The Great Automatic Grammatizator: ISC Class 11 English answers
Get notes, line-by-line explanation, summary, questions and answers, workbook solutions (Beeta Publication/Morning Star) critical analysis, word meanings, extras, and pdf of the story Roald Dahl’s The Great Automatic Grammatizator by which is part of ISC Class 11 English (Prism). However, the notes should only be treated for references and changes should be made according to the needs of the students.
Summary
The story revolves around two main characters, Mr. Bohlen and Adolph Knipe. Mr. Bohlen is a wealthy businessman who has made his fortune in the electronics industry, while Knipe is a passionate but unsuccessful writer who works for Mr. Bohlen.
Knipe has spent the last ten years writing hundreds of short stories, but none of them have been accepted by magazines. He has studied the types of stories that different magazines tend to publish and believes that he can write stories that fit these types. However, his attempts have been unsuccessful.
Knipe comes up with an idea to build a machine that can write stories. He convinces Mr. Bohlen to fund the project, promising that it will be a profitable venture. The machine is designed to produce any type of story desired, simply by pressing the required button. It has an adjustable coordinator between the ‘plot-memory’ section and the ‘word-memory’ section, which allows it to produce any type of story.
After some initial hiccups, the machine starts producing stories that are accepted by magazines. They set up a literary agency to distribute the stories and invent names for the writers. The money starts pouring in, and Knipe slowly and carefully steps up the output. He also starts building up a dozen or more fictitious persons as promising young authors.
Mr. Bohlen, now eager for greater recognition in the literary world, insists that Knipe adapt the machine for writing novels. Knipe works on this and eventually creates a control system that allows the author to pre-select any type of plot and any style of writing. Mr. Bohlen is thrilled and starts writing a novel.
The story ends with Mr. Bohlen and Knipe enjoying success in the literary world, thanks to their story-writing machine. The machine has not only made them wealthy but also given them recognition as successful authors. However, the story also raises questions about the nature of creativity and the role of technology in art.
Workbook answers/solutions
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)
1. About which news in the paper was Mr Bohlen talking to Knipe?
(a) The building of great automatic grammatizator
(b) The building of great automatic computing engine
(c) The building of great automatic mathematical engine
(d) None of the above
Answer: (b) The building of great automatic computing engine
2. Which of the following was used by the computing engine to solve all the calculations?
(a) Pulses of electricity
(b) Supersonic waves
(c) Ultraviolet rays
(d) None of the above
Answer: (a) Pulses of electricity
3. Why did Knipe appear unenthusiastic after the computing engine?
(a) He did not like its final design
(b) He did not like its pace
(c) He wanted to be a writer
(d) Both (a) and (c)
Answer: (c) He wanted to be a writer
4. What did Mr Bohlen not like about Knipe?
(a) He was irregular in his job
(b) He was slow at understanding
(c) He was sloppy and untidy
(d) He was not good at Mathematics
Answer: (c) He was sloppy and untidy
5. What was the expression on Knipe’s face when he gazed at wall in his room?
(a) Excitement
(b) Astonishment
(c) Sadness
(d) Grief
Answer: (b) Astonishment
6. What was the ‘delicious idea’ that Knipe thought of?
(a) Building a machine to produce literary stuff
(b) Enjoying food and drinks
(c) Resigning his job as an Engineer
(d) None of the above
Answer: (a) Building a machine to produce literary stuff
7. What was the ‘old truth’ that worried Knipe?
(a) A machine cannot work beyond a limit
(b) A machine can only work on old principles
(c) A machine is incapable of original thought
(d) None of the above.
Answer: (c) A machine is incapable of original thought
8. What similarity does Knipe find between English Grammar and Mathematics?
(a) Both are difficult to comprehend
(b) Both are governed by rules
(c) Both are governed by speed
(d) Both are governed by thoughts
Answer: (b) Both are governed by rules
9. Knipe decided to built engine along the lines of electric computer by using which of the following instead of numbers?
(a) Punctuation marks
(b) Verbs
(c) Adjectives
(d) Words
Answer: (d) Words
10. The small push-buttons on Knipe’s machine were labelled with the names of which of the following?
(a) Famous authors
(b) Famous books
(c) Famous American magazines
(d) None of the above
Answer: (c) Famous American magazines
11. After pouring out his story to Mr Bohlen, what verdict was Knipe waiting for?
(a) To support his plan for developing the grammatizator.
(b) To make him the in-charge for developing another computing engine
(c) To set up a literary agency of his own
(d) None of the above
Answer: (a) To support his plan for developing the grammatizator.
