Britain.
Q2: What had Christopher’s foster mother to do with his desire to see distant places?
Ans: When he was a child, every time he was naughty, his foster-mother used to threaten to send him to Timbuktu (an ancient city in the heart of French Africa), instead of alarming him, the idea aroused in him a keen desire to see his distant Place.
Q3:How did he manage to get a seat in the weapons carrier?
Ans: Fast moving weapons’ canier over tock them. Christopher stopped it and begged the lieutenant in charge to relieve him from the misery of slowly baking to death at twenty railes an hour. The lieutenant pointed out those strict military regulations forbade the canying of civilians. Christopher replied by producing a permit from the War Ministry giving him permission to join the French Foreign Legion for a short period in order to collect material for an articie. The permission had later been withdrawn, but fortunately the lieutenant did not turn the paper over and see the “Cancelled” stamp.
Q4: What was the most noticeable feature of the desert city, named Ghardaya?
Ans: Ghardaya, a typical desert city, the flies found there were more numerous and stickier than they were anywhere else. Anything that had a remotest relationship with food was always covered with flies. They had no hesitation in following the food right into your mouth and one had to be vigilant until mouthful was behind one’s teeth. Many children, with their faces covered with the masks of flies, were seen in streets.
Q5: How did they manage to drive the heavy truck in the trackless desert with its, soft sand?
Ans: It was difficult travelling. At times the sand became too soft to bear the weight of the heavy truck. It was then necessary to stop at once. If the wheels had been allowed to spin they would have dug themselves deeper. Ten-foot strips of steel mesh were dragged from the truck and placed together to make a runway for the wheels to bite on as the truck moved. When it reached harder ground the strips were collected up and dragged forward to the waiting truck. Christopher performed useful service in helping the greaser with this arduous operation.
Q6: What did the driver of the truck tell Christopher about three Englishmen who had attempted to cross the desert?
Ans: The driver added to the discomfort of the journey by relating details of a recent case in which three English people had attempted to cross a part of the desert in a car with only one day’s water-supply. Their car had been stuck in a sand dune, and three days later their bodies were found dried up like leaves. They had drained the radiator in their desperate thirst, and one of them tried to drain the oil from the crank-case. He had been one of the search party, and he spared his listener none of the grim details.
Q7: Give an account of the little town, named El-Golea, and compare it with In Salah, bringing out the difference between the two.
Ans: El Golea was a fascinating little town, a true oasis, with so much water available that they hardly knew what to do with it. We very day of the week that he was there, Christopher spent hours bathing in a little pool half a kilometer away from the centre of the town. On the other hand, in Salah was full of desert. In Salah is fighting a desperate battle of survival and perhaps losing the contest. The sand is constantly encroaching the town.
Q8: What do you know of Professor Claude Balanguernon?
Ans: Claude Balanguemon was a French man and professor by profession. He taught taureg people. He was a friend of Christopher and helped him a lot during his tour to the Sahara desert.
Q9: Describe the events leading to the killing of a camel. What sort of water did they get from its stomach?
Ans: On his way to Kidal, Christopher two Taurags and a slave ran short of water. They went to one waterhole, it was empty. The next was two days away and the travelers had neither food nor water. They decided to kill a camel and get water. A camel was killed and the water that they got of it, was hard to drink but they managed to drink it, that is how they survived.
Q10: Describe the journey through the land of Thirst and Death.
Ans: Before searching Timbuktu, they passed through the desert area named Kidal. It was rightly called the land of thirst and death. The area was notorious for sand storms and dried up waterhole. While collecting stones to place in the fire, for the kettle or pan to stand on. He (Christopher) found a snake and was hardly saved from it.
Q11: Describe the stay at In Abbangarit. How did Christopher manage to get water there?
Ans: In Abbangarit, there was no building and the only mud structure building was a bordj. Christopher had no bucket and rope to get water from well. He had a recording machine with a long wire. He made a rope of it and managed to take water out of a well by tying the teapot with this wire-rope.
Additional Questions Answers
Q1: Why was In Salah losing its identity?
Ans: In Salah was sinking in the ocean of the sand. Most parts were disappearing. Palm trees, those once stood high, were now like bushes. Some were completely covered with sand. Christopher had to bend down to pick some dates off the trees.
Q2: How did Christopher saved him from the sand storm?
Ans: His companions made signs for him to hide, himself behind his camel and cover his head. He did so, but the force of the storm when it struck was too great to be avoided. Even with the camel’s body as a shield, he could feel the impact of the wall of sand that came streaming along the earth. The wind found even the smallest opening in my clothes, and the sand felt like little needles. There was nothing he could do but crouch down waiting for the storm to finish, while the sand steadily piled up on top of him. He found himself recalling a true story that just such a sandstorm, many years earlier, had completely buried a huge caravan of 1200 camels without leaving a trace of them.
Multiple Choice Questions
- To place steel mesh under the wheels of truck was arduous. The underlined word means
A. Ordinary
B. Hard
C.Easy
D. Comfortable
- The desert was encroaching in In Salah. The underlined word means
A. Crawling
B. Engulfing
C. Appreciating
D. None of these
- For what purpose Camel was slaughtered?
A. For water
B. For food
C. For minimizing the animals
D. For meat
- Choose the correct spelling
A. Wanderlust
B. Wonderlust
C. Wenderlust
D. Wandarlust
- The boy wants to go home. The underlined phrase is a/an
A. Verb phrase
B. Noun phrase
C. Adverb phrase
D. Prepositional phrase
- He talked to me in a rude manner. The underlined part is
a/an
A. Noun phrase
B. Adverb clause
C. Adverb phrase
D. Prepositional phrase
- He is poor but he does not beg. The underlined part is a/an
A. Subordinate clause
B. Coordinate clause
C. Noun phrase
D. Adjective phrase