A Visit to a Small Planet

MCQs
1. Who is Roger Spelding?
(A) a general (B) a newscaster (C) a soldier (D) a technician
2. John is a ____________.
(A) Merchant (B) pilot (C) farm owner (D) professor
3. Where did the spaceship land?
(A) In the rose garden of Mrs. Spelding (B) on a hill
(C) on the roof of a building (D) in the fields
4. Ellen listened to the broadcast of ____________.
(A) Her daddy (B) her mother (C) her fiancé (D) Mr. Kreton
5. The visitor was dressed in the fashion of ____________.
(A) 1960 (B) 1900 (C) 1860 (D) 1850
6. What is the impression of Kreton on seeing the inside of the house?
(A) Disgusted (B) callous (C) delightful (D) sorrowful
7. “I do hope I don’t sound patronizing” means that I am.
(A) not praising (B) discouraging (C) encouraging (D) not appreciating
8. How many years are required to tell the story of travel?
(A) one hundred (B) five hundred (C) two hundred (D) seven-hundred
9. The house of Spelding comes under ____________.
(A) Civil law (B) company law (C) criminal law (D) martial law
10. General Powers was thinking about ____________.
(A) His promotion (B) arrest of Kreton
(C) Security of the country (D) the murder of the visitor
11. What is Spelding concluding?
(A) his chat (B) his speculation (C) his broadcast (D) mission
12. How does Mrs. Spelding look?
(A) Young and wise (B) tall and beautiful (C) boring and vague (D) smart and intelligent
13. Ellen is ____________.
(A) 16 (B) 20 (C) 18 (D) 22
14. Mr. Spelding says that John is a ____________.
(A) Loving boy (B) lazy boy (C) rascal (D) nice boy
15. Where does Ellen want to live after marriage?
(A) In a big city (B) in the mountains (C) on a farm (D) on an island
16. What does Spelding call Ellen?
(A) Know-it-all (B) sensitive (C) idle (D) lazy
17. Whom should Ellen marry according to Spelding?
(A) a journalist (B) a reliable man (C) a farmer (D) a hard-working and ambitious man
18. Who brings the news of the landing of the spaceship?
(A) Ellen (B) Technicians (C) General Powers (D) John
19. Who says that they should go down to the cellar?
(A) Mr. Spelding (B) Ellen (C) Mrs. Spelding (D) John
20. How does the spaceship look?
(A) Green (B) murky (C) shining (D) golden
21How does the spaceship open?
(A) From under (B) from front (C) from its side (D) from behind
22. How does Kreton look?
(A) Harsh (B) rough (C) pleasant (D) ignorant
23. What is Kreton’s hobby?
(A) to study the earth people (B) to travel long distances
(C) to reconnoiter before the invasion (D) to study novels
24. Where from did Kreton belong?
(A) Earth (B) Moon (C) Mars (D) from some other planet
25. Who goes to look at the ship first?
(A) Ellen (B) General Powers (C) Spelding (D) John
26. Whom could Kreton tell about his solar system?
(A) a chemist (B) an optician (C) a mathematician (D) an engineer
27. Who says that Kreton is a hostile alien?
(A) General Power (B) Spelding (C) the President (D) Ellen
28. What is the diameter of the spaceship?
(A) fifteen feet (B) fourteen feet (C) sixteen feet (D) several feet
29. Kreton’s spaceship is made of ____________.
(A) An unknown metal (B) a precious metal (C) silver (D) steel
30. What is inside the spaceship?
(A) Nothing (B) food (C) wires (D) water
31. General Powers is a vigorous product of the ____________.
(A) National Guard (B) American culture (C) Space technology (D) War industry
32. Whom does Spelding call?
(A) His boss (B) his wife (C) the president (D) the army
33. Kreton’s ship is _____________ in shape.
(A) Elliptical (B) cubical (C) rectangular (D) triangular
34. What could Kreton hear?
(A) Songs (B) human brain (C) heartbeat (D) whistle
35. The author of “Visit to a Small Planet” is _____________.
(A) Robert F. Carrol (B) Gore Vidal (C) William Saroyan (D) Tennessee Williams
36. Who takes Kreton either as a lunatic or a spy?
(A) Spelding (B) Ellen (C) General Powers (D) John
1. How does Kreton prove his extraordinary powers? Write five sentences.
Ans. Kreton and his people do not die and they can control their thoughts. Kreton can
read people’s minds. He can tell in advance what will happen next. He can create an
invisible wall that keeps him and his spaceship from any harm. He flies in a spaceship
that has no instrument board.

