The Machine Stops, I - The Air-Ship quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. How is Vashti's underground room described at the opening of Part I?

   • Correct answer: A hexagonal cell containing only an armchair and a reading desk
   • A rectangular apartment with windows overlooking a subterranean lake
   • A triangular space filled with musical instruments and screens
   • A circular chamber with a domed ceiling and artificial garden

   The narrator describes the room as "hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee," containing only an armchair and a reading desk.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What is the subject of the lecture Vashti delivers during Part I?

   • The previous civilization's attempt to keep pace with the sun
   • Correct answer: Music during the Australian Period, including the Brisbane school
   • Parental duties according to the Book published by the Central Committee
   • The sea, and the ideas a speaker gathered while visiting it in a respirator

   Vashti lectures on "Music during the Australian Period," discussing the methods of I-San-So and the Brisbane school.

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3. 3

   Question 3. What constellation does Kuno describe to Vashti, and what does he say it resembles?

   • The Southern Cross, which he says resembles the Machine itself
   • Ursa Major, which he says resembles a great bear guarding the earth
   • Correct answer: Orion, which he says looks like a man with a belt and a sword
   • Cassiopeia, which he says looks like a throne for ancient queens

   Kuno describes four stars forming an oblong, three in the middle like a belt, and three hanging like a sword, which is the constellation Orion resembling a man.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does Vashti object when the air-ship attendant reaches out to steady her?

   • Vashti believed that only the Machine's medical apparatus should touch a body
   • The attendant had been careless and unfair in assigning Vashti's cabin
   • The attendant's hands were contaminated by exposure to the outer air
   • Correct answer: Physical contact between people had become obsolete owing to the Machine

   Forster writes that "People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine."

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5. 5

   Question 5. What is "Homelessness" in the society depicted in Part I?

   • The condition of citizens whose rooms are reassigned to young men from the nurseries
   • The condition of travellers who abandon their rooms for the air-ship voyage
   • A voluntary practice of wandering the tunnels between the air-ship stations
   • Correct answer: A punishment involving expulsion from one's underground cell to the surface

   The Committee of the Machine declared certain pursuits "punishable by Homelessness," which means expulsion to the surface, effectively a death sentence.

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6. 6

   Question 6. What reason does the text give for why the air-ship service continues to operate?

   • The Central Committee mandates regular surface inspections of the earth
   • Young citizens must be transported to propagate the race in distant regions
   • Correct answer: It is easier to keep the service running than to stop or diminish it
   • Air travel remains the only way to deliver physical goods between regions

   The text states the air-ship service "was kept up, because it was easier to keep it up than to stop it or to diminish it."

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7. 7

   Question 7. What does Vashti do with the Book of the Machine before going to sleep?

   • She lets it fall, knowing the floor will raise it again mechanically
   • Correct answer: She kisses it three times, inclines her head three times, and murmurs "O Machine!"
   • She hides it in the reading-desk, afraid that someone is observing her
   • She consults it about replacing her bed with one of a smaller dimension

   Vashti performs a quasi-religious ritual: she murmurs "O Machine!" raises the volume to her lips, kisses it thrice, and inclines her head thrice.

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8. 8

   Question 8. What happens when Vashti first opens the wall to the tunnel leading to the air-ship?

   • Correct answer: She is seized with terror at direct experience and shrinks back into her room
   • She finds the tunnel exactly as brilliant as a lecturer had suggested
   • She immediately informs Kuno through the plate that her journey has begun
   • She confidently steps onto the platform and summons the car immediately

   The first time, "Vashti was seized with the terrors of direct experience. She shrank back into the room, and the wall closed up again."

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9. 9

   Question 9. Which of these events actually happened in this chapter?

   • True or False: During the air-ship journey, Vashti has a conversation with the attendant about the Himalayas and the history of Brisbane.

     Happened

     The attendant shows Vashti the Himalayas through a metal blind, and Vashti asks if she has heard of the Mongols and the Brisbane school, noting that Brisbane "also stood in the open air."

   • True or False: Kuno tells Vashti in Part I that he has already successfully visited the surface of the earth.

     Didn't happen

     When Vashti asks "Have you been on the surface of the earth yet?" Kuno answers "Not yet." He has not visited the surface in Part I.

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10. 10

    Question 10. In the sentence "The imponderable bloom, declared by a discredited philosophy to be the actual essence of intercourse, was rightly ignored by the Machine," what does "imponderable" most nearly mean?

    • Deserving long and careful thought before deciding
    • Extremely heavy and burdensome to carry
    • Correct answer: Difficult or impossible to measure or assess
    • Obviously false and easily disproven

    "Imponderable" means something that cannot be weighed or precisely evaluated. Here it refers to the subtle, intangible qualities of face-to-face human interaction.

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11. 11

    Question 11. When Forster writes that the bell "still rang importunately," what does "importunately" convey?

    • Correct answer: The bell rang in a persistent and annoyingly demanding way
    • The bell rang at precisely timed intervals as programmed
    • The bell rang with increasing volume until it was deafening
    • The bell rang with a soft and melodious tone

    "Importunately" means in a persistent, pressing, and somewhat annoying manner, conveying that the bell would not stop demanding attention.

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12. 12

    Question 12. What does "acquiescence" mean in the phrase "thrice she felt the delirium of acquiescence"?

    • Joyful celebration of a personal achievement
    • Passionate rebellion against an unjust authority
    • Careful and analytical investigation of a problem
    • Correct answer: Reluctant or passive acceptance without protest

    "Acquiescence" means passive acceptance or compliance. Forster pairs it with "delirium" to show that Vashti finds ecstasy in her surrender to the Machine.

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13. 13

    Question 13. What reason does the text give for why rapid intercourse between cities "ended by defeating itself"?

    • Overcrowded air-ships made every journey uncomfortable for the passengers
    • Correct answer: Thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over, so there was no reason to travel
    • The Committee made travel illegal after the race against the sun caused accidents
    • Citizens grew afraid of the outer air, which kills anyone without a respirator

    The text asks: "What was the good of going to Peking when it was just like Shrewsbury?" Homogeneity eliminated the purpose of travel.

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