The Accidental Tourist Summary & Notes - CBSE Class 9 English Moments

According to the CBSE Syllabus 2023-24, this chapter has been removed from NCERT Class 9 English (Moments) textbook.

Summary of The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist is a story which reflects the humorous travel experiences of the author. He encounters unexpected hassles while travelling that call for trouble and embarrasses him immensely. Read the prose summary of CBSE Class 9 English Prose Notes – The Accidental Tourist in CBSE English Notes Class 9 format here to explore in detail. We hope this summary will help students to understand this chapter easily and prepare for their English exam with confidence.

Students can also learn how to write an effective essay by going through the essays to increase marks in Class 9 English papers.

CBSE Class 9 English The Accidental Tourist Summary

The Accidental Tourist is an entertaining story written by Bill Bryson, where he reflects on his travel experiences humorously. He casually describes the various incidents that took place while he was travelling to different places. He often acts clumsily and finds it difficult to manage things systematically. He wonders how other people do their regular work easily without any difficulty. A couple of times, he fails to locate the washroom in the movie theatre and ends up standing in a narrow passage of the door that locks by itself. He has a hard time living a normal life like other people and wonders how others do it so effortlessly.

Once, the author was travelling to England with his family during Easter. After reaching Logan Airport in Boston, while they were checking in, he abruptly remembered that he had joined the British Airways’ frequent flyer programme. He recollected that he had put the card in the carry-on bag that was dangling around his neck. When he tried opening the bag, the zip was clogged, and he exerted pressure to open it. In the process, the zip snapped, and everything that was kept inside the bag started spilling all over the place. Meanwhile, the author also noticed that his finger was injured and trapped in the zip. He was terrified at the sight that his finger was bleeding extensively.

Further, the author mentions the unexpected troubles that he encounters while travelling. In one such instance, while travelling in an aeroplane, he leaned over to tie his shoelace. Unfortunately, he was stuck when the person sitting ahead of him fully reclined his seat. With great difficulty, he freed himself from that cramped position. In another instance, he spilt some soft drinks on his co-passenger. Although the flight attendant cleaned up the mess, the author spilt another drink on the same passenger again. The lady was completely drenched and annoyed at the author for the inconvenience he caused her.

However, his worst experience on a flight was when he was writing in a notebook, and he sucked on the tip of the pen. At that time, he was also talking to a lady. Later when he went to the washroom, he saw that the pen had leaked unknowingly and ended up colouring his teeth, tongue and mouth in blue colour ink. He ended up feeling awkward for being so clumsy. Although the author is a gentleman, he always ends up in some cumbersome situation. His wife was well aware of his clumsiness. So, whenever food was delivered on the flight, she would instruct her children to remove the lid off the food for their father so that they could avoid any mishap from happening.

Nonetheless, the author clarifies that such unforeseen situations occur, particularly when he is travelling with his family. Whenever he travels alone, things work perfectly as he quietly sits on his seat and avoids tying his shoelaces if required. He avoids making mistakes while he is travelling on his own. He admits that he has been careless in updating his frequent flyer card due to time constraints. On multiple occasions, he either forgot to request the air miles from the airline authorities, or sometimes the airline didn’t record it on time. Furthermore, he mentions that there were instances when the airline informed him that he was not entitled to use air miles. Once due to a mismatch in his name on the ticket, he could not use his air miles and was left ineligible to travel to Bali on a first-class ticket.

Conclusion of The Accidental Tourist

The chapter – The Accidental Tourist teaches students that it is important to be organised and systematic in our lives, especially while travelling. We should be well-prepared; otherwise, we are likely to encounter unexpected mishaps like the author. Here, we brought you the CBSE Class 9 English Moments Prose Summary of The Accidental Tourist that will help students to have a solid insight into the chapter.

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