Concealed Art quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which kind of story best describes "Concealed Art"?

   • Correct answer: Comic short story
   • Detective mystery
   • Tragic love story
   • Gothic horror tale

   Right. The story is told for laughs by a chatty narrator, pokes fun at people who look down on popular work, and ends happily with a surprise.

   Read the passage
2. 2

   Question 2. What secret does Archie tell Reggie at the club?

   • He sells copies of famous paintings to tourists.
   • Correct answer: He draws the Doughnut family for Funny Slices.
   • He paints scenery for shows at the Hippodrome.
   • He writes advertisements for breakfast foods.

   Archie whispers, "I am the creator of the Doughnut family." The strip runs in Funny Slices, which Reggie reads every week. Writing advertisements is Eunice's secret, not Archie's.

   Read the passage
3. 3

   Question 3. What is the name of Reggie's servant?

   • Liggett
   • Jeeves
   • Julia
   • Correct answer: Wilberforce

   Reggie calls him "Wilberforce, my man." Julia is the Fergusons' cook, Liggett is Brackett's lawyer, and Jeeves belongs to Wodehouse's later stories.

   Read the passage
4. 4

   Question 4. When the B. and O. P. shares crash, why can't Archie keep living well?

   • Funny Slices stops paying him for the Doughnuts.
   • Reggie refuses to lend him any more money.
   • Correct answer: He told Eunice all his money was in those shares.
   • Eunice spends what is left on her poetry books.

   Archie still earns money from the cartoons, but he had told Eunice all his money was in B. and O. P. Now he must "either" tell her about the Doughnuts "or else conceal the fact" that money is still coming in.

   Read the passage
5. 5

   Question 5. Archie says, "It's just possible that I am taking too morbid a view of the matter." What does morbid mean here?

   • Clever and seeing every side
   • Correct answer: Gloomy and dwelling on the worst
   • Hopeful and expecting the best
   • Careless and not paying attention

   Morbid means gloomy, with the mind fixed on dark or unpleasant things. Archie wonders if he is imagining a worse reaction from Eunice than she would really have.

   Read the passage
6. 6

   Question 6. What is Reggie's late-night plan to fix Archie's problem?

   • Reggie will secretly give the couple two thousand pounds.
   • Archie will sign his name to the Doughnut cartoons.
   • Eunice will be told Archie won a prize at an art show.
   • Correct answer: Archie will say a millionaire bought one of his paintings.

   Reggie tells Archie to "tell her you've sold one of your pictures." They pick the American millionaire J. Bellingwood Brackett as the made-up buyer.

   Read the passage
7. 7

   Question 7. Reggie says, "The only difficulty was to hit on a plausible purchaser." What does plausible mean?

   • Correct answer: Easy to believe
   • Impossible to find
   • Kind and generous
   • Wealthy and famous

   Plausible means believable. Reggie turns down being the buyer himself because "it would sound fishy," and picks a millionaire who often buys art.

   Read the passage
8. 8

   Question 8. How does the made-up sale end up in the newspapers?

   • Brackett's lawyer reports it as a fraud.
   • Archie writes a letter to the Mail.
   • Correct answer: Eunice sends the story in herself.
   • Reggie tells a reporter at his club.

   When Reggie wonders how the papers got hold of it, Eunice says, "Oh, I sent it to the papers," in an offhand way. Her proud news turns the small fib into a big public story.

   Read the passage
9. 9

   Question 9. What price does Archie say Brackett paid?

   • Correct answer: Two thousand pounds
   • Five hundred pounds
   • Ten thousand pounds
   • Two hundred pounds

   Archie made the price "two thousand pounds, because he needed the money." The headline reads, "HITHERTO UNKNOWN FUTURIST RECEIVED 2,000 POUNDS."

   Read the passage
10. 10

    Question 10. Why does Renshaw Liggett demand that the story be denied?

    • Brackett says the painting is a fake of one he owns.
    • Brackett wants a share of the money from the sale.
    • Correct answer: People are trying to prove Brackett unfit to manage money.
    • Brackett plans to buy the Doughnut cartoons himself.

    Some "parties" in New York want a court to rule that Brackett is not of sound mind. Paying two thousand pounds for that strange painting by an unknown artist would make their case stronger.

    Read the passage
11. 11

    Question 11. Reggie says the painting looks as if summer "had stubbed its toe on a bomb." What does this joke show?

    • He thinks it is Archie's most beautiful work.
    • He thinks it shows a real thunderstorm.
    • He thinks it is a sad picture about a war.
    • Correct answer: He thinks it is a wild mess he can't follow.

