I. (i) The old banker hosted the party. The people who attended the
party included journalists, intellectuals, a lawyer and a banker.
The host was in a depressing and reminiscent mood.
(ii) Capital punishment was the topic of discussion at the party. Life
imprisonment was the alternative suggested in place of capital
punishment.
(iii) The majority of guests at the party were against giving death
penalty as they considered it out of date, immoral and unsuitable
for Christian states.
(iv) The host’s view was that capital punishment was more moral than
life imprisonment. He justified his view by stating that capital
punishment kills a man at once, whereas life imprisonment kills
a man slowly.
(v) According to the young lawyer, both capital punishment and life
sentence were immoral. But given a choice, he would go for life
imprisonment because to live is better than not living at all.
I am in/not in favour of capital punishment:
For: (a) Capital punishment achieves nothing but revenge.
(b) A criminal is a mentally sick person who must
be cured of his ailment rather than be destroyed
completely.
(c) Capital punishment does not reform the criminal
but just eliminates him.
(d) Capital punishment does not act as a deterrent
against crime. The claim that capital punishment
reduces violent crime is inconclusive and certainly
not proven.
Against: (a) All humans have the right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. When someone wilfully commits
crimes against his fellow humans, he should be
given capital punishment.
(b) Lesser sentence or life imprisonment will remove the
fear and deterrence instilled by capital punishment.
(c) When the criminals will be out, they will be free
to resume their nefarious activities and even take
revenge against the law enforcing agencies or the
relatives of the victims.
II. (i) The bet stipulated that if the lawyer would remain in solitary
confinement for a period of fifteen years, the banker would pay
him two million roubles. It was wild and senseless because by
accepting it, the lawyer would lose his freedom and the best
years of his life in confinement, just for the sake of getting two
million roubles.
(ii) It tells us that the banker was a mean and heartless fellow, who
sought to ruin the youth and the life of the lawyer by setting
inhuman and unreasonable conditions for the bet.
(iii) The lawyer accepted the bet as a challenge and for the sake of
getting two million roubles. The lawyer’s act of accepting such
a bet shows him to be a daring but greedy fellow.
(iv) The banker warned the lawyer to think again about it because
by undertaking such a bet, he would lose the best years of his
life in prison. He also told him that voluntary confinement is
much more harder than being in compulsory confinement. He
felt sorry for the lawyer because the latter would ruin his life
by undertaking the bet.
(v) The banker questioned himself about the object of the bet, the
good involved in lawyers’ losing fifteen years of his life and his
throwing away two million roubles and whether the bet can prove
that the death penalty is better or worse than life imprisonment.
The banker’s desire to prove his point that capital punishment is
better than life imprisonment prompted him to risk two million
roubles on a bet.
(vi) The banker cursed the bet he undertook fifteen years ago
because his fortune had declined and he was himself in debt.
By paying the lawyer, two million roubles, he would be ruined.
The lawyer, on the other hand, decided to forfeit the bet he had
undertaken fifteen years ago, to prove the futility and fleeting
nature of worldly possessions.
(vii) The bet between the lawyer and the banker was unreasonable
and inhuman because it put at stake the freedom and youth
of a man for fifteen long years, just to prove which of the two
options — capital punishment or life imprisonment is better.
The lawyer staked more because he staked his freedom and
his youth by being in confinement for fifteen years, whereas
the banker staked only money, which can be recovered, unlike
youth and time lost, which can never be regained.
III. (i) In the second year of his confinement, the prisoner did not
play any music and no piano was heard. This was because he
wanted to study only the classics.
(ii) In the second year the prisoner asked for classics to read,
whereas in the fifth year of his confinement, he altogether gave
up reading books.
(iii) In the first year of his confinement, the prisoner refused to
take wine because he believed that wine excites the desires and
desires are the worst enemy of a prisoner. Besides, he felt that
nothing could be more gloomy than drinking wine and not being
able to meet anyone.
(iv) In the fifth year of his confinement, the prisoner indulged in
music, eating, drinking, lying on his bed, frequently yawning,
angrily talking to himself and writing at night and tearing up
in the morning, all that he had written.
