Summary of 'THE CONJURER’S REVENGE'

                               THE CONJURER’S REVENGE by Stephen Leacock

The conjurer called the attention of the people and showed an empty cloth. He said, ‘Presto!’ He took out a bowl of goldfish. All around the hall people wondered that how he did it. But the Quick Man on the front seat said in a big whisper to the people that he had it up his sleeve. Then everybody whispered round the hall that he had it up his sleeve. Then everybody whispered round the hall that he had it up his sleeve. The conjurer said that his next trick was the famous Hindostanee rings. He showed that the rings were separate. At a blow they all joined. The Quick Man whispered that he had another lot up his sleeve. Again everybody nodded and whispered that the rings were up his sleeve.

The conjurer worried a lot but he continued his tricks. The conjurer got a hat from the audience and he extracted seventeen eggs in thirty five seconds. The audience began to think that he was wonderful. Then the Quick Man whispered along the front bench that he had a hen up his sleeve and so all the people whispered it on that he had a lot of hens up his sleeve. The egg trick was ruined. It went on like that all through. Whatever the tricks he did, he got the same response. It seemed that the conjurer must have concealed his sleeve. The reputation of the conjurer was rapidly sinking below zero.

He rallied for a final effort. He said that he would present to them the famous Japanese trick recently invented by the natives of Tipperary. He turned toward the Quick Man and requested him to give his gold watch. It was passed to him. The conjurer asked the Quick Man if he had his permission to put it into that mortar and pound it to pieces. The Quick Man nodded and smiled. The conjurer threw the watch into the mortar and grasped a sledge hammer from the table and smashed it. The Quick Man whispered that he had slipped it up his sleeve. The conjurer asked him whether he would allow him to take his handkerchief and punch holes in it. He made visible holes in it. The real mystery of the thing fascinated the Quick Man.

Then the conjurer asked for the Quick Man’s permission to dance on his silk hat. The conjurer passed on the hat with his feet and crushed his it. Then he got his celluloid collar and burnt it with his permission. Then he got his spectacles and smashed it with hammer. The Quick Man puzzled and he whispered that he didn’t see through it a bit. The conjurer concluded that he had broken his watch, burnt his collar, smashed his spectacles and danced on his hat with his permission. The audience dispersed with a acceptance that there were some tricks that were not done up the conjurer’s sleeve.   

Summary of “Two Tramps in Mud Time” by 'Robert Frost'

On the surface, “Two Tramps in Mud Time” seems to display Robert Frost’s narrow individualism.  The poem, upon first reading it, seems incongruent, with some of the stanzas having no apparent connection to the whole poem.  The poem as a whole also does not appear to have a single definable theme.  At one point, the narrator seems wholly narcissistic, and then turns to the power and beauty of nature.  It is, however, in the final third of the poem where the narrator reveals his true thoughts to the reader, bringing resolution to the poem as a single entity, not merely a disharmonious collection of words.
At the outset of the poem, the narrator gives a very superficial view of himself, almost seeming angered when one of the tramps interferes with his wood chopping: “one of them put me off my aim”. This statement, along with many others, seems to focus on “me” or “my”, indicating the apparent selfishness and arrogance of the narrator: “The blows that a life of self-control/Spares to strike for the common good/That day, giving a loose to my soul,/I spent on the unimportant wood.”  The narrator refers to releasing his suppressed anger not upon evils that threaten “the common good”, but upon the “unimportant wood”.  The apparent arrogance of the narrator is revealed as well by his reference to himself as a Herculean figure standing not alongside nature, but over it: “The grip on earth of outspread feet,/The life of muscles rocking soft/And smooth and moist in vernal heat.”  Unexpectedly, the narrator then turns toward nature, apparently abandoning his initial train of thought. He reveals the unpredictability of nature, saying that even in the middle of spring, it can be “two months back in the middle of March.” Even the fauna of the land is involved with this chicanery; the arrival of the bluebird would to most indicate the arrival of spring, yet “he wouldn’t advise a thing to blossom.”
The narrator points to the conclusion that, while on the surface, things appear to be one thing, there is always something hidden below, much like “The lurking frost in the earth beneath…”  In the final three stanzas of the poem, the “frost” within the narrator comes to the surface.  The humility of the narrator comes to light, with the narrator saying that the tramps’ right to chop wood for a living “was the better right–agreed.”  The narrator also says, “Except as a fellow handled an ax,/They had no way of knowing a fool,” insomuch as admitting to his foolishness. On the surface, the poem seems to be two poems with diverging themes. However, Robert Frost guides there two apparently unrelated thoughts into one idea from the heart: “My object in living is to unite/My avocation and my vocation/As my two eyes make one in sight.”  Perhaps the narrator is the true Frost coming to the surface.

Summary of the short story ‘THE KING AND THE DOCTORS’ by George Bernard Shaw

                    Summary of the short story ‘THE KING AND THE DOCTORS’ by George Bernard Shaw

Bernard Shaw’s ‘The King and the Doctors’ is a fine satire on doctors who belong to different schools and faiths in the profession of medicine. It criticizes their professional rivalries which often hinder rather than help patients improve their health.

