CBSE CLASS-10 English. Footprints without feet  term-2 

The Midnight Visitor 

Class 10 MCQ Questions

 with Answers 

English Chapter 3

Question 1.

How did Ausable made Max believe there was a balcony?

(a) he made him see it

(b) with detailed description

(c) there was actually a balcony

(d) none of the above

Answer

Answer: (b) with detailed description

Question 2.

Was there a balcony?

(a) yes

(b) no

(c) maybe

(d) there is no mention of a balcony

Answer

Answer: (b) no

Question 3.

Who was actualy knocking on the door?

(a) police

(b) waiter

(c) Max

(d) none of the above

Answer

Answer: (b) waiter

Question 4.

What did Max have in his hand?

(a) an important report

(b) a knife

(c) a pistol

(d) All of the above

Answer

Answer: (c) a pistol

Question 5.

Ausable was going to raise the issue of the balcony with _____.

(a) government

(b) management

(c) Max

(d) Fowler

Answer

Answer: (b) management

Question 6.

How, according to Ausable did Max enter?

(a) a passkey

(b) balcony

(c) window

(d) None of the above

Answer

Answer: (b) balcony

Question 7.

What did Max want?

(a) Fowler

(b) phone

(c) report

(d) all of the above

Answer

Answer: (c) report

Question 8.

What is the meaning of the word “slender”?

(a) weak

(b) slim

(c) fat

(d) None of the above

Answer

Answer: (b) slim

Question 9.

What was Fowler’s “first thrill of the day”?

(a) meeting Ausable

(b) sight of a man with automatic pistol

(c) seeing a very important paper

(d) none of the above

Answer

Answer: (b) sight of a man with automatic pistol

Question 10.

Who is Fowler?

(a) secret agent

(b) spy

(c) personal investigator

(d) writer

Answer

Answer: (d) writer

Question 11.

“he had never lost his _____ accent.”

(a) American

(b) French

(c) British

(d) None of the above

Answer

Answer: (a) American

Question 12.

Where did he come from?

(a) Paris

(b) Germany

(c) Boston

(d) None of the above

Answer

Answer: (c) Boston

Question 13.

Which floor was he staying at?

(a) ground floor

(b) first floor

(c) second floor

(d) top floor

Answer

Answer: (d) top floor

Question 14.

What is the meaning of the word “wheezily”?

(a) making a sound when you can’t breathe easily

(b) sneezing

(c) coughing

(d) None of the above

Answer

Answer: (a) making a sound when you can’t breathe easily

Question 15.

“_____ did not fit any description of a secret agent.”

(a) Fowler

(b) Ausable

(c) Max

(d) None of the above

Answer

Answer: (b) Ausable

Question 16.

How did Fowler feel at the end of the story?

(a) disappointed

(b) thrilled

(c) sad

(d) unhappy

Answer

Answer: (b) thrilled

Question 17.

Who fell down from the top floor of the hotel?

(a) Fowler

(b) Max

(c) Ausable

(d) Waiter

Answer

Answer: (b) Max

Question 18.

What story Ausable cocked up to Max?

(a) about the report

(b)about a balcony

(c) about his fatness

(d)about Fowler

Answer

Answer: (b)about a balcony

Question 19.

Why did Max enter Ausable’s room?

(a) to meet Ausable

(b) to snatch an important report

(c) to give information to Ausable

(d) to spend the night

Answer

Answer: (b) to snatch an important report

Question 20.

Max entered Ausable’s room through the …………..

(a) balcony

(b) main door

(c) back door

(d) roof

Answer

Answer: (b) main door

Question 21.

Who knocked at Ausable’s door?

(a) a policeman

(b) Max

(c) the waiter

(d) Fowler

Answer

Answer: (c) the waiter

Question 22.

Who was Max?

(a) the manager of the hotel

(b) another secret agent

(c) Ausable’s friend

(d) Fowler’s friend

Answer

Answer: (b) another secret agent

Question 23.

Fowler was………….. to meet Ausable.

(a) happy

(b)excited

(c) disappointed

(d)unaffected

Answer

Answer: (c) disappointed

Question 24.

Who came to meet Ausable?

(a) Ausable’s father

(b) Policeman

(c) Fowler

(d) Max

Answer

Answer: (c) Fowler

Question 25.

Where was Ausable staying?

(a) Inn

(b) French hotel

(c) Fowler’s home

(d) American hotel

Answer

Answer: (b) French hotel

The Midnight Visitor

 Extra Questions and Answers

 Class 10 English Footprints Without Feet

Extract Based Questions [3 Marks each]

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

Question 1.

And then there was his accent. Though he spoke French and German passably, he had never altogether lost the American accent he had brought to Paris from Boston twenty years ago.

(a) Who is ‘he’ in the above extract?

(b) Where is he at present?

(c) Find the word from the extract that means the opposite of ‘fluently’.

(d) What is the present tense of ‘speak’?

Answer:

(a) ‘He’ in the above extract is Ausable, a secret agent.

(b) At present he is about to enter his room on the sixth floor of a French hotel.

(c) The word is ‘passably’.

(d) ‘Speak’ is its present tense.

Question 2.

“You are disillusioned”, Ausable told him. “But take cheer, my young friend. Presently you will see a paper, a quite important paper for which several men and women have risked their lives, come to me. Some day soon that paper may well affect the course of history. In that thought is drama, is there not?” [CBSE2015]

(a) Who is ‘my young friend’ in the above extract?

