Play 1 Heat Lightning
Q.1 Why couldn’t the girl describe the killer?Ans. She could not describe the killer because she could not see him very well in the dark, and also because she was too frightened to describe anything properly. She could not even remember how the man was dressed.
Q.2 What were the circumstances that forced her to leave her car?
Ans. Her car ran out of gas so she left it. Hoping to get a bus to get home.
Q.3 why did she ask for help from the first man? Or Why did the girl consider the first man her helper?
Ans. She asked for help from the first man because she thought that the first man was a passenger waiting for the bust. She, therefore, took the first man for her saviour ad asked him to help her.
Q.4 What was the condition of the weather?
Ans. It was raining very heavily. There were flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder. It was a stormy night.
Q.5 Why did the second man accuse the first man of lying?
Ans. The second man accused the first man of lying because he thought that the first man had tried to give him the impression that there was no one else in the waiting room. The second man had actually seen a girl in the room but the first man didn’t want the girl to be noticed.
Q.6 Does the girl become suspicious of the first man as the play progresses?
Ans. The girl does not become suspicious of the first man as the play progresses. She takes him for her protector throughout the play till, at the end of the play, she sees him taking her own flashlight from his coat pocket.
Q.7 What is her impression of the second man?
Ans. She believes that the second man is the killer whom she saw dragging the dead body of a girl from his car, and who had chased her all the way till she reached the bus station.
Q.8 Why didn’t she accompany the second man?
Ans. She did not accompany the second man because she believed he is the killer whom she had seen dragging the dead body of a girl from his car. She was terribly scared of the second man who, she thought, would kill her, too.
Additional
Q.1 Why did the girl come out on a stormy night?Ans. The girl was at a party, and she could have stayed all night with a friend, but she changed her mind as she thought she had enough gas to get home.
Q.2 What did the girl see while walking along the road?
Ans. As she walked along the road, she noticed a car pulled off into a lane. But as she drew near, she saw a man pulling the dead body of a girl out of the car.
Q.3 Hat as the condition of the girl when she entered the waiting room?
Ans. The girl’s clothes were wet and muddy, and her hair was dishevelled. She was sobbing and was awfully scared.
Q.4 Why did the first man ask the girl to go to the police?
Ans. The first man asked the girl to go to the police because he wanted to find out if she could report the dreadful incident to the police.
Q.5 Why did the first man insist on the girl’s going to the women’s room?
Ans. The first man insisted on her going to the women’s room because the second man was violently knocking at the door of the waiting room, and the first man did not want him to see the girl there.
Q.6 What did the first man say to the girl?
Ans. He told her to get hold of herself. He assured her of his help and said that he wouldn’t have her. He told her to report the dreadful incident to the police.
Q.7 What are the factors that played a role in saving the girl?
Ans. The factors that played a role in saving the girl were the second man and the dog that came there to save itself from the storm. But mainly it was the dog that seized the man and forced him to run away.
Q.8 How did the girl realize the truth?
Ans. She realized the truth when she saw the first man taking a flashlight from his coat pocket. It was her flashlight that she had dropped in her great terror.
Q.9 How was the girl saved in the end?
Ans. When the girl saw the first man taking a flashlight from his coat pocket, she ran up to the center door and bolted it before the man came near her. A dog that came there by chance to save itself from the storm jumped and grabbed the man with its sharp teeth and forced him to run away.
Q.10. How did the second man try to help the girl get over her fear of lightning?
Ans. He took the girl’s arm and led her up to the window to show her a big flash of lightning. He told her that she would never get over her fear of things until she faced them.
Q.11 Why did the girl scream to see the center door in the lightning?
Ans. The girl screamed because she had seen a man’s face pressed against the glass of the door outside.
Q.12 What did the second man say when he noticed the girl’s nervousness?
Ans. He asked the girl if the storm had upset her plans. He consoled her that she should expect storms to slow down buses.
Q.13 How did the second man knock at the door and what did he say while knocking at the door?
Ans. The second man knocked at the door forcefully. He was angrily asking the first man to open the door and let him come in.
Q.14 Why did the girl let out a muffled cry?
Ans. The light in the room dimmed and went out. The girl got afraid and let out a muffled cry because he did not want to second man to notice her.
Q. 15 who wrote the play, “Heat Lightning”?
Ans. Robert F. Carroll wrote the play, “Heat Lightning”.
Play 2 Visit to a Small Planet
How does Kreton prove his extraordinary powers? Write five sentences.
Ans. Kreton and his people do not die and they can control their thoughts. Kreton can read people’s minds. He can tell in advance what will happen next. He can create an invisible wall that keeps him and his spaceship from any harm. He flies in a spaceship that has no instrument board.
What is the purpose of Kreton’s visit to the Earth?
