Class 10 - Synonyms - 6. Mijbil, the Otter

Read the paragraph and write the synonym of the underlined words choosing from the words given in the brackets:

1. ( appeared        stated        deserts    trained            underrated    wetlands )

When I casually mentioned (a) this to a friend, he as casually replied that I had better get one in the Tigris marshes, (b) for there they were as common as mosquitoes, and were often tamed (c) by the Arabs. We were going to Basra to the Consulate-General to collect and answer our mail from Europe. At the Consulate-General we found that my friend’s mail had arrived (d) but that mine had not.

2. ( showered    surfaced           mirrored        imagined       ample        amicable )

The creature that emerged (a) from this sack on to the spacious (b) tiled floor of the Consulate bedroom resembled (c) most of all a very small, medievally conceived, (d) dragon. From the head to the tip of the tail he was coated with symmetrical pointed scales of mud armour.

3. ( curious        uninteresting        continued      unconcern        normal      nook )     

The second night Mijbil came on to my bed in the small hours and remained (a) asleep in the crook (b) of my knees until the servant brought tea in the morning, and during the day he began to lose his apathy (c) and take a keen, much too keen, (d) interest in his surroundings.

4. (  accomplished    aggressive      friendly       named       removed    anticipated )

He shook himself, and I half expected (a) a cloud of dust, but in fact it was not for another month that I managed (b) to remove the last of the mud and see the otter, as it were, in his true colours.

Mijbil, as I called the otter, was, in fact, of a race previously unknown to science, and was at length christened (c) by zoologists Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, or Maxwell’s otter. For the first twenty- four hours Mijbil was neither hostile (d) nor friendly.

5. ( annoying           enjoying         spread     motionless        quality         speeding )

This, I was to learn, is a characteristic (a) of otters; every drop of water must be, so to speak, extended (b) and spread about the place; a bowl must at once be overturned, or, if it will not be overturned, be sat in and sploshed in until it overflows. Water must be kept on the move and made to do things; when static (c) it is wasted and provoking. (d)

6. ( finding     astonished  vanishing     gropping            annoyed         fled )

Two days later, Mijbil escaped (a) from my bedroom as I entered it, and I turned to see his tail disappearing (b) round the bend of the corridor that led to the bathroom. By the time I got there he was up on the end of the bathtub and fumbling (c) at the chromium taps with his paws. I watched, amazed (d); in less than a minute he had turned the tap far enough to produce a trickle of water

7. ( adapted        adopted        feared    urged     scheduled         stopped ) 

The days passed peacefully at Basra, but I dreaded  (a) the prospect of transporting Mij to England, and to Camusfearna. The British airline to London would not fly animals, so I booked (b) a flight to Paris on another airline, and from there to London. The airline insisted (c) that Mij should be packed into a box not more than eighteen inches square, to be carried on the floor at my feet. I had a box made, and an hour before we started, I put Mij into the box so that he would become accustomed (d) to it, and left for a hurried meal.

8. ( enjoyed      whined     shocking    weary         oozed       attracted )

When I returned, there was an appalling (a) spectacle. There was complete silence from the box, but from its airholes and chinks around the lid, blood had trickled (b) and dried. I whipped off the lock and tore open the lid, and Mij, exhausted (c) and blood- spattered, whimpered (d) and caught at my leg. 

9. (unwanted   unaware  recommended    intense           ungrateful        gratefulness )

I have retained the most profound (a) admiration for that air hostess; she was the very queen of her kind. She suggested (b) that I might prefer to have my pet on my knee, and I could have kissed her hand in the depth of my gratitude. (c) But, not knowing otters, I was quite unprepared (d) for what followed.

10. ( basic           practiced       firmly         irresistible         advanced            weak )

Outside the house I exercised (a) him on a lead, precisely as if he had been a dog. Mij quickly developed certain compulsive (b) habits on these walks in the London streets, like the rituals of children who on their way to and from school must place their feet squarely (c) on the centre of each paving block; must touch every seventh upright of the iron railings, or pass to the outside of every second lamp post. Opposite to my flat was a single-storied primary (d) school, along whose frontage ran a low wall some two feet high.