In the country of the Half Mad the King fell ill. As he had established very kindly relations with his subjects, his illness caused a great affection for him and for his family. The king had twelve doctors to attend him but there was no sign of his being cured. People became anxious. They said a single doctor was generally sufficient to kill one of them, so how the king could survive twelve doctors.

The Prince asked the chief physician whether it was not possible to cure the King. The physician replied that everything was being done that could properly done. The physician asked if he had no confidence in their knowledge and devotion. The prince said that their devotion was all right but their knowledge was bunk. The chief physician was highly scandalized. He requested the Prince to suggest any measure they had omitted.

They discussed on giving drugs. The Prince questioned whether drugs were bunk or not. The physician said that undoubtedly drugs are bunk from a purely secular point of view. The Prince said that there was a way of giving drugs in infinitesimal quantities to which all the latest discoveries and scientific speculations point as the right way. The physician replied that infinitesimals were used only by homeopaths. He said that they were ignorant of the nature of disease and they merely treat its symptoms. If a Chinese patient had been brought to a homeopath he would have been treated for yellow fever.

The Prince asked physician whether he knew the nature of the disease. The physician said that certainly he knew. He said that he had passed an examination in pathology and written books about it. The prince asked what the nature of his father’s complained was. The physician said that it was pleurisy. The prince said that he knew its symptoms and asked again what its nature was. The physician replied that if he had knew that he could have cured it. The Prince said that then pathology was bunk. The prince said that let them call in a homeopath. The physician said that there was only one successful homeopath in London and added that if he had discussed the case with him he should have been excommunicated.

 The Prince said that he heard that a lot of came from spinal displacement. Then he asked about the King’s spinal. The physician said it looked all right. But the Prince said that there were trained chaps to feel it is all right. There was a machine that will register on a galvanometer displacement that nobody can feel. The physician said that he had never heard of it. He assured that those people who feel spines’ were almost ignorant Americans who had spent two years in mere manual training. If he had been seen speaking to one he should have been excommunicated. The Prince asked the physician to do it himself. The physician said that he had not had the two years training and said that it was not part of our official surgery. The Prince said that official surgery was washed out.

Then the Prince asked about testing his father’s blood for radiations. And said that it could be done by a rheostat and there was some method of neutralizing the rays that sometimes cures.  The physician said that it was discovered by an American. He was not only American but a Jew. But the Prince persisted that he understood he was a proper doctor. The physician said that the treatment would involve attaching the King to the electric switch and the public opinion would never tolerate that. The Prince said he did not want to lose his father because people were fools. He said he could use a private battery. The physician said it was recognized their Vatican and it had not been proved by at least fifty years of experience in curing disease. The Prince asked whether the patients recovered under the logical appropriate treatments which were being taught by in their medical college. The physician said that it was true and the recuperative power of the human organism was marvelous.  The Prince said that he was not satisfied and it seemed to him that his father just because he was a king, was cut off from the benefit of all the new discoveries and treatments that are available for his subjects.

The physician requested the Prince to be patient and said that his father was in the hands of God. The prince said he should like to call in Pope for a consultation. But the physician said that he was qualified more than half a century ago and might not be quite up to date. The Prince said that then the pope was another wash out. The Prince asked what the most up-to-date scientific treatment for his father was. The physician said he had already ordered it. The Prince asked what the treatment was. The physician said that was seaside. The Prince said that that was not the latest treatment and it was what his grandmother recommended.

The physician said the benefits arose from change of air. The Prince asked what it arose from. The physician requested the prince not to reveal their professional secret. The Prince promised not to reveal the secret. The physician whispered that it would get him away from doctors. Shortly afterward, the King recovered.  

Moral: Too much of anything is good for nothing.

XII Std English- Paper I March 2013 answers

XII Std English- Paper I  March 2013  answers

            SECTION -A 

1.A.Synonyms

01.  b. He was awarded for his brave act.

02.  b. Mandela fought for the cause of south Africa.

03.  c. The tourist were marooned on the island.

04.  a. I stood immobile with fear when I heard a gun shot suddenly.

05.  c. The train speeded up before I got in.

B.  Antonyms

06. c. democrat

07. a. ordinary

08. d. inhabited

09. a. love

10. d. lit

C. Answer any ten of the following:

11. Indices – index   or datum – data

12. Idiom: to be on cloud nine = extremely happy

13. CPU- Central Processing Unit.

14. Peace, piece

15. Helicopter + airport= heliport

16. Syllabification : in-tro-duc-tion, fan-tas-tic, con-tact, fa-ci-li-tate

17. Noun: Look at your file.

       Verb: She filed her papers.

18. Movie- film

19. I bought a washing machine

20. Prefix ‘im..’  -  immobile   or   suffix ‘…ness’    -   happiness

21. a) Noun+ Noun  = School+ boy = schoolboy

22. Cut off = stop  , cut short =  make shorter

23.  Advertisement – ad

       Telephone  - phone

      

           SECTION –B

II.A. Fill in the blanks:

24.  used to

25. goes

26. should/ must

27. will pass

28. who

29. impersonal passive voice

30. SVCA – He is a teacher in Chennai.

31. despite/ in spite of/ after/ before/ in/during

32. though/ although

33. demanded