MP Board Class 10th Special English Important Questions Chapter 17 The Bet

Students get through the MP Board Class 10th English Important Questions Special English Chapter 17 The Bet which are most likely to be asked in the exam.

MP Board Class 10th Special English Important Questions Chapter 17 The Bet

I. Answer the following questions in about 25 words:

Question 1.
Why did the majority of the guests disapprove of the death penalty?
Answer:
Majority of the guests disapproved of the death penalty. They found it out dated anti-christian and immoral. It should be replaced by life imprisonment. It was better to live somehow than not to live at all.

Question 2.
Why did the banker argue that death penalty was more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life?
Answer:
The banker argued that death penalty was more moral and more humane than imprisonment for life. He was of the view that execution kills instantly. It brings about the end of all vows. Life imprisonment kills a man by degrees. It causes disgrace and humiliation.

Question 3.
On what ground did one of the guests, observe that both capital punishment and imprisonment for life were equally immoral?
Answer:
One of the guests observed that both capital punishment and imprisonment for life were equally immoral. His argument was that the purpose behind both of them was the same. Both of them took away life.

Question 4.
Why did the young lawyer support imprisonment for life? (MP 2015)
Answer:
The young lawyer preferred life imprisonment to capital punishment. His argument was It’s better to live somehow than not to live at all. Morever, the state has no right to take away what it cannot give.

Question 5.
Why did the banker feel that the bet was non-sensical and meaningless?
Answer:
The bet between the banker and the lawyer was made in excitement. It was both wild and ridiculous. Therefore the banker felt that the bet was non-sensical and meaningless. It was observed without thinking. It had no objective. It could not prove that the death penalty is better or worse than imprisonment for life. It was simply a caprice based on greed and ego.

MP Board Class 10th Special English Important Questions Chapter 17 The Bet

Question 6.
What did the prisoner suffer from in the first year of his confinement? How do you know about it?
Answer:
In the first year of his confinement, the prisoner suffered. Severely from loneliness and depression. It is clear because the sounds of the piano could be heard from his lodge day and night. He refused wine and tobacco. He longed to see human faces and hear human voices.

Question 7.
Why did the prisoner refuse wine and tobacco?
Answer:
The prisoner refused wine since it excited desires which are the worst foes of a prisoner. It was most dreary to drink good wine without seeing human faces. He refused tobacco because it spoilt the air of his room.

Question 8.
What did the prisoner read in the last two years?
Answer:
During the last two years, the prisoner read an immense quantity of books on natural sciences, romantic poetry, chemistry, medicines, novels and treatises on philosophy and theology.

Question 9.
Why did the banker regret his action in the end of the period of agreement?
Answer:
The banker longed to kill the lawyer in order to save himself from bankruptcy. He went to the lawyer’s cell with intentions of killing him. He read the lawyer’s note. He felt a great contempt for himself for reducing the lawyer to a skeleton of bones. He started sobbing and regretted his action at the end of the period of agreement.

Question 10.
Why did the lawyer renounce the two millions of which he once dreamed as paradise?
Answer:
The lawyer considered the amount of two million roubles as paradise in his youth. He suffered a lot in prison. He read a large quantity of books. They gave him wisdom. He realised that all the worldly riches were worthless, fleeting, illusory and deceptive like a mirage. Therefore he renounced the two millions wilfully.

Question 11.
According to the lawyer, the banker ‘exchanged heaven for earth.’ Why did he think so?
Answer:
According to the lawyer, the banker was a man of ego, selfishness and greed. He had taken the wrong path. He had taken lies for truth and ugliness for beauty. In a nutshell he had exchanged heaven for earth. He thought so because the banker lacked wisdom and had lost his reason.

MP Board Class 10th Special English Important Questions Chapter 17 The Bet

Question 12.
What did the lawyer do at last?
Answer:
At last the lawyer renounced the two million roulles which he was about to win. He left the cell few moments before the table the sheet of paper in which two millions were renounced. He locked it up in the fireproof safe.

II. Answer the following questions in about 50 words:

Question 1.
What were the conditions of the agreement between the banker and the young lawyer? (Imp.)
Answer:
The following were the conditions of the agreement between the banker and the young lawyer:

  • The lawyer would get two million roubles if he remained confined to the solitary cell.
  • The lawyer would lose his claim on money if he tried to escape even two minutes before the expiry of the agreed period.
  • He could write letters though (but) not receive them.
  • He could have books, tobacco, wine etc. as much as he needed.

Question 2.
Sum up some of the activities that the prisoner undertook in the prison. (Imp.) (MP 2012)
Answer:
During the first year of imprisonment, the lawyer read books of light character. He also played on piano. During the fifth year he ate, drank and rested on his bed. He often talked angrily to himself. He mode note and tore all the papers up in the morning. He also wept often. In the sixth year he read at random. Sometimes he would read science but would quickly move to medicine and then to literature. He read the new testament thoroughly.

MP Board Class 10th Special English Important Questions Chapter 17 The Bet

Question 3.
Summarise the things that the lawyer learnt from books in prison. (MP 2009)
Answer:
The lawyer read a large number of books including the new testament in prison. He learnt a number of things from them. Like freedom, life, health and the other so called blessings of the world are all worthless.

Everything is void, weak, fleeting, delusive and transitory like a mirage and also that. Life is not worth living. Only one thing remains certain. It is death. Death would soon wipe away everything.

Question 4.
‘There is nothing more valuable than wisdom in this world.’ Examine this statement in the light of the message emerging from the story. (MP 2015)
Answer:
Both the banker and the lawyer were victims of ego, greed and selfishness. They were not far-sighted. They were ignorant of the happenings in future. The lawyer lost his youth and health and the banker became bankrupt due to his taste for investment in stock exchanges.

The lawyer’s dream for leading a heavenly life after winning the bet was sheerly his lack of wisdom. The banker’s desire to kill the lawyer was also based on his unkindness and selfishness. It justifies the fact that ‘There is nothing more valuable than wisdom in this world’ Wisdom is another word for forethought.