Comprehension

I. Answer these questions in one or two words.

Q1. Who was Perkins?
Answer: The chauffeur

Q2. What is the name of the vehicle mentioned in the story?
Answer: Robur

Q3. What did Stanley die of?
Answer: Enteric (typhoid fever)

Q4. Where did the car crash?
Answer: At the park gate

Q5. How many sharp curves did Claystall Hill have?
Answer: Three

II. Answer these questions in a few words.

Q1. What was whirring like a high wind?
Answer: The car’s wheels.

Q2. Why is Perkins said to have been ‘splendid’ in his behaviour?
Answer: Because he was “perfectly cool and alert” during the crisis.

Q3. What are the brakes of the vehicle known as?
Answer: A footbrake and a side-brake.

Q4. Where did the narrator meet Stanley a few years prior to the incident?
Answer: At college.

Q5. Why did the narrator feel no pain?
Answer: Because he was dead.

III. Answer these questions briefly.

Q1. Why did the narrator feel that he was ‘like a man in a dream’?
Answer: He felt “giddy and shaken and quite prepared to take things as I found them without questioning them” after the crash.

Q2. Give a brief description of the vehicle mentioned in the story.
Answer: The vehicle was a new thirty-horse-power Robur. It had glaring headlights, polished brass, and a new gear system that involved passing the gear-lever through a gate.

Q3. What is the narrator’s view about foolishness?
Answer: The narrator believes people often do foolish things and don’t always have to “pay the full price for them”.

Q4. What did the narrator and Perkins do when they realised that the open gate lay in front of them?
Answer: The narrator “whirled round” the wheel with all his strength, and both he and Perkins threw their bodies across the car to steer it.

Q5. Why was the narrator amazed when the actual status of Stanley dawned upon him?
Answer: The narrator was amazed because he suddenly remembered that Stanley had died years ago in the Boer War.

IV. Answer these questions in detail.

Q1. Comment on the significance of the ending of the story.
Answer: The ending is significant because it reveals the true status of the narrator, who is a ghost or spirit. This revelation completely changes the reader’s understanding of the story, transforming it from a typical disaster narrative into a ghost story. The suspense is kept until the last moment, with the narrator’s death being revealed only after he has described his own “rescue” from the crash. The ending also highlights the irony of the situation: the narrator, who survived the physical crash, has actually died, while his living chauffeur, Perkins, is only injured.

Q2. Describe the drive undertaken by the narrator from the station to his home.
Answer: The drive was a five-mile journey on a “new thirty-horse-power Robur”. The narrator insisted on driving himself even though the car had a new gear system he wasn’t familiar with. The trouble began on Claystall Hill, a “terrible hill,” when he couldn’t shift gears properly. The car began tearing down the slope as both brakes failed one after another. The narrator managed to steer around two sharp curves, and although he and Perkins worked to guide the car, it crashed at 50 miles per hour into a pillar at the park gate.