The Last Leaf-Questions -Answers

 Questions-Answers on The Last Leaf

 QA. Comprehension   Questions & Answers 

[These are sample answers. You can also use your own language to write better answers.}

Q1. What do you know about the cold unseen stranger?

Ans. The narrator calls Mr. Pneumonia ‘the cold unseen stranger’. It is invisible to all, so it is called unseen and cold because cold icy winds cause it. It is a stranger because no one knows it. Pneumonia, the disease called influenza, has been personified here. He moves in the narrow streets of the town with long steps. He makes people his victims by touching them with his icy fingers. He is no more an old gentleman. Johnsy has also become its victim along with other people.

Q2.What is the doctor’s verdict regarding Johnsy’s illness?

Ans. The doctor’s verdict (decision) about Johnsy’s illness was that her chances of recovery were ten out of a hundred. It was a very low chance for her survival (life).

Q3. What was the scene outside Johnsy’s window?

Ans. There was an open yard, just below the window of Johnsy’s room. At some distance from the wall, there was another wall of a house. With very few leaves remaining on it, an old ivy vine climbed up to the half distance on that wall. The ivy vine was very old and it had become twisted and decayed (rotten) at the roots.

Q4. What did Johnsy look like with her eyes closed? What was she tired of? What did she want?

Ans. Johnsy looked white and still (motionless) like a fallen statue when she lay on her bed with closed eyes. She was tired of watching and counting leaves on the ivy vine outside the window of her room. She wanted to loosen the grip on her life and sail away like a falling leaf. Actually, she wanted to die.

 Q5. Write a character of old Behrman.

Ans. Behrman was an old painter with a flowing beard and body like that of an imp. He was a failure in art. His canvas had been waiting for a masterpiece for the last forty years. He earned very little money by sitting as a model in front of the young artists who wanted to make his portrait. He drank gin in plenty (very much). He disliked softness in anyone. He had a kind heart. That was why he sacrificed his own life while saving Johnsy’s. That was his supreme sacrifice. His painted leaf became his masterpiece because it saved someone’s life.

Q6. How did Behrman die? Did he paint his masterpiece?

Ans. Behrman knew that Johnsy would die if the last leaf on the wall fell down. He was sure that the leaf would not stay there on the wall due to stormy weather. So he took a ladder, a lantern, material for painting. He did not care for the cold wind and rain and painted a leaf that looked real on the wall. But he became a victim of pneumonia and died very soon. Johnsy recovered from her illness to see the painted leaf the on the wall. Thus, that leaf became his masterpiece.

QB. Word-meanings: 1. Squatty: low, sunken, stunted 

2. Congenial: friendly, compatible 

3. Chivalric: gallant, courageous, noble, valiant 

4.curative: having curing power, healthful, medicinal 

5. Swaggered: walked in a showy manner 

6. still: motionless

7. Elegant: graceful, rich-looking, attractive 

8.broth: thick soup 

9. Hermit: any person having religious ideas and  living in loneliness 

10. Imp: a small evil spirit , a mischievous child, 

11. Serrated: having sharp ends 

12. Fragile: that can be broken easily, weak 

13. Flibbertigibbet: excessively talkative, having odd ideas 

14 gnarled: twisted 

15. Persistent: unpleasantly continuing, not ready to stop despite opposition

QC. 

Ans.1 Sue to Johnsy   

Ans 2. Behrman to Sue    

Ans. 3 : Johnsy to Sue  

Ans. 4. Sue to Doctor   

Ans. 5. Doctor to sue          

Q.D Read the stanzas….

Extract A: It is the last one…..

Ans 1. Johnsy was trying to say that she would die the moment the last leaf fell down.     

Ans. 2: Johnsy had lost her will to live. She thought that she would die as the last leaf on the vine fell down.   

Ans3. She asked Johnsy what she would do if she (Johnsy) died.  

Ans. 4 The soul that is about to leave this physical world is the most lonesome soul in the world. 

Q5. What was happening to Johnsy one by one. 

Ans5. She was becoming more and more sad and hopeless about her recovery from illness with the leaves falling one by one.    

Extract B 

Ans 1. ‘Him’ is Behrman. He was ill for two days.    

Ans. 2 They were wet because of rain. 

Ans 3. The ladder and the lantern indicate that Behrman had used them in the stormy night to paint the last leaf on the wall to save Johnsy’s life.        

Ans. 4 The last leaf was not the real one. It did not move in the story wind. It was still and motionless. It was still green.      

Ans 5. Those were used by Behrman for painting the last leaf on the wall to save Johnsy’s life.