Ans. Kreton says that he has come to the Earth as a tourist as his hobby is to study the planet, Earth and the civilization on it. He, however, declares at the end of the play that he has come to take charge of the planet, Earth.
How advanced is the civilization of Kreton as compared to that of the Earth?
Ans. According to Kreton, the civilization on Earth is only at the initial stages. The people of the Earth still stick to their primitive traits like wonder, fear and pride. Kreton, on the other hand, is immortal, can read people’s minds and can foretell any happening.
Can the people of the Earth compete with those of Kreton?
Ans. The people of the Earth cannot compete with those of Kreton. His people are much more advanced scientifically. They can be immortal and can control their thoughts. On the other hand, the Earth people are mortal. They have not yet gotten rid of their primitive traits. Their civilization is only at the initial stages.
How damaging is violence in life? Rite five sentences.
Ans. Violence is a threat to life and civilization. It results in frustration and chaos. It stops the cycle of progress and development. It negates all moral values and good norms. It creates revengefulness and savagery.
What type of life do you foresee in the year 5000?
Ans. In the year 50000, people will be living on different heavenly bodies. They will have conquered diseases, social and economic problems and perhaps even death. Their lifestyle and ways of enjoyment will be totally different.
How much impressive were the morals of Kreton?
Ans. Kreton is very polite, gentle and well-mannered. He answers all questions of General Powers good-humouredly although the latter speaks to him in a very vulgar way. He does not sound patronizing while commenting on the progress the people on the Earth have made.
What is the role of General Powers in the play?
Ans. In the play General powers in a symbol of the superpower, America. He concludes that the visitor is a spy, sent to the Earth by an alien race to study the people on it, preparatory to invasion. It is through him that we come to know that the visitor has come to take charge of the planet, Earth.
What is the theme of Kreton’s study?
Or
What information does Kreton have about the planet, Earth?
Ans. The thorough study of Kreton has made of the planet, Earth, is as follows:
“The planet, Earth is divided into five continents with a number of large islands. It is mostly water. There is one moon, Civilization is just beginning.”
How does Kreton impress General Powers?
Ans. General Powers is impressed when he comes to know that Kreton’s spaceship has no instrument board or food and that the visitor is advanced enough to protect himself and his machine by creating an invisible wall around them. It impresses him to find that Kreton can read people’s minds and speak all languages and that he and his people do not do.
Additional
What does Roger Spelding say about the flying object as he concludes his TV broadcast?
Or
What statement of General Powers regarding the suppositions about the falling object does Roger Spelding quote as he winds up his TV broadcast?
Ans. Roger Spelding concludes his T.V broadcast quoting General Powers that the flying object which has given rise to meaningless suppositions is nothing more than a meteor passing through the earth’s orbit. He further quotes General Powers that Americans will be the first to travel in space.
What kind of person is Roger Spelding?
Ans. Roger Spelding is an unctuous and ambitious man. He seems to have no opinion of his own. He very obediently, or rather comically, believes what his seniors say. He boasts of his being closely in touch with General Powers.
How much does Ellen Spelding like her Father’s TB broadcast?
Ans. Ellen Spelding, a lively girl of twenty, fidgets as she listens to the broadcast of her father. He grumbles at her indifference to the limelight he enjoys.
What is Ellen interested in?
Ans. She is interested in John Randolph, her fiancé, whom Roger Spelding does not like.
Why doesn’t Roger Spelding like his daughter’s fiancé, John Randolph?
Ans. Roger Spelding does not like his daughter’s fiancé, John Randolph, because he believes that John is everything except a hard-working, ambitious man who will make his mark in the world.
Does Ellen like her father’s idea of marrying an ambitious or wealthy man?
Ans. Ellen does not agree with her father’s idea of her marrying an ambitious or wealthy man. She likes John and believes that he is hardworking man. She likes him for what he is.
What kind of man does Roger Spelding wish his daughter to marry?
Ans. Roger Spelding believes that there is nothing wrong with marrying a wealthy man. However, he wishes that his daughter was married to a hard-working ambitious man who will make his mark in the world.
Does Mrs. Spelding like her daughter’s fiancé, John Randolph? What does she say about him?
Ans. Mrs. Spelding likes John, her daughter’s fiancé. She says that he is a perfectly nice boy.
What kind of person is John Randolph?
Ans. John is an easy-going sort of person. He is not an ambitious man who will make his mark in the world. He seems to be content with his business of growing walnuts on his farm.
Where does the flying object land?
Ans. The flying object lands in Roger Spelding’s house. It lands right in Mrs. Spelding’s rose garden.
What do the Spelding say as they see something landing in their house?
Ans. Mrs. Spelding, Ellen and John believe that it is a spaceship as they see something falling right in their house. Roger Spelding, however, disagrees with them. He keeps reiterating that it is either a meteor or a balloon.
What does the visitor from outer space look like?
