Question

Read the passage and answer the following questions:

To the best of my knowledge, there’s never been a rule that forbids one to keep

pets in a space station.

Claribel weighed practically nothing, her food requirements were minimal and

she was not worried, as most animals would have been, by the absence of gravity.

I first became aware that Claribel was aboard the space station when I was sitting in

my office, checking through my lists to decide what items we would be running out

next. When I heard the musical whistle beside my ear, I assumed that it had come

over the station intercom, and waited for an announcement to follow. It didn’t:

instead, there was a long involved pattern of melody that made me look up with

such a start. It was then that I had my first view of Claribel. She as a small yellow

canary, hanging in the air as motionless as a hummingbird and with much less

effort for her wings were quietly folded along her sides. We stared at each other for

a minute; then, before I had quite recovered my wits, she did a curious kind of

backward loop no earthbound canary had ever managed and departed with a few

leisurely flicks. It was quite obvious that she’d already learned how to operate in

the absence of gravity, and did not believe in doing unnecessary work.

a. What was the narrator doing when he first saw Claribel?

b. Why do you think that having Claribel aboard was a sensible selection?

c. How did canary adapt to the absence of gravity?

d. Find out words from the passage that mean the opposite of the following:

i. permit ii. maximal

iii. presence iv. hurriedly
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Answer 1

a) The narrator was sitting his office, checking through his lists to decide what items they would be running out of next.

d) permit - forbid

maximal - minimal

presence - absence

hurriedly - leisurely