Chapter 4.2
1. (a) Have you ever been invited to lunch, at any hotel, by your friend?
Answer: Have you ever been invited for a lunch to any hotel by your friend? (You can think of the name of the hotel, what you ate there, what you saw there, etc.)
(b) What was the occasion?
Answer: What was the occasion? (Was it for a birthday, a celebration of some sort, a get-together, etc.)
(c) Did you enjoy the lunch? Why?
Answer: Did you enjoy the lunch? Why? (Was the food good/bad, was the service good/ bad, was the place clean/unclean/noisy, etc.)
3. Discuss in pairs:
People with foibles are often not conscious of them. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
Answer: I agree with this. My grandmother has a foible that we all know about, but she is not conscious of it. When the house is untidy, she gets irritated. She will tuck in the edge of her sari and walk about the house, muttering to herself. She is not even aware of this peculiar behavior.
Choose the correct option from the bracket and fill in the blanks given below.
(addressed, luncheon, generously, unwise, insist)
2. Choose the correct option from the bracket and fill in the blanks given below.
(addressed, luncheon, generously, unwise, insist)
(a) The chief guest …………………… the students.
Answer: addressed
(b) The crow was …………………… to sing.
Answer: unwise
(c) I invited my relatives to ……………………
Answer: luncheon
(d) Parents always …………………… on children to be allrounders.
Answer: insist
(e) The king decided to donate his wealth among his subjects ……………………
Answer: generously
3. Answer in your own words.
(a) Although the author was not a vindictive man, he was very happy to see her weigh twenty one stone and had finally had his revenge. What makes him say this? Explain.
Answer: Twenty years earlier, the writer was earning barely enough money to make both ends meet. The lady wanted him to give her a luncheon at Foyot’s, an expensive restaurant. The writer thought that he could stand her a modest luncheon. The lady reassured him by saying that ‘she never ate anything for luncheon’. However, she ended by eating about six different items, some of which were very expensive yet she insisted till the end that she never ate more than one thing for luncheon and advised him against ‘filling his stomach with a lot of meat’ when all he had eaten was one small mutton chop – the cheapest item on the menu. The writer was finally left with a whole month before him and no money in his pocket. He could not forget this incident, and when he met her twenty years later, she had become very fat and weighed twenty-one stone. This made the writer feel that though he was not a vindictive man, he had got his revenge.
(b) There are quite a few places where the author uses the expressions ‘My heart sank, panic seized’ etc. What was the reason for this ? Explain.
Answer: The writer was living in a tiny apartment in Paris and earning barely enough money to make both ends meet. The lady wanted him to give her a little luncheon at Foyot’s, an expensive restaurant. When they met, she ordered some of the most expensive dishes available. The writer was terribly worried about whether he had enough money to pay the bill. Hence, he has used the expressions ‘my heart sank’, ‘panic seized me’, etc.
(c) What are the instances which create humour in “The Luncheon”?
Answer: The instances in the story that create humour are:
(i) when the writer sees the woman at Foyot’s.
(ii) when she orders dish after dish, after first saying that she eats nothing for luncheon, and then stretching the irony she insists that she ate only one thing for luncheon,
(iii) when she tells the writer, who is eating only a mutton chop – the cheapest item on the menu – that he should not overload his stomach,
(iv) when she says that the writer has insisted on her eating asparagus,
(v) when the writer imagines what he would do while paying the bill,
(vi) when the writer says that he would not eat anything for dinner that night,
(vii) when the writer tells us the woman’s weight, when he sees her aghin after twenty years.
(d) Describe the use of irony and humour in “The Luncheon”.
