Common Cold

(a) Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

(b) By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

(c) Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

What is the emotion that the poet displays in the first stanza?

• Joy
  
  

• Jealousy
  
  

• Sympathy
  
  

• Anger

Common Cold

(a) Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

(b) By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

(c) Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

Why and at whom does the poet show his emotion?

• At a doctor for an incorrect diagnosis of his medical condition
  
  

• At a friend who is happy at the poet's plight
  
  

• At a doctor who has said the poet merely has a cold
  
  

• At an old man because he has sneered at the poet

Common Cold

(a) Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

(b) By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

(c) Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba.

The poet describes his eyes as 'two red redundant eyes' because

• they show how furious the poet is
  
  

• they have been affected by an eye-disease
  
  

• in his medical condition, the poet is imagining things
  
  

• he cannot see properly due to the cold

Common Cold

(a) Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

(b) By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

(c) Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba

'Bacteria as large as mice' is an instance of a/an

• metaphor
  
  

• personification
  
  
  

• alliteration
  
  

• simile and a hyperbole

Common Cold

(a) Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

(b) By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

(c) Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba

'Who never interrupt for slumber Their stamping elephantine rumba.'
The meaning of these lines is that

• the cold causing germs are causing much discomfort and pain to the poet without any break
  
  

• the bacilli are so active that they refuse to go to sleep
  
  

• the poet is not able to concentrate on his work due to the raging cold
  
  

• the bacteria are continuously stamping their elephant-like feet

Common Cold

(a) Go hang yourself, you old M.D!
You shall not sneer at me.
Pick up your hat and stethoscope,
Go wash your mouth with laundry soap;
I contemplate a joy exquisite
I'm not paying you for your visit.
I did not call you to be told
My malady is a common cold.

(b) By pounding brow and swollen lip;
By fever's hot and scaly grip;
By those two red redundant eyes
That weep like woeful April skies;
By racking snuffle, snort, and sniff;
By handkerchief after handkerchief;
This cold you wave away as naught
Is the damnedest cold man ever caught!

(c) Bacilli swarm within my portals
Such as were ne'er conceived by mortals,
But bred by scientists wise and hoary
In some Olympic laboratory;
Bacteria as large as mice,
With feet of fire and heads of ice
Who never interrupt for slumber
Their stamping elephantine rumba

The general tone of the poem can be described as

• ironical and mocking
  
  

• whimsical and humorous
  
  

• sad and tragic
  
  

• satirical and harsh

Surviving a Snakebite

(a) Annually, there are a million cases of snakebite in India and of these, close to 50000 succumb to the bites.
(b) When you look around the countryside, where most bites occur, and notice people's habits and lifestyles, these figures aren't surprising. People walk barefoot without a torch at night when they are most likely to step on a foraging venomous snake.
(c) We encourage rodents by disposing waste food out in the open, or by storing food grains in the house. Attracted by the smell of rats, snakes enter houses and when one crawls over someone asleep on the floor and the person twitches or rolls over, it may bite in defense.
(d) Once bitten, we don't rush to the hospital. Instead, we seek out the nearest conman, tie tourniquets, eat vile tasting herbal chutneys, apply poultices or spurious stones, cut/slice/suck the bitten spot, and other ghastly time-consuming deadly 'remedies'.
(e) As Rom cattily remarks: 'If the snake hasn't injected enough venom, even popping an aspirin can save your life'. That's the key- snakes inject venom voluntarily and we have no way of knowing if it has injected venom and if it is a lethal dose. The only first aid is to immobilise the bitten limb like you would a fracture and get to a hospital for anti-venom serum without wasting time.

