Wounded Plants by Jagadish Chandra Bose: Qs & Ans.

Wounded Plants by Jagadish Chandra Bose: Qs & Ans.

A.     Short Answer-type Qs)

Q1. How can we realise the pain of the sufferings of the plants?

Ans. The mute may express their feelings of pain by their agonised expressions on faces or by the convulsive movement of their body parts.

Q2. Why do we not realise the pain of some living beings?

Ans. It is because human sympathy is often shown to the superior or to the equal and not to the creatures that are thought to be of lower kinds.

Q3. What characterises individuals from one another?

Ans. Mainly two things characterise individuals from one another. The first is the degree of shock one receives (gets) and the second is the sympathy shown at the sufferings of the other individuals. Usually, we show our sympathy to those who are higher or equal to us. We hardly show it to our inferiors.

B.      Answer the following questions in about five sentences each:

Q1. How can we realise the pain of the sufferings of the plants?

Ans.  When a man receives a tragic blow or shock, his answering cry makes us realise that he is in some trouble. But the speechless cannot do so. He is unable to express his sorrow or pain in words. In that case, the mute person may express his feelings of pain by his agonised expressions on his face or by the convulsive movement of his body parts.

Thus, we all human beings realise each other’s pain through fellow-feeling.

C. Answer the following questions in about 100 words each:

Q1. How can we realise the pain of the sufferings of the plants?

Ans. When a man receives a tragic blow or shock, his answering cry makes us realise that he is in some trouble. But the speechless cannot do so. He is unable to express his sorrow or pain in words. In that case, the mute person may express his feelings of pain by his agonised expressions on his face or by the convulsive movement of his body parts.

Thus, we all human beings realise each other’s pain through fellow-feeling.

The writer quotes an example of a frog to prove that the animals and small creatures are also mute and they show their pain through the convulsive movement of their bodies. When a frog is struck with some object, it does not make a cry out of pain. It shows only its convulsive movement.

  Q2. What is the test of livingness by the author?

Ans. The author proceeds to explain the test of livingness now. He says that responsive movements are the tests to ascertain (find out) as to how much vitality (life) is there in the living beings. The living beings answer to a shock automatically. The most lively (energetic) gives the most energetic response, the dying gives the feeblest (weakest) and the dead gives no answer to any shock. Thus life may be tested by the reactions or answers to the shocks the living beings give automatically.  

Q3. What are the three tests in the ‘series of investigation’ referred to in the essay? What is their significance?

Ans.  Three separate investigations have been carried out on the wound on plants caused by human activities or the environment. The first is the shock effect. It retards or stops the growth of plants. Then the second investigation was performed. It recorded the change of spontaneous pulsation (beat) of the leaflet of the Telegraph plant. In the third experiment, it was found that death or decay spreads from the cut point of the leaflet and it reaches the throbbing tissue. Consequently, it becomes decayed or dead. All this reveals that plants are living beings. They feel hurt when they are wounded.

Q4. What is paralysing effect’ How is it measured? What is the result of the ‘paralyzing effect’?

  Ans. An investigation was carried out on a cut-off leaf and also on its parent plant mimosa. The investigation shows that the act of cutting the leaf had caused a big shock to its parent plant.   

  A shock wave was spread to the whole of the plant. All the leaves of the plant remained in depression for several hours. No response came from them. In a way, the shock had paralyzed the plant for hours together. Gradually, the leaves regained their sensitivity. The detached leaf was put into a nourishing solution. It recovers very soon and it shows that it has regained its lost energy. It continued for twenty-four hours. But after it, a curious change was noted on the leaf. The nourishing solution could not keep it alive continuously. At last, the leaf had to surrender in front of the ultimate death.