112 HONEYSUCKLE

Before you read

9
Can you name some desert areas in India and the
world? Who do you think lives in such areas?

Desert Animals
1. DESERTS are the driest places on earth
and sometimes go for months, or even
years, without rain. But even the desert
animals cannot survive without water,
or for long periods in the scorching sun, scorching: very hot
so they have had to find different ways
of coping with the harsh conditions. For
example, gerbils spend the hottest part gerbils: mouse-like
desert rodents with
of the day in cool underground burrows. long hind legs
And strange insects called darkling
beetles are experts at catching drops of
moisture on their legs, then lifting them
into the air until the drops trickle down
into their mouths. Not all deserts are
endless seas of rolling sand dunes. dunes: heaps of
sand formed by
Some are rocky or pebbly and dotted the wind
with small bushes while others are pebbly: stony
sprinkled with colourful flowers during
the spring.
2. There are more than 2300 different
kinds of snakes around the world,
ranging from just fifteen centimetres
long to more than eleven metres. Most
snakes are quite harmless — but there

2022-23
DESERT ANIMALS 113

are a few that are so

poisonous they can kill a
human being with just one
bite. Most snakes lay eggs,
but there are many which
give birth to their young. In
the dry, rocky deserts of
America lives a rather evil-
looking snake with a very bad
reputation. Its frightening
rattle can be heard as far as
thirty metres away, and it can strike
with lightning speed.
3. But the rattlesnake, or ‘rattler’ as it
is sometimes called, prefers to avoid
people if it possibly can. It holds its tail
upright and rattles the end whenever it
is disturbed, in the hope that the
intruder will go away. However, if its
warnings are ignored — and it feels
threatened—it will coil ready to bite. But
the rattler itself cannot hear the noise
its own tail makes. Like most snakes,
it ‘hears’ things through vibrations in
the ground. If a person walks nearby
the snake can feel the movement. But if
the same person were to shout, it would
not hear a thing. Rattlesnakes are very
common and widespread animals, living voles: small
plant-eating
right across the American continent rodents
from Canada to Argentina. They feed chipmunks: small
ground squirrels
on a variety of prey, including mice, having light and
voles, rats, chipmunks and many other dark stripes

2022-23
114 HONEYSUCKLE

small animals. Rattlesnakes kill their

prey with venom. Like all snakes, they
swallow the unfortunate animals whole.
Few snakes have to eat more than once
a week and some, such as the larger
pythons, can survive for a year or more
without eating.
4. Mongooses like to hunt together,
but they always keep a lookout for
dangerous predators nearby. Poking predator: an animal
naturally preying
their noses into holes, overturning rocks on others.
with their paws and scratching the
ground with their sharp claws, banded
mongooses are very amusing animals amusing:
interesting;
to watch. A common sight in many parts enjoyable.
of Africa, they travel in groups of about
twenty to forage for beetles, millipedes forage: search for
food.
and other small creatures.
5. They like to
hunt together,
keeping in touch
whenever they go out
of sight behind rocks
or bushes by
twittering and calling.
Always on the lookout
for danger — hawks,
eagles and large
snakes — they warn
one another with a
special alarm call if
they spot anything
suspicious.

2022-23
DESERT ANIMALS 115

6. Mongooses are famous for being able

to kill snakes without getting hurt
themselves. Their reactions are so fast
that they can dodge each time the snake dodge: move
quickly to avoid
strikes. They continually make a its enemy
nuisance of themselves until, after a
while, when the snake gets tired, they
quickly dive in for the kill.
7. All the female mongooses have their
kitten at about the same time. They
are raised by the whole group in a den
made inside an old termite mount or
hollow log. When most of the adults
are out looking for food, one or two
males stay behind to stand guard until
the others return for the night.
8. Another animal which lives in the
desert is the camel. Camels were
first domesticated by people many
thousands of years ago. In the wild,
camels usually live in small groups of
up to thirty animals. Camels have long,
shaggy winter coats to keep warm and
shorter, tidier coats in the summer to
keep cool. A thirsty camel can drink as
much as thirty gallons of water — that’s
about five hundred full glasses — in
just ten minutes. Normally, however,
it gets all the moisture it needs from
desert plants and can survive for up
to ten months without drinking any
water at all.

2022-23
116 HONEYSUCKLE

9. There are two different kinds of

camel. One, known as the Dromedary,
has only a single hump; the other is
called a Bactrian camel and has two
humps. The humps help the animal
to survive in the desert, by acting as
storage containers. But they don’t
store water — as many people wrongly
believe — they are full of fat. This fat
nourishes the camels when food is
scarce. If they have nothing to eat for
several days, their humps shrink as the
fat is used up. There are many other
ways in which camels are adapted to
desert life. Their mouths are so tough
that even the sharp thorn cannot pierce
through.

2022-23
DESERT ANIMALS 117

WORKING WITH THE TEXT

A. 1. Talk to your partner and say whether the following statements

are true or false.
(i) No animal can survive without water.
(ii) Deserts are endless sand dunes.
(iii) Most snakes are harmless.
(iv) Snakes cannot hear, but they can feel vibrations through
the ground.
(v) Camels store water in their humps.

