The Night the Ghost Got In

James Grover Thurber

In-Text Questions And Answers

a. Where was the author when he heard the noise?

The author was in the bath room when he heard the noise.

b. What did the narrator think the unusual sound was?

First the narrator thought it was the noise created by his father and his brother who must have returned from Indianapolis. Then he thought it must be some burglar. Again he thought it must be a ghost.

c. What were the various sounds the brothers heard when they went downstairs?

The brothers heard the sounds of someone walking.

d. Who were the narrator’s neighbours?

Mr. and Mrs. Bodwell were the narrator’s neighbours.

f. What did the Bodwells think when they heard the mother shout?

When Bodwell heard the mother shout he thought that some burglars had entered his house.

g. What was the grandfather wearing?

The grandfather was wearing a long flannel nightgown over long woolen pants, a nightcap, and a leather jacket around his chest.

h. What conclusions did grandfather jump to when he saw the cops?

When the grandfather saw the cops he concluded that they were deserters.

i. Were the policemen willing to leave the house?

No, they were not willing to leave the house without getting their hand on somebody besides the grandfather, because the night had been a defeat for them.

j. What made the reporter gaze at the author?

As the author wore one of his mother’s dress, which looked funny, the reporter gazed at the author. When the author said they had ghosts, the reporter gazed at him a long time.

A. Answer the following questions in a sentence or two.

1. Why was the narrator sorry to have paid attention to the footsteps?

As he paid attention to the footsteps he made a big confusion in his family. His misjudgment even brought police to his house. So the narrator was sorry to have paid attention to the footsteps.

2. Why did Herman and the author slam the doors?

Herman and the author did not see anyone but heard the footsteps, so they went back to their rooms and slammed the doors.

3. What woke up the mother?

Slamming of the door woke up the mother.

4. What do you understand by the mother’s act of throwing the shoe?

The mother wanted to call the police for help but she could not use her phone as it was downstairs. She had to wake up her neighbour to call the police. She had no other way rather than throwing the shoe at their window glass to wake them up.

5. Why do you think Mrs. Bodwell wanted to sell the house?

Mrs. Bodwell thought that her neighbour had broken the window glass to trouble them. She did not want to tolerate such behaviour. So she wanted to sell the house.

6. How did the cops manage to enter the locked house?

The cops broke open the door and entered the house.

7. Why were the policemen prevented from entering grandfather’s room?

The grandfather was sleeping in the attic. He was against the deserters. If he saw the cops they would be mistaken to be Meade’s men so the policemen were prevented from entering grandfather’s room.

8. Who used the zither and how?

Zither was used by the guinea pig to sleep.

9. Mention the things the grandfather imagined.

The grandfather imagined that the cops were the deserters from Meade’s army, trying to hide away in his attic.

B. Answer the following questions in about 100-150 words.

1. Describe the funny incident that caused the confusion in the house.

Prose	The Night the Ghost Got In
Author	James Grover Thurber
Theme	Dramatic fuss about mysterious sounds

‘The Night the Ghost Got In’, is a short story written by James Thurber. The author was taking a bath suddenly he heard some footsteps. It was around 1.15 in the morning. He thought that it must be his father and brother, Roy. They had gone to Indianapolis and were expected back at any time. When he put his head out the door, he did not see anyone. He wrapped a towel around his waist and walked out into the hallway. He heard footsteps again. He woke his brother, Herman, to help him find out what was going on. They did not see anyone and did not hear anything anymore, so they went back to their rooms and closed the doors. Their mother was awakened by the slamming of the doors and wanted to know what was going on. She believed there were burglars in the house. Somehow with the help of the neighbour she informed the police. The police arrived with a few reporters and things just went wild. The grandfather ended up shooting one of the policemen in the arm, thinking that he was a deserter. They found no evidence and left.

2. Narrate the extensive search operation made by the policemen in the house.

Prose	The Night the Ghost Got In
Author	James Grover Thurber
Theme	Dramatic fuss about mysterious sounds

 ‘The Night the Ghost Got In’, is a short story written by James Thurber. The author was in the bathroom and around 1.15 in the morning he heard some footsteps. He and his brother searched here and there but no one was seen. So they closed their room doors with a bang. The sound of the bang woke up the mother. When she heard about the footsteps she thought there must be some burglars. Somehow with the help of the neighbour she called the police and they came in a short time. The police broke open the door and entered the house. They could not find anybody. They opened all the drawers and windows and searched everywhere. They pulled beds from the walls and they removed the clothes from the closets. They saw the zither which was used by guinea pig to sleep. The cops were reluctant to leave without getting their hand on somebody besides grandfather; the night had been distinctly a defeat for them. Finally they could not find anybody.