Ans. The visitor is in his forties. He is a mild, pleasant-looking man with side-whiskers, and is dressed in the fashion of 1860.
What do Mr. and Mrs. Spelding say as they see Kreton getting out of his spaceship?
Ans. He looks perfectly nice to Mrs. Spelding. She likes his side-whiskers. On the other hand, Roger Spelding thinks that the alien is either a monster or an impostor.
What does Roger Spelding do, as he sees the flying saucer landing in his house and a man getting out of it?
Ans. As Roger Spelding sees a flying object landing in his house and a man getting out of it, he at once calls the Army and declares that General Powers is coming over. He suggests that he and others leave the house until the Army gets there.
Where does Kreton, come from?
Or
Which planet or solar system does Kreton come from?
Ans. When asked where he is from, Kreton says that he is neither from the planet, Earth, nor from Mars or any other planet known to the Earth people. He says that he is from another solar system, or rather from a planet in another dimension.
Why does Kreton say that he cannot explain to General Powers as to where the former has come from?
Or
How long, according to Kreton, will it take General Powers to understand where Kreton has come from?
Ans. Kreton says that it is possible that he could explain it to a mathematician as to where he (Kreton) is from, but not to a layman like General Powers for another five hundred years.
How does AIDE, describe Kreton’s spaceship?
Ans. The captain reports that the flying object is elliptical, with a fourteen-foot diameter. He adds that it is made of an unknown metal that shines, and inside the spaceship, there isn’t anything – no instruments, no food, nothing.
Why and how does General Powers threaten Kreton when AIDE reports that there is no instrument board in the flying object?
Ans. When General Powers comes to know through AIDE that there is no instrument board in the flying machine, he threatens that Kreton will be in very serious trouble if he does not cooperate and tell what he did with his instrument board.
Why can’t Spelding interview Kreton? What hampers his being the first to break the news on TV about the alien?
Ans. Spelding cannot interview Kreton or break the news about aliens in his TB broadcast because General Powers has put complete censorship on any leaking of the story about the alien. General Powers declares that Spelding’s house is under martial law.
Why can’t John call his family to tell them that he is all right?
Ans. As John moves to telephone his family to tell them that he is all right, AIDE forbids him to do so, telling him that Spelding’s house is a military reservation until the crisis is over. He forbids John to leave the house without General Power’s permission.
Play 3 The Oyster and the Pearl
Q. Where does the play take place?
Ans. The play takes place in a barber’s shop in O.K.-by-the-sea, a small seaside town.
Q. Why is Harry sitting in the barber’s chair?
Ans. Harry is sitting in the barber’s chair in order to get a haircut. A boy of nine or ten named Clay Larrabee is giving him a haircut.
Q. According to harry, how does one bring merriment to the tired old human heart?
Ans. According to harry, one may bring merriment to the tired old human heart by composing a symphony, painting a picture, writing a book or by inventing a philosophy.
Q. What is Harry’s philosophy?
Ans. Harry’s philosophy is a way to live. He calls it the “take-it-easy-way”.
Q. How much did Harry pay for his barber shop?
Ans. Harry paid seventy-five dollars for his barber shop, and he has been in O.K-by-the-Sea for twenty-four years.
Q. How many barbers are there in O.K.-by-the-Sea?
Ans. Harrys is the only barber in O.K-by-the-Sea.
Q. How much does Harry charge for haircuts?
Ans. Harry normally gets a dollar a haircut but quite often he gets less than a dollar because the people of O.K-by-the-Sea are all poor, and most of them cannot afford to pay for the haircuts he gives them.
Q. Where is Clay going?
Ans. Clay is going to the beach, and this time, he says, he is going to find something really good.
Q. Why does Clay need money?
Ans. Clay needs money to get his father to come home and to buy his mother a present.
Q. What has happened to Clay’s father?
Ans. Clark, Clay’s father, has four kids to provide for, but he cannot afford to give them the things they need. He and his wife, therefore, often fight, and this time it has been almost a month since he picked up and wet off, telling nobody where he was going.
Q. what kind of ad does Clay put in the local newspaper?
Ans. Clark, Clay’s father, has four kids to provide for, but he cannot afford to give them the things they need. He and his wife, therefore, often fight, and this time it has been almost a month since he picked up and went off, telling nobody where he was going.
Q. Who is Miss McCutcheon? How does she feel about her job?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon is the new teacher at the school in O.K-by-the-Sea, but only one week at the school has made her disillusioned and frustrated. She is indecisive about whether to stay or to give up in despair and go home to San Francisco.
Q. What is Miss McCutcheon looking for? How does she feel about the children of the town?
Ans. She is looking for a chance to teach but she feels that the children just don’t seem to care about anything whether they pass or fail. She says that they are disobedient, and are only interested in games and the sea.