2. Answer the following questions.

(i) How do desert animals survive without water? (1)
(ii) How do mongooses kill snakes? (6)
(iii) How does the hump of the camels help them to survive when
there is no water? (9)

B. Read the words/phrases in the box. With your partner find their
meaning in the dictionary.

harsh conditions harmless survive intruder

threatened predators prey continually

Fill in the blanks in the following passage with the above words/
phrases.
All animals in forests and deserts struggle to ———————————
in ———————————————— . Though most of the animals
are ——————————— , some are dangerous when ———————————.
If an ————————————— is noticed, they attack or bite to save
themselves. They struggle ——————————— for food and water.
Some animals are called ————————————— because they

—————————— on other animals.

2022-23
118 HONEYSUCKLE

SPEAKING
Look at these sentences.
l Deserts are the driest places on earth.
l Gerbils spend the hottest part of the day in cool underground
burrows.
Now form pairs. Ask questions using a suitable form of the word in
brackets. Try to answer the questions too.
Do you know
1. Which animal is the _______________________ (tall)?
2. Which animal runs the _______________________ (fast)?
3. Which place on earth is the _______________________ (hot) or the
_______________________ (cold)?
4. Which animal is the _______________________ (large)?

5. Which is the ————————————— (tall) mountain in the world?

6. Which is the _______________________ (rainy) place on earth?
7. Which is the ________________________ (old) living animal?

Can you add some questions of your own?

THINKING ABOUT LANGUAGE

A. Look at these sentences.
l Most snakes are quite harmless, but a few are poisonous.
l Most snakes lay eggs, but the rattlesnake gives birth to its
young.
Now write five sentences like these using ‘most’ and the clues below.

1. (90% of) people are honest (10%) are dishonest.

—————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————————————————————

2022-23
DESERT ANIMALS 119

2. (Lots of) fruit have plenty of sugar, (some) citrus fruit are low in
sugar.
—————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————————————————————

3. (Every soft drink except this one) has lots of ‘empty calories’.
—————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————————————————————

4. (The majority of) films are romances, (a few) are on other topics.
—————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————————————————————

5. (A majority of) people agree that he is a good leader, (just a few)

disagree.
—————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————————————————————

B. Look at these sentences.

l Animals cannot survive for long without water.
l So desert animals have to find different ways of coping.

The first sentence says what cannot happen or be done; the second
tells us what must, therefore, be done, what it is necessary to do.
Complete these sentences using cannot and have to/has to.

1. You —————————— reach the island by land or air; you

—————————— go by boat.

2. We —————————— see bacteria with our eyes; we ——————————

look at them through a microscope.

2022-23
120 HONEYSUCKLE

3. He—————————— have a new bicycle now; he ———————

wait till next year.

4. Old people often —————————— hear very well; they

—————————— use a hearing aid.

5. Road users —————————— do what they wish; they

————— follow the traffic rules.

6. She —————————— accept this decision; she ———————

question it.

7. You —————————— believe everything you hear; you

—————————— use your own judgement.

WRITING

Imagine you are journeying through a desert. Write a couple of

paragraphs describing what you see and hear.

2022-23
DESERT ANIMALS 121

Whatif
Are there times when your mind fills with fear? Have you ever
thought,“What if something dangerous happens to me or the
people around me?” “What if the world stops revolving around
the sun?” “What if the sun does not rise in the morning?”
Here is a poem which talks about some more such “Whatifs”.

Last night, while I lay thinking here,

Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I’m dumb in school?
pranced: jumped/
Whatif they’ve closed the swimming-pool?
danced happily

Whatif I get beat up?

Whatif there’s poison in my cup?
dumb: unable to
Whatif I start to cry? answer questions
Whatif I get sick and die? or do tasks

Whatif I flunk that test?

Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don’t grow taller?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won’t bite?

2022-23
122 HONEYSUCKLE

Whatif the wind tears up my kite? flunk: fail

Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don’t grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems swell, and then
The night-time Whatif strikes again!

SHEL SILVERSTEIN

WORKING WITH THE POEM

1. (i) Who is the speaker in the poem?

(ii) With your partner list out the happenings the speaker is worried
about.
(iii) Why do you think she/he has these worries? Can you think
of ways to get rid of such worries?

2. Read the following line.

Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear

Can words crawl into your ear? This is an image. The poet is trying
to make an image of what she/he experiences. Now with your
partner try and list out some more images from the poem.
3. In groups of four discuss some more ‘whatifs’ that you experience
in your day to day life and list them out.
(i) —————————————————————————————————

(ii) —————————————————————————————————

2022-23
WHATIF 123

(iii) —————————————————————————————————

(iv) —————————————————————————————————

(v) —————————————————————————————————

(vi) —————————————————————————————————

(vii) —————————————————————————————————

(viii) —————————————————————————————————

And now write a poem of five or six lines with the ‘whatifs’ that you
have listed.

Know Your Country

Answers

1. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa

and Chattisgarh.
2. Middle Andaman.
Situated in the Bay of Bengal, the Middle
Andaman is India’s largest island.

2022-23