Class 9 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 9: The Accidental Tourist
The Accidental Tourist Exercise 60
Solution 1
Bill Bryson says, "I am, in short, easily confused. The examples he gives to justify this statement that he is easily confused are that a number of times he has gone looking for the lavatory in a cinema, but ended up standing in an alley on the wrong side of a self locking door. He also says that his speciality was returning to hotel desks two or three times a day and asking what room number he was in.
Solution 2
When the zip on his carry-on bag gives way the side of the bag flew open and everything within such as newspaper cuttings and other loose papers, a 14 ounce tin of pipe tobacco, magazines, passport, English money, film etc. were scattered over an area about the size of a tennis court.
Solution 3
His finger was bleeding as he had gashed it on the zip and as a result it was shedding blood in a lavish manner. His wife looked at him with an expression of simple wonder not anger or exasperation and said that she could not believe that he was doing that for a living.
Solution 4
Once on an aeroplane, he leaned over to tie a shoelace and at that moment someone in the seat ahead of him threw his seat back into full recline, and he found himself pinned helplessly in the crash position. It was only by clawing the leg of the man sitting next to him that he managed to get himself freed.
Solution 5
His worst experience was when he was writing important thoughts in a notebook sucking thoughtfully on the end of his pen as one does, and fell into conversation with an attractive young lady in the next seat. He amused her and then retired to the lavatory where he discovered that the pen had leaked and that his mouth, chin, tongue, teeth and gums were now a striking, scrub-resistant navy blue, and would remain so for several days.
Solution 6
Bill Bryson "ached to be suave". No, he is not successful in his mission. He would love just once in his life to rise from a dinner table without looking as if he had experienced an extremely localised seismic event, get in a car and close the door without leaving 14 inches of coat outside, wear light-coloured trousers without discovering at the end of the day that he had at various times sat on chewing gum, ice cream, cough syrup and motor oil.
Solution 7
Bill Bryson’s wife asks the children to take the lids off the food for daddy because she knows that he is very clumsy and if he tries to do it himself the lid would probably fly off and the food scatter all over the place. She is concerned because if someone helped him take off the lids there would be no food dropped on everyone’s clothes and it would cut down the laundry bills.
Solution 8
The significance of the title is that through the story “Accidental Tourist” the author reflects humorously on his various experiences as a traveller and how unlike most travellers he never manages to ever have a safe and accident free journey. Although he is a frequent traveller he always experiences catastrophes whenever he travels. Through the various experiences that he narrates one comes to the conclusion that he is an accident prone person not only while travelling but also in life in general.