12. What was Mr Bohlen’s argument against Knipe’s proposal of building a grammatizator?
(a) A machine cannot produce perfect stories
(b) Nobody wants a machine for writing stories
(c) Nobody wants a fake story
(d) None of the above
Answer: (b) Nobody wants a machine for writing stories
13. Why was Knipe’s heart not in his work as an engineer?
(a) He did not like machine
(b) The sounds of machine irritated him
(c) He wanted to become a writer
(d) He wanted to be an entrepreneur
Answer: (c) He wanted to become a writer
14. Who were always present in the curse uttered by Knipe?
(a) Publishers
(b) Engineers
(c) Poets
(d) Editors
Answer: (d) Editors
15. According to Knipe, what was ‘kind of stuff’ published in the magazines?
(a) Substandard
(b) Boring
(c) Lewd
(d) Interesting
Answer: (a) Substandard
16. Which figure of speech is used in the live given below?
‘the room was filled with a loud humming noise, and a crackling of electric sparks, and the jingle…..’.
(a) Visual Imagery
(b) Metaphor
(c) Similes
(d) Auditory Imagery
Answer: (d) Auditory Imagery
17. What was the ‘prodigious task’ which Bohlen wanted Knipe to do at the earliest?
(a) To adapt the machine for producing novels
(b) To set up a literary agency
(c) To make a deal with the publishers
(d) None of the above
Answer: (a) To adapt the machine for producing novels
18. Which of the following was regarded by Knipe as the most important ingredient of a novel?
(a) Humour
(b) Pathos
(c) Mystery
(d) Passion
Answer: (d) Passion
19. What was the only drawback of Knipe’s machine?
(a) Regulation of the percentage and intensity of passion
(b) Regulation of the original ideas and thoughts
(c) Regulation of the titles of novels
(d) None of the above
Answer: (a) Regulation of the percentage and intensity of passion
20. Which figure of speech is used in the line given below:
…exactly like Rockefeller did with his oil companies.
(a) Metaphor
(b) Personification
(c) Allusion
(d) Simile
Answer: (c) Allusion
21. How does Knipe define creative urge in the writers?
(a) False
(b) Bunk (Nonsense)
(c) Repulsive
(d) None of the above
Answer: (b) Bunk (Nonsense)
Complete the sentences
1. Mr Bohlen appreciated Knipe because____________.
Answer: …of his crucial and brilliant contribution to the building of the great automatic computing engine. Mr Bohlen believed the project would not have been completed without Knipe’s ideas and considered him a valuable, genius-like employee.
2. When Knipe went home for vacation he said that Mr Bohlen was right because____________.
Answer: …Mr Bohlen had correctly sensed that he was depressed and unhappy. However, Mr Bohlen did not know the true reason, which was Knipe’s frustration with his engineering job and his unfulfilled ambition to be a writer, not a woman as Bohlen likely assumed.
3. When in his room, Knipe smiled in many, many months because____________.
Answer: …he experienced a “eureka moment” and a “delicious idea” suddenly came to him: to invent a machine that could mass-produce literary works. This idea fascinated him as it would fulfill his ambition and allow him to take revenge on the editors who had rejected his stories.
4. Knipe regarded his idea as delicious but impracticable because____________.
Answer: …he was initially confronted by the old truth that a machine, no matter how ingenious, is incapable of original thought, which is a fundamental requirement for writing stories.
5. Knipe would mutter a series of curses in which the word ‘editor’ was always present because____________.
Answer: …he was a frustrated aspiring writer whose hundreds of stories had been repeatedly rejected by magazine editors. His invention was, in part, a way for him to exact revenge on them for his past failures.
6. According to Mr Bohlen, Knipe’s machine could be a commercial proposition because____________.
Answer: …Knipe convinced him of the enormous profits they could make. By mass-producing stories and selling them at a lower price than human writers, they could corner the entire market and earn as much as a million dollars a year.
7. Knipe saw no hope in the hand-made articles because____________.
Answer: …he believed they could not possibly compete with mass-production. In his view, the lower cost of production for machine-made goods would always triumph over quality, and stories were just another product like carpets or chairs.
8. Knipe believes that every writer uses at least one long, obscure word into his story because____________.
Answer: …he sees it as a trick to make the reader think that the writer is very wise and clever.
9. Knipe thought that passion was the most important ingredient of a literary work because____________.
Answer: …his study of the books on the best-seller lists showed him that it was a “magical catalyst” that could transform even the dullest novel into a huge financial success.
