The Star quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

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

   • Psychological realism
   • Gothic horror
   • Correct answer: Science fiction
   • Magical realism

   Correct. The story builds a worldwide disaster from real astronomy: orbits, gravity, and the heat of a collision, and it ends with astronomers on Mars. That is science fiction.

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2. 2

   Question 2. What happens to the planet Neptune at the start of the story?

   • The strange body pulls it out of orbit and flings it at Jupiter
   • The strange body passes in front of it and hides it for months
   • The strange body splits it into pieces that become new moons
   • Correct answer: The strange body strikes it, and both fuse into one glowing mass

   Neptune is struck 'fairly and squarely' by the strange planet, and the heat of the crash turns two solid globes into one vast glowing mass. That burning mass is the new star people see.

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3. 3

   Question 3. In the line "the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet", what does perturbed mean?

   • Correct answer: Pulled off its normal path
   • Hidden from human sight
   • Glowing with fierce heat
   • Worried or deeply upset

   In astronomy, a perturbed planet is one whose regular orbit is being disturbed by the pull of another body. 'Worried or deeply upset' is the everyday sense of the word, but a planet cannot worry.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Whose warning that the star would pass very close to Earth is telegraphed all over the world?

   • A schoolboy at his window
   • Correct answer: The master mathematician
   • The astronomer Duchaine
   • The astronomer Ogilvy

   The text says 'the warning of the master mathematician had been telegraphed all over the world'. Ogilvy noticed Neptune slowing, Duchaine predicted the collision with Neptune, and the schoolboy only wonders, 'Do we come in the way?'

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5. 5

   Question 5. For how many nights has the drug kept the mathematician awake?

   • Correct answer: Four
   • Seven
   • Five
   • Three

   The phial held the drug 'that had kept him awake and active for four long nights' while he made his calculation.

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6. 6

   Question 6. How does the master mathematician face the star he believes may kill him?

   • He refuses to believe his own figures and checks them again
   • Correct answer: He takes pride that his mind can grasp the whole universe
   • He burns his papers so that no one in the city will panic
   • He begs his students to flee at once to the mountains

   He tells the star, 'You may kill me,' but says he can hold it, and all the universe, 'in the grip of this little brain.' He stays calm and even teaches his class the calculations the next day.

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7. 7

   Question 7. According to the mathematician's warning, why will the burning star pass close to Earth?

   • Its crash with Neptune has aimed it straight at the earth
   • The sun's heat will slow it until it drifts toward the earth
   • Correct answer: Jupiter's pull will swing it off its sunward path toward us
   • The moon's pull will draw it out of its course toward us

   The star is headed for the sun, but it passes near Jupiter, the greatest of the planets. Jupiter's attraction swings it 'wide of its sunward rush' so that it must pass very close to Earth.

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8. 8

   Question 8. In the line "the heat of the concussion had incontinently turned two solid globes into one vast mass of incandescence", what does incandescence mean?

   • Deep and total darkness
   • Frozen and lifeless rock
   • Shattered dust and rubble
   • Correct answer: Light given off by great heat

   Incandescence is the glow of something so hot that it gives off light, like the wire in an old light bulb. The crash makes the two planets so hot that they shine like a star.

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9. 9

   Question 9. The narrator says that most people, on the night the star nears Jupiter, are doing what?

   • Correct answer: Going about their ordinary work as usual
   • Climbing into the hills to escape rising floods
   • Praying in their churches all through the night
   • Boarding ships that are heading out to the ocean

   The narrator warns against imagining the whole world in terror: 'nine human beings out of ten were still busy at their common occupations.' Some people pray, sail away or flee to high ground, but most carry on as usual.

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10. 10

    Question 10. When the star rises after its nearest pass by Jupiter, why do many people still laugh at the master mathematician?

    • The frost returns, and the night turns bitterly cold
    • Correct answer: The star looks no larger than it did the night before
    • The newspapers print figures that prove his sums wrong
    • Jupiter can be seen still moving in its usual orbit

    The watchers in Europe see the star rise 'an hour later it is true, but no larger than it had been the night before,' so many take the danger as passed. Then 'the laughter ceased' as the star grows hour after hour.

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11. 11

    Question 11. The whole side of which volcano slips out, sending lava to the sea in one day?

    • Vesuvius
    • Krakatoa
    • Etna
    • Correct answer: Cotopaxi

    As earthquakes shake the Americas, 'the whole side of Cotopaxi slipped out in one vast convulsion,' and its lava reaches the sea in a single day.

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12. 12

    Question 12. Over India, what brings a sudden shadow and a breath of cold wind?

