SUMMARY

Feathered friend by Arthur Clarke is a science fiction short story about

a small canary and how her existence on the space station helped save lives.The
narrator says that he is unaware of a regulation that prevents pets from being on a
space station and that Sven would ignore it anyway.Sven was the best construction
worker on the space station at the time and was a very ''wiry title fellow'' which got
him a bonus for being under 150 pounds unlike his counterpart Sven was smart to
have Claribel as a pet because it took close to nothing to to support her.The
narrator woke up one day and with a headache and was slow to do morning
activities.Sven was missing from breakfast because he was looking for
Claribel.Claribel was found in a stunned state and Jock Dancan could not hear a
heartbeat.Someone said to give her a oxygen from oxygen mask which served as
an oxygen tent for Claribel.The oxygen revived Claribel and she called everyone to
breakfast and passed out again.The narrator notices that Claribel was passing out
because of the air being bad, an air purifier had frozen and the single 500 thousand
dollar alarm failed to go off.Claribel had saved everyone's life.

1. Why did Sven keep the bird a secret from his colleagues ?
Although there were no rules against pets, Sven did not want to part with his pet. So
he
tried to hide her.
2. How was the presence of the bird discovered?
Claribel was discovered when the narrator was working at his cubbyhole and he
heard a musical
whistle. He thought it was a radio transmission but was surprised to find a yellow
canary.
3.Why did the crew want to hide the bird from the VIPs from Earth? How did they
deal with the
issue?
Finding a canary at a space station would have been odd, so the crew decided to
hide Claribel
from the VIPs. There was no dearth of hiding places in the station and when Claribel
became
noisy, they made up excuses for the whistling sounds.
4. What was the alarm meant for? What caused its failure?
The alarm was meant to indicate the presence of any toxic gas in the air or a
reduction in
oxygen levels. Due to an eclipse part of the air purifier had frozen up. The alarm that
had
been working failed to go off and the other alarm had not been connected yet.
5. How was the space different from life on Earth?
On Earth, there is gravity so we can walk on the ground. There is enough oxygen in
the air for us
to breathe without the help of masks. This makes it easy for us to work without
having to wear
heavy spacesuits. In space, there is neither gravity nor oxygen, which makes a
space suit
mandatory. Working in a spacesuit is cumbersome.

QUESTIONS ANSWERS
B.READ THESE LINES FROM THE TEXT AND ANSWERS THE QUESTIONS:
1...a)What kind of escape is the speaker talking about?
ans)The speaker is talking about the escape of canary bird in a space station.
b)How did the canary come in the space station?
ans)The canary bird was carried in the space station by Sven Olsen.
c)Where they usually hide the canary?
ans)They usually used to hide the canary in the space station.
2...a)Who said this to whom?
ans)The narrator said to Jim.
b)Why does the speaker feel that there is something wrong in the air?
ans)The speaker felt that there is something wrong in the air because he was also
feeling sluggish that morning.
c)What had speaker just remembered?
ans)The speaker remembered that the miners used to carry canaries down to warn
them of gas.
C.ANSWER IN DETAIL:
a)Why does the narrator feel that Sven's selection was very sensible?
ans)The narrator felt that Sven's selection was very sensible because Claribel
weighed practically nothing,her food requirements were minimal and she was not
worried as most animals would have been by the absence of gravity.
b)How did the canary adopt to the absence of gravity?
ans)The canary adopted to the absence of gravity by doing a backward loop which
no earthbound canary had never managed and departed with a few leisurely flicks.
c)How did Sven and the others revive the canary?
ans)Sven and the others revived the canary by passing oxygen to her.
d)Why did the alarm fail to go off?
ans)The alarm had failed to go off because of eclipse the part of the air purifier had
frozen up.
e)How had half a million dollar's wrath of equipment let them down?
ans)Half of million dollar's worth of equipment let them down they could not save
Claribel.