CBSE Class 12 English HOTs The Third Level

Question. In the chapter ‘The Third Level’ what is Charley’s ‘temporary refuge from reality’?
(a) his looking for the third level
(b) his stamp collecting
(c) his finding the third level
(d) his looking for a means to escape

Answer : B

Question. What according to Charley, is a ‘first-day cover’?
(a) a new stamp
(b) a self-addressed stamped envelope
(c) a letter
(d) a mail

Answer : B

Question. The open-flame gaslights on the third level were:
(a) glaring
(b) flickering
(c) glowing
(d) shining

Answer : B

Question. How would you describe Charley’s vision of his grandfather’s life and times?
(a) wistful escapism
(b) idealized sentimentality
(c) nostalgic simplicity
(d) dreamy perfection

Answer : B

Question. Which of the following is a conclusion that can be drawn from the story?
(a) Reality is indeed stranger than fiction.
(b) With all its worries, modern life is not worth living.
(c) The past is undoubtedly better than the present.
(d) Imagination might be the only great escape.

Answer : D

Question. What is the theme of the chapter ‘The Third Level’?
(a) how to deal with grim realities
(b) a desire to escape from one’s profession
(c) escapism as a psychological refuge
(d) transcending boundaries of time and pace

Answer : D

Question. ‘The Third Level’ refers to the third level at the Grand Central Station. As a metaphor, which of the following would NOT be an appropriate explanation of the title?
(a) The convergence of reality and fantasy
(b) The bridge between the past and the present.
(c) The oppressive monotony of modern life.
(d) The need for an alternate plane of understanding.

Answer : C

Question. “That ain’t money, mister.” Why did the clerk say this to Charley?
(a) he was giving him fake notes
(b) he had not paid the premium
(c) he was giving old-style currency
(d) his currency was not old-style

Answer : D

Question. Charley decided to take the subway instead of the bus because:
(a) it was faster
(b) he had worked late at the office
(c) he was in a hurry to meet the psychiatrist
(d) he wanted to look for the third level

Answer : A

Question. How would you describe Charley?
(a) confused, happy-go-lucky
(b) escapist, adventurous
(c) imaginative, nostalgic
(d) friendly, responsible

Answer : C

Question. Why did Charley glance at the stack of papers?
(a) to see when ‘The world’ was published
(b) to read the story about President Cleveland
(c) to make sure he was in the year 1894
(d) to compare the paper to the one in the Public Library files

Answer : C

Question. What did Charley suspect about his friend, Sam Weiner?
(a) he had gone to Galesburg
(b) he too was looking for the third level
(c) he pretended not to be a city boy
(d) he had studied at a school in Galesburg

Answer : A

Questions on the Extracts from the Lesson

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

Then I walked down another flight to the second level, where the suburban trains leave from, ducked into an arched doorway heading for the subway — and got lost. That’s easy to do. I’ve been in and out of Grand Central hundreds of times, but I’m always bumping into new doorways and stairs and corridors. Once I got into a tunnel about a mile long and came out in the lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel. Another time I came up in an office building on Forty-sixth Street, three blocks away. Sometimes I think Grand Central is growing like a tree, pushing out new corridors and staircases like roots.

Question. Where did Charley get lost?
(a) on the third level
(b) after heading for the subway
(c) on the arched doorway
(d) on the suburban train station

Answer : B

Question. Charley’s statement ‘That’s easy to do’ means:
(a) it is easy to get lost in the third level
(b) it is easy to reach the second level
(c) it is easy to enter and exit the Grand Central
(d) it is easy to get lost in the Grand Central

Answer : D

Question. The word ‘bumping’ means the same as:
(a) omitting
(b) colliding
(c) missing
(d) skirting

Answer : B

Question. Why does Charley compare the station’s growth to a tree?
(a) it has many corridors and staircases
(b) because of its consistent extension
(c) it is an underground station
(d) it is very huge

Answer : B

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

And that was that. I left the same way I came, I suppose. Next day, during lunch hour, I drew three hundred dollars out of the bank, nearly all we had, and bought old-style currency (that really worried my psychiatrist friend). You can buy old money at almost any coin dealer’s, but you have to pay a premium. My three hundred dollars bought less than two hundred in old-style bills, but I didn’t care; eggs were thirteen cents a dozen in 1894.

