We’re not afraid to die if we can all be together

Q1. The narrator and his wife had longed to sail. What did they do to accomplish their dream?

Answer: The narrator and his wife had always dreamt of sailing. They wanted to do a round-the-world voyage
like Captain James Cook had done 200 years earlier. For sixteen years they spent all their leisure time improving
their seafaring skills in the British waters. They took a boat, Wavewalker, that was 23 metres, and weighed 30
ton. It had been professionally built and they spent months fitting it out and testing it in the roughest weather
that they could find. Finally, in July 1976, the family set out to sail from Plymouth, England.

Q2. How many people were there in the boat?

Answer: The four of them the narrator, his wife Mary, son Jonathan, and daughter Suzanne sailed for 105,000
kilometres to the west coast of Africa to Cape Town. They took on two crewmen with them an American, Larry
Vigil, and a Swiss, Herb Seigler, before settling sail on the southern Indian Ocean.

Q3. How did they manage to throw out water from the ship?

Answer: With the narrator’s wife, Mary, at the wheel, the narrator half-swam, half-crawled into the children’s
cabin, where he found a hammer, screws and canvas, and struggled back on deck. He secured waterproof hatch
covers across the wide-open holes. With Herb and Larry’s assistance, he managed to throw out the water.

Q4. What injuries did Sue sustain? What does it reveal about her?

Answer: Sue had bumped her head and there was a big bump above her eyes. She had two black eyes, and a
deep cut on her arm. She showed remarkable maturity for a seven-year-old when she said that she didn’t want
to worry them when her father was trying to save all of them.

Q5. What were the troubles that they faced on the morning of 2 January? How did they counter nature’s
wrath?

Answer: When they reached the southern Indian Ocean, one of the world’s roughest seas, they began to
encounter strong winds. Apart from the gales, the size of the waves was alarming. It was as high as the main
mast. Things became worse on 2 January when the waves became huge. The ship rose to the top of each wave
and they could see endless waves approaching them, and the screaming of the wind seemed horrifying to them.
To slow the boat down, they dropped the storm jib and lashed a heavy mooring rope in a loop across the stem.
Then they double-lashed everything, went through their life-raft drill, attached lifelines, donned oilskins and life
jackets.

Q6. The children braved the situation more maturely than their years. Discuss.

Answer: The children, certainly braved the situation more maturely than their years. Sue had her head hit and
swollen, worryingly. She had two huge black eyes, and a deep cut on her arm. She did not make much of her
injuries because she did not want to worry her father when he was trying to save them. Jon, the narrator’s six-
year- old son, assured him that they were not afraid of dying if the family could all be together.

When Sue’s head injury worsened with her blackened eyes narrowed to slits, she held on to her spirit and gave
the narrator a card with drawn caricatures of Mary and him with the words: ‘Here are some funny people. Did
they make you laugh? I laughed a lot as well. ’ The underlying message of love and positive hope overwhelmed
the narrator. He was touched with the thoughtfulness of a seven-year-old girl, who did not want her parents to
worry about a head injury, and that of the boy who was not afraid to die.

Discovering Tut - The saga continues….

Give reasons for the following :

Q(i) King Tut’s body has been subjected to repeated scrutiny.

A(i) King Tut of Egypt was merely a teenager when he died. He belonged to a very powerful family that had
ruled Egypt and its empire for centuries. He was the last heir his family. King Tut’s body has been subjected to
repeated scrutiny to know more about his life and the manner in which he died. Howard Carter, a British
archaeologist discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922.

Since then the modem world has speculated about what happened to him. Even the possibility of his murder is
not ruled out. The repeated scrutiny will after new clues about his life and death. That is why his dead body was
brought under CT scanner to probe medical mysteries about him.

Q(ii) Howard Carter’s investigation was resented.

A(ii) Haward Carter, the British archaeologist had discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922. Carter’s investigation was
resented because the mummy was in very bad condition due to what he did to it while investigating. This is
what Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, felt. To separate Tut from his
adornments, Carter’s men removed the mummy’ head and severed nearly every major joint.

Q(iii) Carter had to chisel away the solidified resins to raise the king’s remain

A(iii) Howard Carter had discovered Tut’s tomb in 1922 after years of futile searching. When he finally reached
the mummy, he ran into trouble. The ritual resins had hardened, cementing Tut to the bottom of his solid gold
coffin. As Carter wrote later, no amount of legitimate force could move the resins. He set the mummy outside in
blazing sunshine that heated it to 149 degrees Fahrenheit. But it had no affect at all. That is why the
consolidated material or the solidified resins had to chisel away to raise the king’s remains.

Q(iv) Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures.

A(iv) Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures : precious collars, inlaid necklaces and bracelets, rings,
amulets, a ceremonial apron, sandals, sheaths for his fingers and toes, inner coffin and mask—all of pure gold.
In Tut’s time the royals were fabulously wealthy. They thought or hoped that they could take their riches with
them. That is why Tut’s body was buried along with gilded treasures

Q(v) The boy king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun.

A(v) The boy King Tut’s original name was Tutankhaten. When a very young Tutankhaten took the throne, he
soon changed his name to Tutankhamun, which means the “living image of Amun”, and oversaw a restoration
of the old ways.

Q2. List the advances in technology that have improved forensic analysis.

Answer: Much more than an X-ray, a CT (Computed tomography) scan provides precise data for an accurate
forensic analysis. Thus now diagnostic imaging can be done with computed tomography, or CT, by which
hundreds of X-rays in cross section are put together like slices of bread to create three dimensional virtual body.

Q3. Explain the statement, “King Tut is one of the first mummies to be scanned in death, as in life ”

Answer: King Tut reigned for about nine years and then he died unexpectedly. As a boy king who was famous
and his life being so short, he was scrutinized closely in his life. King Tut is also one of the first mummies to be
scanned with a portable CT machine. That is why the author says that King Tut is one of the first mummies to be
scanned in life on in death.

Q4. List the deeds that led Ray Johnson to describe Akhenaten as ‘wacky’.

Answer: Akhenaten means the servant of the Aten i.e. the sun disc. He moved the religious capital from the old
city of the Thebes to the new city of Akhetaten, known now as Amarna. He smashed the images of Amun, a
major God and closed his temples. These deeds led Ray Jonson to describe Akhenaten as ‘Wacky’.
Q5. List some adornments on Tut’s body. Why had the adornments been buried along with the body?

Ans. The mummy of Tut was decorated with precious collars, inlaid necklaces, rings, bracelets, amulets and a
ceremonial apron. There were sandals, sheaths for fingers and toes and the inner golden coffin and mask. All of
them were made of pure gold. According to the beliefs it was thought that they could take their riches with
them to the great beyond.

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