By using context clues, we can determined that "sensible" as used in "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" means reasonable, or rational, as is further explained below.
What are context clues?
When we read a text, it is very likely that we will come across some unfamiliar words. However, it is possible to find clues in the text itself that help us determined the meaning of those unfamiliar words. Such clues are called context clues.
Let's take a look at the paragraph where the word "sensible" appears in “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi":
- Darzee was a feather-brained little fellow who could never hold more than one idea at a time in his head. And just because he knew that Nagaina's children were born in eggs like his own, he didn't think at first that it was fair to kill them. But his wife was a sensible bird, and she knew that cobra's eggs meant young cobras later on.
Here, we can contrast what is said about Darzee and his wife. Darzee is called a "feather-brained little fellow," which means he is not very smart. His wife, on the other hand, is his opposite. She is sensible. Unlike him, she can understand and reason about things.
With those context clues in mind, we can say that the meaning of "sensible" as used in the excerpt is reasonable or rational.
Learn more about context clues here:
https://brainly.com/question/24750804
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