Question. Why did Charley leave?
(a) he feared he would be sent to jail
(b) to get his wife
(c) to meet his psychiatrist friend
(d) to draw money from the bank

Answer : A

Question. Why does he use the phrase ‘I suppose’?
(a) he is not sure if he can find the way again
(b) he is not sure if he can find the third level again
(c) he is not sure how he had got there
(d) he is not sure if he would be able to get back

Answer : C

Question. Why did Charley not care?
(a) he did not mind paying a premium
(b) as eggs were cheap
(c) the living expenses were low
(d) he could get more money easily

Answer : C

Question. The word ‘premium’ in the passage means the same as?
(a) additional
(b) allowance
(c) discount
(d) concession

Answer : C

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

The presidents of the New York Central and the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroads will swear on a stack of timetables that there are only two. But I say there are three, because I’ve been on the third level of the Grand Central Station. Yes, I’ve taken the obvious step: I talked to a psychiatrist friend of mine, among others. I told him about the third level at Grand Central Station, and he said it was a waking dream wish fulfillment. He said I was unhappy. That made my wife kind of mad, but he explained that he meant the modern world is full of insecurity, fear, war, worry and all the rest of it, and that I just want to escape. 

Question. What, according to the narrator, will the presidents swear on?
(a) the existence of the third level
(b) there being a stock of timetables
(c) the non-existence of a third level
(d) there being a second level

Answer : C

Question. The phrase ‘waking-dream wish fulfillment’ means:
(a) we do not wish for something to happen
(b) we wake up suddenly from a dream
(c) we see something as we wish to see it
(d) our subconscious mind

Answer : C

Question. Why was Charley’s wife ‘kind of mad’?
(a) to see her husband confused.
(b) to hear that her husband was not happy.
(c) as no one believed Charley about the third level.
(d) due to Charley’s insistence on there being a third level.

Answer : B

Question. What does man in the modern world want to escape?
(a) anxiety
(b) suspicion
(c) jealousy
(d) indifference

Answer : A

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

To make sure, I walked over to a newsboy and glanced at the stack of papers at his feet. It was The World; and The World hasn’t been published for years. The lead story said something about President Cleveland. I’ve found that front page since, in the Public Library files, and it was printed June 11, 1894. I turned toward the ticket windows knowing that here — on the third level at Grand Central — I could buy tickets that would take Louisa and me anywhere in the United States we wanted to go. In the year 1894. And I wanted two tickets to Galesburg, Illinois. Have you ever been there? It’s a wonderful town still, with big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees whose branches meet overhead and roof the streets. And in 1894, summer evenings were twice as long, and people sat out on their lawns, the men smoking cigars and talking quietly, the women waving palm-leaf fans, with the fire-flies all around, in a peaceful world.

Question. What did the narrator want ‘ to make sure’?
(a) he was not on the third level
(b) he was not on the second level
(c) he was on the third level
(d) the date printed on the newspaper was correct

Answer : C

Question. The word ‘glanced’ means the same as:
(a) looked down upon
(b) glimpsed
(c) gaped
(d) stared

Answer : B

Question. Why did Charley want to go to Illinois?
(a) in 1894 he could go anywhere in the United States
(b) it was easy to get there
(c) his friend Sam was there
(d) he could lead an idyllic life there

Answer : D

Question. What kind of life do the people of Illinois lead?
(a) comfortable
(b) relief
(c) tranquil
(d) wonder

Answer : C

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

Sometimes I think Grand Central is growing like a tree, pushing out new corridors and staircases like roots. There’s probably a long tunnel that nobody knows about feeling its way under the city right now, on its way to Times Square, and maybe another to Central Park. And maybe — because for so many people through the years Grand Central has been an exit, a way of escape — maybe that’s how the tunnel I got into... But I never told my psychiatrist friend about that idea.

Question. The above extract is NOT an example of ________.
(a) allegory
(b) analogy
(c) imagery
(d) metaphor

Answer : A

Question. Charley decided not to tell his psychiatrist friend about his idea. Choose the option that reflects the reaction Charley anticipated from his friend.
(a) “That’s such a lovely comparison. Why don’t you become a writer, Charley?”
(b) “Oh Charley. It is so sad to see your desperation to run away! So very sad.”
(c) “Maybe that’s how you entered the third level. Who would have thought?!”
(d) “You need help, my raving friend. You are way too invested in this crazy thought!”

Answer : D

Question. Look at the given image that lists some of the ways in which the symbolism of a tree is employed.
Which of the following would represent an example as used by Charley in the above extract?
(a) ‘Stay grounded’ as the train station is underground.
(b) ‘Connect with your roots’ as he desires to go back to his past.
(c) ‘Enjoy the view’ as the station leads to all tourist sights of the city.
(d) ‘Keep growing’ as the station keeps renovating and expanding.

