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Question
Ghosts and haunting have fascinated the public for centuries. Although many doubt the existence of ghosts or other paranormal entities, many people dedicate their lives to searching and recording paranormal activity. Ghost tours, support groups and research societies, to name just a few, permeate our society and seek to answer questions about paranormal activity. Interview your friends, relatives and people in your neighbourhood about whether they believe in the existence of ghosts. Ask them to tell you of any specific experiences they might have had in this context. In your groups, identify the most fascinating anecdote you have gathered on the basis of your interactions. Narrate it to the class
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Solution
Ghosts, paranormal entities all these sound spooky and give me goosebumps. I interviewed some of imy friends and came to know about their most eerie experiences. However, some of the stories were really scary and I want to share one such story with you. It so happened that one of the my friends was visiting his grandparents’ place by train. It was night-time and there was no one in the compartment except my friend. He took out his sleeping bag and making himself comfortable started reading a book. While reading, he fell asleep. He woke up suddenly on hearing a knock at the door of his compartment that was bolted from inside, the train had halted at a platform. He got down from his berth and opened the door. But there was nobody outside. After bolting the door, he turned and again came a knock, this time louder than before. Suddenly, he recoiled in horror as he saw a small, white icy cold hand coming out of the closed door of the compartment. A strange scraping sound could also be hared that frightened him out of his wits. He shrieked loudly and was about to faint when the train began to move and he came back to his senses. When the T.T. arrived he shared this strange experience with him and was shocked to hear that many people had claimed to have seen the hand. For the rest of the journey, my friend just sat and prayed to God and felt relieved only when he reached his grandparents’ home safely. I also shuddered to hear his account.
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John Hallock could never displease Jenkins. Why?
Given below is a list of words related to ghosts and ghost stories with their jumbled up meanings against them. Match the words/expressions with their correct meanings:
| Apparition | a feeling of anticipation or anxiety over a future event |
| Poltergeist | a reanimated corpse that is believed to rise from the grave at night to suck the blood of sleeping people |
| Clairvoyance | a conjurer who expels evil spirits by conjuration |
| Crystal Ball | a spelling board device intended to communicate with and through the spirit world, obtaining answers to questions |
| Eerie | beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation |
| Medium | any of a set of 22 playing cards bearing allegorical representations, used for fortune telling |
| Transmigration | a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, a ghost, spectre or phantom |
| Psychic | so mysterious, strange or unexpected as to send a chill up the spine |
| Ouija Board | the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses |
| Exorcist | a person through whom the spirits of the dead are alleged to be able to contact the living |
| Premonition | a globe of quartz crystal in which images, believed to portend the future, are supposedly visible to fortune tellers |
| Paranormal | to pass into another body after death: going from one state of existence or place to another |
| Tarot Card | capable of extraordinary mental processes, such as extrasensory perception and mental telepathy |
| Vampire | German word, meaning "noisy ghost"-a troublesome spirit that announces its presence with unexplainable sounds and the creation of disorder |
The title of the story is A Shady Plot. The dictionary defines the words as:
shady adjective
Based on your reading of the story answer the following question by ticking the correct option.
The sight of the ghost materialising in his room filled the narrator with ………
Based on your reading of the story answer the following question by ticking the correct option.
Gladolia wishes to leave the narrator's house as ………………….
Answer the following question briefly.
What makes Helen, the ghost and her other co-ghosts organize The Writer's Inspiration Bureau? .
Answer the following question briefly.
Why does John want the ghost to disappear before his wife appears on the scene? What impression of his wife's character do you form from his words?
Answer the following question briefly.
What message does the ghost convey to the group assembled in the narrator's house? What is their reaction to the message?
Answer the following question briefly.
Why does John wish himself to be dead?
Answer the following question briefly.
John's apprehensions about his wife's reaction to her encounter with the ghost are
unfounded. Justify.
Answer the following question in detail:
After her reconciliation with her husband, John Hallock, Lavinia writes a letter to
her friend expressing how her relationship with him has almost been on the verge
of breaking and what has saved it. Write her a letter.
Answer the following question in detail:
John Hallock reflects upon his experience with Helen's ghost and in retrospect he finds it quite amusing. All the same he is relieved that he is no longer plagued by it. Ironically, the same ghost inspires his creativity and he writes a diary entry reflecting upon the comical aspect of his experience. Write his diary entry
Now that you have shared a ghost story/anecdote as well as completed a guided story in the class, create your own ghost story on the basis of the starters given below:
a) Stephen knew he would never sleep. The noises, those horrid sounds, would keep him awake...
b) Tap, tap, tap. Was it the branches of the nearby tree, or fingernails against the window?
c) People often say, 'There's no such thing as ghosts....
You are familiar with the key elements of a short story viz setting, plot, conflict, character and point of view. Given below are specifics to be kept in mind while writing a ghost story. Also make use of the vocabulary that you have learnt from the story ‘A
Shady Plot’.
• Colours, sounds, feeling words
• Strong definite characters
• Creating suspense
• Setting the scene and the atmosphere
• Describing the weather
• Clear opening line
• Personal feelings
• Clear ending
• Describing the sounds
• Adding a dramatic element
• Mystery
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Why did Lavinia decide to leave her husband, John ?
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In the story "Shady Plot", why did Helen appear in bits and pieces?
