Extract Based Questions: A Shady Plot - Class 10 PDF Download

Q1: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“Hallock, ” he had said to me, “give us another on the supernatural this time. Something to give ’em the horrors; that’s what the public wants, and your ghosts are live propositions. ”

(a) Who is ‘he’?
Ans: ‘He’ is Jenkins, the editor of a magazine.

(b) What does he want Hallock to do?
Ans: Jenkins wants Hallock to write a ghost story for the magazine.

(c) Why does he want Hallock to do it?
Ans: Jenkins wants Hallock to write the story because his ghost stories are popular with the readers.

Q2: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“Jenkins always seemed to have an uncanny knowledge as to when the landlord or the grocer were pestering me, and he dunned me for a ghost. ”

(a) Who is ‘he’?

Ans: ‘He’ is Jenkins, the editor of the magazine for which Hallock writes.

(b) Why is Jenkin’s knowledge uncanny?
Ans: Jenkin always knew, as if through some mysterious powers, when the narrator needed money.

(c) Explain ‘he dunne,d me for a ghost.’
Ans: The editor persistently asked the narrator to write a ghost story for the magazine.

Q3: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“She was long and angular, with enormous fishy eyes behind big bone-rimmed spectacles, and her hair in a tightwad at the back of her head…”

(a) Who was she? What was her name?
Ans: She was a ghost. When alive, her name had been Helen of Troy, New York.

(b) Why had she appeared to the narrator?
Ans: Helen of Troy wanted the narrator to get his friends and acquaintances to stop using the Ouija board.

(c) How had she helped the narrator in the past?
Ans: Helen of Troy had helped the narrator by putting ideas for ghost stories in his head.

Q4: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“But my ghosts are n’t a bit like you… ”

(a) Who says this and to whom?
Ans: John Hallock, the narrator, says this to the ghost, Helen.

(b) Why does he say this?
Ans: The ghost claimed that she was the one who had suggested the plots of the ghost stories that the narrator wrote. A

(c) What does the listener reply?
Ans: Helen of Troy said the readers wouldn’t believe him if the ghosts were like her.

Q5: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“The very idea of that horrible scarecrow so much as touching me! And wouldn’t my wife be shocked! ”

(a) Who is the scarecrow?
Ans: The scarecrow referred to here is Helen, the ghost.

(b) Why does the scarecrow touch the speaker?
Ans: The ghost had told the narrator that she had often leant over his shoulder while he was writing to give him ideas.

(c) Why would the narrator’s wife be shocked?
Ans: The narrator’s wife being sensitive, and scared even of a mouse, would be terrified of the ghost and become hysterical.

Q6: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“There was a time when We had nothing much to occupy us and used to haunt a little on the side, purely for amusement, but not anymore. ”

(a) Who is the speaker?
Ans: The speaker is Helen, the ghost.

(b) What does she not like to do anymore?
Ans: The ghost does not wish to sit at a desk and answer Qs on the Ouija board any more.

(c) Why does she not have time for any longer?
Ans: Helen of Troy does not have time to haunt any longer.

Q7: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“I remembered her craze for taking up new fads and a premonitory chill crept up the back of my neck. ”

(a) Who is the speaker? Who is the ‘her’?
Ans: The narrator is the speaker. ‘Her’ is the speaker’s wife.

(b) What premonition does the speaker get?
Ans: Hallock feels that his wife may have got an Ouija board.

(c) Why does he feel so?
Ans: Hallock’s wife likes to follow the latest fads and Ouija boards were the latest craze.

Q8: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“Misto Hallock, de Missus shot ’inks you are lost! She says she done ‘phone you dis mawnin ’ to be home early, but fo ’ de Lawd’s sake not to stop to largely now, but get ready fo ’ de company an come on down.

(a) Who is the speaker?
Ans: The speaker is the narrator’s cook, Gladolia.

(b) Why had the listener’s wife tried to call him?
Ans: The listener’s wife had called him to tell him they had guests coming over in the evening and he should be home on time.

(c) What advice does the speaker give?
Ans: Gladolia tells him not to argue with his wife but to change his clothes and come down.

Q9: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“Then it began to fly around so fast that I gave up any attempt to follow it. My companion was bending forward and had started to spell out loud: ‘T-r-a-i-t-o-r. ’ Traitor! Why, what does she mean?’’

(a) Who is being called a ‘traitor’?
Ans: The narrator, John Hallock, is being called a traitor.

(b) Who is calling him a traitor?
Ans: The ghost is calling him a traitor.

(c) Why is he being called a traitor?
Ans: The ghost had wanted the narrator to get his friends and acquaintances to stop using the Ouija board but he was using it himself.

Q10: Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow:
“Misto Hallock, ” came from the hall outside, “Misto Hallock, I’m gwine t ’quit. I don’t like no hoodoos. And the steps retreated. ”

(a) Who is the speaker?
Ans: The speaker is the narrator’s cook, Gladolia.

(b) What is the speaker saying?
Ans: Gladolia says that she is going to leave the job.

(c) What reason does the speaker give?
Ans: Gladolia tells him that she does not wish to stay where people placed charms and curses on others.