Of the people who are bitten by snakes in India, the fatality rate is

• 25%
  
  

• 50%
  
  

• 100%
  
  

• 5%

Surviving a Snakebite

(a) Annually, there are a million cases of snakebite in India and of these, close to 50000 succumb to the bites.
(b) When you look around the countryside, where most bites occur, and notice people's habits and lifestyles, these figures aren't surprising. People walk barefoot without a torch at night when they are most likely to step on a foraging venomous snake.
(c) We encourage rodents by disposing waste food out in the open, or by storing food grains in the house. Attracted by the smell of rats, snakes enter houses and when one crawls over someone asleep on the floor and the person twitches or rolls over, it may bite in defense.
(d) Once bitten, we don't rush to the hospital. Instead, we seek out the nearest conman, tie tourniquets, eat vile tasting herbal chutneys, apply poultices or spurious stones, cut/slice/suck the bitten spot, and other ghastly time-consuming deadly 'remedies'.
(e) As Rom cattily remarks: 'If the snake hasn't injected enough venom, even popping an aspirin can save your life'. That's the key- snakes inject venom voluntarily and we have no way of knowing if it has injected venom and if it is a lethal dose. The only first aid is to immobilise the bitten limb like you would a fracture and get to a hospital for anti-venom serum without wasting time..

According to the author, people living in which parts are more prone to snake bites?
 

• The open
  
  

• Villages
  
  

• Forests
  
  

• Crowded cities

Surviving a Snakebite

(a) Annually, there are a million cases of snakebite in India and of these, close to 50000 succumb to the bites.
(b) When you look around the countryside, where most bites occur, and notice people's habits and lifestyles, these figures aren't surprising. People walk barefoot without a torch at night when they are most likely to step on a foraging venomous snake.
(c) We encourage rodents by disposing waste food out in the open, or by storing food grains in the house. Attracted by the smell of rats, snakes enter houses and when one crawls over someone asleep on the floor and the person twitches or rolls over, it may bite in defense.
(d) Once bitten, we don't rush to the hospital. Instead, we seek out the nearest conman, tie tourniquets, eat vile tasting herbal chutneys, apply poultices or spurious stones, cut/slice/suck the bitten spot, and other ghastly time-consuming deadly 'remedies'.
(e) As Rom cattily remarks: 'If the snake hasn't injected enough venom, even popping an aspirin can save your life'. That's the key- snakes inject venom voluntarily and we have no way of knowing if it has injected venom and if it is a lethal dose. The only first aid is to immobilise the bitten limb like you would a fracture and get to a hospital for anti-venom serum without wasting time.

Storing foodgrains in the house is one of the causes for snake bites because

• snakes enter houses in search of stored food grains
  
  

• the smell of foodgrains brings both snakes and other animals into the house
  
  

• stored foodgrains create convenient hiding places for snakes within houses
  
  

• food grain attract rats which in turn attract snakes

Surviving a Snakebite

(a) Annually, there are a million cases of snakebite in India and of these, close to 50000 succumb to the bites.
(b) When you look around the countryside, where most bites occur, and notice people's habits and lifestyles, these figures aren't surprising. People walk barefoot without a torch at night when they are most likely to step on a foraging venomous snake.
(c) We encourage rodents by disposing waste food out in the open, or by storing food grains in the house. Attracted by the smell of rats, snakes enter houses and when one crawls over someone asleep on the floor and the person twitches or rolls over, it may bite in defense.
(d) Once bitten, we don't rush to the hospital. Instead, we seek out the nearest conman, tie tourniquets, eat vile tasting herbal chutneys, apply poultices or spurious stones, cut/slice/suck the bitten spot, and other ghastly time-consuming deadly 'remedies'.
(e) As Rom cattily remarks: 'If the snake hasn't injected enough venom, even popping an aspirin can save your life'. That's the key- snakes inject venom voluntarily and we have no way of knowing if it has injected venom and if it is a lethal dose. The only first aid is to immobilise the bitten limb like you would a fracture and get to a hospital for anti-venom serum without wasting time.

'...it may bite in defence' (para-c). This observation implies that

• a snake may bite a human being in order to defend its prey
  
  

• human beings are defenceless against snakes
  
  

• a snake bites a human only when it is threatened
  
  

• a snake is very good at defending itself