Answer: In this story, the writer uses humour and irony to depict the character of the woman. The narrator takes the woman to an expensive restaurant called Foyot’s. He is startled when he sees the high prices on the menu, but relieved when his guest tells him, “I never eat anything for luncheon,” and “I never eat more than one thing.” After stating this, ironically, the woman eats some of the most expensive things available, like salmon and caviar, while the poor author only eats a mutton chop. Looking at it, she takes him to task for eating a ‘heavy’ luncheon, and tells him that he should follow her example and never eat more than one thing for luncheon. She said that she would eat the asparagus because the writer ‘insists’, when it was she who had asked for them. In the end, when she repeats once again that he should follow her example and never eat more than one thing for luncheon, the writer retorts that he would do better than that— he would not eat anything for dinner that night!
Question 6.
After reading the story, put the following events into correct order:
(a) She gave me her last kind advice how to improve my eating habits.
(b) I met her in the theatre after many years and I could hardly recognize her.
(c) Twenty years ago, I lived in Paris and earned just enough money to get by.
(d) I was really scared what could happen when I would pay the bill.
(e) “I never eat anything for luncheon.”
(f) I ordered a mutton chop for myself.
(g) She had read a book of mine.
(h) She ordered asparagus.
(i) She suggested him to invite her to a famous and expensive restaurant.
(j) I didn’t have dinner for the rest of the month.
Answer: (c) Twenty years ago, I lived in Paris and earned just enough money to get by.
(b) I met her in the theatre after many years and I could hardly recognize her.
(g) She had read a book of mine.
(i) I invited her to a famous and expensive restaurant.
(e) “I never eat anything for luncheon.”
(f) I ordered a mutton chop for myself.
(h) She ordered asparagus.
(d) I was really scared what could happen when I would pay the bill.
(a) She gave me her last kind advice on how to improve my eating habits.
(j) I didn’t have dinner for the rest of the month.
7. Study the different uses of ‘could’. Identify what it indicates.
(a) Lack of rain could cause draught. (possibility/condition)
(b) Abhi could perform well in his school days. (suggestion/past ability)
(c) Instead of playing computer games you could play real games with friends. (past ability/suggestion)
(d) Could I use your computer for surfing net? (possibility/request)
(e) We could go on an excursion, if we didn’t have exam. (suggestion/condition)
Answer: (1) could – possibility
(2) could – past ability
(3) could – suggestion
(4) could – request
(5) could – condition
8. Choose the correct options from the bracket and fill in the blanks: (younger, eighty, twenty, interval)
(1) 1 went over during the interval and sat down beside her.
Answer: interval
(2) None of us are getting any younger.
Answer: younger
(3) It was twenty years ago.
Answer: twenty
(4) I had eighty francs to last me the rest of the month.
Answer: eighty
9. Complete the following:
(1) The profession of the narrator: a writer.
Answer: a writer
(2) The lady was free on the following Thursday.
Answer: on the following Thursday
(3) At the time when the writer met the lady, he was living in a tiny apartment in Paris.
Answer: tiny apartment in Paris
(4) The lady wanted to meet the narrator to have a chat with him.
Answer: have a chat with him
(5)Where and when did they decide to have luncheon?
Answer: They decided to have a little luncheon at Foyot’s restaurant on the following Thursday.
10. Choose the correct options from the brackets and fill in the blanks: (pass, caught sight of, overload, modest, addressed, luncheon, interval)
(1) The film was so boring that we went home during the interval.
(2) Though it was a modest apartment, it was extremely clean.
Answer: (1) interval
(2) modest
11. Find out the ‘Synonyms’ from the passage for the words:
(1) A set of rooms:
(2) Acknowledged:
(3) Handle:
(4) Directed a remark:
Answer: (1) Apartment
(2) Recognized
(3) Manage
(4) Addressed
12. Rewrite the following sentence using the antonym of the underlined word: We’re none of us getting any younger.
Answer: We’re all of us getting older.
13. Rewrite the following sentence using ‘except’: The only free moment she had was on the following Thursday.
Answer: She had no free moment except on the following Thursday.
14.I hardly think about it. (Begin the sentence with ‘How …!)
Answer: How little I think about it!
Answer by Dimpee Bora
