TEACHER’S SUPPORT DOCUMENT Subject: English Topic: The Bet Std: VII Textual Answers: Q.I Answer the following questions in 30–40 words each. a. According to the banker, capital punishment is more moral and humane than life imprisonment. Capital punishment kills instantly whereas life imprisonment kills slowly. b. The young lawyer was of the opinion that capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I was offered the choice between them, he would certainly choose the second. He felt it was better to live somehow than not to live at all. c. On a sheet of paper kept on the table in his room, the young lawyer had written that he despised freedom, life, health and all that books call blessings. In books, he had studied about many aspects of earthly life. He felt that everything is void, frail, visionary and delusive as a mirage as death would wipe one from the face of the earth. Therefore, he wanted to waive off the money which he once dreamed of as paradise. d. The banker went to the lawyer’s prison room at night with the intention of killing him. He did not want to pay him the two million because that would ruin him He now had more debts than money. Gambling, risky speculation, and recklessness had decayed his business. Therefore, he felt the only escape was that the man should die. Q.II a. b. Answer each of the following questions in 80-100 words. The old banker was pacing his study, fifteen years after he had made the bet with the lawyer. He questioned his motives for laying the bet. He wondered why he had made the bet. The lawyer had lost fifteen years of his life but he would throw away two millions. He wondered if that would convince people that capital punishment was worse or better than imprisonment for life. He felt that on his part it was the caprice of a well-fed man; on the lawyer's, pure greed of gold. The following day, the lawyer would regain his freedom. He would have to pay him two millions and he would be ruined forever because fifteen years ago, he had too much money but now he had more debts than money. The only escape was that the man should die. It was decided that the lawyer would undergo his imprisonment under the strictest observation, in a garden wing of the banker's house. He couldn’t cross the threshold, see living people, hear human voices, or receive letters and newspapers. He could have a musical instrument, read books and write letters. He could silently communicate with the outside world by sending a note through a little window for necessities, books and music. He had to remain exactly fifteen years from twelve o'clock of 14 November 1870, to twelve o'clock of 14 November 1885. The least CB/VII/2122 The Bet Page 1 of 2 TEACHER’S SUPPORT DOCUMENT attempt on his part to violate the conditions or to escape before the time, freed the banker from the obligation to pay him the two millions. CB/VII/2122 The Bet Page 2 of 2
