MCQ's (with Solutions) - A Shady Plot | Literature Reader Class 10 PDF Download

Read the following extracts and choose the correct option.

Q1. ‘‘Curious how that idea for a plot had come to me out of nowhere after I had closed inspiration for months!”

(i) The writer believed that he was

(a) a good story writer

(b) lacked imagination needed for ghost stories

(c) was not a good ghost story-writer

(d) lacked the ability to write stories

(ii) The writer found it ‘curious’ that

(a) his stories were published

(b) no one read his stories

(c) the plot would suddenly appear out of nowhere

(d) why he was not writing stories full time.

(iii) The writer kept choosing plots because

(a) he was not given any encouragement

(b) he was paid less so he lost the desire

(c) writing ghost stories was not instinctive

(d) he had no interest in such stories

Answers : (i) (b)

(ii) (c)

(iii) (c)

Q2. ‘‘I just come to tell you to stop bothering us for assistance, we’re going on strike.’’

(i) Identify ‘I’.

(a) The writer

(b) Miss Hinkle

(c) His wife

(d) The ghost, Helen

(ii) The speaker is fed up because

(a) people mocked them

(b) people called them at all times for help

(c) people maltreated them

(d) people screamed at seeing them

(iii) The speaker threatened to go on strike because now they had decided

(a) to sit at one place and answer questions

(b) to haunt

(c) to frighten more people

(d) to appear at all times

Answers : 

(i) (d)

(ii) (b)

(iii) (a)

Q3. ‘‘You’re to exert your influence ...... then we’ll start helping you to write.”

(i) Identify the speaker.

(a) Helen the ghost

(b) the writer

(c) the wife

(d) the cook

(ii) The listener was expected to persuade people not to

(a) call the ghosts

(b) use the Ouija board

(c) trouble the ghosts

(d) chant magic spells

(iii) The promise made by the speakers is

(a) not to haunt

(b) not to frighten his wife

(c) not to appear in the writer’s house

(d) help him write the stories

Answers : 

(i) (a)

(ii) (b)

(iii) (d)

Q4. ‘‘Lavinia dear, do you know anyone with the name of Helen?’’

(i) Who is Lavinia?

(a) writer’s friend

(b) his wife

(c) cook

(d) a neighbour

(ii) The above incident takes place at the writer’s

(a) wife’s kitty parties

(b) in his garden

(c) wife’s card parties

(d) wife’s Book Club meetings

(iii) The above reveals __________ of the speaker

(a) mockery

(b) appreciation

(c) suspicion

(d) dislike

Answers : 

(i) (b)

(ii) (d)

(iii) (c)

Q5. ‘‘So I went home and sat down before my desk and sucked at the end of my pencil and waited, but nothing happened. Pretty soon my mind began to wander off on other things.”  [C.B.S.E. 2012 (T-2)]

(i) The author was coming back

(a) from office

(b) from an official meet

(c) from a party

(d) after a meeting with Jenkins

(ii) What was the author waiting to happen?

(a) for an encounter with God

(b) for the result of his magic mantra

(c) for the result of invocation to ghosts

(d) for an idea of a plot to write a ghost story

(iii) Where did the author’s mind began to wander?

(a) to think about his new job

(b) to think about his last story

(c) about the new house he had bought

(d) on the material things like his wife’s shopping and how he was going to cure her alarming tendency to take every new fad that came along.

Answers : (i) (d) (ii) (d) (iii) (d)

Q6. ‘’But what have I got to do with this?’ She gave me a pitying look and rose. “You’re to exert your influence. Get all your friends and acquaintances to stop using the Ouija board, and then we’ll start helping you to write.”   [C.B.S.E. 2012 (T-2)]

(i) Who is ‘she’ in the above passage?

(a) Helen

(b) Lavinia

(c) Gladiola

(d) Mrs. William Augustus

(ii) ‘You are to exert your influence for

(a) co-operating with her

(b) providing all help to her

(c) helping the ghosts to fight their problem

(d) stopping the use of Ouija board

(iii) Before disintegrating, the narrator was told

(a) not to forget the strike

(b) to help them

(c) to stop talking to a ghost

(d) to exert his influence to help them

Answers : (i) (a) (ii) (d) (iii) (d)