The Sound Machine by Roald Dahl

No.	Page	Question	Answer
STORY EIGHT – The Sound Machine
1	123	Klausner encounters a strange black box in the interior of a shed. What colour are the walls of the shed? a) Pink b) Blue c) Red d) Black e) No Colour	The answer is e. Dahl writes that the interior of the shed was an ‘unpainted room’
2	123	Klausner pokes and peers inside the box among a mass of different-coloured wires and silver tubes. He then turns the dials, which creates movements inside the box. Where do you think he is getting the instructions for how to use the box from?	He seems to be getting his instructions from a piece of paper that lay beside the box, which he studied carefully.
3	124	Scott, the doctor, comes into the shed and speaks to Klausner about his sore throat. The doctor looks at the black box and comments on its ‘rather complicated-looking innards’. What is meant by ‘innards’ in this sentence?	‘Innards’ means what is inside the box.
4	125	What is the upper limit of human hearing, according to Klausner?	According to Klausner, we cannot hear any note so high that it has more than fifteen thousand vibrations a second.
5	126	Klausner claims that the number of possible sounds in the world and the highest pitches of sound may be infinite. What impression do you get of Klausner’s age? What evidence can you give to support this impression?	Dahl’s description makes Klausner out to be quite elderly. He writes that he was a “small frail man, nervous and twitchy, with always moving hands.”… a “frail, nervous, twitchy little man.” The term ‘frail’ gives away the idea that he is probably quite elderly.
6	127	Klausner claims that there is a whole world of sound around us that we cannot hear. How does the black box help to hear such noises?	The black box is designed to pick up sound vibrations that are too high-pitched for reception by the human ear, and converts them into a scale of audible tones, to a lower pitch.
7	129	The black box seems to be working, and Klausner starts to hear a sound that no-one else can. What does he hear, and where is it coming from?	Klausner hears a piercing shriek/scream. This scream is coming from the flowers when their stems are cut by Mrs.Saunders.

8	131	What does Klausner realise initially think is happening to the flowers when he hears the scream? What does he change his mind about the meaning of this sound to?	He realises that the flowers are in pain and that they are screaming just as a human would if s/he were cut. He changes his mind to the idea that it is not a cry of pain but something else which humans don’t know about, something with a different meaning.
9	132	Klausner takes an axe and injures a tree in order to hear how its response will sound. The sound is described as a “harsh, noteless, enormous noise,… drawn out like a sob.” What is meant by the phrase ‘drawn out like a sob’? a) Like someone crying for a long time b) Lengthened like a tree’s roots c) Overwhelming like a murder	The answer is a)
10	134	Klausner calls Dr.Scott to get him to come and help him. In the meantime, Klausner decides that he will not eat anything that can be torn, with one exception, what is this exception?	Klausner will eat apples, because they naturally fall off a tree when they are ripe.
11	135	Klausner takes a swipe at the tree again with the axe, so that Dr.Scott can hear. What happens that Klausner did not intend?	A large branch is severed, and the branch falls down upon the machine and smashes it to pieces.
12	136/137	What two things does Klausner insistent on after the branch breaks?	Klausner is insistent about finding out whether Dr.Scott heard the scream of the branch breaking, and what this sounded like. He is also insistent about getting Dr.Scott to paint the cut on the tree with iodine.
13	137	Why does Klausner want the doctor to paint the cut in the tree with iodine?	Because iodine is a healing chemical, and Klausner wants the tree to heal from its wounds.