10. Knipe defined the creative urge in the writers as ‘bunk’ because____________.
Answer: …he cynically believed that writers were not driven by artistic passion but were, like everyone else, primarily interested in money.
Short answer questions
1. What did Mr John Bohlen praise Adolph Knipe for? How did Knipe react to it and why?
Answer: Mr John Bohlen praised Adolph Knipe for his contribution to the building of the great automatic computing engine, which was ordered by the government. Mr Bohlen told Knipe that he had done a fine job and that his contribution, especially to the original plans, was an important one, without which the project might have remained on the drawing boards.
Knipe reacted to the praise without any enthusiasm. His mind seemed to be occupied by something else.
This was because Knipe was not happy with his job as an engineer and his heart was not in it. His lifelong ambition was to be a writer, and he was disheartened by the many rejections his stories had received from literary magazines.
2. Describe briefly the salient features of the great automatic engine developed by the firm of electrical engineers led by John Bohlen.
Answer: The great automatic engine was considered the fastest electronic calculating machine in the world at that time. Its function was to satisfy the increasing need of science, industry, and administration for rapid mathematical calculation.
The engine’s speed was its most remarkable feature. It could provide the correct answer to a problem in five seconds, a task that would take a mathematician a month to solve. In just three minutes, it could produce a calculation that, if done by hand, would fill half a million sheets of paper.
The engine operated by using pulses of electricity, generated at a rate of a million per second, to solve all calculations that could be resolved into addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
3. How can you say that Mr Bohlen was a considerate boss? Give two examples to justify your answer.
Answer: Mr Bohlen can be described as a considerate, understanding, and helpful boss.
One example of his consideration is when he noticed Knipe’s lack of enthusiasm after the completion of the computing engine. Sensing that something was bothering his employee, he offered Knipe a two-week holiday, encouraging him to go somewhere warm, relax, and rejuvenate himself.
A second example is his sympathetic response when Knipe confessed his ambition to be a writer and his frustration over his stories being constantly rejected. Mr Bohlen tried to console him by saying that such rejections and failures are experiences that everyone goes through at some point in their lives.
4. What could have been the ‘eureka’ moment for Knipe? How did he react to it?
Answer: Knipe’s ‘eureka’ moment occurred while he was in his two-room apartment, feeling dejected after his meeting with Mr Bohlen. As he sat cursing his boss and the great electrical computing machine, a ‘delicious idea’ suddenly came to his mind: to invent a machine that could mass-produce works of literature.
He reacted with a look of astonishment and wonder. He became absolutely motionless, gazing at the opposite wall. Gradually, this look of astonishment turned into one of pleasure, and finally, his entire face was open wide and shining with extreme delight. It was the first time he had smiled in many, many months, and the idea fascinated him enormously.
5. Why did Knipe initially think of his idea of constructing a machine as impracticable? How did he try to solve the problem by referring to the computing engine?
Answer: Knipe initially thought his idea of constructing a story-writing machine was impracticable because he was confronted with the old truth that a machine, however ingenious, is incapable of original thought. A machine does not have a brain and can only handle problems that resolve into a single, correct mathematical answer.
He tried to solve this problem by considering the capabilities of the electronic computing engine he had just helped build. He reasoned that while a machine cannot have a brain, it can have a marvellous memory. He believed it was possible to build a memory section of almost unlimited size. He then concluded that the machine’s lack of original thought could be compensated for by exploiting its prodigious memory and the fact that English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness.
6. What were Mr Bohlen’s doubt about Knipe’s proposed plan for constructing a grammatizator?
Answer: Mr Bohlen had several doubts about Knipe’s plan. He initially thought the idea was an impractical trickery. He questioned its usefulness, asking who on earth would want a machine for writing stories. He also doubted its financial viability, wondering where the money in such a venture would come from, especially considering the high cost of building such machines. Furthermore, when Knipe proposed setting up a literary agency with invented author names, Mr Bohlen expressed his disapproval, stating that the plan smacked of trickery.
7. How did Knipe persuade Mr Bohlen to agree to his plan?
Answer: Knipe persuaded Mr Bohlen by framing his plan as a lucrative commercial proposition. He explained that they could mass-produce stories and sell them wholesale at a low price, undercutting every human writer and cornering the market. He presented figures suggesting they could make at least a million dollars a year.
