Very Short Questions

Question 1 : Who was the author’s first friend?

Answer : Author’s first friend was a small grey squirrel. At first, it disliked the author invading its privacy.

Question 2 : Name some books which made up the author’s library?

Answer : Treasure Island, Huckleberry Finn and The Story of Dr Dolittle were some of the books that made up the author’s banyan tree library.

Question 3 : Who were unaware of the author’s presence on the tree?

Answer :  The snake and the mongoose were unaware of the author’s presence on the tree.

Question 4 : Why did the snake try to mesmerise the mongoose?

Answer : The snake tried to mesmerise the mongoose in order to persuade him, making a false move.

Question 5 : What did the author like to do apart from reading?

Answer : When the author did not feel like reading, he used to look down through the leaves at the world below.

Short Questions

Question 1 : How did the squirrel become friendly with the author?

Answer : The young squirrel became friendly when it found that the author did not arm himself with a catapult or a gun. The author did not want to harm it. The author brought him pieces of cake and biscuit.

Question 2 : How did the crow die in the fight between the cobra and the mongoose?

Answer : The crow and the myna tried to interfere in the fight. They dived at the cobra and missed their mark. The cobra struck the crow with a great force. The crow flung nearly 20 ft across the garden and died.

Question 3 : Do you think the myna behaved in a clever way? Give reason to support your answer.

Answer : Yes, the myna behaved in a clever way. It always reached a safer place after diving at the cobra.

The crow lost its life behaving in  a foolish way, but the myna survived. It later wisely decided not to interfere in their fight.

Long Questions

Question 1 : How did the mongoose manage to kill the snake?

Answer : Though, both the cobra and the mongoose were champions, the mongoose behaved in a clever way. The mongoose are superb and aggressive fighters. The cobra tried to mesmerise the mongoose, but he knew the power of his opponent’s glassy eyes.

The mongoose fixed his gaze at a point below the cobra’s hood and opened the attack. He was clever enough to make pretended move.

He defended himself well, biting the snake. The cobra coiled itself about the mongoose, but was not successful. The cobra could not struggle more and died at the end.

Question 2 : Describe the garden where the author used to spend his afternoon.

Answer : The garden was a magnificent old banyan tree . The tree was older than the house. It was as old as Dehra Dun.

Its branches were spread everywhere. The author used to hide in its branches and spy on the world below.

It was home to squirrels, snails and butterflies. During spring season, the tree was full of small red figs and birds such as bulbul, parrots, myna and crows would flock into its branches. The tree was the noisiest place in the garden.

Value Based Questions

Question 1 : Why one should never underestimate the power of one’s opponent? Give reasons.

Answer : One should never underestimate the power of one’s opponent because the person develops overconfidence which leads of failure. In the story ‘The Banyan Tree’ , the cobra knew that the grey mongoose were superb fighters and clever too. But the cobra made wrong decisions, fell in the mongoose’s trap and died at the end. Instead of giving full attention to the mongoose, the cobra focused on killing the crow and the myna. The cobra killed the crow, but could not save itself.