CBSE Class 8 English Literature The Speckled Band Worksheet Set 21

Answer: resentfully: in an angry way, feeling hurt
agitated: upset and nervous
deduction: a conclusion reached by reasoning
vagabonds: wandering people with no home
improbable: not likely to happen
bell-rope: a rope that rings a bell to call a servant
dark-lantern: a lamp whose light can be hidden with a shutter

Teacher's Note: Use each word in a sentence of your own to remember it.

Answer: Sherlock Holmes woke him early in the morning, because a lady had come to see them on urgent business and he thought Watson would like to be present.

Teacher's Note: Give an example if the question allows.

Answer: She was a lady dressed in black, with a veil, looking pale and worn. She shivered with fear, and her face was drawn and grey, with restless frightened eyes, like a hunted animal's. She was only thirty, but her hair was already streaked with grey.

Teacher's Note: Write a short, clear answer.

Answer: He studied medicine and set up a large practice in Calcutta, India, where he was successful, as he wanted to make a living and a position for himself.

Teacher's Note: Remember this for your exam.

Answer: In a fit of temper he beat his native butler to death and was jailed for a long time. After his release he returned to England with his two stepdaughters, Helen and Julia.

Teacher's Note: Learn this point and write it in your own words.

Answer: The mother left a good income to Dr Roylott as long as the girls lived with him; if either of them married, a part of the money would be paid to her, so his income would be reduced.

Teacher's Note: Use the key term in your answer.

Answer: He examined the bedrooms and their windows with shutters, the ventilator between the rooms, the bell-rope that did not ring, the bed fixed to the floor, and the iron safe and saucer of milk in Dr Roylott's room.

Teacher's Note: Give an example if the question allows.

Answer: (a) Helen and Julia, after their mother died in a railway accident. (b) He became violent, quarrelled with his neighbours and shut himself in the house, and he kept wild animals, a cheetah and a baboon. (c) No. The villagers were afraid of him and the girls were isolated and unhappy.

Teacher's Note: Write a short, clear answer.

Answer: (a) The night Julia died, two years earlier. (b) The three bedrooms are in a row on the ground floor, with doors opening into a corridor, and windows opening on the lawn; Julia's room was in the middle. (c) Julia went to her bedroom; soon Helen heard a low whistle and a clang of metal, and Julia came out screaming 'The band! The speckled band!' and fell, and died without telling the cause.

Teacher's Note: Remember this for your exam.

Answer: (a) A person who plans to harm others will end up harmed by his own plan. (b) Dr Roylott: he sent a poisonous snake (a swamp adder) through the ventilator to kill Helen; Holmes struck it with his cane and it turned back and bit him, so he died of its poison. (c) He was scheming to kill his stepdaughters so that he would keep their money.

Teacher's Note: Learn this point and write it in your own words.

Answer: He has a great love for solving mysteries and he uses observation and logic. He believes that you should not guess, but should look at the facts carefully and draw a conclusion from them. For example, from the bell-rope that did not work, the ventilator and the bed fixed to the floor, he deduced the method of the murder.

Teacher's Note: Use the key term in your answer.

Answer: The ventilator connecting the two rooms, the bell-rope that was a dummy, the bed fixed to the floor, the saucer of milk and the safe in Roylott's room, and Julia's dying words about a band.

Teacher's Note: Give an example if the question allows.

Answer: It is about Dr Roylott. Holmes says this because Roylott was a cruel man who tried to murder his stepdaughters and his death was caused by his own plan.

Teacher's Note: Write a short, clear answer.