The Strawberry – Pink Villa
I. Read the following vocabulary words. Write its part of speech and meaning and
frame a sentence using the word.
1. irritable: Part of speech - Adjective
Meaning – having or showing a tendency to be easily annoyed
Sentence – Student Specific
2. massive: Part of speech - Adjective
Meaning – exceptionally large
Sentence – Student Specific
3. geometrical: Part of speech - Adjective
Meaning – characterized by or decorated with regular lines and shapes
Sentence – Student Specific
4. vibrant: Part of speech - Adjective
Meaning – full of energy and life
Sentence – Student Specific
5. simpered: Part of speech – verb
Meaning – smiled in a silly manner
Sentence – Student Specific
6. multitude: Part of speech – Noun
Meaning – a large number of people or things
Sentence – Student Specific
7. confiscated: Part of speech – Verb
Meaning – take away or seize with authority
Sentence – Student Specific
II. Choose the correct option.
1. Mother had decided to hire a car and go _________.
a. house hunting
b. shopping
c. surfing
d. animal hunting
2. The Durrell family was looking for a villa with a __________.
a. storeroom
b. playground
c. kitchen
d. bathroom
3. On arriving at the villa the Durrell family felt _________________.
a. very sad
b. they had come home
c. like leaving immediately
d. tired
4. Two drachmas is ___________________.
a. exactly one penny
b. less than one penny
c. approximately one penny
d. more than one penny
5. The customs officer was fined twelve thousand drachmas for ________________.
a. dynamiting fish
b. hunting on forest grounds
c. trespassing
d. harassing innocent foreigners
III. Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow:
1.
"The man brooded like a great, sun-tanned gargoyle, his black eyebrows twisted
into a knot of thoughtfulness."
a. Who is the man mentioned in the above lines?
The man mentioned in the above lines is Spiro Hakiaopulos, a taxi driver.
b. What was he thinking about?
He was thinking about all the villas with bathrooms that he knew of.
c. What does a ‘gargoyle’ mean?
A gargoyle is a grotesque carved human or animal face figure projecting from the
gutter of a building, typically acting as a spout to carry water clear of a wall.
2. "The following morning he drove Mother down to the Customs-shed. We all
accompanied them, for we did not want to miss the fun. Spiro rolled into the
Customs-house like an angry bear."
a. Why did Spiro drive mother to the Customs Shed?
Spiro had learnt that two of their cases containing linen and other things had been
confiscated by the Customs on the curious grounds that they were merchandise. So,
he drove mother to the Customs Shed to get back the cases.
b. What problem arose at the vil la due to the missing cases?
The cases had all the bed linen in them. As it was confiscated mother did not have
any bed linen to use at the villa.
c. Pick out the word which means ‘to go along with’.
accompanied
IV. Answer the following questions:
1. Why did Spiro take control of the affairs at the villa?
Spiro took over complete control of the affairs as everyone around knew him and he
would make sure they were not swindled.
2. How did Spiro help the Durrell family on realizing their money had not arrived from
England?
On discovering that their money had not yet arrived from England, Spiro subsidized
the Durrell family. He went and spoke severely to the bank manager about his lack
of organization. Spiro also paid their hotel bill and organized a cart to carry their
luggage to the villa. He himself drove them to the villa with his car piled high with
groceries that he had purchased for the Durrell family.
3. What proved that everyone on the island knew Spiro very well?
Wherever his car stopped, people would shout out his name, and beckon him to sit
at the little tables under the trees and drink coffee. Policemen, peasants, and priests
waved and smiled as he passed; fishermen, grocers, and cafe-owners greeted him
like a brother.
V. Answer briefly:
1. Describe the roads Spiro drove the Durrell family through.
Spiro drove down a white road covered in a thick layer of silky dust that rose in a
boiling cloud. It was lined with prickly pears like a fence of green plates each
cleverly balanced on another’s edges, and splashed with knobs of scarlet fruit. They
passed vineyards where the tiny, stunted vines were laced in green leaves, olivegroves
where the pitted trunks made a hundred astonished faces and great clumps
of zebra striped cane that fluttered their leaves like a multitude of green flags.
2. Describe the Strawberry Pink villa.
The villa was small and square, with a small garden of flowers. Its shutters had been
faded by the sun to a delicate creamy-green, cracked and bubbled in places. The
garden was surrounded by tall fuchsia hedges. The flower-beds were made in
complicated geometrical patterns, marked with smooth white stones. The white
cobbled paths wound around the flower beds in the shape of stars, half-moons,
triangles, and circles, all overgrown with a shaggy tangle of flowers run wild. The
garden had roses of different colours and huge petals, marigolds like broods of
shaggy suns facing the sky. There were pansies that pushed their velvety, innocent
faces through the leaves, and the violets that drooped sorrowfully under their heartshaped
leaves. The bougainvillea with its lantern shaped magenta flowers, sprawled
luxuriously over the tiny front balcony. The warm air was thick with the scent of a
hundred dying flowers, and full of the gentle, soothing whisper and murmur of
insects.
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