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Question
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
It had no eyes ears, nose or mouth. It was just round smooth head - with a school cap on top of it And that's where the story should end.
But for Mr. Oliver, it did not end here.
The torch fell from his trembling hand. He turned and scrambled down the path, running blind. through the trees and calling for help.
He was still running towards the school buildings when he saw a lantern swinging in the middle of the path.
(i) Who was Mr. Oliver? Where did he encounter 'It?
(ii) Where did Mr. Oliver work? Why did Life magazine describe this place as the 'Eton of the East'?
(iii) Why had Mr. Oliver approached 'It' in the first place? What had lie mistaken it for?
(iv) 'Whal is lantern? Who was holding the lantern? Why did Mr. Oliver feel relieved at the sight of the lantern?
(v) Briefly describe the meeting between the lantern bearer and Mr. Oliver. State one reason why 'A Face in the Dark' could be considered a horror story. ?
Solution
(i) Mr. Oliver, a bachelor, was an Anglo Indian teacher in a school outside Simla. He encountered ‘it’ (a figure of a boy) who was sitting alone on a rock as he (Oliver) walked through the pine forest.
(ii) Mr. Oliver was teaching in the school which was run on English Public School lines. ‘Life’ magazine described this place as ‘the Eton of the East’ because the boys from wealthy Indian families studied in the school. They wore blazers, caps, and ties.
(iii) Mr. Oliver approached it (the boy) in order to recognize the boy. He had mistaken it (the boy) for one of his school students who, Mr. Oliver felt, should not have been there so late in the dark.
(iv) A lantern is a lamp in a transparent case, often a metal case with glass sides, that has a handle, so that you can carry it outside. Mr. Oliver was holding the lantern. He felt relieved at the sight of the lantern swinging in the middle of the path because his own lantern had fallen from his trembling hand on seeing the figure of a boy who was without eyes, ears nose or mouth.
(v) Mr. Oliver feels nervous. He stumbles up to the ‘watchman gasping for breath. He is frightened when he finds that the Watchman has also no eyes, no ears, no features at all – not even an eyebrow. All this makes the story mysterious, strange and supernatural. Mr. Oliver had earlier come across a figure of a boy who had no eyes, no ears, no nose, and no mouth. And then a similar watchman. This is all frightening and horrible. This makes the story a real horror story.
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From boulder to boulder she came leaping like a rock goat. Sometimes it had seemed difficult to cross these stones, especially the big gap in the middle where the river coursed through like a bulge of glass. But now she came on wings, choosing her footing in midair without even thinking about it, and in one moment she was beside the shrieking woman. In the boiling bloody water, the face of the crocodile, fastened round her leg, was tugging to and fro, and smiling. His eyes rolled on to Sibia. One slap of the tail could kill her. He struck. Up shot the water, twenty feet, and fell like a silver chain. Again! The rock jumped under the blow. But in the daily heroism of the jungle, as common as a thorn tree, Sibia did not hesitate. She aimed at the reptile’s eyes. With all the force of her little body, she drove the hayfork at the eyes, and one prong went in—right in— while its pair scratched past on the horny cheek. The crocodile reared up in convulsion, till half his lizard body was out of the river, the tail and nose nearly meeting over his stony back. Then he crashed back, exploding the water, and in an uproar of bloody foam he disappeared. He would die. Not yet, but presently, though his death would not be known for days; not till his stomach, blown with gas, floated him. Then perhaps he would be found upside down among the logs at the timber boom, with pus in his eye. Sibia got arms round the fainting woman, and somehow dragged her from the water.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
What would happen to the crocodile?
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
Richard Parker was so named because of a clerical error.
A panther was terrorizing the Khulna district of Bangladesh, just outside the Sundarbans. It had recently carried off a little girl. She was the seventh person killed in two months by the animal. And it was growing bolder. The previous victim was a man who had been attacked in broad daylight in his field. The beast dragged him off into the forest, and his corpse was later found hanging from a tree. The villagers kept a watch nearby that night, hoping to surprise the panther and kill it, but it never appeared.
The Forest Department hired a professional hunter. He set up a small, hidden platform in a free near a river where two of the attacks had taken place. A goat was tied to a stake on the river’s bank. The hunter waited several nights. He assumed the panther would be an old, wasted male with worn teeth, incapable of catching anything more difficult than a human. But it was a sleek tiger that stepped into the open one night: a female with a single cub. The goat bleated. Oddly, the cub, who looked to be about three months old, paid little attention to the goat. It raced to the water’s edge, where it drank eagerly. Its mother followed it. Of hunger and thirst, thirst is the greater urge. Only once the tiger had quenched her thirst did she turn to the goat to satisfy her hunger.
The hunter had two rifles with him: one with real bullets, the other with immobilizing darts. This animal was not the man-eater, but so close to human habitation she might pose a threat to the villagers, especially as she was with cub. He picked up the gun with the darts. He fired as the tiger was about to attack the goat. The tiger reared up and snarled and raced away. But immobilizing darts don’t bring on sleep gently—they knock the creature out without warning. A burst of activity on the animal’s part makes it act all the faster. The hunter called his assistants on the radio. They found the tiger about two hundred yards from the river. She was still conscious. Her back legs had given way and her balance on her front legs was shaky. When the men got close, she tried to get away but could not manage it. She turned on them, lifting a paw that was meant to kill. It only made her lose her balance. She collapsed and the Pondicherry Zoo had two new tigers. The cub was found in a bush close by, meowing with fear.
The hunter, whose name was Richard Parker, picked it up with his bare hands and, remembering how it had rushed to drink in the river, named it Thirsty. But the shipping clerk at the Howrah train station was evidently a man both confused and diligent. All the papers received with the cub clearly stated that its name was Richard Parker, that the hunter’s first name was Thirsty add that his family name was None Given. Richard Parker’s name stuck. I don’t know if the hunter was ever called Thirsty None Given!
(a) Give the meaning of each of the following words as used in the passage.
One word answers ob short phrases will be accepted.
- corpse (line 6)
- quenched (line 16)
- reared (line 20)
(b) Answer the following questions briefly in your own words.
- Why does the author say that the panther ‘was getting bolder’?
- Why did the Forest Department hire a professional hunter?
- What did the hunter expect to encounter? What did he actually encounter?
- What did the tiger do before turning to attack the goat? Why did it do that?
- Why did the hunter decide to shoot the tiger though he knew it was not the man-eater?
- What name did the hunter give to the cub? Why?
(c)
(i) In not more than 60 words narrrate how the hunter and his assistants captured the tiger and her cub.
(ii) Give a suitable title to your summary in 3(c). Give a reason to justify your choice.
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Who advised Golu to go to the Limpopo river?
Complete the following sentences.
(i) Toto climbed up the curtains when ————————————————————————————————
(ii) _________________________________________________———————————————————————, I became one of the tiger’s favourites.
iii) Timothy had clean habits, ___________________ ————————————————————————————————————
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A house is made of ________
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Which of the following sums up the story best?
(i) “I also know that you will not kill your conscience for the sake of friendship.”
(ii) “Let no one deviate from the path of justice and truth for friendship or enmity.”
(iii) “The voice of the Panch is the voice of God.” Give a reason for your choice.
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