(v) The prisoner used to tear up all that he had written at night,
in the morning. He did so to spend time and avoid the bouts
of depression. Besides, he was not interested in anything.
(vi) The prisoner’s act of crying tells us that he was in a state of
depression, restlessness and frustration.
IV. (i) The first ‘them’ in the first line of the extract refers to the people
who knew six languages in which the prisoner had written a
letter to the banker. The prisoner wanted them to read the letter
he had written to the banker.
(ii) The prisoner took a great interest in learning languages is hinted
from the fact that he procured six hundred volumes of books
related to languages. The banker had the difficulty in getting
the books which the prisoner wanted to become proficient in
different languages.
(iii) It means that although people belonging to different lands speak
different languages, but their feelings and thoughts are the same.
(iv) The prisoner wanted the banker to fire a shot in the garden if
the experts in different languages could not find a single mistake
in the letter he had written in six languages. In this way, he
would be able to prove himself that all the efforts he made in
learning different languages were not a waste.
The banker ordered two shots to be fired in the garden to
recognise the proficiency the prisoner had acquired in different
languages over the years.
(v) It shows that prisoner was a seeker of knowledge, who wanted
to understand the reality of life through books because in
confinement, he could not gain it through life’s experiences.
V. (i) The banker’s fortune declined because of wild speculation and
gambling on the Stock Exchange. As a result of decline in his
fortune, the banker who used to be a proud, fearless, selfconfident
millionaire, became a banker of middling rank, fearing
loss at every rise and fall in his investments.
(ii) The old man described the bet as ‘cursed’ because by following
the conditions laid down in the bet, he would go bankrupt if had
to pay two million roubles to the lawyer. The banker clutched his
head, cursed the bet and the lawyer for the miserable condition
in which he was.
(iii) The old man wished the prisoner to have died. He wished so
because, he would be spared the payment of two million roubles
to the prisoner, as stipulated in the bet.
(iv) The prisoner would take the money from the banker and use it
to get married, enjoy life and gamble on the Stock Exchange.
(v) The old man said that he would look at the prisoner with
envy because by paying two million roubles to the prisoner as
stipulated in the bet, the old man would be reduced to the state
of a pauper, whereas the prisoner would regain his freedom,
marry and enjoy life.
This shows that the banker was a jealous and selfish man, who
could not stand the success of another person. Further, instead
of improving himself, he blamed others for his downfall.
(vi) The old man decided to unlock the garden house door, kill the
prisoner and throw the blame on the watchman, to save himself
from paying money to the prisoner.
The banker’s resolve to kill the prisoner creates surprise in the
story by arousing anxiety among the readers about the outcome
of the banker’s resolve and its further consequences for both
the banker and the prisoner.
VI. (i) Fifteen years of solitary confinement in the prison, made the
prisoner calm and at peace within himself so that he could
sit still, perhaps in a state of meditation. The prisoner did not
respond at all to the banker’s tapping at the window because
he was fast asleep.
(ii) The banker was in a state of despair when he broke the seals off
the door. He was in a state of despair because only a day was
left for the final accounting of the stipulated fifteen years of the
bet and he would have to pay two million roubles to the prisoner.
(iii) The author wants to create suspense in the story by usig
expressions like ‘rusty’, ‘lock’, ‘grating sound’ and ‘creaking door’.
These expressions hint at the passage of fifteen years as well
as the miserable condition in which the prisoner might be.
(iv) The banker expected to hear the footsteps of the prisoner because
he thought that the latter would rush towards the door and give
a cry of amazement on knowing that somebody had opened the
door and he would be freed from the prison.
(v) The banker finally decided to enter the lodge in his garden,
where the lawyer has been in captivity for the last fifteen years.
He made up his mind to go inside the lodge to kill the prisoner
and put to an end the bet and the issue of paying two million
roubles to the prisoner.
(vi) The banker thought that the prisoner would be dreaming about
the two million roubles, he was likely to get after completing
the stipulated time period of fifteen years in prison.