Answer : D

Question. The idiom ‘feeling its way’ implies ______ movement.
(a) swift
(b) tentative
(c) circular
(d) disorganized

Answer : B

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

Have you ever been there? It’s a wonderful town still, with big old frame houses, huge lawns, and tremendous trees whose branches meet overhead and roof the streets. And in 1894, summer evenings were twice as long, and people sat out on their lawns, the men smoking cigars and talking quietly, the women waving palmleaf fans, with the fire-flies all around, in a peaceful world. To be back there with the First World War still twenty years off, and World War II over forty years in the future... I wanted two tickets for that.

Question. Who does ‘you’ refer to?
(a) Charley’s psychiatrist, Sam Weiner
(b) Charley’s wife, Louisa
(c) The reader
(d) Nobody in particular, it is a figure of speech.

Answer : C

Question. Choose the option that best describes the society represented in the above extract.
(a) content, peace-loving
(b) leisurely, sentimental
(c) orthodox, upper class
(d) comfortable, ancient

Answer : C

Question. Imagine that the city of Galesburg is hosting a series of conferences and workshops. In which of the following conferences or workshops are you least likely to find the description of Galesburg given in the above extract?
(a) Gorgeous Galesburg: Archiving a Tourist Paradise
(b) Welcome to the home you deserve: Galesburg Realtors
(c) Re-imagining a Warless Future: Technology for Peace
(d) The Woman Question: The world of women at home

Answer : C

Question. “tremendous trees whose branches meet overhead and roof the streets” is NOT an example of
I. imagery
II. metaphor
III. alliteration
IV. anachronism
(a) Options I. and II.
(b) Options I. and III.
(c) Options II. and III.
(d) Options II. and IV.

Answer : D

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

And maybe — because for so many people through the years Grand Central has been an exit, a way of escape — maybe that’s how the tunnel I got into... But I never told my psychiatrist friend about that idea. The corridor I was in began angling left and slanting downward and I thought that was wrong, but I kept on walking. All I could hear was the empty sound of my own footsteps and I didn’t pass a soul. Then I heard that sort of hollow roar ahead that means open space and people talking. The tunnel turned sharp left; I went down a short flight of stairs and came out on the third level at Grand Central Station. For just a moment I thought I was back on the second level, but I saw the room was smaller, there were fewer ticket windows and train gates, and the information booth in the centre was wood and old-looking.

Question. Why does the narrator refer to Grand Central as an ‘exit’?
(a) it is the medium to go to other places
(b) it is a medium of escape
(c) people enter it unknowingly
(d) people enter it willingly

Answer : B

Question. Why did Charley not tell his friend about his idea?
(a) he thought his friend might too look for this means to escape
(b) his friend might tell Louisa about it.
(c) his friend would not have agreed to it.
(d) his friend might dissuade him.

Answer : C

Question. How was the third level different from the second?
(a) the information booth was wooden
(b) there were many train gates
(c) the rooms were bigger
(d) there were many ticket windows

Answer : A

Question. What according to Charley, did the ‘hollow roar’ signify?
(a) there was an open space
(b) not a soul was there
(c) people were talking
(d) both (a) and (c)

Answer : D

Short Answer Type Questions :

Question. Why was Charley not able to find the third level again?
Answer : • It was a waking dream
• A wish fulfillment
• A flight of fancy

Question. Imagination is a ‘temporary refuge from reality’ Explain.
Answer : • Believed it was a waking dream, perhaps wish fulfillment.
• Felt that like many man in the modern world Charley too was unhappy.
• Modern world is full of trails and tribulations, worries and insecurities.
• Felt Charley wanted to escape this world.
• People indulge in some sort of hobby to escape the stark harsh realities.
• Even stamp collecting was a kind of temporary escape. Charley refuted his contention- said people do not wander about due to stress.
• Besides his grandfather had also collected stamps in the good old peaceful days of eighteen-nineties and did not need to escape as life was quite stress free in those days.  

Question. Why is the fact that Sam has moved to the third level ironical?
Answer : • Sam believed that only two level existed.
• He explained Charley’s experience as ‘ Waking – dream wish fulfillment . He believed 3 rd leve was a medium to escape foam tension of modern life.
• But later, Sam himself found the 3 rd level and got settled there .
• Earlier he believed there was not third level at all but ironically he himself became a resident of Galesburg . He even urged charley to keep finding it