13.3 Understanding the Text
Answer each question yourself first, then check the model answer.
A. Reading for details
1. How did the narrator first come to know about Claribel?
The narrator heard a bird’s cheerful whistle in the weightless cabin of the space station and was astonished to find a small yellow canary hanging in the air, almost motionless like a hummingbird.
2. Who was Claribel, and how did she reach the space station?
Claribel was a canary belonging to Sven Olsen, a crewman. He had secretly smuggled her up from Earth on the last ferry, partly out of scientific curiosity to see how a bird would fly without weight.
3. What happened to Claribel one day?
Claribel suddenly collapsed and seemed to faint, because the air in the station had turned bad.
4. Why had the air become dangerous, and why was there no warning?
The station’s air purifier had frozen and stopped working, so poisonous gases built up. The very expensive alarm that should have warned the crew failed to go off.
B. Reading between the lines
5. How did Claribel save the crew’s lives?
Being far more sensitive to bad air than humans, Claribel reacted first and collapsed. Her fainting warned the crew that the air was poisonous, giving them time to fix the purifier before the gas harmed them - just like a canary in a coal mine.
6. Why is the story compared to a “canary in a coal mine”?
Miners once used canaries to detect poisonous gases, because the sensitive birds reacted before humans did. In the same way, Claribel detected the bad air on the space station before the people or the alarm, giving an early warning.
7. What does the failure of the expensive alarm tell us?
It shows that even costly, advanced technology can fail at a critical moment. We should not depend on machines completely; nature and living creatures sometimes prove more reliable.
C. Thinking deeper
8. Why does the narrator’s attitude towards the bird change by the end?
At first Claribel seems just a charming pet and curiosity. By the end, the crew realises she is their most reliable safety device, having saved their lives. They come to value and respect the small creature deeply.
9. What lesson does the story teach?
It teaches that even small, seemingly insignificant beings can play a crucial role; that technology, however advanced, is not infallible; and that we should respect nature, stay humble, and remain alert to signs from our environment.