(vii) The prisoner is to be pitied for the condition in which he
landed himself for his greed for money. He staked his liberty
and youth for fifteen years in return for two million roubles.
He did realise the worthlessness of the materialistic world and
the need for introspection, after fifteen years of being in solitary
confinement. However, his efforts to learn and excel in many
areas of achievements in the confinement are praiseworthy.
VII. (i) The watchman of the lodge informed the banker about the
disappearance of the prisoner from the lodge. The prisoner stayed
for five hours less than fifteen years in confinement.
(ii) The prisoner renounced the two million roubles because fifteen
years of his confinement in the prison, during which he moved
from one enthusiasm to other like music, eating, drinking,
sleeping, smoking and reading books made him realise that
nothing endures in this world: death destroys everything and
everyone. Therefore, this world is empty, illusory and doomed.
(iii) The banker after reading the prisoner’s note underwent a
transformation of heart. He wept and felt a great contempt for
himself. When he reached home and tried to sleep, he could not
do so because his tears and emotions kept him awake for hours.
(iv) The banker kept the note in the safe to avoid the arousal of
unnecessary suspicion among the people regarding the bet and
the prisoner. This act of the banker suggests that he was a
self-protective man, who does not want to land himself in any
trouble because of the prisoner’s note.
(v) At the end of the story, the prisoner realised the worthlessness
of the material world and rejected all the pleasures he has
experienced and renounced the two million roubles he could
have won, as stipulated in the bet. The banker, after seeing
the emaciated condition of the prisoner and reading his note,
became remorseful for his inhuman bet and felt great contempt
for himself.
(vi) The Bet is an appropriate title for the story because:
(a) the entire story revolves around the ‘bet’ between two people—a
banker and a lawyer. The banker staked two million roubles,
whereas the lawyer staked his freedom and his youth for
fifteen long years in confinement.
(b) symbolically, human life itself is a bet, where we stake
everything to achieve material possessions, but realise their
futility only after losing everything, i.e., life itself.
party included journalists, intellectuals, a lawyer and a banker.
The host was in a depressing and reminiscent mood.
(ii) Capital punishment was the topic of discussion at the party. Life
imprisonment was the alternative suggested in place of capital
punishment.
(iii) The majority of guests at the party were against giving death
penalty as they considered it out of date, immoral and unsuitable
for Christian states.
(iv) The host’s view was that capital punishment was more moral than
life imprisonment. He justified his view by stating that capital
punishment kills a man at once, whereas life imprisonment kills
a man slowly.
(v) According to the young lawyer, both capital punishment and life
sentence were immoral. But given a choice, he would go for life
imprisonment because to live is better than not living at all.
I am in/not in favour of capital punishment:
For: (a) Capital punishment achieves nothing but revenge.
(b) A criminal is a mentally sick person who must
be cured of his ailment rather than be destroyed
completely.
(c) Capital punishment does not reform the criminal
but just eliminates him.
(d) Capital punishment does not act as a deterrent
against crime. The claim that capital punishment
reduces violent crime is inconclusive and certainly
not proven.
Against: (a) All humans have the right to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. When someone wilfully commits
crimes against his fellow humans, he should be
given capital punishment.
(b) Lesser sentence or life imprisonment will remove the
fear and deterrence instilled by capital punishment.
(c) When the criminals will be out, they will be free
to resume their nefarious activities and even take
revenge against the law enforcing agencies or the
relatives of the victims.
II. (i) The bet stipulated that if the lawyer would remain in solitary
confinement for a period of fifteen years, the banker would pay
him two million roubles. It was wild and senseless because by
accepting it, the lawyer would lose his freedom and the best
years of his life in confinement, just for the sake of getting two
million roubles.
(ii) It tells us that the banker was a mean and heartless fellow, who
sought to ruin the youth and the life of the lawyer by setting
inhuman and unreasonable conditions for the bet.
(iii) The lawyer accepted the bet as a challenge and for the sake of
getting two million roubles. The lawyer’s act of accepting such
a bet shows him to be a daring but greedy fellow.
