The Small Ghost of the Mountain

Fifteen days

Step 1: The article provides details about Ahammed's trip to Mongolia. Step 2: He first spent 4 days trekking in the Hustai National Park. Step 3: Then he spent 11 days in the Altai Mountains area. Step 4: Adding these together: 4 + 11 = 15 days in total. Step 5: The article also confirms this in paragraph 4 when it says 'his fifteen-day stay in Mongolia'. So the correct answer is 15 days.

His fingers went numb in the cold despite wearing thick woollen gloves

Step 1: Paragraph 6 describes the many challenges Ahammed faced while photographing the Pallas's cat. Step 2: The article states that the wind was very strong, sometimes turning into a 'shrieking hurricane'. Step 3: The text specifically says 'Although well protected in thick woollen gloves, Ahammed's fingers would go numb and it became a struggle to handle the camera'. Step 4: This means that even with protection, the extreme cold made his fingers lose feeling, making it hard to operate the camera. Step 5: The other options are not mentioned as the reason for camera difficulty in the text.

Peter Simon Pallas, a German naturalist

Step 1: The article introduces the Pallas's cat in the opening paragraphs. Step 2: The text clearly says it 'is named after the German naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas'. Step 3: A naturalist is a person who studies plants and animals. Step 4: Peter Simon Pallas was the first person to scientifically describe this cat. Step 5: The other options — a Mongolian hunter, Paul Williams, and Neeraj Maher — are all real people mentioned in the text, but none of them named the cat.

Six sightings

Step 1: The article gives us a clear number regarding Ahammed's success in spotting the cat. Step 2: In paragraph 4, the text states: 'Ahammed had six sightings in all during his fifteen-day stay in Mongolia'. Step 3: This means he spotted the cat six separate times over 15 days. Step 4: Considering the difficulty of finding the cat — it took him three days just to spot it the first time — six sightings is actually a good result. Step 5: The other numbers (three, four, ten) are not mentioned in the article.