The Hand quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which genre best describes "The Hand"?

   • Science fiction
   • Pastoral romance
   • Detective fiction
   • Correct answer: Gothic horror

   Correct. A gloomy black-draped room, a dried human hand, a strangled man and a hint of the supernatural are the marks of Gothic horror.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Where was M. Bermutier serving as a judge when he met Sir John Rowell?

   • In Saint-Cloud, a town just outside of Paris
   • In Marseilles, a busy port on the French coast
   • Correct answer: In Ajaccio, a small city on a bay in Corsica
   • In Calcutta, a city in the British Indies

   The judge says he was then a judge at Ajaccio, a little white city on a bay surrounded by high mountains, on the island of Corsica. Saint-Cloud is the Paris mystery being discussed in the frame, and Marseilles is only where Sir John hired his servant.

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3. 3

   Question 3. How does the judge finally get a chance to meet Sir John?

   • He is asked to settle a quarrel between Sir John and a farmer
   • Correct answer: He shoots a partridge near Sir John and offers him the bird
   • He calls at the villa to ask for Sir John's travel papers
   • He is introduced to Sir John by the servant from Marseilles

   The judge shoots a partridge right in front of the Englishman, then takes the bird to Sir John, begs his pardon and asks him to accept it. His earlier attempts to learn about the man officially had turned up nothing.

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4. 4

   Question 4. When the judge asks whether the animals he has hunted are dangerous, what does Sir John reply?

   • Correct answer: That none of them is as dangerous as man
   • That a tiger is the deadliest animal of all
   • That an elephant once nearly crushed him
   • That a gorilla is stronger than ten men

   Sir John answers, 'Oh, no! Man is the worst,' and then adds that he has frequently been man-hunting. The line foreshadows the hand on his wall, which belonged to a man he defeated.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does Sir John call the hand?

   • Correct answer: My best enemy
   • My lucky charm
   • My oldest friend
   • My finest trophy

   Asked what the hand is, Sir John answers quietly, 'That is my best enemy,' and says it comes from America.

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6. 6

   Question 6. Why does Sir John say the chain on the hand is still needed?

   • His servant fears it will fall down
   • Thieves have tried to steal it twice
   • Correct answer: The hand always wants to go away
   • It is too heavy to hang from a nail

   When the judge says the chain is useless because the hand won't run away, Sir John answers seriously: 'It always wants to go away. This chain is needed.' The judge wonders whether he is insane or a practical joker.

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7. 7

   Question 7. In the line "But his face remained inscrutable, calm and friendly.", what does inscrutable mean?

   • Pale and sick with worry
   • Correct answer: Impossible to read or understand
   • Bright with eager laughter
   • Openly angry and threatening

   Inscrutable means impossible to read or interpret. The judge glances at Sir John's face to see if he is joking, but the calm, friendly face gives nothing away.

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8. 8

   Question 8. In the line "He received me with the most punctilious English courtesy", what does punctilious mean?

   • Cold and quick to take offense
   • Loud, cheerful and casual
   • Grudging and only barely polite
   • Correct answer: Very careful about correct manners

   Punctilious means paying close attention to correct behavior and small points of etiquette. Sir John receives the judge with exact, careful English politeness.

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9. 9

   Question 9. What does the investigation find at Sir John's house after the murder?

   • Correct answer: No door, window or piece of furniture had been forced
   • A window had been forced open from the garden
   • Muddy footprints led from the parlor door to the road
   • The two watch dogs had been poisoned the night before

   The judge says nothing could be discovered: no door, window or piece of furniture had been forced, and the two watch dogs had not been aroused from their sleep. That is what makes the crime so baffling.

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10. 10

    Question 10. What does the judge find in the dead man's mouth?

    • A piece of red velvet
    • A scrap of a letter
    • Correct answer: A finger of the hand
    • A bullet from a gun

    Bending over the body, the judge finds one of the fingers of the vanished hand in Sir John's mouth, bitten off down to the second knuckle.

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11. 11

    Question 11. According to the servant, what had Sir John been doing in the month before his death?

    • Writing long letters to his family in America
    • Correct answer: Burning his letters and striking the hand with a switch
    • Packing his trunks to sail back home to England
    • Hunting every day in the mountains with the judge

    The servant says his master seemed excited, burned the many letters he received, struck wildly at the dried hand with a switch, locked himself in at night and talked loudly as if quarrelling with someone.