Q. What does Harry advise Miss McCutcheon to do?
Ans. When Miss McCutcheon asks Harry for his advice as to whether she should quit or stay in the town, he advises her to go back while the going is good. He says that she is too good for a town like O.K-by-the-Sea.
Q. What kind of haircut does Miss McCutcheon want?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon wants Harry to give her a poodle haircut.
Q. Can Harry give a poodle haircut?
Or
Why doesn’t Harry give Miss McCutcheon a poodle haircut?
Ans. Harry tells her that he does not know how to give a poodle haircut, and adds that he wouldn’t do it even if he knew how to do it because he does not give women haircuts.
Q. What does Miss McCutcheon think that a poodle haircut will do to her appearance?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon thinks that a poodle haircut will help her fit into the scenery around her. She says that children don’t take her seriously, and they think that she is nothing more than a pretty girl. So, she has decided to change her appearance.
Q. Where has Clark Larrabee been? How does he get to O.K-by-the-Sea?
Ans. Clark Larrabee has been away from his family for almost a month since he had a fight with his wife. He has been working in Salinas and has saved thirty dollars. Now getting a ride in a truck he comes to O.K-by-the-Sea to send the money to his wife through Harry and to see his son, Clay.
Q. What does Clark give Harry and for what purpose?
Ans. Clark gives Harry thirty dollars, which he has saved in one month, and asks Harry to give the money to his son, Clark, to take home.
Q. How far is it to Hollywood from O.K-by-the-Sea?
Ans. Hollywood is about two hundred miles from O.K-by-the-Sea.
Q. What work does the Man do?
Ans. The Man is a writer. He says that he writes a little bit of everything.
Q. What did Clay find near the Black Rock?
Ans. Clay found an oyster near the Black Rock.
Q. What according to Clay is in the oyster? How much is it worth?
Ans. Clay believes that there is a pearl in the oyster and that it is worth at least three hundred dollars.
Q. Does Miss McCutcheon believe that there is a pearl in the oyster?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon doesn’t believe that there is a pearl in the oyster. She says that one oyster in a million has a pearl in it, and truth favours the probability that the oyster that Clay has found is not the millionth one… the oyster with the pearl in itself.
Q. Why does Miss McCutcheon has a chair with three legs?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon has a chair with three legs which she has found on the beach. She says she is going to bring the same things from the sea as everybody else in the town.
Q. What kind of judge is Applegarth?
Ans. Judge Applegarth once judged animals at a country fair, so everybody calls him Judge now.
Q. What year is it?
Ans. It is 1953.
Q. What does Greeley have in a bottle?
Ans. Greeley has seawater in a bottle. He believes that the water of the sea is full of things.
Q. Who suggests that they open the oyster?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon suggests that they open the oyster.
Q. Why does Harry want Wozzeck to come?
Ans. Harry wants Wozzeck to come and open the oyster because he is afraid that he might damage the pearl if he tried to open the oyster.
Q. How does harry describe the inhabitants of O.K-by-the-Sea?
Ans. Harry says that the people of O.K-by-the-Sea are poor. He says a few people find jobs a couple of months every year and a few get pensions, but in a town of almost a thousand people, there isn’t one rich man. Harry says the people of O.K-by-the-Sea are the richest he has ever known.
Q. How does Miss McCutcheon view Harry’s thinking about the pearl in the oyster?
Ans. Miss McCutcheon believes that all the reasons that Harry gives to believe that there is a pearl in the oyster and all his ideas are illogical and confusing. She says that they should not play a trick and Clay. She wants everyone including children to face the truth and come out of the world of illusions.
Q. Why does the judge think that Miss McCutcheon will not last as a teacher? What kind of teacher does he think is needed?
Ans. The Judge thinks that Miss McCutcheon will not last a month as a teacher because she is too pretty for a town like O.K-by-the-Sea. He says that their school needs an old, ferocious teacher like the one they had when they went to school.
Q. What is Applegarth’s complaint about the sea?
Ans. Applegarth complains that the beach is not what it used to be. He says that the quality of the stuff the sea is washing up is not good anymore.
Q. What kind of gadget does the writer describe?
Ans. The writer tells harry that there is a gadget like a safety razor in New York that anybody can give anybody else a haircut with.
Q. Who buys the oyster? How much does he pay?
Ans. The writer buys the oyster. He pays three hundred dollars for it.
Q. Why does the writer not open the oyster?
Ans. The writer does not open the oyster because he believes that the pearl in the oyster is alive and has not stopped growing yet.
Q. Why does Clark Larrabee return?
Ans. Clark Larrabee returns to the town because he has read the ad that Clay put in the local paper, requesting his father to come home.
Q. What does the writer do with the oyster?
Ans. The writer puts the oyster into his coat pocket.
Q. Who wrote the play, “The Oyster and the Pearl”?
Ans. William Saroyan wrote the play, “The Oyster and the Pearl”.
