Page 76 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Unit 7: Comprehension Passages

Solitary Confi nement: Confinement of a prisoner/individual in isolation from other prisoners/ Notes
individuals
Threshold: An entrance or a doorway

Exercises (Solved)

1. Answer the following questions based on the text:
(a) Where was the gathering and why?

Answer: The gathering was at a party given by the banker at his house.
(b) What did the old banker recall on the dark autumn night?

Answer: The old banker recalled how fifteen years ago he threw a party and how a
discussion on capital punishment led him to have a bet with the lawyer.

(c) What had been the topic of discussion at the party fifteen years ago?
Answer: The topic of discussion in the party was the moral validity of capital punishment
and its comparison with life imprisonment.

(d) What did the banker say to the lawyer immediately after the bet came to pass?
Answer: The banker said “think better of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two

million is a trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life”.
2. On the basis of your understanding of the text, say whether the following statements are
true or false.
(a) At the party, everyone was in the favour of death penalty.
False

(b) The banker was in the favour of capital imprisonment.
True
(c) The young lawyer considered both, death penalty and life imprisonment to be
immoral.

True
(d) The banker offered the lawyer a sum of two million, if he stayed in prison for fi fteen
years.
False

(e) There was no real purpose, on the part of the banker, behind the bet.
True
3. Find out a word in the text that means the same, or comes closest to the meaning of the
following words:
(a) Brainy
Ans: Clever
(b) Dissolute
Ans: Immoral

(c) Slayer
Ans: Executioner

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