The Machine Stops, III - The Homeless quiz

From The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster

In Part III of The Machine Stops, civilization collapses as the Machine fails. Vashti and Kuno reunite as they die, finding hope in the surface-dwelling Homeless.

14 questions · about 15 minutes

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Questions and answers

  1. Question 1. What are the two major developments in the Machine described at the opening of Part III?

    • The invention of air-ships and the discovery of new continents
    • Correct answer: The abolition of respirators and the re-establishment of religion
    • The creation of the Central Committee and the banning of lectures
    • The improvement of the Mending Apparatus and the expansion of Euthanasia

    The narrator states these two developments were revolutionary on the surface but expressed tendencies already latent in society.

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  2. Question 2. What does the celebrated lecturer argue about first-hand ideas?

    • They are the only sound foundation on which to erect a philosophy
    • They should be gathered by lecturers who visit the surface in respirators
    • Correct answer: They do not really exist and are merely crude physical impressions
    • They are dangerous because they lead to political revolution

    The lecturer declares "First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by love and fear" and urges students to prefer tenth-hand ideas.

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  3. Question 3. What is Kuno's cryptic message to Vashti?

    • Correct answer: "The Machine stops."
    • "We must escape to the surface."
    • "The Mending Apparatus has failed."
    • "The Homeless are coming."

    Speaking out of the darkness and refusing to show his face, Kuno delivers this prophetic warning, which Vashti dismisses with laughter.

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  4. Question 4. What is the first mechanical defect that troubles Vashti personally?

    • The air in her room becomes foul and difficult to breathe
    • The sleeping apparatus fails to produce her bed
    • The lighting in her cell begins to dim
    • Correct answer: Curious gasping sighs disfigure the music she summons

    Vashti complains about "curious gasping sighs that disfigure the symphonies of the Brisbane school" that "sound like some one in pain."

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  5. Question 5. What happens when the sleeping apparatus fails worldwide?

    • The Mending Apparatus repairs the beds within a few hours
    • The Central Committee sends every complainant into Homelessness
    • A provisional dictatorship is set up to run the central power station
    • Correct answer: A famous lecturer calms the public into patient acceptance

    The lecturer of the French Revolution "gilded each new decay with splendour," urging people to sympathize with the Mending Apparatus and wait patiently.

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  6. Question 6. What does Vashti experience for the first time when the communication system collapses?

    • Untainted air from the surface rushing into her opened cell
    • Correct answer: Complete silence, which she has never known since birth
    • Enthusiastic applause at the conclusion of her lecture
    • The Machine's familiar hum becoming louder and more insistent

    Forster writes: "She had never known silence, and the coming of it nearly killed her — it did kill many thousands of people outright."

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  7. Question 7. What does Kuno tell Vashti about the Homeless in their final conversation?

    • Correct answer: They are hiding in the mist and ferns, waiting for civilization to collapse
    • They have found a way to repair the Machine from outside
    • They perished, like the rebels whose bones lie round the vomitories
    • They are coming down the vomitories to start the Machine again

    Kuno says: "I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them. They are hiding in the mist and the ferns until our civilization stops."

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  8. Question 8. What is the last thing Vashti and Kuno see before they die?

    • The Book of the Machine burning
    • The Homeless descending into the tunnels
    • Correct answer: Scraps of the untainted sky
    • The Mending Apparatus attempting repairs

    As an air-ship crashes through the city, Forster writes that "before they joined them, scraps of the untainted sky" were visible.

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

    • Did the Committee of the Mending Apparatus admit that the Mending Apparatus itself needed repair?

      Happened

      The Committee "came forward, and allayed the panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the Mending Apparatus was itself in need of repair."

    • Did Vashti successfully escape to the earth's surface before the final collapse?

      Didn't happen

      The narrator says Vashti "escaped in the spirit" but explicitly adds "that she escapes in the body — I cannot perceive that." She dies underground.

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  10. Question 10. What does the word "sedulously" mean as used in "The word religion was sedulously avoided"?

    • Correct answer: With careful, persistent, and deliberate effort
    • With religious fervor and reverent devotion
    • Secretly and quietly, without attracting attention
    • Carelessly and without thought for the consequences

    "Sedulously" means diligently and painstakingly. The word religion was deliberately and carefully avoided even as the Machine was worshipped as divine.

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  11. Question 11. What does "glozing" mean in the phrase "glozing it over with talk of evolution"?

    • Praising something loudly and with great enthusiasm
    • Examining something closely with scientific precision
    • Illuminating something brightly so that it is clearly visible
    • Correct answer: Making excuses for or glossing over something unpleasant

    "Glozing" means disguising something unpleasant with favorable interpretation. Humanity glossed over the sin against the body with talk of evolution.

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  12. Question 12. What does "vomitory" refer to in "An air-ship had sailed in through the vomitory"?

    • A disposal chute for ejecting garbage from a building
    • A ventilation shaft supplying air to underground rooms
    • Correct answer: A large opening or passage through which crowds can pass
    • A narrow hatch used only for escape in an emergency

    A vomitory is an architectural term for a large entrance or exit passage, originally from Roman amphitheaters where crowds would "spew forth."

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  13. Question 13. What do Vashti and Kuno weep for in their final moments together?

    • For the destruction of the Machine they depended on
    • Correct answer: For humanity and its sin against the body
    • For the Homeless who must now survive alone
    • For their own impending deaths

    "They wept for humanity, those two, not for themselves" — specifically for "the sin against the body" and the centuries of wrong against muscles, nerves, and the five senses.

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  14. Question 14. What punishment threatens those who reject "undenominational Mechanism"?

    • Isolation, which separates them from friends and lectures
    • Correct answer: Homelessness, which means expulsion to the surface and death
    • Disconnection from the communication system for one year
    • Euthanasia, granted whenever the death-rate permits it

    Forster writes that "all who did not accept the minimum known as undenominational Mechanism lived in danger of Homelessness, which means death, as we know."

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