CBSE Class 12 English The Interview Assignment Set A

About the Author

Christopher Silvester (1959) was educated at Lancing College Sussex, and Peter House, Cambridge, where he read history. From 1983 to 1994, he worked for Private Eye, initially writing the ‘New Boys’ column. He has written for several newspapers and magazines. He is also the Editor of The Penguin Book of Interviews: An Anthology from 1859 to the Present Day and the author of The Pimlico Companion to Parliament. He currently writes obituaries for the Times (of London) and book reviews. He is writing a three-volume social history of Hollywood for Pantheon Books.

Theme

‘The Interview’ written by Christopher Silvester briefs the new invention ‘Interview’ in the field of journalism. Interview that was invented over 130 years has become a commonplace journalism. Today, every literate or illiterate will have to experience interview at some points of their life. It is surprising to notice that as an interviewer, each one is comfortable, whereas as an interviewee, they feel it much disturbing and diminishing.

Justification of the Title

The title ‘The Interview’ is appropriate as it is the heart and soul of the lesson. The pros and cons of the interview are discussed with apt examples in the first part. The part II talks about interview of Umberto Eco who has acquired the sobriquet of intellectual superstardom with the publication of ‘The Name of the Rose’. He was a professor who had earned his name and fame in his field. He talked about his satisfaction and achievement in his writing. He also revealed that he wrote in interstices. He was not like his friend Roland Barthes. He openly admitted that his success in the novel, The Name of the Rose depended on the timing of its publication.

Message

“The Interview” deals with the importance of interview as essential part of literature. With time its advent is more acceptable in journalism. However, the impact and opinion may vary considerably about its function. The interview of Umberto Eco has helped him earn his name as a writer. Moreover he has tried to convince the readers that some interview becomes the source of inspiration for them.

Summary

The Interview Summary Part I

Meetings are typical nowadays. The individuals who see meets emphatically think of them as a wellspring of truth and workmanship. Among the antagonistic perspectives on interviews is the supposition that they are an undesirable, unjustifiable, and superfluous interruption and attack into a man’s private life; they leave individuals injured and destroyed. There are some who have even portrayed meetings as an experience and a thumbprint on their windpipe.

Yet, in the advanced world, interviews are a remarkably workable vehicle of correspondence and help to make impressions of our peers. The questioner holds a ground-breaking position and impact.

The Interview Summary Part II

It is a passage from a meeting of Prof. Umberto Eco. In his meeting with Mukund Padmanabhan, Umberto discusses his inclinations, his style, and the accomplishment of The Name of the Rose. He says that his central advantages are philosophical and moral, and these are likewise the prevailing subjects of his scholastic work and books. Indeed, even his books for youngsters are about peacefulness and harmony.

He says that there is a perky and individual quality in his works, which is an embraced one. He found his style when he presented his doctoral theory. His theory recounted an account of his examination, his preliminaries, and blunders. He, at that point, created his preference for portrayal. Henceforth his scholarly works are not dry and exhausting. He explains how he uses even the briefest holes in the middle of two unique bits of errand that give others a fallacious impression that he is doing endless things.

He calls these holes’ interstices’. Working during these interstices makes him do some incredible things. The Name of the Rose was a splendid achievement and brought him awesome popularity. Its prosperity might be a direct result of the troublesome understanding experience and interpretative perusing that is offered to the peruser who didn’t generally look for simple understanding encounters.

Conclusion of the Interview
The exposition is a concentrate from the Introduction to The Penguin Book of Interviews. It examines the meeting as a correspondence type that has come to remain. The conclusion of The Interview includes the views from the point of journalism and the stars and their insight into the part of their lives.

CHAPTER IN A NUTSHELL

Technique of Interview
● Interview has become a vital fact of everyone’s life, regardless of the class, literary or other activities.
● It enables us to know the opinion of many celebrities.
● The author talks about the technique of ‘interview’ as a new way of interrogating facts.
● He also discuses the functions, methods and merits of an interview.

Interview with Umberto ECO
● In this part, the author incorporates an excerpt from the writer, Umberto Eco.
● Here we get a glimpse of his literacy method.
● He is a professor at the University of Bologna in Italy.
● He enjoys a daunting status as a scholar for his philosophies on semiotics (the study of sings), literary interpretation and medieval aesthetics.
● His interview with Mukund Padmanabhan centres around the successful novel, The Name of the Rose’.