The final element of his persuasion was an appeal to Mr. Bohlen’s ego. Knipe suggested that there was no reason why Mr. Bohlen could not put his own name on some of the better stories. The thought of becoming a famous and respected writer, and surprising his friends at the club by having his name appear in magazines, caused a dreamy, faraway look to appear in Mr. Bohlen’s eyes, and he finally agreed to support the proposal.
8. Why did Knipe write stories? What happened to his stories?
Answer: Knipe wrote stories because it was his lifelong ambition to become a writer. He claimed to possess the “creative urge” and spent every bit of his spare time writing. Over the previous ten years, he had written five hundred and sixty-six short stories.
Despite his efforts, he was not fortunate enough to get any of his stories published. Each time he finished a story, he would send it out on the rounds to various magazines, but they were simply rejected and sent back to him, which he found very depressing.
9. What was Knipe’s belief about creative urge and the writers? Did he more correct in his judgement? Why would you say so?
Answer: Knipe’s belief was that the “creative urge” in writers was “bunk.” He claimed that, like everybody else, writers were really only interested in money.
His judgement proved to be only partially correct. He was incorrect regarding the most talented and successful writers. The first writer he approached, a “very great and wonderful writer,” dismissed him as a lunatic, and the second writer on his list physically attacked him. This showed that their artistic integrity was not for sale.
However, his judgement was correct for a large majority of other writers. He was ultimately successful in persuading seventy percent of the writers on his list to sign his contract. He found that mediocre writers, older writers who were running out of ideas, and those who saw that the machine’s work was superior to their own were willing to make a deal, suggesting that for many, financial security was more important than their own creative efforts.
10. How did the two writers, whom Knipe contacted for the agreement, react to his proposed plan? How did Knipe react to then actions? Was he successful in his plan? Give reasons.
Answer: The first two writers Knipe contacted reacted with hostility and contempt. The first, a very great writer, listened politely before deciding Knipe was a lunatic and firmly showing him the door. The second writer, upon understanding the seriousness of the offer, became violent, attacked Knipe with a large metal paperweight, and chased him away with a torrent of abuse.
Knipe was disappointed by these rejections but remained undismayed. He was not discouraged and immediately proceeded to his next client.
Yes, his plan was ultimately successful. Although he failed with the top-tier writers, he succeeded in convincing about 70 percent of the writers on his list to sign the contract. He achieved this success by changing his strategy to focus on mediocre writers, who he found were not so difficult to seduce, and older writers who were running out of ideas.
11. Why did Knipe decide to concentrate only upon mediocre writers? What was its result?
Answer: Knipe decided to concentrate only upon mediocre writers because his initial attempts to buy out the top writers on his list failed. He learned from his experience that the best and most successful writers were “not quite so easy to seduce” and would not trade their creativity for money. In contrast, he found that writers of lesser talent were more open to his proposition.
The result of this focused strategy was highly successful. By targeting mediocrity, Knipe managed to persuade about seventy percent of the writers on his list to sign his contract. As a result, after the first full year of the machine’s operation, it was estimated that at least half of all the novels and stories published in the English language were produced by Adolph Knipe’s Great Automatic Grammatizator.
12. Who was the man referred to at the end of the story? How did he react to Knipe’s contract? Give an imaginary account of his plight.
Answer: The man referred to at the end of the story is the narrator himself, who reveals that he is a struggling writer with nine starving children.
He is in a state of intense internal conflict over Knipe’s contract. He is desperately trying to resist the temptation to sign it, even praying to God for the strength to let his children starve rather than give up his art. At the same time, the pressure is immense, and he can feel his own hand “creeping closer and closer to that golden contract” that lies on his desk.
My plight is a daily torment. I sit before a blank page, the words refusing to come, while the sounds of my children’s hunger echo from the other room. The publishers no longer want my stories; they want the cheap, formulaic tales churned out by Knipe’s machine. My income has vanished, and I watch my family waste away. On my desk, the golden contract from Knipe seems to glow, promising an end to this nightmare. It offers food for my children and a warm home, but the price is my soul as a writer. Every cry of hunger from my children pushes me closer to signing, to surrendering. I am torn between my love for my family and my love for my art, and I fear I am losing the strength to choose art over their survival.
