Answer any four the following questions in 30-40 words each:

(a) Why did John’s wife get angry with him? What did she decide to do?

(b) Why did the poet throw the log at the snake?

(c) How did nature foretell Caesar’s death?

(d) How did the Albatross save the mariners from the land of ice and snow?

(e) Why did Mr. Mullick turn down Patol Babu’s request for a rehearsal?

(a) John’s wife got angry with him because she suspected him of infidelity. She thought he was cheating on her with one of her friends from her club. So she decided to go back to her grandmother’s house and informed John in writing that her lawyer would communicate with him later.

(b) The poet threw a log at the snake because he was gripped with a strange sense of horror. The rational being within him was telling him that the snake was a dangerous being, and so conceding to the voice of his education his instinctive reaction was to pick up a log and clumsily hurl it at the snake.

(c) On the day of Caesar’s death, there was a major upheaval in the sky indicating that something undesirable was going to happen. Calpurnia dreamt of Caesar’s statue and saw blood gushing out of it like a fountain. A lioness gave birth to her cubs on the street and graves opened up exposing the dead. All of this was considered to be a bad omen, signifying Caesar’s death in the near future.

(d) After the albatross arrived on their ship the big icebergs surrounding the mariner’s ship cracked and split enabling the helmsman to steer them out of the ice. Then a favourable southwind began to blow and the weather improved considerably. The mariners welcomed the albatross as a good Christian soul who had come to their rescue.

(e) Patol Babu suggested that he should rehearse his scene. But Mr. Mullick turned down his request for the rehearsal, showing impatience at the suggestion. This was because Mr. Mullick wanted to quickly shoot the scene in the sunlight as he could see a large patch of cloud approaching the sun, which was making him impatient.