Views of some famous personalities included.
● The author also quotes the views of some famous celebrities about interview.
The names include V.S. Naipaul, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling,
H.G. Wells and Saul Bellow.

Read the extracts given below and attempt the questions that follow:

1. Some might make quite extravagant claims for it as being, in its highest form, a source of truth, and, in its practice, an art. Others, usually celebrities who see themselves as its victims, might despise the interview as an unwarranted intrusion into their lives, or feel that it somehow diminishes them, just as in some primitive cultures it is believed that if one takes a photographic portrait of somebody then one is stealing that person’s soul. V. S. Naipaul ‘feels that some people are wounded by interviews and lose a part of themselves,’

Questions

(i) What are the positive points people make about interviews?
(a) It is an enjoyable session where one can talk and laugh.
(b) It is a source of truth and in its practice, an art.
(c) One comes to know people better.
(d) One comes to know the thinking and inner feelings of the person being interviewed.

Answer: B

(ii) How do celebrities usually consider themselves when being interviewed?
(a) As victims of the interview.
(b) As heroes of the interview.
(c) As something which has to be done and got over.
(d) they are indifferent to all types of interview.

Answer: A

(iii) Why do celebrities usually despise interviews?
(a) They hate talking about their personal lives.
(b) They are usually introverts who like to be left alone.
(c) They consider interviews as unwarranted intrusions into their lives.
(d) They don’t want to share their lives with others.

Answer: C

(iv) What are V.S. Naipaul’s views on interview?
(a) It is an enjoyable experience.
(b) People are wounded, and lose a part of themselves.
(c) Interviews bring celebrities and their audience closer to one another.
(d) People like talking about interviews more than giving interviews.

Answer: B

(v) How do interviews ‘wound’ people who are interviewed?
(a) By invading their privacy.
(b) By highlighting their achievements.
(c) By expressing their opinion about them.
(d) By criticizing them all the time.

Answer: A

(vi) Why are taking photographs of people not allowed in some cultures?
Answer: They feel it is a way of stealing their souls

2. Yet Kipling had himself perpetrated such an ‘assault’ on Mark Twain only a few years before. H. G. Wells in an interview in 1894 referred to ‘the interviewing ordeal’, but was a fairly frequent interviewee and forty years later found himself interviewing Joseph Stalin. Saul Bellow, who has consented to be interviewed on several occasions, nevertheless once described interviews as being like thumbprints on his windpipe. Yet despite the drawbacks of the interview, it is a supremely serviceable medium of communication

Questions

(i) How did Kipling view interviews?
(a) A crime, an assault which merits punishment.
(b) A delight, a relaxing event where one can talk about oneself.
(c) It is like someone trying to choke you to get information out of you.
(d) It is refreshing like the morning dew settling on the leaves.

Answer: A

(ii) Whom did Kipling assault with an interview?
(a) Mark Twain
(b) Lewis Carroll
(c) H.G. Wells
(d) Saul Bellow

Answer: A

(iii) How did Saul Bellow view interviews?
(a) An interesting conversation between two people.
(b) A very pleasant experience of chatting together.
(c) Thumbprints on his windpipe.
(d) As bad as stale food being eaten and getting an upset stomach.

Answer: C

(iv) How does the author describe the interview?
(a) A wasting of time which one can put to better use.
(b) A method by which the public comes to know the life of celebrities.
(c) A useful interaction with people to know their thoughts, likes, etc.
(d) As a supremely serviceable medium of communication.

Answer: D

(v) The word ‘perpetrated’ means .....
(a) to do something wrong
(b) to do something right
(c) to avoid doing something
(d) to make sure you do something useful

Answer: A

(vi) Why do some people refer to interview as an ‘ordeal’?
Answer: Some people regard interview as an ‘ordeal’ because they feel it reduces their importance

3. I remember that my dear friend Roland Barthes was always frustrated that he was an essayist and not a novelist. He wanted to do creative writing one day or another but he died before he could do so. I never felt this kind of frustration. I started writing novels by accident. I had nothing to do one day and so I started. Novels probably satisfied my taste for narration.