(iv) The banker warned the lawyer to think again about it because
by undertaking such a bet, he would lose the best years of his
life in prison. He also told him that voluntary confinement is
much more harder than being in compulsory confinement. He
felt sorry for the lawyer because the latter would ruin his life
by undertaking the bet.
(v) The banker questioned himself about the object of the bet, the
good involved in lawyers’ losing fifteen years of his life and his
throwing away two million roubles and whether the bet can prove
that the death penalty is better or worse than life imprisonment.
The banker’s desire to prove his point that capital punishment is
better than life imprisonment prompted him to risk two million
roubles on a bet.
(vi) The banker cursed the bet he undertook fifteen years ago
because his fortune had declined and he was himself in debt.
By paying the lawyer, two million roubles, he would be ruined.
The lawyer, on the other hand, decided to forfeit the bet he had
undertaken fifteen years ago, to prove the futility and fleeting
nature of worldly possessions.
(vii) The bet between the lawyer and the banker was unreasonable
and inhuman because it put at stake the freedom and youth
of a man for fifteen long years, just to prove which of the two
options — capital punishment or life imprisonment is better.
The lawyer staked more because he staked his freedom and
his youth by being in confinement for fifteen years, whereas
the banker staked only money, which can be recovered, unlike
youth and time lost, which can never be regained.
III. (i) In the second year of his confinement, the prisoner did not
play any music and no piano was heard. This was because he
wanted to study only the classics.
(ii) In the second year the prisoner asked for classics to read,
whereas in the fifth year of his confinement, he altogether gave
up reading books.
(iii) In the first year of his confinement, the prisoner refused to
take wine because he believed that wine excites the desires and
desires are the worst enemy of a prisoner. Besides, he felt that
nothing could be more gloomy than drinking wine and not being
able to meet anyone.
(iv) In the fifth year of his confinement, the prisoner indulged in
music, eating, drinking, lying on his bed, frequently yawning,
angrily talking to himself and writing at night and tearing up
in the morning, all that he had written.
(v) The prisoner used to tear up all that he had written at night,
in the morning. He did so to spend time and avoid the bouts
of depression. Besides, he was not interested in anything.
(vi) The prisoner’s act of crying tells us that he was in a state of
depression, restlessness and frustration.
IV. (i) The first ‘them’ in the first line of the extract refers to the people
who knew six languages in which the prisoner had written a
letter to the banker. The prisoner wanted them to read the letter
he had written to the banker.
(ii) The prisoner took a great interest in learning languages is hinted
from the fact that he procured six hundred volumes of books
related to languages. The banker had the difficulty in getting
the books which the prisoner wanted to become proficient in
different languages.
(iii) It means that although people belonging to different lands speak
different languages, but their feelings and thoughts are the same.
(iv) The prisoner wanted the banker to fire a shot in the garden if
the experts in different languages could not find a single mistake
in the letter he had written in six languages. In this way, he
would be able to prove himself that all the efforts he made in
learning different languages were not a waste.
The banker ordered two shots to be fired in the garden to
recognise the proficiency the prisoner had acquired in different
languages over the years.
(v) It shows that prisoner was a seeker of knowledge, who wanted
to understand the reality of life through books because in
confinement, he could not gain it through life’s experiences.
V. (i) The banker’s fortune declined because of wild speculation and
gambling on the Stock Exchange. As a result of decline in his
fortune, the banker who used to be a proud, fearless, selfconfident
millionaire, became a banker of middling rank, fearing
loss at every rise and fall in his investments.
(ii) The old man described the bet as ‘cursed’ because by following
the conditions laid down in the bet, he would go bankrupt if had
to pay two million roubles to the lawyer. The banker clutched his
head, cursed the bet and the lawyer for the miserable condition
in which he was.
(iii) The old man wished the prisoner to have died. He wished so
because, he would be spared the payment of two million roubles
to the prisoner, as stipulated in the bet.
