Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Giles: I beg your pardon. Did you say something?
Trotter: Yes, Mr. Ralston, I said ‘Is there an extension?’ (He crosses to Centre.)
Giles: Yes, up in our bedroom.
Trotter: Go and try it up there for me, will you?
(Giles exits to the stairs, carrying the glove and bus ticket and looking dazed. Trotter continues to trace the wire to the window. He pulls back the curtain and opens the window, trying to follow the wire. He crosses to the arch up Right, goes out and returns with a torch. He moves to the window, jumps out and bends down, looking, then disappears out of sight. It is practically dark. Mrs. Boyle enters from the library up Left, shivers and notices the open window.)
Mrs. Boyle: (Moving to the window) Who has left this window open?
(i) Why did Giles fail to hear what Trotter had said earlier?
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Giles’ mind was on something else / preoccupied distracted
Why did Giles look ‘dazed’?
Because he had found a London bus ticket hidden inside / the glove that Mollie had worn the previous day
OR
This meant she had been in London on the day of the murder
(ii) What was Trotter attempting to do? Why?
- Trying to trace the telephone line
- Find out if the telephone wires had been deliberately cut
Why?
It would mean that someone wanted to isolate and cut off Monkswell Manor.
(iii) Why did Mrs. Boyle close the window?
She was feeling cold / shivered / to shut out the draught
What did the voice on the radio say about the ‘mechanics of fear’?
Voice on the radio invites the listener to imagine being alone in a room/ Suggests that it is late in the afternoon/ that a door opens softly behind the listener / creates an eerie atmosphere. (Any two)
(iv) How did the murderer mask the sounds of the killing?
By raising the volume of the radio
Who entered the room immediately after the murder?
Mollie
What did this person see?
Mrs. Boyle lying strangled in front of the sofa
(v) Who was the victim?
Mrs. Boyle
Why was the victim murdered?
She had been one of the magistrates who had been responsible for sending the three children to Longridge Farm.
What was the ‘signature tune’ that the murderer whistled?
Three Blind Mice
What is the significance of this tune in the context of the play?
The three blind mice represented the three helpless, innocent children who had been left at the mercy of the cruel farmer and his wife
OR
Death for the three who had been responsible for the ill-treatment of the children