Consolidating the material

1. Do this quiz to test how well you remember the details of the story:

1. Fill in the missing words (mathematical words). The first letters are given.

The automatic computing engine uses pulses of electricity, generated at the rate of a million a second, to solve all calculations that resolve themselves into addition, s___________, multiplication, and d_________.

2. Mr Bohlen’s first name is

1. Jack

2. John

3. James

4. Adolph

3. Which best describes Knipe’s dwelling

1. an attic

2. a single-room apartment

3. a two-room flat

4. a tiny house in the suburbs

4. Knipe thought that Mr Bohlen had attributed his (Knipe’s) strange behaviour to:

1. Stress at work

2. Problems with a girlfriend

3. Poor health

4. A creative urge

5. What was the title of the story Knipe was trying to write?

1. The Great Automatic Grammatizator

2. Home Journal

3. The True Love

4. A Narrow Escape

6. What was Mr. Bohlen’s first reaction when he heard about Knipe’s project

1. He was enthusiastic about the project

2. He thought that Knipe was out of his mind

3. He liked the idea though he saw no commercial value

4. He thought Knipe was a genius

7. Which best summarizes Mr. Bohlen’s attitude to the Great Automatic Grammatizator?

   1. He wanted to appropriate Knipe’s future literary fame

   2. He accepted Knipe’s idea as a commercially successful project but later developed literary ambitions

   3. He accepted Knipe’s idea solely to humour his most ingenious employee

   4. He has always had a creative urge himself and dreamt of writing a novel

8. Which description does not refer to Mr. Bohlen?

   1. The man with a tiny mouth and narrow purple-coloured lips

   2. The man with two small white hands and nervous fingers

   3. The man with a long horse face and big teeth

   4. The man with small alert brown eyes

9. Which description refers to Adolph Knipe?

   1. A not very tall, thin person with hair falling all over his face

   2. Always drooping and untidy

   3. A short, plump, breviped man

   4. A tall man with small alert brown eyes

10. How many stories did Knipe write before he created the grammatizator?

1. 100

2. 560

3. 566

4. 166

11. The Great Automatic Grammatizator is

    1. a programme for checking grammar and spelling

    2. a computer for writing literary works

    3. an automatic printing press

    4. a computerized typewriter

12. The computer was built on the assumption that

    1. English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness

    2. English grammar is governed by rules that allow several alternative positions for words and phrases which are all correct

    3. English grammar is governed by rules which allow flexible word order

    4. English grammar in not governed by any rules at all

13. How long did it take Knipe to work out his project?

1. A month

2. A week

3. Two weeks

4. Two months

14. How much was Knipe planning to earn a year?

1. 40 000

2. 20 000

3. A million

4. 2 million

1. For which magazine did they run off the very first story?

   1. Home Journal

   2. Today’s Woman

   3. Reader Digest

   4. Women’s Week

2. What was wrong with the second story?

   1. It was in the form of a palindrome

   2. It was sloppy

   3. It was gibberish

   4. It was all written in one word

3. What kind of novel did Mr Bohlen plan to write?

   1. a classical mysterious novel

   2. a profound satirical novel about racial issues

   3. a powerful ironic novel concerning racism and family values

   4. a romantic passion-filled novel

4. How many literary works in English were produced upon the Grammatizator for the first full year of its operation:

   1. about 50 %

   2. about 70%

   3. about 90%

   4. about 20%

5. Which quotation does not belong to Adolph Knipe?

   1. The quality may be inferior, but that doesn’t matter.

   2. It’s bunk! All they’re really interested in is the money – just like everybody else.

   3. We’ll set up our own literary agency, and we’ll distribute them through that.

   4. A novel’s the only thing that counts – that’s what they say.

6. Which best describes Mr. Bohlen’s attitude to Knipe?

   1. he considered him a very valuable employee but difficult

   2. he considered him to be as mad as a hatter

   3. he considered him to be an arrogant upstart

   4. he considered him to be an efficient businesslike employee