(iv) The prisoner would take the money from the banker and use it
to get married, enjoy life and gamble on the Stock Exchange.
(v) The old man said that he would look at the prisoner with
envy because by paying two million roubles to the prisoner as
stipulated in the bet, the old man would be reduced to the state
of a pauper, whereas the prisoner would regain his freedom,
marry and enjoy life.
This shows that the banker was a jealous and selfish man, who
could not stand the success of another person. Further, instead
of improving himself, he blamed others for his downfall.
(vi) The old man decided to unlock the garden house door, kill the
prisoner and throw the blame on the watchman, to save himself
from paying money to the prisoner.
The banker’s resolve to kill the prisoner creates surprise in the
story by arousing anxiety among the readers about the outcome
of the banker’s resolve and its further consequences for both
the banker and the prisoner.
VI. (i) Fifteen years of solitary confinement in the prison, made the
prisoner calm and at peace within himself so that he could
sit still, perhaps in a state of meditation. The prisoner did not
respond at all to the banker’s tapping at the window because
he was fast asleep.
(ii) The banker was in a state of despair when he broke the seals off
the door. He was in a state of despair because only a day was
left for the final accounting of the stipulated fifteen years of the
bet and he would have to pay two million roubles to the prisoner.
(iii) The author wants to create suspense in the story by usig
expressions like ‘rusty’, ‘lock’, ‘grating sound’ and ‘creaking door’.
These expressions hint at the passage of fifteen years as well
as the miserable condition in which the prisoner might be.
(iv) The banker expected to hear the footsteps of the prisoner because
he thought that the latter would rush towards the door and give
a cry of amazement on knowing that somebody had opened the
door and he would be freed from the prison.
(v) The banker finally decided to enter the lodge in his garden,
where the lawyer has been in captivity for the last fifteen years.
He made up his mind to go inside the lodge to kill the prisoner
and put to an end the bet and the issue of paying two million
roubles to the prisoner.
(vi) The banker thought that the prisoner would be dreaming about
the two million roubles, he was likely to get after completing
the stipulated time period of fifteen years in prison.
(vii) The prisoner is to be pitied for the condition in which he
landed himself for his greed for money. He staked his liberty
and youth for fifteen years in return for two million roubles.
He did realise the worthlessness of the materialistic world and
the need for introspection, after fifteen years of being in solitary
confinement. However, his efforts to learn and excel in many
areas of achievements in the confinement are praiseworthy.
VII. (i) The watchman of the lodge informed the banker about the
disappearance of the prisoner from the lodge. The prisoner stayed
for five hours less than fifteen years in confinement.
(ii) The prisoner renounced the two million roubles because fifteen
years of his confinement in the prison, during which he moved
from one enthusiasm to other like music, eating, drinking,
sleeping, smoking and reading books made him realise that
nothing endures in this world: death destroys everything and
everyone. Therefore, this world is empty, illusory and doomed.
(iii) The banker after reading the prisoner’s note underwent a
transformation of heart. He wept and felt a great contempt for
himself. When he reached home and tried to sleep, he could not
do so because his tears and emotions kept him awake for hours.
(iv) The banker kept the note in the safe to avoid the arousal of
unnecessary suspicion among the people regarding the bet and
the prisoner. This act of the banker suggests that he was a
self-protective man, who does not want to land himself in any
trouble because of the prisoner’s note.
(v) At the end of the story, the prisoner realised the worthlessness
of the material world and rejected all the pleasures he has
experienced and renounced the two million roubles he could
have won, as stipulated in the bet. The banker, after seeing
the emaciated condition of the prisoner and reading his note,
became remorseful for his inhuman bet and felt great contempt
for himself.
(vi) The Bet is an appropriate title for the story because:
(a) the entire story revolves around the ‘bet’ between two people—a
banker and a lawyer. The banker staked two million roubles,
whereas the lawyer staked his freedom and his youth for
fifteen long years in confinement.
(b) symbolically, human life itself is a bet, where we stake
everything to achieve material possessions, but realise their
futility only after losing everything, i.e., life itself.
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