Class 8 English Chapter 2 Question Answers - The Tsunami

Q1: Give some examples to show that animals knew beforehand about the Tsunami.
Ans: The behaviors of the animals show that as if they realized about the impending Tsunami. Before the giant waves slammed into the coast in India and Sri Lanka, wild and domestic animals seemed to know what was about to happen. They fled to safety. According to eyewitness accounts, elephants screamed and ran for higher ground; dogs refused to go outdoors; flamingoes abandoned their low-lying breeding areas; and zoo animals rushed into their shelters and could not be enticed to come back out.

Q2: How was Almas saved in the Tsunami?
Ans: When Almas’s other family members were washed away, Almas saw a log of wood floating. She climbed onto it. Then she fainted. When she woke up, she was in a hospital in Kamorta. From there she was brought to Port Blair. The little girl does not want to talk about the incident with anyone. She is still traumatized.

Q3: Why did Ignesious give priority to taking his television set off the table?
Ans: When the wife of Ignesious felt an earthquake, she woke Ignesious up. Ignesious thought it just to be a common earthquake and he decided to protect his costly household appliances. He carefully took his television set off its table and put it down on the ground so that it would not fall and break.

Q4: Who is Tilly Smith? Tell us about her family. Where did they go to spend their holidays?
Ans: Tilly Smith was a ten-year-old schoolgirl from South-East England. Tilly’s parents were Penny and Colin Smith. She had a seven-year-old sister. The whole Smith family had been to Thailand. They were celebrating Christmas at a beach resort in southern Thailand.

Q5: How was Meghna saved in the Tsunami?
Ans: Thirteen-year-old Meghna was swept away along with her parents and seventy-seven other people. She spent two days floating in the sea, holding on to a wooden door. Eleven times she saw relief helicopters overhead, but they did not see her. She was brought to the shore by a wave, and was found walking on the seashore in a daze.

Q6: What happened after Tilly and her family left the sea beach?
Ans: After the hysterical behavior of their daughter, Tilly’s parents took her and her sister away from the beach, to the swimming pool at the hotel. A number of other tourists also left the beach with them. Then it was as if the entire sea had come out after them. Then they ran for a safer place. The family took refuge on the third floor of the hotel. The building withstood the surge of three tsunami waves. If they had stayed on the beach, they would not have been alive.

Q7: When Almas’s father felt the earthquake, what did he do?
Ans: When the tremors came early in the morning, the family was sleeping. Almas’s father saw the sea water recede. He understood that the water would come rushing back with great force. He woke everyone up and tried to rush them to a safer place.

Q8: How was Almas’s family killed in the Tsunami?
Ans: When the earthquake woke Almas’s father, he tried to rush the family members to a safer place. As they ran, Almas’s grandfather was hit on the head by something and he fell down. Almas’s father rushed to help him. Then came the first giant wave that swept both of them away. Almas’s mother and aunts stood clinging to the leaves of a coconut tree, calling out to her. A wave uprooted the tree, and they too were washed away.

Q9: Do animals have a sixth sense?
Ans: Whether animals have a sixth sense is a debated matter. However, the incidents during the Tsunami hint at the fact that animals might have a sixth sense. The giant tsunami waves that rolled through the Indian Ocean killed more than 150,000 people in a dozen countries; but not many animals have been reported dead. Many people believe that animals possess a sixth sense and know when the earth is going to shake. Some experts believe that animals’ more acute hearing helps them to hear or feel the earth’s vibration. They can sense an approaching disaster long before humans realize what’s going on.

Q10: What is a Tsunami?
Ans: Tsunamis are giant waves caused by earthquakes or volcanic eruptions under the sea. Out in the depths of the ocean, tsunami waves do not dramatically increase in height. But as the waves travel inland, they build up to higher and higher heights as the depth of the ocean decreases. The speed of tsunami waves depends on ocean depth rather than the distance from the source of the wave. Tsunami waves may travel as fast as jet planes over deep waters, only slowing down when reaching shallow waters. While tsunamis are often referred to as tidal waves, this name is discouraged by oceanographers because tides have little to do with these giant waves.

Q11: How did the Geography lesson of Tilly Smith help her to understand the impending Tsunami?
Ans: When Tilly saw the sea slowly rise, foam, bubble, and form whirlpools, her mind kept going back to a geography lesson she had taken in England just two weeks before she flew out to Thailand with her family. She remembered that she had seen this in class in a video of a tsunami that had hit the Hawaiian Islands in 1946. Her geography teacher had shown her class the video and told them that tsunamis can be caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides.

Q12: When the tremor stopped, what did the family members of Ignesious do?
Ans: When the tremors stopped, they saw the sea rising. In the chaos and confusion, two of his children caught hold of the hands of their mother’s father and mother’s brother, and rushed in the opposite direction. He never saw them again. His wife was also swept away. Only the three other children who came with him were saved.

Q13: Introduce us to Almas Javed and her family.
Ans: Almas Javed was ten years old. She was a student of Carmel Convent in Port Blair where her father had a petrol pump. Her mother Rahila’s home was on Nancowry Island. The family had gone there to celebrate Christmas.

Q14: How did Tilly react when she realized that a Tsunami was about to rush upon them? How was the reaction of her Mother?
Ans: When Tilly realized that the strange behavior of the sea was because of an impending Tsunami, Tilly started to scream at her family to get off the beach. She talked about an earthquake under the sea. She got more and more hysterical. Her mother Penny said that she didn’t know what a tsunami was. But seeing her daughter so frightened, she thought something serious must be going on. And they left the sea beach immediately.

Q15: Who was Sanjeev and how did Sanjeev sacrifice his life?
Ans: Sanjeev was a policeman, serving on the Katchall Island of the Nicobar group of islands. He somehow managed to save himself, his wife, and his baby daughter from the waves. But then he heard cries for help from the wife of John, the guesthouse cook. Sanjeev jumped into the water to rescue her, but they were both swept away.