Long answer questions
1. Describe the character of Adolph Knipe and his relationship with his boss, Mr Bohlen.
Answer: Adolph Knipe is the protagonist of the story, an engineer by profession who longs to be a writer. Physically, he is described as a young, tall, thin person with a long horse face, big teeth, and very large ears. He is sloppy and untidy in his appearance and posture. Knipe is a hardworking and resolute man, who works day and night on his idea for the Grammatizator. Nothing can deter him from his goals. Despite hundreds of rejections, he remains determined to become a writer. He is also ingenious, using his technical skills to create a machine for literature. However, as his plan succeeds, he becomes selfish and greedy for more money and power. He overtakes his boss by naming the literary agency after himself and becomes ruthless in his plan to buy out real authors.
Knipe’s relationship with his boss, Mr. Bohlen, evolves throughout the story. Initially, it is a standard employer-employee relationship where Bohlen praises Knipe’s work but is irritated by his untidiness, while Knipe dislikes Bohlen’s mannerisms. It then transforms into a business partnership driven by Knipe’s manipulative persuasion. Knipe appears selfish in this relationship, as he tries to fool Bohlen by publishing substandard articles under Bohlen’s name while saving the best for himself. He uses Bohlen’s desire for fame and money to get his project funded. Ultimately, Knipe’s ambition leads him to dominate the partnership, gaining more money and power and eventually naming their literary agency after himself, effectively overtaking his former boss.
2. Describe how does the story, The Great Automatic Grammatizator convey the theme of Commercialisation Vs Creativity.
Answer: The story conveys the theme of Commercialisation versus Creativity by showing how the drive for profit and efficiency can lead to the decay of original art. The protagonist, Adolph Knipe, is an aspiring writer whose creative efforts are repeatedly rejected. Frustrated, he decides to leverage technology to achieve success. He invents the Great Automatic Grammatizator, a machine that can mass-produce literary works.
In doing so, Knipe makes a conscious choice to prioritise commercial success over genuine creativity. He ignores the “old truth” that a machine is incapable of original thought, concluding that the rule-bound nature of grammar and a large memory can substitute for inspiration. The machine churns out formulaic but saleable stories, allowing Knipe and his boss to gain immense wealth and power. The theme is further developed when Knipe moves to eliminate the competition by buying out human authors, offering them money to stop writing. He argues that the “creative urge” is bunk and that writers are only interested in money. The story culminates in a dystopian vision where half of all published literature is machine-made, the human “creator of the art” is unemployed, and original, custom-made work is wiped out by mechanised, commercialised mass production.
3. Describe how important it is to believe in yourself and focus on your goal, with reference to the story, The Great Automatic Grammatizator?
Answer: The story of “The Great Automatic Grammatizator” illustrates the immense power of believing in oneself and focusing on a goal, as seen through the character of Adolph Knipe. Despite being an engineer, Knipe’s true ambition was to be a writer. When he faced constant rejection for his hundreds of stories, he did not give up. Instead, his failure made him more determined to succeed. He held a strong belief that his stories were good and that the published material was often substandard.
This self-belief, combined with a sharp focus, drove him to invent the Grammatizator. He was absolutely sure that his plan would work and dedicated himself to it, working day and night. When his boss, Mr. Bohlen, dismissed the idea as impractical, Knipe’s unwavering conviction in its commercial potential allowed him to persuade Bohlen to support him. Knipe’s relentless focus on his goal—to succeed as a writer and dominate the literary market—led him to overcome technical challenges, build the machine, and systematically take over the industry. While his methods were morally questionable, his story shows that a powerful belief in one’s own abilities and an intense focus on a goal can lead to achieving extraordinary, and even world-altering, results.
4. Describe how appropriate is the title of the story, The Great Grammatizator.
Answer: The title, “The Great Automatic Grammatizator,” is perfectly appropriate as the entire story revolves around the invention, development, and impact of this specific machine. The protagonist, Adolph Knipe, creates it to fulfill his ambition of becoming a writer and to exact revenge on the literary world that rejected him.
Each word in the title is significant. It is ‘Great’ because it was the first machine of its kind, a revolutionary invention that could produce literary works of all types, often better than those of human writers. It is ‘Automatic’ because it operated with a control panel of push-buttons and could produce a complete, five-thousand-word story, typed and ready for dispatch, in just thirty seconds. The term ‘Grammatizator’ is a neologism that aptly defines the machine’s function. It combines ‘Grammatise,’ meaning to apply the rules of English grammar, with the suffix ‘-ator,’ indicating an agent that performs an action. The machine’s core function is to use the mathematical-like rules of grammar to mass-produce literature. Since the plot, character motivations, and the story’s ultimate dystopian conclusion are all centered on this machine, the title precisely defines the story’s subject.
