THE YELLOW FACE (Textbook Answers)

 

THE YELLOW FACE

1.      According to Sherlock Homes, the man who left the pipe in his house must have a high value for it because he preferred to repair the pipe twice than buying a new one which would have cost him much less. He was a muscular man, left handed with an excellent set of teeth, he was quite careless in his habits and did not practice economy.

2.      Holmes learnt the man’s name because it was written on the lining of his hat.

3.      The man was hesitant to discuss his problem because he thought that it was not appropriate to discuss about his wife with two complete strangers.

4.      Holmes’ provisional theory was that the woman was married in America and when her husband contracted some disease, she left him and fled to England, changed her name, and began a new life by showing her second husband the death certificate of some man whose identity she had assumed. The people in the cottage were probably her former husband or some woman he had taken up with.

It proved to be inaccurate.

5.      The face at the window appeared to be “inhuman” and “unnatural” to Grant Munro because the colour of the face was yellow. He could not figure out whether the face was of a man or a woman and it sent a chill right down his back. Moreover, when Munro moved forward for a better view, the face disappeared.

6.      She thought that her husband would not accept her child as her complexion was “coal black” and the woman would lose her husband whom she loved very much.

7.      The old lady in the house was a nurse, a faithful Scotch woman, in whose care Effie had left the child in America because her health was weak.

When Effie longed to see her daughter she sent hundred pounds to the nurse and gave instructions about the cottage.

8.      When Jack insisted that he would enter the cottage and probe the matter to the bottom to find out why she was hiding the truth from him, Mrs. Grant Munro implored and persuaded him not to take the step. She promised to tell him everything some day because he felt that the truth would result in misery and their entire lives were at stake on this issue.

9.      The husband had a large heart. He lifted the child and kissed her and reached for his wife with his other hand.

10.  Holmes felt that for once he had been wrong in his theory due to his over-confidence. So he told his friend to warn him with the name ‘Norbury’ whenever he would try to be over-confident again in his powers.

B. Reference to the Context

1.      ‘Oh’, said she...….. you know.

a)      Mr. Grant Munro is narrating this story to Holmes and Watson.

b)      The narrator made this remark when his wife asked him for a hundred pounds after having willed over her entire property to him at the time of their marriage.

c)      She says these words to the narrator when he questions her on why she wants so much money.

d)     The narrator is a merchant. His business takes him to the town at certain seasons.

2.      ‘I don’t wonder……. Breath of fresh air’.

a)      Mrs. Grant Munro spoke these words to her husband.

b)      One night, when Jack mentions to his wife that the rent door cottage is occupied, she slips out at night thinking that he is fast asleep. When she returns, he questions her, ‘Where have you been, Effie?’ The above statement is her response to this question.

c)      She is trembling because she knows that she has been caught and that she has done something she should not have done.

d)     The second statement she makes is false because she had gone to the cottage and it was not for a breath of fresh air.

Kalparaj Chakraborty

Asstt. Teacher,

Tura Town Secondary School