(b) What is the ‘important paper’ referred to here?

(c) Find a word from the passage that means the same as ‘disappointed’.

(d) What is the opposite ofjimportant’?

Answer:

(a) ‘My young friend’ in the above extract is Fowler, a young romantic writer.

(b) The ‘important paper’ referred to here is a report regarding some new missiles.

(c) The word is ‘disillusioned’.

(d) Its opposite is ‘unimportant’.

Question 3.

And as the light came on, Fowler had his first authentic thrill of the day. For halfway across the room, a small automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.

(a) Who is the ‘man’ referred to in the above extract?

(b) Why did the ‘man’ have a pistol in his hand?

(c) What is meant by the phrase ‘authentic thrill’ in the above extract?

(d) What is the opposite of ‘automatic’?

Answer:

(a) The ‘man’ referred to in the above extract is Max, a secret agent.

(b) He had’ a pistol in his hand because he wanted to forcibly take the report on new missiles from Ausable.

(c) The meaning is ‘real feeling of excitement’.

(d) Its opposite is ‘manual’.

Question 4.

“You can get onto it from the empty room two doors down – and somebody did, last month. The management promised to block it off. But they haven’t.” [CBSE2012]

(a) Who is speaking these words to whom?

(b) What is ‘it’ in the above extract?

(c) Find a phrase in the passage that means the same as ‘close it up’.

(d) The opposite of ’empty’ is………..

Answer:

(a) Ausable is speaking these words to Fowler, but he also wants Max to hear them.

(b) ‘It’ refers to the (non-existent) balcony.

(c) The jphrase is ‘block it off.

(d) Its opposite is ‘full’.

Short Answer Type Questions [2 Marks each]

Question 1.

Why had Fowler wanted to meet Ausable?

Answer:

Fowler was a writer and he had wanted to meet Ausable, a renowned secret agent. Fowler wanted to know how Ausable tackled dangerous situations. He was disappointed when he saw Ausable, as he didn’t look like what Fowler thought a secret agent should look like.

Question 2.

Describe Fowler’s reaction after entering Ausable’s hotel room. [CBSE 2014]

Answer:

Initially Ausable got a shock to see Max in his room. But he remained calm. Max also had a pistol with him, so Ausable didn’t try anything fishy. He just kept his cool and fooled Max by using his brain to invent stories.

Question 3.

‘Ausable shows great presence of mind in a situation of danger and surprise.” Do you agree with this statement? If yes, why?

Answer:

Yes, I agree with this statement, as Ausable showed great presence of mind when Max pointed a gun at him when he entered the hotel room with Fowler, which surprised and endangered both of them. He remained calm and cool, inventing stories as required to fool Max into jumping to his death.

Question 4.

Why did Max’s face turn black with anger? What did he want Ausable to do? [CBSE 2012]

Answer:

Max’s face turned black with anger because he felt that his plan of extracting the important document from Ausable was in danger of failing due to the knocking on the door, which Ausable identified as the police. He wanted Ausable to send the police away.

Question 5.

Why did Ausable frame the story of the balcony? [CBSE 2012]

Answer:

Ausable framed the story of the balcony to counter the use of the pistol by the rival secret agent Max to threaten him. The rival would have been able to get the important report about the new missiles if Ausable had not concocted this story.

Question 6.

How does Ausable manage to make Max believe that there is a balcony attached to his room?

Answer:

Ausable creates a detailed description of how his office was part of a bigger apartment and how the next door room had a direct connection with the balcony. His statement that somebody else had also broken into his office through that balcony made it a convincing story.

Question 7.

Who actually had knocked at the door of Ausable’s room? Why did he come there? [CBSE 2010]

Answer:

The waiter in the hotel where Ausable stayed knocked at the door of Ausable’s room. He had brought the drinks which Ausable had ordered when he arrived in the hotel with Fowler.

Long Answer (Value Based) Type Questions [8 Marks each]

Question 1.

What information did Ausable give about the imaginary balcony? Why did he do so? [CBSE 2013]

Answer:

Ausable created a detailed description of how his room was part a bigger apartment and how the next room had a direct connection with a balcony. His statement that somebody else had also broken into his office through that balcony made it a convincing story. Ausable did this to fool Max into thinking that a balcony existed just outside the window, as he knew that soon the waiter bringing the drinks he had ordered would be knocking at the door, which may prompt Max to jump into the imaginary balcony to hide.

Question 2.

Ausable was a clever secret agent. Do you agree with the statement? Justify your answer. [CBSE 2012]

Answer:

Ausable did not look at all like the conventional image of a secret agent. He was short and very fat. Besides, he spoke French and German which lacked fluency as well as the right accent; the American accent was quite palpable in his speech. However, Ausable had a very sharp and active mind because he invented two stories, one about a non-existent balcony outside his hotel window and another about the police arriving to give extra security to some important documents he was about to receive.

He was an intelligent man and a clever secret agent to be able to invent such stories on the spur of the moment in the face of imminent danger in the form of Max, a rival secret agent.

Question 3.

Why did Max scream shrilly when he dropped to the balcony? [CBSE 2011]

Answer:

A person screams shrilly when something unexpected happens to him. Here, Max screamed shrilly when he dropped to the ‘balcony’, because actually there was no balcony at all; it was only a figment of Ausable’s imagination. Ausable had described it so vividly, including its history and use, that Max was convinced there was a balcony just outside the window and tried to jump onto it without looking. As the room was on the sixth floor, Max would certainly have been died by falling from such a height.