The Treasure in the Forest Exercise
The Treasure in the Forest (Story by H. G. Wells) Exercise, Question Answer, Class 12 English.
The Treasure in the Forest Summary
Before Reading
Answer the following questions.
- a. Have you read any stories about treasure hunting before? If yes, what is its title?
- b. Why do you think people take risk of treasure hunting?
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. Describe the expository scene of the story.
Answer➡ The expository scene of the story opens with the description of two tired and thirsty English men and their surroundings in the sea. These two men have been presented in their small canoe near the beach of a tropical island. They can easily see the empty beach, the green forest and the mountains of the island ahead.
b. What does the map look like and how do Evan and Hooker interpret it?
Answer➡ The map was a little bit torn, and since it was older, the paper was also unclear. Somehow, they succeed in decoding the symbols in the map. They make their destination to the dotted lines area, which according to them, is the place where the treasure was hidden.
c. How did Evan and Hooker know about the treasure?
Answer➡ Evan and Hooker knew about the treasure by the conversation of the Chinese man and the map he has.
d. Describe Evan’s dream.
Answer➡ During their journey, Evan began to doze and saw a dream. Evan had a dream about the treasure and Chang-hi. In the dream, they were in the forest and saw a little fire where three Chinese men sat around it and talked in quiet voices in English.
Evans went closer and he knew that Chang-hi took the gold from a h4ish galleon after shipwrecked and hide it carefully on the island. He worked alone and it was his secret, but now he wanted help to get the gold back. There was a battle and Chang-hi was brutally killed by them. He thought that someone was calling him, so he suddenly woke up.
e. What do the two treasure hunters see when they walk towards the island?
Answer➡ The two treasure hunters see various things when they walk toward the island. Firstly, they see thick bushes and cut them to make their way ahead. Later, they see big white flowers which they haven't seen before. Finally, they see the dead body of Chinese Man whose face is down on the grass.
f. In what condition did the treasure hunters find the dead man?
Answer➡ As they reached the place where the map show the treasure they found dead body of the man who looked like the chinese man with puffed and purple neck and swollen hands and ankles.
g. How did the treasure hunters try to carry gold ingots to the canoe?
Answer➡ The treasure hunters tried to carry gold ingots to the canoe with the help of the Evans’s jacket which was carried in two sides by both.
h. How were Evan and Hooker poisoned?
Answer➡ Evans and Hooker were poisoned by thorn pricks nearly of two inches length. Evans rolled over Hooker. After the demise of Evans, Hooker started to collect the gold ingots. He also fell down and rolled like Evans. They suffered a lot before they died.
Reference To The Context
a. How do you know the story is set on a tropical island?
Answer➡
I know the story is set on a tropical island simply through its setting. The story has presented a tropical deserted island far away from human habitation. The tropical island simply has a hot climate. Here in the story, we find an island with a hot climate.
This island is located quite far and is surrounded by the sea. The characters in the story are seen as tired and thirsty due to their whole night voyage and excessive heat in the island's region. Another feature of a tropical island is the rainforest. We can see the rainforest here in this story where two characters find a river and quench their thirst with fresh, clean and cold water. Here, thick bushes and big white flowers which the characters see on their way are mostly seen in tropical islands.
All these things in the story reveal the fact that the story is set on a tropical island.
b. Why do you think Evans and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island?
Answer➡
I think Evans and Hooker took such a risk of finding the buried treasure on a desert island because of the following reasons:
- They took such a risk because of their greed.
- They could be rich and prosperous.
- They wanted to experience the skills like leadership, communication, and problem-solving.
- The activity was beneficial to the people involved.
- It helped to develop the ability to tackle any difficult situations.
c. Do you think the narrator of the story is racist? If yes, what made him feel superior to other races?
Answer➡
The story "The treasure in the forest" is the story about two treasure hunters. Evans and Hooker who seek to find the hidden treasure in the forest. For which they killed the Chinese man. We can find some sorts of racist feelings of the narrator in the story. He presents Evans and Hooker as superior to that of the Chinese man in the story.
A racist is a person who is prejudiced against or antagonistic towards people on the basis of membership of a particular racial or ethnoic group, typically one that is minority or marginalized. In the story, Evans and Hooker kill the Chinese man brutally. The narrator doesn't talk more about the Chinese man. Hooker also says
"Have you lost your wit?" to Evans, which reflects dominating nature of Hooker over Evans. Thus, the story states that the narrator of the story looks like a racist
d. What do you think is the moral of the story?
Answer➡
This story represents that greed is the big enemy of a person and also shows the weakness of money and wealth on persons. The end of greed is destructive. We must focus and understand each thing before making any decision on it. Otherwise, it result is bad like Evans and Hooker. We must prepare before going anywhere.
Reference beyond the text
a. Interpret the story as a mystery story.
The story “The Treasures in the Forest” is full of mystery. The story has fine descriptions of its mysterious setting and characters. It has a fine plot with various twists in characters’ situations.It’s hard for a reader to predict what is going to happen next. The story is about two treasure hunters, Evans and Hooker who seek to find the hidden treasures in the forest left behind by a shipwrecked h4ish galleon.
Some mysterious events are : Hooker murder Chang-hi, a Chinese man to steal the treasure map. Chang-hi grins at them when he gets murdered. They travel by canoe sailing towards the coral island. However, neither of them understands the intention behind it.
The fearful surroundings of the forest and the final painful death of the characters create a kind of suspense among the readers. The poisonous thorns appear out to be the main cause of the death of the characters. All these things prove this story as a mystery story.
b. Treasure hunting is a favorite subject of children’s stories. Remember a treasure hunting story you read in your childhood and compare and contrast it with ‘The Treasure in the Forest.
Answer➡
'The Hidden Treasure' is a story that I heard when I was a kid.
In the story, There was an old father who had three sons who were all idlers and never helped the father. The father was very sad and worried. He tried his level best to mend the habits but did not succeed.
Once he became very sick, he called his sons, all of whom reached his room. He asked them to sit down and listen carefully. " My dear sons, I'm weak and ill. There is a lot of money hidden in our fields but I have forgotten where I had buried it. Dig that fresher out after my death.", he said. The farmer died after two days. The sons dug every inch of the land but could not find anything. They were advised to sow wheat in the field. They had a very good crop. The moral of the story is that hard work gives very good results.
Like in the story, "The Treasure in the forest", this story also depicts the greed of humans for wealth. They would rather let his father die, but won't let go of the treasure, which is almost similar to Chang hi's death in our story.
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The Treasure in the Forest Summary