I SEMESTER B.COM (SEP) (One mark questions and answers)

 SHORT STORIES

THE MODEL MILLIONAIRE

 by 

OSCAR WILDE (1856- 1900)

1. What were the two things that Hughie Ernskine inherited from his father?

Answer: Cavalry sword and a History of the Peninsular War in fifteen volumes.

2. Where did the Mertons live?

Answer: Holland Park

3. What was Alan Trevor‟s profession?

Answer: Painter

4. What was the only means of sustenance for Hughie?

Answer: Two hundred pounds a year given to him by an elderly aunt. 

5. Why could not the colonel accept the engagement of his daughter with Hughie?

Answer: Because Hughie did not have any profession and a wealth of ten thousand 

pounds.

6. How does Hughie show his kindness to the beggar?

Answer: By giving a sovereign to the beggar .

 

7. Who was the beggar in reality?

Answer: The beggar in reality was Baron Hausberg, one of the richest men in Europe.

8. Name the girl whom Hughie Erskine loved.

Answer: Laura Merton

9. How does Baron Hausberg help Hughie?

Answer: By giving him a cheque for £10,000.

10. Why does Hughie comment that painters are heartless?

Answer: Because they pay less to the models.

11. How does Baron help Hughie get married to Laura?

Answer: By giving him a cheque for £ 10,000.

THE CONJURER‟S REVENGE 

by 

 STEPHEN LEACOCK (1869-1944)

1. Who spoiled the magic trick every time? 

Answer: The Quick Man

2. What did the Quick Man whisper every time the conjurer performed his trick?

Answer: He-had-it-up-his-sleeve.

3. Who invented the Japanese trick?

Answer: The natives of Tipperary.

4. Name the things collected by the conjurer from the Quick Man to perform tricks.

Answer: Gold watch, handkerchief, silk hat, celluloid collar and spectacles.

5. What did the conjurer do to his gold watch and spectacles?

Answer; He broke the watch and smashed the spectacles.

6. Why does the conjurer get personal things from the Quick Man?

Answer: To perform Japanese trick invented by the natives of Tipperary.

7. Mention the tricks performed by the conjurer.

Answer: Taking a bowl of fish from the empty cloth, Hindostanee rings, taking eggs from the hat. 

8. How many eggs did the conjurer extract from a hat?

Answer: 17 eggs.

9. Who is called the Quick Man in the story?

Answer: A man from the audience who spoils every trick of the conjurer.

AN ASTROLOGER‟S DAY

By

R.K. NARAYAN (1906-2001)

1. What are the professional equipments of the astrologer?

Answer: A dozen cowrie shells, a square piece of cloth with obscure mystic charts on it, a notebook, and a bundle of palmyra writing.

2. What was the stranger‟s name in the story, An Astrologer’s Day?

Answer: Guru Nayak

3. What was the pact between the stranger and the astrologer?

Answer: The stranger had to pay the astrologer eight annas if he found the answer satisfactory; If the stranger found the answers wrong, the astrologer had to pay him sixteen annas.

4. What did the astrologer know about the stranger?

Answer: The stranger‟s name was Guru Nayak. He and the stranger drank, gambled and quarreled badly one day. The astrologer stabbed the stranger in the chest, pushed him into a well nearby in the field and he was left for dead.

5. What did the astrologer advice the stranger?

Answer: To take the next train and go back home because there is a great danger to his life if goes from home. 

6. How did the astrologer recognize the stranger?

Answer: While litting up the matchstick and by noticing the scar on his chest.

7. How did the stranger's enemy die according to the astrologer?

Answer: He was crushed under a lorry.

8. To whom does the astrologer confess the truth about the stranger?

Answer: His wife. 

9. He “never opened his mouth till the other had spoken for at least ten minutes.” Give a reason.

Answer: It provided him enough stuff for a dozen answers and advices.

ESSAYS

ON TRAVEL BY TRAIN

By

J.B. PRIESTLEY (1894-1984)

1. How does Priestly describe the middle-aged women? 

Answer: The middle-aged woman is large with rasping voice and a face of brass.

2. Why does the writer say children are not good to travel with?

Answer: Because throughout the journey they will spend all their time daubing their faces with chocolate or trying to climb out of the window.

3. Who are the cranks?

Answer: The cranks annoy their fellow passengers by insisting to open the windows in the trains on the bleakest days but in the hot season, they do not allow a window to be opened.

4. Why does the writer like innocent travelers?

Answer: The innocent travelers who always find themselves in the wrong train. They neither bother about the railway timetables nor ask the railway officials for advice. They get into the train that comes first. In the midst of the journey, they enquire, whether they are on the right train or not.

 

5. Who are called the Seven of Ephesus?

Answer: Sleepers

6. Who, according to the writer, makes good companions on rail journeys?

Answer: Seafaring men.

7. Who is the Ancient Mariner of the railway traveler?

Answer: The elderly man.

8. Who does the poet envy among the travelers?

Answer: Sleepers

HOW TO ESCAAPE FROM INTELLECTUAL RUBBISH

BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970)

1. How to escape from intellectual rubbish according to Bertrand Russell?

Answer: Observation

2. What are the advantages of having an imaginary argument with a person having a different bias?

Answer: It is not subject to the same limitations of time and space.

How could Aristotle avoid the mistake about women teeth?

Answer:, Aristotle could have avoided the mistake about women teeth if had asked his wife to keep her mouth open while he counted.

4. In arithmetic, there is knowledge, but in theology, there is only one …………

Answer: In arithmetic, there is knowledge, but in theology, there is only one opinion.

5. How could one avoid dogmatism?

Answer: To become aware of opinions held in social circles different from our own.

6. What is the most savage controversies?

Answer: The matters that have no good evidence. 

7. What are the common sources of error?

Answer: Passions and self-esteem.

8. What are the forms of fear according to Russell?

Answer: Fear of death, fear of the dark and fear of the unknown.

9. What is the main source of superstition?

Answer: Fear is the main source of superstition.

10. Mention the two ways of avoiding error.

Answer: (1) Persuading ourselves that we are immune from disaster.

 (2) By the practice of sheer courage.

STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH

By 

STEVE JOBS (1955-2011)

1. From which college did Steve Jobs drop out?

Answer: Reed College

2. Who was Steve‟s biological mother?

Answer: A young, unwed college graduate.

3. What did Steve‟s biological mother find about his adopted parents?

Answer: His mother had never graduated from college and his father had never graduated from high school.

4. Why did Steve‟s biological mother refused to sign the adoption papers?

Answer: Because his biological mother insisted on sending him to college.

5. What according to Steve Jobs was one of best decisions he ever made?

Answer: To drop out.

6. Why would Steve walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night?

Answer: To get one good meal.

7. Where did Steve Jobs walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get a good meal?

Answer: Hare Krishna temple. 

8. Which college offered the best calligraphy instruction in the country, according to Steve Jobs?

Answer: Reed College

9. How did the calligraphy classes Steve had taken help him?

Answer: The calligraphy classes helped Steve Jobs to produce artistic posters and labels. 

10. What, according to Steve Jobs, has never let him down and made all the difference in his life?

Answer: Trust in destiny and karma. 

11. Where did Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple?

Answer: Garage

12. Name the companies Steve Jobs started after he was fired from Apple.

Answer: NeXT and Pixar

13. What was Steve Jobs diagnosed with?

Answer: Pancreas Cancer.