2. Why did Kreton want to visit the Earth?

Ans. Kreton says that he has come to the Earth as a tourist as his hobby is to study the
planet, Earth and the civilization on it. He, however, declares at the end of the play that
he has come to take charge of the planet, Earth.

3. How advanced is the civilization of Kreton as compared to that of the Earth?

Ans. According to Kreton, the civilization on Earth is only at the initial stages. The
people of the Earth still stick to their primitive traits like wonder, fear and pride. Kreton,
on the other hand, is immortal, can read people’s minds and can foretell any happening.

4. Can the people of the Earth compete with those of Kreton?

Ans. The people of the Earth cannot compete with those of Kreton. His people are much
more advanced scientifically. They can be immortal and can control their thoughts. On
the other hand, the Earth people are mortal. They have not yet gotten rid of their
primitive traits. Their civilization is only at the initial stages.

5. How damaging is violence in life? Write five sentences.

Ans. Violence is a threat to life and civilization. It results in frustration and chaos. It
stops the cycle of progress and development. It negates all moral values and good
norms. It creates revengefulness and savagery.

6. What type of life do you foresee in the year 5000?

Ans. In the year 50000, people will be living on different heavenly bodies. They will have
conquered diseases, social and economic problems and perhaps even death. Their
lifestyle and ways of enjoyment will be totally different.

7. How much impressive were the morals of Kreton?

Ans. Kreton is very polite, gentle and well-mannered. He answers all questions of
General Powers good-humoredly although the latter speaks to him in a very vulgar way.
He does not sound patronizing while commenting on the progress the people on the
Earth have made.
8. What is the role of General Powers in the play?
Ans. In the play General powers in a symbol of the superpower, America. He concludes
that the visitor is a spy, sent to the Earth by an alien race to study the people on it,
preparatory to invasion. It is through him that we come to know that the visitor has come
to take charge of the planet, Earth.

9. What is the theme of Kreton’s study? Or

What information does Kreton have about the planet, Earth?
Ans. The thorough study of Kreton has made of the planet, Earth, is as follows:
“The planet, Earth is divided into five continents with a number of large islands. It is
mostly water. There is one moon, Civilization is just beginning.”

10. How does Kreton impress General Powers?

Ans. General Powers is impressed when he comes to know that Kreton’s spaceship has
no instrument board or food and that the visitor is advanced enough to protect himself
and his machine by creating an invisible wall around them. It impresses him to find that
Kreton can read people’s minds and speaks all languages and that he and his people
do not do.

11. What does Roger Spelding say about the flying object as he concludes his TV
broadcast? Or
What statement of General Powers regarding the suppositions about the falling
object does Roger Spelding quote as he winds up his TV broadcast?
Ans. Roger Spelding concludes his T.V broadcast quoting General Powers that the
flying object which has given rise to meaningless suppositions is nothing more than a
meteor passing through the earth’s orbit. He further quotes General Powers that
Americans will be the first to travel in space.

12. What kind of person is Roger Spelding?

Ans. Roger Spelding is an unctuous and ambitious man. He seems to have no opinion
of his own. He very obediently, or rather comically, believes what his seniors say. He
boasts of his being closely in touch with General Powers.

13. How much does Ellen Spelding like her Father’s TV broadcast?
Ans. Ellen Spelding, a lively girl of twenty, fidgets as she listens to the broadcast of her
father. He grumbles at her indifference to the limelight he enjoys.
14. What is Ellen interested in?
Ans. She is interested in John Randolph, her fiancé, whom Roger Spelding does not
like.

15. Why doesn’t Roger Spelding like his daughter’s fiancé, John Randolph?
Ans. Roger Spelding does not like his daughter’s fiancé, John Randolph, because he
believes that John is everything except a hard-working, ambitious man who will make
his mark in the world.

16. Does Ellen like her father’s idea of marrying an ambitious or wealthy man?
Ans. Ellen does not agree with her father’s idea of her marrying an ambitious or wealthy
man. She likes John and believes that he is hardworking man. She likes him for what he
is.

17. What kind of man does Roger Spelding wish his daughter to marry?
Ans. Roger Spelding believes that there is nothing wrong with marrying a wealthy man.
However, he wishes that his daughter was married to a hard-working ambitious man
who will make his mark in the world.

