My time to contribute to this thread
A brilliant RC,especially the questions !!
RC -12 A country road. A tree.Evening.Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again. As before. Enter Vladimir.
ESTRAGON:(giving up again). Nothing to be done.
VLADIMIR:(advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart). I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.) So there you are again.
ESTRAGON:Am I?
VLADIMIR:I'm glad to see you back. I thought you were gone forever.
ESTRAGON:Me too.
VLADIMIR:Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.)Get up till I embrace you.
ESTRAGON:(irritably). Not now, not now.
VLADIMIR:(hurt, coldly). May one inquire where His Highness spent the night?
ESTRAGON:In a ditch.
VLADIMIR:(admiringly). A ditch! Where?
ESTRAGON:(without gesture). Over there.
VLADIMIR:And they didn't beat you?
ESTRAGON:Beat me? Certainly they beat me.
VLADIMIR:The same lot as usual?
ESTRAGON:The same? I don't know.
VLADIMIR:When I think of it . . . all these years . . . but for me . . . where would you be . . .(Decisively.) You'd be nothing more than a little heap of bones at the present minute, no doubt about it.
ESTRAGON:And what of it?
VLADIMIR:(gloomily). It's too much for one man. (Pause. Cheerfully.) On the other hand what's the good of losing heart now, that's what I say. We should have thought of it a million years ago, in the nineties.
ESTRAGON:Ah stop blathering and help me off with this bloody thing.
VLADIMIR:Hand in hand from the top of the Eiffel Tower, among the first. We were respectable in those days. Now it's too late. They wouldn't even let us up. (Estragon tears at his boot.) What are you doing?
ESTRAGON:Taking off my boot. Did that never happen to you?
VLADIMIR:Boots must be taken off every day, I'm tired telling you that. Why don't you listen to me?
ESTRAGON:(feebly). Help me!
VLADIMIR:It hurts?
ESTRAGON:(angrily). Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!
VLADIMIR:(angrily). No one ever suffers but you. I don't count. I'd like to hear what you'd say if you had what I have.
ESTRAGON:It hurts?
VLADIMIR:(angrily). Hurts! He wants to know if it hurts!
ESTRAGON:(pointing). You might button it all the same.
VLADIMIR:(stooping). True. (He buttons up.) Never neglect the little things of life.
ESTRAGON:What do you expect, you always wait till the last moment.
VLADIMIR:(musingly). The last moment . . . (He meditates.) Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?
ESTRAGON:Why don't you help me?
VLADIMIR:Sometimes I feel it coming all the same. Then I go all queer. (He takes off his hat, peers inside it, feels about inside it, shakes it, puts it on again.) How shall I say? Relieved and at the same time . . . (he searches for the word) . . . appalled. (With emphasis.) AP-PALLED. (He takes off his hat again, peers inside it.) Funny. (He knocks on the crown as though to dislodge a foreign body, peers into it again, puts it on again.) Nothing to be done. (Estragon with a supreme effort succeeds in pulling off his boot. He peers inside it, feels about inside it, turns it upside down, shakes it, looks on the ground to see if anything has fallen out, finds nothing, feels inside it again, staring sightlessly before him.) Well?
ESTRAGON:Nothing.
VLADIMIR:Show me.
ESTRAGON:There's nothing to show
Q1According to the passage the characters are discussing :
aThe scope of the boots
bThe art of taking off boots
cThe process of taking off boots
dThe feeble man vs the mighty universe
eThe little things of life
Q.2What best describes Vladimir's reaction to Estragon's comment “Nothing to be done”?
aThat he shared the view
bThat the struggle must go on
cThat one must not lose hope
dThat the struggle must cease
eThat he declined the view
Q.3Which phrase best establishes Vladimir and Estragon's relationship?
a “Get up till I embrace you.”
b“Why don't you listen to me?”
c“… a little heap of bones at the present…”
d“Never neglect the little things of life. “
e“Ah stop blathering and help me of with this bloody thing”.
Q.4 Which one of these is true according to the extract?
aVladimir and Estragon seem interchangeable
bVladimir and Estragon are interdependent
cVladimir and Estragon are brothers
dVladimir and Estragon are thieves
eVladimir and Estragon are settlers
Q.5The overall tone of the extract is one of
aComedy
bTragi- comedy
cEnnui
dSatire
eApathy