Mukund: Talking about novels, from being a famous academic you went on to becoming spectacularly famous after the publication of The Name of the Rose.

Questions

(i) Why was Roland Barthes always frustrated?
(a) He could not write essays which he wanted to do.
(b) He was an essayist and not a novelist.
(c) His novels would not sell.
(d) His short stories sold at a very slow rate.

Answer: B

(ii) Why didn’t Umberto Eco feel frustrated like his friend?
Answer: He did’t feel so because he had started writing novels by accident at the age of 50.

(iii) What type of style did Umberto Eco use for his writing?
(a) Expository
(b) Persuasive
(c) Descriptive
(d) Narrative

Answer: D

(iv) The publication of which book of Umberto made him famous?
(a) The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
(b) The Name of the Rose
(c) The Prague Cemetery
(d) Faucault’s Pendulum

Answer: B

(v) ‘I never felt this kind of frustration’. What does the speaker refer to by the world ‘this’?
(a) He refers to his own frustration of not being able to write a novel.
(b) He refers to Roland’s frustration of not being able to write a novel.
(c) He refers to his frustration when his book was a failure.
(d) He refers to Roland’s frustration with the quality of his essays.

Answer: A

(vi) What does the world ‘academic’ mean in this context?
(a) A place where one studies like a college or university.
(b) A place where people store books.
(c) A collection of books.
(d) A person who teaches or researches at a college or university.

Answer: A

4. And this is because journalists and publishers believe that people like trash and don’t like difficult reading experiences. Consider there are six billion people on this planet. The Name of the Rose sold between 10 and 15 million copies. So in a way I reached only a small percentage of readers. But it is exactly these kinds of readers who don’t want easy experiences. Or at least don’t always want this. I myself, at 9 pm after dinner, watch television and want to see either ‘Miami Vice’ or ‘Emergency Room’. I enjoy it and I need it. But not all day. Mukund: Could the huge success of the novel have anything to do with the fact that it dealt with a period of medieval history that... Umberto Eco: That’s possible. But let me tell you another story, because I often tell stories like a Chinese wise man. My American publisher said while she loved my book, she didn’t expect to sell more than 3,000 copies in a country where nobody has seen a cathedral or studies Latin. So I was given an advance for 3,000 copies, but in the end it sold two or three million in the U.S.

Questions

(i) What belief do most journalists and publishers have?
(a) Very few people read at all.
(b) People like reading trash and not difficult reading.
(c) The more they publish, the more satisfaction they get.
(d) Stories should be entertaining for people who read them.

Answer: B

(ii) Why does Umberto Eco watch television at 9 p.m?
(a) He has nothing else to do.
(b) He hates going out for a walk.
(c) He thinks it is better to watch T.V. than read a book.
(d) He enjoys it and he needs it.

Answer: D

(iii) What did Eco’s publisher anticipate about the sale of ‘The Name of the Rose’?
Answer: Eco’s publisher expected that only about 3,000 copies of the book would be sold.

(iv) According to Eco what was the reason for the success of his book?
(a) It was a thriller.
(b) It dealt with metaphysics.
(c) The success of the book has a mystery.
(d) The book was advertised well in advance.

Answer: C

(v) How do we know that Eco’s publisher was surprised by the success of ‘The Name of the Rose’?
(a) She had expected to sell 3 million copies in the US.
(b) She had expected to sell only 3000 copies.
(c) She had enjoyed reading it.
(d) She liked references to the cathedral and Latin studies.

Answer: B

(vi) The Journalist had misjudged the readers by saying that
(a) people did not enjoy reading trash.
(b) people did not enjoy. Eco’s style of writing.
(c) people did not enjoy reading about heavy stuff like medieval history.
(d) people loved novels based on medieval history.

Answer: A

5. Maybe I give the impression of doing many things. But in the end, I am convinced I am always doing the same thing… And then I have a secret. Did you know what will happen if you eliminate the empty spaces from the universe, eliminate the empty spaces in all the atoms? The universe will become as big as my fist. Similarly, we have a lot of empty spaces in our lives. I call them interstices. Say you are coming over to my place. You are in an elevator and while you are coming up, I am waiting for you. This is an interstice, an empty space. I work in empty spaces.