18. Does Mrs. Spelding like her daughter’s fiancé, John Randolph? What does she
say about him?
Ans. Mrs. Spelding likes John, her daughter’s fiancé. She says that he is a perfectly
nice boy.

19. What kind of person is John Randolph?

Ans. John is an easy-going sort of person. He is not an ambitious man who will make
his mark in the world. He seems to be content with his business of growing walnuts on
his farm.

20. Where does the flying object land?

Ans. The flying object lands in Roger Spelding’s house. It lands right in Mrs. Spelding’s
rose garden.

21. What do the Spelding say as they see something landing in their house?
Ans. Mrs. Spelding, Ellen and John believe that it is a spaceship as they see something
falling right in their house. Roger Spelding, however, disagrees with them. He keeps
reiterating that it is either a meteor or a balloon.
22. What does the visitor from outer space look like?
Ans. The visitor is in his forties. He is a mild, pleasant-looking man with side-whiskers,
and is dressed in the fashion of 1860.

23. What do Mr. and Mrs. Spelding say as they see Kreton getting out of his
spaceship?
Ans. He looks perfectly nice to Mrs. Spelding. She likes his side-whiskers. On the other
hand, Roger Spelding thinks that the alien is either a monster or an impostor.

24. What does Roger Spelding do, as he sees the flying saucer landing in his
house and a man getting out of it?
Ans. As Roger Spelding sees a flying object landing in his house and a man getting out
of it, he at once calls the Army and declares that General Powers is coming over. He
suggests that he and others leave the house until the Army gets there.

25. Where does Kreton, come from? Or

Which planet or solar system does Kreton come from?
Ans. When asked where he is from, Kreton says that he is neither from the planet,
Earth, nor from Mars or any other planet known to the Earth people. He says that he is
from another solar system, or rather from a planet in another dimension.

26. Why does Kreton say that he cannot explain to General Powers as to where
the former has come from? Or
How long, according to Kreton, will it take General Powers to understand where
Kreton has come from?
Ans. Kreton says that it is possible that he could explain it to a mathematician as to
where he (Kreton) is from, but not to a layman like General Powers for another five
hundred years.

27. How does AIDE, describe Kreton’s spaceship?

Ans. The captain reports that the flying object is elliptical, with a fourteen-foot diameter.
He adds that it is made of an unknown metal that shines, and inside the spaceship,
there isn’t anything – no instruments, no food, nothing.

28. Why and how does General Powers threaten Kreton when AIDE reports that
there is no instrument board in the flying object?
Ans. When General Powers comes to know through AIDE that there is no instrument
board in the flying machine, he threatens that Kreton will be in very serious trouble if he
does not cooperate and tell what he did with his instrument board.
29. Why can’t Spelding interview Kreton? What hampers his being the first to
break the news on TV about the alien?
Ans. Spelding cannot interview Kreton or break the news about aliens in his TB
broadcast because General Powers has put complete censorship on any leaking of the
story about the alien. General Powers declare that Spelding’s house is under martial
law.

30. Why can’t John call his family to tell them that he is all right?
Ans. As John moves to telephone his family to tell them that he is all right, AIDE forbids
him to do so, telling him that Spelding’s house is a military reservation until the crisis is
over. He forbids John to leave the house without General Power’s permission.

31. What is ironic about Spelding‘s broadcast at the beginning of the play?
Ans. The ironic about Spalding’s broadcast at the beginning of the play is that his own
daughter has heard the broadcast but she hasn’t understand even a single word of his
father’s broadcast.

32. Describe the scene of the arrival of the flying saucer?

Ans: When the people saw a luminous object coming from the sky they thought that it
was meteor. But it was a spaceship without instruments that landed right in Spalding’s
garden.

33. Which character in the play “A Visit to a Small Planet” do you like most and
why?

I like Kreton; he is very polite and kind to everybody. He behaves very nicely and
elegantly. Even when General Power behaves harshly with him, he does not mind and
misbehave in response. He does not try to scare others. He does not punish those who
try to damage his space ship. He is quite frank and soft with them all. Kreton belongs to
some highly advanced world. He has certain extraordinary powers. For example, he can
travel in a spaceship without instruments. He is a mind reader. He can speak all
languages of the world. He does not die. He can defend himself against any attack.