Lesson - 11 Midnight Express

 Class - 8

Lesson - 11

Midnight Express

by - Alfred Noyes

Textual Questions

Activity - 1 

Tick the correct alternative:

(i) Mortimer found the book

  (a) at a friend's place

  (b)in a book fair

  (c) in his father's library

(ii) The illustration on the page showed

  (a) a vast sea

  (b) an empty railway platform

  (c) a dark library room

(iii) Mortimer was able to read up to

  (a) page fifty of the book

  (b) the last page of the book

  (c) page fifty five of the book

 

(iv) Here Midnight Express is

  (a) an express train

  (b) a railway station

  (c) a book 

Activity -2

Rearrange the following sentences in the correct order and put the numbers in the given boxes:

(1) As a young man, Mortimer was waiting for a train in an empty junction.  VI

(2) Mortimer found a battered old book.  I

(3) He started to read the story by candlelight.  II

(4) Mortimer stopped at page fifty while reading the story.  V

(5) The illustration of the story frightened Mortimer every time.  IV

(6) Mortimer was fascinated by the battered old book.  III

 

Activity - 3

Answer the following question :

 

Why do you think Mortimer never read beyond page fifty of the book?

Ans :- Because Mortime felt something threatening in the illustration on page fifty of the book.

Activity - 4

Complete the following sentences with information from the text :

(a) Mortimer noticed in the lamp light a dark and solitary figure which he knew.

(b) The solitary figure faced the black mouth of a tunnel.

(c) Walking towards the figure Mortimer looked into its face. 

(d) The shadowy figure stood with a candle.

Activity - 5

Answer the following questions:

(a) When had Mortimer seen the 'dark and solitary figure' in his childhood?

Ans :- When Mortimer was reading fifty number page of the book called ‘Midnight Express’.

(b) "Mortimer was shocked"- When was Mortimer shocked and why?

Ans :- When Mortimer saw the face of the dark and solitary figure on the platform.

Mortimer was shocked because he saw the face of the man just similar to his own face.

 (c) What was "steadily gaining" on Mortimer as he stumbled out of the platform?

Ans :- The footsteps of the dark and solitary figure were steadily gaining on him on the platform.

 

Activity - 6

Write 'T' for true and 'F' for false statements in the given boxes. Give supporting statements for each of your answers: 
 
(a) Mortimer found the old battered book on the armchair.  F
S.S. :- By the armchair was a small, oak table on which lay a battered old book bound in red leather. 
 
(b) Mortimer realized that the book was the same one which he had read in his childhood.  T 
S.S. :- With a shock he realized it was the same book from his childhood, the book which contained the story of 'Midnight Express'.
 
(c) Mortimer felt immensely afraid of the things happening around him.  T
S.S. :-  He was filled with acute dread.

(d) In the flickering candlelight, the host was seen standing by the table.  F

S.S. :- The shadowy figure stood before Mortimer.

Activity - 7

Answer the following questions :

(a) To where did Mortimer follow the shadowy figure?

Ans :- Mortimer followed the shadowy figure to an upper room of the cottage where a bright fire was burning.

(b) Why do you think Mortimer's hands trembled when he turned the pages of the book?

Ans :- Mortimer was astonished and afraid when he found the same book on the table that he read in his childhood.

(c) "Mortimer tried to grasp the strange cycle of events he was going through"- what was the strange cycle of events?

Ans :- Mortimer saw a picture in a book in his childhood and exactly the same picture and the book he sees when he is an adult man. He meets a man whose face exactly looks like his own face.

(d) Do you think the strange incidents that happened to Mortimer would not have occurred if he had not read the book?

Ans :- I think the strange incidents that happened to Mortimer would not have occurred if he had not read the book.