Questions

(i) Read the questions given below. Imagine they were interjections raised by the interviewer based on the above extract. Choose the option that correctly describes the given questions.
(1) If you are “always doing the same thing”, isn’t your work lacking in originality?
(2) Could you elaborate on these larger ethical, philosophical interests that inform your work?
(3) All writing happens in empty spaces. In fact, why don’t I tell you all about my experiences?
(a) (1) is not relevant; (2) is appropriate; and (3) is unnecessary
(b) (1) is appropriate; (2) is repetitive; and (3) is useful information
(c) (1) is inappropriate; (2) is relevant; and (3) is not relevant
(d) (1) is unnecessary; (2) is intrusive; and (3) is extrapolatory

Answer: C

(ii) Based on your reading of Part I of ‘The Interview’, which one of the following may NOT be an appropriate title to the above extract?
(a) The Empty Spaces of Umberto Eco
(b) Big Exposé: Eco’s Secret Revealed!
(c) “I am always doing the same thing”: Eco’s Echoes
(d) Umberto Eco, Mr. Prolific!

Answer: B

(iii) “I work in empty spaces”. Choose the option that most accurately captures Eco’s idea of empty spaces.
(i) management of time
(ii) organization of space
(iii) philosophical inclination
(iv) command of thought
(a) Options (i) and (ii)
(b) Options (iii) and (iv)
(c) Options (i) and (iii)
(d) Options (ii) and (iv)

Answer: C

(iv) Umberto Eco states that ‘empty spaces’ actually fill spaces, and without them the universe would be the size of the human fist. He also goes on to say that it is in an interstice such as waiting, which the dictionary defines as a time for pause, that he works. That is, passive waiting is essentially active writing time.
Choose the literary device that best describes what Eco does with the concepts of ‘empty spaces’ and ‘waiting’.
(a) Juxtaposition
(b) Irony
(c) Oxymoron
(d) Symbolism

Answer: B

(v) According to Eco which of the following can be defined as ‘interstices’?...........
(a) Waiting for a visitor to arrive
(b) Eating lunch or dinner
(c) Sleeping at night
(d) Talking to friends

Answer: A

(vi) What trait of Eco’s character is revealed in the above extract?
Answer: He was able to do so many things simultaneously.

6. Saul Bellow, who has consented to be interviewed on several occasions, nevertheless once described interviews as being like thumbprints on his windpipe. Yet despite the drawbacks of the interview, it is a supremely serviceable medium of communication. “These days, more than at any other time, our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries are through interviews,” Denis Brian has written. “Almost everything of moment reaches us through one man asking questions of another. Because of this, the interviewer holds a position of unprecedented power and influence.”

Questions

(i) How would you describe Denis Brian’s opinion on interviews? Choose the most appropriate option.
(1) Appeasing (2) Utilitarian
(3) Approving (4) Praising
(a) Options (1) and (2)
(b) Options (3) and (4)
(c) Options (2) and (3)
(d) Options (1) and (4)

Answer: C

(ii) According to Saul Bellow, interviews are like thumbprints on his windpipe. What emotion might best describe such an image?
(a) Sadness
(b) Frustration
(c) Pain
(d) Fear

Answer: C

(iii) Denis Brian states that the interviewer occupies a position of power and influence as ___________
(a) everything reaches us through one man asking questions of another.
(b) the interview is a supremely serviceable medium of communication.
(c) our most vivid impressions of our contemporaries are through interviews.
(d) interviews are like thumbprints on the interviewee’s windpipe.

Answer: A

(iv) The use of the word “serviceable” implies that interviews are _________
(a) significant.
(b) powerful.
(c) advanced.
(d) useful.

Answer: D

(v) What does the narrator mean when he says ‘interviews as being like thumbprints on his windpipe’?

Answer: He means that he felt choked and suffocated when he sat for interview.

(vi) Interviews are helpful in
(a) giving the most confusing impression of the interviewee.
(b) giving the most vivid impression of the interviewer.
(c) giving the most vivid impression of the interviewee.
(d) giving the most clear understanding of the interviews in general.

Answer: C