C. Look at the following expressions from the text. With the help of your teacher rewrite

them in standard English. One has been done for you.

1. ‘Musta got away– whatt’d he like?	Must have got away-what was he like?
2. ‘Looky here, Joe	Look here, Joe.
3. ‘No sign o’ nothing’ `	No sign of anything.
4. ‘Back t’ the lines ye goodaam’	Back to the lines you good man (go down)
5. ‘What was the idée of all them cops tarryhootin’ round the house last night?’	What was the idea of all of the cops tarry hooting round the house last night?

Complete the given tabular column with the suitable plural forms.

Chair	–	chairs
Box	–	boxes
Eskimo	–	eskimos
Lady	–	ladies
Radius	–	radii
Formula	–	Formulae
Child	–	Children
Deer	–	deer
Loaf	–	loaves
Hero	–	Heroes

A. Nagarajan and Dhanalakshmi want to buy a new house. They have come to see a

house for sale. Complete the conversation below by adding a, an or the.

Nagarajan : Well, here we are, No.8, Kaveri Street. I think this is the house we saw online.

What do you think of the location?

Dhanalakshmi : It is in a nice neighbourhood. And it’s close to the railway station.

Nagarajan : And the bus stop is not too far away.

Dhanalakshmi : How many rooms are there?

Nagarajan : There are three rooms, a kitchen and a balcony.

Dhanalakshmi : There is a lawn behind the house, right?

Nagarajan : That’s right. The lawn is actually quite large. Did you see any photos of the living

room, online? What does it look like?

Dhanalakshmi : The living room looks great. It looks bright and airy. It has a nice view of the hills.

But the kitchen looks a little small.

Dhanalakshmi : No, but there is an attic, where we can store things.

Nagarajan : I hope this house is a better option.

Dhanalakshmi : Let’s wait for the real estate agent. She said, she would be here at three o’clock.

Nagarajan : Look there she is!

B. Few articles are missing in the given passage. Edit the passage given below by adding suitable articles wherever necessary.

My neighbourhood is a very interesting place. My house is located in an apartment building downtown near many stores and offices. There is a small supermarket across the street, where my family likes to go shopping. There is also a post office and a bank near our home. In our neighbourhood there is a small, Green Park where my friends and I like to play on weekends and holidays. There is a small pond near the park and there are many ducks in the park. We always have a great time. In addition there is an elementary school close to our home where my little brother studies in the third grade. There are so many things to see and do in my neighbourhood that’s why I like it. It’s really a great place.

C. Refer to the dictionary to find out the meaning of the following prepositions and match them with the correct meaning.

Preposition	Meaning
due to	as a substitute for	because of
except for	in the interest of	with the exception of
with reference to	irrespective of	referring to
in spite of	added to	disregarding the difficulty
in addition to	because of	Added to
in place of	referring to	as a substitute for
regardless of	with the exception of	irrespective of
for the sake of	disregarding the difficulty	in the interest of

D. Fill in the blanks by choosing the most appropriate prepositional phrase from the given

options.

1. Everything falls to the ground because of earth’s gravitational pull.

a. in addition to b. because of c. cause of

2. The trial was conducted in accordance with the procedure of law.

a. in accordance with b. due to c. despite of

3. There is a temple right in front of my house.

a. in back of b. apart from c. in front of

4. As a result of his hard work, he achieved the target.

a. instead of b. result of c. apart from

5. Failure is often the consequence of negligence.

a. effect of b. consequence of c. reason of

6. Children are given toys in addition to sweets on Children’s Day.

a. on top of b. in addition to c. due to

7. The parents must be informed in case of any indiscipline conduct of their wards.

a. because of b. in case of c. in spite of

8. He didn’t turn up due to his busy schedule.

a. consequence of b. due to c. except for

9. Global warming is an effect of the green house emission.

a. an effect of b. in spite of c. in addition to

10. in spite of several warnings, he continued to swim.

a. due to b. in spite of c. because of

E. Edit the following passage by replacing the underlined incorrect words with correct prepositional phrases.

Janu is studying in class X. In the event of the teachers According to

she is a disciplined student. In addition to her poverty, she in spite of

is always neat. Many students like her in case of because of

her simplicity. According to her studies, she also In addition to

participates in sports. She gets on with everyone in case of regardless of

age and gender in the school. In opposition to taking leave, she ensures In case of

that she completes the work given before she goes to school next day.