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12. 12

    Question 12. In the line "he had taken a switch and struck wildly at this dried hand", what does switch mean?

    • A sudden change of plan or of mind
    • A swap of one thing for another
    • A lever for turning a lamp on or off
    • Correct answer: A thin, bendable stick for whipping

    Here a switch is a thin, flexible stick or rod used for whipping. Sir John strikes at the hand with it in fits of rage, not with any electrical device.

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13. 13

    Question 13. Why does the judge say 'inexplicable' is a better word than 'supernatural' for his case?

    • He was trained never to use that word in a court of law
    • Correct answer: He believes only in normal causes, even ones he cannot find
    • He thinks ghosts are real but far too rare to be worth naming
    • He wants his story to sound more frightening to the ladies

    The judge says he never ascribed anything in the case to supernatural influences and believes only in normal causes. 'Inexplicable' admits he cannot explain what happened without claiming it was magic.

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14. 14

    Question 14. Why does the judge describe Corsica's centuries-old vendettas before he introduces Sir John?

    • Correct answer: They set up revenge as the motive he offers at the end
    • They show that Sir John was Corsican by birth
    • They show the reason Sir John moved to the island
    • They prove the servant belonged to a Corsican feud

    The judge's head was full of stories of revenge that is never extinguished. That background prepares his final theory: the hand's owner came back for it, and it was a kind of vendetta.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What explanation does the judge finally give the ladies?

    • The servant killed his master and hid the hand
    • Sir John strangled himself in a fit of madness
    • The hand came to life and took its own revenge
    • Correct answer: The hand's owner was alive and came for it

    The judge says he believes the legitimate owner of the hand was not dead and came to get it with his remaining hand. He admits he does not know how. The supernatural reading is the one he rejects.

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16. 16

    Question 16. How does the story leave the question of who or what killed Sir John?

    • Solved: the hand's owner is caught and later hanged
    • Unsettled: the judge admits he believes that a ghost did it
    • Correct answer: Unsettled: the judge's theory fails to convince listeners
    • Solved: the servant confesses at his trial in Ajaccio

    The judge offers a rational theory, but one woman murmurs that it can't be that, and he smiles that he knew his explanation would not satisfy them. Nobody was ever caught, so the reader must decide.

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17. 17

    Question 17. Which of these happen in the story?

    • Sir John practices with his revolver and rifle every morning.

      Happened

      Every morning he practices for an hour or so with his revolver and rifle.

    • Sir John tells the judge he fled England for political reasons.

      Didn't happen

      That was only one of the legends the townspeople built up around him. Sir John himself says only that he has travelled and had many adventures.

    • Sir John's parlor is draped in black silk embroidered in gold.

      Happened

      The parlor is draped in black silk embroidered in gold, with big yellow flowers worked on it.

    • Sir John says the hand was cut off with a sword in India.

      Didn't happen

      He says the hand comes from America; the bones were severed by a sword and the skin cut off with a sharp stone.

    • Sir John keeps three loaded revolvers in the room with the hand.

      Happened

      The judge notices three loaded revolvers in the room, as though Sir John constantly feared an attack.

    • The judge's servant wakes him to say Sir John was murdered.

      Happened

      One morning near the end of November, the judge's servant wakes him with the news.

    • The two watch dogs bark loudly on the night of the murder.

      Didn't happen

      The two watch dogs had not been aroused from their sleep, which is part of the mystery.

    • The servant hears his master quarrelling on the night he dies.

      Didn't happen

      Sir John often talked loudly at night, but that night he made no noise; the servant found him only when he went to open the windows.

    • The judge at first suspects the servant, who proves innocent.

      Happened

      The judge says he at first suspected the servant, but the man was innocent.

    • The judge sees the hand crawl across his room while awake.

      Didn't happen

      He sees the hand galloping round his room only in a nightmare, waking three times between the dreams.

    • The hand is found on Sir John's grave with a finger missing.

      Happened

      The hand is found in the cemetery on Sir John's grave, and the first finger is missing.

    • Sir John's family comes from England to take his body home.

      Didn't happen

      He was buried in the local cemetery because no one could find his family.

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