    • The earth halting its spin and turning India away
    • A cloud of ash from the volcanoes of Java
    • Correct answer: The moon passing between the star and the earth
    • A storm of hail sweeping down from the Himalaya

    The black disc 'was the moon, coming between the star and the earth.' Europe's watchers only imagine the world has stopped turning, because the star rises nearly ten hours late.

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13. 13

    Question 13. How do the two lovers "Under Capricorn" feel about the new star?

    • Angry, since it gives no warmth at night
    • Correct answer: Comforted, and they call it their star
    • Afraid, since it foretells wars and plagues
    • Bored, since they are too busy to look up

    They whisper, 'That is our star,' and feel 'strangely comforted by the sweet brilliance of its light.' Wells shows that the same star means very different things to different people.

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14. 14

    Question 14. In the line "Common sense was sturdy everywhere, scornful, jesting, a little inclined to persecute the obdurate fearful", what does obdurate mean?

    • Quietly and secretly hopeful
    • Openly mocking and cruel
    • Correct answer: Stubbornly unwilling to change
    • Easily calmed and reassured

    Obdurate means stubborn, refusing to be moved. The 'obdurate fearful' are people who stay frightened no matter how much common sense jeers at them. 'Easily calmed and reassured' is its opposite.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What does the weeping woman's cry, "What is a new star to me?", suggest?

    • Most people do not believe the new star is real
    • Religion gives comfort to those who are mourning
    • Scientists have failed to warn the public in time
    • Correct answer: A private grief can outweigh even a cosmic event

    She is 'kneeling beside her dead,' and her own loss matters more to her than any wonder in the sky. Wells sets her beside tramps, schoolboys and lovers to show the many ways people answer the same event.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What effect does the repeated phrase "It is nearer" create as it passes from voice to voice?

    • Correct answer: It shows dread spreading across the whole world
    • It shows the narrator mocking the public's panic
    • It shows that the star is slowing down each night
    • It shows the scientists arguing among themselves

    The phrase travels by telegraph, telephone, newspaper type and shouting in doorways, until men 'flung down their pens.' The repetition makes the reader feel fear spreading from city to city.

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17. 17

    Question 17. What is the main point of the closing paragraph about the Martian astronomers?

    • The Martians had sent the star toward the earth
    • Life on Mars was nearly wiped out by the same star
    • Correct answer: Even our worst disaster looks small from afar
    • Earth's scientists proved far wiser than Martians

    The Martians find it 'astonishing what a little damage the earth' has sustained. The last line drives the point home: 'Which only shows how small the vastest of human catastrophes may seem, at a distance of a few million miles.'

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18. 18

    Question 18. Which of these happen in the story?

    • A London paper reports that the new planet will probably collide with Neptune.

      Happened

      One London paper headed the news 'A Planetary Collision' and gave Duchaine's opinion that the new planet would probably hit Neptune.

    • The new star crashes straight into the earth and breaks a piece off it.

      Didn't happen

      The star never hits the earth. It swings close, passes, and falls on into the sun; the Martians say it 'missed so narrowly'.

    • A schoolboy works out for himself how a planet might fall into the sun.

      Happened

      Rising early for his exams, the schoolboy reasons about centrifugal and centripetal force and wonders, 'Do we come in the way?'

    • The master mathematician is arrested for spreading panic in the city.

      Didn't happen

      Nobody arrests him. Many people laugh at his warnings and call them self-advertisement, but he goes on lecturing to his students.

    • Church bells ring out across Christendom, calling the people to pray.

      Happened

      The bells toll 'in a million belfry towers and steeples,' summoning people to gather in their churches and pray.

    • The burning star collides with Jupiter and destroys all of its moons.

      Didn't happen

      The star never hits Jupiter. It passes near it, and Jupiter's pull bends both their paths, which sends the star toward Earth.

    • Ships crowded with people and animals put out to sea and head north.

      Happened

      Ships 'crowded with men and living creatures' were 'standing out to ocean and the north' once the warning spread.

    • The shops and factories in the cities close their doors for the week.

      Didn't happen

      The opposite: the shops, 'save one here and there, opened and closed at their proper hours,' and the workers gathered in the factories.

    • Sailors later find the shores of Iceland and Greenland green and gracious.

      Happened

      The narrator mentions, without telling the full story, that the hotter earth made those shores 'green and gracious' to the sailors' surprise.

    • Martian astronomers send a signal to warn the earth of the coming star.

      Didn't happen

      The Martians only watch and write about it afterward, remarking how little damage the earth seems to have suffered.

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