    Reggie describes the picture as "all dots and splashes, with a great eye staring out of the middle of the mess." The silly comparison shows he finds the painting a confusing jumble.

    Read the passage
12. 12

    Question 12. What secret does Eunice reveal at the end?

    • She paid Mr. Brackett's lawyer to come and visit.
    • Correct answer: She writes ads for things like breakfast sausage.
    • She has a hidden fortune she kept from Archie.
    • She sends cartoon ideas to Funny Slices herself.

    Eunice says, "I wrote that," about the Molassine ad, and adds the ad for "the Preeminent Breakfast Sausage." She learned the trade at a correspondence school because her poetry did not pay.

    Read the passage
13. 13

    Question 13. What does Eunice do when she sees the Doughnuts?

    • Correct answer: She laughs
    • She leaves
    • She faints
    • She cries

    "Suddenly, like a boiler exploding, she began to laugh." She calls the cartoons "the funniest things I ever saw in my life."

    Read the passage
14. 14

    Question 14. What makes the ending of the story ironic?

    • Eunice turns out to have bought 'The Coming of Summer' herself all along.
    • Archie's painting finally sells for a high price after the lawyer's visit.
    • Reggie is the one who has been drawing the cartoons for Funny Slices.
    • Correct answer: Both hid a money-making job, each afraid the other would look down on it.

    Eunice says she feared Archie would "some day find me out and despise me" for her advertisements, the same fear Archie had about his cartoons. Each was hiding the very thing the other was hiding.

    Read the passage
15. 15

    Question 15. Which choice best describes Reggie as the narrator?

    • A poor artist who shares Archie's studio down in Chelsea
    • Correct answer: A rich, idle friend whose well-meant plan causes trouble
    • A clever detective who uncovers the truth about the cartoons
    • A jealous rival who hopes Eunice will leave Archie for him

    Reggie has "money and curiosity and all the time there is." He means well, but his idea of a fake sale leads to the lawyer's visit and the public mess.

    Read the passage
16. 16

    Question 16. At the end, Eunice rushes into Archie's arms "like someone charging in for a bowl of soup at a railway station buffet." Why is this funny?

    • It reminds us that the couple first met at a train station.
    • It hints that Archie is about to leave on a long journey.
    • Correct answer: It compares a loving moment to a hungry rush for food.
    • It shows that Eunice is hungry after the long argument.

    Wodehouse often makes a tender moment funny by comparing it to something ordinary. Here a loving hug is likened to a hungry traveler grabbing soup, which breaks the romance with a laugh.

    Read the passage
17. 17

    Question 17. What is the story mainly poking fun at?

    • Young couples who marry before they have saved any money
    • Correct answer: People who look down on popular work that pays the bills
    • Artists who copy the work of more famous painters
    • Friends who will not help each other in hard times

    Archie calls drawing the Doughnuts selling his soul, and Eunice says he must not "sully his genius by stooping." Yet the cartoons are loved and the ads pay the bills; the story laughs at their snobbery.

    Read the passage
18. 18

    Question 18. Which of these happen in the story?

    • Archie has not sold one painting in three years.

      Happened

      Archie says, "I've been at it three years now, and I haven't sold a single picture."

    • Eunice tears up a copy of Funny Slices in anger.

      Didn't happen

      Eunice laughs at the Doughnuts and calls them the funniest things she ever saw.

    • Archie and Eunice go to Scotland for their honeymoon.

      Happened

      After the quiet wedding, "they went off to Scotland for their honeymoon."

    • Mr. Brackett himself comes to the flat to complain.

      Didn't happen

      Brackett never appears. His lawyer, Renshaw Liggett, comes in his place.

    • The couple move to a cheap flat in Chelsea.

      Happened

      After the crash they leave their old flat, and Reggie visits them for mutton-hash "down at his Chelsea flat."

    • Reggie tells Eunice the truth about the cartoons.

      Didn't happen

      Reggie starts to hint about comic papers, but Eunice cuts him off, and Archie is the one who confesses.

    • Reggie phones Archie after he has gone to bed.

      Happened

      He hops "out from under the blankets" and rings Archie on the phone with his plan.

    • Archie draws Eunice into the strip as Mabel.

      Didn't happen

      Archie liked Eunice because she was "so utterly unlike Mabel Doughnut."

    • The newspaper prints two photographs of Archie.

      Happened

      Reggie sees "two photographs of old Archie" on the page, plus a smudged copy of the painting.

    • Julia the cook throws the magazine in the fire.

      Didn't happen

      Julia has this week's Funny Slices in a cupboard, and Reggie brings it to Archie.

    Read the passage