5. Compare and contract the characters of Adolph Knipe and Mr Bohlen.
Answer: Adolph Knipe and Mr. Bohlen share a common motivation in their desire for money and recognition. Mr. Bohlen, a practical businessman, is ultimately persuaded to fund the Grammatizator by Knipe’s projection of earning a million dollars a year. He is also tempted by the idea of becoming a famous writer. Similarly, Knipe is driven by a desire for financial success and literary fame, which grows into a ruthless ambition for power.
However, the two characters are very different. Knipe is the creative, if mechanical, genius of the story. He is a resolute, hardworking, and determined individual, initially driven by a deep-seated ambition to be a writer. He is physically described as tall, thin, and untidy. In contrast, Mr. Bohlen is the established head of an engineering firm, described as short, plump, and initially sceptical of Knipe’s “impractical trickery.” Knipe is the innovator and the primary force behind the entire enterprise, while Bohlen acts more as a funder and a partner who is swept along by Knipe’s vision. Knipe’s ambition is boundless and leads him to become manipulative and greedy, whereas Bohlen seems more cautious and content with their initial success, only reluctantly agreeing to Knipe’s more extreme plans.
6. Roald Dahl in his story, The Great Automatic Grammatizator, suggested the taking over of the task of writers by a computer. Discuss how relevant is Roald Dahl’s story in the present day scenario?
Answer: Roald Dahl’s story is remarkably relevant in the present-day scenario, especially with the recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models. Dahl’s fictional “Grammatizator” is a direct precursor to modern AI text generators that can produce articles, stories, and other written content with startling efficiency, much like Knipe’s machine could churn out a story in thirty seconds.
The central theme of the story, Commercialisation versus Creativity, is a major debate today. Businesses and content creators are increasingly using AI to mass-produce content at a low cost, which directly mirrors Knipe’s plan to “undercut every writer in the country” with cheaper, machine-made stories. The story’s prediction of human creativity becoming obsolete and the “creator of the art” becoming unemployed is a real fear for many writers, artists, and other creative professionals today. The plot point where Knipe offers authors contracts to stop writing and merely lend their names is echoed in current discussions about AI ethics, copyright, and the use of artists’ work to train AI models without compensation. The final image of the struggling narrator, with his nine starving children, being tempted by Knipe’s contract is a powerful representation of the economic pressure and existential threat that many in the creative industries feel from the rise of AI. Dahl’s story, written decades ago, serves as an insightful and cautionary tale about the potential consequences of technology devaluing human art in the pursuit of profit.
Additional questions and answers
1. Who is the author of the story?
Answer: The author of the story is Roald Dahl.
48. Bring out the elements of amusement in the story.
Answer: The story is filled with elements of amusement, many of which stem from the absurdity of the situation and the characters’ reactions to it. Here are some examples:
- The constant skepticism of Mr. Bohlen, who repeatedly asserts that the machine will never work, only to be proven wrong each time, adds a touch of humor to the story.
- The machine’s initial failures, such as producing a story with all the words joined together, provide comic relief. The characters’ reactions to these failures, particularly Mr. Bohlen’s panic and Knipe’s calm reassurances, further enhance the humour.
- The idea of a machine producing stories that are accepted by publishers and even becoming popular under various pseudonyms is amusing in itself. The fact that Mr. Bohlen’s name is attached to a story that gets rejected, while Knipe’s stories are accepted, adds an ironic twist.
- The characters’ ambition and their plans to exploit the machine for profit, including using famous writers’ names for advertising, are presented in a humorous light. The way Mr. Bohlen is enticed by the idea of becoming a respected writer, despite having no writing skills, is particularly amusing.
- The scene where Mr. Bohlen attempts to write a novel using the machine is filled with comic elements. His panic and confusion, compared to a learner driver pressing hard on the pedals, and the resulting “fruity” novel, provide a good laugh.
- The machine’s ability to mimic the “trick” of using long, obscure words to appear wise and clever is a humorous commentary on writing styles.
- The way Knipe convinces Mr. Bohlen about the machine’s potential, with Mr. Bohlen initially being skeptical and then getting excited about the prospects, is amusing.
Additional MCQs
1. Who is Adolph Knipe?
A. A writer
B. A businessman
C. A literary agent
D. A scientist
Answer: C. A literary agent
33. Which of the following statements is true regarding the writers Knipe and Bohlen approach?
A. All of the writers refuse to sign
B. Most of them agree to sign
C. Only the female writer agrees to sign
D. Knipe doesn’t approach any writers
Answer: B. Most of them agree to sign
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