Page 201 - DENG103_English - I

English–I

Notes she hurried downstairs. He heard the chain rattle back and the bottom bolt drawn slowly and
stiffly from the socket. Then the old woman’s voice, strained and panting.
“The bolt,” she cried, loudly. “Come down. I can’t reach it.”
But her husband was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of the paw.
If he could only find it before the thing outside got in. A perfect fusillade of knocks reverberated
through the house, and he heard the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage
against the door. He heard the creaking of the bolt as it came slowly back, and at the same
moment he found the monkey’s paw, and frantically breathed his third and last wish.
The knocking ceased suddenly, although the echoes of it were still in the house. He heard the
chair drawn back, and the door opened. A cold wind rushed up the staircase, and a long loud
wail of disappointment and misery from his wife gave him courage to run down to her side,
and then to the gate beyond. The street lamp flickering opposite shone on a quiet and deserted
road.

Task What does the play ‘Monkey’s Paw’ teach us.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:

1. The father and son were at chess.
2. Mrs. White said, “Never mind, dear”, “Perhaps you will win the next one”.
3. Mrs. White liked to play chess.

23.2 Summary

• OUTSIDE, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Lakesnam Villa the
blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the
former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king
into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-
haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire.

23.3 Keywords

Placid : Not easily upset or excited
Hastily : Acting with haste, hurried
Antimacassar : A piece of cloth put over the back of an upholstered chair to protect
it from grease and dirt.
Stumbling : Trip or momentarily lose one’s balance
Apathetically : Not interested
Fusillade : A series of shots fired at the same time or in rapid succession.

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